First off, sorry if this is in the wrong forum, I wasn't sure, and second, my apologies if this has been done/discussed. I've been away from UO since about one month before the first expansion (reniassance?) was released.
Anyway, a poster awhile back mentioned something about attempting a U7 remake but realized it would be too time-consuming. That got my gears churning, and I realized a simple version of Ultima IV (arguably the best RPG of all time) would take advantage of UO's strengths of open-endedness and world creation.
Now, my suggestion would be to make it simple (not an actual U4 remake, no one wants to play the same game again, plus we get something out for people to play and can tweak it later)
Ultima IV is basically fetch-it quests with unique twists.
To finish the game if I recall corectly the following was needed:
8 runes of the virutes followed by 8 mantras. (each town in U4 sybolized a virtue, so each town will have quests for each virtue)
8 stones found in dungeons and other locations for each virtue.
3-part key, each part created from stones placed in altars on the dungeon
3-part password-each obtained by the monarch of Lyceumn, Empath Abbey, and Serpent's hold
Candle of Love
Bell of Courage
Book of Wisdom
Karma: (to represent all virtues combined (let's not make this too complicated.)
Most of this can be occomplished by unique NPCs spawned over Britannia, with the use of keywords. I was thinking of starting off with the Britian quests, as they would be well suited for newbies (britian is a good newbie place)
Most of the game could be done with dialoge listners and simple item checks and removals. A player would need all items to enter the stygian abyss where we could create a codex that checks to see fi the PC has done all quests and has sufficent karma to become "avatar"
Pseudo-Ultima IV remake?
For example, we could use Britian and the compassion Quests to help out Newbies who have joined the game.
A simple Britian quest could be as follows:
Place most unique quest-starting NPCs in the town pubs where PCs know to find at least one unique NPC to help them in each town. For Britian's pub we could have a possible scenario:
PC enters pub in Britan, says "job" or "news" or whatever keyword we want to an NPC in the pub. NPC says, "Canst thou believe it? A talking rat is in Lord British's castle!"
Also, other NPCs might complain about a "crazy minstral near the bank who none can make sense of his words."
PC finds rat (Sherry from U6 fame) wandering the halls, when asked "job" sherry replies: "The king lost a trinket in these halls, I can give it to thee for some cheese"
Next keyword is cheese, where scripter looks for cheese: if fail = "Thou liest, tease me not!" (player loses karma for going against honesty virtue.)
success= remove cheese, replace with "rune of compassion" sherry says: "Thank thee, here is what I found."
Also, going near the bank will reveal the minstral NPC, who, when a PC get's close, shouts: "*sings off tune* 'CAH, CAH, CAH'" (I forget the real mantra)
Now, if the PC takes the Rune of Compassion to the shrine of compassion and says "CAH" next to the shrine, the rune is replaced with some token marking avatarship in compassion, and the player gains a bit of karma (spirituality for praying at the shrine).
Now I'm not sure how feasable or complicated this is in the script engine of UO, but basically you could do a loose U4 "quest of the avatar" with dilaoge slightly more complicated than a Final Fantasy game, and simple item checks and removals. I also believe that although simple, it could be entertaining with the UO engine and give players long-term goals.
I also noticed that most of these items already exist in the GM menu (I guess OSI has a "quest of the avatar" already? ours can be simpler so that LAN players can have something to do on UOx shards besides kill things)
Anyway, I think it sounds fun, and would be willing to work/try to figure it out and be willing to post it if anyone is interested or has ideas. I wouldn't want any of the main UOx team to work on it since their work is very important getting the emulator running (unless they could whip it out fast!)
When the semester starts time will be limited for me, so if this has already been done before, post me to the scripts so I can download! Also if someone else wants to take this idea and use it, go for it too.
A simple Britian quest could be as follows:
Place most unique quest-starting NPCs in the town pubs where PCs know to find at least one unique NPC to help them in each town. For Britian's pub we could have a possible scenario:
PC enters pub in Britan, says "job" or "news" or whatever keyword we want to an NPC in the pub. NPC says, "Canst thou believe it? A talking rat is in Lord British's castle!"
Also, other NPCs might complain about a "crazy minstral near the bank who none can make sense of his words."
PC finds rat (Sherry from U6 fame) wandering the halls, when asked "job" sherry replies: "The king lost a trinket in these halls, I can give it to thee for some cheese"
Next keyword is cheese, where scripter looks for cheese: if fail = "Thou liest, tease me not!" (player loses karma for going against honesty virtue.)
success= remove cheese, replace with "rune of compassion" sherry says: "Thank thee, here is what I found."
Also, going near the bank will reveal the minstral NPC, who, when a PC get's close, shouts: "*sings off tune* 'CAH, CAH, CAH'" (I forget the real mantra)
Now, if the PC takes the Rune of Compassion to the shrine of compassion and says "CAH" next to the shrine, the rune is replaced with some token marking avatarship in compassion, and the player gains a bit of karma (spirituality for praying at the shrine).
Now I'm not sure how feasable or complicated this is in the script engine of UO, but basically you could do a loose U4 "quest of the avatar" with dilaoge slightly more complicated than a Final Fantasy game, and simple item checks and removals. I also believe that although simple, it could be entertaining with the UO engine and give players long-term goals.
I also noticed that most of these items already exist in the GM menu (I guess OSI has a "quest of the avatar" already? ours can be simpler so that LAN players can have something to do on UOx shards besides kill things)
Anyway, I think it sounds fun, and would be willing to work/try to figure it out and be willing to post it if anyone is interested or has ideas. I wouldn't want any of the main UOx team to work on it since their work is very important getting the emulator running (unless they could whip it out fast!)
When the semester starts time will be limited for me, so if this has already been done before, post me to the scripts so I can download! Also if someone else wants to take this idea and use it, go for it too.
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Xuri
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Moved the thread here, since it doesn't really have to do with feature requests/ideas for UOX3 specifically, but more an idea for how to set up a unique world =)
What you describe doesn't sound impossible. The JS engine supports both NPCs responding to keywords/item dropped on them/, check backpacks for specific items, tagging players for having completed one quest or another, etc. Of course, it's still some amount of work to actually script it and make it all hang together, but it's definitely possible.
What you describe doesn't sound impossible. The JS engine supports both NPCs responding to keywords/item dropped on them/, check backpacks for specific items, tagging players for having completed one quest or another, etc. Of course, it's still some amount of work to actually script it and make it all hang together, but it's definitely possible.
-= Ho Eyo He Hum =-
I just installed everything and am getting to the topics, but my client crashed when I try to bring up the virtue gump either by double-clicking on a shrine or from my paperdoll.
I do not know if this issue was looked at, so I thought I would post to let someone know it was not an isolated incident.
I am using the current client and downloads available here.
I do not know if this issue was looked at, so I thought I would post to let someone know it was not an isolated incident.
I am using the current client and downloads available here.