Game News Lord British Kickstarter coming up - "Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues"

[taxalot]

They rewrote everything because the engine they ended up having couldn't handle the story they have written, also, EA wanted a plot that could be understood by everyone.

o_O since when does the engine limit the story telling? To tell a great story, you don't need super amazing cinematics ~_~

The Ultima IX engine was "clumsy" at best :
Having an army encampment in a place where there was nothing before ? Not sure it could be done besides loading a separate map for the stuff, and besides, I doubt it could have displayed enough NPCs to make it believable. The battle scenes at Terfin ? The engine was STRUGGLING to make it believable a NPC attacked a monster. Also, the pathfinding was broken which made having a party impossible. You can see from the Ed Del Castillo design document, which is later than Bob White's, that they had already scaled back on their ambitions while keeping the same plotline overall. As time went on, it probably became worse. Plus there is the matter of implementation.

There are tons of features in the U9 engine that got hardly implemented, or very scarcily : having a character moving on the map from a place to another ? You can count the instances of that on one hand. Also, there is proof that they had an inventory system for party members (Raven is actually having your weapons equipped before she gives it back to you when you get out of Wrong), but still they didn't bother to use it.

There is so much story you can tell with a crappy engine which didn't even allow characters to move around.

Also, ANY plot should be able to be understood by anyone... that is part of the job with telling a story ~_~ Always having the character ask "what is ____?" and then having an npc give them a wall of text to "catch them up" is just lazy "story telling".

Exactly.

 

[Jaesun]

I wonder if Gariott has ever seen that Spoony episode. Because he really should.

BETRAYAL!

 

[Studio Fawn]

Yea, and also consider games like Thief came out a year before this one...so.... blaming the tech only goes so far when all the games around you are rocking the boat.

 

[Infinitron]

Saxon1974
Yep, like I said, ultimately it's the graphics whore tech geeks of Origin who are directly responsible for fucking up Ultima IX. Sad but true.

Nah, it was whoever was in charge of the project. If your managing a project and your artists / programmers throw out some crazy direction for the project, you might give them a little freedom to try some stuff out...but if it isn't panning out, you move on instead of letting it sink the project. The person at the head of the project is the filter and guide to make sure the project happens and moves forward ~_~

And still, it wasn't just a technical issue... the story itself and writing was just completely bonkers. Over 3 and half years into the project and you decide to completely rewrite everything? A year before it needs to be released? Wait...what?

That's why I said directly responsible.

Also, what taxalot said.

Yea, and also consider games like Thief came out a year before this one...so.... blaming the tech only goes so far when all the games around you are rocking the boat.

Not sure how that's relevant; the Dark Engine couldn't have supported a massive open world party-based CRPG either.

This is bigger than just 2D vs 3D.

 

[FrancoTAU]

If you take the time and actually read the Bob White plot, it doesn't feel very "Ultima" and that's probably why they re-wrote it. I thought it was still pretty cool though (for the most part).

I don't think the problem with U9's writing is the plot that they were going for. It was the sheer amount of a little annoying details that contradicted previous lore, made no sense, overexplained things or just made characters look dumb.

 

[Infinitron]

If you take the time and actually read the Bob White plot, it doesn't feel very "Ultima" and that's probably why they re-wrote it. I thought it was still pretty cool though (for the most part).

Doesn't feel Ultima? I don't know. Would Serpent Isle's plot have "felt Ultima", if you'd read it on paper? The Ultima feel has a lot to do with the small details and the atmosphere, neither of which are well conveyed by a design doc.

In any case, that's not why they rewrote it.

 

[Diablo169]

I've never seen those Spoony Experiment videos before, kinda hilarious :D

 

[HobGoblin42]

At this time, beside Ultima IX only Everquest and Daggerfall were capable of believable large 3D Open Worlds. And compared to those two games, Ultima IX definitely had the most beautiful visuals.

 

[tuluse]

They rewrote everything because the engine they ended up having couldn't handle the story they have written, also, EA wanted a plot that could be understood by everyone.

o_O since when does the engine limit the story telling? To tell a great story, you don't need super amazing cinematics ~_~

All the time actually. Once you've committed to a certain engine, lots of things can be difficult to do. RPGs are extremely complex and require tons of scripting than an engine may or may not be able to handle.

And once you've decided to make a 3D open world game, that means you have to make art for all parts of story telling.

 

[ghostdog]

Those damn engines. They appear all by themselves and make games crappy. : x

 

[Metro]

What's the last good game he made? Abandon all hope, friends.

 

[Studio Fawn]

What's the last good game he made? Abandon all hope, friends.

No no, he didn't make any bad games, the engines made bad games ~_~

 

[Metro]

Studio Fawn sighting!

 

[Studio Fawn]

Studio Fawn sighting!

I've been posting for weeks ~_~

 

[Infinitron]

Lord British comments: http://ultimacodex.com/2013/03/is-richard-garriotts-new-game-a-pc-title-will-it-be-revealed-at-sxsw/

Greetings Adventurers!

Fear not! Any “Ultimate RPG” I would be attempting would be first and foremost a PC game (neither console, nor social media). It would be highly story driven as my original trilogy of trilogies. I would hope to also make it such that it can be played multiplayer as well as solo and offline.

– Richard “Lord British” Garriott

He's such a sperg.

 

[Broseph]

Fapping with extreme caution.

 

[Kahlis]

"Any Ultimate RPG I would be attempting" doesn't imply the Kickstarter is for an RPG, just if he were to make an RPG...

 

[Stabwound]

LB commented on a page about this kickstarter, though. Screw it, I'm not even going to think about this thing anymore until its announced. Last time it ended up being Baldur's Gate ENCHANTED EDITION.

 

[mindx2]

Lord British comments: http://ultimacodex.com/2013/03/is-richard-garriotts-new-game-a-pc-title-will-it-be-revealed-at-sxsw/

Greetings Adventurers!

Fear not! Any “Ultimate RPG” I would be attempting would be first and foremost a PC game (neither console, nor social media). It would be highly story driven as my original trilogy of trilogies. I would hope to also make it such that it can be played multiplayer as well as solo and offline.

– Richard “Lord British” Garriott

He's such a sperg.

This part just fills me with dread as I know it will dominate the design. It's all he's been talking about for years!

 

[Micmu]

I would hope to also make it such that it can be played multiplayer as well as solo and offline

There you go.
He's definitely back.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

It is because of piracy that these useless online components are being shoehorned into single player games. It is an attempt to make the pirated copy unappealing or unfeasible.

 

[evdk]

What they actually achieve is making the whole game unappealing or unfeasible. Great success.

 

[FrancoTAU]

I'm know it's not going to be the case, but I'm hoping the multiplayer aspect is more of a take your SP character and do a deathmatch or raid that has nothing to do with the SP game. And you can't level up or take back loot. I don't know, it's the guy who created Ultima... i'm trying here. Baldur's Gate had a pretty inoffensive multii player component.

 

[Rake]

So the single player part will be unappealing or unfeasible?

 

[Metro]

It'll require Facebook integration: "Obtain 100 likes to level up!"