KickStarter Underworld Ascendant Pre-Release Thread

[JBro]

New logo for the company:



So modern.

Reminds me of a box cutter.

 

[vivec]

Long dick is long.

Very Prosperian. Someone inform him of the copyright infringement.

Yeah though not intentional, the rope seems to be dancing in reactions to ambient audio at times.

You might be correct. The sound is probably tied to the *wind* effect.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Reminds me of a box cutter.

Reminds me of the Keepers' logo.

 

[Sceptic]

I'm referring to the game that is pitched, and not how much like it is from a previous entry in a series. UWA was sold as a UW sequel, and in their pitch they said it would be influenced by their LGS principles, and that means it will bring thief gameplay elements to it. They also promised it wouldn't be a stat based RPG since the beginning. So, the idea of the game was already distant somewhat from a strict UW game.

See the problem, to me, is that we have "UW sequel" on the one hand, and "distant from a UW game" on the other hand, and we're supposed to see both statements as compatible; to me a game that borrows more elements from other LGS games than it does from UW is not a UW game, it's a LGS game with some UW elements. Maybe I'm too cynical but I wonder if combining the statements like this was done precisely so that they could decide later on what kind of game they want to make and be able to point at a vague and almost contradictory pitch and say "but it fits", because whether they make a perfect UW successor or a game that has barely anything to do with UW but that takes place in the "Stygian Abyss", they're still being faithful to the pitch. Like I said in my previous post, it could still be a great game (I have doubts about that, but that's another topic), but it's not another UW, and that's going to be more of a disappointment to me than if they had simply pitched "a LGS type game" and left it at that.

I agree with you about the SS remake being a much more clear cut case, and your thoughts on disappointment and expectations. Incidentally I didn't back UWA, because I couldn't see a unifying vision of what game they actually wanted to make (other than "a LGS game"; but that's just my opinion of the pitch), but as you so rightly pointed out it hasn't prevented me from oscillating back and forth between expectation and disappointment

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

I think it's too early to make that call. Wait until 2022, when the game reaches beta.

Spoiler

Zep--

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Looks like improved lighting, textures and shaders. Devs mention some new shots coming later this week with next level art direction. Starting to look good.

 

[Zep Zepo]

Seriously? You think that looks good? That thing, whatever it is, doesn't fit the design of the world it was placed in. Looks like it was pasted into the scene from a totally different game.

Zep--

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

I'm talking about the environment, not the ghost/lich/whateveritis.

 

[LESS T_T]

https://schedule.sxsw.com/2018/events/PP80884

Exploring 'Underworld Ascendant' with PC Gamer

MAR 16, 2018 | 2:00PM – 3:00PM

AUSTIN CONVENTION CENTER
GAMING EXPO - DISCOVERY STAGE - EXHIBIT HALL 2

SPEAKERS
WARREN SPECTOR (Otherside Entertainment), PAUL NEURATH (Otherside Entertainment), EVAN LAHTI (PC Gamer)

OtherSide Entertainment’s Paul Neurath and Warren Spector join PC Gamer to discuss the upcoming release of Underworld Ascendant. Known for their critically acclaimed work on Ultima Underworld, System Shock and Deus Ex and their contributions to the founding of the ‘immersive sim’ genre of games, Paul and Warren will take the audience through a journey of the world of the new Stygian Abyss to showcase one of the most anticipated PC titles of 2018.

Anyone interested: this starts in 30 minutes or so, and will be streamed here:



(Apparently there was Shroud of the Avatar talk but whatever.)

 

[LESS T_T]

It's live.

 

[Infinitron]

Archived: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/239433226?t=04m5s

 

[LESS T_T]

Box art, maybe?

 

[Infinitron]

Not much new in the stream. There's a very short gameplay teaser.

Three takeaways:

1) You play yourself in in the game. Your character is supposed to be literally you transported from Earth - "the Avatar". That in itself is not new information, but apparently you'll also meet other characters in the game who are from Earth as well.

2) Confirmed that the rune word-based spellcasting system from the prototype was axed and isn't coming back (not sure if they've said this before?)

EDIT: Or is it?

3) In the Q&A session, Neurath implies that Otherside had to back off from some of the crazier "dungeon ecology" ideas they experimented with during preproduction. They were just too complex.

 

[Ash]

I'm predicting a fun, cool game, with moderately simple, streamlined and convenient yet harmonious and engaging design. Elite masterclass of monocled game design like the classics? ...probably not.



...but I suppose we have to take what we can get these days.

 

[RatTower]

2) Confirmed that the rune word-based spellcasting system from the prototype was axed and isn't coming back (not sure if they've said this before?)

That and the level portals are a bit of a kick in the balls for me. I thought collecting runes was pretty fun. Especially in Arx Fatalis.

 

[Eggs is eggs]

How much Ultima lore is going to be in the game? I know they got the Ultima license but if you're not really going to tell an Ultima story it seems pointless to bother with it.

 

[Infinitron]

I know they got the Ultima license

Actually they don't.

 

[Jedi Exile]

I'm predicting a fun, cool game, with moderately simple, streamlined and convenient yet harmonious and engaging design. Elite masterclass of monocled game design like the classics? ...probably not.



...but I suppose we have to take what we can get these days.

I hope you are right. The other possibility is a bugged mess with some cool ideas, which developers failed to implement or had to abandon altogether.

 

[Eggs is eggs]

They have the rights to use anything Ultima related, except for the name. It's essentially Ultima Underworld 3. I know Richard Garriott at one point was going to have some kind of tie ins with his Ultima successor but I don't know what happened to that.

 

[Junmarko]

I know Richard Garriott at one point was going to have some kind of tie ins with his Ultima successor

I really hope not at this point.

 

[Infinitron]

They have the rights to use anything Ultima related, except for the name.

I don't think so. In any case, they aren't using them. There are some references to Ultima Underworld 1 (like Tyball and Ishtass) but they appear to be stripped of their Ultima/Britannia context. It's like UW1 is retconned to be a non-Ultima within the context of Underworld Ascendant.

I know Richard Garriott at one point was going to have some kind of tie ins with his Ultima successor but I don't know what happened to that.

The tie-in is that Ascendant's Dark Elf faction is from Garriott's game. Although we haven't seen much of the three factions recently, they've been focusing on the Lizardmen instead.

 

[Infinitron]

Hmmm: https://www.othersideentertainment.com/forum/index.php?topic=1925.msg26087#msg26087

Um... Runic magic isn't cut. We just redid the UI from the early placeholder interface. Details coming in future updates. No need to get excited.

 

[Infinitron]

Now on YouTube:



https://www.othersideentertainment.com/forum/index.php?topic=1926.0

Morning everyone!

I'm waiting on the SXSW panel footage RIGHT NOW so I can upload them to our socials, and then we can discuss some of the news we've been holding off on for awhile. (The newsletter will also elaborate on some of the points briefly showcased in the videos).

A number of us are here at GDC (the Game Developer's Conference, which is the largest game dev meetup in the world, hosted in San Francisco, California for a whole week!), so work will be hectic for us as we schedule our outings around meetups with old friends and interviews for the coming months. On the Boston side, I know we're working on the runic/magic system, fleshing out the food, and finishing up our Alpha sprint. (We may need one more Alpha sprint depending on how our deadlines are met, or if we want to take just a little bit of extra time to make sure our core systems are in place.)

I'm afraid I don't have much else to report since our post last week covers most of the things we're still working on, and we were meant to have the panel footage up by now... but I digress. It should be posted today, and then I can link it here on the forums once it's up! Would love to hear all of your thoughts about what's revealed.

 

[Eggs is eggs]

I don't think so. In any case, they aren't using them. There are some references to Ultima Underworld 1 (like Tyball and Ishtass) but they appear to be stripped of their Ultima/Britannia context. It's like UW1 is retconned to be a non-Ultima within the context of Underworld Ascendant.

That makes sense. The 2nd one was a direct Ultima and even the first one had enough Ultima stuff in it that despite all the retcons and such I never realized it wasn't supposed to be an Ultima until I read about the development history. Still I do hope they throw in some Ultima stuff in there.

 

[Infinitron]

Here we go:

OtherSide Entertainment’s Paul Neurath, Warren Spector and Joe Fielder discuss the studio and vision behind Underworld Ascendant, the Action RPG designed to maximize player choice – coming to Steam in 2018.