Hordes and Builds

Hold The Horde should repeatedly move between curiosity, rising crowd pressure, a spectacular build payoff and a short breath in which the player can understand what they reached. Ordinary weapons fire mostly automatically. The player's combat decisions are movement, route, proximity, which automatic effects to connect, and when to trigger a manual special.

The target is a survivorslike spectacle: against a developed 80–150-body horde, sustained automatic fire and one earned climax visibly break a substantial part of the formation without erasing movement or the remaining threat. Counts, effects, timings, targeting help and performance limits are untested; numbers are proposals. Storm Choir, Ricochet Foundry and Gravity Furnace use finite coverage rules and temporary transformations made only from the existing twelve parts.

Ordinary exploration crosses substantial local hordes already occupying or moving through connected station spaces. The player can also deliberately wake machinery that draws a much larger surge and reveals new space; other disturbances can wake adjacent crowds. A temporary overclock changes the behaviour of installed equipment for the current expedition. It can turn a useful automatic shot into something the player wants to build a whole trip around.

Example: the moving scan

The astronaut enters a hospital transfer concourse because a window above it shows a constellation that was not there before the last death. A rail-mounted lamp can scan it, but the carriage is at the wrong end. Its station supply is visibly live. Releasing its mechanical brake starts the carriage moving at walking pace. The player can run ahead, fall behind or circle it. Bodies slow the carriage until its rail is cleared, then it continues.

The machinery wakes the concourse. About forty shambling patients spill from two wards across the central lane. A dozen faster creatures descend marked maintenance stairs in flanking groups; more silhouettes press behind ward glass. The player's later-game Storm Choir has automatic Projector fire, impact-powered arcs and a charge store, but begins this trip without its temporary transformations. Its short electrical chains help without dominating the space.

At the first junction the crowd thickens. The player stays near the packed centre so each arc can continue through adjacent bodies, then cuts aside when the fast group arrives. The ward release is finite and visibly runs out. Fighting this crowd supplies regular temporary growth. The example assumes an earned choice; its exact threshold is still to be designed. In the paused journal the player chooses Echoing Arc: each accepted Arc action gains two further finite branch routes at a heat cost. It resumes the same danger when the journal closes.

At the next junction, the carriage trips a second marked ward release. The example next uses Thunderhead, adding a manual full-store burst to the same rig after a major horde milestone; which milestone supplies it here remains to be designed. Ordinary Projector impacts charge the store. Each Arc discharge spends its supplied charge; the extra jumps add heat. The growth and milestone mapping for these two releases must prepare the build for the final optional scan. At either junction the player can stop the carriage and leave by the walking route.

The final ward doors open ahead. Roughly one hundred enemies fill the concourse, with more flowing from announced sources. A tide closes from behind while fast groups cross the carriage's path. The player risks the dense middle, finishes charging and presses Thunderhead. Stored charge discharges through three chain heads and one penetrating pressure lance, then charging restores automatically. The intended climax is blue-white branching light breaking roughly forty well-packed ordinary bodies while the lance cuts a traversable slot. Survivors, flankers and special bodies may still move. The carriage surges through because the player chose the dense line and the release moment, not because the special deleted the room.

An unready player sees the crest turn against them. Flankers draw arcs away from the tide, bodies stall the carriage, and a special creature narrows the exit while hits strip condition. The choice is clear: spend Thunderhead early and face the main mass empty; hold the centre long enough to charge, risking death; or abandon the scan and flee, spending oxygen and position. The walking route remains usable without an overclock. Death changes the next route, but everything physical still carried returns aboard. The horde has teeth without deleting the loadout.

At the far window the final source gates close, stopping further arrivals. The player clears the creatures already beside the carriage or leaves them separated behind a pedestrian bulkhead before investigating. The “constellation” is a live map of rooms that are currently far apart. Its last line unfolds an overhead bridge toward the matching point—a route the player can walk now. An earlier recorded mark suggests another scan track may reveal a second bridge elsewhere. The player can push onto the new span with reduced oxygen or bring that recorded connection home and plan the next trip. Combat delivered access; knowledge points to a specific next action.

The moving lamp is one later-expedition example; other trips can cross an occupied route, pursue a creature, carry an object or deliberately wake a larger surge.

The ordinary horde rhythm

A horde surrounds routes, feeds a build continuously and changes the whole screen when it breaks. A developed encounter in a broad ward, dock or cargo artery might show 80–150 enemies together and pass several hundred through its full crest. Narrow corridors can show less while a continuous river arrives through doors, lifts and ducts. Hospitals, transit systems and sealed infested volumes are believable source areas: places holding bodies that can physically enter a connected route when disturbed.

Most horde sequences use four readable beats:

1. Wake. The player sees sleeping bodies, moving shadows, opening doors or a crowd already migrating. Sound and warning lights identify the routes that may answer.
2. Gather. A slow majority occupies broad lanes. Faster packs take visible side routes; climbing creatures spill from ceiling or maintenance routes; a few special bodies bend the flow and make the player change course.
3. Crest. Two or three movement patterns overlap. The player must choose the dense line that rewards the build, the safer line that protects condition, or a costly retreat that spends oxygen. A moving objective continues through the space rather than turning into a defence circle.
4. Break. The player clears the finite release or completes a physical seal at its source. Sealing stops arrivals; creatures already inside still need clearing or safe separation before investigation. Music, enemy flow and the room's silhouette release together. The resulting lull belongs to inspection, salvage, route choice and discovery.

Killing faster than a source can feed buys room to move while it is still active. Outrunning the crowd buys escape. Regular fighting supplies growth before the release is fully resolved. Leaving and re-entering its room does not start a new expedition. Further releases need their own announced physical source. A powerful build is allowed to erase an ordinary crest and enjoy the silence it bought. Fighting the Horde explains sources, combat growth and the difference between a cleared lane and a quiet room.

Combat stays regular because exploration crosses inhabited volumes and because movement, machinery and fighting can wake adjacent source areas. Quiet rooms and earned breaks remain essential; without them, clues become visual noise and a climax has no shape.

An expedition ends aboard, whether the astronaut walks back or revives. Every temporary combat upgrade and every unchosen upgrade offer ends then. Each new expedition renews combat populations and growth opportunities after living return or revival. A living return keeps room arrangement and permanent changes; new crowds must use sources and routes consistent with them. Major encounters also need an approach that works at starting power. Death rearranges the station and can connect different source areas to familiar rooms, while selected permanent doors and connections remain changed.

Power during one sortie and across many

Permanent growth comes from reusable parts in station machinery and other placed discoveries. Carrying a find competes with oxygen, salvage and equipment. A new behaviour—fork, sense movement, shove, store, convert—changes several existing chains. Finding Equipment and Growing the Rig describes the finds and expansion.

Temporary transformations create a survivorslike rise from “barely holds a lane” to “breaks the crest it prepared.” Echoing Arc grows finite chain routes, Rebound Disc makes architecture part of a shot, Inward Draft makes running shape the crowd, and the three final transformations turn stored charge into a climax. The pleasure should come from deciding what this expedition's machine will become, then seeing that decision reshape the next crowd.

Regular fighting supplies temporary growth, with larger transformations at major horde milestones. Exact cadence, thresholds and milestone conditions remain open; the moving scan still needs that mapping. Sealing a source prevents its incoming pressure and preserves completed work, while any additional reward for avoiding the fight remains to be designed. Build Rules explains temporary effects; Fighting the Horde owns growth, renewal and source resolution.

Each expedition gets a fresh rise in power; delivering a survivor, following a new clue and preparing another combination give that rise a purpose beyond its last spectacular clear. A living return must leave a useful route to that next rise, rather than make death the efficient way to find fresh crowds.

Build one: Storm Choir

What it does. Automatic Projector impacts feed electrical chains and bank charge. The player moves toward dense, mutually visible knots so each finite route can continue, then manually discharges the full store when the crowd is fullest. Ordinary charging restores itself after the burst.

Connection in plain language. Threat Sensor starts Pulse Projector. Physical impacts supply Impact Dynamo; Fork Relay divides its charge between Arc Emitter and Capacitor. Echoing Arc adds two branch routes. Thunderhead switches the full store through Fork to Arc and Projector for one manual burst. These six parts use seven carrying and mounted spaces on a later rig; one normal oxygen canister leaves one of the ten carrying spaces for salvage.

Ordered transformation. The base chain first rewards a compact lane. Echoing Arc then turns one chain into three finite routes. Thunderhead finally spends a full store on three chain heads plus one pressure lance, enough to break roughly forty well-aligned ordinary bodies while leaving the rest of a large horde active. The exact hop, cover, heat, supply and coverage rules live in Mechanical Interfaces. No step assumes an XP threshold, pickup frequency or particular reward cadence.

Weakness, choice and bad feel. Hard cover or wide spacing stops routes. Storage and Arc consume space that could support defence, oxygen or focused force, and the burst adds a high heat pulse. This rig has no Barrier. The player chooses whether to cross toward a dense connected knot or spend early on a weaker line. It may feel bad when a moving gap or rib strands branches from the crowd the player thought they had framed; the preview must show the currently connected hop regions before commitment.

Build two: Ricochet Foundry

What it does. Rebound Disc automatically launches a glowing physical disc on a committed direction. The incoming and reflected lines show which hard faces are banks; a terminal marker shows where Fragment Wake would open its forward fan. Successive finite flights overlap while the player runs for new angles and manually shoves eligible bodies or loose cover before the next path commits.

Connection in plain language. Threat Sensor starts Pulse Projector. Its first eligible physical impact supplies Impact Dynamo, which charges Capacitor. Manual Trigger operates Vector Nozzle for the shove. Rebound Disc, Fragment Wake and Foundry Drop change Projector temporarily. These six parts use seven carrying and seven mounted spaces. Nozzle moves bodies and loose objects; it never steers a disc. Each original launch gives Dynamo at most one contribution, however many descendants hit.

Ordered transformation. The base ordinary shot and manual shove first hold one corridor. Rebound Disc then rewards one readable bank. Fragment Wake adds a terminating fan and makes each accepted automatic shot threaten a broad corridor. Foundry Drop finally turns a full store into one manual master disc with a longer but finite path and larger fan, capable of breaking roughly half of a tightly framed 80–100-body crest. Its flight never homes, and the automatic launch mode restores after dispatch. Exact travel, rebound, body, fragment, supply and heat limits are in Mechanical Interfaces.

Weakness, choice and bad feel. Open atriums, soft/irregular partitions and hard faces without a clear reflected lane deny useful banks. Bringing Manual and Nozzle spends the space Storm Choir uses for Fork and Arc; this rig also lacks a Barrier. The player chooses a running angle and whether to spend Nozzle now to improve a later disc or save it for escape. It may feel bad when a full fan opens into the back of fixed cover and reaches almost nobody; the terminal marker and fan cone must show that static mistake before commitment.

Build three: Gravity Furnace

What it does. The astronaut gathers a dangerous wake of enemies while running, then burns through the compressed mass with a chosen thermal burst. Its pleasure is the moment pursuit becomes ammunition for the player's plan: keep the knot together for a spectacular release, or fire early to escape it.

Connection in plain language. Stride Switch starts Vector Nozzle. Temporary Inward Draft reverses its deliberate-stride pulse into a short pull behind the astronaut. Threat Sensor separately starts Pulse Projector; physical impacts feed Impact Dynamo and fill Capacitor. Furnace Burst spends the full store through Thermal Lens and Projector on one heat lance with a terminating bloom, then restores charging automatically. Charge becomes heat at release; pulls, heat and burst descendants cannot refill the store.

These seven existing parts use eight carrying and mounted spaces. One normal oxygen canister fills the ten-space manifest; there is no Barrier or free salvage space.

Ordered transformation. The base rig first combines automatic pressure shots with deliberate outward movement pulses. Inward Draft then lets fresh voluntary strides gather a dangerous wake behind the astronaut. Furnace Burst finally turns the full store into one forward lance and bloom, breaking roughly half of a well-gathered 80–100-body crest. Each pull needs a fresh voluntary stride, power and cooling; forced motion cannot trigger another. A burst spends the full store and restores ordinary firing without a journal edit. Exact pull, reaction, lance, bloom, cover, supply and heat rules are in Mechanical Interfaces.

Weakness, choice and bad feel. Hard cover divides the pull and bloom, ranged attackers remain dangerous, and Bellback's existing pressure wave can scatter a gathered line. Pulling and charging compete for power and cooling. Releasing early is safer but smaller; holding for spectacle brings the tail closer and risks condition, oxygen and the objective. It may feel bad when the crowd visibly gathers but a fixed rib blocks most of the bloom; the impact marker must show which bodies have sight to it before the player spends the store.

Crowded adverse example: R25 Balance Gallery

Use the R25 setpiece as a hostile paper check: its 80–150-body crest enters around the fixed rib, loose mass and Bellback. Storm Choir can break the near-side pack only if the player crosses far enough that its chain hops retain line of effect; the rib blocks hops and Bellback's locked pressure wave may displace the astronaut or crowd before the command. Ricochet Foundry can use the rib's exposed hard face as a shown bank and spend Nozzle to move eligible loose mass—or spend that same Nozzle action breaking Bellback's brace. Gravity Furnace can pull ordinary bodies around the loose mass; if its clear reversed-Nozzle line reaches braced Bellback, that displacement counts as the existing brace interrupt, but the rib can block it and Bellback's released wave can scatter the gathered line. The fixed rib also splits the later bloom.

The meaningful decision is different in each case: cross into chain range or fire a smaller storm; spend the shove on disc geometry, Bellback's brace or escape; keep gathering a wake or bloom early on the safe side. Heat may make any climax refuse until a named component cools, and already flying discs still reserve supply through their fragment fan. A full store gives the command one visible natural-readiness opportunity before automatic fire resumes. No journal rewiring is required at the crest: the player moves, reads the physical path and presses at most the labelled manual command. If the setup fails after acceptance because a body or loose cover moved, the spent charge is a visible committed miss, not silently refunded.

Minimum connection rules

A build is read left to right as start → change → deliver → payoff. Parts show compatible ports and one plain-language sentence about what they pass onward. Branches are allowed to reach more than one ordinary weapon; power, heat, occupied rig space and carried capacity create the practical limits. Each actuator owns its target and readiness. Named routes, rebounds, contacts, fragments and blooms are finite; complete heat is reserved at acceptance, and a descendant cannot refill the energy, readiness or allowance that made it.

The player assembles freely at the ship. The journal pauses everything and can change links without advancing the world. Newly found parts still require a short physical installation when first fitted, while picking up equipment and operating fixtures happen live. Temporary transformations modify the chosen chain automatically during a sortie. Build Rules owns connection behaviour; Mechanical Interfaces supplies the conservation and quantity rules.

Why the loop pulls forward

A new room promises evidence and perhaps a transformative part. Reaching it wakes a crowd. Pressure reveals the current build's character: the lane that was frightening becomes the place where the machine works best. A growth choice changes the next encounter visibly. The spectacular clear creates relief and access; the discovery beyond changes the player's theory of the station or suggests a new destination. Taking a part means sacrificing oxygen, salvage or an existing component, so the route home remains a decision even after victory.

The next expedition is desirable for two reasons at once: test the new connection against a different crowd shape, and follow the question uncovered behind the last one. The intended standard is concrete: ordinary play should repeatedly make the player flee a tide, turn their machine into something absurd, break that tide, breathe, and discover why it was worth entering the room.

Open questions

• How often growth arrives is an owner choice: one choice per cleared or sealed release, or regular growth from defeated enemies with larger milestone transformations.
• Finding versus fabricating the wider collection of parts is an owner choice.
• The moving scan's three sources, source gates, carriage power and bypass need a room placement.