Rescue 911, Black Gate Style

[Nickisaacson]

Has anyone else noticed that there are several NPCs in Black Gate that are lost in caves or elsewhere? (i.e. the monk, and Gorn, and the people hunting the unicorn, and possibly more.)

It's too bad that there aren't rescue quests for those people. They would temporarily join your party until you took them to their home or other destination, then reward you with cash, weapons, training, or something?

Thoughts?

[Dominus]

I'd love that

[Nickisaacson]

As for the two that are hunting the cyclops (Eiko and Amanda), part of the "Avatar virtue" would be talking them out of the hunt, since Iskandar only defended himself, if I remember right.

[Gotcha!]

I think the monk finds his way home after you tell him how to get out.

Gorn isn't really lost?
But yeah, they could have easily added a quest where you can talk to Gorn after you destroy the cube; after you do, Gorn should have been free of the Guardian's influence.

The people hunting the unicorn; it wouldn't be very virtuous sending them after the unicorn, since he really doesn't want people bothering him, from what I recall. Although it would be nice to have had a way to show that in-love knucklehead that Ophelia has no interest in him and had sent him there to get rid of him.

The women going after Iskander the cyclops; it would also not be very nice to show them where the cyclops is, since he's a good guy.

I do see a lot of possibilities for more quests (not just in these examples), but yeah, I'm sure EA was pushing them, just like with Serpent Isle.

[Knight Captain]

I thought EA only bought them after BG came out?

Like a lot of enthralled cult members, Gorn should not instantly return to normal once the charismatic influence is gone.

The Usecode to add these quests wouldn't be all that much work.

For Wayne the lost monk, changing his NPC code would be the main task to allow him to follow the Avatar or party. Then change the egg code for the dungeon entrance so it checks if he is in the party, and causes him to thank the Avatar for seeing the sun again, and stop following the party.

I could help you write the code if you are interested.

[Dominus]

Yes, EA had no sway over BG

[Gotcha!]

Hmm, what's the story behind Elizabeth and Abraham (EA) in Ultima 7 then?
Was it just the developers seeing the oncoming storm?

[dreammaster]

Regarding the "oncoming storm", possibly so.. after all, it did also have a certain Time Lord

[Knight Captain]

There was some bad blood there in advance of BG. Remember the pirates like Hawkins and Bonn in U6? They were named after EA people.

[agentorangeguy]

Yeah it seems that the EA takeover was impending at the time, at least from what I remember, hence the "Guardian" taking over with EA, the Sphere, Cube, Tetrahedron resembling the logo... etc

[Nickisaacson]

KC said:

"The Usecode to add these quests wouldn't be all that much work.

For Wayne the lost monk, changing his NPC code would be the main task to allow him to follow the Avatar or party. Then change the egg code for the dungeon entrance so it checks if he is in the party, and causes him to thank the Avatar for seeing the sun again, and stop following the party.

I could help you write the code if you are interested."

@KC: I appreciate that you would help me write code, but i have no skills when it comes to that. I just enjoy these games, and have been playing since they came out.

[Fig28awsome44]

A guide quest with characters that can actually contribute?!

The gaming world couldn't handle such power

[kensuprime]

It's important to remember that BG was released on 3.5 diskettes, and adding even a single disk would have cost OSI a lot of moolah. So they had to draw the line somewhere (also, BG shipped at least 4 months late, so they were taking their time).
RG even states in an interview that the primary driver behind them selling out to EA was because of the cost of diskettes. It quickly ceased to matter with CD-ROMs; I'm sure they were kicking themselves. Not only that, if they hadn't had EA's resources, they wouldn't have toyed around with the concept of MMORPGs, UO never would have happened, we would have gotten U9 on time. Chris Roberts may not have gone overboard on spending for WC4 and gotten fired, and the Ultima/Wing Commander crossover game they were considering might have gotten made. What could have been....

[Dale.]

Wasn't someone working on a mod that would make Gorn playable and complete his story after the cube is destroyed?