Hold The Horde — Shifting Station Options

Status. Three proposals for the confirmed death-triggered station shift with selected completed work persistent. Old fixed-layout rules are superseded. None chooses alive-return behavior, implementation, time travel, divine cause or resurrection penalty.

Shared example and interfaces

The same objective tests all three. The astronaut reaches Blue Ward, permanently unlocks iris D-17, enters Lift Service, and installs Fork Relay in its hoist. The hoist reveals Yeva’s booth. Her rescue is booth → one exposed room → sealed transfer vestibule: she releases the booth while the astronaut holds the crowd, then both cross. The astronaut dies before final transfer.

These proposals share four boundaries:

• Everything still carried returns with the astronaut. The installed Fork remains the same object in the same controller; no copy returns.
• Yeva is alive, unsent and in her completed safe state. Death neither kills nor automatically sends her.
• Booth, crossing, vestibule and endpoint form one compact rescue assembly. This local condition is not general teleportation: after shifting, it reconnects to a marked shipward collar. The player chooses to return, cross at most that room and complete transfer.
• Journal observations retain object identity, visible evidence and completed states. Every recorded adjacency is stamped historical after death. It can identify Blue Ward or D-17, but cannot draw today’s route there.

Exact shift timing is proposed as: preserve completed checkpoints and placed objects, return carried property, rearrange the station, then revive the astronaut aboard. Alive-return behavior remains open.

Option 1 — Whole districts change neighbours

Each district is a recognisable local place with a stable internal route. Death reconnects districts at their boundary thresholds.

After revival. The ship opens into Surgical Wing, not Blue Ward. Blue Ward and Lift Service remain adjacent inside their district; D-17 is unlocked and Fork still powers the hoist. An alien pressure court now neighbours Lift Service where Cold Storage did. The journal’s internal relation remains useful; its ship route is historical.

A current mural strip visible through Surgical Wing matches Blue Ward’s recorded ceiling pattern. The good next action is to follow that new boundary, regain the familiar internal route, reclaim or leave the Fork, and finish Yeva’s one-room transfer at the marked collar.

Strongest case. Learned places remain valuable and readable while large-scale routes change. Persistent doors and installed parts are easy to understand because their local context stays intact.

Largest cost and failure. Once districts are familiar, death may only reshuffle entrances. Repeated connector hunting followed by an unchanged itinerary fails the mystery. New district pairings must change opportunities, not just walking distance.

Option 2 — Recognisable rooms change neighbours

Individual rooms keep their identity, objects and state; death rebuilds the links between them. Small safety-critical assemblies such as the active rescue remain coherent, but ordinary routes do not.

After revival. The ship opens into Recovery Stair. Blue Ward is elsewhere; D-17 remains unlocked but now opens into Cold Storage, not Lift Service. Lift Service moved separately with its hoist and Fork. The surprise is immediate access to preserved medicines. The journal proves the door state and room identities, but its former destination is historical.

A live hoist-power pulse crosses Recovery Stair’s wall and gives a current, local direction without revealing the whole route. The good next action is to follow it toward Lift Service, then decide whether to retrieve the Fork or exploit whatever now adjoins the working hoist. Yeva’s compact rescue assembly independently attaches to the indicated shipward collar, preserving the promised short finish.

Strongest case. Familiar rooms can reveal unfamiliar relationships after every death. Old knowledge helps recognition and interpretation without settling current geography, strongly serving “what is where?”

Largest cost and failure. Geographic knowledge depreciates quickly; revisiting a fixture can become a search chore. Strong current traces and consequential adjacencies are essential. If records feel false or most trips hunt the same room, surprise becomes arbitrary maze work.

Option 3 — Selected work binds persistent groups

Rooms normally change neighbours as in Option 2, but a small class of clearly signposted completed actions binds adjoining rooms into a persistent group. The group can move and gain new neighbours; its internal relationship stays.

After revival. D-17 was identified beforehand as a structural seal, so unlocking it binds Blue Ward and Lift Service. The pair relocates together; D-17 stays unlocked and Fork remains installed. Glass Theatre replaces the former service-court neighbour. The journal preserves the bound relation; ship routes are historical.

A current hospital pressure trace leads from Recovery Stair toward either member of the known pair. The good next action is to follow that trace, knowing that finding Blue Ward also finds Lift Service, then inspect the new Glass Theatre connection or recover the Fork. Yeva’s compact rescue assembly still moves to a marked shipward collar rather than being stretched across the relocated group.

Strongest case. Permanent work creates islands of dependable geography within a shifting station. The player changes what can be reasoned about without completely solving the map.

Largest cost and failure. Binding adds state to teach and track. If every binding is optimal, exploration becomes a freezing checklist; arbitrary eligibility feels dishonest. Opportunities must be few, legible and useful beyond stabilising travel.

Recommendation

Start with Option 2: recognisable rooms changing neighbours, plus the compact-rescue exception. It best preserves uncertainty while keeping object states and records truthful. The accepted cost is faster route-knowledge depreciation, demanding current cues and greater content/state burden.

Option 1 is the safer fallback if repeated room searches overwhelm discovery. Option 3 is the richer later alternative if the owner wants permanent work to shape geography itself and accepts the risk of map optimisation. These are design expectations, not evidence of fun, clarity, variety or production feasibility.