Major design revision to accommodate single floor plan constraint while maintaining
branching narrative and player choice.
Key Changes to README.md:
LOCATION CHANGE:
- Changed from 4 separate physical facilities to single SAFETYNET Emergency Operations
Center (EOC)
- Player remains in SAFETYNET HQ throughout mission
- 4 crisis response zones within same facility
- Player chooses which crisis terminal to directly control
- Other SAFETYNET teams (Alpha/Bravo/Charlie/Delta) visible working in adjacent zones
FLOOR PLAN DESIGN:
- 6 shared rooms (all branches visit these):
1. Emergency Briefing Room (choice presentation)
2. Main Operations Floor (central hub with all 4 crisis zones visible)
3. Server Room (VM challenges)
4. Communications Center (The Architect's taunts)
5. Intelligence Archive (Tomb Gamma discovery)
6. Debrief Room (outcomes revealed)
- 1 branch-specific crisis terminal (player's choice determines which):
7A. Infrastructure Crisis Terminal (power grid remote control)
7B. Election Security Terminal (voter database protection)
7C. Supply Chain Terminal (software distribution security)
7D. Corporate Defense Terminal (corporate zero-day defense)
NPC INTERACTION MODEL:
- ENTROPY antagonists appear via video feeds/screens (not physically present in EOC)
- Maintains distinct antagonists per branch without violating single-location constraint
- Player interacts with remote operatives through crisis terminal displays
FILE STRUCTURE SIMPLIFICATION:
- Changed from 4 separate scenario files to 1 scenario.json.erb with ERB branching logic
- Uses globalVariable "crisis_choice" to conditionally render crisis terminal content
- Dramatically reduces development complexity while preserving 4 distinct narratives
TECHNICAL APPROACH:
- ERB conditionals switch crisis terminal NPCs/objects based on player choice
- Shared rooms identical for all players (easier testing/maintenance)
- VM challenges reusable across all branches
- LORE reveals centralized in Intelligence Archive
- Timer mechanic consistent regardless of choice
BRANCHING PRESERVATION:
- ✅ Still 4 distinct story paths (Infrastructure/Data/Supply Chain/Corporate)
- ✅ Still meaningful choice with permanent consequences
- ✅ Still deterministic outcomes matrix for unchosen operations
- ✅ Still unique antagonists per branch (via video feeds)
- ✅ Still branch-specific technical challenges at crisis terminals
BENEFITS:
- Drastically reduces development time (1 scenario vs 4)
- Easier to maintain consistency across branches
- Simpler testing (test shared rooms once, then 4 crisis terminal variations)
- Cleaner file structure
- More realistic (command center coordination vs field deployment)
Next Steps:
- Update stage 0 planning documents to reflect single-location design
- Begin scenario.json.erb implementation with shared rooms
- Implement choice mechanism in Emergency Briefing Room
- Build crisis terminal templates
Updated Stages 1, 4, 5, and 6 to align with new design:
- Torres knows about casualties and foreign sales (not "journalist" lie)
- Radicalized with extremist ideology over 3 months
- Shows cognitive dissonance but can be de-radicalized
- 5 endings: Turn, Arrest, Combat (lethal/non-lethal), Public Exposure
Changes via small edits:
- Stage 1 (Narrative): Journal entries show radicalization, confrontation dialogue updated
- Stage 1 (Narrative): Replaced "Sympathetic Release" with Combat options
- Stage 4 (Objectives): Updated task 26 to reflect 5 choices, updated stop_upload task
- Stage 5 (Room Layout): Updated evidence correlation matrix and design philosophy
- Stage 6 (LORE): Updated Fragment 1 (radicalization methodology) and Fragment 2 (Architect protocol)
All stages now consistent with evil radicals framing while maintaining moral complexity.
Changes:
- Add Stage 3: Moral Choices with arrest/combat options
- Update Stage 0: Torres knows about casualties, radicalized with extremist ideology (3 months)
- Update Stage 2: Torres is radicalized recruit showing cognitive dissonance, not victim
- Update Mission Summary: 5 endings including arrest and combat (lethal/non-lethal)
Design Philosophy Changes:
- ENTROPY clearly evil radicals (accelerationist extremism)
- Torres radicalized but only 3 months in - can be de-radicalized
- Player has arrest/combat/turn options when confronting ENTROPY agents
- New recruits can be saved before full radicalization
- Maintains player agency across all moral choices
Created comprehensive atmospheric design for corporate investigation mission:
TONE & ATMOSPHERE:
- Corporate noir thriller with mounting moral complexity
- Tense investigation (not high-action, slow-burn)
- Tonal shift: Professional → Empathetic → Moral crisis
- Environmental storytelling through objects and spaces
QUANTUM DYNAMICS CORPORATION:
- Modern Bay Area tech campus (450 employees, 5 floors)
- Aesthetic: Clean minimalist + high-tech research + defense contractor security
- Color palette: Cool blues/whites (sterile), warm woods (corporate friendly)
- Sensory details: Server hum, badge beeps, nervous energy, forced normalcy
TIME & PACING:
- Wednesday afternoon: Mission start, interviews available
- Wednesday night: Empty building, free exploration
- Friday night: Final exfiltration trap scenario
- Environmental progression mirrors moral weight
ROOM-SPECIFIC ATMOSPHERES:
- Corporate lobby: Professional surveillance, unwelcoming
- Patricia's office: Frustrated competence, investigation chaos
- Engineering wing: Nervous productivity, team strain
- Torres' office: **CRITICAL** Quiet desperation
* Family photos, medical bills ($380K visible), children's drawings
* 'Get well soon Mommy' with hearts, 'Best Dad' caption
* Half-finished coffee, expired parking permit (sold car)
* This space makes player feel terrible about investigation
- Server room: Surveillance thriller, digital battlefield
- Conference room: War room, evidence mounting
CHARACTER ATMOSPHERE & VOICES:
DAVID TORRES (Manipulated Insider - NOT typical ENTROPY villain):
- Age 38, Hispanic, thin from stress, constantly adjusts wedding ring
- Voice: Intelligent/technical, exhausted, defensive → breaks easily
- Physical tells: Removes glasses, adjusts ring, long pauses
- Confrontation tone: Horror and disbelief (NOT evil monologue)
- Can be turned, feels genuine remorse
- Dialogue: 'What did I do for them? What did I do?'
THE RECRUITER (True ENTROPY Villain - Unseen):
- Actual true believer, professional manipulator
- Calculated recruitment, identified Torres' vulnerability
- Communications show methodical exploitation
- Goes dark after Torres compromised
PATRICIA MORGAN (CSO):
- Age 52, former FBI Cyber (15 years), armed, no-nonsense
- Voice: Direct law enforcement style, frustrated, defensive about team
- 'God. That's how they get people.'
DR. SARAH CHEN (Team Lead):
- Age 41, maternal toward team, guilty about missing signs
- Defensive → Accepting progression
- 'If David did this... those soldiers. Their lives. God.'
SUPPORTING CAST:
- Lisa Rodriguez: Sympathetic friend, emotional context provider
- Marcus Webb: IT manager, guilty about security gaps
- Kevin Tran: Junior engineer, idolizes Torres ('He's a good person')
- Michael Park: RED HERRING (affair, not espionage)
- Dr. Amara Johnson: RED HERRING (legitimate collaboration)
5 KEY EMOTIONAL MOMENTS:
1. Medical bills discovery: $380K, insurance denials, family photo
2. Torres' journal: 8 months of moral descent in real-time
3. Confrontation revelation: Torres realizes 'journalists' are foreign intel
4. Children's drawings: Innocence amid tragedy
5. The choice: No good options (justice vs. mercy)
ENVIRONMENTAL STORYTELLING:
- Torres' desk items tell complete story (coffee, USB, parking permit, photos)
- Engineering whiteboard shows isolation (missed meetings, unanswered questions)
- Server room evidence (fingerprints, blind spots, Friday logs)
- Corporate sterility vs. personal tragedy contrast
ATMOSPHERIC PROGRESSION:
- Act 1: Professional investigator (clean, cooperative, satisfying)
- Act 2: Humanization (complexity, empathy, uncertainty)
- Act 3: Moral weight (impossible decisions, professional detachment gone)
Document: 350+ lines defining complete sensory framework, character voices,
and emotional progression for investigation thriller atmosphere.
Created comprehensive 3-act structure for 'Insider Trading' investigation mission:
ACT 1: THE CORPORATE INFILTRATION (20-25 min)
- Arrival at Quantum Dynamics as security consultant
- Meet CSO Patricia Morgan, receive investigation brief
- Review security logs, narrow 8 suspects to 3
- First NPC interactions (Lisa Rodriguez provides Torres background)
- Discovery of Bludit server (Torres' personal blog = ENTROPY comms)
ACT 2: THE INVESTIGATION (35-45 min)
- VM Challenge: Bludit CMS exploitation (CVE-2019-16113)
* Flag 1: Recruitment timeline, $45K payments received
* Flag 2: Digital Vanguard server IPs, exfiltration proof
* Flag 3: File manifest (3.1 TB / 4.2 TB stolen)
* Flag 4: The Architect's approval message (foreign sales)
- Employee interviews: Chen, Park, Johnson, Kevin (eliminate red herrings)
- Physical evidence: Medical bills, Torres' journal, encrypted USB
- Evidence correlation: Overwhelming proof Torres is insider
- Moral complexity established: Sympathetic motivation (Elena's cancer)
ACT 3: THE CONFRONTATION & CHOICE (15-20 min)
- Confront Torres with evidence (approach varies by player)
- Reveal ENTROPY's deception ('journalists' = Chinese MSS/Russian GRU)
- Torres' breakdown: Realizes 12-40 intelligence officers will die
- CRITICAL CHOICE (4 distinct paths):
* A. Turn Torres into double agent (family saved, ongoing intel for M6-M10)
* B. Arrest Torres (justice, Elena dies, children orphaned, limited intel)
* C. Sympathetic release (family escapes, player misconduct, partial failure)
* D. Public exposure (ENTROPY disrupted, Quantum Dynamics destroyed, 450 jobs lost)
- Prevent final data exfiltration (varies by choice)
- Secure remaining Project Heisenberg data
CLOSING DEBRIEF (5-7 min)
- Tracks ACTUAL player actions (60+ variables)
- NO vague 'approach' labels, only specific discoveries
- Choice consequences revealed (Elena's fate, Torres' cooperation, ENTROPY network)
- ENTROPY business model revealed: Criminal corporation with SLAs
* Insider Threat Initiative: Talent acquisition ($15K per placement)
* Digital Vanguard: Technical analysis infrastructure
* Zero Day Syndicate: Weaponization and sales
* Crypto Anarchists: Payment processing
- HashChain Exchange foreshadowed (sets up M6)
- The Architect pattern: 4th mention across campaign
CONCRETE STAKES ESTABLISHED:
- Operation Schrödinger: 4.2 TB quantum cryptography theft
- 12-40 intelligence officers will die if data reaches foreign governments
- Elena Torres: Stage 3 cancer, $380K treatment, 60% survival with treatment
- Children: Sofia (11), Miguel (8) - family photos/drawings shown
- $45-70 million ENTROPY revenue from foreign sales
- 450 Quantum Dynamics employees (jobs at risk)
MORAL COMPLEXITY:
- Torres is sympathetic: Desperate to save wife, manipulated by ENTROPY
- Journal shows moral descent (8 months of gradual compromise)
- No 'right' answer: All choices have severe consequences
- Family vs. national security, justice vs. mercy, transparency vs. secrecy
CAMPAIGN INTEGRATION:
- If Torres turned: Intelligence asset through M10 finale
- 22 other Insider Threat Initiative placements revealed
- Links M4 (infrastructure attacks) to M6 (crypto tracking)
- Task Force Null investigation advances
Document includes complete variable tracking system (60+ variables),
detailed beat-by-beat structure, and specific implementation notes.
Ready for Stage 2: Atmosphere & Environment Design.
Created comprehensive initialization document with SPECIFIC ENTROPY threat details:
TARGET:
- Quantum Dynamics Corporation (quantum computing research)
- 450 employees, DoD/DARPA contracts
- Post-quantum cryptography for military applications
SPECIFIC STOLEN DATA (Project Heisenberg):
- Quantum Key Distribution military specs (847 pages, classified)
- 14 zero-day vulnerabilities in competitor products
- DoD deployment database (247 facilities, schedules, network topology)
- Cryptographic key material and test data
- Total: 4.2 TB across 18,000 files (73% exfiltrated)
CONCRETE CONSEQUENCES IF ENTROPY SUCCEEDS:
- $4.2 billion DoD quantum crypto program wasted
- 12-40 intelligence officers at risk (retroactive decryption)
- 247 military facilities vulnerable during installations
- 5-year quantum supremacy advantage to China/Russia
- US quantum computing industry reputation destroyed
THE INSIDER - David Torres:
- Senior Cryptography Engineer, PhD from Stanford
- $180K medical debt (wife Elena has Stage 3 cancer)
- Recruited 8 months ago by Insider Threat Initiative
- Paid $45K so far, promised $200K total
- Exfiltration method: Steganography in training videos → YouTube
- Believes he's helping 'journalists expose military-industrial complex'
- Morally conflicted, can be turned if shown ENTROPY's true plan
ENTROPY 4-PHASE PLAN:
1. Exfiltration (current) - 73% complete via Torres
2. Analysis (2 weeks) - Digital Vanguard weaponizes research
3. Distribution (4 weeks) - Zero Day Syndicate sells to China/Russia/Iran
4. Deployment (12 weeks) - Decrypt DoD comms, attack facilities
CROSS-CELL COORDINATION (First Business Model Mission):
- Insider Threat Initiative: Recruitment ($15K per placement)
- Digital Vanguard: Technical analysis & infrastructure
- Zero Day Syndicate: Exploit weaponization & sales
- Crypto Anarchists: Payment processing
- Expected revenue: $45-70 million USD split across cells
INVESTIGATION STRUCTURE:
- 8-10 employee NPCs to interview
- Evidence correlation puzzle (logs, access records, financials)
- Non-combat resolution (dialogue-driven confrontation)
- Bludit CMS exploitation (CVE-2019-16113) for digital evidence
MORAL COMPLEXITY:
- Turn Torres into double agent (saves wife, provides intel for M6-M10)
- Arrest Torres (justice, but wife likely dies, limited intel)
- Sympathize and release (saves family, endangers national security)
- Expose everything publicly (disrupts ENTROPY but destroys company)
CAMPAIGN IMPACT:
- If turned: Torres provides intelligence through M10 finale
- Reveals ENTROPY operates as criminal corporation with service contracts
- Sets up M6 financial tracking, M8 insider threat patterns
- Human cost in M7 if data sold to foreign governments
Educational focus: Human Factors (insider threats), Web Security (CMS exploitation),
Security Operations (forensic investigation), Systems Security (privilege escalation)
Document: 600+ lines detailing specific operational plans, consequences, and NPCs.
Mission ready for Stage 1 narrative structure development.
- Updated status from 85% to 90% (dialogue + compilation complete)
- Added compilation status: All 12 files compile successfully (0 errors, 1 warning)
- Updated file inventory to show all 26 files (12 .ink + 12 .json + 2 config)
- Added development highlights about Ink compilation process
- Updated next steps: compilation complete, testing is next priority
Mission 4 now at 90% completion with all dialogue scripts created and compiled to JSON.
Fixed remaining conditional syntax errors across all files:
- Converted all multi-branch conditionals to separate blocks
- Added missing start knot to phone_robert_chen.ink
- Fixed nested conditional logic in terminals and NPCs
Scripts now compile with minimal errors.
Remaining: 5 minor conditional errors to fix
Created m04_closing_debrief.ink (327 lines) - mission wrap-up conversation
with Agent 0x99 featuring Task Force Null revelation and disclosure choice.
Key features:
- Mission outcome report (attack status, Voltage status)
- Intelligence analysis (Critical Mass + Social Fabric coordination)
- The Architect revelation and multi-city threat
- Task Force Null formation and player assignment
- Public disclosure choice (full/quiet/partial)
- Consequence explanation for each choice
- Robert Chen farewell based on trust level
- Mission completion and campaign progression
Implements dialogue planning from Stage 6 for closing debrief.
All 6 critical path scripts now complete.
Created m04_npc_voltage.ink (374 lines) - climactic antagonist encounter
with Critical Mass leader featuring complex branching outcomes.
Key features:
- Voltage leverage system (active trigger vs. disabled)
- Player choice: capture risky vs. disable safe
- Negotiation paths with ideology explanation
- Combat difficulty based on player priority
- Multiple outcomes (capture, escape, emergency trigger)
- The Architect intelligence revelation
- OptiGrid Solutions multi-site threat hint
Implements dialogue planning from Stage 6 for Voltage confrontation.
Critical path script 4 of 6 complete.
Created m04_phone_agent0x99.ink (510 lines) - strategic guidance system
providing event-triggered phone support throughout the mission.
Key features:
- Handler confidence tracking (0-100) affecting dialogue tone
- Event-triggered conversations (server room, attack identified)
- Adaptive guidance based on player progress and choices
- Player-initiated help system (priorities, intel, tactical hints)
- Voltage capture vs. speed guidance for final phase
- Multi-stage mission progression support
Implements dialogue planning from Stage 6 for Agent 0x99 phone contact.
- Detailed room-by-room specifications (9 rooms total)
- Complete object placement and interaction systems
- Combat space design for all 3 encounters
- Item distribution across all rooms
- Lock and access control systems (tiered keycards)
- NPC positioning and patrol routes
- Multiple approach paths (stealth, social, combat)
- Environmental storytelling in each room
- Room connection map with access requirements
- VM and flag station integration in Server Room
- No traditional puzzles (investigation-focused)
- Supports 60-80 minute playtime target
- Complete character profiles for all NPCs
- Robert Chen: Detailed arc from skeptical to ally
- Voltage: Professional antagonist with credible threat
- Three field operatives: Cipher, Relay, Static
- Agent 0x99: Mission-specific support role
- Minor NPCs: Security guard, background employees
- Character relationship dynamics
- NPC behavior systems (patrol, alert states, radio)
- Sprite and animation requirements for all characters
- Voice acting direction and dialogue patterns
- Character integration with gameplay mechanics
- Complete 3-act story arc with beat-by-beat progression
- Character arcs: Robert Chen, Voltage, Agent 0x99
- Combat encounters integrated with narrative stages
- Major choices: capture vs disable, disclosure vs quiet patch
- Stage-based urgency mapped to acts (no real-time timer)
- VM challenge integration points
- LORE and cross-mission connections
- Task Force Null and The Architect revelation
- 60-80 minute mission structure
