After putting all the logs in date order for both SS1 (the CD-ROM version) and SS2, I feel differently between the two games.
SS2 takes place on July 12, as I recall. Most of the logs are dated July 10 through July 12, so the player is woken up during the heat of the battle between the crew members and their perceived enemy, The Many. There were a lot of teasers throughout the game where the player comes so close to making contact with live crew members.
SS1, on the other hand, takes place on November 6. Most of the battle between the crew members and the enemy, SHODAN, takes place throughout the month of October. During the latter part of the month, the resistance was clearly broken up into smaller groups. Once November began, the resistance had all but lost. The only logs dated later than November 2 is the last of the series of logs from Abe Ghiram (?) who tried unsuccssfully to penetrate SHODAN's newly-built fortress, and a couple triumphant messages from SHODAN, who shares its future vision for mankind down on Earth. This had a more chilling impact, because I realized I truly was alone the whole time, with the exception of the crew that was trapped on Level 5.
There are a couple more things I discovered about the SS1 logs when I lurked around online. First of all, I understand the floppy version of SS1 had a bunch of date errors. Second, I listened to the inaccessible log from one of the security bots announcing Bianca Schuler's capture to Edward Diego. That audio was creepy!
Regarding the SS1 dates, the player already knows that SHODAN was reprogrammed late in April, but nothing really happened until September, when a handful of crew members started to report mysterious illnesses. It wasn't until October 1 before SHODAN launched a full-scale attack, when it sealed off the Beta grove and dispatched a security bot to kill somebody who was trying to unlock it. That means SHODAN was spending five months quietly plotting the perfect attack -- even more chilling.
Did anybody else bother to read the logs in order for SS2 or SS1, and felt differently after reading them?
PS: If Abe Ghiram could make his own crawlspace between Level 3 and Level 8, why couldn't the hacker at least crawl through there too? Perhaps he couldn't fit in there with all that hardware?
Most of the hardware is internal, so that wouldn't have been a problem unless Giran was super-skinny, and I doubt that. You never find the crawlspace mentioned, so the most likely scenario is that it was sealed off by Shodan's minions.Originally Posted by intylab
Interesting observations. I never tried to go through the SS1 logs in order, but I did read through the SS2 logs chronologically on SBF.
Some interesting stuff in here. It's rare that a thread comes up with some new information.
Yeah, I remember having a more isolated feeling in System Shock 1 than 2. I think a big part of it was that while System Shock 1 did have some mutants, they were deformed beyond recognition. System Shock 2's Hybrids seemed more human and it was like "Infected people are still people". System Shock 1 also had a lot of robots around. And even with System Shock 2, you meet someone living (granted he dies mere seconds after) on Medsci.
The bit on Deck 5 was absolutely bone-chilling, though.
That is really interesting and creepy. I didn't put that together before.
No, the hardware wouldn't stick out like that. We are after all able to wear standard size environmental suits. My guess would be Giran blocked it off to protect himself, or never disclosed the exact location, for the same reason.
I played through SS1 a bunch of times (compared to only once for SS2, which is probably why I remember SS1 more vividly), and I do remember seeing something that looked like a gaping hole in the wall. It was just a texture though. I don't remember exactly where it was, but I'll be darned if it wasn't in Level 3, right where all of Abe's logs (and his severed head) were lying.
When I said hardware, I should have known people would think about the implants. I should also have mentioned all the weapons, ammo clips, explosives, patches, and general inventory. Unless one of the features of the original implant was the ability to materialize/dematerialize items upon pickup, that's a lot of stuff to carry around.
As a side note, the hacker must also have had a bionic arm, because he seems to be able to grab items from about ten feet away. I put that to good use when installing the plastic explosives, especially at the one place where the player can't escape right away.
The "Mr. Gibbon" phenomenon was already covered in The Hacker's Guide to Sin.
I always thought that the change in Shodan didn't happen like flipping a switch, ie the removal of the ethical constraints did not immediately lead to Shodan becoming a functional psychopath. So rather than coolly calculating a wait of months to start her attack she accumulated 'unethical' ideas slowly, like using human subjects for experiments, and slowly tested her limits. Her biggest, most violent shift into full psychopath mode, IMO, comes when Diego orders her to start killing directly. That requires that both the orders for the ejection and termination of life support on gamma grove and the order to shoot down the TriOp shuttle came from Diego, one is stated explicitly and the other is at least plausible. Up until that point most of the problems seemed to be simple malfunctions (many of which were not advantageous to Shodan, such as displaying codes) and it's only then that she realises exactly what she can do. Thus why Diego goes from thinking Shodan's his bitch to being her lap dog in logs spanning a matter of days.
That was a corollary discussion that I was getting into. What exactly was going on inside SHODAN's mind during those five months? Obviously it had to be a gradual process, or else the killings would have started before the hacker's surgical procedure even started, on May 6. There is little that we can do besides speculate. The only real clues we have are from Morris, SHODAN's creator, which we receive late in the game.
There is also the pre-recorded e-mail from SHODAN from the beginning of the game, which was recorded on May 6. By listening to the audio, one can gather that SHODAN had just begun its evil journey. There were a couple places where SHODAN stutters slightly, and toward the end, one can start to hear the faint background noise that is much louder in SHODAN's messages with a November date.
SHODAN's physical domain near the final cyberspace terminal could provide some clues as well. Too bad the radiation hazard and fleet of enemies prevents most players from stopping to look at it. Is this where the hacker reprogrammed SHODAN during the intro, or was he remotely logged in from another place?
Many of the logs indicate that the real enemy was Edward Diego, and at some point SHODAN took over the controls and Edward became a follower, most likely as a defensive maneuver.
Bearing in mind the purpose of Citadel Station in the first place is our best source of speculation. We know from the SS2 intro that TriOptimum is so named because of its threefold interest: military, science, consumer. The posters on Level 5 ("For a Better Future") and the old memo in a dark corner of Level 2 give us more information about TriOptimum's purpose. If SHODAN was designed to be an AI that regulated all the space station's internal controls, then it would have gained access to other files on the network as well, not the least of which are connected to the failed mutagen experiment that Edward Diego was trying to cover up, which is what started this whole mess in the first place.
One more thing: does anybody else wonder about Tetracorp? In all likelihood, it was just another random company that the hacker chose to hack into after all the events of SS1 were over, and it was not TriOptimum's competitor. I'm almost surprised that Tetracorp didn't play any role in SS2.
TetraCorp is a TriOp subsidiary by the time the Von Braun rolls out, check all the keypads.
The problem SHODAN would have would be that, once someone noticed she wasn't operating correctly they could have shut her down. Diago is also using her so would be watching closely.
She would have to be sneaky, playing the "long game" until she had enough troops for the take over.
Also, the changed would be gradual, each descision she made that contridicts her program would push her slowly down a new path and further into madness.
As for diago. He could see the potential benefit of having this genius working for him. Of course he wouldn't be able to resist impants, etc that would have further skewed his mind
Not necessarily:
"The Von Braun is packed with over 1.8 billion flight, scientific and security systems, nearly all developed by TriOptimum and its wholly owned subsiduaries."
And the full analysis that Morris did later, which was featured in the ICE Breaker hint book. For example: to destroy the shuttle SHODAN designated it a 'communications hazard', which she was permitted to terminate.
Keypads seem like a rather odd thing to outsource to a competitor.
Maybe they were a lot cheaper than it would have been for TriOp to create a whole keypad-manufacturing division of their own?
I'd say if they do the keypad they also do the hardware supporting it, subsidiary or not. For all we know TriOp only did the software part of the security systems. Given how lousy it is it would certainly match their track record...
I dunno, TriOp's security isn't too bad. They have to allow some systems to be 'overridable' in SS2's timeframe (IIRC from the Processing Rationalisation Act' mentioned in KL's backstory piece, and IIRC it's mentioned in the help text (?) as well).
While you cannot hack any TriOp (presumably) manufactured cardslots you can hack most of the TetraCorp manufactured keypads. I know that's primarily for OOU gameplay reasons but it does suggest that TetraCorp's products are less secure. Or perhaps that they deliberately supplied poor components to their competitors.
I know Koyla has a page up on SBF with the SS2 logs in order.
Is there a similar resource for the SS1 material available?
I can whip one up in a few days. Since, I kind of have to have the logs for my mod anyways. We shall see how that goes. *rolls eyes*
You are currently in the healing suites, located on the first level.
2072 alas. I won't live to see System Shock's futurism turned down, but some of you might. I think it invites an interesting question about how sci-fi writers choose their future dates. We've already passed the beginnings of the Deus Ex timeline. 2001 is long gone. We've passed Blade Runner's 2019. Nothing makes me feel old like passing one of the dates from a favorite sci-fi movie or game.
Holy necromancy
13 years and counting!
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote