Does anybody know how many ages were in production before the plug got pulled?

I know of one that was well on its way - but from the sound of it complicated to execute.

I ask because Cyan worked on a staged pipeline process, so there must have been several at various stages, so Iassume there is varying levels of concept art through to nearly ready ages (phase four/five).


It is something I wonder about because these might act as bases for the 1st collabrotive creations for the open source - The fans pooling talent to release ages that Cyan ran out of time/resources to produce.

Everything about the ages and the phases they were in is on the DRC forum.

I'm curious how the DRC scale would relate to a Cyan "completion scale" in terms of when it has hit concept to when it reaches development.

As far as I know, there were two Ages that got pretty far but were bogged down by the time GameTap pulled the plug. There were also a few I heard of getting close to development, or some that were PLANNED for massive development (e.g. J'Taeri) but due to manpower problems, this was never made an actuality.

An intriguing question.

I've also been interested in the idea of fans working to complete Cyan Worlds' unfinished ages.

I'd proposed (at one point) arranging a team of the best GoW artists for this purpose, and having someone at Cyan give them concept art and designs, to make into worlds.

It'd be an effort led by one or two Cyan staffers part-time, with a couple dozen GoW fans working under them to produce semi-official content for Uru.

I know Kahlo is partly finished but has some difficult technical problems.

I know there were some early Cyan test ages (Vika, etc) of RealMyst quality that were never included in the finished product.

There were also many new areas of existing ages, and entirely new ages, in development.

I'd love to see Cyan Worlds lead a fan team to develop some of this material.

The DRC site lists the content Cyan Worlds was working on during MO:UL. It's an IC view of upcoming ages and they stopped updating it a while before the end of MO:UL - so some ages may be more finished than they're listed as being.

The link is here:
http://www.drcsite.org/project.php

I don't think any of the ages are very close to being ready, but some have progressed reasonably far.

Last edited by matthornb on Fri Feb 19, 2010 9:37 pm; edited 1 time in total

Nek'rahm wrote:

I'm curious how the DRC scale would relate to a Cyan "completion scale" in terms of when it has hit concept to when it reaches development.

As far as I know, there were two Ages that got pretty far but were bogged down by the time GameTap pulled the plug. There were also a few I heard of getting close to development, or some that were PLANNED for massive development (e.g. J'Taeri) but due to manpower problems, this was never made an actuality.

I wonder this myself, seeing as some of those ages had been under construction since the original launch of the game back in '03.('04? 5? erm. i don't remember now xD) my guess is that Cyan has several ages that are complete design wise but lack textures, scripts, and interactions.

what i'd really love to see is the Great Tree opeened up.

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Looking at all those city locations e.g. Palace Courtyard, do u think Cyan would have, with each release of a new city location, made the island larger?

I'd be curious to know what ages were being made when the game closed (and the status on the J'taeri district).

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sarpedon2 wrote:

Looking at all those city locations e.g. Palace Courtyard, do u think Cyan would have, with each release of a new city location, made the island larger?

I'd be curious to know what ages were being made when the game closed (and the status on the J'taeri district).

Well I do know from flymode on the offline version that there is some internal structure, some so that views work properly from around the island, some internal with no way they can be seen, so maybe they once had a plan for them.

But on the other hand the rear door of the musem goes out the back of a cliff, and where did the alley go - etc.

Oh and where does the alley behind the curtain go

Its all part of the whole of URU that makes us wonder 'what if'

Rusty_Russell wrote:

Everything about the ages and the phases they were in is on the DRC forum.

I know, it was the Cyan pipline that I was wondering about. The DRC site is in game and so not especially certain as too the reality behind each phase.

gerrant wrote:

Well I do know from flymode on the offline version that there is some internal structure, some so that views work properly from around the island, some internal with no way they can be seen, so maybe they once had a plan for them.

But on the other hand the rear door of the musem goes out the back of a cliff, and where did the alley go - etc.

Oh and where does the alley behind the curtain go

Its all part of the whole of URU that makes us wonder 'what if'

I really wish I could get an interview with someone from Cyan to discuss Uru's history (something I've been wanting to do for a long time) and what were the original plans for the Uru Live (2003) and MOUL (2007).

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Uru's planning shifted tracks so often, it's probably impossible to tell the difference between "unfinished" and "abandoned".

We know that some design ideas (but little completed work) were lifted from Uru plans into Myst 5. When Cyan set up with Gametap and started working on MOUL, they started in on Tsogal and Delin, and then the pods, Minkata, and Jalak; but I don't think we ever learned what they were planning after (or in addition to) that.

There was the infamous "whiteboard leak" in March of 2007, which was certainly deliberate on Cyan's part. (Rand Miller gave a video interview in front of a planning whiteboard. Text at http://mystonline.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=137886#137886 .) It didn't extend beyond what was released, however.

When they declared a hiatus in November 2007, I assumed they would keep the pipeline going, to have material built up for the "second season". (In fact Cyan was worried about Gametap pulling the plug -- but they were also looking for alternate funding, right up until February, so the logic still holds.) Was I right or wrong? I have no idea.

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gerrant wrote:

Rusty_Russell wrote:

Everything about the ages and the phases they were in is on the DRC forum.

I know, it was the Cyan pipline that I was wondering about. The DRC site is in game and so not especially certain as too the reality behind each phase.

I agree - has there been any indication from Cyan that the DRC age list is meant to be an in-cavern representation of their out-of-cavern development pipeline?

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Yes, from RAWA. There's so much stuff from him. He was so un-Cyan-like.

RAWA once noted what stages of the DRC timeline corresponds to what stages of the actual Cyan worldbuilding. It's also rough and changes, as he noted.. but that's the best we have.

Using that, while they abandoned the list a long while back (and the whole DRC site.. RAWA let the cautious optimeter idle for years even before MOUL was closed) they had a lot of ages in the first stages of planning and rough massing, if that's accurate. Very little however was at the finalized version ready ot be tweaked and sent to us.


Of course that says nothing about other content, only new ages...

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I presume that Rahtevnee would have been one of the next Ages from Cyan. It was added to the DRC Age list a few months before the cavern reopened, so it was a new idea from Cyan for MOUL in comparison to the old suspended Ages like Rebek and Kahlo.

Dr. Kodama wrote:

It is a new Age, more recently discovered, but one that has promise for a fairly quick turnaround an thus it has been moved up. Mostly water. Some interesting creatures and equipment. The D’ni used it for its resources. Interesting place. Should be fun.

(Original chat-log: http://drcarch.thecitadel.nl/communication/transcripts/dmala/town-hall-12/)

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I think Kahlo was very close to being finished well before MOUL, but Cyan could never get the bugs worked out in regards to the flying creatures we were supposed to be able to ride around on. Talk about what might have been!