Unhuman Splicers

[Rapture_Tourist]

I wonder if there are splicers, who altered their appearences in ways, which don't look human any more.

So far we have seen splicers which can be described as "ugly people". Are there stronger mutations in the game?

[splicer]

definitley,check out the creepy freak thats got what looks like a lump of tree for a head,glowing red eyes and a huge painted on mouth!

[Hatesink]

I'm wondering what's behind the rabbit mask (maybe a face altered to look like a rabbit).

[v.dog]

I'm curious abvout that myself, and whether the pets of Rapture were used in the war. Ceiling-crawling poodles FTW. :)

[Raveness]

We've already seen different levels of facial deformation, from the extreme contortions of bone & flesh to freakish extremes, to the simple yet effective boils and pussbags that an acne-ridden teen would also display.

This isn't really a question worth bothering over, rather I would like to know if there are any subtle delusions of pulchritude exhibited by said freaks of plasmidic nature, such as one of them discussing their "beauty" in front of a broken mirror. Maybe have a 'Twilight Zone' pigface moment where they believe there beautiful and everyone around them is a hideous monstrosity.

[Rapture_Tourist]

I believe they think their appearance hasn't changed at all. There are plenty screenshots, where normal people appear in photos or advertisements.

If they think, their appearence is ugly, they would have destroyed old pics because of frustration, I guess. They didn't.

Disliking the old ideas of beauty would make them hide old pictures and motives.

We neither saw pictures at the walls, which show splicers as we know them. So they don't realise their new appearance and do not document it.

[nmrahde]

What about the general lifecycle of the mutations/alterations?

Is Rapture at this point doomed to stagnation or can the residents still reproduce and evolve? More interestingly take your average splicer who is by all accounts quite altered...what would her offspring even look like if it's possible?

Personally I'd like it if they weren't sterile and Rapture kept going on it's own like a self-contained uber Galapagos...

[Raveness]

Plasmid genetic alterations becoming hereditary?? That's some pretty strong **** if they can do that.

If they can manage to make a twisted proto-civilization out of it, mayhaps the sequel to Bioshock will be an "Invasion from the deeps" style FPS/RTS hybrid.

[nmrahde]

Well the splicers certainly appear to be far beyond simply unequiping their plasmids, mayhap long enough use actually alters the DNA. It wouldn't have to be anything that serious though it could be as minor as their offspring being born "adam babies" or the like with the same sort of dependancy. I mean who knows what sort of side effects plasmid use (active or passive) have on a pregnancy?

Not quite "Invasion From the Deep" as I don't expect them (the offspring) to be able to redevelop society that quickly. More like an isolated PE2 event. Perhaps you could explore their views on Adam/genetic alterations in general. If they'd been born a splicer or LS or whatever and nobody was left to tell them how things used to be they'd see themselves as normal right? Perhaps different from the people in the ads and photos, but still normal.

That would conceivably setup a whole scenarios where the splicerspawn come to the surface or other locale and start modding people out of curiosity (and can't understand why they're screaming). Which means someone would have to stop them although without anyone to have taught them while growing up they are truly innocent. Oh the moral dilemma in that! (And boy did I stray off topic - sorry folks)

[Hatesink]

It wouldn't surprise me if they weren't still physically capable of unequipping the Plasmids, but just unable to survive without them because of how dependent they are on them due to the ferocity of competition for resources etc.

Plasmid genetic alterations becoming hereditary??I guess that would be dependent on how complete the mutation was. If it changed their DNA throughout every cell of the body then I'm imagining there's no reason why there shouldn't be at least a chance of creating offspring with similar characteristics.

[BioShockWins]

definitley,check out the creepy freak thats got what looks like a lump of tree for a head,glowing red eyes and a huge painted on mouth!

what he said

[BioShockWins]

Plasmid genetic alterations becoming hereditary?? That's some pretty strong **** if they can do that.

If they can manage to make a twisted proto-civilization out of it, mayhaps the sequel to Bioshock will be an "Invasion from the deeps" style FPS/RTS hybrid.

well it is instintanious already... if it can do that its some strong **** by itself

heh... the citizens of rapture escaping... we are in trouble

[Hatesink]

Taxi Cab Confessions takes an interesting new direction.

[ffanxii4ever]

It wouldn't surprise me if they weren't still physically capable of unequipping the Plasmids, but just unable to survive without them because of how dependent they are on them due to the ferocity of competition for resources etc.

I guess that would be dependent on how complete the mutation was. If it changed their DNA throughout every cell of the body then I'm imagining there's no reason why there shouldn't be at least a chance of creating offspring with similar characteristics.

Wouldn't need to be in all their cells, just their reproductive ones so that way functional gametes are made with the spliced DNA
Unless a side-effect of over-use is sterility
And on a side note, if they are splicing to such an extent that they are, I doubt that there would be a terribly large reproductive urge in those that are looking at them

[JoJonathan]

heres a picture of some sort of giant parrasite mixed human I think it is with bioshock since when I looked it up ion images it showed a few of these heres the link
http://www.sme.sk/cdata/1780250/bioshock_03_s_b.jpg

[v.dog]

That's an early piece of concept art, from when the game was about fighting Arctic Nazis.

[nmrahde]

And on a side note, if they are splicing to such an extent that they are, I doubt that there would be a terribly large reproductive urge in those that are looking at them

That's assuming they care about consent. Lots of critters in the animal world only care that they can subdue a prospective mate...(To their credit lots of species also do not condone this.)

Also there's still the whole "Do they see themselves as hideous?" case to consider...

So really it just comes down to A) Are the plasmid-altered able to reproduce and B) what level of alteration/adam saturation transfers to the offspring?

EDIT: It'd be interesting to see it carried to an extreme where the plasmid-altered are eventually able to only interbreed with each other and not the rest of humanity, resulting in their offspring being a separate species - also prolly resulting in that species existence due to a large enough group of individuals to breed with.

[nmrahde]

Anybody heard if it's possible to literally lose your humanity, say from overusing plasmids?

I know there's the whole moral thing of becoming just as much of a tyrant by exploiting the residents, but what about if you were also at risk of becoming just another Splicer?

Maybe just using the Mime plasmids too often turns you more into that sort of critter.

Either way I'd love to see the choices you make in the game take their toll on you physically in the game (IE appearance). Perhaps looking more driven the more ruthless you play... I'm not talking anything as overt as the various Star Wars games just something subtle (The shadow of your character in Jade Empire would be a good example). I think it'd be ironic if to survive I ended up over using plasmids so much that I start looking like Sloth from the Goonies. Possibly allowing for an ending or sequences of mistaken identity (I was thinking original Night of the Living Dead - such a downer)

[Raveness]

While visual appearance alteration in an FPS game is a waste of resources to develop for, considering we were told there are no reflective surfaces to see ourselves in, I like the idea enough to see it represented on the hands, given it could be enhanced upon with hallucinogenic effects (ala Dark Corners of the Earth), and possibly some minor audio monologues of poor person losing his sanity (ala Donovan from Indiana Jones Last Crusade when he drank from the wrong cup), and of course boils, pussy boils ;)

The Star Wars reference is great :D, especially considering some of the franchise games turned your appearance into a Darth Maul wannabe that apparently your friends & party members barely remarked on. “Are you alright :confused: ” “Yes, they will die!….I mean....:)....I’m fine”

[Club Heaven]

Did they say there won't be any reflective surfaces :confused: Jeeesus, we are in 2007 ! Last week I replayed Project Eden, it's about 6 years old and it has reflecting surfaces that make today's games look like a joke.
This is a stupid decision from more than one point of view. They could have also used mirrors to scare the crap out of us, they're one of the most interesting ways to mess with someone's head.

[nmrahde]

I dunno about the boils part. Would altering DNA be able to lead to boils? I was thinking something looking more like tumor under the skin like the zombies from the Von Braun.

Eh..regardless of whichever part of your character is visible, I think there should be cues that something is going on from Adam over-use. I have no idea how it would affect vision. How warped is Splicervision Mr. Levine?

[Raveness]

More important than texture effects on the hands, I would like to see a modicum of hallucinations intended to misdirect the players senses. Such examples could be a Big Daddy berserker all of a sudden charging behind you. As you waste pumping rounds into him, he's about to hit you but dissapears. Bioshock could borrow from American McGee's Alices' illusory trademarks.

Also include some SHODAN whispers like "in-in-insect" or "look at you ha-hacker". Maybe some of her commentary could be included as an easter egg, spoken this time by Ryan: "You're a pathetic socialist sympathiser! A genetically inferior bag of meat and bones, crawling through my halls of Rapture, sweating and panting as you lose your mind!"

[nmrahde]

Would an overuse of Adam cause hallucinations? *shrugs* I dunno.

I was thinking everything could become brighter and brighter and the controls more sensitive. Not enough to make it unplayable though. Basically just considering the possibility that Splicers might be so irritated because their senses are too sensitive...

Mayhap if you start going more Daddy-ish you start getting stronger and slower...

Also include some SHODAN whispers like "in-in-insect" or "look at you ha-hacker". Maybe some of her commentary could be included as an easter egg, spoken this time by Ryan: "You're a pathetic socialist sympathiser! A genetically inferior bag of meat and bones, crawling through my halls of Rapture, sweating and panting as you lose your mind!"

Nice.:cool:

[nmrahde]

You started the hallucinogen comments:p

I was just wondering if that would really be a side effect from over-exposure to Adam.

Hrmm...if it is or can be it'd be interesting to see a Splicer or such that's hallucinating. I have no clue how you would even do that though. While it seems it's getting easier and easier to program super intelligent AI it seems like it's hard to program "dumb" AI that doesn't metagame...

I'm hoping that with the growing popularity of multi-core/thread processors you could have the AI's stuff processed over here and game info processed over here, only giving the AI to a limited amount of data. The complexity of that makes me think Inigo Montoya is going to stab at me with differentials though...

Splicers hallucinating could explain them not realizing their different. Although I think it'd be a more boring explanation than their refusal to admit what they've become.

Hrmm again...I wonder what the world looks like through the eyes of a Little Sister? Do they see corpses as corpses? Or when they harvest Adam do they imagine they're taking candy?

[v.dog]

I was just wondering if that would really be a side effect from over-exposure to Adam.NO.
They had similar effects when you had a mutagen OD in SiN Episode 1, and it was horrible. You do not want to get into a firefight while smashed.Hrmm...if it is or can be it'd be interesting to see a Splicer or such that's hallucinating.They are all mad, would you notice the difference?

[nmrahde]

They had similar effects when you had a mutagen OD in SiN Episode 1, and it was horrible. You do not want to get into a firefight while smashed.They are all mad, would you notice the difference?

I don't want the hallucinogen effects. Raveness started that!

Mad? Quite possibly? Hallucinating? Not so certain. Would you notice the difference? Not if you were running and gunning. Good example of where you might - the demo video that shows you sneaking up on the one Splicer and then turning the security system against her (it ends with you being ambushed by several after you get the disc). What if instead of just talking to herself it looked like her comments were directed at a particular area of space, with either the appropriate pause for the imaginary person's comments, or the Splicer filling in those comments herself.

[K3NNy]

While visual appearance alteration in an FPS game is a waste of resources to develop for, considering we were told there are no reflective surfaces to see ourselves in, . . .

Yea about not having reflective surfaces, last time I checked water was refective, and water is everywhere in this world!! Kind of hard to believe you would see no reflection in water, or is it!! I think the loss of seeing any type of reflection is due to the fact that the main character is in fact a vampire!! Think about it vampires have no reflection, and when your plane crashes it is dark so we don't know if he can live in the sun. He must be a vampire then :eek:!!