Auto Warz — Genesis Design¶
Document Type: Design Document Version: 0.2 Last Updated: 2026-09-07 Vault destination:
01_Design DocumentsPhase: Phase 1 — Launch release Related Documents:[04_Factory & Resource System Design](<./04_Factory & Resource System Design.md>)·[08_Research Tree Design](<../Content/08_Research Tree Design.md>)·[24_Module System Design](<./24_Module System Design.md>)·[39_Space Layer Design](<./39_Space Layer Design.md>)·[18_Notifications](<../Interface/18_Notifications.md>)·[36_Progression Arc Design](<../Content/36_Progression Arc Design.md>)·[00_Canonical Design Facts](<../../04_Project Management/00_Canonical Design Facts.md>)Supersedes: the Genesis Bot & Construction System section of[04_Factory & Resource System Design](<./04_Factory & Resource System Design.md>)Closes: OI-364, OI-217, OI-135
Purpose of This Document¶
Genesis is referenced 284 times across twenty documents and had half a page describing it. It is
the entity every building placement, upgrade kit, repair and deconstruct passes through, and the
largest undecided thing in the vault (OI-364), because where the factory goes in
[39_Space Layer Design](<./39_Space Layer Design.md>) §4 depends entirely on what the builder can do.
1. The Principle¶
Genesis is the least automated thing in an automation game.
That was the diagnosis, and Research Branch 7's answer to it was seven nodes of "builds 25%
faster", "mines 30% faster", "carries 2× per trip". Making the bottleneck faster is the least
interesting answer available, and flat percentage nodes are the style
[13_Player Levelling System](<../Content/13_Player Levelling System.md>) already abandoned.
The right answer is the one the game already believes:
Genesis's job is to work itself out of a job.
Canonical §17, manual first, automation is built, applied to the builder. Hour one you place things through Genesis. Hour ten the bots do it. Hour a hundred Genesis is a companion you keep rather than a tool you use.
2. Two Rules Were Wearing One Coat¶
[04_Factory & Resource System Design](<./04_Factory & Resource System Design.md>) stated these together, as though they were the same fact:
| Rule | Verdict |
|---|---|
| Indestructible | Kept. Canonical §19's anti-softlock reasoning holds: losing your builder is unrecoverable |
| "Always exactly 1, cannot be replicated or replaced" | Dropped 2026-09-07. This is what broke co-op and space, and it was never the load-bearing half |
Genesis must not be losable. That is not the same as there being only one.
2.1 One Genesis per player¶
Decided 2026-09-07. Every player in a world has their own Genesis. Not one per world.
That is the whole fix for co-op, and it came from the right question: "in co-op there is nothing for the other person to do." Correct, under the old rule. With one shared Genesis and four players, three of them cannot build.
Each Genesis is still indestructible, still a companion, still the thing that came with you. There are simply as many as there are people.
3. What Everyone Does in Co-op¶
With a Genesis each, players build independently and simultaneously, anywhere on the planet. They share everything that should be shared and nothing that should not:
| Shared | Personal |
|---|---|
| The factory itself | Your Genesis |
| The power grid | Your build queue |
| Factory Research and its slot pool | Your camera and your attention |
| Storage, and therefore construction materials |
Materials being shared is a feature, not a clash. Two players building at once draw from the same
CONSTRUCTION silos, so a co-op session runs out of plates faster than a solo one. That is a real
cooperative tension: somebody has to go and fix the plate line, and it is a conversation rather than
a rule.
Role division then happens because people choose it, not because the game assigns it. One takes power, one takes smelting, one takes the perimeter. Nothing in the design has to enforce that.
This closes OI-217, which asked whether players direct Genesis simultaneously or through a queue. Neither: they each have one.
4. Bots Do the Work¶
"Bots can build too. That's the point. If bots do the work, Genesis doesn't need to do it."
Construction Bots already exist in [04_Factory & Resource System Design](<./04_Factory & Resource System Design.md>): produced by the
Construction Bot Bay from Bot Frame, Bot Core and Bot Cell, destructible, working from the build
queue. The change is in emphasis rather than mechanism.
| Before | Now | |
|---|---|---|
| Genesis | The builder. Bots assist | The first builder, and the one that can start something where nothing exists |
| Bots | An upgrade to Genesis | The builders. Volume, parallelism, and they never get bored |
Bots are destructible and Genesis is not, which is the correct asymmetry: the fleet is what you
risk, the companion is what you keep. Same shape as
[33_Mothership & Fleet Design](<./33_Mothership & Fleet Design.md>), where escorts die and the mothership is stranded rather than
destroyed.
4.0 Bots are faster. Genesis never stops.¶
Decided 2026-09-07. That one line is the whole relationship.
| Bots | Genesis | |
|---|---|---|
| Speed | Faster, and parallel | Slower, and alone |
| Energy | They run out. They need charge, and the bay needs power | Never stops. Slows on a dead grid, never idles |
| Destructible | Yes | No |
| Needed | When there is volume | When there is nothing else |
If the bots run out of energy, Genesis can still do the build.
Which makes a blackout a construction problem¶
This connects the power system straight to building, and it is the best thing in this document.
When the grid sheds ([25_Power System Design](<./25_Power System Design.md>)), production stops. The bot bay stops too, and
the bots go quiet. Genesis keeps working, slowly, by hand.
So during a blackout the player is repairing their grid with one pair of hands, which is exactly
how it felt in hour one. That is what makes First Blackout
([36_Progression Arc Design](<../Content/36_Progression Arc Design.md>) §3.3) land as a beat rather than a notification: the factory does not
merely pause, the player is demoted back to manual until they fix it.
Genesis itself never runs out. It draws from the grid when there is one, and it carries an internal reserve that trickles back regardless. On a dead grid it is slow, never stopped. That is the anti-softlock rule again (Canonical §19): a builder that can be switched off by the failure it exists to repair is a softlock with extra steps.
4.1 What "supervisory role" means¶
04_Factory asserted that Bot Programming II makes Genesis "graduate to a supervisory role
(oversees bot fleet)" and never said what that meant. OI-135 deferred it. Answer:
Nothing. Genesis does not supervise. The build queue does.
Bots take work from the queue. So does Genesis. Genesis is a worker on the same queue as the bots, it is simply the one that was there first and the one that cannot be destroyed. There is no supervision layer, no bot management screen, and no reason for one.
That is the boring answer and it is the right one: inventing a management system for the thing that was supposed to end management would undo the point.
5. Genesis Builds Where Bots Cannot¶
Confirmed and generalised 2026-09-07 (was Claude's call, now El's): "Genesis has to be around for any build if there are no other bots."
So the rule is not about founding specifically. It is broader and simpler:
Genesis builds wherever bots cannot.
Genesis founds. Bots continue. Founding a planet is just the most obvious case of it.
Bots come from a bay. A bay has to be placed by something. On a planet where nothing exists yet, that something is Genesis. And on a planet where the bots have run out of energy, that something is Genesis again (§4.0).
5.1 Why this is worth having¶
It gives travel weight. Founding a colony is a trip you physically make. And while your Genesis
is away, your home planet can continue everything queued but cannot start anything new where no
bots reach. That is a real cost with a name, and it matches the batch rhythm the space layer already
has ([39_Space Layer Design](<./39_Space Layer Design.md>) §1.1).
It keeps Genesis permanently relevant without making it the bottleneck. One trip per planet, not one trip per building.
It survives solo play. A solo player has exactly one Genesis, so the choice of when to leave home is a real one. Under the alternative, where a freighter can drop a self-unpacking bay, Genesis never needs to travel and the space layer loses a decision.
The alternative, if you want it: a starter package delivered by freighter that unpacks into a bay. Simpler, and it costs the game the moment above.
6. How Genesis Improves¶
Decided 2026-09-07: Genesis upgrades, and research points at it. Three mechanisms, and they are the same three the rest of the game already uses. Nothing new is invented.
| Mechanism | Buys | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Factory Research | Verbs. New things Genesis can do at all | World |
| Upgrade kits | Mk level. Speed and capacity | World, an item |
| Modules | Capacity, tuned per Genesis | World, an item |
Research unlocks capability. Kits and modules buy capacity. Canonical §4's rule, applied to Genesis exactly as
[38_Weapons & Ammunition Design](<./38_Weapons & Ammunition Design.md>)applied it to turrets.
6.1 Branch 7 loses its percentages¶
Seven of Branch 7's nodes are flat multipliers, and they all go:
| Node | Was | Now |
|---|---|---|
| Genesis Build Speed I / II | +25% / +50% build speed | Deleted. Machine Mk buys this |
| Genesis Mining Upgrade | +30% mine speed | Deleted. Machine Mk |
| Genesis Bulk Mining | 2× carried per trip | Deleted. A Productivity module |
| Genesis Task Queue Expansion | queue 5 → 10 | Deleted. Mk buys queue depth |
What Branch 7 keeps is everything that unlocks a verb, which is what a research tree is for:
- Genesis Repair and Auto-Repair
- Genesis Demolish
- Bot Programming I and II
- Genesis Blueprint Execution
- Genesis Level Transition
- Genesis Task Priority (a UI capability, not a number)
- The Genesis Optimisation infinite node stays: it is world-scoped and it is a factory rate,
exactly like the other four infinite nodes (
[08_Research Tree Design](<../Content/08_Research Tree Design.md>)§0.4)
6.2 Modules on Genesis¶
Genesis is a machine, so the four existing module types all mean something on it, which is the same sanity check that worked for turrets:
| Module | On Genesis |
|---|---|
| Efficiency | Lower power draw when charging. Also less signature at the charging point |
| Productivity | More carried per trip. This is what Bulk Mining used to be |
| Status | Detailed and remote readout: what it is doing, what it is waiting for, from across the base |
| Power Pole | Genesis distributes power where it stands. A walking repeater |
6.3 Upgrades are world-scoped, and that matters¶
Genesis improvements come from Factory Research and world items, never from Engineering Points.
Two reasons, and both are already rules. [36_Progression Arc Design](<../Content/36_Progression Arc Design.md>) §7: levels never gate
world content, and Engineering Points buy rates on ship and mothership designs, nothing else. And
Canonical §20: capacity crosses, stock does not.
The consequence is the good one: a guest's Genesis is exactly as capable as the host's, because capability comes from the world they are both standing in. A level 40 guest brings their skill and their designs, not a better robot.
7. Genesis Talks¶
Decided 2026-09-07. Genesis has a voice and makes sounds.
[10_Tutorial & Onboarding Design](<../Interface/10_Tutorial & Onboarding Design.md>) already gives it dialogue, so this confirms rather than
introduces. What it opens is more interesting:
Genesis should be the voice of
[18_Notifications](<../Interface/18_Notifications.md>).
The Phase 1 beats depend on the game telling the player something at the right moment
([36_Progression Arc Design](<../Content/36_Progression Arc Design.md>)). First Blackout in particular is dead unless the shed tier and
the deficit are named out loud. A notification system with a character attached lands where a toast
in the corner does not.
And in co-op it stays personal: your Genesis talks to you, not to the room. Four players do not share one nagging voice.
7.1 To hear Genesis from another planet, build a satellite¶
Decided 2026-09-07, and it fills a hole [39_Space Layer Design](<./39_Space Layer Design.md>) §4.3 had left open: the UI
has to make a second planet legible without being there.
Genesis talks to you where you are standing. To hear a planet you are not on, you build a satellite.
| With a satellite | That planet reports. Its Genesis speaks to you, its alarms reach you, and you can open its panel and queue work |
| Without one | Silence. You find out what happened when you arrive |
The satellite gives you the panel, not the hands. You can see and you can queue. You still cannot do anything that needs Genesis, because Genesis is not there (§5).
Three things this earns:
It is consistent with everything else. Canonical §17, manual first, automation is built. Remote
awareness is not a free UI feature, it is a thing you pay for, exactly like the Scanner that
reveals systems in the first place ([05_World Generation & Planet Types](<../Content/05_World Generation & Planet Types.md>)).
It prices settling widely, honestly. [39_Space Layer Design](<./39_Space Layer Design.md>) §4 lets the player settle
however they like. Many sites now means many satellites, and an unmonitored site is genuinely
quiet. That is a fair cost rather than a rule against sprawl.
It makes coming home meaningful. Arriving at a site you have not heard from in an hour, and finding out what it did without you, is a good moment. A game that tells you everything all the time does not have that moment.
7.2 What it should not become¶
- Not chatty. It speaks when something changed, not while things are fine.
- Not a hint system. It reports what happened. It does not tell you how to fix your ratios.
- Sounds carry most of it. A chirp when a task completes, a different one when a queue empties, a bad one when something is destroyed. Words are for things a sound cannot say.
8. Scope and Persistence¶
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| How many | One per player in the world |
| Destructible | No, all of them |
| Where upgrades live | The world. Factory Research, kits, modules |
| A guest's Genesis | Arrives with them, leaves with them, and is as capable as the host's while it is there |
| Can it be lost | No. Not stranded, not destroyed, not left behind on another planet without a way home |
Outpost Mode has a different Genesis — infinite health, staggers when hit, no failure state — and that is a separate product on its own track. The two are allowed to diverge and should not be kept in sync.
Open items for this document are tracked in docs/open-items.md, area genesis.
Open Questions¶
- What the satellite actually is: a building launched from the planet it covers, or something the orbital station assembles. And whether one covers a planet, a system, or a fixed radius
- Whether a satellite can be lost, and what a silent planet looks like in the UI if it can
- Whether bots recharge at the bay or in the field, and how long a bot lasts on a charge, which is what decides how bad a blackout gets
- Does each player name their Genesis? Cheap, and attachment is worth a lot for a companion
- Genesis mining speed relative to a Mining Drill (OI-216), still open and now more interesting, since Machine Mk changes it
- Whether Genesis has one Mk track or two. It has no ports, so Base Mk may not apply, in which case it has Machine Mk only and that is a deliberate exception to state
- What happens to a player's Genesis when they log out of a co-op world — parked, or gone with them, and whether its queue survives
- How many module slots, since the size-class table in
24_Module System Designis about buildings and Genesis is not one - Whether Genesis can be somewhere the camera is not (OI-157), which matters much more now that there are several
Revision History¶
| Version | Date | Changes |
|---|---|---|
| 0.2 | 2026-09-07 | Three additions from El. §4.0: bots are faster, Genesis never stops. Bots run out of energy and the bay needs power, so a blackout is a construction problem — the bots go quiet and the player is demoted back to one pair of hands, which is what makes First Blackout land as a beat. Genesis draws from the grid but carries a reserve that always trickles back, so it slows and never stops, per the §19 anti-softlock rule. §5 confirmed and generalised: no longer Claude's call, and the rule is broader — Genesis builds wherever bots cannot, with founding a planet as the obvious case. §7.1: to hear a planet you are not on, build a satellite. Remote awareness is paid for, not free; the satellite gives you the panel, not the hands; and without one a remote site is genuinely silent. Fills the hole 39_Space Layer Design §4.3 left open and prices settling widely honestly. |
| 0.1 | 2026-09-07 | Initial document, superseding the half-page in 04_Factory and closing OI-364, OI-217 and OI-135. Genesis is the least automated thing in an automation game, and its job is to work itself out of one. Two rules separated: indestructible kept, always exactly 1 dropped. One Genesis per player, which is the whole fix for co-op. Bots are the builders; Genesis is the first one and the one that cannot die. "Supervisory role" answered: nothing supervises, the queue does. Genesis founds a site, bots continue — flagged as the one call not made by El. Three upgrade mechanisms, research for verbs and kits and modules for capacity, deleting seven flat-percentage nodes from Branch 7 and keeping everything that unlocks a verb. Upgrades are world-scoped, so a guest's Genesis is as capable as the host's. Genesis talks, and should be the voice of 18_Notifications, personal per player in co-op. |