Uru Age design documents

Erik · **Posted:** Sat Jun 30, 2018 1:58 pm

Wow!! Yesterday Cyan announced the release of 5 Age design documents from Uru.
I searched for a post on these forums to discuss them. I didn't find it, so I thought I'd start a new thread then.

It's a real treasure trove, if you ask me. It even includes detailed designs of the Laki Age (Laki'ahn in Myst V) as how it was intended for URU including multiplayer puzzles... and the possibility to raise your own Laki pets. :shock:

The Teledahn document also includes notes on the triggers for luring Shroomie. The original idea was that you would even be able to "capture" Shroomie in the lagoon! I think that never made it... or could it be that no one ever figured out the right sequence of actions to achieve that? I know for one thing that I will go back to Myst Online to play around.

And what about driving a boat around Ahnonay?

(Which is much cooler than swimming the long distances).

Tweek · **Joined:** Tue May 09, 2006 12:11 am **Posts:** 2633

Yeah very much enjoyed reading through those. I'd love to see more for the other Ages that got released (Gira, Kemo, Er'cana, Direbo etc).

BTW Erik I dropped you a PM over at the Great Tree forums a while back regarding your D'ni Archive.

MindWalker · **Posted:** Sat Jun 30, 2018 5:43 pm

Very enjoyable read!

I thought it was interesting to read about Teledahn how they planned several cases where the player would interact with Douglas "Shroom Baron" Sharper in different areas and how he would react.

Also in "Garrison" (Gahreesen) there are several interesting notes:

Quote:

Observation Deck
The observation deck provides nothing more than a great view of the surrounding landscape as well as, most importantly, a distant view of the barracks.
There can also be telescopes bolted to the deck that allow for close-up viewing of the barracks as well as the creatures that inhabitant the land below.

Barracks
The barracks are far in the distance and only visible from the tower deck. They are fairly massive and some distance away. Though not many details can be made out, it should be obvious from time to time that some form of life is in existence within the barracks. At this time, there is no way to access the barracks.
The original inhabitants linked to the barracks via maintainer suits and linked into the training center from the barracks via the tower deck.

Would have loved to see more of the outside of Gahreeseen.

Also the idea of having a boat in Ahnonay is nice!

I would really like to see more of these, too.

Erik · **Posted:** Sat Jun 30, 2018 6:27 pm

@Tweek, a few months ago I realized my e-mail address at TGT was invalid. I changed the e-mail address in my profile, which then blocked my account until I clicked the activation link in my email. However, I think the mailing functionality is broken, because the email never arrived, so I'm locked out of my account!
Could you please resend the PM at these forums (MOUL)?
I will try to regain access to TGT in the future.

By the way, it's weird to see quite some complaining going on in the Kickstarter comments... hardly anyone that comments on these documents though, which I think was such an awesome update!

Tweek · **Joined:** Tue May 09, 2006 12:11 am **Posts:** 2633

Yeah seems a lot of people don't understand the concepts of a prototype >.<

Charura · **Joined:** Wed Oct 14, 2009 4:14 pm **Posts:** 1756

These are all great to see and reflect on. What is unfortunate is that this could have happened and never had the opportunity to come to fruition. I'm just happy most of us (RIP to those that are not) are here to enjoy the excitement of this 25th anniversary.

Sirius · **Joined:** Sun Jan 18, 2015 10:41 am **Posts:** 67

Crazy, isn't it ? To be honest I think I was looking forward to it even more than the physical rewards ! (I also posted about it on Reddit, if you're interested.)
Yeah, it's quite unfortunate a lot of content was cut... I think it was too ambitious given the engine Uru uses, but at the same time I'm still satisfied with how well Ages like Ahnonay and Gahreesen turned out despite the cut corners. (I really loved those two Ages and how they interacted with Linking by moving most structures around :shock:

)

I think my favorite document was Ahnonay (did I mention I love this Age ?), and the one I least liked was Kadish Tolesa. There was potential with this Age (even as a puzzle-only Age), but I feel said puzzles were either too obscure or too simple (two of those were actually about finding the missing number in a number sequence, the shadow path was just too hard to see, and the first puzzle in the forest was just a bad combination lock which didn't require the player to look for hidden clues like it did originally). These issues are painfully obvious in both the design document and the final Age. With that said, it could have been really good with more polishing and more red herrings scattered about... :shrug:

Erik wrote:

By the way, it's weird to see quite some complaining going on in the Kickstarter comments... hardly anyone that comments on these documents though, which I think was such an awesome update!

I feel too that the complaints on KS are a bit too harsh... The embedded speaker probably won't have great audio quality given its size, but I'm sure the rest will turn out okay.
As long as Cyan doesn't give us Uru books instead. You know, with the crappy texturing and static blurry linking panel :lol:

Anyway. Here's to hoping we get more of these documents eventually !

FreddyD · **Joined:** Fri Jan 12, 2018 12:16 am **Posts:** 22

Erik wrote:

By the way, it's weird to see quite some complaining going on in the Kickstarter comments... hardly anyone that comments on these documents though, which I think was such an awesome update!

To me, it was difficult to tell what the complaints about the the linking book prototype smacked of more -- entitlement or ignorance. SMH and... :roll:

Uru Age design documents

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