Ultima 6 Remake: Brawl Engine
Zygon Dragon posted an update to the Ultima 6 Remake website last week, announcing that AgentOrangeGuy had successfully implemented a key feature of Jhelom:
Hats off to AgentOrgangeGuy as this week his tinkering with the usecode has led to a true to Ultima VI brawl engine. In Jhelom the NPC’s start brawling at 9pm or when you ask a few of them about the rat/mouse, as they disagree with each other they start to brawl.
Apart from that he has also fixed a few NPC schedules in Lord British’s castle, move a a couple of shrines that were out of place, general map cleaning and is still slogging away at the NPC conversation usecode.
I’ve been mainly working on NPC conversions this week, concentrating on Serpents Hold.
It’s really the little details that count.
Update: In a tweet, Zygon Dragon added this little additional piece of information:
New Quenton side quest is in beta testing. This will correct errors from the original Ultimate VI plot
Errors?
“Brawl engine” might be the coolest phrase coined in recent history. I’m not sure how they’re implementing it, but the idea of people spontaneously breaking out into fights in an Ultima game is pretty awesome. Hopefully mugs of ale will be smashed, tables broken, and the barmaids will run for cover! The Avatar will then step in as a peacemaker and get his shit ruined too. A lesson in Humility in fair Jhelom.
Sanctimonia: You have played Ultima 6, right? And witnessed the brawl in Jhelom?
The real question is…can we participate in the brawls without killing anyone this time? 🙂
@ WtF: “You have played Ultima 6, right?” No man, I just pretend to like Ultima to screw with people on here. Ultima VI was one of my favorite Ultimas as I’ve mentioned probably several times. I did not, however, witness the brawl in Jhelom which is a damn shame as it sounds awesome. I also didn’t beat it (never really tried), though I did have tons of fun just playing around.
@ RusticDragon: Good question. I like the idea of knocking someone unconscious first, then killing them with subsequent blows. This should hopefully reduce the number of murders while increasing the number of beat downs. I mean, if someone’s laying on the ground knocked out cold, you’d have to be a mean son of a bitch to go ahead and kill them (or they’d have to really deserve it).
Basically plot holes, loose ends in the game. Quenton’s murder will be able to be solved and it will be within realm of the U7 narrative of it. It is time sensitive too, if you get to a certain point in the game, it will be solved naturally to have it coincide with events learned about in u7. It will branch out with another sidequest. Also, that sidequest, if done first, will lead to information on who Michael really is.
Currently, the Avatar cannot join in with the brawling festivities without upsetting Iolo’s conscience. I suppose I *could* make it that way, but it basically ‘breaks’ the npcs as they are brawling with each other, meaning you can’t talk to them while brawling and get their “Not now, I’m fighting!” responses. And yes… glasses WILL smash, carnage WILL happen. And the magnificent sound of shattered glass WILL be heard, that already works. The brawling npcs bark insults to each other. And the poor girl in the tavern will have to clean up afterwards.
@AgentOrangeGuy: That sounds awesome. I’m not familiar with the possibilities of the Ultima VII engine, but one thing I found terribly disappointing about its implementation was the dungeons. Do you have any ideas yet about how to implement Ultima VI’s dungeons using the Ultima VII engine? The whole “dungeons inside the mountains” thing just ruined it as they were too small. Ultima VI had it right when they made separate maps for the dungeons, as if you were really going below.
Sanctimonia:
If I’m not mistaken, Exult supports multiple maps now, with transitions between maps as well.
In other words, they should be able to exactly re-create the Ultima 6 dungeons, excellent as they were.
Quick question, is there an Ultima VII tileset for landscape tiles? The grass/soil combo is particularly interesting. I use 15 interconnective tiles, but they have limitations. The tiles in Ultima VII look promising without having seen the way they connect.
As far as the dungeons go, they will be held on a separate map since Exult supports it. This will give us the option of creating one more level in the mountains where necessary and I have plans for this. For example, do you remember the “Bee Cave” in Ultima7? Well, in Ultima 6 it was the Spider Cave, which one would assume that the bees eventually killed off the spiders and made the cave their home. So, currently it has an above ground level with some honeycombs and some bees which will fight the spiders that also inhabit the cave, and the U6 Spider Cave will be the same on the lower levels as it was in U6. Also, I have plans for an above ground level of certain dungeons, one of which will be Hythloth. Since Hythloth was the main entrance from the gargoyle world to Britannia, it would make sense that the gargoyles would stock supplies and fortify the entrance in order to launch attacks on Britannia. So, in order to get to Hythloth’s main entrance, the Avatar and the party will have to fight their way through an additional level of Hythloth. And, there will be an additional dungeon/hideout surrounding a few new npcs.