Exult Forum

Looks like EA is making a new Ultima game. Though its not what anyone would expect. Its some sort of browser based strategy game.

Some details here: http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/62123
The games site here: http://www.lordofultima.com/

The Guardian...the conqueror and destroyer of worlds...

Because the Guardian succeeded in his quest to conquer Britannia and exile Lord British, he is able to expend his energy on waste-products such as this "game". When the Guardian completely wastes his conquered territory's name, honour, and mana, he will tosses it to the winds, and moves on to conquer other territories. He is jealous of other beings creations, for he cannot create them himself and have others appreciate his work.

The Guardian may own Britannia now, but cannot, and will not ever master it. He does not know how. All he knows is to take and then to destroy in his insatiable quest for money and power.

"...for I shall be your companion. Your..."provider". AND, YOUR MASTER!!!" MWUHUHUHUHAHAHA!!!"

Sorry for the rant. It is up to the "classic" community to keep Ultima alive, and to show new generations what was, as well as what could have been.

As much as I hate the idea of an strategy online web browser game, maybe this gives Ultima a more known name.

I don't think people should live in the past. I like classic Ultimas way better of course, but keeping something alive without advancing is not the best idea.

Ultima needs to get people interested on it if this franchise is ever to reclaim it's place in the gaming industry.

Maybe EA is doing a really bad work with the franchise, but at least they are trying to do something.

If EA is going to sully the legacy that is Ultima, then they might as well not do anything at all.

I hate most browser games. Usually they are just a game of numbers and a huge timesink. You accumulate points that you invest into creating other kinds of points. Plays like a spreadsheet.

Not interested.

Playing with it right now. So far it's a glorified Settlers II.

Rather fast for a browser game I must say and not too unpleasant.

Artaxerxes

I've gone through the tutorial but doubt I'll bother again. It appears to have nothing to do with Ultima and is incredibly dull.

I really hate to say it, but seriously, guys, get a life... Ultima is gone, you know it, you know EA got the rights for it and you know what EA is capable of. Let them do what they want, you can't stop them.
Cherrish what you think Ultima is about and be contend to have received these games.
Some like U8, some hate it, some like u9, some hate it... Some might like LoU, some will hate it... Who cares whether you like or hate LoU? If you haven't even tried it you will look ridiculous, if you have and still don't like it just because it is no "true Ultima" (please define as you like) you will look like an old fart to those who like it!
Again, who cares, get a life

*Looks a IP*

Fake Dominus is fake.

> Again, who cares, get a life

There's no reason why Ultima fans shouldn't be able to debate and exchange opinions on the latest offspring of Ultima franchise after years of it being practically ignored.
There'n no reason to be pissed off about it either, I think... why are you so aggressive about it?

I personally find it a sad caricature of what this forum seems to have become that one developer is ranting on a thread that we should not be talking about what another developer has brought up.

Scathing meta commentary aside, I find it interesting, but likely just a cash cow money grab, as we have come to expect of EA games.

At the same time however, I am actually happy to see something DIFFERENT done with Ultima for once - between the ultimas of yore and the much less ambigious and much more shameless 'morality' systems of newer games like Dragon Age, I find myself a little "over" the morality that Ultima liked to poke at, and the "world simulator" aspect is one appeal so I don't think a simulator city game would be entirely off the mark - that said my initial reaction is that is far too safe and doesn't offer anything particularly new to either the series or the game.

In my highly-biased opinion, TFL will probably end up doing a better job, once I have it completed. On that note I really do need to post with a progress update, but that can be for another thread.

wizardry dragon

My outburst was not against debating/discussing the game. My outburst was against slamming the game right away. Given I was annoyed by something else more and the outburst here was not that appropiate.
I was about to post about this new Ultima as well but didn't because I expected all this

I personally find it a sad caricature of what this forum seems to have become that one developer is ranting on a thread that we should not be talking about what another developer has brought up.

blubbediblubblub, yes, I'm human, if you can rant, I can rant. And I haven't told anyone not to talk about that but "who cares" and "get a life"...

Edit: And I AM APOLOGIZING for my outburst.

In my not-so-humble-opinion, it would be better for EA's PR and bank account if they actually reached out to Richard Garriott to at least "canonize" a new story for a new epic Ultima CRPG. They claim that their old habits were wrong and that they are no longer the "evil empire". Now is their chance to prove it.

One idea for a new Ultima that I have would be a rts/rpg hybrid that takes place between U3 and U4, depicting the events that shaped Britannia and consolidated Lord British's power, culminating in the war on The Bloody Plains. I could accept and rather play that, than some browser game.

My view on this LoU is more of a technical one. As a fulltime web developer, I am always interested in how things are coded. So when I played LoU I looked and wondered, 'How did they manage to do that?'.

Say what you want, on a technical aspect, a game working in real-time over the web (over the cloud, really), with nothing else but HTML, Javascript and CSS is quite a feat.

True it won't ever be an FPS or a traditional RTS since there are no way to control units and participate in combat (it's more a 'roll the dice in the background' type of fights), but it's still fairly breakthrough as far as I'm concerned.

The next step would be to have this game working without a cloud. Just a browser and not even a webserver. And yes, doing that is still possible.

Artaxerxes

"Who cares" is ok.
"Get a life" is a bit harsh.

"Lords of Ultima" is stupid yet nice or nice yet stupid depending on how old you are

"Frozen" is an adjective that will soon apply to this thread

Andrea, these snide comments about freezing threads is at least as inappropiate as my outburst above, so please contact me off the board by email. I'd like to keep this animosity off the board and discuss it in private (that's why I edited my last two posts to the forum accordingly).

Thanks

I'd expect that kind of language at Denny's, but not here!

(I was just kidding, which has recently become inappropriate as well. No animosity intended. No need to discuss it further)

In-Topic: I agree with Artaxerxes' view, but the game is actually very good too. What EA should understand is that slapping the Ultima moniker to it will mean nothing to young people, while having the effect to repulse the oldbies who just can't stand the idea of that kind of game being related at all to the series. It's a pity, becaus as I said the game is funny, interesting, and has lots of upgrading potential.

I was just kidding, which has recently become inappropriate as well.

Jokes don't translate well to written form, a well known reason for misunderstandings in the internet. And especially since it's been you who has made bitter comments about freezing threads before it's more than easy to misread another comment from you about that. And judging from that new bitter sentence... oh, surely, it's a joke, too

to Andrea,

in fact, I think it's a bit like the relationship between Might and Magic (the RPG serie) and Heroes of Might and Magic (the strategy serie). They share something in common in the name, but it's completely different products.

That being said, it's a testimony to the power of HTML, CSS and Javascript when put in the right hands.

What I enjoyed the most with this, is that I can start a game during my break at work and pick it up at home on a different OS/browser combo.

Artaxerxes

Up to now I can't even get into the server
I would like to try but it seems it's always full... So people do seem to enjoy it

I'll be happy if it will work with Firefox/Linux. But I'm getting the 'server full' message.

DrCode:

Since I have a city under development, I never get the "server full" message. Be patient and try again, within minutes even.

I will try it out with Firefox on Linux. I have done Firefox/MacOS and Firefox/Windows and those both worked. I will let you know.

Artaxerxes

DrCode:

Okay, I just checked it and it does work with Firefox on Linux. However, I didn't work on my default profile (which has plenty of web developer extensions), but it worked with a new profile.

So my guess is, they watch for one of "Web Developer" or "Firebug". I have other extensions installed but those are the ones I suppute they watch for.

Artaxerxes

Sounds like a ploy for EA to be able to keep "Ultima" under there thumb so one else can actually return the series to its former glory.

Na, it's about generating interest. EA knows there are still plenty of Ultima fans out there. So if they are going to create a new browsergame in a medieval setting, they might as well put their trademark to use and pick up a few of the fans.

Also, they are relatively safe from fan-rage, since the game is (apparently) so different you can't really compare it to previous ultimas.

Nothing is ever safe from fan rage

wizardry dragon

From what I've heard on the built-in chat, and apparently from www.twitter.com/OfficialLoU they are about to open a new island in 20 minutes, which means you will be able to try it out.

Artaxerxes

It should be called Ultima "The Demise" or Ultima "In Name Only".

or better yet Ultima 2010... and they'll have a new one every year like the Madden games.

With EA everything is a ploy...

I quite enjoy this game. It wouldn't need to have been called Ultima but I would never have tried it out without Ultima in its name.

I've tried it now, and it has zilch to do with Ultima. It's fun if you like browser games, but if you're looking for something Ultima-related, look elsewhere.

I've also tried it out, unfortunately it's just the same old browsergame mechanic I expected... accumulating points and waiting for timers to count down. Not my idea of a fun game.
And it really has nothing to do with Ultima. Except the medieval fantasy setting.

"From what I've heard on the built-in chat, and apparently from www.twitter.com/OfficialLoU they are about to open a new island in 20 minutes, which means you will be able to try it out."

And as expected, that was of course only bull****.

No it wasn't. That's how I got to try it.

Well there sure as hell ain't any extra islands there allowing anyone who wants to to log in now... So I'm reserving judgement until I actually see it with my own eyes, thank you very much. Way too many fanboys around spreading false info as it is.

Whatever floats your boat? I'm not going to lose any sleep over it!

Two days ago they did open a new island. That was two days ago!
I was able to log on, a friend of mine as well, and also some people from here it seems.
Instead of accusing Artaxerxes or anyone else of lying, try to learn patience. For someone not easily suckered you are quite eager to get on it...
OR vent you frustration in an email to EA...

It is heartwarming to see that my favorite game series of ALL TIME is still generating such love, hate, and debate!

The only good thing about this is that it might have the chance to let new people enjoy the ultima universe. If they enjoy that game perhaps they will do some research and learn about the previous ultimas. I'm surprised ea doesn't use this as an excuse to sell older ultimas at a decent discount. More sales is better than nothing. At worst sell all the previous ultimas as a bundle downloadable pack for 35 bucks or something. I wonder why they don't do something similiar...

Is this city building like the old roman citybuilding game who's name is escaping my memory? Or more like civilization games?

If they sell old Ultima's, they'll have to do some additional work: Either port them to run on newer versions of Windows, or include DOSBOX or Exult+Pagan. But then technical support would be a nightmare.

They could use dosbox preconfigured and this would keep tech support at a minimum, since current dosbox runs all ultimas < ix almost with default settings. If they would choose the way other gamepzblisher chose, working with the dosbox dev and beta tester team it would be easy...

"Get a life" as I may need, I won't be trying the game at all. It has nothing to do with the fact it's an EA abomination of Ultima, I'm simply not into the strategy game genre. Ultima is fun as an RPG.

Also, I highly doubt they'd get Richard Garriott to help with anything. After all, that would be intelligent design choices, something EA just can't muster.

If they sell old Ultima's, they'll have to do some additional work: Either port them to run on newer versions of Windows, or include DOSBOX or Exult+Pagan. But then technical support would be a nightmare.

Or they could make a deal with GOG.com (Good Old Games) and provide the game files and any additional materials needed to GOG staff and let them handle the compatibility issues, Dosbox testing and tuning and game technical support and distribution.

I think reverence for the Ultima franchise is well placed. By the same token I think the disdain for EA whoring the brand recognition to make a trickle of side revenue is justified.

What distinguishes the RG Ultimas from other games is a real passion for the world and the story. It is obvious to anyone who has played 5-7.2 that there is more going on than artists and programmers trying to make a deadline and collect a paycheck. There is a lot of love that went into those games, and that is best illustrated by the fact that it's 2010 and we all still really enjoy both the engine and the world.

Ultima was the first computer game of any kind that I ever saw on an older friend's computer when I was like 8. Ultima 6 was the first computer game I ever bought and the first RPG I ever played. Getting Ultima 7 to work essentially taught me DOS and provided the groundwork for my interest in computers in general.

Stuff like this browser game only makes me wonder where Ultima would be if Garriot had continued telling his story, with his level of craftsmanship and today's technology. That's why when I see something like this I think "bummer".

More slots are supposed to open today.

On their forum has been some talk that there is planned to be more Ultima relation in the finished game. In their current beta phase they first want to flesh out the game system itself.

Edit: more slots open NOW - don't blame me when they close again...

I think Dominus is spot on regarding being closer to Ultima in the long run. After all, this is a beta to basically test core functionality, but there are still parts that are unavailable, like the quest log at the top. Once the get to have this ready, then you'll probably see something more Ultima-related. Just don't expect to play U7. If that's what you want, go play U7.
After all, even Ultima Underworld was completely different from U7 (and the like) and yet few people have trouble with it.

Artaxerxes

Nah, this won't have anything tangible to do with "our" Ultima. They've released the backstory, which is pretty weak by itself. Here it is:

Our kingdom is no more
Beloved Sosaria, shattered into countless islands and torn from its place in time, is gone. I mourn its passing, but even now turn my thoughts to the future.

Upon a vast ocean rises a new world, Caledonia. None can deny it is a fractured shadow of what once was, but I say glory still flickers in the ashes of the past.

Unite the land
It is said that only one possessed of strength and wisdom in equal measure can forge a new world free of darkness and fear. Such a task, though mightily daunting, would reap untold glory and riches.

Take your place in history
Are you the one I seek? Have you the potency of spirit to heal our world? Can you seize the reigns of destiny, unite our lands and create a new kingdom?

Can you become the new…

Lord of Ultima

Beware, imposters share our dream and must be dealt with…

"None can deny it is a fractured shadow of what once was, but I say glory still flickers in the ashes of the past."

Methinks that "they" are reading this forum!

The story won't be much, but it will probably be more than the one they posted for now

The more and more I think about it, the more I like the potential for this game. Therein lies the problem, though. I'd rather play an offline campaign with canon storyline, and have it lead into a new series. That potential will never be lived up to.

So I'm in the same boat as Brandon Blomquist. I'm expecting too much of a let down (it's never having an offline campaign) and burned out thinking about what could have been instead. I just don't think EA is capable of hiring a team that can recreate the Ultima feel.

I see the merit of saying that at least it's a new Ultima which we might not otherwise get, but it's not really looking like Ultima at all. It's just another game with "Ultima" slapped carelessly on it.