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EA/Mythic Entertainment mount Ultima's corpse so they can kill it again
- Thread starter taxalot
- Start date
Correction: Can any of you involved in the alpha talk yet or are you still on the gag order? This has been a ridiculous wait.
Somebody talked somewhere and said it was shit. Not sure if his word is reliable though.
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- Jan 2, 2012
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I believe it.
I do not remember the last time, after Meridian 59, I thought "awesome" when it came to an MMORPG, and moreso with current gen Facebook integrated mobile shit, which tells everyone on my FB what I am doing at the moment I am doing it, and all the while spamming them with links to shit.
I do not know why they chose to use the Ultima brand for this game, they could have made it independent of the Ultima brand and not pissed in the mouths of Ultima fans. Are old Ultima fans the target of this game? It doesn't look like it. So why use the Ultima brand?
...
Holy shit, they turned Ultima into a modern Secret of Mana ripoff, complete with anime cutscenes. 
Is there anything the gaming alchemists at EA can't do?
Is there anything the gaming alchemists at EA can't do?
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- Mar 2, 2010
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- 10,881
How about "a good game" lately.
Average Manatee
Arcane
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2012
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- 15,270
They've done a few good games lately. In the ass and mouth, repeatedly.
Alex
Arcane
Well, this is still an improvement over the last time when he disavowed Ultima 8 but not 9.
Ultima Codex recently posted the new teaser trailer for Ultima Forever. Admittedly, I have been avoiding all related news on this game until this point...mostly out of fear. But wow...this truly resembles nothing Ultima at all. Even more frustrating is the "Welcome back" spoken towards the end of the trailer. Welcome back to what exactly?
Also for laughs you might want to read the comments. There's word of EA-Mythic deleting negative feedback on their Facebook page, what a surprise.
Link: http://ultimacodex.com/2013/02/ultima-forever-quest-for-the-avatar-official-trailer-and-platform-information/
Also for laughs you might want to read the comments. There's word of EA-Mythic deleting negative feedback on their Facebook page, what a surprise.
Link: http://ultimacodex.com/2013/02/ultima-forever-quest-for-the-avatar-official-trailer-and-platform-information/
MisterStone
Arcane
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- Apr 1, 2006
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- 9,422
This... is not Ultima.
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- Jan 28, 2011
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http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPad/Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar/news.asp?c=48601
Hands-on with Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar
It's difficult to know how long-time Ultima fans will react to Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar.
The game certainly looks like Ultima, and the usual Ultima trapping like Tarot cards and virtues are all present, but something about it just feels off.
No doubt this is because Ultima's creator, Richard Garriott, was not involved in the free-to-play RPG and neither is Lord British for that matter. He's apparently followed the pope's example and retired, leaving his daughter, Lady British, in control of the Kingdom.
The virtues of combat
Ultima Forever is a top-down action RPG that plays a good deal like Gauntlet or a simplified Diablo, with gameplay split between social challenges and instanced dungeons.
The dungeons can be run solo or in a team using Ultima Forever's four-player synchronous co-op mode.
Combat in these dungeons is a simple affair with your character dutifully autoattacking targeted enemies. You'll score higher damage for flank attacks and backstabs (which don't seem that virtuous) however, so circling around your foes is definitely recommend.
When faced with a boss or large swarm of low-level enemies, you can break the routine of autoattacking by manually firing off an area of effect special attack. These attacks work similar to abilities in most MMORPGs and have a cooldown period, but they're all pretty quick to recharge.
Once the enemies are defeated, it's time to enjoy the loot.
Drops are housed in treasure chests that can be unlocked with one of three keys. Bronze keys are found freely in game but result in lower rewards, silver keys can be purchased as an IAP with hard currency or formed by combining multiple bronze keys and will yield better drops.
Gold keys, which are only available as IAPs, will guarantee the best loot drops.
Patience is a virtue
In the game's social locations, players focus on helping helping NPCs resolve moral quandaries in a quest to increase their character's virtue ratings.
Like many previous Ultima titles, this system monitors your decisions carefully and bleeds over to the combat portion of the game as well. If you're leading a raid and don't divvy up the loot to your other teammates fairly, your honesty rating will suffer as a result.
Unfortunately, you're lead by the nose to many of these decisions as the first option in text dialog is almost always the "right" choice and selecting it will speed you through game's lore.
Those looking to delve a bit deeper into the realm of Ultima can click on other choices, but players looking to raid first and read later can skate through most conversations by tapping the top choice.
If you're not turned off by the new direction EA has taken with Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar - or the lack of Garriott's involvement with the title - it'll make its way to iOS this spring with an Android build to follow later.
Mortmal
Arcane
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- Jun 15, 2009
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- 9,502
It makes sense , i know why they use the Ultima name. No one would notice it amongst the sea of android/ios hack and slash and free to play shovelware. Remove the name and i just see a sympathic cartoony hack and slash, not an abomination and rape of a prestigious license.
Prestigious rape?
Mortmal
Arcane
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2009
- Messages
- 9,502
yes , theres no such thing as bad advertisement, i bet if they could kill the former ultima team in front of a camera they would do too . Its working , we have a huge thread dedicated to a shitty hack and slash for mobiles.
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- Jan 28, 2011
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U4E map evolution: http://forever.ultimacodex.com/media/ultima-forever-map-evolution/
Ultima Forever Map Evolution
The map for Ultima Forever has undergone significant revision since the game was first conceptualized. Mythic Entertainment generously allowed us to obtain photographs of the various “early stage” maps for the game, showing how it began from a tracing of the Ultima 4 map and, through successive iterations, became what it is today. We are hugely indebted to Paul Barnett and Kate Flack for walking Withstand the Fury Dragon through the history of these eight maps, and for allowing him to record images of each.
The First Map
The first map drawn up for Ultima Forever was based on an upscaled tracing of the map of Ultima 4. Some of the paper sections are missing now, but most of the major landmarks from Ultima 4 can be seen on the map, in addition to a number of annotations made by the development team at Mythic. Notably, Mythic were keen on ensuring that every little island was given a proper name. Where possible and feasible under canon, they relied on other Ultima titles, but you’ll note (for example) that the group of islands south of Skara Brae has been circled and labelled “Seven Sisters”.
The Second Map
The second revision of Ultima Forever’s map was still very close in design to that of Ultima 4. In keeping with the previous map, every island has been given a name, and many other points of interest have also been defined. At the same time, it can be seen that the team at Mythic had begun to explore putting their own little twists on the lore into the game, such as the island of Spektran…which at one point they had considered setting atop the back of a giant turtle.
The Third Map
This third map — which some of you may recognize — was drawn up to test the fledgling engine that Mythic’s developers had put together forUltima Forever. Obviously, there has been a fairly significant departure from the shape of Ultima 4′s Britannia, and many of the smaller features from the earlier maps (tiny islands and the like) have all but disappeared. Although this was just a testbed map, note the shape of the continent; we’ll see it again below.
This map also features one artist’s attempt at a logo for the game:
The Fourth Map
This was a “back to the drawing board” map that Mythic put together to look at the possibility of breaking Britannia up into zones, of the sort one might find in a typical MMORPG. The idea, brief as it was, was to break the game up into eight zones, each corresponding to a particular Virtue; the markup on the map reflects this. Ultimately, this concept was shelved.
The Fifth Map
Dagger Isle
Skara Brae
Trinsic
The next revision of the map was broken out over several large sections of graph paper, requiring that photos of each be taken in turn. We may have a go at stitching these together into one piece, although the map is not wholly complete: only Dagger Isle and the areas around Skara Brae and Trinsic are depicted. In this set of images, elements of the third map’s design can be seen, although effort is also being made to preserve more of the fine details from the original Ultima 4 map.
The Sixth Map
Yew and Skara Brae
Trinsic and Jhelom
Britain and Area
Minoc and Dagger Isle
The sixth revision of the Ultima Forever map built off of the fifth. Different terrain types have been given solid colours to better visually differentiate between them. The map, at this point, is very much a hybrid between the Ultima 4 map and the third map, above, and is being expressed in tiles in order to ensure that the ideas being templated on paper can be incorporated into the game’s still-evolving engine.
You’ll note that many points of interest have had their names and locations set by this point.
The Seventh Map
This was the last version of the Ultima Forever map that would be expressed in tiles, and also represents the point at which the game’s design moved away from something purely tile-based to the painted artwork backdrops that have featured in all of the released media for the game. As can be seen below, the initial map was put together using tiles from the VGA upgrade for Ultima 4. Also visible below: what might be the last surviving sample of the original painted artwork put together for the game.
The First Painted Artwork
Ultima 4 Tiles
The Eighth Map
The eighth revision to Ultima Forever’s map shows off an early version of the painted artwork that will be used in the final version of the game. This version of the game map incorporates many of the design elements of the previous three, and the similarity to the third map can also be noted. But, rather than using tiles from Ultima 4 or low-detail coloured squares, the map is now very obviously comprised of higher-quality art elements (although some re-use of elements is still visible; this has been refined and removed in later versions of the map).
Note that this is not the final map of Ultima Forever; Britannia has seen significant amounts of polishing and adjustment since this print was made. Some of these later revisions were visible around the office at Mythic, but were marked up with production notes; we felt it would be imprudent to record images of these at this time. Even so, the eight maps here show the evolution of Ultima Forever’s world, from drawing board to in-game realization, and hopefully also demonstrate the care and effort that Mythic have taken with respect to the lore of the canonical series in crafting a new Britannia.
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WHAT CHOICE WOULD YOU MAKE? http://ultimacodex.com/2013/02/ultima-forever-conversation-system-and-moral-quandaries/
So he's guilty of being a dungeon robber, in the same manner than the Avatar is, but it's alright cause it's the Avatar.
Also, death without trial = JUSTICE.
Also, death without trial = JUSTICE.
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I see it. It is indeed hilarious to see they're pretty much sharing my opinion after insulting me and cocksucking Mythic.
Oh, and someone is asking what's going on with the Ultima IX remakes.
Oh, and someone is asking what's going on with the Ultima IX remakes.
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- Jan 28, 2011
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- 99,676
Maybe I'll post it on the Codex later when things have died down. 
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