Travel Wells

TheKhanzumer · #1 05-18-2002, 08:33 PM

How do the Oddworld travel wells work? All I know is that they are tubes which to openings and when you jump in you can only travel one way out, either out the other end or back out the one you jumped in at depending on the the well. Some wells can have their "direction of travel" reversed by pulling a lever.

Does anyone have any good ideas? I think it might have something to do with vacuums but I am no scientist so I don't know how that would work.

***Wil*** · #2 05-19-2002, 07:53 AM

Wells are certainly a natural feature on Oddworld. There was a popular theory going around earlier about them being plants, but the Big Well is certainly no plant. I think that wells naturally have no standard form, but that natives and industrialists 'decorate' them.

But if wells are natural, how come they so often can be seen in the Abe games being supported by native or industrial support structures? I think that somehow the Mudokons and the Vykkers have come up with a way of developing artificial wells - ones based on spiritual magic, the others constructed on science.

How do they work? Well, I'm not a scientist either, but air flow seems to be quite important. Just look at all that stuff flying out of the wells in the Abe games and out of the Big Well. But that can't possibly be all it is, because Abe can fall into the Big Well while stuff is being blown out. And what's that big 'boom' sound all about?

TheKhanzumer · #3 05-19-2002, 06:37 PM

What you say makes since. People are always borrowing ideas found in nature and "improving" them for their own needs. The same probably goes for the natural and artificial wells.

As for the natural wells origin, I think they must be somewhat volcanic. Just look at the ones in the Necrum Vaults (Mudomo and Mudanchee) and the Big Well.

***Wil*** · #4 05-19-2002, 06:48 PM

Volcanic, that does sound interesting. Perhaps they were 'carved' by hot molten rock is what you're saying, yes? Hmm, that does sound believable, in an Odd sort of way (which is the best sort of way there is).

I hope the games never explain how wells work. I mean, wells are two-a-penny on Oddworld, why would they have to explain something like that? However, if Alf told us (fat chance)...

***Xavier*** · #5 05-20-2002, 05:01 AM

sorry to interupt your high-debate, but
In The Mudanchee Vaults you can see a well with is in reality a long tube from the front to the back...
no Volcanic activity for this one, so how ?

TheKhanzumer · #6 05-20-2002, 12:39 PM

Perhaps that one was made by Mudokons, Xavier.

I can just see the first brave (or stupid?) mudokon finding out what happens when he jumps into the well. "Hey Buddy, what'll ya give me if I jump into this here hole?... A Meeche Munchie... okay sounds good. One, two, THREE AAAAGGGGHHHHHHH!" phump! "WWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHH, oof"

***Xavier*** · #7 05-20-2002, 04:06 PM

yeah that's true... how did they find that?
Also I only saw Mudokons using it (+ now gabbits)
once a slog felt in a well and he was expulsed too...
why doesn't the industrialist use it ?

buckminster · #8 05-20-2002, 06:16 PM

I remember we had a bit of this discussion earlier, where depending upon who enters the well in MO, they get a different trajectory.

One observation was a well's trajectory depended upon the race (wells react differently to sligs, mudokons, slogs, etc.), but I noticed that in MO, well trajectory is even dependent upon who you are within a race.

At the end of one of the slog huts (the one with the snoozer), there are two wells. If you throw a scrub into either well, they are propelled towards the upper platform next to the exit door. If you have Abe or Munch jump into the wells, they are either propelled to the higher platform (by the closer well) or the walkway with the snoozer control (by the further away well).

Mac the Janitor · #9 05-20-2002, 09:38 PM

Yeah, someone had to do it for the first time.

It makes you think about some stuff here on earth. Like milk. Some idiot had to try it the first time. "Hmm... I think that I'll drink this white, creamy liquid that came from an animal's wobbly thing in between its legs." Heheh. Now we drink it almost every day.

buckminster · #10 05-21-2002, 01:22 PM

Actually, drinking milk from another animal isn't too far fetched (since we all probably started getting milk from our mothers).

Haggis, on the other hand... "let's take some organs from this sheep, stuff them in its stomach along with some oatmeal and beans, etc., and boil it!! That sounds great!"

One, Two, Middlesboogie · #11 05-21-2002, 01:40 PM

Well, the individual organs are tasty; someone probably had the idea of combining them, and adding some plant matter for roughage, to compensate for the constipation you'd otherwise get. And just for the record, it wasn't actually the Scots who invented haggis. They didn't invent porridge or golf either. The Persians invented golf; I can't remember where porridge and haggis came from, though. I think the Romans invented one of them.

And as for wells, I reckon they're artificial; as in not natural features. Why else would they only be where you need them and not in random locations or pop you out over a 2000-foot precipice? They probably harness some natural force (like magnetism or gravity) on Oddworld that Earth doesn't have.

Genral.E.Stupid · #12 05-21-2002, 02:44 PM

i think that it doesnt matter who you are when going into a well but probbably your mass could have something to do with it.

buckminster · #13 05-21-2002, 03:47 PM

Interesting point, it would help explain the well behavior from a "science" perspective, but I still think that it's some type of "mystical" nature to wells that isn't explained by mass of the creatures being shot out of the well. It doesn't seem that Abe and Munch would be the same mass while Scrubs aren't the same mass as Abe, anyway.

***Wil*** · #14 05-21-2002, 04:29 PM

Buckminster's example (which is at the end of Sloghut 2813) is one I have an explanation for.

Seeing as the two wells in that area are Industrial ones, I think it's possible that there could be some kind of device inside that sends certain people in certain directions. For example, if the well detects Abe or Munch, it throws them up to the Remote Control. If it detects a Scrub, it lobs them up to the exit.

Why? Well, the Cartel could do with such technology easily. Say there's a well that leads to a Glukkon's office, and if the Glukkon wants a Slig, the Slig just jumps in the well and heads up there. Now, a Mudokon terrorist could easily find his way to this well, and so the Glukkons installs this device, and Abe is thrown directly into a prisoner cell. Ingenious. All it needs is a little malfunction (thanks to the ever-present Mudokon Liberation Party) and our hero has the perfect setup.

I expect the Mudokons have their own mojo magic version they put onto all the wells they use, whether they're natural or Mud-made. The only well we've encountered that couldn't possible have been interfered with by Mudokons or Industrialists is the Big Well...and where does that go? Straight up!

And if that sounds far fetched, that's most likely because it is. But I like it.