[Spoilers] Hidden ending?

[chairman_mentos]

I noticed that picking up quite a few Mercer Spheres, the aliens dialogue was progressing and becoming more comprehensible. I would like to know if there is some hidden ending with the game and the mercer spheres, because I spent 182 hours on the main game, and just have XMAS left to finish.

My personal theory is that the planet and your factory are somehow intertwined, I sort of noticed that my constructions and layout look vaguely like the landscape of the planet, and that the aliens themselves are interested in the human race because of you and especially ADA. Unlike factorio you don't really wreck your environment, you just build over it...

[Fenix]

If there is a hidden ending I doubt anyone has found it.... which I doubt as that would have been Data Mined already. The "Time to Tango" Is the last message you get from the Aliens, and if you complete the Mercer Sphere and Somersloop Achievements you should have gotten that, the only other messages come from the Alien Technology Research in the MAM.

Also the Aliens only care about ADA, not the meatbag helping her.

[Huren Ogeko]

There are 27 messages in all. in the final one it appears ADA have uploaded herself to the aliens probably leaving behind a copy of herself to continue to help you on your mission.
If there is anything beyond that I havent seen it yet.
I cant say the alien messages make more sense as they progress but its pretty clear ADA is able to understand them pretty well and she uses what she learns to expand the dimensional depot technology.

[chairman_mentos]

Thanks so much for this, I was always wondering about the aliens and what they had to do with the game. Well, I thought there would be some hidden ending or something.

[stanley37861]

If I had to guess this game was going to have many different ending. Like frostpunk had that depending on the choices you made the ending would change. It seems like every game I owned got a 1.0 release this year and a rushed ending. 1 or 2 games getting their 1.0 release in a year happens but when games that have been worked on for years and still are not done get there 1.0 release in the dozens I do have to wonder why.

Anyways I think the ending and replayable parts of the game where cut to get a 1.0 release this year.

[0815noob]

I simply think that the majority of players is interested in the building part. Exploration became much more important with 1.0 but if they extended that even further, they would have probably scared away a lot of the builders. And actually the way the game is set up, there is no reason to replay it, you just keep optimizing your factories.

[Huren Ogeko]

Originally posted by chairman_mentos:

Thanks so much for this, I was always wondering about the aliens and what they had to do with the game. Well, I thought there would be some hidden ending or something.

There may still be. Maybe satisfactory 2 will be the adventures of ADA in the aliens non-corporeal universe. Who knows what ADA can do once she is unlocked with unlimited knowledge and access of the universe, for good or for evil

[Sonic Titan]

Originally posted by chairman_mentos:

Unlike factorio you don't really wreck your environment

Yeah... I'm sure nothing bad happened on Earth because of - never mind; these resources aren't going to plunder themselves.

[stanley37861]

I think the end things we where making where a dead give away on what the AI had planned for earth. I do wonder what a satisfactory 2 would be like. Maybe solar wind and hydro power. Deep mining. geothermal power. Maybe upgradeable buildings or stackable buildings. really not alot comes to mind that could be added to the game other then random gen maps to make each run feel different and have a factory that has to be protected. The problem with that is so many other games are already doing it.

[Sonic Titan]

Originally posted by stanley37861:

I think the end things we where making where a dead give away on what the AI had planned for earth.

My take is less that ADA has or had "a plan" of its own making - it's part of why I love the game ending the way it does, especially if you're someone who doesn't like making your own goals - there's no reason for ADA to give you them now, we've just built a flying mining rig and told her where Texas is.

Whole game is just "do this because I'm telling you to, and I'm telling you to because I was told to tell you. Someone will switch this off when we're done. Everybody is still alive though, so I'm still powered on and doing this".

Anyway, can you get me that report by 5? I have a meeting with Sir Honkhonk at 6.

[stanley37861]

Originally posted by Sonic Titan:

Originally posted by stanley37861:

I think the end things we where making where a dead give away on what the AI had planned for earth.

My take is less that ADA has or had "a plan" of its own making - it's part of why I love the game ending the way it does, especially if you're someone who doesn't like making your own goals - there's no reason for ADA to give you them now, we've just built a flying mining rig and told her where Texas is.

Whole game is just "do this because I'm telling you to, and I'm telling you to because I was told to tell you. Someone will switch this off when we're done. Everybody is still alive though, so I'm still powered on and doing this".

Anyway, can you get me that report by 5? I have a meeting with Sir Honkhonk at 6.

Biochemical Sculptor, Ballistic Warp Drive, and AI Expansion Server. Those 3 items do not seem like they are used for mining and the ship didnt look like it had a drill on it. Looked more like a cargo ship to me. warp drive makes sense, AI Expansion Server makes sense, Biochemical Sculptor is the one items that I do not know if would be used in running the ship. We could say its used to make fuel but it would require more energy to make the fuel then it would make. It would make more sense if there was solar power in the game and that was used to get the energy to make the fuel, thou the Biochemical Sculptor, for the drives but as far as I know there isnt.

So why would the AI need a Biochemical Sculptor? because it wants to make new life or make something that will end all life? Since the AI is openly hostile to you for the whole game......

"Sometimes toes need to be stepped on for the sake of progress. Fortunately for you, I have no toes. "

[Fenix]

Originally posted by stanley37861:

So why would the AI need a Biochemical Sculptor? because it wants to make new life or make something that will end all life? Since the AI is openly hostile to you for the whole game......

There is the long standing belief we are clones, and that sounds a lot like a cloning machine to me. The Fifth Element scene where they rebuild Lulu comes to mind.

[stanley37861]

Originally posted by Fenix:

Originally posted by stanley37861:

So why would the AI need a Biochemical Sculptor? because it wants to make new life or make something that will end all life? Since the AI is openly hostile to you for the whole game......

There is the long standing belief we are clones, and that sounds a lot like a cloning machine to me. The Fifth Element scene where they rebuild Lulu comes to mind.

That is often the problem with open ended endings. There are alot of things it could be. This often leads to people disagreeing over the true ending. The clone thing would make since. We do keep coming back to life after all. If we are clones where are the bodies? how is the data from our past life being transferred to us? There is also those that think we are robots. Again where are the bodies. data from one robot to the next. either is just as likely. They just didnt program in having bodies left laying around. Maybe our suits have some type of acid that eats our bodies when we die. That would be a good reason why the bodies are gone when we come back. Until we are told otherwise it could be anything.

the biochemical sculptor seemed like the main thing that was being transported since everything else seemed to have a use on the ship. Even that could be wrong. there could be bacteria that lives on sunlight and is used to make fuel in the Biochemical Sculptor. or it could be a clone plant used to repopulate the world. It could be the next game where the ship is up in space dropping more clones down each time we die.

In the end we are just guessing at everything and we just have to throw ideas out and see whos idea is liked the most. I got a feeling we will never know what was really going on. I personally am going with the we where tricked into destroying earth by a evil AI that was corruption by a evil alien specie. I am open to being wrong tho.

[randyeischer]

Originally posted by Fenix:

if you complete the Mercer Sphere and Somersloop Achievements you should have gotten that

I just finished the game, after 392 hours played, and ended up with only 45 hard drives, 64 Mercer spheres, and 24 Somersloop--not even half of what's needed to get any of the three achievements.

I didn't explore the top half of the map, either.

And I blame the crappy radar/map system for that. It can locate resource nodes, but not crashed ships? The handheld scanner is so unhelpful that I have often walked away in disgust after spending 15 minutes trying to find something it's telling me IS RIGHT THERE yet I can't find it. (Yes, I looked for caves, too)

If they had been on the map--aside from "there are 9 in the radar antenna's zone"--I would have explored the entire map just to get them all. Instead, I had so few Somersloop to work with--how many do you have to sacrifice just to climb the research tree?--that I had to keep moving them from machine to machine.

So no, I never had enough to build that power augmenter, either.

[randyeischer]

Originally posted by chairman_mentos:

I was always wondering about the aliens and what they had to do with the game.

I strongly suspected that it's that planet that revives you each time you die, since I don't remember ADA ever commenting on it.

My headcanon while I was playing is that humanity is dead except for you, because you happened to land on a planet with a Gaia-level intelligence, and the planet built you a "zoo" with hard boundaries (just jump into any fissure to find out), revives you when you die, and each time you complete "Save the Day" and blast off to leave, the planet crashes your ship, turns you into a slug to spare you, but then wipes out all your work and creates a new copy of you to land and start all over.

[0815noob]

Originally posted by randyeischer:

Originally posted by Fenix:

if you complete the Mercer Sphere and Somersloop Achievements you should have gotten that

I just finished the game, after 392 hours played, and ended up with only 45 hard drives, 64 Mercer spheres, and 24 Somersloop--not even half of what's needed to get any of the three achievements.

I didn't explore the top half of the map, either.

And I blame the crappy radar/map system for that. It can locate resource nodes, but not crashed ships? The handheld scanner is so unhelpful that I have often walked away in disgust after spending 15 minutes trying to find something it's telling me IS RIGHT THERE yet I can't find it. (Yes, I looked for caves, too)

If they had been on the map--aside from "there are 9 in the radar antenna's zone"--I would have explored the entire map just to get them all. Instead, I had so few Somersloop to work with--how many do you have to sacrifice just to climb the research tree?--that I had to keep moving them from machine to machine.

So no, I never had enough to build that power augmenter, either.

You can locate crashed ships with your handheld scanner and they are definitely not in caves...
Also you can get lots and lots of spheres and sloops without exploring caves, those in the caves are more to get them all and unless you are a completionist, you don't even need them.
I got all the achievements you are talking about without using the internet, just running around and using the scanner, it works...
And hey, you skipped half of the map and wonder why you are missing stuff?