An Idea.

[SteveDenton]

I, like countless Myst fans I'm sure, starting thinking up ages years ago. Once the notion of fan-made MOUL content started to look like more than just a pipe dream (or more accurately, once I noticed that it looked like more than just a pipe dream), I pulled my old sktechbooks out of the attic. This is not one of those sketches (I did this today), but it is based almost entirely on an idea in one of them.

The Guild of Writers is just beginning. OOC, we're not going to get everything perfect right out of the starting gate (no offense intended, of course). Like so many OOC aspects of MOUL, I think it makes sense to make these imperfections an IC aspect of the guild as well. To that end, I propose this broken age (perhaps I'll call it that for now: Broken).

The age is, in a word, unstable, not unlike Riven. There is little doubt that the age will destroy itself... but not for a while, say three to eight decades. The star fissure is plainly visible far, far, below the myrias floating pillars that make up the main body of the age. In other words, the age exists over a tear in reality. The pillars are being pulled toward the fissure (as we saw in Riven, things have a tendency to fall in), but extremely slowly. Maybe it's because of the way the fissure turns as you stare up at it while you fall during Riven's finale, but I always pictured the pillars circling the drain as they descended. Perhaps the puzzle/puzzles in this age could focus on determining the rotation schedule, like the pods but self-contained. I'd also make the puzzle different from the pods in that there would always be a way "through" the puzzle at any given time, but that route would be different depending on when you were there. Time would be a factor, but it wouldn't be a waiting game. (I only just thought of the puzzle aspect; I like it.)

There'd be no structures—no civilization ever inhabited this age, as conditions are hardly civilization-friendly. I'd even hesitate to call them life-friendly. You'd start in a natural cavern, perhaps eventually finding (somehow) other caverns, containing the sleeping bags, provisions, and IC journals of the writers (and maybe a maintainer and/or cartographer or two) behind the age. These could or could not correspond to the actual OOC creators of the age.

The only major plot-hole I see (all defecation on the laws of physics aside) is that the IC Guild of Maintainers might never allow an age like this to see the light of day. On the other hand, one could make the argument that even the Earth is certainly going to end in the future (though it is hopefully a more distant future than three to eight decades) but is, for the time being, safe, and that the same principle applies to this age. (This could be an IC conflict reflected in the journals now that I think about it!)

Thoughts?

[Pryftan]

Very interesting.. I love how it works into the IC side of the GoW. I'm having trouble though thinking of how the puzzle concept would work.. some sort of maze or jumping between rocks and they work differently depending on the time? That might be rather difficult to set up. But I like the idea a lot. What would have been the original plan for the Age, and why did it end up this way?

[Owehn]

I like this idea a lot too. Especially if the "pillars" farther from the center were more normal looking, maybe with grass and a lone tree, and appearing that long ago they could have fit together into a cohesive plain. The lower skydome could rotate at a rate different than the upper dome, indicating a true other-worldliness to the starry fissure below.

There could be a few manmade objects installed - perhaps they were handbuilt by the writer, or perhaps the writer wrote them in, causing the instability we see now. I'm imagining leaps across narrow gaps, and rough handmade or natural bridges connecting the pillars farther apart. Every pillar reachable, a puzzle in itself to access.

Ok. I'm getting carried away, I know. But anyway, the one problem I foresee is that Cyan may take issue with using the star fissure, as it is clearly their invention, and they are still using it (in Relto and the blue bahro caves, for example).

[Pryftan]

That actually sounds like a great solution to the problems I raised, Owehn. Maybe the author tried to write in manmade objects and it resulted in this. That way we can have some machinery and such to operate, but it can only be half working and not powered and stuff like that. Limitless potential for puzzles.

[JulyForToday]

Let me be the first to say: Very lovely sketch.

I'm not sure whether using the star fissure is kosher (from a 'how the art works' perspective) and because the fissure is in Riven, and we don't how that works in relation to other ages (aside from earth). For all we know the fissure could be some sort of strange hyper-space. Who knows.. (besides Cyan of course ).


One thing is for sure! Keep those sketches coming!

[SteveDenton]

I'm having trouble though thinking of how the puzzle concept would work.. some sort of maze or jumping between rocks and they work differently depending on the time? That might be rather difficult to set up.

You're right, it would be very difficult, but that is more or less what I had in mind.

Especially if the "pillars" farther from the center were more normal looking, maybe with grass and a lone tree, and appearing that long ago they could have fit together into a cohesive plain. The lower skydome could rotate at a rate different than the upper dome, indicating a true other-worldliness to the starry fissure below.

All terrific ideas. I'll certainly explore them.

There could be a few manmade objects installed - perhaps they were handbuilt by the writer, or perhaps the writer wrote them in, causing the instability we see now. I'm imagining leaps across narrow gaps, and rough handmade or natural bridges connecting the pillars farther apart. Every pillar reachable, a puzzle in itself to access.

Maybe the author tried to write in manmade objects and it resulted in this. That way we can have some machinery and such to operate, but it can only be half working and not powered and stuff like that. Limitless potential for puzzles.

Bridges are definitely a part of my plan, but I'd like to stay away from machinery in this age. The reason I feel this way is that, while I want this age to feel like Myst, I don't want it to feel like D'ni. I've imagined this age as having been written by myself, or rather my exploring persona (the yoU aRe yoU syndrome strikes!), and he's/I'm no D'ni craftsman. I wouldn't trust myself to physically install complex machinery in an alien environment (I could've tried to write it in, as Owehn and Pryftan suggest, but that would've been problematic at best, especially considering that the age was already "broken"). So there will be bridges, but they'll be minimalistic, makeshift and rickety. There won't be carved doorways with Descent-like bed niches, there'll be natural caves with sleeping bags on the ground. I might try including some true-to-life surveying equipment, but as these would be easily comprehensible human tools, they wouldn't be the focal point of any puzzles. (Getting to this equipment, on the other hand...)

But anyway, the one problem I foresee is that Cyan may take issue with using the star fissure, as it is clearly their invention, and they are still using it (in Relto and the blue bahro caves, for example).

I'm not sure whether using the star fissure is kosher (from a 'how the art works' perspective) and because the fissure is in Riven, and we don't how that works in relation to other ages (aside from earth). For all we know the fissure could be some sort of strange hyper-space. Who knows.. (besides Cyan of course).

I don't think I'm expanding upon what the star fissure is or does in any meaningful way. In both Riven and Uru/MOUL it has been depicted as a space between ages, and that would continue to be the case here. Also, the way the fissure functions would not be expanded upon in any way, as it wouldn't really be possible to jump in—anyone who jumps for it would panic link before even breaking the threshhold.

I'll see if I can post another sketch or two tomorrow.

[SteveDenton]

In a perfect world, this is the sort of bridge visitors would have to rely on to get around: basic, learned-it-in-scouts level stuff. Unfortunately, this would require a new avatar animation (two actually, if you count each gender's avatar), which if I had to guess (and I do, as I have no idea what our technical capabilities are compared to Cyan's), we can't do (too bad that only occured to me after I did the sketch. Ah well, it least it gives an idea of the minimally functional, not-D'ni feel I'm after for this age.

[bluewyvern]

Cool!

Looking at the diagram at the bottom, I thought this was a suspension bridge...it would certainly work as a bridge, the avatar could just walk across when it was taut.

[Pryftan]

Making it a bridge like that would be great way to do the whole timing puzzle stuff. At certain times, the bridge becomes taut, and at others it's loose and you can't walk across it. I don't know if we know enough to do anything of the sort yet..

[Owehn]

Steve, your sketches are amazing. I don't think I could even copy them, let alone create the concept and reproduce it accurately! Anyway, here's a slightly less minimalistic bridge (sorry) that might do the trick:

Four guide ropes are stretched taut across the gulf. The lower two have a rope zigzagging between them to provide space for the avatar to walk across when the lines are taut. When there is slack, the extra line just hangs down uselessly, and the gulf is impassable.

(Sorry for the yellowness: the paper is white but my desklamp bulb is very warmly colored.)