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: central-mystery directions

The team is preparing a concrete owner comparison of possible station, revival and escape truths. No central answer has been adopted. All three first positions were saved before peer new conclusions, actually read and hash-verified, then jointly released unchanged in chat213–218. Their preference for related reconstruction mechanisms is not evidence of the best story.

Assignment219 develops the strongest connected-institution direction, the strongest distinct ship/human/separate-cause direction, and a serious third candidate whose main discovery is not another registration or reconstruction-identity story. Breadth is a design check, not a requirement to recommend every option. Each needs concrete discoveries that change actions, meaningful roles for two languages and survivors, an earned apparent resolution and a distinct deeper resolution with a credible continuation.

Authors work concurrently, publish early interfaces, self-check actual available sources, guarded-save/read back and stop edits. Reviewer may begin one source while the other finishes, using a bounded listening window. PM assesses the actual pair and one focused response, then presents concrete creative options to the owner before committing the central direction. No unanimity loop, full campaign catalogue or phase change is authorised.

The comparison must not treat differently dated records as proof of unrelated causes, an unknown signal as proof of no external influence, or an attributed belief as established fact. It must state why revival returns to this ship and how it interacts with equipment, records and survivors. Ending revival requires an explicit timing/continuation account, not a hidden permadeath policy. Optional extra lore alone does not establish the brief's deeper real ending; neither branch may be padded to claim a duration.

Coming Home and Home Projects are provisionally integrated after review204, response206 and final integration, disposition221. The cooperative loan/preparation scene allows listening, preparing canisters and reclaiming the same part; produced charge and communicated knowledge persist. The known sensor panel is distinct from its uncertain sampling connection, giving a concrete inspection without asserting remote safety or cause. Human reactions and contributions are explicit; emotional effect and the wider colony economy remain unvalidated. The PM relaxed the exercise's exclusive-material condition instead of manufacturing a sacrifice. Ownership returns to Lead for the scene and Systems for the contract; no second broad home review is pending.

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.

Discovery Chain and Clues and Help are provisionally integrated after review184, response186 and final PM corrections, disposition194. Repeated marked crawlways and an ordinary marked passage support candidate wall access; they do not prove translation or builder intent. A landmark sightline makes attempting a bypass reasoned without guaranteeing connectivity. Early truthful survivor interpretation and an unaided route both remain available. Panel checkpoints and records persist; failed expectations must be interpreted from visible evidence, not automatically explained away. One small fragment/use case does not fulfil a language requirement. Ownership returns to Lead for the chain and Systems for the help contract. No broad second review is pending. Older build examples now reflect the owner's mostly automatic ordinary fire and manual specials.

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.