The Ultima 6 Project - remake in Dungeon Siege engine

[Infinitron]

I might try Ultima 5: Lazarus mod for Dungeon Siege. Are there some other remakes in DS engine? Is it any good?

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/ultima-6-project-v1-1-final-version-released.80236/

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/ultima-6-project-v1-1-final-version-released.80236/

I'll give this a try, since it looks pretty well polished and there are bonus goodies in pdf format .

EDIT: The map is big and detailed, I can't wait to visit these places.

Don't forget to download mods, they're pretty essential.

Mod guide for U5:L http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/infinitrons-u5-lazarus-recommended-mods.74223/

 

[Infinitron]

Try Lazarus instead, you might find it more to your liking.

Also, I wouldn't recommend playing at such a high resolution.

 

[Kaldurenik]

Is it any good?

 

[Jaesun]

If you liked Ultima 6 and like very long dungeon crawls then yes.

 

[octavius]

Are there any good, large maps of Britannia of the U4-7 era available, without those silly runes?

 

[Infinitron]

Are there any good, large maps of Britannia of the U4-7 era available, without those silly runes?

http://www.kxmode.com/U7map/

 

[Gord]

EDIT: Yeah, Lazarus leaves a bit more, although not ideal, coherent impression. Colors are wacky, but it is playable. I like the almost fairy-tale book beginning and music. Hmm...will play further eventually...maybe...if I get bored.

Lazarus is certainly nice once you get the hang of it. Beginnings are rough. but after you gain a few levels and find some magical equipment it gains momentum.
Take good care to pick up the quest items that get dropped by NPC, which happens everytime a NPC says that he gives you something.
I had to rely on console commands to give me some quest items that dissappeared after I had failed to pick them up.

 

[octavius]

Are there any good, large maps of Britannia of the U4-7 era available, without those silly runes?

http://www.kxmode.com/U7map/

Thanks, that's an excellent map, showing the moongates, shrines, dungeons and towns, whose loactions the Avatar (having better memory than me) remembers from his previous visits to Britannia.

 

[octavius]

So, is Almric, Master of Hounds, the same guy as Baron Almric of Ultima Underworld?

 

[Infinitron]

So, is Almric, Master of Hounds, the same guy as Baron Almric of Ultima Underworld?

Yes http://wiki.ultimacodex.com/wiki/Almric

 

[octavius]

So, is Almric, Master of Hounds, the same guy as Baron Almric of Ultima Underworld?

Yes http://wiki.ultimacodex.com/wiki/Almric

Now I know three things:
Infinitron is watching this thread
There is already an U6P Wiki.
Richard Garriot was not a very good voice actor.

I'm also reminded why I dislike 3rd person 3D games - the constant fight against the camera...

 

[Xavier0889]

Richard Garriot was not a very good voice actor.

Oh, the progress of technology! And the poor acting skills of a damned larper!
I also wonder how the U8 player felt when s/he bought the "talkie" cd version of the game, to discover the incredibly inspired narration.

 

[Jaesun]

Richard Garriot was not a very good voice actor.

While I applaud you on playing game in a released chronicle dated release. The one thing you are failing to understand, is the technology at the time. At the time, It was utterly fucking amazing to hear actual digitized speech.

 

[octavius]

Richard Garriot was not a very good voice actor.

While I applaud you on playing game in a released chronicle dated release. The one thing you are failing to understand, is the technology at the time. At the time, It was utterly fucking amazing to hear actual digitized speech.

So better tchnology would have made Garriot a better VA?
Might&Magic 3 came out almost a year before UU, and had better VA. World of Xeen, at least the floppy version, also had decent VA.
I'm not saying Garriot was a bad voice actor; he's still miles ahead of the VA in Wizardry Gold, for example. I guess for an amateur he was OK.

 

[Gord]

Well, consider this:
If he's doing the voice-acting himself, at least he won't spend a few hundred thousands of his budgets on professional VA and might put them to better use, like actual content, QA and such.

Not to say that I consider amateurish VA better than no VA at all, but professional VA hasn't helped modern cRPGs, imho.

 

[Infinitron]

STAND BACK

 

[octavius]

One of the things I like about UP6 is better continuity from previous Ultima games. In the vanilla versions of U4, U5 and U6 there are totally different sets of NPCs in Cove, for example, while UP6 reintroduces the healers Ava and Leonora from U5.

 

[octavius]

I have a problem when trying to storm the Temple of Virtue in Cove. The cut scene just hangs after The Avatar and one or two of his chums have entered the temple. Nothing more happens. No sign of Gargoyles, just some blood on the floor.
Hitting Escape only produces a black screen and nothing more happens.
The game doesn't crash, but hangs, and I have to kill it from Task Manager.

First time I went up the hill towards the temple I was told to go back and get reinforcements. The guards won't join and the only recruit I found was Blain at the gupsy camp outside Cove.
Is there some other NPC(s) supposed to be in the party?

EDIT: nevermind, it turned out I has to select the whole party to move, instead of the others following the Avatar.

 

[octavius]

By the Virtues, combat is a clusterfuck with the DS engine! I can't order the characters' attacks individually, they largely ignore the "attack weakest enemy" plan, and in the ambush in the temple one of the Gargoyles kept chasing Sherry the cute, harmless, little mouse all over the place, ignoring everything else.
Any tips on how to make the combat less frustrating?

 

[octavius]

No one else playing this?

So far I like it very much despite a few annoyances:

Fighting against the camera all the time. I don't think I'll ever be as 100% comfortable with a 3D 3rd person view game, as I am with 3D 1st person view or 2D isometric games.

The inventory getting all messed up when using moonstones.

Characters dropping items on the ground when "giving" them to you.

No auto-map or proper in-game world map. This game is not really about exploring, as "everybody" will already have played at least one of U4-6, and from a role playing POV The Avatar should know the lay of the land.
But thanks to Infinitron nagging Alfie about a View Distance mod, it is much easier to navigate and spot landmarks than in the foggy vanilla version of the mod.

Some of these are shortcomings of Dungeon Siege, I assume.

EDIT: also, Britannia feels rather small. Or perhaps the towns are too large? There is hardly any wilderness between Britain and Cove, for example.


I haven't played the original U6, but from what I've gathered the U6P is a more complete experience, and introduces some things missing from U6, like the Temple of Virtue in Cove. So I guess it also functions as an "unfinished business" mod for U6, which I think is a good thing.

 

[Jaesun]

The original Ultima VI was kind of underwhelming (due to the ancient technology at the time). But in U6P you actually feel like there is a war raging with the Gargoyles in Britania.

In Ultima VI then entire "war" was a few gargoyles hanging out at the shrines. (and supporting text from NPC's) And that was it.

 

[octavius]

The original Ultima VI was kind of underwhelming (due to the ancient technology at the time). But in U6P you actually feel like there is a war raging with the Gargoyles in Britania.

In Ultima VI then entire "war" was a few gargoyles hanging out at the shrines. (and supporting text from NPC's) And that was it.

Heh, sounds a bit like like Oblivion and the supposed demon invasion.

 

[Jaesun]

Yeah basically.

 

[Junmarko]

Heh, sounds a bit like like Oblivion and the supposed demon invasion.

Nah. It's more intense than that, even in it's VGA glory. The gargoyles have more dialogue too haha.