Core Experiment : Core Theme

[griffinps3]

I've been recently thinking about an age called core. Here is it's basic idea.

The age I've been thinking about recently is called Core and there is no linking book to it. I thought people would be able to access it by using some device (like the viewer in Rime) to attune a star fissure to a specific destination and then leaping in.

This leap would be like a link and you would here that weird noise and be hurdled into blackness except there would be no flyby. You would then arrive inside a small round room made of marble.

There would then be a large door with a circular symbol (insert puzzle). Once the door is opened you see that you are on a small floating mass of land floating in that star studded void which is the star fissure. You see that there are other floating masses orbiting around this gigantic glowing light in the center of the age. Little tiny shooting stars will also fly by to add to the mood.

On this small mass there isn't much except for the building you just came out of and a telescope. You will look through this telescope ( you can turn it 360 degrees around ) To find that if you look on one of the other masses you will see what looks like a stone arch. Nothing much happens and you move away from the telescope. If you walk around more on this mass you will find a stone arch like the other ( this will come into importance later ) and a small tunnel leading under the mass to a generator ( insert puzzle ).

Once you get the generator to work you can go up to the top of the mass to find that some stones on the telescope lit up. You then look through the telescope back to the stone arch and you now see yourself coming out of that arch and moving tword a telescope on that mass! You now look away from the telescope to find that you are on the other mass. This continues with different generator puzzles and some other marble temples giving hints until you finally make it to the last mass which has a stone bridge connected to the gigantic light.

You walk across the bridge to find that their is this large floating Crystal tower within the light. You then go in and this is where i need to work on more story board.

I would be delighted to know what you think of this age and will appreciate any comments and please don't just compliment. I want to know what I should add.

Note: I thought of some background story with another forum user and we came up with a D'ni civilization that has developed sight linking. Is that anny good?

[teedyo]

I might be a little concerned that hangin' out in the fissure may irritate the Bahro. Regarding your end-note: It would have to a civilization other than D'ni in order to conform to Cyan's guidelines for fan content.

[griffinps3]

I would like to notify you that Core is not in the fissure it just is inaccessible through linking books and when I heard that the fissure acts as a link to the cleft It hit me that it could possibly be a link to other ages if worked right. Maybe Ill ditch the idea about the civilizations and just make the arches and telescopes some type of technology involved with transportation through sight. Thank you otherwise for the comments.

[griffinps3]

Heres an image of what I plan the age to look like. Thanks for all the feedback and ideas.

Coreveiw1.jpg (99.83 KiB) Viewed 6694 times

[griffinps3]

Here is a brand spankin new photo of a generator that you find in Core. It is powered by heat from starlight contracted by a satalyte. It can be hooked up to power all the other generators in core and make it possible to go on to other land masses. It involvs 3 puzzles which I will post later

generator.jpg (98.37 KiB) Viewed 6674 times

[Linger]

Hey Griffin, it seems you're alive on this forum so I'll post my reply to your other thread here as well.

Griffin,

This age* seems like a place of importance. What you will need to work out is it's significance and purpose; an age without a purpose* will be boring no matter how visually stunning or technically challenging.

Perhaps inside the tower is a gallery of pictures*, like those from linking books which are related to your age's purpose theme.

Maybe, before having lept into the Star Fissure you made a mistake with the device and have ended up in an accidental age that was created by the Universe when it used it's backup, reality correctional functions to stop you from creating a destructive Paradox with the device*.


* Is it an age if it is the Star Fissure? For the sake of naming I'll refer to it as an age.

* Doesn't have to be a current purpose, perhaps something of the past, or future.

* Even surreal imagery floating about in a dream-like state is a good option considering your surreal location.

* If that is the fissure alignment calibration medium you are going to use.



Other pointers I have that you might benefit from would be:
1. As with all level design, things must seem like they follow cause and effect principals or your players' will seem alienated.
2. Additionally however, some obscurities can add to the confusion in puzzles, a good tactic if used sparingly.
3. Keep at least one aspect of your visual style coherant to a main theme, such as the architectural style of the D'ni seen throughout the Uru games at a constant.
4. What ever you do you don't want people to rush through your gameplay. Don't be afraid to invent things that are irrelevant to your age, it's purpose, main theme, key puzzles and even the setting in some cases. Catch interest with gadgets, giszmos, life forms, sculptures, scenery, locked doors even a side story to be told or to work out through the logical relationship of information you plant.

Your description of this age is very intreguing and I really hope you see it through to playability.

[griffinps3]

Ive lately thought long and hard about the back story to this age. Well I came up with an idea that core was colonized by D'ni scholars who were tampering with a device that would allow you to travel with the fissure. These scholars accidentally hit a major energy flux and were linked to an age that is actually in the fissure! They then formed a small colony on a large land mass that they had linked in on. On the center of this mass was Eurfin but back then the tower had no name. The settlers eventually decided to continue their study with the fissure even after they created the attuner out of a crystal from Eurfin , but this time to track ages within the fissure. They would build satellites and telescopes to observe the ages which from there point of view were just little far off galaxies. The satellites worked neither the satellites or the telescopes became used for observation , but instead the satellites were used to harness energy from the galaxies and the telescopes were used to create a type of transportation. The telescopes on this age are made out of a same dull gray stone that is unlike Eurfin. This stone would dematerialize a user on contact leaving them in a slight daze but still able to use all of their senses. In this phase you were sort of a patch in air with feelings. The stone would then materialize you at the other telescope that you are looking at and when you pull away you will see you are on a different island.A little while after the creation of this new technology a small group of Dn'i rebelled against the central power of core. They did something to the giant land mass that caused it to split apart ( which I will not reveal right now ) and many were thrown into the black void of the fissure. The rebels after a while died off and there descendants who did not agree with there ways attempted to rebuild but were unsuccessful and all died off of found a way out of the age.

If you have any questions about the back story please pm me.

Another thing I would like to bring up involves the attuner. I thought that maybe you would acquire this instrument from Kadishe's vault in Kadish Tolesa ( he had allot of fancy things in there anyway ) .

Again if there are any questions just pm me. I cant wait for the feedback!

[griffinps3]

I have recently had a thought about how Kadish has acquired the attuner. I thought that he could be one of the scholors that traveled and colonized in core but Kadish ended up hoarding and plotting against the rest of the colonists. I have thought of a particular room or hut that ether resides in Eurfin or in the large village island. This place would serve as Kadish's secret study and many secrets would be revealed about the downfall of core.

If annybody has any thoughts or concerns about this just let me know.

[griffinps3]

I am right now working on Core in Blender but I think I might shrink back a little to concept so I am able to know what to add when I get to that point.

Here is an image of an auditorium on one of the Core islands.

It used to be used when the scholars would have a meeting about their discoverys. It also was used by the villagers from Core for announcements and meetings.

Notice the candles and the windows. If you put them out in the right order something might be revealed.

I will reveal that on my website when the time comes.

CoreAuditorium.jpg (101.46 KiB) Viewed 6592 times

[Xindhus]

This looks really good! It's nice to see innovative new ideas being aired and seriously planned (especially after having just visited the desolation that is the GoMa forums these days... *sniff*). Just one comment I would make, since no one else seems to be making this point: I would steer very, very clear of using Kadish, or even of linking your age too closely with D'ni. The official Cyan standpoint is that you can say that one of their characters visited an age but not that they wrote it or had an intimate hand in the storyline (IIRC), and the position you have Kadish in is a bit borderline. More importantly, putting a puzzle object in Kadish's vault would require some major coding, not to mention a significant hack into the Cyan file and a "vandalization" of a key story location. Also, this would require the player to have finished Kadish Tolesa, a rather difficult age IMHO, which would discourage many new players from trying your age when (if...) we finally go open source. Even the whole D'ni theme could lead you into trouble - it's just a minefield of canon and copyright.

Alternatively, you could just start from scratch with your own ancient civilization. That'd give you free reign to come up with whatever culture and surrounding factors you wanted. What you could also do (for example) is have a small, introductory age that you yourself "wrote", perhaps as an experiment in writing in links to ancient civilizations for archaeological purposes. (I'm a bit shaky on the limits of writing ability. Does this fall under the heading of "Yeesha magic" or is it legit?) You then explore these mysterious buildings and discover...what?

Looking forward to seeing what you produce!