A plea for the single player experience.

True... although I loved the thought of a look at what UO SHOULD have been (especially when EA made the stuttering attempts at UWO), I loved the idea of another Ultima more... in 3d... NOT Ultima 9

 

Cool

That's the thing, us old time ultima fans aren't the demanding type, more the hopeful

 

I have huge faith in the dev team, not only for the past record of great games, but also precisely because they are listening to the feedback of their supporters. Every one here, I'm sure all has the same goal of trying to make the best game possible.

However, I do agree with much of the concerns here, especially about companions and a detailed interactive world with advanced daily AI routines akin to Ultima 7. On the timescale we have left till "going live" these seems like a very large task. I would rather have the launch pushed back a bit to allow for more time to develop these areas since companion involvement in the story does not seem like it would be something that could be possible to add retrospectively in later episodes.

I have mentioned this elsewhere, but it seems appropriate to reiterate my support in this thread;

My feeling is that playing the game in sp might feel rather lonely without a party or group. I would like to hear banter in response to certain combat events, both between members of your group and directed at you the player.

I would also like to hear them responding to events in the story as it develops, they should say things in response to certain quests and areas. I think that NPCs can be a great tool to get the player more emotionally evolved in the story and can also be good for presenting different points of view the player should perhaps consider in a natural way. I think taking these characters with you throughout the story strengthens the bond, as the NPC's share your experiences and face the same dangers at your side.

I don't mind if there is not a lot of choice in which companions you can take with you. I would rather have 3 unique and well developed characters that had varied and interesting things to say, than a large choice of superficial henchmen.

Although in an MMO this is not as important, since other players give you companionship, I really think this kind of NPC interaction is vital to single player RPG's.

I also agree that the very detailed NPC routines added so much to ultima 7, I don't think I have seen a game that has even come close 20 years down the line. Its amazing to be able to see NPC, gather wheat and make it into flour, then mix this with water and bake it into bread for the merchants to sell. This is just one small example, but the fact that everyone was doing this is what made the game actually feel like a believable world. I don't think that SotA will be be able to reach these potential heights for me unless it tries to do something similar.

Listening to the dev hangouts fills me with confidence that this game will evolve into something amazing and the way the dev team is working with the community is pretty special. I would hate to see this huge potential limited by time constraints. I'm worried a lot of potential players might not realise that there are plans to build massively on the feature base with each episode. We may lose a lot of the big bang launch impact by not being as feature complete as we could be, and this could impact review scores, which are generally done upon initial release. I really want this game to be a success and am willing to wait until the dev team judge it ready, i just hope they are not pressured by the initial kickstarter time frame given.

 

stealing should have only one punishment, the u8 punishment ! DISINTEGRATION and FLYING BODYPARTS!


XD

 

Yeah I have to agree with Joviex here...
It's nice to see that RG IS reading this, but NOTHING LB said went to allay ANY concerns that have been brought up in this thread. In fact, with the statement "me and the team agree with most of the concerns raised here, and feel we are mostly on top of these things... (though not entirely)" by LB I would have to say that I'd be even MORE concerned, given the time constraint, what we've seen implemented in the releases, and what has been laid out for future releases for us to test.
LB did what others in this thread have done... Relate the story to being the only part of the Single Player mode that matters. He most of all should know that there is FAR more to an Ultima than just the story!!

 

I see the opposite. I concentrated on the "we agree with most of the concerns." That is good to hear as it seemed like most of these issues weren't even on the dev's minds (from the trickle of information in the hang outs and deep dives; who knows what they were actually thinking?). If he agrees with the concerns and he thinks they're on top of most of it, that is VERY heartening news. The impression I got before is that they didn't think any of these things were a major concern and had no plans for them. So I see RG's statements as a big turn around.

I'm happy and excited.

 

I'd really like to know what they don't agree with. Companions? Crime and Punishment? :/

 

Yes, his response was a bit troubling in that respect. I went out of my way in the OP to be clear that I wasn't really referring to the story, but rather the actual systems I was describing.

 

I agree with you. I don't see this as all doom and gloom, lots of good as well.

 

I also would like to see the launch date delayed if that is what is needed to get the game 'polished'. As I stated in an earlier post, I would rather wait a little longer for the final release rather than feel as if the game was rushed out just to meet a deadline.

 

Yea, I'm not in a rush to play the game. One of the big problems with working with big publishers, besides their interference, was over-adherence to deadlines. I remember a lot of features being cut from Ultima games for that reason.

Only thing that means, though, is they're going to have to do more crowdfunding.

 

I hope all you single player folks play Single Player Online mode though. It would be nice if you could contribute to the player economy even though you are in single player mode. Besides you'll be able to see all the persistent changes, and get updates to the map etc. Please join us online even if you're playing single player.

 

While that may be true, I feel the features for the SP are playing second class to the MP ones and the rationale is simply what you just said: Just play the spO mode.

While I don't disagree that having a more "alive" feeling/universe is a bad thing, that should not come at the expense of the core features @Bubonic brought up. It should not be a replacement for the SP experience.

 

Well I had to comment on the part I'm hearing about portalarium asking for more than originally mentioned. Sorry if I didn't capture that ideal well. Anyway of course more money is needed and will keep being needed. They are making a game.

A kickstarter amount is just to get the game going, it is by no means what it will cost to make the game they want or even the game that we want. The fact is money is needed and a lot more money too. I am willing to contribute a bit more here and there of course over time. Some may not be willing to.

I do totally think many avenues should be found to get more money flowing. I am not crazy about cash shops in other games, but at this point to get the game funded to add all the coolness we want I say bring it on. Sell paintings, mounts, wheel barrels that hold ore and resources etc, anything to get us our game.

I am so excited about all the possibilities of this game, but I am highly concerned that money will restrict it.

For the already backers I totally understand some are backed to the max and I am not far from it, but a few bucks here and there will add up. I will shell out that to help.

I do understand about wanting the companion stuff, I love them too and with added features. I also want to be a gorgeous avatar and you are probably all sick of hearing me harp on it lol, but it will cost probably.

So for what we ask for remember there is probably a cost and a time crunch associated with it. We will have 5 releases to get the game we want if necessary. It won't necessarily be all there in release 1 or 2 or 3 or clear until 5.

I hate to wait too.......I want it NOW...........but there you have it.

 

Oh, voice of reason

"Chaos.... is a ladder" /baelish

 

Whaaa ? Honestly you and the rest of that ilk wouldn't be happy if Lord British showed up in the morning and served you breakfast in bed on Exodus floppy disks....

 

I am all for single player gameplay, but not if that means themepark gameplay.

cheers

 

That might ruin the floppy disks And also take LB away from his game development schedule

 

Trying to remain objective here, and not stoop to personal or general jabs at anyone.

What LB has said is both a good thing and a bad thing in my eyes. Its great that he is taking the time to read the thread, and to make the comments that he has.

However, the comments made are very open ended and can be taken in various different ways, depending on your personal outlook on the subject. IE those of you who think everything is going amazingly and there is no concern here, take the comment as, and this is a very abbreviated version "Don't worry, we have this all covered and we will have this all done and ready for release" Now, I am not saying that is a bad view to have, not saying that is a good view to have, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Being rude to people based on their opinion however, is not really acceptable.

There is also those of us, and yes I fall into this group, that the comments made, do raise further concern. Take this comment,

Based on the concerns that Bubonic raised in the initial post, I take this as "We (the port staff) agree that most of these concerns are valid points, based on what information has been provided to the community. And though we have the work needed in these area's penciled in to the time line, we might not actually be able to get to them in the current development window." Now, to clarify, this is my PERSONAL opinion, and how I, myself have interpenetrated what Richard has said. Was this what Richard meant with his comments? I simply don't know. There is not enough information provided to be able to make a clear judgement as to what was meant by those comments.


Regarding the 'Story' aspect mentioned by Richard, I see this as a generalized statement that was aimed to try and cover Bubonic's concerns regarding Crime and punishment. Where i get this from is 'challenge / reward. and cost of playing "well" or straying from the path' Again, this is my personal take, on what was said, based on the very limited information provided.

The issue here, is though these comments are great, they are going to be received differently based on the way the person reading them looks at the situation. If you think there is nothing wrong here, and everything will work out as expected, you see this as a huge reassurance that everything is going to be ok. But if you have doubt's based on comments that have been made at various different times, some of them fairly recently, the fact that there is no certainty in the comments, leaves you with nothing but more questions.


Yes, I repeated myself about how the comments will be interpenetrated, but that's because that is the main point of my post.


TLDR: well you need to read instead of just skimming.

 

What's cool is he at least tries to be honest even if people may or may not like what he has to say about their concerns. Like you said its great he takes the time to read it and then to respond. But also, even when his answer isn't going to be exactly what people want to hear.