Single Player Game using UO engine?

PascaL · Post by **PascaL** » Tue Nov 02, 2004 4:32 pm

I dunno if I've asked this before here, but it seems to me that the UO engine would be ideal for any Ultima remake, or even a new game. Personally, I still love the classic 2D graphics for Ultima Online, and the gameplay is outstanding in comparison to any of the other Ultima games. With several great UO emulators out there, I'm surprised no one has taken to use the UO engine to make a new, single player game. Surely the building blocks are all there since one can literally host and play on their own UO server with relative ease with RunUO and the other emus out there.

Anyhoo... just thinking outloud. Gonna instal Exult on my iBook G4 when I get home, so that I can kill time in between classes at school.

Post by **drcode** » Tue Nov 02, 2004 4:52 pm

It's probably for the same reason nobody has made a new game with ExultStudio or ScummVM: Creating a game is a lot of work, and it's hard to find the time when you're doing it as a hobby.

Bomb Bloke · Post by **Bomb Bloke** » Tue Nov 02, 2004 7:24 pm

There is server software floating around, so already anyone can build anything out of the game.

Macaw · Post by **Macaw** » Wed Nov 03, 2004 4:07 pm

Would it be possible to just use the existing UO world as a singleplayer game without changing much of anything? It would just be like playing it with no one online.

Of course by existing UO world i mean how it was before everyone built houses and whatnot everywhere.

Warder · Post by **Warder** » Wed Nov 03, 2004 6:14 pm

Very possible, yes

Macaw · Post by **Macaw** » Wed Nov 03, 2004 6:22 pm

hmmm... could be a idea then. It would be fun to just play UO as a single-player game in a free form - sandbox esque way. SOmeone could probably also add in a few main goals or quests to give the game a bit of structure and purpose as well.

PascaL · Post by **PascaL** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 6:46 am

That's what I mean. Put some robust NPC scripts in there, create some special items and weapons, place them, monsters, and spawners at certain points and away you go.

Certainly the NPC dialogue system is great in UO. It's very reminiscent of U3-5 in that key words trigger things, but you still have to figure out what those words are, yourself, rather than them being displayed on the screen to select from.

Take the recall spell out of the game, and make gate an 8th level spell, and the world becomes alot bigger.

It just seems to me like all the building blocks are there, perhaps even more so than the Dungeon Siege engine (which, as you know, several projects are using for remakes).

terok00001 · Post by **terok00001** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 1:18 pm

try RunUO and make your own server that can be played single player.. im sure you could rig something up!

wintermute_turing_ai · Tue Nov 09, 2004 2:16 pm

A couple years ago I started on a Wheel of Time single player adventure using the UO engine + Sphere server software. I did a lot of map development (based on the WoT maps) as well as about 100 hours of object development (houses, etc), but other things came up and I had to let the project go.

A few things were certain however:

1. While UO scripting is rudimentary, you can do enough to make quests both workable and 'fun'.

2. NPC dialogs are tough to have due to the design of the typical UO server

3. A single player project using the server software is extremely time consuming, but all the tools are there.

Here's the site i started building at the time. It hasn't been updated in years..
http://dragon.vanilluh.com/index.html

Gradilla Dragon · Post by **Gradilla Dragon** » Wed Nov 10, 2004 5:12 am

Just to clarify something:
1. Sphere scripting is rudimentary, and as I read, the worst of all server emulators. Not so for POL and RunUO, which have very powerful and advanced scripting capabilities. I don't know about the other server emulators.

2. NPC Dialogs can be done much better with POL and RunUO. You should have a look at OSI and the way you get into quests; POL and RunUO are capable of doing that without getting any interference if you click somewhere else.

3. I agree with that.
.

Daemon · Post by **Daemon** » Thu Nov 11, 2004 7:29 am

I always thought people should use the UO possibilities to remake ultimas instead of creating new engines from scratch...
Please somebody do it :>

Daemon · Post by **Daemon** » Thu Nov 11, 2004 7:32 am

And we could use Ultima Iris too...

Warder · Post by **Warder** » Thu Nov 11, 2004 12:17 pm

The Sphere dialog system is actually very useful for recreating Ultima-like conversations, U4-U6-style, as seen in Ultima Legacy.

wintermute_turing_ai · Fri Nov 12, 2004 7:32 am

Re: Warder

I ended up doing U4-U6 'word triggered' conversations myself in the WoT RPG. The only slight technical problem I was having at the time was highlighting key words, but I assume that can be overcome in Sphere's new 1.x scripting system. Again, despite Gradilla dragon's comments about Sphere, it still remains to be an immensely scriptable system regardless of the technical flaws that some people find in it. I think its literally just a matter of scripting in creative workarounds, just like any other development team would when using someone else's source engine.

Warder · Post by **Warder** » Fri Nov 12, 2004 8:28 am

In Ultima Legacy, word "highlighting" is done in the simplest way possible - placing brackets around keywords.

"I... am the [Ferryman]."

Mr. Anon · Post by **Mr. Anon** » Sun Nov 21, 2004 9:07 am

Well, this is already being done

Some plans for a singleplayer game using a UO emulator engine were developed a little while ago and are currently being re-thought to bring in line with the capabilties of the latest emulators.
However the problem, so I'm told, is that although the engine is perfect, nearly everything has to be rescripted and from the standpoint of the map, even that needs to be remade.
The current UO map was designed for pvm and pvp, both of which are entirely different to the 'quests' in the real Ultima games (When's the last time you played Ultima 8 and decided 'Hey, I'm going to go slaughter animals in a far away dungeon for loot for a few hours'.
In these games the worlds took a long time to traverse, which is quite a task, to say the least, when using a world like Britannia in Ultima Online.

Needless to say, I'm sure you'll hear more on the matter as more information becomes available, this is effectively the first piece of information you'll probably have heard about this project... let's just call it project SP for now

Happy gaming people,

Mr... S...Anon.

PascaL · Post by **PascaL** » Sun Nov 21, 2004 10:50 am

Even if its just a new single player game with really interesting NPCs using the UO engine, I'd be really curious to play.

Mr. Anon · Post by **Mr. Anon** » Thu Nov 25, 2004 3:40 am

*update*

I'll keep you updated of any developments anyway, though I wouldn't be surprised if it's shrouded in secrecy for a while, also they're on the lookout for people who would be interested in such a project and have experience in areas such as mapping, animating and programming in C#. If you're interested, drop a line to shteou@hotmail.com (that's me), at least till a proper email/site is set up.

Again, happy gaming,

Mr. Anon.

Skutarth · Post by **Skutarth** » Sun Nov 28, 2004 2:27 pm

There was a demo of UO that was single-player only. I vividly remember it because of the annoying fairy that would follow you all over the place.

Skutarth · Post by **Skutarth** » Sun Nov 28, 2004 2:54 pm

It's also interesting to mention that at http://uo.stratics.com/content/t2a/index.shtml it says the aformentioned UO demo is included with T2A.

Mr. Anon · Post by **Mr. Anon** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 11:53 am

Yeah, I'm not sure what that 'demo' was like, I imagine it was more of a technology demo showing what the multiplayer aspect was like.

It'd be interesting to see what they did there

Mr. Anon.

Skutarth · Post by **Skutarth** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 4:04 pm

No - it was just like Ultima Online. It wasn't a tech demo, it was a demo released to get publicity for the game. Why else would they include it in T2A? Besides, why would they release an early build with it?

Mr. Anon · Post by **Mr. Anon** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 5:04 pm

Oh?
Well, as implied I never saw the 'demo'
So it was a demo of UO on T2A? I still wonder why they included it with T2A.
Anyway, I'm off to play with Ultima 7, Online just doesn't cut it anyway

Mr. Anon.

Jets Connor · Post by **Jets Connor** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 6:31 pm

Oh, goody, a use for my UO CD!

I have T2A, and yes, there was a demo in it which takes place on the little island that is dull even in the real UO. I forget what it's called, but I think it may start with a G. And it's worth being a tailor just to be able to make a robe or cape out of that funky cloth you find in the tailor's shop.

PascaL · Post by **PascaL** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 9:06 pm

The town was Occlo and I think the demo was intended for people that didn't want to register UO in order to test-drive the game, even if their first month was free, or if they didn't have a first-month free.

Axel DominatoR · Post by **Axel DominatoR** » Tue Dec 07, 2004 12:40 am

Yeah, you started in Occlo and your mission was to learn how to use UO
The wisp guided you trought some fundamental aspects of the game, and your goal was to kill a red dragon with a glass sword. Then the wisp disappears and you're newly vulnerable ( when the wisp follows you, you're invincible ). Naturally you can't save :/ it's something such as 20 mins of entertainment... but I didn't give up hehehe.
Instead of killing the dragon, I started punching ogres and trolls ( I was invincible

) ... I became so strong that I could kill the dragon with a single punch I think hahahaha.
It was a "single-player-without-save-capability OSI emulator"

Jets Connor · Post by **Jets Connor** » Tue Dec 07, 2004 7:39 pm

Ah, I remember. I always tried to run away from the wisp, but when you got to a certain distance it just reappeared next to you, right?

Axel DominatoR · Post by **Axel DominatoR** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 1:28 am

Exactly

But there was a way to wander around lonely and still having invulnerability.
Enter one of the houses and make sure the wisp was in, too.
Then exit and quickly close the door.
The wisp remains into the house

Skutarth · Post by **Skutarth** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 4:27 pm

Anybody know where you can get this? I have UO:R, but I don't want to go out and buy T2A when I won't ever play it...

Axel DominatoR · Post by **Axel DominatoR** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 5:16 am

I should have my good old original T2A cd around here...
Do you think it's illegal to send the UO Demo? :/

Post by **Dominus** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 6:24 am

It's copyrighted material that was only availlable on the T2A-CD which (in almost all cases) you had to buy.
I'd say this is not perfectly legal, so please don't discuss sending it further.

Skutarth · Post by **Skutarth** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 3:24 pm

I see. Too bad -- how much does it cost?

Post by **Dominus** » Fri Dec 10, 2004 6:42 pm

on ebay it should be relatively easy and cheap to come by.

SB-X · Post by **SB-X** » Sat Dec 11, 2004 7:36 am

It is cheap, but not easy to find. This is the only one I saw. Anyone else have better luck?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... eName=WDVW

(edit by Dominus: it is url not link)

PascaL · Post by **PascaL** » Sat Dec 11, 2004 8:17 am

I have the T2A cd.

For sale: $1?

M.W. · Post by **M.W.** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 11:16 pm

I have the t2a cd, and I can't find the demo. It creates a "demo" directory when I install the game, but it's empty. What gives?

Natreg · Post by **Natreg** » Tue Dec 14, 2004 5:05 am

That happens to me too, I can instal t2a but there is no demo there, just that folder

PascaL · Post by **PascaL** » Tue Dec 14, 2004 7:18 am

If I recal correctly, the game will give you an Install Demo option during the full instal process.

M.W. · Post by **M.W.** » Tue Dec 14, 2004 2:50 pm

I don't remember seeing that. Maybe I just didn't notice.

Odd.

AxelDominatoR · Post by **AxelDominatoR** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 1:30 am

Yeah, there was an Install Demo somewhere during install.
After the full game install if I remember well.

InstAxelDemo

Tylius · Post by **Tylius** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 8:33 pm

I remember the demo, and I know I had it on one of my CD's, however, when I found my old T2A CD, the demo was nowhere to be found!

Too bad too, I wanted to check it out again

Axel DominatoR · Post by **Axel DominatoR** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 4:36 am

The demo ran at 640 x 480 at full screen. When I first started it I said: "WOW Ultima 8 part 2!" ( if you play UO in 640 x 480 full screen is almost the same as U8 ).

I know I know that U8 was buggy... but it was my first love ehhehe.

SB-X · Post by **SB-X** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 7:42 am

U8 was buggy? After the patch?
Actually I didn't play it much.

Post by **Colourless** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 7:55 am

U8 actually wasn't very buggy at all.

Just had strange gameplay decisions.

Post by **Dominus** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 8:52 am

Compared to nowadays standards even the release was not buggy. And to take it from Colourless, it were just these gameplay decisions that people didn't like and made them claim that u8 was buggy.

Axel DominatoR · Post by **Axel DominatoR** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 12:52 pm

Sorry I didn't want to flame

As I said previously, U8 is one of the games I like more.
With "buggy" I was referring to the pre-patch things ( because I played it without the patch ).
However I liked very much two things: the way you could move ( little step, normal step, run, jump, climb, etc ) and the way you could interact with the world. I refer to the fact that you can move the objects with a "resolution" of one pixel. I think no other game has a pixel-precision object movement.
Maybe Ultima Underworld, somewhat, gave me the same feeling.

Skutarth · Post by **Skutarth** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 6:05 pm

Meh. I like the tile system U7 uses. It makes things more organized and the tile size isn't too big.

M.W. · Post by **M.W.** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 11:58 pm

This is wierd. I installed it a couple times today, and nothing about a demo came up.

Clock Nova · Post by **Clock Nova** » Sun Jan 30, 2005 7:08 pm

What are the chances that a single-player game using the UO engine will be Mac-compatible?

I'm a little confused by this prospect. Can I infer from this that the UO software is now public domain (ie. free)? Would a single-player version be played entirely on the user's computer, or would it require a server?

Post by **Dominus** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 2:20 am

Nope, the UO software is not public domain.
And a single player version could be played entirely on the user's computer but would require this computer to run as server and client.