Category: Uru Live News

The was passed on to DJC by Knottyboy;

These were just a few questions I had as a stressed greeter. Hope they shed some light on LIVE, some do enlighten things here too…

quote:
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Response (Marc-Alexandre Plouffe) 01/13/2004 10:44 PMGMT Standard Time
Greetings!

Thank you for contacting the Uru: Ages Beyond Myst Live customer care team.

“How long will the city be closed to just 30 players?” This has yet to be determined by the production teams. We believe it should be fixed/remedied very soon.

“What is a prologue? (my personal favorite since no one really gets that this is still a beta of sorts)” Prologue is basically a Beta Test. A period where we need the help of users to test the Online product. It is NOT the actual finished product. We called it Prologue because Cyan wanted to have some story driven events during the test phase which makes it less of a Beta Test and more like a story Prologue.

“What is causing the arbitrary dumps to the desktop and crashes?” It is either low virtual memory. Old video card drivers or your internet connection can have some interference signals coming from anti-viruses, chat softwares, etc. Make sure to close off all your other internet related softwares when playing the game. It might also be a bug…lol! So just report it please

“Will the status page of URU reflect more recent issues like server problems and login problems instead of just daily updates?” This is an idea we are actually going to implement very soon.

“Are there new servers being added to handle the load of future visitors to URU?” Yes and also to help the already existing servers with a lighter load.

“How long will the prologue last?”The launch date of Uru Live has of yet not been determined.

Let me know if you have more questions!

-Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, Live CCR Team.-
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knottyboy

Cyan Employee Bill Slease posted this message to the Uru Live forums;

Hello all and Happy Thanksgiving! I just wanted to quickly let you know where we are, where we’re going and how we’ll get there.

Right now, we’ve invited less than half of the number we’d hoped to invited by now. The problem isn’t that the servers can’t handle more (there were more players in beta than there are in the Prolgoue right now), but that there’s a bug causing spoilers when you play online. As soon as that bug is squashed, we’ll be back on track ramping up to one full shard. I’m not at liberty to say how many accounts equals a full shard, but I can say that there are enough of you waiting that not everyone will be invited while we have only one shard.

When one full shard is running well, we will start bringing other shards online. As those shards come online we will be evaluating our confidence in supporting the entire Uru Live demand. When we feel the systems and infrastructure to support the full demand are in place, stable and secure, we will have our grand opening. If you’re familiar with how other MMO’s have launched, this grand opening is more of what you’re used to in an MMO launch. Everyone with a boxed game will be able to play online after the opening. Subscription fees are planned to being one month after the grand opening.

Regarding the invitation process:

Katie has explained this elsewhere, but I’ll repeat it because I still see posts where people are confused. On the days that we invite people, we look at all the accounts that have been created. We pick out prior beta testers and invite them first, any remaining spots are filled on a first-come first serve basis. When we invited the first batch of explorers, there were more invitations going out than there were beta testers who’d created accounts. That’s how some non-betas got in earlier than some beta testers.

One of the main reasons we’re inviting beta’s early is that there experience in finding and reporting issues is invaluable to us at this crucial juncture.

Regarding “Don’t Worry, You’re Not Missing Anything”:

Obviously from the reports of people in the game this isn’t entirely true, there is something going on. There is a story unfolding, mainly with a handful of live actors. There are, however, no new Ages or areas that the betas have not seen planned to open (excepting some sneak previews to whet the appetite) until the public grand opening I talked about above. Also, the best picture of what Uru Live will be won’t be available until that grand opening. What we’re doing now is really about working with what we have available right now to entertain people while ensuring that Uru is ready to go at the grand opening. So yes, you’re missing something, but don’t worry, you’re not missing anything.

Questions I would have after reading the above, followed by the best answers I can give right now:

Q: When will the other shards come online?
A: After the first shard is full and running smoothly.

Q: When will the first shard be full and running smoothly?
A: Before we bring other shards online.

Q: Why didn’t you tell us all this before?
A: I have no excuse, sir.

Q: Who are you?
A: I’m CyanBill, or simply Bill, the live content director at Cyan. During the creation of Uru I filled many roles but the longest and deepest was that of lead technical artist.

Thanks for your patience during this unprecedented restoration project.

Bill Slease
Live Content Director
Cyan Worlds, Inc.

deal has been made with Tiscali in England (big Broadband provider) to have them do an Uru section on their site, and even forums.

In England, Tiscali (big broadband provider) has just opened a new section on their site solely dedicated to Uru. As it grows over time it will includes all the recent news in the Uru universe; and it already features a forum and an exclusive interview with Rand Miller!

Go read it here: http://www.tiscali.co.uk/games/myst/

From Gameboomers comes this article;

PLAY TEST PROGRAM EXPANDS FOR
URU: AGES BEYOND MYST
SAN FRANCISCO – AUGUST 20, 2003 – Ubi Soft Entertainment, one of the world’s
largest videogame publishers, and Cyan Worlds, Inc., developers of the
legendary video games MYST? and Riven?, today announced they have
expanded the play test program for the upcoming title,
Uru?: Ages Beyond Myst? for the PC in conjunction with the unveiling of a
new community-focused web site, found at www.urulive.com.
“As we enter the final stage of the game’s development, we are excited to
invite interested fans to assist us in improving and shaping the evolving
world of Uru.” said Rand Miller, founder and CEO Cyan Worlds, Inc.
Play testers are invited to become among the first to experience the
deepest, and most compelling Myst storyline to date as they participate in a
modern day exploration and restoration of the ancient D’ni civilization. Uru
(pronounced Oo-roo) includes a compelling single-player offline adventure in
addition to an expansive persistent online experience, Uru Live.
Play testers will experience both the single player game and Uru Live.
Candidates will need a PC with a broadband internet connection (see specs
for minimum requirements below) and must visit www.urulive.com to sign up.
UruLive.com will be an active and ongoing gathering place for Uru fans to
gain information about the game, meet other fans of the Myst series,
interact with the developers at Cyan Worlds, and unravel the mysteries
discovered during the live exploration of D’ni.
“Uru is a technological step forward for the Myst series enabling us to
eclipse the beauty, grandeur, and mind-challenging elements of previous
titles. Plus, with the option to join a constantly updated online universe,
the adventure never has to end,” said Rand Miller, founder of Cyan Worlds.
Uru is the latest chapter in the MYST series – one of the most widely
recognized game brands in history, with more than 12 million units sold
worldwide. Uru is scheduled to launch in November, 2003 at the
manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $49.99.
URU: BACKGROUND
The story of the D’ni (pronounced dunny) civilization began when they
established their underground empire on Earth some 10,000 years ago. The
D’ni practiced a technology called the “Art of Writing” to create links to
incredible alternate worlds of fantastic variety called “Ages,” to which
they could travel through “Linking Books.” During that time, a group of D’ni
traveled to the surface of what is now southern New Mexico, connecting our
world and theirs.
The D’ni people thrived for thousands of years, but later met with a great
catastrophe that ended their civilization. The vast underground cities of
the D’ni were left uninhabited and their Linking Book technology seemed lost
forever – until now.
PC users will be able to enjoy Uru: Ages Beyond Myst. Owners of the boxed
game will be able to try Uru Live through ubi.com, one of the world’s top
ten gaming portals. Pricing and other details for Uru Live will be announced
at a later date. For more information about the game visit
[url=http://www.urulive.com]http://www.urulive.com[/url].
PC Requirements for Uru: Ages Beyond Myst:
Supported OS: Windows? 98SE/ME/2000/XP (only)
Processor: Intel? Pentium? III 800 MHz or AMD Athlon? (Pentium IV or
Athlon 2 GHz or greater recommended)
Video Card: 3D graphics video card w/ 32 MB, hardware transformation, and
lighting (3D graphics video card w/ 64 MB, pixel and vertex-shader
capability)
Sound Card: DirectX? 8.1-compatible sound card (DirectX? 8.1-compatible EAX
3.0 recommended)
CD-ROM Drive: 4X CD-ROM drive or faster (Not recommended for use with
CD-RWs)
Monitor: 800×600 resolution, 16 bit color monitor (1280×1024 resolution
recommended)
Hard Drive Space: 2 GHz (4 GHz recommended)
Peripherals Supported: 101-key standard keyboard; two-button mouse
Internet Connection: Not required (ADSL or Cable modem recommended for Uru
Live)

Thanks to Salar for posting this on the Lyst.

Ubi Soft’s new URU Live Website has gone online with new screenshots, detailed character bios and more!

http://urulive.ubi.com/