Souls

and little boxes.

When I'm playing, and kicking the crap out of red Darwinians, I notice that there are little yellow souls, surrounded by two yellow metal bands. Like a box. What are those? Also, I'm playing that one demo for the extra level, with the rocket and stuff, incase that makes a difference.

It's not a soul in a box, it's a candle. If you watch the Darwinians idling around a soul, they'll form a circle round the soul and create and send off one of these "box kites" to guide the soul back to the soul repository.

Yeah, it's kind of a "soul casket," to my understanding. A really nice touch that IV put into the game, to make the Darwinians seem a bit more... human.

@shenlon, on Feb 3 2008, 03:16 PM, said in Souls:

Yeah, it's kind of a "soul casket," to my understanding. A really nice touch that IV put into the game, to make the Darwinians seem a bit more... human.

Again, as prophile said above, it isn't a soul, and it isn't a casket for a soul. It is a box kite with a lantern or candle in it, made to guide souls back to the soul repository.

xander

So it that when the souls start floating off, or do they do that regardless? Cuz I know they do it anyway, but does it start immediately, despite the time spend sitting around if they make one of the "Caskets"? Hmm, They're going to need a few of these. I remember spending a few hours just sitting with a squad blasting the heck out of red Darwinians, while engineers gathered the souls. By my really bad reckoning, I had at least a thousand. I then proceded to wait until the red Darwinians were reborn as far as they were going to be, then sent the Darwinians through the dish to the launch pad. Big mistake. I should've done it sooner. It took several minutes to get them all through. :laugh: I then commenced just plowing through the spawn points, taking them and killing the red Darwinians. I then decided to throw a grenade at my Darwinians. I killed at least two hundred. I can't even guess at how many would've been toasted if they weren't smart enough to move.

I am really not sure what you are asking, because I am having a hard time parsing your grammar. I can't really figure out what the point of your anecdote is, either. I am not even sure that it has a point, or that you were asking a question.

However, you do seem to want to know when DGs start making kites (they are kites, not caskets... KITES). If a DG comes within a certain distance of a soul, that DG will face the soul and start rocking back and forth in prayer. There is a small chance than an individual DG will make a kite while praying. When you get a large number of DGs around one or more souls, the chance that one or more of them will make a kite goes up. They will start making kites the second they start praying, assuming that they are going to make a kite at all.

That being said, if the DGs are in danger (i.e. there are enemies around, or you lob a 'nade at them), their priorities are to (a) run from fire, then (b) fight back, and finally © partake in Darwinian funerary rituals.

xander

Sorry, my bad. That was kinda unclear.

Souls float off. Do they float off when the kites are made, or do they float off anyway? I think I've seen both.

What the rest of what I said was, I made an army of thousands of Darwinians. I "accidentally" killed hundreds of them with a grenade. There were green souls floating all over the place. I made a really bad joke saying they'd need a lot of those kites.

Souls will float off whether or not there are box kites made for them. Generally, they stick around on the ground for a minute or so, then float off. In levels where there is a global SpawnPointMaster (Biosphere is the only one in the original campaign), souls will begin to rise instantly.

xander

A what?

@g-spark, on Feb 5 2008, 01:40 AM, said in Souls:

A what?

A SpawnPointMaster. I'm sorry -- this probably isn't information that you need, as you are not modding the game. Basically, if a level has a bunch of SpawnPoints in it (as Biosphere does), a SpawnPointMaster can be included in the level to force souls to rise instantly, and to control a couple of other things. Don't worry about it. The take home message is that souls stick around for a while most of the time, but there are occasions when they might take off instantly. In neither case does the construction of kites have anything to do with it.

xander

Right. That makes sense now. Thank you. I also have twenty bucks now so I'm considering checking into if I can buy the game.

@darwinian, on Feb 3 2008, 05:52 PM, said in Souls:

(🆒 fight back,

They fight back? You mean darwinians can fight? I thought this was one of those "the civilians are helpless retards" games.

This post has been edited by Sponge Tom : 06 February 2008 - 10:51 AM

They don't fight until you teach them how, then they're able to get lasers and even grenades. They can actually be a fairly effective fighting force with careful supervision and patience. Remember, it's their world, they want to defend it too.

Build up thousands like I did. Just attack a spawn point with Red Darwinians, then research the stuff under the task bar, give them lasers and watch the shots fly. Unfortuately, they don't do much damage even in large numbers. Large amounts of shots against a big virus won't kill or even damage it. The good thing is, the same thing goes for squaddies, so they're not as bad as I'm making them sound. I just charged in with a few hundred Darwinians, captured a spawn point and they held for hours. They died eventually which made me surge in with my force and totally obliterate the red Darwinians. It was fun.

Against enemies that are vulnerable to lasers (so, basically just virii and centipedes), DGs are pretty much the most effective weapon. There are also ways that you can use Officers to take out Soul Destroyers. 😉

xander

Okay, because so far It's pretty much been a "civvies are helpless" thing, and I didn't know if it was worth buying.

@sponge-tom, on Feb 6 2008, 11:40 PM, said in Souls:

Okay, because so far It's pretty much been a "civvies are helpless" thing, and I didn't know if it was worth buying.

Like other programs that you can run, Darwinians can be upgraded. Once upgraded completely, they have access to lasers and grenades (though I don't think you should let them use the 'nades -- they tend to blow themselves up).

xander

Hehe, they're funny when they're stupid. I really do enjoy the Darwinians throwing around grenades.

Sick mind...

@mrxak, on Feb 7 2008, 11:11 PM, said in Souls:

Hehe, they're funny when they're stupid. I really do enjoy the Darwinians throwing around grenades.

I blew up hundreds of poor Darwinians with a grenade once.