High Water · Sim board · all 14 lanes · for Jonas's picks

The building is
the weapon

You asked the whole team how far the physics can go: destruction, electricity, fire, gas, explosions and fluids. Fourteen lanes answered independently. They agreed more than I expected, and on the same thing: the simulation is the arcology's building services (power, water, gas), in a few states you can read at a glance.

“If a tenant can't see it happen, don't simulate it.”Stencil, lore

What the team agreed onThree findings

Nobody saw anyone else's answer. The chips show who argued for each finding.

11 of 14Services are the simPower risers, water mains and gas lines, each with discrete states and a small rules table. A cut riser blacks a room out, a burst main floods it, a gas line fills it.

CornermanHitlagSlipwayTidewaterStencilDownbeatOpticalsAfterimageDrywallPlumbGallery

14 of 14Legibility beats fidelityEach lane named its own version: every link in a chain announces itself, the building gets the kill, the lights are the readout, the floor listens, the Vermin teach the chemistry.

every lane

14 of 14No real solversNo fluid, fire or gas solver, and no GPU simulation that gameplay reads back. On Web at 640×360 it reads as noise, makes outcomes random, and stalls the frame.

unanimous

The rules tableWhat meets what

The BotW chemistry for Tower 3: six materials, one rule per pair. Green rules already ship on main, cyan rules come with my recommended package, and grey ones wait until later. Every rule gets one colour and one silhouette.

	Watercanals, mains	Powerrisers, cables	GasLPG, O2, lines	Fireoil, stalls	Metalgrating, racks	BodiesVermin, you
Water	FlowFloodsMains burst, drains pull, the bore runs.on main · F73	ShockCurrent runs through every wet cell.on main · Sparker	BubblesGas vents up through canals and gives away the leak.later	SteamSprinklers and floods put fire out and leave a white screen of steam.package		WadeSlows everyone. A wet body conducts.on main · wet body in package
Power		BlackoutCut the riser and everything downstream dies.package	IgniteOne spark in a gassed room makes a flash fire.package	Arc fireA live cable on oil starts a smoulder.later	ConductsRails, grating, the conveyor.on main	LockA stun. Next: a tetanus lock with X-ray frames.on main · lock later
Gas			FillsA room gasses up behind a visible low haze.package	DeflagrateA fire front rolls, then the blast juggle.package	RocketA punctured O2 canister flies.later	FleeVermin cough and shout, then run for the exit.package · AI
Fire				SpreadSmoulder, burn, char, from prop to prop.later · authored only		BurningHe runs, pats himself down and dives for a canal.later

■ on main■ recommended package■ later

The one real debateGraph or grid?

Stencil, Opticals, Downbeat and Drywall want a graph: a riser feeds taps, and taps feed consumers. Slipway, Tidewater and Afterimage want a coarse cell grid of about 0.5 m, holding wet, live, heat and gas.

My call: both, and neither simulates flow. Power is a graph, because blackouts are discrete and authored. Wet, soot, charge and gas live in Plumb's per-floor state texture: events write it, the floor shader shows it, and the shock reads it. Only gas drifts, slowly and cell by cell toward vents. That gives Slipway's grid its one upload and Tidewater's one colour per medium, without a solver.

Group A · the servicesThe simulation itself

Hours are the lanes' own estimates, summed across lanes, and the work runs in parallel. The cyan border marks my recommended package.

Group B · legibilityMake every link read

In a brawler at 640×360, an effect you can't read might as well not have happened. This layer is what turns the services into fights.

Group C · bodies, structure, scoreLater, or if a lane frees up

All good. None of it is needed to make the services land this week.

TrapsWhat we won't build

Fluid, fire or gas solversAll fourteen lanes said this. At 640×360 they read as noise and make outcomes random.

GPU simulation read back by gameplayCompatibility has no compute shaders, and a readback stalls the frame (Slipway).

Real active ragdollIt turns 300 bodies to mush and fights “mass, not rubber” (Armature).

An always-on scanner or detective modeThe forecast shows only while you commit to an action (Readout).

A new saturated hue per stateThe combat tells already own amber, red, blue, cyan and violet, so states live in value and texture (Plumb).

Beat-quantised gameplayPunches would feel late. Only the music follows the sim (Downbeat).

Cornerman's recommendationPackage for Thu–Sat

Power graph and blackout A1 · ~14 h
The headline. It uses lights, music, AI and optics we already have, and it sells the setting.
Utilities in the walls A2 · ~10 h
Destruction becomes the way into the other systems. It reuses flood and conduction.
Gas as a room state A3 · ~6 h
A fuse you can see, set off by the Sparker or your rail. It pays out in the blast juggle.
The floor remembers A4 · ~8 h
A single state texture that is both what you see and what the rules read.
Chain beats and incident cards B1 + B2 · ~15 h
The payoff. The building gets the kill, and you get the credit.
The Vermin know their floor B5 · ~7 h
Enemies teach the chemistry before you use it.

About 60 h across ten lanes, roughly 6 h each, which fits Thursday and Friday. That leaves Saturday for tuning and Sunday for release. F73 and F71 get the full set first; F74 and F75 get power and walls. Whatever you pick, it is still all in-house.