How/When are the virtues going to be added?

I'm assuming that the standard 8 virtues and related stuff from Ultima IV might be incorporated soon? If so, I'm assuming they will be linked heavily to the quests, as well as the general chat with NPC's? It will be interesting to see if the developers can balance the ability to increase virtues with the rewards and penalties for gaining/losing virtue. Again, some end-game quest should require something in the way of virtues obtained to give additional play time for us other than grinding monsters.

 

The oracle is already taking note of your life choices ^.^

 

Well then, I am screwed.

 

The virtues in the game are Truth, Love, and Courage. The rights to the standard 8 belong to another company.

 

Virtues came into play in the opening Solace Bridge scene.

Ahh, but the past is the past and your choices from today forward may redeem your fate.

 

I'm surprised we even got those three, considering that they happen to be identical to the three principles from Ultima lore.

 

Those jerks.

 

It is possible the 8 virtues will be added in Episode 2, but right now it is just the 3 principles as the virtues. They are implemented now, but subtly. You can ask the Oracle what your standing is with Truth, Love and Courage. There are virtue checks in the game right now, but like Ultima IV you don't get immediate feedback from the game that you get +5 points or lose points. You have to somewhat figure that out by actively thinking about your decisions in game.

 

We learn about the first three principles in Episode 1. We will learn about the rest over the course of the next 3-4 Episodes.

Virtues Hangout

 

Let's get the Ophidian virtues in here!

 

We do have Darkstarr urging for Chaos!

 

Somehow I doubt EA can hold the rights to the concepts of justice or humility. If they had unique names maybe.. but if they can't keep the rights to Trust, Love and Courage much less Avatar or "Britannia" then I think the 8 virtues are safe.

 

The 8 words or concepts independently are one thing.

A game system is another and intellectual property is tricky business.

 

If the 8 were going to be a problem then so would Truth, Love and Courage.

 

Not so much in that the 8 virtues have been truly a core game mechanic for the series since Ultima 4 with the 8 cities, 8 classes, 8 shrines, 8 dungeons, etc. Yes, they stem from 3 Principles, but it isn't as tied to the defining mechanics of Ultima.

Now SotA could adopt those 8 in Episode 2 and I could be mistaken. But I fear EA would find that infringing on their IP. I know that you see this as an Ultima sequel. I only call it a spiritual successor because legally it can't be a proper sequel. They do need to start differentiating this from previous games at some point.

And that's not necessarily bad.

Ultima IV stepped away from the first three games (successful as they were) and was vastly different. The first three were full of pop-culture references, different races, and were D&D clones about killing monsters.

Reinventing yourself despite past success with lessons learned is a bold move.

 

How are the 3 principles not as tied to Ultima as the virtues when the virtues come from them? You can't separate one from the other.

SotA is plenty 'differentiated'.. but you can't own common concepts which is what the virtues are. There are plenty of other things that would have to have changed if that were a problem. Such as nearly all of the reagents..

There's no reference to Ultima story. No Ultima characters (apart from Lord British), moon gates were distinctive so now they're lunar rifts.. location names are all different etc but justice? honor?

Yes.. it's a sequel.. in every way that really matters. We can't call it that officially but that's what it is. Otherwise there'd be no need to wipe the history. There would be no need for a story to change 2 moons into a single shattered moon.

Well anyway.. point being.. virtues should be safe.

 

I'm not a lawyer. I just go with what Lord British says.
It's truth, love, and courage in this game.

The story seems to indicate we'll have to prove ourselves in those three virtues to be worthy of the title Avatar.
We've been told that there are checks already in the game, and that they determine how NPC's respond to us.
We've also been told that the Oracle will tell us if our words match our actions, and thereby guide us along the path we choose.
It has been strongly indicated that there will be several paths to completion of the story, but we aren't compelled to participate in the story.

 

Please read the book.

 

Anytime I talk to the Oracle I tell her that Budner has influenced all my life choices. She's not pleased but does seem to give me a pass.

 

It would nice if we could train wreck the story. I'm not volunteering to do that, I'm just saying it would be more interesting if it were possible. Like if instead of getting the King and Queen of Andoris back together you found a way to wreck their marriage permanently beyond repair, the undead took over the kingdom, and the city broke off into the ocean never to be seen again.

I kind of like the idea of the meta story (shared by all of the community) being the sum of the whole. So if 105k people finish the story in a positive way but 125k people finish it in a negative way...after 1 year the game performs a quick calculation to determine "what actually happened" and Episode II is based off of that.

It seems like that would also be a very compelling feature to the game for new players to hear about.