# THE DESCENT — update of 2026-10-11: new lore and gameplay changes

**Status: recorded only. Nothing here is designed or built.** The user's words on 2026-10-11: *"no need to
implement it yet just to save it as update"*. No Designer, Coder or Critique has been started for it.
**The one exception is U25 (the player model):** the user said "put him in now" later the same day.
**Added 2026-10-12:** U26 (player augmentations), which the user also had written into the lore and into
`Game_decisions.txt`. Copies of both files after that: `GameLore_2026-10-12.txt`, `Game_decisions_2026-10-12.txt`
here; before it: `D:\HADAL - The Descent\_backups\GameLore_2026-10-12_pre-augmentations.txt` and
`Game_decisions_2026-10-12_pre-augmentations.txt`.
**Added 2026-10-19:** the user's own edit of `GameLore.txt`: the cradle is dropped (L4), the carrier arrives
damaged with one reactor working (L14, new), the feeding port is explained by the human need (L3). Copy after
it: `GameLore_2026-10-19.txt` here; before it: `GameLore_2026-10-12.txt`. `Game_decisions.txt` did not change.
**Added 2026-10-20:** U27 (cave systems, from chat). The user called the lore's "Wet Rock" section "completely
wrong"; it was rewritten as "The Cave Systems" at their word, which also drops the honest voids (L10). Copy
after it: `GameLore_2026-10-20.txt` here; before it: `D:\HADAL - The Descent\_backups\GameLore_2026-10-20_pre-caves.txt`.
**Answers of 2026-10-20** (the user: "1 yes, gone. no chamber bullshit. 2 remove them, 4 yes, 3 yes, 5 yes"): honest
voids are gone from the game (L10); the cradle's leftovers are removed (L4); one of the carrier's two reactors
works on arrival (L14); charge and warmth are meters the player manages (L3; warmth withdrawn in the second round); the website follows the new lore.
Lore after it: `GameLore_2026-10-20_after-answers.txt` here; before it: `_backups\GameLore_2026-10-20_pre-answers.txt`.
**Second round, 2026-10-20** (the user's answers on whether the gameplay fits the lore): **no cold mechanic**, warmth
is not a meter (this replaces the first round's "charge and warmth are meters"; charge stays); drinking water is a
need, purified from the sea; the augmented body is tougher; heat from thermal vents and lava geysers is a hazard
(U28, U29); radar may exist, realism does not matter there; instrument faults below the Seam come later (D1, remind
the user); eating by mouth goes into the game; the lore's carrier paragraph, "voids" (now "caves"), weapon patterns
and the Ossuary's ore were changed. Lore after it: `GameLore_2026-10-20_round2.txt` here; before it:
`_backups\GameLore_2026-10-20_pre-round2.txt`. The user also deleted the dry-interior line from `Game_decisions.txt`
on purpose: it was a bug of the browser version (U6), and Unreal has no such bug.

**Added 2026-10-23:** U30 (losing the carrier: escape pods and two reserve carriers), from chat, answered the same
day ("1 yes, 2 yes, 3 game over, 4 yes, 5 yes") and written into the lore. Lore after it: `GameLore_2026-10-23.txt`
here; before it: `_backups\GameLore_2026-10-23_pre-reserve-carriers.txt`.

Sources, both edited by the user after the port was finished (2026-10-06):
- `D:\HADAL - The Descent\GameLore.txt`, rewritten 2026-10-11. Copy as it stood: `GameLore_2026-10-11.txt` here.
  The lore before it is the frozen `the-descent\docs\GameLore.txt`.
- `D:\HADAL - The Descent\Game_decisions.txt`, edited 2026-10-10. Copy: `Game_decisions_2026-10-11.txt` here.
  Everything below the line "Port to unreal is accomplished" is new. Checked against the copy of 2026-09-30
  in `Assets\Submarine ASSETS\Game_decisions.txt`: nothing above that line changed except lines the brief
  already covers.
- `D:\HADAL - The Descent\_backups\` holds the lore's history: `GameLore_2026-10-10.txt` (the old lore plus the
  user's two lines below) and three drafts of 2026-10-11. See §4 for what the drafts had and the final
  text dropped.

The user's own two lines that started the rewrite (added to the old lore on 2026-10-10):
> "Another planet far. There is a signal coming from the center of this planet. Researchers are sent a one
> man exploration team combined with Robots (AI) and a half human half robot cyborg(player) which
> historically this guy a convict a prisoner sent there to examine whats the resources of the signal."
> "so when player dies players should go back to last save"

This file continues `Docs\BRIEF_UE.md`. U1–U14 and V1–V13 stand unless an item below says it replaces one.
"Now" is what the finished port does, taken from `Docs\STATUS.md`.

---

## 1. New requirements from `Game_decisions.txt` (U15–U24) and from chat (U25–U30, D1)

Quoted lines are the user's own words. "Subtub" is the Tender, "vessel" is the carrier.

**U15 Modular carrier.** "Big vessel upgradable parts will be modular so it can be upgradable"
Now: one fixed procedural hull of 16 rooms; upgrades are recipes, not parts of the ship.

**U16 Craftable, modular Tenders.** "subtubs craftable there will be many subtubs and modular"
Now: three Kazah Tenders are in the bay from the first second; an upgrade applies to all three at once.

**U17 Craftable robots.** "there should be craftable robots that do the hard pysical jobs for us when they
damaged they can be repariable or if destroyed can be salvagable to gather resources"
Now: only the fixed Handling Arm Mk I / II and the Box Rack (U14). Nothing can be damaged, repaired or
salvaged. The lore makes these robots humanoid (L6).

**U18 Bigger landscape.** "landscape should be bigger"
Now: the world of DESIGN §2.7 (canyon X −250..850 m, galleries of 552 m and 1,159 m).

**U19 A new random landscape each game.** "landscape should be randomly generated for level for game start
session until game is over."
Now: `FDescentWorldDef` is built once from fixed seeds (hash `64a8cc5b4634536c`), so every game is the same
world. The three carrier routes and the 22 named places are designed by hand.

**U20 Earthquakes.** "there will be earthquakes that reshapes randomly the terrain so player have to dig
again"
Now: the terrain changes only where the player carves it.

**U21 Moon pool with glass covers and side doors.** Under "moonpool desing":
"there should be glass 2 window like covers on top of the pool
1- first glass windows open
2- then sub tub goes down gets inside moonpool
3- player gets inside subtub
4- glass door closes
5- vessel moonpool side doors slides open
6- sub tub swims out"
Now: an open pool with a water surface and no covers or doors. The player boards the Tender on the carousel
hoist, it is released straight down through the pool, and it docks by rising back into it.

**U22 No bloom setting (replaces U12).** "bloom was for html for the first iteration now we are in the
unreal engine no need such setting lights look good"
Now: the pause window has a bloom slider (0 to 0.15). The setting goes; the lights stay as they are.

**U23 Sound sensor module.** "upgradable sound sensor module in the vessel"
Now: nothing listens. The heartbeat is an effect of the horror system, not something a sensor picks up.
In the lore this is what hears the signal below 1,000 m (L8).

**U24 Holographic sonar table.** "Holographic sci fi table like sonar in subnautica"
Now: sonar hits are drawn by the HUD over the scene and marked on the PDA survey map. "The chart table as
a map screen" is on the left-for-later list. In the lore the signal shows on this table (L8).

**U25 Player model: Paragon Twinblast, the red-armed one, without the guns.** Said in chat on 2026-10-11, after
the rest of this file was written (it is not in `Game_decisions.txt`): "the player model gonna be
ParagonTwinblast that came from FAB epic games library / red armed one", then "without the guns".
- The pack is already in the project: `Content\ParagonTwinblast\` (2.37 GB, added by the user on 2026-10-08;
  no code or config refers to it yet).
- It ships seven meshes. The red-armed one is the default:
  `/Game/ParagonTwinblast/Characters/Heroes/TwinBlast/Meshes/TwinBlast`. All seven side by side:
  `twinblast_skins.png` in this folder (the others: Halloween with orange trim, Wasteland, Electro in teal,
  ActionHero in a long coat, ShadowOps in black, SummerTime).
- The guns: the two pistols are part of that same mesh, on their own material slot `M_TwinBlast_Pistol` and on
  the bones `weapon_l` / `weapon_r`. They can be hidden from the project's side without editing the pack. The
  big ultimate gun is a separate mesh (`TwinBlast_UltGun`) and is simply not used.
- For whoever designs this: the pack's 279 animations are a shooter's (idle, walk, jog, sprint, jump, turns,
  hit reactions, deaths, firing and abilities), and the hands are posed around pistol grips in them. There is
  nothing for swimming, sitting at a helm or in a Tender, or using a wall port. The mesh has machine arms and
  human legs; the lore has both arms and both legs metal (L3).

Before U25: the player had no body. `ADescentCharacter` showed one first-person cybernetic arm built from the
user's own robotic arm model (21 parts, `Docs\status\arm.md`).

**U25 is the one item of this file the user told us to build**, the same day: "put him in now, legs metal, use
the twinblast arms and animations without the guns (for now for guns)". That settles it:
- Twinblast's own arms are the arms the player sees. The custom arm comes off the view (kept in the code, one
  switch away).
- The legs become metal, as in the lore (L3).
- The pack's animations drive him.
- The guns are hidden for now; the user may want them back.
Progress and results: `Docs\status\player_body.md`.

**U26 Player augmentations.** Said in chat on 2026-10-12: "add to the game lore and gameplay that main
character can be upgradable augmentations". Written the same day into `Game_decisions.txt` ("main character
can be upgradable with augmentations") and into `GameLore.txt` (a new section "Augmentations" after "You",
the word added to the list of what ore is refined into, and one line under "Not Decided Yet").
→ The player himself is upgraded, as the carrier (U15) and the Tenders (U16) are. In the lore an
augmentation is a part made for the convict: the fabricator builds it from refined ore, from a pattern, and
it is fitted to him aboard the CANTICLE. Each one makes him better at something the descent asks of him and
can be upgraded again.
Now: nothing is fitted to the body. What improves the player is fabricator gear: two bigger O2 tanks
(`o2_high` 90 s, `o2_ultra` 150 s) and hand tools (handheld sonar, flares, beacons, the propulsor).
Not decided: which augmentations exist, what each one does, and who or what fits them. One option stands
in the lore's list, put there by the Administrator and not decided by the user: every augmentation replaces
something human, and below the Seam the signal reaches the machine parts first.
Recorded only. Not designed, not built.

**U27 Cave systems, not digging.** Said in chat on 2026-10-20, quoting the lore's "Wet Rock" section: "This is
completely wrong this was supposed to be that, there are cave systems which obviously no need to dig to open a
way. These caves would be wide enough to pass with vessel. In the end of the caves, sonar or other devices
(other devices still Im thinking) would help player to check near cave system to go deeper so this way player
shouldnt be spending their all time to digging a way down. some of the cave systems are clusters next to each
other so it will be like wall that you need to find the thinnest easy to dig further. some caves would be
really large like a city size."
→ The way down is mostly open caves the carrier fits through. Where a cave system ends, the player scans the
systems nearby (sonar; other devices undecided) for the one that leads deeper. Clustered systems are parted by
walls of rock: find the thinnest and dig through it. Some caves are city-sized. Digging is the exception.
In the lore since the same day: the section "The Cave Systems" (replacing "Wet Rock"), the carrier now fits
the caves ("It is too big for most of the Throat, so it goes where you open a way for it" was changed to match),
and the devices besides sonar are in "Not Decided Yet".
Now: the three carrier routes are blocked until dug (`Descent.Routes.BlockedBeforeDig`); the world has
chambers, wells, worm tunnels and two galleries of 552 m and 1,159 m, but no carrier-wide cave systems end to
end. With U19 the generator has to make cave systems, clusters and the walls between them.

**U28 Survival needs: regular human needs, a tougher body, no cold.** Said in chat on 2026-10-20: "just regular
human needs plus extra durability since augmented. no cold mechanic", "water needed can be purified from the sea",
and "Yes" to adding eating by mouth (the lore: "He can still eat normally").
→ Meters: charge (the limbs), food, water, air. No warmth or cold meter anywhere. The body takes more damage than
an ordinary human's before it dies. Drinking water is purified from the sea on the carrier. Food comes by mouth
(something the player catches and eats; what exactly is not decided) or by the wall port.
In the lore since the same day ("You": Water replaces Warmth; the tougher body; the cabin at 26 °C as a fact).
Now: O2, health and nutrition; no water, no charge, no eating; the wall port only.

**U29 Heat hazards: thermal vents and lava geysers.** Said in chat on 2026-10-20: "only heat mechanic since there
will be thermal vents and lava geysers". → Hot water near vents and geysers hurts the player and damages hulls.
In the lore since the same day ("The Throat Moves"). Now: nothing of the kind.

**Radar.** `Game_decisions.txt` line 13 names radar beside sonar. The user, 2026-10-20: "whatever technology is
advanced there so I dont care if radar working or not doesnt matter." Radar may be one of the devices besides
sonar (U27); physical realism is not a reason to leave it out.

**D1 Instrument faults below the Seam: later, and remind the user.** The lore has instruments that stop agreeing
at the Seam and sonar returns that degrade in the Quiet; the user asked for accurate meters. The user, 2026-10-20:
"well yes but first let make them work we will add that feature later, remind me that later. especially
structuring unreal engine." → First make every meter work and read true. The faults are a later, deliberate
feature. **When the Unreal side of this update is structured (the Designer's work), remind the user of D1** and
leave room for it: one place where a reading can be distorted on purpose, not faults scattered through the code.

**U30 Losing the carrier: escape pods and two reserve carriers.** Said in chat on 2026-10-23:
"Vessel can be damaged and reparable, if takes fatal damage it explodes when hull integrity below 20 percent there will
be escape pods which player can jump on and escape the main vessel, here is the catch tetys had backup 2 reserve ships
back in the main spaceship(in orbit) they send you another without the equipments where player builded. so its
scratch again kinda but, since player didnt die player might have been stored resources back in anchorage, so player
can build easily but its a risk."
→ The carrier takes damage and can be repaired. Fatal damage makes it explode; when hull integrity is below 20 %
the player can reach an escape pod and leave the carrier. Surviving is not dying: there is no reload. Tethys keeps
two reserve carriers aboard its ship in orbit and sends one down, bare: none of what the player built or fitted
comes with it. What the player sent up to Anchorage before is still there, so rebuilding from it is faster;
what was kept aboard is lost. That is the risk the player weighs.
**Answered 2026-10-23** ("1 yes, 2 yes, 3 game over, 4 yes, 5 yes"): the escape pods open below 20 % hull and
the carrier explodes at 0 %; the pod goes up to Anchorage, where the reserve carrier arrives, so the descent starts
again from the surface; **losing the third carrier (the last reserve) is game over**; a reserve carrier arrives
damaged like the first, with one of its two reactors working; the reserve carriers are in the lore (the ship in
orbit "carries two more carriers in reserve", and a paragraph at the end of "The Carrier" with a game note).
**Confirmed 2026-10-23:** what the player carries on his body (augmentations, suit inventory) survives, "because you
go with escape pod". In the lore's game note too.
**The escape can fail (2026-10-23):** "add an if there because player might not survive even with the escape pod so player needs to be cautious when progressing or fighting with certain enemies(will be added later on)". The pod saves the player only if he reaches it and it reaches the
surface; dying on the way is a death like any other (back to the last save). In the lore: "an escape pod can carry
you up to Anchorage, if you live to reach it and it lives to reach the surface", and the game note ends "Be careful
how far you push, and what you pick a fight with." Lore copy after it: `GameLore_2026-10-23_escape-if.txt`; before
it: `_backups\GameLore_2026-10-23_pre-escape-if.txt`.
Website (2026-10-23, the user: "update the website with the escape pods and reserve carriers"): one paragraph in
the CANTICLE column: the carrier can be repaired and lost, an escape pod "if you reach it in time", two reserve
carriers sent down bare, what you sent up to Anchorage is still there, "When the third carrier is gone, so is the
descent." No percentages and no damage on arrival (the user had that taken off).
Now: the carrier's hull loses points when it scrapes rock and is mended by the Carrier Hull Patch recipe (+25); at
0 it is only "crippled" (throttle and ballast limited, `UCarrierHelm::IsCrippled`). No explosion, no pods, no
replacement, and nothing is stored at Anchorage apart from what is sold.

**D2 Enemies: later.** Named by the user on 2026-10-23 in passing: "fighting with certain enemies(will be added
later on)". Nothing more is decided: which enemies, where, and how the player fights them (Tethys has not
released weapon patterns, U28 round two). Recorded so the design leaves room for them.

## 2. What the new lore changes in the game (L1–L14)

The lore is the user's text; these are the parts of it that the game as built does not match.

**L1 The descent starts at the surface.** The CANTICLE is moored at Anchorage, an automated facility at sea
level. It casts off, sinks through about 1,000 m of bright, colourful open sea full of harmless fish ("the
last time you see the sky"), reaches the seafloor and enters the Throat there.
Now: the game starts inside the Throat, and the top of the world ends in the Shear current. That default of
2026-10-04 no longer fits.

**L2 The bay is empty.** There is no Tender at the start. Around 1,000 m the player collects the materials
for the first one. "Until the first Tender is built, you leave through the moon pool, swim, and cut ore
loose with a handheld tool."
Now: three Tenders at the start, and no handheld mining tool.

**L3 The player is a convict with machine arms and legs.** Both arms and both legs are metal; the rest is
human. The body needs four things: charge (the limbs run on the carrier's power), food (eating normally,
or the port in his side on the carrier's nutrient line, fed by the biomass reserve), air (a tank in the
water), warmth (26 °C in the cabin).
Now: one first-person cybernetic arm; nutrition through the wall port only; O2 and health. No charge and
no warmth for the player.
2026-10-19: the lore no longer says Tethys added the feeding port; it is there because the body is still
human and needs nutrition. "is converted before transport" was taken out of the same sentence.
~~Decided 2026-10-20: charge and warmth are meters the player manages.~~ **Replaced the same day:** "omg stop with
this warmth shit just regular human needs plus extra durability since augmented. no cold mechanic, only heat
mechanic since there will be thermal vents and lava geysers." The lore's four needs are now charge, food, water
and air (U28); the 26 °C cabin stays as a fact, not a need. Charge stays a meter.

**L4 Death sends the player back to the last save.** Changed by the user on 2026-10-19: **the cradle is gone.**
Its text ("The carrier's cradle records your mind every time you sleep in it. If your body dies, the cradle
wakes you from the last record, and you remember nothing after it.") was deleted, the cradle is no longer
one of the carrier's rooms, and the AI now "runs life support, the vessel and the robots" (it was "the
cradle"). Left under the heading "The Cradle": "(In the game, death sends the player back to the last
save.)". The rule is the user's own of 2026-10-10; it no longer has a story reason.
Still naming the cradle, untouched by the edit: the heading itself, two lines of the dev-only truth ("The
cradle records your mind every time you sleep...", "The cradle still holds the records of every convict who
slept in it") and ending C ("restored from the cradle each time the carrier came back alone").
**2026-10-20, on the user's word ("2 remove them"): all of these are removed.** The heading is gone and the death
line moved into "You"; the two dev-only lines are cut (the CANTICLE's history stays, without its cradle
sentence); ending C now reads "Every earlier convict was you, restored each time the carrier came back alone".
The lore names no cradle anywhere now.
Now: sleeping at any bed or placed bunk autosaves; death fades for 2.6 s and puts the player back in the
galley with 60 health, and nothing is undone.

**L5 The ship's AI.** An objective-oriented ship management system with one objective from Tethys. It runs
life support, the cradle and the robots, records everything and reports it. It cannot steer the carrier
and cannot be switched off. "It is the only voice aboard besides yours."
Now: unnamed radio lines. The carrier's autopilot exists for the route tests.

**L6 Humanoid robots.** Built by the player. They haul ore boxes, feed the refinery and patch the hull.
Damaged ones are repaired, destroyed ones are stripped for parts. "The deeper the carrier goes, the less
they do exactly what they are told": mistakes from the Seam, no answer in the Quiet. Their work logs stop
matching their orders. (U17.)

**L7 The sentence replaces the debt.** No credits, no catalogue, nothing bought. Ore is refined on board
into hull sections, Tender frames, drill heads, robots and sensor modules. "What you don't need you can
send up to Anchorage. Tethys pays in two things: patterns your fabricator is allowed to build, and days off
your sentence." Reaching the source of the signal ends the sentence.
Now: the Tethys terminal sells ingots against a debt in credits, and a feed at the wall port is billed 12 cr.

**L8 The signal.** One deep, slow pulse from the centre of Hadra every eleven minutes. It cannot be heard
above the seafloor; below about 1,000 m "anything that listens picks it up". It reaches the player as "the
signal itself, on the sonar table, every eleven minutes". (U23, U24.)

**L9 The Throat moves.** Quakes come without warning, "close the tunnels you cut, open new voids and shift
whole galleries. No map of the Throat stays true for long, and no two descents are the same." (U19, U20.)
The survey map therefore goes out of date.

**L10 Honest voids.** Some voids carry the full pressure of their depth, and a hull that breaks into one
implodes. "Sonar is the only way to tell an honest void from a safe one before you drill."
Now: crush depth exists (2,300 m for the Tender); honest voids on sonar are on the left-for-later list.
2026-10-20: **gone from the lore's main text** with the "Wet Rock" section (U27): no low pressure, no honest
voids. The dev-only truth still has "the low pressure in them is it holding them open. The honest voids are the
places it has let go." The port's Sonar Module still "flags honest voids red".
**Decided 2026-10-20: honest voids are gone from the game too** (the user: "1 yes, gone. no chamber bullshit"). The
dev-only line "The voids are its chambers and vessels, and the low pressure in them is it holding them open. The
honest voids are the places it has let go." was cut, with nothing in its place. When the update is built, the
Sonar Module loses its honest-void flag and nothing in the world carries a pressure trap.

**L11 Life everywhere.** Small creatures at any depth; the open sea bright and full of harmless fish; the
voids hold lanternfish, jellies and glowing polyps; deeper means bigger and rarer. "All of it is food."
Now: 13 school homes of silverfin and lanternfish, polyps, one leviathan.

**L12 Earlier convicts.** Wrecked Tenders, tunnels the quakes have not closed yet, beacons cut off
mid-sentence and the humanoid robots they built, some still working, some "doing something else". "All of
them can be salvaged." The deepest beacon transmits from the Quiet.
Now: eight dead beacons with logs.

**L13 The strata.** Eight, with no depth figures any more (the old lore ran to 66.666 km): the Open Sea
(surface to about 1,000 m), the Throat (from the seafloor, first ore, wrecks of the probe and the drones),
the Honeycomb, the Seam (instruments disagree, robots make mistakes), the Galleries (kilometre-scale
caverns, something glows, the ANTIPHON's last log), the Ossuary (drill heads dull fast), the Quiet (sonar degrades, robots stop answering), the Floor
(nothing cuts it). "The rock gets harder with every stratum. The fabricator has drill-head patterns for
every stratum except the Floor."

**L14 The carrier arrives damaged.** Added by the user on 2026-10-19. Before, the carrier "is already moored,
fuelled and ready for operation". Now: "where the carrier is already moored, but damaged needs repaired one of
the reactor is repaired." Administrator's reading, not confirmed: the CANTICLE has more than one reactor (the
interior model's reactor room has two), one of them works when the player arrives, and the rest of the
repair is the player's first work. **Confirmed by the user on 2026-10-20 ("3 yes"):** one of the two reactors works
on arrival and the player repairs the rest. **Made exact by the user the same day:** "two of the one needs
repair, 2 reactor total": the CANTICLE has two reactors, and one of them needs repair. Nothing else on the carrier is said to be damaged yet. The user's own
sentence in the lore is unchanged.
Now: the carrier starts whole. Scraping rock damages its hull, and the Carrier Hull Patch recipe mends 25.
There are no reactors in the game systems (the blockout's reactor housing only glows).

**The carrier in the lore:** built for a crew of one, with quarters, the cradle, a bridge, a moon pool, a
cargo bay and a refinery deck, "and every section of it is modular and can be upgraded" (U15).

**Gone from the lore:** the Extraction contract and its debt, the catalogue, the BT-01 as a first hull
bought on credit, the larger hulls (Pilgrim, Warden, Cathedral), the return berth, and the Depth Stations
(claim beacons, stations, fast travel).

**How the story reaches the player** (the lore's own list): the black box of the 2193 probe and the drone
logs; beacons of earlier convicts; their robots; the ANTIPHON's carrier log; the AI's orders from Tethys
with lines redacted; automated reports from Anchorage; the player's case file and letters from Earth
nineteen years out of date; robot work logs that don't match the orders; the signal on the sonar table.

**Dev-only truth, new parts:** the signal gets into anything that thinks without a body (the drones, then
the robots, in the end the ship's AI); a human mind hears it "as fear, then as voices, then as something
that knows its name"; below the Seam the cradle's records "start to hold something that is not yours"; the
CANTICLE has taken convicts down before and came back up alone each time, and the cradle still holds their
records; the honest voids are the places Hadra has let go; the quakes are it closing the wounds.

## 3. Not decided yet (the user's own list in the lore)

- The convict: name, number and crime. One option: the crime is redacted and the conversion took his memory
  of it.
- The ship's AI: its name, and what it does once its objective is complete.
- Whether the carrier comes with any robots.
- What the signal does to the player once it is heard at 1,000 m.
- The augmentations (U26): which ones exist, what each one does, and who or what fits them.
- The ending: A (objective complete, the AI shuts the carrier down, the only way left is through the
  Floor) or B (the Floor opens; take a sample up for Tethys, or cut the uplink and stay). **C (the loop: every
  earlier convict was you, restored each time) was dropped by the user on 2026-10-20:** "you can transfer
  pysically every knowladge of a human brain but is it gonna be same person or another clone? ... I believe
  soul thats why I say drop it". No story may rest on a copied or restored mind being the same person.

## 4. In the drafts, not in the final text (do not bring these back as if decided)

From `_backups\GameLore_2026-10-11_draft3.txt` against the final `GameLore.txt`:
- The AI was named **WARDEN**, with the line "Its specification does not say whose side it is on." The final
  text gives it no name (§3) and describes it as objective-oriented with one objective.
- Anchorage had "a small research team" and "radio from the research team". Final: automated, nobody lives
  there, robots keep it running, and it sends automated reports.
- Buoys on the surface heard the signal. Final: it cannot be heard from the surface, only below about
  1,000 m.
- "Tethys ships a few [robots], and you build the rest." Final: "you build them", and whether the carrier
  comes with any is under §3. (The user's own first line had the team "combined with Robots (AI)".)
- The convict's file had "a name, a number and a crime, and the crime is redacted", and he did not remember
  the trial. Final: that is one option under §3.
- "What waits at the Floor is not decided yet." Final: the three ending options and the paragraph on the
  CANTICLE having gone down before.

Added only in the final text: the handheld tool (L2), small creatures at every depth and bigger, rarer ones
deeper (L11), the Earlier Convicts section (L12).

## 5. Questions the Administrator has for the user before this is designed

- (2026-10-23, U30) Answered the same day: pods below 20 %, explosion at 0 %; the pod goes to Anchorage; the
  third carrier lost is game over; a reserve arrives damaged; the reserves are in the lore.

Still open after the second round of 2026-10-20 (not answered): the logline still says the carrier "stands ready"
although it arrives damaged; the handling arms of U14 are not humanoid, while the lore's robots are.

Answered on 2026-10-20 (see the header): honest voids gone; the cradle's leftovers removed; one reactor works on
arrival; charge and warmth are meters (warmth withdrawn in the second round: no cold mechanic); the website updated (`website/page.html`, GitHub Pages and the artifact). Later the same day the user had
the damaged-carrier line taken off the website again ("delete that") and the contract's "The subject is converted
before transport" removed; the website now says only that the carrier is already moored.
Still open: what else on the carrier is damaged; which devices besides sonar show the next cave system.

- Are charge and warmth (L3) meters the player must manage? **Answered 2026-10-20: yes, meters; then warmth withdrawn the same day (U28): charge only.**
- U25, answered 2026-10-11: Twinblast's arms replace the custom arm in the view, and the legs become metal.
- U9 kept the carrier at 2.0 m/s on the user's word. `Game_decisions.txt` still has the older line "set max
  speed 1.0 m/s". Taken as old.
- The last lines of `Game_decisions.txt` still read "Coder (Sonnet5.5)". Taken as old: coding has been on
  Opus 5.5 since 2026-10-05.