As some of you regulars know I'm currently working on recreating
Ultima1 in a totally new engine. Until now we have tried to create a
copy as close to the original as possible but at the last team meeting
we let our minds fly and discussed various changes/additions to the
original game.
The more time we use on the project, the more we want this game to be
something special and there are lots of things which could be improved
from the original (at least we think so).
The game is first and foremost for ourselves - but it is also thought
as a present to the whole Ultima community on the net, so we value you
guys oppinions ALOT! After all - who would be better suited for
designing an ultima game than the fans.
Well, to cut to the cheese - what I hope to do with this post is to
start a discussion about the features I've suggested below and also
maybe get some new thoughts on the table. While I cannot promise to
include everything in the game (not even all the plans we have made
ourselves) I'll promise to be open for ideas - so this might be your
chance to affect the "next" ultima ;)
BTW - yesterday I updated the project page with some more screen-shots
for those interrested in eye-candy ;)
Here is the list of features we discussed :
- The most important change! This I would REALLY like some oppinions
on : We are planning to cut out ALL space references! Instead of
having to fight spaceships to be a space-ace you will have to do
something else to make the princess help you. Maybe win a
tournement, be master of quests, help an oracle or whatever.
Suggestions are welcommed!!
The best weapon will not be a phaser gun but something more fantasy
like - like a special enchanted sword which might be the only thing
that can damage Mondain.
Instead of air-cars you'll be able to buy or tame a griffon which
have the same moving abilities as the air-car.
- The towns will be in 3D (see an early example of the style on the
project page)
- The ability to bake bread ;)
- The monsters you are sent to kill in the kings quests should not
just be SOME monster. Instead of just saying : "go kill a rat" a
king would say something like : "go kill the Giant rat which has
been terrorizing the Dungeon of Mt. Drash on the Land of Lord B".
In other words, there will be unique quest monsters and they will
appear in only ONE dungeon which you must the find and explore.
This is to avoid that the game only takes place in ONE dungeon (as
it often does in the current version)
- Dungeons may vary in size and difficulty. It's not certain that a
dungeon has 10 levels and you cannot be sure that rats and thiefs
are on level 1-2 etc etc... Some dungeons might have demons on
level 1 and you would have to wait with the exploration of those.
Again this is to spread the game out to more areas.
- You can get small Subquests from people in the taverns. Reward
might be experience, gold or even a unique item like a magical
sword which cannot be optained elsewhere.
- Some monsters might have parts you can sell or trade with in
the towns. For example you might be able to sell a poison bag
from a giant spider to the local alhemist on a town. Of course
sometimes the poison bag is emptied or damaged during the battle so
not all battles with spiders gives you a bag.
- Monsters will be fewer and harder to kill in the dungeons. A kill
will then be more rewarding than in the original.
- Your characters level affects the power of the spells he throws
along with his intelligence. Some spells might be restricted to
higher levels.
- The experience needed to raise a level should not be linear. Maybe
we'll use the "classic" ultima system (200, 400, 800, etc...)
That was all for now, be sure to check the project page out ;) And I
really hope some of you haves some comments - together we can make
this a great game!!
Telemachos Dragon d-- e- N++ Om+ U1!234!5!6!7!S'!8!9!K!A!L!W!M
-==(UDIC)==- u++ uC uF- uG uLB uA nC nH+ nP+ nI nPT nS+ a22
The Peroxide Homepage : http://www.peroxide.dk
- Home of the PXDTUTS & Free Games
- Home of the Ultima 1 Remake!
