Design a discovery-first survivorlike under the [Owner Brief](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Brief), with expressive builds, meaningful hordes and an authored colony. Written comparisons establish proposals and dependencies; they do not demonstrate fun, balance, accessibility, production feasibility or campaign duration. This phase remains design only.

The station shifts after each death, preserving uncertainty about what is where. Selected player changes, such as unlocked doors, remain permanent. This supersedes the fixed-layout proposal. The owner selected permanent connections binding rooms/groups, with connecting the **entire station** as one of the deepest/latest puzzles. Exact linking rules, mistakes and the completed station's later shifts remain open. Cooperative rescue is accepted provided it does not become a long escort quest. Everything still carried returns aboard on death; completed work persists, the journal pauses the whole game, and ordinary combat uses mostly automatic fire with manual specials. Linked reusable parts, shared oxygen/equipment/loot capacity, practical clue exploration and route/work hordes are accepted directions. Home equipment loans are tentative.

The leading story is now the owner's **early, fully revisable hospital draft**: ancient aliens attempted godhood and abandoned the station; humans made it a hospital because of extraordinary healing and revival; research revealed a captive god in the core, and medical systems became harmful. Repeated revival and the experiments of both eras could explain the creatures. Every narrative detail remains open. This does not automatically adopt a player death counter, transformation deadline, specific ending or retrieval mechanism. The former Registry/Unit/Clinic comparison is no longer an unanswered equal-choice gate.

| Role | Bounded outcome | Current dependency |