SPOILERS -- things that change on the maps

[cantremember]

We've had a comprehensive list of notes and story/dialog details, but (at least I don't think), a list of small details that change in the map when you do things. Amnesia had plenty of stuff, mostly depending on your sanity, a ton of small things that were different, in SOMA I didn't find so many, so here's what I found so far:


In Theta Entrance, there is a locked door between the two scan/lab rooms. After you're done with Wan, the door will be slightly opened.

In Theta Maintenance, some of the people attached to the walls speak. I thought it was some kind of telepathic thing because of the strange echo effect, but you can see their mouths move when they speak. Mostly saying random things about the dreams they are having.

Still to check: In Omicron, before powering up the station, there are two bots laying on the sea bed. You can throw them into the abyss, but I didn't check yet whether they reappear once you turn on the power.

In the entrance of Omicron there is a headless diver sitting with his back against a wall, just lined up within a beam of light.
A bit later on, I think after lifting the lockdown, or acquiring all the items, the body will move and be hunched over the dressing bench.

Also in Omicron, there is as WAU-ized victim in an orange suit on the floor, later on he disappears.


A bit unrelated but some fun things you can do:
- If you use debug to teleport yourself, you can teleport yourself inside Lambda from the ocean. Lambda will then be submerged underwater. You can open the pressure door from inside and enter/exit as you please without the omnitool. Everything else seems to work like normal, the computers don't mind being underwater. All the props etc. will have underwater effects and all sound effects will also sound underwater. Some dialog though sounds like he's not underwater.
You can also do the opposite to explore the ocean without any water, although some rocks and floors are invisible, and the algea will still act like they're in water, and the bots will still float in the air, the hungry submarine will still be there and attack you but you won't see him. You can do the same outside Omicron, probably Delta aswell, wherever there is an inside and outside section on a single map.

And some things in SOMA I didn't understand, but they weren't really worth making a new topic:
- Catherine's a pure robot, something she says makes people go insane, it's remarkable she hasn't lost her sanity. She never recounts her experiences waking up as a mockingbird, what has she been doing all this time anyway? Supposedly working on the ark, but when you get here she has no clue, she needs you to get to the computer and find where it is, she could have done that herself while she was still mobile in her robot form.

- There seems to be a consensus that the WAU exploded people's heads to prevent them from going to Alpha. But I didn't really find any notes suggesting that.
I find many notes saying people have headaches, and they think it's because WAU is causing a lot of stress trying to revive Ross. Also Catherine mentions the WAU isn't a persona that is able to think, and therefor wouldn't be able to act on revenge/defense, it's just algorithms. So my thinking is still that all the heads just exploded due to the extreme energy to revive Ross.

- Simon has Catherine's cortex chip plugged into the omnitool, he could remove it and plug it into any mobile robot, like the one at Delta, or the submarine helper on the table at Omicron, without making a "duplicate" of her, that would allow her to help out when she doesn't need to control fascility systems, a bulky robot would've been almost impervious to the fleshy Akers and proxies. She could've tried to get Simon to plug her into the Dunbat before activating it, to replace the other insane personality in it.

- Seems Ross is invisible inside his cage, and seems to teleport due to the high EMP and it messes up your vision. Same with discohead supposedly. But when he teleports, it doesn't affect anything else, like the audio recordings, or movement of props doesn't skip in time. He also constantly teleports behind you while you run normally and things are breaking at normal pace.

[GhylTarvoke]

In Theta Entrance, there is a locked door between the two scan/lab rooms. After you're done with Wan, the door will be slightly opened.

After you reset the router, the huge door in Theta Entrance also opens slightly.

- Catherine's a pure robot, something she says makes people go insane, it's remarkable she hasn't lost her sanity. She never recounts her experiences waking up as a mockingbird, what has she been doing all this time anyway? Supposedly working on the ark, but when you get here she has no clue, she needs you to get to the computer and find where it is, she could have done that herself while she was still mobile in her robot form.

Regarding Catherine's sanity, here's what I wrote in another thread: "Catherine does seem strangely comfortable with being a computer chip, but this is because - as she explains - she was never really comfortable with being human. Her mindset is unusually well-adapted to SOMA's universe. (High-functioning autism?)"

I don't know what she's been doing, either. That's a good question.

- There seems to be a consensus that the WAU exploded people's heads to prevent them from going to Alpha. But I didn't really find any notes suggesting that.
I find many notes saying people have headaches, and they think it's because WAU is causing a lot of stress trying to revive Ross. Also Catherine mentions the WAU isn't a persona that is able to think, and therefor wouldn't be able to act on revenge/defense, it's just algorithms. So my thinking is still that all the heads just exploded due to the extreme energy to revive Ross.

I think Catherine underestimates the WAU. At Alpha, Ross says: "As soon as I came to in Omicron, I tried to tell them to make the toxin that would make the WAU wither. But they didn't understand. They put it inside a cabinet. It was so infuriating. They needed to take it to Alpha, the fountainhead of the misery we created. And then the girl, she figured it out. She was going to take care of it - but the WAU shrieked!"

Based on a recording in Omicron's cafeteria, the overload occurred immediately after Julia Dahl mentioned Raleigh Herber's plan to find Alpha. Maybe this wasn't a coincidence.

- Seems Ross is invisible inside his cage, and seems to teleport due to the high EMP and it messes up your vision. Same with discohead supposedly. But when he teleports, it doesn't affect anything else, like the audio recordings, or movement of props doesn't skip in time. He also constantly teleports behind you while you run normally and things are breaking at normal pace.

This is probably due to engine limitations. You can explain it away by saying that Simon's mind creates an illusion of continuous motion.

[cantremember]

Yeah indeed, once you get to Tau Ross says the WAU shrieked and its heart size increase no doubt means a heightened sense of (self)awareness.

Funny though how Simon gets scared when he sees the heart, it really doesn't look that freaky compared to regular WAU growth around Pathos-II.

Also Alpha seems pretty badly hidden and close to existing Pathos II infrastructure if it's supposed to be hidden.

Other little things I noticed:
- If you don't interact with Carl Semken, Simon won't mention him to Catherine, just saying all the robots he met are insane, and Catherine will say "hmm, strange". I'm wondering whether it's possible that during some of the early dialog with her, she may not have yet been aware she was a mockingbird, or was trying to hide it from you. I wonder if she hoped or thought if you were human, or knew you were a mockingbird since the start.

- If you get inside the stranded escape vessel in front of Lambda before meeting Catherine, he will mention it to her.

- If you sabotage the curie before plugging Catherine into the escape vessel, and only plug her in after the "chase", she will say "what's going on why are all the alarms going off" and Simon responds "I messed up get us out of here"

- You can die by letting the Zeppelin land on you.

- Killing the little white helper bot seems to be the good choice, and the bulkier talking one the "bad" choice. The little white helper bot apparently isn't corrupted by WAU, and is driven by basic AI, a schematic shows remote piloting this bot also isn't among its features, while the talking helper bot has (delusional) personalities trapped in them, controlling the bot.

- Sometimes mockingbirds think they do things but the bot doesn't actually move. The helper bot in Delta seems convinced he's working on stuff, even though he's aimlessly parading around a ruined and abandoned Delta. Carl Semken can see his feet but the bot he occupies doesn't even have mechanical legs. A cinematic promo movie shows a submarine helper bot (the one that's easy to evade) broken down on the floor, but talking as if it's having a conversation with someone.

- If you don't kill Simon at Omicron, it doesn't change any dialog, Simon3 still mentions he killed him.

- You can throw the inactive helper bots outside Omicron into the abyss. After restoring power they may not always return. (actually they don't sink all the way into the abyss but fall onto a false bottom a couple hundred meters below, and after reactivating they rise up the plateau again but may get stuck against the rocky facade)

- After entering Tau, a message says the airlock is pressurizing, or something. What is that about? I thought it was supposed to be Yin Yoshida entering from outside, but I didn't find any entrance in the section he roams.

- You can call the infirmary, and Sarah Lindwall will say she doesn't want to talk to another robot.

- Phi seems relatively well preserved from WAU growth. Alpha is the worst as it's completely submerged underwater and taken over by tentacles.

- Transitioning into a WAU creature doesn't seem painless. Simon was woken up from his lucid dreaming by a falling elevator. The WAU victims in Tau, the coccoon has hands and scratch marks according to the concept drawing trying to rip the scales off of him. Robot girl is always crying when she's not angry. The strange creature in Tau with webcams attached to him is clenching his bedsheet and breathing heavily. Amy (girl with WAU lungs) is still alert and seems to be experiencing if not pain, at least a lot of discomfort.

[Romulator]

- After entering Tau, a message says the airlock is pressurizing, or something. What is that about? I thought it was supposed to be Yin Yoshida entering from outside, but I didn't find any entrance in the section he roams.

Spoiler below!

It's Ross entering from the Abyss behind you. Pretty sure the door stays open until you hit a checkpoint, then it closes.

[cantremember]

That Ross.. conveniently following me so I'm the one to deal with the surprises and monsters. I find it strange Catherine didn't seem to care when you tell her about killing the WAU, she's only interested in her Ark.

Overall the monsters in SOMA are more varied but they are easier to evade than Amnesia's ones.

Construct it seems to be killing someone behind the door, or is it just lashing out ? After all it only just recently woke up just after you.

[SlackerinDeNile]

That Ross.. conveniently following me so I'm the one to deal with the surprises and monsters. I find it strange Catherine didn't seem to care when you tell her about killing the WAU, she's only interested in her Ark.

Overall the monsters in SOMA are more varied but they are easier to evade than Amnesia's ones.

Construct it seems to be killing someone behind the door, or is it just lashing out ? After all it only just recently woke up just after you.

Yeah, Catherine and Ross never seem to interact AT ALL, she doesn't seem to be aware of him or the true extent of the WAU. It's possible that Catherine's ARK obsession is a result of her limited capacity as a cortex chip, that's also a fanwank theory (please tell me if that word is banned here) I have about why Simon does not react to certain horrifying sights and scenes like you would expect a person like him to.

Regarding that last sentence, that's part of a cut character from the game. That headless corpse you find was not a 'murder victim' of the Construct, it was supposed to be another WAU creation similar to Simon, but incapacitated and traumatised, possibly due to it's recent encounter with the Construct. The voice files are still in the games data folders. This is why Simon does not react to it in any way.

[felixmole]

- After entering Tau, a message says the airlock is pressurizing, or something. What is that about? I thought it was supposed to be Yin Yoshida entering from outside, but I didn't find any entrance in the section he roams.

Spoiler below!

It's Ross entering from the Abyss behind you. Pretty sure the door stays open until you hit a checkpoint, then it closes.

Yes, the door closes at some point and you can hear activity in the airlock. You can see the door opening back up and Ross entering the room shortly afterwards.