Honestly, how does this compare to the older Ultima games.

I think it would be neat if the world of New Britannia existed in Star Citizen, but you couldn't land on it. You could see the world map from orbit and realize what it was as an easter egg and that was it.

 

Just for clarity, is there any plan at this point to open the possibility of crowd sourced dialogue or writing to any other community members besides enderandrew? At least we will know where we stand

 

Lum.....if you ever need an assistant to help on the NPC dialogs or player submitted dialog/questing.....Im available....unemployed currently and ex Seer in early days of UO, worked with Jonathan Hannah, Ignatz and yup....i am the guy that UO actually saved my life...true story I posted on these forums. Also very good at events/questing design with lore criteria.

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...s/ultima-online-saved-my-life-true-story.979/ Thanks again Richard Garriott and Starr Long

 

I've mentioned this a few times, such as barrels, in no Ultima in the past 20 years has an Ultima had breakable crates & barrels, yet they add it to this spiritual successor. If it's the spiritual successor, tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny things like breakable crates & barrels is really going to turn off fans of the Ultima games that were released in the past 20 years. As for the ancient Ultimas, they didn't have breakable crates & barrels either. Donkey Kong comes to mind. But when I mentioned this, the response I got was, "nope, we're keeping breakable crates & barrels in, just cuz", so, as far as Ultima-feel, sometimes it seems like, an idea is thrown out, and because money was spent on the idea, it's locked in stone, even if it's a seemingly anti-Ultima-esque idea.

 

The "breakable crates issue" could be solved: If you click on crate while having a weapon in hands, it breaks. If you don't have a weapon in hands, then you open it as a container.

 

Have you played R20?

 

Just a little bit as of yet. Didn't have that much time and spent it mostly on the overland map. Has this been implemented?

 

Yes, as a game UO was pretty weak -- it was just a lot of grinding. For social purposes it was good, but there should be a good, solid game underneath the social play -- and that goes beyond story.

 

After replaying a bit of Ultima 7 Serpent Isle, a good single player part in the Ultima tradition for me has following parts: (1. I don't count Ultima 8 and 9, since they were rushed and butchered by EA; 2. this is only my opinion and no irrefutable truth)

1. A strong story line with world changing events, a rich backstory, lore and amazing story telling. This was always the strong point of the series (especially parts 4-7). You were the Avatar and your actions mattered and could change the fate of the world to the better or worse (like dooming the race of the gargoyles by getting the codex, or destroying Scara Brae several times). Btw. the main story was rather linear. You were able to go everywhere and continue the story when you want, but you didn't have many different choices on the main story line. That was okay, since the storytelling was very strong and you always wanted to knew, what's happening next

2. A strong companion system with a personal fellowship, that's commenting on what your doing, has it's own views and characteristics and a strong narrative (like Dupre in Serpent Isle, etc.). Those were companions, that were close to my heart and they were an integral part of the storyline.

3. A living and breathing world, where NPCs don't just stand around (I hated Ultima Online because of this and the lack of story), but live their live in the game by working, sleeping, training and fighting against enemies (like the guards in the watchtowers in Ultima 7, or the knights of the city that were training in the arena)

4. The freedom to do a lot of stuff (like baking bread), taming animals, etc. besides the story line

Now, what do I expect for SotA:

1. I've read the first novel of Tracy and believe, that the story of SotA could become strong (I love Dragonlance and Richard Garriott has proven in the past, who much he loves his lore and backstory). But the question is, will you be able to do stuff of epic proposal, since there are so many Avatars in the game? Will Avatars be able to achieve epic stuff together or in single player instances? And will an Avatar be able to change the course of the world? This could become very difficult because of the MMO character of the game. But since story gets integrated last, we'll have to wait if it turns out strong or weak (as an example for an MMO where the story went wrong: I hate the storyline of Lord of the Rings online after Angmar, where you're following the fellowship and can't do the epic stuff anymore, but you become the cleaning personal behind the real heroes).

But we can comment on the quests and story interface, that is already in the game: And the presentation of the game needs a lot of work. Serpent Isle was much simpler in UI and interface, but it was very easy to follow everything on the screen and you instantly knew, when something important happened. In SotA for the quest in the necropolis or for the Swamp Tower quests, I got the quests without even knowing what's going on and was rather confused, since there was some unimportant looking guard in Soltown, who's giving you the instructions for Ardoris, that I haven't talked to, because he looked like every other unimportant guard. So I stumbled into the tavern with those to spirit guides, who told me to go to the Necropolis without explaining, what's going on and why this could be important. And since I haven't talked to the guard, I didn't visit the Shogun in the palace and had no idea for the password to enter his castle and thought, maybe he could get more important later. Only through internet spoilers I knew what I missed and what's going on. The 3D view of SotA, the self-evident lack of a pause option in Multiplayer and the horrible chat window, where new windows pop up all the time, makes following questlines and story very difficult for me. But UI, interface, journal, maps, etc. are points, that can still be worked on.

2. Companions with a personal backstory and their own characters are nearly impossible for MMOs, since all players would run around with the same companions at the same time. And that's obviously not working. Well, I'll play the game together with my brother and my nice guild of "Drachenfels" , and I heard there will be real companions in single player offline. So there's at least that. But we will see how much effort gets put into Single Player Offline (I'm still rather doubtful)

3. This is a thing, that could still be achieved and I see the progress with the lamp lighters, door closers and first work schedules. So I keep my fingers crossed. Btw. There could be a lot done in the interaction with NPCs, to make the world more living. On top of my wish list is an "Ask for directions" command, where you may ask a citizen, where a person (quest giver, etc.) is at the moment. And only if he knows, he will tell you and you can find the person on your compass (could work for NPCs and Avatars alike). For example guards in Solania tell me to look for their captain in their guard house. But when I ask them, where exactly this house and the captain in peculiar is, they have no idea what I'm talking about (Outcast had a nice "ask for directions" system. And I want fast travel npcs like in Ardoris for other towns and player owned towns, too

4. Since the Crafting system is strong in SotA, I'm confident for this point. I just wish there would be more stuff to do besides fighting, crafting and decorating. I miss solving quests and puzzles without violence and a stronger roleplaying aspect for your character skills. Taming and the strategy tree (don't like the name) was a step in the right direction, but there are so many possibilities for other skills (like pathfinding, thievery and stealth, rune reading, lore and wisdom skills that can be trained by reading books, acrobatic skills, persuasion and appearance skills, leadership and merchant skills, etc.). My suggestion would be: One tree for all "Adventure skill trees" (all non combat, magic, crafting stuff). One combat tree for the combat styles. One tree for magic paths. One tree for focus and strategy. And One tree for the crafting and production trees

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And now please repair the Pelican bug, so I can play SotA again and can stop lurking and writing long posts in the forums

 

I tried it but I think we should be given the option if we want to break or open a crate or barrel. Weapon drawn -> we break it. Weapon sheated -> we open it.