ICEWORLD (after Somewhere)

[Ainia]

Shorah denost2,

Thanks for the new comments. Here are some more from me (along with a few screenshots and fraps videos):

Show Spoiler

a: blue tower: ground floor blockers still in place when elevator is gone
d2: explain please
a: when the elevator is upstairs and I take the shuttle to leave, then walk back and enter the ground floor, I cannot walk across the empty space where the elevator used to be (there are blockers there); I must instead walk around it just as I would if the elevator was still there
d2: Logically it is not possible to arrive to the elevator without having moved the blocker previously. So I think you have found a “hole” in the modelization.
a: I'm including a fraps video of this behavior (it may be hard to see well as it seems to have come out pretty dark)
http://www.allthingsuru.com/AllThingsUru/video/Iceworld%20elevator%20blockers.mp4

a: throughout: flickering layers are particuarly bad at creature cave and with journal displays
d2: Ok it could happen. But in this particular case I did not observe what you mention.
a: I will see if I can take a fraps video to show you what I mean
d2: OK
a: I have several fraps examples of this here:

http://www.allthingsuru.com/AllThingsUru/video/Iceworld%20creature%20cave%20flicker%20in.mp4
http://www.allthingsuru.com/AllThingsUru/video/Iceworld%20creature%20cave%20flicker%20out.mp4
http://www.allthingsuru.com/AllThingsUru/video/Iceworld%20viewer%20flicker.mp4
http://www.allthingsuru.com/AllThingsUru/video/Iceworld%20island%20flicker.mp4

a: throughout: can walk through many ladders at 45 degree angle
d2: what ladders and what do you mean by 45 degrees?
a: I didn't test all the ladders in Iceworld but noticed that this was easy to do with at least some of them; when one is facing the ladder straight on, it is a 90-degree angle; if I am standing a bit to the side and facing the ladder at an angle, I found I could walk right through the ladder. the first time this happened was in the green area climbing back up from the "temple" at the bottom.
D2: OK. I will take care in the future
a: here is another fraps video showing the behavior:

http://www.allthingsuru.com/AllThingsUru/video/Iceworld%20ladder%20angle%20bug.mp4


a: the logic of the r-g-y-b underground button is elusive; visually, it implies that it affects all four areas, yet I can only find changes in the green area; thus far, all buttons are toggles (on/off)
d2: I think you did not write the good sequence. The good one allows you to go everywhere as written in a journal (tv screens) without cheating
a: I'm not sure I understand your response, perhaps it would help for me to include a screenshot then
D2: the opening of each base must be done in a very specific order as precised in a confortable and warm room you must visit.
a: I think you mean the cave/hut, where there are a couple of pictures drawn of (what I'd thought were) the transport routes? it seems you are saying they are drawings of something else instead. the area I'm talking about is not the hut but is this instead (visually, this button implies that it does something to all four areas):



since you seem to be saying that the hut drawings are to show something else instead (that the four areas must be solved only in a particular order), I have some concerns about that. generally, myst/uru players do not expect this kind of gameplay since the Cyan games were designed to be non-linear (this kind of gameplay=if one does something in the wrong order especially when it is possible to do so, the game does not play correctly). if you want Iceworld to be strictly linear, it would be helpful to make this *very* clear, for example in having Gary Bradwell talk in his viewer entries about this. (of course, I may be misunderstanding what you are saying about strict ordering...)

other:
a: the nexus area implies that there is stuff to be unlocked on the flying donut (images on non-working linking pads), yet I can find nothing to unlock; not all red buttons in nexus area are activated yet it appears I am done with Iceworld
d2: all red buttons are successively activated by exploring logically ICEWORLD. And so the Space Station (donut) appears. Space Shuttle will transport the explorer to the Space Station
a: so you are saying that the nexus should activate all 10 linking pads (the 9 in the cluster and the single by itself)? if so, then there are some things I didn't finish yet (good to know!) (btw, the single linking pad shows an image from the end of Somewhere, so I would expect it would link me there, right?)
D2: back to relto then back to Iceworld and look at the red buttons…
a: I'm not sure what is supposed to have changed; all the buttons and linking books remain the same after linking away to Relto and back (specifically, one linking pad is not activated at all, two have pad images but blank linking books and the solitary linking pad still is inactive); perhaps you are talking about something that is supposed to happen only after the game is completed as you intended? it appears that I was able to reach the end goal without having completed everything as you intended, so this situation is simply confusing (I seem to be done but the Iceworld nexus doesn't look and act like I'm done). if I'm understanding the situation correctly, the only way I will be able to truly finish Iceworld will be to start all over again, which I'm not likely to do very soon.

a: unknowingly following Annabelle's footsteps, I was able to jump over the gate and access the yellow transport vehicle, which then (obligingly) flew right through the roof; I could get back off the transport the same way I got on, so it's not necessary to disable this "feature"; however, it's probably a good idea to disable flight if the roof hasn't yet been opened
d2: this way to the Space Shuttle should not be possible. It is my fault. I am not able to imagine what could try such brave explorers. The Roof must be opened and this is a condition to open the way to go down in the big room where the space Shuttle is parked waiting for you.
a: are you saying that I wasn't supposed to be able to access the basement right away? that was the first thing I could do once I got inside the first barrier, so I'm not sure I understand what you are saying here...
D2: precise step by step detailed actions you made to arrive to the button which starts the flight of the space shuttle.
a: I'm including several fraps videos showing how I accessed and left the transport (and flying through the roof); it turns out that I used a different method from Annabelle's):

http://www.allthingsuru.com/AllThingsUru/video/Iceworld%20transport%20jump%20in.mp4
http://www.allthingsuru.com/AllThingsUru/video/Iceworld%20transport%20jump%20out.mp4
http://www.allthingsuru.com/AllThingsUru/video/Iceworld%20transport%20roof%20bug.mp4

[Annabelle]

I tried your method Ainia; I never succeeded that way. I went for the "hard trail" instead: the dish climb.

Now it seems Denost will have 2 things to modify

[gabriml]

How did you get FRAPS to work on your Mac?

[denost2]

Thanks for the new comments. Here are some more from me (along with a few screenshots and fraps videos):

What an interesting post ! Very useful. Videos are a good idea to explain.
So I found a partcular hidden error. This one is why some red buttons in the nexus do not work. Thank you Ainia.

Show Spoiler

a: blue tower: ground floor blockers still in place when elevator is gone
d2: explain please
a: when the elevator is upstairs and I take the shuttle to leave, then walk back and enter the ground floor, I cannot walk across the empty space where the elevator used to be (there are blockers there); I must instead walk around it just as I would if the elevator was still there
d2: Logically it is not possible to arrive to the elevator without having moved the blocker previously. So I think you have found a “hole” in the modelization.
a: I'm including a fraps video of this behavior (it may be hard to see well as it seems to have come out pretty dark)
d2: OK I will modify this area

a: throughout: flickering layers are particuarly bad at creature cave and with journal displays
d2: Ok it could happen. But in this particular case I did not observe what you mention.
a: I will see if I can take a fraps video to show you what I mean
d2: OK
a: I have several fraps examples of this here:
d2: what you show me is a fact I met in the past. I remember precisely on some small Ages for testing technical points. But in this particular case I controled the areas you mentioned and did not see any problems on my computer. I have no simple solution for the moment.

a: throughout: can walk through many ladders at 45 degree angle
d2: what ladders and what do you mean by 45 degrees?
a: I didn't test all the ladders in Iceworld but noticed that this was easy to do with at least some of them; when one is facing the ladder straight on, it is a 90-degree angle; if I am standing a bit to the side and facing the ladder at an angle, I found I could walk right through the ladder. the first time this happened was in the green area climbing back up from the "temple" at the bottom.
D2: OK. I will take care in the future
a: here is another fraps video showing the behavior:
d2: you are right. I observed exactly what you mentioned. I know why and I will correct that. Actually I propose to the explorer to present the avatar perpendicular to the ladder like in reality.

a: the logic of the r-g-y-b underground button is elusive; visually, it implies that it affects all four areas, yet I can only find changes in the green area; thus far, all buttons are toggles (on/off)
d2: I think you did not write the good sequence. The good one allows you to go everywhere as written in a journal (tv screens) without cheating
a: I'm not sure I understand your response, perhaps it would help for me to include a screenshot then
D2: the opening of each base must be done in a very specific order as precised in a confortable and warm room you must visit.
a: I think you mean the cave/hut, where there are a couple of pictures drawn of (what I'd thought were) the transport routes? it seems you are saying they are drawings of something else instead. the area I'm talking about is not the hut but is this instead (visually, this button implies that it does something to all four areas):
d2: not necessary

since you seem to be saying that the hut drawings are to show something else instead (that the four areas must be solved only in a particular order), I have some concerns about that. generally, myst/uru players do not expect this kind of gameplay since the Cyan games were designed to be non-linear (this kind of gameplay=if one does something in the wrong order especially when it is possible to do so, the game does not play correctly). if you want Iceworld to be strictly linear, it would be helpful to make this *very* clear, for example in having Gary Bradwell talk in his viewer entries about this. (of course, I may be misunderstanding what you are saying about strict ordering...)
d2: globally I agree with you. For Iceworld I think you have correctly understood what I said. If you do not respect a supposed perfect order THE GAME WILL PLAY CORRECTLY but THE EXPLORER WILL HAVE PROBLEMS OR MORE DIFFICULTIES (but he has solutions).


other:
a: the nexus area implies that there is stuff to be unlocked on the flying donut (images on non-working linking pads), yet I can find nothing to unlock; not all red buttons in nexus area are activated yet it appears I am done with Iceworld
d2: all red buttons are successively activated by exploring logically ICEWORLD. And so the Space Station (donut) appears. Space Shuttle will transport the explorer to the Space Station
a: so you are saying that the nexus should activate all 10 linking pads (the 9 in the cluster and the single by itself)? if so, then there are some things I didn't finish yet (good to know!) (btw, the single linking pad shows an image from the end of Somewhere, so I would expect it would link me there, right?)
D2: back to relto then back to Iceworld and look at the red buttons…
a: I'm not sure what is supposed to have changed; all the buttons and linking books remain the same after linking away to Relto and back (specifically, one linking pad is not activated at all, two have pad images but blank linking books and the solitary linking pad still is inactive); perhaps you are talking about something that is supposed to happen only after the game is completed as you intended? it appears that I was able to reach the end goal without having completed everything as you intended, so this situation is simply confusing (I seem to be done but the Iceworld nexus doesn't look and act like I'm done). if I'm understanding the situation correctly, the only way I will be able to truly finish Iceworld will be to start all over again, which I'm not likely to do very soon.
d2: I only suggested to come back to the RELTO JUST TO SEE IF some actions in the exploration would have changed the states of the red buttons.
At the beginning of this post I said some red buttons cannot work. Will be fixed as soon as possible.

a: unknowingly following Annabelle's footsteps, I was able to jump over the gate and access the yellow transport vehicle, which then (obligingly) flew right through the roof; I could get back off the transport the same way I got on, so it's not necessary to disable this "feature"; however, it's probably a good idea to disable flight if the roof hasn't yet been opened
d2: this way to the Space Shuttle should not be possible. It is my fault. I am not able to imagine what could try such brave explorers. The Roof must be opened and this is a condition to open the way to go down in the big room where the space Shuttle is parked waiting for you.
a: are you saying that I wasn't supposed to be able to access the basement right away? that was the first thing I could do once I got inside the first barrier, so I'm not sure I understand what you are saying here...
D2: precise step by step detailed actions you made to arrive to the button which starts the flight of the space shuttle.
a: I'm including several fraps videos showing how I accessed and left the transport (and flying through the roof); it turns out that I used a different method from Annabelle's):
d2: OK. I see. I will have to correct that.

[Ainia]

Shorah gabriml,

The screenshots are from my UruCC install on bootcamp. I have never been able to get UruCC to work correctly directly on my Mac via Wineskin (I get an immediate stack dump when starting). So fraps is installed on bootcamp. I haven't yet found a good equivalent for fraps on a Mac (sorry), though now that you mention it, it might be worthwhile to see if I can get fraps to work via a Wineskin.

I have used a demo version of Screenflow a few times on my Mac for recording MOULa video, but the paid version a fairly expensive option for an occasional user like me.

[gabriml]

FRAPS does not work in Wine (http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.p ... &iId=19273). That is why I asked. I also have bootcamp Win 7 which runs FRAPS fine.

I also cannot get URUCC working in Wine. I know Diafero has it running in Wine in LINUX (viewtopic.php?f=10&t=5526&p=56604&hilit=urucc+wine#p56579).

I prefer Wine for TOC-MOUL since COD crashes a lot for me in Windows.

[dtierce]

This might be the wrong thread for this post. I'm having a technical problem specifically with Iceworld. I see that others have been exploring this age, so the problem might be on my end.

Behavior:
I link into the first big dark room where the Guardian asks me not to use Fly-mode. I agree and it begins to link me into the main(?) part of the age. Then I see a progress bar and a message on my screen saying "Linking to Iceworld... Authenticating" where it hangs for a minute or two. Then the game quits with an error pop-up saying "ERROR. AUTH RESPONSE FAILED". This happens every time for Iceworld. I have never gotten past the first big dark room. I've successfully explored many other ages without seeing this failure. The only other time I've seen this error is occasionally when I "/!resetage" in "Somewhere" (which I have already completed).

I am running Windows XP using a DeepIsland installation on a thumbdrive with plenty of space (16Gb free). I have tried completely reinstalling DeepIsland from scratch without any change to these symptoms. As I said before, I have not had this trouble with any other age.

Does anyone have a clue what I can do to resolve this? I'd really like to see Iceworld.

David Tierce

[denost2]

Object:
update V2 of Iceworld following some remarks of explorers

Description:
1. correction of BlueTower blocker
2. improvement of ladders in general
3. modification concerning red buttons of the initial nexus. Several buttons did not work correctly

Installation:
Download and expand the file linked here : http://www.sendspace.com/file/emyhu7
So you obtain 7 individual files
Place them in the dat folder of the URU installation replacing the previous files
Folders SDL, sfx and python are not concerned by this update

[dtierce]

(copied from DeepIsland thread on a technical problem with IceWorld)

Hooray!! I finally made it into Iceworld!

I still did not see any links in the initial dark room other than the "agree" and "disagree" buttons. I tried dismissing the linking book and looking around after "agreeing", but there was no change to the other pedestals in the room.

In desperation, I moved my DeepIsland installation back to my hard-drive. The link presented to me worked this time and I made it to the "binary room" and beyond. This world is at least as vast as "Somewhere" and I can already tell that many hours will be spent there. So far, I've flown in two different vehicles before falling and Relto'ing from a series of platforms on pistons in a water-filled canyon.

Thanks, Denost2, for another wonderful age!!

I conclude that the slight performance degradation from the previous use of a thumb drive caused some kind of timing problem resulting in the "auth response failure". However, that only happened with IceWorld for some reason.

David Tierce

[Ainia]

Shorah denost2,

Many thanks for your update. I've installed it and am finding the improvements work very nicely indeed! My nexus linking panels are now making much more sense (no blank books or repeated panel images).

I'm trying to figure out if there are parts of the Age that I just haven't figured out properly or if something isn't working right, so I'll spoiler the next bits:

Yellow area Show Spoiler

While exploring the Age originally, I'd opened all four of the glassed-in ladders and somehow wound up closing the yellow one (don't know what I did to cause that). I've tried for hours to get it opened again to no avail and am not sure if something isn't working right or if I just haven't used the correct button. So far, it appears to me that the red buttons affect things locally (for instance, red buttons at the green area affect things within the green area, not elsewhere), while the white buttons can affect things anywhere in the Age. So I've been focusing on all the white buttons to get the yellow glassed-in ladder re-opened.

The hut Show Spoiler

The "gated" button at the hut sounds like it opens/closes something (or at least moves something heavy), but I haven't been able to find exactly what it's doing. Again, I'm fiddling with it after finishing the end game (accessing the spacecraft), so am not sure if I'm missing something or if it's not working properly.

Lighted ring Show Spoiler

I'm not sure what else to try in figuring out the lighted ring puzzle. So far, I've been unable to do anything with it. The green area underground "temple" is displaying images for about 2/3 of the available wall locations but so far, I haven't had any luck getting more to show or in figuring out if they are related somehow to the lighted ring (the round shapes of both are suggestive, though the number of panels on each do not match). I'm not asking for puzzle hints, only for advice to figure out if things are working correctly or not.

Transport nexus Show Spoiler

I've been assuming that the lower level of the transport nexus building (nearby the binary building) is inaccessible but am wondering if this is really true. So far, I haven't found a way to reveal an exterior door.

If you'd be willing to let me know how to determine if something isn't working right for the above topics, I'd be very appreciative! My main concern is whether the order I used in reaching the end game (plus accidentally flying the transport through the roof because I jumped the barrier) messed up anything else (might be causing some of the spoilered issues above).

Feel free to PM me if you'd rather not reply here. Thanks!