The idea was an episodic story released chapter by chapter you accessed by completing tasks that were available in the original game.
I wrote the story and D'Lanor engineered the python that made it possible.
Roll on a few years and Until Uru had its chain pulled I kept writing the story. In parallel I started studying age building I built three base models that are available to view On Deep Island and via Drizzle these are Enobmort, Noidrocca and Nilodnam.
I saw these as possible vehicles for delivery of the original Walker Story I considered migrating them to Studio 3DMax but was unable to get all of the tools.
Recently we have had the Korman tools appear and I have gone back to my ages re working Enobmort into a new age called Abmortoxas.
This is well advanced and there is a reasonably spoiler free resume here.
The spoiler tag is a teaser because there are no real solutions therein and you can view the basics of the layout on Deep Island.
- Show Spoiler
This is an overview description of the Abmortoxas Age being rebuilt using the Enobmort Age as a pattern and a data source using the Korman engine and the Sequence Prefix 10271
The age is built from discrete cubic areas each cube is 16 x 16 x 16 Blender units with the walls and floors brought in to avoid interference patterns with neighbouring cells.
The primary build unit is 5 x 5 x 5 cells with a snaking route through the interior of the cubes the walls are Red Granite each cell is nominally numbered based on the route through this primary unit has 1000 added and the name follows the pattern Cell 1001 Axle where this is the first cell and Axle is useful alphabetically all of the elements related to the cell are prefixed by this cell nomenclature.
Each cell has a centre point designated by an empty following the naming convention “Cell 1001 Axis” all of these are children of a master empty at the central point designated “Cell 1000 Central Axis”
Where a the cell has a ladder the ladder designation is based on the cell where it has its footing the ladders consist of Rungs, Back-wall, Left-face, Right-Face, Lintel, Crowns, Climb-Region-Up, Climb-Region-Down, and a ladder plate with a D’ni number based on the order you encounter the ladders when following the snaking path (This has not been implemented yet in the Korman version it exists in the Alcugs Enobmort version on Deep Island).
The cell floors are decorated with an inlaid compass rose with a North indication mark. In deference to this not being D’ni there is a logo on the wall of the company that did these floor markings this will be explained in the first Journal.
On one wall of each cell there is a large D’ni number this constitutes a puzzle based on the location of each cell within the larger 5 x 5 x 5 cell structure.
When you link into the age and you are in the first cell roughly facing nominally west to your left is a stone pedestal this has a book the first Journal (Nominaly Gibson the narrator) giving you a rough idea of the situation.
There will also be information that the panel behind the pedestal is a door mechanically linked to the lower exit door.
The journal will also include a description that if you climb the ladder diagonally opposite the pedestal on the left of the passage you reach at the top you will find a door with a button this is the toilet there is a clue inside. This happens to be Cell 1006.
You open the toilet by pressing the mark on the door (I want this mark to appear as an image within the journal text) when you step inside you are locked into a first-person view looking around will not find anything till you click to sit on the toilet pedestal this will close the toilet door (I want the toilet space to detect multi occupancy the door will only close with a single occupant) and as you select sit the door closes and you don’t sit till it is closed because you are in first person you will now be able to see the clue posted on the inside of the door.
Stand and click the sink as if washing your hands this will open the door which will close automatically when you leave returning you to third person view if that was your state before entering.
If you have figured out the clue you should follow the route mapping out the numbers you see on the cell walls the compass rose on the floor should help with this.
Cell 1008 has an exit to the north that leads into a meeting area that at this time has no bearing on the puzzle.
Cell 1011 has an exit West that leads into a gallery viewing platform with a view of the external sky sphere.
When you reach the last cell there is a panel on the wall the three windows in the middle show D’ni numbers. Represented by the diagram bellow.
The red triangle above each window is a button that advances the number in the window bellow the green button bellow lowers it each window is independent so advancing any window beyond D’ni 24 just takes its window back to zero.
Here you are required to enter a three-digit D’ni number based on some property gleaned from the numbers on the walls of the cells. Let us say the number for the door is the D’ni characters for 12, 13 and 5 this would give a value of 7830 (This is not the code by the way). The door only opens when the green cross button is pressed and the code is correct this is just to stop explorers just incrementing numbers till the door opens they can but they need to press the green cross for each number.
There will be a pedestal beside the door with a note book with an explanation on using the panel. The diagram bellow is a logical diagram the finished panel will have a D’ni look to it like the Vault entry panel you find in the final puzzle in Kadish.
The red button to the right resets all the numbers to zero and closes the door beside you if it is open and the entrance door back at the start of the block.
The green button is to open the door if the number is wrong you get an audio indication but neither door moves. If the number is correct the lower door opens but not totally it stops at a point where you can jump over it or on it the top entrance door partially opens to a point where you can see over it but you are unable to get past it.
The aim is to have this number entry panel as a generic access panel and in different locations different codes will allow you to access different locations. Note this is a mock up the finished panel will have better textures.
Image omited
At this point standing on top of the lower door and jumping clears the blockage and it drops flush and the upper door opens fully beyond either door there is a post with a button not unlike those found to reset the doors in the original Uru ages that closes doors.
The back of all the pedestals holds a recess capable of having either a linking book or another Journal that you can only access once the door is open.
The button closes both doors and there is a clue on the back of both doors to help you progress and a touch point that works like a linking cloth giving you a short cut to each location but you need to close the doors to gain those access points and clues.
In the back of the top pedestal the recess holds a linking journal that allows you to link to the Ship Hangar (more of this later).
At this point the age becomes multi-route.
You can continue Onwards past the lower door and proceeded into an area I call the Crab section (So called because the view from above resembles a crab).
You can go back to the start and use the link in the back of the pedestal at the first location and link to the Ship Hangar location.
Or you can continue to the second snake area.
The Top Route onto the Second Snake Area.
With the top exit now open you can follow a twisting corridor that lads into a second set of cells this time there are no interior walls except a wall surrounding the first ladder the whole set of 125 cells is rotated as a block by 180 degrees so the floor compass plates are reversed to reflect this.
You can take an almost direct route to the exit door again this has a pedestal with a recess blocked by the closed door, this time in order to get the door to open you need to navigate the ladders in the same order you did in the first block however you do not have the internal walls to guide you but they will have the D’ni number plates at the top of each ladder.
If the door fails go back to the start and re-try if the door is open you can take a direct route but if you move beyond the door and use the button to close it then you will need to do the route again to re-open the door.
Once the door is open you have access to a recess in the back of a pedestal that is at that exit door that contains the first part of the Walker Story.
Follow the corridor and this time you are entering a block of 125 oriented in the same North South direction as the first block of cells you are entering via the lower door the interior walls are again restored this has the numbers on the walls but the images are of a D’ni abacus three vertical rails each rail has four beads on the top and four on the bottom.
Some of the abacus plates will be clickable but will do nothing. One will open a door that leads to a new puzzle area I have the layout and solution but the mechanics needs design.
The entrance is the cell the equivalent to Cell 1011 that was the exit to the viewing platform in the first area this leads to a roughly circular area with a puzzle that involves touching a number panel on the wall then stomping on one of the floor hex plates to give that plate the number you just touched get the numbers correct and you link out from the centre point to a new age that probably this will be Noidrocca. That age will have a link back on the pedestal in the entrance area to this location with the puzzle reset.
Solving the puzzle links you to Noidrocca this is a variation based on four connected sakes that leads to an area with a periodic table puzzle still working on that one.
Meanwhile back at Abmortoxas your twisting corridor with abacus plates.
When you get to the upper door of the abacus area it is closed and a pedestal has a clue on top that will hint at solving the abacus puzzle.
One of the bead images is wrong and represents the number zero this is clickable and when clicked it corrects the number and opens a hidden door on the opposite wall. Not an actual door but the wall works like a hologram you can just walk through once the puzzle is solved.
Pressing the abacus panel a second time resets it to zero and blocks the door.
That hologram door leads to a new section of corridor This has a pedestal that has the second section of the Walker story as well as a corridor that leads to what is outside of that upper door of the abacus section but from the outside with a button that opens that door.
This reveals the back recess in the exit pedestal that held the clue to the Abacus puzzle this pedestal this holds the third section of the Walker Story.
Opening that door also resets the abacus touch panel and holographic wall but you have the passage you found once you passed through the holographic wall.
Facing that upper exit door is a double door this would be ahead of you as you leave the abacus area where both can be closed and one can be open but both cannot be open each leads into a spiral ramp one going up and one going down.
To open the door you need a clue from the pedestal you found beside the Holographic wall this will be some D’ni maths where the numbers are expressed as abacus images and then you use a repeat of the D’ni number panel at the bottom of the first area to enter the result of this math as a D’ni number.
Once you have access to the door you have access to two spiral ramps the one to the right leads downwards to a small gallery with three pictures of fan ages (other peoples) touching the picture links to that age link to them find a link back to this gallery, (We need permissions from the age writers to set this up but we use links and ages based on gaining those permissions) at this point a panel will open in the back of the pedestal revealing the next installment of the Walker Story.
I would like the story to be revealed in the correct order no matter which age you choose. Three pedestals let us call them East, West and South and say you choose South first then South Holds the next part of the Walker Story if you Choose East first the it is the East Pedestal that holds the next part.
An alternative would be the pedestal that opens is whichever holds the next part regardless of which linking painting and return you choose.
Meanwhile back at the exit to the Abacus section you have a climbing passage that leads to a fork in the road both lead you to a common small space 4 x 2 cells with three central pillars there will be a couch and a bookcase as you acquire your Walker books they will manifest in this bookcase. Choosing a book will have your avatar appear to others that you are sitting on the couch reading.
Continuing beyond the reading area leads into various snaking and spiral corridors that lead to two other galleries like the first one this provides access to a further six chapters of the Walker story there are 24 in total.
Out of the bottom of the Crab area is a small gallery of a different construction one of these gallery pictures leads to Nilodnam which is a gallery containing lots of pictures of other ages predominately fan ages the plan is to have the picture as links to those ages with each age having a link back to a spawn point in front of the point where you linked out.
Nilodnam as a concept without the links is available on Deep Island.
In the Crab area is also a door that leads you to the Ship Hangar this door is opened from the ship hangar side. The ship is a vessel conceptually for transporting larger items it is an exact fit for one of the cells in Ahra Pahts.
The number to open the door between the Ship Hangar and the Crab area is the Ahra Pahts cell number where you find the ship.
Places that are still in work:-
1. Proof reading the Walker story again.
2. Passages beyond the reading area.
3. The couch.
4. The bookcase.
5. The Crab area.
6. A use for the meeting area.
7. Kormaning Nilodnam.
8. Kormaning Noidrocca.
9. Re building a new periodic table area.
Places I consider I need help:-
1. Obviously testing for holes in the mesh.
2. Building the number panel for the lower exit to the bottom section.
3. Graphically modelling said panel.
4. First person locking and single person usage of toilet.
5. Some way of tracking avatar passage through the second snake section.
6. Some way of getting things so you get the story books in the right order.
7. Some way of transposing the books to the reading area. Could be they are already there but you can only open them as you find them.
8. Ahra Phats link in.
9. I have also been considering Babylonian Cuneiform Numerals.