There is a circular track., and a large machine before me… It seems to befor mining or clearning.. I’m going to attempt to ride it, see if it is still operational.

It did something… There seems to be two cars. I’ve stopped short of some sort of facility. I’ll continue exploring.

I let the train continue forward, and it seems to have parked itself in a dock at the facility. Time to explore.

Being taken into facility…

Well, It went in reverse as well. I had pulled a lever on the forward car, and it took me into the facility. Anyway, taking a look outside.

I think this is Er’cana.

Nothing to see out here. Going back inside. Seems to be a mining center, or perhaps a Nara production plant.

Found a shell cloth inside. Are there any more?

I found a circuit breaker, and what looks like a maintenance subsystem.

At the end of the hall was a second dock with a second circuit breaker. I do not see a train call button, though. Going to check the stairs.

Outside. From out here, it looks like a waste plant. Found a broken walkway - Could that be the first dock? Checking inside a new area, first.

Found what looks like a mill, with another shell cloth and circuit breaker.

Found another number like those in the Watcher’s Hall. Giant gears out here - looks to be wind powered. I can see a relto page in a drainage pipe - perhaps there’s a way to get it…

I got into a drainage pipe, it’s wooden inside. The end is blocked with a seal.

Control room! Seems like the forward part of the plant is still offline - heading there now. Or not. Pathway is broken. Looking for another way.

Turned the mill off. Drainage still blocked. Perhaps there is a circuit breaker to these sorters out here. Looking.

No breaker where I am. Back right sorter/agitator seems to have water in it.

I’m going to retrace my steps.

I found a couple of numbers I missed while backtracking. The broken walkway is to the first dock. I still can’t find a way to the forward plant.

Perhaps I’ll look around outside the plant again.

Wandering around outside. Found a depiction of the Star Fissure on a cave wall by the Dock 2 tracks. I’m going to follow those now to their start.

Found a sinkhole along the way. Tracks are broken. Going to see if I can get across.

I fell in the sinkhole because I’m a genius. Going to have to link tom my Relto and return…

I’m back. Found no answers outside. This place is definately a mining facility. The train obviously scrapes rocks from the walls as it passes. I couldn’t figure out how to extend the arms, though. I’m exploring inside again.

Still no answers. Seems the drainage pipes are connected to the agitators.

Going to turn off the docks’ circuit breakers to see if they power the agitators.

Nope. Even with the mill off, as well. It seems the control room and the agitators share a curcuit breaker. Look some more…

There are ladders from the agitator platforms to the bottom - but how do I stop the agitators?

Not a clue - looking elsewhere for answers. Will have to return later.

I’ve returned and found a third shell cloth outside.

Found a control panel in the control room (smart, huh?)

I’ve figured it out. I even got the relto page, which seems to add stars.

I’m in the forward section of the plant. Found another number. Going to try and restore power…

Found a cool elevator platform. Took me up a level, allowing me to see a beautiful vista of a snowy mountain range beind the plant. Found a backpack up here, as well.

Another shell cloth.

Also, in this most forward of chambers, is a powerless machine, a linking stone, and a linking book.

I’ll try the linking stone first…

I’m in a bright chamber. There are symbols on the walls, and a hole in the floor. Seems to be above the Bahro cave. There is also a number.

I had to link back to my Relto - the page actually added several fire marbles. Awesome. Now to link back and try the book…

Seems to be a chamber within the D’ni cavern, perhaps Ae’gura. Can’t seem to find anything to do here - perhaps I’ve missed a shell cloth. Calling it quits for now, will look more later.

A slow, but steady start. Submissions will continue, and perhaps pick up after some time. At least glad the world didn’t implode. It was one of my failure cases.

While watching how things progressed today, I did notice something odd. A game had been given a 5-star rating within minutes of it having been submitted. The possibility of a game being listed, requested, played, and then voted upon within minutes is highly unlikely. Much more likely would be the case that the submitter voted upon his own game.

Now, while I don’t have any “Terms & Conditions” a submitter must agree to at submit-time, such a case clearly contravenes the implicit trust of such a system. So I made my first executive decision: I expunged the vote and quickly wrote up a basic system to stop submitters from voting for their own entries after submitting them.

There are no hard feelings, however. It was a case that I, and those who helped test the site before launch, all didn’t think of. At the very least, it is interesting how quickly users will discover and “game” flaws in a system, a la the Kadish Gallery trick Explorers used when the DRC closed Ae’gura a couple of months back.

Now I consider that it could also be the case that is was a random vote, not by the submitter. Either way, expunging it was still a valid move.

I would like to mention that I do not plan on policing such things from here on out in such detail. I just happened to catch it, as I was watching closely and often. I will only step in and change things in obvious cases of subverting the basic rules of the implied system, which would be very rarely.

I will consider adding some basic “Terms & Conditions” if other issues arise.

Please do not hotlink to these images in your signatures, host them on your own web-space. Thanks.

Gloss Banner - DRC Version

Gloss Banner - MOUL Version

Gloss Banner - White with Border

Notecard Banner - DRC Version

Notecard Banner - MOUL Version

Notecard Banner - White with Border

It’s amazing to think that I got here at all. When I began this “project”, I thought that I would be making a simple one-page list of marker games, and I figured that I would never actually release it, having seen few personal projects to completion before loosing interest. It’s also technically interesting, considering I didn’t know any PHP/MySQL before I decided to modify my friend’s DB-List script. But thanks to him immense help, and the help of Google and a good PHP/MySQL book, I’ve managed to get everything in implemented, tested, and fixed in my plan for 1.0, minus a 1-px positioning error in KHTML-based browsers (Konqueror and Safari) which I am still looking into.

I’d also like to thank everyone who helped give feedback, test the site, and run around Er’cana and Eder Kemo as I took over 200 pictures. It was a blast.

I decided to make a web site listing marker games for a couple of reasons. First of all, marker games are a fun, Explorer-produced way to pass time in the Cavern when the DRC is not around. Secondly, I wanted a better way of procuring games. Previously, I had to resort to either asking random people if they had any games or posting my KI number in one of the many “I have a marker game!” threads on the various message boards. My hope is that Explorer Exchange will help make finding and sharing marker games easy, without having to deal with dozens of different message board threads or harassing other Explorers.

I should mention that another hope of mine is that once other KI-sharable, Explorer-created games are released that I can add support for those as well, and Explorer Exchange will have more than marker listings. If the Jalak game is KI-sharable, I will work on adding support for that once it is released.