Lehm wrote:This is definitely one of the best ideas so far. And it's being illustrated so well.
Thank you.
Lehm wrote:My only concern is that it might cross over into territory that Cyan won't allow.
That seems to be the general sentiment, but as I don't think it steps on their story-telling shoes, I'll persevere for now. That said, I have been thinking about alternate ways of achieving the same general environmental conditions I'd like to include in this age (with little success, but the concerns voiced here have convinced that I should have a backup plan).
Lehm wrote:The other thing is that at the end of Riven when the star fissure opens, it starts to rip the age apart quickly. Gehn also wrote that it also began to suck the atmosphere out. You'd have to figure out a way to explain why that isn't happening with yours.
But when the fissure opens in your Relto, things that seem nowhere near as sturdy as Gehn's structures in Riven seem to hold together just fine for as long as you choose to go without jumping in. On the surface, it's an inconsistency, but my IC explanation tends toward the idea that the majority of the destruction in Riven occurred because Atrus stopped writing in the descriptive book. After all, at the end of Myst, when he leaves to blast the red and blue books and returns only a few moments later, he mentions that his absence may have had a catastrophic effect on Riven (this, on the other hand, calls into question Atrus' periodic need for sleep, so it's still something of a pickle).
As for the atmosphere, yes, that's a point... perhaps I could shorten the life expectancy of the age and make it really windy? Again, I'll cite the fissure of Relto being musch less destructive in this regard.
Perhaps the best way to look at the fissure is the way Cyan has told us to look at it: that Uru is "happening" and Riven is "just a game." On the other hand, considering the near-holy status Riven has for many Myst fans (and rightly so), blatantly using this approach might not be very well received.
Lehm wrote:On the topic of the bridge. Cool idea. I'm not sure of the feasibility of a bending rope in the engine.
There are potentially a lot of problems with pulling off a bridge like that, and though I hate to do it, I do think that I have to scrap the idea.