Timeline of Events in the System Shock Universe

[6743f3f4283baKolya]

Longer explanation (since Atropos beat me to it):

When SHODAN ejects the garden beta grove from Citadel Station, where she had experimented with mutagens on humans, there is a copy of herself on board, stored in a fractal memory device (called "datawafer" or "artefact" in the game).
It becomes clear through the logs, that you find scattered on the VB in System Shock 2, that a crew member named Bayliss, finds the datawafer on Tau Ceti V.

For some reason, they couldn't get a hold of my mind they way they could the rest. So when I found the remains of the data wafer near the crater back on Tau Ceti, I didn't say a word. I just slipped it into my belt and thought, 'Dr. Polito will know what to do with this...'

Marie... I'm sorry I've been out of touch, but I've been working on that artifact Bayliss brought back from Tau Ceti 5. I've done a level 3 analysis on it... I think it's some kind of Artificial Intelligence. I've managed to pull an audio tag file out of its memory... I'll let you be the judge... Marie... I think it's speaking English...

[6743f3f428825oupastilli]

2023 The first two megacorporations employ mercenaries to destroy each other's offshore soda bottling facilities. (SS2 soda objlook)

Hey, can I ask what's the source of this information? What does "SS2 soda objlook" mean?

[6743f3f428947Kolya]

It's in the description of the soda cans. You can Ctrl-CLick on a can or use the question mark symbol to read it.
Objlook is the equivalent shocked command.

[6743f3f428a26oupastilli]

Thanks. I have to check that. I have never used that command on items...

[6743f3f428b75OmegaDeath]

Wow.. awesome work.
Cleared up a few things for me. O_O

"
When SHODAN ejects the garden beta grove from Citadel Station, where she had experimented with mutagens on humans, there is a copy of herself on board, stored in a fractal memory device (called "datawafer" or "artefact" in the game).
It becomes clear through the logs, that you find scattered on the VB in System Shock 2, that a crew member named Bayliss, finds the datawafer on Tau Ceti V.
"
OMG.. just realized that dead space is such a rip off.
They sent a team to a asteroid to collect a piece of a artifact..

That bring to question.. was SS2 released first or.. the movie event horizon? 

[6743f3f428c89OmegaDeath]

Sorry for double post... each fragment held a perfect copy..... -_-

[6743f3f428f3aKolya]

They sent a team to a asteroid to collect a piece of a artifact..

That bring to question.. was SS2 released first or.. the movie event horizon? 

Pretty sure that Alien came first.

[6743f3f42901fOmegaDeath]

please do explain..

[6743f3f429120Kolya]

Event Horizon (1997) was released before SS2 (1999). However SS2 and Event Horizon both have a lot in common with the Alien film which was released even earlier in 1979.

[6743f3f42922cOmegaDeath]

Ahh. yes The alien movies...
Looks at ss2 sketches... yes it makes sense.

BTW... i am reading everything on this site.
Like every damn page, fiction or not..

[6743f3f4293c3Kolya]

Think of the Many's eggs, the way the Von Braun is lured towards Tau Ceti, the parasitic worms...
Of course there are other influences present too: The player is being transformed by his implants, becoming more of a machine, as SHODAN likes to point out. This theme reaches back to SS1 where it was the main theme and to the books by William Gibson. Of course the question "What is human?" is also one of the great questions of science fiction (eg Blade Runner). Then the Von Braun's inner design is actually a Star Trek ship after an attack.

Interestingly SHODAN is the closest thing to a human being you'll come in contact with in the System Shock series. All her hubris, her narcissism and her hatred are bad but genuine human emotions. And strangely this makes her believable as a techno goddess. We probably couldn't relate to an actual AI at all.
The player on the other hand is an efficient silent killing force. Compare this with Homer's epics where the human heroes have godlike qualities (Achilles, Hector, etc) while the gods act a lot like humans. They get angry and jealous, they bitch at each other and they mingle with humans in every possible way.

[6743f3f4294b2OmegaDeath]

Yes you can see the deep inspiration these theme's had on the developers.

Leading to clever ripoffs like portal's  "GlaDOS", dead space, dead space 2...

[6743f3f42958aOmegaDeath]

For example ss1  "tron"

[6743f3f429733Rebus]

Kolya, do you mind if I incorporate your timeline into the wiki at http://shodan.wikia.com/wiki/Storyline ? That way your interpretations can be further corrected and analyzed while your original text remains here.

If you agree, are there any conditions? Eg. do you allow me to copy/paste your entries verbatim on the wiki (temporarily, as eventually alterations will be made to the article) or would you prefer your work to be used only as a reference? (eg. write the entries in my own words using your information)

[6743f3f429a60Lambda 00]

Kolya, do you mind if I incorporate your timeline into the wiki at http://shodan.wikia.com/wiki/Storyline ? That way your interpretations can be further corrected and analyzed while your original text remains here.

If you agree, are there any conditions? Eg. do you allow me to copy/paste your entries verbatim on the wiki (temporarily, as eventually alterations will be made to the article) or would you prefer your work to be used only as a reference? (eg. write the entries in my own words using your information)

Honestly, it probably wouldn't be a big deal, as long as you use citations to the thread where it originated from.  (alternatively, put it on the talk page with a link back here until Kolya replies)

[6743f3f429b88Kolya]

As stated in the first post this timeline is not my work. For all I care, do as you will.

[6743f3f429c79Zygo]

So far as I am concerned permission is granted (nice surprise that it was even asked), it's all publicly available stuff and redoing it would just be duplication.

[6743f3f429dc9Rebus]

FYI I just finished the process of comparing Z's timeline against that on the wiki. I stopped just before SS2 as I haven't finished that game yet.

I preferred not to duplicate the information, but the process enabled me to notice some mistakes and omissions, discover information reveled in cut content/logs, and furthermore, decide to add citations. As of now, the result is still not perfect, as when I begun working there, the wiki already had some mistakes which haven't been checked and corrected (yet). The citations will help me/us to discover the duplicate entries put in wrong dates and remove them.

Feel free to check the composite timeline and have a nice reading

[6743f3f429eafLambda 00]

The citation notes are amazing for finding the specific log transcripts.  Thanks for that!

[6743f3f429ffbJulie]

There is one question that's been on my mind lately... Why was Goggles placed into a healing coma at Tau Ceti? As a UNN military officer, one would think that he already had a cyber-rig /interface installed because of the training offered at Ramses. There is no other mention of it until June 10th, 2114 when Sho-Lito orders an interruption of Goggles memory restoration.

So, given that, my best guess is that Shodan ordered the "upgrade" to Goggles' rig as insurance so that she could use him to further her goals. It would also follow that an upgrade would require less healing than a full, fresh, implant would.

I'm trying to make sense of the events in this seemingly short section of the time-line.

Thoughts?

[6743f3f42a33dJoin2]

So, given that, my best guess is that Shodan ordered the "upgrade" to Goggles' rig as insurance so that she could use him to further her goals. It would also follow that an upgrade would require less healing than a full, fresh, implant would.

It was Shodan wasn't it? Isn't this confirmed in-game? Hmm.

[6743f3f42a59fJulie]

It was Shodan wasn't it? Isn't this confirmed in-game? Hmm.

I agree with you about Shodan. I guess it was the short time table that bothered me.

[6743f3f42a860RocketMan]

Welcome to the forums

[6743f3f42a9e0voodoo47]

that was slightly random. and yeah, Goggles is Shodan's backup plan - one that worked a bit too well, one can say. but no matter, as she already had a backup backup plan.