Petition for a deeper, better introduction to SotA

Hello folks -

There is another thread going around in which @Sannio is responding, and appears open to feedback.

With that in mind, and considering official launch is in ten weeks(!), I figure this is as good a time as any to make this request.

@Sannio @Lord British @DarkStarr @Lum the Mad

Gentlemen, I beseech you. Please, please, can we get a more thoughtful, interesting, and meaningful introduction for our game?

Right now, the entire conceit, the whole basis for entering this new and amazing world, is that we... get sucked into a computer.

And I apologize for having to say this, but that sucks. Its unimaginative, lazy writing, and the Spiritual Successor to Ultima deserves better.

In all the Ultimas, there was a physical connection to the other world, something real and tangible (even if it was magic). Moongates. It made sense within the logic of the fantasy world that RG created, and it worked. The current intro makes no sense with ANYTHING that has come before, or anything that follows after.

There could be a million ways we depart this existence that would be more intriguing and deeper than getting sucked into an Alienware computer. We have Lunar Rifts... why not use that? Hell, I would be happy to come up with a few examples if it helps.

The intro to SotA is the FIRST THING new players see when they launch the game. Please make an effort to make it awesome.

Because right now, it isn't.

 

@Bubonic , your post instantly hit home with me on a number of levels and I strongly agree with your post.

1. Getting sucked into the computer seems less compelling than making a decision to step into a portal to the unknown. Courage is a virtue!

2. As you said, the mechanism that actually transports you could/should be something familiar to the Ultima community, i.e. a Moongate (as long as it isn't somehow trademarked).

3. Why not start another community contest for the best entry ideas and let the community vote on what would be most compelling?

The only caveat is not to take time away from the many more pressing issues but I do think this is important and should be looked at.

 

i agree, which is why i brought up the lunar rifts. fits the bill perfectly.

love love love this idea. ive got two or three suggestions already!

 

Not saying there is not room for improvement but, there is some kind of simple "symmetry" to the getting sucked into the screen in game, while sitting there irl trying to immerse myself in Novia.
Reminded me of that time when I was watching television supermen and outside a chill wind arose.

 

Although... The moongate conceit as it existed in the Ultimas (in the respective intro scenes) would suggest we all have moongates in our backyard. At least the computer thing scales to a MMO a bit easier.

On the other hand, we could also be recieving a mysterious parcel in the mail...

 

Only if they didn't bother to re-write anything. Who says its in your backyard?

Perhaps you are out hiking in the woods. A sudden storm arises. Trying to seek some sort of shelter, you slip and fall in the mud, sliding down the hill. You slowly recover, wiping mud and rain from your eyes, and notice a light glinting ahead through the trees...


...or a hundred other things.

Just sayin.

 

@Bubonic, yea but still then, there can't bee too many moongates, and some of us would probably run into eachother at the same moongate Not that the original setul im the Ultimas was airtight, since I certainly don't have a ring of stones in my backyard, or have a sword on my mantle...

I do agree though that it's certainly possible they can come up with something more compelling than the current intro...

What was the role of the Codex medallion in the U5 intro again?

 

Yes, there has to be SOME suspension of disbelief

but I thought of this one already as well. Perhaps a natural disaster? A giant sinkhole under a stadium caused by the appearance of a massive underground Lunar Rift, swallowing up 60,000 people and sending them to another dimension? A "Leftovers" type rapture?


...the possibilities are endless. And most of them would be more compelling to some dude sitting at home getting sucked into his alienware computer.

 

"Made by the Royal Coinmaker Sir Arbuthnot at the orders of Iolo and Shamino, it was sent to Earth to summon the Avatar at the beginning of Warriors of Destiny. It was the last idea they had to topple Lord Blackthorn's regime. The Avatar used it together with the ankh amulet to open the moongate and later to scare away the Shadowlords. "


See? Now THAT is awesome.

 

So maybe we can revieve a mysterious parcel in the mail which opens up a lunar rift. (Something other than a SotA challenge coin) Either anywhere and right where we choose or with some geo cache thing.

 

love it.

 

Another alternative I guess is to have lunar rifts follow the player around, appearing when he's alone and separated from others... Or we hear a calling in our dreams (from Arabella or whomever)... Though the trinket was always a nice element because it gave our journey meaning and direction. That we were going not just because of an accident but because we were needed somehow in a way we were yet to realize.

 

I always took it as the research and interest I had stumbled upon caused me to be teleported to New Britannia. I didn’t see the ‘literal sucked into a computer’ as a good thing, so I just assumed differently, for myself. Maybe that is what could happen.

When reading one of the texts you find in an ancient library you see some words, and when spoken aloud, open a portal before you.

 

Or you draw a magic portal on your wall ( like in that Twilight Zone episode, except with some sigil or pentacle or runes) and it transforms into a makeshift lunar rift.

 

Are you insisting the computer crafted by the daemon Alie Nwa're, then branded with his maker's mark, as a vehicle by which the Avatar can pass currency between himself and other the Avatars as a means to more ornately decorate his or her basement is not equally as awesome?!

 

I'll only accept this if everyone gets a free Alienware laptop as an official trinket. Otherwise it breaks mah immersion 'cause I have no Alienware laptop.

 

Seriously, though. Pretty much every idea in this thread is more interesting than what we currently have.

 

After viewing this thread I actually watched it for the first time. While I liked the concept I really did not like the amateurish feel it had? I mean the graphics just were off. I would like to see them be a bit more high tech and make it at least look as good as the game. It just looks thrown together