It's SUCH an easy hint to overlook or take for granted even though it's right in front of you every single loop.

Hey, you're the second me!

well, yeah, it found 4

It found someones eyes all right

I mean if he had the coordinates on his bird computer maybe

Maybe the real eye of the universe was the random spaceships we destroyed along the way

@@eatatjoes6149 beat me to it ;-;

My favourite moment in my entire playthrough was when I woke up, blinked once and the quantum moon appears over giants deep, blink the second time and it’s RIGHT OVER ME in timber hearth. I was so shocked that when I scrambled to capture a recording I switched off the program and didn’t get anything 🥲

Shit, man.. That's a good ass point.. Damn

Wow, never thought about the blinking = quantum moon thing. That's a really cool detail

wait, why does it change every loop? Is it because the eye changes position kinda like the quantum moon?

@@alexsimper4153 no, it's because they don't know where the eye is. The plan was to fire the probe, then if it hits the eye send the information back using their time-travel-memory tech. If it doesn't hit the eye, then it fires a different direction and tries again the next loop

Depends on how much it can use gravity assists to change its trajectory in the long run.

Yeah, maybe making the cannon orbit dark bramble would have been smarter although who knows if they had the time to build it anywhere else

Still I find fascinating how this game has such a solid foundation of it's physics and rules that we discuss the same things the nomai could have been discussing

@@santiagosenoran1217 Giant's Deep's massive orbit line helps it gain the most options. They built the cannon on the surface of the planet, using the tornadoes to lift the pieces into orbit. Most of Giants Deep Is just clouds, which wouldn't really obstruct it since it's firing at a million mph every time. And lastly, why the FUCK would they ever wanna go back to Dark Bramble?!

@@DoctorTex that's an amazing answer. I love it

Nomai: "let's mine somewhere else so the hearthian fishies aren't affected" also Nomai: "ORBITAL PROBE GOES BOOM STRAIGHT INTO TIMBER HEARTH"

@@mateo0123 "Protect Hearthians!! Except this one, fuck this hatchling in particular."

Orbital Probe Cannon really said “I’ve had enough of YOU!”

​@@mateo0123 nomaian empathy doesn't extend into hypothetical timelines

God dammit XD

I'm pretty sure that's impossible, the probe always launches in the same predetermined direction on the first loop (the direction in which it finds the Eye).

If i remember correctly, the probe is scripted in the 5-6 first loops. Only then it is random

@@Dan0RG first loop as in the first time it actually loops is what i mean. Technically second loop

I actually didn't know that about the probe. I guess it makes sense since in-universe the Eye is always at the same place at the start of each loop.

@@Dan0RG no, the loop in which it finds the eye isn't one that we actually witness. the initial launch can go in a number of pre-programmed directions, but can't hit timber hearth like the random ones that kick in later.

i jumped in the underwater cave first loop before the statue lol

Unfortunately I'm pretty sure that the first run prior to activating the statue is sorta outside the lore of the game in a way, because the ash twin project which activates the orbital probe cannon can only send information 22 minutes back in time, and yet the ingame timer only starts when you activate the statue, meaning there can be in theory like an hour long gap between the first time the probe cannon fires in a run and the ash twin project activation. I mean that doesn't take away from the game at all and the whole idea is super cool, just sometimes game design has to take precedence over story telling.

You are already stuck in the time loop. The hatchling has done his launch day millions of times. It’s just the finding of the eye which triggers the statues and their conscious continuity between loops.

@@rhyshoward5094 I know how the game is designed. I was talking from an in-world perspective

@@robertbcardoza Yeah, but I meant linked to a statue

How did this happened to you on your first playthrough since in your first playthrough you don't have the launch codes and it takes way more time for you to get them that for the probe to get to T.H. ?

@@tonyj.montana3205 It was during my first full playthrough without knowing anything about the game. Technically I had died a crap ton already so I was able to go up the elevator immediately. I still had probably half of the solar system to explore though, I just knew a bright blue light slammed into my ship at mach 10.

@@tonyj.montana3205 There's a big difference between first playthrough and first loop.

Same! I had NO idea what happened and just sat there dumbfounded.

they would be shocked but it wouldn't matter as 22 mins later they'd all be de3ad and the loop would restart ]

That really would be the darkest timeline

it's just a matter of timing really. the probe just travels from GD's position at the start of the loop to TH in the same time the player takes to ride the elevator. both of those distances are going to be the same, so the only factor is how fast the player is in getting to the elevator.

@@N8crafter Maybe, but on the other hand, given all the possible directions this can happen, it seems strange that it strikes timber earth on this exact specific location

@@LuccDev You could say that about every possible location, though.

@@LuccDev it could hit timber hearth in other locations too in different loops. It’s just coded to pass through all other objects other that the ship.

@@LuccDev it probably happened a lot but you won't notice unless your ship suddenly explodes I think

I mean in universe you wouldn't remember it but it probably happened many times lol, and in term of gameplay I believe the first loop has a fixed trajectory specifically to avoid that

Impossible because the statue was activated in the loop where the eye was found, the first loop we play is the one where the eye is found, we just don’t know it

😂

it's not a flaw though, it's just a failed trajectory. you can still end up shooting behind the planet because gravity can affect trajectory. There might be a few blind spot realistically but then they'd have collected an immense amount of data with only a few blind spot in them which pretty much tell them the few trajectories where the eye has to be so it's not a bust even if that happens. (assuming the sun station worked obviously, which it didn't and that's definitely more of a flaw =p)

I think I saw someone say they somehow died before pairing from fall damage.

I believe they said the ending was different but from what I remember it sounded more or less similar to what happens when the warp core is not in and you die.

@@GeorgeN-ATX Oh yeah, no it is definitely possible. I did it in my first playthrough by jumping into the geyser without knowing fall damage existed, hahaha. It is almost identical to the ending where you disable the warp core and die, except the Kazoo music plays I think. I was just musing that like, dying that way is the only way to not doom the universe. If the hatchling died any other way before pairing, like I did, then the hatchling would continue to die the same way every single loop. But if the way the hatchling died before pairing was getting splatted by the probe, then when the next loop occurred, they would get another chance to get to the observatory since the probe would fire a different direction the next loop.

@@GeorgeN-ATX I explained some other thoughts I had in my other comments. Let me copy and paste them here "Everyone says that the hatchling awoke on the first loop after the probe found the eye, but there could have been any indefinite number of times after that in which the probe killed the Hearthian in between" "I am now thinking about the first time played the game and died before pairing with the statue. I always thought that that reality was doomed since the Hatchling would die the same way every loop and no one would pair with the statue. But now I’m wondering if the probe could hit Timber Hearth in just the right way which causes someone to go near the statue. Probably Hornfels coming down from the observatory to see what the ruckus is about. Imagine that. A whole new reality where Hornfels is the one who has to unravel the mysteries of what’s causing the loop. They probably would get aggregated that the one person they can talk to about it who remembers is Grabro who just does nothing"

Before you go into the loop, the probe is sent to the eye (that's why you can link with the statue)

if physics were rendered better the probe would be affected by the planets gravity fields and curve around them, no blind spots.

@@Bronimin Everyone should definitely check out some 'making of outer wilds' type videos. The developers actually did program in extensive gravity simulation, apparently they even considered programming gravity time dilation (the thing that makes astronauts a few seconds younger than everybody else by the time they're back compared to before they left). Stuff in the game would actually get out of sync and weird if the game ever lasted longer than 22 minutes due to floating point errors and other computer stuff.

@@Bronimin knowing the game that likely happens, its just that the probe is extremely fast

It doesn't have to fire at the exact same time in the orbit. It could fire later on, like when it's halfway around Giant's Deep. Of course, there's no need for it to do this once it's found the Eye, which is the first loop we experience.

​@@GeorgeN-ATXsince the player is programmed as being the center of the universe, if you fly really far away from the solar system, the floating point rounding gets bad enough that the entire solar system will go out of sync before the 22 minutes are up

I mean we know the Probe cannon was calibrated by 2 very… enthusiastic Nomai with little regard for safety.

Yes, it's actually a physical object that exists in the game's world and not just a sparkle in the sky

@@xivit That's not at all what I'm bringing up.

It won't let you remove it from the cave. Main character takes it off when you get in the elevator.

if the ship actually blows up theres no repairing it

you cant steal it

If they managed to parkour into the ship, they could've gotten the regular spacesuit. That's pretty much the only way they could've done anything productive that loop.

@@Dan0RG nah, the suit is connected to the right side thrusters. when the ship blows up all sections, except the rear with the no longer functional computer, get detach from the central body. You would need to find the right section for the suit, no parkour required... probably.

you don't have to have the suit to repair either

Because it was still connected to his own statue once it found the eye, there was no one to deactivate the statue of the probe once it got the location

Extremely oversimplified, Spoilers Nomai build probe cannon, launch into space. Build Ash twin Project, make statues activate when probe finds Eye of the Universe or The project fails. If the statues are active they can then disable the cannon from launching (so it would have technically never launched) Hatchling wakes up, Cannon launches. Finds eye, Activates ATP. No one to stop cannon in next loop so it keeps firing