Another day off, spent in replaying the rest of Uru. Got out guidebook, went back to Teledahn, beginning with control panel at top of trolley to lower water, etc; went thru rest of age -- prison cave, using gun to shoot counter-weights, etc, and found book which takes you to prison cell in Gahreesen. Finished both those ages...
Then did kadish, the purple puzzle age, until game service itself shut down for couple hours -- then did a 40meg 'update' before relaunching. Had trouble leaping gap near ziggurat to other side, where formerly was a relto page -- now nothing. (This has been discussed in forum as 'missing page'.) completed age, then did eder gira/kemo, remarkably easy, even kicking the buckets. the leaps at end of gahreesen went ok too -- either they've made the game slightly easier, or i'm just getting better at it, or perhaps different computer/keyboard makes responses more accurate. (Even found it easy to climb and jump on ledge in eder kemo to get relto book there, and to jump down and across lava river in eder gira without once falling in or panic linking to Relto.)
What's new? noticed in forum mention of a relto books for a bridge (!) in cleft area near zandi's trailer... and realized that, part-way through, there was no way to get back to cleft. (the new game starts on relto, with one pillar in place holding the book to the cleft. after visiting there, you return to relto and find the four pillars to the ages, and the cleft book gone.) eventually after finishing all four ages, you automatically return to cleft, visit yeesha again, get the rain and see the bahro climb into the volcano. and then you find a firepit near zandi's trailer (that wasn't there before), with a relto page... it creates a bridge from the relto island to a couple of the pillars. on the second pillar is a compass rose kind of diagram, and a small object (a lamp? candleholder?) containg a glowing sparkle...
Other discovery was in Kadish, in the pillar puzzle (the huge pillars with counterweights you must raise in the right sequence to climb up through the ceiling), there's a 'sparkly' floating at the top of the third pillar. you have to perform a separate setting of the pillars to climb up and let the sparkly surround you--and it does something to your relto book. that *may* be the same glowing sparkle across the bridge in relto, except that one forum post said that when you find the sparkle, if you don't already have the bridge (which i didn't, because i hadn't finished the four ages yet), it would have no effect. so should i revisit kadish now and encounter the sparkle again? [update later -- no]
Apparently was one earlier sparkle that's not there now. speculation is there'll be one new one a month, that the compass rose is some kind of calendar or clock.
Also new: completing each of the four ages puts a segment of floating rock hovering and slowly circling above the donut-shaped rock on relto. (according to forum, completing the 2 new eder ages with friends results in 2 more objects there)
Maybe new? i don't recall a separate, empty vault at the end of kadish -- thought there was a stonecloth to somewhere, but not that. could re-read closely the original uru guidebook to see. now, in the empty vault is a relto page for butterflies -- didn't remember that either. (maybe i should relaunch uru on other computer and see?)
Another minor discovery: linking to relto while surrounded by fireflies (in eder) brings fireflies to relto. apparently this was always possible.
Bottom line for now: the live release has several incidental new features scattered throughout the original ages, and two rather small new ages apparently designed to teach players how to play together, and that's about it. no substantial new ages, nor suggestion of some overall 'story' about where the game is going... but there are still a lot of empty slots in the relto bookcase!
Also interesting: haven't appreciated, perhaps, the implication in uru guidebook that uru was the vision of where the myst games would go following riven... that myst iii, iv, and v are in some sense all sidebars, or repeats of the original myst pattern (of independent ages around a hub age).
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Remembering the Solutions
Decided it's not 'cheating' to look up how to solve a puzzle i've already solved myself at least once -- so got uru book i bought a while back and found sequence to activate power in gahreesen. from there, went up elevator, and jumped across to other building on first try. (no problem running uru on laptop -- though the myst v 'trailer' did not run well on it, a couple years ago; the sound kept dropping out.) found stonecloth -- it links to yet another city balcony, which had a power marker. (so those collecting all the power markers really do have to replay substantial portions of the game to get them.)
There's actually nothing else to 'do' in Gahreesen, until accessing the prison cell via the link at the end of Teledahn.
In mentally reviewing, the two areas of most difficulty in all of Uru, in terms of manual dexterity, are the jumps in Gahreesen, especially at the end down onto the rock pillar, and kicking the wooden buckets around in Eder to make a bridge you can carry the fireflies across. And in the expansion pack, having to swim to the small island in Adonay, which perhaps isn't always necessary. Aside from those, replaying the entire game with a puzzle guide at hand shouldn't actually take very long -- two or three hours?
There's actually nothing else to 'do' in Gahreesen, until accessing the prison cell via the link at the end of Teledahn.
In mentally reviewing, the two areas of most difficulty in all of Uru, in terms of manual dexterity, are the jumps in Gahreesen, especially at the end down onto the rock pillar, and kicking the wooden buckets around in Eder to make a bridge you can carry the fireflies across. And in the expansion pack, having to swim to the small island in Adonay, which perhaps isn't always necessary. Aside from those, replaying the entire game with a puzzle guide at hand shouldn't actually take very long -- two or three hours?
Monday, February 26, 2007
Back to Gahreesen
2/26 Afternoon:
Saw forum posts that said in *some* Bevin neighborhoods there is a book linking to Eder Devin, rather than Eder Tsogal; also, that each area results in obtaining a 'donut' object that appears in your Relto above the tire-shaped stone. But, tried a couple Bevins, and didn't find anything different.
Went to beginning of Gahreesen and played through game, partly to see if anything was new, partly to find Bahro stone to access additional power markers. Got through passage into power room, did some trial and error but didn't remember which sequence activates the power.
Saw forum posts that said in *some* Bevin neighborhoods there is a book linking to Eder Devin, rather than Eder Tsogal; also, that each area results in obtaining a 'donut' object that appears in your Relto above the tire-shaped stone. But, tried a couple Bevins, and didn't find anything different.
Went to beginning of Gahreesen and played through game, partly to see if anything was new, partly to find Bahro stone to access additional power markers. Got through passage into power room, did some trial and error but didn't remember which sequence activates the power.
Morning:
City: returned to library, doors open automatically on approach, just fine. was saturday's problem a lag issue because of so many other players there? one power marker inside, nothing else.
Eder: went to Eder from shared bevin, but no one else there.
Stonecloths [i.e. Bahro stones]: some lead to the various dead end areas (balconies, etc) where power markers can be found. started compiling a list. went to own teledahn book, played opening of game (turning on power tower, riding cable car to top, entering doug sharper's office).
... Don't remember, how is rooftop in city accessed? (There were 2 pm's there)
Where were other stonecloths? One in 2nd Gahreesen building conference room? One in initial Kadish area. One at end of Teledahn, in the shadows. was there one at end of gahreesen, in prison cell? There must have been one in Eder, where was it? (On ledge near firefly area?) May be confusing these with locations of Relto cloths.
Leading to open question: does Uru Live require player to step through all of original four worlds, if only to access stonecloths to find all the power markers?
As far as i can tell, only options currently in game are to 1) wander around and collect power markers, even though this won't result in anything because they're not all yet available; 2) gang up with 'friends' to do spiral cloth puzzles in two new Eder areas... even though i've seen no hint doing these results in anything past that, or new.
Despite which, glancing at forum topics (without reading posts, to avoid crude spoilers) suggests numerous topics unrelated to either of these.
Might be useful (and would hardly be cheating) to read walkthroughs of earlier uru game, just to refresh where things were and what outcome of various tasks was....
City: returned to library, doors open automatically on approach, just fine. was saturday's problem a lag issue because of so many other players there? one power marker inside, nothing else.
Eder: went to Eder from shared bevin, but no one else there.
Stonecloths [i.e. Bahro stones]: some lead to the various dead end areas (balconies, etc) where power markers can be found. started compiling a list. went to own teledahn book, played opening of game (turning on power tower, riding cable car to top, entering doug sharper's office).
... Don't remember, how is rooftop in city accessed? (There were 2 pm's there)
Where were other stonecloths? One in 2nd Gahreesen building conference room? One in initial Kadish area. One at end of Teledahn, in the shadows. was there one at end of gahreesen, in prison cell? There must have been one in Eder, where was it? (On ledge near firefly area?) May be confusing these with locations of Relto cloths.
Leading to open question: does Uru Live require player to step through all of original four worlds, if only to access stonecloths to find all the power markers?
As far as i can tell, only options currently in game are to 1) wander around and collect power markers, even though this won't result in anything because they're not all yet available; 2) gang up with 'friends' to do spiral cloth puzzles in two new Eder areas... even though i've seen no hint doing these results in anything past that, or new.
Despite which, glancing at forum topics (without reading posts, to avoid crude spoilers) suggests numerous topics unrelated to either of these.
Might be useful (and would hardly be cheating) to read walkthroughs of earlier uru game, just to refresh where things were and what outcome of various tasks was....
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Four in One Minute
Eder tsogal: able to tag four of the spiral cloths in the time (1 minute) before the timer runs out. confirmed that the cloth at the top of the stairs is #2, because when pressing cloths in correct order, bolts around the circumference of the portal light up.
City: wandered around, discovered more power markers. discovered a ledge around the library i'd not previously seen -- was it there in original game? -- though it didn't lead anywhere. noticed library door does open intermittently, but couldn't get through, though a couple others did. found initial set of 15 markers, returned to great zero room and discharged them. this adds nexus link to the outer calibration room -- where you find one more marker, but otherwise doors that don't open.
Online forum indicates only 25 of total 30 power markers are yet available. as i recall, collecting all markers gains access to calibration room, and eventually turning on power in cavern. how would this work in shared game environment?
City: wandered around, discovered more power markers. discovered a ledge around the library i'd not previously seen -- was it there in original game? -- though it didn't lead anywhere. noticed library door does open intermittently, but couldn't get through, though a couple others did. found initial set of 15 markers, returned to great zero room and discharged them. this adds nexus link to the outer calibration room -- where you find one more marker, but otherwise doors that don't open.
Online forum indicates only 25 of total 30 power markers are yet available. as i recall, collecting all markers gains access to calibration room, and eventually turning on power in cavern. how would this work in shared game environment?
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Wandering Around
Day off today, though spent only couple hours in Uru. Nothing new in Eder--no one there. Spent time wandering around the city, looking for the power markers. Discoveries: the gallery from Kadish is now accessible from the outside area where the balcony is partly destroyed. And both the museum and library buildings are *not* accessible, as they were earlier.
Found 12 of 15 needed power markers. (They seem to be in the same locations as before, but not all of them.) Lag time significant, since city is a shared area. Once got stuck in the gallery, simply couldn't open door, had to Relto out and return.
Went briefly to Kadish and to Teledahn, the latter via a stonecloth in the former, where you find the dock page for Relto on an exterior boardwalk that's cut off in each direction. (What would it be if you went to Teledahn directly?)
Chatter in city indicates people arrange 'Eder runs', getting a group of explorers together to synchronize touching the spiral cloths and opening the portal.
Glancing at forum topics, saw one post that claimed he did Eder with only 2 people, himself and daughter. No one talking about whether they could do it alone.
Also no indication that, aside from the two smallish Eder areas with spiral cloth puzzles, there's much other new content, yet. Did see a topic (did not read) claiming to list all the new features in the existing areas, but this seemed to mean things like doors that do or don't open, not major new areas.
Found 12 of 15 needed power markers. (They seem to be in the same locations as before, but not all of them.) Lag time significant, since city is a shared area. Once got stuck in the gallery, simply couldn't open door, had to Relto out and return.
Went briefly to Kadish and to Teledahn, the latter via a stonecloth in the former, where you find the dock page for Relto on an exterior boardwalk that's cut off in each direction. (What would it be if you went to Teledahn directly?)
Chatter in city indicates people arrange 'Eder runs', getting a group of explorers together to synchronize touching the spiral cloths and opening the portal.
Glancing at forum topics, saw one post that claimed he did Eder with only 2 people, himself and daughter. No one talking about whether they could do it alone.
Also no indication that, aside from the two smallish Eder areas with spiral cloth puzzles, there's much other new content, yet. Did see a topic (did not read) claiming to list all the new features in the existing areas, but this seemed to mean things like doors that do or don't open, not major new areas.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Chief Charm Conflict
Went back to Eder whatever. Located all seven spiral cloths. Touching the portal triggers a *different* sequence of partial shapes each time. Reasonable to number them 1 thru 7, smallest to complete. But which cloths correspond with which number, or pattern?
Glanced at hint guide online... which suggests right away having a 'friend' help. Better hint: when the Portal hasn't been triggered, touching a cloth displays its corresponding signal on the portal door. Trouble is, only a couple cloths have direct lines of sight to the portal. A couple others are near enough you can touch the cloth and run to glimpse the portal before it fades out... but at least two cloths aren't close enough at all. You can be reasonably sure of five at most.
Hint guide confirms basic hypothesis: you have to touch all seven cloths in the current sequence, before the portal activation runs out. But first you need to *see* the current sequence; after that, there's slightly over a minute before the portal deactivates. Can you run back and forth an touch all 7 cloths in a minute? Barely. Tried a couple times, didn't do it--but I may not be guessing correctly about the two unknown cloths.
Unfortunately, this puzzle confirms suspicion that the online game *does* require interaction between players, which for me conflicts with one of Myst/Uru's chief charms -- that you're in the role of an isolated explorer, alone, and can figure everything out yourself. It's as if you couldn't read a book without finding someone else to read the dialogue outloud.
Couple options... keep trying to do it alone, it might be barely possible. Or, go to the common Edo age and wait around for someone else to work the puzzle, and jump through the portal with them (as people were doing the other day).
Note also that, judging from hint guide, the adjacent Edo age has a virtually identical 7-cloth puzzle. But after that, the original Edo ages have perhaps different content (something about arriving at night).
Technical note -- got a couple crash errors, one a stack overflow.
Glanced at hint guide online... which suggests right away having a 'friend' help. Better hint: when the Portal hasn't been triggered, touching a cloth displays its corresponding signal on the portal door. Trouble is, only a couple cloths have direct lines of sight to the portal. A couple others are near enough you can touch the cloth and run to glimpse the portal before it fades out... but at least two cloths aren't close enough at all. You can be reasonably sure of five at most.
Hint guide confirms basic hypothesis: you have to touch all seven cloths in the current sequence, before the portal activation runs out. But first you need to *see* the current sequence; after that, there's slightly over a minute before the portal deactivates. Can you run back and forth an touch all 7 cloths in a minute? Barely. Tried a couple times, didn't do it--but I may not be guessing correctly about the two unknown cloths.
Unfortunately, this puzzle confirms suspicion that the online game *does* require interaction between players, which for me conflicts with one of Myst/Uru's chief charms -- that you're in the role of an isolated explorer, alone, and can figure everything out yourself. It's as if you couldn't read a book without finding someone else to read the dialogue outloud.
Couple options... keep trying to do it alone, it might be barely possible. Or, go to the common Edo age and wait around for someone else to work the puzzle, and jump through the portal with them (as people were doing the other day).
Note also that, judging from hint guide, the adjacent Edo age has a virtually identical 7-cloth puzzle. But after that, the original Edo ages have perhaps different content (something about arriving at night).
Technical note -- got a couple crash errors, one a stack overflow.
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