play.net SIGN UP FOR A FREE TRIAL! | MEMBER LOGIN · LOGIN HELP 
HOME MY ACCOUNT GAMES HELP

News
Home
Forums
Info
Downloads
Links
Policies

Getting Around

Now you know how to do all these neat things, but you don't know how to get anywhere to do them!  Within the following paragraphs is all you need to know to discover the ancient evils of Bacchus deep in the bowels of the earth, to stroll through wild gardens of exotic flowers perfuming the air with the essence of life, to travel far abroad to Egypt and Norway aboard tossing ships through storms on the high seas, fraught with pirates.  Discover hidden tombs and climb the highest mountains.  Search for Atlantis and flee from fearsome hydras.  Hop along stones in the center of the Styx and sneak past Cerberus to hitch a ride on Charon's ferry.  All that and more once you learn these few basic things which will open up a huge ancient world for you to explore.

Movement is another time when all of the rules we learned about commands may not apply. There are two kinds of movement in the game. There is directional movement, and there is movement through portals. To see the difference, we need to look at a room description.

How to Tell Where You Can Go
Any time you move to a new room, the system automatically sends you a description of the new room. However, it is likely that the room description will scroll off the screen sooner or later. To look at the room again, simply type LOOK.

The following is a typical room description:

[Athens, Rhea Road West]
Rhea Road touches Metis Circle, the center point of Athens. Roads also head toward the theaters and tavernas in the northwest corner of the city. A trio of young men discussing sports jostles past you, intent only upon their conversation. You also see a gate leading south.
Also here: Ganamal, Troius.
Obvious paths: north, east, west, northwest.

The room description is divided into five distinct parts:

  1. The room name: [Athens, Rhea Road West]
  2. The description: Rhea Road touches Metis Circle, the centerpoint of Athens. Roads also head toward the theaters and tavernas in the northwest corner of the city. A trio of young men discussing sports jostles past you, intent only upon their conversation.
  3. A list of objects: You also see a gate leading south.
  4. A list of people: Also here: Ganamal, Troius.
  5. A list of directions: Obvious paths: north, east, west, northwest.

Directional Movement
At the bottom of the room description is a list of directions that are valid exits from the room. These will always be one of the eight compass directions, up, down, or out. In order to travel in one of the directions, just type the direction name. Again, uppercase or lowercase does not matter, and you can abbreviate using the standard abbreviations for compass directions.

Up = U

  Northwest = NW  

      North = N      

   Northeast = NE  

West = W

Out = O

East = E

Down = D

Southwest = SW

South = S

Southeast = SE

An even easier way to move in directions is to use the keypad on your keyboard.  Only the Wizard FE and eScape support this, Java will not.  When using the Wizard make sure NumLock is OFF and when using eScape make sure NumLock is ON.  You just use the keypad as a compass with the 0/Ins key being DOWN and the ./Del key being UP.

Using Portals
Directional movement is simple enough, but there may be other ways to move from one room to another. If you look at the room description above, in the list of objects you will see "a gate leading south." This is known as a portal.

A portal is any method of travel that leads from one room to another that is not a direction.  Does that sound confusing? Okay, let's try to simplify it.  A portal could be a door, because a door can lead from one room to another.  However, it might also be a gate, an opening, an archway, an entrance, etc.  Portals can also be named other things like, a path, a road, a walkway, a hole, a stair, a ladder, etc.

To move through most portals, use the GO command. For example, GO DOOR, GO ENTRANCE, GO CAVE, etc.  Notice we said most.

Some portals like stairs will need to be climbed.  CLIMB STAIR, CLIMB HILL, CLIMB STEPS, etc.  And there are even some special cases were a portal has a special use determined by a GameMaster.  For example, you might see a ledge in a room, but GO LEDGE and CLIMB LEDGE won't work.  It's possible you may need to JUMP LEDGE.  You may also run across portals that you need to get on your knees and CRAWL through, but these latter examples are usually prompted by a message when you attempt to GO through them as a normal portal.  Like: "You can't reach the ledge, maybe you should jump for it?"

It can be tricky to identify portals sometimes. For example, if you see a room description that says: "There is a steep hill to the east." it is hard to tell if movement should use the direction east, or a portal called "a hill."  It is also possible that the hill is an obstacle that blocks movement, and you can't really go there at all. The only way to figure it out is to try it.

Not all portals will show up in the list of room objects either.  A room might mention an archway but say nothing about an archway in the object list.  It's likely that the archway is a portal, so try GO ARCHWAY, the only way to know is to try.

Using DIRections
When you are on the streets of Athens, you will have access to a command called DIRECTIONS.  This is usually referred to as DIR, so don't be confused if someone whispers for you to use DIR.  If you type DIR you will get a list of places in that area of Athens that you can go.  What you do is simply choose a destination from that list, let's say the ARMORY, and type DIR ARMORY.  This will give you a list of steps on how to find the armory.

Note, you must be OUTSIDE to use this command, it will not work in any buildings or shops.  Also note, not everything in Athens is on the DIR list, so explore.  There's a lot more out there to be seen.

Get Maps
Maps are a good resource to be had and really a godsend in terms of finding your way around.  With a good map in your hands you will be able to find most anything, and it will really make your stay in the game much more enjoyable.  If you are feeling especially frustrated with the game, try to find some maps and you'll begin seeing things in a new light.

We don't supply many maps with the documentation, and the ones we do supply are liable to become incomplete before we even post them.  This is because we really don't have the time to keep them updated and because the GameMasters are always adding to our world.  We suggest you peruse the player web sites to get a hold of any maps you may need.

[ HOMEBACK TO NEW PLAYER GUIDE ]

 
Rated E: Everyone Interactive -- The content of this site may change due to interactive exchanges.  Mild Violence.
Simutronics Corporation

Go Play!