Explain ending of Tartarus Engine ?

[Lûte the Goblin]

Could someone explain the ending of Tartarus Engine to me? It leaves me puzzled.

[Slaughter_Pit]

same

[vermis]

i get the impression that it's meant to be a horrific twist ending, but i'm not sure that i get the significance. they're being pulled out of multiple layers, right. but to what?

is it that it hurts or feels really bad, and it's going to happen thousands of times? is it an endless loop?

edit: the code was found, he didn't write it himself. and he forgot to disable the automatic... something. it just feels like there's something i'm not getting, or a piece missing

edit2: i think it's that they're stuck being pulled out, and it's going to take a really long time as 1 second in the real world is years in their subjective experience. only 90% sure though. really cool otherwise

[Lûte the Goblin]

Originally posted by video game hero:

i get the impression that it's meant to be a horrific twist ending, but i'm not sure that i get the significance. they're being pulled out of multiple layers, right. but to what?

is it that it hurts or feels really bad, and it's going to happen thousands of times? is it an endless loop?

edit: the code was found, he didn't write it himself. and he forgot to disable the automatic... something. it just feels like there's something i'm not getting, or a piece missing

Yes, exactly. I don't understand anything that's being implied. Is the code being found relevant somehow? Was it a trap of some kind? And how does him forgetting to turn something off factor into it? And we're being pulled out of what exactly? And into what?

[TheUnnamedStranger]

Originally posted by ꧁ Lûte the Goblin:

Originally posted by video game hero:

i get the impression that it's meant to be a horrific twist ending, but i'm not sure that i get the significance. they're being pulled out of multiple layers, right. but to what?

is it that it hurts or feels really bad, and it's going to happen thousands of times? is it an endless loop?

edit: the code was found, he didn't write it himself. and he forgot to disable the automatic... something. it just feels like there's something i'm not getting, or a piece missing

Yes, exactly. I don't understand anything that's being implied. Is the code being found relevant somehow? Was it a trap of some kind? And how does him forgetting to turn something off factor into it? And we're being pulled out of what exactly? And into what?

It's an Inception reference, basically. They're being pulled through multiple layers of the engine, one layer at a time instead of automatically going to the layer they wanted to get to. In reality this takes a few minutes, but with how the engine affects your perception of time it will be much, much longer for the protagonists. Essentially they're trapped in a mental hell.

Obviously some details of the plot are vague. That's standard for games by this developer. You have to infer the details yourself.

[Lûte the Goblin]

The other 4 stories were very clear. I disagree with your statement that it's the standard by this developer. Twenty percent is not a standard.

[vermis]

Originally posted by TheUnnamedStranger:

It's an Inception reference, basically. They're being pulled through multiple layers of the engine, one layer at a time instead of automatically going to the layer they wanted to get to. In reality this takes a few minutes, but with how the engine affects your perception of time it will be much, much longer for the protagonists. Essentially they're trapped in a mental hell.

Obviously some details of the plot are vague. That's standard for games by this developer. You have to infer the details yourself.

that makes sense. thanks!

[アンドリュウ † Drew]

1 day is 1 year. They were trying to leave using this time dilation. Using that method to escape the engine, but an automatic option was left enabled. Letting the engine catch them and drag them through multiple layers that they jumped using that time against them. Mental hell basically. That's what I got from this story kinda like a perfect matrix.

[Wither]

i thought it was one second of earth time was one year of tartarus time? so that they could spend essentially infinite time in the machine, and leave whenever they wanted to, so doing the minimal math
after a quick google search, one year of earth time is equal to 31536000 years of tartarus engine time (i looked up how many seconds were in a year) yeesh, poor guys

[アンドリュウ † Drew]

I can see that being the case. That's rough.

[DitchHeadBeluxe]

That was the impression I got, stuck for a few seconds in Mental Hell for what will feels to them like eternity. But then, like, what's the vibe in the room when everybody wakes back up after "31.53 billion years"?

[アンドリュウ † Drew]

Originally posted by DitchHeadBeluxe:

That was the impression I got, stuck for a few seconds in Mental Hell for what will feels to them like eternity. But then, like, what's the vibe in the room when everybody wakes back up after "31.53 billion years"?

fr. they would just end up shells of themselves. The most willpower endowed will not walk away unscathed.

[spege]

For a similar themed story (a man that has increasingly long dreams every night) check Junji Ito's manga "Long dream"

[Zizhou]

Or the Stephen King short story "The Jaunt"

I think the real lessons for this one are:

1. Don't invent The Torment Nexus
2. Don't rely on randos from StackOverflow for your crimes in The Torment Nexus

[Ortinsbane]

Originally posted by TheUnnamedStranger:

Originally posted by ꧁ Lûte the Goblin:

Yes, exactly. I don't understand anything that's being implied. Is the code being found relevant somehow? Was it a trap of some kind? And how does him forgetting to turn something off factor into it? And we're being pulled out of what exactly? And into what?

It's an Inception reference, basically. They're being pulled through multiple layers of the engine, one layer at a time instead of automatically going to the layer they wanted to get to. In reality this takes a few minutes, but with how the engine affects your perception of time it will be much, much longer for the protagonists. Essentially they're trapped in a mental hell.

Obviously some details of the plot are vague. That's standard for games by this developer. You have to infer the details yourself.

It's not that they got pulled "through multiple layers of the engine", is that they simulating the tartarus computer inside of itself, at least that's how I understand the "cascade effect". If you run a simulation of the computer at 120%, the next simulation of itself will run at 144%, and so forth. The problem is that the code they used did not have a way to stop the recursion, so it will be forever simulating itself again and again, each time faster.

[tipsyConfection]

Originally posted by Zizhou:

I think the real lessons for this one are:

1. Don't invent The Torment Nexus
2. Don't rely on randos from StackOverflow for your crimes in The Torment Nexus

wheezing
relatable