Let me help you with the way we have to solve Somewhere & some puzzle-solving philosophy...
Denost, despite the big lagging effect still present in his age did one marvel age (in fact 2...Iceworld is a marvel too). It might not be appealing to all explorers though, it appealed to me. I SO hated solving Kadish Tolesa for instance...
Why Kadish Tolesa is unlogical for me? Because it makes no freaking sense... You stumble on scopes which are not well-aligned, you must understand that there's a Gallery somewhere else (in Ae'gura) built in the grandeur of this delusional Guildmaster who thought he could master time & space (in fact he wasn't, he just pretended he could and made Ahnonay for the sake of luring d'ni civilians into thinking he could master time & space...how sneaky
). So back to that gallery... You see paintings & art objects all over the place & you get all the answers from them. You have no insight, no backstory, nothing (at least not that I'm aware of). So you just wander from one location to the other inside Kadish Tolesa not knowing exactly what you are doing or what your goal is. It's amazingly astonishingly beautiful though. I love Kadish Tolesa, I don't get the point of the puzzles inside it though...
Here you have a fan-made age: Somewhere. You are lost at the beginning not able to go far. You have to wander through what you can visit easily. Someone went there before you, Gary. He left you clues, he tells you his journey. You have to connect together the clues as they are spread across that huge area. It's like a detective on a crime scene.
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Let's see 2 case-scenarios and choose the best-fit one.
Scenario A: the criminal put all the clues in a secluted room in his first crime location to help the detectives find his motive & all the other crime scenes yet to come...
Scenario B: the criminal leaves some clues in one crime scene, then some others in the 2nd crime scene, etc. One day the detectives will end this crime-spree as they will have enough clues, as they will have enough connections between clue A, clue B, & clue C to build a whole portrait & reach the villain before the next crime...
The scenario B is more plausible
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Somewhere solving scheme is far more advanced than most ages including those of Cyan...(especially Kadish Tolesa). An age-writer coming to me and asking me tips on how to build puzzles for URU fan-age: I'd say to them to tackle on Somewhere/Iceworld, I mean it.
You not only have a story on one side and puzzle on the other side which are not interconnected... It's great to learn about the delusion of grandeur of Guildmaster Kadish on one hand but if all his puzzles left in our ways intended to block our paths toward his secret have no bloody explanations other than, here's a gallery exposing my grandeur, serve yourselves every puzzles are solved right before your eyes...it's not even fun. Gary left clues all over Somewhere & Iceworld so another explorer coming after him could reach or try to reach him, maybe to help him escape (we don't know much).
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My preferred marvel in Iceworld is not the landscape nor the bases nor the final area, it's right on the ground in the middle of nowhere in the frozen desert. You see something, a landmark. Later on during your journey, if you come across this landmark again, it will have evolved, it will have followed you through your journey, it will tell you exactly your past, your present, & hint you at your future. You don't have to look up in the sky, you have it on ground level. You need to force yourself & follow the paths. You have no idea so you take, let's say, the path "A". You'll eventually realize you followed a path going to your past. Back to the landmark, you then decide to follow the path "B" instead, unchartered unlike path "A". Hurray! You found a path to your future, but which future it is? The near future, the one right after, the far future? You have no clue other than hints accumulated up to your present time. Your future is easy to foresee, you can do trial-and-errors. At one time, you'll eventually find the near future, the "future" that will become your "present", and then your "past". Iceworld is one marvel age in its design.
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So back to my walkthrough/journey log (In Search of Gary's Whereabouts)...the key is right before your eyes. It took me hundred of hours to come up with that text just because the age solving is so complex. Once solved you realize how clever it was designed. Gary (despite my opinion he went mad) gave all what you need to solve by your own this age. You even get the goal during the story unfolding through the 5 imagers. I just ordered my walkthrough/journey log in the way I think it's the most logical.
If I'm telling you: "400, 400", you should after a while know exactly where to look at. You should have done some links in your head and say: "Oh ok she (Annabelle) is talking about ..., yes because I saw an object lying over there with different numbers, & another one with different numbers too."
If Gary says:
- Show Spoiler
1st) I'm struggling with this path, I just fall off every single time
2nd) hmm...each time I fall off I see this odd drawing
3rd) what if it is connected...
4th) Hey...I made it! Hurray!
5th) XXX, YYY might be useful you know...
I don't know for you but it's as clear as mountain water to me
Essentially, I landed in this strange age without any clue whatsoever. I took a path leading to a 1st imager, interesting but yet not telling much, I kept exploring, I stumbled on a 2nd imager, kept going, found a 3rd, then a 4th, & finally found a 5th imager. I gather all the info & make connections between the story told by Gary and the landmarks, the buildings, the landscapes of Somewhere.
Advice:So basically, my advice is:
build a strong foundation before erecting the house... (make all the necessary connections between the story told by Gary & landmarks/landscapes/buildings before venturing forward in faraway locations...)