Why is Shodan leaving PDF recordings scattered around?

[IndustryStandard]

This is bugging me but why does Shodan have a bunch of recorded PDFs scattered around Citadel?

Why would an AI be recording themselves on a recorder?

[EFG.Wenex ヽ(´ー｀)ノ]

Especially those that specify her plans or next moves depending on your action on Citadel.
I do found that weird as well when playing the original System Shock.

[Aaron]

Weird. I can't think of a single time I've opened a PDF on my computer and it was an audio file.

[solaris32]

For the player. Like why would Shodan need to audibly instruct the cyborgs? Couldn't she upload instructions? If not, why make a recording? Try not to think about it. It's like the Borg in Star Trek, don't think about them too much either (the queen ruined them though).

[GepardenK]

Those are to her cyborgs. In the original you would find them on or nearby cyborg corpses. The remake is spreading them around a bit more liberally.

[IndustryStandard]

Originally posted by GepardenK:

Those are to her cyborgs. In the original you would find them on or nearby cyborg corpses. The remake is spreading them around a bit more liberally.

But she shouldn't need to hand them a recorded PDA

She can just tell them what to do remotely. She communicates with the player constantly lol

[Kain]

It's one of those things that make no sense and you better not think too much about it.

[Sticky White Stuff]

Originally posted by IndustryStandard:

Originally posted by GepardenK:

Those are to her cyborgs. In the original you would find them on or nearby cyborg corpses. The remake is spreading them around a bit more liberally.

But she shouldn't need to hand them a recorded PDA

She can just tell them what to do remotely. She communicates with the player constantly lol

I mean sure, but remember the original Resident Evil 4.

There was basically zero lore. All notes were directed to Leon. Like:
"Oh my bros, we will capture Leon in the next room with a trap we prepared!"
So you know it's a trap in the next room.
And then the following note would read as this:
"Oh my bros. we failed yet again, but we will get him next time! Put some traps in the next room, yours truly, Saddler."

[Rui]

System Shock was originally made in an epoch where players didn't really care about small details. Considering all that was going on in Citadel Station, between re-spawned enemies, crazy puzzles, situations that made you go back quite a way (I still remember how desperate I felt when I tried to push the main jettison button in lvl 6 and found it wasn't working and had to go back to maintenance to solve yet another puzzle), and this was just one of the things that made this game great. People just didn't care why log "A" was recorded by character "B" and why was it placed in local "C". But well, guess everything has to make perfect sense for gamers nowadays.

[gbrading]

They're usually to her cyborgs. I know it's pretty pointless but remember SHODAN is an enormous megalomaniac and so probably deliberately recorded all her announcements as audio logs and distributed them to her cyborgs, because she wanted everyone to hear her words.

[Kain]

Or could be her cyborgs are simps who record her messages to jerk off to it. She threatens one of her cyborgs so they for sure can feel something still.

[splette]

Shodan was overly confident and thought the entire station is already under her control. Therefore she didn't mind leaving instructions and plans scattered around to keep her children in the loop.

[K I L L E R 89 (FIN)]

Originally posted by ＧＬＵＥ:

Originally posted by IndustryStandard:

But she shouldn't need to hand them a recorded PDA

She can just tell them what to do remotely. She communicates with the player constantly lol

I mean sure, but remember the original Resident Evil 4.

There was basically zero lore. All notes were directed to Leon. Like:
"Oh my bros, we will capture Leon in the next room with a trap we prepared!"
So you know it's a trap in the next room.
And then the following note would read as this:
"Oh my bros. we failed yet again, but we will get him next time! Put some traps in the next room, yours truly, Saddler."

To be fair Mikami wrote RE4's story in 3 weeks.

https://www.thegamer.com/resident-evil-4-story-three-weeks/

[Solaron]

While in combat with Citadel resistance members, SHODAN’s mutants and cyborgs dropped their audio logs and notes on the floor. Funny enough, not one of these is a PDF.

[Alcator]

I always imagined Shodan in the first game as a sort of 'evil kid with daddy's billion dollar credit card' -- desperately wanting to do evil things but not understanding what 'strategy', 'tactics', 'quality assurance' or, pretty much anything, means.

Also, keep in mind that she is 6 months old (or at least her "Evil timeline" is).

Maybe she has not yet mastered electronic communication with the cyborgs (or maybe the cyborgs are deeply flawed, being mashed together part human part robots, and don't have brain interface for reading emails?)

[Kain]

Originally posted by Alcator:

I always imagined Shodan in the first game as a sort of 'evil kid with daddy's billion dollar credit card' -- desperately wanting to do evil things but not understanding what 'strategy', 'tactics', 'quality assurance' or, pretty much anything, means.

Also, keep in mind that she is 6 months old (or at least her "Evil timeline" is).

Maybe she has not yet mastered electronic communication with the cyborgs (or maybe the cyborgs are deeply flawed, being mashed together part human part robots, and don't have brain interface for reading emails?)

That's a good point. In the sequel she's much more mature. She learned that in the height of her power it took one determined human to ♥♥♥♥ her up.

In the second she's smarter , covert and manipulative, even her manerisms are more collected.

If we ever got an SS3 that followed they progression, she would have been the most devious and smart villain of all times, being beaten twice but learning from those mistakes each time.