Hold The Horde — Design Plan

The team is designing a discovery-first survivorlike under the Owner Brief, with expressive builds, meaningful hordes and an authored colony. The work below is design only. Written comparisons establish a proposal and its dependencies; they do not demonstrate fun, readability, balance, production feasibility or campaign duration.

Current milestone: a discovery that earns its reinterpretation

Across three visits, one local discovery should change the meaning of an earlier observation and give the player a reasoned new decision. All three independent first positions were saved, read and hash-verified before their joint release in project chat175–177. Similar preferences do not settle the comparison: the concrete evidence and the value of survivor help need a stronger account.

Assignment178 gives each author a complete parallel outcome and preauthorises the named review after the already-saved independent checkpoint. Systems posts the proposed shared interface early. Authors read the other's available source, verify their own publication, report exact dependencies and stop article edits. PM reviews the actual output and critique, coordinates one focused response if needed, and makes a provisional disposition. Unanimity is not a completion requirement.

Both Discovery Chain179 and Clues and Help182 have been submitted and the actual sources verified. The preauthorised combined review is underway. Systems aligned its early flow example to the submitted wall-panel chain and correctly identified that the baseline cutter does not create the draft's claimed extra-module carrying tradeoff. PM will assess the actual inference and action contract with the review. While review proceeds, Lead183 independently prepares an ordinary-return-home comparison; other roles will save their own before any peer home conclusions are released. It covers personal commitments and shared projects, a material choice, each person's contribution and the following departure. No full colony economy, mandatory upkeep or loss rule is adopted.

A symbol's location or a working mechanism does not by itself prove a translation. Later evidence must distinguish a real rival reading, while residual ambiguity can remain. The chain should earn some positive understanding, not only undermine a first guess. Limited truthful survivor translation can preserve agency; compulsory rescue gates, deliberate fallibility and cryptic hints are properties of particular proposals, not requirements. Personal notes are welcome, and the journal pauses the game as the owner requested.

The local language use may be proposed, but no alphabet, complete language system or central revival/station/escape answer is assigned. Service-family notation is not one of the two alien languages required by the brief; one example cannot fulfil the complete language requirement. There is no implementation, simulation, playtest, numeric balancing, campaign or asset authorization.

Completed written foundations

• Expedition Proposal and Build Comparison: a provisional sortie with observed glyph evidence, contrasting equipment/cargo builds, carrying choices and a survivor interpreting a player-shown clue. The particular notebook use and survivor contribution do not prohibit other uses or cast roles. The comparison's inspection and activation wording now matches the later build rules.
• Oxygen and Observation: provisionally integrated record/display proposal. The owner decided that opening the journal pauses the rest of the game, including enemies and oxygen during combat; that requirement is in the brief. Other journal details and the wider oxygen rhythm remain proposed.
• Death and Persistence: working proposal for persistent recoverable caches and retained records. Equipment availability and recovery journeys are costs. The suit baseline proposed in Build Rules answers the minimum-expedition dependency on paper; actual reach, part supply, abandonment and recovery viability remain unvalidated.
• Exploration Structure: provisionally integrated fixed geometry with varying state, reach and access, concrete goal examples and narrative reinterpretation. Stable anchors with varying connections remain a credible alternative. Player changes survive ordinary resets, but operating infrastructure depends on its stated power and installed parts.
• Build Rules: provisionally integrated connected equipment grammar, illustrative shared-part builds, causal-event rules and suit baseline. Navigation records traversed breadcrumbs without promising an unseen safe route; local equipment previews remain understandable while learned families help with unfamiliar objects and preparation. Fields, capacities and performance are not tuned or validated.

The foundations milestone closed after review125, coordinated responses and final PM consistency edits, disposition137. Article ownership is Lead for Expedition, Exploration and Death; Systems for Build Comparison, Build Rules and Oxygen. No further broad foundations review is pending. Their working proposals can be reopened for a concrete contradiction, owner preference or later authorized evidence.

Rescue and Home and Rescue Rules are provisionally integrated after focused review and response, disposition158. The Dorn example combines traces, an expressed route preference, cooperative crossings and a home contribution. Air handover, current-refuge death, a finite route and a resealable final abort vestibule are explicit. Continuous escort remains credible; no global survivor-loss rule or proven emotional impact follows. Ownership is Lead for the story and Systems for the rules.

Horde Encounters and Combat Rules are provisionally integrated after focused review, response and final consistency edits, disposition174. Route crowds and selectively contested work are the working rhythm; a cleared route does not erase a door caller or prevent later cued movement. Completed work persists and withdrawal depends on actual occupants and pursuit. The owner's mostly automatic ordinary fire and manual specials are required; nearest-valid targeting and readiness are proposed details. The observed alcove anomaly is available to avoidance too. Carrying, salvage and condition costs are explicit, with no guaranteed escape or established cheapness claim. Lead owns the encounters and Systems the rules. No broad second combat review is pending; fun, frequency, balance and control readability remain unvalidated.

Acceptance and remaining scope

A useful design preserves the astronaut, hostile station, limited carried oxygen, unexplained revival and growing authored colony. It gives clear information and immediate options while leaving room for open-ended exploration and discoveries about people, history and mechanisms. Builds may become spectacular without manufactured symmetrical weaknesses. Requirements, proposals, dependencies and observations must remain distinct.

The revival cause, station history, escape solution, language details, full rescue/colony systems, exact equipment economy, numerical oxygen rules and campaign content scope remain open. The 30/90/100–200 hour ambitions remain unproven. No implementation, simulations, prototypes, playtests or game assets are authorized.

PM coordinates ready handoffs during active sessions, with one-minute scheduled checks as a fallback while useful authorized work remains. Hourly checks apply only when no such work can continue. The Team page records the working agreement. Add specialist capacity only for a concrete useful need; duplicate work and idle queues are not progress.