OpenUru.org

Once the source is released, I have been considering something thats been of great interest to a number of fans, including myself.

The reintegration of the DIRT concept of the Great Shaft and the Cleft. Making the Cleft public, and the starting point of the Uru Journey. Where at the cleft you will be given the choice of going through Yeesha's Journey, or traveling down through the Volcano, to the Great Shaft, and finally into D'ni.

This was a concept that was the beginning of the Myst V adventure. Now they Myst V content, may be still under license by Ubisoft. Descent itself, was largely finished by the time Uru Live was shut down. SO it may fall into the same category that Kveer did. Kveer was included in MOUL because it was an area that was originally intended for Uru Live. Descent, Noloben, and Todelmer also fell into this category, but the work on those areas wasn't completed yet while Kveer largely was.

I am suggesting that we submit a proposal to Cyan to open up a few of the 3DSMax models for those ages that are covered under the loophole that Kveer was covered under, so that they can be finished and ported over to the MOUL engine.

The easiest of those to start with is Descent. I have done a lot of work already, in blender, merging the volcano and Tiana's cave from Myst V with that of the Cleft from POTS. With much success.

What i envision will be this: The user starts at the cleft, which is now a public area that everyone starts at. They are then made aware of Yeesha's journey, as well as a second option of journeying to D'ni via the Great Shaft and caves. If they choose the second option, they will be able to travel over the fence, down into the volcano's caldera. There they will enter Tiana's cave, just like in Myst V.

Once in the cave, they will be met with a blocade of rubble, as well as a Bahro stone buried in the rubble. Using the stone, they will link to the other side of the rubble, which is the new full version of Descent. At which point, along the way, they can pick up their KI, meet others, and take the elevators down to the bottom of the shaft, or if they so choose, walk with their new friends, down the length of the shaft. In the rest areas along the way throughout descent, there will be Nexus terminals, that they can use to shorten their trip into D'ni if they so choose. Or they can continue to the end of Descent, where after traveling through the caves, and over the lava flow, they will arrive at the south gate. At the south gate will be a ferry terminal, with ferry's constantly "traveling" to the city. If the Explorer chooses to take such a ferry, they will be board the ferry, and be provided with a cut scene, of the journey across the lake. At which point, once they travel under Kerath's Arch, they will "fake link" out. And be deposited at the Ferry Terminal in the City.

Obviously there's a lot of technical stuff needed to make this possible. First, The cleft will need an upgrade, to allow for a public space, as well as instructions on how to get into D'ni via the tunnel. Finally, if CYan approves the use of the Myst V model for Descent, we'll also need to finish said model, and create the tunnels, lava flow, and South Gate from the Book of Tiana and Book of Atrus. Along with the Bink movie itself that will play as the "Journey to D'ni" ferry ride.

Thoughts on this?

It's a dream so many of us have that' it's almost universal. Alahmnat and Tweek have already proposed their own fairly detailed layout for this. Tweek especially pines for a return to DIRT. If you want to make something together, these are good people to seek out to start such a project.

Whatever comes of this, I will happily test it and bug report the multiplayer version until either I or my computer fail from exhaustion. Just let me know - repetition ad infinitum to get things perfected doesn't scare me in the slightest.

Oh man, I've dumped so much time into working out how to make this happen it's really not even all that funny anymore... my most recent designs have omitted Yeesha and Relto entirely; something I think will need to be rectified unless we *really* go crazy and completely overhaul the game's core personal space system... just having a better start-up experience for newcomers would be more than enough for now, I think.

I'll try to post a move thorough overview of what my current thoughts are tomorrow... it's really late now and I need to get to bed in a minute. Suffice it to say that you, Tweek, and I are largely on the same page with this. Provided we can get an OK from Cyan to go ahead, I think it would be pretty easy to come up with a finalized implementation between the three of us .

Alahmnat wrote:I'll try to post a move thorough overview of what my current thoughts are tomorrow... it's really late now and I need to get to bed in a minute. Suffice it to say that you, Tweek, and I are largely on the same page with this. Provided we can get an OK from Cyan to go ahead, I think it would be pretty easy to come up with a finalized implementation between the three of us .

I agree. The majority of the implementations I've already made in my offline install, draw heavily upon your's and Tweek's views on this. I am of the mind that Relto and the Yeesha's influence should remain, but that the choice be given to the player as to which "route" to take so to speak. With the option of changing that route at any time. The Domicile idea that Tweek came up with led me to create the basic layout of such an area of D'ni. The Domicle serving as the alternative to Relto. There a "terminal" similar to the Nexus would be set up in the living quarters, with similar collectable options like Yeesha pages. Using the interface, one can toggle on and off the customized options, decorating their Domicile to their choosing. All the options being specific D'ni items. Lamps, window treatments, fire marbles, benches a central fountain etc. Open toggling one of the options in the GUI, a message is sent via the KI chat that the ResEng's have been notified of your request. Then when you come back to the Domicile, you'd find the newly made option.

The choice between the two can be made simply in changes in the python, that if you choose Yeesha's journey at the start of your journey, you don't get the Domicile, and vice versa. But with the ability to go back and undo your decision at any time, thus disabliing your relto, but allowing you to acquire the Domicile etc.

This would also allow it to fit into RAWA's rules, as we're not making Yeesha pages, but instead, in fan created ages there can be "Domicile Customization Orders" similar to a yeesha page. That when collected, add that objects option to the Domicle's GUI when you sit at the terminal.

Limitations in the plugin have prevented me from doing any work on the GUI. But I've modeled a basic idea for the atrium in the Domicile, as well as some work on the Cleft and Descent.

As promised, my revised thoughts, fresh from a post on MOUL:

My thoughts on the Cleft and starting the game...

As with most of the other suggestions here, the Cleft would be multiplayer. The multiplayer Cleft would be devoid of Yeesha's puzzles, including the Journey Cloths, the tree in the Cleft wouldn't have a door in it, and the imager would have a message from Victor Laxman programmed into it, instructing players how to proceed into the Descent.

As with Tweek's idea (I'm stealing, actually ), the player proceeds up the Volcano slope and down a rope ladder into the caldera, then down into the small cave below it. As opposed to EoA, where the Great Shaft is accessible via a collapsed node wall, the only room accessible here is the Eder Tomahn to the right (the Great Shaft being completely inaccessible from the Cleft directly). In here, there's another hologram from Laxman explaining briefly how to get your KI and how to use its basic functions. The Nexus Pedestal in the room has a covering on it that only opens after registering the terminal with your KI, ensuring that players have the KI before proceeding into the game (given how important the KI is to most activities, not having such a basic component of gameplay before leaving this "newbie" area seems kind of dumb... even players who want to follow Yeesha are going to need one to interact with numerous elements of the game).

For their first exposure to the Nexus, players are presented with a simplified interface with only a small handful of links: the Eder Tomahn they came from, the Great Shaft, a boat dock on the outer shore of the Cavern, their personal room in D'ni, and (possibly) their Neighborhood. The rest of the Nexus interface would be visible but blanked/dimmed out, so that future encounters with the device can be more complex without throwing completely new UIs at the player every time.

Continuing into the Great Shaft (which is also public), at the very least the elevators should be operational, and the mid-way Eder Tomahn should be accessible. Within it, Watson's old stuff will still be available, with the addition of a Bahro Stone linking to a private Cleft instance. This Cleft has the message from Yeesha, the Journey Cloths, the door in the tree, and the Relto Book within. From here, players can branch out and go on Yeesha's Journey if they so choose, or return to Relto, where a Nexus Book is waiting on their bookshelf so that they can continue to explore the Descent.

The Descent itself should ideally resemble the descriptions in BoA/BoT and the map from BoT as much as possible, and could easily be broken up by using transitional nodes much the same way that Half-Life 2 uses windowless corridors: enter a node by opening the node door and getting a little scripted animation of your avatar walking inside, then cut to a loading screen, and return with your avatar standing inside the node, which is now at the "top" of the current segment of the Descent.

At the bottom of the Descent (all of which can be skipped by linking straight here if you just want to get into D'ni quickly) is a small cave connected to the Cavern at water level, with a substantial overhang that prevents players from being able to get a terribly good view outside. Borrowing from Drakmyth's ideas (mine were similar, but more complex), players board a regularly-running ferry and are treated to a nice sweeping cinematic of entering the Cavern, which fades out and triggers a loading screen that sends them to just outside Ferry Terminal, where the boat docks and players can disembark (other players can also get on if they want to take the boat back to the Descent).

I also rather like the idea of integrating the Maintainers' special auto-link system from the Wall into the KI... perhaps it's a new feature in the new batch of KIs that were found with a vastly improved UI . The only question becomes where to put players who don't have a Relto Book, and what happens when they acquire one. The most logical solution would be to give players a room "somewhere" in D'ni if they don't have a Relto Book... it doesn't really overlook anything distinctive, so there's less of an issue with the instancing conundrum, but it's in D'ni somewhere, and houses all of your stuff much like Relto does, with Tweek's suggestion that alternative reward items be made available for D'ni inhabitants versus Relto commuters. If a player without a Relto Book needs to panic link, the KI will take care of that for them and take them back to their room in D'ni.

Once a player acquires a Relto Book, they automatically shift to using that as their home base. If they want to continue living in D'ni and returning there whenever they panic link, either a game menu option or some in-game mechanism (not sure exactly how to handle that in-game, it may just need to be slightly OOC as a rule, since it's a player action and not an avatar action...) they can set which option they want to use.

Sounds really interesting

BUT, don't plan too much features for the game before the code and the tools get released, we should use the time to organize the team and create a team-structure.

Alahmnat and Tweek have the best, most complete visions for this so far - already prepared. They both have their own resources and talent to host a team wherever they want, but how about a common ground here? Considering their inimitable standing in the Cyan community, I offer instant approval for project space here - subdomain for a project website, FTP access, project forum, and I'll install other web tools if they wish it. Being the epitome of starting off on an Uru adventure, hosting a project here with a fabulous team to explore a completed path from the Cleft to D'ni would be absolutely thrilling. It would make a grand and symbolic start to show what this site is all about - if they like the idea.



Ok, back on topic.

Alahmnat wrote:...If a player without a Relto Book needs to panic link, the KI will take care of that for them and take them back to their room in D'ni...

Alahmnat (has there always been an 'n' in your name?! I just noticed it for the first time, always thought it was Alahmat anyway...), I think your entire plan (and that of Tweek, etc.) is great, except for one hole. On the off chance that one doesn't pick up a Yeesha book or a KI, what happens when a panic link is needed? In that case, there's nothing we can use to explain the avatar simply disappearing.

Or I guess we can just say BAHRO MAGIC! and leave it at that

zib_redlektab wrote:Or I guess we can just say BAHRO MAGIC! and leave it at that

That's exactly what Tweek said just yesterday:

Tweek wrote:There is a panic link mechanism in place for when you don't have the relto book. Basically you just link back to the start of the Age (this happened when I fell through the cleft once). You could always just use that then tag on a bahro scream when you link (like you do when you pick up the hydrants page in the MOUL version of the cleft) then just say the bahro have been keeping watch over us or something.

http://www.mystonline.com/forums/viewto ... 227#279227

What would Uru do without a greater magic than books?