Living Machines: The Complex 'Biology' of Horizon Zero Dawn (and Forbidden West)

[@ThoughtPotato]

Note (spoilers!): I may have mistakenly said that the events of the first game begin 300 years after the extinction event--in reality, Aloy comes onto the scene nearly 1,000 years later. Thanks for watching!

[@craftycreeper8738]

you forgot the scavenger class (I would make it it's own class)

[@Lusifeerus]

And the planet was eaten barren. No life prevailed. So all life forms were re-entroduced to earth after the apocalypse

[@GamalJesus]

I'm posting this before seeing the whole vid. But based on the intro you forgot to mention that machines were created as part of the terraforming process governed by a system of AI's to regulate and repopulate the biosphere

[@TomaszDurlej]

Also non living thing survived. All bio-live (humans and smal animals ) are result of artificial re-creation. Combat class was developed as answer to humans hunting machines not "The Signal".

[@HFDLI]

@@GamalJesus fun fact : john gonzales, veteran writer in gaming industry including fallout series involved in this games, you can see his name in the opening scene of hzd and hfw.

[@Its_Me_Romano]

Small correction: absolutely 0 animals survived, it was all thanks to the AI: Artemis he was working on getting the animals species back to life in different stages. But he dissapeared when Gaia blew herself up causing aloy to be born

[@shydreameress264]

In fact Artemis did good. It was supposed to release the animals we see in the games but then after the humans got out of the Eulephia facilties, they were supposed to learn from Apollo so that they could distribute the rest of the animal species we were able to save before the extinction. But due to Apollo being erased, it never happened. Same with a lot of flora.

[@Its_Me_Romano]

@@shydreameress264 ohh, so that's the reason why artemis disappeared? Because his work was done?

[@cornucopia887]

@@Its_Me_Romano Kind of. The reason Artemis disappeared is the same as all the sub-functions: Gaia blew up and they needed a new storage medium to escape to. Idk if you’ve played Forbidden West so I don’t want to accidentally spoil it, but basically Artemis is still out there. The most difficult part of Artemis’ work is complete, as it reintroduced the level 1 species necessary for the biosphere to start functioning. Once the Cradle facility humans learned from Apollo, they were supposed to work with Artemis to reintroduce many more diverse species together. There’s still a lot of work for it to do, but it’s currently on hold until humans can learn how the terraforming system works.

[@Its_Me_Romano]

@@cornucopia887 I'm near the very end and still hope to find artemis I wanna bring back elephants lol

[@banhbae]

@@Its_Me_Romano not really? ARTEMIS escaped somewhere like the remaining subfunctions, because GAIA had to blow herself up. trying not to spoil anything because i don't know how far you are into the second game, but its job technically isn't finished yet. ARTEMIS got through phase 1, which was to introduce all the smaller wildlife. the new humans from the cradle facilities, trained by APOLLO, were supposed to take over the terraforming systems and give ARTEMIS instructions to introduce the rest of the species they had in storage. as we all know, they were never trained because APOLLO wasn't there, so ARTEMIS's job is still in some kind of limbo since there's no one to give it instructions to proceed through the next phases. Project Zero Dawn was focused on laying the groundwork so humans could finish restoring the Earth themselves, so the higher phases of the subfunctions were reliant on humans controlling them.

[@kyubbiman2255]

Just want to point out that you skipped over plowhorns which sow seeds and fertilize the soil so that plants can grow which is essential to the terraforming process

[@ThoughtPotato]

Wish I could have covered them all! Maybe someday I'll have to do a part two...

[@kyubbiman2255]

@@ThoughtPotato That's fair

[@henrymugello3387]

I think you can find them in the Utaru home settlement.

[@theschnoozler465]

@@ThoughtPotato please do a part 2 pretty please? :>>>

[@TheCorrodedMan]

They can also sing beautifully

[@nicholas8237]

I've always been kind of interested in this game, but the speculative robo biology and the world building has sold me

[@ThoughtPotato]

Good! It’s also a ton of fun, which helps 😆

[@awahpahpow7735]

Dude.... the story.. is absolutely stunning... I've cried ok several occasions.

[@katienichole6905]

Oh those final lines of Elizabet's at the end of zero dawn make me tear up to even THINK about.

[@williamjackson8782]

@@awahpahpow7735 same… after GEMENI

[@thesephiam]

This is truly an amazing series games. It’s a damn shame it’s not getting as much attention as it is deserves. But alas, elden ring is everywhere.

[@Bingus501]

I love the design for the watcher with the knowledge of their purpose as they literally only have an eye and long neck on fast legs, and literally just exist to watch over herds and be expendable and almost always just run at the player not run away like herds

[@Gobershmat]

There’s something more in the long neck, it’s quite slim and just has two small legs, so the back tail 1, sways to keep it balanced, and 2, acts as a counterweight for its heavy eye.

[@Bingus501]

@@Gobershmat ye, that’s what I was on about but you went into better detail as I was trying to say how perfectly they were designed for the purpose they fulfill and are so small and insignificant in comparison that they don’t need weapons or any form of attack so that’s why they just kick you and use the lens as a flash bang

[@Gobershmat]

@@Bingus501 I love how intelligently they are all designed, they all have a purpose and work for it, and every little detail has a reason. A watcher just needs to watch and alert, and a scavenger just needs to scavenge, but are now using their single purposes for combat after the derangement.

[@TheFallinhalo]

its behaviour in running at and attacking the player or any percieved threat for that matter, likely isnt even to neautralise the threat but more so buy time for the herb to safely get away by pre occupying the target. which is smart and likely why its also there, there small and likely very easy to make by Hephaestus, so their easily exspendable, their only job in that period, is to Watch, Warn and distract for the herds safety, not as a actual protector, that is reserved for its combat built companions. thats why they dont have any actual weapons, their not built for anything besides scouting, and distracting, if not sending a signal to the tallnecks to likely send in more combat focused machines. (assuming machines only communication with others over a distance is via tallnecks) which is why we see them running at you at first sign of trouble for the herd, and using their eyes to blind you, its all to it so yyou cant persue the herd. cant persue something you cant see, and cant run for it if youre likely to be kicke din the back of the head.

[@Gobershmat]

Wild Widemaws have really cool programming, they go back and forth in and out of water in a sowing pattern, gathering fertile silt from rivers, sowing it into the shore, and planting seeds and fertilizer. I love the way they move.

[@wolfyframe]

When i become a robotic engineer i want to build robots that clean the enviroment like Horizon.

[@ThoughtPotato]

Now this I look forward to seeing!

[@wolfyframe]

@@ThoughtPotato 👍

[@Scarface-hv6zl]

I had the same dream once

[@wolfyframe]

@@Scarface-hv6zl and what happened did you make It?

[@bugjams]

Your best interest would be to mimick insects then. The further back on the food chain you go, the better the chances. Large mammals and reptiles don't do much for the environment besides live in it. Although they're certainly necessary for a healthy ecosystem, plants and insects are even more vital. "Robotic plants" wouldn't really be robots, they'd just be machines that use solar energy and filter carbon dioxide. Robotic insects, however, would be far more interesting and would be able to repair ecosystems very efficiently. The only downside is that robot bugs couldn't be eaten by larger animals, and so insects that benefit the ecosystem by acting as a food source would be of little use.

[@nielsjensen4185]

Ted Faro was brilliant the same way Edison and Elon Musk are. Sure they could and can do things of their own, however, they were best at taking credit for other people's work. Ted Faro is an amalgamation of all the tech bros that people think are the best thing after sliced bread.

[@whim_si_cal5926]

ted faro was a genius who also ended the world, i love and hate him :D

[@whim_si_cal5926]

i mean, like, not completely him, but almost completely him

[@CharliMorganMusic]

I think any post-apoclypse should probably be green, given enough time. I genuinely don't think we're capable of destroying a planet...yet.

[@ThoughtPotato]

I think that’s a very good point

[@eaglewolfzen]

Given how long uranium's half life is, contaminating the surface with sufficient amounts will not subduct in time before drastic changes occur in the life cycle of the sun. Not WW3 as just some major extinction event, but we're at the point we could make a concerted effort to commit suicide and so to speak, salt the earth forever and take it with us if we really wanted to.

[@vanifarron]

Yea nature will always find a way to grow back

[@TheCorrodedMan]

Nah, we’re fully capable of it, we’re just reluctant to actually do it because it would fuck over _everything,_ not just humanity.

[@robgraham5697]

Makes think of Ian Malcolm in 'Jurassic Park'. _____ "No. You don't understand. The planet is not in danger. WE are in danger. We don't have the power to destroy life on this planet. We don't have the power to save it either. We might have the power to save ourselves." _____ Although, personally, I'm beginning to doubt that.

[@ppenmudera4687]

Horizon Zero Dawn: 'the Thunderjaw is the apex of the world!' Horizon Forbidden West: *cries in Slaughterspine*

[@dirtytowel6741]

I love the thought that the guy that found out about the bumps on whales had the last name "Fish"

[@VoodooMcVee]

Yes, Dr. Fish, whale-expert 😁

[@Its_Me_Romano]

Whales are mammals tho

[@henrymugello3387]

@@Its_Me_Romano He's talking about the person.

[@blacklion6674]

In the sawtooth segment, it was true that smilodon was thought that it avoided direct contact with their fangs on bone and had a weak bite force, however, it has been proven in La Brea asphalt seeps in Los Angeles, 2019 that a smilodon fatalis had fought another smilodon fatalis, and it bore a huge hole in the roof of skull that only could have been caused by the opposing feline, indicating that smilodon was more than able to pierce bone, and a sawtooth would’ve likely been able to crush and tear at the same time

[@gameinsane4718]

Jaguars TODAY bite through their prey’s skulls. Smilodon doing it isn’t exactly far-fetched

[@henrymugello3387]

@@gameinsane4718 What about cheetahs? Since they don't have the strongest bite force.

[@blacklion6674]

@@henrymugello3387 cheetahs are completely different from almost all of the big cats, as their faces are shorter, and don’t possess long canines either and are so weak that some cheetahs struggle to pierce the throat of some prey even if the animal was in their grasp

[@henrymugello3387]

@@blacklion6674 Okay good to know.

[@AlRoderick]

Still think that the Thunderjaws should have had little t.rex arms. Holding a glock.

[@scruffmaster0185]

Specifically a Glock 😂

[@shydreameress264]

Like it doesn't have enough firepower xD

[@henrymugello3387]

Dainty little arms.

[@windebiesteultima3317]

Can you imagine if you disabled all of its weapons and it just pulls the Glock out as a last resort 😂

[@tunabodrumlu9745]

I remember when the game was first introduced, everybody expected a weak story. But God damn it, they pulled it off in a great way and created a whole new ecosystem!

[@drointhewind480]

Indeed, i would love for them to expand the ip. A show about the first people out of the vaults. A movie about the last days of humanity, could be a 300 type movie. The lore is brilliant

[@justwatch7091]

Honestly, I would say story is weak. The lore is what is next level.

[@richiestyles5143]

I always thought of the Tallneck as resembling a giraffe. It's body is slanted, exactly like a giraffe.

[@springtrap105]

Man i really appreciated the effort that went into this games and it's unique design and world but i never thought it was this deep

[@henrymugello3387]

You can read the lore of the games.

[@spacedout4061]

Its even deeper, they definitely skipped a bunch of interesting lore

[@Danarogon]

8:29 that vehicle was never produced because it was inherently unstable. Aerodynamics are different from hydrodynamics, a small side breeze was enough to topple the whole car. It is not enough to mimic nature, you must also know WHAT to mimic.

[@erob9446]

Really cool to see Robots Adapting and Evolving like living Organisms to the point they are considered living organisms

[@mathewlombardo3876]

I think the most amazing fact is that hephaestus designed all of these robots WITHOUT the archive of existing animal species, due to the deletion of apollo's data. The machine designs we see basically come to be thanks to evolutionary niches. Even though the form of an alligator/crocodile wasn't known to hephaestus, the snapmaw still came to be - very similar to the animal its design is inspired by. This can be applied to so many more, like how the stealth based combat machine (stalkers) came to resemble cats, who are expert ambush predators... or that the satellite and comes based machine (tall necks) resemble giraffes whose necks can get a stronger signal at proper heights. Horizon's machine catalogue is basically an ad for revolutionary distinction. Its amazing to think that these robot designs came to be solely out of a need to fill a specific role in the most efficient possible way. Kinda cool, then, that most of the combat machines also resemble dinosaurs(trex, spinosaur, titanoboa), or modern day apex predators(bears), and massive herbivores (elephants, rhinos).

[@deadbringer1238]

Hepheustus is just the AI responsible for constructing the cauldrons and producing the machines. It might assist in the design but it is mostly GAIA's job to make them. The presentation given by Sobeck says that GAIA concieves the machines kzbin.info/www/bejne/nZvTlYhnh5J_hpY and I believe in one of the dialogues you can find between GAIA and Sobeck they talk about it, GAIA mentions how she is basing her designs on animals in honor of something I cant remember. If we are to assume that it is fully intended that they show the animalistic forms in the presentation and it wasn't laziness then Sobeck knew that they would be animal based before they even got close to finishing the subordinate AIs

[@The_Jovian]

@@deadbringer1238 Hephaestus would have started designing machines itself after the derangement

[@darthpapa696]

All basic animal database were provided by Artemis.

[@unclemiguel4221]

imagine how scary it would be if the robots eventually got to hominid form

[@henrymugello3387]

VERY scary in fact cause they would be like the Far Zeniths or the humans in the old world.

[@JohnZeeX]

Well, considering how Forbidden West went, and the nature of the threat coming in the third game, I don’t think that idea is too far fetched. Think about what Tilda said about Nemesis. I think if Nemesis and Hephaestus get together, Thunderjaws and Dreadwings will become obsolete as top-level threats.

[@FriendlyOne_]

I think you are a bit wrong. The signal didn't cause the machines to become aggressive. The signal made all subfunctions of Gaia self aware and only care about the task that they're designed to do, including the subfunction that was responsible for machine building, it saw that humans were scrapping bots for parts so it made bots hostile, and made human hunting bots, because for it restoring ecosystem with bot's help was more important than humans' life

[@Davish_Royale]

Just want to point out that the human race has been restarted like 5 times since the Faro Plague which happened over 1000 years before the first game. Hades mentions this in Forbidden West. It's probably the reason why the actual animals are basic while the machines are evolved. It is also probably why no one really knows anything about the past aside from what they speculate on until Nemesis woke Hades up again unscheduled and got people using the focus.

[@Circadian_Wolf]

Actually humanity has only been resurrected once, the purpose of Hades was to destroy non/sub functional biospheres. The reseeding of life and humanity only occurred when a successful biosphere was created.

[@annawojcik2731]

No, there were only enough embryos for Gaia to release humans once. Hades purpose was to reset things before humans were released. He did this 4 times correctly, and the 5th was the only time with humans on earth.

[@theprecisioncreator6208]

This video is amazing and represents the great ideas from the Horizon series and my insprition for my Lego Horizon Machine line! The joy of making these machines is that there both natural and technical are. Thank you for putting this video togother!

[@Lumberjack_king]

8:37 his name is hilariously fitting

[@truthseeker7815]

I have always been interested in speculative biology, but speculative bio-like technology? Real shit PD: I have realised this channel has a lot of videos about speculative biology, I wanna cry

[@treyhippensteal921]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the I think the combat machine were designed to protect other machines from the human who were hunting them, and then Hephaestus got corrupted like Hades or became somewhat sentient (I forget which) as explained in the Frozen Wilds DLC. Being less of Bounty Hunter for the Zeniths and more of Bodyguards for other machines.

[@Its_Me_Romano]

You are correct

[@shydreameress264]

The combat machines were created by Hephaestus when he became sentient. Before there was no need to protect the machines as they weren't supposed to be attacked by humans. Humans attack the machines because of their ignorance, Gaia had to make them more defensive, so they would start to run away if the humans came too close. But then, Hephaestus became sentient, the humans were still killing the machines, so to protect them he made them increasingly more aggressive, until he started creating new machines especially made to kill humans.

[@henrymugello3387]

You are right, the combat machines where actually to combat the new humans hunting the machines for resources. You can actually see them patrolling in machine sites in the games.

[@DrBrangar]

"When people envision the post-apocalypse..." Well, Horizon is set post-post-apocalypse, the post-apocalypse is the time between the Faro plague finally running out of fuel/having their security cracked, and GAIA rebooting the biosphere, populated by the people in Elysium, The Odyssey, and any other yet-discovered equivalents.

[@lulucanpy3513]

This is a very cool video and I appreciate the research you put into it! I also really like that your Patreon subscribers get a more thorough video - very good idea. Also, I had no idea that the machines in game get more thorough armour the more you kill them!

[@ThoughtPotato]

Thanks so much! I appreciate that thoughtful comment :)

[@henrymugello3387]

The machines that got armor are colored black have more health.

[@lulucanpy3513]

@@henrymugello3387 Are those not Apex machines?

[@henrymugello3387]

@@lulucanpy3513 No they are not. The apex machines are colored black, you can find them in the forbidden west.

[@bugjams]

I know the game needs big flashy robots to excite the audience, but it seems pretty unrealistic that we could terraform the planet from a post-apocalyptic state without bug-like robots or nanomachines. Insects are one of the most powerful terraforming powers nature has next to plants, wind, and rain. You'd think they would've engineered tiny robo-bugs to clean up pollution, fertilize plants, and dig up the ground to make it suitable for plant life. But again, I see why they would've opted out of the more realistic solution in favor of a what we got. The giant animal robots are super cool and I'm glad they exist as a concept.

[@ThoughtPotato]

That's a really, really good point. I completely agree.

[@epRivera]

Maybe they'll add some in a 3rd game? I doubt it, but they could so the game is more realistic

[@henrymugello3387]

Well last time, the nanomachines where used for the biomass conversion of the chariot machines.

[@Davish_Royale]

Demeter has bug like robots but it went nuts until Aloy figured out how to fix it. The metal flowers are the key to plant life returning and terraforming as well.

[@henrymugello3387]

@@Davish_Royale Wait, what's the metal flowers purpose again?

[@jordanread5829]

One aspect I like is how we have some machines that are listed as one class but realistically serve another. The Frostclaw and Fireclaw machines are an example of this. While listed as an acquisition class, their primary function as intended by HEPHAESTUS was to be hunter killers. I.e. Combat class. Then we have the Stormbird. It is listed as a combat machine but its original purpose was to be used by AETHER to detoxify and restore the Earths atmosphere. As it was one of the two examples of machines Elisabet showcased in her Zero Dawn presentation. The other being the snapmaw to be used for POSEIDON in a similar manner, just replace air and water.

[@valdarakk]

You have brought up a very interesting idea, and put it to fruition. Thank you for making it! You have a very calm and easy to listen to voice! I recently started to play this game, and honestly I should have not watched this, because now I am scared of what I will face later.

[@ThoughtPotato]

Wow, thank you! That was very kind. But don't be afraid, it stays interesting the whole time!

[@nargapishxps2]

Bat sucked

[@katienichole6905]

Finding your first Thunderjaw is always an experience.

[@valdarakk]

@@katienichole6905 Hmm..I think I don't want to know what that is lol

[@henrymugello3387]

That's all right, just watch out for a machine that can dig underground.

[@gerardbeukes3929]

This is such an interesting and well put-together vid!

[@cliffsangelsphotography]

It would be nice to see a short clip of the battles of Enduring Victory. I want to see a Horus in action.

[@ThoughtPotato]

I 100% agree.

[@solomon4554]

I'd pay anything to see a clip of the battle described in the datapoint "Did We Just Bomb Yosemite?"

[@eggseed6543]

i want anyone to convince me how having robots as animals is a bad idea

[@UltimatePowerGaming]

23:56 cant unsee those danga langa no no logangass

[@krimsonkingdom]

Horizon is my favorite game series and this video is just amazing

[@mrmosty5167]

Very informative and amazing video! I actually never knew what Watchers were supposed to be but when I started Forbidden West I instantly got ferret vibes from the Burrowers so meerkats definitely make sense

[@andrewjazdzyk1215]

Hey I've also had an idea like this, take video games and use them to teach ecology. Issue is that I'm not sure if I have time. If you ever want a guest I do have a B.S in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology - with a focus on aquatics. Working on getting a Masters project.

[@ThoughtPotato]

I'm not 100% if I'll be doing more video game videos, but feel free to send me an email via the link on my channel page!

[@andrewjazdzyk1215]

@@ThoughtPotato you got it!

[@nolansheridan196]

So weirdly enough, i teach middle school science, and absolutely talk about this game with my students. I love to give "show me this in your real life" homework assignments for each unit we do, and i noticed two years ago that many of my gamer kiddos were mentioning this game, specifically when we talked about scavengers. So, this year when they had me teach fourth grade and we did our plant an animal parts unit, i had my kids watch gameplay of horizon to see the "guts" of what's going on inside organisms. These are excellent models for studying animal anatomy and physiology 🥰

[@ayushdwivedi2655]

You are awesome​@@nolansheridan196

[@markgonzales]

This was excellent. It was exactly what I was looking for to answer questions I had about the various machines in the game. Really well done.

[@ThoughtPotato]

That is great to hear, thanks so much!

[@mathieuleader8601]

these technorganic lifeforms are so interesting

[@henrymugello3387]

And so well designed also.

[@Greatduck777]

I wasn’t originally interested in this kind of stuff for the game, until I took down a machine and a scrapper came in and started grinding it, and it was surprising to me, and it was really crazy to see.

[@MrCOLBSTAH]

Do you think we could ever use cloned cells to create bio machines? Or machines with organic components like muscles or geko feet?

[@justwait9822]

We already use cloned cells to create bio machines. If we want a large quantity of a certain protein we make a plasmid and insert the dna sequence that will encode for the protein. We then transfect it into bacteria cells and grow up the bacteria and then purify the protein from the bacteria. The bacteria act as factories and they are clones because we select from a single colony. (This actually isnt some crazy complicated process either, it's a basic molecular biology technique) Machines with organic parts is kinda pointless. It introduces failure points (ie machines dont get infections and muscles cant generate the contraction force that we can get with something like hydraulic pressure).

[@MrCOLBSTAH]

@@justwait9822 yeah that is a good point. I guess I was thinking it would help against the microchip problem as well as shortages of metals and if nature has produced something that we can't quite replicate yet like gecko feet. Or like plant-based electronics that can be grown versus having to build tons of smartphones and use gold and other things like that when you could just grow something. Or the human brain? I don't know. Just an interesting concept and wow thanks for a super detailed answer!

[@henrymugello3387]

Mechanical machines cause they can be replaceable and easily reconstruct it back.

[@emperorpalpatine5559]

You said 300 years after a global extinction, but I recall it being roughly a millennia. Unless you’re talking about (spoilers below) The last time Hades protocol activated

[@ThoughtPotato]

That is closer to what I was referring to, but I could also have gotten the timeline mixed up 🤷

[@kellmalleus5825]

@@ThoughtPotato Yeah, no harm done though. It was the third cycle of HADES activating, so given a constant rate of failure, a millennium passing makes far more sense than 300 years.

[@metoo3342]

The game takes place in the 31st century

[@henrymugello3387]

It's in the pinned comment.

[@ioannist.6013]

Loved the video but the thunderjaw lost it's to the slaughterspine

[@henrymugello3387]

The Thunderjaw is still the O.G. machine.

[@miserablebrian]

This is a seriously great video man. Really really good job.

[@ThoughtPotato]

Thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed it :)

[@Long_May_They_Raine]

Two years too late, but I can in fact confirm the Manta mask is the best sleep mask I’ve ever used, ESPECIALLY as a side sleeper.

[@cryb0rg]

Shout out to Dr. Fish for doing what he was born to do

[@Its_Me_Romano]

Whales are marine mammals tho

[@bugjams]

@@Its_Me_Romano He's a marine biologist, I'm sure he studies more than just whales. Still a close enough name and a funny coincidence

[@henrymugello3387]

Full respect to him.

[@henrymugello3387]

@@Its_Me_Romano He's talking about the person.

[@e.l.studios455]

why was the thumbnail terrifying to me?

[@kennypseudo3541]

I love love love these biology videos, and I'd have loved to play Horizon zero dawn but I am terrified of baboons and mandrills so I will be avoiding it! One small note is that large animals do not shake the earth when they walk, that would be catastrophic, and elephants (who are quite large) actually move really quietly! The soil and grass rlly absorbs and muffles large steps, so the only time you'd get shaking is if they were running on smth hard and frail like concrete or bitumen :3 I don't think ecologically ai and robots can ever truly replace nature as there's so many niches and specifics that only l nature knows how to handle, machines aren't as smart as evolution. After some time, too, if there's an atmosphere and bacteria, you'll have life start to reform again like in the precambian- eventually they'd evolve to prey on machines, or perhaps the machines would no longer be produced as their role has come to an end in the reforming of earth... Plus the most important animals are p much insects, can't have thriving ecosystems without them tbh

[@aedanranson1092]

only forbidden west has the mandril robots. the first game, zero dawn, is completely baboon/mandril robot free. you should give it a shot!

[@spacedout4061]

Note, im sure this us a fantastic video otherwise but there are no "survivors" in either game on earth. Technically the zeniths are survivors, but everyone on earth died and once earth was made perfect by the gaea and hades cycle humans were artificially re introduced

[@eliasharland7500]

one of the best game I have played in a long while

[@Rodan727]

Imagine if the machines were Cybertronian

[@ordinalgaming102]

tall necks in the polish version of horizone zero dawn are named giraf litterly

[@ThoughtPotato]

Ha, well that makes sense

[@henrymugello3387]

That's interesting.

[@LuDux]

It's important to look stylish then boss catches you napping at work

[@BlackReshiram]

i loved this game so much; much like how im fascinated by hiveminds, the idea of living machines that act think fight and flee like biological lifeforms living in relative harmony with biological lifeforms interacting with eachother in relatively accurate ways is just as fascinating to me and actually influences several machine species in an alien machine hivemind in a scifi story im writing! biology and things influenced and inspired by it are one of my hyperfixations, right alongside astrophyics, genetics and paleontology so i love watching these videos as well for inspiration and research- all in all i can say fantastic job on this video!

[@rileygalehouse9037]

fun fact it's actually thought now that the smilodon had lips that covered their teeth similar to the clouded leopard!!

[@maukki222]

Correction. The games takes place around a thousand years in the future, not three hundred

[@henrymugello3387]

It's in the pinned comment.

[@benjamindeklerk5938]

Sir, thank you for putting timestamps in this video

[@ThoughtPotato]

You're quite welcome

[@wild_skelly_ph]

That galopping robot is kind of adorable in a weird way isn't it?

[@bugtalk84]

Let's hope that Earth doesn't end up like Horizon.

[@henrymugello3387]

Yeah we should take care of the environment before it's too late.

[@manspider4323]

Tall necks are so cool. Favourite robot

[@strauss7151]

So glad I found this channel.

[@chiptheftgulll]

27:35 thats an allosaurus.

[@summersol5]

So soft spoken. Had to speed the video up to keep focused. I'd suggest 1.25 or 1.5 for comfortable listening.

[@F2t0ny]

Awesome vid!

[@mathieuleader8601]

I feel like Trevor Henderson's Sirenhead could be a biomechanical form of life in this timeline

[@henrymugello3387]

That would be interesting.

[@purplehaze2358]

I'm confused by something here. If all life on the planet was consumed and humans were the only species Gaia replicated, where the heck did the boars and other small organic animals we see come from?

[@aedanranson1092]

artemis

[@denzy3929]

i always thought, lancehorns looked and behaved more like antilopes

[@moonwatcher4047]

Absolutely fascinating.

[@ldti]

Hi. I would recommend reading Ventus, by Karl Schroeder. Would be interesting what you can produce from that world..

[@ThoughtPotato]

I’m definitely going to check that out

[@ldti]

@@ThoughtPotato enjoy. There's also a kind of prequel, called Lady of Mazes.

[@capoeirastronaut]

The US programme to create quadraped robots to carry supplies, was ended because - ponies and mules are so good!

[@PirateTVProductions]

Spoiler on the forbidden west With Aloy in possession of the base/ control center, and artemis, there are a lot of animal species still in storage ready to be repopulated

[@itsjack237]

Spoiler warning Yess thank you for bringing it up, since the base is situated near the auto farming area Demeter has a huge vault of seeds that weren't accessed due to the Apollo database being deleted I just hope we get some sort of rehabilitation system in the next game to try and undo the spore infection

[@shydreameress264]

Yes but first it will take years and years and most probably centuries to teach the humans of her era about all this. They can't just release all the other animals without teaching everyone about it. And also they'll have to tell the everyone to stop killing the robots, as they won't be offensive anymore at some point.

[@henrymugello3387]

Where can you find it?

[@mistingwolf]

I was gonna say, I just got to the place where the game has told us that the bunker has been running for 944.4 years. But I saw the correction below. XD

[@Lumberjack_king]

5:09 one of the biggest mistakes pharaoh ever made tied with the termination of Apollo

[@RedPandaGod01]

Camals also walk moving both feet on one side at a time, it's not unique to giraffe

[@ThoughtPotato]

For sure!

[@lazarushernandez5827]

It is funny you mention this, the giraffes taxonomical name is Giraffa Camelopardalis. The scientist that gave it its name must have seen some resemblance to the camel, and given its coloration, 'leopard like' spots...

[@talravid3966]

Little mistake you put an allosaurus skull in 23:33 but pretty close, still good video, though

[@Enlightened-ANGELIC-Unicorn]

You earned a sub

[@nosferatuoddz7974]

Poor Giraffe but those Elands do look pretty cool

[@Readspiraloyster]

I can just imagine this place in this game eventually we'll get so advanced that the technology will start being organically grown and assembled just due to how advanced some of these things would eventually get these things would both be machines and living things at the exact same time but not a cyborg I can just imagine that's just my own personal interpretation of the idea I know for a fact that there probably not going to have that direction with it

[@smileyp4535]

The only thing I have issue with is just that you can't hunt robots lol you can *maybe* domesticate them if they are designed to be able to be but they will provide no food source and are impervious to hunter gatherer/early civilization weapons it's just too much. But then they're would be no game and the "rule of cool" overrides this huge problem thankfully so having tough armor Piersing arrows is cool I suppose especially when made from dead ones, but again you still can't really eat them lol

[@nosferatuoddz7974]

There other none robotic animals

[@smileyp4535]

@@nosferatuoddz7974 where? I haven't really played but the video says that all animal life besides humans have been extinct and replaced with robots to fill their niche

[@oldtimetinfoilhatwearer]

@@smileyp4535 play the game

[@aedanranson1092]

@@smileyp4535 I can explain if you dont wanna play an entire game (i do reccomend it) but don't mind reading a wall of text lol SPOILERS AHEAD The world actually DOES have organic lifeforms, but they are seemingly animals that serve a primary purpose: to feed and clothe a budding human race. I know what youre likely thinking: That sounds very counter-intuitive to the idea of trying to reestablish an ecosystem, right? I mean, you can't build an ecosystem with just pigs and sheep. To understand why, you gotta know why the terraforming system is set up the way it is: Basically the organic, non-human lifeforms present on earth were introduced by one of the subfunctions of gaia: Artemis, dedicated to rewilding Earth's initial ecosystems with primary lifeforms. We mostly only see small to medium sized animals within Horizon' North America: Boars/pigs, foxes and raccons, a few species of birds like corvids, vultures, and pigeons, crabs and lobsters, a few species of fish like salmon and bass (though there are a variety of small schooling fish species and also for some reason mantarays that, in-game, basically serve only as enviormental features than actual animals you can interact with) rabbits, goats/sheep...Those all sound suspiciously like animals that humans would like to either eat or wear the skin of. That's on purpose -- while I'm sure that theres other types of animals in other parts of the world we haven't seen yet, and there's a few other animals like horses mentioned but never seen within the lore, that is an EXTREMELY limited ecosystem meant to (temporarily) support one creature: humans. What does that got to do with terraforming? How does that help GAIA rebuild earth? The reason that Artemis' function was only to seed earth with basic primary and secondary lifeforms, is because the ecosystem would still be too fragile to support itself independently without its robotic agents doing most of the heavy lifting, artificial macrofauna doing the work that organic micro-fauna would usually be doing instead. Stuff like atmospheric maintenance via the cycling of carbon and oxygen, or breaking down macronutrients into micro-nutrients to be recycled back into the system. Work that would usually be done by earth's previously very well established microfauna, which developed over millions upon millions of years of eating, breeding and dying to create the bedrock of the entire organic ecosystem. That takes time, enough time that you might as well skip the whole terraforming idea and just create the AI that needs 25 years to decode and shut down the FARO swarm which has rendered the entire ecosphere into a sterilized wasteland, and then let nature get on with the rest I guess? Hope another space rock with some hardy micro-organisms crashes into Earth again? The point of Zero Dawn itself is not just a second chance for life on earth, but a second chance for humans to redeem themselves and prove they can be effective and gracious caretakers of the earth -- this time, with all the right tools a and knowledge. Ill get to that in a minute. Remember,, this entire attempt at reseeding the earth with life has taken place over only 950 or so years after the world was rendered utterly sterile by the FARO plague. The version of earth that the world is set in is version 4 or 5, meaning there were previous failed attempts to terraform the ecosystem that failed for one reason or another, and has to be scrapped. This version, however, is the only version where humans have been 'successfully' gestated and released into the wilds by ELUETHIA, another one of GAIA's subfunctions. If everything had gone to plan, if the APOLLO database had never been purged from the GAIA network, then the newly emerged humans SHOULD have been educated by the APOLLO database. Then they SHOULD have been directed to Terraforming Control Centers all over the world. From there, humans would then make the final touches to the ecosystem to make it truly stable and self-sustaining without any robotic influence. These APOLLO-educated humans should have had access to storage facilities filled with the sequenced genomes of literally every single living thing upon planet Earth, entire storage facilities dedicated to the preservation of literally any seed or spore humans would need to recreate Earth. They were the ones who were meant to have the power to return the biosphere to its original state, not the actual robots. GAIA's machine agents are just there to make the ecosystem *just* viable enough for life to get its foot in the door, to keep it from back-sliding. Unfortunately, not everything went to plan, and the humans released from the Cradles were uneducated and ignorant of the world they were meant to inherit. They were were raised underground by automated caretakers to an elementary level, then once the food stores ran out, they were pre-maturely released into the wilds without any direction or knowledge. That's why the game-world is the way it is, why humans are tribal when theres highly advanced robots walking around, why the ecosystem seemingly only includes basic life forms, why the only organic macro-fuana seems to be animals intended for human resources. The people behind the Zero Dawn Project planned for a lot of stuff to go wrong, and placed contingency measures everywhere they could, but unfortunately they were only human and could not account for absolutely everything that could go wrong in the future. Like an extremely important part of the entire plan getting destroyed by a certain egomaniac Ted Faro to so future humans didn't find out he was the reason behind why Earth was destroyed in the first place. But apparently there may be a back up of APOLLO that's off planet. I guess we will have to wait until the third game to see what happens.

[@smileyp4535]

@@aedanranson1092 oh wow so that was the story of the first two and not just the first 1?

[@Fluffycrisp55]

The slaughters pine from forbidden west is a lot harder to kill and a lot with plasma attacks and more hp

[@tng6414]

You made me sleepy

[@rickwrites2612]

Im not a video gamer so i really wish this was a tv series or film or book trilogy

[@ben-ty9jo]

Hello Lord Potato, once again you've produced a banger video

[@ThoughtPotato]

Hey, thanks so much

[@darkfyre1618]

I feel like Hephaestus would eventually try to build humanoid machines.

[@henrymugello3387]

That would be scary.

[@headwreak1768]

imagine a spin-off horizon game where, instead of playing as aloy, we could be GAIA beginning the new restoration process. like you can create the robot types needed to repair the Earth, unlock new types of robots with unique purposes and manage the other AIs to do their tasks. like if Jurassic world evolution 2 met spore met civilization ii. [yes this idea is insane but I'd like to see what would we do]

[@RandomRoger]

I love everything about the Horizon games. But with the story, I think there's a plot hole. The machines and self-replicate. Cool. But, where are they getting the raw materials to enable them to replicate? There's no mention of any machine mining site. Even the caldrons are just large assembly plants. I may be wrong tho.

[@torchit2302]

Personally I think they got the raw materials both from whatever was left from the natural environment and from whatever was man-made after mankind extinction. If you look at the game not much is left of man-made stuff from the world we know today. Again, personal theory.

[@bugjams]

If they're like animals, do they hunt each other? Perhaps the predatory ones hunt the herbivores and then "scavenger" robots take the dead parts back to the assembler? Keep in mind I have 0 knowledge of the game and its lore. But this would be a good enough explanation in my book.

[@torchit2302]

@@bugjams They don't hunt each other (afaik). In tha game, before the new generations of humans, machines roamed land, air and water to terraform the whole planet and render it fertile again. Each one of them had a precise task in the whole process. But, there is the possibility that malfunctioning/"dead" machine could have been dismantled, brought back into the cauldrons (huge-ass underground automated factories where machines were built), repaired and then sent them back outside to continue their task(s). The games don't deeply explain much about the terraforming process (before humans), you get a general idea here and there, only that the terraforming process was somewhat successul.

[@TheSupremeSpoon]

If you're talking about the Faro Swarm, The Horus Class were responsible for mining, building and even repairing the other Faro machines using its long appendages and manufacture bay located on its underside. If you're talking about the New Machines, Rockbreakers would be responsible for digging underground to gather the raw materials, while acquisition machines would transport them to the Cauldrons where New Machines would be created.

[@henrymugello3387]

If you are talking about the Faro machines then they self-replicate using the organic fuel via biomass conversion which they get from plants, animals and even humans.

[@AngelFluff723]

Brilliant video and soothing voice!

[@ThoughtPotato]

Thank you very much :)

[@tedcruz212]

It’s weird how he talks about west Chester university and Dr. Fish, I’m aware he’s famous but as someone who took his class last semester it was a bit odd hearing his name mentioned in a KZbin video about robot animals lol

[@benpaynter841]

Do you have a transcript or like a written verdict of this video! Would love to reference it for a homebrew DnD campaign I want to run!

[@ThoughtPotato]

I’d be happy to share it! Just shoot me an email via the link on my channel page

[@henrymugello3387]

What do you think of the chariot line of robots cause they are based on real insects?

[@Someusernameidk454]

I think I would’ve been sick if the machines would hunt each other

[@ElJorro]

Horizon Zero Dawn is one of my favorite world building exeercises.

[@Ghost_Void226]

I honestly think making robotic like animals to help the environment would be smart and honestly cool if done correctly ofc. Il

[@alluke24]

I’ve played both games already and My opinion on the combat class is that they probably served a different purpose until the one who’s building them I’m not gonna say who altered them .

[@VOID-GRIMM_Sinn]

I always thought the long legs were based off of ostriches lol

[@Snailirific]

Wait, I thought a lot of the machines were still cleaning the planet when H:ZD started? Like the flying ones cleaning the air, the swimming ones cleaning the water and ones like Lancehorns cleaning the soil of heavy metals. Isn't this mentioned by Sobek?

[@CaptainPilipinas]

after the 'derangement' started like 20+ Years ago back in horizon Earthly time?

[@Jack5628]

did you really have to lock the extended version behind a pay wall?

[@Nemo-Nihil]

Correction: A thousand years later.

[@aofthefielde1305]

Hey thought potato, just stumbled on your vid of horizon. I could be wrong but I’m certain that horizon happens around a 1000 years later and not 300 ? (Not hating or anything on you)

[@ThoughtPotato]

You're absolutely right. I was (confusingly) referring to the beginning of the terraforming process, but may have gotten that mixed up. And no worries; I appreciate people bringing up any inconsistencies!

[@aofthefielde1305]

@@ThoughtPotato I’m glad to help ☺️