I think the authors missed some possible (crazier) endings. But.. heck... this is how I tried the final room!

In the final room, when you are thinking about joining Metromind or not...
First idea:
- combine Crispin personality chip with Thanatos virus
Horus: I modified the virus so it injects Crispin personality instead of shutting down the target

- combine ThanatosCrispin virus with Signal Transmitter
- use Signal Transmitter with Scraper

Now Scraper has Crispin personality and every Metromind piece get sliced or burned.

Second idea:
Same as before, but use the ThanatosCrispin virus with radio on the roof.
Every robot in the range of the voice of metropol get (at least partially) the Crispin personality.
The re-organize better, destroy Metromind, and Horus returns to his home in order to avoid to become crazy where you get something similar to the best ending...

What do you think?
;)

I think the problem is, that the Thanatos virus is meant to shut down the target and not to replace the programm of the target with a different one. I don´t think you can reprogramm a virus very fast when someone big and mean puts a gun in your face.

Mad3 is right that the virus didn't quite work that way, but it would've been a great ending to have Scraper-as-Crispin, if only to have Crispin lines delivered in Scraper's voice. :)

Well... if we start asking about "how it can work that way" Primordia becomes plenty of unanswered questions. Starting from the Thanatos virus... What is that? a kind of universal shutdown command? It might worked at the time of the wars, but in the meanwhile no-one noticed such huge security flaw?

Besides actually you get some time in that moment as Metromind told you to take your time.

And finally... It was not meant to be too serious, I know it would be a weird ending compared to the negative and hopeless tone of the game.

??? It's a security flaw of either Metropolitan technology or contemporary strong AI in general, discovered by Urbanians and kept secret until Horus's deployment. So yes, people noticed and used it. And after the war, no one interested in or capable of researching security flaws remained alive on the planet.

There's a single "plot hole" in Primordia. I don't think it's been mentioned on the public internets. I respectfully disagree. I wouldn't know how to go about constructing a more positive story.

Do you mean:
How did Metromind obtain the Virus?

If I remember correctly, the chip with the virus falls out of MM´s remains after crispin crashes into it.

MetroMind downloaded Horatio's data, along with the (encoded) virus. No problem here.

How do Goliath, EFL and Metromind know that Horatio is Horus when even he does not know it?

During the battles they analyzed Horus and see it has a backup droid inside, and now that backup droid is in front of them.
Horatio instead know nothing as its previous version memories are broken.

He's still transmitting his old Urbanian IFF signature.

In terms of the larger point -- unlike Starmaker, who has always been Primordia's most generous critic, I agree with you that "it doesn't work that way!" isn't a great defense of plot elements in a "logic compels it" sense. But having the Thanatos virus work to take over other robots and let you upload new personalities would be problematic from a thematic standpoint: the virus is named for death; the point of the virus, thematically, is the *destructive* power it gave Horus/Horatio. Which is to say, a very specific kind of power that is antithetical to the creative power Horatio worships and tries to cultivate in himself. If the virus worked the way you described, it would undermine that theme. Not sure if I've really articulated that well?

I see your point. As I already said it was meant as joke ending. There is even a simpler explanation: a whole personality can be too big (number-of-bytes wise) to be possibly uploaded with a simple Signal Transmitter.


Still I do not agree completely with your point; the power is not so far off: if you get the power to replace personalities your effectively tampering with others' memories. It means tamper with the very existence of an individual; change it to make as you want disregarding whatever it was before.
It might not kill the body, but after only your looks are preserved. You are a new being, with new view of world, friendships, and beliefs. You original being is essentially dead.

Good points! (This is why my favorite part of having released Primordia is the players' analysis of the game. I learn something about it every day!)