You only have to wait to see the bahro return the slate to the pedestal. Here is my 'after the rain' Noloben pic. Maybe it's just easiest to see in free-roam.

Noloben

quote:

Yes, it's a Cyan game, but I don't put their work on trial to be compared to their last outing, I simply enjoy it for what it is, and I've greatly enjoyed the demo.

Hear, hear! So have I and I'm really looking forward to getting the full game on September 22nd (anyone else had an email from Ubisoft asking for phone numbers so they can ensure delivery on the day?) I love the environments I've seen and exploring them, loved knocking my head against the hut puzzle ("Oh, yeah, I'm doing it upside now, now do it the right way up"), loved the use of the slate and the background music and trying to work out Esher's accent (definitely Russian in places) and is that the Watcher's symbol on his linking cloth?

The demo is a taster, folks, and okay I'm spoiled because I didn't have any problems and yes, maybe I have low expectations because I don't play any other adventure games or FPS's, but it is only a taster - the main course (or should I say banquet) is yet to come.

My biggest disapointment with the demo is that the symbol of two vertical lines translates to the incorrect symbol, and because of that I was not able to complete the demo.
The correct symbol (to complete the demo) is translated from the symbol of one vertical line - not two.........on my computer.

~ Anthony

quote:

Originally posted by Mr Zebe D:
You only have to wait to see the bahro return the slate to the pedestal. Here is my 'after the rain' Noloben pic. Maybe it's just easiest to see in free-roam.

Seems to depend on where you drop it. When I drop the slate right at the very bottom of the ladder (next to the holes), then it's still there and waiting for me no matter how long I spend up top. But if I drop it just a couple of metres away then a Bahro makes off with it almost before I can move out of the way

quote:

Originally posted by thony216:
My biggest disapointment with the demo is that the symbol of two vertical lines translates to the incorrect symbol, and because of that I was not able to complete the demo.

Are you sure you translated them correctly? Have another look at the hut. It can be fairly dark in there, and sometimes the equipment obscures your view, but if you look hard (and maybe from a couple of alternate viewing angles) you should be able to see it more clearly. The two-lines symbol is definitely the right one.

well it is just a demo, the full version may have overall better quality...

"Seems to depend on where you drop it. When I drop the slate right at the very bottom of the ladder (next to the holes), then it's still there and waiting for me no matter how long I spend up top. But if I drop it just a couple of metres away then a Bahro makes off with it almost before I can move out of the way "
I saw a snake go into a hole just like the ones at the bottom of the ladder while in a tunnel. Perhaps the Bahro are afraid of snakes?

The demo ran beautifully and looked fantastic for me. My only disappointment was that it ended too soon! (I guess that's because it's a demo....)
I'm a devoted MYST fan 'til the end.

I've enjoyed most of the puzzles in Myst, but more and more i am finding that i'm just not enjoying them anymore... and it's not thro a lack of patience, it's more... well to do with a lack of logic and appropriate cues in the silliest of places...

...and i do feel incredibly silly over this (which is no fun)... but my example from the demo...

...trying to get up that rope ladder!?

ok... it's EASY... and i know that now... but it's not a nice feeling to have wasted half an hour trying drawing every symbol i could, to try to get the Bahro to make some kind of platform to appear where those holes logically suggested there should have been something so i could get up to the level of the ladder!?...

ok, the stone would move upwards everytime i tried to climb with it in my hands... but... upwards to me indicates that the stone plays a part in getting up there...

if it had moved slightly downwards - now that would have been more logical, wouldn't it?...

...but no...

and the ladder - doesn't reach the ground... so what does that mean?... surely not being able to put my foot on the bottom rung of a ladder means i can't climb it until i can?

... it reminded me of that dumb jump in Uru in Gahrasson (or however it was spelt) - where all logic goes out of the window and the more thought you apply to the problem, the more of a fool you feel afterward when you realise that all you needed to do is lose the will to live and just 'run and jump' or in this case to not have listened to the guy who told me to hold onto the stone cos it was so very useful...

and just run at the bottom of a ladder hanging at eye level, in the vain hope that i'm some kind of acrobat who's gonna swing himself up there.

i know it's a stupid little thing, and i probably deserve to feel this dumb for not having enough faith in my acrobatic abilities... but it's really put me off being willing to 'puzzle' over any more of it...

bah!... back to Area 51 for me!

Put that big fat slate back on the Noloben bubbles' pedestal & go back to the ladder.

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Originally posted by Gatch_2000:
and just run at the bottom of a ladder hanging at eye level, in the vain hope that i'm some kind of acrobat who's gonna swing himself up there.

That is, I think, why you can't take the slate up there, though.

See, you're holding the slate in your left hand. The rungs of the ladder are too high to put a foot on, so you have to pull yourself up (with both hands, because you're not really strong enough to do it one-handed). And when you reach for the rungs with your left hand you end up just pushing the slate forwards a little bit before you realise that it's not going to work.

If the rungs had gone all the way to ground level, then you could probably have climbed the ladder one-handed, keeping the slate on you. So you see, it all makes sense when you think about it!

I had the same problem with the sound issue in Myst V with the 5:1 setup and solved it by going through the startup menu/configuration panel/section sound, voice and other peripherics ( free translation from my french version w/xp ) and temporaly reconfigured the audio to "desk stereo" and it came back OK. Since I can use earphones on my PC, I did try it and was getting good sound whithout having to re-configure the setup.
MAY THE SOUND BE WITH YOU ALL !!!
YAN THE OLD MAN

quote:

Originally posted by travelingclown:
"Seems to depend on where you drop it. When I drop the slate right at the very bottom of the ladder (next to the holes), then it's still there and waiting for me no matter how long I spend up top. But if I drop it just a couple of metres away then a Bahro makes off with it almost before I can move out of the way "
I saw a snake go into a hole just like the ones at the bottom of the ladder while in a tunnel. Perhaps the Bahro are afraid of snakes?

Yeah he wont pick it up if its near walls and stuff. Probably to make sure he doesnt collide with things.

After the disapointments of the â´floating Esherâ´, and the experience of his irritating SLOOOOOW speeches, I put my faith in Cyan as good puzzle makers and completed the demo with frustratio but eventually succes.
So they did their job great, puzzle-wise. Their choise for â´realtime 3Dâ´ without making it an X-pack to Uru, I do not understand. Except for marketing/survival purposes I see no use. Because they probably didnâ´t just make the game for me, Iâ´ll shut up about that.
I hear the sound in 5.1, but Iâ´m not shure if itâ´s my soundcard (SB Extigy 2ZS for the interested ones) that makes it possible, or the game engine itself.
Other things I noticed:
-Bahro is poorly built (do not read â´designedâ´ here!);
-The seawater left marks in the sand somewhere in history, but now it has been fixed and the sand turned solid, because even Esher doesnâ´t leave footsteps in it!;
-Esher moves really mo-cap like (havenâ´t got a clue what techniques they used until I receive the special offer) but the rock he throws doesnt cause any splashing;
-Esher looks like heâ´s used XTC, when he first speaks to me in Dehrebo;
-Bahro are afraid of the snake-sign, as visible on the scrap/board through some of the peek-holes. This explaines once more the fact that the slate remains untouched when left under the rope-ladder;
-the distant islands look like the fake distandt 'villages' in Ahnonay in Uru, hopefully this is to save on 'demo-space';
-Eshers clothes really should not flap through his body;
-Esher pronounces D'ni like he is sneezing. If it is indeed a language sounding similar to Jewish (because the writing is), it wouldn't sound like that. Therefore my doubts he is D'ni. But where does he come from then, if he's not? Interesting...;
-Using the Classic modes already hints some critical camera positioning, so the free 3D interface makes the game somewhat harder;
-Panic linking in Uru is hotspot driven, so in Er'cana I did some cliff diving without a safety rope and surprisingly survived without a scratch!;
-Cyan let's our fantasy do the fill on non-accessible -and thus non-explorable- area's. This makes Riven and the original Myst so magical. In Uru you practically cóuld take a boat and go practically everywhere! (see the making of Riven movie);

Nothing more to say.

Have fun, have fun, wherever you are...

quote:

Originally posted by Alahmnat:
End of Ages only implements 1.0 pixel shaders and equivalent technologies; 2.0 and 3.0 shaders were left off the table completely because not enough Myst players have systems capable of actually making use of them, so it would have been something of a waste of development time to implement (and as Cyan apparently only has 2 programmers now, there isn't a lot f manpower to make massive engine upgrades which PS2.0/3.0 would require).

This is something that makes me crazy (well, not really). People complain how the old Myst games look so realistic and Uru/Myst 5 do not, but on the other side are not willing to do what is necessary to have a visual quality, that comes close to what they want and limit the options the game developers have this way.
I think this attitude against hardware upgrades is typical for the adventure game scene. In other gaming scenes it is quite natural to go with the development of technology of both hardware and software.

Well...when you put it that way... it certainly sounds hypocritical... but being a fan of the traditional/classic rendering & the more "realsitic" 2-D MYST games...I MAKE SURE I have the latest technology or at the very least above & beyond the system requirements. It's also an "opinion" of those who favor the "classic" style. I think your statement about hardware upgrades isn't particularly fair & you assume a little too much in the direction of fans of the classical style. It's difficult to know who has what at home. If interested...maybe you should run a poll here to find out a little more...

This message has been edited. Last edited by: neo...1,

I've always taken it as written that, when a new Myst comes out it's time to upgrade because my old hardware won't run it. I've had four new, top-of-the-line computers so far and had to change out the graphics cards twice on top of that. Don't even ask about memory; that's a whole other topic.

I'm not complaining here. The result has been that, if I can run the latest version of Myst, then I can run anything out there, whether it be a game or an office app or full streaming videos with sound over the internet.

Upgrades are pricey, but if your computer is your entertainment, they're worth it.

quote:

Originally posted by digitalshaman: [...] The Y axis is a lot faster then the X axis, creating a very clumsy interface for the user. [...]

I agree that the Y-axis movement is much too sensitive to the mouse. It would be an immense improvement to the user interface if the configuration controls allowed X- and Y-axis mouse sensitivity to be set independently.

I had the X/Y speed mismatch when I played the demo, but it went away in the full game, along with a couple of other problems.

Just for the record, I was speaking about the game and not the demo. The Y-axis sensitivity did not seem to be uniform: at times, Y-axis hysteresis produced a natural feel for navigation but at other times---unpredictably---motion in the vertical axis would spin wildly out of control.

Although separate X- and Y-axis mouse sensitivity controls would have been trivial to incorporate, I imagine there's little chance of finding them in a patch release. "Kvetch, kvetch, kvetch ...," as Norma Rae once famously said.

It may not have the greatest graphics engine ever, but, with all Myst games, and Myst 5 is no exception, every single frame looks absolutely perfect. Not perfect for realism, but perfect from an artistic standpoint; everything in the game is a perfect piece of a flawlessly designed world.

Sure, Myst 4 & 3 look fantastic. But really, it isn't the realism that make them what they are. It's the fact that the world is so seemlessly alien that makes it so gorgeous.

The trick is that we don't have anything to base a judgement of its appearance on.