There is a major misconception here. The WAU lacks a true self-awareness. It overloaded the blackboxes of Omicron staff not because it was an act of retaliation, no. The Warden started reanimating Ross, once he was taken into Omicron, and to do so it needed vast electrical charges. So the corpse of Ross was surrounded by unhealthy amounts of electromagnetism and radiation. To mitigate that, the staff put Ross into the containment chamber, that glass room at the site's center. Once Ross was isolated, the WAU required a significantly stronger ambient electromagnetic charge to keep reanimating Ross, and further it did so, the bigger was the charge. The overload was a side effect, that could have been foreseen by the WAU or not. Regardless, it DID NOT go against its protocol anyway, because the WAU defines life as mere existence. It can just as easily reanimate headless corpses. The WAU does not directly control any creature with sentience. All WAU-infected fauna displayed hightened aggression levels due to malign mutations and extreme pain. The Leviathan hunted anything with structure gel, so saying it attacked Ross or Simon because of WAU's orders is wrong. However, it may seem to grant certain information to those affected by the gel. Terry Akers saw that the WAU could do with Cathrine's Vivarium, and so, in his insanity, he proceeded to put everyone into that simulation. As a result, each victim became a living mockingbird as a side-effect yet again, as the architect of that plan was Akers, not the WAU. Hopefully, all that clears up a lot.
If Leviathan hunts anything with structure gel, why it didn't attack the Heart of WAU? It's filled with structure gel to the brim. I think WAU does have some sort of control over it's creations, it was tasked to preserve humans, not sea creatures. Plus sea creatures have low intelligence, so maybe it was easy for WAU to control them.
A long while back many people criticised the option to keep the WAU alive as from a literary standpoint there seemed to be no point. It was only after the fact that, based on what we see in the game, people pointed out the WAU 𝘪𝘴 adapting and improving - opening up the possibility that, one day, it will get it right on its own. In the end, letting the WAU live comes down to Simon's main motivation throughout the game: hope.
One could argue that given enough time the wau would eventually figure out how to create life. After all its latest creation, Simon, is pretty successful in this regard
Well this really depends on the perspective, mostly since Simon strictly speaking is not alive - none of them are - they are re-animated and simulate various stages of consciousness as for the WAU learning and perfecting... I think the chances for that are pretty slim. I may lean on that line a bit too much but as Ross said; the WAU has simplified and redefined it´s protocoll - so the WAU´s future efforts are likely going to lean more toward optimizing the process it´self, rather than the result further yet looking at the Abyssal Fauna, one can see how much the WAU has altered the genetics of the fish down there and the results are unhealthy, malformed and incredibly hostile specimen that serve as antibodies to keep the WAUs core safe further yet, the conditions for creating a Simon are almost absurdly specific and cannot be replicated easily - as you require a corpse - a suit - a battery - a cortex chip, etc. ... as amazing as Simon as a creation may be, I´m afraid he is more of a fluke than anything
@umukzusgelos4834 remember the robot guys laying about in omicron? What if those are early attempts by the wau at creating fully cybernetic bodies to house scans of people?
Another quick thing I forgot to mention - If you search around the area you start the game in after Simon-2 "wakes up" you can find out that it was actually the WAU that created him and put his body together - indicating the WAU is still trying to figure out a way to not only keep everyone "alive" but "living" as well.
Indeed. The WAU´s meddling is being documented on not just one but several terminals with access logs you can see at various points in the game that the WAU has accessed data from Pilot Seats, live support systems, Diving Suit terminals and even Catherines Ark Data, rendering one of them corrupted and unuseable
Even though I'm pretty sure Frictional has denied any overlap between Amnesia and Soma, and that they don't exist in the same universe, I still like the theory that the WAU core is a repurposed orb. The pictures in Ross's room of the core look like an Orb from Amnesia. Even more interesting, the WAU's corruption starts to spread from a red mass that looks a lot like the Shadow. It could probably just be a nod to Amnesia, but it could explain a lot of the cult like secrecy around Carthage Industries and the People in charge of Site Alpha
@@Mihaguwichi I'm not very familiar with the Amnesia franchise, but in the game it's mentioned the WAU is a biological computer of sorts. It clearly has some degree conscience as it killed the Omicron personnel to avoid being destroyed, but it's fairly limited too, like lacking a working understanding of what a human is, which is the point of the game. But I agree with you, it is a life-form, but a rudimentary one
@@Mihaguwichi You're right, but I'm going with what Ross said, "the WAU shrieked". You could argue that the WAU made the reasoning that to preserve life it must preserve itself too, so if someone were to kill it, then killing their would-be aggressors is valid
I will dissuade any rabid theories about the Orb and the Shadow being in Soma not by name but in spirit. Carthage Industries, the mysterious benefactors of Pathos II and the WAU by extension, took their name after the Carthage Empire. Which was a great Mediterranean empire and also happened to be in geological proximity to the Algerian desert where the events of Rebirith take place and where Daniel discovered the Orb in Dark Descent.
Pretty sure others have talked about this theory already, but the WAU core looks super suspiciously like an upgraded orb from Amnesia, and the structure gel growths are like a strangely similar manifestation of the shadow, except it doesn’t “hurt you” whenever you touch it, it’s even safe to drink in moderate amounts.
Well the Structure Gel (or Ferrofluid) isn´t really the WAU´s creation but an element found at Pathos II that the WAU is able to use and manipulate this Gel can be given directives via Code that affect how it behaves and the WAUs malcode is the reason for it´s untamed growth and hardening this video was already quite long else I probably would have talked about that in greater length but perhaps I should cover this at some point again but yes I can see the resemblance
I had some issues with my Hard Drives accidentally erasing a lot of the SOMA footage I had already taken so it took me longer to finish the videos I had already planned, I will return to SOMA though again from time to time
Great video, I just have a suggestion. When you're trying to do cinematic pans in a game camera operated by mouselook, it helps to turn down the sensitivity on your mouse immensely, as you won't get any of those jittery human movements that occur with normal mouse sensitivity. This can give you a smoother pan.
Ah yes, thank you, I will keep that in mind I did try to pan with a controller too at one point but since the stick does not let you steer as presisely as the mouse does I soon went back to my old method I hope the footage isn´t too jarring to watch, I´m still far away from mastering this but I dare say I have improved a bit since the first video of this series
I always imagined that left to it’s own devices the WAU would eventually cover the whole planet, finding new ways to power itself, and become a giant mechanical organism
I have si much to say but I order to say thank you!! I love to watch every video of yours, it even made me replay SOMA slowly looking at every detail and coming back here to soak in more information, my second playthrough even though I knew what was gonna happen was greatly enhanced because of your analysis! Keep up the good work, excellent videos!!
how coincidental, the first time I playthrough SOMA for this years spooky season, you release these videos by Frictional games I enjoy so much for it. Think I did the same for the Bunker last year, played through then checked your vids
You see green grass with blue sky as beautiful because your evolutionary adaptations tell you so, perhaps the life of the future that comes beyond those crooked tormented forms will see black as comforting and the night as its home.
Another wonderful video. The WAU is on its way out in a year at best, Might as well get rid of it before it kills and un-kills more sea animals and keeps the remnants of humanity in a state of pain.
Whatever the structure gel is, I doubt it's only comprised of ferrofluid. When the player is given an opportunity to test it via reanimating a dead rat, the gel is poured haphazardly onto circuit that is already attached to rat's corpse. And if one was to pour any regular conductive substance onto powered circuit, it's the sure way to short it out of working order. Thus, even disconnected (from WAU) structure gel is somehow able to analyze logic chains already present in it's vicinity and make guided decisions on how to properly connect components, instead of just connecting everything at once as one might expect of regular ferrofluid. Reminds me a bit of Sophons from Three Body's universe.
I believe I explained this part a bit poorly in the video but ingame documents do reveal that the Gel it´self acts as a unit complete with a code dictating it´s actions The WAU introduced a kind of malcode which is the result of the outlandish growths originally the substance was used for construction and maintenance purposes think of it as some kind of liquified computer unit that the WAU uses as it´s long arm
the wau and its growths seems to have different type of tissues. how could it differentiate "ferro-fluid" into all of this ? unless it incorporates organic materials into the mix.
the gel is said to harden with time and comes with malcode that results in the various growths seen, though it is very likely that components from machienery and the overall structure are blended into it as well
@@umukzusgelos4834 idk if this can be consideres related to the video or not but do you think frictional will develop another amnesia game considering the bunker's relative success. In my opinion when rebirth first rolled around frictional became demoralized bc of the mixed reviews and that they wouldnt touch the amnesia ip for a very long time
@@Coldominator I did hear some rumors that the studio has considered straying from the Horror-Genre too but I cannot be certain Horror is unfortunately one of those Genres that only so many people are interested and passionate about, so financing is probably still as much an issue as it was all those years ago
@@umukzusgelos4834 maybe frictional wishes to go down the valve design philosphy path where they only release a game that is deemed "revolutionary" like how half life was; adding new features, polishing them and then releasing the game on an unsuspecting audience after the genre gets a bit too stale
@@umukzusgelos4834 and also i enjoy the videos you publish because we are not looking at just some video game models but also discussing the lore and background and even philosophy (like a machine for pigs or soma) surrounding them which makes these videos interesting to view
you could argue that the WAU is capable of preserving humanity, with Simon and Ross being successful attempts to keep a person's mind and body intact. Of course, its bad when these two are considered successes when they're both nothing more than reanimated corpses that no living person would consider one of us, even if they have all their mental faculties and aren't completely insane. The WAU isn't malicious, but it clearly doesn't have any ethics or human morality and can't be trusted with the few human lives left on Earth, just look at the other 90% of its experiments you encounter in the game,. its the stuff of nightmares man, id much rather just die at that point.
Also great job with this video man, its refreshing seeing someone not just parroting a wiki and properly analyzing these games. The intros and snippets of dialog are a nice touch
@@LaOxidada Thank you so much. I rarely consult the wiki, mostly when I don´t remember dates, names or ages I mostly try to take the ingame material presented and make my own conclusions from them
For the brightest AI scientists of generation, they did it pretty stupid by not explaining WAU what human life is. Even by sacrificing one human to do so would be enough to save all the dozens of people left on PATHOS-II.
Hey, you've any idea how to install brutal monsters on other mods? I think i've got an idea, but im not sure. Since the custom_depth files do not contain the animations as i've found out by inspecting the entities folder.
I suppose you could just (minus the main initiation folder) port all the Brutal Monsters Data over to the main folder and then run your mod you want to combine it with that´s what I did with my game, since I like the mod so much I don´t want to go back to the vanilla version
@@obunginator974 almost all of them, you need the modified agent files, as well as some modified map files for the maingame, as well as the modified entity files, but not the main init. file, if you replace that the game will crash port them over and the main game should follow by the rules of brutal monsters mod and so should all subsequent mods that use the unaltered files from the main game
@@umukzusgelos4834 im sorry but im honestly getting lost here (this is a perfect opportunity to make a video about how to add brutal monsters to other mods)
![A closer Look at Site Delta - SOMA [the salvaged Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/aiAU8pEef4U/mqdefault.jpg)
![A closer Look at Site Delta - SOMA [the salvaged Video]](/img/tr.png)
There is a major misconception here.
The WAU lacks a true self-awareness. It overloaded the blackboxes of Omicron staff not because it was an act of retaliation, no.
The Warden started reanimating Ross, once he was taken into Omicron, and to do so it needed vast electrical charges. So the corpse of Ross was surrounded by unhealthy amounts of electromagnetism and radiation. To mitigate that, the staff put Ross into the containment chamber, that glass room at the site's center. Once Ross was isolated, the WAU required a significantly stronger ambient electromagnetic charge to keep reanimating Ross, and further it did so, the bigger was the charge. The overload was a side effect, that could have been foreseen by the WAU or not. Regardless, it DID NOT go against its protocol anyway, because the WAU defines life as mere existence. It can just as easily reanimate headless corpses.
The WAU does not directly control any creature with sentience. All WAU-infected fauna displayed hightened aggression levels due to malign mutations and extreme pain. The Leviathan hunted anything with structure gel, so saying it attacked Ross or Simon because of WAU's orders is wrong.
However, it may seem to grant certain information to those affected by the gel. Terry Akers saw that the WAU could do with Cathrine's Vivarium, and so, in his insanity, he proceeded to put everyone into that simulation. As a result, each victim became a living mockingbird as a side-effect yet again, as the architect of that plan was Akers, not the WAU.
Hopefully, all that clears up a lot.
That´s a good argument
although the protocol violation could be interpreted either way at this point
If Leviathan hunts anything with structure gel, why it didn't attack the Heart of WAU? It's filled with structure gel to the brim. I think WAU does have some sort of control over it's creations, it was tasked to preserve humans, not sea creatures. Plus sea creatures have low intelligence, so maybe it was easy for WAU to control them.
A long while back many people criticised the option to keep the WAU alive as from a literary standpoint there seemed to be no point.
It was only after the fact that, based on what we see in the game, people pointed out the WAU 𝘪𝘴 adapting and improving - opening up the possibility that, one day, it will get it right on its own.
In the end, letting the WAU live comes down to Simon's main motivation throughout the game: hope.
One could argue that given enough time the wau would eventually figure out how to create life. After all its latest creation, Simon, is pretty successful in this regard
Well this really depends on the perspective, mostly since Simon strictly speaking is not alive - none of them are - they are re-animated and simulate various stages of consciousness
as for the WAU learning and perfecting... I think the chances for that are pretty slim.
I may lean on that line a bit too much but as Ross said; the WAU has simplified and redefined it´s protocoll - so the WAU´s future efforts are likely going to lean more toward optimizing the process it´self, rather than the result
further yet looking at the Abyssal Fauna, one can see how much the WAU has altered the genetics of the fish down there and the results are unhealthy, malformed and incredibly hostile specimen that serve as antibodies to keep the WAUs core safe
further yet, the conditions for creating a Simon are almost absurdly specific and cannot be replicated easily - as you require a corpse - a suit - a battery - a cortex chip, etc. ...
as amazing as Simon as a creation may be, I´m afraid he is more of a fluke than anything
@umukzusgelos4834 remember the robot guys laying about in omicron? What if those are early attempts by the wau at creating fully cybernetic bodies to house scans of people?
THE LEGEND JUST DROPPED ANOTHER OSCAR WORTHY VIDEO
Not sure if it´s Oscar-worthy but thank you
@@umukzusgelos4834brother trust me, it is
@@umukzusgelos4834wait don’t trust only me, trust all your subscribers too!
Another quick thing I forgot to mention - If you search around the area you start the game in after Simon-2 "wakes up" you can find out that it was actually the WAU that created him and put his body together - indicating the WAU is still trying to figure out a way to not only keep everyone "alive" but "living" as well.
Indeed. The WAU´s meddling is being documented on not just one but several terminals with access logs
you can see at various points in the game that the WAU has accessed data from Pilot Seats, live support systems, Diving Suit terminals and even Catherines Ark Data, rendering one of them corrupted and unuseable
The actual question is who went and stuck a sensory apparatus into a headless body, and plugged in a cortex chip containing a brain damaged Canadian.
@@kuryaku5906there's a powered down robot in front of the seat. and the whole ventilation shaft is covered with WAU residue. you can get a good idea
Even though I'm pretty sure Frictional has denied any overlap between Amnesia and Soma, and that they don't exist in the same universe, I still like the theory that the WAU core is a repurposed orb. The pictures in Ross's room of the core look like an Orb from Amnesia. Even more interesting, the WAU's corruption starts to spread from a red mass that looks a lot like the Shadow. It could probably just be a nod to Amnesia, but it could explain a lot of the cult like secrecy around Carthage Industries and the People in charge of Site Alpha
@@GhostHostGames Man, gives creeps. And also gives some food for thinking about maybe WAU is half a biological form of life???
@@Mihaguwichi I'm not very familiar with the Amnesia franchise, but in the game it's mentioned the WAU is a biological computer of sorts. It clearly has some degree conscience as it killed the Omicron personnel to avoid being destroyed, but it's fairly limited too, like lacking a working understanding of what a human is, which is the point of the game. But I agree with you, it is a life-form, but a rudimentary one
@@eloi4297 Yeah I thought about it, but the WAU killing Omicron personnel is very paradoxical to its own rules, preserve life at ANY costs, remember?
@@Mihaguwichi You're right, but I'm going with what Ross said, "the WAU shrieked". You could argue that the WAU made the reasoning that to preserve life it must preserve itself too, so if someone were to kill it, then killing their would-be aggressors is valid
@@eloi4297 Yep, you're absolutely right!
I will dissuade any rabid theories about the Orb and the Shadow being in Soma not by name but in spirit. Carthage Industries, the mysterious benefactors of Pathos II and the WAU by extension, took their name after the Carthage Empire. Which was a great Mediterranean empire and also happened to be in geological proximity to the Algerian desert where the events of Rebirith take place and where Daniel discovered the Orb in Dark Descent.
Oh, that is interesting
wau, a new upload!
Pretty sure others have talked about this theory already, but the WAU core looks super suspiciously like an upgraded orb from Amnesia, and the structure gel growths are like a strangely similar manifestation of the shadow, except it doesn’t “hurt you” whenever you touch it, it’s even safe to drink in moderate amounts.
Well the Structure Gel (or Ferrofluid) isn´t really the WAU´s creation but an element found at Pathos II that the WAU is able to use and manipulate
this Gel can be given directives via Code that affect how it behaves and the WAUs malcode is the reason for it´s untamed growth and hardening
this video was already quite long else I probably would have talked about that in greater length but perhaps I should cover this at some point again
but yes I can see the resemblance
Impressive intro as always. I was missing the Soma content. Though I probably such get acquainted with the other stuff made by Frictional
I had some issues with my Hard Drives accidentally erasing a lot of the SOMA footage I had already taken so it took me longer to finish the videos I had already planned, I will return to SOMA though again from time to time
I LOVE SOMA
I do too
Great video, I just have a suggestion. When you're trying to do cinematic pans in a game camera operated by mouselook, it helps to turn down the sensitivity on your mouse immensely, as you won't get any of those jittery human movements that occur with normal mouse sensitivity. This can give you a smoother pan.
Ah yes, thank you, I will keep that in mind
I did try to pan with a controller too at one point but since the stick does not let you steer as presisely as the mouse does I soon went back to my old method
I hope the footage isn´t too jarring to watch, I´m still far away from mastering this but I dare say I have improved a bit since the first video of this series
Been waiting for this a while now.
I always imagined that left to it’s own devices the WAU would eventually cover the whole planet, finding new ways to power itself, and become a giant mechanical organism
I have si much to say but I order to say thank you!! I love to watch every video of yours, it even made me replay SOMA slowly looking at every detail and coming back here to soak in more information, my second playthrough even though I knew what was gonna happen was greatly enhanced because of your analysis! Keep up the good work, excellent videos!!
Thank you for your continued interest, glad to hear you were able to tease out more of the Game
By far the best Soma Video you have ever made
how coincidental, the first time I playthrough SOMA for this years spooky season, you release these videos by Frictional games I enjoy so much for it. Think I did the same for the Bunker last year, played through then checked your vids
As always, amazing work on these vids.
Thank You
Thank you!
I was waiting for that to happen.
You see green grass with blue sky as beautiful because your evolutionary adaptations tell you so, perhaps the life of the future that comes beyond those crooked tormented forms will see black as comforting and the night as its home.
heh... provided they are advanced enough in their perception skill to get to that stage
Outstanding as always
Another wonderful video. The WAU is on its way out in a year at best, Might as well get rid of it before it kills and un-kills more sea animals and keeps the remnants of humanity in a state of pain.
Omg, a good explanation of the WAU! The WAU is my most favorite depiction of AI in the sci-fi scene.
Blessed by the youtube algorithm today, good video man
Thank you
Good video, this is really epic.
They really should have just called it the Warden or something.
Tryna take this shit seriously when i keep hearing tHe wOWW
Well it´s full name is the Warden Unit, so...
New SOMA content just dropped, we’re eating GOOD tonight.
wow
indeed
Hi, Umukzus! I've been asking you about closer look at Site Tau, remember? By the way, another perfect made video, thank you for your work!
Hello again, yes I have not forgotten.
I do plan on covering all of the Sites or at least most of them eventually, especially the abyssal ones
@@umukzusgelos4834 Waiting!
The wau makes me think of the shadow
Whatever the structure gel is, I doubt it's only comprised of ferrofluid. When the player is given an opportunity to test it via reanimating a dead rat, the gel is poured haphazardly onto circuit that is already attached to rat's corpse. And if one was to pour any regular conductive substance onto powered circuit, it's the sure way to short it out of working order. Thus, even disconnected (from WAU) structure gel is somehow able to analyze logic chains already present in it's vicinity and make guided decisions on how to properly connect components, instead of just connecting everything at once as one might expect of regular ferrofluid. Reminds me a bit of Sophons from Three Body's universe.
I believe I explained this part a bit poorly in the video but ingame documents do reveal that the Gel it´self acts as a unit complete with a code dictating it´s actions
The WAU introduced a kind of malcode which is the result of the outlandish growths
originally the substance was used for construction and maintenance purposes
think of it as some kind of liquified computer unit that the WAU uses as it´s long arm
the wau and its growths seems to have different type of tissues. how could it differentiate "ferro-fluid" into all of this ? unless it incorporates organic materials into the mix.
the gel is said to harden with time and comes with malcode that results in the various growths seen, though it is very likely that components from machienery and the overall structure are blended into it as well
One must imagine Simon in bliss after the "coin toss"
Sweet, sweet ignorance
@@umukzusgelos4834 idk if this can be consideres related to the video or not but do you think frictional will develop another amnesia game considering the bunker's relative success.
In my opinion when rebirth first rolled around frictional became demoralized bc of the mixed reviews and that they wouldnt touch the amnesia ip for a very long time
@@Coldominator I did hear some rumors that the studio has considered straying from the Horror-Genre too but I cannot be certain
Horror is unfortunately one of those Genres that only so many people are interested and passionate about, so financing is probably still as much an issue as it was all those years ago
@@umukzusgelos4834 maybe frictional wishes to go down the valve design philosphy path where they only release a game that is deemed "revolutionary" like how half life was; adding new features, polishing them and then releasing the game on an unsuspecting audience after the genre gets a bit too stale
@@umukzusgelos4834 and also i enjoy the videos you publish because we are not looking at just some video game models but also discussing the lore and background and even philosophy (like a machine for pigs or soma) surrounding them which makes these videos interesting to view
you could argue that the WAU is capable of preserving humanity, with Simon and Ross being successful attempts to keep a person's mind and body intact. Of course, its bad when these two are considered successes when they're both nothing more than reanimated corpses that no living person would consider one of us, even if they have all their mental faculties and aren't completely insane.
The WAU isn't malicious, but it clearly doesn't have any ethics or human morality and can't be trusted with the few human lives left on Earth, just look at the other 90% of its experiments you encounter in the game,. its the stuff of nightmares man, id much rather just die at that point.
Also great job with this video man, its refreshing seeing someone not just parroting a wiki and properly analyzing these games. The intros and snippets of dialog are a nice touch
@@LaOxidada Thank you so much.
I rarely consult the wiki, mostly when I don´t remember dates, names or ages
I mostly try to take the ingame material presented and make my own conclusions from them
For the brightest AI scientists of generation, they did it pretty stupid by not explaining WAU what human life is. Even by sacrificing one human to do so would be enough to save all the dozens of people left on PATHOS-II.
Well, defining the essentials of Life and meaning therein to a machine would be quite the task I imagine
@@umukzusgelos4834 That's still their job lol
More Peak.
"its" is possessive, "it's" is a contraction :v
All that is left there is to cry, for no Englishman am I
Hey, you've any idea how to install brutal monsters on other mods? I think i've got an idea, but im not sure. Since the custom_depth files do not contain the animations as i've found out by inspecting the entities folder.
I suppose you could just (minus the main initiation folder) port all the Brutal Monsters Data over to the main folder and then run your mod you want to combine it with
that´s what I did with my game, since I like the mod so much I don´t want to go back to the vanilla version
@@umukzusgelos4834 What about the maps folder? And by data do you mean like, all the folders inside the brutal monsters mod folder?
@@obunginator974 almost all of them, you need the modified agent files, as well as some modified map files for the maingame, as well as the modified entity files, but not the main init. file, if you replace that the game will crash
port them over and the main game should follow by the rules of brutal monsters mod and so should all subsequent mods that use the unaltered files from the main game
@@umukzusgelos4834 im sorry but im honestly getting lost here (this is a perfect opportunity to make a video about how to add brutal monsters to other mods)
@@obunginator974 it would be yes, If I have enough spare time maybe I can whip something together
Don't get me wrong. Great game, but why am I seeing stuff about it now? This game is years old so its strange seeing content about it now
Algorithm
61831 Florian Throughway
WAU did nothing wrong
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm