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Prisoner "849": have we been wrong all this time?

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User avatar HorizonFarer
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Subject: Prisoner "849": have we been wrong all this time?

Post Posted: 17 Nov 2022, 05:36

Hi everyone! I just joined this great community as a registered user (been enjoying this great site and its content as a guest for many years) to put this out there for consideration of you all:

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I think we have all these years been naming incorrectly the protagonist of Unreal. We call her (him) Prisoner 849, but are we truly correct on that?
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When we embark on the great adventure that is Unreal, we are almost immediately greeted by the ship's alert system voice the moment we step out of that cell on the Vortex Rykers. And that voice, at least to my ears, alerts: "Prisoner 8, folder 9, escaping!".

I'll give you that whatever word is spoken after the "eight" is not completely and unequivocably a clear and crisp "folder", but I think it is certainly NOT a "four": it is surely longer.

Moreover, we never see more than 12 holding cells inside the Vortex Rykers. Sure, that gives us no definite answer as to how many prisoners were truly being transported on the ship, or what numbering system was in place, either at the ship itself, or at the unknown penitentiary system that held the prisoners. There may have been more holding cells in the ship, for all that we know. But there being hundreds of prisoners to warrant a # 849, if those numbers were based only on ship's capacity? I don't think so. Of course, then again the numbers could be based on the penitentiary system down at a planet, or multiple planets, for all we know.

I do think there certainly were more than 12 prisoners in the Vortex Rykers. I haven't counted them, but I think if I recollect correctly, one encounters more than 12 dead bodies (not counting the ones from the ISV-KRAN) along the way; moreover, surely there were casualties whose bodies were lost in Na Pali out of the way the protagonist goes through. Yeah, some could be Vortex Rykers crew, as we never get to see if the ship's crew wore a uniform as the ISV-KRAN crew did. Actually, we did (or did we?). The guy sitting on the chair in what seems to be the ship's deck, and gives his dying cry when we approach him, doesn't have any conspicuous uniform on him. We have no real way of knowing if he was part of the ship's crew; maybe he was a wounded prisoner on his way out of the ship, who sit on the chair to rest a while, and couldn't go on any longer. We also don't know if the people we hear being killed by the Skaarj Warrior beyond that closed door, were prisoners or crew.


But I'm straying from my point.


What do you think about this?

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Subject: Re: Prisoner "849": have we been wrong all this time?

Post Posted: 17 Nov 2022, 07:47

Welcome! It’s always good to challenge orthodoxy if you think there are grounds for doing so… (for example, I’ve never been satisfied that the Nali planet was ever meant to be called Na Pali)

…but in this case I think you’re mistaken.

I’ve only ever heard it as “849”. But as further evidence I offer the other alerts heard during the course of the map. I think there are two others - and, if memory serves, it’s prisoners 327 and 470 (I may not have that exactly right.)
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Subject: Re: Prisoner "849": have we been wrong all this time?

Post Posted: 17 Nov 2022, 17:54

Welcome to the forum!

I'll have to mirror Hellscrag on this one simply for the fact that the Vortex Riker's computer signals the escape of at least three convicts (including the player character) and the other designations, as Scrag said, are clearly numeric. I think this is more a matter of a prerecorded voice saying things out of tonal sync.

But there's definitely room for more speculation on the game. The apparent size of the Rikers versus the sheer amount of dead found in the levels outside the ship has always been in quiet conflict with sense. For instance, the ship simply appears much smaller outside than in, and the community disagrees quite a lot on the size of the actual manifest.

Here's another one that popped on on discord recently as of the release of The One. Nali tattoos, the red ones. Rite of passage or slave markers?

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Subject: Re: Prisoner "849": have we been wrong all this time?

Post Posted: 17 Nov 2022, 18:08

Mister_Prophet wrote:Welcome to the forum!

I'll have to mirror Hellscrag on this one simply for the fact that the Vortex Riker's computer signals the escape of at least three convicts (including the player character) and the other designations, as Scrag said, are clearly numeric. I think this is more a matter of a prerecorded voice saying things out of tonal sync.

But there's definitely room for more speculation on the game. The apparent size of the Rikers versus the sheer amount of dead found in the levels outside the ship has always been in quiet conflict with sense. For instance, the ship simply appears much smaller outside than in, and the community disagrees quite a lot on the size of the actual manifest.

Here's another one that popped on on discord recently as of the release of The One. Nali tattoos, the red ones. Rite of passage or slave markers?


I do think, reading '8 folder 9' does sound that's what the ship voice could be saying, though i also find that unlikely simply because it would be odd for the main character to have a different numbering format compared to the other prisoners. Return to Na Pali also acknowledges that the main character is 'UMS prisoner 8-4-9' in the intro.

One explanation about the VRikers ship voice is that perhaps the computer intercom could have begun to malfunction from the crash.

But in regards to the Vortex Rikers size, indeed it's quite jarring that it's larger inside than out. I also always assumed there was more than one cellblock, which could justify the escapee count. I assume what we can navigate in the campaign is not the entire size of she ships interior (though, the layout is kind of odd still, i don't think Unreal was too strictly designed with logic in mind when it comes to this aspect lol)
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User avatar HorizonFarer
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Subject: Re: Prisoner "849": have we been wrong all this time?

Post Posted: 17 Nov 2022, 18:14

I appreciate your insight guys, but what can I tell you, I just relistened to the voice and I'm really hearing some other word other than "four". If you listen carefully, the voice doesn't speak out in a string the three numbers as it would be in "849". I hear it make a tone change and a little pause after the "eight". And I'm really hearing an "er" ending in the second word, before the "nine" is spoken. This wouldn't be consistent with a "four" being spoken, I think. I'm now even capturing an "s" at the end of the word "Prisoner".

https://youtu.be/m4enxe0bpB8

I sincerely think maybe we have been assuming the voice denounces the escape of "a" prisoner from a cell
only because the voice is heard exactly when we step out of it. But what about the voice alerting about the escape of the other two prisoners which is heard befor we even enter the air duct in the cells area? There are no evident prisoners there at that exact moment.

Maybe the ship's alert system emits a voice all throughout the ship, not just at the exact location we hear it, and thus it may be triggered by something happening at another location in the ship.

Moreover, how did the other prisoners/crew exited from the ship, if the escape hatch is closed when we approach it, and even the activation lever for it is still behind an intact protection glass?

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Not trying to make or win an argument here. This has been a point I've been thinking for a long time and I find it worth analyzing.
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Subject: Re: Prisoner "849": have we been wrong all this time?

Post Posted: 17 Nov 2022, 18:44

Welcome!

It's pretty interesting to me to find this kind of lore theorizing here, given that I've been occupied with ELDEN RING lore research for most of the year. :D

While your point about the voice line alone makes sense, you do need to consider the other evidence presented. The other voice lines in the same ship are unmistakably numbers like 3-2-7, and Return to Na Pali directly references our character as Prisoner 849.

RTNP Intro:

Bodega Bay, your survivor is UMS prisoner 849, last assigned to prison transport vessel Vortex Rikers; Vortex Rikers recently disappeared in your sector. Prisoner 849 is classified as missing and presumed dead.


Starlight Base, permission to use the rescued prisoner for Operation 'Talon Hunter'. The prisoner has extensive knowledge of the planetary surface and hazards. Prisoner 849 is the natural choice to search for the wreck of the Prometheus and recover the Talon data cores.


RTNP Crashsite2:

Bodega Bay, make sure prisoner #849 doesn't come back; terminate the prisoner once the job is done.


Understood, Starlight Base. We will dispose of prisoner #849 after Operation 'Talon Hunter' is concluded. Bodega Bay out.


This is text taken directly from the game files, so as official as can be.

As for the Vortex audio lines, here they are again for presentation's sake:







At least the Prisoner 327 line is extremely clear, and it goes to common sense that this pattern would inform the labels of the other prisoners as well.
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Subject: Re: Prisoner "849": have we been wrong all this time?

Post Posted: 18 Nov 2022, 00:15

The distortion on the "4" is easily explained. The same effect occurs on "You have entered a restricted area", which comes out more like "restric-torr-d". To me, it's simply the voice of a computer system damaged in the crash.

Although we don't see the other prisoners, I imagine that there are potentially several other prison wings like the one the player starts in. The other escaping prisoners are probably being massacred off-screen. Although the adventures of prisoner 327 or 470 could make for an interesting alternative journey!
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