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[Neiteio]

Which is great, because in the events of Peace Walker (which Skull Face knows all about), the US is fully prepared to launch nukes, and it takes Big Boss himself phoning a guy at NORAD who happens to know him and can verify his identity to tell him that it's a false alarm, and the rest of the people in the room nearly shoot him for trying to stall for time.

Hot Coldman's entire plan hinged on humans being inherently unwilling to push the button, and he was wrong.

That's where the failsafe comes in. The metallic archaea that corrode metal. It's the trigger that allows Skull Face to regulate the use of the gears. A tape explains that if someone actually tries to use it, a message is relayed by satellite to Skull Face and he decides whether it can be used as the client intends. If not, the metal-corroding metallic archaea activate and render the Walker Gear useless. He then dismisses the situation as a bad model and the client is none the wiser.

I imagine it would fall apart if everyone started trying to use their Walker Gears and all realizing they all had "defective" units.

 

[Jombie]

I began ACT 2; to get the "true ending" you have to witness Huey being exiled - in which mission does this take place?

 

[Anung]

1) Without Psycho Mantis there appears to be no way to control Sahelanthropus. But I guess that's why he kept Huey alive as a backup to develop an AI to control it until Psycho Mantis showed up which was quite the risk I suppose.

Yeah, the Mantis aspect of the plan bothers me. I can't remember if this addressed on tapes. But the fact his entire plans hinges on the loyalty of a little psychic child who seems to be doing things out of control without any purpose makes Skullface super dumb. Unless he just assumed that he himself was super revenge man.

 

[danm999]

That's where the failsafe comes in. The metallic archaea that corrode metal. It's the trigger that allows Skull Face to regulate the use of the gears. A tape explains that if someone actually tries to use it, a message is relayed by satellite to Skull Face and he decides whether it can be used as the client intends. If not, the metal-corroding metallic archaea activate and render the Walker Gear useless. He then dismisses the situation as a bad model and the client is none the wiser.

I imagine it would fall apart if everyone started trying to use their Walker Gears and all realizing they all had "defective" units.

Ah that's right there was a kill switch, wasn't there?

Then the risk becomes that everybody realises their nukes are dudes when the crazies try to use them and simply default back to conventional nuclear weapons.

 

[sjay1994]

I began ACT 2; to get the "true ending" you have to witness Huey being exiled - in which mission does this take place?

It kinda just happens. Not sure if its a specified time or something.

 

[BreezyLimbo]

That's where the failsafe comes in. The metallic archaea that corrode metal. It's the trigger that allows Skull Face to regulate the use of the gears. A tape explains that if someone actually tries to use it, a message is relayed by satellite to Skull Face and he decides whether it can be used as the client intends. If not, the metal-corroding metallic archaea activate and render the Walker Gear useless. He then dismisses the situation as a bad model and the client is none the wiser.

I imagine it would fall apart if everyone started trying to use their Walker Gears and all realizing they all had "defective" units.

Oh yeah, he talked about that too. Despite giving everyone nukes, in the end only he would have power in the end anyways.

 

[Berserker976]

They make a point to say the Walker Gears can be mass-manufactured and equipped with a variety of weapons. Slap a railgun on that baby and away you go. Since they're the only "mass market" gears described in the game, when Skull Face says he'll equip everyone with gears so that everyone is a nuclear power, that's the ticket.

Haha, no way. The Walker Gear is waaaaay too small to be capable of equipping a reasonably sized nuclear weapon, let alone a rail gun. I think Skull Face was talking about supplying people with Sahelanthropuses (Sahelanthropi?).

 

[Neiteio]

So I guess the wrinkles in the plan are;

1) Without Psycho Mantis there appears to be no way to control Sahelanthropus. But I guess that's why he kept Huey alive as a backup to develop an AI to control it until Psycho Mantis showed up which was quite the risk I suppose.

2) The baffling targeting of Big Boss as part of this vengeance plan. Was it just that to eliminate an unnecessary X factor from fucking up his plans? Because I'll say it again, the smarter move seems to be to turn on Zero first with Big Boss' help, then eliminate Big Boss once Zero is gone.

3) Someone doesn't get desperate and figure out what Code Talker did and introduces the Wolbachia on a wide scale and sterilise most of the planet.

4) Terrorists or stateless actors or religious fundamentalists don't just launch a nuke anyway (who cares if you believe in an afterlife for instance) and fuck up the plan.

Yeah, the AI pod was the original course of action. Discovering that the Third Child can manipulate Sahelanthropus like a puppet just accelerated Skull Face's plans to unveil it to the world.

Regarding religious terrorists, again, that's why there's the failsafe with the metallic archaea and the remote signal that gives Skull Face final authorization on every nuke fired.

 

[EmCeeGramr]

That's where the failsafe comes in. The metallic archaea that corrode metal. It's the trigger that allows Skull Face to regulate the use of the gears. A tape explains that if someone actually tries to use it, a message is relayed by satellite to Skull Face and he decides whether it can be used as the client intends. If not, the metal-corroding metallic archaea activate and render the Walker Gear useless. He then dismisses the situation as a bad model and the client is none the wiser.

I imagine it would fall apart if everyone started trying to use their Walker Gears and all realizing they all had "defective" units.

I had actually forgotten about the archaea failsafe, but that seems so prone to failure for such a convoluted scheme. What if a satellite breaks or has a bad signal? What if someone notices that there's something clearly defective and replaces the parts, or publicizes it? Would nobody examine this super advanced tech for means to reverse engineer or mass produce it? What if someone steals nuclear material or warheads and equips their Walker Gear with a bomb that doesn't have bacteria DRM on it?

Especially if you're going to kill everyone who speaks English and force the survivors to stop. Multiple nuclear powers would probably collapse overnight and their material would be far less secure.

 

[Haunted]

Your daily reminder that every single trip of Pequod to or from the two major zones takes more than 25 and 20 hours respectively, at top fucking speed.

Which paints Big Boss as the true villain in this game because helis ain't exactly eco-friendly.

 

[Opto]

Wonder what Skull Face would determine as an appropriate thing to nuke.

 

[Neiteio]

Haha, no way. The Walker Gear is waaaaay too small to be capable of equipping a reasonably sized nuclear weapon, let alone a rail gun. I think Skull Face was talking about supplying people with Sahelanthropuses (Sahelanthropi?).

From pg. 361 of the official Piggyback guide, written with Kojima himself overseeing it:

"...he devised a grand plan to permanently rid the world of Zero's influence forever by eliminating the English language, and to plunge the world into chaos by facilitating the proliferation of his Walker Gear nuclear weapons platform."

 

[sjay1994]

Yeah, the Mantis aspect of the plan bothers me. I can't remember if this addressed on tapes. But the fact his entire plans hinges on the loyalty of a little psychic child who seems to be doing things out of control without any purpose makes Skullface super dumb. Unless he just assumed that he himself was super revenge man.

Thats why "such a lust for revenge" is a line. Because he did assume he was the ultra revenge man.

Also, Huey is an idiot who didn't think about making a cockpit a normal pilot could fit in Snufalapagus, so he wanted to put Hal in it, and when Strangelove refused, he locked her in the Mammal Pod.

 

[GodzillaDB]

I began ACT 2; to get the "true ending" you have to witness Huey being exiled - in which mission does this take place?

Just keep playing new side-ops or tackling the reprise missions. You should be called back to Mother Base automatically to witness the scene.

 

[danm999]

Yeah, the AI pod was the original course of action. Discovering that the Third Child can manipulate Sahelanthropus like a puppet just accelerated Skull Face's plans to unveil it to the world.

I guess he was forced to rush things and rely on the Third Child because Big Boss was awake again and he no longer had the luxury of time anymore, whereas the more prudent course would be to have Emmerich finish his AI research as that's the more dependable control mechanism.

 

[EmCeeGramr]

Thats why "such a lust for revenge" is a line. Because he did assume he was the ultra revenge man.

Also, Huey is an idiot who didn't think about making a cockpit a normal pilot could fit in Snufalapagus, so he wanted to put Hal in it, and when Strangelove refused, he locked her in the Mammal Pod.

No, he wanted it to be AI, but couldn't do it right, but then he couldn't make a normal sized cockpit but that would make it too big and heavy (though that seems like an arbitrary limit).


Actually, what would little Hal have done as a test pilot? Was he going to have big plastic Playskool buttons labeled "shoot nuke" and "flame whip"?

 

[Neiteio]

I had actually forgotten about the archaea failsafe, but that seems so prone to failure for such a convoluted scheme. What if a satellite breaks or has a bad signal? What if someone notices that there's something clearly defective and replaces the parts, or publicizes it? Would nobody examine this super advanced tech for means to reverse engineer or mass produce it? What if someone steals nuclear material or warheads and equips their Walker Gear with a bomb that doesn't have bacteria DRM on it?

Especially if you're going to kill everyone who speaks English and force the survivors to stop. Multiple nuclear powers would probably collapse overnight and their material would be far less secure.

I think the bottom line is even if you have a defective unit, you're not going to assume your neighbors don't have working units. The risk of retaliation will still dissuade you from imposing your will on them. And presumably this is being implemented in some way where deconstructing and identifying the "bacteria DRM," as you put it, isn't easy.

 

[Anung]

Thats why "such a lust for revenge" is a line. Because he did assume he was the ultra revenge man.

He became an idiot for such stupid plans as that?

 

[mf.luder]

Is there a complete list of RnD items? My teams are all ~65 and I wonder if there is anything else to research or just keep building MB.

 

[LiK]

Strangelove was a pretty awful character in PW and i guess the way they revealed her death was appropriate. still not sure how Huey got into her pants. i guess it's supposed to mirror the unlikely romance between Naomi and Hal in MGS4

 

[ElFly]

Your daily reminder that every single trip of Pequod to or from the two major zones takes more than 25 and 20 hours respectively, at top fucking speed.

Which paints Big Boss as the true villain in this game because helis ain't exactly eco-friendly.

He is still eco friendly because sending him still saves the gas of sending a whole army to defeat the russians in Afghanistan.

The interesting part is that it puts the average mission in MGSV at three days minimum, which means MGSV takes place at least over 150 days. Maybe 120 if you skip the repeated missions with extra difficulty.

Strangelove was a pretty awful character in PW and i guess the way they revealed her death was appropriate. still not sure how Huey got into her pants.

She wanted a kid, and some psychopaths can be extremely charming when they want to, so maybe Huey just charmed his way in.

 

[Berserker976]

From pg. 361 of the official Piggyback guide, written with Kojima himself overseeing it:

"...he devised a grand plan to permanently rid the world of Zero's influence forever by eliminating the English language, and to plunge the world into chaos by facilitating the proliferation of his Walker Gear nuclear weapons platform."

Wow. That's fucking stupid as hell. If you could equip nuclear weapons on Walker Gears, why would anyone need a Metal Gear?

What's the point of making Rex so huge if you can fire an ICBM from a person-sized robot? Holy shit, that may be the most unbelievable thing in the entire game!

I'm sorry but, did Kojima forget how large nuclear warheads were? How do you make this absurd of an oversight? Nuclear weapons are huge, it's comical to think of one being strapped to such a tiny robot thing.

 

[Dick Justice]

Strangelove was a pretty awful character in PW and i guess the way they revealed her death was appropriate. still not sure how Huey got into her pants. i guess it's supposed to mirror the unlikely romance between Naomi and Hal in MGS4

She just wanted a kid and then to pretend that it was her's and The Boss'. Because her sole defining bit of personality is that she has a giant boner for a dead woman.

 

[BadWolf]

Yeah, the Mantis aspect of the plan bothers me. I can't remember if this addressed on tapes. But the fact his entire plans hinges on the loyalty of a little psychic child who seems to be doing things out of control without any purpose makes Skullface super dumb. Unless he just assumed that he himself was super revenge man.

It was either that or nothing for Skull Face since the tech just wasn't ready at that point in time.

The use of Mantis overall was interesting since it addresses an issue people had with the prequel Metal Gears being so advanced despite the games taking place in the past. So the use of Mantis to justify the functioning of advanced tech was a pretty cool idea imo.

 

[KOMANI]

Strangelove was a pretty awful character in PW and i guess the way they revealed her death was appropriate. still not sure how Huey got into her pants. i guess it's supposed to mirror the unlikely romance between Naomi and Hal in MGS4

Well, playing through the game and listening to the tapes you found out she wanted a child and eventually births Hal.

 

[LiK]

He is still eco friendly because sending him still saves the gas of sending a whole army to defeat the russians in Afghanistan.

The interesting part is that it puts the average mission in MGSV at three days minimum, which means MGSV takes place at least over 150 days. Maybe 120 if you skip the repeated missions with extra difficulty.



She wanted a kid, and some psychopaths can be extremely charming when they want to, so maybe Huey just charmed his way in.

She just wanted a kid and then to pretend that it was her's and The Boss'. Because her sole defining bit of personality is that she has a giant boner for a dead woman.

is that in the tapes? maybe i didn't listen to it yet. that makes sense.

 

[sjay1994]

No, he wanted it to be AI, but couldn't do it right, but then he couldn't make a normal sized cockpit but that would make it too big and heavy (though that seems like an arbitrary limit).


Actually, what would little Hal have done as a test pilot? Was he going to have big plastic Playskool buttons labeled "shoot nuke" and "flame whip"?

My bad.

From what I understand from the tapes, and the story wrapup in the official guide he just wanted to see if he could fit a child in there.

 

[PensOwl]

I think the bottom line is even if you have a defective unit, you're not going to assume your neighbors don't working units. The risk of retaliation will still dissuade you from imposing your will on them. And presumably this is being implemented in some way where deconstructing and identifying the "bacteria DRM," as you put it, isn't easy.

If only Skullface sold nukes to Volgin, then none of this would have ever happened

 

[BreezyLimbo]

Strangelove was a pretty awful character in PW and i guess the way they revealed her death was appropriate. still not sure how Huey got into her pants. i guess it's supposed to mirror the unlikely romance between Naomi and Hal in MGS4

Isn't it a cliche that the asshole always gets the girl? Huey is like the biggest asshole, who's obsessed with Lovejoy. I bet he fed her a line of skull-faced nuke-mobiles and she was all over him.

 

[Neiteio]

Wow. That's fucking stupid as hell. If you could equip nuclear weapons on Walker Gears, why would anyone need a Metal Gear?

What's the point of making Rex so huge if you can fire an ICBM from a person-sized robot? Holy shit, that may be the most unbelievable thing in the entire game!

I'm sorry but, did Kojima forget how large nuclear warheads were? How do you make this absurd of an oversight? Nuclear weapons are huge, it's comical to think of one being strapped to such a tiny robot thing.

To be fair, we don't know how the implementation would work exactly. They might be more like a control module for a full-size railgun than something one can maneuver on a battlefield like Rex. If everyone was aiming such a "gun" at each other, the belief is no one would shoot.

...it's an idea I find problematic in the same way I find gun nuts problematic. But like gun nuts convinced that everyone carrying a gun into church will prevent shootouts, so too is Skull Face convinced nukes for everyone will work.

 

[GodzillaDB]

Is there a complete list of RnD items? My teams are all ~65 and I wonder if there is anything else to research or just keep building MB.

Formatting isn't the most user-friendly, but the dedicated Wikia page should have the answers you're seeking.

 

[Neiteio]

Actually, thinking about it some more, maybe we just never saw what the nuclear variant of the Walker Gear looks like.

 

[ElFly]

No, he wanted it to be AI, but couldn't do it right, but then he couldn't make a normal sized cockpit but that would make it too big and heavy (though that seems like an arbitrary limit).

Actually, what would little Hal have done as a test pilot? Was he going to have big plastic Playskool buttons labeled "shoot nuke" and "flame whip"?

I think he wanted to test whether Metal Gears were safe to ride. AFAIK in PW the Metal Gears had to have a complicated liquid cockpit so the driver wasn't crushed to death by the vibrations or something, and between PW and TPP, Huey figures out how to make a regular cockpit; Hal was just the pilot in one of the trials when, luckily for Hal, his father had solved the problem.

 

[Opto]

Strangelove was a pretty awful character in PW and i guess the way they revealed her death was appropriate. still not sure how Huey got into her pants. i guess it's supposed to mirror the unlikely romance between Naomi and Hal in MGS4

I liked her even though they made her a predatory lesbian towards Cecille and Paz which.. engh... but she was smarter than Huey and showed that the Boss wasn't just a loss to BB

 

[sjay1994]

I am still disappointed that after all the speculation I did with what happened to Chico after GZ, turns out he and Morpho were the only ones who died "in" the chopper.

 

[Anung]

It was either that or nothing for Skull Face since the tech just wasn't ready at that point in time.

The use of Mantis overall was interesting since it addresses an issue people had with the prequel Metal Gears being so advanced despite the games taking place in the past. So the use of Mantis to justify the functioning of advanced tech was a pretty cool idea imo.

I liked the use of Mantis in regards to the Metal Gear as well. Really smart way to deal with that issue.

I felt like he could have used more focus in the plot to make Skullfaces plan a little more cohesive.

 

[Dick Justice]

I liked her even though they made her a predatory lesbian towards Cecille and Paz which.. engh... but she was smarter than Huey and showed that the Boss wasn't just a loss to BB

I'd say that smartness and a boner for The Boss doesn't quite make up for the whole borderline-paedophilia thing (she doesn't know Paz's real age).

 

[LiK]

I am still disappointed that after all the speculation I did with what happened to Chico after GZ, turns out he and Morpho were the only ones who died "in" the chopper.

Paz is actually dead.

 

[Berserker976]

To be fair, we don't know how the implementation would work exactly. They might be more like a control module for a full-size railgun than something one can maneuver on a battlefield like Rex. If everyone was aiming such a "gun" at each other, the belief is no one would shoot.

...it's an idea I find problematic in the same way I find gun nuts problematic. But like gun nuts convinced that everyone carrying a gun into church will prevent shootouts, so too is Skull Face convinced nukes for everyone will work.

Are you sure it doesn't mean that the Walker Gears would be the delivery vehicle for the nuclear material, in that their depleted Uranium armor would be the stuff that gets turned into the weapons themselves? Because the idea of a Walker Gear being any kind of nuclear weapons platform is utterly ridiculous.

 

[ElFly]

Paz is actually dead.

Yeah but she did not die in the copter.

 

[Opto]

I'd say that smartness and a boner for The Boss doesn't quite make up for the whole borderline-paedophilia thing (she doesn't know Paz's real age).

I mean, Big Boss did the same thing so....

 

[sjay1994]

If only Skullface sold nukes to Volgin, then none of this would have ever happened

He was too busy making Big Boss look cool in Snake Eater.

 

[Neiteio]

I'd say that smartness and a boner for The Boss doesn't quite make up for the whole borderline-paedophilia thing (she doesn't know Paz's real age).

Wasn't there also something in GZ tapes where Paz is sick and Kaz basically walks in and drops his pants on her?

 

[LiK]

Yeah but she did not die in the copter.

oh you

 

[BreezyLimbo]

I mean, Big Boss did the same thing so....

What happens in Mother Base, stays in Mother Base...?

 

[Tingle]

Yeah but she did not die in the copter.

Why does it matter if she died in the copter or a few feet off to the side? But yeah I see why you are disappointed in how they handled the copter deaths.

Edit: Ah, got the joke now.

 

[EmCeeGramr]

I think he wanted to test whether Metal Gears were safe to ride. AFAIK in PW the Metal Gears had to have a complicated liquid cockpit so the driver wasn't crushed to death by the vibrations or something, and between PW and TPP, Huey figures out how to make a regular cockpit; Hal was just the pilot in one of the trials when, luckily for Hal, his father had solved the problem.

just put a fucking pumpkin or crash test dummy in there, geeze

 

[ElFly]

Wasn't there also something in GZ tapes where Paz is sick and Kaz basically walks in and drops his pants on her?

Whaaat?

 

[danm999]

I find the English parasite part of this more confusing to be honest. So Skullface was going to eliminate English by unleashing the strain on the world and removing it as a language, doubtless killing hundreds of millions of people.

But why exactly would it have stopped there? Wouldn't it, like the Kikongo strain does on Motherbase, start spreading to people who didn't speak that language? Wouldn't it mutate? And since English is more or less spoken all over the world, wouldn't that just have caused a mass extinction before everybody figured out not to speak English and spread it to non-English speakers?

Or was Skull Face going to go public and announce not to speak English or you'll die? But would people have believed him before the symptoms were widespread and it was already too late to halt things?

 

[Neiteio]

Are you sure it doesn't mean that the Walker Gears would be the delivery vehicle for the nuclear material, in that their depleted Uranium armor would be the stuff that gets turned into the weapons themselves? Because the idea of a Walker Gear being any kind of nuclear weapons platform is utterly ridiculous.

Not sure. They make a point of how Walker Gears can be customized to use any kind of weaponry. They don't make a point about it sharing the depleted uranium armor of Sahelanthropus. I suppose it's possible, but I don't remember their intended use being described that way.

Plus, if the idea is that each client would have to use Walker Gears as walking time bombs, then they wouldn't be very effective since the client would have to infiltrate the target's country to use them.

I definitely think they're intended to deliver an ICBM somehow.