Yellow Fire Marble

[Ghidrah1]

Pretty much every time I've played through Riven and got to the survey room under Grid isle the yellow eye symbol itched me broin.

I've always wondered why there's a coordinate for a yellow rotating dome in the survey room and a marble for it atop the golden dome but no place to put it.

Anybody know why there's discrepancy and what happened to the yellow rotating dome if there ever was one?

[Noitalever]

Gehn was very big on five being a perfect number and only did one dome for each island and in side the power grid underneath the primary dome there are only five lines and there were only five islands. It seems very unlikely that there was a sixth dome. I think the last marble was likely there as an additional safety to throw someone off if they tried to use his dome.

[Ghidrah1]

I knew of his dn'i proclivity for 5, but, considering how open he is in his logs as to his actions to throw off any errant rivenese increasing their knowledge and or access to the domes, (pretty sure they couldn't read his scratchings anyway).

I figured he would have included additional red herrings like faux fire marbles and RD markers, considering the existing effort to place the yellow underwater marker, (seen in survey room). Being Gehn, to throw anyone off I'd have doubled the number of fire marbles and faux survey room markers.

[Noitalever]

Originally posted by Ghidrah1:

I knew of his dn'i proclivity for 5, but, considering how open he is in his logs as to his actions to throw off any errant rivenese increasing their knowledge and or access to the domes, (pretty sure they couldn't read his scratchings anyway).

I figured he would have included additional red herrings like faux fire marbles and RD markers, considering the existing effort to place the yellow underwater marker, (seen in survey room). Being Gehn, to throw anyone off I'd have doubled the number of fire marbles and faux survey room markers.

It would have made sense from Gehn's perspective to do so, but I think it comes down more to game design for why not. I think Cyan might have been worried about making it a little too hard if they had done so.
I think some of the markers may of had more purpose, the yellow marker for example attracts the wahrk directly to Gehn's observation window. It would seem possible that he used the lights for other purposes originally but decided they would act as a good code system afterwards.

[Ghidrah1]

In case you weren't making a joke and messed up, only the forest isle (red light) attracted the wahrk in my game. As for a light trigger at the forest isle I can see where that would make sense regarding the wahrk, (dinner bell).

Although my brain is hard pressed to figure out how he got them into the caldera without digging a massive under water tunnel, those puppies look big.

As for the yellow marble and light, I would have gone with an existing island suffering a catastrophic subsidence due to the continued fracturing of Riven.

[Noitalever]

Originally posted by Ghidrah1:

In case you weren't making a joke and messed up, only the forest isle (red light) attracted the wahrk in my game. As for a light trigger at the forest isle I can see where that would make sense regarding the wahrk, (dinner bell).

Although my brain is hard pressed to figure out how he got them into the caldera without digging a massive under water tunnel, those puppies look big.

As for the yellow marble and light, I would have gone with an existing island suffering a catastrophic subsidence due to the continued fracturing of Riven.

I think that probably was me messing up. In regards to the wahrk's location.

I do not think Gehn would have left out the event of an island sinking from his journals. Another possibility is that maybe the marble referenced the big dome, the big dome being the one set apart from the rest.

[Ghidrah1]

I don't think he would either, he does mention an issue in a log, (the beginning of something not progressing as smoothly or quickly as expected but back on track. The reason I don't think yellow represents gold dome is because the Green marble is for the RD outside GD.

Considering the way the GD is constructed and the way the marbles must be positioned on the grid below the press, I'm thinking the fire marbles are circuit breakers between GD and the RDs.

[Noitalever]

Circuit breaker idea is not something I ever thought of but does make sense. Perhaps the marble is just a spare circuit breaker?

I think the issue in the log he mentions was his attempts to make a linking book.

[Ghidrah1]

Nope,
84/4/13, Page 13 of his Volcano island lab log, (pulp to paper fabrication).
It was related to the construction of the golden dome, calling it (central power source).

83/9/11, page 10 same log modifying marbles for power generation

Calling GD the central power source and the comment on marble modification is what lead me to thinking they were fuses. Naturally able to channel and or maybe hold an electrical charge, (maybe like a capacitor?)

[Noitalever]

I will need to re-read his journals, it has been a little while.

[Ghidrah1]

Me too, I started a new game and then sped to his paper lab to read the log.
If Gehn was concerned about sabotage he seems cavalier with his journals. Even though the rivenese are banned from all but forest isle, he's well aware that the Moiety have access to GD isle and likely all isles.
He comments on both instances of his minions being darted by Moiety near the cage.

[gurdeyo]

I always wondered if there is a clue that the marble that goes on Prison Island is blue, not yellow. I figured it out by trial and error. I only ask because for ages I thought the animal stone puzzle was only solvable through trial and error. In the days before walkthroughs were around on the internet I managed to complete the game without ever figuring out the shape clue. I was stuck looking for a way to get to the "floating" eye in the water for months. I was confident enough about the other 4 stones that I solved the puzzle by brute force, but what a pain.

[Ghidrah1]

gurdeyo
Animal stone puzzle, are you talking about the puzzle in the tunnel above the caldera?

[gurdeyo]

The one you must solve to enter the Moiety hideout. You can get animals 2-5 by sound alone. The shape hints involving the spinney eyes are really cryptic. I figured out animals 2 through 5 by the sounds produced by the eyes. I never got the clue for the first one. I just tried all 21 possibilities for the first. I was also confused as to which shape represented the frog as there are at least two that look a bit like a frog. Same for the beetle. There's another one that looks like a bug. I just hammered at it until I guessed the solution. For a long time I thought there was a way to get to that eye floating in the water. It was driving me absolutely nuts. This was around 1999 when I was playing this game the first time with no walkthrough or hints. Beating a puzzle by guessing didn't seem very satisfying. I played again just now and it's funny how much I missed the first time 20 years ago, yet still finished the game.

[Ghidrah1]

Correction, 4 of the 5 stone symbols have 3 related items sound, image and order. An animal's image and sound may not be combined into a single symbol but they are relatable and there're multiple instances of the images and sounds spread out over the islande of Riven, you just gotta be slow and methodical in your exploration.

[admiral1018]

Originally posted by gurdeyo:

I always wondered if there is a clue that the marble that goes on Prison Island is blue, not yellow.

Not as far as I know. I believe you're just expected to solve that via trial-and-error. Completely figuring out the puzzle should let you narrow down the final solution to just two possibilities -- is the prison island marble yellow or blue.

Honestly, I found the animal stone puzzle much more annoying. My main issue is how poorly drawn many of the symbols in terms of representing the animals. Even if you 100% know the right creatures in the right order, it can still be frustrating to figure out which one is the frog, which one is the bug, which one is the fish, etc.

I hope this is something that's cleared up if the real-time Riven game ever gets released. The challenge should be in figuring out how to solve the puzzle, not in inputting the solution.
Either fix the picture quality or add something like a kid's book that you can find near the village that has the symbols for all the animals next to an illustration of them.