The Universe of Subnautica and noteable others
Isummon_Durt
Lower MiddleEarth Join Date: 2017-12-09 Member: 234349Members
Lower MiddleEarth Join Date: 2017-12-09 Member: 234349Members
I, myself, know nothing of Unknown World's game universe simply because subnautica is relatively blind as far as lore goes. That is, a Subnautica player (like myself) would focus on the evolution of a certain creature in-game while a Natural Selection player, (which I am most definitely not,) might have a clearer view of- say- the development of the Khaara, (which before the name change I'd always pronounced 'serar'). And so, I was wondering if there're any Natural Selection players out there who could better describe the timeline of the two games.
This question was kindled by my having looked briefly into NS2, (finding it a grotesque and un-appealing game,) but saw that one of the character models looked suspiciously similar to the warper from Subnautica.
This question was kindled by my having looked briefly into NS2, (finding it a grotesque and un-appealing game,) but saw that one of the character models looked suspiciously similar to the warper from Subnautica.
Comments
Besides the obvious. We know that.
And it is intentionally grotesque, as many similar shooting games derived from the early 90's fps classics.
Unappealing is subjective to personal taste. If you enjoy multiplayer fps games, it offer a very unique take on the genre.
That said there isn't much in terms of lore for the NS franchise, as it wasn't designed with singleplayer modes in mind. It displays the bare minimum to keep the game world interesting.
It was very pleasant to accompany the development of Subnautica, as it is far into the opposite side of the spectrum. A very chill single player exploration game (except Reapers, those things were designed by the devil).
I don't know where they'll be heading after Subnautica (and immediate derivative content), but I'm very excited about it since so far I've deeply enjoyed everything they came up with.
I don't mind Reapers, not anymore.
But very few games scared me as much as encountering a Reaper for the first time. After that I was so traumatized that only hearing a Reaper roaring in the dark gave me tachycardia.
That was before the ghost was implemented.
I was wary of them at first, but I'm not exactly joking about what I said. That is exactly how I deal with them and they deal with me
Although this was decidedly not the intended area of discussion, (which I am grumpy about,) I would like to fact check this as, (although the player's name has long been known as having been named after the sunken city of Rhy'leh,) the player character's position as Essential System Maintenance would make sense for their apparent natural affinity for the Neptune Rocket's manual pilot controls. Myself, I always suspected that he held a moderate spot in Alterra's economical pyramid. Could you quote a (valid) source where this information is enclosed? Or post a screenshot of the PDA entry.
Note: Please refrain from going off-topic. That is, the overall timeline of Unknown Worlds' universe.
Precusors Explore the universe, and find relics, including some from Earth, most likely they find kharaa later, they set up multiple facilities to find a cure on multiple planets, the one on planet 4546b is attacked by a Sea Dragon, kharaa is free, QEP is turned on, remaining precusors transfer their. minds into a cloud, or die from kharaa, dolphins go extinct on earth, (Obraxis Prime, maybe?), degasi get shot down by QEP, Degasi build multiple bases their last base is most likely attacked by. a Reaper, (Obraxis Prime?), the Aurora crashes, the Sunbeam explodes, the baby Sea Emperors hatch, the player leaves the planet, Subanutica expansion pass happens, kharaa mutated starting the NS games.
There's a plush of a gorge in both Subnautica and Natural selection, meaning the universe already know about the Kharar
Subnautica happened after or during Natrual selection events. I find it frustrating when people say Subnautica is a prequel
There's also this but it's more of a game reference cause it doesn't reference "the frontiersmen"
"Controller: Sit rep!
Analyst: Ma'am, the Aurora's gone dark. Last known position on collision course with planet 4546B.
Controller: Did the life pods launch?
Analyst: None registered so far, Ma'am. And there's something else.
Controller: Say it.
Analyst: When the Aurora left dock, her emergency equipment was still on factory settings.
Controller: You're telling me we have a bird in the soup, and their Survival PDAs are running VANILLA?!
Analyst: That's the situation, Ma'am... Ma'am, what should we do?
Controller: Bring me every star chart, tech geek and concentration enhancer in the building...
Analyst: Yes Ma'am!
Controller: ...and god DAMN it you build me an update package, and you find me a way to flash them Version 1.1!
Analyst: Ma'am, there's not enough bandwidth to send everything, but I think I can optimise the automated habitat terraforming algorithms to fit them in.
Controller: You mean to say we have survivors out there with rock-faces jutting into their habitats? Make it so!
Controller: The moment we're done here I want to know who let that ship leave dock without a single room in the constructor database!
Controller: Listen up, I want this package streamlined! You don't need a focus-group approved surface texture when you're fighting for your life on an alien world. If the power systems are beta, pack them up and move on!
Controller: Tell me about this planet the Aurora was orbiting.
Analyst: Unexplored. Capable of supporting life. Ocean planet. O2 atmos-
Controller: Backtrack. Ocean planet?
Analyst: Affirmative. Does it mean something?
Controller: It means we're in more trouble than we thought. Get me the fluid dynamics team!
Analyst: Update package away, Ma'am.
Controller: Well done everyone. Now get back to work.
Analyst: Ma'am, the team needs to rest.
Controller: Listen up! Anyone who wants to tell me they've got it bad, stop and ask whether you'd rather have been on the Aurora. They're alone right now. They're scared. They're beset on all sides by alien nightmares - and it's only going to get worse. If you still think you should be resting rather than working on a way to keep those people safe, you bring it to me and you'll be reassigned. I'm sure the TSF could use some more bodies in the Kharaa conflict."
If Subnautica is a prequel how come the kharar is still a problem in NS2, the enzyme 42 complete cure someone of infection, so why is the kharar still infecting ships in NS universe.
Also the mutations come in the form of transmition by air where as kharar in subnautica transmits via liquid.
Also where had it been confirmed?
Six Days in Sanji
https://web.archive.org/web/20120415171946/http://unknownworlds.com/ns/world/background/
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZMiGg9jQS4abXltjXn3VkdSvit2z3JVdrhynvHqfAg8/edit
There's also some lore scattered around the old NS1 manual:
https://web.archive.org/web/20021221012827/http://www.natural-selection.org/manual/index.html
Click 'World' on the menu to the left:
https://web.archive.org/web/20030218123703/http://www.natural-selection.org
Thank you very much for your citations. They proved very helpful. I can now make the following rushed decisions:
1. 4546B inhabits a star somewhere in the Ariadne system *
2. The Degasi crew, (or previously unknown survivors,) may have carried the Kharaa * (Seems most plausible since the Degasi was a mongolian vessel
3. I'd be forced to assume that NS2 takes place before Subnautica, (or at least Alterra is insanely richer than any of the mongolian companies,) due to the technology involved. It is obvious that vehicles such as the PRAWN II and III evolved from Natural Selection's mech. It is also possible, however, that the Kharaa has posed as a sort of economical downfall among human colonies and that NS2 actually takes place after Subnautica and that 4546B is one of the origins of the bacterium, but this seems less likely to me. However, it makes sense, in either way, that all weaponry besides knives would have been reserved for military use only.
Where was this confirmed? Unless the folks at Unknown Worlds actually said that Subnautica takes place before NS, your case is a load of dingo's kidneys. The Kharaa could be delayed in its development depending on the hosts carrying it, the contents of the atmosphere, traces of a possible enzyme, what have you.
We don't know if Ryley makes it off-world permanently. He could have gone straight to space prison, (that place where they stab you below your belt every few seconds,) directly after having proved himself incapable of paying the massive fine on his account.
What's this bit about Dolphins going extinct? I thought that they just sorta' saw the Kharaa coming ahead of time, tried to warn the humans, got a lot of laughs out of the kids from it, and then flew away. "So long and thanks for all the fish."
Look this is just going to turn into a flame war. Why don't we just get one of the devs to give an answer before this gets worse
That might be so. However, Planet 4546B is not the Precursor Homeworld, but just a planet that the Precursors were using to find a way to cure the Kharaa. That means that there are other planets where the Kharaa exist since the Precursor interstellar civilization was wiped out by it. Therefore, the Kharaa from Natural Selection 2 could have evolved on one of the other Precursor worlds or from the Kharaa Homeworld which is the planet that the Precursors originally were infected by the Kharaa Bacterium.
The only way for Subnautica to be the origin of the Kharaa in Natural Selection 2 is for Subnautica to be at least decades before Natural Selection 2. The Kharaa needs time to mutate and obtain the genetic material from creatures that obviously didn't come from Planet 4546B. So it is far more likely for some unknown vessel landed on a Precursor Planet that has the mutated Kharaa Bacterium than for it to have come from Planet 4546B.
There is also the possibility that the Precursors accidentally created the Kharaa on a research planet in an attempt to cure the Kharaa Bacterium. The Precursors died to their newly created Kharaa Bacterium and the Kharaa waited until some unsuspecting human explorers decided to visit the planet.
Subnautica could tie into Natural Selection 2 by showing data on the original Kharaa Bacterium and a way to cure it to the TSF. It would be interesting to see how Enzyme 42 works on the Kharaa in Natural Selection 2.
Um...no. It won't. It doesn't work like that.
Same.
That first Reaper encounter is always...special. And everybody handles it slightly differently, but it usually follows a progression of startle-curious-screaming. Jurassic Park (the second one) said it best: "Oh, yeah, 'ooh, aah' that's how it starts, but then later there's running...and screaming."
That's how it went for me. Tooling around in my nice, new, unbitten Seamoth by the Aurora, when I see this snakelike thing in the murky distance. "Whoa, what was that? Well, that ain't good...what are you? Oh, please be like a blue whale...just big and calm and...NOT LIKE A BLUE WHALE! NOT LIKE A BLUE WHALE AT ALL! AAAAHHH!! STOP BITING MY SUB! (unprintable dialogue)"
But like everything else you get over it. It's dangerous, but manageable. Then, on a night dive, you hear this strange...noise...and something glowy flashes past the cockpit window of your Cyclops...and you realize there's something big out there, and it ain't a Reaper...
Tardigrades have been shown to frequent open space in the Unknown Worlds universe, as the PDA's tell us; in such quantities as to be ground up into nutrient bricks. And since Tardigrades are Xenomorphs as well as the Kharaa from NS2, the bacterium themselves might be some far relative of the Tardigrade. This would make sense for how the Kharaa can travel from ship to ship seemingly out of nowhere where no bacteria should be able to survive.
For those who might not know, 'xenomorph' doesn't only describe the monster from Alien. This misconception is due to these monsters being what scientists refer to as a xenomorph. Xenomorph, the word, means literally 'strange-form' or 'foreign-form'; which makes sense for The Alien because of its DNA structure changing with its host before birth. Tardigrades are the only real-world examples of xenomorphs which I know of; being microscopic creatures which can survive in space and pretty much anywhere on earth due to their miraculous ability to enter a hibernation state in which they shed themselves of their genes, wall off all of the important parts and completely dehydrate themselves. When their stasis has ended, they will re-stitch their genes and put themselves back together again. However, the xenomorph bit comes when they accidentally stitch in the genes of other microorganisms into their own DNA; causing the average tardigrade to have only 5/6ths of their own DNA.
According to this kharaa means "watch out" in Mongolian.
Tardigrades are native to Earth, discovered in 1773 in Germany. They're no more a xenomorph than a duck is.
What they are, however, is extremely hardy. They can handle pressures between vacuum and 1200 atmospheres (6000 atmospheres in water), can handle full-body doses of radiation at least a thousand times greater than any other animal, and can be dried out for 10 years and survive just fine. You can kill them - temperature extremes are the most effective way, as they'll die in about 5 minutes at 1K (which is 1 kelvin above absolute zero) - but they're tough little critters.
There's also zero chance they're in any way related to any bacterium except by the most distant possible path (much in the same way that humans are in a very, very distant path related to bacteria, since everything on Earth came out of prokaryotic Archaea organisms way back when). Without going into all the details of how the sorting is done, tardigrades are in domain eukarya, kingdom animalia, phylum tardigrada. All bacteria (being prokaryotes) are in domain bacteria, in an entirely separate "trunk" of taxonomy.
So, nope, no relation to a bacteria.
According to the PDA's, the Precursors brought the virus to planet 4546B from somewhere else in order to find a cure for it.
The virus was already ravaging their core worlds and killing billions by the time they landed on 4546B. The Kharar could have originated anywhere... the only reason it didn't consume/mutate/destroy all the life forms on the planet was because of the Emperor Leviathan enzymes, which prevented it from mutating the fauna any further.
That and the Warpers who kill off infected creatures...
Tardigrade:
In the interests of full disclosure, objects in animation are smaller than they appear.
That thing looks much larger than reality; a real tardigrade maxes out at half a millimeter at the absolute most. So you might (emphasis on might) see what looks like half a comma (or a really skinny period) moving very, very slowly. But given that they generally live in water and are nearly completely transparent, you'll have a hard time spotting them.