🚀 go-pugleaf

Phew! What can I say after some of those comments? Okay, even if these have 
been said before, I want to add more weight to them. Apologies for the 
semi-random order, I am doing a brain dump here...

1. Can we have more than two layers to the play area please?

2. First person perspective dungeons please. FPP doesn't work for exteriors, 
   but IMO it works bar better than any other system for dungeons.

3. For second person perspective shots, make the view rotatable. It can't be 
   *that* difficult.

4. Inventories. Key rings, reagent bag etc. 'Nuff said.

5. Jumping. Ahem. If I am going to drown, it want a reason to drown. If I am 
   wearing leather armour and no load, I want to swim, and, for that matter, 
   dive (plenty of possibilities here - underwater caverns etc).
   
6. I want it BIG. As in MASSIVE. Why not put it on a spherical mapping? Only 
   the main plot areas need be hand generated. Use AI/fractals to generate 
   miscellaneous towns/villages/swamps/woods/forests/lakes/deserts/etc.
   CD-ROM has over 600MB of room to fill. Please use it. I hate buying CDROMS 
   and finding it is almost exactly the same as the floppy version. At least 
   10*10 times largert than U7. One of the best bits in U7 was exploring the 
   forests, finding remote shacks etc.

7. Bring back weather and time. I liked the using street lamps too.

8. Bring back seasons.

9. Have you seen Donkey Kong Country? Never mind the minimal plot, the 
   graphics in the foreground and background are gorgeous. They were 
   generated and manipulated on a big farm of SGIs but are being displayed on 
   a 16 bit console. I don't knwo company policy about doing joint 
   productions, but I am sure Lord British and Rare would be a marriage made 
   in heaven...
   
   Need I say more? Whaddya mean yes? Okay.
   
   Backgrounds are generated from scanned in and manipulated real foliage and 
   images. Foregrounds objects are rendered from models. Fractally generate 
   trees, foliage, flowers. Render them as tiles.
   
10. Please (I'm on my knees begging here) use 640*480 or better. I hate being
    out-done by crappy little consoles. System Shock in higher resolutions 
    looks pretty fabby from what I have seen. I want a reason to have a VLB 
    video card. Make use of hardware blit commands too. For the ET4000W32 at 
    least anyway. I would quite like a reason to use hi-colour at 800*600 too.

11. Do something about load/save times. These made the jumping puzzles from 
    something annoying into something bloody infuriating.
    
12. Reagents. Love 'em. Lets have more. Extend the magic system. I want to 
    be able to enchant armour and weapons (like the Underworlds). I like the 
    DIY magic rune spell system too. Plenty of non-standard spells that
    aren't revealed in the documentation. Plenty of discoveries to swap notes 
    about with other players.
    
13. A notebook, bestiary and map. A notebook to jot down notes from 
    conversations, ideas from books. A bestiary to list a few common animals 
    plus those I have acquired information about or have encountered. Use 
    large images maybe even animation cuts. A flora notebook would be good 
    too. 
    
14. Mapping. Being supplied with an atlas type map (coarse resolution) early 
    on would be a good idea. Be able to purchase / find local area maps. A 
    fine resolution map for out of the way areas should be derived from
    where the player has visited.

15. Plenty of general purpose NPCs. Use a bit of AI to generate first/surnames
    derive occupations (and hence character appearance) from the generation 
    of buildings in a settlement (bakery, blacksmith etc).

16. More of a text based chat system. e.g "Do you know Joachim Smithsson?",
    "Yes, he lives in Wakefield", "What does he do?", "I think he is a 
    Blacksmith, nice fellow".

17. Companions. Not sure how to do this. I like to fight my own battles, but 
    appreciate a bit of company from friends I have known a long time and 
    have particular quirks. No stupid shooting me in the back please.
    
18. Bring back gender selection. Take the love interest somewhere.

19. Like the UUs, be able to select a character type. Fighter / Cleric / 
    Priest / Paladin. Use those characteristics to modulate the path of the 
    game.
    
20. Plenty of non-essential sub-quests. For example, expeditions to map flora 
    and fauna, bonuses (easter eggs) of rare elements, reagents, medicinal 
    herbs, armour and weapons (of course).
    
21. Terrain. Proper hills and mountains (with appropriate weather), 
    undulations, plains, prairies, savannah, desert. You get the idea. 
    Earthquakes, faults, landslides (revealing caves?). I would like climbing 
    *but* without the pixel-perfect aiming. Like the point and click in U7.
    
22. Use tents to camp in. Provides extra protection from marauders (because 
    they can't see/smell you).
    
23. Don't make *the* quest obvious until about 2/3 of the way in to the game.

24. I want to be able to play the game after the main quest and the endgame.  
    Sub-quests, improving stats, gathering hoards, fully mapping etc.
    
25. As it is much bigger in area, can I ride a horse please? 

26. I like being able to eat, but I don't want to have to stop ever 2 minutes 
    to eat. What about an auto-eat?
           
27. Melee. Controls for hack/slash/parry etc rather than just 'hit' if you 
    please. Or just use autopilot of I am messing about with bats etc.
    
28. Hot keys, hot keys, hot keys. Yes? Thank you.

29. I don't want to *have* to do un-Avatar like things to be successful. 
    Maybe it is my English sense of fair play, but then...
    
30. What about a network player being able to play Iolo, Dupre etc?

31. An extended physics system. Hack forest = path, dig = hole, camp fire + 
    cow + herbs + veg = stew. Yes, this takes up hard disk space, but we are 
    running off a CD-ROM.
    
32. More animation frames for boats. I don't like having to navigate a boat 
    using only 4 directions.
    
33. Special places like Skara Brae (? the place of the dead in U7). *Very* 
    atmospheric.
    
34. I don't care if if is released Christmas 1995/6/7 as long as it is *right*

35. What about a small window in the corner on the screen with vital stats, 
    messages etc.

36. Do I have to mention a non-linear plot? I want it like an explosion in a 
    spaghetti factory.

37. If you use any of these ideas is there any chance of being a beta-tester? 
    A bit tricky being in the UK, but if you don't ask you don't get....
    
38. I saw the original post, but can someone actually verify that these are 
    actually being _read_ by some one from the Origin/Ultima developers?

Mike.
    
-- 

 Michael S. Cowgill (Mike)        \_ "  ....Cracking toast Gromit!...  "
 ze...@myth.demon.co.uk (That's me) \_         Royal Blue Dragon
 G1...@GB7WRG.GBR.EU 44.131.2.76    \_           -==(UDIC)==-