Darkmoon

I posted this on the Bioware-Forums, but it applies to Obsidian's games, too. So I just post it here again as I am curious, what the devs here have to say about it (if the answer ). Yesterday I played KotOR again and while walking around in the different environemnts I wondered why I'm not allowed to exlore everything I want to. Especially in the Hrakert Rift I thought about how cool it would be, walking up the "hills" and not only on the pre-defined paths. But this occurs to me in many new games and RPGs I play. Why don't we have the freedom of movement and exploration like in older games anymore? Why do the devs take us on our hands and guide us through the areas on pre-definded paths? The only game I recently played with total freedom of movement was Gothic 2. You could walk up hills, fall down chasms, swim to the bottom of the sea etc. I think this is a really strange decision to limit the freedom of exloration in modern games.

If Project Delaware is Knights of the Old Republic 2 as the rumors suggest and if Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution of the United States, the game could take place during the creation of the Republic. Maybe the player takes the role of a character that plays an essential part in the foundation of the Old Republic...

I know, but I think that I read that Bioware still has the rights for using this specific title for a computer game and no other company is allowed to create a game called "Baldur's Gate" even though it is the name of a city in the Forgotten Realms and thus part of the D&D-license.

I think I read that Bioware still has the rights to create games with the name "Baldur's Gate", but they don't have the rights to use "D&D" or "Forgotten Realms"... And BIS/Interplay had the rights to create "D&D"- and "Forgotten Realms"-games but they couldn't use the name "Baldur's Gate". Therefore this whole mess with the Jefferson-project. Then they lost the rights for "D&D" and "Forgotten Realms" to Atari. So, if Bioware still have the rights to use the name "Baldur's Gate", they could team up with Atari to create a "Baldur's Gate 3", afaik.

I also think that schedules add a lot to a game. Of course, searching for a specific NPC can be annoying, but in Ultima 7 it worked really well. Watching NPCs walking around, working etc. is just great and adds to the feeling of being in an alive world. There are some problems though (aside from searching for specific NPCs). For example what if I enter a town at night to sell or buy some things and the shopkeeper is at sleep? Do I have to wait until morning to be able to sell or buy items? It would add to realism. But what about this. You could either knock at the door and the shopkeeper comes out of his bed to conduct transactions with you or there could be some kind of nightshift with someone else running the shop at night. But NPC schedules are a definite bonus to every RPG!

Wasn't Secret of the Silver Blades released after Pool of Radiance? Wouldn't it make more sense using the Pool of Radiance characters in Secret of the Silver Blades?

Not that I know of. But "Vampire - The Masquerade: Bloodlines" is under developement by Troika. It takes place in modern times. Part one "Redemption" took place in our time as well, at least partially.

I like classic fantasy settings. Walking through lush forests or medieval towns and exploring dark dungeons is great. The game doesn't need to use the D&D rules, but a tolkienesque fantasy-setting would be cool.

I think that the Ultima series evolved with every game. Sure the first games were hack n' slash but still they got bigger, they got more features, they got better stories up to Ultima 7. I think that every fan expected a continuation of this evolution with Ultima 8, but ultimately the game was a step backward. The graphics were great and the expanded movement was good, too. But the item interaction had been toned down, there was no party anymore and the NPC schedules that worked so well in Ultima 7 had been toned down, too. Many fans were very angry. Richard Garriott promised that Ultima 9 would have all of those features back, an interactivity that surpassed that of Ultima 7 (he said that the player would be able to mine ore, melt it into iron and forge it, or that the player would be able to cut wheat and make it into flour etc.). He also said that the game would feature a party and that daily schedules for NPCs would be back in. The story would be about the Avatar returning to Britannia. The Guardian (the big evil being of Ultima 7-9) would then send twisted visions to Lord British about the things the Avatar did on Pagan and Britannia for him to distrust his old friend. There would have been a civil war etc. None of these things made it into the final game. When Electronic Arts wanted to pull the plug, Garriott created a different Ultima 9, so that he could finish his series as fast as he could. Unfortunately there was nothing left of the original design and story.

When I played Ultima 7 for the first time, I thought that it was the next logical step in the evolution of RPGs. I wondered why the other RPG series didn't go this way of creating such an "alive" world. Sure Ultima is the only series that offered this kind of immersive world, but isn't it sad that it is/was the only one?

You are right. Combat in Ultima 7 was bad, but you could get used to it. As for linearity, I think that the more linear a story is, the more tension there is in it. The best example for this is the Final Fantasy series. They are linear but the tension and excitement in the story are simply great. I agree though that too much linearity isn't good as well. But Morrowind for example could have used a bit more linearity IMHO. If someone wants to try Ultima 7 on todays computers, you should install exult (and of course you need Ultima 7). Exult is a game engine, that allows you to play Ultima 7 and Serpent Isle on todays computers (the original version is not playable due to this really strange memory manager). You can find exult here.

Think of it a as classic pen&paper RPG. You play together with a few friends and experience a great story together. I totally agree that a great story is only possible in a single-player RPG and therefore I don't like MMORPGs (I need a story and I want to be the hero). But I also think that a great story is possible in multiplayer when you are playing with only a few friends. Take a look at Neverwinter Nights. There are many modules out that feature a great story for a party of about 4-6 people. And it works. So I think if multiplayer is only for 4-6 people, the game can still have a fantastic storyline if done right. But if the story would suffer from multiplayer I would prefer a single-player only game.

I know those games and I played all of them. They are really great and they give me hope that one day a game like Ultima 7 oder maybe even one that surpasses it, will be made.

When I played the RPG Ultima 7, I thought that this game was a perfect RPG. It was an evolution in terms of gameplay, graphics and storytelling. I could hardly wait for the next step in that evolution, but it didn't come... The only evolution that took place in RPGs was that the graphics improved. Let me explain what I think was so great about Ultima 7. First, you had the feeling of being in a world that felt alive. Every NPC had a real personality and every NPC hat a lot to say about himself and what was going on. There were no one-line-conversations. Every NPC had a daily schedule, they woke up in the morning, sat down for breakfast, opened the windows, walked to their shops, worked, got to an inn in the evening and back home to bed. And you could actually follow them around and watch them doing this. Second, the interactivity was so great, no other game reached this level again after Ultima 7. You could move every objects around, you could use nearly every object and you could combine objects. You could buy flour from the miller, fetch water from a well, mix the water with the flour to get a dough and put the dough into an oven to bake bread. You could then sell the bread or eat it. This may not be important for the story of a game, but for the game itself as because of this interactivity you feel like being in a truly alive world, where you can actually interact with everything. Interactivity like this may be common in MMORPGs, but I don't like MMORPGs as I want to be the lone hero that saves the world in an epic story. But I also want to feel like I'm part of a "real" world. Third, the world in Ultima 7 also felt alive as there were a lot of neutral animals. There were deer roaming around in the forests, foxes, butterflies, dogs, cats, cows, sheep, pigs, birds etc. You could actually hunt these animals to get meat which you could sell or eat. Modern RPGs don't offer this experience. Only important characters have a lot to tell you, no NPC has a daily schedule and the item interactivity is next to non existant and every creature you meet in the wilderness is evil. I think that this is really sad. I really hope and pray that one day, a RPG with the features mentioned above will be created.