I've started Myst URU Complete Chronicles, but I'm encountering a persistent issue.

Specifically, if I go to an age (e.g. Teledahn), if I exit my game without completing all the puzzle in the age, when I reload my game the linking book in Relto is unavailable. It's locked in the column on Relto. Nothing I do can open the column to access the linking books.

Do I have to solve all the puzzles in an age before linking back to Relto? If so, this is a REALLY dumb design decision by Cyan.

That does sound like a bug.

If I'm not mistaken the book is supposed to be in your library after you access it from the pillar. And it's "first" page should take you to the "starting point" of the Age, while the next page is a sort of a bookmark and would take you to the last hand cloth that you touched.

It's been a while since I've played the game though. I just don't remember being stuck like that.

Checked on shelves in Relto library, and there are no linking books. So, as you indicated, this is a bug, or, as I said, Cyan made a seriously stupid design decision.

Well, at this point it looks like playing URU is not an option. :-(

I've now installed and played URU Chronicles (GOG version) up to Relto, opened the Teledahn column, linked to Teledahn and then exited the game (via the [X] button that pops up when the cursor goes to the bottom right of the screen, and pops up the "do you want to quit" message).

I've relaunched the game, it started me at Relto and in the hut the Teledahn linking book is on the bookshelf (as well as the D'ni linking book and another one that iirc is from the Path of the Shell expansion).

The column for Teledahn cannot be opened again, that is correct. But the linking book should be there on the bookshelf, that is the expected behavior anyway.

I've checked my game folder too and it seems that there's a "sav" subfolder, and under that (after a few extra single subfolders) it seems that it's storing the game progress. For me it has a few files (.sav extension) indicating that it has saved my avatar customization, cleft progress, Teledahn progress, "Personal" progress (is this Relto?), and "vault.dat" state (which also I am not sure about).

Could you check your sav folder and see whether the game has files in there? It's hard to say, but maybe the game was unable to create those files due to some write permission issues?

Thank you SO much for taking the time to reinstall and replay the game to repeat my current progress. Very generous and very much appreciated.

I had seen what are the linking books on the left-hand shelf in the Relto library, but I mistook them for a puzzle. And I usually don't experiment on puzzles in Myst games until I have some idea on what the goal is and a little how they work. So, my point here is I didn't click on them. No accounting for stupidity, I guess. ;-)

My point here is I see the linking books, and they work. Thank you again!!

I'm on Teledahn in the Slave Caverns, and I have a question.

How many puzzles in URU require you to move stuff around?

I just spent almost an hour trying to move rocks onto one of the pressure plates that opens one of the doors. I was only able to get two (yes, you heard right...two rocks in 1 hour) onto one of the pressure plates. And it's still not down, and there's another to do too. :-(

The problem is the horrendous controls to move stuff. I have no idea why Cyan didn't do what 99.99% of other first-person games of the time did which was to click-and-hold to pick something up to carry it and then release the mouse to drop it.

This isn't the only example of clunky controls in URU, but the mechanics to move stuff around is game breaking for me.

So back to my original question, How many puzzles in URU require the player to move stuff around to specific locations?

If there's more than a couple of these left, then I'm going to chuck URU and get the key plot points from Wikipedia. But I sure hope I'm not forced to do this because of abysmal game design by Cyan (which is exceptionally rare).

I remember a couple.

I don't regret the time I've spent with URU, but the puzzles that required moving things around with your feet were one of its low points indeed.

URU for me is an odd mix of brilliant ideas with a big helping of great fan service and also quite a few bad design decisions.

Later in the game, there's an Age that comes close to being one of the smartest Age design in the "Myst-verse" -- but it still has some clunky kicking around puzzle and a couple of puzzles with oddly limited feedback (these last ones were clearly designed with co-op in mind though, so they might have worked better in their original form).

The transition to full 3d in conjunction with the original design being a co-op adventure game (MMO adventure game actually) did not work out. You can probably find out more by reading the development and release issues on Wikipedia or other Internet sources.

There's also the free and as of recently an open sourced version of this game, ie. Myst Online: Uru Live (again), that iirc restored the co-op puzzles, co-op mini games and Ages and is supported by both Cyan and community members. But I don't think stuff like kicking around objects into place ever got redesigned. That version also supports fan created Ages too since a few years ago if I'm not mistaken.

Thanks. A couple few isn't too bad. It is kind of surprising given how good Cyan is at designing good games that no one there said, "Maybe we should do moving objects like 99.9% of the other games out there do it." :-D