The Structure and Layout of Pathos-II and the Greek Letters (Spoilers?)

[PathOS]

I am extremely fascinated about how Frictional has constructed their newest game and in-game world. Looking back on the Dark Descent they were really clever with how they built the layout of the Castle Brennenberg and its dungeons, though they admitted that a lot of design was able to be "forgiven" thanks to "it's a magic castle" excuse . The layout for A Machine For Pigs's was a bit more confusing with the traversal within the Mandus Processing Plant being rather hard to logically understand as you moved from point A to point B (even with a "You are Here" map).

With SOMA, Frictional has stated they want to create something that is as plausible and that players can feel "could exist" as they were able to. To that end they've taken the greatest of care in constructing the Underwater Research Facility of PATHOS-II and its environs. The larger Facility complex appears to be made up of several different "Sites" or separate subunits of a whole, connected to each other via a Transit System that interconnects some substructures with others via tram, though no one station is connected to all others.

Additionally, it seems that, fitting with the overall name of the complex itself, Pathos (meaning "appealing to emotions" in Greek (or possibly "suffering"), all of the substructures are named after the Greek alphabet. While it is unlikely we will visit the entire alphabet of substructures if they exist, we already know of several that we will encounter. I would guess that each structure will have something "unique" about it, or something that its personnel specialized in with regards to research and experimentation. Each complex has its own Emblem which bears resemblance to the Greek Letter they are named after:


Here is what has been divulged about some of those facilities:

Upsilon - This is the area that has been most displayed in demos and was first shown in one of the earliest teasers. Perhaps the starting area or at least someplace close to that. The biggest feature of this area that we've seen so far is the Geothermal Dynamo Power Plant and a Com Center. It is unknown whether either is for the entire complex or standard features in all substructures. It also seems to be partly involved in the manufacture or repair of Robots as it is actually first referred to as "Upsilon Manufacturing" in a File on the soma website. There also seems to be a Upsilon-B Site which is involved in Gas Harvesting and Refinery. The letter Upsilon in Greek has often been used as a symbol for "the path of virtue, or vice".

Theta - Little is known about this section as it has not been identified in actual gameplay. The best guess I can make is this is likely the main Research Lab going from the videos. The dialogue from the Theta Reveal Teaser and the "StructureGel" video both imply that this is where the "Labs" are and where the "Robot weirdness" may have began. The letter Theta in Greek has often been used as a symbol of "Death" (short for "Thanatos").

Lambda - Another station that has very little information revealed about it, though it is identified as the "Transportation Terminal and Visitor Center" on the transit map. This site is still listed as "Active" in the Gameplay Trailer and is supposedly the location where Katharine was broadcasting from when Simon accessed the Com. In the Lambda Reveal Teaser however this station, or some part of it, has been structurally compromised and flooded. The letter Lambda in Greek has often been used as a symbol of the "scales" (for justice) or "balance".

Delta - Nothing is known about this location other than it was on a list of "Stations" in the Gameplay Trailer shown as "offline". The letter Delta in Greek has been used in math often as a "difference" variable to denote "change".

Omicron - Site Omicron has only been referred to in files on the Soma website and in some of the live-action videos, as the station where Chief Engineer Adam Golaski was stationed previously before transferring to Theta. A File could perhaps imply that this is the site where the main WAU system mainframe is located. In Greek the letter Omicron doesn't seem to mean much other than "small O" in contrast to "Omega".


It is of course unknown just how separate and far apart these Stations are from eachother, or if they have interconnections between them. It does seem to be implied that travel between the stations may be limited to venturing outside into the deep of the Ocean. It is also unknown why Lisbon, Portugal and Cadiz, Spain are listed as Stations for Pathos-II. The best guess is that the Pathos facility is located somewhere outside of the Straight of Gibraltar, looking at the map (Cadiz marked with the marker):

  Screen Shot 2015-07-29 at 1.14.05 PM.png (Size: 298.43 KB / Downloads: 550)

It's really exciting to think about, and I think really goes to show how much thought Frictional has put into their in-game world, and shows that this is definitely a "labor of love".

[TiManGames]

From a gameplay video, there are 3 more sites besides what you mentioned (Not sure if we will be able to go to all of them though):

Tau
Phi
Omega

[PathOS]

From a gameplay video, there are 3 more sites besides what you mentioned (Not sure if we will be able to go to all of them though):

Tau
Phi
Omega

Oh, I must have missed the video where those were listed. But then again I'm been very careful trying NOT to watch footage from the press previews recently since they went through 1/3 of the game.

Yeah, I doubt there'd be enough time to visit all the sites since this game is only supposed to be 11 hours long (though that's still twice as long as AMFP, and that game still managed to have many different "sections" of the Mandus Plant), but that would of course depend how large or how much of the sites can be accessed.

Well, to be thorough:

Tau - Nothing is known about this section. The letter Tau in the Greek Alphabet has often been used in ancient times as the symbol of Life and/or Resurrection.

Phi - Nothing is known about this section. The letter Phi in the Greek Alphabet has mainly been utilized in mathematics and number theory.

Omega - Nothing is known about this section. The letter Omega in the Greek Alphabet is often used to denote "The End".

Thematically, I could see Tau and Omega being sites we will visit. Omega definitely seems like the ideal place to "end" things. But I suppose that could be too obvious.

EDIT: Aha! I discovered the "Transit Map" of the Pathos-II complex from one of the preview videos. What's cool is that you will be able to look up general information on each Station in the facility such as its key features, its depth and its personnel count. Oddly though the onlly thing missing from it is "Omega". Perhaps it's not connected though. Also wonder what the color-coding means:

Spoiler below!

[DavidS]

Gotta love that username

[Rapture]

Upsilon A is where you are when the room get's flooded (Right?). So the area is damaged enough to be considered "uninhabitable" (a.k.a = Red)

For the Upsilon B description... any idea what the "[Epipe]" means?



Except for Tau and Phi, the rest are located on probably the sea floor (approx. 100 meters all of them)

Tau and Phi locations could indicate that they are at more crushing depths or near the surface. I'm guessing closer to the surface as I have yet to see any mention to how people are suppose to get down to the underwater facility without having a life-boat connection to the surface.

[PathOS]

Here is another map of the Pathos-II complex. This one seems more geographical than the networked Transit map. But here we can see all the substructures, including Omega:

Spoiler below!

Just going off of my intuition, I would guess Tau, Phi and Omega are at much deeper depths than the rest because the areas they are located are darker than the others. Delta is weird because it looks like it's perched on an elevated ledge or rock.

[Radiance]

Is it known how many sites will there be ?

[TiManGames]

Is it know how many sites will there be ?

8.

[MrSteve]

So based on gameplay, is that around an hour and a bit a site, or do you think some of the sites aren't able to be accessed?

[TiManGames]

So based on gameplay, is that around an hour and a bit a site, or do you think some of the sites aren't able to be accessed?

Upsilon (A+B) took about 1.5 hour, and lambda took 1 hour or so, so yeah.