That Ultima V Remake

[MaskedMartyr]

I always wanted to try this mod but Dungeon Siege isn't compatible with Windows Vista.

how ironic innit

 

[JarlFrank]

I always wanted to try this mod but Dungeon Siege isn't compatible with Windows Vista.

how ironic innit

Why use Vista anyways?

 

[MetalCraze]

I think the solution to your problem is obvious - install operating system that does work.

 

[hal900x]

I just installed this. Looks good. I'm curious whether they will use the U5 levelling system or the skill-use system of the engine. And how can you tell what class your Avatar is when you start out? According to the docs, you are assigned one.

 

[JarlFrank]

I just installed this. Looks good. I'm curious whether they will use the U5 levelling system or the skill-use system of the engine. And how can you tell what class your Avatar is when you start out? According to the docs, you are assigned one.

The levelling is XP-based from what I've seen. Killing enemies gives XP. No skill-level system.

 

[Ammar]

Levelling is Xp bases, XP is given for monsters and quests. Your class is determined by the virtue you favour in the card reading at the beginning; the virtue you favour is always the one you pick on your last choice.

Then it's

Justice -> Druid
Honesty -> Mage
Humility -> Shepherd
Valor -> Fighter
Sacrifice -> Tinker
Compassion -> Bard
Honor -> Paladin
Spirituality -> Ranger.

Note that for the Avatar class just determines what Skills he can learn; he has always full MP and all spells. Mage is best IMO for Destruction Skill.

 

[hal900x]

I figured as much. But is there anywhere in the interface you can see which class you've been assigned, in case you forgot what your last seer choice was?

 

[MountainWest]

As someone mentioned, Lazarus is one of the best RPGs of the last five years (if that's a feat or not is open to debate). It does require extensive note-taking, but, at least in my book, that's a big plus; no "YOU GOT A NEW QUEST: WALK FIVE STEPS FORWARD! GOOD BOY! UR A WINNER!!!"

I do wonder, however, how someone who's been at the Codex for a couple of years have managed to remain oblivious to the fact that it's rated very high in the mind of the hive.

 

[Ammar]

I figured as much. But is there anywhere in the interface you can see which class you've been assigned, in case you forgot what your last seer choice was?

Well, you can look at the skills you have available (little icons somewhat below the attributes) and match that to one of the classes. Check the manual for that. It might not work before you have enough skills (depends on your level). Mage is easily recognizable as he has the Destruction skill. Same with the Druid and Protection.

 

[hal900x]

... It might not work before you have enough skills (depends on your level).

This.

But I'm guessing Paladin. I think I leaned towards honor and spirituality. I started with the Parry skill.

It's a neat idea and true to the original, but I'd rather just pick my class manually. I'm going Bard, and find out if this is one of the 1% if games that doesn't nerf archers. Ranged characters 4 lyfe, dawg.

So, all classes have access to the entire spellbook, eventually?

 

[BLOBERT]

HAHAHAHA CONSOLE GRAPHICS WHORE TRY PLAYING THE ORIGINAL

NEW GAMES ARE FAGGAGE GO PLAY XBAWKS DIPSHIT LOLOLHAHAHAHA!!!!!111!!11

 

[BLOBERT]

SKYWAY THE SOLUTION IS OBVIOUS STOP BEING SUCH A GRAPHICS WHORE NEWBIE LOLOLOLLOL PLAY THE ORGINAL THE PORT IS SHIT IT IS FOR SHEEP WHO JUST BUY WHATEVER IS PUT OUT LOLOLOL TOO BAD YOU ARE TOO MUCH AN XBAWKS SLUT TO PLAY THE ORIGINAL WITH TB COMBAT IT IS PPL LIKE YOU WHO IS RUINING GAMING

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

SKYWAY THE SOLUTION IS OBVIOUS STOP BEING SUCH A GRAPHICS WHORE NEWBIE LOLOLOLLOL PLAY THE ORGINAL THE PORT IS SHIT IT IS FOR SHEEP WHO JUST BUY WHATEVER IS PUT OUT LOLOLOL TOO BAD YOU ARE TOO MUCH AN XBAWKS SLUT TO PLAY THE ORIGINAL WITH TB COMBAT IT IS PPL LIKE YOU WHO IS RUINING GAMING

 

[Ammar]

So, all classes have access to the entire spellbook, eventually?

Not quite. The Avatar has, with other party members it does depend on the class.

 

[hal900x]

So, all classes have access to the entire spellbook, eventually?

Not quite. The Avatar has, with other party members it does depend on the class.

Right. I was referring to the Avatar, should have been more specific.

 

[BLOBERT]

HAHAHAHAH REMAKES ARE FOR CONSOLE KIDDIES LOLOLOL!!!!!!!!1

 

[Keldryn]

It actually looks pretty impressive. Why hasn't anybody hired these guys?

At least 4 or 5 of us on the team did land jobs in the industry. The project director, Ian, worked for Iron Lore Entertainment as a producer/designer on Titan Quest and as a lead designer on an unnamed project when the studio closed its doors. He's currently a lead designer on an unannounced RPG with Big Huge Games. I can't say enough about this guy's dedication, as he kept the Lazarus remake going for 5 years, without making a cent from it.

The lead world designer was hired by Gas Powered Games and worked on Space Siege; I don't know if he's still there or not.

I was one of the world-builders (and later just focused on rebuilding/maintaining the web site when I no longer had enough time to contribute to the game itself), and I worked for EA Canada for a year, and later as a designer on Max Payne 3 with Rockstar Vancouver. I left the games industry and went back to freelance Web/application development though.

I believe one of the writers found employment with Bioware.

I'm pretty sure that at least one or two others were able to work in the industry as well, but I haven't been in regular contact with them for a while. I can honestly say that despite being a volunteer project, Ian managed this project far more competently than professional projects I have worked on.

 

[Silellak]

It actually looks pretty impressive. Why hasn't anybody hired these guys?

At least 4 or 5 of us on the team did land jobs in the industry. The project director, Ian, worked for Iron Lore Entertainment as a producer/designer on Titan Quest and as a lead designer on an unnamed project when the studio closed its doors. He's currently a lead designer on an unannounced RPG with Big Huge Games. I can't say enough about this guy's dedication, as he kept the Lazarus remake going for 5 years, without making a cent from it.

The lead world designer was hired by Gas Powered Games and worked on Space Siege; I don't know if he's still there or not.

I was one of the world-builders (and later just focused on rebuilding/maintaining the web site when I no longer had enough time to contribute to the game itself), and I worked for EA Canada for a year, and later as a designer on Max Payne 3 with Rockstar Vancouver. I left the games industry and went back to freelance Web/application development though.

I believe one of the writers found employment with Bioware.

I'm pretty sure that at least one or two others were able to work in the industry as well, but I haven't been in regular contact with them for a while. I can honestly say that despite being a volunteer project, Ian managed this project far more competently than professional projects I have worked on.

Good to know you some of you guys got careers out of it. I imagine Ian HAD to manage the project that well or we'd still be staring at screenshots or demo movies. Lazarus impressed me far more than any RPG of the last 5 or probably even 10 years - and considering no one got a dime for making it, that's pretty damn impressive.

Out of curiosity, why did you leave the games industry? I ask mostly because I'm currently involved with Web/application development (though sadly not freelance, yet), though obviously I'd jump at a chance at any sort of game development if I had the skill set for it. Was it the atmosphere of the current game industry, the difference in working environments, or something else entirely?

Also, is there any chance of Max Payne 3 living up to the first two?

 

[Genma:TheDestroyer]

HAHAHAHAH REMAKES ARE FOR CONSOLE KIDDIES LOLOLOL!!!!!!!!1

How does that even make sense? They were doing remakes on the PC long before it became popular on consoles.



At least try to come up with something better, and don't be lazy. This post was nothing but a half-assed remake of your last ones. Have some pride in your trolling.

 

[Luzur]

Enilno = Online

but i guess you are either talking about the blackrock sword or the glass sword.

 

[Jarpie]

I always wanted to try this mod but Dungeon Siege isn't compatible with Windows Vista.

how ironic innit

Dungeon Siege should work on Vista if you put it on XP SP2 Emulation mode from file properties.

Apparently U5Lazarus.org (where the forums were) is gone, and it seems pretty unlikely that it'll be back, at least not anytime soon, but you can get mods from two different places:
Sylore and Ultima: Aiera

 

[Jaesun]

Sad to see the forums are gone. Awesome game. Best music in a game EVAR.

 

[Silellak]

Best music in a game EVAR.

Fuck. Yes. It played like a Best Of Ultima Collection soundtrack, with additional, new themes on top of that. I still listen to it once a month or so.

...yeah, I'm a shameless, pathetic, drooling Lazarus fanboy, I just don't care. It's pretty much the only game I played in the last 5-10 years that I already get nostalgic thinking about. Might be due for a replay soon, actually...

 

[Keldryn]

Good to know you some of you guys got careers out of it. I imagine Ian HAD to manage the project that well or we'd still be staring at screenshots or demo movies. Lazarus impressed me far more than any RPG of the last 5 or probably even 10 years - and considering no one got a dime for making it, that's pretty damn impressive.

Lazarus is by far the most ambitious fan-made project that I've ever seen which has actually been completed. Lots of RPG projects of such a scale are enthusiastically started up... and then never get anywhere. He had a clear vision of the game, and stuck to it. He wasn't afraid to cut features from the game that weren't working out or which were taking too many resources from other areas (some of those cut features made their way back into the game after we teamed up with the U6 Project folks), and he was willing to cut people from the team if they weren't being productive enough. I confess that I was up on the chopping block twice during the time I was involved, as I became increasingly distracted by real-life concerns and I wasn't able to reliably get my work done. I still wanted to be involved but I didn't want to negatively impact everyone else, so I took over the web site when the previous webmaster left.

I did the world-building for the alpha demo (Verity Isle & City of Moonglow), as well as Dungeon Shame and the Isle of the Avatar, plus some of the extra ocean/island regions that were added around the edges of the map. It must have taken me over a hundred hours to place all of those damn trees, rocks, mushrooms, shrubs, etc on that one island...

Out of curiosity, why did you leave the games industry? I ask mostly because I'm currently involved with Web/application development (though sadly not freelance, yet), though obviously I'd jump at a chance at any sort of game development if I had the skill set for it. Was it the atmosphere of the current game industry, the difference in working environments, or something else entirely?

The primary reason that I left the games industry is the number of hours that one is expected to work. There were other factors at Rockstar that made it a particularly unhealthy work environment to remain in. I don't think that it is necessary -- or productive in the long-term -- to work 12-16 hour days, 6 or 7 days a week, for any extended period of time. It just seems to keep happening in the industry. If your team members need to work more than the standard work week with any degree of regularity, it almost always comes down to management issues.

Unfortunately, the key team members at a game studio are often single men in their mid-twenties to late thirties who love making games so much that they work 12 hour days when there aren't any deadlines, complete the work day by hanging out with their work buddies and playing video games with them, and still come in to work for a couple of hours when they have a vacation day. If they are the standard to which everyone else is measured against, then contributing anything less gets you branded as as slacker, and your dedication and enthusiasm for making games is called into question. You get a senior member of the team bragging about how he once coded for three days straight, without going home and without sleeping. Many of these guys wear as a badge of pride the obscene number of hours that they work and how little time they spend with their families.

I'm 35, married, and we're expecting our first child in the spring. I've been struggling with repetitive strain injuries in my arms, shoulders, and back for several years now. I will always have to be vigilant regarding how much time I spend using a computer and sitting at a desk, and I'm not going to be a weekend father. So I couldn't see a future where I would ever be okay with working insane hours like that. They agreed to let me work "only" 8 hours a day when my RSI flared up again at the beginning of this year, but I wasn't allowed to handle any important or critical tasks, as if they suddenly found out that they needed to show it tomorrow then it has to be done for tomorrow. Not very fulfilling, and there's certainly no career advancement there.

There are studios which really do strive to avoid the long-term crunches, and there are a couple of them locally. I did consider applying for a designer position at those companies, but in doing freelance work I can make enough money so that my wife won't have to go back to work (full-time at least) until she wants to and our child(ren) is/are old enough for pre-school. I can mainly work from home, giving me more time to spend with my wife and the baby as I can eliminate 2-3 hours of commuting every day. That also allows me to spread out my work hours through the day without being away from home for 12 hours. The non-slave-driving game companies aren't going to give me those kind of options.

I would still love to work on smaller-scale games, but I wouldn't want to work on AAA titles again. You can't do them without massive corporate backing, which brings all kinds of other shit into the equation. With the budgets involved, you really do get a lot of risk-avoidance and innovative ideas frequently get transformed into something bland and conventional. It's not simply an urban legend about game development. A couple of years ago, I was of the mindset that I wouldn't ever want to develop a PC game (due to having to be scalable to a huge variety of configurations, the headaches caused by an infinite variety of hardware/software configurations, and the rampant piracy) and that console development was much easier (well, it still is; the 360 is typically the lead platform for 360/PS3/PC muli-platform SKUs for good reason). However, developing for PS3/360 more or less pushes you into the AAA level due to licensing costs and audience expectations of those platforms.

Smaller-budget games on the PC, WiiWare, or Xbox Live Arcade are much more appealing directions for me to pursue were I ever to get back into game development. I think that turn-based isometric/overhead RPGs constitute a niche market that has been very much neglected for years now, and a business that targeted the needs of that audience while keeping its own costs at an appropriate level could probably be very lucrative. Still requires enough of an investment to allow 2-3 core team members the luxury of not having to earn an income elsewhere for 2 years, so it certainly isn't an option for me. Nice to dream though.

Also, is there any chance of Max Payne 3 living up to the first two?

I still have a number of extremely talented friends working on the game, and I'm confident that they will put their best work into it.

(I realize that doesn't actually answer your question.)