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Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 3:58 am — Post subject: Annabelle's Quests Releases Q & A
Q : How many quests will be published and in which ages?
A:
As of October 27th, 2011, there will be 148 quests spread throughout 23 different ages. They will be split inside 7 different releases.
Each release will be more or less centered on 1 age or a group of ages that fits together with 1 notable exception for the one holding miscellaneous ages not having enough quests.
Q: Can we have more information about the 7 releases?
A:
Sure
. A release is centered on 1 or more journeys, my journeys throughout the different ages I visited. It’s a coverage of my explorations in every corners of the ages. The biggest release, the 1st one is “The Magnificent City” which holds 35 quests inside 6 networks.
The 2nd release will be “Mushrooms & sundry journeys” that is in the last process. I plan to release all 23 quests of that release in November. For now, you’ll have to wait for further info about this release, and it will be a great one.
The 3rd release will be “The Grandiose Journey” that is also in the last process. I plan to release all 18 quests of that release later in November or in first weeks of December. For now, you’ll have to wait for further info about this release, and it will be a great one.
The 4th release will be “Journey into Darkness” that is underway. I had finished all quests but decided to remake 5 of them so I had to post-pone the release to the 4th position, it was initially in 2nd position. It will hold 14 quests. It is now scheduled as a Christmas gift, so it should be published before end of December. For now, you’ll have to wait for further info about this release, and it will be a great one.
The 5th release will be “Journeys beyond Imagination” that is underway. I have to redo 5 quests entirely but all the others are made since months. It will hold 22 quests and be released in mid-January. For now, you’ll have to wait for further info about this release, and it will be a great one.
The 6th release will be “The D’ni Cavern” that is all finish. I do have to rework entirely quests in neighbourhood age (6 in grand total) so this is why I post-pone this release real far. It will hold 21 quests and be released in February. For now, you’ll have to wait for further info about this release, and it will be a great one.
The 7th release will be “Promenade in the Gardens” that is all done for 2 ages. The 3rd age, I know my quests are done but I don’t know how they look since I didn’t go in that garden since 6 months. Therefore, I don’t want to rush it, it will be the last release and a great one too. It will hold 15 quests and be released at the end of February, beginning of March.
Q: Are your quests ready yet?
A:
There is no quest not yet begin. They are all underway but the first release's ones which are all completed now. Half of those in the 2nd and 3rd releases are in the same situation too. Mostly, all markers are putted. What most lack are the descriptions inside them. I might also rework part of some quests to ease them up a little as my knowledge has grew bigger since the time I made the quests.
Q: When we talk with you, we always feel that your works are not recent, why we feel like that?
A:
Because it’s the reality. But few new additions here and there, 95% of what you are about to see and discover throughout my 148 quests spread in 7 releases has been discovered in average between 6 to 12 months ago and even earlier. In the last 6 months, I consolidated my knowledge, I made some fine tuning in some areas, and I worked on making published quests.
Here is a little history with time frame to help you understand my whole adventure since March 2010:
March 2010: My first steps inside this cavern;
I was the alpha explorer, fearing the “hard” jumps in some ages to complete the puzzles. I had no idea on how skydivers were standing in “mid-air” above the tent, not knowing what a collision wall was and how someone could reaches it.
April 2010: My spring – My bloom;
I learned combo jumps during that month. I learned how to climb on the tent and some other places inside city like the suspended bridge. I began to gain interest in skydiving as an activity. I met a lot of mentors like Watashi, Ken, Sut, Shellshock, JohnB, maybe some other guys too. They each taught me something.
May 2010: Er'cana-Gahreesen;
My main activities began at that time. I didn’t know at that time that I would make unprecedented breakthroughs for months to come that would shake the whole Cavern community more than once.
June 2010: Gira-Kemo-Hood-Guilds' Pubs-Ae’gura-Ahnonay-Ahnonay Cathedral-Relto;
I’m adding new ages to my savvy curiosity
July-august 2010: Teledahn-Delin-Great Zero-K’veer- Phil's-Kadish;
Those months were both marvellous and a downward spiral. At that time my quests even if they were not as well-done as they are now were very popular and I had my first issue: a broken quest in Kadish followed quickly by a 2nd one in the same age, followed by a 3rd one 2 months later in the same age again.
Sept-Oct-Nov 2010: First golden era;
This period I worked a lot but stay quiet of what I was doing. I was still angry about late summer 2010 issues. I decided to make a test to see how a big release would be. I decided to work on my December 2010 release.
Dec 2010: Testing ground;
That month was a testing ground of what will come in the next few months (Oct 2011 to March 2012). I published a grand total of 25 quests of which 1 is broken and 2 has been disabled by me since then. The remaining are still active and they have therefore been integrated in the upcoming releases alongside new quests.
Jan 2011: Things restarting slowly;
The exploration still undergoing, new problems occurring; I didn’t think of the concept of fame. I had no idea how I could have impacted so much with my works. Fame is a 2 side medal: there will be people who will like you and follow you and there will be people who will hate you to death and will try to destroy you as much as they can. I began to be blacklisted from other explorers KI for no apparent reason but jealousy. Some have attacked me on different media too. A gain more friends then foes so I don’t mind much. I considered those explorers fool-minded since they are ignoring someone who could help them much more than harm them.
For exploration part, I continued my exploration, breaking new grounds, setting new standards.
Feb-March-April 2011: The 2nd golden era;
In this period, I mapped the whole cavern but few small areas. I have a buddy, Kaelis, who is member of the Skydivers' hood and, foremost, member of the Artisans' group of the writers. He told me that I could use Plasmaclient in a way that could help me much. He just had to tell me 6 characters. 6 characters that have changed everything for me: “ctrl+p”. That is all I needed to know. That was the key to unlock a wonderful world: enabling the view of the physics (collision walls and other vertices inside ages). What I was doing during that time? Mapping, mapping, and mapping again. I laid 20,000 markers during that time at least.
May 2011: 2nd black period and renewal, 2nd bloom;
The new update which improves the gaming experience caused to the sudden death of Plasmaclient which was not updated to work with the new version. I had lost my main source of exploration. I was also attacked by people who were trying to make bad publicity about me. It wasn’t going so well.
But…there was other skydivers and they made breaches, Stone near Ae'gura Lakeshore and F'ni supported by Wanabe in the T-Junction Cave also in Ae'gura. That was more than enough for me to restart my whole interest and I completed the holes I didn’t map yet.
June 2011: End of exploration: Kirel;
The last frontier, the age that I thought we would have to stay on the ground forever. I was wrong and hopefully Face found the breach. I came there like a bulldozer. In 6 working days’ nights, I mapped the whole age, putting 900 markers. I came back the week after to redo the whole process to make yet to be published quests. I did it real fast because it’s fairly easy, it’s a hood in reverse. Almost 95% of the walls are at the same height, are solid in the same places and so on. Once I had spent weeks in hood, I had enough knowledge to map it as fast as a flash of light.
July-August 2011: The resting period, vacations;
F'ni told me that I should take time for myself doing other thing. I was really tired too so I decided that it was a good idea and pulled out of the Cavern for weeks. Anyway, I had mapped all what is inside the cavern, I wouldn’t find anything more but few small areas after (in Sept and Oct 2011).
But I wasn’t able to just stay quiet and do nothing so I made an “easy” game involving quests, clues and story that I can complete in 2 days. I made it only in French language and to date everyone playing it is far from completion even 2 whole months after its release in first week of September 2011!
Sept-Oct 2011: The journeys releases pre-period:
I’m there, it’s on-going, I hope to stay well-balanced until completion in few months
.
Q: Are the 148 quests all brand new quests?
A:
To a certain extend: Yes.
Of the 148 quests, there are 35 quests, 22 out of the 25 quests released in December 2010 plus 13 published independently that have been entirely reworked. I consider that a brand new quest started from scratch and an already published quest in which I thoroughly redesign, remap, re-edit every markers are equivalent.
Q: Why did you rework the whole 35 quests that were already released?
A:
They were not at my today standards. By the passing of time, I’m becoming more and more skilled. Having gone through a thorough analysis of my past quests, I realised they weren’t up to what I’m doing now. Therefore, I didn’t want to have 2 types of quests. When you’ll play my quests, you’ll have the same standards.
Q: You used to publish monstrous quests with average of 150-300 markers. Are you going to release such quests?
A:
N-O.
148 quests is a lot, I came up with that number breaking down my past monstrous quests. The only exception is some 5 or 6 quests inside Ae'gura. This age is such wide that you won’t really have lag issue even though there are over 120 markers. For all the other ages, I don’t go over 100 markers or merely over it by 1 or 2 markers. The average is around 85 markers. This is not a definite number and it will tend to go lower as my quests will take their final aspect.
Q: Why do you make quests with “routes”, “paths”, “trails”, etc.? Would it be preferable to just lay markers and let us decide what to do?
A:
1st reason:
Since they are my quests, I made them the way I’m playing the game, I like to follow routes. I don’t stay on 1 or 2 walls, I journey through at least 5 to 10 and my most ambitious quests will make you journey through at least 50 different walls. I like the idea to start from point A and ride walls until I reach the point B. The longer my routes are the happier I am to ride them.
2nd reason:
Do little simple maths here: 148 quests with average of 85 markers, it makes a total of more than 12,000 markers. I had to come up with an easy way to find each and every marker within my quests.
Let’s make examples:
1) Let’s say that you play a quest named “A” with 95 markers and with 40 markers with that description: “run-jump to next marker”. You fell to make it. You come to me and say: “I have hard time with the marker that has that description: “run-jump to next marker”… Do you see the problem? Which marker? I have 40 markers with that description.
2) Let’s say you play one of my quest named “B” with 95 markers in which I made 2 routes, all numbered. You fell to make it. You come to me and say: “I have hard time with Route 1 step 6”. Now, you’re talking! I can help you in matter of minutes, time to figure out where it is.
Q: Why there are so many different avatars used to make your quests?
A:
To reduce the risk if something would go wrong.
On the 11 avatars that published or will be publishing quests, 8 of them will have 12 quests each. There are 3 other avatars that go over that number for different reasons:
Annabelle has 14 quests since she is my main public avatar and it’s easier in some ages to use her instead of a lesser-known avatar as I might encounter other explorers. She has also legacy in some ages, she had therefore a reserved spot for 1 or more quests even if I didn’t work there much with her.
Annabelle X has 17 quests and she has her own signature. The reason why is because I created her for that specific reason: make uncommon quests, sometimes harder, sometimes crazier, always action-packed, fun or both.
Annabelle-Sophie has 21 quests because she is my main avatar. She has a hood for her and, alongside Annabelle-Sophie2 with whom I will publish quests too with the same signature, I have a complete separate community of almost 15 support avatars, all members of that hood.
Therefore, you’ll see 3 types of signatures: Welcome to Annabelle’s … quest
, Welcome to Annabelle-Sophie’s … quest or Welcome to Annabelle X’s…quest .
Annabelle, Evelyne, La belle Anna, La jolie Annabelle, La sauterelle, Skydiver Anna, Skydiver Anna2 & Skydiver Annabelle use the 1st signature. My four public avatars (Annabelle, La belle Anna, Skydiver Anna & Skydiver Annabelle) are in that group. If you're not a close buddy of mine, please don't buddy the other avatars.
Annabelle-Sophie and Annabelle-Sophie2 use the 2nd signature.
Annabelle X uses the 3rd signature.
Q: I’ve heard you once had 20 avatars, then 30, then 40, then 50, then 65…and now you’re talking openly about having more than 80 avatars. Why do you have so many avatars? How do you keep sanity with all this?
A:
It’s a matter of risk splitting, storage, special and testing purposes.
I have 11 avatars with whom I’m making quests ranging from 12 up to 21 quests each. Each of them has at least 3 storage avatars (published quests storage avatar, working copies quests storage avatar & all her quests storage avatar). They are the direct support. Annabelle-Sophie has 6 and Annabelle has 5. All the others has 3.
Then, I have for each age or group of ages one or many (if it goes over 50 quests) storage avatars in which I keep both my published quest and other explorers published quests for that age or group of ages up to a maximum of 50 quests by storage avatar. It amounts to approximately 10 avatars.
Then, I have a storage & distribution avatar by release, it makes 7 more. The first one has already all the quests that will be published October 29th, 2011.
Then, I have about 15 to 20 testing, special purposes and pellet making avatars. An example is my 2 hub avatars in which I transfer everything during the week. Once per week, I connect them and dispatch all what they’ve been holding in their KI. This way, I keep all my avatars’ KI clean.
For my working copies quests, I’m using a special naming structure that helps me identify right away who is the author, in which age & what is the purpose of such quest. For 148 published or to be published quest, I have 2 times more working copies. I didn’t make any survey yet as it will take me a whole month, but I must have 40,000 markers spread inside 450 quests. My working copies have no limit of how many markers they hold.
So, with all that said, is more than 80 avatars too many? I would say not really. Each has a purpose. I create new avatars on a bi-monthly basis to fit my needs as they come up.
I’m well-organised. I have hand-written each and every KI numbers on paper sheets and the relation avatars have between each other so I don’t have to remember. Some KI numbers I don’t even have to look up I know them by heart.
Q: You’re talking about “walls” in your quests but I’m mostly floating on air or your markers are off the visible walls, what do you mean by “walls”?
A:
You’ll have to get used to some skydiver lexicon.
A “wall” is the diminutive of “collision wall”. A collision wall is an invisible barrier in which your avatar collides. It prevents your avatar to exit unwontedly the age by panicking. The core of my quests is those collision walls. Some are solid, some are non-solid. I cannot explain why it’s like that but I have enough experience to know where they are solid where they aren’t.
So, you’ll never float on air. That’s impossible! The Law of Gravity applies to the game as they would in real life. You may encounter such description within my markers: “…aim the floating marker…” I came up with that description because the markers were putted there when I was jumping. You’ll grab them by jumping from point A to point B. Sometimes, it’s easier to do that than to say aim marker B from marker A for whatever reason.
The collisions and the visuals sometimes coincide but most of the time they don’t. So, yes, you’ll be off the visuals most of the time. My markers are there to help; I didn’t put markers off visuals just to fool you.
Q: Is there other skydiver lexicon I should be aware of before taking your quests?
A:
Here some
reset quest - enter marker:
This seems simple and at some point, you’ll probably find that annoying. The goal behind that is logical. My quest is made with really good care. Each distance between markers was studied over and over and over again. You must comply or you’ll fall to make it through my routes. When you grab the marker, you’re in its vicinity not right inside it. The distance between markers is most important. You may not be aware but maybe I make you jump between point A and point B because there is a bad wall section ahead. If you jump there, you’ll fall to the bottom and get stick. Entering a marker is not just getting near it, it’s to stand right inside it. To help you, go in 1st person and look down, if you are still seeing the center dot, it means you’re not inside it. You must completely hide the center dot of the marker I ask you to enter.
Find wall support:
This process implies that the collision wall you landed on or you’re already on will be even for great distance. It’s easier to ride the wall than to make you jump or simply walk on top of it. Finding wall support is done by backing up really slowly until you feel your avatar drop off about 1 pixel high. Once, it’s done, you will be able to walk or even run against the wall (meaning you have to angle the wall at let say 45 degrees). Instead of going forward beyond the wall, you’ll go sideway parallel to the wall.
The drop off about 1 pixel high thing is hard to understand at first, you need practice. There is an alternative way to find wall support which I’m still using from time to time. I call this technique the "go forward – go backward” technique. You have to use the keyboard for that. You step forward of 2 pixels, you just softly press the forward key to do that. If you feel that your avatar will keep going forward if you press a 3rd time in a row, you have to go backward. You need to step backward of 3 pixels. So by pressing softly the backward key you will be able to do that. Now, you need to go forward again to be supported by the wall. Obviously, since you backed up 3 pixels, you need to go 2 pixels forward. If this works then you’re good to go, you’re supported, if not, repeat the process (back up 3 pixels, go forward 2 pixels) until you find wall support.
The wall support is easy to identify, you’ll press the forward key and you’ll see your avatar going sideway instead of going forward.
Break wall:
The breaking process is quite simple: you jump up and step forward against the wall with or without an angle. You have to repeat it until you’re on the top of the wall. This process is the exact opposite of finding wall support. It is a matter of pixels here and it takes time to understand the process. I’ll make you break wall support when I consider that it’s better not to have it for different reasons that may be not visible for a non-advised eye. The main reason is because the wall will go upward or downward ahead. You cannot be supported by such wall sections. You must walk on the top of those sections to hope make it to the end. Even a subtle angle in a wall elevation is enough to make you fall. You may not necessary see it as you are seeing nothing more than void everywhere. I do see walls.
You see walls? Well, I don’t see them really but I “see” them, yes for sure. I feel them, I observe the slight change they take, I adapt in consequence, I have good knowledge of what height they have, what is the next curve, the next elevation ahead and where it should be.
Breaking some layers (variation on finding wall support - breaking wall):
In some quests, I may ask you to break some layers to get a little bit more inside wall but still keep the wall support. You have to see the whole picture here. Refer to the finding wall support to help you understand. Once you find the wall support, you’re in 90% of the cases on the 1st outer layer of a wall. Some walls are very buggy and it would be preferable to stand on, let say, the 4th outer layer instead, insuring you a good grip on the wall to ride it. You must then, 1st, find wall support, then, 2nd, break wall support on some outer layers to still keep the wall support but a bit more inside the wall.
Climb to next marker:
This process can seems a bit annoying but you don't have much choice. Cyan made the walls so we wouldn't be able to reach them so beside their relative height (average of 15 to 25 feet above ground), the walls' tops follow the scenery of the age. If you see, let say, a staircase, the odd is that there'll be an elevation in wall beside the staircase to maintain the same relative height.
To climb a collision wall, you need to jump up and step forward. There is a technique that is really nice when you master it well: it's to climb from the extreme outer layer to the extreme inner layer, sidestep a little and repeat until top. You need to practice a little bit to get used to this technique but when you master it, you can climb any wall relatively fast. If the slope is too steep, I wouldn't recommend it.
You have to climb following a zigzag route: outer to inner, sidestep, outer to inner, sidestep, etc. The inner layer here is the one nearer to the normal ground, the outer layer is the one farther from it.
Double jump:
It’s a combo made with 2 types of basic jumps: walk-jump and run-jump. A double jump can be made against a wall or anywhere, it doesn’t matter much. We do it because it gives more power than a simple run-jump. It enables to reach higher location and/or farther location. You have to have some clearance though to make it. You need clearance because the walk-jump is making your avatar lift up the ground but quickly they will put a foot on the ground a little bit ahead, few pixels, then they will lift up to reach their goal. This little length of pixels is the clearance needed for the double jump. The run-jump takes place when your avatar’s foot touch the ground before the take off in the walk-jump. Since it is almost non-visible, it’s a real quick combo to make, even faster than a combo jump. You do a walk-jump and as soon as your avatar puts a foot on the ground to lift up you break the walk-jump process by doing a run-jump. The result is that with the impulse of the walk-jump followed by the run-jump, your avatar will jump more greatly. How it translate in term of keyboard press? You must make the double jump in a flash of light, you must not think: spacebar – shift key + spacebar in less than a second while holding the forward key.
Bouncing double jump:
Some planes that are inclined enough enable you to bounce on them. It’s not a type of jump really precise but its advantage is that it is fun to do. You do a walk-jump against the surface, a full walk-jump, as soon as you touch the said surface: you do a run-jump, you should take off in the air real high. In some occasions, I must have bounced at least three times my height up in the air with just 1 jump. In some quests, you’ll have to do them. Mostly, you’ll do them for the fun of it but in some quests, it is a prerequisite.
Combo jump:
Those jumps are the traditional combo jumps most fear. They aren’t that though to make, it’s really more a matter of system specifications more than skills. For example, I can make them with 1 PC I have and I with the other one, I have hard time but a few combo elevators. I’m skilled enough to know the matter here is the system specifications: the 1st PC is a duo-core, the 2nd PC is a quad-core, that makes a big difference. With the quad-core, unless I’m inside a crowded age, I cannot achieve any combos.
You must do them against a corner of 2 collision walls. There is an exception, the (T) pillars, but that is about it. Depending of the gap between the 2 collision walls, you’ll have an easy or a hard time. In some case, the gap is wider on top making it more and more hard as you go up. The best example here is the Concert Hall light. The first 3 combos are relatively easy; the hard ones are the 3 to 4 upper ones to get on top of the light.
How to do them: you must start with walking. The default mode is the walking mode. Therefore, always stay in walking mode. You walk against the corner, you do a walk-jump, and you’ll notice your avatar’s arms lifting up high in the air, that’s your cue. When they lift their arms, you do a run-jump. You’ll see your avatar go straight up in the air at fast speed. When you’ll see their arms going back to normal state (on each side of torso), that is your next cue. When the arms come back to normal, you do a walk-jump. The arms will lift up again, your cue to do a run-jump, and so on… This type of jump implies that you’ll do some yo-yoing between ground and wall’s top you want to reach. That’s fine, this is the goal. You go up to 8 feet high, you come down to 3 feet, you go up to 10, you come down to 5, you go up to 12, and so on until the top let say at 20 feet high.
Q: On some of your mid to long-range jumps, I have hard time to make the gap. Maybe your markers are misplaced. What can you do about it?
A:
Unfortunately for you, my markers are well placed. The problem is always your PC specifications.
The faster your PC is, the worst it will be to achieve my quests. Even on short-range jumps, you’ll fall short of few pixels (2 to 4 in average). In mid to long-range jumps the gap can goes up to 25 to 30 pixels which is really not funny.
You have to understand that this game was made in 2003 and therefore a brand new PC with 10+ Gb of RAM with a monstrous 3D rendering video card of 1+ Gb is not the best choice. I can’t do anything about it. I have myself a brand new PC and I’m not using it to play this game at all unless I’m there to chat or for social happenings. To play, I’m using my older PC which is perfect.
So, if you’re about to change PC, that’s fine, but be aware that you might have hard time in future with this game. You can always keep your old PC like I did. I don’t use it for anything else than play this game.
Q: Why do you put instructions in your quests and why don’t you make complete sentences?
A:
To make them enjoyable to a vast public. Some will find that annoying, you just have to move your KI device off the screen to the bottom let say and you won’t see them. I know that many can do them without instructions. But for the vast majority, they would most likely look at the markers and wonder how I’ve putted them there.
I put instructions in logical sequential order, you have to read them like occidentals do: left to right.
Example:
Marker – 1 – reset quest – enter marker – turn 90 degrees to the right - aim next marker ahead – run-jump
I make the instructions simple. With exception of some instructions, I usually don’t make sentences as they are too long to read. My instructions are simple, catchy. This way, it gets you moving a bit faster.
You have to understand also that this game is the predecessor of Twitter 
. You cannot write a novel in markers. I think we are limited to 255 characters. It seems long but wait until you’ll begin to edit markers, you’ll see how angry I can get sometimes.
That's that Enjoy my 148 quests! The 1st release is coming tomorrow.
A:
As of October 27th, 2011, there will be 148 quests spread throughout 23 different ages. They will be split inside 7 different releases.
Each release will be more or less centered on 1 age or a group of ages that fits together with 1 notable exception for the one holding miscellaneous ages not having enough quests.
Q: Can we have more information about the 7 releases?
A:
Sure
. A release is centered on 1 or more journeys, my journeys throughout the different ages I visited. It’s a coverage of my explorations in every corners of the ages. The biggest release, the 1st one is “The Magnificent City” which holds 35 quests inside 6 networks.
The 2nd release will be “Mushrooms & sundry journeys” that is in the last process. I plan to release all 23 quests of that release in November. For now, you’ll have to wait for further info about this release, and it will be a great one.
The 3rd release will be “The Grandiose Journey” that is also in the last process. I plan to release all 18 quests of that release later in November or in first weeks of December. For now, you’ll have to wait for further info about this release, and it will be a great one.
The 4th release will be “Journey into Darkness” that is underway. I had finished all quests but decided to remake 5 of them so I had to post-pone the release to the 4th position, it was initially in 2nd position. It will hold 14 quests. It is now scheduled as a Christmas gift, so it should be published before end of December. For now, you’ll have to wait for further info about this release, and it will be a great one.
The 5th release will be “Journeys beyond Imagination” that is underway. I have to redo 5 quests entirely but all the others are made since months. It will hold 22 quests and be released in mid-January. For now, you’ll have to wait for further info about this release, and it will be a great one.
The 6th release will be “The D’ni Cavern” that is all finish. I do have to rework entirely quests in neighbourhood age (6 in grand total) so this is why I post-pone this release real far. It will hold 21 quests and be released in February. For now, you’ll have to wait for further info about this release, and it will be a great one.
The 7th release will be “Promenade in the Gardens” that is all done for 2 ages. The 3rd age, I know my quests are done but I don’t know how they look since I didn’t go in that garden since 6 months. Therefore, I don’t want to rush it, it will be the last release and a great one too. It will hold 15 quests and be released at the end of February, beginning of March.
Q: Are your quests ready yet?
A:
There is no quest not yet begin. They are all underway but the first release's ones which are all completed now. Half of those in the 2nd and 3rd releases are in the same situation too. Mostly, all markers are putted. What most lack are the descriptions inside them. I might also rework part of some quests to ease them up a little as my knowledge has grew bigger since the time I made the quests.
Q: When we talk with you, we always feel that your works are not recent, why we feel like that?
A:
Because it’s the reality. But few new additions here and there, 95% of what you are about to see and discover throughout my 148 quests spread in 7 releases has been discovered in average between 6 to 12 months ago and even earlier. In the last 6 months, I consolidated my knowledge, I made some fine tuning in some areas, and I worked on making published quests.
Here is a little history with time frame to help you understand my whole adventure since March 2010:
March 2010: My first steps inside this cavern;
I was the alpha explorer, fearing the “hard” jumps in some ages to complete the puzzles. I had no idea on how skydivers were standing in “mid-air” above the tent, not knowing what a collision wall was and how someone could reaches it.
April 2010: My spring – My bloom;
I learned combo jumps during that month. I learned how to climb on the tent and some other places inside city like the suspended bridge. I began to gain interest in skydiving as an activity. I met a lot of mentors like Watashi, Ken, Sut, Shellshock, JohnB, maybe some other guys too. They each taught me something.
May 2010: Er'cana-Gahreesen;
My main activities began at that time. I didn’t know at that time that I would make unprecedented breakthroughs for months to come that would shake the whole Cavern community more than once.
June 2010: Gira-Kemo-Hood-Guilds' Pubs-Ae’gura-Ahnonay-Ahnonay Cathedral-Relto;
I’m adding new ages to my savvy curiosity
July-august 2010: Teledahn-Delin-Great Zero-K’veer- Phil's-Kadish;
Those months were both marvellous and a downward spiral. At that time my quests even if they were not as well-done as they are now were very popular and I had my first issue: a broken quest in Kadish followed quickly by a 2nd one in the same age, followed by a 3rd one 2 months later in the same age again.
Sept-Oct-Nov 2010: First golden era;
This period I worked a lot but stay quiet of what I was doing. I was still angry about late summer 2010 issues. I decided to make a test to see how a big release would be. I decided to work on my December 2010 release.
Dec 2010: Testing ground;
That month was a testing ground of what will come in the next few months (Oct 2011 to March 2012). I published a grand total of 25 quests of which 1 is broken and 2 has been disabled by me since then. The remaining are still active and they have therefore been integrated in the upcoming releases alongside new quests.
Jan 2011: Things restarting slowly;
The exploration still undergoing, new problems occurring; I didn’t think of the concept of fame. I had no idea how I could have impacted so much with my works. Fame is a 2 side medal: there will be people who will like you and follow you and there will be people who will hate you to death and will try to destroy you as much as they can. I began to be blacklisted from other explorers KI for no apparent reason but jealousy. Some have attacked me on different media too. A gain more friends then foes so I don’t mind much. I considered those explorers fool-minded since they are ignoring someone who could help them much more than harm them.
For exploration part, I continued my exploration, breaking new grounds, setting new standards.
Feb-March-April 2011: The 2nd golden era;
In this period, I mapped the whole cavern but few small areas. I have a buddy, Kaelis, who is member of the Skydivers' hood and, foremost, member of the Artisans' group of the writers. He told me that I could use Plasmaclient in a way that could help me much. He just had to tell me 6 characters. 6 characters that have changed everything for me: “ctrl+p”. That is all I needed to know. That was the key to unlock a wonderful world: enabling the view of the physics (collision walls and other vertices inside ages). What I was doing during that time? Mapping, mapping, and mapping again. I laid 20,000 markers during that time at least.
May 2011: 2nd black period and renewal, 2nd bloom;
The new update which improves the gaming experience caused to the sudden death of Plasmaclient which was not updated to work with the new version. I had lost my main source of exploration. I was also attacked by people who were trying to make bad publicity about me. It wasn’t going so well.
But…there was other skydivers and they made breaches, Stone near Ae'gura Lakeshore and F'ni supported by Wanabe in the T-Junction Cave also in Ae'gura. That was more than enough for me to restart my whole interest and I completed the holes I didn’t map yet.
June 2011: End of exploration: Kirel;
The last frontier, the age that I thought we would have to stay on the ground forever. I was wrong and hopefully Face found the breach. I came there like a bulldozer. In 6 working days’ nights, I mapped the whole age, putting 900 markers. I came back the week after to redo the whole process to make yet to be published quests. I did it real fast because it’s fairly easy, it’s a hood in reverse. Almost 95% of the walls are at the same height, are solid in the same places and so on. Once I had spent weeks in hood, I had enough knowledge to map it as fast as a flash of light.
July-August 2011: The resting period, vacations;
F'ni told me that I should take time for myself doing other thing. I was really tired too so I decided that it was a good idea and pulled out of the Cavern for weeks. Anyway, I had mapped all what is inside the cavern, I wouldn’t find anything more but few small areas after (in Sept and Oct 2011).
But I wasn’t able to just stay quiet and do nothing so I made an “easy” game involving quests, clues and story that I can complete in 2 days. I made it only in French language and to date everyone playing it is far from completion even 2 whole months after its release in first week of September 2011!
Sept-Oct 2011: The journeys releases pre-period:
I’m there, it’s on-going, I hope to stay well-balanced until completion in few months
.
Q: Are the 148 quests all brand new quests?
A:
To a certain extend: Yes.
Of the 148 quests, there are 35 quests, 22 out of the 25 quests released in December 2010 plus 13 published independently that have been entirely reworked. I consider that a brand new quest started from scratch and an already published quest in which I thoroughly redesign, remap, re-edit every markers are equivalent.
Q: Why did you rework the whole 35 quests that were already released?
A:
They were not at my today standards. By the passing of time, I’m becoming more and more skilled. Having gone through a thorough analysis of my past quests, I realised they weren’t up to what I’m doing now. Therefore, I didn’t want to have 2 types of quests. When you’ll play my quests, you’ll have the same standards.
Q: You used to publish monstrous quests with average of 150-300 markers. Are you going to release such quests?
A:
N-O.
148 quests is a lot, I came up with that number breaking down my past monstrous quests. The only exception is some 5 or 6 quests inside Ae'gura. This age is such wide that you won’t really have lag issue even though there are over 120 markers. For all the other ages, I don’t go over 100 markers or merely over it by 1 or 2 markers. The average is around 85 markers. This is not a definite number and it will tend to go lower as my quests will take their final aspect.
Q: Why do you make quests with “routes”, “paths”, “trails”, etc.? Would it be preferable to just lay markers and let us decide what to do?
A:
1st reason:
Since they are my quests, I made them the way I’m playing the game, I like to follow routes. I don’t stay on 1 or 2 walls, I journey through at least 5 to 10 and my most ambitious quests will make you journey through at least 50 different walls. I like the idea to start from point A and ride walls until I reach the point B. The longer my routes are the happier I am to ride them.
2nd reason:
Do little simple maths here: 148 quests with average of 85 markers, it makes a total of more than 12,000 markers. I had to come up with an easy way to find each and every marker within my quests.
Let’s make examples:
1) Let’s say that you play a quest named “A” with 95 markers and with 40 markers with that description: “run-jump to next marker”. You fell to make it. You come to me and say: “I have hard time with the marker that has that description: “run-jump to next marker”… Do you see the problem? Which marker? I have 40 markers with that description.
2) Let’s say you play one of my quest named “B” with 95 markers in which I made 2 routes, all numbered. You fell to make it. You come to me and say: “I have hard time with Route 1 step 6”. Now, you’re talking! I can help you in matter of minutes, time to figure out where it is.
Q: Why there are so many different avatars used to make your quests?
A:
To reduce the risk if something would go wrong.
On the 11 avatars that published or will be publishing quests, 8 of them will have 12 quests each. There are 3 other avatars that go over that number for different reasons:
Annabelle has 14 quests since she is my main public avatar and it’s easier in some ages to use her instead of a lesser-known avatar as I might encounter other explorers. She has also legacy in some ages, she had therefore a reserved spot for 1 or more quests even if I didn’t work there much with her.
Annabelle X has 17 quests and she has her own signature. The reason why is because I created her for that specific reason: make uncommon quests, sometimes harder, sometimes crazier, always action-packed, fun or both.
Annabelle-Sophie has 21 quests because she is my main avatar. She has a hood for her and, alongside Annabelle-Sophie2 with whom I will publish quests too with the same signature, I have a complete separate community of almost 15 support avatars, all members of that hood.
Therefore, you’ll see 3 types of signatures: Welcome to Annabelle’s … quest
, Welcome to Annabelle-Sophie’s … quest or Welcome to Annabelle X’s…quest .
Annabelle, Evelyne, La belle Anna, La jolie Annabelle, La sauterelle, Skydiver Anna, Skydiver Anna2 & Skydiver Annabelle use the 1st signature. My four public avatars (Annabelle, La belle Anna, Skydiver Anna & Skydiver Annabelle) are in that group. If you're not a close buddy of mine, please don't buddy the other avatars.
Annabelle-Sophie and Annabelle-Sophie2 use the 2nd signature.
Annabelle X uses the 3rd signature.
Q: I’ve heard you once had 20 avatars, then 30, then 40, then 50, then 65…and now you’re talking openly about having more than 80 avatars. Why do you have so many avatars? How do you keep sanity with all this?
A:
It’s a matter of risk splitting, storage, special and testing purposes.
I have 11 avatars with whom I’m making quests ranging from 12 up to 21 quests each. Each of them has at least 3 storage avatars (published quests storage avatar, working copies quests storage avatar & all her quests storage avatar). They are the direct support. Annabelle-Sophie has 6 and Annabelle has 5. All the others has 3.
Then, I have for each age or group of ages one or many (if it goes over 50 quests) storage avatars in which I keep both my published quest and other explorers published quests for that age or group of ages up to a maximum of 50 quests by storage avatar. It amounts to approximately 10 avatars.
Then, I have a storage & distribution avatar by release, it makes 7 more. The first one has already all the quests that will be published October 29th, 2011.
Then, I have about 15 to 20 testing, special purposes and pellet making avatars. An example is my 2 hub avatars in which I transfer everything during the week. Once per week, I connect them and dispatch all what they’ve been holding in their KI. This way, I keep all my avatars’ KI clean.
For my working copies quests, I’m using a special naming structure that helps me identify right away who is the author, in which age & what is the purpose of such quest. For 148 published or to be published quest, I have 2 times more working copies. I didn’t make any survey yet as it will take me a whole month, but I must have 40,000 markers spread inside 450 quests. My working copies have no limit of how many markers they hold.
So, with all that said, is more than 80 avatars too many? I would say not really. Each has a purpose. I create new avatars on a bi-monthly basis to fit my needs as they come up.
I’m well-organised. I have hand-written each and every KI numbers on paper sheets and the relation avatars have between each other so I don’t have to remember. Some KI numbers I don’t even have to look up I know them by heart.
Q: You’re talking about “walls” in your quests but I’m mostly floating on air or your markers are off the visible walls, what do you mean by “walls”?
A:
You’ll have to get used to some skydiver lexicon.
A “wall” is the diminutive of “collision wall”. A collision wall is an invisible barrier in which your avatar collides. It prevents your avatar to exit unwontedly the age by panicking. The core of my quests is those collision walls. Some are solid, some are non-solid. I cannot explain why it’s like that but I have enough experience to know where they are solid where they aren’t.
So, you’ll never float on air. That’s impossible! The Law of Gravity applies to the game as they would in real life. You may encounter such description within my markers: “…aim the floating marker…” I came up with that description because the markers were putted there when I was jumping. You’ll grab them by jumping from point A to point B. Sometimes, it’s easier to do that than to say aim marker B from marker A for whatever reason.
The collisions and the visuals sometimes coincide but most of the time they don’t. So, yes, you’ll be off the visuals most of the time. My markers are there to help; I didn’t put markers off visuals just to fool you.
Q: Is there other skydiver lexicon I should be aware of before taking your quests?
A:
Here some
reset quest - enter marker:
This seems simple and at some point, you’ll probably find that annoying. The goal behind that is logical. My quest is made with really good care. Each distance between markers was studied over and over and over again. You must comply or you’ll fall to make it through my routes. When you grab the marker, you’re in its vicinity not right inside it. The distance between markers is most important. You may not be aware but maybe I make you jump between point A and point B because there is a bad wall section ahead. If you jump there, you’ll fall to the bottom and get stick. Entering a marker is not just getting near it, it’s to stand right inside it. To help you, go in 1st person and look down, if you are still seeing the center dot, it means you’re not inside it. You must completely hide the center dot of the marker I ask you to enter.
Find wall support:
This process implies that the collision wall you landed on or you’re already on will be even for great distance. It’s easier to ride the wall than to make you jump or simply walk on top of it. Finding wall support is done by backing up really slowly until you feel your avatar drop off about 1 pixel high. Once, it’s done, you will be able to walk or even run against the wall (meaning you have to angle the wall at let say 45 degrees). Instead of going forward beyond the wall, you’ll go sideway parallel to the wall.
The drop off about 1 pixel high thing is hard to understand at first, you need practice. There is an alternative way to find wall support which I’m still using from time to time. I call this technique the "go forward – go backward” technique. You have to use the keyboard for that. You step forward of 2 pixels, you just softly press the forward key to do that. If you feel that your avatar will keep going forward if you press a 3rd time in a row, you have to go backward. You need to step backward of 3 pixels. So by pressing softly the backward key you will be able to do that. Now, you need to go forward again to be supported by the wall. Obviously, since you backed up 3 pixels, you need to go 2 pixels forward. If this works then you’re good to go, you’re supported, if not, repeat the process (back up 3 pixels, go forward 2 pixels) until you find wall support.
The wall support is easy to identify, you’ll press the forward key and you’ll see your avatar going sideway instead of going forward.
Break wall:
The breaking process is quite simple: you jump up and step forward against the wall with or without an angle. You have to repeat it until you’re on the top of the wall. This process is the exact opposite of finding wall support. It is a matter of pixels here and it takes time to understand the process. I’ll make you break wall support when I consider that it’s better not to have it for different reasons that may be not visible for a non-advised eye. The main reason is because the wall will go upward or downward ahead. You cannot be supported by such wall sections. You must walk on the top of those sections to hope make it to the end. Even a subtle angle in a wall elevation is enough to make you fall. You may not necessary see it as you are seeing nothing more than void everywhere. I do see walls.
You see walls? Well, I don’t see them really but I “see” them, yes for sure. I feel them, I observe the slight change they take, I adapt in consequence, I have good knowledge of what height they have, what is the next curve, the next elevation ahead and where it should be.
Breaking some layers (variation on finding wall support - breaking wall):
In some quests, I may ask you to break some layers to get a little bit more inside wall but still keep the wall support. You have to see the whole picture here. Refer to the finding wall support to help you understand. Once you find the wall support, you’re in 90% of the cases on the 1st outer layer of a wall. Some walls are very buggy and it would be preferable to stand on, let say, the 4th outer layer instead, insuring you a good grip on the wall to ride it. You must then, 1st, find wall support, then, 2nd, break wall support on some outer layers to still keep the wall support but a bit more inside the wall.
Climb to next marker:
This process can seems a bit annoying but you don't have much choice. Cyan made the walls so we wouldn't be able to reach them so beside their relative height (average of 15 to 25 feet above ground), the walls' tops follow the scenery of the age. If you see, let say, a staircase, the odd is that there'll be an elevation in wall beside the staircase to maintain the same relative height.
To climb a collision wall, you need to jump up and step forward. There is a technique that is really nice when you master it well: it's to climb from the extreme outer layer to the extreme inner layer, sidestep a little and repeat until top. You need to practice a little bit to get used to this technique but when you master it, you can climb any wall relatively fast. If the slope is too steep, I wouldn't recommend it.
You have to climb following a zigzag route: outer to inner, sidestep, outer to inner, sidestep, etc. The inner layer here is the one nearer to the normal ground, the outer layer is the one farther from it.
Double jump:
It’s a combo made with 2 types of basic jumps: walk-jump and run-jump. A double jump can be made against a wall or anywhere, it doesn’t matter much. We do it because it gives more power than a simple run-jump. It enables to reach higher location and/or farther location. You have to have some clearance though to make it. You need clearance because the walk-jump is making your avatar lift up the ground but quickly they will put a foot on the ground a little bit ahead, few pixels, then they will lift up to reach their goal. This little length of pixels is the clearance needed for the double jump. The run-jump takes place when your avatar’s foot touch the ground before the take off in the walk-jump. Since it is almost non-visible, it’s a real quick combo to make, even faster than a combo jump. You do a walk-jump and as soon as your avatar puts a foot on the ground to lift up you break the walk-jump process by doing a run-jump. The result is that with the impulse of the walk-jump followed by the run-jump, your avatar will jump more greatly. How it translate in term of keyboard press? You must make the double jump in a flash of light, you must not think: spacebar – shift key + spacebar in less than a second while holding the forward key.
Bouncing double jump:
Some planes that are inclined enough enable you to bounce on them. It’s not a type of jump really precise but its advantage is that it is fun to do. You do a walk-jump against the surface, a full walk-jump, as soon as you touch the said surface: you do a run-jump, you should take off in the air real high. In some occasions, I must have bounced at least three times my height up in the air with just 1 jump. In some quests, you’ll have to do them. Mostly, you’ll do them for the fun of it but in some quests, it is a prerequisite.
Combo jump:
Those jumps are the traditional combo jumps most fear. They aren’t that though to make, it’s really more a matter of system specifications more than skills. For example, I can make them with 1 PC I have and I with the other one, I have hard time but a few combo elevators. I’m skilled enough to know the matter here is the system specifications: the 1st PC is a duo-core, the 2nd PC is a quad-core, that makes a big difference. With the quad-core, unless I’m inside a crowded age, I cannot achieve any combos.
You must do them against a corner of 2 collision walls. There is an exception, the (T) pillars, but that is about it. Depending of the gap between the 2 collision walls, you’ll have an easy or a hard time. In some case, the gap is wider on top making it more and more hard as you go up. The best example here is the Concert Hall light. The first 3 combos are relatively easy; the hard ones are the 3 to 4 upper ones to get on top of the light.
How to do them: you must start with walking. The default mode is the walking mode. Therefore, always stay in walking mode. You walk against the corner, you do a walk-jump, and you’ll notice your avatar’s arms lifting up high in the air, that’s your cue. When they lift their arms, you do a run-jump. You’ll see your avatar go straight up in the air at fast speed. When you’ll see their arms going back to normal state (on each side of torso), that is your next cue. When the arms come back to normal, you do a walk-jump. The arms will lift up again, your cue to do a run-jump, and so on… This type of jump implies that you’ll do some yo-yoing between ground and wall’s top you want to reach. That’s fine, this is the goal. You go up to 8 feet high, you come down to 3 feet, you go up to 10, you come down to 5, you go up to 12, and so on until the top let say at 20 feet high.
Q: On some of your mid to long-range jumps, I have hard time to make the gap. Maybe your markers are misplaced. What can you do about it?
A:
Unfortunately for you, my markers are well placed. The problem is always your PC specifications.
The faster your PC is, the worst it will be to achieve my quests. Even on short-range jumps, you’ll fall short of few pixels (2 to 4 in average). In mid to long-range jumps the gap can goes up to 25 to 30 pixels which is really not funny.
You have to understand that this game was made in 2003 and therefore a brand new PC with 10+ Gb of RAM with a monstrous 3D rendering video card of 1+ Gb is not the best choice. I can’t do anything about it. I have myself a brand new PC and I’m not using it to play this game at all unless I’m there to chat or for social happenings. To play, I’m using my older PC which is perfect.
So, if you’re about to change PC, that’s fine, but be aware that you might have hard time in future with this game. You can always keep your old PC like I did. I don’t use it for anything else than play this game.
Q: Why do you put instructions in your quests and why don’t you make complete sentences?
A:
To make them enjoyable to a vast public. Some will find that annoying, you just have to move your KI device off the screen to the bottom let say and you won’t see them. I know that many can do them without instructions. But for the vast majority, they would most likely look at the markers and wonder how I’ve putted them there.
I put instructions in logical sequential order, you have to read them like occidentals do: left to right.
Example:
Marker – 1 – reset quest – enter marker – turn 90 degrees to the right - aim next marker ahead – run-jump
I make the instructions simple. With exception of some instructions, I usually don’t make sentences as they are too long to read. My instructions are simple, catchy. This way, it gets you moving a bit faster.
You have to understand also that this game is the predecessor of Twitter
. You cannot write a novel in markers. I think we are limited to 255 characters. It seems long but wait until you’ll begin to edit markers, you’ll see how angry I can get sometimes.
That's that
Enjoy my 148 quests! The 1st release is coming tomorrow.
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On MOULa shard:
Annabelle 03632553 & Sophie (aka STA1) 15112736 - main public avatars
Annabot 209XXXXX - the bot
