# How a Hold works

> Open a Hold, share its link, let your crew dock and deploy. A Hold stays between matches and keeps its record.

A **Hold** is your crew's place to play. You open it, share its link, and play
match after match in it, today or next week. The host decides who docks and what
is played.

## Open, share, deploy

1. **Open a Hold.** Press [Play](https://orbium.games/play), pick a name and choose Open Hold. You
   are its host, and you get a link (and a short code) to share.
2. **Let your crew dock.** Your friends open the link and ask to dock. You let
   each one in, or turn them away. Someone turned away can be let back in later.
3. **Build your unit, deploy.** Everyone builds a unit and gives the signal. You
   pick the match's settings and deploy.

Nothing to install and no account: a name is enough. Your player lives in your
browser, so the same browser docks you as the same unit next time.

## The host

The host runs the Hold from its panel:

- **Crew:** who is in and who is waiting. Let in, turn away, undock.
- **Match:** the World (Earth, Desert, Mars or Ice), the island (a new one, or
  one played before, by its number), the Window's length, how the Hunter is
  picked and the light (sunrise, midday, sunset or random).
- **New code:** if the link got out, take a new code. The old link stops
  working.

If the host leaves, the unit docked the longest becomes host after 30 seconds.

## Matches and windows

A match is a run of **windows** (rounds). Each one opens on the sky platform:
the crew drop off and scatter while the Hunter waits, then the Window runs. When
it closes, the camera finds the unit that took it and the results stay up until
the host goes on: Next window, or back to the Hold.

## The record

A Hold keeps every unit's all-time numbers (points, matches and wins, windows,
downs dealt and taken, the best window) and its last 20 matches, each as its
results showed it. The record shows beside the Hold's panel once the Hold has
played.

## Under the hood

Each Hold lives on the game server as one Durable Object, which holds its state
and talks to its crew over WebSockets. The
[architecture](https://orbium.games/docs/developers/architecture) page tells the whole story.