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Message: | composed: 31-05-2021 05:14 Go to the top of this page Zum Ende der Seite springen
Amasius Amasius is a male



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I stumbled upon a thread by Desslock on the Quarter To Three forums. There he wrote:

quote:
EA has been trying to relaunch the Ultima series as a non-MMO. Garriott is not involved, obviously, since he's at NCSoft. EA doesn't have an internal team to develop an RPG, so they were shopping around to the major RPG development houses (you know who they are). A deal was very close with one of the developers, but it died at the paper stage. EA officially denies comment.

So it was probably unrealistic to expect it to be the GFW announcement (x-com?), since I don't think the project has progressed far enough (although the deal that fell apart was last Fall), and don't know if a developer is actively working on the project yet. Still, it's good news that EA is at least interested in getting a single player (or non-MMO multiplayer) Ultima game going again, since I think it's one of gaming's best franchises.


I don't know what to think of it, but I doubt that a new Ultima by EA without Lord British involved would be worthy succsessor. Well, maybe of Ultima 9... I just hope that EAs new interest in the franchaise doesn't mean that the mod projects are in danger.
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Message: | composed: 31-05-2021 06:08 Go to the top of this page Zum Ende der Seite springen
-Direhaggis- -Direhaggis- is a male

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I have full respect for EA's wanting to bring back a lucrative franchise. They could snap our collective project neck in a fingersnap, so they get props. That and they once financed my favorite utterly obscure RPG, so they aren't all bad.

At the same time, it seems rather difficult to continue the Ultima series if they go by the established canon. So far as I know, the Avatar and the Guardian both ascended and are fighting for ultimate control, with the Avatar not exactly doing well. It could be that the battle is resolved somehow, the Avatar becomes human again, and a new evil stalks the land. However it'd take some impressive storytelling to bring newcomers, ultima fans, and dragons back to a point where you can start a traditional Ultima.

The alternative would be to have an Ultima without the Avatar. This possibility is interesting, although heretical and evil and evil-ly heretical. If there were some obvious transition from the Avatar to another playable character, it could potentially work. Unfortunately, there's no obvious legacy for the fans (or newcomers) as to whom else you would control in the Ultima universe.

Given the decisions EA made for U9:A in terms of the plot and finality, then, I just don't see how they could sell us on a non-MMO Ultima.

- - -

Regarding the project, I think it's fine. We got word from EA awhile ago when Corv contacted them. They don't consider us a threat to their market share, and LB has generally taken a kind eye to modders. So they gave us their approval.


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Message: | composed: 31-05-2021 06:45 Go to the top of this page Zum Ende der Seite springen
Sir Iceblade Sir Iceblade is a male

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Yeah, Wing Commander has a pretty good chance of coming back esp. considering WC: Prophecy where the torch of the PC was changed to Lance Casey (although the actor might not return to reprise his role). Ultima didn't have this nor is the idea of being another character going to be all that appealing to some fans. Also, there is no appearate validation of this information.

In any case, I don't they will bring out an Ultima that would be appealing to a fair number of fans. As for U9's plot, EA didn't have anything to do with that directly, it was their deadline, though, that hurt the plot and the game as a whole. I really, though, hold the dev team at fault for most of it. It would seem that they pretty much sat on their buts until the engine was somewhat finisheded. Although I do think that the Christmas deadline was a bit rediculous (imagine a what 6 months to a year with a full team could have done for U9).

Anyway, U9 just seems so ill planned to me.
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Message: | composed: 31-05-2021 16:40 Go to the top of this page Zum Ende der Seite springen
Corv



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Well they didn't ask us


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Message: | composed: 31-05-2021 19:20 Go to the top of this page Zum Ende der Seite springen
Amasius Amasius is a male



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Thread Starter Thread Started by Amasius

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quote:
Originally posted by -Direhaggis-
Regarding the project, I think it's fine. We got word from EA awhile ago when Corv contacted them. They don't consider us a threat to their market share, and LB has generally taken a kind eye to modders. So they gave us their approval.

Thats new to me and a relief. I just hope that you guys are ready before EA. Evil
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Message: | composed: 01-06-2021 00:16 Go to the top of this page Zum Ende der Seite springen
Corv



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DH's memory is a bit coulded there it seems Wink

Actually they wrote me that we have to remove anything Ultioma related from our site which I did ... for a month. They also told us that they can't give us permission to do a remake of Ultima 9.

A similar mail made others stop (I already stated that I think that everyone who stops because of that just uses it as an excuse and an easy way out of something that went over their heads). I just simply saw this as what it was: An information that they can't officially permit such a project, which I understand. The thing is that I didn't read anything threatening out of the mail and that's why I didn't see any reason to actually stop this project.


Now if they would write me somthing like they wrote the System Shock 3 fan project then I guess we would have to stop. There they actually told them that there would be leagal actions against the team if they don'T stop the project. I think it was harsher there because it was actually not a remake but a new game in the series which hasn'T been done by EA yet.

I understand that they don't usderstand that we also make a new game with Redemption but I also understand that Ultima X will be a hole different problem than Ultima IX was/is. ThatS why I plan to "promote" this future project only as "The New King" and not Ultima X.

I actually did not want this topic to be a topic on our boards anymore after we got the mail from EA, but since it was brought up again I felt I had to explain. I will remove this thread after a while.

edit: on the other hand I have to tell you that Todd Howard and Pete Hines from Bethesda told us that they were quite interested in our project and are following it.


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Message: | composed: 01-06-2021 02:40 Go to the top of this page Zum Ende der Seite springen
Amasius Amasius is a male



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Thread Starter Thread Started by Amasius

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Hm, thats what I read here somewhere and it's not that reassuring. I just hope they see Redemption as some kind of free advertising (if they see it at all) and not as a competition.

quote:
Originally posted by Corv
I actually did not want this topic to be a topic on our boards anymore after we got the mail from EA, but since it was brought up again I felt I had to explain. I will remove this thread after a while.

Yeah, no need to awaken the dragon...
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Message: | composed: 16-10-2021 23:22 Go to the top of this page Zum Ende der Seite springen
3D Master 3D Master is a male

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Perhaps not an Ultima without an Avatar, but an Ultima with a NEW Avatar. I actually have a fantastic idea for a new trilogy:

Ultima X: It's a few decades since the Avatar last left for Britannia from his home. His home, his mansion, is now a tourist attraction - a vacation home to be rented out - with of course, the mysterious story of the owner regularly disappearing from the face of the Earth and then reappearing out of nowhere - and some say, he might still one day return, or his ghost is still roaming the place. Four people rent it, "you", included. They go to explore the large wooded area surrounding the house and a lightning storm forms. They come across the rounded stones that mark the moon gate place, and a lightning bolt strikes it. It forms a moon gate - but not based on the moon and a moonstone, but pure force of raw energy, the gate that forms is out of control, a nasty vortext that sucks in anything that isn't bolted down - including our intrepid heroes.

They find themselves of course in Britannia - with nothing to do, except find a way home. Britannia however, is not what it once was. It's been some 10,000 years since the Avatar Titan of Ether battled the Guardian and defeated him. The virtues are long gone. A once thriving kingdom barely remembered. Many ages have come and gone, things above water then, are nothing but swamp land now, a desert my be a tropical rainforest. The land's are essentially once more Akalabeth: no ruler, a few feudal lords and towns, and bandits and wilde animals and monsters are everywhere - any roads, most definitely not save. Magic is all but gone, only a few remnants here and there, and few practictioners, no moongates - nobody knows a way home, you'll just have to explore and find it.

As you do, of course, you find things out about the last 10,000 years, great wars and battles, sorcery and nasty mysterious events. But also, of a golden age of virtue before that, with mentions of a mythological hero from another world, an avatar of all that's right. Eventually you would come across "the tomb of the avatar" and meet the actual spirit of the avatar. (And should you have been a good boy) he asks you to restore the virtues, to repair and build the shrines (yes, you actually have to (re)build them, you have to convince or pay local people and artisans to help you (re)build them, taking RPGs to a new depth - your actions change the way characters behave and act, and can change the landscape and build new buildings.) And through it you become the new Avatar of Virtue. Once you've done so, there is one more task: the Guardian is not dead. He and the Avatar have been fighting each other both slowly growing stronger ever since an Armageddon spell reduced them and even their spirits to all but nothing - and he needs to be stopped before he can regain his body and finsih what he started all those millennia ago. In the final act, both previous Avatar and Guardian's spirits, are utterly destroyed, the previous Avatar making his final sacrifice for Britannia...

And no portal home as promised. But, a scroll is found, goodbye letter - regretting that the Avatar cannot hold up his end of the bargain, but he does know a way to go back home. Find so&so, on the Serpent Isle. A map is with the letter, a map to the Serpent Pillars - and in the final sequences of this first game: all hell breaks lose. Volcanoes erupt, colored lightning storms form with unbelievable effects, islands sink beneath the ocean, other islands rise. The whole Britannia seems to be coming to an end... to be continued...


Ultimat XI: Ultima XI would start out on the Serpent Isle. It hasn't faired so well either. Pockets of Serpent followers have survived the 10,000 years after the religion re-emerged once the triumvarate of serpents was restored. Other philosophies have cropped as well, and some others survived. And, like Britannia, it is fallign apart. You eventually find so&so who turns out to be a scientist, and magical scholar far ahead of others of his time, and he cannot help you get back at all! -shock- Opening portals to other realms is not possible - all of space time and the ether is too unstable; only ancient already existing portals and portal sites remain functional. (Hence why you could go from your world to Britannia via those round stones, and no way back - time moving differently, the Earth-side still remained). The scientist, however, has several theories and conflicting and incomplete data that he needs coroborated, verified, discovered, and gives you some aparatuses and a long forgotten location of another gateway like the Serpent Pillars. (For one thing, judging by the orbit, the Serpent Isle should be bigger, and have more mass.) Along the way you also find the Serpents, and they tell you that their power only goes so far - restoring them 10,000 years earlier, was only a stay of execution. They also reveal, that the previous Avatar in its ascended form has not only been fighting the Guardian, but has been busy keeping the lands of Sosaria (what the? for those new to the series) from completely being destroyed. Hence, with his final death, that fate will now befall Sosaria after all. They are doing everything they can (you will see they are strained beyond capacity), but soon it will be over unless a solution is found.

Onward through gateway so&so provided, and we find, what old fogeys like us with old maps back from the age of dinosaurs, will recognize as The Fuedal Lands. This place, like BR and SI, is falling apart. Volcanoes erupting everywhere, colored lightning, and things a lot nastier. It is also, a hell-hole. Ruled over by several tyrants that are often at war with each other. You have to do a lot of things here, including using so&sos equipment.

From the Feudal Lands there's once more a gate to Britannia, where the equipment has to be used again. Getting back to so&so, he puts all the data together, and we all find out that each of the lands has too little mass for its orbit. And the scientist realizes - add all three masses, and you get the right mass and size for the orbit each land is occupying. In short; we find out that the lands are not "gone" at all, they are simply splintered, massive barriers of space and time that also function as a warp (so that it teleports you unknown to the "other side of the map", making it appear a globe). The lands still occupy the same planet, the same globe, the same orbit. Problem is, the planet and the ether on and around it can't handle the stresses of these space-time borders/fissures/barriers and they have slowly and irrevocably been tearing it apart. Soon, the whole place will blow up - unless, someone brings down the barriers, making Sosaria whole once again.

The rest of the game, will be the quest to find out how, and then to finally do that. With the restoration of the Sosaria and the Ether, magic is once more much easier to use, the moongates work - a way home is found; you may go home... but a few of the people of Britannia make one more request for the new heroes from another world to remain; the choice of going home or remaining, will be the final act in the game. Why do they need the Avatar still? Well...


Ultima XII: Sosaria is whole once again! But the peoples are not, and some tyrants from the Feudal Lands, see rich new lands to conquer - their armies march, and seem all but unstoppalbe, especially against the splintered peoples and species of Britannia and the Serpent Isle. To you the task to forge an alliance between them, and raise an army, then drive the conquerers back, and bring peace to the lands. Yes, unlike the traditional RPGs where you just face off against the bad guy all alone, or with just your companions - it is time to take it to the next level, and see if you've done what it takes to inspire entire towns, cities, and peoples to face massive threats together. Even having to travel into the jaws of the lion, to find people in the Feudal Lands themselves and inspire them to fight, and sabotage their Tyrant's armies' supply lines. Finally you have to face the tyrants themselves with your party as well of course - but you can only get close to them, if their armies are fighting the army of the alliance of light.


"I've got something to say; it's better to burn out, than to fade away."

"Gimme some sugar, baby."

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This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by 3D Master: 16-10-2021 23:23.

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