docs(workshops): add control & interaction brief, update workshop index

Add workshop brief for Control & Interaction Scheme (next workshop).
Update index with wiki-review (complete) and v0.1-content-scoping
(complete, 38 tickets).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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2026-02-12 16:19:10 +01:00
co-authored by Claude Opus 4.6
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| [NPC AI State Machines](npc-ai-state-machines/) | — | Brief ready |
| [Save/Load Architecture](save-load-architecture/) | — | Brief ready |
| [Map Authoring Pipeline](map-authoring-pipeline/) | — | Brief ready |
| [Wiki Review & Content Standards](wiki-review/) | — | Complete (4 rounds + lead interview) |
| [v0.1 Content Scoping](v01-content-scoping/) | — | Complete (2 rounds + closing, 38 tickets created) |
| [Control & Interaction Scheme](control-interaction/) | — | Brief ready |
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# Workshop Brief: Control & Interaction Scheme
## How Does the Player Touch the World?
**Project:** The Settled Reach (D-021)
**Date:** 2026-02-12
**Called by:** Jeroen
**Prerequisite:** Wiki Review workshop established WASD direct control with context-sensitive interaction as unanimous direction.
**Participants:** TBD — likely GESTALT, OZZIE, TYRE, STIG, DUDLEY, PAULA, MELLANIE, ARAMINTA
---
## Context
The Wiki Review workshop (2026-02-12) produced unanimous consensus: the player controls their character directly via WASD movement with context-sensitive interaction prompts. The game is not Sims/Rimworld (drafted characters), not point-and-click. The player IS the character. Their body is their attention mechanism.
This workshop designs the specifics. The interaction model determines everything downstream: camera, UI, dialogue triggers, NPC approach, environmental interaction, inventory, information access, and the perception modes that are core to the game's asymmetric information design.
**Design constraints from existing decisions:**
- D-005: Single-character perspective
- D-013: Diegetic insert (neural implant map/minimap)
- D-016: Internal monologue as perception bridge
- D-017: Perception modes as character build
- D-018: Three-range sound model
- D-020: Godot 4 client + Rust/bevy_ecs server
- Wiki Review: WASD direct control, context-sensitive interaction, body-as-attention-mechanism
---
## Layer 1: Movement & Camera
**How does the character move through space?**
- **Movement**: WASD (confirmed). But: 8-directional grid? Free movement? Physics-based? Sprint/walk toggle? Sneak mode?
- **Camera**: Top-down (confirmed by "top-down immersive sim"). But: fixed angle? Rotatable? Zoom level? How close before you can read a sign? How far before NPCs are silhouettes?
- **Collision**: Tile-based? Free-form? Can you squeeze between tables? Block doorways?
- **Speed**: Does speed affect perception? Walking slowly = more monologue triggers? Running = less observation?
**Questions:**
1. **Gestalt**: Does movement speed affect information gathering? Should walking vs. running change what you notice?
2. **Tyre**: Godot 4 tile-based or free movement? What's the technical recommendation?
3. **Ozzie**: What camera distance feels right for "I am this person" vs. "I can see the room"?
4. **Araminta**: What visual information density works at the proposed camera distance?
---
## Layer 2: Context-Sensitive Interaction
**What happens when you approach something?**
The Wiki Review poll referenced Disco Elysium interaction and Hotline Miami movement. The key design question: how do interaction prompts appear, and how does the player select from options?
- **Proximity trigger**: How close before options appear? Line-of-sight required?
- **Prompt style**: Single action prompt (changes based on context)? Radial menu? List? Paula suggested single-action prompts that change based on proximity + relationship + knowledge.
- **NPC interaction**: Walk up to NPC → what appears? "Talk"? Multiple options (talk, observe, confront)? Does relationship state change the options?
- **Object interaction**: Examine, use, take? How do you read a manifest on a desk vs. pick up a crate?
- **Environmental interaction**: Doors, terminals, cargo containers, signs — each different?
- **Eavesdropping**: Can you hear NPCs talking without direct interaction? How does proximity affect this?
**Questions:**
1. **Gestalt**: How many interaction options per NPC at once? Does complexity vary by relationship state?
2. **Paula**: How does dialogue initiation work? Player approaches NPC → what's the UX to the first line of dialogue?
3. **Stig**: What UI patterns support context-sensitive prompts without cluttering the screen?
4. **Dudley**: How does the server determine what interaction options are available based on entity state?
---
## Layer 3: Information & Perception
**How does the player ACCESS information vs. RECEIVE information?**
The game has two information channels:
1. **Active**: Player chooses to look, examine, query the lattice, read something
2. **Passive**: Monologue fires based on observation triggers, overheard conversations, environmental tells
- **Lattice queries**: How do you look up an NPC via the neural lattice? A UI panel? A diegetic device? Walk up and "scan"?
- **Monologue delivery**: Text overlay? Speech bubble? Dedicated UI area? How does it not compete with dialogue?
- **Tell observation**: Player walks past NPC with a behavioral tell — how is it surfaced? Monologue? Visual indicator? Both?
- **Knowledge journal**: How do you review what you know? Diegetic (the implant's records)? Pause menu?
**Questions:**
1. **Gestalt**: Where's the line between "the game tells you" (monologue) and "you have to look" (active observation)?
2. **Ozzie**: When does information delivery feel immersive vs. intrusive?
3. **Tyre**: How does the knowledge graph surface in the UI without becoming a database viewer?
4. **Mellanie**: How much monologue can appear before the player stops reading?
---
## Layer 4: Dialogue & Conversation
**How do conversations work mechanically?**
- **Initiation**: Player walks up, presses interact. Then what? Dialogue box? In-world text? Camera zoom?
- **Response selection**: Menu of options? Single-branch with trust-gated variations? How does the 4-layer dialogue system (access, history, trust, unprompted) translate to player-facing UX?
- **Conversation persistence**: Can you walk away mid-conversation? Resume later? Does the NPC react?
- **Dual-lens integration**: Same NPC, different options per character. How does the UI show what's available vs. locked?
- **Confrontation**: How does "I know you're involved" differ from casual conversation in the UX?
**Questions:**
1. **Paula**: What does the confrontation UX look like vs. casual conversation? Should the player feel the tension mechanically?
2. **Mellanie**: How does monologue fire DURING dialogue? (Character reacts to what the NPC said)
3. **Stig**: Dialogue box design — full screen? Corner overlay? In-world?
4. **Gestalt**: How do trust-gated options appear (or not appear) without revealing the gating system?
---
## Layer 5: Environmental Interaction & Inventory
**What can you touch, carry, and use?**
- **Inventory**: Does the character have inventory? Pockets? A bag? Or is everything contextual (use the terminal, read the manifest, you don't carry things)?
- **Evidence**: How does the detective collect evidence? Take a photo? Log it in the lattice? Pick it up?
- **Contraband**: How does the smuggler interact with cargo? Physical handling? Abstract management?
- **Keys/access**: Physical keys? Access codes? Lattice authorization levels? How does restricted access feel in the UX?
**Questions:**
1. **Gestalt**: How physical is the interaction model? Carry objects? Or is everything knowledge-based (you SAW the manifest, you don't HAVE the manifest)?
2. **Tyre**: What's feasible for v0.1 inventory? Full system or knowledge-only?
3. **Nigel**: Does inventory variation matter for replayability, or is knowledge-based sufficient?
---
## Layer 6: Time & Routine
**How does time pass and how does the player relate to schedules?**
- **Time control**: Real-time? Acceleratable? Pause-to-think? Day/night cycle?
- **Routine awareness**: Can you see NPC schedules? Predict where someone will be? Or do you learn through observation?
- **Waiting**: Can you wait/skip time? Stand outside someone's shift and wait for them?
- **Urgency**: Is there time pressure? Can you miss events? Or is the world patient?
**Questions:**
1. **Gestalt**: Does time pressure create interesting decisions or just stress?
2. **Ozzie**: What pacing feels right for "quotidian with undertow"?
3. **Dudley**: How does the tick-based simulation map to player-perceived time?
---
## Workshop Format
**2-3 rounds.**
**Round 1**: Layer-by-layer proposals. Each participant addresses their domain questions with concrete UX descriptions.
**Round 2**: Integration — how do the layers interact? Movement affects perception, perception affects dialogue options, dialogue affects knowledge, knowledge affects interaction prompts.
**Round 3 (if needed)**: V0.1 minimum viable interaction model — what ships first?
## Expected Outputs
- **Interaction model spec**: Complete description of how the player touches the world
- **UI wireframe direction**: Enough for Stig/Araminta to begin prototyping
- **Perception UX spec**: How information flows to the player through the interaction model
- **V0.1 scope**: Minimum viable interaction for the vertical slice
- **Tickets**: New implementation tickets for the interaction model