Re: Q&A Request of Mateusz Skutnik 5-1-2018
Posted: 16 Jan 2018 00:23
Could you put the most important questions at the top of each section?
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Legend:
*** -> very important
** -> somewhat important
* -> not very important
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LOCATIONS
*** 1. At the ends of Submachine 10 and Submachine Universe, the Player ends up in a desert. What is the significance of this place for people like Murtaugh and Elizabeth, and where is it located with respect to the rest of the Submachine? Is it a foreign planet, as it appears, or is this an alternate Earth?
*** 2. Where is the Edge located exactly? Is it a wall between the Core and the Outer Rim, or is it surrounding the Outer Rim? Or both things are true, and we travel to the outer part to disable the inner part's defenses? How does one explain the human infestation map in Submachine 6?
*** 3. What does the Defense System actually do and what is it protecting? Who are the turrets for and where are they pointed? Does it govern the subbots? Does it protect the Core or is it at the outer edge of the outer rim? Are the defenses in or out?
*** 4. If the Lighthouse is a part of the Core and the Root is a part of the Outer Rim, how can they be connected physically (as seen in Submachine 5)?
** 5. What is the true layout of the Lighthouse? Is the painting shown in Submachine 1 correct? If so, why can't we see the entrance nor the third floor window in Submachine 2?
** 6. Do the structures seen at the ending of Submachine Universe imply that the player didn't exit the Subnet from any of them because they weren't their home layer?
** 7. Where is the Kent we keep hearing about? England, Connecticut or some place original to the Submachine canon?
** 8. Why do all the layers have a black void in the background while in Submachine 8 we see different sky backgrounds?
** 9. Is the starry background in Submachine 8's layer 2 fake, or is Submachine really so big that it can host whole stars inside it?
* 10. Is LittleTornado right in his calculations on how big the Root is? That is to say, does the Root comprise of approximately 1413 rooms within 157 distinct transporter locations, which are a small part of 11,818 rooms of transporter locations?
* 11. What is the significance of the statue seen in 314 and why is it so similar to the one in 452?
* 12. Are there locations in the Subnet that even Murtaugh with his karma arm cannot visit? If so, why? Are they specific locations, or do they form a group due to some property? Could they be reached by someone else?
* 13. Is location 672 an example of a Submachine in construction?
* 14. Does the Submachine copy structures built by aliens?
* 15. Does the Submachine have an outer shell, like in the movie Cube, or is it infinite? If yes, what is it?
TIMELINE
*** 16. Why does the Subnet exist at all? Where did it first come from and what made the first location be created/absorbed? Where is it? Is it inside a universe or its own universe? If the first Subnet location wasn't necessarily built by humans then what's responsible for starting everything? What was the intended purpose of just having a bunch of places in empty space somehow controlled by a computer?
*** 17. When was the Lab created and for what purpose? Was it a part of the attempt to understand the collapse and rapid expansion? If not, what was it for and who controlled it?
*** 18. What is the purpose of the Root in the Submachine storyline? What was it used for and who by and for how long? Why was there an observation room; is the place still used? In short: what is special about the Root, outside of it being the first man-made Submachine?
*** 19. What were the seven-layer bullets used for and when? Was there a war between followers of Murtaugh and those who opposed him? Did people try to kill Murtaugh later? How did this affect Murtaugh? How did this affect the Subnet?
** 20. What is the rough timeline of the "Sub-Eras" and the "Dynasties"? When did the singularity happen?
** 21. Is the plot for Submachine 9:
a: Mur and Liz travel into the past and are revered, but soon die and are buried in a proper format.
b: Mur and Liz go through time normally and, therefore, die normally.
** 22. What are the specific moments during the series that the player travels in time, and roughly how many years/decades/etc. do they go forwards/backwards?
** 23. What happened exactly in the period between Submachine 4 and 5? The player woke up in a bed at the start of Sub5, with food and coffee, and there are no signs of them having been teleported recently; how did they get there?
* 24. At which date does the first game take place?
LAYERS
*** 25. How exactly does one decide where to transport to find a new KP or XYZ location? So many of the XYZ locations are completely closed structures, so does that mean that the portals were already inside? But then how were explorers able to access them if they weren't previously reverse-engineered? And how does Mur find new locations to turn into KP locations? Does he just point his arm off in space until a little chime plays so he knows he hit solid material?
*** 26. What are the specific moments during the series that the player changes layer, and which layer do they end up each time?
** 27. How do karma portals interact with the layer "dimension" (assuming that the layer dimension is accurately explained in the first place)? What does it mean to have "interdimensional karma flow"?
** 28. Are there instances in the games where layer and dimension are not used synonymously? Consider, for example "[t]he Submachine is now living in five dimensions" in Submachine 10.
** 29. Are layers and sublayers actually arranged in a continuum similar to the number line, as the note from Submachine 10 suggests? That is, is there a sublayer 1.5 between layer 1 and layer 2, a sublayer 1.25 between layer 1 and sublayer 1.5, and so on?
** 30. If so, what is there after layer 7? Does the structure wrap back to layer 1, like the numbers in a clock or like in a Submachine loop? Or there is simply nothing past it?
** 31. What distinguishes the seven main layers from all other sublayers?
** 32. In layer 8, if all atoms are "frozen in time", why can the player move?
** 33. Who made up the plan and were the layers involved created by someone/something in particular? If so, how? If not, does that mean it's just something that was "discovered" that's tied to this fictional universe that we just have to accept?
KARMA
** 34. What is the difference between green, white and blue karmic energy?
** 35. Is the colour of a karma portal significant in some way? How about the size (as seen in Submachine 7)?
CHARACTERS
*** 36. What is the purpose of the player's journey? Could you explain the player's journey in your own words and how long it took? Are we a student going through a museum ride or what? How long after the events described in the notes is player actually situated in? Months? Years? Centuries? Millennia?
*** 37. Who were the unidentified people who left the notes in Submachines 8, 9 and 10, and how were they produced? Why are they written as dialogue, if they are notes? What is the speakers' and the notes' significance to the story?
*** 38. In Submachine 10 we see what we assume to be inactive subbots lying about everywhere. Are they actually subbots and if not, what are they? Why are they there? Who used them and what for?
** 39. In Submachine 10 we see a lot of skulls, but no skeletons? Where did the skeletons go and where did the researcher get so many skulls in the first place?
* 40. Do subbots attack humans? If not, what is the note in location 613 referencing? Why and how do they do this?
* 41. Does Einstein actually have powers, or was that just an illusion caused by Murtaugh's uncontrolled use of karma in the lighthouse?
* 42. What is Elizabeth's ethnicity?
MISCELLANEOUS
*** 43. Does SHIVA or some other AI actually control all of the Subnet or just some parts of it? Is this a part of Submachines or has SHIVA just taken over?
*** 44. Why is resin pouring into and burying different Submachines?
** 45. What significance does the AI from the note in Sub8 have on anything we see in the Subnet? Is the AI in question SHIVA? Is the AI responsible for first creating the Subnet? What is the answer to "Why are we" and is there a demonstration of this answer anywhere?