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settled-reach/decisions/questions-scope.md
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jpmschweitzerandClaude Opus 4.6 3005294c98 docs(docs): replace Commonwealth with Settled Reach across docs 
Updated in-universe "Commonwealth" references to "the Settled Reach"
in decisions, architecture docs, design docs, workshop outputs,
README, and wiki. Kept all references to Hamilton's books as
inspiration/comparison in historical discussions and wiki-review
workshop rounds.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-03-05 11:26:52 +01:00

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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). 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 different historical eras of the Settled Reach play very differently. Prototype focuses on a single 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.

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