The exosuits don't make sense

[Chuck P]

It's something that's been bugging me ever since i started playing, how do workers in the world of The Surge go about their normal lives with a huge exoskeleton attached to their bodies? it's the same problem as the film Elysium: in any sane universe there would be a way to remove it while the person is not working, but in the intro they showed Warren getting his RIG drilled and welded into his bones right through his clothes. That doesn't seem like something you put on and take off at your convenience. So how is one supposed to live with that? he can't even take off his coveralls, what does he do if and when he wants to shower or take a ♥♥♥♥?

I figured maybe the bulk of the exosuit was modular, so it could be detached from the front plates, meaning only those are permanent and function as a sort of socket for the RIG to plug into. But then there is an audiolog in CREO World about a guy who decided to take his family to the park instead of Hawaii because his RIG wouldn't fit on the plane. WTF, does that mean they can't even take the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ thing off at all?

I'm probably reading way too much into it, or maybe not enough. I just wish there was any sort of explanation, even if it wasn't a very good one. My disbelief can only be suspended so far.

[Friends with Benedicts]

Can't tell if you're actually amazed by a detail of a fictional work not making sense in the real world, or if you're a plain troll. Let's pretend it's the first.

I imagined like you, like most of the rig was detachable, but never heard that audiolog. Maybe it was a joke, inside the lore or a meta thing made by the devs for fun or "easter egging", can't say without actually hearing it.

Anyway, maybe CREO only hired disabled people, I read/heard something like that while playing, and took that hint. I may be misunderstood, but, if that's the case, it's like when you suffer some accident like a bike accident, and have to use those screws and other ♥♥♥♥ piercing through your skin while just trying to have a normal life like nothing happened. So I figured it's kinda the same situation.

Just my two cents anyway

[Adeon Hawkwood]

The audio log you mentioned as well as a number of other things imply that yes, the rigs cannot be removed. The heavy armoured pieces can be removed but the basic rig is permanently attached.

However there are a few things to consider. First CREO primarily hires disabled people (presumably both paraplegics like Warren and quadriplegics) as rig operators and taking the rig off would render them unable to walk so they aren't going to want to remove it anyway. Also, as a related point while the rig Warren uses is permanently installed it's possible that there's an alternate rig for able-bodied people that is removable.

Secondly, The Surge takes place in a really, really ♥♥♥♥♥♥ world. CREO clearly doesn't care at all about their low level employees and from what we see it seems likely that there aren't that many blue collar jobs left anywhere. So while working for CREO means having a rig permanently attached it also means that you have a job.

[Chuck P]

That's actually not a bad theory. I don't remember them ever saying that CREO hires mostly handicapped workers, but I do recall an audio log about how they avoided a scandal when one of the workers had an accident because he was only a cripple, though they probably meant he was thankfully only crippled during the accident instead of killed, rather than being having been a cripple beforehand.

Anyway, I usually don't overthing stuff in games. I mean, I can get past the fact that Warren would've gotten all sorts of nasty infections by having surgery directly through his clothes, or that screwing the exo-rig to a person's bones would actually make them very vulnerable to breaking due to the added tension, because all that stuff can be easily explained through sci-fi magic. But this is a practical problem; how do they change their clothes? how do they ♥♥♥♥? people need to ♥♥♥♥ man.

[Friends with Benedicts]

Dude, humanity have been cutting animal's balls since we have knifes. And that counts human's balls. I guess half humanity never screwed in their life, being slaves or low class dudes that died early, or even being females that were just raped their entire life.

Being able to "screw and party" it's a really special thing that is getting more common just recently. So being able to walk again when you were a quadriplegic it's actually a hell of a joy compared to our reality.

[grandma_moses]

Better tell me why Warren, on his way to becoming a lumberjack, drove out to what is clearly a factory in the middle of a desert. Lots and lots of trees to cut down in a desert I reckon.

In all seriousness, I find myself in the camp that believes that the very simple reason for exo-rigs being in the game is that the developers thought they looked cool. When they brainstormed for 'dystopian future' early in the development process, you can almost see the 'exo-rig' post-it hanging on their whiteboard along with 'malfunctioning AI', 'scarce ressources' and 'evil corporation', can't you?

So while I would love to believe that the world was designed to follow a story, it feels much more like the story was designed to tick off quite a few of the science-fiction trope boxes. And that's it, no grand plan for mythology or story, just a game being designed - and quite clearly exo-rigs made their cut for 'cool future stuff'.

I'm totally ok with that, I always felt that these immersive RPGs live on the mechanics and the combat much more than on their obscure stories.

[Adeon Hawkwood]

Originally posted by grandma_moses:

Better tell me why Warren, on his way to becoming a lumberjack, drove out to what is clearly a factory in the middle of a desert. Lots and lots of trees to cut down in a desert I reckon.

I don't think he was specifically intending to become a Lumberjack. CREO uses the Lumberjacks as part of their recruiting propaganda (hence why his ex references them in her audio logs) but once you get hired you get assigned based on what jobs are available. Hence why when he gets to the train station it states that the current available jobs are Lynx and Rhino.

[Mister Veeg]

turns out that when you're a cartoonishly evil and/or incompetent super-corporation the finer details of how to remove an exoskeleton drilled into Grunt Worker's bones is very low on your list of priorities.

that aside, I'm pretty sure that jumpsuit has a flap.
~

It's been speculated that the rig installation process, at the time Warren goes through it, at least, is -supposed- to turn the recipient into a brain-jacked zombie, so as to meet production deadlines.

[Chuck P]

Originally posted by Space King Veeg:

turns out that when you're a cartoonishly evil and/or incompetent super-corporation the finer details of how to remove an exoskeleton drilled into Grunt Worker's bones is very low on your list of priorities.

that aside, I'm pretty sure that jumpsuit has a flap.
~

It's been speculated that the rig installation process, at the time Warren goes through it, at least, is -supposed- to turn the recipient into a brain-jacked zombie, so as to meet production deadlines.

Hey, at least they're eco-friendly.

I'm pretty sure there is no flap in the jumpsuit, and even if there was, that still leaves the question of personal hygiene. I mean, try to imagine being stuck inside one set of clothes for the rest of your life. It just isn't practical. Also, what do you mean when you say brain-jacked zombies? if they were turning the workers into mindless drones straight from the operating chair then they wouldn't need illegal, highly experimental drug implants to keep them docile.

[Mister Veeg]

Originally posted by Chuck P:

what do you mean when you say brain-jacked zombies? if they were turning the workers into mindless drones straight from the operating chair then they wouldn't need illegal, highly experimental drug implants to keep them docile.

Exactly what it sounds like.

thus the "at the time Warren goes through it" (also whatsherface the other lady that -also- didn't have anaesthetic). Davey had an earlier form of the procedure.

you have the -literal- zombies who got fried by the Surge, sure. Then there's the other 90% of the workforce that presumably just had their implants jacked by the Rogue Process.

[Dave_Jame]

Originally posted by Space King Veeg:

Originally posted by Chuck P:

what do you mean when you say brain-jacked zombies? if they were turning the workers into mindless drones straight from the operating chair then they wouldn't need illegal, highly experimental drug implants to keep them docile.

Exactly what it sounds like.

thus the "at the time Warren goes through it" (also whatsherface the other lady that -also- didn't have anaesthetic). Davey had an earlier form of the procedure.

you have the -literal- zombies who got fried by the Surge, sure. Then there's the other 90% of the workforce that presumably just had their implants jacked by the Rogue Process.

h.. Im not the best at the games lore.. but I think you have a few things mixed up... like most of them.
One is, there was nobody who wanted the Rogue procesor to take over in the first place.

The rigs were not the most healthy option, and the implants did have addiction side effects, but until the nanite container burst, and the Surge happened, most of the workers and rigs were most likely OK.
BTW The surge itself most likely happened around the time Waren signed up, and was getting ready to by implanted with the rig.
The result of the surge was many that many normal workers died orwere taken over by the RP.
My bet is, that the stronger individuals, or better equiped ones, were not affected at the start, so the RP, now with greater power, started to slowly overwrite their minds, (this is hinted in Irinas story)

The Guards originaly only attacked zombies, not you or the other survivers, and did try to sort the mess up. But as time went, and RP got stronger, they did got overtakan, as did the prototype ♥♥♥♥ Machinalis, which were a seperate project from the Nanites
Apart from this, Nanites took controle of the dead bodies and slowly transformed them to Chrisalis enemies. This is hinted by Gorgona Zombies randomly having Chrisalid armor in the Nucleus.

[Mister Veeg]

Originally posted by Dave_Jame:

Originally posted by Space King Veeg:

Exactly what it sounds like.

thus the "at the time Warren goes through it" (also whatsherface the other lady that -also- didn't have anaesthetic). Davey had an earlier form of the procedure.

you have the -literal- zombies who got fried by the Surge, sure. Then there's the other 90% of the workforce that presumably just had their implants jacked by the Rogue Process.

h.. Im not the best at the games lore.. but I think you have a few things mixed up... like most of them.
One is, there was nobody who wanted the Rogue procesor to take over in the first place.

The rigs were not the most healthy option, and the implants did have addiction side effects, but until the nanite container burst, and the Surge happened, most of the workers and rigs were most likely OK.
BTW The surge itself most likely happened around the time Waren signed up, and was getting ready to by implanted with the rig.
The result of the surge was many that many normal workers died orwere taken over by the RP.
My bet is, that the stronger individuals, or better equiped ones, were not affected at the start, so the RP, now with greater power, started to slowly overwrite their minds, (this is hinted in Irinas story)

The Guards originaly only attacked zombies, not you or the other survivers, and did try to sort the mess up. But as time went, and RP got stronger, they did got overtakan, as did the prototype ♥♥♥♥ Machinalis, which were a seperate project from the Nanites
Apart from this, Nanites took controle of the dead bodies and slowly transformed them to Chrisalis enemies. This is hinted by Gorgona Zombies randomly having Chrisalid armor in the Nucleus.

It's less a matter of "nobody wanted the Rogue Process to take over" and more "The implants people were using were already designed for what the Rogue Process wanted to do".

like, the only difference is that the thing doing the brain jacking is the Rogue Process and not Sally.

[Markralf]

Originally posted by Space King Veeg:

Originally posted by Dave_Jame:

h.. Im not the best at the games lore.. but I think you have a few things mixed up... like most of them.
One is, there was nobody who wanted the Rogue procesor to take over in the first place.

The rigs were not the most healthy option, and the implants did have addiction side effects, but until the nanite container burst, and the Surge happened, most of the workers and rigs were most likely OK.
BTW The surge itself most likely happened around the time Waren signed up, and was getting ready to by implanted with the rig.
The result of the surge was many that many normal workers died orwere taken over by the RP.
My bet is, that the stronger individuals, or better equiped ones, were not affected at the start, so the RP, now with greater power, started to slowly overwrite their minds, (this is hinted in Irinas story)

The Guards originaly only attacked zombies, not you or the other survivers, and did try to sort the mess up. But as time went, and RP got stronger, they did got overtakan, as did the prototype ♥♥♥♥ Machinalis, which were a seperate project from the Nanites
Apart from this, Nanites took controle of the dead bodies and slowly transformed them to Chrisalis enemies. This is hinted by Gorgona Zombies randomly having Chrisalid armor in the Nucleus.

It's less a matter of "nobody wanted the Rogue Process to take over" and more "The implants people were using were already designed for what the Rogue Process wanted to do".

like, the only difference is that the thing doing the brain jacking is the Rogue Process and not Sally.

I think that Sally was quite bad too, because when Mallory reject to help her reaching the executive forums, she did something to her that screw her up with a lot of pain and in OPS, then she get blind of the left eye again and etc.

[grandma_moses]

Originally posted by Adeon Hawkwood:

I don't think he was specifically intending to become a Lumberjack.

Sorry for the late answer, but yes, he was. There is more than one source in the game strongly hinting at that notion, although the log that is most clear about it might be found in the Walk in the Park DLC.

It's a conversation with his girlfriend where she cannot come to understand that he at first was depressed for months after his accident and now is happy like a school boy at the prospect of becoming a lumberjack. I believe the log can be found in the room with the broken walkways and trains right before you encounter RustyRat running from CarbonCat behind some debris at the far end of said room.

[Dave_Jame]

Originally posted by grandma_moses:

Originally posted by Adeon Hawkwood:

I don't think he was specifically intending to become a Lumberjack.

Sorry for the late answer, but yes, he was. There is more than one source in the game strongly hinting at that notion, although the log that is most clear about it might be found in the Walk in the Park DLC.

It's a conversation with his girlfriend where she cannot come to understand that he at first was depressed for months after his accident and now is happy like a school boy at the prospect of becoming a lumberjack. I believe the log can be found in the room with the broken walkways and trains right before you encounter RustyRat running from CarbonCat behind some debris at the far end of said room.

I think you missunderstood.
Take another audilog from the DLC, the one where Don introducec the "LUMBERJACKS". A carneval side show of people in exo suits that showcase what the rigs can do, and how they can help disaple people to walk again. Basicaly a recruitment stunt.
When Waren said "Ill be a lumberjack", he did not ment that he wil go and chop wood, he ment "Ill get my self an exo rig, Ill sell my body to creo for the mirical of free movement." Symply said, he used their experience with the Lumberjack show to explain what he is going to do.

[Adeon Hawkwood]

Yeah. Also the way Elizabeth talks about it in the audio log it's pretty clear she's using Lumberjack in the hypothetical sense as opposed to literal. It's hard to describe since it's a tonal thing but if you listen to how she says "you're going to become a lumberjack" she hesitates before lumberjack implying that she's searching for the right word to use which in turn suggests that lumberjack is a hypothetical based on CREO propaganda as opposed to a literal job description. She's saying Warren is applying for a job as a lumberjack because that's the only exo-rig job she's familiar with not because he's literally applying for a job as a lumberjack.