I've been thinking about the game graphics in general a bit, and I have a question. Would there be interest for some new types of "climbing spots"? I liked the ladders in the previous Ultimas, though in the absence of climbing animations they would have to just serve as teleport triggers here. Also I think it would be nice to make "stairs" for caverns look like just sloped cave floors going up or down a hole instead of crafted stone stairs.
At the very least there would be a lot of utility for different variations of the "stairs down" graphics in SI, for TFL; ie, wooden ones specifically come to mind for one spot in the castle, but also cavern-floor type ones would be nice.
Straight up/down ladders would also be nice even with them I guess just being teleports like you mentioned.
Id use either myself (if you let me, anywho!)
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Peter M Dodge
aka Wizardry Dragon www.thefeudallands.ca
Cheers, Wizardry Dragon
Lead Designer, Ultima VII: The Feudal Lands
www.thefeudallands.ca
That is indeed the Gem of Immortality. I did my best to model the area after the final battle in Ultima I, and downed Mondain always looked to me like he is reduced to a pile of dust. The corridors at the edges could use something to make them less bare.
Yet another thing I've been working on is to have Gorn as a possible party member. I'm thinking of making a small stand-alone mod of that, or maybe bundle him together with Beh Lem for some kind of "classic party members" mod. Anyway, I didn't want to start a whole new thread for something that small, so I'll stick some work-in-progress graphics here. Given some of his influences, I'm thinking of giving him the classical Conan attire, with leather/fur loin cloth and boots. Maybe an appropriately savage-looking necklace.
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Ultima 6 Mod for Exult site: http://www.ultima6.realmofultima.com/
Lately my graphics work has mainly been focused on helping out with the Ultima 6 mod, but here's an application of the aforementioned dirt slope. It ended up looking more like stairs than slopes, mainly to retain the ability to use the same graphics going both ways. Besides, if you have a fair amount of foot traffic going over a dirt slope, it's bound to end up with rough stairs stomped onto it.
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Ultima 6 Mod for Exult site: http://www.ultima6.realmofultima.com/
In Ultima V, the sceptre can dispel magical fields. From what I can tell from the source code, Marzo has implemented that in his Keyring Mod, though it is by attacking force fields with the sceptre.
Perhaps instead of calling it a "go home" option, he just wanders off on his own adventuring? (Randomly pick one of several different wilderness areas to send him off to, so you can potentially "run into" him later, but you won't know where.) I don't know how easy that would be to code offhand.
(If you really wanted to go overboard, you could have him tell a different story of what he's been doing depending on where you find him, but of course that'd be an awful lot of trouble for something relatively few people would ever end up actually seeing.)
Just now saw the pics of Gorn, very cool! The option for Gorn that Olarin mentioned for when Gorn "goes home" would be very simple to do. I guess in U6 it wouldn't make sense for him to go back to Sutek's dungeon, so perhaps he'd spend some time in a rough and tumble place like Jhelom or Bucaneer's Den for some drinkin' and fightin'.
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Ultima 6 Mod for Exult site: http://www.ultima6.realmofultima.com/
Jhelom came to my mind as well, though that is already Dupre's "home", and I would prefer to spread out the party members. Buccaneer's Den is a good idea. It also suits the deliberate similarities with Conan nicely, given how he was a pirate a few times in his life.
I just realized that in three successive games you find Gorn in pretty much the same place. When you think about it, it seems like a running gag that he always ends up in the same dungeon.
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Ultima 6 Mod for Exult site: http://www.ultima6.realmofultima.com/
Looks like someone misread things a bit and thought the above Gorn graphics are for agentorangeguy's Ultima 6 mod. That is not the case. I intend to include this for a mod for Black Gate which will allow Gorn to join the party, and I'll make separate graphics for Ultima 6.
I have no intention of abandoning this project. Other things have just been occupying my time for a while. If you like this, you might also want to check out my Beh Lem in Ultima 7 thread that's somewhere in here.