: I think the reason we're on the station is that Hathor destroyed the S'pht,
: and now Durandal couldn't use the S'pht to fight off the Pfhor invasion of
: the Marathon. The problem with this, though, (if it's true) is that
: without the S'pht I truly doubt thngs would have proceeded to that point
: the same way. The Pfhor Empire would probably be quite different, and I
: don't think they would have attacked the Marathon in the same manner.
: While they probably would've at some point, it's a bit much to assume that
: you can just extract the S'pht from the timeline and have things go
: smoothly up until the attack on the Marathon. Then again, this may not be
: true.
The first terminal is also a trove of information. It is a general call to broadcast information about the PiD incident of 96 (I think Blake37's right, it was 94) so that the Pfhor will understand what a release of the trih xeem into Earth's sun could do. This is exactly what the S'pht tried to do at Lh'owon in the Infinity manual, without deterring the Pfhor in the least. There are some interesting points here - this level takes place in a future war between humanity and the Pfhor, humanity is winning the war and the Pfhor are using their "destroy what they can't have" policy. Adam's right about one thing - destroying the S'pht before they're enslaved by the Pfhor would have had a major effect on Pfhor development and things would have gone quite differently for them. I think the point that Forrest is trying to make is that the Pfhor would have attacked the Marathon regardless when they did because it was Durandal that called them there. The presumption then is that although there was no S'pht rebellion that Durandal could exploit, The Pfhor were not nearly as robust and he was still able to defeat them or at least find some means of escape so that he could warn Earth of the impending attack. Without the S'pht, although they had Tycho, the Pfhor lacked the degree of technical sophistication (at least in computers) that we are familiar with and, as a result, their attack on humanity was on more equal terms, so they could not win. I think that all of this is a bit of a stretch, but this is all conjecture after all and this explanation is as valid as any.
: One thing I'd suggest for this level would be seeing Bobs fight against the
: Pfhor, fighting a losing battle and getting massacred. Again I say this
: because it would create an appropriate atmosphere. Even if there's some
: logical reason that the Bobs are already dead (such as the Pfhor have
: already taken the station), I think often gameplay, smoothness, and
: atmosphere are more important than "making sense" at times.
I agree - arriving in the midst of a battle would have been much more interesting. Again, I would like to see a PB in the final room, and a shield recharge might also be nice since the player can take significant damage here.
