Hold The Horde — Design Plan

We are correcting the design so that ordinary play delivers a discovery-focused survivorslike: massed enemies, expressive builds, urgency, surprising discoveries and a growing home. The owner resumed work on 9 September after finding that the earlier design was too small and deliberate, difficult to read, and weak on the player's experience.

The current proposal

The corrected pitch, representative expedition and three build examples are ready for owner reaction in The Game and Hordes and Builds. The expedition must let a reader picture preparation, crowd pressure, a build breakthrough, a consequential discovery, a climax and relief. The builds must show visible behavior, player choices, growth and an earned payoff.

The two designers completed independent first drafts, the Reviewer supplied one combined critique, and each author completed a bounded response. PM checked the actual sources and integrated the result. The owner has selected resetting temporary combat upgrades on every return home, with physical equipment and loot retained. Dates and worker states are on Progress.

What makes the proposal ready for reaction

• The ordinary expedition, not just an exceptional scene, is recognizably a survivorslike with massed enemies and consequential movement.
• Three builds create substantially different visible results and choices. Their power is understandable as something the player constructed and developed.
• Discovery changes what the player understands or can attempt. At least one substantial payoff goes beyond completing maintenance.
• The explanation connects events and mechanics to intended fun, challenge, pressure, release and emotion, and names credible ways those experiences could fall flat.
• A first-time reader can follow the proposal without chat history, unexplained codes or a tour through technical reference pages.
• The proposal respects the Owner Brief and labels new choices as proposals. Agreement between agents and coverage counts do not establish readiness.

Rewrite the wiki around the game

The reading path will run from the promise and an expedition to combat/builds, discovery and the changing station, people/home/story, and finally detailed reference. Main articles begin with player actions and examples. Each rule has one owning location; useful dependencies are linked and unfamiliar terms defined where introduced. Older debates and versions stay in revision history. Source hashes, review exchanges and delivery records stay in project administration or chat.

The four-page reading route now covers an expedition, hordes/builds, discovery in the shifting station, and people/home. Both new discovery and home articles completed their combined critique, one author response and PM verification on 10 September. Eight reference pages received scoped dependency repairs.

The active correction now reaches the actual combat and build rule owners. Systems replaces Build Rules and repairs acquisition/controller sections. The Design Lead replaces Combat Rules and repairs the roster and all ten encounter placements. This is two readable parent rewrites plus four scoped reference repairs, followed by one combined review and any consolidated response. The work removes contradictory tiny-population and single-ordinary-weapon rules, reconciles paused link editing, and gives temporary expedition growth the selected any-return reset. Space, balance, effect and reward details remain proposals. Existing detailed samples are parked; they do not constrain the correction.

Scope and next decision

This is design work. The selected engine is Unity and intended platform is Steam. Implementation, simulations, playtests and game assets await their relevant owner authorization. The hospital/godhood story remains a revisable leading proposal. The five earlier owner questions remain open; silence settles none of them.

PM is carrying forward independent corrections while keeping specific unanswered owner choices open. An unanswered choice blocks only the work that depends on it. Actual new submissions will inform the detailed-campaign estimate. Additional permanent agents will be proposed only for a concrete independent workload. The earlier readiness declaration is withdrawn; the readiness page records the current decision.