Broken Survivor

1. Summary

Broken Survivors are former scientists who survived the facility's catastrophe but suffered severe psychological deterioration. They are human beings who have endured extreme psychological and spiritual devastation while retaining intelligence, memory, language, and elements of their former identities. With Patrol Robots and Flesh Nests, they are one of the three principal types of inhabitants of D4. See: Enemies › Patrol Robot. See: Enemies › Flesh Nest.

How the two D4 enemy types contrast as forms of danger: See: Places › D4.

1.1 Core Design Principles

• Living human scientists, not zombies.
• Finite, persistent population.
• Individual personalities and emotional states.
• Extremely unstable but context-sensitive behavior.
• May ignore Edmund completely.
• May suddenly attack or unexpectedly disengage.
• Greater aggression makes de-escalation less likely.
• Unarmed, knife, crowbar, and firearm combat.
• Poor firearm discipline but potentially lethal gunfire.
• No group coordination.
• Low aggression toward one another.
• Possible aggression contagion and accidental friendly fire.
• Persistent individual deaths.

2. Origin

Broken Survivors were once ordinary human scientists working inside D4.

They survived the catastrophe and subsequent abandonment of the facility in 1999 but endured extreme psychological deterioration.

Their condition is associated with prolonged isolation, traumatic experiences, and exposure to the facility's information-related hazards. See: Phenomena › Information Hazard.

They are not zombies, undead creatures, or supernatural monsters.

They are living human beings whose psychological stability and perception of reality have been severely compromised.

Their defining motivation is survival. Even in their deteriorated condition, many remain overwhelmingly preoccupied with staying alive.

3. Appearance and Anatomy

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4. Behavior

The surviving scientists may ignore Edmund, continue bizarre routines, or attack; they do not automatically become hostile when they notice him.

4.1 Survival Behavior

Broken Survivors have continued living in the abandoned facility under extremely difficult conditions.

Their possible sources of nourishment include:

• Fungi.
• Flesh Nests.
• Ordinary rodents and other available small animals.
• Vegetation or other edible biological material.
• Remaining food supplies.
• In some circumstances, human corpses.

They may also exploit accessible water sources within the installation.

Their daily behavior is not restricted to waiting for Edmund or engaging in combat. They wander, search for food, rest, investigate their surroundings, and exhibit fragmented routines.

Some may spend extended periods walking with their heads lowered while murmuring incoherent phrases.

Their behavior should communicate the existence of human beings struggling to survive rather than conventional enemies occupying combat arenas.

4.2 Unpredictable Behavior

Broken Survivors do not necessarily attack Edmund when they see him.

A survivor may walk directly past him without acknowledging his presence. The same individual may later react to Edmund with extreme hostility, even under apparently similar circumstances.

Possible behaviors include:

• Wandering with a lowered head.
• Incoherent mumbling.
• Ignoring Edmund completely.
• Briefly watching Edmund without approaching.
• Becoming frightened or withdrawing.
• Suddenly becoming verbally aggressive.
• Physically attacking Edmund.
• Abruptly abandoning an aggressive episode and resuming passive behavior.

This unpredictability is essential to their identity.

The player must never be able to assume that every survivor is automatically hostile or that a previously passive survivor will remain harmless.

4.3 Dynamic Emotional States

Each Broken Survivor possesses an individual psychological profile and a continuously changing emotional state.

Behavioral transitions consider:

1. Personality: The individual's underlying tendencies.
2. Current aggression: How emotionally escalated the individual already is.
3. Environmental context: What is happening around them.
4. Recent events: Encounters, disturbances, violence, and other stimuli.

An individual may become extremely hostile, threaten Edmund, and attempt to kill him.

Then, without a conventional combat resolution, that same survivor may abruptly lose interest, lower his head, resume murmuring, and walk away.

For example, a survivor might scream:

“I'll fucking kill you, you bastard! I'll fucking kill you! I'll burn you alive!”

Moments later, he may stop attacking and return to an introspective, withdrawn state.

These transitions should be possible but not equally probable in every situation.

4.4 Aggression Inertia

Once a violent episode begins, the survivor is more likely to continue attacking than to become peaceful.

The probability of returning to a passive state decreases as the individual's aggression intensity increases.

A mildly agitated survivor may calm down relatively easily. A survivor experiencing extreme rage is considerably more likely to maintain the attack.

Personality and context modify these probabilities.

This prevents emotional instability from becoming entirely arbitrary while preserving unexpected behavioral changes.

The player may witness an attack ending spontaneously, but should never be able to rely on that outcome.

4.5 No Group Coordination

Broken Survivors do not operate as an organized group.

They possess no coordinated squad tactics, shared combat objectives, or collective defensive behavior.

If several survivors attack Edmund simultaneously, this does not mean they are cooperating. Each acts independently according to their own psychological state.

4.6 Aggression Contagion

Witnessing another survivor become agitated or violent may increase an individual's aggression.

This is an emotional reaction, not a decision to assist the other survivor.

For example:

A survivor observes another scientist shouting at Edmund and may become similarly agitated. He might then attack Edmund, but not because he understands himself to be participating in a coordinated confrontation.

The surrounding violence has simply altered his emotional state.

4.7 Aggression Between Survivors

Direct aggression between Broken Survivors is generally low.

They may coexist peacefully, ignore one another, or occasionally become involved in confrontations.

Fights between survivors are possible. However, deliberate killings between them should be rare.

4.8 Friendly Fire

Armed Broken Survivors do not reliably distinguish between safe and unsafe lines of fire.

A survivor firing at Edmund may accidentally hit another Broken Survivor standing nearby. The unintended victim may be injured or killed.

This is expected to be one of the more plausible causes of survivor-on-survivor fatalities.

They do not demonstrate the tactical discipline or mutual protection expected of trained military personnel.

4.9 Relationship With Patrol Robots

How Patrol Robots treat Broken Survivors, and how Amanda's Cleaning Protocol can change that, is described with the robots. See: Enemies › Patrol Robot.

5. Detection and Combat

Broken Survivors are former scientists, not trained soldiers.

Their combat behavior is generally desperate, disorganized, and emotionally driven.

They may fight using whatever equipment is available.

5.1 Unarmed Attacks

An unarmed survivor may attack Edmund with:

• Punches.
• Scratching.
• Grappling.
• Attempts to grab or choke him.

Their movements may appear frantic and desperate, resembling instinctive physical aggression rather than practiced combat techniques.

These attacks interact with Edmund's physical injury and resistance systems. See: Systems › Injuries And Medical Care.

5.2 Knife Attacks

A Broken Survivor carrying a knife may suddenly rush Edmund and attempt to stab him.

Such encounters are particularly dangerous at close range.

Their attacks need not display disciplined combat technique.

The central impression should be that of an emotionally unstable person using a lethal object impulsively.

5.3 Crowbar Attacks

Crowbars and similar heavy tools can be found throughout the facility.

A survivor carrying a crowbar may use it to strike Edmund with powerful but poorly coordinated blows.

The same object may also serve as an environmental tool or player weapon.

5.4 Firearm Attacks

Broken Survivors may occasionally obtain firearms left within the installation.

However, their behavior with firearms is fundamentally different from that of Brazilian or American military personnel.

They are scientists with little or no military training, not infantrymen.

A survivor may become emboldened upon acquiring a firearm, behaving as though suddenly capable of overpowering anyone nearby.

Their shooting may involve:

• Frantic, repeated firing.
• Very poor aiming.
• Reckless ammunition expenditure.
• Little concern for nearby individuals.
• Erratic movement and targeting.

The overall impression may resemble someone attempting to imitate an action-film soldier without possessing the necessary skills or self-control.

Nevertheless, poor accuracy does not make their gunfire harmless.

Schwarzwald's firearms are highly lethal. Even an untrained survivor firing wildly may kill Edmund with a single shot to a vital area.

This makes armed Broken Survivors especially unpredictable and potentially deadly.

6. Counterplay

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7. Population and Persistence

Broken Survivors form a finite population.

This follows the same general population philosophy as the American military contingent, rather than the replenishable Brazilian military presence. See: Enemies › American Operator. See: Enemies › Brazilian Soldier.

Each Broken Survivor represents a specific individual.

Their characteristics are generated and maintained persistently, including:

• Individual personality.
• Emotional instability.
• Baseline aggression.
• Current aggression intensity.
• Behavioral tendencies.
• Responses to environmental circumstances.

When a Broken Survivor dies, that individual remains dead. Survivors killed by robots remain dead as well.

The game does not generate replacements merely to maintain enemy density.

The survivors are the remnants of a historical catastrophe, not an endlessly replenishing enemy faction.

8. Sound and Presentation

Broken Survivors are remnants of the human research staff, still alive but profoundly altered by what happened inside the facility.

A Broken Survivor presents a human uncertainty.

He might pass Edmund without noticing him.

He might suddenly attempt to strangle him.

He might attack with a knife, scream threats, then unexpectedly abandon the confrontation.

Or he might acquire a firearm, discharge it recklessly, and kill someone without even intending to.

The intended player experience of D4 as a whole: See: Places › D4.

8.1 The Elevator Escape

When Edmund blasts the ruined approach to the elevator toward D5, the noise draws the Broken Survivors of the surrounding sector, and they pursue him until he escapes into the elevator. See: Campaign › 7. A Question Of Trust.

8.2 The Scientist of The Last Shift

Behind a laboratory door in D4, a surviving scientist works feverishly among broken computers and stacks of papers, muttering calculations and behaving as though the research has never stopped. He does not acknowledge Edmund when spoken to. He is the centre of the side quest The Last Shift. See: Campaign › 7. A Question Of Trust.

9. Open Questions

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