About the accursed balcony jump...

[FirstDeathbliss]

Yeah I know we may not need to do this now,
But I'm still driven to find out exactly how,
To get to the city as Maegnas says,
Without getting frustrated or wasting days.

What book is this balcony in exactly?
Tell me so that I may finally see,
If I can make it because I think I can,
It would be so cool explore new land!
- Deathbliss

[FirstDeathbliss]

Yeah I know we may not need to do this now,
But I'm still driven to find out exactly how,
To get to the city as Maegnas says,
Without getting frustrated or wasting days.

What book is this balcony in exactly?
Tell me so that I may finally see,
If I can make it because I think I can,
It would be so cool explore new land!
- Deathbliss

[Mr Zebe D]

If you're playing anything with To D'ni, you can't. It only exists now for plain URU: Ages Beyond Myst or Until URU. The start point is the hood balcony page in Gahreesen.

[Chuckles58]

The linking stone to the neighborhood balcony is in one of the maintenance lockers in the room before you get your KI, on Gahreesen.

On Until Uru, I am available to give balcony jump lessons. There is quite a trick to it. Let us know if you only have Uru ABM. As Mr Zebe D mentioned, Cyan made the jump more difficult to near impossible in the To D'ni expansion pack, as they added another way to get to the classroom roof.

[FirstDeathbliss]

I have Uru complete Chronicles,
So it's probaby harder I suppose,
But if it still can be done,
Tell me so this task can be won!
- Deathbliss

P.S. I heard Uru Live or Until Uru or whatever it's called is a step backwards, whatever that means. Could someone please clarify? Might be worth playing online...

[Chuckles58]

Yes, FDB, it's my understanding that once To D'ni has been loaded, the jump is near impossible. I would suggest completing the offline game, complete with the two expansion packs. If you're done with that, I can heartily endorse the online Until Uru.

It is basically the Uru Live as it was when they put it to bed in Feb 2004. There are some bugs, but it has other explorers. The downside is that there probably won't be any official new content. One major difference I would point out would be the "To D'ni" part. I prefer the concept they had during Uru Live with respect to the markers. After collecting two sets of 30 markers, you gain access to the calibration machines. Then you have 14 marker missions to complete in and around Ae'gura and the neighborhood.

Until Uru is run on fan supported servers, but you have to get an Auth key from Cyan for $6, as a one time fee. They operate the Auth server, then the individual shards take it from there. Most shards now do not allow importing avatars from the offline game, as the possibility of POTS can crash a shard. Thus you will have to redo your Ages. But you can enlist the help of other friendly explorers to help.

The main point I'll make is that you have to do a completely new installation of Uru ABM, then you can download the UU patch, get your Auth key and you're off.

Here's the UU website (http://plasma.cyanworlds.com/).

The most popular shards at this point are probably Tapestry and Guild of Greeters. Here's a link to many of the shards' who's online (http://uk.geocities.com/stellaflora2/WhosOnline.htm) pages.

The big question for you is, when you've finished PotS, do you feel you need more of an URU fix?

But to answer your earlier question, yes the balcony jump works fine on UU. Plus there are some very dedicated and talented folks (at COBBS) that have modified the functions of the KI to make things a little more interesting. Is it a step backwards from the offline version? I don't think so, as URU had been designed to be an online, multi-player game. There are also some folks working on servers that will allow multiplayer in PotS ages. They're still unstable, but we have high hopes for it.

This may have been overkill, but I think UU is worth looking into.

[FirstDeathbliss]

This is probably stupid question but I have to ask. If I installed Until Uru, and began to play it woth other players, would I basically be doing the same things I just did when I played througn the offline mode? Exploring the same ages and same areas, with nothing realy new to see or do?

The answer to that question will help me decide if I wish to try Until Uru once I have finished the offline portion of the game -
- Deathbliss

[aelith1946]

True The only thing new about UU I have found is people to talk to and a modified KI. The fun is what you make of it. http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[FirstDeathbliss]

It does sound like a good social enviroment for Myst junkies (I admit I am) like myself to gather together in and do stuff together. It would definitely be cool to see life in the form of humans wandering around these large ages in Uru. But I'll probably just pop in Myst 3 and beat that, then get Myst 4 and beat that.

I'm not a very sociable person I'm afraid -
- Deathbliss

[Mowog]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> I'm not a very sociable person I'm afraid - <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>The funny thing about online Uru is that even unsociable people suddenly find themselves mingling with others, starting conversations, just generally having a good time. It was mentioned once that Uru online is a party room for introverts. I think there's something to that. You create and fine-tune your appearance, talk about what you want, and nobody presses you for anything you don't want to divulge. Admittedly, most of the chat in the Cavern is idle smalltalk, but every now and then a meaningful conversation happens. It's pretty amazing. And simply seeing other explorers around you is a kick. Inviting them to your Relto and Ages, or accepting an invitation from another explorer, is even more fun. You enjoy those environments together, and talk as much or as little as you want.

I'm sociable enough in real life. I spend my work day surrounded by nearly 300 grade school kids and faculty, and come home to a family. But I don't care for any socialization that I have to work at. I don't like parties, as a rule. For example, when we went on an Alaskan cruise a couple of years ago, I spent many of my evenings alone on the chilly, windy, top deck watching the mountains slide by, not down below with the throngs of fun-seekers. But Uru's different. Nobody gets offended if you walk right by them and without saying anything, and anytime you do want to chat, everybody's ready with a cheerful reply. We're all friends in the Cavern.

Hope to see you there!

[Chuckles58]

Then there's always the Heek game. We had a shard-wide balcony jump contest last fall. It was a blast. I actually made it to the finals from my neighborhood. Hide & Seek and Sardines games are fun too. I enjoyed doing the 14 marker missions, as they kind of shortened the GZ calibration process in To D'ni.

Here's a thread from the Tapestry shard that might give you a good example of what goes on online:

The Cavern Today News (http://forum.urutapestry.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=575)

Either way, enjoy Myst III and Myst IV. We'll still be here if you change your mind.

[FirstDeathbliss]

You knmow listening to you guys makes me wish they had kept Uru online, and made an editor so users could "create" their own ages. There's a lot of potential there they just missed comepletely.Maybe in the not-too-distant future?

Oh and I probably will visit at some point. I mean after I have played Uru and the exapansions I might as well try Uru live - right?
- Deatbbliss