Offline Lore

So, an interesting question I have here with regards to the game being single player offline.


What will the lore be like? Be honest. Will it actually be able to stand on it's own two feet in terms of delivering a compelling world?


The vibe I get now is that it will be relying too heavily on player input to breathe life into the world, so the offline single player will basically feel like an empty shell.

EDIT:

Also, the fact that this game was rated best Indie MMO really worries me, as it implies Lord British did not really go back to his roots at all, and we were all taken for a ride.

 

This is a hard one to answer.

I, as many know and get angry about, constantly ask...where's the single player interesting content?

The answer I get a lot of the time is they don't want to spoil the story and ruin the game. I keep saying, well it's more then just story. RG came out and said don't worry it's still comming, but right now a lot of it is on promises instead of actual stuff.

Now, they have mentioned NPC scheduals to be in. So that is a huge thing that brings it closer to the older (to some of us the real) Ultima's.

Companions, no one from the staff have mentioned them in a very long time...lots of threads asking....no responses.

I plan on playing SPO since then I can play with others when I feel like it, but damn do I want this to be a solid single player experience as well as a multi player game. Some want a recreation of UO and you see that a lot on here pushing for that.

Right now, we can only hope that it will turn out great. Those of us who like the single player side as well aren't as loud on the forums however.

 

Right.

The whole "don't worry, it's coming" seems to be the thing we keep getting. I haven't popped on these forums in a good while and it seems like nothing has changed.

It really feels like the actual lifesource of the game has taken a backseat to all the wannabe MMO mechanics that people have been crying about on this forum since day 1. The game wasn't supposed to be an MMO. Single player/story driven was the thing. What happened.

What good is all this PvP/pitchfork of prosperity gathering nonsense if the entire game world is akin to a poorly budgeted renaissance fair?

I have not seen much with respect to LB "going back to his roots" at all. Was the 1980s Ultima montage just a trick to get the real Ultima fans involved? I feel like LB maybe fell out of the Ultima tree and landed on a branch somewhere in the middle instead of arriving back at the roots.


I'd really like actual developer/design team feedback on this sometime soon, because as far as I am concerned right now, the game appears to be heading nowhere the direction it was originally claimed to be heading, and it's making my interest nose dive in a manner similar to how this game appears to be nose diving. I've already lost all interest in playing online, and if the game can't stand on it's own without the online component, then the game is a total failure.


and I don't want some foofoo canned response that tries to sugar coat things. Just be honest.

Did SotA accidentally turn into UO2?

 

I hope not. But the PvP and UO people are very vocal. All these people have their focus on fight, PvP, PK, full loot and sandbox gaming. It seems they don't understand, what a story driven game is. And many of them try to force their kind of gameplay to us, who like the old Ultimas with a rich story and kind and familiar companions. Recently they even ask for hardcore PvE. Kill and loot everywhere. A story? So what! I have to admit that I'm very unhappy with this situation.

 

That's my point really.

All these UO fans that couldn't care less about single player Ultima are who the game seems to be catering to at the moment.

Meanwhile, the true Ultima fanatics are sitting here twiddling our thumbs wondering if we've been had. Each release does not feel like an Ultima experience at all. I've played through all the single player Ultima games enough to know what an Ultima experience feels like.

I liked playing UO, but, that gameplay style is pretty dead. The majority demonstrates that it is not really what is wanted anymore.

The vocal majority here are in the minority in the rest of the gaming world.

 

Yeah, I saw that hardcore PVE. I was like wow...have we missed the mark here.

So... it is clear many have never played the original Ultima's. We are like a conundrum to them.

I brought up companions and I get told we will have pets what else do you want? Or you know they should be able to be given commands and if they don't have that what are they good for?

I think the world looks really nice...they have done a good job with that.

Do I think this is UO2...well I know a very vocal bunch want it to be. I hope not. UO was good for what it was...but it wasn't an Ultima, other then in name. At least not to me.

I'm just not sure we are loud enough to be heard.

 

In the first few releases, the PvP crowd was complaining because the majority of the focus was on testing and improving dialogue with NPCs. Some said they'd only start playing when PvP combat was in the game.

Each release cycle is going to have a different focus. Game mechanics, whether its with NPC conversation (single player) or combat (both single player and PvP) are naturally going to need to get smoothed out first.

The single player games were never just about the story, otherwise there would be no combat mechanics in them. There would be no monsters, there would be no fighting. The things they're testing now might be partly for PvP but they'll also be important in the single-player aspects of the game. If combat doesn't work for PvP, it won't work for PvE either.

 

We shouldn't have to be loud.

"LORD BRITISH IS GOING BACK TO HIS ROOTS!!!!!!" implies that Lord British is going back to the Age of Enlightenment, more or less. The montage of classic Ultima games wasn't just there for fun, I hope.

 

The Ultima games are literally the story. Without the story, you always just had some pretty ho-hum combat system. Ultima III and IV had pretty bad combat really. If the story wasn't interesting, those games would've been hosed.

Ultima VII's combat system is basically a free for all. You can just watch it go.

Combat that can work for PvE can not work for PvP. Heck, even UO has different rules for PvP vs. PvM.

 

Right, which was something bad about U7.

When I played U5 as a kid, most of my time was spent adventuring and fighting monsters, and even though I valued the story too, I enjoyed that part of the game. Even in U6, going deep into dungeons and looking for treasure and fighting monsters was fun. In the later games, when the story started being overemphasized to the detriment of the other elements of the game -- as great and wonderful as the stories were -- it made the games worse for it. I'm hoping that all of the other aspects of the game are as rich and detailed as the story elements. This isn't an adventure game, its an RPG, right?

And combat, fighting, always involved lore in itself. Learning about new spells, collecting reagents, hunting for mystic arms, etc.

 

I'm still hoping that SotA will play in single player similar to the old single player Ultimas. Single player is the reason I pledged. I think it is a cool addition to be able to play online with others, too. But having waited so long to play a game similar to the single player Ultimas, this is simply my wish for this game.
But I also think we will have to accept some compromises. For example if you take a look at the game you see how big the world is - which one could think should be a great thing. But such a big world also means that it will be populated by a lot of generic NPCs. And this is not how it was in the Ultimas. In Ultima 7 every NPC had his own personality und background which will be impossible in SotA.
But I still hope that SotA will play like any other single player RPG when I choose to play in single player mode. This is essential for me and the most important aspect of the game.
And I hope that the devs realize that this is important for the game especially when you take look at how popular classic single player RPGs have become recently.

 

The single-player lore will be able to stand on it's own two feet in terms of delivering a compelling world. Richard and Tracy have worked terribly hard and awfully long on crafting this world. I can tell you that I am a huge fan of what they've done. The offline single player game will not feel like an empty shell, we realize the importance of this to many of our backers.

The width and breadth of that story (or lore) will not be revealed until the game goes live.

 

Is there any chance those of us that want to could at least have SOME of it spoiled with some sort of access mode that basically says SPOILER ALERT. ? It would do a lot of good to those of us that are becoming increasingly skeptical.

What will single player offline look like in terms of housing? Lots of empty house plots?

and what about crafted items that have names/history tied to them?

and, do we have an actual target live date?

 

Chaox, care to comment on companions?

 

They don't need to spoil the story to test the single player game, lots of the mechanics need to be testable too and after all even the single player is supposed to be a sand box. Companions, quests (dont even have to be the same ones in main game, can be just tester ones), balance of classes, the economy in a single player world, crafting by yourself etc all need just as much (if not more) testing as the MMO needs and sadly seem to be lacking in favor of the concentration on PvP

 

Well, they spoiled everything else and let people check out their most excitement inducing features. Might as well offer a small teaser of the actual story so we can see what all the fuss is about.

I don't intend to play the game like a sandbox, anyway. If there is some antagonist I need to stop, the last thing I want to do is **** around baking bread to sell to the locals.

 

@Arkhan,

They do tease us about parts of the story when they release new art and scenes. Speaking of things like Ardoris and the Titans of Virtue and the Oracle.

 

I'd prefer not have it spoiled with a disclaimer. They should stick to their guns and hold everything back, as much as possible. It only takes one leak to spread like wildfire and the story is spoiled for everyone.

As far as housing in the offline game, there have been several things about this: they would be replaced as NPC homes or the empty lots would be filled instead with the appropriate biome type (woods, grass, etc, like in Braemar when claiming a lot) or some other mechanism.

I'm assuming you mean Companions and not companions. They can throw in generic companions that follow us around but have none or very little dialogue and have no story relevance. But what I think we really want are the classical Companions that are very relevant to story, banter between each other and with us and other NPCs we talk to, etc. I definitely want to test the companion mechanism, but I don't want to spoil it and know anything about the Companions.

Yep, and I like the teasers the way they are. In fact, I'm still debating not even traveling to the mainland at all until launch. I'll test as much as possible, but only on the Vale.

 

I'm hesitant to comment on this but I haven't yet because I'm not sure where I stand. As someone who's played both UO and all the single player Ultimas extensively, I am both afraid and hoping that this game will turn into "UO2" but in a different sense.

What I've seen so far has pointed me to believe the story itself might be deep and involved but the storytelling mechanisms we've seen in the game are weak. I believe this is people's concern. NPC dialogue shouldn't be in the same window as local chat banter, companions and other deeper npcs must be added, and hopefully a lot more interesting dialogue than we can fInd in Owls Head or Kingsport. Is it badly written? Not in the slightest. The subject matter is even interesting. But instead of someone telling me about a scary dungeon, I'm busy reading Mister lighting fast typer bartender 's wall of text. ill probably run away midsentence because i got bored of waiting on his speech bubbles for several minutes after he's done talking.

Even one companion you can talk to and level up would mean a lot.

 

I don't want to know anything about the real story but there are much more core PvE or SP-Elements like the dialog system, companions, NPC portraits and so forth. I have trust in the story by T. Hickman and Richard Garriott but I would like to hear about the other elements. I would like an implementation of the conversation interface - with NPC portraits! - like Lord_Darkmoon's sugesstion. I would like companions (plural being the operative word) I can talk to and level up. I realy would appreciate a declaring statement about all these things.