#theoryposting

Something is different about Emily, and it isn't the obvious.

Really look at her. Ignore the hair and the earring for now (though those are also big changes, they aren't the important part.) Why does her jacket look like that?

It's a standing collar, with an asymmetrical closure and a very square silhouette, even what looks like padding in the shoulders. It immediately made me think of millitary gear, and some very quick googling pulled up fencing style jackets that look almost identical, though Emily's is even more structured than these.

Emily doesn't look anything like an office worker anymore. The structure of her white shirt was very sharp and way fancier than anything her colleagues wore, but it was still recognisably office wear. Now, she looks like military leader, and the slicked back hair and cicular brooch like a badge or medal don't help matters.

This is a huge indication to me that the culture of the Oldest House has changed massively, and even personalities as sunny and excitable as Emily have been ground down by the constant fighting and neverending lockdown. She's the head of science, but unlike Darling's freindly and approachble lab coats and sweater vests, Emily has started dressing like someone whose orders are not to be questioned.

here's all the evidence i and others have found so far hinting at the possibility of mushroom transitioning later in the comic! this is a long post, so i'll put it under a readmore to be safe.

(i wrote most of this in november of last year with some minor additions this week, so if there's any weirdness in writing, that's why! also, i fully intend to update this as time goes on and more comes out about mushroom in the story, pardon the bad pun!)

Ok so. Radiocomputers are kind of fun bullshit.

First things first, their components are very much not quite well defined according to a computer as we know it, but we for certain know a few things.

A radiocomputer needs a mainframe, filament memory, an antenna and a repeater station.

Filament memories are a cubic object inserted into the mainframe (like we see in game), made of wires (filaments) casted into glass, though modern ones seem to be made of silicon instead.

FIlament memories like the name implies are memory, the thing you store stuff on, Kim says it's likely a long-term storage device like a cassette reel, except in this case it's wires in glass.

They can operate data On-Air (Soona's computer for example) or Off-Air (Used for military purposes)

Radiocomputers also operate literally on air, aka on the radiowaves, making the antenna analogous to a """CPU""". And the atmosphere the """RAM""" (Not quite physically possible in our world but i'll handwave it later).

An air gapped radio computer has its operations unable to be accessed remotely, it isolates airspace for itself most likely.

Soona's computer is pretty powerful and weaker consumer computers use the term "red-tape" to indicate the operations. GIven concept art, they might be physically smaller, thought these are just concepts and might not actually showcase what consumer grade computers are actually like.

Filament memories most likely have some sort of authentication cryptography, given the need to have a password to the East Insulinde Repeater Station, since Soona's computer is on-air, EIRS unlocks the filament remotely, probably as Lintel protocol.

Filament memories also need to be cooled when not in use, which mean they can't handle heat when not in operation.

Mercury is utilized in newer radiocomputers, its application in valves apparently increases speed and the "azimuthal range" (probably meaning, the range of the antenna)

Like most things in Elysium, radiocomputers do not have a screen like we do CRT and LEDs do not exist! Instead projectors and printers are utilized to display information. You can see projectors being used in SATA and in some concept art of Soona's equipment, while printers are seen in game.

Radiocomputers do have keyboards, given they need to be programmed in.

Speaking of programming, two languages are talked about: Vox and Orbis. Soona knows both, and Trant and Mikhail have a few difficulties trying to set up Orbis to play a game.

Now that we have this said we can tell a few things: Radiocomputers are computers that are not unlike ours, they operate and process on memory, they have input and output, they essentially fit the criteria for what irl computer science calls a Von Neumann computer (They have arithmetic and logic, a work memory, probably a control unit since they have speed in the first place, and input and output).

BUUUUT they have some weird stuff with the air operations, you can't really... store stuff on air. Even if it's RAM where if no input is given it stops existing, the process of fetching and writing data is complex, and the atmosphere is pretty large and full of pollution. How would you get the radiowave you sent back?

The most obvious answer is that that's what the Repeater stations are for, the tons of radio equipment in the East Insulinde Repeater Station are to act as a relay for a kind of city wide RAM for all the Radiocomputers, information is sent back and forth like volley and is caught after a few cycles.

Another WEIRDER idea is that radiocomputers use High Frequency waves, those waves are able to bounce in the ionosphere at the very top of our atmosphere and the the very bottom of the ground, something called a skywave bounce. Does Elysium have an ionosphere? They have sattellites, and northern lights! So yes they most likely do.

If anything this would only be inviable because the information would be veeeeery fickle to work with, you could get data loss from anything, not just 2mm holes in the world, if Soona were in Katla this method would probably cause the entire game to be lost by aurora borealis. At least repeater stations could have filament memory backups and cache.

Either way, everyone who I CAN find talking about it keeps discussing it with Imgur links (a service blocked in my country) so I'm kind of putting this together for my own sake too.

There is something seriously wrong with the CGs in Canto 9.

(Somewhat long and image heavy post ahead, plus comprehensive Canto 9 Part 1 spoilers.)

Thanks to Jay Dragon, who named the concept and gave lots of feedback on this essay.

Negotiative mechanics are game mechanics that are facilitated and resolved via negotiation between players. They are neither mathematical, nor governed by arbitrary categories defined in the game text. Let's start with an example:

Let’s say you wanted to, in game terms, describe a mighty and towering giant with a difficult to pierce hide:

Using numerical mechanics, you can give the giant a really large hit point total to reflect its size and a really large defense bonus to reflect its hide.

This giant would be attacked by trying to add together numbers to deal more damage.

Using pre-defined categories, you can say the giant is large and immune to slashing, piercing, and blunt damage.

This giant would be attacked by choosing a source of damage that isn’t within the list of damages it's immune to.

Using a negotiative mechanic, you can say that the giant cannot be harmed by manmade weapons.

This giant would be attacked by figuring out how to use something other than a manmade weapon to strike it.

In this example, the first two have a clear-cut mechanical solution built in. They are solved problems: given enough mechanical knowledge of the game, the solutions are a simple math problem or look at your character sheet away. By spelling out the solution in mechanics, they are priming the player to think about the problem through the lens of corresponding mechanics.

The third mechanic is what I’d call a negotiative mechanic.

Diegetically Speaking...

Rules-narrative interactions in RPGs can be thought of through the lens of encoding and decoding game information. There exists the story, expressed through human language, and the game-state, expressed through permutations of mechanics and parameters that exist within the rules text. They need to talk to each other, but represent two different interpretations of the game’s world.

The standard flow of information in a Tabletop RPG mechanic is as follows: There exists a situation which has both a story and game-state representation. There are objects that have both story and game state representations. They interact via their game-state representations. The result of that interaction is then decoded into story information. To interact with the world, things must by and large be converted into game-state representation before the interactions may occur.

For example: Someone attacks -> the idea of attacking is matched to an abstract representation within the game-state of what it means to attack -> it’s resolved using a rules based interaction -> the rules based action and result are decoded and the story is updated with the new information.

The flow of information with a negotiative mechanic is flipped: There exists a situation which has both a story and a game-state representation. There are objects that also have both story and game-state representations. They interact via their story representations. The result of that interaction is then encoded into game-state information. To interact with the world, things do not need to be converted into game state representations until after interactions occur.

For example: Someone attacks -> there is a discussion over whether or not the attack should work given the story -> the discussion is negotiated and resolved -> the results of the negotiation are encoded into game state.

It’s Broader Than That Though

Negotiative mechanics don’t just have to negotiate over the grounds of a game’s story. In fact, there doesn’t even need to be a story referenced at all. The core of a negotiative mechanic is a structure of referencing something external to the game-state, negotiating over it, and encoding it into the game-state.

Let's say a game says “The person who’s had the worst day today goes first”

Resolving this mechanic would involve players talking about their days, negotiating to decide who has had the worst day, and encode the results of that negotiation into the game.

It still follows the same structure which can be generalized into players using external information to negotiate an outcome and then through some means, bringing parts of that discussion into the game. More specifically: A negotiative mechanic (either implicitly or explicitly) offers a prompt for what should be discussed, gives players a space to bring their own perspectives and external information into the conversation, and gives a framework (however simple or complex) by which the discussion can be encoded into the game-state.

How They Function

From a design perspective, negotiative mechanics broaden the scope of information used during play of a game without having the cognitive load issues of simulating said information using stricter mechanics. They also absolve a game of the need to fully and prescriptively define things that may be quite nebulous in nature. We can look at the two rough examples here and think about what effects they might actually have on play.

From a play perspective, negoiative mechanics demand more from players than more straightforward solutions, it forces them to engage with each other and often the game in a more abstract way. 

Why would you negotiate an attack instead of using a strictly defined simulation? By negotiating an attack instead of using a simulated system:

You allow for tactical play without the burden imposed by need rules and simulation tools for every possible situation. By trusting players to discuss and assess based on the specific situations that arise in the game’s story, you’re giving them space to come up with strategies and approaches that were unaccounted for by the designer of the game instead of being limited to what’s in the rules text.

You encourage active listening and participation in aspects of the game that might have otherwise been considered “just flavor.” If players know they’ll have to discuss and justify an approach, they’re primed to look in the situation to find justifications for their approach. Knowing that the dragon’s scales are tough as steel isn’t just an obstacle to overcome via numbers optimization, it’s an invitation to consider what can be used to break through steel and engage in a more diegetic form of problem solving.

How does discussing who’s had the worst day differ from any other way of determining who goes first?

It sets the tone. By talking about their troubles, it puts players into a rather negative state that can be built upon or altered by future events in the game. If you want to offer players relief after a bad day, maybe it serves a purpose for players to think about their bad day first to more strongly experience said relief.

It serves as an icebreaker. Before even the first turn, players are already prompted to discuss and engage with each other on a personal level that “left of the dealer” wouldn’t. It would hopefully get people to commiserate and build a small sense of camaraderie or understanding.

In Conclusion

yup! this is the cell i'm talking about, for reference:

it was immediately apparent to me watching playthroughs when the game first dropped, and my suspicions solidified when i eventually played the game for myself. there's the glass, as you mentioned, which appears to have shattered outwards (meaning it was broken from the inside):

and the door, which you didn't mention, which is level 10 -- the maximum security level, unobtainable in the game. it's also been boarded up, this time from the outside:

this boarded-up room is also the one you find the glam roxy figure in. y'know, a children's toy. and there's the horrifying part, and why it stuck with me:

This way, if any of this comes to pass when we play it next week, I can say I called it. Sort of ordered by how likely they are except they're actually ordered in the order I thought them up while writing this.

I'm betting that Asgore is the secret boss (as opposed to him giving someone else the shard he has), and that the non-violent solution to the fight is for Ralsei to give him the therapy he so so so desperately needs. OR more interesting but less likely, Ralsei trying, failing, and deciding that it's actually NOT her (#transfem ralsei) job to help every lightner forever no matter what and she DOES have interiority and wants and needs.

I do think we're getting more Dark World Noelle. I hope that we get to have a 4-person party and not have to split up again, but I'm not holding my breath on that front. Especially for Weird Route, I think Weird Route is going to continue to be Kris and Noelle alone; I just can't imagine progressing Weird Route with Susie around, she'd absolutely put a stop to it.

Just watched a theory video (which spurred this whole post) where (part of) the claim is that the dark world will be ALL OF HOMETOWN. No way. It's obvious, but I do think the Dark World will be Flower King. That said, I also do think Asgore is gonna make a big scene of opening the dark fountain within. I figure his "I'll show them all I was just trying to protect everyone" thing in the bathroom of chapter 4 is related to Dess' disappearance, which itself is (imo) related to dark world shenanigans, and the reason everyone thinks he's crazy is because who the fuck would believe him about dark worlds. Ergo, he's gonna make a big scene of opening the dark world in Flower King to show everyone they're real.

The Festival WILL include a bunch of fun minigames. I think it'd be especially fun to do something like the Chrono Trigger Gato fight thing in that game's festival, and let Kris+Susie+Noelle get into a "fight" in the Light World, using the actual pencils and hairbrushes that is their equipment. Also, doing any minigames probably aborts Weird Route. No fun allowed in Weird Route.

Something I DID like about the aforementioned theory video is the prospect of Weird Route involving fighting lightners. They mention that every enemy up to this point (except Titan Spawn) run away when you deal enough damage to them (except for when Noelle freezes them, which itself is very notable). I don't think this is likely, but I do think it would be very very interesting if, on Weird Route, you could snowgrave lots more lightners and start Weirder Route. Maybe that's how the Weird Route will progress, but I honestly doubt that Weird Route is supposed to culminate in "everyone's dead, lol u suck." Weird Route to me should end in a pyrrhic victory, a "you did stop the roaring and save hometown, but Noelle and Kris are fucked for life and Berdly is dying and no one feels good about it." RPG protags don't kill civilians for fun, after all. Though, I suppose in a dark world, they may not appear as civilians.......

I really don't think we're gonna get an answer to what Friend's deal is. I have half a mind that we're never gonna get a concrete answer on that in deltarune. Might just be Tricky Toby saying and doing bullshit to keep his insane fanbase occupied.

We also won't see what Seam makes with the shards. I betcha Seam's gonna say "okay, now give me a day or two and I'll have my creation ready for you hehe" and we won't see it until Chapter 6 (and probably not till the END of chapter 6 at that)

We also won't get knight identity reveal probably. That I think we save that for the climax of chapter 7 (much like Flowey's identity is secret until the very end of undertale).

We WILL be told what the end of the prophecy says, though. It's gonna be vague still, and Ralsei will explain that she (still #transfem ralsei) doesn't know exactly what it means because it's at the very end, but it will be something obviously bad; y'know, "The Heroes Sacrifice Themselves" or something. I'm actually betting on "Darkners must cease to be" or something along those lines, and that that's (part of) why Ralsei is so adamant about not mattering. She figures that if the heroes don't get attached then it will hurt less when she has to die.

Honestly, I sort of think Ralsei will get a damaging spell to sort of mirror/foil Susie getting healing magic.

I don't think we're seeing another Titan straight-up (though Titan Spawn and similar are for sure on the table). I DO think we're going to learn of a plan (hatched by the Knight presumably, but maybe not) to summon a bunch of Titans Monday night (i.e. the end of chapter 6).

Eggs will continue to not do anything meaningful. (certain) Fans will continue to insist that they're necessary to get a hypothetical "super-duper-ultra true ending." The idea that Toriel just uses them to bake a cake at the end of chapter 7 is really funny I hope that's what it is.

No Gaster; at least, we're not seeing his face or hearing his name directly.

The soul will become blue.

No Papyrus. That dude is simply not in this game. He's actually Asriel's roommate in college

Rudy WILL make it to the festival, albeit maybe in a wheelchair, or sitting on a bench because he doesn't have the energy to stand and move around much. I am unsure if we'll see him in a dark world, though I'm leaning towards "no."

I think we WILL see dark world Carol.

Toriel will be revealed to have been partially conscious during chapter 3, but she assumed it was a weird dream. Seeing a dark world in person, she will suddenly realize it was not a dream and tell everyone else about Undyne being taken. Unclear if she'll out Kris and Susie as heroes or not, but I bet she won't.

Toriel will absolutely NOT start being sympathetic to Asgore despite his proof that dark worlds are real. After all, opening a dark world is generally a bad idea and puts people in danger, including their own kid.

Sans will run a rigged carnival game which, mysteriously, only Toriel (and maybe Kris) can win.

Speaking of, a different minigame at the festival will probably be hiding more cryptic lore shenanigans.

Rouxls and Lancer (and The Original Starwalker) WILL return after being MIA in the dark world(s) of chapter 4.

We're probably going to cliffhang on a call from Carol in normal route, and on Noelle saying some fuck shit in Weird Route.

This chapter will probably involving going back-and-forth between the light and dark worlds repeatedly to solve puzzles. Flower King has a back door and a basement for a reason mefinks.

Unfortunately, transfem Ralsei (#transfem ralsei) will not be canon yet. I do still believe it will end up canon. She deserves to be canon.

Jeez, that was a lot. Have a Ralsei I found on da internet as a treat: