List Your Fave Plot Holes Here

[TJ]

Hi all. Here at UWE we're gearing up for the final polish push on SN. With that in mind, you can help me out by telling me the most glaring plot holes and problems, from your perspective, with the story as it stands. Please keep it short! I won't be able to fix everything, but I'll do my best.

[Writer Ven]

Why did the Degasi survivors go the the jelly shrooms when they had materials to build in much safer enviroments else where?
P.S Love the game.

[DfiantCrab]

i like the game, has good potential. the only thing is, the story that eventually starts, takes a while to get going. I apprectiate that might be part of the effect, but some players might find having to wait for just over 20 nights for anything interesting to happen other than the aurora exploding a bit long winded and a little boring. if perhaps not making the sunbeam event happen quicker, then perhaps maybe have some interesting distractions to happen in the meantime? Also, since the update i cant for the life of me get to the engine room in the ship to fix it. maybe make the direction on that a little bit more clear. :) anyway. love the game, play it a lot.

[Athor]

Salvaged tech only giving titanium, as well as not retriving any of the tech in the lifepods to use for survival.

[ImHelping]

Knife fighting stalkers gives us teeth when? Please fix this instead of just erasing or editing the PDA data files that talk about Marguerit going shark hunting.

We also need some better way to deliberatly obtain lifepod signals. Right now a lot of players are missing some signifigant ones due to "Crafting stuff = signals". Like how building a bio reactor you generally don't need, is the trigger for the lifepod with the repulsion gun databox, which even confused Squeals like a pig when I pointed this out to them before.

I've already had newbies thanking me for telling them "Build a base thermal plant" to be able to continue the story. Because that leads to the lifepod with the Cyclops hull data box as well as being near an entry to the lost river. Seems fairly backwards.

So better options for getting lifepod signals would really smooth out a lot, as well as fix the "Lore" compared to random crafting = lifepod signals. (PS: The compass databox lifepod, is the only lifepod in the game without a signal. Bit of a snag right now on top of standing out as "Why didn't this lifepod have a distress signal?" plot hole wise).

[draco_maiden]

So after a bit of time you get contacted by sea emperor and it makes it sound as tho you are the first person it has contacted. If so why didn't it contact one of the Degasi survivors, and/or if it did why dont we find any pda mentioning it?

[MasterHowl]

Change the names of the Degassi survivors please... Paul and Bart sound way too close to those horrific Kevin James movies "Paul Blart"...

As for plot holes, why did the Degassi never venture North or towards the QEP that shot them down? If they wanted to turn off the thing that shot them down to assist any potential rescue, the quickest way would be to go to the facility and find a control panel. We find the mountain that houses the gun within days/weeks, they were there at least 5 weeks from one of Paul's logs, likely much longer. Were they afraid of some kind of defense system at the facility and that fear kept them away? Fine, but there's no mention of it at all.

Are there more Precursor bases at other locations of the planet? A single gun wouldn't be able to cover all sides of the planet alone, unless it can shoot *through* the planet. I'm not saying we should be able to go to them, but a mention of other facilities on other parts of the world in some of the Precursor data files would answer that. Totally feasible that access to the would be cut off through the teleporters after quarantine protocols activated.

Wouldn't there be a way to use one of the computers in the Aurora to signal the Sunbeam to warn them of the QEP? At least the computer in the Captain's Quarters is capable to receiving a transmission from another solar system, I would think that means there would be one machine somewhere able to perform a short-range (relatively speaking) communication beam from the planet to warn the Sunbeam. They wouldn't be able to stick around and rescue us later because at that point in the game, we don't know how to shut it down, but at least we could save their lives. Maybe it could be a side mission with no real impact on the story to use/repair some short-range communicator in the Aurora.

[Blandman Bob]

I don't know if it's a plot hole (and it probably isn't, really...), and I certainly don't know if it was explained before, but who is the character you play?

In pictures and other such, there's a clear model of the survivor you play as (5'something tan Male with some sort of Mohawk-ish hair thing going on.), so they're clearly not the player themselves.

I don't think we even get a backstory as to what the role of the Survivor was on board the Aurora. Were they a simple traveller? An Engineer? An Officer? One of the commanders?

I don't know if that's intentionally there just for the fans to decide for their individual games, and again, I don't know if the information is already out there. In-game or on some dev post.

In the event it is not for either, it would be great to know such an (as I find it) interesting bit of info.

[UnderseaDee]

My biggest and only real issue with the story right now is how linear everything is despite the player easily being able to sequence break due to the open nature of the game.
Some of my biggest issues are:

Issues with flora/fauna scans and item names:

The PDA entries for flora and fauna shouldn't mention other fauna, flora, or biomes, or should change or get updated depending on when they're scanned, because the open-world nature of this game means players might not have scanned/seen any of those things mentioned and could leave them confused.

Things like the evolutionary relationship between Peepers & Oculus, Jellyshroom & Crabsnake symbiosis, or the Ghost Leviathan's lifecycle could also be made into their own seperate entries that unlock once you scan every creature/plant mentioned.


Issues with the precursor storyline:

Right now precursor data downloads are super linear and assume that the player is going to visit them in the right order every time, but it's completely possible for a player to visit them in wrong order, such as going to the TPG and PCF first, this is bad because the PDA will act like you've already seen the aliens even though you haven't, and if the player goes back and finds the other bases after seeing the TPG, and the Dragon, and the Emperor, the PDA will act like it knows nothing about those things even though you've seen those.

A few ideas and examples of things that I think need to be changed are:
- The "Unknown language. Attempting translation." message should play on the first data terminal you interact with no matter which one it is.

- 'Using the evidence gathered from this device it may be possible to extract comprehensible data from other such devices, should they exist." Should either be completely removed from the upper QEP data terminal or placed at the bottom of the first alien terminal you encounter no matter which one it is.

- The alien lab or sanctuary downloads should either not mention previous alien encounters at all or change depending on when you interact with them, because it's really easy for players to find those before the QEP.

- Downloads like the DRF signal download you get in the QEP should not appear if you've already been to those places.

- The Carar download in the DRF shouldn't blatantly act like you already know about it because a player might visit that base first.

- The "Specimen Research Data" download should be changed due to the player possibly not encountering the species mentioned. Maybe the names of the fish could be different names that the precursors gave them, or maybe certain sections could be locked until you've scanned those creatures. It also needs to change depending on if you've been to the PCF and seen the Emperor.

I'm willing to give the Alien Pipe Entrance scan mentioning Peepers a pass since it's incredibly likely that a player will have scanned/picked up a Peeper before scanning the Pipe Entrance.

Some scan data should change or just not appear at all depending on when you scan them.
The active Warper unit's entry should either change or not appear at all if you've scanned the inactive one in the DRF.

The Warp Gate's entry should also change if you've activated a Warp Gate or been to the PCF (maybe it could even get an entirely separate one once you reach either of those goals).

The Alien Sanctuary downloads also are a bit too linear. A suggestion I have for those is to make it so you always get the downloads in the same order no matter which Sanctuary you visit first.

Stalker Tooth and Sea Treader Feces should be renamed to Large Tooth and Alien Feces, because a player might find those items before the creatures they came from.

There are plenty of other smaller issues I have throughout the world but these are some of the notable ones.

Also I don't really know if this counts as a story issue but it still fits in with the rest of my current problems so I'm putting it here anyways. The "Insert Artifact" and "Insert Fuel Crystal" text that pops up when you hover over the alien terminals shouldn't appear until you've either scanned the terminal or picked up the items you need to use.

Sorry if this post seemed kind of all over the place or redundant in some parts, but I really wanted to get this out there as soon as possible.

[El Destructo]

Not really a plot hole per se, but there is some serious anachronism possible regarding the Sunbeam if the player steadfastly ignores his radio until after completing the game. Breaks the flow of the story, and confuses the game as well.

IMO the Sunbeam should show up whether you answer the radio or not. If you don't, you just hear the explosion distantly and get notified by the PDA that "something bad happened," like if you ignore the evac point until the timer runs out. Or if you happen to be on the island by chance, you just get the normal sequence with the short-range transmission through your PDA anyways. Ultimately, you get permanent coordinates for the QEP from the Aurora regardless.

[Skoblin]

nah nah, if you ignore your radio for sunbeam im pretty sure the devs are planning on making an alternate ending after you shut down the QEP so that the sunbeam rescues you

[El Destructo]

Originally posted by Galaxzy:

nah nah, if you ignore your radio for sunbeam im pretty sure the devs are planning on making an alternate ending after you shut down the QEP so that the sunbeam rescues you

But that would actually create a plot hole, by intending the Sunbeam to magically ignore the automated distress call of the Aurora until the player decides to use his radio. Especially keeping in mind the nature of the messages suggests you are only receiving, and not transmitting.

I think I saw the post you might be referring to, though. I could see it working if they change the way the Sunbeam event occurs and use it as a speedrunning goal. That would actually be pretty neat.

[Umbra Animo]

no bodies
the aurora was huge yet i see no bodys or signs there were bodys yet some of the locations you are in have no life in them at all so no reason there would be no bodys

[axelfirekirby]

how come the precusers chouldent understand the sea emporer?
where they just being jerks?

[draco_maiden]

Also, why can't we build a multipurpose room from the start? If the is database messed up it should tell us, as some of the PDAs mention that the survivors were going to build bases to wait out till rescue.

[Fenfen]

The Degasi survivors never building in the safe shallows. Given their position in the jellyshroom caves and the fact that they had gathered stalker teeths tells us that they knew about it so why wouldn't they make at least a small room or two up there?

Another small issue is no bodies or even bones. The pod that was in the radation zone wasn't anywhere that a large predator would have eaten the bodies at. It is explained that the crabs ate the bodies in the Aurora but there are no carnivores in the area with the rad pod. I know it would add a horror element and that might not be your goal but at least a small explination from the pda would be nice.

Another small one is the fish naming. Peeper, bleeder, stalker, hoop fish, all make sense but the reginald seems so out of place.