Product of Brainstorming meeting

[ChaosSong]

... at least make it something more uniquely designed than a simple welder's mask. Like the D'ni goggles, though those would be off-limits without Cyan's consent of course. But some form of eye protection designed by the inhabitants/owners of the age. Not just some earth-based object.

I like that idea very much Whilyam! Any chance we can get a good design out of you?

I also note belford's comment about not keeping the goggles and having them fall off, and that's okay with me too if we have to. If the protective wear that Whilyam is describing is cool-looking though that will just make people want to keep it more.

It seemed to me that many liked the idea of a clothes item but if I find out that most of you think it's a bad idea we'll drop it, we do have a backup plan.

[Gorobay]

V. Machine Room - a chaotic tumble of machinery featuring a broken drive shaft that must be welded together to move a gear (likely to reval an exit)

An exit to where? What would you get for completing this Age? Since I don't think Cyan will let us make Relto pages or bahro rings, we would have to think of something else. How about when you finish the Age you go past the gear, through the exit, and you are outside. Before, the rest of the Age could be underground, since it was a mine. The chemists could mention the outside world in their journals to build suspense and make the player want to see it.

Oh, I just thought of something else! The chemists' journals could say that something (the thing that forced them to evacuate) was the miners' fault, but then there could be something in a mine shaft that makes you not sure. At the end you get to decide whether to escape the way the miners did (by drilling out of the mine up onto the surface) or the way the chemists did (doing all that chemistry to open the door). Maybe one would not work, showing that one group did not escape; if that is the case maybe something could be there to force you to panic-link. Poison gas maybe? If one doesn't work I think the chemist gear-door should work, because there is a puzzle involved in that, and not so much with following an underground passageway.

I do think that a clothing-involved puzzle would be great, but the clothing should be something more mundane than a welding mask; something like the Kadish helmet but covering the face more. Also, the puzzle idea for the clothing now seems forced. If a puzzle for which clothing seems natural is thought of, that's great, but I vote against the present idea.

[ChaosSong]

Gorobay, you raise some excelent points.

I like the idea of seeing the surface as a reward, I was thinking about the surface of this age myself.

I was thinking that it would have to be something that would seal in pockets of gas like bubbles in glass. A natural-looking glass like a pile of sand exposed to extreme heat would be a very interesting texture for the modlers to scratch their heads over. Of course the days of extreme heat in this age are long gone or else a mining expedition like the one described would be logistically improbable. You are 100% correct that we don't have a clear idea of the backstory or the motovations behind our age yet but I'd like to hash this sort of thing out in the meetings.

I really like your idea about two seperate escape attempts that's a very interesting element to throw into this story.

My humble opinion about what Cyan will 'let" us do is that it seems to me that they are being supportave (if quiet) and will be more in the practice of opening doors for us rather than closing them. If they say "please don't use such and such an element" I'm sure that none of our plans will be ruined and we can fix or change whatever they want us to once they let us know it's a problem. So my approach is to design the best most interesting age we can - that we think the comunity would enjoy - and wait for Cyan to ask us to change something (which I'm confident that they will do in a polite and respectful manner if it even comes up). Speculation about elements that we "can't" include impedes the design process.

As far as the bit about the mask/goggles... No offense, but I'm afraid that that is spoken as a person who has never used an arc welder and tried to look into the flame.

When you wear a welding mask, you can't see anything until you start welding. Safety necessitates that the panel be that dark (though some modern welding masks adjust their tint automatically when a bright light is detected).

Now this guy has used a torch before. I stand by my pledge that if I find out that most people don't want it I'll take it out, but I'm afraid that you're in the minority so far.

[Gorobay]

Quick question: Are these supposed to be D'ni miners and chemists, or native ones? I would go with natives, because I prefer Writing new Ages over discovering ancient D'ni ones. Also, the D'ni would create a plot hole about why they didn't just link out.

[ChaosSong]

Quick question: Are these supposed to be D'ni miners and chemists, or native ones? I would go with natives, because I prefer Writing new Ages over discovering ancient D'ni ones. Also, the D'ni would create a plot hole about why they didn't just link out.

Maybe a few D'ni Chemists and Miners overseeing a native operation is what's in my head. Of course they popped out at the first sign of trouble... We don't want to completly divorce it from the world Cyan et. al. created. We certainly don't want a seperate culture with advanced technology, adding an element like that to the story is more likley a no-no than using elements they have already created. It has to be D'ni who were reaping the fruit of this age, nothing else makes sence.

You'll really have to come to the next meeting for this kinda thing though. It's alot easier to guage what would be best when lots of people can chime in with their opinions at once.

I am 90% confident that we can have the next meeting on Oct 13th 14:00 KI time.

[bluewyvern]

Maybe a few D'ni Chemists and Miners overseeing a native operation is what's in my head. Of course they popped out at the first sign of trouble... We don't want to completly divorce it from the world Cyan et. al. created. We certainly don't want a seperate culture with advanced technology, adding an element like that to the story is more likley a no-no than using elements they have already created. It has to be D'ni who were reaping the fruit of this age, nothing else makes sence.

I'll have to disagree with you there. Putting aside the question of whether we will eventually be allowed to also make "discovery" Ages supposedly Written by the D'ni, we will most certainly be expected to create new cultures and storylines that yes, have no connection to elements already created by Cyan. That's part -- the essence, really -- of Graydragon's urging that we be original in our creations and not touch on things Cyan has done. And there's no reason that our original cultures can't be advanced. Just because most of the ahrotahntee we've seen have been a touch on the primitive side, is there any reason they should all have to be? I think this is a great way to do something a little new, create a mechanical culture with its own non-D'ni, non-surface style, familiar-yet-different technology. Great opportunities for our designers.

What about it doesn't make sense? Does it seem more reasonable that a planet's resources are being exploited by alien beings who linked there and took over, or the people who actually lived there?

Anyway, there are two more reasons for making this an original and not a discovery:

1. If it's original, we can get to work now without having to worry about being forbidden to do D'ni Ages later.
2. Everyone seems to be coming up with D'ni Ages. If we have a concept that works well as a standalone, we should go for it.

[ChaosSong]

Okay... I obviously need to be educated about something here.

Who's Graydragon and what's an ahrotahntee? Forgive me if these seem like stupid questions but I'm still learning all the different things that are going on here. Any chance you can meet me in cavern and talk to me about this stuff, I'm hanging out in the Writer's Pub...

I thought the whole point was that Cyan was trying to make us Writers part of the story they have been telling so far.

[BAD]

GD = Grey Dragon = Ryan Warcheza = Community rep for Cyan. If you go on the MOUL forums you can look up GD and find some of his posts to get better acquainted.

ahrotahntee = Basically indigenous humanoids found on the ages written by the D'ni, or at least what the D'ni call them. I am unsure what the word actually translates too.

[Gorobay]

bluewyvern, I totally agree. It makes sense that some ahrotahntee could mine their own planet. Heck, we're ahrotahntee, and I'd say we're pretty advanced.

I have three more reasons to make it original:
3. There is no real reason why it has to be D'ni.
4. If it were D'ni it would restrict us to using D'ni machinery, D'ni artwork, D'ni lettering on signs, and if we had an inconsistency with the canon D'ni history, it'd be hard to explain. There is always the danger of Cyan doing something that invalidates our claims about this Age. What if part of Episode 17 is that the DRC has discovered that the miners never mined gas until 8576 DE, and we set this Age as happening in 3500 DE? With a newly-Written Age anything we make up automatically becomes true, and no one can poke holes and point out mistakes.
5. Having a new, non-D'ni Age lets us be entirely creative and do almost anything. Isn't it more fun to make something original? I think so.

EDIT: Ahrotahn literally means outsider. Ahrotahntee is the plural. I don't think they have to be humanoids, it's just that they usually are. Notable exception: tree-dwellers of Channelwood.

Yes we will be part of the story; the story will be along the lines of "Once upon a time there was D'ni. They left. Then non-D'ni came and started writing new Ages."

... we are going to need new Ages at some point. ... The Guilds ... will have to work together: writing, maintaining, mapping, and exploring those new Ages.

[ChaosSong]

Okay let me explain the problem I was having and how bluewyvern helped me find a way out of it.

I was having a problem with In Cavern motivation for writing an age that has a problem to solve and a mystery to unravel that would be fun to play as an OOC gamer. It seemed to me that anything new would just be a garden or a toy.

bluewyven gave me the idea that I could have written this age myself in an attempt to harvest the gasses that would give us resources in an In Cavern way, but then it blew up on me and explorer's are sent in to to figure out what happened.

I can make this compromise if I have to, but I still don't see how what I'm proposing changes or denys or even adds to anything that Cyan has done. I can leave dates and kings and all that stuff vauge. We know that the D'ni wrote ages to supply themselves with resources. I'm not making any sweeping statements about the D'ni at all so I don't see the problem.

Edit:

Okay why don't we design two versions, one as a D'ni age and one as an age that I (we if you want to share in my failure ) made a mistake in and blew up. We should sumbit the D'ni version to Cyan to settle this question once and for all and send them the second version if they say no.