KickStarter Underworld Ascendant Pre-Prototype Thread

[Eggs is eggs]

Disappointing that they're ditching all the Ultima lore, since that was one of the coolest parts of the original. But I guess they want to be free to develop their own lore and the partnership with LB and SoTA seems like it has potential.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Wanting has nothing to do with it. They are not ditching the lore, EA has allowed them to use it. They are allowed the game at least. Paul mentioned that took 20 years.

 

[Darkzone]

Darkzone didn't you predict $860k? Good call.

Not quite, but near enough. My adjusted mean is 842098 so i'm only 18k off (the last three days (72h) genereted (180k) this much more, than the mean 162.5k i have used for evaluation), which is not bad, because i have still a 97.877% forecast accuracy (this is not exact the but.. yada.. yada ). WAPE = 1 - 0.97877 = 0.0212237.

 

[DawnrazorDCLXVI]

Lord British gave them permission to use some of the original characters and lore, from various posts I've read, including Ultima references.

 

[mindx2]

Lord British gave them permission to use some of the original characters and lore, from various posts I've read, including Ultima references.

Garriott doesn't have the rights to Ultima to let any one use... that brand belongs to Electronic Arts. Garriott was only able to take the Lord British name with him (and Britannia I think).

 

[Musaab]

F' Lord British.

Blasphemous heathen.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

It would make sense, judging by what we've seen, to have UA take place in whatever location the inhabitants of the Abyss ended up at the game's end. While the ending said they ended up in Dungeon Destard, it's not like we found any trace of them there in Ultima 7 (unless people wanted to pick through dragon droppings, of course).

Garamon may have messed up his spell and sent them elsewhere by mistake, and an 'Avatar-esque person' is called in to try to sort things out/save the colony. That may lead to some UW1 characters being around, Sir Cabirus may even be namedropped without much hassle. The Virtues? They might still be around in some form.

It's not that hard to come up with something that works. Let's see what happens.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

Well, I played some shroud of the avatar and the words love/courage/truth does pop up here and there. If this both games lore are tied, they may fit the virtues in.

Shroud of the avatar is also acknowledge old ultimas as part of the ancient past before the cataclism. A theme very common in ultima games itself.

 

[Aenra]

What i really care about is the rune system. Though as of yet got no reason to hope for anything deep or mentally engaging;
(we wanted co-op, we wanted occulus, lol, we wanted UU references -but- attract mainstream audience, etc)

I do however fool me by entertaining perverted hopes on a system that combines:

- the ritualistic aspect of Ultimas with the rune collecting and drawing of Arx
[ ie draw your runes on most cases like in UUs, but in the case of something as powerful as Armageddon, do ritual, do it right i mean, not click and done, then draw ]
[[ i hate cooldowns, i like and can sympathise with the logic of it 'being powerful, hence taking time to ready' ]]

- a system where said runes may be collected, but mostly need to be crafted
[ so that unlike both UUs and Arx, you can start as a sorcerer right off the bat (no stat splitting unless choosing to) by 'collecting' 1st circles, but needing to work to get the higher ones ]
[[ crafted because complexity if done right never hurt, plus, carving as a sub-skill !?! giiiiive! ]]

- the rune drawing that was but with the need to think a bit more..at least this time around. So yes, some obvious combinations within each circle and some 'hidden' ones, but preferably a bit more intellect-heavy

You can always be mean and use the above to quote me when it launches and i go hide somewhere deep and dark. With slimes.

 

[DawnrazorDCLXVI]

Lord British gave them permission to use some of the original characters and lore, from various posts I've read, including Ultima references.

Garriott doesn't have the rights to Ultima to let any one use... that brand belongs to Electronic Arts. Garriott was only able to take the Lord British name with him (and Britannia I think).

Yes, but some of the characters he created, and certain character designs, can be conferred, without infringing on copyright laws. Just as Bioshock was a blatant copy of System Shock 2, but used a different working title. The devs already knew this, dumbass. Read my statement again.

 

[mindx2]

Lord British gave them permission to use some of the original characters and lore, from various posts I've read, including Ultima references.

Garriott doesn't have the rights to Ultima to let any one use... that brand belongs to Electronic Arts. Garriott was only able to take the Lord British name with him (and Britannia I think).

Yes, but some of the characters he created, and certain character designs, can be conferred, without infringing on copyright laws. Just as Bioshock was a blatant copy of System Shock 2, but used a different working title. The devs already knew this, dumbass. Read my statement again.

Again, Ultima itself can't be referenced even if they use those characters. Lord British didn't give them any permissions because he had none to give (except to use the name Lord British). EA owns everything to do with UU I & II. As I said, my friend, this "Underworld" doesn't exist in the Ultima world regardless of similar named characters and motivations.

 

[DawnrazorDCLXVI]

Lord British gave them permission to use some of the original characters and lore, from various posts I've read, including Ultima references.

Garriott doesn't have the rights to Ultima to let any one use... that brand belongs to Electronic Arts. Garriott was only able to take the Lord British name with him (and Britannia I think).

Yes, but some of the characters he created, and certain character designs, can be conferred, without infringing on copyright laws. Just as Bioshock was a blatant copy of System Shock 2, but used a different working title. The devs already knew this, dumbass. Read my statement again.

Again, Ultima itself can't be referenced even if they use those characters. Lord British didn't give them any permissions because he had none to give (except to use the name Lord British). EA owns everything to do with UU I & II. As I said, my friend, this "Underworld" doesn't exist in the Ultima world regardless of similar named characters and motivations.

http://ultimacodex.com/2015/02/conf...-in-the-stygian-abyss-from-ultima-underworld/

Google: the Internet!

"Dumbass."

 

[Darth Slaughter]

http://ultimacodex.com/2015/02/conf...-in-the-stygian-abyss-from-ultima-underworld/

Google: the Internet!

"Dumbass."

Yes, but it was NOT Richard "LB" Garriott whom gave them the permission to set the game in the same stygian abyss, it was eletronic arts, the actual owner of Ultima rights.

 

[Infinitron]

The Stygian Abyss is originally from Ultima IV, so that's actually an example of OtherSide being allowed to use something from the mainline Ultima canon. The boundaries between "Ultima lore" and "Ultima Underworld lore" aren't clear-cut and set in stone. I'd say the main point is that Underworld Ascendant can't go as far as feeling like an in-continuity Ultima sequel the way Ultima Underworld 2 was. The first Ultima Underworld (perhaps with a few serial numbers filed off) would probably be acceptable.

 

[Melan]

And that is a good thing, because UW2 is a tremendous letdown after UW1. UW2 abandons UW1's organic environments and simulation-heavy gameplay in favour of gimmick dungeons and endless storyfaggotry. It is as if Origin / Blue Sky didn't realise what they really had on their hands.

 

[Infinitron]

And that is a good thing, because UW2 is a tremendous letdown after UW1. UW2 abandons UW1's organic environments and simulation-heavy gameplay in favour of gimmick dungeons and endless storyfaggotry. It is as if Origin / Blue Sky didn't realise what they really had on their hands.

What they had on their hands was nine months(!!) of development time. It is astounding that they did such a good job with a slam-dunk project. LGS was really that good.

 

[Darth Roxor]

And that is a good thing, because UW2 is a tremendous letdown after UW1.

How about fuck you.

 

[Melan]

That explains a lot of things, including the game-stopping bugs the early versions shipped with years before online patches became viable. Unfortunately, UW2 still remains a project where someone with no concept of 3d design drew a bunch of shoddy dungeons, then added Yet Another Grauniad Plot to Enslave Britannia on the top of it. It is as if the people who wrote the design docs understood that UW1 could do more than 90 degree angles and maybe slopes, but never thought much of the implications, or let the environments evolve into something more.

It is quite tragic.

 

[Melan]

How about fuck you.

No u

 

[Korron]

As someone that has no attachment to Ultima I'm happy it isn't the same setting. I know Garriott is legendary, but I can't stand that smug fucker. He is what happens when people that were ceaselessly ridiculed as children make a lot of money and think they're something. His involvement is unfortunate, but at least they can get away from that egomaniacs world somewhat. I have much more reverence for LGS.

 

[Darkzone]

As someone that has no attachment to Ultima I'm happy it isn't the same setting. I know Garriott is legendary, but I can't stand that smug fucker. He is what happens when people that were ceaselessly ridiculed as children make a lot of money and think they're something. His involvement is unfortunate, but at least they can get away from that egomaniacs world somewhat. I have much more reverence for LGS.

Garriott has created Ultima IV and V, which are still unbeaten as cRPG games in my opinion, but he has fallen and he became a false prophet. His involvement in a cRPG, is nowadays a problem and his money pulling in SotA, is like spitting in the face of true cRPG fans.

 

[Musaab]

Shroud of the Avatar is awesome. I've had more fun playing that game recently than I have since playing on a NWN RP server like 12-13 years ago.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/othersidegames/underworld-ascendant/posts/1172792

Next week we will be sending out to all our backers the Backerkit Survey. This email will be the mechanism by which we gather some information from you, such as your address for shipping of physical goods, as well as answers to important questions such as in which OS you'd like your copy of Underworld Ascendant, or what your forum ID is so we can assign you the proper forum badge for your pledge tier.

Also via this survey you will be able to indicate which add-ons you would like to apply your pledge dollars to, or even up your pledge amounts to get an add-on or two you were on the fence about during the Kickstarter campaign.

Once you have completed the survey you will then be able to log into our backerkit site at any time to make changes to your account. This will be useful if your address changes before the game ships, or if you have a change of email.

So, next week please keep an eye out for the survey, and try to take the minute or so to fill it out as soon as you can.

Lizardman Redux
A few weeks ago we started a vote on the new look of the Lizardmen. We thought our fans would definitely have a preference for either the Blue Lizardman or Green Lizardman. Well, we thought wrong! The vote came down to a literal tie, or at least close enough that no clear winner could be announced.

Thinking that maybe the colorization of the Lizardmen in the pictures was biasing folks towards one or the other, we've decided to run the vote again with the colors removed from the artwork. Let's see what happens this time! Know that in-game, the Lizardmen will likely come in all sorts of colors, so what we are going for here is really to find out which overall look our fans prefer.

Head on over to our forums and have your opinion heard. Again!

Other Stuff

Speaking of Lizardmen, SteveC from the forums has converted one of our possible new looks for the reptilians into sprite form, in honor of the original Underworlds. He even modeled (sprited?) up the Underswamp in this old-school look. Pretty neat!

This is the latest in a series of sprite work by SteveC converting Underworld Ascendant to pixelated greatness. Check out all his stuff here in the forums. And add in your own Underworld inspired art if you've got something in the works, we'd love to see it!

This week, Jeff and Will (or, as we like to call them, the Mad Engineers) have been busy working on something. They won't let on what it is (they like being mysterious), but they did send us this pic. All we can say is, we can't wait to adventure there!

Dreaming of Ice
Today marks the arrival of the vernal equinox in these parts. However, you’d never know it from looking outside our offices, with the ground still covered in snow and ice. The Boston area has broken snowfall records going back more than a century, with over 108 inches this winter so far. Perhaps it is a message that we should have ice caverns in Underworld Ascendant? What do you think? Feel free to post your thoughts in the Forum.

 

[Aenra]

rune magic presentation or gtfo

but thanks for the update

 

[Abelian]

Also via this survey you will be able to indicate which add-ons you would like to apply your pledge dollars to, or even up your pledge amounts to get an add-on or two you were on the fence about during the Kickstarter campaign.

Can't blame them for trying the upsell