Ambrosia Software Web Board: The Tree of Life? - Ambrosia Software Web Board

As I mentioned here, I think that I might have found the elusive Tree of Life region (by hacking the save file) mentioned in the Cythera Data.

(Note: my description of this region will no doubt be quite poor, but I took a few screenshots which Wizard will later upload. I will attempt to upload one now.)

Zone #92 took me to a region labeled "Mountains," possessing wide areas of white tile and some raised ground (an embankment) to walk on. There were also some mountains scattered about the map, and, curiously, a cave entrance which leads to the "Nothing" map, although some cave tile along the ground behind it.

Going along the raised ground leads to a dead end but, standing apart from it, is a small patch of ground. Upon this patch of ground is a tree (with a unique picture) which under the cursor reads "ancient tree."

It is possible to eat fruit (apples) from this tree, but it appears that one can only eat three (perhaps they regrow?) and they do not appear to heal wounds. They do, however, cause you to feel "suddenly sated."

If you examine it, it says, "You see an ancient tree, seemingly as old as the world itself. There are three apples hanging from its branches."


It appears to be an incomplete region. Zone #93 led me to a point west of the mountains. Possibly, this was at one time intended to be an entry point.


EDIT:
My apologies, it refuses to allow me to upload a good screenshot because its too large. I'm afraid that Wizard will have to upload the better ones later. If anyone else can teleport, they may feel free to upload their own screenshots.

(I had to crop the image to just the game screen to get a picture uploaded at all.)

This post has been edited by Selax: 20 August 2007 - 05:58 PM

This is amazing!

Maybe the last secret of Cythera ever to be found! Maybe those apples revive people, and can they be replicated? Is there any text in-game or in data files that says anything about the tree of life? I would really like to experiment with those apples! Also you can send screen shots to me, I'll put them on my photo bucket account and upload them onto the forums. I have a program that will convert screen shots into .jpg format, and no size is to big.

Great job Selax (and Wizard?),
Jacks

Can we get a picture of the location you suspect was intended as the entrance?

This truely is an incredible breakthrough; it would be a terrible shame if it were not properly recorded and catalouged in full detail for future reference.

This post has been edited by ~vIsitor~: 20 August 2007 - 09:32 PM

~vIsitor~, on Aug 20 2007, 09:30 PM, said:

Don't worry, I'm making sure that it is properly recorded. This is what would seem to be either the entrance or exit point:


http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x230/El...eTreeRegion.png
(It's nearly a megabyte, due to not being cropped, so I just linked) This is where you appear upon entering the Tree of Life Region. It is, as mentioned, labeled "Mountains."

Selax has already posted a pic of the tree itself, but for those who don't want to log in to see it, here is a link:
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x230/El...eTreeofLife.png

I also went to some extra work.

That is the minimap for the entire region.

And I went to some extra, extra work and stitched together a bunch of screenshots. The result is a full aerial view of the entire region as seen in the game.

There you have it, the Tree of Life. Part of the mountains in the north are missing in that shot due to window size constraints. Also, that is a reduced size for it and it's quality. It looks fine, but if you require a more detailed image, I may be able to send one. Probably by email, though, because photobucket likes reducing image sizes. . .

Well, I must say that I am a little surprised that we met with success in this goal. I had no idea of what stage of development the map would be even if we got there, but aside from the basic grass tiling on the bottom ground, it's really nearly complete.

The tree is a unique graphic, at least I have not seen that particular tree elsewhere in Cythera. It has on it's branches, 3 apples, which you can eat to feel "suddenly sated." The apples disappear from the tree as they are eaten and, after three, there are none left.

As you can see in the above region-view, there is what appears to be a cave in the center. If you decide to visit this area yourself (read-on), what you see there may differ from what I have. The reason is that as you walk around it, the visible bits change and are sometimes completely hidden. I chose to use the one that shows what it looks like without any blocked parts.

On the mini-map, the caves are that blacked out room in the center. If you walk up to the mountains beside it, you can enter it. But you will not get taken to some new "Underground" tileset or anything as its appearance would imply. Rather, you will appear on the "Nothing" map that so many have teleported to before.

Two Jacks, you don't appear to be able to replicate the apples nor can they be taken from the tree other than by eating them.

So, you are asking: How did you get there and can I go myself? (at least, I hope you are. . . ) Well, Selax and I are considering uploading a couple of character files to the add-ons page. One would probably contain a teleporter directly to this region of the game and another would have the appropriate files saved with it that tell how to teleport to certain places along with the logs of what numbers take you where. I know that two of them aren't really necessary as the first could do the second's job, but it might be nice to keep them split just for organizational purposes.

Anyways, this topic has received surprisingly little attention. What has everybody to say about the now-found Tree of Life?

This post has been edited by The Wizard: 21 August 2007 - 11:21 PM

That's very nice. I'm glad it worked, and congrats on finding the Tree of Life.

The Wizard, on Aug 21 2007, 09:16 PM, said:

Can't take the apples? That explains why no one has ever gottin an apple through the "One hit death" glitch.

Save files sounds great! It will be the ultimate compliment to your work!

What do I have to say?

Great job! This is awsome! Everyone who's interested in this should look up the movie called, 'The Fountain". It wasn't very good but the "Tree of Life" is the main plot. This may very well be the last secret of Cythera, a proud and ground breaking moment indeed, for not only have we discovered the Tree of Life but also item modding and compact telleporters. Once you upload the save file I think I'm gonna start a new game. Thanks again for bringing life back into Cythera.

Would it be possible to just place a cave entrance or stair case at the mountain point where the entrance to The Tree of Life should be?

So what now? What do we do now in the land of Cythera? Enjoying your work won't be enough in the end, that hunger for more will always be there.

-Jacks

I like the fact that you found some awesome area of cythera no one really knew about.

good work...

Hey, wait a minute...I've never seen a broken section of bridge like that before. Selax, try to repair it with some wooden planks and see if you can get a unique response, like from the broken slat on the bridge in Eioneus' Cave.

That is probably the coolest thing ever! I hope you do the saved games thing.

~vIsitor~: I tried it, but I'm sorry to say I forgot what it said (my screenshot didn't include it as I had expected). My apologies. I shall try again soon.


Thanks for the kind words all, I have more screenshots and can upload them if it requested.

I have also uploaded the saves, and you may now visit this region for yourselves. Have fun!

I came across something a little interesting. While I was testing to see if the uploaded save files worked, I decided I might as well go back to the Tree of Life. From there I navigated to the nothing map. As you know, "Nothing" is in the center. After killing him twice, you get Omen. I decided to kill Omen this time, and I got "Nothing" again. After killing Nothing, I got yet another guard. But this one could talk. Unfortunately, he's just an ordinary Pynx guard.

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x230/El...e/PynxGuard.png

The fact that Nothing will change into different people at death intrigues me. Since the character had just started, I was not able to kill the guard, but I wonder who you get after him. . .

The Wizard, on Aug 23 2007, 08:05 PM, said:

Ordinary? If I recall correctly Phynx never had any guards...

When I killed "Nothing," he remained alive (in appearance), but he was standing on a dead giant crab. When I ran my curser over him, it read "crab", and I could neither talk to him or kill him anymore. At that point, I took a suggestion from a fellow Cytheran and dropped a bomb near him, and "Nothing" died dozens upon dozens of times; and when he was done dying, he looked like a corpse, but he was still an anti-social, unkillable "crab" @_@

Woah!
Congrats on the find....I wonder about that plank thingy...

Weird, but cool!

Thanks again.

I tried again and used the boards on the bridge. It appears that you are only able to fix the large hole in the middle of the bridge. When you do so, it says, "You've repaired the section of the bridge." When you try to fix the smaller holes, it says, "That section may be a bit damaged, but it is still usable."

This post has been edited by Selax: 24 August 2007 - 12:04 PM

So does that mean that you could still walk across it before repairing it, or not?

Also - where did you get those stairs in your inventory? Killing glitch?

This post has been edited by ooshmaster: 26 August 2007 - 03:16 PM

ooshmaster, on Aug 26 2007, 03:15 PM, said:

Yes, I could.

The stairs were created by hacking the save file. They are the teleporter to the Tree of Life region.

ZOMG...I dunno what to say, this whole thing is just awesome...are there any other mysterious places that we haven't gotten to yet?...incredible...hey, isn't that "exit" near the strongholds?

This post has been edited by Buzzzzy: 15 September 2007 - 07:37 PM

Thank you.

As for other mysterious places, there not any as far as I know. I did find a small room under the sewers, but it can be reached with a rope. Therefore, I assume that most people already know about it.

No, the exit is south of the Pnyx-Cademia road.

I decided to take this opportunity to post in here again. I'm just wondering: has everyone been able to download the Save files that Selax uploaded? If so, how many of you have visited the Tree of Life yourself? It's a very interesting place.

If there are those of you that still can't download the saves, please mention it and describe what happens if you can. I would like to make it easy for everyone to visit this region.

The Wizard, on Sep 26 2007, 11:04 PM, said:

The Wizard, on Aug 23 2007, 07:53 PM, said:

I mean this:

Two Jacks, on Aug 23 2007, 09:09 PM, said:

Like I said recently in "To boldly go where no Cytherian has gone before" I'm still getting that same error message. I think it's because the save files were created in OSX therefor, people running an OS9 computer aren't able to play them. If anyone else can confirm this it would be helpful.

I also could not play them in OS 9. I could download them, but not play them. (I don't remember the details, and I can't check because I no longer have access to that computer :\)

Thanks bread,

Ok so now I think we can:
1. Have one of our resident code monkeys get access to an OS9 comp and re-create these files and upload them.
2. Or make a step-by-step instruction page so people (who aren't so great with this stuff) can do it on their own.

But we'll say please first.


If at first you don't succeed, try try again.

This post has been edited by Two Jacks: 28 September 2007 - 03:25 PM

Whoa, Cythera is several years old and new things are still being found. Does anything special happen if you feed the apples to your party members or use the crolna on the apples?

I'm not sure; to be honest, I really haven't conducted extensive experimentation with the apples and their effects (I've been a bit busy of late). Perhaps, I'll get around to it at some point though, or someone else can try it.


EDIT:
Er, Pallas, did you want me to send those files again? I assumed that since you'd uploaded some that you didn't need them anymore, but it recently occurred to me that I might be wrong.


Hmm, I seem to recall zipping the files in OS X, unzipping them, and transferring them back into SheepShaver to see if they worked and they did. It is quite strange that is not working for others. It might be OS 9 (I think that my SheepShaver runs OS 8-something or other.) Does any have any suggestions?

This post has been edited by Selax: 29 September 2007 - 09:57 PM