Monday, November 22, 2010
Features in ULTIZURK IV: Lord of the Cyclops
Ultizurk IV is basically done. At this writing we are only awaiting the last of the music score. Here is a little more detail about what to expect in the game. It has been in development off and on for nearly 10 years, and most of its many new features are a direct result of feedback from my previous games - what players liked and disliked. Here’s a brief outline of features as a result of this feedback over the years:
- UZ4 is a large world with lots of exploration. There is a lot here not only pertinent to the quests, but useful and fun - towns, caverns, forests, mountain passes, lava regions and chilly northern climes as well. One doesn’t walk far without running into something of interest!
- Incredible interactivity. You can interact with almost anything in the land, literally lifting and dropping objects everywhere on the land - in your inventory, in containers, etc. But more - there are many tools and machinery which actually work, allowing you to do such things as forge a sword from ore, trim sheep and thatch the wool into a coat, mix potions. Chop sling stones from rocks, make wine on a winepress, even bake bread and pop popcorn. You can walk up to a tree and pick an orange or gather herbs that grow in the land. If you see it, chances are you can interact with it in some way. Stylistically, it is similar to the old classic “Ultima 7” in this regard.
- Full party of adventurers. UZ4 has a complete role-playing system with all the fixings we like in these games - plenty of stats, classes, skills, etc. However, it does not go overboard in this regard. Every stat and skill can and will affect something somewhere in the game.
You train your characters by actually visiting trainers having gained some field experience. Characters of certain classes will advance automatically in those skills important to the class, for example a thief will get better at things like lock-picking, stealing and pick-pocketing. But you can diversify your characters by taking them to the trainers and using your earned skill points. The result is that your characters can grow in the skills you want them to grow in, as well as their natural abilities.
Combat is turn-based, movement-point based, similar to the original Fallout games. It is not a click-fest! Very strategic, combat can be every bit as unpredictable as a real fight. There are many options and combat can be a lot of fun. In addition to the obligatory spells like heal or fireball, we’ve included several humorous spells that you can zap your enemies with. You’ll see!
Likewise with spells, there are many useful ones. In addition to typical buffing-type spells, there are things like BarterBoost and PickMaster and others which can help your party in non-combat situations.
-NPC Interaction. ALL NPC’s in Ultizurk 4 can be interacted with. There are many who go into a full talk-panel style interface where you can train, get quests, collect information, etc. But the NPC’s are not idle heads. They have lives. They will talk about themselves, what they do, why they are here, give opinions, etc. Even the guards in the game are not generic and each one is completely different from the other.
Related to talk - all NPC’s have photographic portraits to add to the realism, from the grumpy old mayor of New Grizbon, to the whacky Ol’ Killer Jack-Bill and the lovely lasses down in Amazon country...From normal people to those who are off the wall, you’ll meet them all in UZ4.
-Trading. We worked very hard to make our shops interesting. No generic pop-up panel here! Every shop you walk into in the land is completely different than the others. You literally see the items displayed on tables, and can pick them up and examine them before you buy, or talk to the shopkeeper about their wares. Selling is similar, where you simply drop the item on the old barter-block and the shopkeeper will give you an offer. Train up that bartering skill or use the BarterBoost spell and your bound to get a good deal.
There are also many NPC’s who walk around the towns, complete with “speech balloons” - these don’t say as much but they will always give information useful to the area in which they are, and greatly liven up the reality of the game world.
-Interface. The interface for UZ4 was designed to be very intuitive. So much so that even the in-game tutorial which you can turn off or on suggests that you just play around. Icons for various functions leave no confusing as to what exactly you are doing at any given time. You can look at and examine everything in site. Use trees for fruit or pick up a fishing pole and try your luck at a nearby lake. When making things or using items, your own party members will often advise you:
“Perhaps you should put a hot sword-blank on that forge before hitting it with that hammer!” or “Now all we need is an empty bottle and we can fill it with the wine in the press!”
At the click of a mouse you can pop up your inventories, check the player’s stats, split up or combine grouped items, etc. And there are keyboard shortcuts as well as a few right-click mouse shortcuts for common actions.
The game includes a detailed overhead map view, which shows surrounding terrain with unexplored regions in black. This is not a bunch of dots - its an actual mini-representation of the map. If you open a door on the main view, you’ll actually see the tiny door open on the mini-map!
An auto-journal system will alert you when ever something important happens, or if you stumble on something important.
-General stuff. Perhaps more than anything, UZ4 allows you to play the way you want to play. You are not forced in a typical go from point A to point B sort of way. You have quests, but you can take your time, even working to earn gold. And indeed, Ultizurk 4 doesn’t boast “hundreds of quests” which are all basically fed-ex or kill the rats types over and over, but rather the quests involve deeper ideas where, for example, you might save a town from bankruptcy or bring together members of a family, or convince someone that maybe their lifestyle is not necessarily the best path.
And yet as you explore the strange and mysterious world of UZ4, it becomes apparent that something dire and bizarre is about to happen. There is an uneasiness in the land and its up to you to find out what’s going on, for in Ultizurk IV: Lord of the Cyclops:
NOTHING IS AS IT SEEMS!
