diff --git a/Aetheria/Game Design/Aetheria Client and Modes.md b/Aetheria/Game Design/Aetheria Client and Modes.md index eb54035..275a099 100644 --- a/Aetheria/Game Design/Aetheria Client and Modes.md +++ b/Aetheria/Game Design/Aetheria Client and Modes.md @@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ season rewards, and scenario unlocks may add entitlement or inventory documents; the Hangar remains the projection over player-owned ships and equipment. -## Commander Progression Candidates +## Commander Progression The commander needs a progression layer as sticky as pilot loadout customization. It cannot simply be a persistent station loadout. Scenario @@ -83,46 +83,165 @@ Commander progression candidates should be judged by whether they create real identity, mastery, and buildcraft without smuggling forbidden station assets into a scenario. -### Real-Time Command Deck +### Barracks V1 -The strongest current candidate is a real-time card-command game. +The V1 commander progression target is the **Barracks**. -The commander has a deck, hand, draw pile, cooldown pile, and cadence-based -draw. Cards are played during the Starbridge defense to install equipment, -upgrade equipment, deploy drones and turrets, activate item behaviors, trigger -procedures, and spend emergency protocols. Played cards go into cooldown, -discard, exhaust, or debt depending on their type and effect. +The Hangar stores machines. The Barracks stores people and minds. Pilots tune +ships and loadouts. Commanders build a bridge crew, put that crew under +pressure, and live with what the pressure does to them. -This makes the commander role a full game in the chair: +The emotional model is closer to Darkest Dungeon than a collectible card game. +Every run puts command staff against the grindstone. They gain skill, +procedures, bonds, familiarity with pilots, and enemy-pattern memory. They also +accumulate stress, injuries, burnout, trauma, moral damage, faction pressure, +firmware scars, illegal habits, and strange command fixations. -> Pilots fly loadouts. Commanders play decks. +The V1 presentation should stay contained: -Part of the deck comes from the scenario. That scenario deck represents the -starting station, local technology, available equipment, faction constraints, -damage state, emergency procedures, and salvage context. Part of the deck comes -from the commander: persistent command cards, learned procedures, faction -licenses, staff habits, and command rig choices. A run can then add temporary -cards through boss technology recovery, field salvage, malfunctions, debt, or -emergency improvisation. +- roster cards and staff dossiers; +- active bridge slots; +- recovery, treatment, and training slots; +- relationship and conflict summaries; +- after-action changes; +- staff-linked procedures and automation; +- no animated portraits; +- no walk-around RimWorld-style barracks simulation. -Possible card classes: +The most important visual outcome is not seeing staff wander around. It is +seeing staff change. -- **Install**: place equipment into valid station hull grid cells, still - respecting physical cells, adjacency, power, fabrication, and scenario tech. -- **Upgrade**: improve, tune, reinforce, or add a behavior mode to installed - equipment. -- **Deploy**: launch drones, turrets, decoys, sensor buoys, salvage tugs, - repair craft, or temporary field structures allowed by the scenario. -- **Activate**: trigger item behaviors and arbitrary effects using the same - behavior concept as consumables and equipment. -- **Procedure**: change priorities, retask automation, reroute power, alter - shield behavior, reclassify targets, or issue multi-system commands. -- **Emergency**: produce strong saves at the cost of heat, damage, debt, - future draw pollution, score penalties, or maintenance consequences. -- **Debt/Malfunction**: cards injected by damage, overheating, hacking, - under-crewing, illegal shortcuts, or desperate repairs. +### Staff Roles -The resource model should use four command resources: +Command staff should affect how the commander operates the scenario's provided +station, not which station nouns exist. They can modify warnings, procedures, +automation, resource handling, and emergency options while the scenario still +owns equipment, salvage, technology, and enemy pressure. + +Candidate staff roles: + +- thermal officer; +- fabrication lead; +- drone marshal; +- fire-control officer; +- quartermaster; +- rescue coordinator; +- signal/witness officer; +- faction liaison; +- morale/comms officer; +- neuromorphic or ship-self advisor; +- illegal firmware specialist. + +Staff do not need to be only ordinary humans. Aetheria can include trained +officers, faction specialists, embodied ship-selves, advisory firmware, +compliance engines, damaged station minds, and other legal or illegal minds +allowed onto the command side of the war table. + +### Stress, Growth, And Decay + +Staff progression should create attachment and hesitation. + +After runs, staff can gain: + +- XP and promotions; +- new or improved procedures; +- better enemy/faction familiarity; +- bonds with other staff; +- bonds with specific pilots or ships; +- commendations and titles; +- faction credentials; +- black-box insights. + +Staff can also suffer: + +- acute stress; +- fatigue and leave requirements; +- heat trauma; +- overclock addiction; +- radiator dread; +- rescue obsession; +- salvage fixation; +- witness compulsion; +- illegal firmware dependence; +- faction loyalty drift; +- contempt for cautious or reckless commanders; +- rivalry with another staff member; +- refusal to work a specific scenario class; +- breakdown, retirement, or loss. + +This is the commander's risk economy. Pilots bring hulls back scorched. +Commanders bring minds back altered. + +### Generated Interactions + +The Barracks should use a limited authored pool of releasable characters, with +live interactions procedurally generated from character state, run history, +relationships, scenario pressure, and faction context. + +Ghostlight, VoidBot, and Epiphany persona turns can generate staff interactions +as structured narrative events rather than freeform noise. The generated layer +should know the character's stable identity, current stress, relationships, +recent failures, recent saves, faction background, and available event type. +It should output bounded dialogue, relationship changes, event flags, and +operator-facing summaries that the game can store as typed state. + +Weksa vocals can give these interactions voice once the text event is accepted +and bounded. Voice should reinforce staff presence without requiring animated +portraits or a full barracks life sim. + +V1 should treat generated interactions as authored-bounded events: + +- post-run debriefs; +- stress breaks; +- bond formation; +- rivalry escalation; +- staff requesting leave; +- staff refusing or demanding assignment; +- procedure discovery; +- faction contact; +- black-box confession; +- memorial or recovery moments. + +The generation system must serve continuity. Characters are not disposable +text fountains. Their state changes should persist, be inspectable, and affect +future runs. + +### Character Release Model + +Aetheria can release a limited pool of command staff over time in a +gacha-style cadence: named officers, specialists, firmware advisors, faction +liaisons, illegal contractors, and strange command minds. The collection pull +is real, but the design should avoid making the commander role depend on +predatory availability or opaque power chasing. + +Safer release principles: + +- every commander has a competent baseline staff; +- premium or rare staff create style, story, and specialization, not mandatory + access to basic command competence; +- scenario completion, seasons, faction reputation, and achievements can unlock + staff alongside any monetized channel; +- staff power is legible through role, stress profile, procedures, and + compatibility rather than hidden rarity math; +- duplicate pulls, if used, should become training, memories, cosmetics, or + safe progression currency rather than a slot-machine cliff. + +The product can borrow the release cadence and excitement of character +collection without designing the Barracks as a little extraction engine in a +hat. + +### Shelved: Real-Time Command Deck + +The real-time command deck remains a viable alternate or later procedure layer, +but it is not the V1 commander progression target. + +In that model, the commander has a deck, hand, draw pile, cooldown pile, and +cadence-based draw. Cards install equipment, upgrade equipment, deploy drones +and turrets, activate item behaviors, trigger procedures, and spend emergency +protocols. The scenario contributes part of the deck so scenario authorship +remains intact. + +The four-resource model remains useful even without cards: - **Power**: electrical capacity, routing, shields, sensors, weapon systems, drone charging, and immediate station activity. @@ -134,92 +253,10 @@ The resource model should use four command resources: authority, operator focus, predictive modeling, witness activity, and the stranger Aetheria-specific forms of semantic or neuromorphic strain. -Four resources are enough to create deck identity without making the commander -read a tax form while missiles are arriving. Power is what the station can -energize. Mass is what it can physically become. Heat is what it can survive -doing. Cognition is what it can understand and coordinate. +Cards may come back later as staff-authored procedures, emergency protocol +bundles, or rig-like command scripts. For V1, the sticky sentence is: -### Command Rigs As Basis Decks - -Command rigs are a companion idea to the command deck. A rig is the commander -equivalent of a hull: a faction or manufacturer themed basis deck plus -resource bias and a small set of mechanical affordances. - -The first useful version should go straight to mechanics and skip bespoke UI -skins or audio. Cosmetic identity can come later after the rig earns it. - -A V1 command rig defines: - -- basis card ids; -- resource bias across Power, Mass, Heat, and Cognition; -- compatible card tags; -- forbidden or awkward card tags; -- one or two signature mechanics; -- optional rig-specific debt or malfunction cards; -- unlock requirements. - -Example V1 rigs: - -- **AU Industrial Command Rig**: Power/Mass bias. Install, repair, turret, and - fabrication cards. First install each wave gets a Mass discount; fabrication - cards cool down faster after a clean defensive interval. -- **Cryonix Thermal Command Rig**: Heat/Cognition bias. Cooling, prediction, - thermal triage, and purge cards. Can preview heat debt and convert some Heat - cost into delayed debt once per draw cycle. -- **Zhestokost Siege Command Rig**: Mass/Heat bias. Armor, heavy turret, - ammunition, rugged repair, and emergency venting cards. Can install into - damaged cells; defenses gain durability but create more Heat while firing. -- **PSC Compliance Command Rig**: Power/Cognition bias. Witness, legal target - classification, protected corridors, and telemetry cards. Witness/authority - cards cost less Cognition; pod protection and surrender events improve score. -- **Pirate Salvage Command Rig**: Mass/Cognition bias. Salvage theft, spoofing, - wreck preservation, and dirty conversion cards. Can convert wreck claims into - temporary Mass; illegal plays add Heat, Cognition debt, or reputation risk. - -The scenario still injects the actual station and available tech. A Cryonix -commander defending an AU station operates AU machinery through Cryonix thermal -doctrine; they do not replace the station with a Cryonix station. - -### Other Sticky Directions To Explore - -Cards are strong because they create collection, draw tension, buildcraft, -streamable decisions, and visible clutch moments. Other commander progression -ideas need to be just as sticky before they deserve to compete. - -Promising alternatives: - -- **Living Staff**: commanders collect, train, and shape semi-autonomous staff - officers who change priorities, warnings, automation, and failure habits. - Staff become a persistent crew with scars, preferences, and operational - culture rather than passive perk slots. -- **Command Language**: commanders build custom named procedures that package - pings, drone orders, shield priorities, pilot alerts, and target classes. - Friend groups learn a commander's vocabulary: "Spine", "Lantern", - "Blackout", "No One Burns". -- **Battle Memory**: commanders accumulate tactical ghosts from previous runs: - breach points, heat disasters, saves, bad chases, common pirate vectors, and - recurring crew habits. The command surface can project learned annotations - without giving universal knowledge to a fresh commander. -- **Black Box Career**: every commander carries a persistent after-action - record of saves, abandoned modules, recovered pods, missiles intercepted, - stations lost, and ugly tradeoffs. Unlocks come from demonstrated command - style and mastery, not only currency. -- **Command Room As Place**: a persistent deck or war room evolves with - trophies, black-box scars, faction certifications, pilot patches, recovered - artifacts, and visible campaign history. This is identity-heavy but should - wait until the mechanical progression proves it deserves a room. -- **Emergency Possession**: rare protocols let the commander briefly take - direct simplified control of a drone, turret, rescue craft, or subsystem. - The chair becomes hands for a dramatic moment, with cost and risk. -- **Commander As Witness**: Arena and later Conquest can let advanced - commanders serve as witnesses, referees, operators, or dispute analysts for - quorum matches. This turns command progression into trusted Verse authority, - not only Starbridge base management. - -The design test for all of these is emotional. A pilot should say, "I want to -tune my ship." A commander needs an equally strong sentence. "I want to tune my -deck" is currently the cleanest candidate. Keep looking for others with that -kind of gravity. +> Pilots build ships. Commanders build crews. ## Starbridge