Guild of Writers

Honestly it is very rarely I venture outside of this forum. I found once I cut out the MOUL forum things became a lot more pleasant.

Nice to see you back Whil, I'm definitely looking forward to exploring anything you decide to put out.

Whilyam wrote:I'm more a fan of breaking the cycle of insults and grudges.

Great news!

Whilyam wrote:Fens is one of the ages I really look forward to revising. I focused on big Ages in the past, like I think most people do, but now I want to make my Ages slightly smaller, but have more details. Tosholek being an example for size and detail. I want my worlds to be alive.

Fens is very nice because of it's ambiant nature feel. I know there must be some "building" ages like D'ni-Ae'gura but when we come across some natural ages (even if the said "nature" is virtual ) it's always a plus. And your Fens is very well done already. I might not have the eye or the criticism of the age writer so you might see flaws (minor or major) than I cannot see, if you do improve the age, I'll be glad

The biggest flaw I see with Fens is its size. Large is good, but only if it has the right amount of detail. Fens' massive size amplifies all other issues I have with it. All the textures are too low resolution for the amount of space they take up. The actual content in the Age would fit better in a 50 meter cube. Another problem is the house. I feel that it's poorly modeled and the texture is too faded. I know I want that thing to go. It doesn't fit the Age and it doesn't look good. Even so, I'm conflicted as to how to proceed. Here are the two plans:

Scrap the Age. Redo it from scratch. This would essentially put the core content in a basin around 30-50 meters in diameter. All important information would be in journals on a table near spawn. Various flora and fauna would be visible in and around the basin and geological structures would be visible outside. The basin would be open to expansion via a collapsed passageway where future areas could be added on.

Upgrade the Age. Textures and models need to be given a quality pass. Many textures are washed out (rock wall, water scum, blue sack material), I need to bump up the contrast so they have more dimensionality. Models are blocky and low poly. Sailback plants need to be removed and redone with better textures and better models. After that, journals would be moved to spawn, house would be removed, wooden pathways would be added between major areas (Teledahn style), and more creatures would be added.

Both of these will probably take some time, as my setup is not able to export for the latest Uru, which is my goal. Also, many of my ideas require coding that I can't do. I'm hoping to collaborate with more technically minded people to work on how to do this.

Each avenue seems really awesome. The only thing I can do is wait and see. I have less coding knowledge than you but I'm sure someone will be there to help you

Whilyam wrote:Scrap the Age. Redo it from scratch. This would essentially put the core content in a basin around 30-50 meters in diameter. All important information would be in journals on a table near spawn. Various flora and fauna would be visible in and around the basin and geological structures would be visible outside. The basin would be open to expansion via a collapsed passageway where future areas could be added on.

Upgrade the Age. Textures and models need to be given a quality pass. Many textures are washed out (rock wall, water scum, blue sack material), I need to bump up the contrast so they have more dimensionality. Models are blocky and low poly. Sailback plants need to be removed and redone with better textures and better models. After that, journals would be moved to spawn, house would be removed, wooden pathways would be added between major areas (Teledahn style), and more creatures would be added.

Both of these will probably take some time, as my setup is not able to export for the latest Uru, which is my goal. Also, many of my ideas require coding that I can't do. I'm hoping to collaborate with more technically minded people to work on how to do this.

This is what I recently did with Fahets (even the collapsed passage leading to new areas), although I scaled up the size of the Age instead of reducing it.

I wish I was more code orientated I'd love to have more interaction and puzzles in my content.

Hello All,

Played through URU in the past, looking to get back into it and explore some fan made ages. Having trouble installing, hope this isn't an inappropriate place for this, but it just keeps telling me it's missing files. I have URU installed from Gog.com. Need I download URU Live? Looking forward to exploring D'ni with you all.


Best,
Stephen

Hello & welcome Stephen,

to explore most of the fan ages, you need to have a complete installation of URU:CC (which version you bought at GOG.com is convenient, I know because I have the same version and it runs smoothly). All you have to do is to follow instructions of this thread http://forum.guildofwriters.org/viewtopic.php?f=111&t=4611 (if you want to explore with others) or follow these instructions to explore them alone offline: http://forum.guildofwriters.org/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=6370&p=66704#p66704 (third post, read the 1st option). All your questions for those installs should be asked on this forum board (for Deep Island shard, use the proper sub-forum)

You can also download URU Live which is now called MOULa (Myst Online: Uru Live Again). You can download it from Cyan directly following this link: http://mystonline.com/en/play/. I would suggest you to register on MOULa's forum http://mystonline.com/forums/ and ask question specific to the URU Live install over there. If you want to have access to some fan ages using the MOULa version of the game, you need to access another shard. You can start with the Gehn Shard. If you want to go forward in this direction, I suggest you come back on this forum board and follow install instructions for the specific shard (see the sub-forum) http://forum.guildofwriters.org/viewtopic.php?f=117&t=5540 (installation instructions).

I know it might be very disturbing to go back-and-forth between forums and between installs and versions. It can even get more complicated than that, I'm keeping you with the simplest solutions !

To make it simple:

URU:CC (your GOG.com version) enables to visit almost every available fan ages. You can play offline or online (Deep Island Shard).
MOULa is the main shard (only online version). You can download & play the game for free (link provided above). The main shard doesn't offer access to fan ages, alternative shards like Gehn offer some fan ages. Gehn Shard is one of them. You need to copy the MOULa files to a new folder and follow instructions to install the Gehn Shard (link above).

If you have any questions feel free to ask, I might not be the one who will respond as there are no dedicated helper, it's often the first explorer that see your post that will answer you.

Shorah, all.

I currently go by Chapel. I've been active, on and off, in the D'ni community over the years. Loved Myst and Riven when I was a lot younger, have been a huge fan of the universe and mythos: The books, the games, everything.

I was active in a small way in both the Guild of Linguists (back when things were more lively) and the Guild of Greeters years ago. Never a major contributor to either, sadly.

Just now coming back around to things. I played Uru when it originally released, never finished things fully (never played the PotS content, or Myst 5) and I feel like that is a book that has remained unclosed for too long.

Thought some of you would appreciate this sweet little bit of nostalgia: I still have my closed beta invite to Uru Live.

Chapel wrote:Just now coming back around to things. I played Uru when it originally released, never finished things fully (never played the PotS content, or Myst 5) and I feel like that is a book that has remained unclosed for too long.

Unfortunately the only way to play the complete Path of the Shell remains through the original release (or Complete Chronicles). The PotS content was re-re-purposed for MOUL in a way that makes it neither quite single-player nor multiplayer, and leaves the story unfinished, missing some content from the PotS release. I'd recommend playing that and Myst 5 before trying MOULa, as the story there (such as it is) picks up after those earlier installments.

At the "Achieving Tomorrow" event today, we were in the Guild of Messengers' chat room due to the unavailability of MOULa. We got to talking about shards, Ages and parties. I figured this would be a good place to be. So, here I am.