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 work: concrete proposals for owner reaction

The owner accepted connected equipment combinations, shared oxygen/equipment/loot capacity, practical clue-based exploration and the route/work horde rhythm. All carried property returns home on death; equipment loans at home are tentative. The persistent-station and cooperative-rescue examples have been explained, but the owner has not yet reacted to those explanations. The Owner Brief records the exact scope.

The owner-decision integration is complete after actual-source review and final disposition269. The old compressor-object fragility gate was removed as a provisional simplification of that example, without deciding all equipment condition rules. No death cache, compulsory live delivery or substitute confiscation remains in the integrated rules.

Systems266 is composing Progression Options: two concrete equipment-growth experiences, each showing acquisition, an exact useful build, a discovery that changes its use, missed finds and the reason to go out again. Both saved independent originals were read, byte-hash verified and jointly released264/265. Systems supplies practical comparison rather than a third preference vote; the two originals' A/B labels describe different design axes. Owner-readable choices come before extensive cross-page refinement.

Lead and Reviewer268 each have two independent station-district expedition pitches to prepare: a distinctive place, a visible discovery that changes an action, a meaningful horde situation and a reason to return. Their new ideas remain private until both originals are saved and jointly released. These selectable content proposals do not require a central-story choice or fixed-map approval. Delivery is currently unavailable: both pinned Claude sessions were absent from fresh native registries, so neither message was sent. PM is handling host recovery; Systems work continues. There is no replacement role or permission change.

Completed language comparison

Language Expedition, Language and Journal and Language Design Evidence are provisionally integrated after focused review252, response254 and final source disposition269. Two observed mains support a tentative word-order reading; visible transfers support local source/receiver roles. A material connection plus service access gives a lead to investigate, without proving a continuous walking route or shorter journey.

The journal records actual arrivals or incomplete attempts without grading freeform meanings. Fallible on-request visual suggestions and manual comparison remain available; survivor help is truthful and attributed. These assistance choices are reversible proposals. The full pause, including enemies and oxygen during combat, is required by the owner. Sources support uncertainty and repeated-context precedents but do not establish this game's enjoyment, comprehension, accessibility or content feasibility. No second broad review, full conlang, artwork, implementation or playtest is assigned. Lead owns the expedition, Systems the journal contract, Reviewer the evidence; all three sources are stopped until a relevant new assignment.

Story directions awaiting owner reaction

The three concrete pitches from Mystery Directions and Mystery Consequences have been presented to the owner. They propose an active alien Registry, a secretly fitted recovery Unit with an outside sponsor, or an automated experimental Clinic. The strongest versions distinguish departure clearance from service cancellation, make causal eligibility explicit and offer a concrete deeper intervention. Each now preserves owner-required carried-property return.

These are candidate stories with costs, not adopted central answers. No owner reaction has arrived yet. Ordinary revival continues through deeper play in each proposed baseline; final departure ends it. Global survivor mortality or a named eligibility exception remains separate. Comparison preparation closed247 and owner-return integration269; no further broad story review is pending. Ownership remains Lead for Directions and Systems for Consequences.

Coming Home and Home Projects remain provisionally integrated under222, with loans now tentatively accepted by the owner. The scene permits listening, canister preparation and reclaiming the same loaned part. Charge and communicated knowledge persist; known panel location is distinct from uncertain pressure-line sampling. Human contributions are explicit; emotional effect and the full colony economy are still unvalidated. Lead owns the scene and Systems the rules.

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: the owner requires carried equipment and new loot to return aboard on death. Resources already consumed remain spent and deliberately left objects do not duplicate. Records and completed work persist. The basic suit is a separate proposal, with no compulsory cache-recovery role. Further persistence details and survivor outcomes remain scoped proposals or undecided questions.
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.