Lineage succession — the clone system

Heroes die for real (see Death cycle) — but factions don’t lose the role forever. Every hero belongs to a lineage — a template with a founder identity. When the current bearer dies, the lineage waits, then produces a clone of the founder with the same name + a (Clone #N) suffix, a fresh XP counter, and the perks the previous bearer had unlocked.

The clone system replaces the earlier “new face, new name from pool” model. Two reasons: (1) authoring name pools per faction × archetype is content the mod doesn’t ship; (2) sci-fi clone lore does the emotional work for free — the name “Korkov” keeps coming back, and every KIA on the wall reads as a chapter in the same story.

The founder

Each pool template has one founder:

$arg_admiral_001 = table[
  $template_id     = 'arg_admiral_001',
  $founder_name    = 'Captain Sarah Kowalski',
  $bio_template    = '<in-universe backstory>',
  $faction         = faction.argon,
  $archetype       = 'admiral',
  $home_sector     = sector.argonprime,
  $perks           = [...],       // authored perk list
  $vacant_until    = null,        // set after KIA
  $clone_generation = 0,          // counter, per-template
]

When the mod first spawns a bearer for this template, that bearer is the founder. Their registry entry gets:

$active_heroes.{arg_admiral_001} = table[
  $display_name     = 'Captain Sarah Kowalski',   // same as founder
  $is_clone         = false,
  $clone_generation = 0,
  $xp = 0, $stars = 1, $recovery_points = 0,
  $perks_state = <initialized from template.$perks>,
  ...
]

Bearer lifecycle

flowchart LR
  Available["template AVAILABLE<br/>$vacant_until = null<br/>$clone_generation = N<br/>(no current bearer)"]
  Occupied["template OCCUPIED<br/>+ bearer in $active_heroes<br/>display_name = founder_name<br/>OR founder_name (Clone #N)"]
  Vacant["template VACANT<br/>$vacant_until = age + 120min<br/>(no bearer)"]

  Available -->|spawn cron picks template| Occupied
  Occupied -->|bearer KIA| Vacant
  Vacant -->|"player.age >= $vacant_until"| Available
  Available -.->|"next clone spawns<br/>$clone_generation += 1"| Occupied

When a bearer is KIA’d:

1. The bearer’s full record moves to $kia_heroes archive — permanent memorial with $display_name (with clone suffix if any), final XP, ★, kill count, last kill, face, cause of death, $kia_at, $is_clone, $clone_generation.
2. The pool template gets $vacant_until = player.age + $succession_cooldown_min (default 120 game-minutes).
3. Every HeroManager tick, the mod checks templates. When player.age >= $vacant_until, the template is available again.
4. If HeroManager needs a hero for the faction, the template is picked and a clone spawns:
   • Reads $pool_state.{template}.$clone_generation, increments to N
   • $display_name = $founder_name + ' (Clone #' + N + ')' → e.g. Captain Sarah Kowalski (Clone #1)
   • Fresh face from the vanilla NPC generator (no per-template face pool — the clone looks Argon-generic)
   • $xp = 0, $stars = 1, $recovery_points = 0
   • Full starting fleet granted immediately (bypasses the RP system for first spawn; see Recovery Points)
   • $bio_template copied literally to the clone
   • $perks_state INHERITED from the KIA’d bearer’s perks_state at moment of death — active perks stay active, LEARNed perks stay learned, locked perks stay locked with their original conditions. This is the important part — see below.

Perks inheritance across clones

The clone inherits the perks state, not the XP. This is deliberate:

• The XP is the bearer’s individual combat record. A new clone hasn’t earned it — they start at 0.
• The perks are the lineage’s accumulated reputation. Sarah Kowalski (original) unlocked Master Logistic through the 10M cr milestone; if she dies, Sarah Kowalski (Clone #1) inherits Master Logistic because the lineage — as an institution the faction invests in — retains that reputation.

Consequence: if the player has been actively building up a lineage’s perks (via gifts to raise the hero’s cash / by picking up cheap ★★★ tier upgrades through LEARN), that investment survives even repeated KIAs of the current bearer.

Perks the clone inherits fall into these categories:

• Active (unlocked from the original bearer) — apply immediately on spawn (e.g. RP tick x1.5 from Logistic starts on tick 1)
• Locked (never unlocked in original) — remain locked with their original condition, same as if they’d been authored fresh
• Locked-behind-cash-milestone — remain locked, cash counter carries over

What the clone does NOT inherit: the flagship, the escort roster, the kill count, the last-kill record, and — importantly — the RP reservoir. Every clone is a full “start from ★” bearer for their own combat record, but stands on the shoulders of the lineage’s LEARNed perks.

KIA archive

md.mlog_heroes.MlogHeroesInit.$kia_heroes is an append-only table, keyed by <pool_id>_<sequence> (e.g. arg_admiral_001_1, arg_admiral_001_2, arg_admiral_001_3 for successive clones of the same lineage).

Every record:

{
  $pool_id, $display_name (with any clone suffix), $archetype, $faction,
  $final_xp, $final_stars, $final_kill_count, $last_kill,
  $kia_at = player.age,
  $face = <character_macro>,
  $cause = 'flagship_destroyed',
  $is_clone, $clone_generation,
}

Archived records never come back to $active_heroes. The dead stay dead. The next clone is a different individual (fresh XP, different combat record), even though they share the founder’s name and inherited the lineage perks.

The archive supports:

• Memorial UI — the KIA archive submenu (“no fallen heroes — all bearers still alive or in active recovery” is the empty state). Every dead hero listed with final stats.
• Lineage genealogy (future) — grouping records by template so you can browse “Sarah Kowalski (founder)”, “Sarah Kowalski (Clone #1)”, “Sarah Kowalski (Clone #2)” as a lineage history.
• Mission hooks (future, see concept C-005) — revenge missions, relics tied to specific dead bearers, faction news mentioning their deaths.

The Retired archive is a separate track — heroes mustered out by faction succession events (e.g. faction merger, planned future feature):

Configurable succession cooldown

$succession_cooldown_min in MlogHeroesInit actions controls how long a template stays vacant after KIA. Default: 120 game-minutes (2 game-hours).

Value	Feel
30	Fast churn — clones appear within game-half-hour; a faction rarely goes without an admiral of a specific lineage
120 (default)	Balanced — the faction is noticeably weaker for ~2 game-hours after a big loss
240	Grimdark — a KIA’d lineage stays vacant for a game-work-shift, faction feels the loss

⚠ Not a slider. Like the death roll, this is a script constant with no row on the Settings screens — changing it means editing mlog_heroes.xml.

⚠ And the release value is not what you are playing. The current alpha ships with the debug flag on, which sets the vacancy to 10 minutes, not 120. If successors appear far faster than this page describes, that is why.

What the player sees

Immediately on KIA:

• Notification banner names the dead hero and their outcome
• The hero disappears from the roster
• The KIA archive gets the new record

Between KIA and clone spawn (120 min):

• The lineage is not visible in the roster
• The faction has one fewer active hero for the duration
• Other heroes of the same faction carry the strategic load

When the clone spawns:

• New yellow marker appears in the faction’s home sector
• Roster row will look nearly identical to the previous bearer’s — same faction, same archetype, same name + (Clone #N) suffix
• Perks already-unlocked show as active immediately
• Fresh XP, ★1, empty kill count — a new individual with the lineage’s inherited reputation

Player experience: “The Korkov lineage lives on. Same name, same institutional weight. New tally, same responsibility.”

Pool exhaustion

Every template can spawn many clones over time (one at a time; $clone_generation counter has no cap). If:

• All faction templates are occupied or vacant, and
• HeroManager has no available role to fill,

the faction may temporarily go without an active hero of a specific archetype. This is not a bug — it is faction rebalancing under attrition. The next available template picks up when its $vacant_until expires.

If all templates for a faction are exhausted for a long period (mass KIA event across multiple lineages), the faction rides out the drought until vacancies clear. Result: heavy war losses can noticeably weaken a faction’s hero presence for hours of game time.

Design intent

• Persistence of role, not persistence of body. Factions have continuity through the lineage template + inherited perks; individual clones are combat-record-tracked but ephemeral.
• Memorable losses. When a favourite hero is KIA’d, the clone arrives with a fresh combat record — the loss stays a loss. The XP and kill count of the previous bearer are archived forever.
• No resurrection. No mechanism brings a dead bearer back — the clone is a new individual, not a revival. The $clone_generation counter makes this literal.
• Lineage-as-archive. The KIA archive accumulates a rich history over a long save — a lineage might have 6+ archived clones by mid-game if the player has been actively engaging in dangerous ops.
• Perk investment is protected. Cash spent on gifts + LEARN cost is not lost when a bearer dies. This is the mechanical reason for players to care about a specific lineage across multiple bearers.

Related mechanics

• Death cycle — the d100 roll that decides when this flow triggers
• Recovery Points — why clones get a full starting fleet grant (instead of rebuilding from 0 RP)
• XP and star progression — why the clone starts at ★1 with 0 XP rather than inheriting anything from the previous bearer
• Perks system — how perks are unlocked, LEARNed, and inherited across clones