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| Showing posts 1 to 20 of 45 results |
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 Thread: New level of player interaction |
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From the look of things, Redemption will probably become my favorite ultima, as it stretches the morrowind engine to its maximum capability.
In the future, more and more crpg players will expect the realism of virtual worlds to increase more and more.
I don't want to rehash everything here, but I hope you seek out some of my posts and comments, and we can all dream together.
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| Thread: Compatiibility |
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I see that one can buy UW1 and UW2 on cd, but will they run in Windows XP?
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| Thread: Things never noticed in any Ultima |
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I like the way they did books in MW, where you could gain skill points from reading. It would be great if you could talk about things you've read in conversatons, so that you might teach or entertain someone so that they improve theiir feelings and attitude about you a bit. It woulld be great if npcs and players could create new stories and instruction books, but the effort should take a bit of time, and each would have to done individually unless there was printing in the game. I like the idea of npcs and players exchanging mail and keeping diaries, and for certain npcs taking an interest in writing and certain npcs taking an interest in buying and reading books. If a game had a plot generator, then it could be used by some npcs to create works of fiction. It could be time consuming, but a fun and productive use of certain npc's spare time.
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| Thread: Sailing |
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 01-06-2021 07:53 |
Forum: News |
Speaking of sinking, would it be possible for ships to sink in Redemption? Could there be sea battles and the survivors would swim for shore, or drown if they can't swim?
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| Thread: want to be a Titan? |
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| 01-06-2021 07:50 |
Forum: News |
If I were a Titanic, I would say "I'm sinking!"
And the German Coast Guard would reply "Vot are you sinking about?"
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| Thread: The Ultimate RPG |
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| 01-06-2021 07:24 |
Forum: Games |
I think it could be more like, if there was no unresolved main plot for a time, then some new trouble would arise that you'd have to resolve. The game would pick from a range of problem types. It could be something as simple as some npc becoming crazy, or mean, or murderous, and you might only find out about it by asking people about the local rumors. Some other examples are a king who goes crazy, a powerful character leaving to found a rival settlement, an otherwordly or otherdimensional invasion, a change in all the npcs related to some new discovery, a plague, mutations of creatures, wars. Basically, a variety of things that might harm the lives or well-being of the npcs, usually related to something new or a newly unerthed discovery from the past.
Take morrowind for example. The basic plot was fairly simple, you had to acquire some special artifacts to defeat a rogue god. A lot of games involve collecting artifacts that allow you to confront and defeat an enemy. Maybe some alternatives would be to develop some combination of finding artifacts, finding new materials or new combinations of old ones, creating new spells and other processes, forging special weapons, etc. You may have to 'heal' something in the environment, the weather, time, something abstract. The end result of your new plot goal would be to keep the people safe, healthy or happy. It would be a plot-generating subprogram that would create new or modify existing npcs, items and the environment, and add appropriate items and dialogue for that plot.
The end result would be a game that is never 'happily ever after', but from time to time it would still need your intervention, so you could continue enjoying that role and have new things to do, and have fresh and new conversations with new characters in an evolving world. Instead of starting a new character you might change your skill focus and work toward a new you, or have a kid and move your 'spirit' to them and develop that new life.
To me that makes more sense, and is more realistic, than playing the same plot over and over, since such a game played thoroughly enough the first time will offer nothing new the next times. In an evolving world, even if you eventually encounter a very similar plot as before, you will likely have a very different set of characters, possibly even settlements and landscape...
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| Thread: The Ultimate RPG |
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| 31-05-2021 03:09 |
Forum: Games |
| quote: |
Originally posted by -Direhaggis-
Still, if presented in the right way, I think one can have a great main game and an equally interesting non main game. |
Here's another idea. What if the game had numerous main plot templates, and if there is no main plot for some period of time, the game creates a new, different main plot using existing npcs. Couple that with an evolving history and the ability to pass your 'spirit' to one of your children. Old cities can be destroyed and new ones can be built up. Rare artifacts might be unearthed to reveal secrets from the world's ancient past. And without the passage of knowledge to the young, primitive peoples grunt and gesture and fight with rocks and sticks, having to learn everything the hard way unless others help them progress faster. Yes, it would have to be sophisticated to include small societies at various stages of social development and nature, good, evil and in between. Anyway, I intended this thread for dreaming. Are there some other things you would like to be able to do in an rpg?
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| Thread: Companion question (likely for Operadragon) |
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| quote: |
Originally posted by Operadragon
UVII - Iolo, Dupre, Shamino, Spark, Jaana, Tseramed, Trellek, Katrina, Julia, and Sentri.
[ |
I don't remember Trellek, where was he?
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| Thread: Sailing |
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| 31-05-2021 02:37 |
Forum: News |
| quote: |
Originally posted by Corv
Just let yourself be surprised when playing the game. |
I am sure I would enjoy to play it even with half of whatever you've planned to do already, it really sounds like a gem! I was able to play MW for several months straight, even though it wasn't ultima, and most of it had a very grey landscape. Just exploring your Britannia would be more fun than that.
I only wish I had the kind of skills the team needs to help finish it.
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| Thread: Leveling |
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| quote: |
Originally posted by -Direhaggis-
There's little else more satisfying than being able to easily bash down a monster that used to squash you. We will not deprive U9Rer's of this precious gem of sadistic glee. Hellz no. |
That reminds me of the hilarious "shrink monster" spell from Gothic, which you could use to shrink this king kong size gorilla down to a chimpanzee's size.
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| Thread: What's your favorite Ultima character/NPC? |
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CAUTION SPOILERS
I liked when you meet Shamino in U7 and ask his name, and he says it really slow for you "Sha.. mi.. no"
But two of my favorites were from UW2. One was the thief Fissif whom you meet early on, with his humerous cockney accent he says that he has to get back to eating rats and drinking fetid water. But my all time favorite was Blog the Troll, especially the line "Oh, it you! Who you?" his curiosity about a "pacific" gem, and his delight in the simple game of "white rock, black rock", where all you have to do is pick the white rock to win. I also liked the way the goblin guards in the tower would taunt you, calling you a monkey and such. It made revenge all the sweeter!
One of the best things in the ultima games is that they had a lot of humorous dialogue, if not hilarious, at least funny enough to lighten the mood.
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| Thread: Sailing |
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| 31-05-2021 01:56 |
Forum: News |
I am assuming you can at least steer the ship and fire the cannon. I was wondering if you coulld also raise and lower an anchor, and raise and lower the sails. Maybe there wouldn't have to be more graphics, but it could be a part of the actions options for the ship, and in order to move you had to raise the anchor and sails, and to dock safely you had to lower sails and anchor. If I'm not mistaken, one of the earlier ultimas required you to order the sails to be hoisted in order to move.
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| Thread: eating - drinking feature |
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| quote: |
Originally posted by Corv
It's also improtant because you actually suffer from not drinking/eating enough and this way you can take care of everything in the wilderness. |
I hope you don't find it too pushy to ask again, but would rest also be a critical need along with drink and food, and would there be seperate status bars for drink, food and rest, or any combination of those? Also, would it be possible to die from neglecting some needs for too long, or just temporary penalties?
Also, would you be keeping the stamina bar from MW, and would stamina also suffer due to critical needs, along with the decreased skills?
Also, I was wondering if it could be possible to construct a tent from some kind of heavy cloth tarp, in addition to the animal hide idea. But then, will there be any real benefit to use a tent, or is it just for aesthetics?
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| Thread: Your 5 favourite RPGs (beside Ultima) |
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| 31-05-2021 01:35 |
Forum: Games |
Morrowind had a couple of good innovations. One was the stamina bar and stamina effects. I hope that will be in Redemption.
Another feature from MW was that increasing alchemy skill let you know more properties of materials. It would be great to see that happend for other skills and knowledge; for instance, if you could learn some language, and the more your learned, the more words you could understand as your skill increased, from common ones to less common ones.
Another feature I liked was how your damage depended in part on the time spent preparing the shot or strike, but something like that had been in UW2.
One thing I liked from various mmorpgs like UO was that your increasing skill in a craft allowed you to make increasingly more complex products, and increased your overall product quality.
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| Thread: eating - drinking feature |
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Someone else asked about a hunger status bar. In UW2, you could click a status button and get a message about your hunger and rest status. I'm not sure if you died of hunger, but if you went long enough without rest you would just collapse for a time, but not very good rest since you didn't take the time to use your bedroll. It should make some difference whether you sleep in a warm, dry inn bed, versus under a tent in a bedroll, versus only a tent or only a bedroll, or norhing at all. That is, if rest is also an issue in Redemption.
I am curious if you would be able to drink directly from and fill your container with water from streams, fountains, troughs, wells, etc.
In real life, lack of water and rest would be a problem a lot sooner than hunger. I'm glad that drinking water will be required in Redemption.
Without getting ridiculous, I think it would be great to be able to get good use of a small tent, bedroll, tinderbox, cooking pot, and even fishing line to make a temporary fishing pole that you could take apart when done, so you only have to carry a very light twine and hook but no bulky pole.. Someone also suggested about being able to make animal traps.
I assume that you can forage as well. I was wondering if, in addition to edible fruits, nuts and berries, that some plants would be poisonous raw, or inedible raw, and possibly still poisonous or inedible cooked, but you might find some roots, shoots or leaves that could be nutritious when cooked. But I think it would be more intersting for drinking and rest to be more important than eating, than to make eating more complicated.
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| Thread: eating - drinking feature |
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Here are some thoughts I have about drinking, eating and rest:
In a corner of the screen, opposite from the health and mana bars which are more critical to moniter during combat, there should be status bars for thirst, hunger and rest. Neglecting one of them long enough would result in death; after about a week for thirst, about two weeks for sleep deprivation, and at least three weeks for hunger. From a state of full satiation, you should be safe from thirst and hunger for a day; for a bit less time with sleep. After more than a day, you would start to suffer penalties to your stamina and skills as you lose energy and the ability to concentrate. When you suffer drowsiness, the screen could go dim for several seconds, and do that a few times before you get your 'second wind'. The effects should be enough for players to typically sleep at night and have breakfast in the morning, and seriously debilitating after a few days, and deadly after a few more days, but not something you have to constantly watch, other than to fill your waterskin when you come across fresh water, and pack a couple days worth of rations, just in case. Ideally npcs should tend to their own needs and keep track of their own provisions, stopping to fill their waterskins and asking others if they are in need. In BG2, the players would complain of being tired, and while it was sometimes a bit annoying, it certainly made it feel more realistic.
I like the idea of requiring drink, food and rest because it makes it seem more like you have a physical body with physical needs. In most games with food, I rarely bother to eat, and only rest when absolutely necessary, because to do otherwise usually doesn't hurt much. Even in Baldur's Gate, I would drive my party 24/7 because the penalty was so small..
So if there were no penalty the day you were satisfied, maybe a small penalty (maybe 10%) if any combination is not satisfied the second day, up to any combination giving a max penalty after a few days (maybe 50%), and if you had some combination deficient but only satisfied some part, you may still suffer from whatever else is still deficient, up to the max.
It seems to me I read somewhere that in one of the ultimas, different foods had different nutritional value. That might be a bit extreme, though I wouldn't complain if it were in the game. I also woudn't mind if some foods needed to be cooked to be eaten safely or get the full value, or even that some water sources needed to be boiled, too, so long as you didn't actually have to wait long. In Gothic, you could cook raw meats one after the other in quick succession. I like the idea of setting up a tent, collecting firewood and lighting a fire, cooking and eating food, and leaving someone on watch, a bit like they showed crudely in older ultima games.
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| Thread: The Ultimate RPG |
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| 30-05-2021 21:15 |
Forum: Games |
I guess I would have to withhold my judgement until I actually tried it. Certainly, I believe conversation with plenty of options is possible, it's just that the video didn't seem to show many. In theory, there should be a myriad of expressions/gestures/acrtions/statements/questions at any point in a conversation, even aside from a seemingly limitless subset within some of those, such as statements and questions on a huge array of changing topics. As we've said, it wouldn't be possible with the MW engine, it's something that would be programmed from scratch.
Maybe it would be a bit extreme to say we could do without any scripting, but it would good if the computer could determine the right kind of response to fit the npc and situation, but not exactly the same way twice in a row, or if you did ask the very same thing, and the npc is kind enough to repeat himself, he might start with "I just told you", or "how many times are you going to ask me that? or "i'm not going to repeat myself", etc. There are various common phrases used in similar situations, it doesn't have to be the exact same one each time, and can have associated with it the type of npc or situation that would warrant its use. In addition, certain phrases could be associated with certain individual or groups of npcs.
Of course, those throw-away lines, which people use a lot in typical conversations, are just the tip of the iceberg. If there is a global event memory, and each topic has a lot of variables associated with it, then npcs could discuss their observations, things they've heard, and what they 'thought' and 'felt' about them. To those who are oriented towards the story, this may all seem like idle chatter, and perhaps it is from that standpoint, but in a dynamic world it would come closer to real, because the only static lines would be the plot lines, while with the other part of the system, you could *discuss* topics and influence their attitudes and behavior, and it could be any npc, not just ones that are intended to follow you in the plot, for example.
What I am saying is to have a system where you may enjoy interaction with the dynamic world the npcs are involved in so much that you may not even bother with the plot and still have a lot of fun as part of their world. A world where you could apprentice a trade, build a shop, announce your services and npcs will come to you to fulfill that need or desire. Where female npcs might flirt with you because they have a goal of marrying and having kids, etc. Where npc kids ask questions so that they can learn more things about their world. Where your reputation can grow and people naturally seek your advice and leadership. Where you could set off with followers and found your own town. If the player doesn't want to bother becoming 'real' in their world, they don't ever have to and still can finish the plot, but for others who enjoy a virtual world, it would be a real treat.
I guess what it comes down to is that variety is the spice of life, and the more various the options, the better. The beuatiful thing is that those inclined to limit their choices would always be free to do so, while others who like to experiment would find a liveable, lliving world.
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| Thread: The Ultimate RPG |
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| 30-05-2021 15:11 |
Forum: Games |
| quote: |
Originally posted by Corv
That being said, I cannot wait for Mass Effect. You, Shucky, should especially be looking forward to that game, because they will really move this genre forward when it comes to conversations!
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It looks like BioWare made this one, it has well-scripted dialogue, as in Baldur's Gate. The last time I tried a space game it was Star Control 2, which I still think is a great game. Overall I prefer medieval settings, anything from high fantasy to no fantasy, instead of high tech. I think it's that I prefer something closer to nature. About the dialogue, it looks like a great script, and while I would like to have those script options, I would like to have many more conversation options, if possible, along the lines of what I discussed in some detail on the other thread. I like a good story within an otherwise 'living' world of interdependant 'living' characters.
This game seems to go even further to develop more of an appearance of a living world, eg, npc faces move realistically as they speak. I could enjoy playing it, but I prefer more functional realism than visual realism, where you could stop anyone at any given time, ask them how they feel and what they are doing, for example, and the answer depends on various factors and changes with circumstances. Like I said, that is just one small example or the kind of living characters I hope to see in a game someday.
To expand just a bit further, I think every npc and player should be able to strike up conversation with anyone else, engage in small talk, gossip, joke, boast, lie, flatter, make requests/gifts/exchanges/demands for info/items/actions, ask opinions and try to influence about specific things, as well as make physical gestures and attempt physical contact, and any other option which someone might come up with and include in the program. And within a dynamic world, it's unlikely any two conversation with the same character would be the same unless you just greet each other.
It seems to me that it would be easy to do if starting a conversation, or eavedropping on one, would pause the game and open a menu-driven interface, and that the subprogram would not place nearly as high a demand on system resources as the graphics would. In fact, I think something like this could have been done back in the 80s, at least the conversaton part, if not managing a world of characters requiring constant decisions. Actually, I would only expect for characters within visual range to be checked for decisions periodically, and the rest less frequently, as system resources allow. And the world 'event memory' would update once a day, in the late night, to purge away all the relatively useless memories.
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| Thread: The Ultimate RPG |
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| 30-05-2021 12:12 |
Forum: Games |
In another thread I started thinking about the issue of graphics. What rpgs had the minimum graphics that you could enjoy?
These days I prefer the first person view, and while I enjoyed UW2, I would prefer a look more like Thief 2 or MW. Oblivion was beautiful, but I think they could have made a better game if they made more true-to-life 'living' npcs and world, rather than just appearances. Also, if there is one thing I liked about U9A and Gothic was that they were almost seamless; the only loading occured at dungeon entrances. In Oblivion, they tried to get around that by allowing npcs to cross entrances of buildings, cities and dungeons.
For the top-down isomorphic view, I prefer a look like UO, Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale. If it's an mmorpg, or the story is good enough, then I can still enjoy those graphics. Even U7 and U6 aren't too bad, but the earlier Ultimas don't hold my interest anymore because of the appearance.
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| Thread: Leveling |
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I think a skill based system can work best, but I hope that in Redemption, the skills will progress at different rates. There are some things that most players do a lot more of than others, such as running and fighiting. Even an acrobat is probably going to be doing a lot more running than jumping, so you should get a bit more advance with each jump than from an equivalent time of running.
In MW, if you somehow got the money to do it, you could buy all your skills from trainers, all the way up to max. I thought that was a wrong approach. Instead, it would make sense for you to get some instruction, but then practice for a whiile until you prove ready for the next instruction. So even if you learned form a grand master, maybe he should only be able to train you to 25, then you have to practice to 50 befoer he can trian you up to 75, and then you have to practice above 75 to reach grand mastery. But it should maybe work differntly depending on the skill. There are some things you learn more by instruction than practice, and vice versa.
The last issue, which they did apply in MW, was that advancement rates slow down as you get better. I think it should be possible to master, if not perfect, every skill in the game, but you maybe have to play at least a couple months straight in order to do it. But getting to be fairly proficient with most skills should be possible in much less time, perhaps only a couple days to get everything to average proficiency, if you have the cash to spend for the basics, followed by a little practice. Without basic instruction, maybe it should take another day or two to get to average proficiency. Beyond that, it should take maybe at least a couple days of focussed effort to master a skill, as advancement becomes progressively more difficult.
I think that for playability sake it should be just as easy to finish the game as pure master fighter, or pure master mage, or pure master archer/thief, even if it means that such unbalanced characters need to use clever ways to make up for their defieciencies, but that it is easier to get through by taking the time to master melee, ranged combat, magic and stealth.
With attributes, it would make sense for them to advance with practice, and only practice, of their related skills, just as it was done in UO. However, if the MW attributes are being used, some changes might make sense. Some activities improve more than one attribute, and to different degrees. Ideally, intelligence should refelct the sum of knowledge and successful problem solving across the whole range of skills types, while wisdom should be your average skill level (experience) combined with time spent learning from wise people, reading from tomes, and meditation. Endurance should improve from running, swimming, fighting, carrying a lot of weight, and heavy labors; strength should improve by similar activities, thought a bit less from running. Speed should improve a lot from running, to a lesser extent from combat. Agility should improve mainly from acrobatics and combat, a bit less from stealth and fine manual skills; rogues get highly agile from doing all of those a lot. Personality should improve with overall wisdom plus the total amount of interaction with others, especially in a leadership role. As for luck, I don't think it really fits in.
Overall, I think the ideal system would be something like MW, but without the levels, some changes to how attributes increase, and a few more crafts and knowledge areas (such as in D&D). MW basically took the old D&D system of attributes, changed constitution to endurance, changed dexterity to agility, and made a seperate speed attribute. A skill based system was always more realistic, but not practical before computers were fast enough to re-evaluate you after each successful action. Having said that, I wish the industry put more effort into making npcs more true to life, rather than the skill-based system and advanced graphics.
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| Showing posts 1 to 20 of 45 results |
Pages (3): [1] 2 3 next » |
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