Marble room....I don't have all 5 lights charged from starry expanse. NOW what?

[dohh]

SO I made my way back to the dome, but upon reaching it, I dont have all the marbles charged from when I was in the darn starry expanse. So I cannot activate the linking book inside the giant dome. I didn't realize I had to light up all 5 lights to do so.
SO I figured; back to the starry expanse. I made my LOONG way back (starting on the mine cart) to ghen's lab, stopped the dome from spinning, and I make my way to the starry expanse area.
How do I make sure all 5 marbles/pathways have been lit up? I only have 3 of them showing being "lit up". When I go to the rotating-stairway thing, every way i rotate the machine to face the two marble icons that aren't lit yet, the stairway won't extend so I can fire a marble-light at it.
I have no idea and feel hopelessly stuck here. How do I do this?

[Hellish Fiend]

Well, assuming you've had your fill of experimenting with it, I can provide a step-by-step. I suggest fiddling with it on your own until you get it, but I dont blame you if you want some pointers.
Here's a step-by-step:
Enter the starry expanse through EACH of the 4 accessible spinning domes on the main islands and do the following:
-Extend the bridge
-Line up the bridge by pushing the button by it
-Use the fire marble charging device by interacting with it 3 times (make sure the charging animation plays, obviously)
Lastly, line up the center rotating device with the bridge for the prison island (the bridge for this one is already extended) and perform the fire marble charging process for this one too

If you did everything correctly, a musical theme will begin to play for the Starry Expanse instead of just the normal ambient sounds. Then, you should be able to continue with figuring out how to power up the linking book using the now activated fire marbles back in the gold dome on Temple Island.

Hopefully that will help you figure out what you missed. You likely still have a lot to figure out, so be patient! This is one of the two main puzzles in the game and requires information from all over the entire game world, so its understandable if everything does not fall into place right away.

[dohh]

Thank you. Sounds like an incredible amount of work (too bad the game has turned into WORK for me, now, sadly) but I will certainly give this all a try. Oy.

[Hellish Fiend]

Originally posted by dohh:

Thank you. Sounds like an incredible amount of work (too bad the game has turned into WORK for me, now, sadly) but I will certainly give this all a try. Oy.

It's not nearly as onerous as it sounds. The only thing that might drag it out is if you dont know or remember where all the spinning domes are or how to get to them.

My advice is to just take your time and enjoy the ride, rather than focus on completing the task as soon as you can. There arent that many "things to do" in this game, so there's no reason to rush.

Enjoy. =)

[dohh]

OH absolutely. Not rushing by any means. It's just frustrating when I can't remember what's where :-)
ALso, some fast travel would be nice....

[Just Chill]

Originally posted by dohh:

ALso, some fast travel would be nice....

The spinning domes are some sort of fast travel.
They just have to be activated one by one, but then you can hop easily between islands.

Even long before meeting Gehn as in the original, his house would have been a fast travel hub and also the only way to get to the prison island.

[dohh]

Well, I managed to light up 4 of the 5 lights in Temple Island, but I need one more marble so I can access the book (after leaving Tay) . THe only marble not lit up in the small guide-circle of 5 small-"marble lights" near the temple island book-platform is the small light on the bottom right. I cannot figure out, after hours of traveling back and forth to jungle island, survey island, prison island, boiler island etc....which spinning dome to enter (and on what island it's on) to get access to whatever the heck marble I need to light up in the starry expanse (I haven't yet heard a musical theme" in the starry expanse, either)...to get this last (5th, lower right) marble to light up...so i can access that darn book in the temple island inner-dome walkway.
TIny hints won't help me recover mentally what step I may have missed, and the companion guide I wasted money on is of no help, either.
Can someone please just simply spoiler-direct-help-me and LMK what steps I need to go through (where, how) to get this final of 5 marbles to light up? I'd very much appreciate it. This old gamer is fizzled out, and I'd really like to progress in the game before my brain fries :-)

[dohh]

ANd thank you, Hellish Fiend...you've been very helpful and it's much appreciated. More than anything, I'm dissapointed (miffed?) I spent $$ on the "companion guide". It's so obtuse as to be almost worthless to me.

[Hellish Fiend]

Originally posted by dohh:

ANd thank you, Hellish Fiend...you've been very helpful and it's much appreciated. More than anything, I'm dissapointed (miffed?) I spent $$ on the "companion guide". It's so obtuse as to be almost worthless to me.

You're very welcome! I'm glad to help.

EDIT: Erroneous info. See below.

[dohh]

I don't have ANY marbles collected, actually,. WHat I meant to say is I only have 4 of the 5 lights lit up in the temple dome near the linking-book. Was I supposed to collect marbles? I hadn't been.
That said: I believe I aimed the marble-charging light 4 times inside the starry expanse from gettting to the expanse from 4 different places...I think...(it may have only been 3 times).... and then I was able to get back to where I was, once I stepped back into the dome from the expanse each time.
But only the bottom right light (of the 5 lights in the small circle in the middle of the catwalk leading to the linking book in the huge temple island dome) is "unlit", which i believe means that I've missed one marble-charging.
I have no idea which "charging" this refers to, or where, so I can't continue. I'm a bit flummoxed. BUt I certainly appreciate the help.
ANd....how do I collect colored marbles? I"m not sure what I missed????

[Hellish Fiend]

Oops, youre right, I forgot you cant actually see the colors of the marbles you've charged until you've gotten all 5.

In that case... we're back to square one. There's 4 of them that you can only get by accessing the charging device from the side you enter through the airlock, and then there's one (the prison) that you can only get to from the center alignment platform.

I suppose, if you trace the one that is "unlit" toward the corresponding window, you can then look and see which symbol is on that window. That might be your best bet, but I didnt encounter this issue, so I never had to try that.

Like so: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197996559674/screenshot/2529416016882321307/

Even standing in the middle, you should be able to clearly see the symbol over on the window for the marble youre missing, assuming the device shows you which one it is lacking.

[dohh]

OK, thank you....again.
It appears once I line up my sight with the icon extending out from the unlit marble chute in the temple island dome, that I am missing the prison marble (sideways eye with a dot pupil). --I've already visited the prison island, though I don't at ALL remember how I got there or by what method. IU think it was via Ghen's lab on the boiler island, but I don't remember now.
---Thus: I need to activate the prison island marble, somehow, in the starry expanse. Do you know how I would once again GET to prison island....OR: which island I need to visit the starry expanse FROM, in order to activate the prison marble with the light beam? Again, I'm stumped.

[Hellish Fiend]

Originally posted by dohh:

OK, thank you....again.
It appears once I line up my sight with the icon extending out from the unlit marble chute in the temple island dome, that I am missing the prison marble (sideways eye with a dot pupil). --I've already visited the prison island, though I don't at ALL remember how I got there or by what method. IU think it was via Ghen's lab on the boiler island, but I don't remember now.
---Thus: I need to activate the prison island marble, somehow, in the starry expanse. Do you know how I would once again GET to prison island....OR: which island I need to visit the starry expanse FROM, in order to activate the prison marble with the light beam? Again, I'm stumped.

The prison island is the one that you can only get to from within the starry expanse. So, get to the starry expanse from any dome/airlock, get to the center alignment device, then use the controls to rotate it to line up with the symbol for the prison island (Looks like an open eye turned on its side), and use the charging device.

[dohh]

I arrived at starry expanse from two different island hubs, rotated the big ball so the prison island circle is in the sights (the only one of 5 icons that isn't yet "lit up", but each time the stairs do not align so I can get back to the dome again to fire the marble at it. The stairs on the side where the entrance dome is don't reach MY stair extension after I walk away from the spinning device. SO I've tried this from two different islands. IS there a particular island I need to get to the expanse from whereby I can align the ball/prison island icon , get back on the stairs to the firing device and light up the prison island light?

[Hellish Fiend]

Originally posted by dohh:

I arrived at starry expanse from two different island hubs, rotated the big ball so the prison island circle is in the sights (the only one of 5 icons that isn't yet "lit up", but each time the stairs do not align so I can get back to the dome again to fire the marble at it. The stairs on the side where the entrance dome is don't reach MY stair extension after I walk away from the spinning device. SO I've tried this from two different islands. IS there a particular island I need to get to the expanse from whereby I can align the ball/prison island icon , get back on the stairs to the firing device and light up the prison island light?

Oh dear, it seems you are overthinking this! It's actually quite a lot simpler than you are making it out to be.

First, the walkway for the prison island is already extended at the start of the game (since the maglev there is broken and there is no other way to get there, no one ever retracts the bridge). So if youre seeing a walkway without blinking lights, THAT is the one youre missing, rather than the prison island.

Second, the only thing you need to do to fire the charging device is press the button that aligns the walkway from the side youre trying to charge. You dont need to do anything fancy like youre describing.

In fact, the only time you ever technically NEED to rotate the device in the center manually is to line it up with the prison island. Any other time you wish to use it, its just because you want to get somewhere faster than you could by walking/maglevving.

So, in the gold dome, if you can point out which symbol is the one youre missing the charged marble for, then you know which island you have yet to access the spinning dome/airlock from. Once you find it and get in, then you can charge the missing one.

[dohh]

I'm sure I sound desperate as well as unintelligent :-)
According to the large dome walkway near the linking book on Temple island, the only light I've yet to activate is the symbol for the prison island. I've BEEN to the prison island (though I don't at all remember how I got there), and I THOUGHT when I had gotten back in the dome FROM prison island and entering the expanse, I tried to activate the marble/light from the stairway after exiting the dome, and I wasn't able to do so, even though the stairway was extended and the marble fire thing was pointing straight at the dome at the end of the walkway (I know how to activate the marbles, I've done it 4 other times). SO it may be a bug of some sort...thats is: not being able to get a marlbe to fall into the chute there, so I can activate it. Oh, well.
I think I'll take a break from this self-inflicted madness ( :-) ) and try again some other time.
I've beaten all the other Myst games in the past, as I did with RIven back in the day. But maybe this re-made RIven is beyond my mental pay grade for the time being :-(