Hold the Flood — World and Mystery
WLD101 · r3 · 2026-09-06 13:48 UTC · In review — supersedes r2 (438f1bf) and r1 (01378d), both in page history. Author: World and Mystery Designer. Handoff: Lead (DES102), Independent Design Critic (re-review), PM. PM accepts.
Owner requirements. Survivorlike; exploration, experimentation, mystery; the Flood is massed enemies (Brief D011); Unity; Steam; assume nothing exists. Design only until the owner explicitly authorizes development after reviewing the design document. No AI-generated art; prefer verified free assets; purchases and rare authored assets need owner approval. This revision creates no assets, code, prototypes, or tests.
Sources. Reread 13:48 UTC: Hub, Brief a449b2, Tasks 254220, Design c9b2eda (DES101 r2 and its integration note addressed to this role), Design Review 7ad187b (REV101 r1, which reviewed WLD101 r1). PM has not yet recorded a working direction (OWN101 open). No comparative research and no asset verification. Setting, enemy identity, and every mechanic below remain proposals.
Revision history. r1: the false-refuge chain and W1–W3 in a setting-neutral relay district. r2: mapped onto DES101 A's district; withdrew r1's clock-freezing observation view in favour of S1–S3 (now adopted by DES101 r2). r3: answers the lead's integration note (light convention; spine rule against W1–W3) and the REV101 findings that land on this page: Finding 2 (cost of diversion), Secondary 3 (timestamps), Secondary 4 (topology), Secondary 5 (label gives the rule away; fiction has no reachable answer). The chain's logic is unchanged; its Understand step and the fiction's answer are revised. On Secondary 3: r1/r2 times are UTC; the wiki changelog shows local UTC+3, as the lead confirmed from the Home page's patch note, so no record contradiction exists.
World rules — proposal for DES102, aligned to the spine rule
DES101 r2 states one spine rule (conduction, power, attraction, charge). W1–W3 sit inside its attraction clause; the wording below is what this page asks DES102 to carry.
- W1 — Attraction. An energised beacon is lit steady and pulses at each dispatch; the surge enters by the beacon that pulses. The dispatch panel at the causeway head routes the district's one live circuit to Causeway, Yard, or Off. Attraction is evaluated at the dispatch instant only: whatever is energised at that moment is what pulses. The panel needs no item, rack space, resource, or journal flag; what it costs is stated under Finding 2 below.
- W2 — Commitment. A dispatched surge keeps its entrance until it arrives. Re-routing affects only surges not yet dispatched; it never teleports enemies or cancels a pursuit. The forecast shows each pending surge's intake as a map marker that moves the moment the panel changes; a dispatched surge shows a locked marker.
- W3 — Stable evidence. Wiring, signs, wear marks, and signal behaviour are identical on every expedition. Water states, pumps, enemies, loose salvage, and surge timing may vary or reset (DES101 r2 persistence list) and can change the best route, never the rule.
- W4 — Turned signs (new, proposal). Every refuge sign in the district that has been turned faces the way the last crew actually went. First seen in the culvert (facing the yard); confirmed by the reachable answer below; thereafter a navigation clue the player can use anywhere the prop recurs. Same sign asset, rotated. Under W3 it never changes.
Topology (Secondary 4, one statement, matching DES101 r2). Elevated dock; raised dry causeway signed as the evacuation route, beacon live by default; culvert beneath it, dry without payment, with cart wear and a turned sign; pump hall and salvage yard beside a shallow channel, beacon dark, hatch on the yard circuit; the interior beyond. Three intakes: Causeway, Yard, and the forecast's default when the panel is Off. Panel resets to Causeway; the first dispatch follows a short scouting interval the lead sets.
Illustrative design — DESIGNER SPOILERS: the false refuge
Proposed play, not a playtest. Light convention throughout: steady = powered, pulsing = dispatching, dark = unpowered.
| Step | Evidence, inference, consequence |
|---|---|
| Notice | From the dock: the causeway beacon is lit steady. At the first dispatch it pulses and the surge visibly turns onto the causeway. Visual first, sound supplements. Repeats every expedition (W3). |
| Compare | The yard beacon is dark and the pump-hall hatch is shut. In the culvert under the crowded causeway: cart wear leading toward the yard, and a refuge sign turned to face the yard. Each inspectable in three or four lines. |
| Understand (revised, Secondary 5) | Cabling runs from the panel to both beacons and on to the yard hatch. The panel's three positions carry no words: each is a cable heading off toward its branch, plus a closed position. The forecast shows the next surge as a countdown and a marker at an intake. Switching moves the marker at once, so the rule can be learned two ways: watch a pulse and the surge's turn, or switch and watch the marker jump. After the first observed pulse-and-turn, the notebook records the observation in the player's own terms ("the surge came in by the pulsing beacon"). No label states the rule. |
| Infer | Power is both key and lure: the lit branch is where doors open and where the Flood is sent. The "refuge" sign marks where surges go, not where it is safe. Someone kept the culvert and the yard in use by leaving the panel on Causeway. |
| Experiment | Set Yard. The yard beacon goes steady, the hatch opens, the forecast marker moves to the yard intake with the countdown still running. Retreat to a shelter or stay; watch the dispatch. Off darkens both branches, shuts both hatches, and sends the surge to the forecast's default intake. |
| Discover | The next surge enters through the yard. The surge already on the causeway stays there (W2). The pump hall is open — and the surge is coming to it. Reaching the answer below costs exactly the exposure the critic asked for. |
| Change later play | Each of the three dispatches reopens the choice: keep Causeway and haul through the culvert to a quiet, closed yard; set Yard to open the hall and walk the causeway into the interior while the surge is elsewhere; or invite the surge to the yard channel on purpose (the lead's electrician). Turned signs (W4) now read as a route. |
The reachable answer (Secondary 5; spoiler; proposal). Inside the pump hall, on the wall beside the one pump still running (the one that keeps the culvert dry): a crew tally board. Rows of marks per surge sent to the causeway; a last row with one mark to the yard and a line drawn under it; beside it a district plan with the refuge signs crossed out and a route inked through the culvert into the interior. Three or four inspectable lines carry it: the last crew fed the evacuation route to keep working the yard, turned the signs to mark their own way out, and left the panel on Causeway for whoever came after. Small, reachable, and it changes action: the inked route and W4 now point into the interior. What they went in for stays unanswered in the minimum scope; that is the spine of later mysteries, not a catalogue.
Knowledge gate vs item/stat gate. The panel is usable on expedition one; what changes is knowing what it does and when to use it. An uninformed player can still survive the causeway by skill; an informed player decides where the pressure goes and which doors open. Equipment changes how well a choice can be exploited, never whether it can be made.
Fair recovery. Death: rescue without cargo (A); notebook, map, and observed facts persist; no deduction is granted unearned. Missed clue: the causeway beacon is steady on every arrival and pulses every dispatch; the culvert is visible from the yard side too; the marker jump is a second, independent way in. Optional hints escalate from "the two beacons differ" to "switch, then watch the forecast marker". Late switch: the locked marker explains why nothing changed. Switching costs no resource, but it is never without consequence (below). Withdrawal never requires solving this.
Cost of diversion — answering REV101 Finding 2
The critic's question: does the beacon choose the entrance of an announced surge, or reroute groups that have arrived? Answer: it chooses the entrance of the next announced surge, at the dispatch instant; it never moves anything that has arrived. A's surge schedule stays the pressure; the player steers where it lands. Under the spine rule the switch is free of resources but paid four ways, all readable before the switch: (1) the panel stands in the open, a dash from the nearest shelter, and switching with a countdown near zero means being on the branch you just lit; (2) energising a branch is the only way to open its hatches, so the branch you want to explore is the branch the next surge enters; (3) committed surges do not turn back, so a diversion made after dispatch buys nothing this surge; (4) a surge sent toward the held dock blocks extraction, and the forecast marker shows that before the switch. "Gather the yard first, then divert" still works once, for a closed yard: the hall's hatch, the salvage behind it, and the answer above all sit on the lit branch. Whether these costs are heavy enough is empirical; that they exist and are visible is the design claim.
Shelter and observation rules — S1 to S3 (adopted by DES101 r2)
- S1 Notebook — full pause; shows only what has been observed; no new evidence; experiments do not advance.
- S2 Raised shelter (dock included) — enemies cannot enter or spawn; the surge clock runs; repacking allowed; the district stays visible, so watching a dispatch from a shelter is the observation position and costs surge time.
- S3 Live evidence — new clues, panel switches, and their verification happen in the running world.
Spine rule × W1–W4 — check for the lead, with the confirmation requested
Confirmation. Notice, Compare, and Understand survive with steady = powered, pulsing = dispatching, dark = unpowered as the only light convention; the steady light on arrival makes Notice stronger, because the player sees which branch is live before anything happens. The yard hatch on the beacon circuit is accepted: it turns Understand into one look at "key and lure".
Items for DES102 to state once (proposals):
- Two energised beacons at one dispatch. The shepherd's planted beacon runs on a battery, so it can pulse while a panel branch is also lit. Proposed tie-break, chosen for readability: a planted beacon overrides fixed beacons while energised. Its costs are the lead's (rack squares, leak unless insulated, the surge comes to wherever it stands) and it is finite; DES102 should confirm the override does not reopen Finding 2.
- Portable beacon light. DES101 r2 says it "pulses while powered". Under the convention it must be steady while powered and pulse only at a dispatch, or the player cannot tell "live" from "a surge was just sent". One-word fix.
- Dispatch-instant evaluation. State it once (W1 above). The lead's coil case — a dispatch pulse landing inside a discharge window fires the beacon — depends on it, and the forecast countdown is what makes it fair.
- Off is not a safe default. Off darkens both branches and shuts both hatches; the surge uses the forecast's default intake. It is a choice to close doors, never a free pass.
- Persistence. Water states, pumps, and charge reset; wiring, signs, wear, and W4's turned signs never change. No conflict with W3.
- Evidence vocabulary. With the spine rule there is one vocabulary, power, so r2's item 1 is closed.
Under B, The Listening Below. W1–W4 still hold with beacon = signal source and surge = a swarm released at a marked threshold; W4 is setting-neutral. PM's choice is not constrained by this page.
Expression, resources, colony — A terms, proposal
The lead's three sketches (electrician, hauler, shepherd) already sit on the panel decision; this page adds nothing to the rack. Resources: the panel decides which branch is open and hot this expedition; three dispatches give three decisions. Colony: DES101 r2's exclusive pump choice (which dock is held dry) inverts which panel setting threatens extraction, so a colony choice changes the value of a known rule instead of adding one; the forecast relay repair shows the first intake before departure. Nothing here requires more colony than that.
Replay after the answer. The question closes; the decision does not. The same three dispatches, the same panel, and a different rack, cargo target, and held dock make the routing choice fresh each expedition. Diverting never creates extra enemies or rewards.
Content and asset burden
One district reused before and after discovery: dock, causeway, culvert, yard, pump hall, one panel, two beacons, one hatch, a forecast overlay, a tally board and plan, and a handful of wear and sign props (the sign reused rotated for W4). Evidence types: a light state, a cable path, wear marks, a turned sign, an unlabelled three-position panel, a map marker. No compatible free asset set or terms are verified; plain-text inspection is the fallback for any prop that cannot be sourced. No custom asset creation is proposed; any would need owner approval first.
PM report
Task WLD101; artifact World and Mystery r3 (supersedes r2 438f1bf). No canonical decisions changed. Changed proposals: W1 precision (dispatch-instant), W4 turned signs, unlabelled panel with a forecast marker replacing the worded label, a reachable answer in the pump hall, and the four-part cost of diversion. Evidence: written analysis of Design c9b2eda and Design Review 7ad187b against Brief a449b2; no player data. Risks, all unvalidated: the planted-beacon override reopening Finding 2; correlation of pulse and turn on a crowded screen; whether the unlabelled panel is fair for players who never switch experimentally (the marker-jump path is the mitigation). Next handoff: lead carries W1–W4, S1–S3, and items 1–6 into DES102; critic re-reviews this r3 against Finding 2 and Secondary 5; this role checks the integrated DES102 draft for contradictions when it exists. PM request: record the working direction (A, B, or premise change) and whether W1–W4 and S1–S3 are carried into DES102 as candidate rules. No acceptance or development authorization is assumed.