HOUMALA

[pappou]

This is good thinking, Leutwo. Nothing wrong in the way your mind works. My problem is that i get focused on one aspect of a puzzle and forget about all of the complications connected to it. If you keep checking my thinking, we will make a good puzzle team.

Link to your Factory Office:
i think what you are saying is we can have both your office and my city location on a book; but lets keep tracking this prob; sounds good; lets see;

Explorer checks on the Island:
I love this sequence; but now i need to think about it in depth;

OK; I will try to set up a Journal in GoW; what do you think of these sections for it:
1. General section re the whole TwoCities Island;
2. Gestoypahts (city locations)
3. Houmala Section
4. Lumiscent Factories Section
5. Tsahno Temple Section
6. Ahbteepahts Section
7. Volcano Section
8. Offshore Section

Really, i need your thinking on organizing this stuff. HELP! [/me gets a grip on himself; dont panic]

[Luetwo]

Wait. What I was saying is the main book will be to your city. Somewhere in the city is the book to Houmala. Two separate books. Similar to the book by the pellet machine in Ercana. This would mean you cannot link directly to Houmala without going thru the city. So you would start in your city, then solve the mirror problem, then you agree to go to Houmala and check on it. Perhaps some of your other locations will need to be checked on as well. We may need many more puzzles.

[Luetwo]

Hate to keep doing this to you , but i read the other day that the number 5 is very important to the D'ni. So if we use the mirrors, I am thinking there should be 5 of them. One will provide power for the city proper, one will be used to power the Houmala factory. and that leaves three more. One should probably be sent to the Temple. As I said, I do not know how you have your city set up, so I really cannot finish this. How many of these places mentioned are seperate from each other and how many share locations. Or we could have five outlying locations and when they are powered, the city receives full power. In other words, we solve the mirror problem and get power to the five areas. As we visit the five areas, we can adjust the mirror at that location to also reflect some energy back to the city proper. As we start in your city, the lighting could be dim or nonexistant in some areas. There has been some disaster in the city, actually the entire world, and they need help getting things back working. Most of the population died in whatever disaster befell them, which is why they have not fixed these problems themselves.

[pappou]

Leutwo, i am beginning to really like the 'mirror problem', but i don't know where it came from. Please tell me more about it.

First however, this is what i sent to your Journal on Christmas Day:

THE LASER TOWER

“Without doing a thorough review of what we have discussed, let me list these improvements and see if i have stepped on toes, or if we are in agreement;

First:
There is this latest plan of the TwoCities Island:
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o206/pappou/18TwoCitiesIs8x13-5-2.png

Second:
It resolves the power problem by expanding your notion of the boiling mud – what i think i will call, 'lava mud'; i have settled on a single large pool of lava mud at the far East end of the Island -- just East of the N-S axis from Gastoypahts to the temple, Tsahno; [this lava mud basin] will support a complex tower which uses steam generated from the lava mud to run turbines that convert electrical power to laser power; at the top of the lava mud tower (see the 'X' in the mud pool) a laser beam may be directed across the Bay to your Factory and to other important points on the Island; using large parabolic receivers, the Houmala Factory and the other locations will convert this beam to electric energy to power [your factory] work line or to run the various necessary industries of the Island... etc”

If you look on the right side of the Island (re the plan above of TwoCities), the Eastern peninsula just below the City, you will see a tiny 'x' in a small circle shape. The circle shape is a pool of lava mud and it is the site for the laser tower which powers the Factory. The laser tower looks like this:
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o206/pappou/Lava-mudGenerator-1.png


THE MIRROR PROBLEM

Now, please tell me more about the 'mirror problem':
1. Where did it come from?
2. Does it track the sun?
3. What is the path of our sun?
4. Where do think the main tracking mirror would be stationed?
And many more questions.

The mirrors would have to be worked out but i think they are a great idea. Maybe we should have several types of power.
A. Parts of your factory could be a wood fired furnace used for drying;
B. Electricity for all parts of the Island could come from the Laser Tower and its receivers;
C. The mirror system could supply certain exotic inventions;
D. There could even be a small tidal power plant: It works with rise and fall of the tides;
E. Other lava-to-steam power systems.


YOUR JOURNAL

Also, i am thinking about all of this detailed back-and-forth messaging going into your Journal. We really need to keep up this discussion (like the 'mirror problem'). It is necessary for us, but do you want it all to go into your Journal? Suits me if we use a more private messaging system and then you can edit what you want and put that into your Journal for public consumption. Tell me what you want.

[pappou]

Here is the latest improvement to the TwoCities Islands:
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o206/pappou/18-6TwoCitiesIs8x13-1.png
This is the master plan, so to speak, so North is to the top.

But Houmala faces due East, and i started working with it face down, as we often do when studying elevations:
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o206/pappou/2013Houmala.png
For purists, that's not such a good idea -- changing the direction of North on a plan; but i thought it might make it easier for Leutwo to read.

And it does seem easier when you begin looking at the local plans and elevations. Here is the plan of the Factory, set into its nest of basalt piers, with the spring gushing forth:
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o206/pappou/2004Factoryplan.png
Fermenting furnaces and evaporators are in the left (South) wing of the Factory, and drying is put on the right (North).
In the center pavilion is the important receiver station for electric-laser power from across the Bay. This is the highest level, with the stairs going down to the Central Meeting platform.
It is circular with housing on the perimeter and huge fireplaces at the center. Fountains are placed at quadrants and over most of the Central Meeting platform there will be canopies protecting the nujacs from the heavy rainfalls.

The basalt stone walls of the factory show up in the Elevation, with a Building Section cut into the Elevation on the left side:
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o206/pappou/2004Factoryelevation.png
The Building Section shows that the Factory floor backs up to the existing basalt pillars, which have have been ground smooth and polished. An open roof on splayed struts flies high above everything and does not touch the walls, thus, good ventilation is guaranteed in this muggy sea breeze climate.

[Chacal]

Holy cow, real blueprints!
Just wanted to say that I, along with many others I'm sure, thoroughly enjoy reading this thread.

[Nadnerb]

Very nice detailed plans! Whoever ends up modeling this age is going to have a good time.

[Luetwo]

Before you are allowed to leave this place, you must repair and help reestablish this civilization. As the promise made by the chief councellor is the only way you see now to return home, you begin the repairs.


Houmala: part of Gestoypahts

You begin in the power facility. It is a large plant. As there is no top on the back side of this building, so you have plenty of light when you enter. Under the covering in the front of the room sits seven switches. Unfortunately these switches are dead at the moment. You climb a ladder in the back of the building to access a large tower about twice the height of any of the parabolic mirrors (a mirror sits atop each of the seven scaffolds rising from the center of the room.) When you get to the top, there is a hand crank. As you pump the hand crank, a pipe rises from the center of the tower and attracts the lightening from the storms in the atmosphere. You climb down and back up one of the mirror towers. You peer through the center of the mirror and can see another mirror in the distance. There are four push buttons beside the center hole. Each button moves the center a little in the direction. Carefully, you adjust this mirror to directly face another one in the distance. When you believe you have accomplished this, you pull the lever. If correct the laser light remains constant. If wrong, it sputters and goes out.
With all seven mirrors aligned, power should be restored to the seven main areas. You can explore any of the areas. You return to the councellor's office and find a linking book. This must be part of what I must do. You touch the book and link.

Houmala is part of the old food producing facility for the old city of Gestoypahts. The inhabitants no longer work because they have no more crates and barrels to pack their products into. They merely do enough to feed themselves.
You link into an office from the main city. You have been asked to try and revive the production and shipments of food to the rest of the area. You find yourself in an office in the factory on Houmala. The factory is quiet and the only light is what filters in through the small windows. As you look around, it appears to be a normal office: desk, chairs, and papers. You try to listen through the door, but hear nothing. When you try to open the door, it is locked. You must find a way out of this room. You had seen houses when you looked out the window, but you cannot wait for them to find you. The only thing to do is to search the desk. Hopefully, the key is somewhere in this office. After a thorough search, all you have found is a tear shaped piece of rock with several bumps along one edge. As you look again at the door, you notice a small slit to the left of the door. You take the piece of rock and insert it into the slit in the wall. You can hear what sounds like something unlocking, but you cannot push the door and there is nothing to grab so that you can pull it open. Confused, you return the stone to its holder on the desk. As you reinsert the stone, you can hear the door open. When you look back towards the door it is just barely ajar. (If you pick the stone back up, the door will reshut before you can exit. Therefore, you must exit the room without the stone key.) You leave the room to descend a narrow staircase along the east wall of the factory. It is a little darker in t he factory as there are few windows to allow light in. When you carefully make your way to the bottom of the stairs, you see the machinery used to produce the products shipped from this location. There are cutting machines and presses. Over in the corner are a few more of the bottles I saw up in the office. This facility appears clean, just unused. Now you must find a way to the outside. The door on this level is short and in plain site of the villages observed from the window in the office. You reclimb the stairs to a door you passed on the way down. It is stuck, but when you push on it, it comes open.
The view out the back is nothing like the view out the windows. It is steamy and muddy and hot. There are several lava mud pits, water pipes and big tubing with funnels at the ends hanging over each pit. There are some controls on the left side of the landing, wheels and levers. Unfortunately, you are unable to move any of the control switches. You need to find some power for this place, but all that was out the front window were the two villages, a tidal flat with old growth trees and a long pier jutting out into the water. Perhaps you missed something in the city, so you have to make your way back there. You link back to your relto.


The lights now work in Houmala. YEA! You go to the door in the back you used earlier. this time the controls work and you can move the funnel like contraptions.I shall not tell you how to adjust the controls, You need some fun saved for yourself. With the funnels in place and this area figured out, you return to the factory. There are some minor details, the sluice gate and the recipe ratios, that need to be addressed before production can resume. Once done, the drink is back in production.
When complete, you must light the light at the end of the pier to safely guide one of the few remaining boats of Gastropahts to dock and pick up the shipment. You are allowed passage on the ship back to the main city.

[Jennifer_P]

It's looking very good indeed! You'll have a nice solid foundation for whenever you begin the modeling. It's the best approach--plan first, draw next, model last. At the same time though, I notice you seem to be using animations rather heavily. You know that they're reeaally hard and often impossible right now, right?

[Nadnerb]

It's looking very good indeed! You'll have a nice solid foundation for whenever you begin the modeling. It's the best approach--plan first, draw next, model last. At the same time though, I notice you seem to be using animations rather heavily. You know that they're reeaally hard and often impossible right now, right?

It's best not to limit yourself by only planning to use features that we have right now. We do actually plan to have animation support in the future. With the amount of detail going into this plan, there will probably be a few more builds of pyprp before it's finished and that stage of modeling is reached.