Ultima The Ultima Series Discussion Thread

[AetherVagrant]

OOoh, that post is from this year at least. One of the guys from Exult was tossing around the idea last year, never heard if it went anywhere.

 

[Junmarko]

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

One of the most memorable CRPG tunes for me.

 

[Junmarko]

One of the most memorable CRPG tunes for me.

I can't believe Iolo is actually a real person, who not only makes crossbows, but who wrote that song on he and Gwenno's honeymoon.

 

[Leitz]

I played through Ultima III not long ago and I loved it. Now I have abandonded Ultima IV half way through and I can finally say that I didn't like it a lot. Thinking about the virtues was nice in the beginning but after some time I felt like a slave to the mechanics. It made me sick to be forced to play in ONE certain way. The world isn't even that exciting. Combat was a lot worse than in U III. I now understand why people recommend to start the series with Ultima V. 'tis better right?

 

[octavius]

I now understand why people recommend to start the series with Ultima V. 'tis better right?

Yes. Combat is definitely better and wandering monsters only roam at night. There are fewer NPCs, and they have schedules.
But it lacks a bit of the charm/silliness of U4.

 

[Marquis de Lirium]

.

 

[Junmarko]

Unfortunately, this means that you can't simply use the Japanese tiles with Ultima V DOS.

Damn..

Any personal favorite that you recommend instead?

 

[Marquis de Lirium]

Unfortunately, this means that you can't simply use the Japanese tiles with Ultima V DOS.

Damn..

Any personal favorite that you recommend instead?

Unlike U4, there is no graphics update or engine reimplementation for U5. Furthermore, there is no trivial way to use alternative tiles with the original engine, because even with equal tile sizes you still would have to deal with different hardware palettes. In other words, the default tileset is the only one you'll get. Which isn't too bad in my opinion, especially when you compare it to vanilla U4.

You can choose another version of U5 of course, but graphics are pretty much the same on all 16bit platforms (and worse on 8bit).

 

[Junmarko]

A piece on ORIGIN's Ultima series from the April 28th, 1993 episode of Today.

 

[Junmarko]

New interview with Garriott

 

[BlackGoat]

What would you people like in a modern Ultima-like game? A modern Ultima VII or, really, a modern Ultima V? Cause every time I see a new game calling Ultima a huge inspiration, it always seems really superficial, or their notion of what makes Ultima ULTIMA is nothing like my notion of what makes it Ultima. Or they'll focus on one thing, say, character schedules, or being able to manipulate every object onscreen, or crafting, or something. Or there'll be features that seem entirely opposed to my idea of Ultima (MMO style combat and character development and comprehensive quest journals, etc). Even something like the movement being click-and-watch-your-characters-walk-somewhere can be enough to makes something decidedly un-Ultima to me.

So, say tomorrow someone said that they were going to make a game like Ultima V, and it wasn't going to be a AAA production or anything, but it wasn't going to be a simple tile-based clone or euro shovelware thing, what would you hope it to have or hope it to avoid having? Imagine a game as divorced as possible from the current gaming landscape. Something not just inspired by Ultima V but almost a direct follow-up (minus lore, etc).

 

[TigerKnee]

If your inspiration is Ultima V, I personally say scrap that and go for The Magic Candle instead - on gameplay features alone it's more fun - Ultima V beats it in writing but in 2016 I'm not sure if you can wring any more blood out of "exploration of ethics in RPGs"

 

[octavius]

Yeah, I agree Magic Candle has better game mechanics.

I don't care much for crafting and object manipulation. NPC schedules is nice, but can sometimes be annoying.
The essence of the Ultima games is to travel around, talk to NPC and piece the overall "puzzle" together.

 

[Marquis de Lirium]

So, say tomorrow someone said that they were going to make a game like Ultima V, and it wasn't going to be a AAA production or anything, but it wasn't going to be a simple tile-based clone or euro shovelware thing, what would you hope it to have or hope it to avoid having? Imagine a game as divorced as possible from the current gaming landscape. Something not just inspired by Ultima V but almost a direct follow-up (minus lore, etc).

What I'd like to see is a game similar to Ultima V in terms of look and feel - tile-based, top-down view, low-res graphics and controls based on keyboard shortcuts. There could be some improvements in these areas, but I'd keep it rather conservative. The Nazghul engine comes pretty close to my ideas.
But I'd also want more content - larger and more interesting locations to explore, more NPCs to talk to, a real dialogue system and real choices with consequences - i.e. a world that reacts to your actions and doesn't reset everything the moment you leave a town. And there should be sidequests, something Origin never really cared about.

Such a game would be a nice project for an amateur designer: The programming part is easy and the required assets are relatively simple to create. In fact, this is a plan I've been considering for several years, but I never really got started. Kind of my eternal vaporware project that I'm going to finish right in time for retirement...

 

[octavius]

If your inspiration is Ultima V, I personally say scrap that and go for The Magic Candle instead - on gameplay features alone it's more fun - Ultima V beats it in writing but in 2016 I'm not sure if you can wring any more blood out of "exploration of ethics in RPGs"

In 2016 "ethics" has a tendency to be corrupted by omnipresent SJWs , so chances are an Ultima without the ethics part will be superior.

 

[BlackGoat]

What are the Magic Candle mechanics that you guys prefer? Combat? The overall nature of the exploration? I haven't played the game for any length of time (like, fired it up in dosbox, clicked around for a bit, made a note to return to it later, it's on my List of Games To Play), but from the few youtubes I've seen it seems to lack that sort of doll-house simulated world Ultima V feel that I enjoy. I do agree the on-your-own talk-to-people solve-the-puzzle thing is primary Ultima.

I'm not terribly interested in the whole virtues Quest of the Avatar thing, tho I think it's historically interesting, but that's Garriot's deal. I think a proper non-Ultima follow up would have to have it's own specific world view.

 

[octavius]

What are the Magic Candle mechanics that you guys prefer? Combat? The overall nature of the exploration?

Combat and logistics.
And mushrooms.

 

[TigerKnee]

Another good part of The Magic Candle gameplay is that a lot of your power comes from "information", not grinding EXP by killing tons of mobs (though you have to do that for other reasons, which I think is a weakness of both TMC and Ultima V)

Like - you have to talk to people to find out the name of reclusive Wizards who are the only one who can sell you new Spellbooks, or finding out where a Dwarf linguist expert lives to learn the language from him so you can read Dwarven signs in dungeons, or taking down a list of all the towns prices so you can figure out where best to unload your gems and stock up on necessary supplies and the savings can go into paying trainers to train your party... which of course, you also want to find the best bang for your buck.

 

[Temesis]

An Ultima game needs a quirky and slightly out-of-place cast of characters. Actually sorta reminds me of Twin Peaks cast. Somehow.

 

[LESS T_T]

Is he still sending the completion certificates to players? I think I heard that he did at least few years ago.

 

[SausageInYourFace]

And if he does, would he send you one even if you do not have a screenshot to prove thy feat? Also, would he print it out and physically send you or does he just mail them to you? (I assume a screenie is not necessary, since that would not have been possible in the 80s anyway, eh?)

 

[LESS T_T]

Oh, it was not "few years ago", it was last year: http://ultimacodex.com/2015/03/rich...shroud-of-the-avatar-completion-certificates/

 

[Jack Dandy]

What would you people like in a modern Ultima-like game? A modern Ultima VII or, really, a modern Ultima V? Cause every time I see a new game calling Ultima a huge inspiration, it always seems really superficial, or their notion of what makes Ultima ULTIMA is nothing like my notion of what makes it Ultima. Or they'll focus on one thing, say, character schedules, or being able to manipulate every object onscreen, or crafting, or something. Or there'll be features that seem entirely opposed to my idea of Ultima (MMO style combat and character development and comprehensive quest journals, etc). Even something like the movement being click-and-watch-your-characters-walk-somewhere can be enough to makes something decidedly un-Ultima to me.

So, say tomorrow someone said that they were going to make a game like Ultima V, and it wasn't going to be a AAA production or anything, but it wasn't going to be a simple tile-based clone or euro shovelware thing, what would you hope it to have or hope it to avoid having? Imagine a game as divorced as possible from the current gaming landscape. Something not just inspired by Ultima V but almost a direct follow-up (minus lore, etc).

Modern Ultima V. It was just so much damn fun!

 

[BlackGoat]

In a modern Ultima V-like, what additional sorts of stuff would be interesting in the overworld half of the dual-scale? Would you always know what's in every square as in U5? Or would there be stuff that you might not see til you land on it (and maybe "Search" it), like a hexcrawl sort of thing? Basically, same question as before. If you wanted to add onto the Ultima V overworld for a non-False-Prophet Ultima VI, what would you add, how would you expand the gameplay.

Also, how large did you perceive the overworld to be? Did you think of it as each step was a many many miles squared representation of a landscape, or a miniature version of a landscape, where if there were ruins on it, you'd always be able to see it because you're basically stepping right on them and if you're walking on a hill tile you're climbing up a specific hill and not just walking in generally hilly terrain