Socket

Socket
Games:	LittleBigPlanet
Type:	Gadgets
Category:	Creature Pieces

The Socket, also known as the Walker, is a scrapped non-player character from the original LittleBigPlanet, which loosely resembles a power plug.

Overview

Sockets served as an early iteration of the creature creation system; creators could attach objects to a Socket, which it would carry as it trundled around. Sockets came in three sizes, with larger ones being able to carry heavier objects. Sockets could also be tweaked to set their speed, how they react to nearby players, whether or not they can jump, which direction they'll start walking in, and whether they should change direction when encountering a wall or a large drop.

Later in development, Creature Pieces were added that allowed the player to fashion creatures out of nearly any object in the game — with many of the same behavioural tweaks — rendering Sockets obsolete. Despite being scrapped, its likeness was used for the icons found in the Creature Brain's tweak menu.

Remnants in Finished Games

In the final releases of many LittleBigPlanet games — including the original LittleBigPlanet, LittleBigPlanet 2, LittleBigPlanet PS Vita, and LittleBigPlanet 3 — a small Socket can be found in an unused level gamedata/levels/palettes/palette_creatures.bin. Attempting to load this level normally crashes the game because of the ant creature that also inhabits the level, but it's possible to get around this by replacing the file gamedata/scratch/ant.cha with a different character file (e.g. enemy.cha).

The Socket retains its models, textures and seemingly its last animation frame, however it has very little surviving functionality. In terms of physical properties, it occupies a full thick layer and has similar traits to that of a player; it is grabbable and will try to stay upright when it is not being grabbed, but otherwise cannot move on its own. It is also immune to all hazards.

The Socket being partially treated as a Sackthing introduces quirks when used in conjunction with features added in later games. For example, if it is forced to maintain a non-upright angle (whether via a Gyroscope or a Sackthing picking it up with the Grabinators), the rotational force of its own built-in gyroscope causes it to fly in different directions. In LittleBigPlanet 3, it creates splash particles when entering or exiting Floaty Fluid — a trait otherwise exclusive to Sackthings and Creature Brains — and attempting to put one on a Slide instantly crashes the game.

LittleBigPlanet Portable

In the initial release LittleBigPlanet Portable, an icon for the Socket could be found in the main lbp_archive.arc file, under gui/popit/static_icons/creature_eye.16.mip In reality, this icon belonged to the then-unreleased Magic Eye, and was replaced with a more suitable icon when Magic Eyes were officially added in the Cherry Pie update.

Gallery

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  Popit Icon (Small)

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  Popit Icon (Medium)

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  Popit Icon (Large)