• Shroud of the Avatar

    From carlton.f.shell.3@gmail.com@21:1/5 to Spalls Hurgenson on Sun Nov 22 14:06:52 2015
    On Saturday, May 17, 2014 at 8:51:25 AM UTC-5, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
    So, another attempt to revive Ultima,
    https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/

    Unlike earlier attempts - Lord of Ultima and Ultima Forever - this one
    has the involvement of Richard Garriot but not the franchise owner, Electronic Arts. Thus it technically is not an Ultima game but it is
    as close as can get without infringing on trademarks.

    It's still in early development and is funded by kickstarter, but
    graphically it already has some of the hallmarks of an Ultima game (I
    have to admit seeing a big stone ankh made me giddy with joy).
    Supposedly it is a game that can be played both as an MMO or
    completely offline; however, so far much of what is being shown off
    are features that will probably appeal to fans of the former. There's
    much fuss being made of "player housing" and "crafting", but very
    little being said about the storyline or characters. It's a focus more
    on the mechanical aspects of the gameplay rather than the immersive
    adventure I was hoping for. Well, it's still early yet, so I won't
    lose hope just quite yet.

    A little more on this: http://www.redbull.com/us/en/games/stories/1331709794863/shroud-of-the-avatar-ultima-in-all-but-name

    It Looks very Promising to me.. So Promising that I have broken my many year silence... sorry if my voice is a bit scratchy...

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Spalls Hurgenson@21:1/5 to All on Mon Nov 23 09:18:59 2015
    On Sun, 22 Nov 2015 14:06:52 -0800 (PST), carlton.f.shell.3@gmail.com
    wrote:

    On Saturday, May 17, 2014 at 8:51:25 AM UTC-5, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
    So, another attempt to revive Ultima,
    https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/

    Unlike earlier attempts - Lord of Ultima and Ultima Forever - this one
    has the involvement of Richard Garriot but not the franchise owner,
    Electronic Arts. Thus it technically is not an Ultima game but it is
    as close as can get without infringing on trademarks.

    It's still in early development and is funded by kickstarter, but
    graphically it already has some of the hallmarks of an Ultima game (I
    have to admit seeing a big stone ankh made me giddy with joy).
    Supposedly it is a game that can be played both as an MMO or
    completely offline; however, so far much of what is being shown off
    are features that will probably appeal to fans of the former. There's
    much fuss being made of "player housing" and "crafting", but very
    little being said about the storyline or characters. It's a focus more
    on the mechanical aspects of the gameplay rather than the immersive
    adventure I was hoping for. Well, it's still early yet, so I won't
    lose hope just quite yet.

    A little more on this: >http://www.redbull.com/us/en/games/stories/1331709794863/shroud-of-the-avatar-ultima-in-all-but-name

    It Looks very Promising to me.. So Promising that I have broken my many year silence... sorry if my voice is a bit scratchy...

    Still waaaaay too much in the direction of Ultima Online, and not
    enough Ultima 7. I'm not that interested in crafting and building
    houses and seeing hundreds of people barking "LFG" and "selling: nails
    and lumber" (or whatever); I want an epic quest where I get to be the
    hero (and not just adventurer #6487 solving the quest-of-the-day). It
    totally destroys the immersion and fantasy.

    Plus, for all I loved the earlier games, I no longer can accept a
    "Lord British" production on faith alone. Back in the day, I'd have
    bought an Origin game solely because it came from Origin, but after
    Ultima 8, 9 and Tabula Rasa, I no longer have confidence that Garriot
    has the chops to create interesting gameplay anymore.

    Underworld:Ascendant looks more interesting to me, and even that I'm
    somewhat wary about.

    Fortunately, the older Ultima games have been ported to pretty much
    every system under the sun and even after 30+ years they are still
    fun, so even if Shroud and Ascendant flop miserably, I can stil enjoy
    Ultima ;-)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)