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The Ultimate SOMA Discussion Thread
Paddy™ Offline
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RE: The Ultimate SOMA Discussion Thread

To drag it back to SOMA: when SOMA was first announced, some were concerned about the level of interactivity the game would afford us, owing to the lack thereof in AAMFP. Thomas responded with this:

(10-16-2013, 07:47 AM)Thomas Wrote: Regarding dynamic objects:
The idea was to show this off in the trailer, but it broke the pacing. Anyhow, the game will have the same level of dynamic objects seen in Penumbra and Amnesia.

I know this isn't new to anyone, but it's nice to be reminded that better times lie ahead Cool

04-28-2015, 02:13 AM
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Googolplex Offline
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RE: The Ultimate SOMA Discussion Thread

Dynamic objects were always a major feature of Penumbra and Amnesia to ensure a grandious immersive experience for me. When I started playing Penumbra in 2008, the level of dynamic objects was really new for me. I never saw a game before, where you can grab and throw away every useless shit in the environment. For this reason I always felt to be in the game and grab things with my hand. And then they connected this nice feature with physical puzzles, where you have to use objects in the world to build your way out. This is still the best gameplay of every horror game I enjoyed. So when you have positive experiences with this system, you will automatically get disappointed when someday things become changed. So I really missed the interactives in AMFP too. But it's glad to hear that SOMA will still use the original FG interactions.
(This post was last modified: 04-28-2015, 08:51 PM by Googolplex.)
04-28-2015, 11:45 AM
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BAndrew Offline
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RE: The Ultimate SOMA Discussion Thread

(04-28-2015, 11:45 AM)Googolplex Wrote: Dynamic objects were always a major feature of Penumbra and Amnesia to ensure a grandious immersive experience for me. When I started playing Penumbra in 2008, the level of dynamic objects was really new for me. I never saw a game before, where you can grab and throw away every useless shit in the environment. For this reason I always felt to be in the game and grab things with my hand. And then they connected this nice feature with physical puzzles, where you have to use objects in the world to build your way out. This is still the best gameplay of every horror game I enjoyed. So when you have positive experiences with this system, you will automatically get disappointed when someday things become changed. So I really missed the lack of interactives in AMFP too. But it's glad to hear that SOMA will still use the original FG interactions.

I completely agree and relate to this. The interactivity on previous frictional games titles was phenomenal and innovative. I won't lie, I would be very disappointed if that featured was missing in SOMA. Nevertheless, AMFP was overall a very good game and I am pretty sure SOMA is going to be a huge success.

•I have found the answer to the universe and everything, but this sign is too small to contain it.

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04-28-2015, 05:59 PM
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Googolplex Offline
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RE: The Ultimate SOMA Discussion Thread

Yes, AMFP was a good game, but without the lack of interactives it would have been even better. A game can have both, story and interactives. I don't understand why to cut things out. I remember they said interactives in AMFP required too much CPU power. But I don't believe that. AMFP can what TDD also can. And CPUs these days have 4 cores. A miss of interactives ended up that you enter a room, look around, find nothing to interact with and leave the room again like it had never exist.
(This post was last modified: 04-28-2015, 09:07 PM by Googolplex.)
04-28-2015, 08:58 PM
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Damascus Rose Offline
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RE: The Ultimate SOMA Discussion Thread

ok let's stop talking about amfp please ! soma is coming Smile

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04-28-2015, 11:31 PM
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BAndrew Offline
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RE: The Ultimate SOMA Discussion Thread

If you think about it, there is not a way or a method (even theoretically) which tells you if a being is conscious or not with absolute certainty. A being (animal or machine) can only persuade you of its own consciousness, but it cannot prove it. So, for example, you just assume that a person wrote this message, although there is no reason why a machine couldn't do it. The more you think about it, the more creepy it becomes.

I can't wait to explore ideas like these in SOMA.

•I have found the answer to the universe and everything, but this sign is too small to contain it.

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05-02-2015, 01:38 AM
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Chrysler Offline
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RE: The Ultimate SOMA Discussion Thread

(05-02-2015, 01:38 AM)BAndrew Wrote: A being (animal or machine) can only persuade you of its own consciousness, but it cannot prove it.
An even more interesting question in my opinion is, what consciousness is at all. Science shows that in the end, everything is just made out of dumb particles and their interactions, and any seemingly intelligent lifeform is simply the product of evolution. So we could conclude, that everything in the universe, including ourselves, is only machinery running according to physical laws.
The question now is why we are in this world and experiencing it somehow from the viewpoint of one single human being. We know that consciousness seems to be connected to our physical brain somehow. An interesting question one can now ask is, what would happen if someone splitted your brain into two halves (while being fully awake). Not much would actually change (see split-brain), but effectively you would end up with two conscious minds.
05-02-2015, 01:02 PM
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i3670 Offline
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RE: The Ultimate SOMA Discussion Thread

What about the consciousness of intentional objects? Because intentional objects are both objects of consciousness and consciousness, because conscioussness is both itself and a reflection of it. For example: the consciousness which says "I think" is not "the consciousness which thinks. So consciousness is of its own properties, transcendental as there is inclusive in it, itself and reflection of it.

"What you think is irrelevant" - A character of our time

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05-02-2015, 09:47 PM
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Paddy™ Offline
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RE: The Ultimate SOMA Discussion Thread

On the topic of AI and consciousness::



It's a recent discussion between Sam Harris and Joe Rogan about AGI (artificial general intelligence) and the possibility of uploading our consciousness to computer hardware, both of which are genuine scientific conversations currently being had in places like Silicone Valley. Some interesting philosophical questions arise.

The creepiest part of the discussion for me had nothing to do with consciousness, and more to do with the fact that people working on these problems are figuring out ways to detect whether or not an AGI is lying to them or trying to "escape". One of the ways they do this is to "tempt" the AGI, for instance by installing a dummy Ethernet port and monitoring it, to see if the AGI tries to expand itself beyond its confines. Things get even weirder when you realise you'll one day be dealing with something which can make the equivalent of 20,000 years of human intellectual progress in one week.

Here's a related blog post from Harris on the subject:

http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/can-w...apocalypse

EDIT:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential...telligence

(This post was last modified: 05-03-2015, 01:36 AM by Paddy™.)
05-02-2015, 11:12 PM
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Googolplex Offline
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RE: The Ultimate SOMA Discussion Thread

The goal of AI is not to make it realistic and intelligent as possible. AI simply must work in a (horror) game. AI in Amnesia was designed for escaping. You can see the Grunts searching for you and walking past very close, without to find you so easily. This is because a Grunt shouldn't find and kill you - it's just the last option when you walk in front of him. Every kill is also an immersion kill where monster lose impact. Monsters should be "stupid", so that they maintain the tension. You just see them in the area, but they should not be as "intelligent" to catch you where ever you are.

So when a monster is stupid, it's not because of "bad" AI. Rather I would call it good AI.
(This post was last modified: 05-03-2015, 11:28 AM by Googolplex.)
05-03-2015, 11:23 AM
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