Seeds-swap devices (also referenced as seed machines in the Obduction Exploration Guide) are devices that, when activated, swap the player, together with a spherical section of the surrounding area, to a fixed location in another Cell. At the center of the spherical area being swapped is an Ambassador Seed nested in the device, and the ('immutable') radius of the area depends on how each device had been set during its first swap.
All we know about the operation of these devices comes from a document found in C.W.'s workshop titled "Ambassador Seed" Swap Machine Functionality. More clues about their operation can be deduced from a document found in Farley's Community Center titled Seed Information.
next to the WMD
Description[]
All of the seed-swap devices have a mechanism which houses, covers and partly uncovers the Ambassaror Seed nested at its center. The mechanism is fixed on various types of small stands. The only exception is seed-swap device of the Gauntlet maze which is fixed overhead. The mechanism also holds the parabolic elements with their electrodes that focus the power needed to trigger the seed-swapping action. A battery is also connected to the mechanism. Depending on the technology used, a lever or the safety cover of a button are used to open the upper cover of the seed. The one exception to all this is the Mofang seed-swap device, which like all Mofang devices, remains unfathomable.
one of Hunrath tech (center) and one found in Kaptar
one of Hunrath tech (center) and one found in Kaptar
Operation[]
When the mechanism uncovers the upper part of the seed, an action that C.W. calls 'forcing seed open', the seed displays "prep" behavior: it emits an illumination demarcating the radius of the area it will swap. Upon pressing the main button of the device, the swapping is activated. The battery keeps amplifying the ambient membrane power that recharges the seed, so that it charges continuously and can be used again to return almost immeditely. There is an interval, however, for the swapping action to be completed.
The spherical chunk of land (or whatever is included in the swap radius) becomes swapped with another spherical piece of equal size that lies in another Cell. Usually, but not always, the chunk that gets swapped back to the location we swap from, includes another seed-swap device. This we can only know if we return to the cell we came from via another seed-swap set and go back to the location we first swapped from. The destination a device will swap to, can be known by the color that the seed emits during its "prep" behavior. Green will swap to Maray, blue to Kaptar, orange to Hunrath, and red to Soria.
Locations of seed-swap pairs[]
On Hunrath, there are six parts of pairs corresponding with six in Maray. Another four parts of pairs correspond to their counterparts in Kaptar, and one has its counterpart in Soria. Between Kaptar and Maray there is also one more pair of seed-swaps. There is also one part of a pair in Maray that carried the WMD from Soria, however since Soria has been destroyed and since the unique seed-swap device on it cannot be triggered without also triggering the WMD, the other part of the pair in Soria is not accessible in the game.
A seed-swap device going to Maray from Hunrath.
A seed-swap device just after you activate it.
A seed-swap device going to Hunrath from Maray.
