New Uru project (You can help!)

Carl U Palmner · **Joined:** Sun Jul 20, 2014 2:55 am **Posts:** 85

Today I began working on a new Uru-related project. I don't want to reveal too much right now, since it is still in its early stages, but I'll say this much:

1. It's a computer program.
2. It's a companion to run alongside Uru (but will not interact with your Uru program in any way).
3. It will reward the Uru player with tons of unlockable digital "prizes".

Those prizes are the reason I'm coming to you guys. I'd like to include images, videos, articles of text, and possibly even (very small) mini-games as prizes. I can find a lot of what I need on my own, but I thought I'd ask you folks for ideas first. Point me in the direction of things you think might be a good addition to this collection of Uru stuff.

Images could be screenshots from any Myst game, concept art, Mysterium pictures, or anything else Myst-related.

Videos could be of Uru events, other Myst gameplay, publically released stuff about Cyan, or anything else Myst-related.

Text could be chatlogs, canon information about the D'ni, short fanfiction, quotes, instructions for Jalak games, or anything else Myst-related.

Notice a common theme here?

Let me know if you guys can think of anything at all related to the Myst series that might make a good "reward item" for dedicated explorers.

Carl U Palmner · **Joined:** Sun Jul 20, 2014 2:55 am **Posts:** 85

Side note: Before anyone asks--yes, I have considered copyright issues, and I don't think there will be any problems. What I have in mind shouldn't break any copyright laws, and I'm going to be careful not to use anyone's work against their will. The program will be free.

Jamie Marchant · **Posted:** Tue May 26, 2015 6:21 pm

I'm not sure if you want to do this but...

You could make a commentator that would give you the history of the ages as you visit them. He(or She) would also give you hints(at a "cost"). Some of the commentator nodes could be funny but most would be serius. What do you think?

larryf58 · **Posted:** Tue May 26, 2015 11:40 pm

Take it from a guy who does tours of the Ages. Coming up with enough history to make some of them interesting is tough. Others, there's so much that it's hard to keep it down to a manageable level. Plus, he already said it doesn't interact with the game, so that may not be possible.

Carl U Palmner · **Joined:** Sun Jul 20, 2014 2:55 am **Posts:** 85

Jamie--that's a good idea. I can't implement it exactly as you're suggesting, at least not right now. However, histories of various Ages would make fantastic text articles as reward items. Anyone know good places to find histories like that?

larryf58 · **Posted:** Wed May 27, 2015 12:20 am

I refer you to the URL in my sig block.

Carl U Palmner · **Joined:** Sun Jul 20, 2014 2:55 am **Posts:** 85

Larry--that's a great website. One of the things I was going to do for this was write profiles of each of the major canonical characters of the Restorations, but I see you've got some excellently written ones on your site already, and I think I'm going to use excerpts from what you've got. How should I credit you? Should I just say the profiles were written by "larryf58", or is there another name you'd prefer I use, such as your avvie name or real name?

larryf58 · **Posted:** Sun May 31, 2015 11:40 pm

Credit the site and either link it or give the URL. I'd like for more people to know it's there.

Also, I'm always up for guest articles if you notice something I haven't covered and feel like writing. You can see the overall style from the existing pages.

There are plenty of characters I do not have articles for yet, and I've barely touched Myst, Riven, Exile, or Revelation yet. I've done some Riven, but there's plenty more to do on that.

For the botanists among us, there's an ongoing effort to try to identify the plants seen in the Ages. Any help on that front is greatly appreciated too, and I always mention the folks who make positive IDs in the articles.

Carl U Palmner · **Joined:** Sun Jul 20, 2014 2:55 am **Posts:** 85

No problem, Larry. Thanks!

The project itself is about a third of the way completed. I actually did that much in just two days--I was surprised at how fast I was able to get stuff done. I don't work on it every day, though, so right now I'm hoping to have it done in a couple of weeks.

What I need most right now are pics and videos to use as digital rewards. In-game screenshots are especially great if they are either group shots (fan-run event pics would be awesome!) or if they are of some in-game story event, such as pics of the dead bahro during the Sanctuary Incident, or even just pics of DRC appearances back in the Gametap days, etc. Fan art and pics of fan creations would also be awesome.

larryf58 · **Posted:** Mon Jun 01, 2015 2:37 am

Event pictures are a little hard for me to get. Pictures given by other people don't show up in the KI picture folder on one's computer. If there's a way to download them, I haven't learned it yet. I suppose I could get them if I screencapped and edited out the excess.

I get a lot of pictures from people who attend the yearly cavern tours, and most are group photos.

Dead Bahro:

[Reveal] Spoiler:

Ainia · **Posted:** Mon Jun 01, 2015 3:28 am

Shorah Carl,

I have a good collection of historic photos from my Heritage Documents project (in case you don't remember it!!

)

I'd be happy to push some your way if you could give me some indication of which events you are interested in (I have a *lot* of photos!!).

Carl U Palmner · **Joined:** Sun Jul 20, 2014 2:55 am **Posts:** 85

Ainia--all of them. I am interested in all of them

Jamie Marchant · **Posted:** Thu Jun 04, 2015 11:45 pm

With Gray Hat assistance you can recreate some of the screens Ainia doesn't have. This sound like an interesting project. I will have to try it out when its done.

Carl U Palmner · **Joined:** Sun Jul 20, 2014 2:55 am **Posts:** 85

Yeah, I may end up using the Grey Hats to create some new pics.

In the meantime, here's a PROGRESS UPDATE:

I'm about halfway done with the project now. This movement from 1/3 to 1/2 is due to two things: first, I've just made a lot of progress. Second, I'm cutting the initial early version of the project down a little bit from what I'd originally planned. The most important aspect of this is the fact that I've dropped the videos and minigames for the moment, with the possibility of adding these in future updates if people like the first release.

Although it's only halfway done, I couldn't resist posting a little screenshot for you folks. I've deliberately chosen a screenshot that reveals very little about the project itself. I'll let anyone who's interested in this thing speculate about what these icons mean

[Reveal] Spoiler: Clicky!

Ainia · **Posted:** Fri Jun 05, 2015 3:55 pm

Shorah Carl!

I'll start by pointing you to janaba's awesome collection of old photos which is a treasure trove. And here are some other image collections I used.

Because I found lots of odds and ends scattered across the internet (and made a few composite shots of my own), here's a zipped file of my collection (which includes a ton of stuff that didn't make it into the final Heritage Documents). It is *huge* (752MB), so you will need to be patient in downloading it.

NB: It is in the process of uploading, so you will want to wait until about 1500KI time before grabbing it

; upload speed is horrid where I live

New Uru project (You can help!)

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