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Lord British launches “Shroud of the Avatar” on Kickstarter

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Re: Lord British launches “Shroud of the Avatar” on Kickstarter

#31

Post by adventureloop »

Lockyy wrote: post #23
danso wrote: post #4

> Multiplayer Online Game - which can also be played solo player / offline I remember when UO came out...I never played it but I wondered if it would be the end of good single-player RPGs. Luckily, it wasn't, but it was basically the end of Ultima as a series, though arguably it wasn't a causation. In any case, it's hard to imagine an RPG world that could be designed successfully to be a MMO and a good single player…

I agree with you that trying to merge multiplayer with singleplayer would be a very difficult affair. I think swtor attempted this, but I cannot say because I never played it. I am excited to see if anyone takes up the idea of making something akin to the elder scrolls franchise and adding small scale multiplayer into it. Not specifically co-op but just where multiple people are dropped into the world together and th…

It sounds like the multiplayer is implemented in similar way to Fabel 2. A single player game, but if your friends were online you would see a floating orb where ever they were in the world. You could interact through game play as well, though I am a little rusty on how that worked.

An implementation like that would be really cool. It would definitely me a nice argument against the EA / Activision(Blizzard) always online approach.

Re: Lord British launches “Shroud of the Avatar” on Kickstarter

#32

Post by roc »

bobsy wrote: post #11

I am going to rant about graphics here. The graphics on this game look 8 years old. A game doesn't need to look fantastic to be good but surely a new game should have good graphics. I am not talking about realistic graphics. Simply esthetically pleasing graphics. The graphics in the video look like something from runescape... Looking elsewhere. Is this game not called 'Ultima Online' because Garriot doesn't own the r…

> "The video left me feeling like the game is a time sink without getting the reward of getting little achievements like gaining levels and discovering new gear. The very things that make such games addictive."

Those are the things that made DIKU MUDs addictive. And graphical MMOs have definitely been successful largely to the degree that they effectively incorporated such designs. [1] The largest MMO audience clearly prefers that experience. (And the popularity of F2P suggests the preference for that kind of design holds for more than just MMO games.)

But that was never the attraction of UO [1]. Nor was it even a minor part of what attracted people to the Ultima series overall. And despite almost certainly being a minority, there remains a non-trivial segment of the potential MMO audience that at least claims to want an exploration-based world, rather than a DIKU-style amusement park.

I can see where someone who prefers an 'amusement park' design wouldn't be interested in this. But I can't really see why anyone would expect that sort of thing from Garriott. The game described is pretty much exactly what I imagined when I read the headline. [2]

[1] At least UO wasn't anywhere close to that when Garriott was even remotely involved. Though I'll admit I have no idea where the game went after the first couple years.

[2] That said, I'm quite skeptical and bearish on its chances overall. The stated design reads like the same wish-list that a dozen games have started with. Each whittling down said list to a far more narrow scope, giving up on many hopes of 'another way' for tried-and-true DIKU-style elements, and ultimately still collapsing under the primary challenge of trying to balance the PvP experience to actually be meaningful without it being overwhelmingly defined by the griefing.

PvP alone is the key feature such devs refuse to push off the launch feature list but almost universally kills these games before they deliver an acceptable design.

Re: Lord British launches “Shroud of the Avatar” on Kickstarter

#33

Post by WA »

bobsy wrote: post #11

I am going to rant about graphics here. The graphics on this game look 8 years old. A game doesn't need to look fantastic to be good but surely a new game should have good graphics. I am not talking about realistic graphics. Simply esthetically pleasing graphics. The graphics in the video look like something from runescape... Looking elsewhere. Is this game not called 'Ultima Online' because Garriot doesn't own the r…

Yeah, the graphics should better be like 16 years old. God, I loved the look of the old Ultima Online in its pixel detail beauty.

Re: Lord British launches “Shroud of the Avatar” on Kickstarter

#34

Post by pearle »

gebe wrote: post #30

Might as well chime in with another Kickstarter in progress for a spiritual successor of another famous RPG: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/torment-tides-of-... Kickstarter has been really great so far for people, like myself, who were and are very fond of the "old school" type of RPGs.

Yeah, I'm surprised the Torment KS didn't appear on HN after it ended up being the fastest KS to hit 1 million (8 hours).

Re: Lord British launches “Shroud of the Avatar” on Kickstarter

#35

Post by tsumnia »

simonsarris wrote: post #28

I'm glad that "Meaningful PvP" was singled out. PvP is important to me and its one of the things that Ultima Online got right that vast swaths of MMOs since have floundered with (in my opinion). In parts of the world (Felucca[1]), UO was a rare RPG where anyone could kill anyone, for any reason, but with the repercussion that they would be branded a "Bad person" (visible with a gray or red name instead of blue). Stea…

If you are interested in a game that holds similar mechanics, take a look at Darkfall(http://www.darkfallonline.com/), while it is shutting down, the 'sequel' is being released. It offers the same full looting, full PvP experience. The only area where time-sinking customers benefit is from the fact you can build your own strongholds to store things if your toon gets killed.

Re: Lord British launches “Shroud of the Avatar” on Kickstarter

#36

Post by chjj »

This is so great. I'm such a damn UO fan I can't even put it into words. I'm not a "gamer", but UO was the __best__ game I've ever played. No game, as far as I can tell, has even come close to replicating the brilliance of UO around 1998-1999. It probably gave me some of my best childhood memories, and it was also the first time I was ever called a "fuking n00b" on the internet.

Re: Lord British launches “Shroud of the Avatar” on Kickstarter

#37

Post by ordinathorreur »

estebank wrote: post #13

> From Lord British's Treatise on "What is an Ultimate RPG?": > * Fully interactive virtual world - If it looks usable, it should do something > * Deep original fiction - Ethical parables, cultural histories, fully developed alternate language text This reminds me of the first Deus Ex. Wonder if they'll be able to pull it off.

Game designer Warren Spector worked on both the Ultima series and Deus Ex which might explain the similar philosophy.

Re: Lord British launches “Shroud of the Avatar” on Kickstarter

#38

Post by wodow »

simonsarris wrote: post #28

I'm glad that "Meaningful PvP" was singled out. PvP is important to me and its one of the things that Ultima Online got right that vast swaths of MMOs since have floundered with (in my opinion). In parts of the world (Felucca[1]), UO was a rare RPG where anyone could kill anyone, for any reason, but with the repercussion that they would be branded a "Bad person" (visible with a gray or red name instead of blue). Stea…

Vote yes to permanent death [1] in MMOs!

Richard Bartle: "[without permanent death] Newbies (and not-so-newbies) feel they can never catch up. The people in front will always be in front, and there's no way to overtake them. The horizon advances at the speed you approach it." [2]

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_death [2] Designing Virtual Worlds, 2003

Re: Lord British launches “Shroud of the Avatar” on Kickstarter

#39

Post by [deleted] »

bstar77 wrote: post #25
gavanwoolery wrote: post #6

I grew up on the Ultima series - in fact it is exclusively the reason I became a programmer and game developer. I do not know how good this recent iteration will be, but at least it looks like Richard is keeping a close ear to his community. In all honesty though I would have settled for a 2D/isometric non-MMO (in the spirit of Ultima 7) -- I think that's where his original fans lie.

My Ultima experience started with VI, but I remember distinctively walking into Electronics Boutique and seeing Ultima VII on the shelf for the first time. I could not believe the screenshots were real, it looked like everything a RPG should be. Ultima VI is was really got me into coding world simulations, but Ultima VII really showed the potential of the genre. I think that's why Ultima VIII and IX were such a disap…

[deleted]

Re: Lord British launches “Shroud of the Avatar” on Kickstarter

#40

Post by Erwin »

I'm not sure what to feel when someone who spent (reportedly) $30MM for a space trip: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Garriott#Spaceflight asks me for $1MM

But I guess the more power to semi-independent studios we can give through Kickstarter the better.

I like the $10 "guilt pledge": "If you ever pirated an Ultima game or used an exploit to grief other players in Ultima Online, here’s your chance to repent! For your $10 donation you will receive a clear conscience and Lord British's undying gratitude.".

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