OK. I have a query about Taghira. What is the purpose of the 'falling through the floor' sequence in the cave at the start? I can't see any practical game reason for it at all. I advanced through the cave simply by drawing the very clearly visible slate symbol depicted on the floor. The Bahro then come and take the slate, the link appears on the start pedestal for the next one (by the smokestacks) and away you go. I went back to the cave later (after reaching the keep and completing the Age) and did the whole ice-breaking thing because I thought that it must have some purpose, perhaps i'd discover some vital information, but nothing. You just climb up the ladder and off you go. I can see no purpose for this sequence whatsoever. Am I missing something or is it just shoddy game design?

What symbol did you see on the floor ? It seems at first look that many of us did miss it !!!

Okay, i'll try to be as clear as I can. I arrived in the ice cave at the start of Taghira inside the bubble. I left the bubble and Esher is there waiting. He talks to me a bit about the age and the D'ni and so on and tells me to 'use the slate to leave the cavern'. About 2 steps forward from the bubble there is a slate symbol carved on the floor in the ice, roughly where Esher was standing. It's pretty large. It should be sort of bottom left of the screen, looking straight ahead at the cave opening. Going forward another couple of steps brings you to the impassable cave mouth.

I transcribed the symbol onto the slate and left it for the Bahro. They came and took it. When I returned to the pedestal there is a new symbol on it. This symbol linked me to the pedestal nearest the smokestacks. The strange thing is that the symbol in the cave is not the same symbol that is on that pedestal it linked me to!

I completed the Age solving only one puzzle (the heat pipes to cross the ice). Assuming that I must have missed something important I went back and wandered around the age, eventually back to the start point in the cave. I discovered the whole buisness with the crack in the floor, fell through, thought hallelujah and then... nothing. No new information. No new areas opened up, nothing. Climbed up the ladder, back over the snow bridge etc all the way back to the keep.

This is the second time i've played through the age (I ababdoned the game and have just come back to it, starting from scratch) and it was exactly the same both times. Please someone confirm that I haven't got a phantom, mysterious slate symbol in my game that isn't in anyone elses version! The 'crack in the floor' sequence would make sense if it wasn't there!

Ok, it seems that you've found another slate bug. That symbol on the floor isn't a slate symbol (slate symbols glow blue), it's an indicator that this is where you are supposed to drop the slate to crack the ice. Dave

As Dave noted, it's a bug - you were supposed to drop the slate on the symbol in the ice.

The handwriting recognition system for the slates (aka the Bahro) is rather buggy, unfortunately. On the one hand, it often doesn't recognize an "official" symbol, even though it has been drawn accurately. On the other hand, it often interprets something else you draw on the slate as an "official" symbol even if it doesn't even remotely resemble it. Drawing pacman symbols in Todelmer is the most notorious example, but there are others, such as the one you have discovered.

...And, yes, Chinaboatman,I know that sounds incredible, but the Age of Taghira is supposed to be completed solving just one puzzle.

I have in fact just fallen victim to that Todelmer bug this very evening. And i've had those problems with completely correct symbols not being recognised. I have to say it completely ruins the game. I've now finished two ages, skipping parts of it and to say it's not very satisfying would be an understatement. It's getting so that i'm afraid of drawing anything on the slates unless I suddenly find myself at the end of the game!

I have to ask: Was this game properly play tested? These huge bugs must have been spotted. Although I suppose the only way to eliminate them would have been to scrap the whole idea of the slates and then the game would have to have been entirely redesigned. Maybe the 'handwriting recognition technology' should have been tested more thoroughly at the outset, before they commited to its copious use in the game.

I suppose that doing the ice cave sequence properly makes Taghira a 2 problem Age but it's still not enough. The Ages are tiny. And there's no 'spectacular journey' end sequence at the end of them either, like in previous games. Very anti-climatic...

Many agree wtih you Chinaboatman, but if you could please find one of the many, many threads about the bugs and the overall assessment of the game, that would be great, since this thread that you started is just about Taghira and we don't want to spoil it for those looking at the subject and just starting out.

Im stuck...I have pased the frosen ice, and seen the exit bobble flow away from me...how do I get over there?
a friend of mine told me that i should just draw the exit post and let the "dark creature take it over there, but when i draw it (looks a little like the tombs next to me) it dosent get the pic.

Get as near to the bubble as you can and look carefully at the symbol on the pedestal.
You may have to draw it more than once, the Bahro can be very picky.
See playing fetch with the Bahro for a stylized drawing of the symbol. As noted there, some people fared better if they omitted the bottom line.

Hello to all,

OK, I just want to say this â€" To game designers:

I am at the beginning of the game and I solved the two first Ages (Tobelmer, Noloben,) without any help. While I was stuck in some points to those Ages, I visited some times this Age (Taghira) but the “exit was closed”. I was thinking that I must do something else first in order to proceed.

When I solved the two first Ages, I was very happy and I was thinking that maybe a door opened in the level with the two elevators or something like that.

Unfortunately, I came across with this thread and I read it (my bad â€" my mistake). I couldn’t imagine that you place the Slate on the floor (ice) and it breaks!! In the book says:
“Use the Slate to free yourself. The burden you carry is heavy. But for that … you will be thankful”
Esher says words like those (philosophy stuff) all the time! Beside this, as I told before, those words were written in my book early enough and I wasn’t remember that told them in this specific Age!

Any comment will be grateful â€" thank you.
(I am sorry about my English)

The floor breaks, not the slate!

Yes, sorry, I meant that the floor breaks, this is the way to proseed this Age.

For what it's worth gogos7, I agree with you. I thought that that puzzle was silly too. In fact, as noted above I didn't even do it, it's not neccasary.

Incidentally, am I the only person who played the ages in the order I came to them, ie. Taghira, Toldemer, Noloben, Lakhi'An? It seems to me that they were intended to be played in this order, increasing in complexity as they go.

Taghira seems to me as if it was designed to be a simple Age to introduce the basic ideas of using the slates. There isn't much to do. The amount of problems to solve increases as you go through the ages, whilst the amount of 'help' you get from Esher decreases.

Looking back, I wouldn't have liked to have played Noloben before Taghira.

Hi chinaboatman,

I played the Ages with the following order:

Noloben, stuck for 10 days in the top of Esher’s lab and I had to leave it and went to

Toldemer, I finished that Age and went back to Noloben.

Taghira, I solved it in an hour.

So far I liked most the Toldemer. And you know why?

**spoilers, maybe**

Because the symbols in the first “room” (with the four monitors), that change with the timer every few minutes (add one horizontal line, then two etc.) “were very confusing” and “I had a hard time to solve it” (you know what I mean and if those symbols in the wall are helpful or not).

See you!

Although you can visit the ages in any order, the sequence you mention is clearly the one intended by Cyan (although there is a slight inconsistence at the beginning, discussed elsewhere). Tahgira is meant as a gentle introduction to using the slates.

Yes, and please, this is a thread about Taghira so as I already asked Chinaboatman awhile back, please do NOT put spoilers or comments about other ages in this thread so as not to spoil things for newbies.

I believe most of us played Taghira first and continue to do so as that seems to be the first room/linking book we are guided to in the Great Shaft.

Hi Bularae.

I don't think i've posted any spoilers. I've only refered vaguely to the relative difficulties of the ages and mentioned specifics only when refering to Taghira, which is the headed topic of the thread.

Judging by many of the threads i've read on here, most of the players HAVE NOT played through the ages in the hinted order, prefering to open all of the gates on Direbo first and working around that way. In fact, one of the walkthroughs i've seen (linked on here) plays through them in reverse order, Laki'Ahn, Noloben, Toldemer, then Taghira. This make the game much more difficult than it needs to be and will leave Taghira seeming pretty trivial, if left until last.

No, Chinaboatman, I never said you posted spoilers. All I have done is politely request that you be conscious of not making this thread about overall game bugs and slate problems because the name of the thread is "Taghira... what's going on".

I have not accused anyone or anything, I have simply politely requested that you discuss such issues in other more appropriate threads because, contrary to your opinion, I have observed that most people do, in fact, start with Taghira, as that is the intention of the game, and we try here in the spoiler forums to help people along by only giving them what they ask for, so as not to "spoil" it for them.

If you guys want this thread to be about overall game and slate issues then I would be happy to rename it for you.

Bularae, I bet you're a schoolteacher right?