SS2 GOC: Xerxes

[67437daba3ed0MrTrip]

So, I've decided to include the AI for GOC as a beta version of Xerxes. I have somebody who sounds like him a bit, and I've been working on getting the effects correct.

I'll post a sample here soon. This is what I did with an audio clip of Rebecca from SS2 though, just for a bit of practice until I get the audio recording from my friend.

https://soundcloud.com/ss2-ghosts-of-citadel/goc-xerxes-test

I herp derped at the end there and it has a long pause.

Also, for those of you who have listened to all the log files in SS2 and remember the one noting Xerxes being hacked?

https://soundcloud.com/ss2-ghosts-of-citadel/goc-xerxes-elvis

[67437daba40f4Hikari]

Maybe back off the metal/reverb just a little. It's VERY close but something feels off.

[67437daba41feTricky]

I have experience with editing and mixing audio, but currently lacking the tools because of my recent shift to Linux (Windows broke, didn't really have a choice). But if you're going to rerecord him, I suggest layering 5-10 separate takes of the same dialogue to get that nice 'one man choir effect' (think Elliott Smith).

[67437daba4350MrTrip]

Hmm, so it sounds more like a dull Xerxes, but part of the point is, he is a beta version, 40 years old now, and infected.

I don't know, opinions?

https://soundcloud.com/ss2-ghosts-of-citadel/goc-xerxes-a4-teaser-1

Yes, you hear Shodan rambling in the background, that will be explained later on. Trying not to completely spoil this lol

[67437daba4421Tricky]

Not bad! 

[67437daba4530Hikari]

Lots better. Not exactly a fan of the shodan noise (unless you come up wit ha very VERY good reason for the babble. Remember she didn't go all multi-synth broke voice till after she was rewired. before then she sounded like a normal person.) However i like the guy you have doing the recording. Back down on the 'hollow' sound though please.

Glad to see you're progressing and active. I want to see this GO.

[67437daba48acMrTrip]

Lots better. Not exactly a fan of the shodan noise (unless you come up wit ha very VERY good reason for the babble. Remember she didn't go all multi-synth broke voice till after she was rewired. before then she sounded like a normal person.) However i like the guy you have doing the recording. Back down on the 'hollow' sound though please.

Glad to see you're progressing and active. I want to see this GO.

I'll spoil that part since most people won't be reading this.

The lab was established to recover and examine parts of citadel after the explosion. Any traces of the shodan AI was to be incinirated. When a large active chip was found to still house a large portion of the ai a team was putbtogether to isolate it and examine just how she went rogue. Of course a curious soul slipped portions of her code into the data loop of the temporary AI for the lab and what you are hearing is that code steering and guiding the xerxes AI. The voice modulation was left out to keep it a secret but a few people found this out and put an abrupt stop to the experiment.

That's all I'll reveal for now but it will go into depth later in the game. Also, typed this all on my phone lol wheee

[67437daba4a92Nameless Voice]

Consider that the Xerxes on the Von Braun was a beta, and that according to the backstory he was only developed around the same time as the Von Braun was being built, and building him at that time, after the Citadel fiasco, was very controversial.  An early beta of Xerxes from shortly after Citadel makes no sense.

References:
Timeline
Backstory by Ken Levine

[67437daba4c39Hikari]

Given Sarah, according to the Levin fiction, was technically a beta for xerxes and both existed pretty much because the FTL engine requires an AI to function there you go reason to have female sounding AI and connection to the von braun.

Triop or the UNN seaze sarah since dleicrox goes missing along with the von braun, triop's head goon and all. The trouble is why would they hook it up to anything?

Hell the only reason xerxes was hooked up to anything at all was it was inherently built to be insecure so people could shut it down if need be (why the players never can do this I dunno. sure you get to take power from xerxes but there's no 'press x to shut down ai... or make sing elvis for twelve hours.'

My thoughts with xersex is 'we have ot have this thing on ship so let's have it do non-critical things like shipwide announcements and act as a monitor for security... that we can manually take controll of at the first signs of disobediance.' yea pity by that point the crew was fighting itself.

[67437daba4d1bNameless Voice]

"Sarah" is the codename for the FTL drive, not any kind of AI.

[67437daba4de8Hikari]

I'd honestly thought it was both.

[67437daba527aOlfred]

Hell the only reason xerxes was hooked up to anything at all was it was inherently built to be insecure so people could shut it down if need be (why the players never can do this I dunno. sure you get to take power from xerxes but there's no 'press x to shut down ai... or make sing elvis for twelve hours.'

Maybe that's the button he presses at the final sequence

[67437daba54d5Hikari]

pfft. Could be. I'd definitely want such a button somewhere you could keep an eye on like... say... the rickenbacker bridge. Though uh. Don't they have the problem of the Von Braun about to go overload? Granted with xerxes back he could walk you through how to disarm it... assuming it isn't yet another f'ing code and this time with no diego or anybody high up to tell you what the shutoff is. Then again if there's any logic to it just entering the shutoff code again would turn the thing off.

[67437daba74a0MrTrip]

Consider that the Xerxes on the Von Braun was a beta, and that according to the backstory he was only developed around the same time as the Von Braun was being built, and building him at that time, after the Citadel fiasco, was very controversial.  An early beta of Xerxes from shortly after Citadel makes no sense.

References:
Timeline
Backstory by Ken Levine

I shall read this and adjust accordingly. Thank you!!

pfft. Could be. I'd definitely want such a button somewhere you could keep an eye on like... say... the rickenbacker bridge. Though uh. Don't they have the problem of the Von Braun about to go overload? Granted with xerxes back he could walk you through how to disarm it... assuming it isn't yet another f'ing code and this time with no diego or anybody high up to tell you what the shutoff is. Then again if there's any logic to it just entering the shutoff code again would turn the thing off.

No, Shodan told you it was to overload and blow the core, but it was really to use the FTL drives. She liiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeddddd to you!

https://soundcloud.com/ss2-ghosts-of-citadel/em0901

SPOILARZ!

[67437daba7600Hikari]

*grabs nearest trout*

Doesn't mean it can't be used for that purpose. Shodan couldn't know what you didn't know or wasn't told. So even if she didn't use the engines as she said she would the concept is sound.

Then again that'd be something wouldn't it? Out of spite shodan actually does set the von braun to go boom.

[67437daba771fMrTrip]

I'm thinking of a new spin for the AI. An early successor to SHODAN but not as....dumbed down? as Xerxes. I just need a name that follows the suite, another Persian king?

Xerxes I was son of Darius I, but Darius sounds odd for an AI name. Though, Xerxes II was son of Artaxerxes I who was son of Xerxes I. I suppose the AI could share the name Xerxes if the AI's were named after Persian kings?...

[67437daba78b8Tricky]

What about Marius and Sulla, of Rome? That would give you two antagonistic names to work with in your story. I've always found their stories to be absolutely fascinating. Their battle for dominance shook the Mediterranean to its foundations. In fact, to this day, no more territories have ever been laid to waste, no greater amounts of fortune and resources have ever been spend on *any* war out of sheer personal conflict. There were no religious, political or economic motivations. The profound hatred these men held for each other has not seen its match in one and a half millennia of armed conflict.

If nobody knows who these two men were, then shame on you. It's from the vacuum that they left behind that the charismatic Julius Caesar was able rise and eventually eclipse the unbelievable power these men wielded.

[67437daba79ecMrTrip]

Hmm, but, we really don't have two AI's battling with....................holy balls.

My original thought, was that the AI is infected with a part of SHODAN, and SHODAN is steering the AI of the facility to do her bidding, but the AI tries to resist and guide the player to take her out, while at the same time trying to kill the player. This would kind of make sense I suppose with a name like that... or something

[67437daba7b60Tricky]

That sounds pretty interesting. This is just a random thought, but you could name the player Marius, a common enough name, while you give the infected AI an interesting abbreviation for S.U.L.L.A.

Edit: it probably needs a bit more historical context that. I think it was Sulla who beat Marius. Oh well, a good story might still get the main character killed along the way.

[67437daba7e2cTricky]

an interesting abbreviation for S.U.L.L.A.

S:
- Sentient
- ...

U:
- Unified (ok, that's a bad one)
- Ultra (worse, but might be more sensible in context)
- ...

L:
- ...

L:
- ...

A:
- Algorithm (should absolutely end with that)

[67437daba7f1eOlfred]

Sentient Universal Larvated Living Algorithm

[67437daba8155MrTrip]

Sentient Universal Larvated Living Algorithm

Sounds, close. I like it, except, Larvated? Anyway, it was going to be an AI using human tissue to store and process data.

[67437daba82a6Olfred]

Dunno, didn't came up with a good thing for the second L. So I browsed words with a leading L and looked for interresting sounding ones.
Larvated was the best I came up with till I was fed up with searching

Larvated means "Masked; clothed as with a mask."
Which could refer to the face you will give it as the human communication interface

For a name like this you need at least one wonky word, that's a must.
Trust me I'm an engineer.

[67437daba85a7MrTrip]

Dunno, didn't came up with a good thing for the second L. So I browsed words with a leading L and looked for interresting sounding ones.
Larvated was the best I came up with till I was fed up with searching

Larvated means "Masked; clothed as with a mask."
Which could refer to the face you will give it as the human communication interface

For a name like this you need at least one wonky word, that's a must.
Trust me I'm an engineer.

Trusting!