Ideas about adding some Narrative to the game?

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Ok, a visual clue that it was a tick. Cool

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Now something else that has been on my mind. We find mentions of a couple of Soviet operations like:

  • Operation Lynx, (FNIX Rising Mission: The Hatches )
  • Fist Viper, (messages War figurines - Makarova’s notes #02 )
  • Operation Red Eye (messages War figurines - Makarova’s notes #02 )
  • The Soviet Landfall (this could be one of the above)

Do any of you have an idea about them and what they entail?

Edit: added sources

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Can you link to where we get these mentions?

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I added the sources where I read these in above post.

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Really?
“Lynx”, maybe from another context, was already mentioned in such an early mission?
I have to look at it


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Morse coded message 


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Oh yes, a “mysterious transscript”.
I didn’t notice that yet, because the word “Lynx” also was translated (for me to german).

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Speculation


First Viper

  • Objective: Secure the town of Hagaboda and gain control over the area despite the relentless attacks from Swedish machines.

Operation Lynx

  • Objective: Deploy ground forces on Swedish soil pending final orders from the Commander in Chief. (landfall).

Operation Red Eye

  • Objective: Capture intact Swedish machines for research and analysis. The operation aims to understand the functionality and vulnerabilities of these machines to potentially gain control over them.
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One or more of these might have been referring to deliberate sabotage by the Soviets, go order for intelligence gathering, preparations for landings, something to do with what might have been an arms deal as a cover-up or distraction for something else, or some other form of misinformation/decoy action.

At several points throughout history, multiple names have been used to describe either nothing at all (pure decoy)—or to refer to the same action, for the purpose of spreading a potentially “listening” enemy’s forces over a wider area, to prevent coordinated interception or counter action. In a work of fiction, it is even harder to tell what is supposed to be “fact” or “fiction” within the fictional work.

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This all stand or falls, with what we infer from the lore. To me it seems that at least most of the Soviet Forces were there to help defeat FNIX, and to prevent the FNIX threat to spread to the Motherland. The lore states this at several places. But indeed it could all be a ruse.

I have seen people stating their believe that the Soviets purposely invaded the Swedish Archipelago. But never provided supporting evidence.

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Not sure.
Operation Red eye is also mentioned in another war figurine, the 2nd in the first row.

While this one and Operation Lynx are called “operation”, First Viper is called “mission”.

In the nesting dolls it’s just spoken about “the mission”.

I believe that Operation Red eye could be the whole operation of the Landfall. First Viper on the other hand could be the mission to go to the bunker to get access to the code of FNIX to delete it.

The intention to reprogram it for their own use seems to be just Makarovas intention by using Bolshakov.
Without having the official orders for it.

I’m currently comparing the german (from ingame) and english (from here War Figurines Notes - Lore (spoiler)) textes and found some discrepancies.

In the german textes a “golden faction” is mentioned and that it is working to get hand on the firebirds, which were just in development by the soviet government while the mission started.
The golden faction wanted to get access to them and send them as support for Makarova without the knowledge of the government.

It’s also written that they mustn’t retreat into motherland without control over the swedish machines, as it would destroy all the work of the golden faction of the past years.
(Makarovas Notes #02)

In the english textes there is nothing about firebirds and the golden faction. Just the word “faction” is there once.

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Yes, and from that I concluded that Operation Red Eye is referring to the research of the workings of the machines.

And it’s mentioned in the mission Death from Above.

A Soviet Computer in a FNIX port
The computer is hacked into Soviet military communications, showing messages from a group calling themselves “The Golden Faction”.
The most recent message reads:
"As requested the first group of Firebird reinforcements have departed from Kabarga Camp. Landfall at the town of Hagaboda is estimated to be within 6 hours. Beacons will be deployed to ensure safer navigation for the main bulk of Firebirds, which are ready to leave as soon as the beacon placement is confirmed.

With these additional resources we expect the town to be retaken and established as a secure base within the week. Operation Red Eye cannot be another failure.
The Golden Faction, Command"

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What part of the lore are you referring to, and what do you mean exactly with “The intention to reprogram it for their own use”? Reprogram to do what?

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That’s the question.
At least to use them for the golden faction.
I’m referring to the intelligence out of Makarovas Notes.

It sounds like the golden faction wants to take control over the soviet government by building an own force. With these forces they could become strong enough to start another war, maybe against the Nato.

At least they have a goal they’re working on to reach for years.

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About the discrepancies: I must have omitted a part of that letter somehow. (Old brain)
I corrected that.

This was missing:

When we left for this mission, the Golden Faction was working to get their hands on the Firebird machines, a machine as of then still being developed by the government. I can only hope that our faction has been successful in gaining I access to this new machine and can send them to support us without the government being the wiser

I will give the order to evacuate Hagaboda, but our mission is still to get these Swedish machines under our control. A retreat back to the Motherland without them would destroy all the work the Golden Faction has done the last couple of years and is not on the table.

The research to override the machines’ code will have to continue in subpar conditions, but maybe researcher Egorov’s theories will serve to hasten our findings, even if the man himself is still not found.

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So now with this information I was missing - I think that Makarova required superior machines to hold their position in Hagaboda and with the support of the Firebirds, though not officially endorsed by the Soviet government. That’s why she was hoping that TGF would find a way to send Firebirds.

At the time of composing the letter, Makarova ordered to evacuate Hagaboda as “The Golden Faction” had not yet provided the Firebirds.

I do not know exactly what the agenda of The Golden Faction (TGF) is. There is too little information, and leaves us with speculation only. It could be true that Bolshakov and Makarova are both members of TGF who are planning to overthrow the Soviet government, but for now we are only sure that Bolshakov had those plans.

But any other insight is very welcome.

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I am looking into the story of the exchange student Kenneth Larsson. He talks about going to the Kilslagen mountains a place where he camped with his Dad and brother Henrik when they were kids.
Do any of you have any idea where they stayed? There aren’t that many options in Kilslagen. I have a rough idea.

Also could this Kenneth be the same Kenneth from the Apple murders? Kenneth Larsson is rather angry about what happened to his family, maybe he lost his mind.

Source

The military was rounding everyone up, so it’s official, everything is just going to shit. First, Henrik and our folks just VANISH from their car, and the police still hasn’t got a clue about where they or all the other abductees are after, what, ten days?
Then two days ago, poor aunt Ingrid gets murdered in her kitchen. And now this?! I’ll be damned if I’m going to huddle in some military shelter waiting for the end. Dad taught us a thing or two during our long hikes when we were kids, I’d rather rely on my own skills and take my chances in the Kilslagen mountains.

Uncle Sven,
I’ve left some of the supplies I don’t need, so feel free to take whatever you need. If you’re reading this, come join me where we used to camp out with Dad when Henrik and I were kids. You know the place
 I hope you and I can find whoever did this to Ingrid


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Man, I missed a lot.

Think I mentioned this before, but I’ll go over it again: The Soviet forces in Ostertorn seem to be divided up into at least two factions, or perhaps more accurately “one faction, separate from all the rest
” The legitimate goal of the Soviet forces was to get access to the FNIX AI and disable it, period, to put an end to the Swedish rogue machine shenanigans. Those guys intending to follow those legitimate orders I’ll call the “moderates”—though I’m labeling them that only in comparison to the “Golden Faction.” Now, that “Golden Faction” I’m going to describe as “Tom Clancy Bad Guy types—ultra-nationalists, seeking power to re-establish the old full-on Communist regime, extremists.” The “Golden Faction” is there NOT to DISABLE the FNIX AI, but to capture it—to steal the technology, the code, to learn or exploit anything they can to add to the “Golden Faction’s” power.

Bolshakov is a key player in the “Golden Faction.” Tereshkova, on the other hand, is not such an extremist, not part of that group—I lump her in with the others, again labeled “moderates” only because they aren’t with the “Golden Faction.” Makarova does indeed seem to be with Bolshakov, but I don’t think she is using Bolshakov. Rather, I think they are two pawns on the same side, used by another bigger player elsewhere. The move to capture the FNIX AI is not just Makarova’s play—it is the “Golden Faction’s” goal, and she is just there as one of their assets to try and get the job done just like Bolshakov. Makarova is probably more expendable than Bolshakov. Makarova and the majority of the Soviet forces are just military power, the muscle, while Bolshakov and his men are the technical expertise, the code monkeys who are needed to get the job of securing the AI done. Lose Bolshakov and his guys, and the “Golden Faction” loses the AI. Lose Makarova, and they just have to send more troops to extract Bolshakov, his remaining forces, and the captive AI.

Pretty sure my English version of the game mentions the “Golden Faction” more than once. Going through all the mission text, the mission items, and the collection items


I think it is clear, or should be, that the Soviets had spies in several positions in Ostertorn, and that they had considerable information about the Swedish machine programs. They had enough info to know where to go looking for secret installations, and not just enough info to FIND those locations but enough to get IN through the front doors on at least one occasion. THEY gave us the keycard that got us into FOA 5’s front door.

But, yes, by and large, the Soviet forces deployed were there purely to help the Swedes, to contain and put a stop to the situation with the rogue AI and machines. For the most part, the regular Soviet troop was just a pawn in a game they had no idea was being played; legitimate power sent them to restore order, illegitimate power sought to use them to secure the AI—more military power, for the “Golden Faction.”

It seems to me that “Operation Red Eye” is the operation to get access to and disable the FNIX AI
but that the “Golden Faction” is instead intending to capture and retrieve the code for it, using the legitimate operation as a cover for their own. The “Golden Faction’s” intent is possibly the source for the other operation title, “Operation Lynx.”

Bolshakov was to get in touch with a spy upon reaching Swedish soil, and was surprised to be contacted by “Red Worm.” Upon meeting “Red Worm” Bolshakov executed him and triggered the first instance of infighting between the Russian Mechanical Units and Tereshkova’s special infantry. Was he instead expecting to be contacted by “Yellow Reindeer” or some other as yet unknown spy?

The Soviet agent known as “Yellow Reindeer” was contacted twice about the operations to come, and in one of those it was expressly called “Operation Lynx.” Not much else is confirmed, so it is possible that our assumptions about “Lynx” and which faction which spy belonged to could be way off, wrong.

“First Viper” seems more likely to have been either the initial proving ground tests for the Soviet Mechanical Units, before their deployment into Ostertorn
or “First Viper” might instead have been the initial landings and beachhead securing once they reached Ostertorn, possibly to include the securing of Hagaboda or maybe just leading up TO the securing of Hagaboda. There IS a wrecked hovercraft AT Hagaboda, so could be that it was part of the initial landings, or it could be that it was a later arrival
 The other Soviets speak of “First Viper” as if it was supposed to prove the functionality of the Mechanical Units, so it was either a test phase or first deployment
 Hard to say which, without more concrete information. Like most everything else, really.

As for my earlier comment about the possibility of sabotage by the Soviets, after looking back more, it is a bit thinner
seems like more observation was going on, information gathering for future plans, rather than outright sabotage.

I do believe that the “Kenneth Larsson” from the exchange student mention is indeed the same Kenneth Larsson from the Growing Tree goofiness. As such, I do believe that “Kenneth” at Averholm Orchard, Growing Tree, is the same Kenneth as that found in the Ringfort, where Veronika is/WAS and where Fredrik (HOLBERG!) shows up.

Looking through all the lore, the same names get thrown around a LOT. While some of it may just be different people with the same name, as is common in some countries more than others, it seems to me that little details here and there do point at the same people pretty often.

As an aside, I hope I’m not the only one who was seriously disappointed in our options regarding Growing Tree. I hate to say it, but that should have been our first human kill. The game’s age rating would take a hit for it, higher restriction maybe, but
seriously, joining growing tree, or just destroying the ritual and having Growing Tree lure machines to kill us? Those were our options? No putting an end to Growing Tree
? Let down!

Perhaps “kill” would be a bit harsh—pfftt
—but at least he should have been taken prisoner, stuck in a cell somewhere, for all that he appears to have done, claimed to have done.

As for where Kenneth went on Kilslagen, I haven’t found anything that seemed to be the place
 May be something up there we haven’t stumbled across, or could be something that got left out—or could be Kenneth cleaned up his camp site VERY well before he moved on.

On the subject of new questions, or ones I haven’t looked back to find answers to perhaps, I have to ask
where all were machine shipments sent from Muskudden, from RO? Specifically, where is Boden? Karlshamn? Farosund? Are these supposed to be locations around the islands
or are they places beyond the islands? Quick searches in reality point to Farosund being on an island, could be the basis for the in-game world
while Boden and Karlshamn are on the mainland. But are there multiple/other locations by these names, that I just didn’t look long enough to find, either in-game or in reality? Could this be a tiny hint that, yes, the rogue machine issue is NOT limited to just the islands, but possibly has spread to the mainland
?

FNIX did a LOT of covert action before the machines were completely unleashed on the populace
a lot of people must have unwittingly delivered hardware all over the place, without any idea of what was going to happen. Evacuation plans changed, fuel cells stashed, poison gas deliveries to different places, containers full of machines delivered all over the place
 Some may have been stored here and there before FNIX seized control, but a lot of stuff had to have been delivered by truck, by sea, or air-dropped/air-lifted between the time FNIX took over and the time the machines were fully unleashed


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True, it was a discrepancy from my side in transcribing the ingame text onto the forum. I somehow missed a whole part where the golden faction was mentioned as well. This is corrected now.

That last bit is an intriguing idea. I look forward to the promised narrative updates, as they should provide us with more information to gain a clearer understanding of the situation on Östertörn.

For now I will adopt this idea “first deployment” Which seems most likely.

In a note in my summary, I asked the question; "Are we invaded by the Soviets?
To which I answered; "Unknown. We’re getting conflicting messages! "

Do you speculate that the Golden Faction, upon overthrowing the Soviet government, might also harbor intentions to utilize the FNIX power to potentially invade Swedish territory in the future?

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Not sure about that
 Let’s see.

  1. Kenneth Larsson
  2. Kenneth at Averholm Orchard
  3. Kenneth at Ringfort (Masskar survivor)

1 & 2 could be the same person (Larsson went mad because losing all his family, blaming everybody)
1 & 3 could be the same person (fits qua age)
2 & 3 presents a problem. There is a Kenneth at the Ringfort and Averholm Orchard at the same time.

Or there are three NPCs called Kenneth.

Ah, that’s interesting, do you think that Fredrik at the Ringfort is Holberg? I know there are snus boxes there, but we can find those all over Östertörn. I thought this might be Fredrik (Freddie) nephew of Uncle calle.
Edit:

But there are more Fredriks in the game.

  • Fredrik
    husband of Marja
  • Fredrik Lindberg
    Brother of Olle Lindberg (Who was in a relationship with Veronika Nilsson)
  • Fredrik Blom
  • Fredrik on HimfjĂ€ll (probably Ringfort Frederik)

Do you have a reason to think this is Holberg?