Explore: Act 2 era depth — design opportunities for the ferry era

[stphung]

Context

Act 2 is release-ready (hardening #731, 3-month retune #731, era epilogue #732), but a design review found the recurring ferry era is structurally much simpler than Act 1's endgame — and the simplicity is a grammar gap, not a content gap. This issue collects the opportunity space for a future exploration pass (/opsx:explore) before committing to changes.

Why it reads as simple: Act 1's depth comes from five repeating patterns — a hub currency with competing sinks (PR), mutual gating between systems (Deep→Fracture+Cores, Loom→Ascension→Loom zones), several concurrent discovery axes, stacked multipliers from different systems, and the prestige loop (repetition with permanent gain). The maiden voyage is decision-rich, but the era — months of play — has one currency (Salvage), three sinks that never interact, one timing dial (Riftglass), text-only discovery beats, and mechanically identical crossings.

Counterpoint to keep in view: some simplicity is stated identity — Act 2 deliberately trades system-braiding for anticipation, people, and authored no-dice consequence (docs/dossiers/act2-pilgrimage.md, Design Intent). The goal is a grammar of the era's own kind, not a clone of Act 1's braid.

Opportunities (rough leverage order)

1. Make the dark mechanical — the map decays. dimmed_ports already tracks the old world going out, deterministically per era seed, but it's cosmetic. Let the dark close roads and ports as the era wears on: late crossings must route around dead water; the memorized route graph stops being true; crossings 5, 12, and 20 play differently. Act 1's receding frontier, inverted — on-theme, no-dice by construction, reuses existing route + dimming machinery. Highest value-per-effort on this list, and the one idea not already sketched anywhere.
2. Veteran souls (systems-braiding exploration, Session 5): crew rank up at stations across crossings; ranks unlock counsel/bonuses/ship-tier prerequisites. Turns the act's most-loved asset — the authored people — into the era's progression spine. Arc/station scaffolding exists in souls.rs.
3. Refinement chain + tier↔district mutual gating (Session 5): Salvage → refined materials via a Refinery district; materials gate ship tiers; districts require tiers. The direct fix for "one currency, three sinks." Biggest build; needs real balance work against the era envelope gates.
4. The colony as an active surface: player-chosen district projects (consume Salvage/materials, grant voyage-side bonuses) instead of automatic population thresholds; and colonist letters — after the Going-Dark ends mail from the old world, delivered souls start writing, giving the era's second half a voice.
5. Ferry-run presence without breaking idle: the one route choice per crossing could return (pick the lane, live with its dimming risk); authored commissions — a named passenger with a route constraint, no dice — make one crossing in five an event.
6. Act 1 bridges (Session 5's per-system sketch table): fishing off the stern (cheapest, most charming reuse), Power Cores → Salvage trickle, Haven rooms → voyage bonuses, Soulforge-style ship-component enhancement, challenges as threat resolution. Gives maxed Act 1 systems a second outlet.
7. Flagged, not endorsed: an era-rebirth loop (new dying branch, carried-over veterans/tiers/chart knowledge — Act 2's own prestige analog). Conflicts with the load-bearing anti-goal "it ends (Act 3), it does not cycle in place"; repetition-with-permanence probably belongs to Act 3's design instead.

Suggested sequencing (post-flip content drops)

dark-closes-the-map → veteran souls → refinement + tiers → one bridge (fishing) + colonist letters. Each is a self-contained OpenSpec change; the first two are conservative enough to land within weeks of launch while players are still early-era.

References

• docs/explorations/2026-07-05-act2-systems-braiding.md (Session 5 = items 2–3, 6; Session 6 shipped as Dock/Wormhole)
• docs/dossiers/act2-pilgrimage.md (Open Question fix: character input text not visible on screen #9; Fun Assessment heuristic 4 — "the voyage remains a deliberate island")
• openspec/specs/vessel-act2/spec.md (era envelope bands any depth work must respect: balanced 15–30 crossings / 2.5–4.5 mo / ≥84% saved)
• 2026-07-12 release-readiness review (this issue's origin; Act 1 vs Act 2 depth comparison)

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