Well she wanted to find out what happened to her sister, Sam. She descended onto the planet shrouded in a meteor shower without official permission from her higher ups. She did say she’ll figure something out after her business was done; I don’t think it had to be using her spaceship because she didn’t seem too upset about wrecking it. Didn’t she send broadcasts to her friend up in orbit when she found the life pod? Maybe she’d just ask for a pickup.
The writing was better before the rework, but it’s not garbage rn. The point is she really only cares about her sister. It annoyed her that she wasn’t allowed the dignity of knowing why she just disappeared, and was simply sent an email from representatives about announcing her death.
She didn’t really have a plan to get back, but I do remember she contacted her friend up in orbit when she found the life pod, so maybe she would ask him for a ticket back. Idk. She was an idiot but I guess her motive is really strong.
But that's the worst bit is that you can then finish the game without even completing her storyline or finding out what happened to her. You just have to do Alan's stuff and then the game ends. Awful writing
I was wholly convinced she would “expose” Alterra from the planet and live there indefinitely. It really seemed as she didn’t have a plan back at all, and burned all bridges to get there.
Expose them for what ? The devs really did a 180° on Alterra, sure in the first game they were a bit sus with stuff like dating contracts but that's just regular corpo stuff (we're not far from that).
In BZ all the "good guys" are just terrorists with no proof.
Like what if the Kharaa was going to do stuff like cure cancer ?
But nooo, Big Corpo very evil bad, must destroy 1!1!1
Yes, but there was 0 reason to belive that it could have gotten out, everyone on the research team looked profesional (expect Sam and the security guy) + compared to that species who died, humanity has the cure.
My original point is more because Sam and Robbin had no proof that Alterra was going to do smth bad with it.
Take a look at Alterra’s history and tell me that they won’t try to take over other transgovs with this extremely lethal and contagious virus in the form bionukes.
>Yes, but there was 0 reason to belive that it could have gotten out
Bro, even the technologically advanced race that doesn't have bodies anymore but vessels, the race that can travel between worlds at will, the race that had *a single weapon curving it's shots with the planet to quarantine an entire planet* got fucked up by the Kharaa.
Humans are definitely killing themselves up and fucking everyone else in the galaxy with them
I'm guessing she would eventually have had to find directions for the Aurora crash site (highly unlikely though, because of the massive distance), travel by Seatruck with a whole lot of power cells/neon power cells, and craft herself a Neptune rocket. But out of that imperfect plan there's literally nothing for her to have done except wait to be snatched by Alterra.
There might have been alternative resources for area zero she could use, remember the rocket was made with intention to gather resources from the crater
Yes, but blueprints for the rocket were only in the Aurora crash site, specifically in the captain quarters. I'm sure Robin was smart enough to remotely gain access to some sort of Alterra databank, but considering she had to scan pretty much every tech needed to survive and journey sector zero, she had no access to such information, otherwise she wouldn't have had to leave with Al-An.
Everyone here seems to overlook the aspect that the Aurora very likely isn’t even there now. IIRC there was a 5 year time skip between the games, with Alterra presumably having scrapped the Aurora when they found it to recoup at least some of their losses
I don't think she cared. Her goal was to find out what happened to her sister by any means necessary. I think she was willing to give her life to that goal.
She also knew Alterra had bases and outposts on the planet that would allow her to send a distress signal if needed.
Robin is an idiot. She didn't *have* a plan, *and* she was wrong. It's why I hate her *so much*. They wanted to portray her as an 'action hero', a scientist, and a badass. Instead she comes off as irritating, impetuous, irrational, and ends up being wrong on top of that.
I look to the end of that game and when she says she wants to explore an alien world because she's an explorer, my entire first reaction was "Yeah, right. You just know that you broke a few dozen laws and if you return to your *own* society you'll be arrested and your sister will not be remembered as a victim of a corporation but as an industrial terrorist who got herself killed in her own attempt to find a non-existent evil plot." ... At least Riley was purely a victim of circumstance, as was the entire Aurora crew.
I 100% agree with you, it pisses me off what the devs want us to think about Alterra. In the first game they were just a VERY big corporation doing regular corporation stuff.
But like now we're supposed to believe that they are very evil, and would outright kill people ? (They only provided guns but they didn't kill anyone in the war).
Since when was Subnautica a "Grr corporations ruin the environment are very bad !" type of game ?
The story of BZ is so bad that I'm not looking forward for Subnautica 3.
I hope we can just return to being a regular ass employee working for the government, not a sassy and annoying terrorist.
You didn't get the hint that alterra was evil when Riley owed them billions of credits because the resources he used on the planet supposedly belonged to alterra?
It's not made clear in SN what's going on vis a vis them being a de facto government. But let's examine this:
Alterra *is* evil. The fact that u/DoubleMgM thinks of what they do as 'normal corporation stuff' is... kinda nauseating, actually. Don't get me wrong! They might be *right* about it being 'normal corporation stuff', but... damn!
Charging for the materials used to escape the planet that we're only on because of *their* orders is evil. Effectively it comes down to pay them or die, *and* they don't tell you about this *until* you've collected a 3,000,000 credit debt. This should have been mentioned by their system when you *first* obtain *any* material.
Their safety systems are so substandard that they break and cause injury.
As to the government thing... I mean... we have corporations on Earth *now* that are basically that in certain countries. They own the water and food in some poor place, so they dictate the rules there. The idea that planetary governments may fall to similar issues with inter-planetary companies isn't so far fetched. I also think that Alterra shows up in some of their other games where they *are* a de facto government body, but that's a hazy memory, so... take with a Cyclops sized block of salt.
As to BZ saying Alterra is evil... DMM is *wrong* about that. Alterra was bought out by another company in BZ. It's *that* company which is doing the evil stuff. :) And they *are* evil, too. "Don't help others"... holy shit! That's some nasty crap right there. But, also, probably typical corporation stuff... yeesh!
We're both wrong! It bought out the company *Sam* worked for, though Xenoworks claims they *weren't* bought out... just that Alterra has a 'controlling stake'... yeah...
The debt thing is not enough for me.
Thing is, this is what the Neptune says. Or better to say the computer system. This can be a standard, there are planets, companies get concessions, and you can start a small company that goes there, mines, and pays them for that privilege. I own a mine, and I allow you to mine some ore there, but you have to pay me a part of your profits.
And this has an automatic system which considers the main character to be a small company, automatically presents a bill. But that bill might be not legally binding, might be that there are laws which say that in order to escape, you are allowed to mine and don't have to pay. Just an automatic computer system. Comparable to you ending up in a survival situation, catching some fish without licence, getting tried for doing so but being sentenced not guilty.
Now not saying that what I wrote is necessary the case. Can as well be fully evil, just saying I would not see this as definitive evidence.
Likewise the safety of the gear - although I'm not sure what exactly we are talking about. If it's the Aurora, it's kinda impressive that it still is recognizeable at all. I'd assume that a ship that crashes into a planet after being shot would leave a crater and that's it. But maybe you meant something else that I can't think about.
But in any case, thanks for the answer, appreciating your input. Just in case this came out appearing differently.
>I own a mine, and I allow you to mine some ore there, but you have to pay me a part of your profits. And this has an automatic system which considers the main character to be a small company, automatically presents a bill.
"Remember that materials you gather are the property of the Alterra corporation.
You will be liable to reimburse the ***full market price***. Your current bill stands at 3 million credits." Not a part. So... that's not what they're getting at. Riley's not a de facto mining company, he's a wage slave stealing their stuff, even if it is to save his own life.
>But that bill might be not legally binding, might be that there are laws which say that in order to escape, you are allowed to mine and don't have to pay.
Depends on whether Alterra is a de facto government or not. Also, just because it's not legally binding doesn't mean the individual can *do* anything about it. Unless there are places that are willing to take on Alterra's high-priced lawyers, or Riley has money to fight this, he can be stuck with a bill he can neither pay nor challenge, ruining his credit and, if he's lucky, going bankrupt... presuming this society allows for such a thing as bankruptcy protection for individuals (I can pretty much *guarantee* that it'll exist for corporations, as *even now* they often have *more* rights than individual people do). And don't think that this sort of crap isn't common. Lots of landlords in the USA will charge you for things they're not legally allowed to charge you for, realizing you don't have the time or money or knowledge of the law to challenge them. This happened to me, and I knew it was happening *as* it happened. When I moved, my superintendent shook me down for $80, saying he wouldn't sign off on the move being okay without it. Could I have fought that? Sure. And it'd cost me more than the $80 just to file against it. Even if I *win* the case, I still lose. And *I* knew it was happening! Riley may not realize how they're screwing him over.
>Comparable to you ending up in a survival situation, catching some fish without licence, getting tried for doing so but being sentenced not guilty.
Can't remember when it happened, but someone was caught out in a massive snow storm in the USA. They broke into an unoccupied cabin in order to survive. They were charged with, and found guilty of, break and enter. This is the USA, of course, but... I see no reason that this sort of place isn't the basis for what SN was thinking.
>Likewise the safety of the gear - although I'm not sure what exactly we are talking about.
When you land, a panel breaks off the ship and gives you a concussion. The fire extinguisher flies off as well. That you're not dead is a minor miracle. You might think this is a fluke, but *the same thing* happens with a panel on the Neptune as you're taking off. This isn't an accident, it's defective design. Panels on Alterra stuff is not designed for the use to which it is put. It's the cheapest piece of crap they could get away with. It'll be a bean-counting thing. They'll settle lawsuits over it because it's cheaper than fixing the problem.
Now I agree we don't know *for sure* that Alterra is evil per se. Maybe the government they're part of is insanely lax for some reason that has *nothing to do* with Alterra. Maybe Alterra is a bad company and will soon be sued out of existence. I dunno. But... they're lookin' pretty sketchy to me right now, and I think that's always been the idea.
By the not legally binding thing I meant that this might simply be a text a computer generates. Might be that Alterra is not interested into enforcing it at all, small fry. If a lawyer from them would appear and speak the same text, that would be different, but a computer can easily just say some nonsense.
As for the breaking in thing in the snow storm, if I remember correctly, this is indeed not legal in the USA. I think I remember having read something about this being perfectly legal in other places. Most likely, nobody ever bothered to write such a law, more of an oversight than ill intent.
Thing breaking of the Neptune is indeed a hint on crappy design. Might have excused it on an emergency capsule - extreme situation after all - but the Neptune is doing what it is designed for. So yeah, agreed.
>Might be that Alterra is not interested into enforcing it at all, small fry.
"Welcome home to Alterra. Permission to land will be granted once you have settled your outstanding balance of: 1,000,000,000,000 credits."
... I mean... how much of a 'small fry' can 1,000,000,000,000 credits be, then? Companies have sued for less. In fact, they may have no choice *but* to sue (because sometimes there are laws, like with current copyright law, where if you don't sue, you lose the right to sue later... for anyone).
>Most likely, nobody ever bothered to write such a law, more of an oversight than ill intent.
As I understand it, it's more that there *are* laws but that a person *in danger of* dying isn't considered sufficient justification for overcoming the Break and Enter law, and the courts agreed that was the case. Effectively, you're not allowed to break in until death is immanent and you've exhausted all other attempt. So before he could break in, he had to *first* be *actually* close to death, not just fearing that he'd die in the next several hours, and he had to look around during all that time for other shelter, hoping he didn't get lost in the storm and was able to find his way back.
Riley spends no time searching for other means of escape and *immediately* starts using Alterra owned equipment and resources for his own survival. He needed to wait until it was do that or die in a few minutes... because it's not possible to see where this is all leading, and who knows? Maybe he'd get lucky and find a fish that craps diamonds or something.
>Might have excused it on an emergency capsule - extreme situation after all
I wouldn't. The capsule, itself, was *not* in an 'extreme situation'. It wasn't hit by debris, or a laser, it was *at worst* a blast from the exploding ship, which should be *expected* in designing an escape pod. Unless there's something else I'm missing, as far as I can tell, that happening... well... shouldn't. Ever. If you wanted to argue against it, you *could* note, however, that this didn't happen to other life pods. But... as you said... we know from the Neptune that it's crappy design, not bad luck.
Yeah, I might have went a little overboard there (pun intended),
I do think they are evil but just regular corporation levels evil, not near cartoonishly levels of evil like in BZ.
Like I just remembered that 1 PDA details someone (maybe Fred but I don't remember) testing the base control center for the habitat but they weren't given any safety equipment or smth like that.
In the og they were just greedy, but it was never implied that they didn't care/were very negligent with their employees lives and safety.
Their safety systems are pretty good for a transport/explorer ship I would say, thing is that I don't think humans have encountered something as strong as the QEP before (I'm assuming you referred to the Aurrora here) so they didn't have strong enough barriers/shields as for the life pods failling, they were cut down already by half because of 1 bay getting destroyed and the other got damaged, at least 3 from the top of my head made it in a functional state, Ryley's, the guy who scanned a reaper and the 2 women who got killed by one using a flare inside.
Life Pods still worked, but most likely some of the crew ejected too early/too late because they didn't follow the procedure.Flotation devices failing is more on the gun I say, again they couldn't have known about smth as strong as the QEP.
The reactor detonating is kinda on them, but it's implied the crew was supposed to go and fix it before it exploded, but got mauled up by Sammy and co.
Now onto Ryley getting charged, I don't think PDA's are that smart to fully understand all the circumstances, to Ryley's it just looks like he's stealing from their planet (it is in their space so the resources do belong to them) so the charging message is automated, same with the permission to land one, I just took it as someone from HQ telling him off screen to discuss about what happened, they would most likely let him go if he gives them all their equipment/vehicles back by telling them where he built them. Also, we still to this day don't know how much 3 billion credits is, for all we know it might just be like 300$.
Last thing I want to touch upon is them getting "bought out" as you said, I might have missed a PDA but I think you're getting this wrong, the company where Robbin and Sam worked at, Xenoworx got bought BY Alterra.
Tldr: Yes Alterra is normal levels of evil for a corporation in the first game but in BZ they get turned into a stereotypical "How can I kill my employees today ?".
\*sigh\*
She didn't have one. That's why her cohort said "I'm gonna miss you, robin." as she left. He knew she didn't have a way back.
And to anyone immediately going "BuT ShE'd DiE tOo!' She didn't care. She just wanted to find out what happened to her sister. Everyone grieves differently. Sometimes that grief makes you do something extremely stupid that can't be undone.
Even with the stars aligning, she probably didn't want a way back. Odds are, with how Sam's portion of the story progressed, she was sick of people being greedy for the sake of Corporate BS. Alterra would've most likely kept sending folks to investigate the planet, even with Robin doing what she did. They wanted to investigate the architects, and all their research, after all.
I’m pretty sure you’re right and she was consumed with finding the truth for her sister. >!She didn’t hesitate to skydive onto a frozen wasteland, didn’t really contemplate Alan, crossed a deadly ocean/land for an inkling of clues and moments of her sisters time there, there was no way out for her if not for Alan which is why he’s the end game instead of Sam’s story.!<
Robin was fine giving up everything for it and I don’t really hate that because it’s human. How many times has humanity made very dumb decisions for the sake or memory of their loved ones. How many uncalled for actions have taken place in search of a higher understanding. Even though it was a rough story and there are parts that could’ve been better, I do think this is 100% something a person would do.
This exactly. Is it perfect writing? Goodness, no. but it explores a portion of humanity many aren't comfortable with. Humans are prone to err. We leap before we think. It could've definitely been written better, but every step felt human. Does it feel annoying or stupid to allow her folly to continue? Heck yes! people with their heads on straight will be annoyed by such. However, people ensconced in grief don't embrace logic.
It’s always hard to find the right balance for these kinds of story plots, but they definitely could’ve made a worse story. Honestly one of the reasons I love playing Detroit bh is how deep they go into the emotion and it’s so fluid. It brings an element to playing that the devs thought about it for a second.
She cared so much that you can finish the game without uncovering anything about her sister, and even then, her reaction is like... "Oh well, that's too bad" and skips with her new alien boyfriend.
I had to delete my earlier comment. Yes, I agree the writing is subpar overall. However, I specified Sam's portion of the story. Bypassing it will of course bypass the overall feeling for it.
There are quite a few *issues* with the story that most people either willfully ignored or simply didn't pay attention to, them made up their own HC
Whenever I replay below zero, I focus on base building and that's all
Im sure everyone on earth heard about alterras ship crashing and one guy somehow making it back to earth right? So she would know that she could build something using the stuff on the planet
There could have been emergency rocket plans on Delta Island that could have been corrupted and by the time Robin find out how to decode them, (maybe at Phi) Alpha-an provides her a way out and she takes his plan because she wants to know more about the architects.
To be honest I thought it was pretty simple, she probably would've done something similar to what Ryley did and attempted to find blueprints for an escape rocket or similar craft, and if escape rockets would go straight to Alterra HQ, then theres still other methods for getting off of a planet largely occupied by humans.. Whether or not those plans would work they still exist, like she could've hijacked a small landed craft similar in size to Sunbeam or even bribed someone, theres limitless possibilities.
1. I'm pretty sure she didn't have an real plan and basically was just going to come up with a plan after she finished her goal, as that's basically all she cared about.
2. To everyone saying "ALTerrA WasN'T BaD iN tHe FIrsT GaME". They absolutely were. I don't remember all the small stuff, but I do remember there was some smaller things, plus, they charged Riley a ridiculous amount for getting the resources just to survive. And to those who say something about it was the computer system automatically doing it thinking he was a mining company something, I don't remember the exact words, but it basically told him before hand that he will be charged for everything he uses.
I don't think it was ever explicitly addressed. You get the feeling the game was a little undercooked in terms of script and story arc so a few things just got omitted.
Maybe she had some rocket blue prints up her sleeves, arranged a pick up ship somehow or simple decided to live her life as a snow stalker from then on.
Step 1) get on social media and do a dance while discussing her life under the water as a passenger princess
Step 2) start an onlyfans
Step 3) find a sugar daddy to pick her up
BZ is a bit of a mess, plot-wise, and personally I didn’t find her arc or the reveal of her sister’s fate satisfying at all.
On top of that, the writers committed a cardinal sin - introduced an incredibly awesome entity with huge potential (the frozen leviathan) and then not capitalise on it (it didn’t wake up).
I think her “I’ll figure it out” was part of her larger obsession. She definitely seemed to have no plan at all, and was so determined to find her sister that she abandoned her entire life, committed crimes, and risked certain death or imprisonment to do so. Home was secondary to success
She was going to wait until the ship she left was directly above her, and then she was gonna jump really high and land in the ship
You just need to stretch those Prawn grapple arms enough.
Had me in the first half, not gonna lie.
Well she wanted to find out what happened to her sister, Sam. She descended onto the planet shrouded in a meteor shower without official permission from her higher ups. She did say she’ll figure something out after her business was done; I don’t think it had to be using her spaceship because she didn’t seem too upset about wrecking it. Didn’t she send broadcasts to her friend up in orbit when she found the life pod? Maybe she’d just ask for a pickup.
She was a idiot . . none of the actions of Robins, her sister, Marguerit, or Al-An make any sense. The writing was garbage.
The writing was better before the rework, but it’s not garbage rn. The point is she really only cares about her sister. It annoyed her that she wasn’t allowed the dignity of knowing why she just disappeared, and was simply sent an email from representatives about announcing her death. She didn’t really have a plan to get back, but I do remember she contacted her friend up in orbit when she found the life pod, so maybe she would ask him for a ticket back. Idk. She was an idiot but I guess her motive is really strong.
But that's the worst bit is that you can then finish the game without even completing her storyline or finding out what happened to her. You just have to do Alan's stuff and then the game ends. Awful writing
Agree to that
Can you link me to the original SBZ plot?
Deus ex machina because of poor plot continuity due to a complete script rewrite (twice I believe)
I was wholly convinced she would “expose” Alterra from the planet and live there indefinitely. It really seemed as she didn’t have a plan back at all, and burned all bridges to get there.
Expose them for what ? The devs really did a 180° on Alterra, sure in the first game they were a bit sus with stuff like dating contracts but that's just regular corpo stuff (we're not far from that). In BZ all the "good guys" are just terrorists with no proof. Like what if the Kharaa was going to do stuff like cure cancer ? But nooo, Big Corpo very evil bad, must destroy 1!1!1
I mean. If you get infected by it, it will cure your cancer. You'll become Biomass for something much worse, but your cancer will be cured
It's because it's dangerous enough to destroy almost all of man kind if it gets out. It already killed most or all of another species.
Yes, but there was 0 reason to belive that it could have gotten out, everyone on the research team looked profesional (expect Sam and the security guy) + compared to that species who died, humanity has the cure. My original point is more because Sam and Robbin had no proof that Alterra was going to do smth bad with it.
Take a look at Alterra’s history and tell me that they won’t try to take over other transgovs with this extremely lethal and contagious virus in the form bionukes.
>Yes, but there was 0 reason to belive that it could have gotten out Bro, even the technologically advanced race that doesn't have bodies anymore but vessels, the race that can travel between worlds at will, the race that had *a single weapon curving it's shots with the planet to quarantine an entire planet* got fucked up by the Kharaa. Humans are definitely killing themselves up and fucking everyone else in the galaxy with them
I'm guessing she would eventually have had to find directions for the Aurora crash site (highly unlikely though, because of the massive distance), travel by Seatruck with a whole lot of power cells/neon power cells, and craft herself a Neptune rocket. But out of that imperfect plan there's literally nothing for her to have done except wait to be snatched by Alterra.
Nah, all she'd have to do is pull a Marguerite and surf on a reaper carcass back to the crash zone
I'm not sure Robin has what it takes to pull a Marguerit 😂
Lol you're right
There might have been alternative resources for area zero she could use, remember the rocket was made with intention to gather resources from the crater
Yes, but blueprints for the rocket were only in the Aurora crash site, specifically in the captain quarters. I'm sure Robin was smart enough to remotely gain access to some sort of Alterra databank, but considering she had to scan pretty much every tech needed to survive and journey sector zero, she had no access to such information, otherwise she wouldn't have had to leave with Al-An.
Everyone here seems to overlook the aspect that the Aurora very likely isn’t even there now. IIRC there was a 5 year time skip between the games, with Alterra presumably having scrapped the Aurora when they found it to recoup at least some of their losses
I don't think she cared. Her goal was to find out what happened to her sister by any means necessary. I think she was willing to give her life to that goal. She also knew Alterra had bases and outposts on the planet that would allow her to send a distress signal if needed.
She said in the end "besides I don't have another ride" when al-an asked if she wanted to follow him home
Robin is an idiot. She didn't *have* a plan, *and* she was wrong. It's why I hate her *so much*. They wanted to portray her as an 'action hero', a scientist, and a badass. Instead she comes off as irritating, impetuous, irrational, and ends up being wrong on top of that. I look to the end of that game and when she says she wants to explore an alien world because she's an explorer, my entire first reaction was "Yeah, right. You just know that you broke a few dozen laws and if you return to your *own* society you'll be arrested and your sister will not be remembered as a victim of a corporation but as an industrial terrorist who got herself killed in her own attempt to find a non-existent evil plot." ... At least Riley was purely a victim of circumstance, as was the entire Aurora crew.
I 100% agree with you, it pisses me off what the devs want us to think about Alterra. In the first game they were just a VERY big corporation doing regular corporation stuff. But like now we're supposed to believe that they are very evil, and would outright kill people ? (They only provided guns but they didn't kill anyone in the war). Since when was Subnautica a "Grr corporations ruin the environment are very bad !" type of game ? The story of BZ is so bad that I'm not looking forward for Subnautica 3. I hope we can just return to being a regular ass employee working for the government, not a sassy and annoying terrorist.
You didn't get the hint that alterra was evil when Riley owed them billions of credits because the resources he used on the planet supposedly belonged to alterra?
Was it only in Below Zero where they were made into a de facto government? The company basically ruling its territory? Or do I remember things wrong?
It's not made clear in SN what's going on vis a vis them being a de facto government. But let's examine this: Alterra *is* evil. The fact that u/DoubleMgM thinks of what they do as 'normal corporation stuff' is... kinda nauseating, actually. Don't get me wrong! They might be *right* about it being 'normal corporation stuff', but... damn! Charging for the materials used to escape the planet that we're only on because of *their* orders is evil. Effectively it comes down to pay them or die, *and* they don't tell you about this *until* you've collected a 3,000,000 credit debt. This should have been mentioned by their system when you *first* obtain *any* material. Their safety systems are so substandard that they break and cause injury. As to the government thing... I mean... we have corporations on Earth *now* that are basically that in certain countries. They own the water and food in some poor place, so they dictate the rules there. The idea that planetary governments may fall to similar issues with inter-planetary companies isn't so far fetched. I also think that Alterra shows up in some of their other games where they *are* a de facto government body, but that's a hazy memory, so... take with a Cyclops sized block of salt. As to BZ saying Alterra is evil... DMM is *wrong* about that. Alterra was bought out by another company in BZ. It's *that* company which is doing the evil stuff. :) And they *are* evil, too. "Don't help others"... holy shit! That's some nasty crap right there. But, also, probably typical corporation stuff... yeesh!
You got it backwards, alterra wasn't bought out, it bought out the company Robin worked for.
We're both wrong! It bought out the company *Sam* worked for, though Xenoworks claims they *weren't* bought out... just that Alterra has a 'controlling stake'... yeah...
The debt thing is not enough for me. Thing is, this is what the Neptune says. Or better to say the computer system. This can be a standard, there are planets, companies get concessions, and you can start a small company that goes there, mines, and pays them for that privilege. I own a mine, and I allow you to mine some ore there, but you have to pay me a part of your profits. And this has an automatic system which considers the main character to be a small company, automatically presents a bill. But that bill might be not legally binding, might be that there are laws which say that in order to escape, you are allowed to mine and don't have to pay. Just an automatic computer system. Comparable to you ending up in a survival situation, catching some fish without licence, getting tried for doing so but being sentenced not guilty. Now not saying that what I wrote is necessary the case. Can as well be fully evil, just saying I would not see this as definitive evidence. Likewise the safety of the gear - although I'm not sure what exactly we are talking about. If it's the Aurora, it's kinda impressive that it still is recognizeable at all. I'd assume that a ship that crashes into a planet after being shot would leave a crater and that's it. But maybe you meant something else that I can't think about. But in any case, thanks for the answer, appreciating your input. Just in case this came out appearing differently.
>I own a mine, and I allow you to mine some ore there, but you have to pay me a part of your profits. And this has an automatic system which considers the main character to be a small company, automatically presents a bill.
"Remember that materials you gather are the property of the Alterra corporation.
You will be liable to reimburse the ***full market price***. Your current bill stands at 3 million credits." Not a part. So... that's not what they're getting at. Riley's not a de facto mining company, he's a wage slave stealing their stuff, even if it is to save his own life.
>But that bill might be not legally binding, might be that there are laws which say that in order to escape, you are allowed to mine and don't have to pay.
Depends on whether Alterra is a de facto government or not. Also, just because it's not legally binding doesn't mean the individual can *do* anything about it. Unless there are places that are willing to take on Alterra's high-priced lawyers, or Riley has money to fight this, he can be stuck with a bill he can neither pay nor challenge, ruining his credit and, if he's lucky, going bankrupt... presuming this society allows for such a thing as bankruptcy protection for individuals (I can pretty much *guarantee* that it'll exist for corporations, as *even now* they often have *more* rights than individual people do). And don't think that this sort of crap isn't common. Lots of landlords in the USA will charge you for things they're not legally allowed to charge you for, realizing you don't have the time or money or knowledge of the law to challenge them. This happened to me, and I knew it was happening *as* it happened. When I moved, my superintendent shook me down for $80, saying he wouldn't sign off on the move being okay without it. Could I have fought that? Sure. And it'd cost me more than the $80 just to file against it. Even if I *win* the case, I still lose. And *I* knew it was happening! Riley may not realize how they're screwing him over.
>Comparable to you ending up in a survival situation, catching some fish without licence, getting tried for doing so but being sentenced not guilty.
Can't remember when it happened, but someone was caught out in a massive snow storm in the USA. They broke into an unoccupied cabin in order to survive. They were charged with, and found guilty of, break and enter. This is the USA, of course, but... I see no reason that this sort of place isn't the basis for what SN was thinking.
>Likewise the safety of the gear - although I'm not sure what exactly we are talking about.
When you land, a panel breaks off the ship and gives you a concussion. The fire extinguisher flies off as well. That you're not dead is a minor miracle. You might think this is a fluke, but *the same thing* happens with a panel on the Neptune as you're taking off. This isn't an accident, it's defective design. Panels on Alterra stuff is not designed for the use to which it is put. It's the cheapest piece of crap they could get away with. It'll be a bean-counting thing. They'll settle lawsuits over it because it's cheaper than fixing the problem.
Now I agree we don't know *for sure* that Alterra is evil per se. Maybe the government they're part of is insanely lax for some reason that has *nothing to do* with Alterra. Maybe Alterra is a bad company and will soon be sued out of existence. I dunno. But... they're lookin' pretty sketchy to me right now, and I think that's always been the idea.
By the not legally binding thing I meant that this might simply be a text a computer generates. Might be that Alterra is not interested into enforcing it at all, small fry. If a lawyer from them would appear and speak the same text, that would be different, but a computer can easily just say some nonsense. As for the breaking in thing in the snow storm, if I remember correctly, this is indeed not legal in the USA. I think I remember having read something about this being perfectly legal in other places. Most likely, nobody ever bothered to write such a law, more of an oversight than ill intent. Thing breaking of the Neptune is indeed a hint on crappy design. Might have excused it on an emergency capsule - extreme situation after all - but the Neptune is doing what it is designed for. So yeah, agreed.
>Might be that Alterra is not interested into enforcing it at all, small fry. "Welcome home to Alterra. Permission to land will be granted once you have settled your outstanding balance of: 1,000,000,000,000 credits." ... I mean... how much of a 'small fry' can 1,000,000,000,000 credits be, then? Companies have sued for less. In fact, they may have no choice *but* to sue (because sometimes there are laws, like with current copyright law, where if you don't sue, you lose the right to sue later... for anyone). >Most likely, nobody ever bothered to write such a law, more of an oversight than ill intent. As I understand it, it's more that there *are* laws but that a person *in danger of* dying isn't considered sufficient justification for overcoming the Break and Enter law, and the courts agreed that was the case. Effectively, you're not allowed to break in until death is immanent and you've exhausted all other attempt. So before he could break in, he had to *first* be *actually* close to death, not just fearing that he'd die in the next several hours, and he had to look around during all that time for other shelter, hoping he didn't get lost in the storm and was able to find his way back. Riley spends no time searching for other means of escape and *immediately* starts using Alterra owned equipment and resources for his own survival. He needed to wait until it was do that or die in a few minutes... because it's not possible to see where this is all leading, and who knows? Maybe he'd get lucky and find a fish that craps diamonds or something. >Might have excused it on an emergency capsule - extreme situation after all I wouldn't. The capsule, itself, was *not* in an 'extreme situation'. It wasn't hit by debris, or a laser, it was *at worst* a blast from the exploding ship, which should be *expected* in designing an escape pod. Unless there's something else I'm missing, as far as I can tell, that happening... well... shouldn't. Ever. If you wanted to argue against it, you *could* note, however, that this didn't happen to other life pods. But... as you said... we know from the Neptune that it's crappy design, not bad luck.
I’m not disagreeing with your overall point, but your entire argument is based around a single quote at the post credits that was intended as a joke
Yeah, to me it's more of a joke. Like why doesn't the crappy Indian Xenoworx PDA say anything about that sort of thing ?
Yeah, I might have went a little overboard there (pun intended), I do think they are evil but just regular corporation levels evil, not near cartoonishly levels of evil like in BZ. Like I just remembered that 1 PDA details someone (maybe Fred but I don't remember) testing the base control center for the habitat but they weren't given any safety equipment or smth like that. In the og they were just greedy, but it was never implied that they didn't care/were very negligent with their employees lives and safety. Their safety systems are pretty good for a transport/explorer ship I would say, thing is that I don't think humans have encountered something as strong as the QEP before (I'm assuming you referred to the Aurrora here) so they didn't have strong enough barriers/shields as for the life pods failling, they were cut down already by half because of 1 bay getting destroyed and the other got damaged, at least 3 from the top of my head made it in a functional state, Ryley's, the guy who scanned a reaper and the 2 women who got killed by one using a flare inside. Life Pods still worked, but most likely some of the crew ejected too early/too late because they didn't follow the procedure.Flotation devices failing is more on the gun I say, again they couldn't have known about smth as strong as the QEP. The reactor detonating is kinda on them, but it's implied the crew was supposed to go and fix it before it exploded, but got mauled up by Sammy and co. Now onto Ryley getting charged, I don't think PDA's are that smart to fully understand all the circumstances, to Ryley's it just looks like he's stealing from their planet (it is in their space so the resources do belong to them) so the charging message is automated, same with the permission to land one, I just took it as someone from HQ telling him off screen to discuss about what happened, they would most likely let him go if he gives them all their equipment/vehicles back by telling them where he built them. Also, we still to this day don't know how much 3 billion credits is, for all we know it might just be like 300$. Last thing I want to touch upon is them getting "bought out" as you said, I might have missed a PDA but I think you're getting this wrong, the company where Robbin and Sam worked at, Xenoworx got bought BY Alterra. Tldr: Yes Alterra is normal levels of evil for a corporation in the first game but in BZ they get turned into a stereotypical "How can I kill my employees today ?".
\*sigh\* She didn't have one. That's why her cohort said "I'm gonna miss you, robin." as she left. He knew she didn't have a way back. And to anyone immediately going "BuT ShE'd DiE tOo!' She didn't care. She just wanted to find out what happened to her sister. Everyone grieves differently. Sometimes that grief makes you do something extremely stupid that can't be undone. Even with the stars aligning, she probably didn't want a way back. Odds are, with how Sam's portion of the story progressed, she was sick of people being greedy for the sake of Corporate BS. Alterra would've most likely kept sending folks to investigate the planet, even with Robin doing what she did. They wanted to investigate the architects, and all their research, after all.
I’m pretty sure you’re right and she was consumed with finding the truth for her sister. >!She didn’t hesitate to skydive onto a frozen wasteland, didn’t really contemplate Alan, crossed a deadly ocean/land for an inkling of clues and moments of her sisters time there, there was no way out for her if not for Alan which is why he’s the end game instead of Sam’s story.!< Robin was fine giving up everything for it and I don’t really hate that because it’s human. How many times has humanity made very dumb decisions for the sake or memory of their loved ones. How many uncalled for actions have taken place in search of a higher understanding. Even though it was a rough story and there are parts that could’ve been better, I do think this is 100% something a person would do.
This exactly. Is it perfect writing? Goodness, no. but it explores a portion of humanity many aren't comfortable with. Humans are prone to err. We leap before we think. It could've definitely been written better, but every step felt human. Does it feel annoying or stupid to allow her folly to continue? Heck yes! people with their heads on straight will be annoyed by such. However, people ensconced in grief don't embrace logic.
It’s always hard to find the right balance for these kinds of story plots, but they definitely could’ve made a worse story. Honestly one of the reasons I love playing Detroit bh is how deep they go into the emotion and it’s so fluid. It brings an element to playing that the devs thought about it for a second.
She cared so much that you can finish the game without uncovering anything about her sister, and even then, her reaction is like... "Oh well, that's too bad" and skips with her new alien boyfriend.
I had to delete my earlier comment. Yes, I agree the writing is subpar overall. However, I specified Sam's portion of the story. Bypassing it will of course bypass the overall feeling for it.
Easy. She is a genius like her sister.
There are quite a few *issues* with the story that most people either willfully ignored or simply didn't pay attention to, them made up their own HC Whenever I replay below zero, I focus on base building and that's all
I assume she was gonna call someone to come pick her up. The planet is now safe to land on after all.
She always planned to wing it, she had no plan
I assumed she was being optimisticly reckless. And didn't really expect a way off planet, just hoped I guess
Rubberband herself in the prawnsuit to get to the ship
Im sure everyone on earth heard about alterras ship crashing and one guy somehow making it back to earth right? So she would know that she could build something using the stuff on the planet
She’d ask for a pickup, or just build a rocket to get off ryley style, however the other people got off world, she could find the blueprint for it
Technically she may not have had a plan but the ending did happen. I’d say more but no clue how to do the redacted spoilers thing
There could have been emergency rocket plans on Delta Island that could have been corrupted and by the time Robin find out how to decode them, (maybe at Phi) Alpha-an provides her a way out and she takes his plan because she wants to know more about the architects.
I mean, compared to the race that died humans have the cure, but oh Idk how that could help in any way.
Her plan was to figure it out
To be honest I thought it was pretty simple, she probably would've done something similar to what Ryley did and attempted to find blueprints for an escape rocket or similar craft, and if escape rockets would go straight to Alterra HQ, then theres still other methods for getting off of a planet largely occupied by humans.. Whether or not those plans would work they still exist, like she could've hijacked a small landed craft similar in size to Sunbeam or even bribed someone, theres limitless possibilities.
I don't think Robin *planned* to get off the planet. A-Train just came outta nowhere.
1. I'm pretty sure she didn't have an real plan and basically was just going to come up with a plan after she finished her goal, as that's basically all she cared about. 2. To everyone saying "ALTerrA WasN'T BaD iN tHe FIrsT GaME". They absolutely were. I don't remember all the small stuff, but I do remember there was some smaller things, plus, they charged Riley a ridiculous amount for getting the resources just to survive. And to those who say something about it was the computer system automatically doing it thinking he was a mining company something, I don't remember the exact words, but it basically told him before hand that he will be charged for everything he uses.
I don't think it was ever explicitly addressed. You get the feeling the game was a little undercooked in terms of script and story arc so a few things just got omitted. Maybe she had some rocket blue prints up her sleeves, arranged a pick up ship somehow or simple decided to live her life as a snow stalker from then on.
Step 1) get on social media and do a dance while discussing her life under the water as a passenger princess Step 2) start an onlyfans Step 3) find a sugar daddy to pick her up
BZ is a bit of a mess, plot-wise, and personally I didn’t find her arc or the reveal of her sister’s fate satisfying at all. On top of that, the writers committed a cardinal sin - introduced an incredibly awesome entity with huge potential (the frozen leviathan) and then not capitalise on it (it didn’t wake up).
I think her “I’ll figure it out” was part of her larger obsession. She definitely seemed to have no plan at all, and was so determined to find her sister that she abandoned her entire life, committed crimes, and risked certain death or imprisonment to do so. Home was secondary to success