Entry 49 - Just To Get One In

My surface life the past month has been very busy so I haven't had the opportunity to get into cavern too much. The fact that there isn't much happening now that the season is over doesn't help to draw me in either.

I was in earlier this week and chatted with Jim (Eldyn/Luk) for a bit, which was nice. Hung out in Ae'gura and watched the sky divers, took a picture of my Relto in my seasonal hat, and then pretty much called it a night.

Sky Divers in Ae'gura

Relaxing in Relto

Entry 48 - Exodus

From left to right: Petfam, Aras, me, Eldyn

Last night group of use got together at Mobius' Bevin to discuss where the story has been and where things are likely to be going. Ironically, everyone there was from Tayma's. Either way, it was a very enjoyable time.

I should start by filling in on the more recent events. Kate Alexander, director of the DRC, has resigned seeing the likely of making profit from this venture as being pretty much nil. She appears gone for good and the two remaining members - Victor Laxman and Marie Sutherland - have left the cavern to pursue another financial backer.

In the meantime, the Bahro began appearing all over the city. Flying ones too. They could be seen almost always flying around Kerith's Arch in the distance. Then, out of the blue, Yeesha appears in K'veer. I'm going to post her words directly here.

(11/05 19:10:13) Yeesha: I will have words. .
(11/05 19:11:52) Yeesha: Destruction is almost upon us.
(11/05 19:12:00) Yeesha: They are here. Fighting in war.
(11/05 19:12:17) Yeesha: Freed from their prison, the Bahro choose their way now; good and evil stand before them.
(11/05 19:12:50) Yeesha: No longer are they slaves to the tablet, no longer is their destiny locked to the wishes of others.
(11/05 19:13:03) Yeesha: No longer is their freedom captive.
(11/05 19:13:15) Yeesha: They are powerful and with freedom, some are dangerous.
(11/05 19:13:25) Yeesha: Most of the Bahro are friends.
(11/05 19:13:47) Yeesha: They stand with us, protecting us from the evil that surrounds you almost constantly.
(11/05 19:13:55) Yeesha: They sacrifice for you.
(11/05 19:14:04) Yeesha: They battle an die for this cavern.
(11/05 19:14:1 Yeesha: They battle and die for the Ages, and your comfort.
(11/05 19:14:29) Yeesha: They fight for the D'ni as well. They watch over us all.
(11/05 19:14:54) Yeesha: But there are those who have not chosen to side with you, with the D'ni, or with good.
(11/05 19:15:02) Yeesha: They seek revenge for the evil done to them.
(11/05 19:15:42) Yeesha: Revenge is their excuse but freedom is their cause.
(11/05 19:16:27) Yeesha: They are able to make the choice and they bask in such opportunity to do as they please.
(11/05 19:16:53) Yeesha: With freedom comes choice and with choice comes evil, as well as good.
(11/05 19:17:06) Yeesha: Their leader can be seen clearly.
(11/05 19:17:2 Yeesha: He is missing a large patch of skin on his shoulder - taken from him in the tortuous lab of Esher.
(11/05 19:17:51) Yeesha: Because of that, I will draw them away. Away from the cavern. Away from you.
(11/05 19:18:24) Yeesha: I do not know how long they will seek what I carry. It could be only days, it could be months.
(11/05 19:18:29) Yeesha: Destruction is coming.
(11/05 19:18:35) Yeesha: It is almost here.
(11/05 19:18:50) Yeesha: I will delay it as long as I can but, in the meantime, you must find a way.
(11/05 19:18:56) Yeesha: You must make a home.
(11/05 19:19:00) Yeesha: Destruction will be here soon.
(11/05 19:19:10) Yeesha: I will try to return and help you in the future.
(11/05 19:19:1 Yeesha: If things go well, I will offer you my aid.
(11/05 19:19:31) Yeesha: If things do not, you must find a way on your own.
(11/05 19:19:3 Yeesha: Regardless, you must be ready.
(11/05 19:19:49) Yeesha: Destruction will come... soon or later.
(11/05 19:19:57) Yeesha: When it does, you must have a way.
(11/05 19:20:04) Yeesha: You must make a home.
(11/05 19:20:10) Yeesha: I will do all that I can in the meantime.
(11/05 19:20:50) Yeesha: I must leave now.
(11/05 19:21:01) Yeesha: Goodbye.

So, the DRC and the Bahro are gone, at least for now. Destruction is coming was repeated a few times by Yeesha, but it's hard to believe the cavern would simply be gone without there being something else, something better. There has been talk that the Guild of Writer's may actually gain the ability to create ages. In other words, players will be creating ages. I'm sure there will need to be some sort of approval process, but if this ends up being true, the variety and adventure that Uru needs may be there in abundance.

HC

Entry 47 - K'veer

Finishing of Ahnonay is definitely a two person job.

A couple of days ago I got in cavern. There were a few people on line, but they had not completed Ahnonay yet and I didn't want to spoil them by helping me. I went over to Guild of Greeters and a person by the name of Kimmie gave me a hand. What a needed was some help turning my Ahnonay over to the fourth version. I linked to the back area where the door to finish the level is, while Kimmie was on the main island to use the book to turn the age - every time the book on the main island is used, the age turns.

Well it turned out to take a little longer than I hoped. First, my island was invested with crabs again, and they needed to be removed in order to turn the age. When we finally turned the age, the game crashed on me when Kimmie linked through the book. Kimmie was great. She was still there when I got back on-line and we gave it another go. This time it worked, and I was able to visit my version four.

Ahnonay - Version 4

In Justin's and Phoenix's Ahnonay's we were only in the back control area, so the first thing I did was get to the main island. The age was never finished by the D'ni who built it so it's full of scaffolding. There is also a huge statue of the person who commissioned the age in the center. The story goes that he was trying to convince everyone that he was the Grower, a prophesied savior. One of the powers of the Grower was the ability to link through time as well as space. The age consists of four small islands each in a huge sphere that rotates every time someone links out, giving the illusion that you are linking to different times of the same age.

Anyway, a quick explore didn't turn up anything other than a link back to the cathedral. I was disappointed in not finding a book to K'veer, but not surprised. I know what needs to be done, because it is the only reason to have the linking stone to a Bahro cave located below the Bahro cave linked to from Er'cana. While I was in the lower cave, I had to get someone else to go to my Er'cana and drop a pellet through the whole in the floor of the upper cave. When the pellet hits the pool in the lower cave, it will glow, likely revealing something I need to get to K'veer. I could see from my KI that Kimmie had gone back to Greeters. I didn't want to go back there and bug her, so I decided to try another day.

Yesterday I got on and after a bit of farting around, Luk (aka: Eldyn, aka: Jim) came on line. He asked if I could help him get the two Relto pages that were in Ahnonay (I had found them both - one takes some tricky version hoping to get). There was a natural deal here. Jim gave me a hand, then I helped in out. The pellet dropping worked exactly as expected and I found out what the X was all about. The hint that appeared is on the right, and the only machine that takes symbols like this is back at the Cleft.

But I wanted to give Jim a hand first. We linked to his Ahnonay. I stayed on the island to work the age turning book while he linked in and out of the back area where the Relto pages are hidden. It didn't work as I expected it would. In fact, the whole thing degenerated into a crazy experiment of what ifs. What if I did this and you did that, sort of thing. It was confusing as hell, but a lot of fun. Eventually, Jim found himself in the back area of version four, where the back door can be opened leading to the control area. Not what we were shooting for, but he decided to go exploring from there and leave the Relto pages for another time.

K'veer

So that left me to enter the code into the machine at the Cleft and see what happened. I was greeted to a very brief message from Yeesha and then a portal appeared. Not surprisingly, this took me to K'veer. What was exciting is that this isn't the K'veer from the solo Uru game, but rather the one from Myst 5 adapted to Uru. Very cool! There was a working Nexus machine there, adding the link to my Nexus (which also means there is a public instance of this place). After that, a quick hunt around soon turned up Atrus' where he was held prisoner by his sons in the very first Myst game.

Atrus' Room

They even had original Myst music playing while you were in here. Very neat. In the center of the room was a linking book which took you back to the library on Myst island. Unfortunately, the library was boarded up, so you couldn't leave (exactly like the solo Uru game). Unlike the solo game, though, the hidden entrance in the fireplace didn't work - strange. Instead they left a Relto page there for you as well as a red robe, just like Cathrine's from the Myst games.

This has turned into a long post. I was going to do an update on the story front, but I think I'll do that next time. All and all, a satisfying episode in the story, the I do have concerns for the future.

HC

Entry 46 - The Wow Factor

Man, was yesterday a blast!

In the afternoon, we got together at Tayma's to discuss whether or not to have a name change. Changing the name makes sense. The problem is that changing the name means creating a new Bevin and with with the 'hood having thirty plus members, some not on a lot, that would almost certainly result in some folks being lost in the move.

The suggestion came up from Mahn (a new member whom I met for the first time) to instead come up with an acronym for TAYMA, thus keeping the name but changing the meaning. Folks liked this idea and it looks like we will be having a naming contest over the next few weeks.

Meeting at Tayma's Bevin

With that out of the way, the evening was spent actually exploring. Explorer's have been reporting flying Relto's around Kerith's Arch, so I had the check that out. The city itself was packed (turns out there's Bahro all over in there), so I resigned myself to our 'hood instance. They were certainly there, and what a racket they were making.

Flying Bahro - You can just make them out around the Arch

I spent some time trying to get into the public city (Petfam and Eldyn were already there giving me details), but an ugly game crash had me give that up. I then linked up with Justin and Zero (two newer Bevin members) and we worked through the later stages of Ahnonay together. It took us a few tries to get to the final version of the age, but when we finally did, it was exciting. The control area of this place is amazing, especially where you can see the sphere's that contain the four versions and the mechanism that works them.

PhoenixFlight at Ahnonay

While we were working our way through this, PhoenixFlight came on-line, so I told her once I was done with Justin and Zero, I'll come help her through the back door of her Ahnonay (the back door definitely takes two to open). I went through the portal at the end of Justin's age to collect my well piece, and then met up with Phoenix.

We had a bit of trouble linking to her Relto (an essential step), but otherwise, we did it on the first go with no hicups. This time, I liked through a Bahro stone in the room at the end. This took me to a Bahro cave which is located under another cave linked to from Er'cana. There is an X in a circle scratched on the wall (25?). Not sure what this is about, but I know there is more to do.

Symbol in Bahro Cave

Two things I have to try still. One, drop a pellet from the Bahro cave linked to from Er'cana and see what happens below. There must be something involved with the glowing that happens when these pellets hit the water. This sounds like a good job for two people again. Two, explore the main island in the fourth version of Ahnonay, which is something I haven't had a chance to do yet. There's a link to K'veer somewhere, and on to Myst island too. Before I do this, though, I actually have to get my own Ahnonay into the fourth version. Although I've done this twice now, it was always in someone else's age. I need a hand to get mine done.

Still lots to do ... and I haven't even got into the shake-ups with the DRC over the past few days

posts pending ...

HC

Entry 45 - Ahnonay

Ahnonay - Version 2

Ahnonay came on line Friday, but unfortunately I couldn't get in Cavern until yesterday afternoon. Not surprisingly, there were a number of people on line and I had the opportunity to reconnect with some people after it being quiet for so long. It turns out, there's a move afoot to change the name of our Bevin. Tayma is gone and not likely to return after the "incident" over a month ago and there still are many hurt feelings, most notably Petfam (whom I also got to talk with), who left the hood with Mobius and Anibus. Petfam has returned and there's now going to be a meeting at 2:00 or 2:30 pm EST to vote on what to do with the name Tayma's Bevin. To be honest, I couldn't care less about the name. I'm saddened that Tayma's gone. Petfam clearly feels betrayed by her but is reluctant to give details (and I certainly don't want to ask).

There are two things I know, though. One, people aren't always what they seem, especially on-line, but one can't alter one's life because you happened to get involved with someone like that. Two, good people still make mistakes. It seems to me that Tayma is either number one or number two. If she's number one, good riddance. If she's number two, it seems she has made the decision to be somewhere else and I wish her the best. In either case, she's gone and it is time to move on.

Anyway, I did get into Ahnonay. The age is a funny place. It is actually has four versions but, unlike Minkata or Kadish's Vault, the different versions are not different times but rather a trick concocted by a deceitful D'ni trying to convince everyone he is a prophet called the Grower. The four versions of the age rotate mechanically when one links through the anti-chamber for the age, giving the impression of being in the same place but at radically different times. The key to solving the age is getting yourself to the fourth version, which is unfinished and not accessed easily. After playing around for a while using my failing memory of the place from the solo game, I am now convinced that the age has been changed so it now takes two Explorers to get to version four, so I'm going to have to get help.

I did get on line Thursday too and discovered that a new calendar lantern was available. This surprised me because Ahnonay had yet to be released and the pattern of late had been to put the monthly lantern in a place connected to the most recent age released. I explored around a bit, trying to think of places weren't it hasn't been before and it occurred to me that the Great Zero, would be a good place to check ... bingo!

Around the Campfire

All that's missing is December. It's too bad I missed the first two months, though. I do wonder what is going to happen when the year is complete because the little island on Relto is clearly going to run out of room.

HC

Entry 44 - Skydiving

Last night I got back in cavern after not being there for well over a week. Each time in since my last entry, there has been less and less happening. With the next episode (the season finale) coming now on November 1, it's looking like its going to be a long and quiet time in Uru.

That's why last night was such a pleasant diversion. I started later in the evening (10pm) and soon ran into Petfam and Aras. Petfam introduced to a new sport, skydiving. Folks have scoped out places where you can do strange jumps and get yourself into locations that are supposed to be inaccessible. She took us into the library in Ae'gura. Soon we were doing strange, mid-air jumps, that got us onto the railing, behind the DRC barricades. Then with one jump, you feel through the bottom of the library and were looking up at Ae'gura from below.

Getting Ready to Jump	Ae'gura from below

After that it was story time, a weekly event at Tayma's Bevin. r'Tayrtahn provides the stories. I've been reading these at the Bevin board, but this was my first time attending. Some of the old gang was there: Petfam, Aras, Anja, Flora, Eldyn, and Tara. Very enjoyable.

Story Time at Tayma's

After that we were off to Teledahn for some more skydiving, this time from inside the interrogation room at the end of the age. I spent some time making jumps, but soon it was getting too late for me (1:30am) and I had to bid everyone farewell.

Most fun I've had in cavern in a month!

And one more note. Next Saturday there is an in cavern Job Fair where a number of 'hoods and guilds are promoting themselves. I noticed there was an Anti-Bahro group. I think Stephen may have to introduce himself to these guys. >:-)

HC

Entry 43 - Secondary Characters

It's been so slow in cavern the past week or so that I decided to advance my two other avatars through the various ages of Uru too.

Stephen Porter was a character I created last spring with the idea of making him an anti-Yeesha, anti-Bahro, type character. He started a neighbourhood to promote his views and began a blog, but even with the events the past few months, few people seem to want to share the same views as Stephen.

Stephen's finished off Yeesha's journey (though he refuses to return the Bahro pillars), Er'cana, Minkata and the Great Zero missions. He needed to finish off Delen, Tsogal (yeah, the guy has no friends) and the pod ages. Stephen actually crossed paths with a group who did a Delen and Tsogal run a few days ago (it was a fun time too), and he managed to bang of the last of the pods last night.

Stephen Porter catching the last portal in Dereno

Helper HC was created for the Guild of Helpers. He has done a ton of Tsogal and Delen runs in that roll, but little else. All he's done is two of the sixteen marker missions. That leaves Yeesha's journey (Gira/Kemo, Teledahn, Gahreesen & Kadish), Minkata, Er'cana, and the four pods. Yeesha's journey is now done and Er'cana is almost polished off, leaving Minkata, Marker missions and pods. Still some work to be done.

Helper HC getting it done in Er'cana

HC

Entry 42 - Flora's Bevin

Flora's Bevin Party

I'm still not sure of what was behind the fallout at Tayma's, but I soon saw an invite at Tayma's board, posted by Anubis, for a party at Flora's new Bevin for Friday night. The post was soon removed (a sure sign that things had gotten ugly), but I was going to attend anyway. It was a blast and got to meet up with some old friends (Anubis, Flora, Petfam) and meet some new ones. Anubis provided streaming music and I noticed that there was a new board produced for Mobius' 'hood. Tayma's has seen very little traffic of late (both the board and the Bevin), and now I see why.

Always the last to know. :-/

HC

Entry 41 - Phil's Relto

They opened up the Spy Room and Phil's Relto from the old solo game. In the solo game, you could see a flip chart thought the telescope that red Bob O'Goobo (or something like that) which gave you a colour combination to enter into your Bevin garden lights. This granted you access to the Egg room in Bevin, which in turn granted you access to the Great Zero. We've had access to these things from the start, so the Spy Room really doesn't do anything now besides being the place were Phil's Relto book is kept.

Phil's Relto

I was very surprised to find that Phil's Relto is actually public. At the start this felt strange, but soon this place became one of my favourite public hangouts. Being the only public Age outside of Au'gura, it had a very different, and soothing, feel. I think lot of folks felt the same because the place has been popular over the past few days.

Also, in the old solo game you could climb around the back of the mountain in Relto. Apparently, you used to be able to this in the on-line version too (I've seen a You Tube video of it), but then Cyan put an invisible wall preventing a key jump (not exactly sure why). Well, at Phil's the wall isn't there so the top of the mountain was, once again, accessible. After numerous attempts, I finally managed to scale the thing. The third person camera sometimes goes wonky and stayed at the bottom of the mountain. This made the climbing more difficult, but it did allow me some nice pics of myself atop the thing.

Relto Mountain

On the story front, Phil has returned with Dr. Watson and Michael Engberg who have been all over, even to Releeshan and spoken with Atrus and Yeesha. They say the Bahro have been exercising their recently won freedom (freedom thanks to the Explorers), some for good and some for bad. Sharper also returned saying the war is coming into the cavern sooner than anyone thinks and that we should be prepared. The good Bahro are losing and he's off to help them.

In our Bevin things are not too good. I don't know the details of what happened but Anibus is gone and things have been very quiet, especially from Flora, Tayma and Petfam. Things seemed to have gotten very personal and I suspect they are all taking a breather.

HC

Entry 40 - Guild Pubs

I was in cavern very briefly on the weekend. Hopefully, I'll get in tonight for a while and catch up on the new episode that is running this week. Thus far it feels pretty weak. They have released five new areas that are guild pubs for Greeters, Maintainers, Writers, Messengers and Cartographers. Everyone has access to one of these areas simply by picking up the appropriate t-shirt at Kirel. There is a large imager (which is very cool) that everyone has access too, which could get nutty very quickly. The disappointing thing is that these are simply redressings of the Watcher's Pub - nothing really new.

Cartographers' Pub

A sad thing that has happened on a personal level in cavern, is that there has been some sort of blow up between a number of members of Tayma's bevin which has Anibus being asked to leave the 'hood. I know nothing of the details, but it is clear there are a lot of hurt feelings involved. Postings at Emurade has falling right off - not the least reason being that the actual board is maintained (and paid for) by Anibus. A very ugly and sad situation. It's hard to imagine what caused it, but I'm certainly not going to pry.

I'll get back here soon as the details of the episode (and the bevin situation) emerge.

HC

Entry 39 - Gahreesen Party

Last night we took a rather large party from Tayma's Bevin and made our way through Gahreesen so that some newer members, and some with alternative avatar names, could complete the Age.

The evening actually started with a large get together in the Bevin itself. A lot of folks were on line and Anibus even provided a music feed through his website, which was great. Mobius arrived and announced that he is working on developing a soundtrack for our Bevin. I'm not sure if this is going to be a feed that we will have to link to or something that will actually play automatically (the man is quite the wizard), but the idea is pretty cool none-the-less.

Gahreesen itself was a lot of fun with the group, though it quickly became impossible to keep us all together. Only about half could make it to the gear room where power is supplied to the whole building. After watching others try to make it, we decided to best power things up, thus allowing the doors and elevators to work, so people could get themselves straight up to the roof.

Gahreesen - Center Island

Even after that we were still losing people. Glitches claimed a couple as they fell through he floor of the elevator (multiple people always makes the game more glitchy) while we lost a couple more to falls from the roof, at least one, undoubtedly, being on purpose. I was waiting on the central island between the two buildings when I heard from Mobius that he had discovered a new glitch. Well, I couldn't pass that up so I left the others and ran to where he said he was. Here's a pic of the Great Head of Mobius that we have all now sworn allegiance to.

The Great Head of Mobius

Anyway, it was getting close to midnight by this point, so I decided to call it a night. Other activities this week included playing around in Jalak trying to make a Stonehenge type structure. I was almost successful in setting up the first pillar when I accidentally pressed the delete all shapes button. If I build a successful one, I'll be sure to take a pic.

HC

Entry 38 - Jalak

Back home again, so I got to spend some more time in cavern yesterday. What has really helped this week has been Tayma's Bevin's message board. It's been great to keep in touch even when I don't have the ability to be in Uru.

Anyway, played a little catch-up. Went to Teledahn to pick up a tie dye t-shirt that I seemed to have missed when it appeared over a month ago. A number of people were on-line, so I also spent some time hanging out and catching up, which was nice.

The new Age that has come in since last time has been Jalak. There's no puzzle here really. It consists of a grid of pillars that you have the ability to raise and lower. You can also create a number of different, geometric shapes that you can then push around. A journal book in the Ae'gura Library, beside where the linking book is found, gives a couple of simple games that you can play here, but in reality, this is more of a sandbox age, allowing players to mess around and create their own games.

Jalak

Though, to be honest, if they wanted to make me happy with a game, just put a chess set in every Bevin. Not very D'ni, I know, but it sure would be something I would enjoy. Quite frankly, If the Relto really was my home, one of the first things I would bring there from the surface was a chess set, so perhaps the idea isn't that far fetched after all.

An interesting thing did happen on the story front last week a couple of days after I left. Phil Henderson returned. He disappeared a few years ago, the story can be read in Sharper's journal. I read the chat log of him in the city and he was very cryptic about things. The most interesting thing that happened was Sharper showing up, much humbler now, admitting that it appears he shot a good Bahro by mistake when it jumped in front of him shooting at one of the evil Bahro.

It will be interesting to see where this goes.

HC

Entry 37 - Kirel & Sharper Returns

Well it has certainly been a busy summer in my surface life. Not much time for Uru, but I have been home for a few days this week and took advantage of the time I did have to drop in cavern. I'm glad I did.

Sharper's back from Nobolen, having killed a Bahro. He popped in a number of time trying to convince people that there is a war between the Bahro and we need to pick a side - obviously the side that isn't killing explorers.

I new neighbourhood is open, Kirel. Actually, Kirel was an old neighbourhood from the To D'ni expansion pack for the solo game, but it has been redressed to promote various Guilds. The populations in the public ages seems to be growing by leaps and bounds, so adding any public hoods would be a good thing. Nothing really to do here besides picking up a T-shirt to support a particular guild.

Kirel

The DRC has also made it possible to upload your pellet points to the viewer in your 'hood, contributing to your 'hood's total score. Let the competition begin.

Checking Out The Pellet Scores In My New Look

But certainly the most exciting thing to happen was me spotting my first live Bahro. I was in Watcher's with a few other people including Tayma, before we were going to check out Kirel. Tayma was digging up the URL for a message board for our 'hood (which is awesome to have!) when suddenly it appeared in front of me. No one else seemed to be at their keyboards, so I announced to my neighbours that there was a Bahro here. I followed it upstairs, snapped a couple of weak pics from a distance. I then had it cornered and tried to get in for a close-up shot when it linked out. Apparently, getting too close causes that to happen.

Bahro in the Watcher's Gallery - You Can Just See It

Soon after, the population of Wathcer's was packed with explorers - word gets around fast - but there wasn't another showing.

Anyway, last night was a good time. I connected with a lot of people from our 'hood. A bunch of us went to Techno's Er'cana to collect a new Relto page which got a little goofy when the age turned glitchy on us, but I managed to get the page before I crashed. Unfortunately, I'm off again for about a week and a half, but I think, after that, I'll be able to get some quality Uru time in. I've also got a number of updates to do at the Guild of Helper's board.

'till then.

HC

Entry 36 - Grinding Out The Pellets

Got back into the cavern the other night for the first time in a week. It now being July, it meant that there was a new calender spark to find. The pattern the past few months has been to put it in the most recently released area, and it didn't take long to find it in Er'cana.

Ran into most of the regulars and caught up. Tayma's Bevin is growing by leaps and bounds, which is great. Met a couple of its newest members and they seemed real nice. Everyone is obsessed with punching out pellets and, I have to admit, the bug has bitten me to. Attaching points to the pellets immediately puts a competitive edge on things. The 40-30-20 recipe yields something like 450 points a pellet, but it was clear there were better formulas out there. I soon found 25-35-40 was a popular mix which Techno convinced me to tweak to 25-37-40, which yields about 900 points each.

As I mentioned in my last entry, the idea is that the pellets feed the algae that lives in the cavern lake, and when they get healthy enough, they will begin to glow. So this has got people into a pellet pushing frenzy with many folks cooking pellets with multiple avatars. I don't know. I can't help but think that Cyan has already timetabled when this next phase of the game will begin (I suspected the same with the Great Zero calibration), and it doesn't much matter what we explorers do. Then again, it's hardly a big deal to drop few pellets into the water now and again.

Chilling in Relto

It did feel good to be back. By the way, I disappear to an island in Georgian Bay (that's part of Lake Huron of the Great Lakes in case you don't know). My brother-in-law and I are trying to get the whole island working with wireless Internet to facilitate us being able to spend more time up there. So far we've been partially successful. I can get a connection by his place (which is where the service comes in), but the access point we were trying to wire to service my place is yet to be working properly. Once we've got it all up, I got to take a shot at running Uru up there, though I'm not sure how much the reduced connection speed will effect the game.

HC

Entry 36 - Er'cana Done

This may be my last entry for a bit. Once July hits my schedule becomes much more erratic. I spend a reasonable amount of time at a place where, in the past, we don't have internet. However, I'm teaching a summer online course this year and my brother-in-law is going to try and do more work up there as well, so we chipped together on installing satalite internet up there. The thing is, I'm not sure how well it's going to work or how easily I will be able to play Uru. Right now, everything is in the air.

Anyway, I did finish Er'cana. Two nights ago I went back, dumped the bad batch of pellets and then realized that I could have reset the ovens once I knew they were set wrong by simply turning the main power switch off and on - d'oh!. So, I reset the ovens to make a good batch. I find it annoying that the baking process took 15 minutes in the solo game and takes hours now. I'll have to do some searching of message boards sometime, as I'm sure there are folks out there who have actually timed it. I'm sure as hell not going to do it as either way, I'm just going to come back the next day.

Pellet Light in the City Silo

After setting the ovens, talked a bit with Techno and PheonixFlight and we got together in Techno's Er'cana for a bit. We had a blast fooling around with the train and the control panel. Techno and I attempted to drown eachother in the vats but - not suprisingly - the vats wouldn't fill with someone in them. We got Techno's ovens going to and then I decided to call it a night.

I had yesterday afternoon off, so I went back to Er'cana and finished it off. I was very surprised to find that droping a pellet in the one Bahro cave, didn't light up the other to help you collect your well piece. I suspect there is going to be some way to light up that cave so either a whole lot of explorers have to drop a whole lot of pellets for it to happen, or it has something to do with the KI-light. Either way, the pellets I made at the 40-30-20 setting gets the meter at the City Silo to read about 80%. A KI-mail indicates that you get points for droping the pelets here and my pelets seem to get around 460 points. It seems likely that playing around with the ovens will get better pellets, but I think I'll leave that for others and just steal their recipes.

Lake Meter at the Ferry Docks

I finished off the afternoon by checking the light meter thingy that has been installed by the ferry docks. I suppose the number indicates how much light is being emitted by the bacteria in the lake. Right now it's bouncing between 0 and 1. Hmm, this may take a while.

HC

Entry 35 - Er'cana

Er'cana Factory

Er'cana came on line last night and I spent and I got in a good few hours having fun there. I played this Age, along with Ahnonnay, back when Path of the Shell came out for the original solo game, so figure out what to do wasn't too big a deal. There were some things that were different though. First off, the solo game had a series of line patterns that you found here and there. These patterns fit together to for a pattern in a grid. At the end of Path of the Shell, you went back to the original Myst Island's library and entered the pattern into the fire place there. It looks like a return to Myst is not going to be in the cards.

The second difference was that scattered all through the Ages of Path of the Shell were book and verse numbers (like 2:13) that referred to lines in a series of books that, together spelled out how to solve the puzzle to enter the Path of the Shell. The curious thing is that the books are in the Watcher's Pub (they used to be on the right bookshelf in your Relto). Because the books of verse are still present, it would seem these numbers should come up again somewhere.

The Er'cana Express with Techno at the Front

Anyway, after exploring a bit, Techno came on line. He explored around in his own Er'cana for a bit, but soon he came over to join me and we proceeded through the rest of the Age together. The Age is a blast to do as a group. First off, unlike Minkata, there seemed to be no lag issues, but secondly, there is a control room where the objects you control are located somewhere else. Having one person at the controls while another announces what is happening is so much easier, not to mention cooler. The speaks nothing of the train that is located in this Age which is just a blast to pile a group of people on.

At the end of the Age, you need to make pellets that light up the cavern lake water. It used to take about 15 minutes for the pellets to be produced from the ovens once you've entered the correct settings. Well, we waited about half an hour and then I had to call it a night. I'm going to have to return to finish this Age another time.

This reminds me of another difference between this and the solo game. In the solo game there was a designed carved into the rock of a cave that linked you to a Bahro cave for dropping your pellets in. That design has been replaced by a portal that is only fully formed once you've touched each of the journey cloths in the Age. This portal links to a Bahro cave with the familiar well pieces inside. Fair enough, but the difference from the other well piece caves is that this one is almost pitch black. Far to black to find the symbol that brings the well piece to your Relto. It seems obvious that a pellet dropped in the other Bahro cave (the one linked to through the stone at the end of the Age) will light up this cave allowing you to collect your Relto piece. We'll have to see.

The Watcher's Pub Zoo

The night before last, I was on briefly and ended up at The Watcher's Pub to hear an announcement from Cate Alexander. I gotta say, I hate this place. It's a complete zoo. I'm not exactly sure why it attracts so many visitors (maybe just because it is new) but these people just don't seem to know how to behave when there are a lot of people in the room who want to listen to someone speak. Don't run around - it generates lag, and for goodness sake, cut the inane chatter so that we can listen to what is going on. I eventually decided that I could read the log another time and called it a night.

HC

Entry 34 - Watcher's Pub

I was gone for the weekend and I knew that the next episode was going to begin the Saturday I was gone, so I figured I would be missing a whole lot. Was I wrong. The Watcher's Pub was opened (this used to be called the Watcher Sanctuary in the stand alone Path of the Shell), but it didn't lead anywhere. Moreover, it was completely stuffed. Apparently the first Path of the Shell Age (Er'cana) won't be out until Tuesday or Wednesday. I suspect the Watcher's Pub is also going to serve as another public gathering place to try and take pressure off the public Ae'gura.

There was a note in my KI saying that the Great Zero is now operational. A bunch of us from Tayma's Bevin went to check it out, and it was now spinning, sweeping a blue beam across the cavern (we went to the city to check this out too). Also, you can now set up your own marker runs for your friends. We had a bit of fun messing around the GZ and the city, but then I decided to call it a night. I've got some pics here to finish off. It is interesting to note that the completion meter can be seen in the last shot and that it hasn't even moved. I'm not sure what, if anything, this means.

Watcher's Pub

The Calibrated Great Zero

Tayma's Crew at the GZ

HC

Entry 33 - Tayma's Bevin

Well, I've joined Tayma's Bevin. I left a message with Garamoth as to why I switched. I liked the whole idea behind the Metaphysical Club, but it was clearly not attracting members and I wanted to be somewhere where there was some traffic.

There other night turned into a bit of a busy one. I spent quite sometime helping someone with Minkata but, after crashing out, had to give up. The person that I was helping was having severe lag issues. Soon after joining Tayma's hood a group of us ended up doing some experimenting with Minkata (what if someone switches to the night version while people are standing on the roof of the cage? - stuff like that). It was fun, but did generate some more crashes. That Age is brutal for lag and not to be screwed with.

Myself, Tayma, PheonixFlight & Gaara in Minkata

Anyway, looking forward to the new 'hood. I have a fair amount of spare time tonight (the wife and kids are in Toronto) so we'll see what comes up.

Entry 32

I tried to really promote last Saturday's meeting of the Guild of Helpers but it turned out I was the only one there. That being said, the traffic through Helpers has been steady. There seems to be a wave of new players coming in that have never played Myst games before. Needless to say, they could use a bit of a push in the right direction. I would love to have a lot more Helpers so that there is almost always someone there.

As is so typical, I just planned to pop in last night to put some stuff on the viewer at Helpers. Next thing I know I'm in 'till bedtime. I've been working on the Guild of Helpers blog, adding what I think is a pretty detailed hints section. I'm pretty proud of it, actually. So, I just wanted to get that info up on the viewer when Techno contacts me that he has a bunch wanting to do a Tsogal run, followed right after with Delin. I PM'ed some of the newbies that I could see were on line and a few of them showed up to, as well as a couple of people who just happened to drop in at Helpers at the right time.

What preceeded was a whirlwind with me trying to keep some of the newbies from getting lost. It was a blast. We did Tsogal, Delin and then Tsogal again for the folks that missed the door the first time through, with me playing doorman each time. I think I'll play doorman more often. It certainly adds to the thrill.

With that out of the way, things seemed to be settling down when Tayma (one of our newer Helpers) sent me an invite to her regular neighbourhood. I met a bunch of the members there and they seemed like a really good crew. They have a blog and everything => Tayma's Bevin. And Tayma had a special guest named Anubis. Anubis had a ton of insider information of thing in development in Uru. Here's a link. It all seems very exciting, and the little lecture was fun, but deep down I'm a cynical old fart who tends to wait until it's official.

Anubis at Tayma's Bevin

Anyway, I dropped by Relayer Corps once in the past week. They really are a good group, and I like what they are doing, but I'm starting to wonder if I'm beginning to have too much on the go in this game and may not be able to devote the time to Relayers that I think it deserves.

HC

Entry 31 - Relayer Corps

Ran into Techno420 last night but were soon informed of a meeting of a new group called the Relayer Corps. I was intregued so I intended. There must have been a good 40 or 50 people there! Anyway, the idea was a good one. I've posted the meeting chat log - I think it has everything there. I decided to sign up and so did a lot of other.

Relayer Corps Meeting

Meeting Chat Log:

(06/04 21:01:09) Vortmax: First of all, I'm Vortmax with The D'ni Network, and tonight we're here to talk to you about Relayer Corps, a new group from Ly'net and D'ni Network :D
(06/04 21:01:29) Maid4Life claps her hands
(06/04 21:01:35) Erandel claps his hands
(06/04 21:01:39) Vortmax: Thanks to all of you for coming out. And now, Ly'net, take it away!
(06/04 21:01:48) Relayer Corps: Thank you Vort.
(06/04 21:02:08) Relayer Corps: My name is Ly'net, and I'm a regular explorer like everyone else here.
(06/04 21:02:24) Relayer Corps: During the tradegy with Wheeley and Rose,
(06/04 21:02:39) Relayer Corps: I was one of the fortunate people to be able to get into the city
(06/04 21:02:52) Relayer Corps: but I had several friends who couldn't
(06/04 21:03:15) Relayer Corps: I along with a lot of you here relayed information to my friends.
(06/04 21:03:41) Relayer Corps: but unfortunately I sometimes had to leave the city unexpectedly
(06/04 21:04:07) Relayer Corps: So during the times I wasn't there, I ansd my friends missed out on what was happening.
(06/04 21:04:40) Relayer Corps: After all the commotion had subsided and we all had a chance to reflect on what had happened
(06/04 21:05:11) Relayer Corps: I saw a post on one of the forums thanking the relayers who had done such a great job informing others
(06/04 21:05:29) Relayer Corps: That gave me the idea for this organization.
(06/04 21:05:51) Relayer Corps: I hope that explained what a relayer is.
(06/04 21:06:04) Poseidon nods his head
(06/04 21:06:06) Dr James Donovan cheers
(06/04 21:06:08) Relayer Corps: Now that you have the important background,
(06/04 21:06:11) peni nods her head
(06/04 21:06:12) The Doctor: makes sense
(06/04 21:06:43) Relayer Corps: I want to go onto explain how I envision the Relayer Corps working\
(06/04 21:07:11) Relayer Corps: First, we need to have 2 - 3 relayers where the action is
(06/04 21:07:31) Relayer Corps: One to do the actual relaying and the other 2 as backups
(06/04 21:08:02) Relayer Corps: I have had requests not to be required to join this bevin
(06/04 21:08:18) Relayer Corps: I think I have a way to make that option availbe
(06/04 21:08:56) Sira: its lag
(06/04 21:09:07) Relayer Corps: We can have one of the relayers relaying exclusivly to people on the buddies list.
(06/04 21:09:45) Relayer Corps: This can include relayers stationed in the bevins as wellas single people off exploring by themselves.
(06/04 21:09:56) Relayer Corps: Does this make sense so far?
(06/04 21:10:01) Maid4Life: Yes
(06/04 21:10:05) peni nods her head
(06/04 21:10:06) Sudre: yes
(06/04 21:10:07) Relayer Corps: good.
(06/04 21:10:08) Ti'chelle nods head
(06/04 21:10:10) Jinanin: Yes
(06/04 21:10:11) Erandel nods his head
(06/04 21:10:12) SeanMc74 nods his head
(06/04 21:10:14) DeAn: yes
(06/04 21:10:17) Dichromus nod
(06/04 21:10:17) Poseidon nods his head
(06/04 21:10:18) Whilyam: Lag.
(06/04 21:10:19) No'ga: yes
(06/04 21:10:22) Alsource: yes
(06/04 21:10:23) Whilyam nods his head
(06/04 21:10:25) Foxylass: yes
(06/04 21:10:47) Relayer Corps: This will give us the ability to include more of the cavern population as the action is happening.
(06/04 21:10:58) cxevalo: sume what
(06/04 21:11:21) Relayer Corps: i was going to talk about the possibility of using a relaying program,
(06/04 21:11:44) Relayer Corps: But I didn't recieve a confirmation on it from the program designer
(06/04 21:11:53) Relayer Corps: So that will have to wait for another meeting.
(06/04 21:12:18) Maid4Life: Would we also need cyan's permission for that?
(06/04 21:12:28) Poseidon: if we make a new avie and have them join the relayer corps bevin can you use the neibhor chat option....... so i do not have to keep track of everyone?
(06/04 21:12:33) Erandel wants to ask a question...
(06/04 21:12:33) Erandel: is it also worth posting relayers in other Bevins, that way relayers can give larger population bevins a route to giving information outside the cavern as well
(06/04 21:12:37) Roger Telco: Have you had any discussions w/Cyan about tying into the existing distribution media ...
(06/04 21:12:44) Vortmax: Please PM me with 'question' or use the /askquestion command if you have a question. You'll be added to the queue and called on in turn.
(06/04 21:12:45) Roger Telco: like the the 'hood imagers
(06/04 21:12:49) Relayer Corps: The question has been raised as to how we are going to make sure we have a relayer available when the action is happening
(06/04 21:13:29) Relayer Corps: the only solution we have been able to come up with so far is rotating shifts.
(06/04 21:14:01) Poseidon: i dont mind doing shifts
(06/04 21:14:09) The Doctor: seems fair
(06/04 21:14:31) Poseidon: will it be organised..... have a log of when everyone is on shift?
(06/04 21:14:37) Erandel: I am used to shifts anyway as a greeter, its a solution that works well
(06/04 21:15:11) Relayer Corps: we do have someone willing to keep the shift logs
(06/04 21:15:52) Relayer Corps: that's it in a nutshell
(06/04 21:15:56) Erandel: Also, I would reccommend keeping spots open for floaters, that way if a relayer happens to be on and they spot something, it gives the corps greater flexibility
(06/04 21:16:14) Relayer Corps: yes. That's a good idea
(06/04 21:16:20) Erandel: but I will leave the floor open to you now and stop interrupting Relayer corps :)
(06/04 21:16:26) Relayer Corps: Lol ty
(06/04 21:16:31) Vortmax: I just wanted to add that D'ni Network was working on something similar, but Ly'net got it out first. We're very pleased she decided to join with us to run this project!
(06/04 21:16:40) Relayer Corps: lol
(06/04 21:16:58) Relayer Corps: Who has the first question?
(06/04 21:16:58) Vortmax: And with that, let's start the questions! DeAn, you're up
(06/04 21:16:59) DeAn: do we have to join the bevin to be a relayer
(06/04 21:17:33) Relayer Corps: no. Since we have a buddies list option avail;able, we can have a relayer relaying just to that list
(06/04 21:17:40) DeAn: ok
(06/04 21:17:49) Relayer Corps: As long as your on it, you will get the info.
(06/04 21:17:56) Relayer Corps: Next?
(06/04 21:18:02) Sira: how formalized will the scheduling be? if someone suddenly can't make it, is that what the floaters are for?
(06/04 21:18:10) Vortmax: Sira! :D
(06/04 21:18:16) Vortmax: Or, yeah, that's it.
(06/04 21:18:22) Sira: lol
(06/04 21:18:54) Relayer Corps: that will be one option. I am hoping we will have enough relayers available that we can cover any unforseen ummm.....disappearences.
(06/04 21:19:04) Relayer Corps: Next?
(06/04 21:19:11) Vortmax: Erandel!
(06/04 21:19:22) Erandel: I was asking earlier about stationing relayers in larger Population Bevins, as it would give people more options
(06/04 21:19:50) Erandel: will this be carried out?
(06/04 21:19:57) Relayer Corps: it is my hope that we will have atleast 3 bevins that will advertise that they have a relayer available.
(06/04 21:20:29) Relayer Corps: i have had several explorers who wish to exclusivly relay for theie bevin
(06/04 21:20:42) Relayer Corps: So, I don't see that as a problem.
(06/04 21:20:49) Relayer Corps: Next?
(06/04 21:20:51) Vortmax: Roger Telco!
(06/04 21:20:54) Roger Telco: Will you be able to talk to Cyan about using existing media like the hood imagers? (eg send logs or photos direct from action to imager) - also use of macro or retyping aids
(06/04 21:21:23) Relayer Corps: i have not been able to yet, but that is something I am working on.
(06/04 21:21:53) Vortmax: Sudre!
(06/04 21:21:55) Sudre: Has it been tested to see if a large amount of ppl in the Buddies list will work properly? With this many ppl we could test here tonight.
(06/04 21:22:18) Relayer Corps: that is a great idea. We can test that out after the meeting.
(06/04 21:22:33) Vortmax: Thend!
(06/04 21:22:35) Thend: Will the resources of the Relayers be available for events other than what we refer to as 'episodic storyline' content and special guest-appearances? Will there be coverage available for more explorer-based meetings and such related things?
(06/04 21:23:23) Relayer Corps: as those events come up, as long as we are not needed for city events, I don't see any problems with it.
(06/04 21:23:46) Relayer Corps: but I would like to wait until we have had a chance to get any bugs out of the system
(06/04 21:24:08) Relayer Corps: Unless these events don't mind being guine pigs
(06/04 21:24:13) Thend nods his head
(06/04 21:24:17) Vortmax: Maid4Life!
(06/04 21:24:19) Maid4Life: What will the time requirements of Relayers be? Will they be assinged shifts or can we sign up?
(06/04 21:24:35) Relayer Corps: I would much rather people sign up for it.
(06/04 21:24:49) Relayer Corps: you know what times you are available better than I do.
(06/04 21:25:02) Vortmax: Zedra!
(06/04 21:25:06) Zedra: To allow people to take others places in a full area, just requires the new person to stay in the nexus until the other person says they are leaving, and then the new person can take their spot. Just a suggestion.
(06/04 21:25:32) Zedra: This worked for me and another neighbour.
(06/04 21:25:34) Relayer Corps: good suggestion. I will take that under consideration.
(06/04 21:25:42) Vortmax: Relayer Bugsy!
(06/04 21:25:45) Relayer Bugsy: Aside from shifts, how will we ensure widespread coverage among the various hoods? Will we have certain 'set' locations with a relayer, and will we be accepting requests from hoods for an assigned relayer? Also, how do we know who all we need to have on buddies?
(06/04 21:25:53) Whilyam: When many people are trying to get in, that doesn't work, Zedra.
(06/04 21:26:31) Relayer Corps: what I would like to see happen, is the different hoods to come to us.
(06/04 21:26:46) Relayer Corps: they can let us know if they want a relayer persent or not
(06/04 21:27:00) Relayer Corps: i don't want to force ourselves on anyone.
(06/04 21:27:11) Maid4Life: I don't think that will be a problem. LOL!
(06/04 21:27:31) Relayer Corps: I would like to have a time period in which bevins can sign up.
(06/04 21:27:34) SeanMc74 wants to ask a question...
(06/04 21:27:46) Relayer Corps: That will let us know how many relayers we will need.
(06/04 21:28:00) Relayer Bugsy: And the second part, how do we know who we need to add as buddies to relay to?
(06/04 21:28:01) Relayer Corps: Did that answer your question?
(06/04 21:28:12) Relayer Bugsy: yes'm :)
(06/04 21:28:21) Relayer Corps: The amount of bevins that sign up will tell us how many we will need.
(06/04 21:28:27) Relayer Corps: next?
(06/04 21:28:33) DeAn: who do we contact for scheduling our shift?
(06/04 21:29:15) Relayer Corps: You can contact me or Rel;ayer Sumatria for now. The pwerson who was going to do that is not here atm. He had previous commitments.
(06/04 21:29:26) Relayer Corps: Sorry about the typos everyone
(06/04 21:29:29) DeAn: ok
(06/04 21:29:31) Relayer Corps: next?
(06/04 21:29:32) Poseidon: is there a drees code...... soething we can use to identify ourselfes as relayers...... i see that both of you are wearing red
(06/04 21:29:37) Vortmax: Mystified!
(06/04 21:29:56) Relayer Corps: I will get to your question Pose
(06/04 21:29:59) Mystified: how can you guarantee that someone will be in the right place, or able to get in the city
(06/04 21:30:03) Vortmax: Please PM me with 'question' or use the /askquestion command if you have a question. You'll be added to the queue and called on in turn.
(06/04 21:30:26) Relayer Corps: I am hoping to have enough relayers that we can have rotating shifts in the city.
(06/04 21:30:51) Relayer Corps: I don't think we will need someone in the city all the time. The DRC need to sleep sometime
(06/04 21:31:21) Vortmax: Sudre!
(06/04 21:31:22) Sudre: Will there be a HEAD person so everyone knows who to contact if they find something worth relaying but are not a relayer themselves?
(06/04 21:31:41) Relayer Corps: Yes. Me.
(06/04 21:31:48) Sudre: k
(06/04 21:31:59) Relayer Corps: Or anyone with Relayer infront of there name
(06/04 21:32:15) Relayer Corps: I will also try to get a list up on the imager of people to contact.
(06/04 21:32:24) Vortmax: Whilyam!
(06/04 21:32:26) Whilyam: I'm interested in getting messages relayed to me by the relayers. How would I go about getting on their list?
(06/04 21:32:58) Relayer Corps: All you have to do is sign up, just the the bevins.
(06/04 21:33:31) Relayer Corps: I have even toyed with the idea to have a relayer dedicated to indiviual explorers
(06/04 21:33:44) Whilyam: But how do I sign up?
(06/04 21:33:47) Maid4Life: I think he might be asking how and where to sign up.
(06/04 21:33:58) Relayer Corps: That would cut down on any one relayers buddies list getting too long.
(06/04 21:34:18) Sudre thinks thats a great idea
(06/04 21:34:18) Relayer Corps: How or where?
(06/04 21:34:24) Whilyam: Yeah
(06/04 21:34:29) Relayer Corps: Just let a relayer know for now.
(06/04 21:34:42) Whilyam: Okay. I do. :P
(06/04 21:34:43) Relayer Corps: we are working on a sign up website
(06/04 21:34:56) Relayer Corps: lol. let me know after the meeting please.
(06/04 21:35:02) Whilyam: Okay.
(06/04 21:35:04) Vortmax: Ti'chelle!
(06/04 21:35:07) Ti'chelle: Will we have a forum? A place for the shift lists, info ,etc. And should we create an explorer with Relayer name?
(06/04 21:35:45) Relayer Corps: That is something we are working on right now. The Relayer explorer is optional, but encouraged.
(06/04 21:36:08) Vortmax: Poseidon!
(06/04 21:36:12) Poseidon: previous question..... about the drees code, is there one?
(06/04 21:36:15) Relayer Corps: lol
(06/04 21:36:24) Relayer Corps: I remember the question
(06/04 21:36:28) Relayer Bugsy likes white
(06/04 21:36:32) Vortmax: I just felt like wearing red today. But that's just me.
(06/04 21:37:06) Relayer Corps: That fact that we are both dressed in red was a coincidence. But I think it's a good idea. It would make it easier for us to be identified
(06/04 21:37:14) Poseidon: so thats a maybe.... but nothing is solid yet
(06/04 21:37:33) Vortmax: Please PM me with 'question' or use the /askquestion command if you have a question. You'll be added to the queue and called on in turn.
(06/04 21:37:52) Dichromus hopes they don't choose pink
(06/04 21:37:57) Relayer Corps: I need to see how many people want to join and get a concensis. I may be the head, but there are many voices.
(06/04 21:37:58) Poseidon starts to laugh
(06/04 21:38:03) Relayer Bugsy hopes not pink too
(06/04 21:38:07) Relayer Corps: No, not pink
(06/04 21:38:12) Relayer Corps: red is much better
(06/04 21:38:15) Relayer Corps nods her head
(06/04 21:38:17) Thend nods his head
(06/04 21:38:18) Dudemom_2000 nods her head
(06/04 21:38:24) Vortmax: Maid4Life
(06/04 21:38:26) Maid4Life: Along the lines of Ti'chelle's question, how do we get the relayer added to our name if we don't join the bevin? If not necessary to have the prefix Relayer, how will people recognize us as a Relayer? Oh, and you could ask Cyan for t-shirts like the greeters have.
(06/04 21:38:45) Relayer Bugsy raises hand to join the Relayers
(06/04 21:38:53) Relayer Corps: Let me answer this in reverse order.
(06/04 21:39:09) Relayer Corps: Cyan, haven't talk to, but when I do, I will ask.
(06/04 21:39:49) Relayer Corps: Suggestion of wear red would negate the need for Relayer in the name and make it easier to be recognized.
(06/04 21:40:20) Relayer Corps: And if Relayer isn't in your name already, you would have to creat a new explorer with Relayer in the name.
(06/04 21:40:31) Relayer Corps: Did I answer everything?
(06/04 21:40:37) Maid4Life: Yes, thank you.
(06/04 21:40:42) Vortmax: Any other questions?
(06/04 21:40:44) Relayer Corps: next?
(06/04 21:40:51) Relayer Corps: Are we done?
(06/04 21:41:04) Vortmax: Anyone? Anyone?
(06/04 21:41:05) Jinanin holds up the YOU DID A GOOD JOB banner
(06/04 21:41:09) Dr James Donovan: lol
(06/04 21:41:10) Poseidon: where do we sign up... lol
(06/04 21:41:11) Relayer Corps roars with laughter
(06/04 21:41:11) Erandel: I just want to mention About shifts, from the two years of greeters exprience that I have, signed up shifts tend to work better. Plus the opportunity for floaters to step in.
(06/04 21:41:11) Ti'chelle: I have one more
(06/04 21:41:12) Dudemom_2000 claps her hands
(06/04 21:41:12) Maid4Life thinks you have a geat idea Ly'net
(06/04 21:41:20) [Relayer] Ai'ron claps his hands
(06/04 21:41:24) Sudre: now we just need for someone to add everyone here to their buddies list and see if this works.
(06/04 21:41:27) Relayer Bugsy claps her hands
(06/04 21:41:28) Relayer Corps: Erandel, are you signing up?
(06/04 21:41:28) Thend claps his hands
(06/04 21:41:39) peni: thanks for doing this Relayer, i know it has been a lot of work for you.
(06/04 21:41:40) Vortmax: Well, if that's all, thanks to Ly'net for talking to us tonight about the Relayer Corps, and thanks to all of you for showing up!
(06/04 21:41:45) Relayer Corps: I could use your experience
(06/04 21:41:52) Relayer Corps: Ti'chelle?
(06/04 21:41:54) Dr James Donovan claps his hands
(06/04 21:41:58) Relayer Corps: Did you have a question?
(06/04 21:42:00) Vortmax: Oh sorry, Ti'chelle?
(06/04 21:42:04) Maid4Life claps her hands
(06/04 21:42:14) Whilyam claps his hands

HC

Entry 30 - Minkata Finata

Okay, that was the last Minkata pun.

Yesterday, I finished off Minkata. It didn't take long. I was not surprised to be taken to a Bahro cave in the end, but I was surprised to find an entire well ring there instead of a piece of one. I expected Minkata to be one of a group of four new Ages, but I guess not. There is also a clear space under the Minkata ring which I suspect is for the Path of the Shell Ages which should be coming on line any day now.

Compeleted Portal in Minkata

I then switched over to Helper HC and went to the Guild of Helpers for some much needed housekeeping. I updated the viewer with our two newest members and added Minkata to the list of starting places for newbies. I was very pleased to see that Helpers is now, well at least yesterday, at the top of the public 'hood list in the Nexus. It was also very clear that there has been no shortage of traffic through our Bevin. This is exciting. I'm getting the feeling that we may be reaching a tipping point soon. Helper420 was there too and we agreed on trying to establish a regular meeting time of every Saturday at 18:00 KI Time. I posted this on the viewer, inviting all those interested to come. It will be interesting to see who shows this weekend.

I also got Helper420 to give me a hand starting the Guild of Truth for my alter ego Stephen Porter. Since all new 'hood names are simply an avatar name followed by "'s Bevin", you need two people to set one up unless you want to run around with an avatar with a goofy nick like "Guild of Truth". I'm getting more and more intrigued with the idea of playing completely within character as Stephen Porter. The guy will be a bit of a knob, but what fun would it be if he wasn't? With the story taking such a dark turn in the last week or so, I really feel there needs to be a voice of dissension that represents the opposite view of organizations like The Great Tree and the Anti-DRC Movement. I'm hoping Stephen and the Guild of Truth can provide the voice.

We'll have to see.

HC

Entry 29 - Minkata - Why Do I Do This To Myself All The Time

You would think by now that I would learn.

Last night I followed the paths on my maps and found each of the linking caverns, but after touching each one - including the central one - nothing happened. There was obviously something I was missing. It was late and I was getting tired so what I should have done was let it rest for a couple of days but instead I let impatience and frustration get the better of me, again, and looked up the spoiler.

As usual, I wish I hadn't.

The key is the prominent phrase on every linking stone, "follow your path in the stars". Below I have my map and a picture of one of the constellations that are spread across the night sky.

Map One & Constellation One

"Follow your path in the stars." They meant that very literally. After walking towards the constellation for a few seconds, a symbol appeared before me. When I walked through it, it moved towards the central cage where I followed it. There I pressed the cage stone and I now had the cleft symbol part of the icon floating in the middle of the cage. Obviously, I just need to do this with the remaining stones.

What made me angry with myself is that I was so close. I had each of the maps in front of me. If I just let it simmer for a few days, I likely would have gotten it.

New rule: No cheating unless I've let the puzzle stew for at least three days.

***sigh***

Minkata - A Long Way From Home

Anyway, I'll finish Minkata another night. I went and visited Techno420 in his new 'hood, CSI Uru. They're going to investigate last week's disappearance of Wheely. They feel she is still alive and have only been taken by the Bahro.

I myself have been thinking about taking up a character for the game and playing with the idea of reserecting someone I created shortly after joining. His name is Stephen Porter and I was going to make him a DRC wanna-be who was going to go around urging everyone to ignore Yeesha. I even came up with a conveluted way of getting him into the cavern by murdering another explorer and stealing his Relto book (he himself wouldn't be smart enough to get by Zandi). I gave up on the idea for two reasons. One, I was worried some folks would take Stephen too seriously and two, I don't have the energy for it.

After Wheely's death, though, there seems to me that there should be an anti-Yeesha, anti-Bahro sentiment given a voice in the cavern. I may bring him in yet if no one else picks up on this - just without the murder angle.

I even created a blog for him => Yeesha - The Truth About the Restoration.

HC

Entry 28 - Akuna Minkata

There are times when these game make me feel so thick.

Last night in Minkata, I began checking out the coordinates I had plotted on the map. Despite that calculating my walking and running speeds working very well (walking: 9.2 units/sec, running: 23 units/sec) it became obvious as the night wore on that the locations on my map were not corresponding to much of anything. Needless to say, I didn't find any more of the linking stones. After stubbornly checking out all the locations, I decided to call it a night.

I was laying in bed when the obvious hit me - the numbers in the books are not coordinates, but directions - like for a treasure map. Anyone who has done any orienteering should be immediately familiar with what is going on (walk north 100 m, south-east 80m, ...). Fortunately, the software I used to generate the maps makes it pretty easy to shuffle my already worked out vectors end-to-end. Here's what the first map should look like.

Corrected Minkata Map To Linking Cavern 1

The location at the end of the last arrow corresponds almost exactly to where the nearest linking cavern is. This is most certainly it. Just to explain the numbers on the map, the coordinates beside each vector are the distance numbers, straight from the book in the library, and the direction angles. For the angle, I called the top zero and then each arrow (see book image from previous entry) going clockwise is one unit - giving twenty units making up a complete rotation (I know this is supposed to correspond to the D'ni angle measurement that is in a calibrated KI - 62500 whatevers equaling 360 degrees - but just counting the arrows is easier here). I also included a return vector on each map to make getting back easier (though for the first one you are always within sight of the cage anyway).

Obviously, I'll be trying this out when I get a chance to get back to Minkata. I've been debating whether to just head straight to the end location in each map or follow the path given by the directions in the book. I've decided to follow the path for two reasons. One, there could easily be something along these paths that I would want to see, and two, some of the paths go a long way out from the cage. If I have my calculated final position is out by even a little bit or I am off on the angle I'm running, I could easily miss the linking stone. I strongly suspect there are numerous landmarks (blue flags, bones, etc.) along the proper path to help me keep going the right way. In the end, I think following the path is the safer way.

HC

Entry 27 - Minkata Theory

Yesterday I spent some time exploring Minkata alone. First, I revisited the number book in the library and it seemed immediately obvious what the numbers represented.

Numbers Book - Ignore Red Text

I added the red text while messing around in Minkata. I now believe some of it to be wrong, so ignore it. The diagrams are compass directions and, I can only assume, the numbers represent distances. This is only re-enforced by the 625 and 125 at the top of the page which are numbers on two nearby flags that can be found in this Age. The 625 flag does look to be about five times the distance from the cage as the 125 flag, though I have yet to confirm this. Moreover, the compass pattern can be found on the roof of the cage structure. I now have some idea as to which direction to explore.

Needless to say, I went straight to Minkata and began running in the directions indicated on the first page. Some seemed to definitely connect to objects in the Age, but others seemed less clear. I tried linking to the night instance of the Age through the stone found by Corbin the other day.

Minkata At Night

Again, a lot of running around (this time looking at the symbols and numbers on page two of the five page book) produced mixed results. What did happen, though, is I stumbled upon a third linking stone (Corbin's, the one in the cage, and now this one) - pressing it linked me back to the day instance of the Age, though I'm still pretty sure it wasn't the same one as the first stone. First off, I did find my way back to the cage and it wasn't from the same direction as from the first stone. Second, a different symbol glowed when I pressed on it (I'll get to that in a sec). The problem was, I couldn't find the third stone again yesterday. I decided to take a closer look at the linking stone.

Linking Stone

On the right you can clearly see "find your path in the stars", but I want to focus on the center symbol. In the first stone, that links to the night instance, the fissure symbol in the middle glows when the stone is touched. With the third stone (the one I couldn't find again), it was the bottom left of the four circles that glows. When the stone pictured above is pressed (it's the one in the cage) the entire center symbol glows. One last thing to note is how the right two circles are different from the left two. I'm not sure what - if anything - this means.

So here is my theory. There are a total of six stones, which includes this middle one, that need to be pressed in the correct order, with the cage one being pressed last. I also think that when the cage stone is pressed the puzzle is reset. I further suspect that when one stone is pressed, a previously closed pit opens revealing the next stone. This may be why I had so much trouble finding the third stone, as I pressed the cage stone which may have reset the puzzle.

As for the book of numbers, when I was having trouble finding anything following the direction indicated I started to think that perhaps the center numbers don't represent distances, but I can't see what else they could represent. I'm back to thinking those numbers are distances but that not every symbol leads to an object - or perhaps objects could also include the numerous pits in this Age. I also think the numbers of any particular object could appear on any particular page in the book (except the linking stones - for which I think there is only one per page. In fact, the page number could indicate the order in which to press the stones.).

So here's what I've done. I've taken the coordinates from the books and mapped them using a common bit of software from high school math classes, Geometer's Sketchpad. I'm then going back to Minkata and I'm going to see how well measuring distances by timing how long it takes to run there works. I'll time myself running to the 625 flag a few times and see how consistently the times come out. If they're reasonably close to each other, I'll have a way to measure distance. Then it's explore each location, one by one, and noting what's there, if anything. No more endless running!

Map of Page 1 Objects

One last thing. If you look up at the image of page one from the coordinate book, you'll notice the number 3125 in the bottom right. I've still no idea what this is about, other than to note that if it is a distance, it is further than any other coordinate in the book.

HC

Entry 26 - Minkata

Missed the chance to go yesterday when Minkata came on line (school play to attend), but I didn't miss tonight. Cate Alexander's conference in front of the library made it pretty obvious where to find the book, so there I went. Beside the linking book is another book full of some very large D'ni numbers - obviously some sort of key to the Age.

Minkata

The fun thing was that Corbin and Garamoth were both on-line. Corbin popped over and we went through the Age together. I invited Garamoth too (whom Corbin have never met) but he crashed when he linked in so decided that he was going to play solo at least for tonight, probably a good idea.

I thought Corbin and I did pretty good. The Age is a huge desert which seems to have no borders or paths anywhere, which certainly makes deciding which way to go a challenge. There are a few very large bones scattered about as well as a number of flags, some numbered some not. Corbin found a small cavern at the bottom of which was a large stone with Bahro carvings, though the words "Find your path in the stars" could clearly be read. Corbin clicked the middle and we linked to a spectacular, star filled, night version of the Age (I'll get a pick next time). In the center of the day version is a cage in which there is another linking stone. In the night version, the cage is smashed allowing access to the stone. Pressing the stone gets you inside the cage in the day version, but we couldn't see anything to do, so we linked back to the night version.

The two of us then began some, more or less, random exploration. We found another bone and flag, but our running around (with significant lost time) amounted to little else - all and all, though, I felt it was a pretty productive night.

So, I decided to call it night. I find when you work as a team, its more difficult to be patient. I think we both worried that we were boring the other person, so we spent more time running around and less time thinking about what we were doing. I'll have to come back and begin a more systematic mapping of both versions - there's obviously more to find and there must be meaning behind the flags, numbers, and, perhaps, the bones. It seems to me in both Ages that the stars and suns can be used to help keep our directional bearings. Of course, if they move, that idea is screwed.

I'll snap some more pics too. The night version is something.

HC