ICEWORLD (after Somewhere)

[Annabelle]

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:

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.

See my spoiler:

Show Spoiler

This location is really important. Denost made it just like a classy Mystic Puzzle. When there's a door that can be closed, you'd better look for something hidden behind...whether it's a hidden passage or a hidden clue. You might be able to find the thing you're missing the most right now: directions

[Ainia]

Shorah again,

Thanks for the tip Annabelle. It sounds like you are referring to the two drawings in the hut with the colored dots? I think I already understand what they are showing. I'm just not sure what the button behind the hut gate does; I can hear it do something (make the sound of a heavy metal door opening/closing) but I haven't been able to find anything in the Age that has changed as a result. I'm not sure how many times by now I've toggled that button and then searched everything I could find in the Age to see what changed. So far, nothing....

denost2, I have even more feedback for you! In order to check all the buttons in the Age without losing my current progress (so I could try to figure out if everything is working correctly as a result of me originally not playing the game as intended/designed), I replayed Iceworld with a different avatar, doing everything in the correct order. There were several thoughts I wanted to pass on to you as a result:

Show Spoiler

It would be really helpful if the four transports were marked in some way at their hub station near the binary building (it's very easy to forget which goes where).

It would be really nice to have direct links to the Iceworld nexus here and there in the Age (instead of having to relto out and then link back to Iceworld).

It's possible to get stuck gamewise in at least two ways:
1. Hut: reltoing out from inside the hut after opening the gate/closing the front door.
2. Island Tower: reltoing out from inside the tower when the transport is there and the door going outside is closed.
Both of these cases can be fixed by adding an external means to open the doors (the tower island issue could also be fixed by linking to the inside of the tower from the nexus pedestal instead of onto the island outside the tower). I think you can be sure that there will be some explorers who wind up doing the above as they are experimenting with the puzzles and their solutions.

And I still have no clue about the lighted ring...

I am appreciating and enjoying your work very much! I'm especially glad for all your safety precautions (all the railings that keep me from falling down), and how you allow us to jump down safely from very great heights (instead of reltoing out). Thanks for all your hard work!!

[denost2]

Happy to give pleasure to explorers.
Attention : some informations below risk to provide real spoiling details

Show Spoiler

It would be really helpful if the four transports were marked in some way at their hub station near the binary building (it's very easy to forget which goes where).
D2: I think the explorer could write some notes on a paper to remember

It would be really nice to have direct links to the Iceworld nexus here and there in the Age (instead of having to relto out and then link back to Iceworld).
D2: OK

It's possible to get stuck gamewise in at least two ways:
1. Hut: reltoing out from inside the hut after opening the gate/closing the front door.
D2: exact.
2. Island Tower: reltoing out from inside the tower when the transport is there and the door going outside is closed.
D2: exact

Both of these cases can be fixed by adding an external means to open the doors (the tower island issue could also be fixed by linking to the inside of the tower from the nexus pedestal instead of onto the island outside the tower). I think you can be sure that there will be some explorers who wind up doing the above as they are experimenting with the puzzles and their solutions.
D2: I have to think about that. I must read again the logic programmation to see what could be done to correct these points. Several months passed since I was working on these parts of the Age. I do not remember all the details….You are now more in the Age than I am!!!!

And I still have no clue about the lighted ring...
D2: It is a place whose lights show the DIRECTIONS of the places where the explorer successively passed along his exploration. Just an amusement.

Other points:
- The button in the hut behind the gate along the inside wall OPENS the gate of the 4th small shuttle…so back to this shuttle you can use it to go to the Island Tower.
- Yellow base (last one) is opened by acting the button in the island tower.

Ainia,
I appreciated very much your analysis. Precise, useful…etc
Thanks again.
And I hope next Age I am working on will satisfy the explorers…

[diafero]

The update is now available on DI and UAM.

[dtierce]

Yea! I finally got to the end of IceWorld and saw the Jhibli meeting agenda. Now I need to wait around for the actual meeting. Good thing they left coffee and sandwiches downstairs. I'll pass on the smokes.

I'm impressed by your creation. You have obviously put all the lessons you learned from Somewhere into IceWorld. The finale' was both surprising and pleasing. (I did not expect to board the spaceship in that way.) I also thought the level of difficulty progressed just about right.

Thanks, Denost. I hope you continue writing so that we may all get to enjoy another of your creations.

David Tierce

[Jogi]

I have explored Iceworld with a lot of joy. Both thumbs up, denost. Finally again an Age with really enough buttons to press -- Rocks!
I also like the conception of being able to reach the important places without long marches after you have visited these places on foot.
The fact that the graphic appearance is not always perfect at some places is understandable in this huge and vast Age. -- Who cares?

To be able to enjoy Iceworld even better, I have setup URU CC to a user-defined screen resolution. Out of the proposals here in this forums about wide-screen for Uru I have decided for the following solution:

• Set up screen resolution in "dev_mode.dat" with PlasmaShop to 1350 x 875 in windowed mode (this appears to be a good compromise between 4:3 and 16:9 on my 1600x900 monitor without warped display too much)
• Made "dev_mode.dat" write protected so UruSetup cannot put it back to defaults.
• Playing URU and ignoring error messages concerning graphics setup at start.

Many thanks to everybody!

[denost2]

Happy to see Iceworld provides pleasure to explorers.

I started a new creation but I am not able to provide any date, title etc....

Surprise.

[Ainia]

Shorah denost2,

Many thanks to you for your responses to my thoughts (and apologies that I haven't responded to your answers earlier)! I'll spoiler the details just in case...

Show Spoiler

I think my confusion about the button behind the hut gate was that I could hear a sound of something heavy opening/closing but couldn't find anything that had changed (the fourth hub shuttle gate had already been opened when I was testing things). It appears that the buttons which control the opening of the hub shuttle gates aren't really toggles (that is, they work like closed==>opened==>opened==>opened..., while a toggle would work like closed==>opened==>closed==>opened...). So I'm not sure if this is a bug or a feature

In general, it looks like nearly all the buttons in Iceworld work like toggles (on/off, open/close, etc.) but there are just a few that do not (the ones that control the opening of the hub shuttle gates). My wish would be for such buttons to look and behave differently from the rest (perhaps show instead as levers, and then be unclickable after the landing platforms are opened). And to hear the sound in the hut only when something is really opening at the hub.

I'm very glad to hear you are hard at work on your new project. Many kudos and warm wishes to you!!

[Insulaner]

in Iceworld I come no a step further, because I do not found solution for the first puzzle, to leave the buildung without flymode. Someone please give me the solution for the first puzzle, thank you.

[dtierce]

in Iceworld I come no a step further, because I do not found solution for the first puzzle, to leave the buildung without flymode. Someone please give me the solution for the first puzzle, thank you.

I think you are referring to the building with walls covered in binary numbers (ones and zeros).

I'll try to give the smallest of hints...

Watch the lines that travel over the walls.

David Tierce