Hi!

So, in the past months I've been working, bit by bit, on a walkthrough for MOUL's beginning. At least my beginning. How I wanted MOUL to be.

First, I know you will have many questions, like "how is it possible?", "why is it needed?", "what is it?" and many other. Feel free to ask ANYTHING.

So, here it is. MOUL beginning- my version:

MOUL walkthroughs

[During the game, you will find certain spots, called "Interesting Experiences", or IE in short. There are many IEs in the game, and once you find one you will be noticed through the chat system. There is also the experience level, which you can see in the options menu, while in-game. After you find 10 interesting experiences, your experience level will be raised, and the number of IEs needed to raise the level will go higher and higher. You begin as "New Explorer", and the 10th and final level is "Mastering Explorer". Even when you reach the highest level, you can keep looking for more IEs. If you want to see how much someone is experienced, write in the chat /ask<charactername>story. His story window will be shown, where you can see, among other things, how many IEs he found]

Beginning (DRC followers)

The desert

After you create your character, go through all menus and other things, you will find out you are in a desert.

On the "old west cart" in front of you, there's a text. With the part which is buried in the ground, it says "New Mexico Trading Company". So, you are in New Mexico.

This is a public area, and there should be other people here.

Anyway, look around. In the distance, you will find something which looks like a mountain. Run toward it…

The volcano area

You find yourself in front of the mountain (you will get an IE). Only that this is a volcano. Behind you is an open gate, go through it to return to the public desert. Run toward it and if it's day, in the distance, you will see something. Go to it. It's actually a trailer, and there's a man sitting in front of it.

If it's night, you will see a campfire. The same man will sit in front of the fire. Go there, anyway.

Don't speak to him yet!

Go behind his trailer, or the campfire, and keep walking counter clockwise around the volcano, until you see some wrecks on the ground.

Riven wrecks

What are these wrecks? You will find out later.

Go to the fence around the volcano. At some point of the fence, you will find a large machine, lying on a rock. Someone definitely put it there, but who did?

Press on the blue button on the middle of the machine.

A hologram of a man will come up (you will get an IE). He presents himself as Victor Laxman, from the "DRC". He will tell you some things about the man you saw in front of the trailer, and about a "journey" he encourages you to start. He tells you the dangers of this "journey", and that the DRC tried to fight this thing in the past with no results. Finally, he gives you the choice (follow the DRC or Zandi, the man in front of the trailer), tells you that if you want to follow him you need to enter the volcano through the torn in the fence next to this machine, and reach his hand to the blue button, touches it, and the hologram shuts down.

Who was he? What is this "journey"? What is the "DRC"?

You will soon find out.

If you haven't noticed it yet, there's indeed a torn in the fence left to the machine. Go through it, and you will disappear.

_________________
Previously known as "The stranger"

Last edited by ThedStranger on Wed Dec 10, 2008 7:11 pm; edited 2 times in total

Volcano caldera

You arrive in the caldera of the volcano. A message pops up, telling you how you can share this caldera with friends (you have a "share" option in the inventory which will appear in the public desert, using it you can share this caldera with other people. Notice that the "share" option here and in the caves is only to share different sections of the caves with others, who are here). There are stairs behind you, carved on the inner wall of the caldera. If you want to return to the desert, walk up the stairs and there you are!

But don't do that. Like the hologram said, this is the starting point in your D'ni exploration.

Look around. You can see a lake and… a dagger. A very big one. If you didn't play "Riven the Sequel to Myst", you have no idea what it is. But if you did...what the hack is it doing here?! It's not important right now, so you can leave it.

So, what's now? The hologram said something about a hole in the ground, which will take you to the caves leading to D'ni. So, look for a hole in the ground.

Behind one of the big rocks behind the dagger, you will find the hole. There's a ladder in it, leading down. Go down!

Starting caves

You arrive in a cave. Walk to its end, until you reach a crack on the wall. Walk through it.

You arrive in another cave. Only that this one is much more…"civilized". In front of the boxes, there's a sign. It says "enter the resting house to take your KI", and a arrow to the right. What's a KI?

Go right and enter the room on the left wall.

1st resting house

You find yourself in a small room. On one of the beds carved into the wall, there's a note, with some sketching on it (can you see a familiar place here?). There's a small signature on it. A DRC signature. Yes, you will soon find out who they are.

Go to the big, glowing blue machine next to the wall, on one of the sides of the room (you will spot it for sure). Put your hand in it. Your inventory is updated, and there's something new attached to your hand (you will get in IE).

This is a KI. With it, you can make buddies list, send messages and pictures to other players, see who's online, and many, many other things. Also, it is used to open the Nexus machine.

Opposite to the KI dispenser, there's a book. With a moving picture on it. This is a linking book, and you will find many of them in the game. This book links to a Nexus age, where you will find a machine. If you don't have a KI, it won't work. There's another linking book on a pedestal, which links you back to the 1st resting house. If you have a KI, put your hand in the machine, and a screen will be activated. You can find links to many places in there (the nexus will be updated with links as you progress).

The journey to D'ni is long, so if you don't have time or patience for it, you can use the nexus links.

If you want to do all the way to D'ni, you can leave the nexus. You will find more of the nexus books, if you ever want to take the short way.

Back to the small room, leave it.

Starting caves

Back to the hallway, go to its far end, until you see some yellow paintings on it. Weird symbols. Leave it for now.

Left to the yellow paintings, the wall is broken. Enter the new room.

1st fan room

Another room. There's a fan on the ground, growling.

One of the doors (weird ones) here has a lever to its right. Use the ladder, and the door opens. Enter the hallway and walk to its end…

_________________
Previously known as "The stranger"

The Great Shaft- top level

The great shaft! This huge place was built years ago by the D'ni people, from the D'ni city, on their way out to the surface. This place has a big part in the Myst series storyline.

You can wonder around the room now. If you try to go down the spiral path, you will find it broken.

So, go around the railing, until you find a small platform with a lever on the left of it. Use the lever… and after a few seconds an elevator will arrive. Enter it, pull the handle, and down you go!

The Great Shaft- halfway

The elevator stops halfway (not really halfway, but somewhere around), in the middle of the shaft. Exit and go to the next elevator, which is near the one you just used. You can also find here another resting house… only that there's a door blocking it, and it's locked. What a shame… never mind, go to the next elevator!

Once inside the next elevator, pull the handle, and you will go down…

The Great Shaft- bottom

Exit the elevator and go right. From the 3 platforms here, you can see the very bottom of the shaft… keep going around this level, until you find another new room. Go into it.

This is sort of a maze, but it's not very difficult. Just go around any way you want, and you will find your way to the real bottom of the shaft.

Look around. There's another doorway here, and a closed door. In the middle, between the 4 pillars, a button. Or is it? You can't press it…

There's a puzzle here. Go back to the stairs "maze", and walk around. You should soon enough find a button. Press it. It will start ticking.

Run back to the main hall (where the button is), and go to the other stairs "maze" on the other side of the room. Run around until you find another button. Press it too.

Now run back, quickly, to the main hall. The button in the center is now red. Press it…

If both buttons still ticking, the whole floor rises up! Wow! (You will get an IE)

Once it's done, you will find yourself back at the level above you, where the platforms are… but there's another section in this place that you haven't see yet, if you haven't noticed that. Go there.

There's the fan system machine here, that you can't use… and another resting house, with an unfunctional KI dispenser and another nexus linking book.

So, where do we continue?

Go back to the "elevator floor". Press the button in the middle to go down… once down, press the button again.

And run out before the floor goes up!

The floor goes up, and if you are outside of the floor, a new room is revealed to you, right under the elevator floor!

Go down the ladder into this new room. The button in the middle takes the floor down.

There's a tunnel in this room. If you go to the very end of it, you will find another fan controls, which you can't use. Instead use the ladder in the middle of the tunnel.

You find yourself in a new tunnel. One of the doors here leads you back to the floor of the great shaft. The other leads you to another fan room.

2nd fan room

Once again, a room with a growling fan. Missed this place? There's another resting house here (no KI dispenser though).

Turn the lever in this room. The door opens up.

Now, the tunnels begin.

_________________
Previously known as "The stranger"

Tunnels (1)

This cave is much more...primitive. Like the first cave. There are many, many glowing crystals all around. On the ceiling, walls, and even some on the floor. Walk down the stone stairs. Keep walking, until you reach few big rocks blocking your way. Run to the stones and jump on them. The rubble will collapse, and you can go on.

Keep going around the swirling tunnel. You will soon see a large "ring" around the wall. Pass it…

Weird plants are growing on the walls. You can see, from time to time, small lizards walking around. Keep going, don't stop.

Now the tunnels become narrow. Keep walking. Sometimes you will have to walk up, and many times you will walk down. Also, at some point, the tunnels will open to small caverns, and than going back to narrow tunnels. Don't turn around, you might get lost.

Along the way, you will find several resting houses (if you ever get tired of walking, you can use the nexus linking book there to skip parts).

From now, until you reach the city, you will get about 7 different IEs.

3rd fan room

Another fan room. Notice the sharp crystals on the wall. There's a resting house here as well. Use the lever to open the other door and continue through the tunnels.

Tunnels (2)

Keep walking…

Big way station

After walking some more, you arrive at a large cavern. This one was obviously built. There are some swarms of bugs wandering around. Stalactites on the ceiling. . Look around. Another resting house here. Enter the resting house.

6th resting house

Yes, this is the 6th resting house. There's a note on the floor. Actually, half a note. Look at it. It's nonsense. It says "LRRLFLFF…" and so on. Ls, Rs and Ts. What is that? Copy the letters on a paper. It's a clue for later on.

Exit the room back to the way station.

Way station

Part of the wall here is broken. Go through the broken wall back into more tunnels.

Tunnels (3)

The tunnels are still narrow. Sometimes you will, once again, reach some bigger caverns, and than narrow again. The path goes down…along the way, you will see sponge-like rocks on the walls, more sharp crystals (like the ones in the 3rd fan room), and some blue crystals, inside the rock.

Pool cavern

After passing a narrow tunnel, you arrive in a big cavern. There's a pool in here, and a narrow path carved to the side of the right wall. Go to the path.

As you walk on, look at the dripstone all around the pool to your right. Near the end of the cavern, there are small, white flowers growing on the walls and some on the floor. Exit the cavern and keep going.

Tunnels (4)

Keep walking along the tunnels. Now there are less narrow tunnels, and they grow bigger. The path keeps going down. Now, you will see many, many great sights. Stalactites, stalagmites, different kind of crystals, pools, glowing plants, bugs and lizards… a lot to see.

There are some more resting houses here.

The pantry

Once again, after walking through the tunnels, you arrive in a big cavern. This one is really large. It's sort of a hill, and you arrive on top of it.

At its end, there's a large, decorated metal and rock gate.

Pass the gate back to some more tunnels.

Tunnels (5)

The tunnels here are obviously man made. Actually, it's one long tunnel, going straight forward. Walk into the darkness. Small crystals light your way. Along the way, on the right wall, you will find another resting house. Enter the room.

11th resting house

Another resting house. Again, a nexus linking book, beds…wait? What's that on the portable bed?

Another note. The other part of the torn note you found the resting house No.6. Again, more "RFLRRF…" copy the words, again. Make sure they are in the right position, with the other part of the note.

Also, notice that on the note, there is a signature, a DRC signature…

Exit the room back to the tunnel.

_________________
Previously known as "The stranger"

Tunnels (5)

Once you exit the room, turn right and keep going to the end of the path…

Lava cavern

At the end of the path, there are some pillars from two sides of the path. Vine is growing out of the rock here. Outside, a shining orange light…

There are some barricades blocking the exit. However, one of them is moved aside… and you can go on…

Lava cavern

You find yourself on a rock bridge, and down below you… a lake of bubbling lava…

First, be careful not to fall. If you will, you will be linked back to the beginning of this cavern.

Start walking on the rock bridge. Jump over the gap…

Oh no… what going on? The lava is beginning to bubble… run!

Problem is, you can run for only 10 seconds before you stop and start breathing heavily, for about 10 more seconds. Same thing for walking- only that you can walk 15 seconds, and than you breath for 10 second. If the lava starts to bubble while you are breathing, walking or running… you are sent back.

So, this is sort of a puzzle.

How will you know when to stop walking or running, so you will not stop to breath (or walk or run) while there is bubbling?

Look at the cavern walls. If they are darker, you can walk or run. Once they become lighten with orange light, it's time to stop.

So, do that. Start walking. Notice that you don't walk for over than 15 seconds, or run for over than 10 seconds. Once the walls become orange, stop. Don't walk or run. When the bubbling stops and the walls are grey again, start walking and do the thing over and over.

Near the end of the path, you will have to push a big rock into the lava in order to keep going. Click on the rock near you, and you will do that.

Now cross the bridge to the end…

You have crossed the lava cavern successfully!

Enter the new tunnel and keep going.

Tunnels (6)

You arrive, once again, in more tunnels. And again, they are narrow and dark. You will find another resting house around here.

Keep walking. Sometimes you will have to be careful and walk on narrow paths. You will see flowing water at some places. You will also find yourself in a large cavern with a waterfall and a large pool.

Keep walking until you reach a big boulder blocking your way. Look at the right wall: there's a narrow gap in it. Walk through it and in the tunnel, until you arrive in the other side.

Keep walking, and soon enough you will see an exit. Go through it…


The south gate

You arrive at a huge hall, with a shiny marble floor. In front of you, the south gate! It is a huge, decorated stone gate.

You are close to D'ni now!

Go through it…

4th fan room

Once again, another fan room. This one is very, very big. Big, red and purple crystals are everywhere, and golden crystals are shining from the rock.

There are many, many (about 100) closed doors here, and many levers. However, all the levers are stuck.

There is one open door here.

It's time to enter the maze.

_________________
Previously known as "The stranger"

The maze

The door takes you to a tunnel. It is clearly a man made tunnel, and a very big one.

The puzzle here is simple. Remember the torn note, with the Ls, Rs and Ts? Now it's time to use it.

The note is your way out of this maze. You need to follow it. L is for "left", R is for "right", and F is for "forward".

Go where the note tells you. If it's telling you F, at the next junction go forward. If it's telling L, next junction- left turn. "R"- next junction, turn right. The 1st latter in the note is for the first junction, and so on. If there are parts where you don't come to junctions, don't worry. Keep walking.

Along the maze, you will find amazing things. Huge machines, crystals, and buildings. You will sometimes need to jump over rubble and such things. Just remember not to get lost.

The second you enter the maze, a new option will be added to the inventory. If you ever get lost, press its icon, and you will be linked back to the beginning of the maze.

Anyway, if you followed everything correctly…

D'ni

The light begins to change. You can a nexus station in the wall. Behind the station, you will see a hill, covered with tiny, blue crystals. Walk up the hill, until you see a doorway.

Walk through the tunnel.

At the end, walk through the bridge to the big balcony.

Welcome to D'ni city!

You can see some building above you, and many others below. There are few big rocks, and a high lamp in the middle of the balcony. The city is built to your left, all over the cavern wall. From the railing, you can see the great lake, with islands in it. If it's day, the lake should be glowing. If it's night, the lake should be dark.

After you are done staring at the view, go to the far end of the balcony. There are spiral stairs, carved next to the rock. Go downstairs… the screen fades and the game will load.

Neighborhood

You arrive in a neighborhood. There is a fountain here, houses, and many more things. If you are yet to take your KI, you can take it from here, in an age called Gahreesen.

This is a public place, and there should be others here.

(If you already carry a Relto book, which means you didn't exactly follow this walkthrough, you will have a default 'hood. You are not a member of it. You cannot upload pictures, messages, or anything else to the imagers, or start a new 'hood).

If you don't carry a Relto book (and directly followed this walkthrough), you are signed to your default 'hood. Unless you use the "save" option, you will start the game here. If you want to join a new 'hood, first go to the 'hood you want to join through the nexus. If a member of the 'hood will agree to accept you as a member, he will write the comment /givecode<yourname>, and you will get a code. Now, go to your 'hood, to the right door from the two doors behind the linking spot (next to the imager, the red one), and you will be asked for a code. Put in the given code, and if it's correct (and if 24 hours hasn't passed since the giving of the code), you will be signed to a new 'hood. The green door (left door, behind linking spot), will take you back to the D'ni city entrance. If you want to share the entrance with other, you can use the "share" option (yes, the same option which could be used in the public desert in order to share the caldera with others can now be used in order to share the city entrance with others).

If you start the journey, you will loose your 'hood membership. That is, until you lay down your Relto book again.

That is it! This is where your real exploration begins! There is much, much more to see! Walkthroughs for the different worlds can be found in the "journeys" walkthroughs. Ages of the journey followers of the journeys will be somewhat different than DRC followers. There are some worlds you cannot solve without being a journey follower, but many are, in many means, the same.

Good luck!

_________________
Previously known as "The stranger"

Ah... comments? everytime I post such threads, people ignore them... am I that boring?

_________________
Previously known as "The stranger"

No you are not boring. This would actually be really interesting and fun to play. I've always wanted to climb down the volcano in uru, but never could. And your idea with the IE's are great. I hope cyan consider your ideas if they plan to start up MORE.

-Rehmihro

Thanks!

BTW, the way to d'ni doesn't have to be exactly as I said. Just... the way. I only made up stuff for this "walkthrough".

_________________
Previously known as "The stranger"

That’s funny, stranger, that is kinda what I was visualizing for the connection of Myst 5 to MO:UL, and I’m sure what Cyan had in mind. Some of the elements might not match the D’ni storyline exactly as you have mentioned them, but the concepts are basically very good

_________________

Well done you have put this together in a fun way.

I'm sure that by "elements" you mean the professions and IEs. I'm sure many people have no idea why I supporte such things.

Well, I'll explain more.

About the IEs, I already told you what they are. But wy do I think it will be good? because people need some push. When playing a computer game, you don't explore like... really exploring. It can be fun and really great, but at some point you will say "why should I go all the way there? to see something?". That's what happend to me with the ahnonay spheres. I knew seeing the spheres rotate will be great, but I just didn't care enough. So these IEs are a push. A push to explore more. When you explore an old factory in the maze of d'ni tunnels, and find a skeleton of a man, you get an IE. When you read sharper's journal in his office, you get an IE. When you see the spheres rotate, you get an IE. The "beginning areas" (such as the desert, the way to d'ni, and the 'hoods) will have easier IEs (like seeing stuff which are easily noticable), and the more complicated areas (teledahn, eder gira, spyroom) will have harder IEs (few simple stuff like visiting an age with friends, other require you to do some thing).

Now, the leveling... again, that's a push to do and see more. 10 levels to go,100 IEs to find to reach the top level, "Mastering Explorer". As I said, explorers will easily find the about 20 "you will abviously see this thing" IEs. Than, there are the more complicated IEs.

A problem I came into is "how do I make leveling fit to MUL?". MUL doesn't seems like the type of game with leveling, though with no push, it will be somewhat boring. I needed something which fits MUL exploration spirit, and not the "kill a monster, level up" leveling in other MMOs. MUL has somekind of unwritten leveling- experience.There are the new, unexperienced explorers who want to know more, and the very experienced explorers who can help around and stuff. So if this leveling was written down, I thought people will actually want to explore more. But in MUL, it won't be like other MMOs. In MUL, your experience is what you see and do. Instead of pointless missions, you get things which actually help you understand things better.

Now, to the professions. There are NO differences between them, and they are used only as titles. In the character gender and name tab (which will appear once you create a new character. oh and btw this tab will also have left handed/right handed choice), you will choose the profession (Adventurer, Archeologist, Geologist or Historian). Written above, will be something like "profession used only as titles, no difference between them". All professions are the same. As you know, when you put your crusor over a person, you will see his name, his level (only New Explorer/Wandering Explorer and so on, not IEs) and his profession. This profession is only used as a title, to show why you are here. If you choose adventurer, you play the game because you want simply go where things take you. If you choose archeologist, you play the game because you want to see ancient building and tools. If you choose geologist you play the game to learn about the nature of things around you, of the ages and buildings. If you choose historian, you play the game because you want to learn more about the people of the city. Of course these things aren't a must, but the point is that professions are titles which show others what are you most interested in.

Now, the sides choosing. There are 2 options in the game. There are "followers", those who follow the journeys, and "unfollowers", those who follow the DRC, or simply don't follow anyone. This option WON'T be shown when you put your cruson on a perosn, because it's really complicated. One can take a relto book and be a follower, while he doesn't really support yeesha. Other can play without a relto book, while he actually don't follow anyone. Sides things are really "unwritten", so instead of writting it down, there will be 2 options, and the sides- they are for the player to choose during the game.

The differences between the options are (notice that one an change his option during the game. Just like you take a relto book to be a follower, you can put it down to be an unfollower. Even if you change options, all your progress wil be saved, both as follower and unfollower):

Followers: Can use any bahro/yeesha objects (yeesha signed linking books, linking stones, cloths), have and can collect journey related clothing (journey gift, watcher's shirt from ahnonay), have an can collect regular clothing (not related to followers or unfollowers), can solve cloth-based puzzles, can reach all areas of an age, if the some area of the age is reachable by cloths/any bahro object (such as ahnonay), have a personal age (relto), can modificate personal age with relto pages, have a closet and a bookshelf (for easier traveling), can take a KI, can collect all nexus links, have a journal, have a default 'hood. Can't have a membership in their default 'hood (not considered 'hood members, don't have "neighbors" tab in KI chat, can't upload pics to the 'hood imagers), can't open a new 'hood or change default 'hood, can't reach the descent (both from the desert and from the 'hood. They can reach the 'hood through a book in their relto bookshelf), don't have and can't collect special unfollowers clothing (DRC, not regular, hardhats, DRC shirt, DRC logos on shirts).

Unfollower: Can reach descent, can take a KI, can collect nexus links, have a journal, have and can collect special unfollowers clothing (such as DRC hardhats and DRC shirt), can do everything followers do in their ages (touch cloths, use yeesha objects, reach areas only reachable with bahro and yeesha related objects) if he links to a follower's age version, have an can collect regular clothing (not related to followers or unfollowers), have a membership in their default 'hood (and everything that comes with it, as stated above), can open a new 'hood and can change 'hood membership, can't have a personal age (no personal bookshelf), can't use any bahro/yeesha objects (yeesha signed linking books, linking stones, cloths), don't have and can't collect journey related clothing (journey gift, watcher's shirt from ahnonay), don't have cloths in his version of the age, can't reach all areas of an age on his own, if the some area of the age is reachable by cloths/any bahro and yeesha object (such as ahnonay), don't have and can't collect journey related clothing (described above).

_________________
Previously known as "The stranger"

In regards to Levels and Professions.


Levels: Levels end up about grinding, trying to get to the next one, grinding didn't go down well in Uru (Er'cana Pellets), I'm in Uru to explore not to grind, I play WoW for grinding.

Professions: I don't see why you need to implement a structure for professions when they basically do nothing. It's just easier to say Hi I'm Tweek a D'ni Historian. If you're going to have professions they need to actually do stuff I guess, but even then they can end up being somewhat pointless.

_________________
Beneath - Journey of an explorer in D'ni
UruBlogs - Blogs from Uru Explorers
Tweek@Guild of Writers - Age development Blog.

_________________
MOUL KI: 174162

Tweek:

About levels- why do you think so many people dropped the er'cana pellets into the water? because they wanted to have more points, and they wanted to see the lake lighting up. It didn't happen, but people believed it will. As I already said in my post, MUL's leveling isn't like WoW's leveling. Here, you are encouraged to explore more. It's not the "kill 10 monsters and level up" leveling. You actually see more things, even very small ones. When you talk about your level in WoW (yes, I KNOW it works like that, I played a trial), you say "I leveled up because I killed 20 trolls and 10 mages, and now I'm level 75". When you talk about the your level in MUL, you say "I leveled up because I saw the south gate, visited teledahn with friends and saw a skeleton of a dead d'ni dude in the old factory in the tunnels to d'ni city. Now I'm a learning explorer". It's more... Mysty, if you ask me.

I think it can be nice.

_________________
Previously known as "The stranger"

Last edited by ThedStranger on Mon Dec 08, 2008 1:39 pm; edited 1 time in total