george moromisato wrote:Atarlost wrote:Denial of free will is one thing. I also read through the plot related XML.
line 3944 of Heretic.xml doesn't exactly cast Domina in a good light.
Assuming the Ancient races are capable of pursuing a train of thought for longer than a Kender this is a problem.
Let's assume the defeated guardian AI is a reliable narrator. It could be programmed with false data, but that would require the Iocrym to plan on it being captured, something that doesn't fit their character as I percieve it.
The blocade is then neccessary to contain Oracus. Domina has both engineered the extermination of humanity and is actively helping humanity break the blocade that holds of the extinction of the ancient races. By pointing you at the archive Domina is making it more likely the quarantine will break and that the sterilisation project she devised will be stopped. This does not make sense.
The two conclusions that best fit in my mind are that either Domina is not the one who founded the sisters and called you but rather Oracus impersonating Domina, or Domina does not expect you to succeed in breaking the quarantine and is toying with you. The former is unlikely since the Sisters and the Penitants work at cross purposes, unless the Penitants are a front for some other being, possibly Domina, trying to discredit Oracus. This is well into crazy conspiracy theory territory and so I discard it. I might entertain it in reality, but fiction is subject to stricter beleivability constraints. The remaining rasonable option is that Domina is a sadist. That only requires that the ancient races not "evolve beyond" fleshly foibles and not care about lesser races.
I started another thread on general plot bugs, but I thought I might respond to this here, if no one minds.
First of all, not all narrators in Transcendence are reliable, but I agree that it's implausible for the AI to be lying or for its knowledge be planted. And I also don't want the plot to hinge on crazy conspiracies or convoluted misdirection.
But I think there are a couple of other possibilities and I'd love to hear whether you all think they are plausible enough:
1. The Iocrym AI did say that they did not expect the quarantine to last forever. Isn't it plausible that the scientists at Heretic would have broken the quarantine eventually, even without the player's help? In that case, then Domina did not really affect the quarantine that much.
2. Does the quarantine have to be perfect? Perhaps exterminating 99% of humanity is enough to foil Oracus's plan. In fact, it would be implausible otherwise. So allowing a few pilgrims to escape would not harm Domina's greater plan.
3. There is a difference between buying a gun to kill a potential intruder and actually pulling the trigger. Perhaps the Iocrym (Domina?) are preparing to exterminate humanity just in case, but have other less drastic options as well.
4. Perhaps it is impossible to tell Oracus and Domina apart. Let's assume that Domina and Oracus communicate via some kind of projection of consciousness. The ideas that they want to convey appear in your mind. Maybe there is no way to tell who planted the idea (unless they told you--but then they could lie).
5. Is it plausible that Domina is not a perfect predictor of the future? In that case, it is possible that the actions of the player will result in outcomes that Domina did not expect.