# SYSADMIN CHRONICLES — PRESSURE PROFILES
> Version 1.1
>
> Pressure profiles define how an unresolved situation degrades over time.
> They are referenced by name from quest files and live in
> `content/pressure_profiles/`.
>
> A pressure profile is NOT an incident. An incident is a discrete event with
> a trigger, escalation chain, and resolution. A pressure profile describes the
> passive degradation behavior of the environment while a quest is active and
> unresolved. Incidents may be spawned by pressure profiles, but are separate.

---

## SCHEMA

```json
{
  "id": "web_outage_escalation",
  "label": "Web Service Outage",
  "description": "Gentle escalation for Tier 1 web outage quests. Creates narrative urgency without punishing new players.",
  "intensity": 2,
  "escalation_steps": [
    {
      "trigger_after_seconds": 900,
      "notification": "Hermes is still showing errors. Is someone on this?",
      "notification_severity": "warning"
    },
    {
      "trigger_after_seconds": 1800,
      "notification": "Site has been down thirty minutes. Ticket priority is going up.",
      "notification_severity": "warning",
      "escalate_linked_ticket": "high"
    },
    {
      "trigger_after_seconds": 3600,
      "notification": "Hour down. Priya has been copied in.",
      "notification_severity": "error",
      "escalate_linked_ticket": "critical"
    }
  ]
}
```

---

## FIELD REFERENCE

| Field | Type | Description |
|-------|------|-------------|
| `id` | string | Unique identifier. Must match the string used in the quest's `pressure_profile` field. |
| `label` | string | Short human-readable name for tooling and authoring. |
| `description` | string | Internal description for authors. |
| `intensity` | int | Relative urgency / pressure level. |
| `escalation_steps` | array | Ordered list of timed escalation notices or ticket priority changes. |

### Stage Fields

| Field | Required | Description |
|-------|----------|-------------|
| `trigger_after_seconds` | Yes | Seconds after activation before the stage fires. |
| `notification` | Yes | Player-facing escalation message. |
| `notification_severity` | Yes | Severity label used by the UI and notifier. |
| `escalate_linked_ticket` | No | Optional linked-ticket priority escalation. |

---

## AUTHORING NOTES

- `trigger_after_seconds` is relative to quest activation time, not real wall time.
  In-game time compression applies.
- Stages must be ordered by `trigger_after_seconds` ascending. Authoring tools will
  warn on out-of-order stages.
- Pressure profiles should create urgency, not guaranteed punishment.
- If a pressure profile escalates a linked ticket, it should do so in a way that
  matches the authored ticket priority curve.
