Hold The Horde — Equipment Catalogue

Status. Provisional 12-part SMALL-band sample, not an approved content budget, starting inventory, progression, balance model or implementation. The owner has selected connected reusable parts, shared oxygen/equipment/loot capacity, carried-property return on death, mostly automatic ordinary fire and manual specials. The exact port grammar, rig growth, acquisition and every number below remain proposals.

The worn emergency cutter and suit functions are not catalogue parts: they have no ports and do not provide a second automatic weapon. Ten entries preserve the eight illustrated Build Rules parts plus the selected opening’s Threat Sensor and Manual Trigger. Stride Switch and Vector Nozzle fill movement-event and spatial-control gaps without creating a stat tier.

Reading the sample

A packet contains a trigger and may carry charge, heat, force or fragments. A source creates a new external wave only when its rule says so. Descendants keep that wave; each part resolves at most once in it. Proposed cost is written C/A: overall carrying units / active rig spaces. An installed part pays its carrying cost once, not again as cargo. An inactive carried part pays C but no A. The opening parts use 1/1 so the current four-space reconfiguration remains legal; larger examples state their separate later-area assumption.

Every discovery context identifies somewhere the behavior could be observed. It does not decide whether the player claims the functioning object, retrieves a damaged core, fabricates it after observation or receives an adapter. Found-part versus fabrication progression remains open.

Parts compete directly with portable oxygen and loot. Voluntary return or death brings every still-carried part aboard; consumed Cycler material stays spent, while deliberately dropped or station-installed parts remain where placed without duplication. Field installation and rewiring use world time, and completed work persists under its owning rule.

Twelve concise part briefs

Part	Ports and triggering behavior	Observable before a combination is known	Cost and situation-specific limit	Two candidate combinations or roles	Proposed discovery context
Threat Sensor	Source; one target-bearing trigger output. When a valid hostile is in its shown arc, it offers the trigger whenever the connected ordinary actuator is ready; the target need not leave and re-enter.	Sweeping arc, target highlight and a repeated output pulse beside a moving training dummy.	1/1. Needs line of sight and a valid hostile; target override remains unchosen. It supplies no damage or payload.	Sensor → Projector for ordinary fire; Sensor → Fork for two target-conditioned actions.	Ship emergency rig; its arc can be checked against a dockside calibration target.
Manual Trigger	Source; one trigger output. A deliberate mapped press starts a manual external wave; it cannot bypass a downstream part’s readiness.	Press, output flash and linked fixture response can be seen independently.	1/1. Occupies area that could automate another path and requires player timing.	Trigger → Barrier for faced defence; Trigger → Cycler for a chosen cargo-spending special.	Ship emergency rig beside the Barrier Plate control.
Pulse Projector	One packet input; on a valid trigger while ready, launches its payload toward the selected valid target, or a weak force pulse if none is attached. Its launch is physical output, not a signal port.	Reach, readiness and a weak pulse against a service target.	1/1. One selected target, line of sight and world-time readiness; sparse angles or obstruction waste positioning, not ammunition.	Sensor → Projector for baseline fire; Capacitor → Thermal Lens → Projector for a manually released heat shot.	Ship rig or station service cradle; distinct from the unported worn cutter.
Barrier Plate	One packet input; a trigger creates a short-lived directional barrier, while a charged trigger may create or refresh it. Enemy strikes on the plate are impact events.	Facing marker, brief wall and visible deformation when struck.	1/1. Can be bypassed, broken or faced poorly; its own barrier does not emit a new trigger.	Manual Trigger → Barrier as the opening special; Barrier impacts → Dynamo for Counterwall.	Ship emergency partition or a hospital crowd-control shutter test.
Impact Dynamo	Event input; batches qualifying same-wave impacts and emits one charged trigger for that wave. Force, fragments and external strikes qualify; arcs and heat do not unless explicitly converted.	A door closer converts a physical hit into one charge flash even when fragments hit together.	1/1. Produces nothing without impacts and cannot count the same wave repeatedly.	Projector impact → Dynamo → Arc; Barrier strikes → Dynamo → Capacitor.	Impact latch in a service door or bed-crash protector.
Fork Relay	One packet input, two compatible packet outputs. It copies routing, trigger, payload and wave identity; it creates neither energy nor a new external event.	One service-board pulse visibly reaches two lamps, with invalid sockets refusing before commitment.	1/1. Only two valid branches; both inherit the same wave and downstream readiness. Packed, it gives no benefit until installed and linked.	Sensor → Fork → Projector + Barrier; charged release → Fork → Barrier + Arc.	Loose in Cargo Turn’s maintenance cradle; may serve infrastructure or rig.
Capacitor	Charged-packet input, stored-charge state, chosen release trigger and one charged output. Manual release starts a new wave; release caused by a rig packet retains that packet’s wave. Becoming ready emits nothing.	Rising meter, visible saturation and a controlled discharge into a dead load.	1/1. Needs charge, has finite proposed storage and may hold/vent/pass overflow only by its stated variant. Storage delays rather than multiplies energy.	Dynamo → Capacitor for horde-fed storage; manual release → Lens → Projector for a burst.	Defibrillator bank, door buffer or damaged core whose stored state stays visible.
Thermal Lens	One charged-packet input and one packet output. Converts charge payload to heat while preserving the trigger and wave; it does not add a trigger.	A heat exchanger accepts a charge pulse and warms one marked output surface.	1/1. Spends the packet’s charge identity to make heat; heat is not impact and poor targets may resist or avoid it.	Capacitor → Lens → Projector for a stored heat shot; conductive Cycler response → Lens → Projector for cargo-fed heat.	Sterilization exchanger with inspectable input/output behavior.
Arc Emitter	One charged-trigger input; when ready, arcs from the selected initial target across nearby valid targets. Arcs are physical effects, not new signal outputs.	A quarantine tool jumps between closely spaced conductive test points.	2/2. Expensive area/carrying footprint; weak with sparse or separated targets and cannot feed Dynamo as impact.	Dynamo charge → Arc for impact-fed clearing; Cycler conductive response → Fork → Arc + Capacitor.	Quarantine grid or visibly arcing repair tool.
Salvage Cycler	Material bay, proposed activation-trigger input and one response-packet output. On valid activation it consumes the selected salvage and emits its inspected response: conductive charge, pressure force or brittle fragments.	Different scrap samples produce visibly different one-shot responses in a waste processor.	2/2. Permanently spends chosen salvage that could return home or serve projects; protected objectives refuse selection. Exact activation port is a catalogue proposal extending the source behavior.	Manual Trigger → Cycler → Projector for a chosen cargo shot; conductive Cycler → Fork → Arc + Capacitor.	Human waste processor or alien sorting machine; observation does not grant a recipe.
Stride Switch	Source; one trigger output after the astronaut deliberately traverses a shown distance while grounded and the switch is ready. Rig-produced shove, knockback and conveyor motion do not count.	A rehab gait plate pulses after measured voluntary steps but ignores a rolling bed.	1/1. Silent while stationary, displaced or below threshold; its own descendants cannot walk it into retriggering.	Stride → Projector for kiting fire; Stride packet triggers a configured Capacitor release into Barrier while relocating.	Physical-therapy gait monitor or maintenance pace counter.
Vector Nozzle	One packet input; when ready, vents a directional force burst. A bare trigger gives a weak shove; a force-bearing packet gives the same behavior with more displacement. Collision impacts keep the incoming wave.	A decontamination air knife pushes loose covers in one marked direction.	2/2. Requires facing and clearance; cannot move station regions, sealed machinery or designated immovable threats. Nozzle movement cannot trigger Stride.	Manual Trigger → Nozzle as an aimed escape special; Cycler pressure → Nozzle for cargo-fed lane control.	Decontamination curtain or gurney-positioning jet with a visible flow arrow.

The two new entries are behavior proposals, not implied owner choices. Their strongest value is qualitative: Stride makes deliberate movement an input, while Nozzle turns a packet into position. Neither is “the faster sensor” or “the stronger projector.”

Source reconciliation. Progression Options once says Pulse Projector “automatically launches” without naming a controller; Build Rules and the selected opening give Projector a trigger input and explicitly use Threat Sensor → Pulse Projector. This catalogue follows the latter, current contract and treats the progression wording as omitted controller shorthand. If a self-triggering Projector was intended, the opening controller relationship would need an explicit new decision.

Three legal causal sequences

1. Four-space opening branch — optional reconfiguration. Move Manual Trigger to inactive cargo, install the found Fork, and link Threat Sensor → Fork → Pulse Projector + Barrier Plate. Cost: 4 A and 4 C active, plus the inactive Manual Trigger still using 1 C. The Sensor’s target-bearing external trigger enters one wave; Fork sends it to both actuators. Projector ordinary fire still obeys target and readiness, while Barrier becomes sensor-timed rather than manually placed. This changes control and spends field-edit time; merely packing Fork has no combat effect.

2. Six-space later Counterwall — defence becomes storage. Under a replaceable later 6 A assumption, install Manual Trigger (1), Barrier (1), Dynamo (1), Capacitor (1) and Arc Emitter (2). Manual Trigger → Barrier is a manual special and starts its own wave. Each later enemy strike is a separate external event; Barrier exposes an impact, Dynamo emits one charged trigger for that strike’s wave, and Capacitor stores it. A later manual Capacitor release starts a new wave into Arc. The rig trades all six active spaces and six carrying units for faced defence and dense-target discharge; attacks stopping, barrier failure, sparse enemies or saturation each break its payoff.

3. Eight-space later heat-lance network — attack becomes a future shot. Under a separate replaceable 8 A assumption, Threat Sensor (1) triggers Pulse Projector (1) to launch a weak force shot; its impact reaches Dynamo (1), whose charge passes through Fork (1) to Arc Emitter (2) and Capacitor (1). Arc spends its branch while Capacitor stores its branch. The player then pays for a world-time rewire, disconnecting Sensor from Projector and linking manual Capacitor release → Thermal Lens (1) → Projector. That release starts a new wave and produces one heated shot. Projector is reused without assuming two links can share its one input; the launches are separated by storage, reconfiguration, manual choice and readiness.

Why feedback stops

The tempting loop is Projector impact → Dynamo → Fork → Projector. It does not recurse. The returned packet is descended from the original launch wave; Dynamo has already emitted once for that wave and Projector has already resolved and spent readiness. A returning signal therefore stops. Adding Capacitor does not make storage readiness an event. Only its configured manual release starts a later wave, and rig-triggered release remains in the incoming wave. Enemy attacks may sustain Counterwall as distinct external waves, but only while enemies keep striking and the barrier, storage and downstream readiness hold.

Station use without hidden answers

A part may fit a visibly compatible service port: Fork can split a service pulse, Dynamo can expose an impact response, and Nozzle can test a pressure path. Installation uses world time and leaves the part outside carried property; completed work and installed state follow their owning persistence rules. Individual behavior and direct-port validity may be shown. A part name or port never translates alien text, identifies an unseen destination, proves a historical interpretation or chooses the whole-station binding mechanism.

Uncertainty, self-check and scope

Open questions include acquisition model, later active area, part shapes, port multiplicity, readiness, storage/overflow, targeting overrides, fixture eligibility, removal consequences and exact discovery order. The sequences above were checked against their stated C/A totals, packet ancestry, once-per-wave resolution, readiness, manual/automatic source, and carried-versus-installed cost. They are paper traces, not simulated evidence of clarity, power or balance.

First-pass package planning envelope: Systems authoring 10–16 role-hours, one independent review 3–5, and one bounded response 2–4; 15–25 role-hours total. The author range maps inside the Whole Game Outline’s 10–18-hour author-only catalogue allowance; review/response are additional and must not be counted again as that allowance. These are planning estimates, not logged work or throughput.

Later detailed SMALL catalogue specification: Systems authoring 36–60 role-hours, review 8–12, response 4–6; 48–78 role-hours total. Unique work would define per-part port diagrams, state/overflow variants, source-placement alternatives, legal-link matrix and authored edge cases. It excludes UI-owned cue/accessibility presentation, acquisition economy, implementation, assets, numerical tuning and playtesting. TARGET/STRETCH expansion remains unestimated until reuse and per-part authoring cost are known.

Later owner-authorised implementation and real-player observation must establish whether individual parts are legible, the four-space swap is discovered, combinations remain expressive without one dominant path, costs compete meaningfully with oxygen and loot, field edits are usable under pressure, and rare station uses feel revelatory rather than like metadata keys. None is established here.