IndiraLightfoot

What LadyCrimson said: I played them all as some kind of fillout RPG-light in-between various D&D-based CRPGs. For me, it's a game series that bakc then was in the same bag as the early entries in the Elder Scrolls series. However, there were differences: the party in M&M, and the landscapes weremore varied in M&M. The monsters were more like hordes of darkness, so it was hack-n-slash. Often, the levels went up to soaring heights. In one game you were like level 100+ when you started taking on huge Titans and aliens. I liked the scope and for some bisarre reason I liked flying around and then crash down to some yummy chest on a hill with dozens of baddies and release mayhem. In another one, you got play as a lich, and that was a bif plus in my book. All in all, I've had hours of fun with M&M (never played Heroes of M&M), so I'll certainly keep an ye out and hope for the best. In short, fingers crossed for huge and varied landscapes with all kinds of baddies, over which we can fly eventually! It's so over the top that is almost good, it's like some Monthy Python sketches. EDIT: Cultist, your signature video of Gollum is just great! A big thumbs up from me!

I was an avid gamer already back then. I played D&D on Intellivision (Cloudy Mountain), the Atari console, and I played Alley Cat etc in workplaces on the pc, and of course I played my Commodore 64 so hard, I had to get another one, before I moved on to Amiga 500. Some games were brilliant back then, and they will remain that way. Question is, does this claim work for old adventure games and CRPGs? All in all, one thing is certain, I used my imagination to feel in the graphical suspension-of-belief gaps when it came to adventure games, and it sure worked. One year I was entirely caught up in two games. I played them over and over: Cauldron II and Bard's Tale. Let's say, I've tried them today, and it's only Cauldron II, where the graphics feel a bit bearable. That actually seem true for all platformers and action games. I tried Wizball the other day, another favourite back in the days, and it's fun enough today too, perhaps because it's a soundly engineered interface system that is the game. The "feel" is still there. So, I agree with BruceVC here, there is a bottom line for graphics. I'm also playing through IE-classics at the moment, and I draw the line where Bruce draws it. Those old Ultima games with just dots just wouldn't cut it by a mile after having played, say, NWN 1&2 or Skyrim.

I see, the Broodmother from Dragon Age has been on a strict diet for a while, and also weeded out some udders. That's neat and slim. Good on you, Flubberina!

And a warm welcome to the forums, ian1988!

@Darren M: Thanks for that clarification. Thanks to this discussion, I realized that while I was learning to mod with the NWN2 toolset, I actually did a vertical slice first. It was arduous and took a lot of time, but I was intent on getting three key areas up and working before I did the rest (apart from sketches and the story). And boy, was I happy when I saw that it finally was working decently. That's sweet memories indeed. And Chompy? I know him. Just don't throw him a bone...

Just what I thought: That cave was concept art in the prototype phase. So, move along, folks. Nothing to see here. :shrugz:

Luridis, it was all written in good fun on my behalf, and your second paragraph here, I wholeheartedly agree with on this. As the rest of the list shows I'm annoyed that it is even considered for being a KS project. Like others have pointed out, it was already funded - it's just advertising. Also, I was, despite my age, perhaps a bit childish in feeling it stole the limelight and potential upped pledges from Torment, which I believe in a lot (too lot?). Basically, it was a statement based on emotioon rather than fact. I do get carried away sometimes, and this was one of those cases.

Great update, good luck with finishing off that Prototyposaurus and then begin to chop it up in nice slices! And I second that a Tim Cain appearance soonish would be fantastic. However, I agree with Sensuki here, it was almost Torchlight-D3-looking, not really what I had expected, but its probably just a prototype. In some ways, it also reminds me of witch cave early on in Dungeon Siege 3, which may or may not be a good thing.

Nonek: Your null is the opposite of null and void. Great stuff!

Yea, the tides looks very interesting indeed. BruceVC and others: Regardless of how who got your hands on a copy of WL2, the game already seems to be very promising indeed, and unilke PE and Torment, it may very well be something we can dig into before Christmas this year!

I absolutely loved that shadow plane in Mulsantir and elsewhere in MotB!

Sacred Path, I know what you mean, this is a sum-up of what I and others thought about his kickstarter version of Ultima - Shroud of Avatar: While a pocket plane/universe to RPG with friends in sounds great, I really doubt this is the case here. And is it just me, but isn't Lord British the least British I've seen in years? He looks like an expat gone Siegfried &Roy Las Vegas style. *Shriver!* A filthy rich space-travelling pimp didn't go done well to a lot of Torment-posters, it seems. And we would have to have him around on that server all day (or rather once in a blue moon) according to his promise, the prospect is bleak for that MMO single player hybrid. it was the SP moments in Ultima that did it for me, and mostly U VII then. I'm just worried that Lord British is forever steeped in an Origin casing of sorts, and he's a bit like those quacks in the wild West: Here's his quoted promise in the comments section there: [i'll give you "the creation of the classic fantasy role playing experience you have been waiting for!" It's like he selling a perfume jar full of air and stale water. It all sounds so empty. He is also reinventing the wheel again, making old stuff seem new, and we are supposed to be amazed? Let us not be doomsday prophets and claim that Lord British is the first vampire invited to the cozy KS home, coz if he is it could be the beginning of the end, with big publishers masquerading kickstarting. Kaedryl, Obsidian Order's Mad Doctor wrote: "Looked at SotA, eh... I loved the Ultima series and personally liked 7 and 8. I played UO for the first 2 years it was out. Regardless, I don't know if I'll back SotA. First, Garriott of the last few years comes across as a tool. I read through the his Ultima RPG defined treatise and I think this about sums it up - "It is clear to me that I, Richard Garriott, am an essential ingredient of at least the Ultimate Ultima, if not more broadly the Ultimate RPG." So, more or less, if he's not part of the game it can't possibly be that good. If you're that wonderful, pay for the game yourself. Where as the inXile and Obsidian teams seem grateful for our support and somewhat humble, Garriott oozes smarmy arrogance. Constantly adding "Dr" to his name for his granted degree doesn't help either. The other issue is the thing I HATED about UO - limited housing. After the first year or so, if you didn't already have a housing site staked, good luck. I believe this was addressed a little in the later expansions, but it just rubbed be the wrong way that if you didn't get in on the ground floor, the likelihood of owning a place to put your stuff was out of reach. If you read through the proposal, it looks like that's the plan for SotA. Also the timing rubs me wrong too. I'm sure he didn't (ok, not really), but it does feel like they rushed this to KS to ride on PE's and now Torments coattails. So I'd like to wish him well, but in good conscience, I just can't."

Sorry. not this time I still regret not pledging for the Shadowrun game, but I honestly forgot that one when it was getting close to its Kickstarter deadline. This one however, I'm very skeptical about the entire concept. I see nothing so far that screams to me "I must have this game!". So I'll wait and see what my Wasteland 2 pledge results in and then judge inxile on those merits Have you seen the video they released for WL2?! I had my doubts but come on - that's just awesome. I'm afraid we're going to have to see a pledge from you, Gorth, there's really nothing I can do. that looks incredibly beautiful and impressive. Did you notice how one ceiling fan was spinning faster than the other? that's attention to detail! how could I have missed this!?I mean I heard some reference to Wasteland 2, but I dismissed it as an older game which I just never played. I know! I think it was Valorian who put a link out to this a few weeks ago, and I was so blown away by it! I didn't play the orginal, but fortunately I got a copy of this in the bag via me PE pledge. It looks and feels fantastic - a mix of FNV and XCOM Unknown plus a lot of new stuff.

The graphics are at par with KOTOR2, for instance, but that bandwagon thing refers to me sensing the same vibes as that Old School RPG later changed to Shaker-KS-campaign that went down the drain. Ultima is a precious IP, especially the SP-part, and I'd hate for it to be wasted at some lacklustre MMO-sandbox. Edit: Malcador - simply by drawing those lurkers that haven't backed out of the woodwork and into the wrong KS campaign!

I posted this over at Torment's comments section: Ultima Shroud of Avatar, hmm. While I liked several of the games in the series, I seriously see mostly problems here (coz I adore the Torment project): -It steals backers and pledge amounts from Torment -It is a MMO disguised as not being a MMO, while I only liked the SP campaigns of Ultima -A persistent world with taxes and house prices. A few weeks off the game, what happens then? -The graphics look like 2006. Why? All in all, I wish they would have waited instad of getting greedy and jump the KS bandwagon too early. *End of rant*

The day the fulfillment site launches will bring back the sweet happy memories of backing PE at KS, bt just like Silver, I've now also backed Torment over at Kickstarter, and that to an intrepid and money-defying degree. These are great times for CRPGs. Hooray for that!

*Cough* Well, "many" is a relative term, and if this put a smile on your face, it made me happy too. But in all seriousness, there are in fact good and though-provoking threads here, no doubt about it. Visit other game forums and you'll notice a stark difference. Bliizard's Diablo 3-forum comes to mind. What a horror pit!

Nice write-up, Gedd, and welcome to the forums! There are lots of people tha agree with these points and have elaborated on them here. Just read away, many topics and suggestions here are really good and thought-provoking!

Amen to that, Bruce!

Half of it has been funded in like two and a half hours now! Go get those limited tiers while you can!

Just like Wutan, well Odin, may be we get to sacrifice one eye for some divine boon. He dropped it into a Well of Wisdom. I'm tired of just statues having big gems in their eye-sockets. I want the possibility of a pc (preferably, a necromancer/palemaster type) sacrificing an eye and lodging in a magic gemstone in its place. How about an emerald of everdawn, which grants a human character night vision?

Oh nos, I certainly can appreciate threat-based mechanics and cooldowns. I like to play those games too. Despite its artistic shortcomings, the linearity and that constant online requirement, I actually enjoyed the combat part of Diablo 3, especially inferno, for instance. My main concern was that I never had to pause ever, and that is with an entire party (in Diablo 3, I often went solo). It was so easy and repetitive (including the poor selection of critters). I just clicked and clicked and clicked and hey presto, I had passed another encounter in the game. It's like Diablo 3's normal mode in the beginning, but without some of the encounter variety. You can still faceroll that game up till the skellie king, for real! What I'm hoping for here is a strategic party-based rpg that actually is challenging from the get-go, a game where pause really means something else than afk and toilet break. P.S. For what it's worth, I think DAO was a really nice game - I loved the epic scope of it and some of the story was great. But it wasn't great enough for me to go and buy the sequel DAO2 - it appeared to be some kind of machinima-game, so I just skipped it.

Agreed, at least if we take a broad definition of threat here and simply conclude that combat in DAO wasn't very threatening at all. Sure, dragons were more difficult than in Skyrim, but it was a long clickfest for me. Recall a certain castle where hoardes of undead poured out of? The one where Rosemary's baby had grown up and turned into a Twilight-star-like demon dancing oedipally and prematurely on his ailing father's grave? That misty encounter should have been epic, but alas no: it was so narrow that it turned into carpal tunnel instead.

I'd like to trust Obsidian on this: I am sure they will make a clever and fun new game that's inspired by the best things of those classic IE-games. From the updates so far, it seems they are really going all in for cooking up a game (think Tim in his chef hat) that's 2014, but still has atmosphere, story, quirks and perks that hearken back to the epic IE-adventures. I'm also replaying them all at the moment, and they can never again be what they were then, but I'm very impressed by all of them. Those are tough acts to follow, but I think it's in the mechanics and flow of those games where the most effective inventiveness can spring forth.

Let's call it Foul mouth! I loved the magic mouth spell of D&D of yore, and this is like a renegade version of it, it's got a life of its own and babbling blubber to go with it. "Read my lips!" "Not if I can avoid to."