Add Starbridge game design note

Aetheria/Game Design/Aetheria Starbridge.md

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+---
+title: "Aetheria: Starbridge"
+description: "Asymmetric 2-5 player co-op: one RTS operator commands the base while pilots fly ships, manage heat, recover technology, and survive escalating waves through shared Verse state."
+---
+
+# Aetheria: Starbridge
+
+Game Design Document
+
+Date: 2026-06-24
+
+## High Concept
+
+**Aetheria: Starbridge** is a 2-5 player cooperative defense game about a small
+frontier base surviving escalating waves of attack through asymmetric teamwork.
+
+One player commands the base from an RTS interface: routing power, expanding
+infrastructure, fabricating weapons, assigning drones, deploying turrets, and
+reading the whole battlefield as a strategic map. The other players fly
+individual ships in the Unity client, fighting attackers directly, recovering
+salvage, anchoring field structures, and making the urgent close-range saves the
+commander cannot make from the chair.
+
+The result is a simple game with a clean silhouette:
+
+> One base. One crew. One player sees the whole war. The others are in it.
+
+## Design Intent
+
+Aetheria has long wanted two different kinds of players to struggle together in
+the same universe: the player who loves systems, economy, construction, and
+command, and the player who wants thrust, weapons, heat, dodging, and risk.
+**Starbridge** turns that ambition into a readable first release.
+
+The game should be easy to understand in five minutes:
+
+- The base must survive.
+- The RTS player builds and directs.
+- The pilots fight and recover resources.
+- The wave gets worse.
+- Communication wins.
+
+The innovation comes from the way those roles depend on one another. The RTS
+player is not a spectator, and the pilots are not units. Each side owns
+information, agency, and failure modes the others cannot replace.
+
+## Subtitle Rationale
+
+**Starbridge** is the working subtitle for this release because it names the
+cooperative fantasy without colliding with the darker identity of
+[[End of the Line|Terminus]] or [[Call of the Void|L'Appel du Vide]].
+
+It suggests:
+
+- a bridge crew split across different interfaces;
+- a base that connects ships, infrastructure, and territory;
+- the act of holding a fragile crossing point in hostile space;
+- the architectural role of Verse as the shared state bridge between clients.
+
+## Target Experience
+
+The ideal session feels like a cooperative crisis room.
+
+The RTS player sees bomber vectors, failing shield nodes, fabrication queues,
+drone availability, turret coverage, and salvage flow. The pilots see incoming
+fire, hull alarms, missile trails, vulnerable enemies, thermal spikes, repair
+opportunities, and physical openings the map cannot fully express.
+
+The best moments sound like:
+
+- "Hold north for ten seconds. I can get the shield back."
+- "Mark that bomber. I have a targeting window."
+- "Do not chase the scouts. I need salvage at the fabricator."
+- "I am dropping a turret frame. Someone anchor it."
+- "Your reactor is cooking. Dock or get a coolant beam on you."
+- "Drone swarm is live. Lead it through the breach."
+
+Communication is not flavor. It is the main interaction surface between two
+different games occupying one battlefield.
+
+## Design Pillars
+
+### 1. Asymmetric Clarity
+
+Every player should understand their job at a glance.
+
+The RTS player owns the base, logistics, and tactical infrastructure. Pilots own
+their ships, local combat, salvage recovery, and close field interaction. When a
+system crosses that boundary, the game should make the handoff visible and
+useful.
+
+### 2. One Shared War Machine
+
+The base is not a static health bar. It is a living machine made of power,
+sensors, fabrication, defense, repair, and launch capacity. When part of it is
+damaged, the whole team should feel the change.
+
+### 3. Communication As Mechanics
+
+The game should create concrete reasons to talk. It should reward quick,
+specific, legible coordination rather than vague callouts or constant chatter.
+
+### 4. Tactical Readability Before Content Volume
+
+The first release should have few enemy types, few structures, and few pilot
+abilities. Each element must have a strong silhouette, obvious counterplay, and a
+clear place in the cooperative loop.
+
+### 5. Authority As Fantasy
+
+The Verse authority model should support the game fantasy directly. The RTS
+runtime naturally authors base and tactical infrastructure. Pilot runtimes
+naturally author responsive ship claims. Short-lived leases can allow local
+close-combat response without turning every client into a hidden global
+authority.
+
+## Player Roles
+
+### RTS Player: The Chair
+
+The RTS player acts as the base commander, logistics officer, engineer, and
+tactical systems operator.
+
+Primary responsibilities:
+
+- maintain base power and shields;
+- place and upgrade infrastructure;
+- fabricate weapons, drones, and consumables;
+- deploy and retask turrets, drones, mines, and decoys;
+- identify wave composition and attack vectors;
+- mark priority targets and field objectives;
+- allocate scarce support abilities;
+- keep pilots supplied, repaired, and directed.
+
+The RTS player should be busy but not frantic. Their challenge is attention
+management: seeing more than anyone else, while still depending on pilots to
+touch the battlefield.
+
+Core RTS verbs:
+
+- build;
+- route;
+- repair;
+- fabricate;
+- deploy;
+- mark;
+- overclock;
+- assign;
+- lease;
+- call down.
+
+### Ship Players: The Pilots
+
+Pilots fly individual ships in the Unity client. They are the fast, embodied
+response layer of the team.
+
+Primary responsibilities:
+
+- intercept attackers before they reach the base;
+- destroy or disable priority targets;
+- recover salvage from dangerous locations;
+- anchor construction ghosts placed by the RTS player;
+- cool overheated ships, turrets, and base systems when equipped for thermal
+  support;
+- repair exposed systems when equipped with repair gear;
+- escort drones and supply pods;
+- dock at the station to switch ships, change loadouts, and draw from station
+  stock;
+- kite enemies through kill zones;
+- survive long enough for the base machine to adapt.
+
+Pilots should feel powerful, vulnerable, and physically present. They are not
+generic RTS units. Their moment-to-moment skill matters.
+
+Core pilot verbs:
+
+- thrust;
+- dodge;
+- shoot;
+- boost;
+- mark;
+- salvage;
+- anchor;
+- cool;
+- repair;
+- dock;
+- refit;
+- escort;
+- lure;
+- cover.
+
+## Core Game Loop
+
+1. The team enters a defense session around a frontier base.
+2. The RTS player reviews the base, resources, and incoming wave forecast.
+3. Pilots launch and take positions.
+4. Attackers arrive along readable lanes, vectors, or threat clouds.
+5. Pilots fight, intercept, salvage, and perform field interactions.
+6. The RTS player spends salvage and power to build, repair, fabricate, and
+   deploy support.
+7. The wave creates a crisis the team must solve through coordination.
+8. The wave boss is defeated and yields recovered technology choices.
+9. The team survives, stabilizes, upgrades, refits, and prepares for the next
+   wave.
+10. The session ends in victory after a final wave or defeat when the base
+    falls.
+
+Target first-release session length: **20-30 minutes**.
+
+## Match Structure
+
+### Lobby
+
+Players choose roles before launch:
+
+- 1 RTS player required;
+- 1-4 pilots supported;
+- difficulty selected by the group;
+- base loadout preset selected by the RTS player or host.
+
+### Pre-Wave Build Window
+
+The RTS player has a short planning phase. Pilots can launch, scout, practice
+movement, or take early field positions. The planning phase should remain short
+enough that the game does not become a lobby simulator.
+
+### Combat Wave
+
+Enemies attack the base and its outer systems. The RTS player commands the base
+machine while pilots fight in real time. Each wave should culminate in a
+readable boss or command unit whose defeat ends the wave and produces the run's
+next technology recovery choice.
+
+### Stabilization Window
+
+After a wave, the team has a brief recovery period. Damaged structures can be
+repaired, wreckage can be converted, upgrades can be selected, and pilots can
+dock to switch ships or exchange equipment with the station's stock. The team
+also chooses from randomized technologies recovered from the defeated wave boss.
+
+### Finale
+
+The last wave should combine multiple learned pressures: bombers, siege craft,
+skirmishers, and breach threats arriving with enough timing offset that the team
+must triage rather than simply win a damage race.
+
+## Battlefield
+
+The first map should be one readable combat space, not a content buffet.
+
+Recommended first map:
+
+- central base with exposed shield nodes and fabrication core;
+- three major approach lanes;
+- asteroid cover fields that matter to pilots;
+- outer salvage zones that tempt risky flights;
+- limited buildable hardpoints;
+- long-range threat space for siege enemies;
+- clear visual distinction between safe interior, contested perimeter, and
+  dangerous exterior.
+
+The RTS view should simplify the space into tactical information. The pilot view
+should make the same space feel physical, fast, and hazardous.
+
+## Base Systems
+
+The base is the team's shared body.
+
+First-release systems:
+
+- **Core Integrity**: if the core dies, the match is lost.
+- **Power Grid**: structures need power; overloads create short-term strength
+  and long-term risk.
+- **Shield Nodes**: directional defensive systems that create obvious defense
+  priorities.
+- **Fabricator**: converts salvage into deployables, repairs, and ammunition.
+- **Sensor Array**: improves wave prediction, enemy reveal, and target marking.
+- **Launch/Service Bay**: respawn, repair, rearm, and pilot support.
+
+Damage should be readable. If the shield node is failing, everyone should know
+where and why.
+
+## RTS Build Set
+
+The first release should start with a small, expressive build set.
+
+### Power Node
+
+Extends or stabilizes the base grid. Vulnerable but essential.
+
+### Turret
+
+Reliable area defense. Strong against predictable attackers, weak if isolated or
+unpowered.
+
+### Missile Rack
+
+Consumes fabricated ammunition for burst anti-bomber or anti-siege defense.
+
+### Repair Drone Bay
+
+Produces repair drones that can be assigned to structures or escorted by pilots.
+
+### Shield Projector
+
+Creates directional resilience. Strong when supported, expensive when neglected.
+
+### Sensor Mast
+
+Improves detection, wave previews, target locks, and commander map fidelity.
+
+### Decoy Beacon
+
+Pulls certain enemies off critical infrastructure, allowing pilots to exploit
+pathing or create kill zones.
+
+## Ships, Loadouts, And Support Gear
+
+Starbridge should use Aetheria's existing ship and loadout identity rather than
+flattening pilots into fixed hero classes. Ships have hulls, hardpoints,
+equipment, cargo, thermal behavior, docking state, and station-facing inventory.
+The first release should make that system readable in co-op without exposing
+all of its long-term complexity at once.
+
+Pilots can dock at the station between waves, or during combat if they accept
+the time and positioning risk. While docked, a pilot can:
+
+- switch to another available ship;
+- exchange equipped gear with station stock;
+- restock consumables and ammunition;
+- install thermal support equipment;
+- install repair equipment;
+- restore a saved or preset loadout when the required stock exists.
+
+The station's stock is a team resource. A coolant projector sitting in storage
+is not helping anyone until a pilot chooses to give up another hardpoint for it.
+This makes support an equipment commitment rather than a passive role label.
+
+### Thermal Support
+
+Thermal support means providing cooling services to ships, drones, turrets, and
+base systems. It should be expressed through gear that must be mounted on the
+supporting ship.
+
+Candidate thermal support gear:
+
+- **Coolant Beam**: transfers or dissipates heat from an allied target while
+  the pilot holds contact.
+- **Radiator Pod**: deploys a temporary cooling field that helps nearby allies
+  shed heat.
+- **Thermal Sink Canister**: consumes a limited charge to absorb a burst of heat
+  from a critical ally or structure.
+- **Heat Pump Lance**: pulls heat out of one target and dumps it into the
+  support ship's own thermal system, creating risk for the rescuer.
+
+Thermal support should create strong positioning decisions. A pilot cooling an
+overclocked turret or overheated bomber interceptor is doing something valuable,
+vulnerable, and visibly different from shooting.
+
+### Repair Support
+
+Repair support means restoring damaged hulls, drones, turrets, and exposed base
+modules. It should also come from equipped gear, not from every ship having a
+universal repair button.
+
+Candidate repair gear:
+
+- **Patch Beam**: sustained hull or module repair with range and exposure risk.
+- **Repair Drone Rack**: launches limited drones that perform repairs while the
+  pilot protects or escorts them.
+- **Nanite Foam Charge**: short-range burst repair for emergencies.
+- **Tow Clamp**: helps recover disabled ships or drones to the station's service
+  radius.
+
+Repair support should be powerful but interruptible. The pilot who brings repair
+gear has sacrificed damage, speed, cargo, cooling, or utility capacity to do so.
+
+## Pilot Ship Kit
+
+The first pilot kit should be straightforward, but it should still be built from
+ship equipment.
+
+Recommended baseline combat loadout:
+
+- primary weapon;
+- boost;
+- dodge or roll;
+- missile or special weapon;
+- interaction tool for salvage, anchoring, docking, and objective actions;
+- target mark.
+
+Recommended baseline support substitutions:
+
+- replace a weapon or special slot with thermal support gear;
+- replace a utility slot with repair support gear;
+- carry fewer offensive consumables in exchange for service charges, repair
+  drones, coolant canisters, or spare parts.
+
+The first release does not need a large ship roster. It does need enough loadout
+agency that one pilot can say, "I will dock and come back with cooling," and
+have that choice matter immediately.
+
+## Shared Mechanics
+
+### Salvage
+
+Destroyed enemies drop salvage. Pilots must recover it physically or escort
+collection drones. The RTS player spends salvage on structures, repairs, drones,
+and munitions.
+
+Salvage is the main bridge between pilot risk and RTS agency.
+
+### Construction Ghosts
+
+The RTS player can place a projected structure in valid field space. A pilot
+must fly to the location and anchor it before it becomes real.
+
+This creates a direct cooperation loop:
+
+RTS player identifies need -> pilot takes risk -> base gains new capability.
+
+### Target Marks
+
+Pilots and the RTS player can both mark targets, but marks mean different
+things depending on source.
+
+Pilot marks are local, urgent, and line-of-sight grounded. RTS marks are
+strategic, sensor-backed, and can route turrets, drones, or missiles.
+
+### Drone Leashing
+
+The RTS player deploys drones. Pilots can lead or shape drone behavior by flying
+through command rings, escort paths, or leash zones.
+
+### Overclock, Cool, And Vent
+
+The RTS player can overclock a turret, shield node, or fabricator. Overclocking
+creates heat or instability. A pilot with the right equipment can cool, vent, or
+reset the system if they can reach it under fire. A pilot without that equipment
+can still defend the area, anchor emergency structures, or return to the station
+to refit.
+
+This should create a natural triangle:
+
+RTS overclocks a system -> heat becomes a tactical debt -> support-equipped
+pilot pays that debt in the field.
+
+### Authority Leases
+
+Some combat moments benefit from giving a pilot temporary local response
+authority over a narrow subject, such as close defense around a shield node or a
+hostile engaged at knife range.
+
+In game terms, this can appear as:
+
+- close-defense permission;
+- local drone reaction envelope;
+- temporary countermeasure control;
+- emergency repair autonomy;
+- boosted target resolution near the pilot.
+
+In Verse terms, this should map to bounded interest leases rather than
+hardcoded client privilege.
+
+## Enemy Roster
+
+The first release should ship with five enemy archetypes.
+
+### Scouts
+
+Fast, fragile attackers that probe defenses and create distraction.
+
+Player lesson: do not overcommit heavy resources to light threats.
+
+### Skirmishers
+
+Pilot-pressure enemies that chase, harass, and disrupt salvage recovery.
+
+Player lesson: pilots need cover, not just objectives.
+
+### Bombers
+
+Slow, obvious, dangerous base killers.
+
+Player lesson: priority targeting and interception matter.
+
+### Siege Craft
+
+Long-range attackers that punish a passive defense.
+
+Player lesson: pilots must leave the comfort of the base perimeter.
+
+### Breach Drones
+
+Small enemies that attach to shield nodes, power nodes, or the core and force
+close defense or repair interaction.
+
+Player lesson: not every threat is solved by damage alone.
+
+## Difficulty And Scaling
+
+Difficulty should scale through composition, timing, and pressure layering, not
+just health inflation.
+
+Early waves teach one problem at a time:
+
+- intercept fast targets;
+- recover salvage;
+- defend a shield node;
+- stop a bomber;
+- push out to kill siege craft.
+
+Later waves combine problems:
+
+- bombers arrive while skirmishers pin pilots;
+- siege craft force an outward push while breach drones attack the base;
+- scouts reveal weak points before a heavy wave;
+- salvage drops in risky zones just before the team needs resources.
+
+Each wave should end with a boss or command unit that embodies the wave's main
+lesson. The boss does not need to be large every time, but it should be
+recognizable as the thing that resolves the wave and drops recovered technology.
+
+Candidate boss roles:
+
+- **Scout Captain**: fast target that exposes weak base coverage before dying.
+- **Siege Carrier**: launches standoff threats until pilots push out.
+- **Thermal Warden**: overheats defenses and makes cooling support matter.
+- **Breach Mother**: spawns attachment drones that force close defense.
+- **Bomber Frame**: slow final threat that tests priority fire and missile
+  economy.
+
+## Progression
+
+Progression should be rogue-lite adjacent. Each session should feel like a
+distinct run because the team discovers different technologies, adapts to
+different recovered options, and invests permanent score currency between runs.
+
+### In-Session Technology Recovery
+
+At the end of each wave, the boss drops a randomized set of recovered
+technologies. The team chooses one or more, depending on difficulty and run
+length. These technologies change the shape of the current session only.
+
+Recovered technologies should be concrete enough to change behavior:
+
+- stronger turret tracking;
+- cheaper repair drones;
+- improved pilot boost recharge near the base;
+- faster construction anchoring;
+- larger salvage collection radius;
+- better sensor prediction;
+- expanded station stock;
+- improved coolant efficiency;
+- faster dock refit service;
+- emergency core shield once per match.
+
+Additional recovered technology examples:
+
+- missile racks gain a small area burst;
+- coolant beams can chain to one nearby ally;
+- repair drones gain armor while escorted;
+- sensor masts reveal the next boss modifier;
+- fabricator queues one emergency item for free after a shield collapse;
+- pilots vent heat faster while inside the base shield;
+- decoy beacons pull bomber locks for a short window;
+- station stock gains one random support module.
+
+The randomization should create adaptation, not chaos. The offered technologies
+must be legible, limited in number, and tied to systems the team already
+understands.
+
+### Meta-Progression
+
+Every run awards a persistent currency based on in-game score. This currency can
+be invested into modest percentage boosts that tune the team's long-term
+baseline without replacing skill, coordination, or in-session decisions.
+
+Score inputs can include:
+
+- wave reached;
+- final victory;
+- base integrity remaining;
+- pilots recovered or revived;
+- salvage collected;
+- structures saved;
+- boss clear speed;
+- support contribution through cooling and repair;
+- difficulty modifier.
+
+Meta-progression should focus on balance elements that feel good to improve in
+small percentages:
+
+- base core integrity;
+- shield recharge rate;
+- turret tracking speed;
+- repair efficiency;
+- coolant efficiency;
+- salvage conversion rate;
+- station stock quality;
+- dock refit speed;
+- pilot boost recharge;
+- starting fabrication reserve.
+
+The first release should keep these boosts shallow and transparent. The goal is
+to make every run feel productive, not to make early runs feel intentionally
+underpowered.
+
+## User Interface Direction
+
+### RTS Interface
+
+The RTS interface should feel like an operational command surface:
+
+- dense but readable;
+- map-first;
+- clear power and shield overlays;
+- fast structure placement;
+- obvious wave vectors;
+- visible pilot positions and statuses;
+- build queues and drone assignments within one glance;
+- warnings tied to map locations, not detached notification spam.
+
+The RTS player needs tools, not decoration.
+
+### Pilot Interface
+
+The pilot HUD should prioritize:
+
+- ship status;
+- thermal state;
+- equipped service gear and charges;
+- current objective;
+- marked threats;
+- base danger direction;
+- nearby cooling, repair, salvage, docking, and anchor prompts;
+- commander pings;
+- incoming high-threat attacks.
+
+The HUD should preserve the kinetic feel of flying. It should not become a
+miniature RTS screen.
+
+## Art Direction
+
+Starbridge should look like industrial survival in luminous deep space.
+
+Visual priorities:
+
+- readable silhouettes over visual noise;
+- bright tactical effects against dark space;
+- base systems with visible function;
+- enemy archetypes identifiable by shape and movement;
+- construction ghosts that look like projected infrastructure;
+- shield and power states that can be read instantly;
+- pilots as sharp, fast points of agency.
+
+The first release does not need many environments. It needs one strong arena
+that teaches the game cleanly.
+
+## Audio Direction
+
+Audio should reinforce asymmetry.
+
+RTS audio:
+
+- command confirmations;
+- threat alerts;
+- power failures;
+- fabrication completion;
+- drone deployment;
+- shield warnings.
+
+Pilot audio:
+
+- engine strain;
+- weapon identity;
+- shield impact direction;
+- lock warnings;
+- repair and salvage beams;
+- commander pings translated into spatial cues.
+
+Shared audio events should create team awareness: bomber arrival, core breach,
+final wave, shield collapse, fabricator restored.
+
+## Networking And State Authority
+
+Starbridge should be the first public-facing design target for Aetheria's
+trusted co-op Verse authority.
+
+Initial authority shape:
+
+- RTS runtime authors base infrastructure, fabrication, drone/turret orders,
+  wave state, and hostile tactical claims.
+- Each pilot runtime authors its own responsive movement and immediate combat
+  claims.
+- Station stock, docked ship state, and loadout changes remain typed Verse state
+  changes rather than client-local inventory edits.
+- Thermal and repair support claims are only valid when the authoring pilot's
+  current ship has the relevant equipped gear.
+- Verse policy documents define which runtime can author which subject and
+  claim kind.
+- Unsupported authority modes fail closed and visibly.
+- Short-lived leases support close-range responsiveness without creating a
+  hidden second authority surface.
+
+This design should not require consensus machinery for the first release. The
+target is trusted co-op, 2-5 players, and explicit authority policy that can
+grow later.
+
+## First Release Scope
+
+### Must Have
+
+- 2-5 player co-op;
+- exactly one RTS player;
+- 1-4 pilot players;
+- one defend-the-base map;
+- one session mode;
+- five enemy archetypes;
+- small RTS build set;
+- one baseline combat ship kit;
+- station docking, ship switching, and equipment exchange;
+- thermal support gear and repair support gear;
+- salvage economy;
+- randomized post-wave technology recovery;
+- wave bosses or command units that drop recovered technologies;
+- construction anchoring;
+- target marking;
+- drone/turret support;
+- wave victory and base destruction defeat;
+- run score and persistent score currency;
+- diagnostics for active Verse policy and runtime identity.
+
+### Should Have
+
+- wave preview through sensors;
+- post-wave upgrade choices;
+- meta-progression percentage boost investments;
+- pilot down/respawn loop through launch bay;
+- overclock, cooling, and vent interaction;
+- drone leashing;
+- saved or preset station loadouts;
+- difficulty presets;
+- concise end-of-session score report.
+
+### Could Have
+
+- expanded pilot ship variants;
+- larger station stock progression;
+- alternate base presets;
+- challenge modifiers;
+- elite enemy variants;
+- replayable daily seed;
+- cosmetic base or ship skins.
+
+### Not For First Release
+
+- MMO persistence;
+- adversarial peer handling;
+- witness quorum;
+- broad procedural campaign;
+- large tech trees;
+- multiple factions;
+- complex economy simulation;
+- unbounded account power creep;
+- PvP.
+
+## Success Criteria
+
+The first release succeeds if:
+
+- new players understand the win condition immediately;
+- the RTS player is meaningfully busy for the entire session;
+- pilots always have something physical and useful to do;
+- post-wave technology choices make runs diverge in readable ways;
+- score currency makes every run feel productive without replacing teamwork;
+- the team loses because of readable tactical failure, not confusion;
+- communication clearly improves outcomes;
+- the same battle feels different with different player behavior;
+- the Verse authority model supports the fantasy without becoming visible
+  friction.
+
+## Open Design Questions
+
+- Should the RTS role be mandatory in public matchmaking, or can a simplified AI
+  commander fill the chair for pilot-only testing?
+- Should pilots have identical ships at first, or light role differences such as
+  interceptor, bruiser, and support?
+- How punishing should pilot death be in a 2-player session versus a 5-player
+  session?
+- Should construction anchoring require holding position, completing a timing
+  interaction, or surviving a short vulnerable channel?
+- How much enemy wave control should the RTS runtime author directly versus
+  derive from deterministic wave definitions?
+- What in-fiction entity is attacking the base in the first release: pirates,
+  autonomous war machines, alien probes, corporate raiders, or something more
+  specific to the current Aetheria timeline?
+
+## One-Sentence Pitch
+
+**Aetheria: Starbridge** is a 2-5 player asymmetric co-op defense game where one
+player commands a living space base from an RTS interface while the others fly
+ships in real time, surviving escalating attack waves through communication,
+construction, salvage, and shared Verse-authoritative state.

Aetheria/Game Design/index.md

@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ description: "Aetheria's design is two different games sharing one doomed univer
 
 Aetheria's design begins from an old, unreasonable ambition and then tries to make it survivable: two different games sharing the same doomed universe. One layer is a tactical action RPG about ships, crews, missions, routes, and violence up close. The other is a corporate strategy game about production, infrastructure, population roles, research, and economic dominance. Both are meant to feed the same persistent galaxy, where field players collide with shortages and opportunities created by the people running the machinery.
 
-That is the full beast. The first major scope cut was [[End of the Line|Aetheria: Terminus]], a rogue-lite ARPG slice designed to prove combat, traversal, ship customization, narrative pressure, and the setting's corporate logic before the project tried to swallow the whole sun and ask politely for seconds. When even that looked too large, [[Call of the Void]] became the last-ditch smaller target: curated cases, taxi work, station life, and one exhausted private investigator discovering that the rupture is not politely undoing itself.
+That is the full beast. The first major scope cut was [[End of the Line|Aetheria: Terminus]], a rogue-lite ARPG slice designed to prove combat, traversal, ship customization, narrative pressure, and the setting's corporate logic before the project tried to swallow the whole sun and ask politely for seconds. When even that looked too large, [[Call of the Void]] became the last-ditch smaller target: curated cases, taxi work, station life, and one exhausted private investigator discovering that the rupture is not politely undoing itself. [[Aetheria Starbridge|Aetheria: Starbridge]] cuts sideways instead: one RTS operator and several pilots defending the same base through Verse-authoritative co-op.
 
 ## Design Stack
 
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ That is the full beast. The first major scope cut was [[End of the Line|Aetheria
 - [[Playable Layers]] - how the ARPG, corporate strategy layer, and shared world are supposed to meet.
 - [[Action RPG Layer]] - cockpit-scale play: travel, combat, loadouts, risk, quests, and survival.
 - [[Corporate Strategy Layer]] - spreadsheet-scale play: corporations, labor, production, research, logistics, and market pressure.
+- [[Aetheria Starbridge]] - asymmetric co-op defense: RTS base command, pilot ships, thermal support, repair, station refits, boss technology recovery, and score-driven meta-progression.
 - [[Persistent Universe and Reset Loop]] - the long campaign structure, alien escalation, extinction, and temporal reset.
 
 ## Systems
@@ -39,6 +40,7 @@ That is the full beast. The first major scope cut was [[End of the Line|Aetheria
 
 - [[End of the Line]]
 - [[Call of the Void]]
+- [[Aetheria Starbridge]]
 - [[../Lore/Welcome to Elysium|Welcome to Elysium]]
 - [[A Different Sort of Space]]
 - [[Ship-shape and Up to Specs]]