Comparing SotA to Ultima VII

I re-installed Ultima VII (my favourite part of the Ultima series) and played it a bit. I couldn't help myself to compare it to SotA, as on the Kickstarter site it says "Our primary objectives are to tell a story even more compelling than Ultimas IV-VII, create a virtual world more interactive than Ultima VII..."

The first thing I noticed is the "immersion" - there is no HUD in Ultima VII which leads to me being immersed much more.

Then the dialogues. They are real dialogues where you focus on the people talking. The texts are not too long but still detailed and we get very cool descriptions of what the NPC looks like, his mimic and gestures... This makes the dialogues interesting, the NPCs feel alive and I don't have to read walls of text.

The NPCs: There are fewer but much more detailed NPCs. The have a daily schedule (yes this is annouced for SotA as well), they have unique personalities and even secrets (Patterson in Britain for example). Talking to them is like talking to interesting people that have a real purpose and place in the world. Due to the fact that there are not thousands of NPCs it is easier finding the relevant ones.

The cities: Each city is unique and has its own personality. The design is carefully done to underline the personality of the city. They are not too big so that I cannout find my way around but also not too small.

The interaction: I can move items around, drop items, find items hidden underneath items. I can fire cannons, fetch water from a well, bake bread, move rocks on the ground...

The beginning: Ultima 7 begins with a mystery. A murder and we have to find out what is going on. This is interesting and opens the game with a "bang".

The companions: I don't know how the companion System in SotA will work but in Ultima 7 I can manage the gear and inventory of my friends and also train them the way I like. They talk to me, offer advice and have interesting backgrounds.

The world: The world feels much more consistent, real, logical and interesting. People are aware of the other cities. In SotA I get the feeling as if every town is secluded form everything else. Then those control Points... They prevent the people of the land to travl the land, which is not logical at all.

Enemies: Enemies are placed more naturally. There are fewer enemies and not all of them respawn immediatley. I can walk around in a forest, not seeing any monster for quite some time as exploration is a big focus of the game.

In Ultima VII everything feels organic, real, logical whereas in SotA I get the feeling as if the world is just a sandbox. Here is a forest, there is a desert. But the personality of those areas is missing. Where is the Lock Lake of Novia? Where is the Spiritwood of the game? All of those areas that really feel like a part of the world. In SotA everything feels as if it is just there for us to kill something or gather ressources or do PvP. The personality, the feeling is missing, the feeling of it being a logical world. The same for the NPCs, dialogues and quests. In SotA many things feel gamey. Dialogues are there so that we get a quest. An enemy is there for us to kill, a control point is there for PvP reasons, a city is there for housing and economy. Nothing feels alive and "real" like in Ultima VII. In Ultima VII the world felt like a world, the NPCs felt like inhabitants of this world that have a purpse and a history. Even the monsters felt as if they had a purpose. This is still missing from SotA.

 

I'd love to do this. Is there a digital download somewhere that I can buy? Does it run properly on modern systems? My original copy disappeared during the previous century somewhere between Maryland and Georgia.

Cheers,
Cornfellow

 

The entire Ultima series (including the Worlds of Ultima and Underworld games) can be found on GoG.com

 

Using Exult, you can run the game quit good on modern PCs:
http://exult.sourceforge.net/

 

TL;DR: you want SotA to be more like Ultima VII. Or to pick an example that is not from the digital stoneage... Dragon Age: Origins.

I can agree with that.

 

Of course I don't want a clone of Ultima VII but I think that this game is unsurpassed regarding the world, the NPCs and the feeling of being a world that feels "alive" and "real". This is what I would like SotA to feel, too.

 

Well... you're not too far off. I'd like to say that Ultima7 is anything BUT "organic" but I guess that's a matter of perspective. You are right about SotA being merely a sandbox but that's primarily due to the fact that there's no actual content in the game yet.

 

You are right and I hope that in the end, the world and the game feels "organic" and more like Ultima VII.

 

Which features of U7 are somewhat "missing" :

• Hunger and thirst system
• Immersive magic system (learn spells and record them into spell book)
• 1 scale openworld with things to explore
• Navigation/shipping system
• Mounts (carts, carpets)
  
• 18++ content
  
• Stealing and killing NPCs, meaningful lockpicking and snooping...

Well I think I will actually install Ultima7 back on my PC... Thanks Exult ^^

 

The last time I played Shroud was r17ish, so I don't really know anymore

Its not Ultima. It has its own identity. That's fine, ea has the rights. But there is no excuse for Shroud not being a damn good imitation

 

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

 

First, I want to say that I do appreciate championing the cause of single player.

That said however, this has been one of my pet peeves of the last couple of years.. comparing SotA.. a very unfinished product and knowing it's unfinished..to a finished and polished title as if SotA should be in that same state now. It's fine to say I hope SotA achieves this level of ____.. but it's a little different to make the comparison and complain SotA isn't there yet. Otherwise what is there to compare?

Now Portalarium announces an official 'launch' date and we get close and it still isn't there.. I'll join in making a fuss over it.

 

If you don't know where you go, learn where you came from.

Here what's DarkStarr said :

I do find this point of view very disappointing and fears that this is a tricky way to kill in the egg any criticsm about the development. So what, the game will never be considered as "launched" ?

Also I would like to add that comparing a 1992 game to a 2016 one do seems fair to me. Why would features which were developped 25 years ago would take years to put in shape today ?

 

Here's a link if you want to buy the whole set: https://www.gog.com/game/ultima_7_complete

 

Thanks Smoker! This might be a fun way to kill some time. I am a tad worried about what Lord_Darkmoon posted:

I went to the site and started reading the installation instructions and thought it was a bit complicated. But I may give it a try.

Cheers,
Cornfellow

 

To start, I kinda get why people think 'final wipe' is the same as launch but it's really not and there's no reason to think it is. Changing the terminology to "Early Access" I think was only done because Pre-Alpha, Alpha and Beta confuse people.. despite the fact that Portalarium has explained it many times how they defined those terms.. Alpha = Feature Complete, Beta = Content Complete. To me at least it makes perfect sense and "Early Access" extends through Beta up until launch. However, Early Access carries the implication of simply "not finished" which I suppose is simpler for people to get. It's done when it's done. Personally I prefer the older terms as they at least signify milestones and people who don't understand them don't really seem to understand "Early Access" either.

Also, you can't just cut and paste features from a 25 year old game into a modern one. Those features have to interact with other features that didn't exist within a completely different engine and a heck of a lot more variables and conditions than were even possible before within a greatly expanded environment. Why should you think it should be so fast and easy?

 

Exult is awesome! Instructions may not be user friendly.. honestly I haven't looked at the site in awhile.. but if you're going to play either Black Gate or Serpent Isle.. Exult is the way to go.

 

It's also extra cool for the addons that fans have done for both games that include some extra quests and things (notably with the Shrines for Ultima 7), and fixes some glaring plot holes in SI

 

I wasn't aware of the extra quests.. those are probably newer additions from the last time I updated years ago.

 

Here's the download links for folks if they're interested
http://exult.sourceforge.net/seventowers/downloads.php?section=0