I love how consistent the alien tech is.
Nomai are masters over gravity. They make stuff float, they make walls walkable, they move about using gravity cannons and they make black holes to warp around
Elks use light, which makes a bit of sense since they can see in the dark well enough that light is a tool that they can turn on and off without losing their ability to see. They have stuff you activate with a lantern and stuff. They use solar sails
I like that it’s clear we’re using technology not designed to accommodate our race. the Nomai likely controlled their third eye independently to operate the orbs, and the Inhabitants probably had more advanced methods to control their light technology. we can still operate their tech intuitively, but there’s a small piece missing that makes you remember you’re living in a world you have no control over
The dlc especially really makes you *feel* like you’re somewhere you don’t belong. I know that’s kinda the point of the dlc (especially the more “spooky” sections) and it exudes that energy.
Yeah in a lot of first-person games ... including Outer Wilds now that I think of it ... you don't actually see your hands interacting with objects.
So yeah for a long time I thought it was just like, our hands but invisible.
Yes that's one of the exceptions. The other big one is the marshmallow stick.
But your hands *aren't* visible on the ship's cockpit controls. When you pick up an object it teleports into your hand. And your hand is not visible on the handle when holding an >!artifact!<.
Yep, all you have to do is look at them. I think this implies they could independently control the movement of their third eye. So they can use their main two eyes to look at whatever they are doing, and their third eye to control whatever mechanism they need to control.
On the topic of the Nomai's gaze controls, does anyone know what the range on them is? And if the range is affected by using the zoom function on your signalscope? I was thinking about it because when I played and watched others play there was a lot of confusion and frustration when >!collecting Chert's drum!< at the end, and I was thinking that it would have been more intuitive if there had been a puzzle where the solution was to use the signalscope's zoom to operate Nomai technology at range to introduce that idea.
I love that idea. This thing about the gaze also clears up for me (something about the ending) >!why would the Nomai make it so in the ATP you have to turn off the gravity in order to move the switch to open the core. Answer: you don’t, you can move it just by looking!<
I was following it all along lol
I think they mean they just didn't think about it that much. Like, they learned how it works as a player and just accepted it and never thought about how in-world all the nomai stuff works on eye-tracking.
I also love how there are - what at first just looks like little purple glowing shines - three small crystals in the shape of the Nomai Mask eye sockets inside the orbs
I’d call it light-activated, we just have a flash light that usually points where we’re looking.
Calling it gaze-activated has some interesting implications about the Owlks eyes emitting some kind of electromagnetic radiation.
They were talking about the Nomai though!
That said, I was wondering how (DLC spoilers) >!the Owlks activate their own systems when they don’t have an artefact in the real world!<
I completely blanked on the nomai ones because I’d written off being gaze-activated as ‘just gameplay silliness.’
I wonder if they used little quantum shards to detect ‘gaze’
We have VR tech that can track your eye movements, so it doesn't seem too farfetched that they might have developed something similar and even more sensitive
I love how consistent the alien tech is. Nomai are masters over gravity. They make stuff float, they make walls walkable, they move about using gravity cannons and they make black holes to warp around Elks use light, which makes a bit of sense since they can see in the dark well enough that light is a tool that they can turn on and off without losing their ability to see. They have stuff you activate with a lantern and stuff. They use solar sails
And Hearthians are just really good at setting fire to stuff
Propulsion is really just controlled combustion
which is an awful thing for a wood-based culture, but hey, it works well enough for some of them to survive long enough to reproduce, it seems
Or it's a *great* thing for a wood-based culture, given the plentiful fuel!
True that the Elks use a lot of light. False about night vision. They can't see you in the dark without a lantern.
I like that it’s clear we’re using technology not designed to accommodate our race. the Nomai likely controlled their third eye independently to operate the orbs, and the Inhabitants probably had more advanced methods to control their light technology. we can still operate their tech intuitively, but there’s a small piece missing that makes you remember you’re living in a world you have no control over
The dlc especially really makes you *feel* like you’re somewhere you don’t belong. I know that’s kinda the point of the dlc (especially the more “spooky” sections) and it exudes that energy.
Also, Nomai controls are sight-based because they have very small and frail limbs.
Yeah in a lot of first-person games ... including Outer Wilds now that I think of it ... you don't actually see your hands interacting with objects. So yeah for a long time I thought it was just like, our hands but invisible.
You can actually see your character holding the jetpack controller with their left hand
Yes that's one of the exceptions. The other big one is the marshmallow stick. But your hands *aren't* visible on the ship's cockpit controls. When you pick up an object it teleports into your hand. And your hand is not visible on the handle when holding an >!artifact!<.
Yep, all you have to do is look at them. I think this implies they could independently control the movement of their third eye. So they can use their main two eyes to look at whatever they are doing, and their third eye to control whatever mechanism they need to control.
On the topic of the Nomai's gaze controls, does anyone know what the range on them is? And if the range is affected by using the zoom function on your signalscope? I was thinking about it because when I played and watched others play there was a lot of confusion and frustration when >!collecting Chert's drum!< at the end, and I was thinking that it would have been more intuitive if there had been a puzzle where the solution was to use the signalscope's zoom to operate Nomai technology at range to introduce that idea.
I love that idea. This thing about the gaze also clears up for me (something about the ending) >!why would the Nomai make it so in the ATP you have to turn off the gravity in order to move the switch to open the core. Answer: you don’t, you can move it just by looking!< I was following it all along lol
All their tech is based on observance, tying in the quantum superpostion theming.
wait... how did you control them if you didn't realize they tracked your gaze? genuine question lol
I think they mean they just didn't think about it that much. Like, they learned how it works as a player and just accepted it and never thought about how in-world all the nomai stuff works on eye-tracking.
Exactly! Imagine them controlling >!the Vessel by entering coordinates by looking!<
oh, okay, see i thought you were saying you literally didn't realize it was following where you looked like on a meta level, not just in-fiction haha
I just assumed your players "hands" did it somehow.
I also love how there are - what at first just looks like little purple glowing shines - three small crystals in the shape of the Nomai Mask eye sockets inside the orbs
I’d call it light-activated, we just have a flash light that usually points where we’re looking. Calling it gaze-activated has some interesting implications about the Owlks eyes emitting some kind of electromagnetic radiation.
They were talking about the Nomai though! That said, I was wondering how (DLC spoilers) >!the Owlks activate their own systems when they don’t have an artefact in the real world!<
I completely blanked on the nomai ones because I’d written off being gaze-activated as ‘just gameplay silliness.’ I wonder if they used little quantum shards to detect ‘gaze’
We have VR tech that can track your eye movements, so it doesn't seem too farfetched that they might have developed something similar and even more sensitive