A Slight Storyline, and puzzles

[Topher]

Just a thought ... what if you included in the Descriptive Book that the natives speak a language similar to English? That might be pushing the limits of the Art, but technically, if every single possibility is out there somewhere ... it could happen.

[Gorobay]

It may be possible, but all that would do is make journals possible. Justintime9 said he'd rather keep the story simple, and journals are not simple.

[Justintime9]

yes... making native's journals seems a bit... far fetched... and... well, I dunno... but at the least, I think we should have journals from GoW members (mainly myself) to give hints, and move the story along.

[Topher]

ah... i see... well, some qualms i have with having the natives build everything, is

1. the language... I'll have to have translated the words on the control panel, and other places where their language is seen... or it'll be confuzing.

That's what I was referring to, not journals.

[Justintime9]

Yeah... well anyway, let's get a move on, we've decided to make symbols for the buttons... we've decided to make the secret room, the native's.... well, I'll have a journal at the beginning... what should I say? just describe my work on the age, and what things I've changed? and what do you think should be in the secret room if it is not made by me? It'll be the only area on the island that will not have been inspected by me (because I didn't figure the combination out, and the lightning puzzle) do you think we should have artifacts in cases in the link in hut? or... should we leave the artifacts all where they were found? although the second choice would give the island a more "non explored age" look or at least there should be some more signs of recent living. well, I hope I'm not asking too many questions, but the sooner we figure this out, the sooner we can start building!

[Gorobay]

I don't think there needs to be anything written on the control panel: the control panels on Garden Island, Selenitic, Amateria, Narayan, and Spire work fine without words.

I have a new set of ideas for a puzzle. The places on the map don't necessarily have to be in those places as long as they are all there.


Since the map could get confusing, I will explain how it works in the order the puzzles should be solved:
In the hut, there is a wall with "YI∩┟ΛΓΛ" written on it. An explorer does the lightning rod puzzle and opens the waterfall door as before. The rods, by the way, have ladders and platforms for maintenance. In the waterfall room is, besides artifacts, a lever that makes a light receiver go up through the ceiling and through the river above.

Around the island are light post which take in light of a certain color and shine in it a direction. The explorer must figure out the order of the colors to do this in (the order of "YI∩┟ΛΓΛ", since each symbol is for a color) and point the first post at the light receiver. Then, he must wait some amount of time and point it away. The receiver must be pointed away from the receiver in order for the next post to work.

After the last post, the wall in the hut with "YI∩┟ΛΓΛ" on it will open and there will be more stuff behind it.

I don't know where to mention this, but explorers can swim, so there would have to be something stopping people swimming out too far. There could be a whirlpool like in Ahnonay or the explorer could Relto out just before being hit by lightning.

What's the IC purpose of Yinfara? Justintime9 wrote it to be a nice relaxing age. The natives used it to live on while they tried to figure out how to leave. That doesn't leave much in the way of an obvious "winning" ending, besides discovering secret rooms. The only thing I can think of would be to have the explorer escape the island the way the natives did, but with some restrictions so they can't go to far away.

EDIT:
For some reason the image got cut off. To see the whole thing you have to right-click on it and select "View Image".

To respond to your question:
I think the artifacts should not be in the hut. It gives the explorer too much for not having done anything. Obviously the hut should not be empty, but it should only contain things that would be in a hut. Temple things would be in the temple, and random other stuff that we have to figure out would be in the secret rooms. At the bottom of my map I listed some suggestions.

EDIT 2:
Also, the lightning rods would be much higher than everything around them. So the lightning rods would extend high into the sky so they could all be clearly visible from the control panel on top of the mountain.

Here is one thing a powered lightning rod can do: the hand-cranked one near the swamp could power the fence. Instead of a hole in the fence is an electrically-powered door which can only open when the power is on. Obviously this would not have been the natives' use for this rod (since the fence is modern, like the traffic cones) so there would have to be another use for it.

Oh, to clarify again: the name the natives called the island is not "Yinfara". We don't know what it is. We call it Yinfara because the color symbols look like those letters. This is an explanation for how we know the island's name without knowing the natives' language. Now this makes me curious: where did the name come from OOC?

[Justintime9]

Now this makes me curious: where did the name come from OOC?

lol my friend kyashii came up with the name... he's really good at comming up with names for ages. he also sort of helped me get a good start on the age (I origionally just knew I wanted a forest age, but he suggested the lighting, and I just grew upon that) I would give him more of a say in the age (after all, he did help me get the age started) but unfortunatly he doesn't come on GoW that often.

And about you puzzle Ideas... I don't get what you're saying... are u saying that once the player completes the puzzle that opens the secret room, there's a big telescope that casts the word Yinfara on the wall of some hut... and it opens to reveal more stuff? wouldn't taht be a bit redundant? I mean... there probably shoudln't be two secret rooms... but I like the Idea that we can swim in the surrounding water... and I have an Idea as to how we can keep the explorers from getting too far... they can keep swimming... until a storm starts. The water will start getting choppy, and wild, and out of fear, the avatar will relto link.

[Gorobay]

And about you puzzle Ideas... I don't get what you're saying... are u saying that once the player completes the puzzle that opens the secret room, there's a big telescope that casts the word Yinfara on the wall of some hut...

What I'm saying is this: when a player gets to the waterfall secret room, there are interesting artifacts there. One is a lever (or button or something) that makes the light receiver go up. The light receiver is the thing that looks like a disco ball on a stick. The word "Yinfara" is on the wall in the hut (which is in a different part of the island) from the beginning; the player doesn't know it is a color code until later when they see the colors in the temple.

and it opens to reveal more stuff? wouldn't taht be a bit redundant? I mean... there probably shoudln't be two secret rooms...

Yes, it would be redundant. I thought of a puzzle, not so much what you get from solving it. It doesn't matter what happens after the puzzle; for now, is the puzzle itself good?

but I like the Idea that we can swim in the surrounding water... and I have an Idea as to how we can keep the explorers from getting too far... they can keep swimming... until a storm starts. The water will start getting choppy, and wild, and out of fear, the avatar will relto link.

I like that idea.

[Justintime9]

well.... yes and no... yes, I think it's a really cool Idea... but no, I don't think it would fit to have a puzzle at the end, after the player supposedly finished the age... Now, I have annother Idea.... How about when the player goes into the door, down a flight of steps, and down into a large underground chamber, with torches on the walls, and artifacts, and tables down there. A few beds in a corner, and basically the where the natives lived when they were on yinfara. Now, the reason for this puzzle to get down there was because, while the people lost their clan, they had to be warry, because annother Clan was feuding them, and if they found their home, they would kill them. So the people had to have good security in case they came... now, on the far side of the chamber is a narrow tunnel that goes on for awhile, and eventually ends in a ladder... the ladder leads up to a huge globe of a room... sort of like the temple, but bigger, and with larger panes. there is a chair, and a telescope on one side, and an open pane (no glass) is next to it, where the telescope looks out. the room would be beautiful, and a perfect way to end the age... the room is spectacular, and would make the player happy that they played. the room was to keep a look out for their clan, and watch out for their enemies. what do you think of that?

[Gorobay]

what do you think of that?

I like it, except the part where my ideas are not used. But other than that it's good. It's like the ending I proposed for Broken Machinery.

yes, I think it's a really cool Idea... but no, I don't think it would fit to have a puzzle at the end, after the player supposedly finished the age...

If it's a good idea and the only problem is its disjointedness, then let's put it somewhere else. Hmm... how about the part where the door is opened with the color symbols? As a modification of your idea (which I'm not clear on, since the picture in your first post doesn't work) the light posts of my idea are used to point to the light receiver. So it's just like my earlier idea, except the light receiver's lever would have to be outside the secret room. That way the light-post puzzle would be done before the secret room is accessed, and the puzzle's placement would make more sense. Of course, solving the light-post puzzle would not open a door in the hut; it would open the waterfall door.