If you are coming from more popular MMOGs

korovev · **Posted:** Thu Nov 12, 2015 2:47 pm

Hail to thee, hero of Drizzlebreeze!
Hail to thee, bearer of the Roachslayer!
Hail to thee, Ambassador of the Sombrero Elves!

Between fighting demons with halitosis and crafting undersized boots, you took an interest in Myst Online: Uru Live (again) (or MOULa, as we usually call it), and are about to, or have already, logged in. Something might not feel right, something might seem to be missing, and perhaps you can not even move. Know that there are a few radical differences from what you might have been expecting:

The most important one is of course that there is no fighting whatsoever; the most violent thing you can do is chasing crabs around. It follows that there is no action bar (though there are a few actions associated to the F-keys), no targeting, and gear has no stats.
There is no leveling, no skills and no crafting. Your progress is displayed by changes in Relto (sort of your basecamp). You have a choice of clothings, and you will pick up some more along the way, but it’s all cosmetics.
Listen to Zandi, the big guy near the trailer! Listen to Yeesha, too. They have useful informations. Notebooks are also important (well, you can leave the Kings’ biographies for later).
Relto is where you always log in. You don’t return to the exact place you left the last time, so take note of how you got there!
You don’t need to pick up stuff, so there is no inventory. There is no map, for that matter: if you need one, you will have to make your own the old fashioned way, with pencil and paper. By the way, different areas of the game are called ‘Ages’, which could be described as self contained worlds.
There are no quests of the kind you might be familiar with, but there are ‘Journeys’. You will soon find out the scope of those, as they will constitute the major part of your (initial) stay in here.
Let’s consider the controls: the default keybinding is limited to the arrow keys, the ‘,’ and ‘.’ keys for lateral moving and the spacebar for jumping. To get the typical WASD, you’ll have to set it in the configuration panel (hidden in the lower-right angle, also accessible by pressing F4); check the manual for more info.
With the default settings, chatting happens just by typing, without a special key – and we chat a lot, on occasion. A useful command to issue is ‘/startlog’, which saves the chat text in a file saved in Documents/Uru Live/Logs.
Camera controls are limited, e.g. you can’t look at yourself. The right mouse button pans the camera a bit, but not rotate it, while the left one is for walking. Using both is for running. Capslock inverts the walking/running action.
You start with just a local chatbox, but at some point you will acquire a KI device. It’s too complicate to explain its functioning here (you can find a guide here, though figuring it out is part of the fun), but know it allows greater freedom of movement, long distance communication, taking pictures and notes, and has a sort of GPS (though that requires a complex calibration procedure before working).
Guilds are not guilds: groups of explorers with their own chat channel are known here as members of a Neighborhood. Uru Live Guilds are outside the game mechanics, they are sort-of clubs with a common activity: the Writers work on the open source engine and create Fan Ages, Messengers relay news about events and activities, etc. You can find more info in-game in Kirel, or here (note the updates) in the forums.

[Reveal] Spoiler: Edits

EDIT 1: WASD does exist, but must be configured.
EDIT 2: added a note about the F-keys instead of an action bar.
EDIT 3: added a note about listening to Zandi.
EDIT 4: added a note about guilds.
EDIT 5: removed the draft notice.
EDIT 6: changed KI guide link from GoG to Sleepers.

Jamie Marchant · **Posted:** Thu Nov 12, 2015 3:35 pm

I don't think we need more stickies. The about page of this site accurately explains the different experience people will have in this game. The controls are explained in the games manual.(stickied on another page.) MOULa is the only Massively Multiplayer Online Adventure Game that I know of so, yes it's going to be different. You might think we should have a sticky to tell people that they have to hit Escape to enter the game, someone had a very strong logical argument for why we don't have this and I can't remember it.

Tai'lahr · **Posted:** Thu Nov 12, 2015 5:41 pm

Good information, korovev. You might also want to point them to Mac_Fife's MOULagain User Manual.

Jamie Marchant wrote:

You might think we should have a sticky to tell people that they have to hit Escape to enter the game, someone had a very strong logical argument for why we don't have this and I can't remember it.

It's because the intro movie was removed, so all you're seeing is a bahro cave. It's mentioned in Chogon's post, MOULa is alive again, but yeah, it should probably be more obvious.

korovev · **Posted:** Thu Nov 12, 2015 6:18 pm

Jamie Marchant wrote:

I don’t think we need more stickies.

Heresy! You can’t have too many stickies!

The logical argument was that the intro video bug will go away with the next update, so there’s no point in putting a note about a transient issue. You know, like the Minkata sparklie bug

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The absence of leveling or of gear with stats is inherent to MOULa design, so it would make more sense to put up a note about that.

Besides, many people run away screaming when they hear/read the word ‘manual’ :roll:

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That part might indeed be a bit redundant (I could put the link to the manual there), the point was explaining the lack of a WASD control.

I was thinking that the list might sound a bit offputting; perhaps a second list with features not in any other game could balance it, but I don’t know if that would make the post too long.

KathAveara · **Posted:** Thu Nov 12, 2015 6:40 pm

korovev wrote:

[*]Let’s consider the controls: there is no WASD, only the arrow keys, the ‘,’ and ‘.’ keys for lateral moving

Really? I have WASD and Q and E for lateral motion.

dgelessus · **Posted:** Thu Nov 12, 2015 6:50 pm

KathAveara wrote:

korovev wrote:

[*]Let’s consider the controls: there is no WASD, only the arrow keys, the ‘,’ and ‘.’ keys for lateral moving

Really? I have WASD and Q and E for lateral motion.

Then you must have set those yourself. (I do that as well.)

KathAveara · **Posted:** Thu Nov 12, 2015 7:11 pm

dgelessus wrote:

KathAveara wrote:

korovev wrote:

[*]Let’s consider the controls: there is no WASD, only the arrow keys, the ‘,’ and ‘.’ keys for lateral moving

Really? I have WASD and Q and E for lateral motion.

Then you must have set those yourself. (I do that as well.)

In which case, Korov'ev's statement is still untrue, since you have the option to keymap, which he should have mentioned.

korovev · **Posted:** Thu Nov 12, 2015 7:34 pm

See what I mean, about people not reading the manual? :roll:

Edited the OP accordingly.

Charura · **Joined:** Wed Oct 14, 2009 4:14 pm **Posts:** 1765

So, getting back on-topic here... What is more popular than MOUL(a)? :mrgreen:

korovev · **Posted:** Fri Nov 13, 2015 9:14 am

Well, the most popular one is of course World of Paperworks, in which you play a clerk, working at the Chester-Perry megacorp, who fights invoices, mail orders and office managers on his/her way to become the next MD. It also has a complex pet system, mostly based on pidgeons.

Another popular one is Juggler Wars, in which you use powers like Fire Breathing and Sleight of Hand against other juggling clans to become the World Champion.

An interesting one is SHIFT, in which both factions (the German Literature and the French Literature Clubs) both have to face recurring waves of all-caps l33t-speaking 4channers.

TOOO · **Posted:** Mon Nov 23, 2015 2:53 am

I have occasionally stumbled upon YouTube videos of players who had stumbled upon MOUL for the first time (when the Yeesha opening video still existed). Unfortunately, I've forgotten where those videos are now.

One thing I did notice that those videos had in common: the player was in such a big rush to get through the game, that he missed out on some very important instructions, and then wondered why he became so hopelessly lost. I wouldn't be surprised to discover that this is true of most new players.

korovev · **Posted:** Mon Nov 23, 2015 9:50 am

You can find quite a few by searching for “first run” or “first impression”.

A possible explanation for the situation you described is that important informations are usually given as text dialog boxes (and sometimes also in the chatbox) by NPCs with a mark on their head. Speech tends to be disregarded as sound effects; the lack of subtitles doesn’t help.

Eleri · **Posted:** Fri Dec 11, 2015 1:33 am

This is snazzy, korovev. Thank you for writing it up!

korovev · **Posted:** Fri Dec 11, 2015 1:44 am

This old thread reminded me of something obvious: Guilds in Uru do not work as commonly intended

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I’ve added a item to the list about that.

If you are coming from more popular MMOGs

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