Capsule Computers sat down with Ultima Forever producer Carrie Gouskos for an interview. She addressed some of the prevailing, common concerns that have been expressed about the game to date, and also hinted at what future updates will be bringing to the game:

Q1) What made you bring Ultima Forever out onto iOS platform?

Ultima Forever was originally developed on PC, but always with cross-platform in mind so that players could explore together from different devices. After getting it up and running on PC, our next step was to put in on a tablet. We had some previous experience developing on iOS, so that’s why we chose that first. And when we got that initial build running on an iPad — something happened, like a lightbulb. It felt really good at that size, at that perspective, so we decided to release mobile first instead of PC. This had the added benefit of being able to bring this type of multiplayer online game to a whole new batch of gamers, while still being able to offer it to loyal Ultima fans. Our original goal is still intact, to expand to other platforms — beginning with Android. Of course, it will always depend on the needs and desires on each device, but we would like to make it available to as many people as possible.

Q2) Most MMORPGs have a wide range of classes to choose from. At the moment we have the Fighter and Mage classes available, and the Paladin and Druid to come, but what other classes can we expect to see in the future?

We’ve actually switched the order around a number of times. Our initial plans were to launch with the Fighter, Mage, and Druid. Then we started looking at the Paladin and Ranger. We’ve made a lot of progress on those classes, but it’s always a challenge to make them both interesting and balanced, not to mention all the armor sets and weapons. And since we’ve launched with two, we’re actually considering ways to introduce the other classes without making players have to roll eight different characters from scratch, but we haven’t finalized how we’re going to do that yet.

Q6) Is it possible, in future updates, to have the gear dropped by enemies, as well as being able to find them in chests without having to spend keys?

We actually have something sort of like that coming in our next major update which we are finishing up soon for submission to Apple.

There are several more questions, all of which Gouskos provides interesting answers to. Click on through to read the whole thing.

I’m actually somewhat intrigued by what the coming update may bring to the game, in terms of having enemies drop loot. That would be an interesting addition to the game, for sure.