Piata Academy multiple floors?

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Piata Academy multiple floors?

Postby Atlinsmere » Sat Mar 31, '12, 3:34 am

Hey everybody, thought I'd share something I noticed with Piata academy. Judging from the maps of Piata academy, it has at least three levels.

So what we know it does have are two level. The main level where Hahn is, and the academy exit. And the second floor where the principal is. However, judging from these three maps:

Academy First Floor
Academy Second Floor
Piata

If you look at the bottom floor from the second story, there are windows there and no door from the main entrance. While on the first floor there are no windows.

Now if you look at the map of Piata and look at the academy, it shows you were the ledge is on the second floor, meaning there should be at least 4 floors. That being the main entrance, bottom windows floor, top windows floor, the the second floor.

But then again I could be over thinking things and the walls on the main level go up a lot higher than they look. which would explain a lot I think.

Anyone care to discuss this with me?
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Re: Piata Academy multiple floors?

Postby Thoul » Sat Mar 31, '12, 7:07 pm

I've never noticed these discrepancies in the level designs before now. Nice catch, Atlin. You've got a good eye. This is a bit of a puzzler. I think there is more to the Academy building than we're allowed to explore, but there may also be some sloppy design to the outside of the building.

Given the height of the walls, characters, and the doors, I agree the bottom floor is the windowless area we can see outside at the door level height. The first row of windows would be the true second floor, with the second row being the true third floor. Just above that, again on the outside map, you can see balconies across all three sections of the building.

Now is where things start going wonky for me. If we look at the map with the Principal's office, there is a balcony only on the center portion of the building. The window alignment below that balcony is not the same, either - four windows placed together are now more spaced apart. This suggests to me that the floor below the Principal's floor is not the true third floor at all. It could be a fourth floor with the three balconies just below the visible area. That would place the Principal on the fifth floor! He could possibly be even higher, since there is no way to tell if more floors separate the single balcony floor from the three balcony floor.

But then, I notice another problem with the building. There are some discrepancies between the inside and outside maps even on the first floor. If we count the number of bricks between each column, there is a different amount on the two maps. Let's use the second row of bricks from the bottom, since they're nice and evenly placed with no half-bricks to throw us off. On the outside map, there are four bricks between the left columns and the same on the right. On the inside first floor map, counting the same level will reveal five bricks instead. The building suddenly grows wider when we go inside! The principal's floor map uses the same wider building size. That calls into question if the outside map can trusted to represent the building's true size at all. Maybe we should just use the inside maps and forget the outside?

Another thing: if one looks at the world map representation of Piata, it has three, arguably four, levels of windows on the building. However, the building is also much wider. Now it has seven windows on either side of the door, rather than the three shown in the town map. That adds credence to the idea that the place was envisioned as being larger than we can see.

Well, regardless of which map we end up trusting, I agree with one thing: there's at least one floor we don't get to explore.
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Re: Piata Academy multiple floors?

Postby Atlinsmere » Sun Apr 1, '12, 11:36 pm

I just realized too, by looking at the world map, you can see what appears to be two buildings and a dome on top of the academy, which proves to be more levels that you can't explore. This makes the Academy much larger than what we get to explore.

Each of those two buildings look more like towers showing at least two levels on each of them with the dome having at least one.

That leaves the main part of the building having, if we took Thoul's facts into play, at least five levels. However, that calls into question of stairs. I think the stairs would be just on the other side of the building, where there is a lot of space, therefore, the stairs would alternate onto which side goes up.

So if we take into account with what we know so far from speculation. The stairs go like this.

Stairs(up)....Floor
Left.............First (Entrance Level)
Right...........Second (Hidden)
Left.............Third (Hidden)
Right...........Fourth (This level could be the principals office)
Left.............Fifth (Hidden)
Right...........Sixth (This level could be the principals office.

Heres a quick crappy diagram to show what I mean.

Image

Also, having the telescope on a higher level than the second would make a lot better sense in my opinion.

But then raises the next question regarding the world map Piata. Those being the two towers with at least two floors, possible double that in regards to size with the main building.

That brings us between 8 and 10 floors. That's SIX or EIGHT that we don't get to explore. That also makes this arguably the tallest building on Motavia. Right beside Zio's Church.
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Re: Piata Academy multiple floors?

Postby Wanderer From Ys » Tue Apr 3, '12, 12:22 am

You guys are assuming that windows = floors. I don't agree. It's supposed to a huge academy, and it probably just has really high ceilings. Just like any big high school, college, courthouse etc. The windows on the first floor are only just above the cutoff anyway, we can see the ones in the back. There are only 2 floors.
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Re: Piata Academy multiple floors?

Postby Thoul » Tue Apr 3, '12, 4:14 am

Two levels of bricks in the wall looks to be roughly about the same height as a person. Assuming that's about 5-6 feet of height, that would put the first floor around 20-25 feet tall if all the windows on the outside map are the first floor. I don't think the ceilings would be that high in a civilization with such limited technology and resources.

Having only two floors also still leaves the question about the windows apparently being positioned differently between two maps. On the second floor map and looking down at the level below, those windows in the center portion of the building don't match the highest windows visible on the outside. And then there's the missing balconies, too. Even going with the concept of one floor being higher than one row of windows, I still think there would have to be three floors.
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Re: Piata Academy multiple floors?

Postby Wanderer From Ys » Tue Apr 3, '12, 9:51 pm

Actually the problem is that the inside and outside maps just are consistent with each other period. Just look out the first floor. From the outside there are 2 rows of bricks, with the windows starting on the third, from the inside the walls are 3 bricks high with no widows visible. There are also more bricks across. There is no mystery, just inconsistent level design.
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Re: Piata Academy multiple floors?

Postby Atlinsmere » Sat Apr 21, '12, 5:32 am

It might be inconsistent level design. But it's still fun to theorize what ifs and discuss what other possibilities there could be in Phantasy Star. I would have replied sooner, but I've been busy with other stuff recently and haven't had much chance.

As stated before, I highly doubt that those rooms are 25 feet in high for a simple academy. Maybe if it was 12 to 15 feet it'd be more believable with their technology. But then it does make you wonder, how did they build Zio's Church in Kadary? And yes, that is another building with missing levels.
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Re: Piata Academy multiple floors?

Postby Thoul » Sat Apr 21, '12, 6:18 am

Could Zio's Church be explained as having magic used in the construction? His fort was said to have appeared overnight. Although no one actually mentions something like that in regards to the church building, maybe something similar happened there?
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Re: Piata Academy multiple floors?

Postby Atlinsmere » Sat Apr 21, '12, 7:19 am

Well if thats the case, could it perhaps be possible that whoever built the academy used techniques/magic like Zan to lift up bigger pieces, which could explain the higher levels. But still, I don't see how they would have made it 20/25 ft up, as I think it'd stat to get difficult in controlling where the pieces go.
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