Gehn, lord of ages wrote:But let people start with Reltos (so they don't have to choose immediately), and then just give them up when they get their Nexus book.
Except that's the whole point, choice. You would make that choice when you start in the Cleft. Do you go in the fissure and follow Yeesha's path or do you go into the volcano and follow Anna's path? At the end of each path you would get your flavor of rescue book. Until you did there would be no way to go to an area where you could fall. Players could return to the Cleft/The Shaft to change their books if they decided against the path they had chosen.
Also, while the Nexus is an appealing choice, I avoided it because I'm not aware of an easy way to force people who have just lost their rescue age book to get a new one without linking to the City etc. from Nexus. My idea was to have an Age sealed off except for a place where you get a new rescue book. After getting it, a Nexus machine would open and you would be permitted to leave. Otherwise people would panic link without a book (in the game you do a kind panic link even without a relto book).
Since the books have to be replaced afterwards (as I assume would be the case, as the book was presumably "lost" when it fell and disappeared), and since the logical result of regular linking books being linked through in accordance to the D'ni process of linking is that the book falls down and stays there, there either should be a book on the ground - or there should be something that explains why there is not. There has to be some explanation.
Uru based on logic: Uru has tried to be based as strongly as possible on logic and an appearance of reality. There are no arbitrary "classes" or "leveling up", instead you are a real person - yourself - who is in a "real" place. The Uruverse is connected to the real-world universe (since there are humans, the surface, etc.) and so follows the laws of physics - with some additions. I think that all people will agree with me that the additions do not include the vaporization of books.
Since this is not a solution to a gameplay issue (such as how the closet works instead of just you pulling out clothes or something) or a tech issue (such as how linking books don't show people), but instead an IC logic issue (why in the world do DRC followers use Relto books?), then it should be forming an IC logical answer. In my opinion, a physics problem is more starkly illogical then a personality problem (especially where there are ways to resolve the personality problem that are simpler than adding new pieces to the laws of physics).
Except there aren't explanations for other game mechanisms which are equally strange and which can also be phrased as an "IC logic issue". For example, the only reason the KI machines materialize a KI on your wrist is because it would take too much effort to make an animation of the machine putting it on. Similarly there's no explanation as to how the machine can store potentially thousands of KIs. The thing is, the book vanishing issue
is a tech issue. The Relto book is a part of the avatar model which is why it vanishes with you. So the rescue book can't stay on the ground unless you want the avatar hanging around there too (a message pops up which says "We're sorry, IC logic demands you remain in a black void until your book naturally decays in a few years"
)
Baron wrote:It is possible to view Yeesha's accomplishments as "magic," but I do not see it that way. I see her as an experimenter with brilliant insight, willing to implement Writings without confining herself to the limits set by the Guild.
That is true. "Yeesha Magic" is simply used because it's shorter than "Yeesha is an extremely talented writer able to do improbable things because of an inerrant talent and even greater luck than her mother had in making Ages work even when D'ni rules forbade it". The problem is that Yeesha's talent is used in this case to fix a gameplay issue (i.e. how you don't kill yourself or get trapped). The problem is furthered by the fact that a great deal of IC tension was generated over the use of books and people were asked to choose. The fact that there's really little we CAN choose has been an issue to many. Everyone gets Relto books and the only real choice we have is to not do Yeesha's quest. It's heavy on the Yeesha side and not much on a traditional D'ni side/DRC side. There's no way nor reason to get rid of Yeesha, but I do think an initial choice of who you will "follow" would be very beneficial.
Is there an assumption somewhere that linking books or Relto books are somehow encoded or illegible? Wouldn't a modern researcher, with a growing knowledge of the Art, be able to look through a Relto book and see exactly what Yeesha's innovations are, then copy them?
From what I understand that would be highly improbable. Writing seems to have a random (RAWA uses the word "chaotic") element to it and it would seem that the way you write might influence that or otherwise add another issue to the list. For example, if I copy the Kadish book completely I will always link to a brand new version of Kadish. It's possible but incredibly improbable. Thus I think writing is not really just parts, but how they're constructed. The "Yeeshaish" phrase you copy out may require some normal-looking phrase before it or after it, or it may need ten pages of stuff before it, etc. Figure if the DRC spent all this time down here and had not (to our knowledge) written even linking books to existing destinations, even the idea that WE can write is pushing it, IC, let alone figuring out the intricacies of Yeesha's writing.
Anyway, despite the fun I've had defending the self-destruction option, I like Whilyam's basic notion. I'd boil it down to "The DRC (or equivalent) have figured out how to author Nexus books that let us panic link, but that stay with us instead of being left behind." It's tidy.
Except the point is that the books would
not stay with you, but act as normal books. Thus if you didn't trust/like Yeesha's way, you could take the "safe" path shown by the DRC.
Gehn, lord of ages wrote:I don't think we can use the bahro to save us from death, because the D'ni obviously faced such problems (the empire itself died, and I think there were accidents and all that would be basically like what we'd panic link from that brought death tolls) and did not survive. And there's a bahro civil war going around, if I heard right. That might preoccupy them.
Bahro whisking away those without Reltos would be my second choice. Though I think the rescue Age would be better because it completly departs from the whole Yeesha/Bahro thing and goes with a strict D'ni way of doing it.
Now, a second idea. Some maintainer suits had mini-books in them for panic link purposes too (The Book of D'ni shows this being used to explore an Age whose sun had gone nova). Perhaps those who chose the DRC/D'ni path could get "linking gloves" which would serve as the panic link. The glove, IC, would contain a book and be triggered by the person when they fell by either some biological response (i.e. sweat or heart rate) or the panel would be on the palm and the person would link out by touching it to a piece of exposed or lightly-covered skin. They would be taken to an Age where a KI-like machine would put a new book in their glove and they would be allowed to link to Nexus after that. The book would be so small that it wouldn't be visible/visible enough.