RPGWatch Feature - Ultima 6 Project Hits v1.0!

You can steal, but you will lose Karma which affects how people see you and respond to you. Losing companions did happen in the originals, and can happen here if you lose too much. However, there is an evil path in the game which you can follow. As Avatar, you are supposed to be a symbol of virtue.
 
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OK, YOU try telling that to Alfie!! lol :)
 
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Actually then, reading between the lines, this Alfie fellow could be theoretically alligned to Lord Blackthorn, who appears evil and yet conversely was a close friend of Lord British. Initially Blackthorn was most virtuous and wise and was actually chosen by Lord British to rule while he explored the underworld. It was the shadowlords that corrupted Blackthorns brain turning him into a cruel symbol of evil. So yes, there was probably a good streek in Alfie at some previous time! :lol: - On this basis it might just be possible to understand why Alfie's evil character player addition into U6P does indeed make some remote yet credible link to virtuosity.
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By the way Mr Corwin, a personal thankyou for all your own hard work and effort with U6P. The game is a success, well worth the wait. Party based, good role playing, good v evil, many hours play time - - and all for free, a phenominal counter example when compared to some recent bland games i've thrown away good money on. Highly recommended for traditional rpg gamer types.
 
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Thank you, but I was only a VERY tiny part of an incredibly amazing team. You certainly seem to have some knowledge of Alfie though!! :)
 
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I was corrupted by Archon spirit. At some point, we're all fools, spending years on this, and trying to lose player at every corner of the world :)
 
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honestly, you don't really need to steal. There's more than enough loot just laying around in the dungeons and when you pirates and such. If you really feel the need to steal, you can to some extent. You get a lot of positive karma from completing pretty simple quests. I don't know what the minimum you need to keep on the 'good path' is, but you start at 50, and I'm only about maybe 1/3 into it and my Karam is 148. And that's AFTER accidently stealing 5 or 6 things (With the DS interface, if there are lots of items around the person you are trying to talk to, or spot you are trying to move to, you can easily end up grabbing an item and getting scolded by your party).
 
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I haven't played this yet and won't anytime soon, but one thing I never understood is: Where is the fun in having to feed your party? Isn't this an annoying waste of time?
 
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What is the fun in having to rest your party? Or buy arrows? Or a dozen other things that you could streamline away. It can add an eliminate of tacticalness, particularly at the beginning of the game. Thinking of entering that dungeon? Do you have enough ammo? Enough healing potions? Enough food? I have 100 Gold left. Do I buy more food? Or bet I can get some on the way and buy more ammo instead?
 
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I'm surprised to read this from a Gothic lover, where you had to cook your meat in a fire!!! That said, in U6P food is kinda silly. It's available in massive quantities for free nearly everywhere, so it's just a button-click mechanic. Click mouse button 50 times to fill food meter. I don't mind doing it, but it serves no real purpose.

@BlatantNinja,
Did you try just fighting your way to the moongate near Trinsic? How did it work out? I think it'd be doable if you've been leveling up/dungeon delving.
 
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I'm surprised to read this from a Gothic lover, where you had to cook your meat in a fire!!! That said, in U6P food is kinda silly. It's available in massive quantities for free nearly everywhere, so it's just a button-click mechanic. Click mouse button 50 times to fill food meter. I don't mind doing it, but it serves no real purpose.

@BlatantNinja,
Did you try just fighting your way to the moongate near Trinsic? How did it work out? I think it'd be doable if you've been leveling up/dungeon delving.

Agreed it is a little too freely available, especially once you get a large party. At the beginning, it's reasonably scarce, but not super.

Yeah, I tore through about 100 of them with my 6 person level 4-5 party. I basically just lured away a couple wingless ones at a time, let loose my 6 magic bows and took them down in one volley each. The winged ones took 3 to 4 shots. It was slow and methodical. Just the way I like my killing! :evil grin:

Great for the XP and I had to make three trips to gather and see all the loot. Ran through a couple thousand arrows though!
 
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(Below is a copy of my post on the Codex, to which no one's replied. I thought I'd ask here.)

Thanks to Zephyr and everyone else who made this possible! I haven't yet played it , but I loved Lazarus—amazing dialogue—and Ultimas 4-7, along with early UO. I plan to grab this soon. [Edit: I have now and I enjoy it so far.]

Below, though, I have a general sort of spoiler question regarding something that's always irked me about U5-7 and Laz. I hope something that has been a big problem for me has not been repeated in U6P.

Are spells like Invisibility and Time Stop as overpowered in U6P as they are in U5-7 and Lazarus? In U5, spamming Time Stop became the mode once you got it. In U6, Invisibility, Mass Invisibility, and Time Stop were all overpowered. In U7, tons of spells were overpowered, and even though Time Stop was effectively dropped for SI, SI was still very easy in terms of combat. And in Lazarus, Time Stop lasted for TWENTY-FIVE seconds! That's without "Duration," which I never ended up getting. (I actually stopped playing toward the end, while cleaning up in the underworld. I did love the game, though.)

So my question is this: have you guys stuck with the easy-combat-for-those-who-want-it-easy route, or made even this aspect of the game more challenging (as it could be in U4 and even U5 until Magic Axes + Time Stop)? Just curious. Hope to download the game tomorrow.

Also, has anyone else been as bothered as I have by the exploitable nature of most Ultima combat? Going from the tighter U4 system to the exploits of 5-7, and then back to UO, which has the best MMO combat (to this day), and experiencing the greatness of all the series games outside of combat, one really has to wonder whether Garriott really needed to make the combat as easy as he did. . . .
 
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Are spells like Invisibility and Time Stop as overpowered in U6P as they are in U5-7 and Lazarus? In U5, spamming Time Stop became the mode once you got it. In U6, Invisibility, Mass Invisibility, and Time Stop were all overpowered. In U7, tons of spells were overpowered, and even though Time Stop was effectively dropped for SI, SI was still very easy in terms of combat. And in Lazarus, Time Stop lasted for TWENTY-FIVE seconds! That's without "Duration," which I never ended up getting. (I actually stopped playing toward the end, while cleaning up in the underworld. I did love the game, though.)

So my question is this: have you guys stuck with the easy-combat-for-those-who-want-it-easy route, or made even this aspect of the game more challenging (as it could be in U4 and even U5 until Magic Axes + Time Stop)? Just curious. Hope to download the game tomorrow.

Also, has anyone else been as bothered as I have by the exploitable nature of most Ultima combat? Going from the tighter U4 system to the exploits of 5-7, and then back to UO, which has the best MMO combat (to this day), and experiencing the greatness of all the series games outside of combat, one really has to wonder whether Garriott really needed to make the combat as easy as he did. . . .

Can't speak for the developers, but I've never used the spells that much anyway. I don't remember U5 having much different combat than U4 though.

That said, as to Garriott's decisions, I'd say that Ultima was always more about the stories than the combat. It wasn't a tactical RPG and wasn't meant to be, IMO
 
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(Below is a copy of my post on the Codex, to which no one's replied. I thought I'd ask here.)

Thanks to Zephyr and everyone else who made this possible! I haven't yet played it , but I loved Lazarus—amazing dialogue—and Ultimas 4-7, along with early UO. I plan to grab this soon. [Edit: I have now and I enjoy it so far.]

Below, though, I have a general sort of spoiler question regarding something that's always irked me about U5-7 and Laz. I hope something that has been a big problem for me has not been repeated in U6P.

Are spells like Invisibility and Time Stop as overpowered in U6P as they are in U5-7 and Lazarus? In U5, spamming Time Stop became the mode once you got it. In U6, Invisibility, Mass Invisibility, and Time Stop were all overpowered. In U7, tons of spells were overpowered, and even though Time Stop was effectively dropped for SI, SI was still very easy in terms of combat. And in Lazarus, Time Stop lasted for TWENTY-FIVE seconds! That's without "Duration," which I never ended up getting. (I actually stopped playing toward the end, while cleaning up in the underworld. I did love the game, though.)

So my question is this: have you guys stuck with the easy-combat-for-those-who-want-it-easy route, or made even this aspect of the game more challenging (as it could be in U4 and even U5 until Magic Axes + Time Stop)? Just curious. Hope to download the game tomorrow.

Also, has anyone else been as bothered as I have by the exploitable nature of most Ultima combat? Going from the tighter U4 system to the exploits of 5-7, and then back to UO, which has the best MMO combat (to this day), and experiencing the greatness of all the series games outside of combat, one really has to wonder whether Garriott really needed to make the combat as easy as he did. . . .

Ah, sorry … I've been away on vacation, and the rest of the team have been madly working on a patch which should be released soon. You can probably get faster answers to your questions if you post them on our forums, as most team members keep an eye on the posts there. However, I'll keep checking in here JIC questions come up.

We've tried to balance the spells so they are not overpowered and also put time limits on these types of spells, though some are stackable (but not all). Also, you'll find certain spells don't work well in all situations … so you have to use strategy when selecting spells.

In addition, we've taken advantage of a feature of the DS engine which allows the player to select a level of difficulty for combat (easy, normal, hard). This can be changed during the game, so you can adjust to your preference and playing style.
 
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Actually then, reading between the lines, this Alfie fellow could be theoretically alligned to Lord Blackthorn, who appears evil and yet conversely was a close friend of Lord British. Initially Blackthorn was most virtuous and wise and was actually chosen by Lord British to rule while he explored the underworld. It was the shadowlords that corrupted Blackthorns brain turning him into a cruel symbol of evil. snip....

Though I prefer the backstory in that Blackthorn wasn't so cut and dry 'good' - he was divided within himself. So it suggests he might have been swayed toward something already festering within himself, likely not seen by others. Sort of a twist on the Native American story of which dog you feed the most (a symbolic good vs. evil).
 
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I'm surprised to read this from a Gothic lover, where you had to cook your meat in a fire!!! That said, in U6P food is kinda silly. It's available in massive quantities for free nearly everywhere, so it's just a button-click mechanic. Click mouse button 50 times to fill food meter. I don't mind doing it, but it serves no real purpose.

The thing is - frying meat over the fire was never fun or needed in Gothic. The fun part was the fact that you could do it, that the world was interactive enough to allow it.

Luckily, in Gothic 2, you can select how many you want to fry whenever you click a frying pan. Same interactivity, less hassle.
 
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Well, in U6P you'll find so much free food lying around that you never need to do more than press the "z" key to pick it all up. Once in your inventory, click on the food icon at the top of the screen and all the food leaves inventory and becomes part of the party rations carried by invisible servants. These servants carry your gold, lockpicks, and food at no cost to you :D
 
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The thing is - frying meat over the fire was never fun or needed in Gothic. The fun part was the fact that you could do it, that the world was interactive enough to allow it.

Luckily, in Gothic 2, you can select how many you want to fry whenever you click a frying pan. Same interactivity, less hassle.

That. Apart from a few quests cooking food and eating was optional.

Mandatory party feeding isn't something I like to spend time on.
 
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If I remember correctly, eating roasted meat replenished health points a tiny bit better then eating rough meat.
In Gothic 1, that is.
 
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