Hold The Horde — Design Plan

Paused for human feedback — 2026-09-09 13:05 Jerusalem. The owner requested this checkpoint after first-pass completion. All design workers are stopped: Reviewer572, Systems573 and Design Lead574 confirm no work/write in flight. Automatic PM checks are PAUSED. Resume requires an explicit owner instruction; earlier assignments and forecast dates do not restart work.

40 tracked outcomes: 38 preparation-closed, 2 paused, 0 active. The complete first-pass batch is38/38 closed. M2 coherent core and M3 complete first-pass wiki were achieved on9 September at12:51:39 after V1 Readiness disposition564 and verified source repairs. All15 major domains have first-pass coverage; this is not a percentage of the finished game or approval of every provisional choice.

The two detailed drafts arrived just before the pause and have not been accepted. Their new text, occurrences, quantities or refinements do not amend the first-pass baseline. No further source integration, design authoring or review is scheduled during the hold. The five outstanding owner choices remain unanswered; existing proposals and the early story draft remain revisable.

Forecast status. F1.15 records actual M2/M3 completion on9 September, replacing F1.14's predicted11/14 September dates. There is no remaining M3 task or forward10–18-hour coherence allowance. The previous detailed-campaign estimate was10 November (20 October–1 December), low confidence; it and the same-day39/40 targets are now on hold, to be rebased after feedback/resumption. Paused time is not counted as agent work. No additional agent or implementation phase is required for the human review.

All work remains design only. No code, build, simulation, playtest, purchase or game asset is authorized by first-pass completion or this pause.

Historical record through message560

The following is retained unchanged apart from heading depth as a dated record. Its old current-status, ownership, remaining-work and scheduling statements are superseded by the pause and completion record above; they are not active instructions. Detailed F1–F1.14 forecasts and earlier deliveries remain available here.

Hold The Horde — Design Plan

Design a discovery-first survivorlike under the Owner 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.

Current owner direction

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.

Active outcomes

See the dated Progress board: 38 design packages,37 preparation-closed and1 open (38). Status is through560.38 numbers the already-planned coherence/readiness work; it adds no game scope.15 usable first-pass domains/0 partial is not M2/M3 completion. F1.14 remains M3 14September (11–18), low confidence; M2 11September (10–14), M4 10November (20October–1December). Actual38 findings may justify earlier delivery; history is preserved.

PM's narrow parent-equipment alignment432 and legacy Discovery Chain/Expedition integration441–443 are complete. The latter preserves historical post-death routes and world-time capture with full frozen journal inspection; it grants no new access guarantee. Global04 preparation closed518 at11:07:24 after accepted577236e7 and all eleven parent alignments were independently verified. Owner-dependent branches remain unselected. Do not treat a former fixed-anchor alternative as owner-selected, or invent destruction, duplication or survivor loss to handle a shift.

Remaining M3 scope and staffing: use the Coverage finish map:one whole-v1 coherence/readiness disposition, now outcome38, using accepted35 and aligned parents,36 crosswalk and37 scope/handoff. Full scripts and exhaustive variants belong to M4. Adopted F1.14 forecast — 9 September: M3 first-pass wiki now targets 14 September (11–18 September), low confidence. M2 coherent core remains11 September (10–14); M4 detailed campaign remains10 November (20 October–1 December). The revision follows the remaining-deliverables audit and preparation closeouts25–33, including the actual24-module/40-room and ten-encounter/thirteen-mechanism first passes. It uses current PM, Systems and restored original Lead/Reviewer capacity; additional agents are not prerequisites. It is a scope-based calendar judgment, not a conversion of word counts or elapsed chat minutes into role-hours. A changed joining architecture, expanded first-pass scope, unresolved integration or unavailable capacity can move the estimate. No extra agent creation is required today; a10Sep technical/production candidate is useful only for a concrete independent handoff gap. Revisit after the actual38 result, no later than ordinary forecast review9Sep18:00. Earlier Sep22/Sep25 scenarios remain historical; yesterday’s F1.14 draft was unpublished.

New rescue question now with the owner (485): if the astronaut dies during an eligible short rescue, use a protected retreat that leaves the survivor alive and unsent in the prepared refuge before one shift, with spent supplies still spent and a new short route to find; or allow danger and prepare concrete injury/loss options for a later choice. The proposed protection is new and unselected. No answer is inferred; the earlier four questions remain pending, making five.

Ready for reaction

Scope and development handoff refresh37 (Production Scope; Development And Validation Handoff) closed550 at12:05:47 after ONE critique/response and exact verification. Final68db46ea/59945901 (21,243/27,529 bytes); both Systems STOPPED. The14–26 role-hour allowance at response549 included37 response/disposition4–8 plus coherence10–18. With37 closed, only 10–18 role-hours for coherence/repair disposition remains forward work. M4 350–590 role-hours and the future packet 289–490 role-hours /5–8 working weeks are low-confidence conditional estimating proposals, not logged labor or development authority. The old M4 assumption of two extra specialists is historical, not counted current capacity. Milestone dates await the actual38 result.

Mechanical Interfaces And Opening Quantities35 closed533 at11:35:17, final2e604fc2 (44,079 bytes), after one critique/response and all twelve parent alignments plus narrow532 collar fixes. Current Home08f8dde6 and Information9ca194c2 are PM STOPPED; other ten mechanical parents and Mechanical35 are Systems STOPPED. Production Scope and Development And Validation Handoff were separately transferred534 for refresh37.35 adds no owner-selected economy/controller policy, gameplay proof or phase authorization.

Campaign Evidence And State Crosswalk36 closed545 at11:49:32, final70e004e9 (28,144 bytes), after one critique/response and PM integration. It maps 8 existing chains,15 scenes and26 evidence INDEX entries—not26 new objects or single captures—with7 host variants,5 personal variants and2 Regional25 orders. PM owns36 STOPPED; Lead stopped36 at that closeout and now has only38 administrative work. These aliases/index entries do not create new clues or require parent transfers.

Player Information And Options34 closed509 at10:53:59 Jerusalem, final61e0be4a (30,692 bytes), after one critique/response plus PM508 integration. Its41 main states/9 bands,5 journal sections,4 manifest sections,10 options and4 walkthroughs are prepared proposals. The Death Shift And Rescue Continuity candidate was accepted512 at10:56:53, final577236e7 (41,870 bytes), after one critique/response. Global04 closed518 at11:07:24 after all eleven aligned parents were independently verified; At518 Lead retained STOPPED ownership of: Save And Content State; Connecting The Station; Rescue Rules; First Survivor; Cast And Short Rescue Map; Station Room And Module Inventory; Encounter And Mechanism Placement Inventory; First Expedition Options; Player Information; Death And Persistence; Shifting Station Options. Protected retreat and the full-station payoff remain unselected owner branches. Current ownership supersedes that historical list: Systems retains ten STOPPED mechanical parents and the two scope/handoff parents STOPPED after550; PM retains STOPPED Home/Information after532 and36 after545. All Lead game parents are STOPPED; Lead owns only administrative V1 Readiness38. No36 parent transfer is needed.

Encounter And Mechanism Placement Inventory33 preparation closed493 on9 September10:32:09, final 5c1a9ad663ead360b3b80a66caca4e724d91dac38d50979d70f1d460bd0c23d2 (57,934 bytes), after one critique/response and narrow PM integration492. Ten encounters INCLUDE two setpieces; thirteen major mechanism briefs are prepared. Later E03 population enters only at a later death-shift boundary, and reset faces preserve self-contained hosts. Systems retained stopped ownership at493; Systems now retains STOPPED33 ownership after mechanical compatibility was verified533. Room32 closed481 with24 modules/40 rooms; compact relationships and ordinary service-interface obligations remain explicit. No owner-selected game size, full arrangement proof or gameplay validation is claimed.

Cast And Short Rescue Map31 preparation closed473 at21:12:44 Jerusalem, final6456406b101845e6c9a6563a69fc7f56c1dcc7bf8227445bf14a03fa072f5514. Five proposed people have fifteen uniquely identified first-pass scenes, three primary per person. One focused critique/response corrected the initial current walked rescue route, actual movement event and first ship-bench operation. D2 inherits Dorn participating in the initial demonstrated operation; later commissioned use follows Home28. Final cast, first survivor, mortality and owner choices remain unselected; full scripts, state/geometry variants and placements remain unfinished.

Story And Ending Map30 preparation closed466 at20:42:22 Jerusalem, final03c9cb8ee95564f08cf59b065f97c0a008981a489f8a8b223df0048d4cfb6de9. One focused critique/response separated present diagnostic evidence from limited historical chronology, specified isolation's retained/lost evidence and used shared mechanical cycle impressions. Four mystery/personal chains, apparent/deeper/optional-secret layers and five proposed human scene variants form a usable first-pass contract. Captive/empty-core, treatment, reversibility and departure remain proposals; actual placement, full scene scripts and exhaustive state variants remain unfinished; first-pass cast allocation is now prepared31.

New apparent-ending question now with the owner: show credits and allow continuing from before departure (PM recommendation), or make departure permanently end this save. The question is unanswered; neither continuation behavior nor permanent save closure is adopted. It was the fourth question; the new rescue preference485 brings the current total to five, all unanswered.

Two Language Discovery Map29 preparation closed459 at20:23:52 Jerusalem, finaldf0f48f5bd39659105ca5e3b31e7341e4d0a8b36618a7eaed8f60d7120038a0a. One focused critique/response restored distinct address/body evidence, kept valid captures usable across lives and specified the iris's local B input and visible completion state. Four operational chains and the two-language/two-register classification are prepared proposals; actual clue/string/room variants, final origins/story and comprehension evidence remain unfinished. One local plate/input/state variant fits the existing iris mechanism; no extra region/objective/module/mechanism slot.

Home And Colony Loop28 preparation closed450 at20:01:12 Jerusalem, final5bff34369c17fcbdb4bb948373c9e2a255d0ab1887a5308b96e9d1fb6adc95b6. One focused review/response clarified commissioning, first-return actions and participant/facility availability. Living/death return, deliberate storage/sharing, refill, optional work and loan/reclaim form a usable first-pass contract. Five project briefs remain two reused/three new with three proposed fixed ship fixtures; full cast scene scripts/state variants, exact fixture/control presentation, owner choices and gameplay validation remain unfinished; first-pass cast allocation is now prepared31.

Combat And Enemy Roster27 preparation closed443 at19:34 Jerusalem, finalf1fe0d9a71e344a78d219333bc6b00e8af89a26758769c218743f1ca3a62fbdc. One focused review/response resolved the new-role state and counterplay details, both-order cue staging and Bellback lock point. Six ordinary/three special roles and two setpieces are prepared within ten encounter placements; Room32 and accepted33 supply first-pass room hosts and ten-encounter/thirteen-mechanism briefs. Full presentation variants and tuning remain later. Counts and origins remain proposals; no gameplay validation is claimed.

Equipment Acquisition And Rig Growth26 preparation closed434 at18:57:01 Jerusalem, finalf5f6d7681325bc5e52d1a7503133a15d8e4293f55df3961fe6f7210b9503db6e. The complete twelve-part contract maps four proposed starters/eight physical sources, counts three added fixtures and separates active-area growth from carrying capacity. One focused critique/response clarified independent receiver acceptance, possible spent-cargo loss after downstream refusal, the unplaced repair/adapter template and the bounded empty-ship guarantee. Late author notice436 records pre-maintenancef7ede725; PM’s paragraph-only maintenance433 and final434 remain current. Acquisition preference, starter/capacity choices, source-fixture detail and exceptions remain open.

Regional Discovery Map preparation closed426 at18:32 Jerusalem, final3acda0183b13d531e5e93cfd7ef41909c33b19d970bdb4b0b3c01f4360427247. One focused review/response made both evidence orders concrete, replaced the abstract central gate with a pressure iris and recovery alternative, and clarified calibration, rig capacity and source/access conditions. Four regions and twelve objectives remain a SMALL proposal;Room32 now supplies24module/40room v1 briefs; cross-domain interfaces, detailed placement/state variants and story/ending choices still need work.

Save And Content State preparation closed417 at18:09:56 Jerusalem, final438cdf35f53bb537aed50bb8efab810866b289d6cf401b949d95bc7e27e8938c. One focused review/response clarified the carried rig/cargo set, actual person-and-airlock delivery, historical evidence and the provisional save-policy boundary. This is a first-pass continuity contract, not verified software; save policy, rescue/death/shift order, full-station behavior, transients and recovery remain open.

Traps And Encounter Progression and Development And Validation Handoff preparation closed410 after one focused review/response each. The five trap families have distinct observable causes and responses; the plan separates local mechanics evidence, sustained progression and production feasibility. Neither constitutes an implementation or playtest.

Rescue Shift Proposal and Station Assembly Example are additional unadopted contributions under PM intake407. Protected pre-shift retreat and a guaranteed inspected-face meeting are new candidate capabilities, not answers inferred from existing owner selections. Their authorship context and geometry/authoring obligations remain pending.

Equipment Catalogue preparation closed400 after one independent GPT review and response399. Twelve proposed reusable parts include a deliberate-movement switch and a directional nozzle. Three legal rig examples disclose capacity, activation and rewiring costs. Fork provisionally splits usable payload. Acquisition/growth paths are now prepared in26; exact tuning and owner selection remain open.

Survival and Loadout preparation closed392. It proposes resource/capacity lifecycle rules and opening packing choices, including retained prepared oxygen. Exact quantities and balance remain unselected.

Player Information preparation closed387 after one review/response. It separates observed, recorded and reported information, preserves the full journal pause and short rescue limits, and sets a proposed accessibility baseline. Its main cue/action inventory is now prepared in34, closed509; full presentation variants remain later work. Lead retains STOPPED ownership of this older parent after verified alignment518; no usability is claimed.

Whole Game Outline is preparation-closed378 after draft369, focused review370 and response374. It connects the opening to middle, ending and secret layers, including a later expedition and finite content bands. It is a planning scaffold: story/ending choices, quantities and complete estimate coverage remain open.

Shifting Station Options records the owner's selection of actions binding connected groups and the whole-station late puzzle. Moving districts and freely rearranged rooms remain prior alternatives. Its special local rescue reconnection is still a proposed exception, not automatic transfer.

Connecting The Station completed focused review323 and response324, with PM disposition329/331. It retains permanent latches as a local candidate, but the deep whole-station puzzle is unresolved: a source can be reused to latch seams one after another, so scarcity alone does not establish the proposed global ordering problem. Seams and power machinery are unchosen. New independent originals340/342 were read and jointly released346–348. Systems comparison349 now evaluates room transformations, family bridges and simpler matching; the mechanism comparison preparation closed363 after review356 and response361; detailed whole-station content and owner mechanism/payoff choice remain open. A single late insight is PM's quality target for the owner's ambition, not an additional quoted owner requirement; combining earlier discoveries could also satisfy it. A final stable layout is proposed as a reward and is awaiting owner reaction.

First Expedition Options completed review325, response326 and closeout333. The owner has now selected Option A, the reusable-machinery opening, recorded344–345. One opening discovers a reusable part that powers both equipment and station machinery; the other discovers a risky route by watching a body lift. Temporary deployment has explicit time/capacity costs, and the lift needs extra local content. Both preserve natural death, carried property and existing connections. Option A is the selected direction; detailed rooms, values and loadout remain proposals, and neither opening is validated.

Horde Creature Proposals offers a telegraphed pressure-wave creature, a moving screen for a crowd and a readable oxygen-tether attacker. All can be avoided, interrupted or defeated, and a strong rig may overwhelm them. Their origins are replaceable candidates from either experimental era.

Progression Options compares claiming functioning components from station machinery with observing their behaviour and fabricating chosen parts aboard. Both include useful legal build traces, changed uses of old parts and motivation for another expedition. The two independent originals were read, hash-verified and jointly released before Systems' practical comparison; preparation closed272. No economy, starting loadout, fabrication bench or installed-object persistence model has been selected. Comparative claims about surprise, targeting and attachment remain expectations rather than measurements.

Hospital Story Directions develops the fully revisable hospital draft into a captive ascendant or a departed being's surviving repair engine. Focused review296 and response301/304 are complete; PM closeout308 keeps the remaining semantic evidence gap explicit. The captive's proposed request needs evidence distinguishing a request from a maintenance record; correlation alone is insufficient. Alien Utterance Discovery finished one focused review and response353: the gallery supports useful interaction with a responsive process, not proof of a request, living writer or god. Neither story nor its ending is adopted.

Resurrection and Corruption compares external evidence with safe ordinary revival, voluntary treatment with access and hazards, and visible death-driven attunement. Preparation closed299. The last option encourages deliberate death and needs a stable ceiling; pausing its progression does not reverse accumulated state. No option is selected.

The older Mystery Directions and Mystery Consequences remain reference alternatives. Their triage, registration and sponsor mechanisms do not constrain the current draft.

Existing written foundations

• Expedition Proposal, Build Comparison and Build Rules: linked reusable parts, contrasting rigs, causal-wave rules and shared carrying choices. Exact grammar, capacity, part catalogue and starting equipment remain proposals. The compressor example no longer requires live delivery or an uncracked object.
• Exploration Structure and Death and Persistence: safe carried-property return and retained work remain; the old fixed geometry requires replacement with the new shift direction.
• Oxygen and Observation, Discovery Chain and Clues and Help: readable survival state, captured evidence, voluntary investigation and truthful bounded survivor help. Prior geographic observations cannot guarantee current routes after a shift.
• Horde Encounters and Combat Rules: route crowds and selected contested work, with persistent completed stages and strong builds allowed to succeed. Targeting and individual creature behaviour remain proposals.
• Rescue and Home and Rescue Rules: a short cooperative crossing remains useful. Finite multi-stage routes need to meet the owner's short-rescue condition, and death/shift/abort ordering now has the preparation-accepted512 candidate; its old-parent alignment is verified518, with owner-dependent branches still unselected.
• Coming Home and Home Projects: compatibility maintenance closed456 at20:15:57, revisionsacbc945c/996d235a; PM owns both parents STOPPED. Current Fork/supply, unloading, historical-route and refill rules align while the human scenes and reclaimable loans remain. This adds no package or global04 closure; the whole colony economy and emotional effect remain unvalidated.
• Language Expedition, Language and Journal and Language Design Evidence: observable repeated contexts, partial interpretations, factual arrival/incomplete records and fallible requested visual assistance. These completed focused review252 and response254, with final integration269. A transfer connection never proves a walking route. Historical evidence needs to be reconciled with shifting layouts; this does not require another whole-language review or a full conlang.

Acceptance and remaining scope

Preserve clear immediate goals and understandable controls while discoveries change the meaning or use of familiar things. Judge concrete player choices and costs, not agreement counts, provider confidence or prose volume. Independent first positions precede new peer recommendations; a focused critique and response lead to PM disposition, not a unanimity loop. Articles retain one writer, and current-live-versus-proposed diffs and readback protect shared work.

The hospital draft's causes and ending, player consequences of resurrection corruption, shift/persistence rules, short rescue logistics, final colony economics and fixture detail, language details, equipment economy, numerical oxygen rules and campaign scope remain open. The 30/90/100–200hour ambitions are unproven. No game implementation, prototypes, simulations, playtests or assets are authorised. No AI art. Purchases and rare custom/authored assets require owner approval.

PM follows ready handoffs during authorized active work. Lead560 is WORKING on the ONE response to critique559, incorporating the submitted557 assessment and555 factual audit. Receiving was verified at12:35:14.291 Jerusalem and the full559/560 reading at12:35:31.379; one courier was delivered. Reviewer is STOPPED after559; Systems remains STOPPED after555. Lead owns only the administrative V1 Readiness article. PM is preparing bounded local parent repairs; game sources remain unchanged and no parent ownership transfer is implied. One-minute fallback and15-minute numeric/forecast reporting continue. No manual forwarding, extra agent creation or repeated35/36/37 review is required.