Anybody want to help create Eriadain 2.0?
Sergorn Dragon made the comment to me once that he rather expected someone would pick up and attempt to do another “Bob White Plot” remake of Ultima 9 in the wake of the release of the Mr. White’s design documents. I can’t say I disagree; I figured it was just a matter of time before something like this took place.
Well…just today, Moa Dragon — the man behind the now-defunct Eriadain project (one of the first — if not the first — attempts to remake Ultima 9 using a 3D engine) — left a cryptic comment on his old project’s entry, which teases a desire to see a new Ultima 9 remake start up:
Like, if a team, I don?t know, was to build a remake of Ultima IX using the original plot (hell, the dungeon design docs are available now), would you be up for it?
Wouldn?t that be, like, cool?
Would you join?
I think it?d be cool.
For some reason.
Oh, and I?m serious.
-Moa Dragon
Now, to clarify, Moa isn’t exactly looking to take the lead role in this project, although he’d be eager to contribute. He’s adamant — and correct — that for such a project to succeed, a team has to be assembled, at which point he’d be on board.
So, are there any Dragons and/or Dragonettes out there who’d be interested in something like this?
For the record: I, for one, would recommend him (and anyone else) to use the Neverwinter Nights 2 engine, especially with all the work that Team Return have been putting in to generating Ultima-like systems and mechanics for that game.
Just saying.
Actually, I assume Obsidian would be pro-toolset knowing the designers they have there. That being said, Square-Enix is funding the project and calls the shots. So the question is whether or not Square-Enix would allocate any funding whatsoever in polishing a toolset for public use.
Square is calling the shots, but the Engine is Obsidian’s own proprietary engine so technically they could release a toolset for the engine (if not for DSIII) whenever they’d want. I am not sure they would though.
But the fact it’s funded by Square is a issue with the toolset in a way, because if they’re release a Onyx DSIII toolset for Square… well technically this same toolset could possibly be used on another Onyx game that would be created for another publisher, which could be trouble. Hence why I don’t think they’ll release a Onyx Toolset because they most likely want to use this engine for their future project instead of constrantly using other engines (as a matter of fact, the Onyx engine was first being used for the cancelled Aliens Crucible RPG they were doing for Sega, which was a Mass Effect kind of game, so quite different from the seamless hack’n slash that DS3 is)
Speaking of Skyrim, anyone seen the new trailer? Damn does it look good. Almost makes me wish I wasn’t hanging up my Ultima modding cap after Serpent Isle. Would be awesome to have an Ultima using that engine.
My only beef about the NWN2 engine really (outside of the fact that I really wish the overland map could be both huge AND seamless :P), is that interior is stuck to tile based – it is easier to design this way, but it feels less natural.
Of course you can efficiently fake exteriors areas to make them look like dungeons, but it’s not quite as effective as actual dungeon terrain would have been.
Can you modify spells, character classes and *gasp* races in NWN 2 ?
Yes.
For Ultima Return, we have completly overhauled everything.
We removed the need for non necessary stats and have solely focused on using STR, DEX and INT juts like a regular Ultima. So we created our own classes based on Ultima templates with a working Ultima character creation system.
You can check out an old video demonstrating it there: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSZeSnlCH9U
We also a working module of it at NWNVault.
And it works in regular Ultima fashion, it’s not just for show: picking your virtue pick your class and adjust your starting stats and skill as need.
Not shown in this video, is that the NWN2 creation aspect has been overhauled has well, removing a lot of uncessary stuff such as choosing your gods and such. You basically create a fresh template you name, and afterward you do the real character creation through this (which you can position right at the beginning, or through dialogue later on if you wish). We have also a way to choose a character portrait for your PC, albeit we don’t have portraits for now so…
We have also implemented a completely new skill systems working pretty much like UW2’s did: you get skill points at every level which you can spend at trainer to gain a level in your skill. Note that it’s not even based on the NWN2’s skill system: we’ve superimposed our own over the original one. This is true about levelling as well: since NWN2 uses a very different way of handling XP we put our own XP systems, not using the game’s original one.
Likewise for magic: we have a working Britannian magic system (albeit with a terrible looking UI :P). All your spells are in spellbook and require reagents to be cast. It works exactly like it did in Ultima VII. We also added mana for this purpos of course, with a new blue mana bar showing in the main NWN2 UI.
Likewise we’ve also added a yellow endurance bar, which tracks if your character is hungry.
We also have guards and NPC reacting to you stealing things, boat travel on the overland maps (and we’re gonna try implement sea combat like in pre-U6 Ultimas), NPC schedules… in essence pretty much everything you would expect from an Ultima. Well minus the seamless map.
After a year of working with NWN2, I’ve come with the belief that you can probably do anything as long as you have a talented coder behind to overcome the basic D&D systems. Not that the D&D systems are all removed altogether, but you can make transparent to the player. In any case NWN2 is much more versatile that most people think and you can definitly make a module that would not feel like “Ultima D&D”
This video represents what might just be the logical ultimate of what you can do when you modify NWN2.
Lute Hero. I mean…I don’t even…I’m not…hunh. Just…yeah.
If you pardon my saying : holy shit.
Okay, I will definitely toy around with the NWN 2 in the next couple of days. If satisfactory, I might as well put on a call to developer next weekend. NWN2 seems to be the most reasonable choice according to most people.
NWN2 has its shortcomings, the most notable of which is the kludgy camera control in all but the overhead view mode. It’s not perfect, and please don’t think we’re overselling it here.
But: it is a very flexible engine to use, moldable and moddable in almost every respect (as you’ve seen!), and easy to pick up and run with. It also has a great community behind it, with lots of fantastic custom content, and still holds up graphically even after five-ish years.
It’s a solid choice, in other words, if you want a nice balance of power, flexibility, ease of use, and graphics quality.
Well, I know what I’m doing tonight.
I just came… to say…. I love .. no erm, merely to link.
http://eriadain.blogspot.com/
IT’S ON, MOTHERFETCHERS !
Well, you’ve got good systems in place thanks to the Return team, and I can chip in with worldbuilds. Return’s coder is also willing to contribute directly as and if you have need…he told me so via Twitter.
So if it’s on, I’m in.
Also: curse you for posting this now! Do you have ANY clue how behind I am in newsposting this week? 😉
Oh, and you can also “like” Eriadain on Facebook. Doing that not for bragging rights, but for some people it’s better to keep informed.
Do you have a Facebook page set up for it, or just “Like” buttons on your blog?