D'ni Mansion and Island

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Re: D'ni Mansion and Island

Postby sarpedon2 » Sun Aug 22, 2010 12:02 pm

Note. This is my vision for Uru. Most likely, it will never be achieved but I thought it would be nice for people to see (it had been previously on the MOUL forums)

The Beginning Part 1: The Avatar

After installing the new Uru Live and launching it, you reach the new avatar screen. The avatar here is much more detailed than its previous predecessor. Physical customisation is more improved, facial features can now be made more lifelike to an extent. Clothing options are more improved, textures for t-shirts have become more detailed and sharper, and there are also new clothes such as Open jackets, un-tucked shirts, 3/4 length shorts, boots. The avatar also now upon starting the game has a bag that the player carries around with them. The bag automatically contains a journal and a Polaroid camera. The Camera is very useful at the start of the game as you have no Ki, taking photos will be much more difficult. The camera can be used to take shots of puzzle clues, breathtaking scenery, friends and events that unfold around the player. Your photos can be accessed by a button at the bottom of the screen, next to your Journal and where you Relto book will be. When looking at photos, they will be in a pile and you can use the cursor to move them about as well as using the keyboard to write descriptions on them. The photos can also be added to the Journal's, where you can use them to describe your journey through the ages, writing notes under them to help remind yourself how they are involved in the game world. They an also be rotated and moved around the journal, where they are held in by paperclips that automatically attach to them when a photo is placed in the journal. The camera can still be used even after its ability to take photos are replaced by the Ki, one advantage it has, is that it takes clearer, less-pixelated pictures compared to the Ki.

Edit: Just added a little drawing of the player's inventory
Image

The Beginning Part 2: The Desert

After creating your avatar and click the 'Play Uru' button, the intro for Uru: Ages Beyond Myst plays (I think this is a more suitable intro for as the player would start out in the desert not Relto). Atrus' voice echoes out from the screen as we sail through the desert, as the music reaches a climax, we fade into black. The typical control screen appears in front of us, but we are now longer standing alone in front of the volcano, the player is sitting in a pickup truck driven by the person who took out all the explorers to the Cleft in the original restoration. The dashboard is covered with maps, used coffee cups, a Myst-related bobble-head, books etc. The Driver is a mid-forties New Mexican, overweight, wearing a stretched t-shirt, jeans, desert boots and a cap. You can move your camera around where you will be able to see your hands and legs and your bag resting in front of you.

The Driver's Speech

"Glad I'm getting paif for taking you out here. Day in, day out, I get people coming down to the office, needing a ride, all of them saying they felt called to this place for no reason. Don't mind it all the time, some of them are alright but alot of fuels being used up and its pretty bumpy out here, don't think the old girl can take it anymore. Hey hang on, look up ahead, there's the Volcano. Jeff should be under his trailer as usual. If your hungry I'm sure he'll let you have something to eat. Anyway come on, I've probably got someone else back at the DRC office waiting for me. Well uhhhh, enjoy your trip. Byeee"

The Driver closes the door behind you. As you get out, you switch into 3rd Person. The Pickup truck swerves around and drives off, leaving a large dust cloud behind you. Ahead you can see the Volcano, the Airstream and the Cleft's windmill, now silent. You open the large gate in front of you and slip past. From here one the journey is the same in most ways, collect the Journey clothes, Yeesha's speech etc. Except now there are two more journey's to undertake. As we run over to Jeff, the scenery is familiar but more different. There are more shrubs on the ground and the sun seems brighter than it previously was. We run over to Zandi who as the driver said is sitting under his Airstream Trailer, reading a book, while two burgers cook on the grill and Peter Gabriel is playing in the background. Jeff has lost a bit of weight and has now gained a stubble. He tells you the usual speech, find the journey's, enter the tree etc. But he also gives you an unmarked book. It worn and inside is a linking panel that shows some more desert scenery, underneath the panel is Yeesha's symbol. He says going there is not important but it'll help you to understand why things are as they are. He then leans forward and points to the volcano rim. The security fence has now been cut (by Explorers or DRC, who knows?) and he says you can now enter the caldera of the volcano, but he advises you collect something from the cleft first (your Relto book).

The Beginning Part 2: The Descent

At the top of the volcano is a ladder that is propped up against the Volcano's steep edges. After climbing up the ladder, you step out onto a wooden scaffold, as tall as the rim of the Volcano's caldera. You see familiar sites such as the Moiety dagger and you get an excellent panorama of the Cleft and the desert scenery around you. You see that there is a hardhat (with a cave light strapped to the front of the hat) on the scaffold, you put it on. You find that there is no ladder down into the bottom of the caldera, which shows off a new gameplay idea and new physics idea, climbing ropes. You climb down the thin rope that has been tied to the scaffold poles and drop down slightly into the Caldera.

After finding the entrance to the caves under the volcano, you begin to make your way down to the Great Shaft (the journey towards the D'ni tunnels are longer than they were in Myst V as if you to implement the Myst V model of the Descent into the Uru model of the Cleft, the great shaft would be poking out of the ground!) You eventually reach the tunnels seen in Myst V, and you find the Eder Tomahn on the topmost level of the Great Shaft has a Nexus that seems in pristine condition, but is not working (the cog at the bottom is no longer rotating) and the book is protected by a panel which seems to be opened only by a lever on the wall of the Tomahn (which requires power). Strangely though you find that the Node doors still work and so does the Elevators of the Great Shaft (this explains the reason for the locked Node door in Myst V, as it contains the generator to the Elevators and Node doors and was locked by DRC members to prevent abuse by Explorers). You realise you must power the Fans and Nexus ports to continue further. You travel down the majestic Great Shaft (as it appears in Myst V) and eventually down to the bottom where you activate the D'ni generator and the fans, powering the fans (which helps continue access to the caves leading down to the Cavern) and also the Nexus ports. Arriving at one of the Nexus ports that contains a book, you find a linking book to Noloben (the original version, not Myst V version). You can then either choose to link to Noloben or continue down into the caves.

The New Nexus design (not much difference)
Image[/img]

A much less sketchy version of the new nexus
Image
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Re: D'ni Mansion and Island

Postby Lontahv » Sun Aug 22, 2010 3:58 pm

I like the idea about the taxi. I've often thought that starting Uru traveling to the Cleft would make much more sense.
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Re: D'ni Mansion and Island

Postby diafero » Mon Aug 23, 2010 1:49 am

Indeed, that makes more sense. I also like the Descent as opening.

However, I don't like the idea of having two photo systems (the camera and the KI). Besides, the Shaft puzzle has the same issue as the current Cleft one - the Cleft should not be instanced, that would be completely awkward. As a result, only the very first player will have to solve the puzzle. Sure one could make it reset when nobody is in the area to notice it, but how to explain that? The old dusty fan systems just not being able to run for a long time? ;-)
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Re: D'ni Mansion and Island

Postby Calam » Sat Aug 28, 2010 4:59 pm

I like the idea of the taxi too, except I think it spoils too much of the mystery of where the Cleft is and how the player got there. When I first played Uru:CC, it was obviously apparent to me that I had somehow found my own way to this place in the desert and thus my journey began. It fits more with Zandi's speech, too. Everyone ends up at the Cleft on their own and in their own way.
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