In this topic I will compare the different Shards with 'Myst Online - Uru Live' from Cyan, also commonly referred to as MOUL or MOULa. The Shards are divided into two main groups: MOUL-Shards and tPotS-Shards. The MOUL Shards use 'Myst Online - Uru Live' as a basis, while the tPotS Shards use the offline game (CD version) as a basis. I will show what they have to offer and how they differ from each other. The following Shards will be discussed here:
In general, all Shards add something to Uru Live, making them unique in one or more ways. While you could say that 'Myst Online - Uru Live' is the bare bone version of Uru Live, it does have two areas in which it does better than the Shards:
This Shard distinguishes itself in two areas: Additions made to Ae'gura and the availability of most of the ki-commands. In this Shard you can explore all the Ages, even in places that you cannot reach in 'Myst Online - Uru Live'. This is great for making all sorts of pictures. You can have fun manipulating things like the orange cones, like in moving them to some unusual place, making them float and rotate, and so on. They also did a really nice job on the avatar selection screen.
Relto is almost the same as in 'Myst Online - Uru Live'. Only two things are different:
In 'Myst Online - Uru Live' are two versions of Ae'gura: a public one where you can meet other people and a private one. The public version of Ae'gura is accessed through the nexus, whereas the private one is accessed via the Ae'gura book on your bookshelf on Relto. In the Open Cave you will also find a third version of Ae'gura: the 'City Of Dimensions'. The 'City Of Dimensions' or COD, is the same Ae'gura as the two previous ones, but with a lot of additions that are not available in any other Shard. Some of these additions look finished, like Kahlo's pub and the Guild pubs, while others are still unfinished, unfortunately.
In the following paragraphs I will sum up what additions you will find in the 'City Of Dimensions'.
The Ferry, anchored at the Ferry docks, has been raised from the water. You can board the ferry at the end of the docks. Once every 15 minutes, the ferry will depart and take you to the House boat, which is anchored near the Gate of Kerath. You can choose to visit the House boat and explore it as the ferry will return every 15 minutes.
The Kahlo pub, located in the mid section of the Great Stairs, has been restored to it's original state, more or less... The imager in the pub allows you to upload a picture from your Ki to the imager.
Tokotah Courtyard, also known as Ae'gura plaza, located at the end of the Great Stairs, has the rock spire removed from the plaza and a very large imager is mounted to the Guild hall. A smaller version of the imager is also on the platform overlooking Canyon Alley. You can upload a picture from your Ki to the large imager here. One other thing to note: a pellet-score indicator, located near the end of the Great stairs, to the right of the noticeboard.
You can actually enter the Tokotah building using the linking book by the entrance. Although it is clearly unfinished, there are a few things you can find here: an office with a desk and a few books, a picture gallery and the actual office visible from the spyroom. You'll have to use the '/xyz' or '/jump' commands to get into the Spyroom office.
The lower floor in the Museum can be accessed through the area in the back side of the museum. Not that there is much to see on the lower floor, but it is possible. No ki-commands are needed to get there.
The corridor running from the plaza into the mountain, opposite to the end of the Great stairs, leads to an elevator that can take you to two different places on top of the mountain. These two places are at least 50 meters apart from each other horizontally, so it's not just an elevator, it's a turbolift in the Star Trek style. At the first stop you will find a disco with a bar. It has a music player as well that can play your own music files if you put them in the TOC-Moul directory under MyMusic\TOC-codDisco. However, like with the radio on Relto, the files are being played in slow-motion. You will find a lot of unused space here, makes you wonder what Cyan had planned here... Hold that thought and take the elevator to the second stop. What you'll see there will only make you wonder even more... (Only the bridge and elevator were added by TOC.)
The Library Courtyard has been restored, although they didn't get to painting the new floorpieces.
Because most of the objects and mountains are solid in the 'City Of Dimensions', you can visit the actual location of the Great Zero. You'll have to use ki-commands to get there. A simple '/a' followed by '/xyz 0 800 1300' should do the trick.
The Guild pubs are amazing. Accessable via the nexus, you will be linked to the entrance to the pub. You'll find a bar with a few tables and stools around them. There are lots of other places where people can sit and chat with each other. There's even a very nice conference room. Now, if only we could upload our own images (not in our ki) to the imager in the conference room, we could have our future meetings in here...
At certain times, in certain places, a Tardis will appear and disappear after a while. A Tardis is an old style police phone booth used by Doctor Who to travel everywhere. A markergame exists, pointing out all the locations where the Tardis will appear.
There are even more additions than these alone. Wait for example until christmas and you will see a huge christmas tree on Ae'gura plaza in COD and a few other places...
The Open Cave Shard (TOC-MOUL) has the same Fan Ages as Moula.
All 12 Sparks are present but only one is revealed each month.
The Open Cave Shard (TOC-MOUL) has most of the ki-commands available. Only the flymode command itself is not available but for that you can also use the '/xyz' commands. Ki-commands give you similar abilities as bots in 'Myst Online - Uru Live' do. When used properly, they can add a lot of fun. It can however, also make someone else feel rather uncomfortable when, for example, the whole floor seems to disappear from underneath where he or she is standing...
The Open Cave Shard (TOC-MOUL) is the only Shard that has a command-history for ki-commands. This feature allows you to repeat commands that you've used before, without having to type it again. It is also a time-saver when you want to repeat a command many times, using different coordinates. Although this feature is in my opinion essential when dealing with ki-commands, it can also be handy for the normal chat interface.
Just like 'Myst Online - Uru Live', the number of images you can store in your Ki is limited to 15 images. The Inbox is treated differently, you can have an almost unlimited amount of pictures in there as far as I know.
The Open Cave Shard (TOC-MOUL) uses updates adding better widescreen support, resulting in correct image proportions of Ki-images when using a widescreen monitor.
The Open Cave Shard (TOC-MOUL) has a new installer. It is now up to date with the new Ages in Moula.
Read more: https://the-open-cave.net/moul/how-to-play
Create an account: https://the-open-cave.net/moul/account
Download the installer: https://other.the-open-cave.net/installer/TOC-Moul-Installer.exe
Much of what is said about the MOUL version of TOC in regard to the 'City of Dimensions', is also true for the tPotS version of TOC. There are a few differences though.
Relto is pretty much the same as other tPotS Shards. There are three things to note:
In 'Myst Online - Uru Live' are two versions of Ae'gura: a public one where you can meet other people and a private one. The public version of Ae'gura is accessed through the nexus, whereas the private one is accessed via the Ae'gura book on your bookshelf on Relto. In the Open Cave you will also find a third version of Ae'gura: the 'City Of Dimensions'. The 'City Of Dimensions' or COD, is the same Ae'gura as the two previous ones, but with a lot of additions that are not available in any other Shard. Some of these additions look finished, like Kahlo's pub, while others are still unfinished, unfortunately.
In the following paragraphs I will sum up what additions you will find in the 'City Of Dimensions'.
The Ferry, anchored at the Ferry docks, has been raised from the water. You can board the ferry at the end of the docks. Once every 15 minutes, the ferry will depart and take you to the House boat, which is anchored near the Gate of Kerath. You can choose to visit the House boat and explore it as the ferry will return every 15 minutes.
The Kahlo pub, located in the mid section of the Great Stairs, has been restored to it's original state, more or less... The imager in the pub allows you to upload a picture from your Ki to the imager. The pub is slightly different from the one in TOC-MOUL.
Tokotah Courtyard, also known as Ae'gura plaza, located at the end of the Great Stairs, has the rock spire removed from the plaza and a very large imager is mounted to the Guild hall. A smaller version of the imager is also on the platform overlooking Canyon Alley. You can upload a picture from your Ki to the large imager here. Unlike in TOC-MOUL, there is no pellet-score indicator near the end of the Great stairs.
You can actually enter the Tokotah building using the linking book by the entrance. In this version you won't find the office with a desk and a few books, nor will you find the picture gallery. The Spyroom office is present. You'll have to use the '/jump' command to get into the Spyroom office from a lower floor.
The lower floor in the Museum can be accessed through the area in the back side of the museum. Not that there is much to see on the lower floor, but it is possible. No ki-commands are needed to get there.
The corridor running from the plaza into the mountain, opposite to the end of the Great stairs, leads to an elevator that can take you to two different places on top of the mountain. These two places are at least 50 meters apart from each other horizontally, so it's not just an elevator, it's a turbolift in the Star Trek style. At the first stop you will find a lot of unused space, makes you wonder what Cyan had planned here... Hold that thought and take the elevator to the second stop. What you'll see there will only make you wonder even more... (Only the bridge and elevator were added by TOC.)
The Library Courtyard has been restored, although they didn't get to painting the new floorpieces.
The Open Cave Shard (TOC-tPotS) has a few Fan Ages. The lower bookshelf to the left of the closet contains a few linking books to various Fan Ages. The second linking book will link you to the 'City Of Dimensions'. Other Fan Ages can be added using Drizzle.
This Shard has no Sparklie Island Relto page and consequently no Sparks.
The Open Cave Shard (TOC-tPotS) has a limited set of ki-commands. You can use the '/jump' command, but the '/xyz' commands won't work. In general, the ki-commands that fall in the Admin and Age Developer category have been restricted.
The number of images you can store in your Ki is limited to 50 images. Like with the other Shards, the Inbox is treated differently, you can have an almost unlimited amount of pictures in there as far as I know.
Being based on the offline game, no real widescreen support is present. The highest resolution you can select is 1280 x 1024 pixels.
Note: The following information may or may not be up to date. I have not been able to test the current status.
The Open Cave Shard (TOC-tPotS) is easy to install using their installer. I would
like to point out however, that the way the installation is explained on their
site, will turn your 'Complete Chronicles' installation into a TOC-tPotS
installation. If you also have TOC-MOUL installed, then the TOC-tPotS installer
will replace the TOC-MOUL icon with the TOC-tPotS icon. Furthermore, I have been
unable to use the nexus after the TOC-tPotS patcher/installer is applied. I have
encountered this problem on two systems running win7, using the Complete Chronicles
from Gog.com. Suffice to say, when running on Win7 or newer, you are likely
to run into compatibility issues, even though Complete Chronicles was running just fine.
Read more: https://the-open-cave.net/tpots/how-to-play
Create an account: https://the-open-cave.net/tpots/account
Download the installer: https://other.the-open-cave.net/installer/tocpatch.v3.zip
The UAM Shard is a rather unique kind of Shard. It was the first Shard that offered Fan Ages, and even today, if you don't have the 'Complete Chronicles' game, then UAM is your only way to visit Fan Ages. It has much in common with any other tPotS Shard, although it is listed as a MOUL Shard. That's because MOUL looked originally much like tPotS Shards do and UAM still uses an older version of the server software. Anyway, the puzzles and playstyle is that of the offline game 'Complete Chronicles' or its predecessor 'Uru Ages Beyond Myst' with expansions. Which for example means that Er'cana and Ahnonay can be completed by one person without help from others.
Relto is very much the same as in any other tPotS Shard. There are two things to note:
In UAM, many Ages are shared by all other players. All players start with the same Bevin neighborhood, for example. You could link to a Fan Age and run into someone else also exploring the same Age. Before you start "solving" an Age, you may have to reset the Age first. ('/reset' or '/!resetage')
UAM was the first shard offering the Fan Ages. Many Ages are available through the nexus. Keep in mind though that these Ages are no longer updated and therefore some of the Ages are an older version than is available on other Shards. A list of all the available Fan Ages is found here. Although not needed for adding Fan Ages, the Drizzle program can be used to add Ages from Myst 5 and a few other games from Cyan.
All 12 Sparks are present but only one is revealed each month.
The UAM Shard offers a limited set of ki-commands. You can use the '/jump' command, but the '/xyz' commands won't work. In general, the ki-commands that fall in the Admin and Age Developer category have been restricted.
The number of images you can store in your Ki is limited to 50 images. Like with the other Shards, the Inbox is treated differently, you can have an almost unlimited amount of pictures in there as far as I know.
The UAM Shard allows you to configure a widescreen monitor in the settings at startup, but I recommend using the standard 4:3 settings. Just like 'Myst Online - Uru Live', UAM does not correctly handle image processing when using widescreen settings. When I was using the widescreen settings, the game would even crash each time I took an image with my Ki.
The UAM Shard is easy to install using their installer. Creating an account is
done the good old fashioned way: by sending an email with the request to create an account.
Read more: http://myst.dustbird.net/wiki/Uam/Shard/Installation
Create an account: http://myst.dustbird.net/wiki/Uam/Shard
Download the installer: http://myst.dustbird.net/shard/UamShardInstaller.exe
The Gehn Shard is very similar to 'Myst Online - Uru Live'. However, it has better widescreen support just like The Open Cave. Like most other Shards, only one Spark is revealed each month. It lacks bots and a daily visiting crowd of explorers. In many other ways, it is exactly like 'Myst Online - Uru Live'.
The Gehn Shard has a few Fan Ages: besides 'Fehnir House' and 'Vothol Gallery', there's also Tre'bivdil, an updated Messengers Pub and a new Age: 'Veelay Tsahvahn' (Memorial Age). These fan Ages can be accessed by going to the nexus and choosing 'Chiso Preniv' under City-locations. 'Chiso Preniv' is the new library Age for going to fan Ages.
All 12 Sparks are present but only one is revealed each month.
No Ki-commands other than the regular chat-related commands.
Just like 'Myst Online - Uru Live', the number of images you can store in your Ki is limited to 15 images. The Inbox is treated differently, you can have an almost unlimited amount of pictures in there as far as I know.
The Gehn Shard uses updates adding better widescreen support, resulting in correct image proportions of Ki-images when using a widescreen monitor.
The Great Zero is listed under City Locations in the nexus.
The Gehn Shard is easy to install using their installer. If you already have an
account for the Deep Island Shard then you can skip creating one as both Shards
can use the same account.
Read more: https://www.guildofwriters.org/gehn/
Create an account: https://forum.guildofwriters.org/ucp.php?mode=register
Download the installer: https://guildofwriters.org/cwe/gehn_shard.exe
The Deep Island Shard is a tPotS Shard and is available in two variants: Offline and Online.
Installing Deep Island for Offline use gives you everything that is in Uru Complete Chronicles plus the ability to install Fan Ages using the Drizzle program. Use this version to explore the Ages in more detail as most of the KI-commands are available, including the flymode commands. Take pictures from viewpoints that you would't be able to reach in MOUL or the Complete Chronicles.
Installing Deep Island for Online use gives you everything that is in Uru Complete Chronicles plus the Fan Ages using the Nexus. In this version the typical MOUL additions are available too, like the Garden Ages, the Pod Age, Minkata, Jalak Dador, the Bahro wedges and the 12 Sparks. This version is mostly used to give guided tours of new or updated Fan Ages as this version also has the online multiplayer component like MOUL.
Relto is pretty much the same as other tPotS Shards. There is one thing to note:
In Deep Island for Online use, all players start with the same Bevin neighborhood, called 'The Deep Island Neighborhood'. Other Ages, like the Fan Ages, are shared as well. I have not yet been able to verify if this is also the case for Ages like Ahnonay though.
Deep Island offers the Fan Ages for both variants. The Offline version uses the Drizzle program (more info) to install and update Fan Ages, while in the Online version this is done using the nexus. The online version does not use Drizzle for that. Drizzle is still used however, for adding Myst 5 Ages and Ages from other Cyan games.
The Offline version has no Sparklie Island Relto page and consequently no Sparks. The Online version has all 12 Sparks, but only one is revealed each month.
The Offline version has most of the ki-commands available, including the flymode command. The Online version has a limited set of ki-commands. In general, the ki-commands that fall in the Admin and Age Developer category have been restricted.
The number of images you can store in your Ki in the Offline version is limited to 60 images. The Online version allows you to store up to 50 images in your ki. That is not counting any images you may have in the Incoming folder as that folder is treated differently.
Although it can be convenient to store a large amount of Ki-Images in your Ki, there is a catch. At some point the game will crash with many images in your Ki. It may not happen for a long time, and maybe only in certain Ages. If it happens, the game freezes and nothing will respond anymore, the screen can turn black or white while nothing happens anymore or the game crashes and exits with or without an error. 'Myst Online - Uru Live' limits the number of images you can store in your Ki to 15. Although that number does not give you much room, it does prevent these kind of crashes from happening.
Being based on the offline game, no widescreen support is initially present. The highest resolution you can select is 1280 x 1024 pixels. However, there is a way to enable widescreen support. The Guild of Writers Forum has information on how to enable it.
Deep Island uses the Uru Complete Chronicles game as a basis, so you will need that game installed before you can setup Deep Island. The following steps work under win7 and probably other versions too. Following these steps will let you make a copy of the original Uru CC folder, which has the benefit of not having to install Uru CC again in case you need to reinstall Deep Island at a later time for some reason.
Also, the installations of Deep Island Offline and Online cannot be mixed; you can't put them in the same folder together. Each of them needs to be installed seperately (copied actually) into it's own folder.
Copy the 'Complete Chronicles' folder to another location on your harddrive, like from: 'C:\GOG Games\Myst Uru Complete Chronicles' to: 'C:\Games\Uru-Deep-Island-Offline'. Make sure the name of the folder does not contain any spaces or using Drizzle will fail later on. Then you will have to copy the files from the di-patcher.zip file (that you can download here.) into this directory. Delete the file Uru.exe (It is only used by the online version of Deep Island) and start the game by running UruSetup.exe.
At this point, Deep Island does not have any Fan-Ages yet, it is the same as in Uru CC at the moment. To add Fan-Ages you need Drizzle. Drizzle is a java program, so you need java installed for that. Download Drizzle here. After download, unzip the file in your Deep Island Offline folder, it contains only one file: Drizzle31.1.jar. Run Drizzle by double-clicking it unless you have an archiver like winrar installed, in which case you need to right-click the Drizzle file and choose "Open with" and then "Java".
Win10 and newer versions may not offer the "Open with" option. Win11 will throw even more hurdles at you by flagging the drizzle file as unsafe and blocking it from letting drizzle save files to disk.
The first time you run Drizzle, make sure you set the path where Drizzle will find the "Deep Island Offline" folder under UAM Settings, Pots folder. (Beware, the select folder dialog will allow you to select a folder with spaces in the name. However, downloading of ages will still fail in that case.) After that, click on "Get Latest List" and you can select an Age that you want to add. Next, click on download to add the Age to your Deep Island Offline folder.
If you prefer, you can rename UruSetup.exe to Uru.exe and start the game using this Uru.exe instead.
The steps are almost the same, except that you need an account at the forum of the Guild of Writers first: Create an account. If you already have an account for the Gehn Shard then you can skip creating one as both Shards can use the same account.
Copy the 'Complete Chronicles' directory somewhere else, like from: 'C:\GOG Games\Myst Uru Complete Chronicles' to: 'C:\Games\Uru-Deep-Island-Online'. Make sure the name of the folder does not contain any spaces or using Drizzle will fail later on. (Although Drizzle is not needed in the online version for adding most Ages, Drizzle is still used for adding the Myst 5 Ages.) Then you will have to copy the files from the di-patcher.zip file (download here) into this directory, overwriting the files that already exist. Next, start the game using Uru.exe and provide your GoW username and password. After that, you should be able to create an avatar and play the online version of Deep Island.
Read more: https://forum.guildofwriters.org/viewtopic.php?f=111&t=4611
Create an account: https://forum.guildofwriters.org/ucp.php?mode=register
Download the installer: http://www.the-deep-island.de/shard/di-patcher.zip
The Minkata Shard is used for testing new features and Ages. It is going to be the first modern MOUL Shard that will offer the Fan Ages. Last year software upgrades had introduced some technical problems but these have been solved. The Minkata Shard is again up and running now. Those willing to test the Shard, poke around here and there and report issues (if any) on the forum, are invited to sign up for this Shard. (See below.)
Although most Shards have a forum, the Minkata Shard forum plays a more central role due to the nature of being a Shard for testing new features. The forums are therefore the main source of feedback about reported issues. You'll find the Minkata Forum here.
A lot of work has been done to convert the Fan Ages to the newer MOUL engine. From what I understand, the work is nearly done. When it is done, the Minkata Shard will be the first modern MOUL Shard to offer the Fan Ages. But for now, the Shard does not yet offer any Fan Ages.
Like 'Myst Online - Uru Live', all 12 Sparks are present all year round.
This Shard offers no Ki-commands other than the regular chat-related commands.
Just like 'Myst Online - Uru Live', the number of images you can store in your Ki is limited to 15 images. The Inbox is treated differently, you can have an almost unlimited amount of pictures in there as far as I know.
The Minkata Shard allows you to configure a widescreen monitor in the ingame settings. When doing so, the ingame proportions will be fine and not stretched. However, just like in 'Myst Online - Uru Live', the Minkata Shard does not (yet) correctly handle image processing when making Ki-Images using widescreen settings. The following Ki-Images illustrate this.
The Minkata Shard is easy to install using their installer.
Read more: http://openuru.org/sitenav/wikicms/pages/Play.php
Create an account: http://foundry.openuru.org/accounts/
Download the installer: http://foundry.openuru.org/accounts/index.php?action=download