Hee...hee...

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oh wad some power the giftie gie us - tae see ourselve's as ither's see us

Then, maybe what might work is to implement this game mechanic in individual Ages for each player- just like the regular Ages from Uru Prime. In the same way that one person's Teledahn may be unsolved while another's is completed, these 'repair Ages' could be as messy or as restored as the player deems fit. At least it would allow for a mechanic like this to be implemented for players who want it, while simaltaneously pleasing those who want nothing to do with it, and keeping the two worlds entirely seperate.

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I miss my old signature.

I'm thinking about the parts of Uru that were like that.

Remember maneuvering the fish trap or basket or whatever it was, into position across the little stream in Gira to make a bridge....

Remember how much cussing you did...

Did you really feel an immense sense of satisfaction after that? Or the sense of having been robbed of a huge amount of time?

Quote:

Remember maneuvering the fish trap or basket or whatever it was, into position across the little stream in Gira to make a bridge...

That...was the worst puzzle...Cyan ever made...

And I would never want any restoration puzzles to be as difficult, frustrating, or hideous as that.

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I miss my old signature.

Calam wrote:

Quote:

Remember maneuvering the fish trap or basket or whatever it was, into position across the little stream in Gira to make a bridge...

That...was the worst puzzle...Cyan ever made...

And I would never want any restoration puzzles to be as difficult, frustrating, or hideous as that.

I kind of have to disagree.

With the restriction of "you have no hands", yes, that was a horrible puzzle. However as an example of the kind of immersive environment we're asking for.. I think it was great! Thinking "outside the box" is really important to keep up the "act as if you were actually there" mythos that's been with us since Myst itself.

The other one I really loved was the small mini issue of how to deal with a stuck bridge in Teledahn. That was GREAT! A simple, realistic, first-thing-I-would-do-if-I-were-actually-there, duh-why-didn't-I-think-of-that puzzle

The joy of having a "real life" environment and realistic physics is that we want physical puzzles, as long as they don't require ultra trigger-fingers or elite soccer-skills in and of themselves.

So, umm.. mental physical puzzles

Calam wrote:

I was thinking the other night about Ages that would allow for more player activity or influence...and I started to wonder...

What about an Age (or maybe D'ni neighborhood, cavern location, etc.) that hasn't been completely restored, or isn't restored at all? Much of what we see in Ae'gura, the neighborhoods, or other D'ni Ages is the work of DRC restoration, but what about a part of the city that is not only unrestored, but weekly or monthly updates to that area that show slow reconstruction? This wouldn't be unfisable for Cyan to achieve, either. Simple updates to an area wouldn't take that long, and could be released often.

This might even allow for the opprotunity for players to be a part of the restoration, effectively taking part in the dirtywork of the DRC. Maybe fixing lighting to a stairway, or restoring a water-main to a water garden, or repairing an imager, or restoring a library...the list goes on! These sorts of little 'projects' could be puzzle-like in operation, and would allow for players to take a little more pride in their resident neighborhoods. Imagine being able to say to other explorers as they wander around your neighborhood, "yeah, see that D'ni clock? I fixed that. And that sculpture garden over there? I got that working again."

I think areas like this would see some serious activity and a lot of community-building. What do you think? What are some fan-including projects around an Age or neighborhood you can think of?

Yup. There has to be other things to do besides a few hours of puzzle solving then waiting a month or two until the next age. There's only so much fun factor of being in the same exact age with more people especially with no game to play since you all know the puzzles and their solutions. Most definately a guild-like system should be established and based on which guild you are in at the time it should allow you to do a specific job in the early phases of opening ages to aid the DRC...

Codeguru (Cavern Name: Liveye)

PS- And just to quelsh anyone still clinging to the "we're all generic explorers with no decernable differences" argument, this would make you the people who have access to the ages after it's been tamed, after phase 5 has been officially announced. However, a guild of explorers might have an actual hand in examining and marking new parts of the ages effectively so the age can be better readied and better explored after completion.

I like the idea of small puzzles that can fix or improve an age. I think it can be even better if the puzzles occured by automatically. An age can be built with a whole lot of 'breakables' that can randomly break over time. People can choose to fix them, or leave them broken. Each breakable can be a puzzle to fix.

Brings me back to a very old game that had random circuits where by connecting the correct connections the current would flow.

And as for 'sweeping' to clean up an age. I don't know if that is not entirely a bad idea. People love playing with the cones. I know I loved playing with the rocks and wood in my realto. I must admit however, I would have enjoyed it more if I had hands. Movable rocks and debris in an age can add to the content with little coding. People can place that debris where ever they want to 'customize' their age, or could throw it off a ledge to 'clean up'.

I think it would be cool if there were movables that required more than one person to move. A heavy boulder or table may need 2, 3, or 4 people to move. This would allow for some working together to improve or customize an age.

Restoration Puzzles sound like a Very Good Idea, actually.

Do what most MMOs do with longplay arcs: have a certain magic number of things that need to be fixed or accomplished, make it a pretty high number, and then anyone who wants to do so can contribute. When the magic number is reached, the players get shunted to a whole other server where everything has already been Restored, to start other work with the players who have already been on said restored server. Then new players can get shipped to the unrestored server.

Alternatively, you can put every new player on a clock, or pehaps even just a Restoration counter. The more things you restore, the closer you get to the Restoration, and get popped into a clean server and move on to new ages or areas of the cavern to work on. Like achieving the next level without the usual grinding involved. If you don't want to work in a certain area, go to another unrestored area and work in that. If you want to see and explore clean areas, do the restoration work.

This could be part of your characters 'level' setting, and each age they work to restore allows them access to the fully restored version afterwards.

I suppose ultimately this should be an optional career track feature, as some folks really won't want to go through this, and will only want to play completed areas. That's fine. They just won't get whatever bonuses come with having done the restoration track.

this also leaves open a career track for new Maintainer crews, who would have to go into whole new areas and map them out thoroughly, so restoration crews don't get killed.

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Lee Edward McIlmoyle
Adventure Game Devotee at large

I believe something similar to what you're saying is what the GZ is. Certain thousands have to calibrate it and then the GZ works again. (okay, not exactly what you meant, but close.)

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-Whilyam

I'm all over this concept. I think this would be a great way to do extra puzzle solving that would bring us back to ages we've already been in. I keep swearing that I need to upgrade the Ki machine and fix some of the power supply in the big fortress in Gahreesen, just as an example.