Guild of Writers

Why did nobody tell me that linking from the Walking Maze to Myst and from Rell-too to the city was broken on the Shard?
Anyway, it's fixed now.

Is this a strictly server-side matter, or something that I (and maybe Karkadann) should address in the age?

In the Andy's Nexus age: the links to Eder Delin and Eder Tsogal are broken.

Is this a strictly server-side matter, or something that I (and maybe Karkadann) should address in the age?

It's an issue in the ages that's only revealed on the server side.
In Rell-too, the age "city" was miss-spelled, it was called "City". Uru is not picky about character case, but for my Shard, I make sure all my linking code goes though the link manager that's part of the Offline KI which ensures that no invalid links are done and leave bad traces in the vault (which is especially important for the city, we have had several broken Nexuses induced by fan-ages). That linking manager *is* rather picky, as that's its entire point. Also, if I remember correctly, you used LinkInPointDefault which does not exist in the city - I didn't know which one you meant, so I chose the great tree. The fixed LinkDestionations entry is

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'FTLinkPage': ('city', 'LinkInPointGreatTree', 'Great Tree', PtLinkingRules.kOriginalBook)

In Walking Maze, the spawn point information was incomplete - D'Lanors linking template accepts that offline, but it does not do so online where wrong information can do more damage. Also, it referenced a link-in point that does not exist at all, which still worked as Uru picks the default link-in point in that case. The fixed LinkDestionations entry is

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'MystLinkingBookContents': ('Myst', 'LinkInPointDefault', 'Default', PtLinkingRules.kBasicLink)

In the Andy's Nexus age: the links to Eder Delin and Eder Tsogal are broken.

I'll have a look, thanks.

Ehren wrote:In the Andy's Nexus age: the links to Eder Delin and Eder Tsogal are broken.

Indeed they are, but there is no good way to fix this: Delin and Tsogahl are sub-ages of the neighbourhood, which means they can only be linked to from there. Andy's Nexus was written in a time when Alcugs did not yet support sub-age linking, and the offline game doesn't support it either, that's why nobody noticed. Now since Alcugs does not support several hoods, in theory we could make these ages "normal" ages with the only problem being that the linking book ainimations in the hood to the gardens, and in the gardens to the hood are broken - but I don't think that's worth it. These ages are meant to be sub-ages after all, and they are sub-ages in MOUL.

diafero wrote:

In Walking Maze, the spawn point information was incomplete - D'Lanors linking template accepts that offline, but it does not do so online where wrong information can do more damage. Also, it referenced a link-in point that does not exist at all, which still worked as Uru picks the default link-in point in that case. The fixed LinkDestionations entry is

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'MystLinkingBookContents': ('Myst', 'LinkInPointDefault', 'Default', PtLinkingRules.kBasicLink)

Thanks for fixing it I have not been on any of the shards for a while, not to mention this being my first linking book.

Thank you for the information, diafero.

I shall try to correct the matter for the next release of Rell-Too.

I do not recall exactly where in the city the contributor who added the book linked to (may have been Sharper's office) and it would appear my PC died just this afternoon, so I can not check at the moment. :7

I COULD simply remove the linking book... This would, in addition, allow a return to using a vanilla copy of D'Lanor's book template, from the custom one that Rell-Too use today (...in order to make the music in the area stop, before linking out).

I see no reason to remove the link, but don't let me stop you
IIRC, the linking panel shows the ferry terminal (can't check right now). In that case I would have to find out what the proper linking definition is, which links you to the ferry without breaking Nexus. There's some Bahro stone linking there, right? We could re-use that one...

Ah, the ferry terminal - yes,that's probably right.

I'll load the relevant PRP into prpshop, as soon as I have a working PC again, look for the correct spawnpoint name and fix it in Rell-Too.

You will probably have to live with the book's existance for a while longer, because I am reluctant to take out contributions to the age, willy-nilly. :)


(However; Unless somebody steps up to take a turn, building the age, before I take things into my own hands; It is likely I /will/ remove some access routes, or give them activate-from-the-far-end usage conditions. -There is hardly any point in having puzzles that prevent you from easily going places, if there are alternative paths right next to them, without any restrictions whatsoever. :)

I did some more digging, and unfortunately I found no Bahro stone leading to the ferry terminal. However, I actually found a spawn point in the ferry area called LinkInPointDefault which does not ever seem to be used by Cyan, so we have to choose a spawn point title ourselves (and be consistent about it). The linking definition still needs to be changed as the spawn point title was missing entirely:

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'FTLinkPage': ('city', 'LinkInPointDefault', 'Default', PtLinkingRules.kOriginalBook)