Degasi survivors were really dumb?

kingdoo10kingdoo10 UK Join Date: 2017-01-20 Member: 226989Members
I have never understood the Degasi survivors and their dumb survival choices. They chose to make their first base on the floating Island. Ok makes sense sensible suggestion. They then found out that they didn't have enough food and so decided to set up a base in the Jelly Shroom Caves. Ok understandable they didn't have enough food fine. But, they chose to set up in the Jelly Shroom Caves when you have the extreme danger of the Crab Snake. Ok I guess you could say that you may not know straight away that Reefbacks are actually friendly creatures and that is why the didn't set up a base in the Grassy Plateaus. But either way setting up in a cave like that seems dumb to me.

Furthermore, they then set up their base in the Deep Grand Reef which to me seems even more dumb. No wonder they didn't survive and were killed by a Leviathan. I still wonder why they never died from the Crab Squids or Warpers within the Deep Grand Reef.

Moreover, ok setting up in the Jelly Shroom Caves isn't awful I guess definitely safer than a lot of other biomes. But what I don't understand is they are literally a couple 100 meters from the Safe Shallows. Like why did they never set up a base there. Ok they would need a larger base than the player does but looking at the Jelly Shroom and the Deep Grand Reef bases which were quite small, they easily could have set up a base in the deeper regions of the Safe Shallows.

I think maybe more information needs to be given about the past. Although it's only like 10 years since the events of the Degasi crew so not much could have changed surely, other than where the Crash Site biome is and probably the Crag Field as well. But for the majority of biomes and the creatures within them would still be the same not enough time has passed for them to have evolved. Although I guess a few creatures could have been made extinct from the carar bacteria?

I understand for story and game mechanics it is more interesting to make them set up bases in the less safe environments like the Jelly Shroom Caves and Deep Grand Reef. Their purpose is to make it difficult for the player to scan things like the water filtration unit for example. But... I think maybe there should be a basic base within the Safe Shallows or Grassy Plateaus. Possibly giving you very vital early game technology. For example, replacing the battery charger fragments in the wrecks in the Grassy Plateous. Maybe even making lockers in this base having to be scanned or something. Maybe it could be said that they ended up using the habitat builder to debuild a lot of the base, as it became clear that the Safe Shallows didn't have enough food to survive. Or maybe, they suggest that they should set up habitats in the Jelly Shroom Caves and eventually the Deep Grand Reef, maybe Marguerit could persuade Paul by saying that they could observe the creatures, take photos with the camera drones and stuff and as such make a lot of money if they end up leaving the planet.

The only reason I could think of going down that far is if they found out about the infection. But from the PDA's we only find out that they knew they were infected with the carar once in the Grand Reef, there was no need to go that far deep into unsafe territories unless they found the Mountain Island and found out about the Disease Reasearch Facility.

Comments

  • TarkannenTarkannen North Carolina Join Date: 2016-08-15 Member: 221304Members
    edited April 2017
    kingdoo10 wrote: »
    I understand for story and game mechanics it is more interesting to make them set up bases in the less safe environments like the Jelly Shroom Caves and Deep Grand Reef. Their purpose is to make it difficult for the player to scan things like the water filtration unit for example.

    Wait... All this time the Water Filtration Machine fragments have been in the Jellyshroom cave base?? I've been driving myself mad exploring every wreck and biome trying to find them; I've ended up having to cheat them in via console commands every update... :( I haven't been there in months, since most everything you get there (MP Room, Alien Containment, Beds) can be found elsewhere, and the Crabsnake bizarrely spawns in the Safe Shallows randomly now.

    More to your original point, I can't really understand why they would build bases so deep in the JSC and DGR. The PDA entries we find indicate they had just enough salvage to build their island bases with some planters; if that were the case why didn't take the metal with them? Also how did they get down that far to build anyways with just basic materials; we need special equipment to just reach those areas, let alone survive...

    I dunno, of all of the Degasi crew the only survivors are:
    1. The executive officer in charge of the profitable Mongolian mining operation
    2. His son, augmented with expensive technology specifically suited for survival
    3. An experienced mercenary hired by said officer, who has contacts for laundering stolen goods

    Hmm, yes... I sense a conspiracy afoot! :flushed:
  • DaveyNYDaveyNY Schenectady, NY Join Date: 2016-08-30 Member: 221903Members
    edited April 2017
    They ended up on the planet TEN years before we came looking for them.

    Perhaps they didn't have the same amount and/or advanced type of tech that the Aurora was supplied with.

    Also, it seems to me that they probably didn't have a fabricator that was capable of producing the large amount of supplies that we have...

    It either wasn't working properly or it crapped out on them early on in their stay...

    And they weren't able to fix it.

    Remember also, that according to their own logs, they were dealing with frequent really bad weather that we haven't encountered yet in our short stay so far.


    It wasn't that they were "dumb", it was that they had rotten luck.

    B)
  • kingdoo10kingdoo10 UK Join Date: 2017-01-20 Member: 226989Members
    edited April 2017
    [/quote] Wait... All this time the Water Filtration Machine fragments have been in the Jellyshroom cave base?? I've been driving myself mad exploring every wreck and biome trying to find them; I've ended up having to cheat them in via console commands every update... :( I haven't been there in months, since most everything you get there (MP Room, Alien Containment, Beds) can be found elsewhere, and the Crabsnake bizarrely spawns in the Safe Shallows randomly now.

    More to your original point, I can't really understand why they would build bases so deep in the JSC and DGR. The PDA entries we find indicate they had just enough salvage to build their island bases with some planters; if that were the case why didn't take the metal with them? Also how did they get down that far to build anyways with just basic materials; we need special equipment to just reach those areas, let alone survive...

    I dunno, of all of the Degasi crew the only survivors are:
    1. The executive officer in charge of the profitable Mongolian mining operation
    2. His son, augmented with expensive technology specifically suited for survival
    3. An experienced mercenary hired by said officer, who has contacts for laundering stolen goods

    Hmm, yes... I sense a conspiracy afoot! :flushed: [/quote]

    Yeah the water filtration machine can be scanned in the Jelly Shroom Caves. You scan it like you do with the observatory and multipurpose room whereby you scan them and because they are a complete build you don't have to scan it again.

    In summary in the Jelly shroom caves it's the whole machine which they were using within the first part of the base. And it isn't a fragment you just have to scan it once.

    Well we are led to believe that it is because Marguerit persuaded Paul and Bart to go down there. But like I said it did seem quite dumb. Or at least I would expect there to be an alternative reason.

    I can understand why Marguerit wanted to go, probably because of the adventure and excitement hence she is the one to institute it. But, with limited resources and due to how dangerous both biomes are you would expect them to have decided on a safer location.
  • kingdoo10kingdoo10 UK Join Date: 2017-01-20 Member: 226989Members
    edited April 2017
    DaveyNY wrote: »
    They ended up on the planet TEN years before we came looking for them.

    Perhaps they didn't have the same amount and/or advanced type of tech that the Aurora was supplied with.

    Also, it seems to me that they probably didn't have a fabricator that was capable of producing the large amount of supplies that we have...

    It either wasn't working properly or it crapped out on them early on in their stay...

    And they weren't able to fix it.

    Remember also, that according to their own logs, they were dealing with frequent really bad weather that we haven't encountered yet in our short stay so far.


    It wasn't that they were "dumb", it was that they had rotten luck.

    B)

    That contradicts everything you said though. Think about it the amount of materials we need to produce a seamoth/prawn/cyclops capable of getting that deep. Well it is a lot of materials.

    Secondly, we use their bases for the majority of our basic base building. Examples include, MPR, Water filtration unit, Observatory, bulkhead, spot light, exterior/interior growbeds, a lot of misc stuff like beds which in hindsight are actually useful if we were doing a real life simulation.

    Basically from the PDA's we get them saying oh I've checked out a place X times deep. And suddenly they have the supplies to build down there, and not once did either of them go, actually this is too dangerous until it was too late.

    Finally, it would have made more sense if they could have made some sort of submarine, maybe not cyclops material but still good nevertheless. Living in there would require a lot less materials, because they would have had to make a equivalent to get down to these locations. Well, at least that is defintiely the case for Deep Grand Reef as it is way too deep for air tanks to allow you to get down to that level and is too much for the basic depths of the seamoth and cyclops. It would be possible if they created a few prawn suits as their base depth is capable, but again like you said at they crash landed 10 years ago, so if the prawn didn't exist anything other technology wouldn't be as advanced.

    "It wasn't that they were "dumb", it was that they had rotten luck." Like I said the reason they left the island wasn't dumb, I mentioned the lack of food but yes the weather as well. But where they chose to set up their bases, now that was definitely dumb. The Grassy Plateous, Sparce Reef, Safe Shallows would have all been crossed as you need to get through the first 2 to get to the Jelly Shroom Caves, and then after that a quick search and you would find the safe shallows. Yet they decided to take on the most challenging of biomes. Even if they had built in the Grand Reef rather than the Deep Grand Reef which is pretty safe other than the warpers.
  • scifiwriterguyscifiwriterguy Sector ZZ-9-Plural Z-α Join Date: 2017-02-14 Member: 227901Members
    I'd say it was a case of "too many cooks." You had three people who were trying to force things to go in three mutually-exclusive directions. That's not a friend of efficiency. In the end, the strongest personality - the merc - won out, which explains why they were making dubious decisions for a group that theoretically wanted rescue. ("Make yourself difficult to find" is not in the rescuee handbook.) Ultimately, Marguerit wanted to slay the dragon so to speak, and bulled the others into going along.

    As for the Safe Shallows, there's a reasonable(-ish) explanation for that. With sufficiently bad weather, the sea state could've gotten pretty violent. At State 9, you're talking waves over 14 meters high, and the safe shallows would've been anything but. You'd've had violent rip currents and undertows, and the shallowest parts would be getting uncovered and pounded by breakers repeatedly. Any diving in that area would've been incredibly hazardous, to say nothing of trying to set up some kind of base. The bad sea state would've driven many of the normal residents of the shallows deeper for safety, which means moderately deep areas like the Plateaus would've been teeming with Stalkers, Sandsharks, and non-predatory fish just trying to stay out of the way of everybody else, so that would've been dicey, too. But there's no excuse for diving for the center of the planet like they did except for glory-seeker Margeurit pushing them into it.

    What doesn't make sense, and really can't, is why they left four full bases behind. If they were really so strapped for materials that they salvaged the Degasi down to the last rivet, they should've been deconstructing and moving their resources with them as they relocated. Otherwise, they shouldn't've had the materials necessary to build those bases. That's the real flaw in the whole scenario. Unless they found massive stores of materials somewhere - or went resource hunting crazy - that's one helluva plot hole.
  • kingdoo10kingdoo10 UK Join Date: 2017-01-20 Member: 226989Members
    I'd say it was a case of "too many cooks." You had three people who were trying to force things to go in three mutually-exclusive directions. That's not a friend of efficiency. In the end, the strongest personality - the merc - won out, which explains why they were making dubious decisions for a group that theoretically wanted rescue. ("Make yourself difficult to find" is not in the rescuee handbook.) Ultimately, Marguerit wanted to slay the dragon so to speak, and bulled the others into going along.

    As for the Safe Shallows, there's a reasonable(-ish) explanation for that. With sufficiently bad weather, the sea state could've gotten pretty violent. At State 9, you're talking waves over 14 meters high, and the safe shallows would've been anything but. You'd've had violent rip currents and undertows, and the shallowest parts would be getting uncovered and pounded by breakers repeatedly. Any diving in that area would've been incredibly hazardous, to say nothing of trying to set up some kind of base. The bad sea state would've driven many of the normal residents of the shallows deeper for safety, which means moderately deep areas like the Plateaus would've been teeming with Stalkers, Sandsharks, and non-predatory fish just trying to stay out of the way of everybody else, so that would've been dicey, too. But there's no excuse for diving for the center of the planet like they did except for glory-seeker Margeurit pushing them into it.

    What doesn't make sense, and really can't, is why they left four full bases behind. If they were really so strapped for materials that they salvaged the Degasi down to the last rivet, they should've been deconstructing and moving their resources with them as they relocated. Otherwise, they shouldn't've had the materials necessary to build those bases. That's the real flaw in the whole scenario. Unless they found massive stores of materials somewhere - or went resource hunting crazy - that's one helluva plot hole.

    I'll give you that with the Jelly Shroom Caves base. That is slightly understandable if the weather was having massive issues and causing stalkers to flee into the Grassy Plataeus. But if that was the case then they would have to pass them anyway since the Jelly Shroom Caves are found in the Grassy Plataeus. So again does it make any sense not really. Like Crab Snakes do quite a bit of damage to the seamoth. Stalkers do no damage and sandsharks do slight damage. So the reality is they wouldn't be able to attack a sea base. But I understand that the weather could be a potential risk.

    That aside. It's the deep grand reef I don't understand. By the sounds of things they didn't have that many materials. So whether they had enough for a base doesn't really matter there is nothing in the PDA to explain that they had enough materials to make a cyclops or a similar vessle that would allow them to travel that deep. The Marguerit motive and ability to bully the others, makes sense but the ability to make a base down there well there is almost no chance with the information we have gotten.

    "That's the real flaw in the whole scenario. Unless they found massive stores of materials somewhere - or went resource hunting crazy - that's one helluva plot hole"

    it really is. It takes hours to find metal salavage let alone finding singular titaniums from the limestone rocks in the safe shallows. The only thing could make sense is if they had made a prawn suit, which doesn't really require that much materials and then mined them in the bloodkelp or something. But you know the way the planet is designed, we are incredibly lucky with where we land, so much was against there favor yet they still managed to do the impossible.
  • FathomFathom Earth Join Date: 2016-07-01 Member: 219405Members
    To make sense of their behavior and decisions, you have to look at the characters involved and their motivations.

    Paul is an old man. Bart is not allowed by his father to do anything risky. That leaves Marguerit to do all the swimming, resource gathering and scouting. She found a key before they left the island. It was her idea to settle into the Jelly Shroom Cave. She may have been to the Mountain Island and got an estimate for the other facilities and was trying to push the others out and deeper to look for them. Paranoid as she was, she didn't tell either of them what she was doing or planning to do and what she saw.

    In the end, the leviathan attack screwed everything up and led to their demise before they could achieve anything more.
  • SidchickenSidchicken Plumbing the subnautican depths Join Date: 2016-02-16 Member: 213125Members
    Bart knows something though. He says in one of the PDA's that "They don't want us down there. They don't trust us. I knew and I said nothing, and now they're down there and I'm up here. I deserve this." (That may be slightly paraphrased). So clearly he knows something. Apparently something Marguerite doesn't.
  • kingdoo10kingdoo10 UK Join Date: 2017-01-20 Member: 226989Members
    Sidchicken wrote: »
    Bart knows something though. He says in one of the PDA's that "They don't want us down there. They don't trust us. I knew and I said nothing, and now they're down there and I'm up here. I deserve this." (That may be slightly paraphrased). So clearly he knows something. Apparently something Marguerite doesn't.

    I thought that was refering to the crabsquids and warpers tbh. He clearly doesn't know anything about the carar bacteria just that they are infected with it.
  • kingdoo10kingdoo10 UK Join Date: 2017-01-20 Member: 226989Members
    Fathom wrote: »
    To make sense of their behavior and decisions, you have to look at the characters involved and their motivations.

    Paul is an old man. Bart is not allowed by his father to do anything risky. That leaves Marguerit to do all the swimming, resource gathering and scouting. She found a key before they left the island. It was her idea to settle into the Jelly Shroom Cave. She may have been to the Mountain Island and got an estimate for the other facilities and was trying to push the others out and deeper to look for them. Paranoid as she was, she didn't tell either of them what she was doing or planning to do and what she saw.

    In the end, the leviathan attack screwed everything up and led to their demise before they could achieve anything more.

    In regards to resources, yes it is possible that they managed to find them. But in regards to that then they should probably have destroyed or broken seamoths or prawns or something around the Deep Grand Reef base.

    In regards where they ended up.I just don't think Paul, knowing his character would have stayed in the Deep Grand Reef. Bart might have stayed for a while but I still think he would have come to his senses and would have scouted out for someplace safer.

    I think maybe more information needs to be given. A few Seamoths broken around the grand reef, a few more data entries maybe explaining that Marguerit found the large amount of resources needed to get that far deep including a few pressure compensators.
  • SkopeSkope Wouldn't you like to know ;) Join Date: 2016-06-07 Member: 218212Members
    kingdoo10 wrote: »
    Sidchicken wrote: »
    Bart knows something though. He says in one of the PDA's that "They don't want us down there. They don't trust us. I knew and I said nothing, and now they're down there and I'm up here. I deserve this." (That may be slightly paraphrased). So clearly he knows something. Apparently something Marguerite doesn't.

    I thought that was refering to the crabsquids and warpers tbh. He clearly doesn't know anything about the carar bacteria just that they are infected with it.

    Who says that the Precursors were entirely wiped out when Baat (Bart) was separated? They could have very well have met some Precursors, who didn't trust them, pushed them out of the deeper areas where they were exploring, and they were forced to settle in the DGR. Then, Baat left the group, returned to the Floating Island, and was picked off by Warpers or Cave Crawlers. All the while, the escaped Dragon killed Marguerit and Paal.

    I think it makes sense to me.
  • prototype464prototype464 North Carolina, United States Join Date: 2017-03-16 Member: 228993Members
    Theory time! Chances are the people the island had already been on the planet beforehand on a research trip, somehow they were running out of food (Really? Bulbo trees are everywhere on land!) So they moved to the JSC where *cough less food cough* new research opportunities "surfaced" ;)

    They then moved to the DGR for even further research. I recall reading some PDA data saying one of them had brought a presumably dead leviathan which soon woke up and killed all (3?) of them.

    Moral of the story: Leviathans can and will go all Jesus on your @ss.
  • kingkumakingkuma cancels Work: distracted by Dwarf Fortress Join Date: 2015-09-25 Member: 208137Members
    edited April 2017
    DEBATE FOUND

    ACTIVATING DEBATE MODE - POWERING UP LOGIC ARRAY
    ...
    ...
    ...

    INITIALIZING OUTPUT
    That aside. It's the deep grand reef I don't understand. By the sounds of things they didn't have that many materials. So whether they had enough for a base doesn't really matter there is nothing in the PDA to explain that they had enough materials to make a cyclops or a similar vessle that would allow them to travel that deep. The Marguerit motive and ability to bully the others, makes sense but the ability to make a base down there well there is almost no chance with the information we have gotten.

    Ok, the deep grand reef base isn't as bad of an idea as it sounds. WHEN IT WAS ADDED, there was a passage to the lost river (it's gone now). Maybe, they knew of it, and were going to explore it, but never got the chance to? And maybe, they did - but they barely made it out alive? Did the PDA say what kind of Leviathan it was they caught? If not, was it a ghost Leviathan ? this is more likely than a sea dragon passing throught the DGR.
    Skope wrote: »
    kingdoo10 wrote: »
    Sidchicken wrote: »
    Bart knows something though. He says in one of the PDA's that "They don't want us down there. They don't trust us. I knew and I said nothing, and now they're down there and I'm up here. I deserve this." (That may be slightly paraphrased). So clearly he knows something. Apparently something Marguerite doesn't.

    I thought that was refering to the crabsquids and warpers tbh. He clearly doesn't know anything about the carar bacteria just that they are infected with it.

    Who says that the Precursors were entirely wiped out when Baat (Bart) was separated? They could have very well have met some Precursors, who didn't trust them, pushed them out of the deeper areas where they were exploring, and they were forced to settle in the DGR. Then, Baat left the group, returned to the Floating Island, and was picked off by Warpers or Cave Crawlers. All the while, the escaped Dragon killed Marguerit and Paal.

    I think it makes sense to me.

    Given all the precursors released carar 990 years prior, and you catch it in about A FREAKING DAY, they'd all be dead.

    Also - quick theory - we know the precursors were not the nicest guys around. We know they created warpers. The warpers look somewhat like the main idea of precursors ( source) - so what if the precursors created the warpers by gene - modifing OTHER PRECURSORS, trying to make them immune? Just wondering.

    I THINK I'M DONE HERE

    *LEANS BACK IN CHAIR*

    POWERING DOWN...
  • kingdoo10kingdoo10 UK Join Date: 2017-01-20 Member: 226989Members
    That aside. It's the deep grand reef I don't understand. By the sounds of things they didn't have that many materials. So whether they had enough for a base doesn't really matter there is nothing in the PDA to explain that they had enough materials to make a cyclops or a similar vessle that would allow them to travel that deep. The Marguerit motive and ability to bully the others, makes sense but the ability to make a base down there well there is almost no chance with the information we have gotten.

    Ok, the deep grand reef base isn't as bad of an idea as it sounds. WHEN IT WAS ADDED, there was a passage to the lost river (it's gone now). Maybe, they knew of it, and were going to explore it, but never got the chance to? And maybe, they did - but they barely made it out alive? Did the PDA say what kind of Leviathan it was they caught? If not, was it a ghost Leviathan ? this is more likely than a sea dragon passing throught the DGR.
    Skope wrote: »
    kingdoo10 wrote: »
    Sidchicken wrote: »
    Bart knows something though. He says in one of the PDA's that "They don't want us down there. They don't trust us. I knew and I said nothing, and now they're down there and I'm up here. I deserve this." (That may be slightly paraphrased). So clearly he knows something. Apparently something Marguerite doesn't.


    Hmm I guess it isn't the worse but like why not make the base in the Grand reef away from the Crabsquids literally makes no sense lol. But it still would require a lot of resources, and a lot of trips to make. Also, we have the advantage of the Aurora metal salvages. All they could utilise is the limestone rocks which would take forever.

    Maybe they were investigating the Lost River but regardless it doesn't make much sense now they decided to close the entrance. They do have the artifacts laying about so you know they were probably aware of their existence. The carar was discovered within the Deep Grand Reef so it was clear that they needed to go deeper but without having an entry explaining that they found any of the precurser bases. And by the sound of things, one of Barts entries where they explain that he knows they are sick. He says he is investigating it but it is clear they don't know what they actually have to do. Otherwise they would have had a base in the Lost river or at least some entries explaining that they need to get lower into the Lava zone.
  • AvimimusAvimimus Join Date: 2016-03-28 Member: 214968Members
    I miss that entrance, it was pretty.

    Anyway - From a story telling way the irrationality of their behaviour works... you ask 'what insanity would drive them ever deeper?' and 'why am I following in their footsteps?'

    It works well, and it would work less well if they had an intelligible motivation for going deeper.
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