Adventure: Ultima IV Part 2

Chris H.'s Ultima / ACS-style game development system!

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Chris H
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Post by Chris H »

Oh I'm not worried - and yeah, I noticed that too. However it's generated enough hits -- probably as many as I've had all along to this point -- that I'm happy for the publicity. :)

rld
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Post by rld »

Ultima iv? WTF is that shit? It looks ugly and has a shitty gameplay, modern console games have better gameplay than that
Heh.. Nobody show that guy Atari Adventure or the ASCII version of Rogue - he might have a brain implosion right on the spot.

foody
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Post by foody »

Chris H wrote:Just a note to everyone that if you find Hawkwind's dialogue to be messed up (he greets you with a fragment of another response, instead of a real greeting) then your ACK may not be properly patched to v3.25. Save, quit, re-patch ACK, and then resume play.
But how can we download version 3.25 when in your website the latest you provide is 3.23 and in the ACK it shows 3.2?
I WANT ULTIMA 7 OR ULTMIA 6 CONSTRUCTION SET! I WILL DO ANYTHING! PAY ANYTHING! GIVE ANYTHING !

Chris H
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Post by Chris H »

3.251 is the version available on the ACK download page: http://www.80sgaming.org/ack/default.htm

jjsonick
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Post by jjsonick »

I just updated the Mozomedia ACK download page to mention the 3.251 update (and to add a link to the no-launcher version).
http://www.mozomedia.com/ack/download/

All the links point to Chris's 80sgaming.org site, so you would get the most recent version even if the text mentions an older version (I just have to watch it for when Chris updates to 3.3 ;) ).

Chris H
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Post by Chris H »

U4PART2 just got a pretty flattering thread over on rpgcodex.net complete with a screenshot longplay plus some hilarious commentary. Major spoiler alert of course, but for me it was a fun look back at the game; if you've played it already, you might get a kick out of it!

GB
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Some thoughts on U4 pt2

Post by GB »

Speaking as someone who never played any version of Ultima before, I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this game. This is an excellent model of a fantasy game. The combat was well balanced with puzzles, the travel would not have seemed too difficult or too gratuitous even without the orb of cheating. There was an impressive amount of dialog. Getting my bearings at first was a little slow, but the action picked up quickly and when I thought I was reaching the end a couple of times a whole new, world-spanning quest would be laid before me. There was a good mix of items, treasures, symbols, weapons and generally useful and interesting things. The dungeons were just complex enough to seem vast and mysterious your first couple of times into them, but not so complicated that you really had to resort to mapping.

Spoilers below.

I was about 3/4 of the way through the game when I recalled that I picked up a ring of invisibility somewhere and started to use it. The rules for it make a lot of sense. You can't use it while on horseback, boarding a ship or mounting a horse likewise nullifies the effect. Those trapped squares in Exodus' castle were clever, but you can see them with the Mapping gem. Though it took me a while to realize what was happening. The evil floor that attacks you also makes it difficult, because you see no enemy, so you don't realize why you can't become invisible again.

Using the ring it is possible to initiate a dialog with an NPC that would be hostile if he saw you approaching. I tried this on Roscoe in the Dukes of Hazard themed town. He giggles to himself after I say goodbye, but then begins shooting at me, because, of course, talking also removes the invisibility effect.

I found a few problems in the game, the most frustrating had to do with creatures in the dungeons attacking me and somehow sending me back to boarding the ship outside Britain, with a short message telling me that the sailors recognized by blue tassel. This caused the shores near dungeons to become littered with abandoned ships and skiffs. I've detailed this in the bugs section and provided screen shots. Does anything in the dungeons execute macro 33?

The skiff in Britain, after it has disappeared leaves a blank space. Object 96 preset space skiff, should probably be set to be replaced by #6 water, instead of eliminate.

In some rooms within dungeons, particularly where previously concealed creatures appeared at some point, thus trapping me, I noticed that certain floor tiles would disappear, leaving black spaces. No problems there, just a display glitch that was probably not intended.

Early in the game I found it hard to move Iolo past insisting that I ask Gwenno why, even after I had already asked her why, and had moved quite past that part of the quest.

Late in the game I noticed that my vision was no longer restricted to a limited area while inside dungeons or on the world map at night. I went into and out of several dungeons with this condition and the limited sight range did not return until I tried using the candle of love.

I'm looking at the inner workings now, of course and am thinking about how I can use this to create something else cool. Though it will probably take some practice to get to the point where I can make an adventure as good as this. How long did this take you, anyway?

Chris H
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Post by Chris H »

Hi,

I'm really glad you liked it -- especially despite encountering some pretty strange bugs. I never ran into any of those during testing, I wonder if there's some kind of engine or version glitch with your ACK software. I'll check out your other post and see what I can reproduce here.

That talk-while-invis bug, however, good catch there: I'll have to fix that. I believe talking breaks invis, but it happens at the end of the conversation, which is silly.

As for how long it took... it's hard to say, because a lot of the time was spent fixing ACK bugs that never really appeared until a game of this size was created. I would say a few months of fairly regular work, but the time investment was a little surprising. From most time-intensive to least:

1. Pictures - surprisingly, I think the most time-intensive stuff happened in Photoshop, rather than ACK.

2. Dialogues (which I would write out in a word processor first, then enter them into the editor when I settled on a final version)

3. Sounds (Youtube turned out to be the best source, interestingly)

4. Maps (I used a lot of map layouts straight from Ultima II through V, but they were still tedious to edit)

5. Playtesting - this took a lot of time, to make sure that quests didn't break if they were done in an unexpected order, etc. Thankfully I had a lot of help from Josh.

6. Macros (the dungeon macros were the hardest)

7. Graphic tiles (but since I largely used Ultima tiles, it's no surprise that very little was done here. The stripper was tough to pull off, though.)

8. Objects and creatures (very little time was spent on this)

The plot sort of wrote itself as I went along, and in many cases I added new elements as I went along. (Originally, Hawkwind was going to just hand you the cards; I felt like adding more, so I did, and now you have to work for them.) I was happy at how easy it was to change the story as I went along.

By the way, those annoying attacking floors in Exodus's castle? Straight from Ultima III. (In fact the whole map, minus the concert hall of course, was Exodus's castle in U3)

GB
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invisibility

Post by GB »

If you are thinking about making any changes to the way invisibility works I would like to talk to you first, and I would like to know what you might change in the code.

Chris H
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Post by Chris H »

I think I would simply make it so that if you try to talk while invis, it simply drops the invis and passes a turn, or something. No other changes.

(By the way, in Exodus's castle, I have other hidden squares that drop your invis via macro. I didn't want the final level to be rendered too easy by using the ring of invis)

arioch8

amazing

Post by arioch8 »

I've been looking for an rpg that would be as much fun to play as the old Ultimas for years.

THIS IS IT!

Awesome job, Chris. I'm having a blast and laughing my ass off. You can't beat this type of free roaming but story driven play, and I know how hard pulling something like this off can be. Thanks for making this great game!

Chris H
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Post by Chris H »

Thanks for the great review!

Keighn

Cannot Download

Post by Keighn »

It would seem the download for the windows version is either offline or pulled. Can anyone contact the site owner and see if the link for the download can be reestablished. There is still interest in the game and we can't find a place to download it even via internet archive.

Damn, I should have downloaded this parody version of ultima a few years ago. Pox on me.

Chris...

Site

Post by Chris... »

Hi,

Thanks for reporting that - I'll fix it ASAP.

Chris

Chris H
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Link fixed!

Post by Chris H »

Hi Keighn,

Okay, the link has been fixed. Thank you very, very much for reporting it - I had tested a few of the links when I changed hosts, but not that one.

I hope you enjoy the game!

Chris

Keighn

Thank You

Post by Keighn »

Thank you very much. Now my friends and myself can get to seeing this work of art.

rld
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Post by rld »

Hi Chris,

Good to know you are still around and monitoring the group! :)

So what are your plans for ACK at this point? Are you taking a (well-deserved) break from the ACK update treadmill for a while, or are you planning to do any more releases?

Any new games or projects in the works?

rld
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Post by rld »

Slightly off-topic to the thread, but I think this is the same
issue as the broken link for the U4PART2 download.

As mentioned in another thread, the ACK source code download package appears to be offline (404 broken link) at:

http://www.80sgaming.org/ack/acksrc.zip

Chris H
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Post by Chris H »

It was the same - I just fixed it. :)

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Post by Garth's Equipment Shop »

Was playing Dude Where's My Avatar when something strange happened.

I had just been to Moonglow after delivering a pizza to get the Beer Keg of Plenty and decided to explore the area outside moonglow a bit, and maybe take the ship back to Britain instead of using the Orb of Cheating all the time. After slaying some Daddylonglegs I encountered a Drunken Wizard and a Beer Golem. I already had my sword readied because I was saving the shotgun for when I really needed it. But they were proving to be rather difficult so I pressed 'r' to ready the shotgun. All of a sudden I found myself on the ocean on board the ship off the shore of Britain! I still had around 90 hp when it happened so I know it wasn't because I died. Is the 'r' key used for some special purpose in combat?

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