shortstory fallen and other stuph

[kanrup]

So I downloaded the audio files for 3 parts of fallen short story to my mp3 player. Having heard it twice I can say its good, though I'd probably get a clearer picture by just reading it. might do that sometime. was not as easy to get the effect of section breaks when listening to it.
So it seems hoomans still survive in this story, (in space stations? moon? guess stations). I like how they tried to change the Earth back to way it was - but it seems it could not be done while the machines exist. So thats the reason She is seeking what she is seeking in Urbani.

I think the writings pretty good. Like how it changes to different settings and (not always forward) times as story goes on. And how small details and events are described as well as bigger plot. Actually hit me with the feels where it says the world will be blue and green again, but none of us will see it. I've tried writing (very)few times and usually only got down a high level plot. sadly it does not come very naturally to me(but that might be cos I have little practice). Do you see in your head also the small details. I can paint images, and process involves pinning down an idea that you see in mind, making multiple mini sketches, doing linework for big sketch in detail, shading light and dark, applying colour. Is there a similar process for writing.


some things Im curious about from the story and game,
who are the Legion? I gathered they rule Urbani city and sent a force of robots to attack Metropol.
Are these a group of robots like the council in Metropol, Are these ones responsible for a certain machine killing virus I hear about in the story. (I think I missed out a big part of the plot in the game after messing up at the huge robot but hey it just adds to replayability),

not sure what cycles are exactly. when Horatio enters Metropol a guard robot comes and takes some 'cycles' from him. Later at the end Metromind uses these to disable him from breaking some things. The robot zombies also say 'cycles' and 'memory'. So Im guessing its some kind of resource of processing like memory is a resource.

struck me how at one point where Horatio asks Factors agent for help she says factor does not care for those that are not his children. Is it common nature of the big (or all) robots to be (I guess) selfish like that, or just something Factor is.

Also why is Metromind seemingly power hungry and unethical? (she killed? Arbiter, Memorious and Steeple). Is it a flaw in her design, programming, or was she meant to be line that, 

[MarkYohalem]

Thanks for the kind words, and for the continued interest in the game.  Some answers below!

> Do you see in your head also the small details. I can paint images, and process involves pinning down an idea that you see in mind, making multiple mini sketches, doing linework for big sketch in detail, shading light and dark, applying colour. Is there a similar process for writing.

No.  I'm much more verbal than visual -- for example, I learn by listening (or doing) but very seldom by watching.  So usually for me a visual description starts from an *idea* I want to convey, and then the "visuals" (that is, the words describing the visuals) are just an effort to convey that idea, rather than starting from some clear vision of the thing.

> who are the Legion? I gathered they rule Urbani city and sent a force of robots to attack Metropol.

Legion was the AI in charge of Urbani's military.  That's why the Urbanian soldiers in Metropol are named 187th Legionbuilt and so forth.

> Are these ones responsible for a certain machine killing virus I hear about in the story. (I think I missed out a big part of the plot in the game after messing up at the huge robot but hey it just adds to replayability),

I don't think Legion created Thanatos (the virus) or was in charge of it, but there's nothing concrete on this.  The ship that was equipped with Thanatos was meant to be crewed by humans, though, and only was managed by AI because the humans were gone.

> not sure what cycles are exactly. ... So Im guessing its some kind of resource of processing like memory is a resource.

Yeah, they're instruction cycles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instruction_cycle

> Is it common nature of the big (or all) robots to be (I guess) selfish like that, or just something Factor is.

It is not 100% clear that Factotum is telling the truth -- I'm still not sure myself whether Factor actually is "sleeping" or is destroyed, and whether the "recall" order that brought all the Factorbuilts home was part of MetroMind's solution for reducing energy costs in Metropol (as opposed to Factor wanting his "children" with him).  Assuming Factotum is telling the truth, I think the answer is probably that Factor thinks he built better than anyone else, and there's no reason for inferior machines to stick around.  Factor is generally very unsentimental (as Oswald notes when he complains that Factor made his robots name themselves).

> Also why is Metromind seemingly power hungry and unethical?

MetroMind was (probably?) the first major AI in Metropol -- it makes sense that an automatic rail system would come first, in fact the Paris Metro has such a system (it was part of my inspiration for MetroMind), I think.  When she was unveiled, she was heralded as "Progress" -- you can see that on a poster in the hallway leading to her old control room.

You have a chance to talk with her a little bit more about her motivations if you resolve the Goliath puzzle another way -- I can spoil it, or you can see for yourself, let me know!

[kanrup]

thx for the answers.

oh no I intend to play it again after some time has passed (also got samorost 3 which looks nice from trailer). In this case having to extra storyline to find out is also a plus for playing. (hey this kind of thing might even be used purposefully to add to replay value of a game - unique paths to follow?(at least for certain small parts of story))

interesting that there is a possibility that Factor may actually be dead too.. I assumed from the start that the agent-robot was telling the truth.

I wonder what happened to Rex after it went away after Clarity's decision. Also that record plate you find...wondered if at one point you can put it on the player at unique. ha.

[MarkYohalem]

At one point, the record was involved in an odd puzzle where you started playing music on Main Street to distract the repair robot or something. For a variety of reasons it was a bad idea -- it was a pretty resource-intensive puzzle to do (requiring custom dancing animations, music, complex coding) and it basically was mood-breaking and makeweight.  The record stuck around nonetheless.

I wanted to make it an album of Kim Boekbinder's after she joined to do the two songs (the one in the UNNIIC and the one for the end credits), but unfortunately by then the voice over for that item had already been recorded, so we were stuck with the children's choir or whatever it was.

[kanrup]

thats interesting about the record. I guess someone could also say naturally you're bound to find misc items not really relevant directly to story progress (like that shopping list?).

> about the puzzles I thought the one where you repair device for singing robot at court was cool. you connect the nodes but lines drawn cant cross. It seemed unexpectedly interactive(with the manual drawing lines and all).

> Also remember the puzzle at goliath brain. Like how you use on/off switches to represent binary number given by flyingbot.

> and bringing down the draw bridge to charity's area. after trying everything I was at my wits end and resorted to bruteforcing the only possible clue. the prime numbers given by primer. so glad one number worked.

[MarkYohalem]

Ha! I think if you talk to Primer he says something like "my name is the key" and you can deduce his number because he says that 187th came off the line 50 before him.

I like the motor puzzle a lot, too.  It was surprisingly tricky to code.  But it was cool all the same -- a good "tactile" puzzle.  Wish we had more of them. :/