Guild of Writers

Christian Walther wrote:The ages suffer from the usual lack of lighting that most fan ages do, but don’t let that first look drive you away – you’ll quickly forget about it as you start exploring.

Indeed, some simple vertex lighting would have made the whole thing a lot better.
But I have to say it's quite well done on the audio side. Most of the time you can hear wind, bugs, water... Quite nice

I must complain again about the default PyPRP physics flags which kill the fun to explore. On some slopes you run slower than you walk on levelled ground.

But overall it was quite fun to explore, though I had to stop in the Underworld shaft.

We started almost 20 folks. Many left early. Some of us made it to... the end: Dulcamara (age writer), Seppolo, Christian Walther (who came back), & Me It was a fun group exploration. We took 5 to 6 hours (at least when I was online, I skipped the first part) to complete it. I estimate than an explorer alone or a party of 2 can play 10 to 12 hours to complete it all. With Dulca, she was leading us in the right direction. In a lot of locations, Seppolo & I were heading somewhere and Dulcamara was stopping, we knew that she didn't want us to go that way. It made us search a lot less.

Since I didn't complete the first part of it...I somehow found a "shortcut" (I won't tell you because, it wasn't design to be) I replayed all that part and completed it too.

I found also a way to sneak into a location where I shouldn't have supposed to be able to. I learned it after Christian told me, after the crime was committed. I went back there to take a picture of a picture and a shot of a name with FRAPS. I'm guessing that Elodea even if it's the biggest installment coming from a fan yet, there's even more in the baking oven from Dulcamara

For the graphic flaws, I'm not an expert. Christian & Sirius have better knowledge. There's some lag here & there that I've noticed. She did a pretty good job considering the hugeness of all her universes. It's a game in itself not just an age. I really enjoy this new generation of ages (Calena's, denost2's, and now Dulcamara's) where we have a lot of exploration to do.

Based on your great reports here, Annabelle and also Christian, and on what I've just read and seen on the Uru Reallife forums, I'd say, this sounds all really very promising ...

I wonder, dearest Dulcamara (alias Calumarad ) and diafero, if those awesome, huge and extensive worlds will be released at any time to the UAM on Drizzle for offline exploration and investigation ... If so, thanks in advance, and if not 'Congratutalions' are due, nevertheless ...

Christian Walther wrote:Diafero, thank you for announcing it here! It would have been a shame if we had missed out on it because it was only announced on German forums that the community at large doesn’t read.

I always like activity on the Shard, so if you have an age to present, or want to meet with a group to explorer some specific age, or anything, just post an announcement here. Announcing parties and meetings on the Shard is in no way a privilege of the admin, anyone can go ahead and do that

I'm glad you all liked the ages. I can clearly tell in my activity statistics that there was unusually much traffic yesterday (>30 unique users). Unfortunately, I couldn't make it, so I will have to explore the ages some other time.

janaba, a release for UAM is indeed planned, but Dulcamara wants me to wait some more days. She said too many folks would use flymode to spoil it all before even attempting to explore the age the normal way, so she prefers the age to available without cheats only, for the start.

Ohh, I can very well understand this, too much time, effort and 'blood, sweat and tears' went into its creation over the years ... Thanks for the fast reply and the delightful prospect in the near future, diafero ...

diafero wrote:I always like activity on the Shard, so if you have an age to present, or want to meet with a group to explore some specific age, or anything, just post an announcement here. Announcing parties and meetings on the Shard is in no way a privilege of the admin, anyone can go ahead and do that

janaba, a release for UAM is indeed planned, but Dulcamara wants me to wait some more days. She said too many folks would use flymode to spoil it all before even attempting to explore the age the normal way, so she prefers the age to available without cheats only, for the start.

That would be great if other would do the same for their ages. I know that Huru team had that tradition since many years so it's not a surprise at all that Dulcamara followed that legacy. Sometimes as explorers we are at lost completely in front of a huge age and we don't really know where to start. Having some guidance can help enjoy it more and advance faster. Yesterday, it wasn't always the same explorer that was finding the "wanted objects" first. It was a team effort. And even with my memory, if I go back let say in the middle of the week on Deep Island to replay Elodea, I won't remember everything. It's vast. Take "Somewhere" multiply by 4 that's that big it is. One thing I can tell without spoiling your enjoyment, you'll be lost .

I think Dulcamara took a wise decision. But quite frankly, yesterday I never thought of using /jump command at any time. It happened to cross my mind just before I left the server and I tried just to confirm my thoughts: it's a locked age.

I took a bit of time yesterday to check out the new age. While it's obviously a first age and Dulcamara still has much to learn, I absolutely loved what she built! I don't want to give away any spoilers, but IMHO, this age has one of the best game-play designs of any of the fan ages. It's just fun and exiting to explore and play. There's always another corner to go around and something else in that corner, lots to do, huge vistas to gaze at, interesting little details throughout.

Because of my schedule, playing through it online isn't realistic for me in the foreseeable future so I'm looking forward to when it's available for offline play.

Thank you Dulcamara for sharing this wonderful age with us and thank you diafero for keeping the doors wide open to enable and encourage new Age Writers to share their work.

Many thanks to all.
I am very pleased with the mostly positive reaction but also the constructive criticism.
Since I unfortunately do not speak perfect English, I got my friend Google Translator with this letter consulted. I hope it corresponds to what I wanted to express with this.
Now after some have already put their nose in my age, I want to make a few observations here.
Elodea is a great age, consisting of 4 sections.
Elodea is the main world which you should work through to ElodeasUnterwelt, ElodeasTunnelgang and finally for ElodeasSchatzkammern.
In each of these age seven cloth to find that it is a total of 28. If you are traveling as a group of 7 players, it is enough if each of the player affect only one of the cloth. Are all cloth pressed in any order, opens a door that was not previously open.
It does not matter if a cloth was pressed several times. Unfortunately it was not possible for me to coordinate the order of the animation so that it runs as the original Cyanages. It may be in Elodea so that one finds cloth 5 before cloth 1. It does not matter, if seven cloths were found opens the door.
There is also the beginning of each Age a linkingcloth (shown on the main world in the form of a sun), which has two functions.
Was already a cloth touched in this Age, the link cloth brings the explorers directly back to the vicinity of this cloth. That is, one should be thrown for any reason from the Age, you can continue playing from that location or join a group of explorer already present.
Later in the offline version, it has the advantage that the player does not have to start from scratch again, but may continue on the last save. Becouse Elodea is al little bit bigger
In the main world Elodea there are also two linkbook that you intentionally can not reach. They are located just outside of Elodea and are later additions for my age still in his work.
Thats what i want to say (i hope)
Dulcamara

Dulcamara wrote:Many thanks to all.

NO...Many thanks to YOU

I replayed it yesterday entirely with a french buddy, koltch, and we had an awesome experience. I can tell, he was amazed throughout the entire journey. I was right Dulca...I had only 6 out of 7 clothes in Enterwelt (As a group we had the whole 7 clothes, but not on my personal notes). And you sneakily touch some clothes for us, Seppolo, Christian & I, in the 4th world, Schartzkammern. I found some clothes there, I wasn't even aware of them. I found new paths too (ordinary & extraordinary paths)

Put 2 skydivers, koltch & I, on a single mission reach the final goal,...you get some extra exploration paths during the trip: (see for yourselves, NO Spoilers in 2 pictures)

Show Spoiler





Dulcamara wrote:In the main world Elodea there are also two linkbook that you intentionally can not reach. They are located just outside of Elodea and are later additions for my age still in his work.
Thats what i want to say (i hope)
Dulcamara

I kind of figure it out too late

I have a nice picture of my crime to share with you:

Show Spoiler


I won't tell you the name of that age but I have it since the game gave me an error message

I'm already eager to see that new age made by you

I think Elodea Unterwelt is rather impressive, too bad it isn't easy to find in Elodea.

Why is it that there is no way to Elodea Unterwelt without cheating??? (cheat by dropping in from above and a bit to the side, which doesn't seem intended due to invisible walls I found later, but it worked)