Ultima IX Redemption: Early Poll Results and Thoughts
Corv has put up some early thoughts on the results of the ongoing poll at the Titans of Ether website:
So far the results of the general poll is not really surprising and confirms our decisions. I was a little afraid that interestes of Ultima fans who come here might have changed over time, but you made it very clear that you still value the Ultima game design virtues.
Most important for you are an engaging storyline, an interesting open world and interesting NPCs. You also really like the day/night cycle with NPC schedules and love to uncover secrets in that world.
You definitely do not want an action RPG which explains the low combat and loot ratings. You also don’t care too much about graphics.
One thing did surprise me however: a realistic crafting system is rated quite low. Baking bread in Ultima 7 was always such an important example for most people who try to explain to someone why Ultima is so great. So I wonder why it didn’t get more votes here. Is it because you are not excited about a crafting system done in the Morrowind engine or is it because you really don’t care too much about crafting in Ultima?
It’s a longer post than that, though; Corv goes on to offer up some thoughts on RPG storylines; click on through to read those. And, if you haven’t yet, vote in the poll!
i don’t think baking bread is the same as a crafting system. I would call that ‘interactive world’ with usable objects. But the damn avatar shouldn’t be chopping down a tree, ripping and planing planks, and assembling a dresser. Who cares about that in a single player game? The only way that makes sense is potentially in mixing potions and such, and maybe enchanting weapons. I wouldn’t call that a crafting system.
Well, I’ll be darned. I think you just gave us another SSSH discussion topic.
I’m here to support!
Speaking of graphics, what format are the 3D models in before being exported into OpenMW format? I use Blender and can tame some of those models for you pretty easily. The main issue I see is using “smooth” shading for simple unbeveled geometry which creates interpolated shading across the surface and looks odd.