🚀 go-pugleaf

In <75...@sdcc12.ucsd.edu> aco...@cs.ucsd.edu (Ariel Cohen) writes:
>bma...@origin.ea.com (Brian Martin) wrote:

>>My name is Brian, and I am one of the many Ultima 9 team members. Right now, 
>>U9 is in the early developemental stage, and we want to know what you, the RPG 
>>fan, would like to see in the next Ultima. 

>Thanks for asking us. My suggestions would be:

>1)  Turn-based strategic combat.

Please not totally; this is not a strategic game!

>2)  Increase the importance of skill development.

Yes; don't use that strange, far to simple idea of u8 but more of u7, and
indeed make this developement more important.

>3)  Improve the interface to minimize the hassle of dealing with the inventory,
>    arming the party, casting spells, etc.

Aye to that, to.

>4)  Stress variety rather than quantity.

Although quantity improves the feeling of a real world.

>5)  Include some puzzles, riddles, tricky mazes, etc. to make the quests
>    more interesting.
>6)  Reduce the length of conversations with non-essential NPCs, or even
>    eliminate many of those conversations - there's no point in wading through
>    oodles of inane stuff said by an NPC who doesn't really have anything 
>    interesting to say. 

NO WAY! You are much to famous by your slogan 'Origin creates worlds'; I
prefer a complex framework to involve all/most of the conversation of all the
NPC's (in a city). If necessary, give NPC's some idle talk, but don't remove
the complexity! u8 had FAR too few people.

>7)  It would be nice if some NPC's competed with the player, or tried to
>    impede him, etc. It's boring when all the NPC's are basically passive and
>    confined to their towns while the player's party is the only itinerant 
>    and active entity.
>8)  Make sure the game is solvable by people who don't want to resort to
>    reading the clue book.
>9)  Base the game on a good intense script so that it doesn't end up being a 
>    game where you wonder around in a passive and static world, kill some 
>    monsters, retrieve some items, blow up a doomsday machine, and all for some
>    obscure reasons. There should be a good story behind the game in which the
>    player plays a part (but not the only part).
>10) The greatest challenge, I think, is to achieve a good balance among the
>    various components, so that playing the game is fun and not a hassle. 
>    Cool graphics and sound are interesting for a short while; a well-balanced
>    game based on a good script can hold the player's interest for many hours.

And, as many said before, don't make the game linear, but make subquests,
maybe even more ways to solve the game etc.
>
>Ariel Cohen
>aco...@cs.ucsd.edu

Frank van den Eijkhof (feij...@cs.ruu.nl)