# Open Questions — Scope Game concept, prototype boundaries, production pipeline, and feature decisions. --- ### Q-002: Scope of v0.1 playable prototype - **Status:** Map spec resolved ([D-014](scope.md#d-014-v01-map-specification)). Remaining: mechanics, characters, interactions for minimum playable build. - **Assigned to:** Full team ### Q-004: One campaign spanning all eras or separate era scenarios? - **Status:** Not yet discussed - **Context:** Gore raised that Commonwealth Era and Void Era play very differently. Prototype focuses on pre-Starflyer War era. - **Assigned to:** Gore, Miri to lead discussion ### Q-005: Scale for prototype - locations, characters, factions - **Status:** Partially scoped - **Early signal:** Institute/Armstrong City hub, ~10-20 characters, Guardians + institutional + political factions - **Assigned to:** Gestalt, Tyre, Miri ### Q-007: Target platform(s) - **Status:** Not yet discussed - **Context:** Team Leader has Linux background (Fedora). Cross-platform considerations? - **Assigned to:** Tyre ### Q-008: Licensing / distribution model - **Status:** Not yet discussed - **Question:** Open source? Free? Commercial? This affects engine choice and asset decisions. - **Assigned to:** Team Leader ### Q-011: Character selection and playable characters - **Status:** Not yet discussed - **Question:** Which characters are playable in the prototype? How different are their starting positions? Can you play canon characters or only original ones? - **Assigned to:** Miri, Paula ### Q-027: Fast-travel system design - **Status:** Open - **Question:** How does inter-system travel work in production gameplay? The current hub teleport (Home key, #501) is scoped as Gauntlet-only dev tool. Production travel must be diegetic and respect asymmetric information. Proposed flow: player goes to local gate → warps to system gate → interacts with target menu → jumps to destination system gate. Key constraints: 1. **Region gating:** fast-travel only available from safe or fast-travel-enabled regions. If you rented transport to reach a remote location (e.g. mountain colony), you must return the transport to civilization first — this can be a skip-travel interaction but must happen in-world. 2. **Asymmetric information:** NPCs observe arrivals and departures. Travel choices leak information (who saw you leave, who sees you arrive, what transport was used). 3. **Home key in production:** at most, Home could prompt "Do you want to fast-travel to the system hub?" if in a safe/enabled region — never instant teleport. 4. **Transport types:** walking, rented vehicle, public transit, gate network — each with different information exposure profiles. - **Context:** #501 implemented instant Home key teleport gated behind `gauntlet_mode`. Re-scoped to Gauntlet-only after design review. Production fast-travel needs separate design and implementation. - **Assigned to:** Gestalt, Paula, Tyre - **Source:** Sprint 10 PR review discussion (2026-02-19) ### Q-032: Cultural ingredients menu - **Status:** Open - **Question:** Should world generation use a 6-category cultural ingredients menu (Heritage Roots, Settlement Motivation, Economic Function, Philosophical Alignment, Corporate/Faction Presence, Drift Stage) where each culture is composed by selecting from ingredient lists? The lead approved the "ingredients menu" model over fixed cultural taxonomies. Full specification needed: category definitions, ingredient lists per category, composition rules, absence-as-signal mechanics. - **Assigned to:** Miri, Gestalt - **Source:** Wiki Review Workshop R4, lead interview ### Q-034: PC archetypes - **Status:** Open - **Question:** Should the full game support 8 fluid PC archetypes (Smuggler, Detective, Engineer, Diplomat, Medic, Scholar, Soldier, Merchant) with transition mechanics where archetype shifts during play based on player behavior? The lead approved 8 archetypes with fluid transitions as a game mechanic. v0.1 ships smuggler + detective only (D-027). Full archetype spec, transition triggers, and "vulnerable window" mechanics are undesigned. NOTE: The character-creation-game-setup workshop (Q-011) will address this — coordinate. - **Assigned to:** Nigel, Gestalt - **Source:** Wiki Review Workshop R4, lead interview ### Q-035: Sacred/Profane/Middle Kingdom framework - **Status:** Open - **Question:** Should all game systems map to a Sacred/Profane/Middle Kingdom architectural framework? The lead approved this model where Sacred = what the system protects, Profane = what threatens it, Middle Kingdom = where the player navigates. The wiki-review workshop produced a full mapping table covering information, social, economic, spatial, temporal, and narrative systems. Needs formal specification and validation against current architecture. - **Assigned to:** Gore, Gestalt - **Source:** Wiki Review Workshop R4, lead interview ### Q-036: District skeleton as generator output - **Status:** Open - **Question:** For the 300-world model, should the district skeleton (social sites, NPC slots, triangle templates, economic function, access topology) be the atomic output unit of the world generator? D-025 defines social sites as the atomic template unit for hand-authoring. The generator model reframes the district as a composed output from ingredient inputs. How does this interact with D-025? - **Assigned to:** Tyre, Gestalt - **Source:** Wiki Review Workshop R4 ### Q-037: Generator development pipeline - **Status:** Open - **Question:** Should content production follow a 6-phase generator pipeline (Ingredient Authoring, Template Authoring, Generator Development, Validation Development, Generation + Review, Hand-Elevation)? The wiki-review workshop proposed this as the production model for 300 worlds. SI mapped a release path (v0.1 hand-authored, v0.2-0.5 template expansion, v0.6-0.10 generator development, pre-v1.0 validation). Needs scope assessment and sprint planning integration. - **Assigned to:** SI, Tyre - **Source:** Wiki Review Workshop R4 ### Q-038: Authored content estimate at 300-world scale - **Status:** Open - **Question:** What is the irreducible authored content volume for 300 worlds? The wiki-review workshop estimated ~1,600-2,800 hours of hand-authoring for generator inputs (ingredient definitions, template specifications, validation rules, hand-elevation passes). How does this compare to the 20-district hand-authoring model it replaced? Is this estimate still valid given subsequent architectural decisions? - **Assigned to:** Mellanie, SI - **Source:** Wiki Review Workshop R4 ### Q-039: Gate topology generation - **Status:** Open - **Question:** How should the world generator produce gate (wormhole) network topology for 300 worlds? The wiki-review workshop proposed: gate connectivity = Sacred (what connects), which worlds connect = Profane (what separates), accessible world count = Middle Kingdom (where the player navigates). Small-world network properties, hub-and-spoke vs mesh topology, and Sacred/Profane constraints on gate placement are all unresolved. D-012 covers chunk-based map architecture but predates the 300-world model. - **Assigned to:** Tyre, Nigel - **Source:** Wiki Review Workshop R4 --- *14 questions (0 resolved, 1 partially resolved, 13 open). Last updated: 2026-02-28.*