Companions

I didn't gloss over anything. The first example of being "more than hirelings" was having conversational ability, and the second was having an npc schedule. I gave my opinion on both. Read my post again.

Anytime Richard or team mention companions, it sounded to me like they were talking about storyline close friends of the avatar, not party members that follow you around 24/7. So it sounds like this is confusion about what "companions" means, and perhaps that is why the forum was removed. I have no idea.
All I asked for was the location of where they advertised Ultima-like parties (what most people seem to be referring to when they talk about this) which would justify calling this a "design change." I like to keep on top of changes they make to the original plans.

 

There were a lot of good posts that were just deleted in that section....without saying anything at all. Nothing good comes of that and it looks really bad. Imagine the outrage if the PVP section had been removed?

It's not like we who are interested in the single player game have a lot of places to comment on it...it obviously isn't high on their list of importance. I wonder at this point if Richard has forgotten what made the older ultima's so populor?

 

I don't read the forums much at all, so I didn't see what was in there. I'm looking for developer comments on the matter rather than player speculation. Speculation might be what they are trying to stop - again, I have no idea.

Probably worth noting that I personally am a single player ultima fan that would love my old party companions back. I just did not see evidence that it was planned for SotA. I don't appreciate design changes like that, though, so I honestly would like to know if this was something that they advertised... or if it was just a bad choice of term that has caused confusion.

 

Some of them means some and not all.

 

This has been going on for a very long time.
The community is asked about things that matter in a superficial kind of way, but the real nuts and bolts of the game has been decided by Portalarium and then announced to us.

I know my opinion is not very popular, but they are the game makers. I trust them to make the game, and not cater to the whims of people on the forums.

 

I keep seeing people say this in the forums, but in the original KS, I don't find any mention of this. Can someone point me to where it was stated officially?

 

Actually, they removed a 100+ page PvP thread. They claimed it was merely "hidden," but when I tried to access my own posts in it, it said there was an error. I could not access them. Plus my post count reduced significantly. So they're splitting hairs over the definition of hidden and removed. There was outrage, but it didn't do any good.

If that thread had a lot of controversy, that's probably the reason it was removed/hidden. I can sort of understand them wanting to remove off-putting posts. But if it was people's understanding there would be companions, they have a right to question what's happened.

So far, I haven't been able to find anywhere that this was stated (companions). A spiritual successor implies an awful lot, but it is not explicit with a generalization like that.

 

Then why have they invested so many hours and resources on housing and player run towns? That was not in the original KS. Nor were lots of things they've created for the add-on store. Nor were the stretch goals. Those were all forum driven discussions that drove that, and from players who've invested heavily. I'm no fan of heavy investors calling the shots, unless they're in the industry and know what they're talking about. Then maybe.

 

None of that is game mechanics.

 

Housing and player run towns aren't game mechanics? And I think a lot of the stretch goals can be considered game mechanics as well.

 

A player owned town is a scene. They have the tech to do that already.
Housing isn't an addition. Flexible placement would be an addition.

 

It's not as easy to find the interviews and chat transcripts that were there when they ran the kickstarter....it was quite awhile ago. But, throughout all of this we have asked over and over for more information and they kept saying they didn't have more to add as of yet. That had nothing to do with removing a whole section of the forums like it never existed.

I asked in many of the interviews and chat sessions about companions(was one of my major pushes) and they said there would be companions like we had back in ultima 7. It isn't us imagining that they might be there or thinking they would automatically be included.

They merged a bunch of threads that were on different aspects of the single player game many of which included asking about companions. It wasn't just our hope that they would be there, it was that they were mentioned.

NOTHING about this game even resembles what we had in ultima 7, and frankly I'm getting tired of people telling us to wait.

 

So just to throw in my tuppence worth,

There are currently many many things missing from this alpha version of the game that we are all very privileged to be part of. We know that certain elements of the game are being kept from us......who knows that could also include information regarding companions (if indeed they are planned). A clear decision has been made by Portalarium to put a focus on the multiplayer element and then embed a rich single player story mode on top, we can all speculate why Portalarium have chosen to do this and some players may not like it.......but lets be clear, that's the business model they have chosen because they believe it will attract the larger audience......and you know what? they are probably right.

At the moment I see a pure 'pitchfork' approach towards Portalarium regarding the single player mode despite them explaining their desired approach to building the game.

As for companions, has anyone actually asked the question on the QA thread? The answer is yes:

"Question: Companions? Will we still get them as mentioned during kickstarter? And will they be more then just henchmen with no personality. Please consider Companions on the scope of Iolo, who existed in the world without our character. He had a house and bow shop. He wasn't just a pack mule that could fight."

The reply was:

"We do plan to have companions be more than simple hirelings. For instance we will have conversations for them so you can interact with them like other NPCs around the game. Some of them will have existence outside of the Avatar’s view, so much so that they may only appear to you from time to time between their other duties."

So unless someone can point me somewhere where there has been a U-turn and as a result there is a desire and "need" for a pitchfork approach........why don't people just relax a bit and wait for development team to move onto that part of the project.

 

That's how I remember it too.

 

Its still game mechanics, even if they "have the tech already". Templates need to be planned and made, among other things. And flexible placement is a stretch goal.

And Caliya's actual point was about them spending development time on previously unannounced features, not nitpicking what are mechanics and what aren't.

 

Wait, so we are bashing the devs for not having a specific thing in the current pre-alpha stage of the game - A thing that they said they want to add, but didnt come that far in the game yet?

*Two thumbs up, Boris style*

They didnt come that far in development yet. We have been told that they still have no idea how they will implement 'special NPC's' , such as high level backer Servants. And regardless of some people say, they didnt spend any time on Player owned towns yet, not more time than what it take to make the part of the addon store.

 

As much as it is a nice approach to say we are "pitchforking" this, what brought this up was the fact they have deleted the companion section from the forums...It is gone. Like it never existed. All the threads gone.

This "pitchfork" approach that you seem to see is a direct result of actions on their part, they haven't answered any questions on any of this in a very long time, merged threads and now completely deleted a section of the forums.

Maybe after release we should bring up our concerns.

 

Thank you for not reading anything we wrote.

 

People are upset because the Companions section of the forums (and all the users' posts within) was removed, without any kind of notification.

It is absolutely, 100% possible that this is completely innocent, and companions are still planned. However, this is not the first time they have made major direction changes (call it what you will) without any sort of notification, and the reaction gets worse every time. In fact, there have been literally dozens of pages of complaints about this very issue in the past. Can you really blame people for being upset, especially when this is a subject they care deeply about?

Maybe, instead of blindly following along with the "they just haven't gotten to it yet" attitude and dismissing other peoples' concerns, there is another option.

 

I read all 5 ½ Pages.

This entire thread stinks of aggression and missinformation, and while i understand that the intentions is right ( Simply asking what happens with this ) , it quickly took a turn for the worse, making it sound by some people that the devs " spent time on other things instead " , which simply isnt true. Because they *did not come that far in development yet* . Shouldnt that last part alone be enough to chill a bit on the topic?! One would think so.