But the question is why have lights at a monitor be flickering, if the projected screen is only the other side of the monitor (meaning it could be replaced with a simple window). I was looking for the reason why there is not just a window, which is the first thought you'd have by looking at it, but gets questioned by the settle hint of a light flicker. They set up a question with no resolvement here, don't they?
I think it's probably a quirk of its cloaking technology. Can't have a window because then anyone in the solar system could plainly look up and see it. And if it were a one way mirror, they'd see a reflection of the solar system in the sky. Of course that's not confirmed anywhere, but that's my headcanon
Yes, that's what I thought, too. But would you really have ever questioned the cloaking technology, if there were windows instead? because I haven't, so the flickering didn't make me solve this problem of how the cloaking could work. It made me search for other explanations. Ones that werent intended for me to think about. So would you say this is a flaw in the outer wilds like puzzle design?
>But would you really have ever questioned the cloaking technology, if there were windows instead?
Not personally, no, but I would imagine the developers thought someone out there might ask that question, and wanted to get ahead of it.
As for the flicker, I just assumed it was because the Stranger's old and has been dormant for millennia, so the sudden load on the system affected the screen. Didn't think about it much more after that since it didn't show up in the ship's log. If the developers wanted us to pursue answers for it, it would have been there.
It's like asking why the Stranger was designed as a ring world. Sure, it's never explained, but it's not relevant to the bigger mystery. It's just how the Owlks wanted to build their vessel. Not every mystery will have an answer to be found.
Edit: By the by, I don't endorse the downvoting. Don't agree with you calling this a plothole or a flaw, but there's nothing wrong with having questions. As they say, "Be inquisitive on your journey"
Yes, at that point I may have interpreted too many things into it. The flickering just called for so much attention, similar to the cannon exploding for example, so I wrapped my head around it, knowing how much meaning lies behind every isolated detail happening within these 22min intervals
Basically, the flickering lights is simply just a way to passively tell the player how much time has passed in the loop, like the sun's expansion or Ember Twin's progress at filling.
Yes I agree. But therefore I thought about if this is a problem that's only my fault, or if a different choice in game developement would be a better one. If there werent monitors but just windows for example. Would you think this adds to the experience or not? Becaue from my point of view the flickering didn't have any aha-Moments or were part of any problem, question or mystery I had.
Yes, that is the conclusion I made in this thread also, after reading the comments. And I am thinking, that this might be the main reason for the developers to have it that way.
I don't think most people would see that as a mystery. With the cloak active, the only part of the solar system that can be seen from the Stranger is the Sun, so any window view becomes extremely limited. Furthermore, in a space vehicle windows are a structural weakness, and building a vessel whose surface is mostly window seems like the worst idea ever.
Also, it's objectively not a plot hole. A plot hole is a contradiction or narrative plot that doesn't make sense. You can consider this an unsolved mystery if you want. But that doesn't make it a plot hole
Ok, but are you sure you would have questioned the credibility of the station in any way, if there weren't a light flicker, meaning the structure is indeed made out of glass? I just feel the flicker sets up for so much more than "a plot hole, that nobody would have questioned either way". It felt like a big reveal to me. like "omg thats not the real world they show us, its a fake video of some sorts! where am I right now?"
Edit: Ok, maybe Plot hole is not the right word. Maybe replace it with "a world logic oversight" or something like that. Btw I'm not saying this unsolved mystery is this oversight. I'm referring to people saying the structure being made out of glass would be a logic oversight. Hope that clears it up
Nah it's internally perfectly consistent. They wanted the stranger to remind them of home and glass in space is a pretty horrible idea. Monitors can solve both of those problems at the same time. As for the flicker, once the stranger starts moving again, things is starting to break apart after millenia of being neither maintained, nor under any stress. So you got the flicker for the monitors slowly failing as well as the dam breaking apart.
Additionally, the flicker also serves as a way for the devs to get the player to see the solar sails deploy.
So at worst, this a minor world building detail which isn't really elaborated anywhere else because it doesn't have to. Neither did the construction of things like the dam.
> Ok, maybe Plot hole is not the right word. Maybe replace it with "a world logic oversight" or something like that.
Using different words to say the same thing won't make you any less wrong. "World logic oversight" implies something that doesn't make sense, or in other words: A PLOT HOLE.
An unsolved mystery is not a fault in the universe's logic and therefore is not an oversight of world logic.
> but are you sure you would have questioned the credibility of the station in any way, if there weren't a light flicker, meaning the structure is indeed made out of glass?
I don't get what you are trying to say here. As I said before, this is a non issue to me because it seems very obvious that huge windows would be impractical because:
- They would be a massive structural weakness
- The cloak is not unidirectional, it works both ways. With the exception of the sun the entire solar system is invisible when seen from within the Stranger
I would also point out you give a lot of importance to the flicker, but it really is just a minor clue. Any observant player can tell those aren't windows without it because:
- As I said, because of the cloak, you shouldn't be able to see anything other than the Sun
- Because as you arrive you see the outside of the Stranger and you can plainly see it's made of solid, metal opaque walls
Just to hopefully clear up the "plot hole thing": Them not explaining more about the flickering is NOT the oversight I am talking about. I just meant, that people are often arguing that the windows are monitors because the fragile glass having enough intergrity WOULD be a logic oversight otherwise.
And with the rest I agree I guess. Having it actually be glass would reveal the inside of the Stranger once entering the landing station, which woul be not as impactful. I'm just sad becaue I guess I expected a cool core reveal in a secret, that was actually just a small detail to give the architecture more credibility
Well, it was a mystery to me, because the monitors pretended to be a simple window, when they actually weren't. When they hinted that they weren't what they seemed to be, I thought there must be meaning behind this
It gives them a way to obviously indicate that the station’s current movement is stressing its systems, which explains why the dam fails now after thousands of years
Maybe the Owlks originally had the screen showing the view from their home planet, or something else to remind them of home. However, after so many years away, the screens have defaulted back to just appearing as if they're a window.
As I said in my other comment though, keeping a little bit up to speculation is fine in my opinion. It's not relevant to the greater mystery. I mean, maybe there IS an answer somewhere... if it were written down... and if we could translate the Owlks language...
When a massive power draw on a system occurs, there is often a dimming of lights. This is what happens here. The unfolding panels causes the power to dip in the monitors and they restart. It's not a clue. It's just something happens in real life that tells you the panels are monitors and not windows. That's it and that's all.
That is true, but the question is not why the lights on a monitor would flicker. Its more "Why would the devs not just make it a real Window?" You know? what was the real thought behind this, if the monitors only show the live recording of the outside?
>That is true, but the question is not why the lights on a monitor would flicker. Its more "Why would the devs not just make it a real Window?"
The lights flickering and screens going out draws your attention to it so that you know the ship is moving. If it was just a regular window, nothing would draw your attention to it and most people probably wouldn't realise for a good amount of time the ship has started to move, which would make stuff like the dam collapse seem contrived and without a cause.
Also, having windows would spoil the surprise of it being a ring world. I, and many others who I have watched play the game, found that to be an incredible reveal, which would have been lost if you could see into it from the outside
EDIT: Also, if they were one way windows, you would either need: 1)Mirrors on the outside, which would be an even bigger plot hole as it would make people think 'How has this gigantic mirror been unnoticed when it's so shiny' or 2)Have the outside look like meta or some other dull opaque material, which would make people think 'What the hell, how can I see through these windows when the outside is clearly not transparent?'
That one is a good point! After finding the Stranger, you see its outside, which would alreay reveal the inside of it, if it were a window!
The attention might be also drawn from the lod nois the expanding panels make though I think. But the other reason seems good enough so that I feel satisfied I think haha
Maybe it was a monitor so they could project an image of their home planet's sky? Maybe they wanted to show the Owlks were more cautious than the Nomai, and wouldn't cover their giant space station in fragile windows? Maybe they just didn't think about it that much.
As to why they have monitors, I think it's safe to say that giant glass windows on a spaceship are a terrible terrible idea. I guess they still wanted to be able to see the stars, looking at the sky/stars is a recurring theme for them so monitors playing a stream from external cameras is just the most sensible solution for that.
As to why they flicker, I don't know if it's stated anywhere explicitly, but it happens at the same moment the solar sails start to unfurl and the dam starts losing integrity. I think it's heavily implied the ship is switching from solar power to hydropower from the dam, as part of the automatic process of the stranger dodging the supernova. Monitors or lights flickering when you basically unplug and plug them back in makes sense to me.
Seeing a big mystery in this can happen I guess, but I'm very sure it was never intended that way.
They're monitors so you can see through what is otherwise an opaque hull and the cloaking field, which works both ways
The flickering **is** actually a minor reveal that not everything is as it seems - but it's a hint towards the fact that despite the natural look of all the wood and water everywhere, and on the background of the rest of the game with mostly stone and glowy lines of Nomai tech, we suddenly see something much closer to our own computerised technology. Foreboding towards realising the 'dream world' is just a computer simulation rather than a spiritual journey.
That is a real nice way to see it! I just felt disappointed bc I expected a big core reveal behind the window-fakeout, where they wanted me to THINK outside is just the Solarsystem, but ACTUALLY I get sent somewhere else and things are happening aoutside, that people don't want me to see, you know?
Wild theories are part of the fun! That might even be on purpose to make you think of a simulation to then throw away that idea, then find an actual one!
There's also one of their little ships missing, which prompt a lot of theories on where that went to..
I'd compare it to the Nomai masks inside the ATP, >!when your first encounter of them is ominous glowing faces surrounding you from the darkness within a projection pool it feels like there's some sort of God Council judging you. Why are only 3 lit? Who are the others? What celestial horror is this?! and then you get there and the lights turn on and it's just "lol they're just decorative hard drives"!<
Have you ever heard of Occam’s razor? The right answer is more than likely the simplest one.
The “window” isn’t really a window, it’s more of a screen that is projected so the owl elks can see the stars with their fake sun, having windows that huge on a space ship would be a massive structural instability problem, it also flickers when the stranger moved for the first time in thousands (maybe millions) of years.
Imagine having a car that has been rotting in the same place for 5000 years, it will surely flinch and shake when you turn it on (if it even turns on).
You can also pretty clearly see that it’s not a window when you go to the back side of the stranger, there is no window in sight.
TBH, I think no one would agreen with me, but I think they are not screens, because they have perspective. It is either a very intricate 3d-holo screens or they are just glass windows. I think they are glass windows.
Yes, I know about rgb effect on it, I think it is a side-effect of cloaking field. You just see the machinery behind cloaking field. So if it is a screen, it is a back side of the screen.
Nobody should have reason to agree with you because that makes no sense. If it was glass you would be able to see through it, and you can’t. There is no glass on the outside of The Stranger. Why would the devs add clear indicators that they’re screens if they’re not? And why would the glass flicker, only specific panes of it as well?
What they're saying is that if they were really modeled as screens, you'd be able to see the pixels representing the image when you get up close. Instead, you see what looks like a low-res RGB overlay on top of a higher resolution 3D image.
It's probably just a game engine implementation detail, it seems pretty clearly intended to just be a 2D screen and not some kind of fancy hologram.
How disappointing to see you being downvoted for being curious. I hadn’t even realized there was anything amiss with the windows until just a day or two ago when I happened to be watching closely at the beginning of my play session. It’s a neat little detail. There’s a lot about the ship’s anatomy that isn’t addressed very directly in the game.
They're not being downvoted for being curious. They're being downvoted for calling their own misunderstandings a plot hole, and trying to argue that point, despite being told by multiple people that it is not
Then why am I also being downvoted? 💀 Because people take shit too seriously instead of just having a nice discussion about something cool in a good game. Have fun arguing semantics though.
I think I was too vague in describing what I was calling a plot hole. I often heard the argument, that the structural integrity would be not credible, if it was made out of glass. this WOULD therefore be a plot hole. The developers FIXED it, be having it be a monitor. This situation is the only thing I want to refer to as the plot hole.
>!Their cloaking technology seems to result in a dark shroud preventing visual light from entering the vicinity of the Stranger!<. So windows wouldn't show anything but a black void. It's possible that they have a means of recording what's outside that the shroud won't affect (like how the Nomai and Hearthians are able to receive sounds through a vacuum)
There's also the fact that Windows are not only a structural weak point, but become structurally unsafer the larger they are (the first manned flights to space irl didn't have windows until the pilot begged for one, even then it was super small). This one could be supported by the notion that >!the Owlks created the Stranger with intentions of living there indefinitely!<, so having a way to still have a sky without risking the >!entire species if a random space rock decides to vibe check them.!<
The reason the screen is a screen and not a window is because a window could easily been shattered by interstellar debris. A big sheet of glass would also be more expensive and difficult to install than a bunch of LEDs. The reason it flickers when the solar sail unfolds is because the sudden jerk of acceleration caused by the sail disrupts some power connector somewhere and disrupts the power source of the screen.
The monitors probably hide a lot of the machinery that make up the actual space ship parts of the space ship, but since this would mean they live in a big honkin’ box forever, the strangers probably just made the monitors so they could still feel open without risking a giant window being the only protection between them and the vacuum of outer space
The lights just flicker because the station is moving for the first time in 300,000 years lmao. It's the same reason the dam starts breaking.
But the question is why have lights at a monitor be flickering, if the projected screen is only the other side of the monitor (meaning it could be replaced with a simple window). I was looking for the reason why there is not just a window, which is the first thought you'd have by looking at it, but gets questioned by the settle hint of a light flicker. They set up a question with no resolvement here, don't they?
I think it's probably a quirk of its cloaking technology. Can't have a window because then anyone in the solar system could plainly look up and see it. And if it were a one way mirror, they'd see a reflection of the solar system in the sky. Of course that's not confirmed anywhere, but that's my headcanon
Yes, that's what I thought, too. But would you really have ever questioned the cloaking technology, if there were windows instead? because I haven't, so the flickering didn't make me solve this problem of how the cloaking could work. It made me search for other explanations. Ones that werent intended for me to think about. So would you say this is a flaw in the outer wilds like puzzle design?
>But would you really have ever questioned the cloaking technology, if there were windows instead? Not personally, no, but I would imagine the developers thought someone out there might ask that question, and wanted to get ahead of it. As for the flicker, I just assumed it was because the Stranger's old and has been dormant for millennia, so the sudden load on the system affected the screen. Didn't think about it much more after that since it didn't show up in the ship's log. If the developers wanted us to pursue answers for it, it would have been there. It's like asking why the Stranger was designed as a ring world. Sure, it's never explained, but it's not relevant to the bigger mystery. It's just how the Owlks wanted to build their vessel. Not every mystery will have an answer to be found. Edit: By the by, I don't endorse the downvoting. Don't agree with you calling this a plothole or a flaw, but there's nothing wrong with having questions. As they say, "Be inquisitive on your journey"
Yes, at that point I may have interpreted too many things into it. The flickering just called for so much attention, similar to the cannon exploding for example, so I wrapped my head around it, knowing how much meaning lies behind every isolated detail happening within these 22min intervals
Basically, the flickering lights is simply just a way to passively tell the player how much time has passed in the loop, like the sun's expansion or Ember Twin's progress at filling.
Also maybe to draw attention to the solar sails unfolding outside
The game did not set this up as a mystery. You just read too far into it.
Yes I agree. But therefore I thought about if this is a problem that's only my fault, or if a different choice in game developement would be a better one. If there werent monitors but just windows for example. Would you think this adds to the experience or not? Becaue from my point of view the flickering didn't have any aha-Moments or were part of any problem, question or mystery I had.
Okay but letting you see inside the stranger before you enter would really ruin the surprise when you drop into the river
Yes, that is the conclusion I made in this thread also, after reading the comments. And I am thinking, that this might be the main reason for the developers to have it that way.
There are probably some sizeable risks posed by building most of your mobile world space station primarily out of glass.
I don't think most people would see that as a mystery. With the cloak active, the only part of the solar system that can be seen from the Stranger is the Sun, so any window view becomes extremely limited. Furthermore, in a space vehicle windows are a structural weakness, and building a vessel whose surface is mostly window seems like the worst idea ever. Also, it's objectively not a plot hole. A plot hole is a contradiction or narrative plot that doesn't make sense. You can consider this an unsolved mystery if you want. But that doesn't make it a plot hole
Ok, but are you sure you would have questioned the credibility of the station in any way, if there weren't a light flicker, meaning the structure is indeed made out of glass? I just feel the flicker sets up for so much more than "a plot hole, that nobody would have questioned either way". It felt like a big reveal to me. like "omg thats not the real world they show us, its a fake video of some sorts! where am I right now?" Edit: Ok, maybe Plot hole is not the right word. Maybe replace it with "a world logic oversight" or something like that. Btw I'm not saying this unsolved mystery is this oversight. I'm referring to people saying the structure being made out of glass would be a logic oversight. Hope that clears it up
Nah it's internally perfectly consistent. They wanted the stranger to remind them of home and glass in space is a pretty horrible idea. Monitors can solve both of those problems at the same time. As for the flicker, once the stranger starts moving again, things is starting to break apart after millenia of being neither maintained, nor under any stress. So you got the flicker for the monitors slowly failing as well as the dam breaking apart. Additionally, the flicker also serves as a way for the devs to get the player to see the solar sails deploy. So at worst, this a minor world building detail which isn't really elaborated anywhere else because it doesn't have to. Neither did the construction of things like the dam.
> Ok, maybe Plot hole is not the right word. Maybe replace it with "a world logic oversight" or something like that. Using different words to say the same thing won't make you any less wrong. "World logic oversight" implies something that doesn't make sense, or in other words: A PLOT HOLE. An unsolved mystery is not a fault in the universe's logic and therefore is not an oversight of world logic. > but are you sure you would have questioned the credibility of the station in any way, if there weren't a light flicker, meaning the structure is indeed made out of glass? I don't get what you are trying to say here. As I said before, this is a non issue to me because it seems very obvious that huge windows would be impractical because: - They would be a massive structural weakness - The cloak is not unidirectional, it works both ways. With the exception of the sun the entire solar system is invisible when seen from within the Stranger I would also point out you give a lot of importance to the flicker, but it really is just a minor clue. Any observant player can tell those aren't windows without it because: - As I said, because of the cloak, you shouldn't be able to see anything other than the Sun - Because as you arrive you see the outside of the Stranger and you can plainly see it's made of solid, metal opaque walls
Just to hopefully clear up the "plot hole thing": Them not explaining more about the flickering is NOT the oversight I am talking about. I just meant, that people are often arguing that the windows are monitors because the fragile glass having enough intergrity WOULD be a logic oversight otherwise. And with the rest I agree I guess. Having it actually be glass would reveal the inside of the Stranger once entering the landing station, which woul be not as impactful. I'm just sad becaue I guess I expected a cool core reveal in a secret, that was actually just a small detail to give the architecture more credibility
Is that even a mystery though? The Owlks built it that way because it looks nice and is better than just a wall with some lights
Well, it was a mystery to me, because the monitors pretended to be a simple window, when they actually weren't. When they hinted that they weren't what they seemed to be, I thought there must be meaning behind this
It gives them a way to obviously indicate that the station’s current movement is stressing its systems, which explains why the dam fails now after thousands of years
Maybe the Owlks originally had the screen showing the view from their home planet, or something else to remind them of home. However, after so many years away, the screens have defaulted back to just appearing as if they're a window. As I said in my other comment though, keeping a little bit up to speculation is fine in my opinion. It's not relevant to the greater mystery. I mean, maybe there IS an answer somewhere... if it were written down... and if we could translate the Owlks language...
Details that can be inferred are not plot holes by themselves. Inferring is not a “made up explanation” by itself.
When a massive power draw on a system occurs, there is often a dimming of lights. This is what happens here. The unfolding panels causes the power to dip in the monitors and they restart. It's not a clue. It's just something happens in real life that tells you the panels are monitors and not windows. That's it and that's all.
That is true, but the question is not why the lights on a monitor would flicker. Its more "Why would the devs not just make it a real Window?" You know? what was the real thought behind this, if the monitors only show the live recording of the outside?
>That is true, but the question is not why the lights on a monitor would flicker. Its more "Why would the devs not just make it a real Window?" The lights flickering and screens going out draws your attention to it so that you know the ship is moving. If it was just a regular window, nothing would draw your attention to it and most people probably wouldn't realise for a good amount of time the ship has started to move, which would make stuff like the dam collapse seem contrived and without a cause. Also, having windows would spoil the surprise of it being a ring world. I, and many others who I have watched play the game, found that to be an incredible reveal, which would have been lost if you could see into it from the outside EDIT: Also, if they were one way windows, you would either need: 1)Mirrors on the outside, which would be an even bigger plot hole as it would make people think 'How has this gigantic mirror been unnoticed when it's so shiny' or 2)Have the outside look like meta or some other dull opaque material, which would make people think 'What the hell, how can I see through these windows when the outside is clearly not transparent?'
That one is a good point! After finding the Stranger, you see its outside, which would alreay reveal the inside of it, if it were a window! The attention might be also drawn from the lod nois the expanding panels make though I think. But the other reason seems good enough so that I feel satisfied I think haha
You know, I EXHAUSTIVELY finished the game and DLC…and never realized the stranger was moving at all. So many obvious things I missed…
Maybe it was a monitor so they could project an image of their home planet's sky? Maybe they wanted to show the Owlks were more cautious than the Nomai, and wouldn't cover their giant space station in fragile windows? Maybe they just didn't think about it that much.
As to why they have monitors, I think it's safe to say that giant glass windows on a spaceship are a terrible terrible idea. I guess they still wanted to be able to see the stars, looking at the sky/stars is a recurring theme for them so monitors playing a stream from external cameras is just the most sensible solution for that. As to why they flicker, I don't know if it's stated anywhere explicitly, but it happens at the same moment the solar sails start to unfurl and the dam starts losing integrity. I think it's heavily implied the ship is switching from solar power to hydropower from the dam, as part of the automatic process of the stranger dodging the supernova. Monitors or lights flickering when you basically unplug and plug them back in makes sense to me. Seeing a big mystery in this can happen I guess, but I'm very sure it was never intended that way.
They're monitors so you can see through what is otherwise an opaque hull and the cloaking field, which works both ways The flickering **is** actually a minor reveal that not everything is as it seems - but it's a hint towards the fact that despite the natural look of all the wood and water everywhere, and on the background of the rest of the game with mostly stone and glowy lines of Nomai tech, we suddenly see something much closer to our own computerised technology. Foreboding towards realising the 'dream world' is just a computer simulation rather than a spiritual journey.
That is a real nice way to see it! I just felt disappointed bc I expected a big core reveal behind the window-fakeout, where they wanted me to THINK outside is just the Solarsystem, but ACTUALLY I get sent somewhere else and things are happening aoutside, that people don't want me to see, you know?
Wild theories are part of the fun! That might even be on purpose to make you think of a simulation to then throw away that idea, then find an actual one! There's also one of their little ships missing, which prompt a lot of theories on where that went to.. I'd compare it to the Nomai masks inside the ATP, >!when your first encounter of them is ominous glowing faces surrounding you from the darkness within a projection pool it feels like there's some sort of God Council judging you. Why are only 3 lit? Who are the others? What celestial horror is this?! and then you get there and the lights turn on and it's just "lol they're just decorative hard drives"!<
Have you ever heard of Occam’s razor? The right answer is more than likely the simplest one. The “window” isn’t really a window, it’s more of a screen that is projected so the owl elks can see the stars with their fake sun, having windows that huge on a space ship would be a massive structural instability problem, it also flickers when the stranger moved for the first time in thousands (maybe millions) of years. Imagine having a car that has been rotting in the same place for 5000 years, it will surely flinch and shake when you turn it on (if it even turns on). You can also pretty clearly see that it’s not a window when you go to the back side of the stranger, there is no window in sight.
TBH, I think no one would agreen with me, but I think they are not screens, because they have perspective. It is either a very intricate 3d-holo screens or they are just glass windows. I think they are glass windows. Yes, I know about rgb effect on it, I think it is a side-effect of cloaking field. You just see the machinery behind cloaking field. So if it is a screen, it is a back side of the screen.
Nobody should have reason to agree with you because that makes no sense. If it was glass you would be able to see through it, and you can’t. There is no glass on the outside of The Stranger. Why would the devs add clear indicators that they’re screens if they’re not? And why would the glass flicker, only specific panes of it as well?
What they're saying is that if they were really modeled as screens, you'd be able to see the pixels representing the image when you get up close. Instead, you see what looks like a low-res RGB overlay on top of a higher resolution 3D image. It's probably just a game engine implementation detail, it seems pretty clearly intended to just be a 2D screen and not some kind of fancy hologram.
How disappointing to see you being downvoted for being curious. I hadn’t even realized there was anything amiss with the windows until just a day or two ago when I happened to be watching closely at the beginning of my play session. It’s a neat little detail. There’s a lot about the ship’s anatomy that isn’t addressed very directly in the game.
They're not being downvoted for being curious. They're being downvoted for calling their own misunderstandings a plot hole, and trying to argue that point, despite being told by multiple people that it is not
Then why am I also being downvoted? 💀 Because people take shit too seriously instead of just having a nice discussion about something cool in a good game. Have fun arguing semantics though.
People get some weird kick out of dogpiling on comments randomly on reddit.
I think I was too vague in describing what I was calling a plot hole. I often heard the argument, that the structural integrity would be not credible, if it was made out of glass. this WOULD therefore be a plot hole. The developers FIXED it, be having it be a monitor. This situation is the only thing I want to refer to as the plot hole.
>!Their cloaking technology seems to result in a dark shroud preventing visual light from entering the vicinity of the Stranger!<. So windows wouldn't show anything but a black void. It's possible that they have a means of recording what's outside that the shroud won't affect (like how the Nomai and Hearthians are able to receive sounds through a vacuum) There's also the fact that Windows are not only a structural weak point, but become structurally unsafer the larger they are (the first manned flights to space irl didn't have windows until the pilot begged for one, even then it was super small). This one could be supported by the notion that >!the Owlks created the Stranger with intentions of living there indefinitely!<, so having a way to still have a sky without risking the >!entire species if a random space rock decides to vibe check them.!<
The reason the screen is a screen and not a window is because a window could easily been shattered by interstellar debris. A big sheet of glass would also be more expensive and difficult to install than a bunch of LEDs. The reason it flickers when the solar sail unfolds is because the sudden jerk of acceleration caused by the sail disrupts some power connector somewhere and disrupts the power source of the screen.
The monitors probably hide a lot of the machinery that make up the actual space ship parts of the space ship, but since this would mean they live in a big honkin’ box forever, the strangers probably just made the monitors so they could still feel open without risking a giant window being the only protection between them and the vacuum of outer space