KickStarter Underworld Ascendant Pre-Prototype Thread

[Darkzone]

The other half was extrapolating part of my quote, which is like taking one line out of Bible, and assuming you've read the whole thing.

Like: Ashes to Ashes.

 

[DawnrazorDCLXVI]

The other half was extrapolating part of my quote, which is like taking one line out of Bible, and assuming you've read the whole thing.

Like: Ashes to Ashes.

Or apples to oranges. I state my point.

P.S. Like your signature. FoTN and Floyd are favs, too.

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

The other half was extrapolating part of my quote, which is like taking one line out of Bible, and assuming you've read the whole thing.

Like: Ashes to Ashes.

P.S. Like your signature. FoTN and Floyd are favs, too.

Agreed, I like Darkzone's sig too, his choice of colour is very easy on the eyes.

 

[Mofleaker]

Taking half a sentence and ignoring the other half is like eating two slices of bread with nothing in between, and assuming you have a sandwich. You have just eaten bread, not a swiss cheese sandwich.

Also, the picture was only one half the post. The other half was extrapolating part of my quote, which is like taking one line out of Bible, and assuming you've read the whole thing. Again, lack of discernment and character assassination are not an argument. In much the same way as ad hominems are not attacking an argument, but slandering the target.

You are cherry picking for evidence.

Though I'm sure you're a fan of making a character which reflects your own personality, I don't think an insanity feature will work out

 

[Metro]

Thank you to all the suckers backers.

 

[Apexeon]

I dropped $200 on this one. No regrets. Looking forward to it all. For all the douches that didn't, they are gonna have post-Kickstarter funding on their website, probably similar to what Shroud of the Avatar is doing. You might want to get in on it...or maybe you can go play Dragon Age instead and make love to your same-sex party members.

You are a legend.

 

[Melan]

DawnrazorDCLXVI's comments:

• "War & Peace"
• "The Bible"
• "swiss cheese sandwich"
  
• often taken out of context

Well, at least you don't sign your posts. That's a good start.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

In the case of Thief 1 & 2, the gameplay was tight, the lack of a lean function and a weapon added to, rather than detracted, from gameplay.

2 points:

# Thief 1 & 2 both had lean functions and weapons. The games encourage you to use the lean functions, but to avoid using the weapons for their obvious purpose.

# You seem to be kinda new to this "arguing on the internet" thing - and you sure picked the deep end of the pool to dive in on that one.

 

[AwesomeButton]

In the case of Thief 1 & 2, the gameplay was tight, the lack of a lean function and a weapon added to, rather than detracted, from gameplay.

FFS...

2 points:

# Thief 1 & 2 both had lean functions and weapons. The games encourage you to use the lean functions, but to avoid using the weapons for their obvious purpose.

# You seem to be kinda new to this "arguing on the internet" thing - and you sure picked the deep end of the pool to dive in on that one.

Generally you can tell someone isn't new to the arguing on the internet by the fact that they don't argue at all... But yeah, sometimes the shit is just too much to be left without a reply.

BTW, Thief (2014) had "press space to swoop" and no lean keys. ...?

 

[tuluse]

In the case of Thief 1 & 2, the gameplay was tight, the lack of a lean function and a weapon added to, rather than detracted, from gameplay.

2 points:

# Thief 1 & 2 both had lean functions and weapons. The games encourage you to use the lean functions, but to avoid using the weapons for their obvious purpose.

# You seem to be kinda new to this "arguing on the internet" thing - and you sure picked the deep end of the pool to dive in on that one.

In fact Thief had the "forward lean" that I don't remember seeing in other games. So it actually had one more lean than most games.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

In the case of Thief 1 & 2, the gameplay was tight, the lack of a lean function and a weapon added to, rather than detracted, from gameplay.

2 points:

# Thief 1 & 2 both had lean functions and weapons. The games encourage you to use the lean functions, but to avoid using the weapons for their obvious purpose.

# You seem to be kinda new to this "arguing on the internet" thing - and you sure picked the deep end of the pool to dive in on that one.

In fact Thief had the "forward lean" that I don't remember seeing in other games. So it actually had one more lean than most games.

Ceck out System Shock controls!

Consequently, someone created a mouselook mod for SS1 that makes it _very_ playable nowadays. It's an incredible game.

 

[CyberP]

Yeah, cut away all that chaff with mouselook and you have a control set that is just as complex as SS2 or Deus Ex.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.underworldascendant.com/the-game/dev-updates.php

Chris Talks Development Outlook for 2015

We made it! What a strange and wonderful ride the past few months have been. What an amazing community we have. It is so refreshing to see a community full of positive energy and genuine excitement about what we are embarking on over the next couple of years.

As producer guy, I now have to step up to the plate. My job, well my primary job, is to keep the whole thing on track. I know people have already been asking for release dates for the game and alpha builds. There is no set in stone dates yet. Let me explain why.

We will use agile principles for development. Everyone on the team is familiar with them already, so we should be able to jump in pretty quickly. Also with the size of our team we should be able to stay really lean when it comes to some of agile's busy work... i.e. I'll be doing the paperwork.

Now according to agile principles, the worst day to make a decision is the first day. Why? Think about it; This is the day we have the least amount of information. We know what the project is, but we don't know much else. We don't know peoples workload, we don't know all the systems we need to build, etc. etc. The more you know, the more concrete a decision you can make.

Makes sense right? That is not to say a line in the sand is a bad idea. Of course it's not. If you don't have one you end up in the dreaded endless development cycle. That is no fun for anyone.

So, I'll put two lines in the sand:

Prototype build sometime during Q4 2015.

Pre-Alpha build sometime during Q1 2016.

Now, I can hear a couple of my developers going 'pfft, we can be ready before that' but my job is to plan for every eventuality, including the unexpected and unknown. The prototype is at the end of this year because I want the team to not feel any stress while in pre-production. This is one of the most important phases of development. What are we building? What are we trying to achieve? What is the backstory of our races and how does that effect development? 1000 exciting questions we have to answer in the next few months before we put pixel to program.

And going forward we'll try to keep you in the loop as much as possible about just what those answers are.

Til next time,

Producer Chris

 

[Infinitron]

Update: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/othersidegames/underworld-ascendant/posts/1162506

Lizardman Vote!
As part of moving forward with game development, we want to nail down the art direction of the Lizardmen, a new intelligent race added to the game via an unlocked stretch goal. Just as we did with the Shamblers during the Kickstarter, we'd like YOU to help us decide just how the lizardmen will appear in game!


Above are two different looks for these crafty reptilians. Which do you prefer? Head on over to our forums and vote in our online poll for your favorite. We'll close the voting in a week or so and announce which look has won. Head on over to the forums and vote now!

 

[Eggs is eggs]

Have they clarified how this is related to the Ultima series? They said that they can use the stuff in the Underworld games but not the Ultima trademark. Haven't they said that the main character is the Avatar? I guess that means it takes place before Ultima 7? Also can they use the virtues, companions, Britannia, etc. (or at least references to them since most of the Ultima characters/locations/items,etc won't be in the Abyss)?

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Have they clarified how this is related to the Ultima series? They said that they can use the stuff in the Underworld games but not the Ultima trademark. Haven't they said that the main character is the Avatar? I guess that means it takes place before Ultima 7? Also can they use the virtues, companions, Britannia, etc. (or at least references to them since most of the Ultima characters/locations/items,etc won't be in the Abyss)?

They haven't made it very clear where the lines are drawn in regards to obvious Ultima lore but they are for instance using the run alphabet, the name Stygian Abyss and others. They may be limited to that which existed in the origianal UW game. I am not sure if they got rights to the UW2 lore. Good question to ask on their forums.

 

[Melan]

How much Ultima lore is present in Shroud of the Avatar? Since the two games are linked through fiction (and finance), it would make sense for U:A to follow in SotA's steps here.

 

[Infinitron]

Have they clarified how this is related to the Ultima series? They said that they can use the stuff in the Underworld games but not the Ultima trademark. Haven't they said that the main character is the Avatar? I guess that means it takes place before Ultima 7? Also can they use the virtues, companions, Britannia, etc. (or at least references to them since most of the Ultima characters/locations/items,etc won't be in the Abyss)?

I'm quite certain that it's not related enough to Ultima to even bother trying to place it somewhere in the continuity ("before Ultima 7" or "after Ultima 7").

"The Avatar" in this game probably won't be the actual Avatar of Virtue from Ultima (although I guess you can pretend that he is, since he's a blank slate). He's just some guy they're calling "Avatar", like how the protagonist of Fallout is "The Vault Dweller".

 

[Eggs is eggs]

Isn't the difference between this and Shroud of the Avatar, in terms of lore, that they actually got the trademark for Underworld, while Shroud doesn't have the Ultima trademark. Since the Underworld games are actual Ultima games (especially the 2nd one), I think they should be able to be more liberal in terms of what they can use than the Shroud games.

 

[mindx2]

Paul has said that it will not have any actual "connection" to the Ultima world at all. It's almost like a parallel universe that has an identical Stygian Abyss but no Ultima lore attached to it except for Lord British if they would want to mention his character.

 

[Metro]

F' Lord British.

 

[Zep Zepo]

Paul has said that it will not have any actual "connection" to the Ultima world at all. It's almost like a parallel universe that has an identical Stygian Abyss but no Ultima lore attached to it except for Lord British if they would want to mention his character.

Zep--

 

[Eggs is eggs]

So I guess they're taking the origin story of the Abyss (Sir Cabrius decides to make a utopian colony based on the virtues and gathers various races to inhabit it, and then the colony falls into chaos), but ignoring the events of UU1 and 2 (or going into a parallel universe, as you said) and then that's when this game takes place?

 

[Infinitron]

So I guess they're taking the origin story of the Abyss (Sir Cabrius decides to make a utopian colony based on the virtues and gathers various races to inhabit it, and then the colony falls into chaos), but ignoring the events of UU1 and 2 (or going into a parallel universe, as you said) and then that's when this game takes place?

Ignoring no, parallel universe yes.

Cabirus' colony might not be based on the virtues in this universe, either, since those are a very Ultima-specific concept. Instead maybe it'll just be a utopian colony based on racial cooperation, with no specific value system. We'll see.

 

[Aenra]

also, though i believe Infinitron has already pasted the relevant newsbit, do keep in mind that lore will involve heavy dosages of LB contributions. Once again, prone to future alterations, as SotA and UA will be sharing more than just lore in their final producs. As the games progress..

i won't put it past LB to convince them to take this yet even further if they both sell well enough. Already there are "unofficial" talks in the SotA forum in regards to specific areas that will be encountered in both titles
( and frankly, i would not mind, not in principle, not before seeing the outcome anyway :p )

whatever this game's future success, having LB (love him or hate him) to back you up in hype (for his own benefit,lol) is always a plus sign. I want the new Looking Glass to be here to stay. And stay independent. That means millions, because Warren has moved past 5digit salaries decades ago. Sadly