Does anyone here recall playing American McGee's Alice? When I first started playing URU I couldn't help but think of the similarities (a few) and differences (many).

One of the things I enjoyed there was the "pull yourself up a ledge" ability with Alice, along with a generally more fluid range of motion (of course, some of that was a necessity due to it being an action game).

-jc

I would love to be able to pull myself back up from ledges, and help people up to new hights, and rope climb, and everything! It would add an even more exploration to the game!

I especially love being able to pick up things, which is an option of the questionare, In the well in UU I always wanted to pick up the lantern by Watson's journal and use it to see my way down the broken spiral path down the well-instead of changing my monitors contrast rate to unprecidented levels

It would also mean being able to collect pages, and carry journals, and (from another post by Tweek) carry illicit ages.

Hmm...

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I understand that lots of people enjoy doing the challenging actions, like jumping certain places. I certainly don't want to deprive others of their athletic fun, but it would be wonderful if the less gifted (physically) amongst us could do some of the cool things more easily... (and in return, I'd happlily be a candidate for being catapulted)

Unfortunately for me, when playing Uru CC (I discovered it after Live had already closed down), jumping on to the rotating bridge in Gahreesen was nearly impossible and intensely frustrating ... it took me weeks and I nearly gave up! That was particularly awful because I have arthritis and it made my hand, arm , back hurt! (I tried so hard!)

Curiously, jumping down onto the poles in Kadish was more managable for me and I got really cool screenshots from strange angles - I had really hoped that brightly colored stone down there was a box with something in it.. well, it wasn't, but at least I saw it close up and stood on it.

Also, I climbed up and stood on top of the bone arch in Eder Gira (nice view), and edged along the side of my Relto island from near the dock .. to see just how far I could go... (amazingly far, actually) These things helped to give me the sense of adventure without the frustration and pain.



I think there might be quite a few people whose enjoyment of the game stems from the opportunity to be adventurous, when in RL that avenue is closed to them. I used to love camping and mountainwalking, but those avenues of exploration are now closed to me.

Note!! ....it would still be fun to see others engage in challenging physical feats! hmmm spectator sports in UL?

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butterpaw
KI 00018775
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I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes they all attack me at once.

I too would like to see the climbing and ledge-hanging features in Uru. Ico is a fantastic game, and I do think that the Uru explorers ought to be able to do just about anything Ico can do. (Whacking at shadows with swords or sticks possibly excepted.) It would be very nice.

One of my mild gripes about Uru was that we were given the sidle animation, and I could never figure out a place where you needed to use it! Every single place I thought it would work turned out to be one of those places where you just plain weren't allowed to walk.

Ledge hanging would be WONDERFUL! You can do that in, er, Kingdom Hearts - yep, in my spare time I devote myself to my PS2 - and it's a wonderful little feature.

Anything that gives us more excuse to clamber all over things is fine by me. (And I'm kind of impressed by how far people got anyway, just with the basic controls!)

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I still love my umbrella!

Sosiqui in Cavern

Hmmn. I like the sidle feature. A lot. It's the one thing I miss in al lthese other games I play with 3D avatars. They can't sidle. Cyan got that right.

Jumping. You know, I think ther eought to be a setting at the start of the game that differentiates the running jumping climbing action gamer people from the walking pointing clicking gamer people. It's only fair. And when approaching those dangerous leaps and narrow ledges, put up the auto jump feature and the invisible wall feature. Traditional Adventure Gamers do NOT want to jump across lava pits, no matter how exciting it looks.

Auto Catch Fall feature. Good idea.

Ledge grabbing. Yes. More node command stuff. Demark places where you can reach up and grab stuff by perhaps offering an obvious (convenient) foothold as well as the obvious handhold, and people won't be walking all over clicking on every moderately high vertical plane looking for a leg up.

Small inventory. Only for pocket or knapsack/handbag type items. Limited spaces. No complex inventory puzzle items. Take them back to your work bench and piece them together when you have all the parts. No assembling cannons from pocket lint, rusty plumbing and that bale of hay you had in your back pocket that you can weave into a rope.

Carrying feature for single large objects, and maybe two-handed medium objects (like bags and buckets with handles). Full body pushing feature. And Pull up/Leg up animations for team climbing. Nothing tricky. Just find the spot in the wall without the footholds but with the handholds up at an 8 foot elevation or whatnot, and have a node set up for one player to back up against and assume a hunch with hands clasped for a foot. Designated spots, obviously.

And I kind of like the Tomb Raider thing, but yeah, that doesn't belong in an action game sold primarily to adventure game fans. Such acrobatic features should be optional extras. People who take the non-action route should have less strenuous button-pushing means to get cool stuff instead. Maybe not the same cool stuff, but cool stuff of their own that only they can have.

And yes, more avatar animations. Take your time on this one, Cyan. I will wait as long as it takes, as long as you make room in the new engine for its eventual implementation. If it's not ready by release, just assure us you're working on it, and that it should be in an upcoming patch.

I would like more sitting, climbing, and swimming, plus grabbing, reaching, pushing, pulling up, carrying, and a few more emotes. I'm waiting for /hug and /kiss, patiently.

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Lee Edward McIlmoyle
Adventure Game Devotee at large

I like the idea of holding one thing in your hand at a time, but I am completely against inventory. I see it as the first step on the road to an MMORPG, but maybe that's just me.

Anyway, I just thought of a new suggestion and I think I'll start a new topic for it!

I thought Uru allready was a MMORPG but yes I am olso in favour of some limited inventory.

In the original Myst you had the ultimate limited inventory you could carry one page from a book and in Exile doesn't Savadero (not sure of character name) carry off one of books Atrus has written.

In Myst IV Revelation theres all sorts of small items crossing the link boundry. and we are not talking precident here in Uru you have allways had lent (the Uru spelling of lint) and feathers.

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It's a Massively Multiplayer Online Game. World of Warcraft (I'm sorry!) is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game.

Excellent suggestions, Alahmnat!

Although it's rather beside the point, I feel compelled to mention that Fumito Ueda's games (ICO and Shadow of the Colossus) are easily the closest things I've found to Cyan's games in terms of world-building and quality storytelling - even though said world-building and storytelling are executed in decidedly different ways, both provide an equally rich experience and profound sense of place. To any of you who've not yet discovered ICO & Colossus; do yourselves a favour and give them a look!

For the time being, I think it's safe to say that Colossus-quality dynamic animations are a bit too "Blue Sky" to hope for - but some level of improvement in that area really is in order. Ledge-grabbing and the ability to pick up small objects (books, lamps, cones, Bothersome Fish Basketsâ„¢, etc.) would be a great start. Not only would they infuse a bit more realism into the game (and thus aid in the all-important suspension of disbelief), they would surely be of nigh-inestimable worth to those (many) of us who fall squarely in the "non-twitchy" category.

As Stellaflora (and others) pointed out, "Myst has never been about agility tests". I heartily concur. The death-defying leaps required in Eder Gira presented problems for many, many players - myself included - and the rock-hopping for the Relto Page in Eder Kemo was nothing short of absurd (Sorry, Cyan - it just was ).

One last thing before I go - vidkid7's idea about cooperative climbing and puzzle-solving is absolutely marvelous! I'd love to see that sort of thing implemented in Uru. In fact, It's such a perfect example of the sort of situation this new format (massively-multiplayer adventure game) is capable of presenting, I'd almost be surprised if Cyan wasn't already hard at work developing that very feature right now.

In summary: I don't have anything even remotely original to add to this topic, but I wholeheartedly agree with (and am very excited by) everything already discussed. I'm just adding my voice to the chorus!

-Alex

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"The most incredible thing about miracles is that they happen."
-G.K. Chesterton