Exploring the Ages
Variations between Complete Chronicles /
Path of the Shell and Myst Online URU Live
Until the Cavern opens again, most of us are exploring the Cavern the "old fashioned way" -- alone via CD-ROM. The internet abounds with walk-thrus, descriptions of each age, and answers to all your questions. The difference that Myss Terrie's field guides offer is one of levels -- no more help than you want or require. Each field guild is set up so that you can get as much information as you want, then turn away before reading the answer -- unless that is exactly what you need. Before getting to the spoilers you will be warned in red text that the next page will give you the answer, so proceed with care.
There is a field guide for each age, including the variations between solo and live exploration. In this basic guide we cover generalities -- such as age design and puzzles, different goals, and what you should look for in each age.
The first difference between solo URU and live URU is the Relto book. In the solo exploration we start in the wardrobe, but once we have shaped an avatar we link to the desert and must search the Cleft to find the seven journey cloths before we gain our link to Relto. In live, we create our avatar and then start out in Relto with a link to the Cleft in the pillar in front of the hut.
Relto as first seen in CC/POTS
Relto as first seen in MOUL
Power Sources
The first thing we learn is that machines in the age must be powered. This has been true in all the Myst worlds. So far we have seen steam, solar, heat, wind, gravity (counter-weights and flotation), current (water, electric, battery), amplitude and resonance, crystal shape and color, pressure (geo-thermal, water, air), and the list goes on. We have also had nature's assistance whether it is from a squee in Exile or fireflies attracted to our natural body current.
Doors and Locks, Puzzles and Portals
The goal of most ages is to open a door and the reason we can't is because it is locked. Unlike the power issue, a lock must be opened by a series of steps which must be performed in the correct order and at the right time to get the door opened. Despite the many doors we must open, these can be distilled this down to two types: In-Character (IC) doors and Out-Of-Character (OOC) doors.
An IC door is locked because some element of the story requires it to be. The best examples can be seen in Kadish Tolesa and Ahnonay, both because Guildmaster Kadish did not want outsiders getting into his secrets. An IC door not only gives us great puzzles to solve, but the feeling that it is all organic to the age and to the story being revealed. An OOC door is locked because it serves a purpose to the game that is external to the story. These are most common in live exploration, the best examples being Eder Tsogal and Eder Delin. The complex nature of the timed combination lock served the purpose of fostering teamwork amongst the explorers.
The cloths serve two purposes. The first is to mark your progress through the age, allowing you to open the Bahro door at the end of the age. This is the quest that Yeesha sets for you at the start of URU and is true throughout the Prime Ages: Teledahn, Gahreesen, Kadish, and Eder Gira/Eder Kemo.
In the solo version of Path of the Shell the cloths found in Ahnonay, Ercana and the Watcher's Sanctuary are bookmarks, allowing you to link back to the last location, but it is not necessary to put them together to finish the age. In the live version of these ages each shell cloth adds a line to a light portal that allows access to a Bahro cave.
Light Portals
A light portal differs from a Bahro door in that there is no physical "door" until the explorer assembles it by touching all the cloths -- or stones as in Minkata -- in the age. This is true of Ahnonay, Ercana and the Watcher's Sanctuary, as well as Minkata in MOUL. Those light portals are built one symbol at a time. In all versions of these ages you can not see the progress on the shell cloths as you can on the Prime Age hand cloths. In the live version can you see the light portal being created in its stationary location. In the solo version there is no portal created, only a marker established allowing you to return to the last place visited.
Eyes on the Prize
 In some cases we know what we are trying to achieve by working through an age. In the Prime Ages we have been given a "request" by Yeesha to learn about the Bahro. We do this by going through each link book we find in the pillars on Relto, finding the seven journey cloths in each age, gaining access to the Bahro cave and collecting the pillar for each age. In the live version we also get a rock ring or a portion of a rock ring added to the stack on Relto. So far no one has defined what the rocks are for or what they mean, but it has been suggested that they may represent a smaller form of the pillar platforms in the Prime Age Bahro cave.
Throughout the ages there are Relto pages that add features to your private age and there are clothing items to add to the wardrobe. The placement of the pages varies between solo and live exploration, and there are items (pages and clothing) available in live that are not available in solo.
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