I've been looking over the monster rosters for the old Ultima games and have devised some ideas on monster attributes. I think it would be worthwhile to know if these features are currently in development, have already been implemented in the game, or are just illogical and not worthy of consideration as some of these ideas may make combat more difficult or severely unbalance the combat system in the game.
Skeletons: Receive double damage from blunt weaponry; half damage, quarter damage, or greater difficulty to score a hit from slashing or piercing weapons.
Rogue-type NPCs: Randomly steal inventory items of great worth (gold, etc.) Stolen items would then reappear after the rogue-type character is waxed.
Carrion Crawler: A spider-type monster that devours corpses in dungeons (I dunno, maybe it can help with the sanitation of dungeon areas...)
Gremlin: Randomly steals food or curative items. Stolen food or curative items wouldn't reappear after the Gremlin had been killed. This was one of the most annoying monsters in the Ulima games entirely due to this attribute; especially the earliest games where a gremlin would attack you deep within a dungeon and rob you of half your food, resulting in a premature death. In my opinion, Gremlins are just weak goblins unless they steal your chow and healing potions during battle.
Ranger/Hidden Archer/Ninja Assassin: Wandering ranger/archer characters that pelt players with arrows from long range. Not too much different from the sea serpents, squids, nixies, etc. which appear when roaming the overworld, but land based.
Gelatinous Cube: Randomly absorbs your currently equipped weapon; if not destroyed within a certain number of turns the weapon is destroyed within the Cube's digestive system. Should adequately piss off players wielding a vampyric bastard sword of slaying +15 one second, and being completely unarmed the next.
Lizardman: Basically another subhuman (Goblin, Orc, etc.) but with regenerative capability. Or maybe I'm thinking of "Salamanderman" or "Iguanaman".
Corpser/Tangler: A large tentacle sticking out of the ground which is able to paralyze upon contact. This would force players to avoid them and cause players to travel a more dangerous route in a dungeon.
Phantom/Wraith: The walking armor with no physical body inside from Ultima 4.
Invisible Seeker: Invisible, so drawing up a graphic for this guy should be relatively easy. Fairly weak, as it was only a minor annoyance in the dungeons of the earliest Ultima games.
Mind Whipper: 'ol squid-head. Makes afflicted players unable to cast magic.
Zorn: I remember seeing these things walk through walls in Ultima 4... either that, or it was a weekend when I most recently played Ultima 4 and was heavily inebriated.
Dragon turtle: The Gamera-like sea creatures from Ultima 1. Perhaps when killed, it's shell can be used as a flotation device.
Pirate Ships: Fire cannons from beaches and deploy pirates. Should be fairly rare as they may provide a means of transport if the ship isn't scuttled (i.e. wasted to hell.)
Demons: In Ultima 2 (I believe Demons were called Devils back then) these fraggers would cast paralysis and you'd need a pair of magical boots or a magical cloak or something to save versus paralysis...
Balrons: Also in Ultima 2 these fraggers put you right to sleep! I don't remember if there were any items to prevent this effect.
Mad Jesters: I just want to kill a jester...
Troll: Back in the 'ol AD&D days, trolls regenerated unless hit with a weapon imbued with fire thus sealing their wounds and preventing them from regenerating. In Tolkien's writings trolls camped out in forests and turned to stone in the daytime. Just more stuff to give trolls more characterization...
Ghouls/Zombies: Corpse eaters. 'nuff said.
Drakes/Griffons/Wyverns: Dragon-like creatures. Drakes could basically be weaker versions of dragons (as Imps are weaker versions of Demons). Editting the dragon graphic to make them appear leaner with no legs would basically constitute a Wyvern. Maybe Griffons could shoot razor feathers from their wings.
Ghosts: Unlike Zorns, I can distrinctly remember clearly that these bastards could float through walls. The ghosts I've killed in EUO seem to be still bound to the physical realm and don't etherealize through walls.
Insect Swarms: As they were only a minor annoyance, maybe make them do 1 point of damage and attack in very rapid succession (five times per second or something).
Wisps: Once again, another enemy capable of etherealizing and walking through walls. Maybe the peaceful one can sell cheap spells, or something.
Acid Slugs: Like slimes, but corrode weapons and armor. To implement this would require that used or damaged weapons and armor be assigned a durability variable. Unfortunately this would pose a serious problem creating more stuff to bog down the servers: keeping track of the durability of every item in circulation.
Alligators: Suddenly materialize out of swamps when a player is adjacent to their location. I know they really didn't do this in the Ultima games, but it seemed like they did when I started a new game in Ultima 7 and some 'gator came out of nowhere while walking north of Trinsic...
Cyclops: They seemed to collect gold nuggets...
Giant (insert-bug here): More giant insects/arachnids! Squish!!
Mongbats: Fraggin' flying monkeys. 'nuff said.
Automatons: These things remind me of the merchants in EUO. Maybe these things can later be crafted (???Tinkering???) as robotic party members controlled by simple commands or a customizable AI script (???).
Evil Player-character creatures: As player-killing is curtailed, perhaps the PKers need some enemies who look like players but are actually monsters. Something to divert the attention of those homicidal PKers from the various new players wandering near Nordhausen.
Changelings: These things appeared in Ultima 8. They first appear as gremlins and then assume the form of whatever is attacking them. In the case of Ultima 8, they would turn into 'ol Buckethead (the Avatar) when you approach.
Whirlwinds: Spin around the overworld and attack players. There was a graphic for them in Ultima 4.
Whirlpools: These would make sensical spawn points for aquatic creatures at sea and/or alternate entryways to the Underworld.
Brain Creatures: Fraggin' flying brains. Cast confusion and/or sleep. Shoot stuff from their eyes.
There's probably more that I could come up with , but I think I'll stop right here. I know that any idiot can come up with the ideas, but it's the non-idiots who code the features, draw the graphics, and test the features before unleashing them upon the resisdents of New Sosaria.
So in closing, blegh...
Hostile NPC detail and musings
Moderator: EUO Moderators
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Cogliostro
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Hostile NPC detail and musings
Why all Pascal programmers ask to live in Atlantis?
Because it is below C level.
Because it is below C level.
First off- hi 
Egg is currently/very soon to be away for a while, & is probably the only one able to answer some of your q'tions. I'll have a go though. I tend to label things 'D&D' since Ultima only really (for me at least) got its own individuality after U5-7 for me. Any other Ultima is not worth considering...(!)
Skeletons: Receive double damage from blunt weaponry; half damage, quarter damage, or greater difficulty to score a hit from slashing or piercing weapons.
Silver weapons already do double damage to undead (a la Ultima). Ultima never had the whole blunt/slash damage divide- that was D&D.
Rogue-type NPCs: Randomly steal inventory items of great worth (gold, etc.) Stolen items would then reappear after the rogue-type character is waxed.
Might be hard to code- I'd suspect it would be, since PC theft isn't in yet.
Carrion Crawler: A spider-type monster that devours corpses in dungeons (I dunno, maybe it can help with the sanitation of dungeon areas...)
D&D not Ultima
Gremlin: Randomly steals food or curative items. Stolen food or curative items wouldn't reappear after the Gremlin had been killed. This was one of the most annoying monsters in the Ulima games entirely due to this attribute; especially the earliest games where a gremlin would attack you deep within a dungeon and rob you of half your food, resulting in a premature death. In my opinion, Gremlins are just weak goblins unless they steal your chow and healing potions during battle.
See above- not sure how hard it would be, although I'd agree on the food issue. However, food isn't currently a required item/neccessity, so that'd have to wait if/when food was implemented.
Ranger/Hidden Archer/Ninja Assassin: Wandering ranger/archer characters that pelt players with arrows from long range. Not too much different from the sea serpents, squids, nixies, etc. which appear when roaming the overworld, but land based.
Somewhere else I requested that the criminal class (see monster mob #'s) have a ranged person, mainly for balance. I suggested the highwayman but Egg didn't seem to change it then, so who knows...
Gelatinous Cube: Randomly absorbs your currently equipped weapon; if not destroyed within a certain number of turns the weapon is destroyed within the Cube's digestive system. Should adequately piss off players wielding a vampyric bastard sword of slaying +15 one second, and being completely unarmed the next.
D&D.... maximum + in EUO is +9 btw! (at the moment it appears to be +4 on armour though)
Lizardman: Basically another subhuman (Goblin, Orc, etc.) but with regenerative capability. Or maybe I'm thinking of "Salamanderman" or "Iguanaman".
D&D
Corpser/Tangler: A large tentacle sticking out of the ground which is able to paralyze upon contact. This would force players to avoid them and cause players to travel a more dangerous route in a dungeon.
I'd like to see this monster... but given that it was only U6 onwards, I'm not sure how good looking the sprite would be (considering only 4 stages...)
Phantom/Wraith: The walking armor with no physical body inside from Ultima 4.
Phantoms are already in.
Invisible Seeker: Invisible, so drawing up a graphic for this guy should be relatively easy. Fairly weak, as it was only a minor annoyance in the dungeons of the earliest Ultima games.
Hmm....
Mind Whipper: 'ol squid-head. Makes afflicted players unable to cast magic.
Mind Flayer? D&D
Zorn: I remember seeing these things walk through walls in Ultima 4... either that, or it was a weekend when I most recently played Ultima 4 and was heavily inebriated.
Probably the latter- they're in atm, and rather deadly now they've got IVPY.
Dragon turtle: The Gamera-like sea creatures from Ultima 1. Perhaps when killed, it's shell can be used as a flotation device.
Hard to do, I'd guess.
Pirate Ships: Fire cannons from beaches and deploy pirates. Should be fairly rare as they may provide a means of transport if the ship isn't scuttled (i.e. wasted to hell.)
The whole ship issue is probably too hard to code- there was talk previously of allowing players to get on the same raft etc, but I'm pretty sure it was turned down as impractical.
Demons: In Ultima 2 (I believe Demons were called Devils back then) these fraggers would cast paralysis and you'd need a pair of magical boots or a magical cloak or something to save versus paralysis...
Demons are in atm, and do indeed cast AEP.... as well as lightening!
Balrons: Also in Ultima 2 these fraggers put you right to sleep! I don't remember if there were any items to prevent this effect.
They're in, atm, and cast far worse spells now!!!
Mad Jesters: I just want to kill a jester... [i/]
Find a player with the sprite then
Troll: Back in the 'ol AD&D days, trolls regenerated unless hit with a weapon imbued with fire thus sealing their wounds and preventing them from regenerating. In Tolkien's writings trolls camped out in forests and turned to stone in the daytime. Just more stuff to give trolls more characterization...
In Ultima, trolls were never more than ugly brutes- see the compendium for Ultima 5/6...
Ghouls/Zombies: Corpse eaters. 'nuff said.
Hard to code- monsters don't have inventories atm, I think.
Drakes/Griffons/Wyverns: Dragon-like creatures. Drakes could basically be weaker versions of dragons (as Imps are weaker versions of Demons). Editting the dragon graphic to make them appear leaner with no legs would basically constitute a Wyvern. Maybe Griffons could shoot razor feathers from their wings.
Only Drakes are EUO. I agree, they should get a look in!
Ghosts: Unlike Zorns, I can distrinctly remember clearly that these bastards could float through walls. The ghosts I've killed in EUO seem to be still bound to the physical realm and don't etherealize through walls.
Its probably very hard to code.
Insect Swarms: As they were only a minor annoyance, maybe make them do 1 point of damage and attack in very rapid succession (five times per second or something).
They're in, and indeed, they're only a minor pest.
Wisps: Once again, another enemy capable of etherealizing and walking through walls. Maybe the peaceful one can sell cheap spells, or something.
Hard to code again- they're in though, and with spells.
Acid Slugs: Like slimes, but corrode weapons and armor. To implement this would require that used or damaged weapons and armor be assigned a durability variable. Unfortunately this would pose a serious problem creating more stuff to bog down the servers: keeping track of the durability of every item in circulation.
I've asked Egg for these to be put in already- I am mean enough not to argue for durability (that issue has been discussed to death, see Kybare's posts) but for blanket item destruction...
Alligators: Suddenly materialize out of swamps when a player is adjacent to their location. I know they really didn't do this in the Ultima games, but it seemed like they did when I started a new game in Ultima 7 and some 'gator came out of nowhere while walking north of Trinsic...
Not really that appealing for me, I must admit.
Cyclops: They seemed to collect gold nuggets...
Ettins are Cyclops atm, it would appear. But sure, have them as a uber-hard monstrous humanoid family member.
Giant (insert-bug here): More giant insects/arachnids! Squish!!
Mongbats: Fraggin' flying monkeys. 'nuff said.
Sure- put them in. And make them mean!
Automatons: These things remind me of the merchants in EUO. Maybe these things can later be crafted (???Tinkering???) as robotic party members controlled by simple commands or a customizable AI script (???).
Very Serpent Isle...
Evil Player-character creatures: As player-killing is curtailed, perhaps the PKers need some enemies who look like players but are actually monsters. Something to divert the attention of those homicidal PKers from the various new players wandering near Nordhausen.
Probably hard to code...
Changelings: These things appeared in Ultima 8. They first appear as gremlins and then assume the form of whatever is attacking them. In the case of Ultima 8, they would turn into 'ol Buckethead (the Avatar) when you approach.
Hard to code, and a Pagan monster. Thus pants.
Whirlwinds: Spin around the overworld and attack players. There was a graphic for them in Ultima 4.
Don't remember them!
Whirlpools: These would make sensical spawn points for aquatic creatures at sea and/or alternate entryways to the Underworld.
Hard to code- and spawn points are fixed (or global) not movable.
Brain Creatures: Fraggin' flying brains. Cast confusion and/or sleep. Shoot stuff from their eyes.
They're called gazers- and they're already in the game. And they cast sleep.
There's probably more that I could come up with , but I think I'll stop right here. I know that any idiot can come up with the ideas, but it's the non-idiots who code the features, draw the graphics, and test the features before unleashing them upon the resisdents of New Sosaria.
So.... are you offering to do the sprites for all of these? Most of these ideas are good, but hardly original- I've said many of them before, and there are many threads about this already. If you can do the sprite work, just do a search on the forums (maybe archive) to find them- EUO/Egg would probably love you to bits if you did him a set!!! Otherwise- well, you really should have looked harder at the forums, this stuff has been well- raked over.
Although, nice to see such thinking about EUO!
Egg is currently/very soon to be away for a while, & is probably the only one able to answer some of your q'tions. I'll have a go though. I tend to label things 'D&D' since Ultima only really (for me at least) got its own individuality after U5-7 for me. Any other Ultima is not worth considering...(!)Skeletons: Receive double damage from blunt weaponry; half damage, quarter damage, or greater difficulty to score a hit from slashing or piercing weapons.
Silver weapons already do double damage to undead (a la Ultima). Ultima never had the whole blunt/slash damage divide- that was D&D.
Rogue-type NPCs: Randomly steal inventory items of great worth (gold, etc.) Stolen items would then reappear after the rogue-type character is waxed.
Might be hard to code- I'd suspect it would be, since PC theft isn't in yet.
Carrion Crawler: A spider-type monster that devours corpses in dungeons (I dunno, maybe it can help with the sanitation of dungeon areas...)
D&D not Ultima
Gremlin: Randomly steals food or curative items. Stolen food or curative items wouldn't reappear after the Gremlin had been killed. This was one of the most annoying monsters in the Ulima games entirely due to this attribute; especially the earliest games where a gremlin would attack you deep within a dungeon and rob you of half your food, resulting in a premature death. In my opinion, Gremlins are just weak goblins unless they steal your chow and healing potions during battle.
See above- not sure how hard it would be, although I'd agree on the food issue. However, food isn't currently a required item/neccessity, so that'd have to wait if/when food was implemented.
Ranger/Hidden Archer/Ninja Assassin: Wandering ranger/archer characters that pelt players with arrows from long range. Not too much different from the sea serpents, squids, nixies, etc. which appear when roaming the overworld, but land based.
Somewhere else I requested that the criminal class (see monster mob #'s) have a ranged person, mainly for balance. I suggested the highwayman but Egg didn't seem to change it then, so who knows...
Gelatinous Cube: Randomly absorbs your currently equipped weapon; if not destroyed within a certain number of turns the weapon is destroyed within the Cube's digestive system. Should adequately piss off players wielding a vampyric bastard sword of slaying +15 one second, and being completely unarmed the next.
D&D.... maximum + in EUO is +9 btw!
(at the moment it appears to be +4 on armour though)Lizardman: Basically another subhuman (Goblin, Orc, etc.) but with regenerative capability. Or maybe I'm thinking of "Salamanderman" or "Iguanaman".
D&D
Corpser/Tangler: A large tentacle sticking out of the ground which is able to paralyze upon contact. This would force players to avoid them and cause players to travel a more dangerous route in a dungeon.
I'd like to see this monster... but given that it was only U6 onwards, I'm not sure how good looking the sprite would be (considering only 4 stages...)
Phantom/Wraith: The walking armor with no physical body inside from Ultima 4.
Phantoms are already in.
Invisible Seeker: Invisible, so drawing up a graphic for this guy should be relatively easy. Fairly weak, as it was only a minor annoyance in the dungeons of the earliest Ultima games.
Hmm....
Mind Whipper: 'ol squid-head. Makes afflicted players unable to cast magic.
Mind Flayer? D&D
Zorn: I remember seeing these things walk through walls in Ultima 4... either that, or it was a weekend when I most recently played Ultima 4 and was heavily inebriated.
Probably the latter- they're in atm, and rather deadly now they've got IVPY.
Dragon turtle: The Gamera-like sea creatures from Ultima 1. Perhaps when killed, it's shell can be used as a flotation device.
Hard to do, I'd guess.
Pirate Ships: Fire cannons from beaches and deploy pirates. Should be fairly rare as they may provide a means of transport if the ship isn't scuttled (i.e. wasted to hell.)
The whole ship issue is probably too hard to code- there was talk previously of allowing players to get on the same raft etc, but I'm pretty sure it was turned down as impractical.
Demons: In Ultima 2 (I believe Demons were called Devils back then) these fraggers would cast paralysis and you'd need a pair of magical boots or a magical cloak or something to save versus paralysis...
Demons are in atm, and do indeed cast AEP.... as well as lightening!
Balrons: Also in Ultima 2 these fraggers put you right to sleep! I don't remember if there were any items to prevent this effect.
They're in, atm, and cast far worse spells now!!!
Mad Jesters: I just want to kill a jester... [i/]
Find a player with the sprite then
Troll: Back in the 'ol AD&D days, trolls regenerated unless hit with a weapon imbued with fire thus sealing their wounds and preventing them from regenerating. In Tolkien's writings trolls camped out in forests and turned to stone in the daytime. Just more stuff to give trolls more characterization...
In Ultima, trolls were never more than ugly brutes- see the compendium for Ultima 5/6...
Ghouls/Zombies: Corpse eaters. 'nuff said.
Hard to code- monsters don't have inventories atm, I think.
Drakes/Griffons/Wyverns: Dragon-like creatures. Drakes could basically be weaker versions of dragons (as Imps are weaker versions of Demons). Editting the dragon graphic to make them appear leaner with no legs would basically constitute a Wyvern. Maybe Griffons could shoot razor feathers from their wings.
Only Drakes are EUO. I agree, they should get a look in!
Ghosts: Unlike Zorns, I can distrinctly remember clearly that these bastards could float through walls. The ghosts I've killed in EUO seem to be still bound to the physical realm and don't etherealize through walls.
Its probably very hard to code.
Insect Swarms: As they were only a minor annoyance, maybe make them do 1 point of damage and attack in very rapid succession (five times per second or something).
They're in, and indeed, they're only a minor pest.
Wisps: Once again, another enemy capable of etherealizing and walking through walls. Maybe the peaceful one can sell cheap spells, or something.
Hard to code again- they're in though, and with spells.
Acid Slugs: Like slimes, but corrode weapons and armor. To implement this would require that used or damaged weapons and armor be assigned a durability variable. Unfortunately this would pose a serious problem creating more stuff to bog down the servers: keeping track of the durability of every item in circulation.
I've asked Egg for these to be put in already- I am mean enough not to argue for durability (that issue has been discussed to death, see Kybare's posts) but for blanket item destruction...
Alligators: Suddenly materialize out of swamps when a player is adjacent to their location. I know they really didn't do this in the Ultima games, but it seemed like they did when I started a new game in Ultima 7 and some 'gator came out of nowhere while walking north of Trinsic...
Not really that appealing for me, I must admit.
Cyclops: They seemed to collect gold nuggets...
Ettins are Cyclops atm, it would appear. But sure, have them as a uber-hard monstrous humanoid family member.
Giant (insert-bug here): More giant insects/arachnids! Squish!!
Mongbats: Fraggin' flying monkeys. 'nuff said.
Sure- put them in. And make them mean!
Automatons: These things remind me of the merchants in EUO. Maybe these things can later be crafted (???Tinkering???) as robotic party members controlled by simple commands or a customizable AI script (???).
Very Serpent Isle...
Evil Player-character creatures: As player-killing is curtailed, perhaps the PKers need some enemies who look like players but are actually monsters. Something to divert the attention of those homicidal PKers from the various new players wandering near Nordhausen.
Probably hard to code...
Changelings: These things appeared in Ultima 8. They first appear as gremlins and then assume the form of whatever is attacking them. In the case of Ultima 8, they would turn into 'ol Buckethead (the Avatar) when you approach.
Hard to code, and a Pagan monster. Thus pants.
Whirlwinds: Spin around the overworld and attack players. There was a graphic for them in Ultima 4.
Don't remember them!
Whirlpools: These would make sensical spawn points for aquatic creatures at sea and/or alternate entryways to the Underworld.
Hard to code- and spawn points are fixed (or global) not movable.
Brain Creatures: Fraggin' flying brains. Cast confusion and/or sleep. Shoot stuff from their eyes.
They're called gazers- and they're already in the game. And they cast sleep.
There's probably more that I could come up with , but I think I'll stop right here. I know that any idiot can come up with the ideas, but it's the non-idiots who code the features, draw the graphics, and test the features before unleashing them upon the resisdents of New Sosaria.
So.... are you offering to do the sprites for all of these? Most of these ideas are good, but hardly original- I've said many of them before, and there are many threads about this already. If you can do the sprite work, just do a search on the forums (maybe archive) to find them- EUO/Egg would probably love you to bits if you did him a set!!! Otherwise- well, you really should have looked harder at the forums, this stuff has been well- raked over.
Although, nice to see such thinking about EUO!
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urgrue
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Rogue-type NPCs: Randomly steal inventory items of great worth (gold, etc.) Stolen items would then reappear after the rogue-type character is waxed.
from past discussions about theft, i think most players are quite possessive. i think we'd see a lot of whining. i still like the idea though.
expansion to your idea:
these NPCs would run away as soon as they steal from you. they should be fast so they are hard to chase (but not impossible). the map would randomly spawn little clearings or whatevers which is where the NPC and his brethren bring all the loot they steal. (maybe they could be crows and steal only rings/jewelry, in which case the place would be a big tree or nest. or theyd be proper thieves and steal only money and jewelry, and hide it in a little cave). anyway one could then occasionally stumble upon these caves/trees (or follow a rogue to one), clear it out and get all the stolen loot. as soon as thats done the cave/tree disappears from the map and is born again somewhere else.
might be a bitch to code, i dont know, but i think its cool. also if it was just unworn jewelry, unworn rings, and money, you wouldnt have too many people whining about losing their +9 snarfblat.
maybe he wouldnt fight you, he'd swallow you. then youd appear in a small map (its stomach) that youd have to fight your way out of before getting digested (cough *nethack* cough)
Gelatinous Cube: Randomly absorbs your currently equipped weapon; if not destroyed within a certain number of turns the weapon is destroyed within the Cube's digestive system. Should adequately piss off players wielding a vampyric bastard sword of slaying +15 one second, and being completely unarmed the next.
definitely cool, and also useful if/when weapon smithing and enchanting are implemented.
the shell could be much lighter than the raft, which would make it quite a desireable item.
Acid Slugs: Like slimes, but corrode weapons and armor. To implement this would require that used or damaged weapons and armor be assigned a durability variable. Unfortunately this would pose a serious problem creating more stuff to bog down the servers: keeping track of the durability of every item in circulation.
durability would be cool, but this could also be implemented as lost enchantment (like in nethack). a +8 turns to +7 if enough acid is splashed on it, for example. this would also be a very useful feature if/when weapon enchanting comes in.
from past discussions about theft, i think most players are quite possessive. i think we'd see a lot of whining. i still like the idea though.
expansion to your idea:
these NPCs would run away as soon as they steal from you. they should be fast so they are hard to chase (but not impossible). the map would randomly spawn little clearings or whatevers which is where the NPC and his brethren bring all the loot they steal. (maybe they could be crows and steal only rings/jewelry, in which case the place would be a big tree or nest. or theyd be proper thieves and steal only money and jewelry, and hide it in a little cave). anyway one could then occasionally stumble upon these caves/trees (or follow a rogue to one), clear it out and get all the stolen loot. as soon as thats done the cave/tree disappears from the map and is born again somewhere else.
might be a bitch to code, i dont know, but i think its cool. also if it was just unworn jewelry, unworn rings, and money, you wouldnt have too many people whining about losing their +9 snarfblat.
its still cool...maybe if you kill this crawler, he'll drop everything the corpses he ate were carrying. which might occasionally be quite a lot!Catherine wrote:FirstCarrion Crawler: A spider-type monster that devours corpses in dungeons (I dunno, maybe it can help with the sanitation of dungeon areas...)
D&D not Ultima
maybe he wouldnt fight you, he'd swallow you. then youd appear in a small map (its stomach) that youd have to fight your way out of before getting digested (cough *nethack* cough)
Gelatinous Cube: Randomly absorbs your currently equipped weapon; if not destroyed within a certain number of turns the weapon is destroyed within the Cube's digestive system. Should adequately piss off players wielding a vampyric bastard sword of slaying +15 one second, and being completely unarmed the next.
definitely cool, and also useful if/when weapon smithing and enchanting are implemented.
it could be done, i think.Catherine wrote:FirstCorpser/Tangler: A large tentacle sticking out of the ground which is able to paralyze upon contact. This would force players to avoid them and cause players to travel a more dangerous route in a dungeon.
I'd like to see this monster... but given that it was only U6 onwards, I'm not sure how good looking the sprite would be (considering only 4 stages...)
cool idea. i dont think it would be hard to do, as its just a monster who drops a raft with an alternative tile and name.Catherine wrote:FirstDragon turtle: The Gamera-like sea creatures from Ultima 1. Perhaps when killed, it's shell can be used as a flotation device.
Hard to do, I'd guess.
the shell could be much lighter than the raft, which would make it quite a desireable item.
yeah there was also talk about adding different kinds of ships and all the fun stuff we could do with them. but its probably pretty low on egg's todo list if its there at all...would be cool though.Catherine wrote:FirstPirate Ships: Fire cannons from beaches and deploy pirates. Should be fairly rare as they may provide a means of transport if the ship isn't scuttled (i.e. wasted to hell.)
The whole ship issue is probably too hard to code- there was talk previously of allowing players to get on the same raft etc, but I'm pretty sure it was turned down as impractical.
egg mentioned walking through walls in dm mode, so maybe it wouldnt be that hard to code after all.Catherine wrote:FirstWisps: Once again, another enemy capable of etherealizing and walking through walls. Maybe the peaceful one can sell cheap spells, or something.
Hard to code again- they're in though, and with spells.
Acid Slugs: Like slimes, but corrode weapons and armor. To implement this would require that used or damaged weapons and armor be assigned a durability variable. Unfortunately this would pose a serious problem creating more stuff to bog down the servers: keeping track of the durability of every item in circulation.
durability would be cool, but this could also be implemented as lost enchantment (like in nethack). a +8 turns to +7 if enough acid is splashed on it, for example. this would also be a very useful feature if/when weapon enchanting comes in.
i like it, i think it would be awesome to encounter a party of these guys when partying yourself!Catherine wrote:FirstChangelings: These things appeared in Ultima 8. They first appear as gremlins and then assume the form of whatever is attacking them. In the case of Ultima 8, they would turn into 'ol Buckethead (the Avatar) when you approach.
Hard to code, and a Pagan monster. Thus pants.
-
Kodiak
- Stop posting already --;
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Half of those suggestions are in one shape or another.
There used to be wyverns, they were given the bot when the colour dragons were in.
Actual ships and not rafts are something I'd love to see put in.
One monster Egg has on the backburners is the Displacer Beast. From AD&D it's invisable unless it attacks.
There used to be wyverns, they were given the bot when the colour dragons were in.
Actual ships and not rafts are something I'd love to see put in.
One monster Egg has on the backburners is the Displacer Beast. From AD&D it's invisable unless it attacks.
If you treat them like equals, it only encourages them to think they are your equals. -Thief
It's not my fault you suck. -Me
It's not my fault you suck. -Me
-
Cogliostro
- Kodiak has probably banned me by now.
- Posts: 16
- Joined: Sat Mar 27, 2004 11:29 pm
- Location: Zao tung tchi kou!
I reply to everything in reverse order. If confused, read this post backwards...
Kodiak: There used to be wyverns, they were given the bot when the colour dragons were in... One monster Egg has on the backburners is the Displacer Beast. From AD&D it's invisable unless it attacks.
Then it really does make no sense to create different types of flying reptiles when the dragons in EUO have been "Final Fantasy-ized" (same graphic but different colors for different abilities). This is by no means a bad thing as it decreases the work in drawing new graphics. As for the displacer beast, I think I'll try to draw up a graphic for it just for the hell of it. In the AD&D Gold Box games those things took up two map tiles in battle, so I'll have to find a way to squeeze it into a 16x16 pixel block.
urgrue: from past discussions about theft, i think most players are quite possessive. i think we'd see a lot of whining. i still like the idea though... the map would randomly spawn little clearings or whatevers which is where the NPC and his brethren bring all the loot they steal
It's more of a balance between the have uber-weapon players and the have-not uber-weapon players. It would create a situation where even the most experienced players would have just as much to worry about losing their Magical Sword of Ultimate Beatdown as the new players have to worry about dying in a dungeon they haven't explored or prepared for. It also forces players to pick their battles carefully; do I fight toe-to-toe with this enemy who might steal my junk or do I blast him from a distance while running away? Sure, the immature Munchkin players will whine when their weapon of infinite pluses is stolen, as that's the point as I despise Munchkin players for some reason. However, I don't quite agree on enemies hoarding stolen loot in specified locations. They should just wander around to be swatted like the flies they are, and to the victor go the spoils.
urgrue: ... its still cool...maybe if you kill this crawler, he'll drop everything the corpses he ate were carrying. which might occasionally be quite a lot!
Actually, no. When the carrion crawler eats the corpse, IT EATS THE CORPSE. All physical matter on the corpse (gold) is digested, as in gone, as in the player's 500,000 Gold Coins are corroded and reduced to a moist, oily, brown or green substance that makes an odd sound when stepped on... then again, maybe not. Why code an item in the game called "carrion crawler droppings" into the game?
urgrue: the shell could be much lighter than the raft, which would make it quite a desireable item.
Not really. The shell of a giant fire-breathing turtle, such as Gamera, could not possibly fit into a backpack, and would probably weigh several tons. Maybe it could be used after the turtle is killed, but sinks to the bottom of the ocean floor after not being boarded for a while.
urgrue: egg mentioned walking through walls in dm mode, so maybe it wouldnt be that hard to code after all.
Walk through walls isn't to hard to code for anything. Just code a subroutine that bypasses the flag that states if a tile is a barrier or not.
urgrue: durability would be cool, but this could also be implemented as lost enchantment (like in nethack). a +8 turns to +7 if enough acid is splashed on it, for example. this would also be a very useful feature if/when weapon enchanting comes in.
That's an even better idea. A +8 weapon becomes a +7 if damaged. Additionally, a normal weapon becomes a broken weapon if damaged sufficiently. No need for extra variables in the game when the item can simply be changed to one of lower ability.
Catherine: I tend to label things 'D&D' since Ultima only really (for me at least) got its own individuality after U5-7 for me. Any other Ultima is not worth considering...(!) ... Silver weapons already do double damage to undead (a la Ultima). Ultima never had the whole blunt/slash damage divide- that was D&D.
All points drawn from Ultima eventually lead to AD&D. Akalabeth was basically Richard Garriott's AD&D 26 or 27, so that makes EUO Lord Egg's Akalabeth in a way. I think, I'm not really sure... However, the earlier Ultima games have paved the way for many other great games. Many console game designers cite Ultima 3 as the inspiration for their games (I think either Yuji Hori of Dragon Quest or Hironohu Sakaguchi of Final Fantasy said this in an interview in a magazine.) Ultima 2 was a half-assed job (LB was under contract with Sierra at the time, maybe he screwed that one up on purpose), but probably inspired the Phantasy Star games with the aspect of interplanetary travel. O.K... I'm getting off topic, so back to correlations between Ultima and EUO and D&D.
Here's an experiment: Find a skeleton dummy, hang it from the ceiling, and try to jab a short, thin object between each rib several hundred times as fast as you can. How many times did you successfully jab in between a pair of ribs, and how many times did you accidentally stab one of that poor fake skeleton's ribs? This is what THAC0/Attack "Strength?" should mean in combat: the percentage of times you can land a blow where you want to based on what you are attacking. For proof that blunt weapons do more damage to skeletons: using poor 'ol fake bone from the previous experiment, take a baseball bat and try to smash Mr. Plastic Skullface to pieces. The skeleton should now be reduced to a pile of plastic shards at your feet. This experiment is also a great way to relieve pent up aggression, waste free time, and look like a complete lunatic.
PC theft shouldn't be hard to code unless the functions for monster's dropped loot is so static and limited that it only allows for a specific type of item to be dropped, i.e. getting the loot back after killing the thief. Otherwise, code for stealing objects should be easy:
1. Invoke steal function.
2. Roll steal difficulty and proficiency.
2a. If successful, goto 3.
2b. If failed, abort operation.
3. Destroy item in player inventory.
4. Create duplicate of destroyed item in enemy loot drop list.
Catherine: See above- not sure how hard it would be, although I'd agree on the food issue. However, food isn't currently a required item/neccessity, so that'd have to wait if/when food was implemented.
Food types are pretty much useless now. Thus, food vendors and the fishing skill are practically useless at the moment. What is needed are different food types; such as food that heals a greater amount of HP or fully restores HP, food that poisons the player is held for too long (invoke a counter for each set of food type that spoils the food after a set amount of time. There's probably quite a bit of wasted code space devoted to both food vendors and the fishing skill. Instead of removing them entirely, they simply need to offer greater (if not more costly) rewards.
Catherine: Somewhere else I requested that the criminal class (see monster mob #'s) have a ranged person, mainly for balance. I suggested the highwayman but Egg didn't seem to change it then, so who knows...
I notices something in Permadeath recently: Ranged combat is part of the Rogue-class skill set. My weapons: ranged was at 47, and counted as my highest Rogue-class skill... I assume this is normal... I think (I'll check the manual forums and post if needed.) I also noticed that ranged weapons increases player survivability, and would dramatically unbalance player combat. I was able to take out five or six orges/hill giants without taking a hit myself, whereas going toe-to-toe with them would cost me at least 10 HP of damage. Maybe this is more stuff for the manual and/or suggestions thread...
Catherine: (on the subject of Gelatinous Cubes) ... D&D.... maximum + in EUO is +9 btw! (at the moment it appears to be +4 on armour though)
+9. In my old D&D days, our DM wouldn't give us anything greater than +3 on full campaigns. He called us Munchkins, and we almost knocked his teeth out. Just a little meaningless background information... Anything over +5 creates a breeding ground for Munchkins in any game derived from D&D. Yes, I said it: DERIVED FROM D&D, and therefore practically the same thing. Ultima never had plus anything... 'cept for Ultima 3.
Catherine: (on the subject of Corpsers/Tanglers) ... I'd like to see this monster... but given that it was only U6 onwards, I'm not sure how good looking the sprite would be (considering only 4 stages...)
It shouldn't be too difficult to draw a blue tentacle sticking out of the ground in four frames of animation and code it so that any player that steps adjacent to it is assigned paralyzed status. As for how "good looking" it would be, monsters shouldn't be all eye-candy. Since the Corpser/Tangler would basically be immobile, I think I would classify it as a trap rather than a monster...
Catherine: (on the subject of Mind Flayers) ... Mind Flayer? D&D.
Ultima 1, in dungeons below level 4, I believe. Mage with a squid face; another graphic I might draw up and submit sometime in the future... possibly...
Catherine: (on the subject of Pirate Ships) ... The whole ship issue is probably too hard to code- there was talk previously of allowing players to get on the same raft etc, but I'm pretty sure it was turned down as impractical.
Further impracticality on the issue of ships may be due to ownership of the vehicle: what's stopping Munchkinman23 from stealing Harbinger's new frigate and sailing off into the sunset? Also, there aren't enough islands in EUO to substantiate the need for ships for players to use; the two continents pretty much firmly locked together, and not enough functioning port cities to serve as docking locations.
Catherine: (on the subject of Ghouls/Zombies) ... Hard to code- monsters don't have inventories atm, I think.
They don't need inventories. They EAT the corpses, not save them until they get hungry. By the way, Zombies and Ghouls are ALWAYS hungry...
Catherine: (on the subject of 'gators coming out of nowhere)Not really that appealing for me, I must admit.
I would think not. But when the tactics used in battle become repetitive, the players need dangerous crap to materialize out of nowhere and scare them to death. Ya know, to keep them on their toes and show them they haven't got the power up and won the game (-Cliff Y.) Getting too snug in a game leads to boredom, and boredom leads to long posts of mine like these...
Catherine: Ettins are Cyclops atm, it would appear. But sure, have them as a uber-hard monstrous humanoid family member.
Um... no. Completely different, at least they should be.
Ettin: Two-headed troll (not the green variety) with two heads and often get in arguements with itself (remember Pushme Pullyou beneath Sutek's Castle in U6... non-hostile horse ettin.)
Cyclops: One-eyed brute that hung around in caves. Supposedly smarter than ettins, for reasons which aren't entirely clear to me.
And I didn't want them to be made uber-beasts. Don't feed the Munchkins.
I'll scratch-up some tiles for mongbats too.
Catherine: (on the subject of Automatons) Very Serpent Isle...
It seems that EUO isn't following any previous formula at all. Ultima 4/5, D&D, UO, in my view EUO is more or less an amalgamut (sic?) of features derived from various game systems. To say that "Oh, this feature doesn't belong since it was in X game and not Y game" it to ultimately limit the game to a very small and disjointed mould of games; game that derive various features from several good games and combine them into one game of slightly lesser... prestige. If tinkering is implemented, there needs to be more players can do with it other than craft sextants, pocketwatches, and fishing reels.
Catherine: (on the subject of Changelings) Hard to code, and a Pagan monster. Thus pants.
See above. Yes, Ultima 8 sucked compared to pretty much everything else. But even horrible atrocities some developers call "games" have some good and well-meaning ideas in them. It's like saying: "Everything before Ultima 4 is pants and all other games should not derive ideas from them," when most if not all PC, MAC, and Console RPG games derive some small part from the first three Ultima games. That is, if they aren't derivitive of D&D...
As for being hard to code...
int encounter_changeling()
{
if (player approaches within 5 tiles of changeling)
{
changeling graphic changes to player tile;
}
}
This might resmeble the code for what triggers monster to approach the player when within a specific range.
Catherine: (On the subject of Whirlwinds in U4) Don't remember them!
Graphics 142x8E and 143x8F in Josh Steele's U4 Graphics Patch. They appeared on the worldmap and in dungeons. Also, why are the reapers in U4 brown and the ones in EUO grey?
Catherine: (On the subject of brain creatures) They're called gazers- and they're already in the game. And they cast sleep.
Brain creatures were featured in Ultima Underworld 2. Also, they cause the player's graphics to screw up and change color when hit. Gazers don't do that.
Catherine: So.... are you offering to do the sprites for all of these? Most of these ideas are good, but hardly original- I've said many of them before, and there are many threads about this already. If you can do the sprite work, just do a search on the forums (maybe archive) to find them- EUO/Egg would probably love you to bits if you did him a set!!! Otherwise- well, you really should have looked harder at the forums, this stuff has been well- raked over.
I might submit some 16x16 pixel, 256 color tiles in .bmp, .jpg, or .pcx format. I'll look around the the forums for address for submissions. No, these ideas are by no stretch of the imagination very original. They are features that have been implemented in games older than I am, but are not present in a game that has been running for over 5 years (Was 1997 when EUO started or earlier?)
Kodiak: Half of those suggestions are in one shape or another.
By "in one shape or another" Kodiak must mean the features are "currently implemented," but I don't see "currently implemented" as "completed." There is always a way to make some things better, or worse, or alter things with no dynamic change. Expect more of these posts from other people too busy to read every line in the forums and are suddenly inspired while playing the old Ultima games when wasting mobs becomes boring at the moment.
Don't feed the Munchkins.
Kodiak: There used to be wyverns, they were given the bot when the colour dragons were in... One monster Egg has on the backburners is the Displacer Beast. From AD&D it's invisable unless it attacks.
Then it really does make no sense to create different types of flying reptiles when the dragons in EUO have been "Final Fantasy-ized" (same graphic but different colors for different abilities). This is by no means a bad thing as it decreases the work in drawing new graphics. As for the displacer beast, I think I'll try to draw up a graphic for it just for the hell of it. In the AD&D Gold Box games those things took up two map tiles in battle, so I'll have to find a way to squeeze it into a 16x16 pixel block.
urgrue: from past discussions about theft, i think most players are quite possessive. i think we'd see a lot of whining. i still like the idea though... the map would randomly spawn little clearings or whatevers which is where the NPC and his brethren bring all the loot they steal
It's more of a balance between the have uber-weapon players and the have-not uber-weapon players. It would create a situation where even the most experienced players would have just as much to worry about losing their Magical Sword of Ultimate Beatdown as the new players have to worry about dying in a dungeon they haven't explored or prepared for. It also forces players to pick their battles carefully; do I fight toe-to-toe with this enemy who might steal my junk or do I blast him from a distance while running away? Sure, the immature Munchkin players will whine when their weapon of infinite pluses is stolen, as that's the point as I despise Munchkin players for some reason. However, I don't quite agree on enemies hoarding stolen loot in specified locations. They should just wander around to be swatted like the flies they are, and to the victor go the spoils.
urgrue: ... its still cool...maybe if you kill this crawler, he'll drop everything the corpses he ate were carrying. which might occasionally be quite a lot!
Actually, no. When the carrion crawler eats the corpse, IT EATS THE CORPSE. All physical matter on the corpse (gold) is digested, as in gone, as in the player's 500,000 Gold Coins are corroded and reduced to a moist, oily, brown or green substance that makes an odd sound when stepped on... then again, maybe not. Why code an item in the game called "carrion crawler droppings" into the game?
urgrue: the shell could be much lighter than the raft, which would make it quite a desireable item.
Not really. The shell of a giant fire-breathing turtle, such as Gamera, could not possibly fit into a backpack, and would probably weigh several tons. Maybe it could be used after the turtle is killed, but sinks to the bottom of the ocean floor after not being boarded for a while.
urgrue: egg mentioned walking through walls in dm mode, so maybe it wouldnt be that hard to code after all.
Walk through walls isn't to hard to code for anything. Just code a subroutine that bypasses the flag that states if a tile is a barrier or not.
urgrue: durability would be cool, but this could also be implemented as lost enchantment (like in nethack). a +8 turns to +7 if enough acid is splashed on it, for example. this would also be a very useful feature if/when weapon enchanting comes in.
That's an even better idea. A +8 weapon becomes a +7 if damaged. Additionally, a normal weapon becomes a broken weapon if damaged sufficiently. No need for extra variables in the game when the item can simply be changed to one of lower ability.
Catherine: I tend to label things 'D&D' since Ultima only really (for me at least) got its own individuality after U5-7 for me. Any other Ultima is not worth considering...(!) ... Silver weapons already do double damage to undead (a la Ultima). Ultima never had the whole blunt/slash damage divide- that was D&D.
All points drawn from Ultima eventually lead to AD&D. Akalabeth was basically Richard Garriott's AD&D 26 or 27, so that makes EUO Lord Egg's Akalabeth in a way. I think, I'm not really sure... However, the earlier Ultima games have paved the way for many other great games. Many console game designers cite Ultima 3 as the inspiration for their games (I think either Yuji Hori of Dragon Quest or Hironohu Sakaguchi of Final Fantasy said this in an interview in a magazine.) Ultima 2 was a half-assed job (LB was under contract with Sierra at the time, maybe he screwed that one up on purpose), but probably inspired the Phantasy Star games with the aspect of interplanetary travel. O.K... I'm getting off topic, so back to correlations between Ultima and EUO and D&D.
Here's an experiment: Find a skeleton dummy, hang it from the ceiling, and try to jab a short, thin object between each rib several hundred times as fast as you can. How many times did you successfully jab in between a pair of ribs, and how many times did you accidentally stab one of that poor fake skeleton's ribs? This is what THAC0/Attack "Strength?" should mean in combat: the percentage of times you can land a blow where you want to based on what you are attacking. For proof that blunt weapons do more damage to skeletons: using poor 'ol fake bone from the previous experiment, take a baseball bat and try to smash Mr. Plastic Skullface to pieces. The skeleton should now be reduced to a pile of plastic shards at your feet. This experiment is also a great way to relieve pent up aggression, waste free time, and look like a complete lunatic.
PC theft shouldn't be hard to code unless the functions for monster's dropped loot is so static and limited that it only allows for a specific type of item to be dropped, i.e. getting the loot back after killing the thief. Otherwise, code for stealing objects should be easy:
1. Invoke steal function.
2. Roll steal difficulty and proficiency.
2a. If successful, goto 3.
2b. If failed, abort operation.
3. Destroy item in player inventory.
4. Create duplicate of destroyed item in enemy loot drop list.
Catherine: See above- not sure how hard it would be, although I'd agree on the food issue. However, food isn't currently a required item/neccessity, so that'd have to wait if/when food was implemented.
Food types are pretty much useless now. Thus, food vendors and the fishing skill are practically useless at the moment. What is needed are different food types; such as food that heals a greater amount of HP or fully restores HP, food that poisons the player is held for too long (invoke a counter for each set of food type that spoils the food after a set amount of time. There's probably quite a bit of wasted code space devoted to both food vendors and the fishing skill. Instead of removing them entirely, they simply need to offer greater (if not more costly) rewards.
Catherine: Somewhere else I requested that the criminal class (see monster mob #'s) have a ranged person, mainly for balance. I suggested the highwayman but Egg didn't seem to change it then, so who knows...
I notices something in Permadeath recently: Ranged combat is part of the Rogue-class skill set. My weapons: ranged was at 47, and counted as my highest Rogue-class skill... I assume this is normal... I think (I'll check the manual forums and post if needed.) I also noticed that ranged weapons increases player survivability, and would dramatically unbalance player combat. I was able to take out five or six orges/hill giants without taking a hit myself, whereas going toe-to-toe with them would cost me at least 10 HP of damage. Maybe this is more stuff for the manual and/or suggestions thread...
Catherine: (on the subject of Gelatinous Cubes) ... D&D.... maximum + in EUO is +9 btw! (at the moment it appears to be +4 on armour though)
+9. In my old D&D days, our DM wouldn't give us anything greater than +3 on full campaigns. He called us Munchkins, and we almost knocked his teeth out. Just a little meaningless background information... Anything over +5 creates a breeding ground for Munchkins in any game derived from D&D. Yes, I said it: DERIVED FROM D&D, and therefore practically the same thing. Ultima never had plus anything... 'cept for Ultima 3.
Catherine: (on the subject of Corpsers/Tanglers) ... I'd like to see this monster... but given that it was only U6 onwards, I'm not sure how good looking the sprite would be (considering only 4 stages...)
It shouldn't be too difficult to draw a blue tentacle sticking out of the ground in four frames of animation and code it so that any player that steps adjacent to it is assigned paralyzed status. As for how "good looking" it would be, monsters shouldn't be all eye-candy. Since the Corpser/Tangler would basically be immobile, I think I would classify it as a trap rather than a monster...
Catherine: (on the subject of Mind Flayers) ... Mind Flayer? D&D.
Ultima 1, in dungeons below level 4, I believe. Mage with a squid face; another graphic I might draw up and submit sometime in the future... possibly...
Catherine: (on the subject of Pirate Ships) ... The whole ship issue is probably too hard to code- there was talk previously of allowing players to get on the same raft etc, but I'm pretty sure it was turned down as impractical.
Further impracticality on the issue of ships may be due to ownership of the vehicle: what's stopping Munchkinman23 from stealing Harbinger's new frigate and sailing off into the sunset? Also, there aren't enough islands in EUO to substantiate the need for ships for players to use; the two continents pretty much firmly locked together, and not enough functioning port cities to serve as docking locations.
Catherine: (on the subject of Ghouls/Zombies) ... Hard to code- monsters don't have inventories atm, I think.
They don't need inventories. They EAT the corpses, not save them until they get hungry. By the way, Zombies and Ghouls are ALWAYS hungry...
Catherine: (on the subject of 'gators coming out of nowhere)Not really that appealing for me, I must admit.
I would think not. But when the tactics used in battle become repetitive, the players need dangerous crap to materialize out of nowhere and scare them to death. Ya know, to keep them on their toes and show them they haven't got the power up and won the game (-Cliff Y.) Getting too snug in a game leads to boredom, and boredom leads to long posts of mine like these...
Catherine: Ettins are Cyclops atm, it would appear. But sure, have them as a uber-hard monstrous humanoid family member.
Um... no. Completely different, at least they should be.
Ettin: Two-headed troll (not the green variety) with two heads and often get in arguements with itself (remember Pushme Pullyou beneath Sutek's Castle in U6... non-hostile horse ettin.)
Cyclops: One-eyed brute that hung around in caves. Supposedly smarter than ettins, for reasons which aren't entirely clear to me.
And I didn't want them to be made uber-beasts. Don't feed the Munchkins.
I'll scratch-up some tiles for mongbats too.
Catherine: (on the subject of Automatons) Very Serpent Isle...
It seems that EUO isn't following any previous formula at all. Ultima 4/5, D&D, UO, in my view EUO is more or less an amalgamut (sic?) of features derived from various game systems. To say that "Oh, this feature doesn't belong since it was in X game and not Y game" it to ultimately limit the game to a very small and disjointed mould of games; game that derive various features from several good games and combine them into one game of slightly lesser... prestige. If tinkering is implemented, there needs to be more players can do with it other than craft sextants, pocketwatches, and fishing reels.
Catherine: (on the subject of Changelings) Hard to code, and a Pagan monster. Thus pants.
See above. Yes, Ultima 8 sucked compared to pretty much everything else. But even horrible atrocities some developers call "games" have some good and well-meaning ideas in them. It's like saying: "Everything before Ultima 4 is pants and all other games should not derive ideas from them," when most if not all PC, MAC, and Console RPG games derive some small part from the first three Ultima games. That is, if they aren't derivitive of D&D...
As for being hard to code...
int encounter_changeling()
{
if (player approaches within 5 tiles of changeling)
{
changeling graphic changes to player tile;
}
}
This might resmeble the code for what triggers monster to approach the player when within a specific range.
Catherine: (On the subject of Whirlwinds in U4) Don't remember them!
Graphics 142x8E and 143x8F in Josh Steele's U4 Graphics Patch. They appeared on the worldmap and in dungeons. Also, why are the reapers in U4 brown and the ones in EUO grey?
Catherine: (On the subject of brain creatures) They're called gazers- and they're already in the game. And they cast sleep.
Brain creatures were featured in Ultima Underworld 2. Also, they cause the player's graphics to screw up and change color when hit. Gazers don't do that.
Catherine: So.... are you offering to do the sprites for all of these? Most of these ideas are good, but hardly original- I've said many of them before, and there are many threads about this already. If you can do the sprite work, just do a search on the forums (maybe archive) to find them- EUO/Egg would probably love you to bits if you did him a set!!! Otherwise- well, you really should have looked harder at the forums, this stuff has been well- raked over.
I might submit some 16x16 pixel, 256 color tiles in .bmp, .jpg, or .pcx format. I'll look around the the forums for address for submissions. No, these ideas are by no stretch of the imagination very original. They are features that have been implemented in games older than I am, but are not present in a game that has been running for over 5 years (Was 1997 when EUO started or earlier?)
Kodiak: Half of those suggestions are in one shape or another.
By "in one shape or another" Kodiak must mean the features are "currently implemented," but I don't see "currently implemented" as "completed." There is always a way to make some things better, or worse, or alter things with no dynamic change. Expect more of these posts from other people too busy to read every line in the forums and are suddenly inspired while playing the old Ultima games when wasting mobs becomes boring at the moment.
Don't feed the Munchkins.
Why all Pascal programmers ask to live in Atlantis?
Because it is below C level.
Because it is below C level.
Hey- don't talk down to us people, ok?
I know the difference between an ettin & a cyclops (I was merely placing its role in the monster hierarchy), likewise I know the reasons for skeleton slash/bludg damage differences. Likewise, I know the 'lineage' of RPG's, & the whole 'keep it Ultima' thing.
F.Y.I.
Magic armour is currently limited to +4-5, +5 for shields, as far as I can tell. I haven't seen a higher plus item for ages- & I'm level 78. I'm probably the only player who found a suit of +9 plate (and then gave it away to Kranium- the adamantium +4 plate in the merchant was better!
) I'd be willing to bet this was one of the only +9 armour items in the game.
"Walk through walls isn't to hard to code for anything. Just code a subroutine that bypasses the flag that states if a tile is a barrier or not. "
Actually, the problem lies in the way in which maps are created & layed out. Spawners can't spawn on filled in tiles, nor can monsters- so, yes, you could have monsters chasing you through walls, but they would still need to spawn on open ground. Oh, & the tickle range is limited, so making little rooms of them just outside the map wouldn't really work (and there'd be IP issues)
Kodiak & I have been around awhile- so we have seen these types of conversations before, ok? We're not teenagers, so don't treat us like them.
However, if you're making sprites, that would be very cool
I know the difference between an ettin & a cyclops (I was merely placing its role in the monster hierarchy), likewise I know the reasons for skeleton slash/bludg damage differences. Likewise, I know the 'lineage' of RPG's, & the whole 'keep it Ultima' thing.
F.Y.I.
Magic armour is currently limited to +4-5, +5 for shields, as far as I can tell. I haven't seen a higher plus item for ages- & I'm level 78. I'm probably the only player who found a suit of +9 plate (and then gave it away to Kranium- the adamantium +4 plate in the merchant was better!
) I'd be willing to bet this was one of the only +9 armour items in the game. "Walk through walls isn't to hard to code for anything. Just code a subroutine that bypasses the flag that states if a tile is a barrier or not. "
Actually, the problem lies in the way in which maps are created & layed out. Spawners can't spawn on filled in tiles, nor can monsters- so, yes, you could have monsters chasing you through walls, but they would still need to spawn on open ground. Oh, & the tickle range is limited, so making little rooms of them just outside the map wouldn't really work (and there'd be IP issues)
Kodiak & I have been around awhile- so we have seen these types of conversations before, ok? We're not teenagers, so don't treat us like them.
However, if you're making sprites, that would be very cool
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Kodiak
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I mean they are in, one form or another.Cog wrote:Kodiak: Half of those suggestions are in one shape or another.
By "in one shape or another" Kodiak must mean the features are "currently implemented," but I don't see "currently implemented" as "completed." There is always a way to make some things better, or worse, or alter things with no dynamic change. Expect more of these posts from other people too busy to read every line in the forums and are suddenly inspired while playing the old Ultima games when wasting mobs becomes boring at the moment.
Skeletons, rogues, ghosts, zombies, wisps are in, minus those features.
phantoms, Zorns, demons, balrons, insects, are in as you said.
And, you may not realize it, but EUO is limited in many things. Sprites, weapon characterisitcs, etc. The features would be doable, but whether they're feasable and worth it are up to Egg. As for the dragons, we only have 1 real spriter, and that also happens to be the games lead programmer, lead moderator, head systems administer and somewhere in there, a life. Some sprites are donations, like the ghouls or lichs, but it's mostly Egg and the sprite pack.
If I had some spriting talent, motivation, inspiration and time, I'd make some tiles. I am thinking of messing around with one of the sprites to try and make the werewolves, but I am also thinking about my next map, as well as get Egg to tell me what is wrong with BM. Shame, IMO is a success as only DW and the Poles have made it to the bottem to see my house.....Cat and I too, but we had knowledge already of the layout. Few others have tried, and they all gave up on the 3rd floor. I'll go through a few old Ultima maps and check out another one of the 'Anti-virtue' dungeons to base my next one around. (Shame came from a mix of UO, U5 and I think U6 maps. Despite how bad UO was, they had fairly good map designers.). As for Dragon Tower (Kodiak's Test of Strength), that wasn't entirely all mine. I made the base design and monster spawns, Egg spiced it up quite a bit.
If you treat them like equals, it only encourages them to think they are your equals. -Thief
It's not my fault you suck. -Me
It's not my fault you suck. -Me
Ok a few things: (by the way i dont know how to quote and i dont have time to copy things to my post so just guess what goes with what)
I belive your all forgetting the numero umero source of monsters features ect... FOLKLORE!(or if u want to go further the human imagination, fed by real events as a matter of fact dragons were thought of the chinese from dinausaur bones but other cultures may have come up with the idea without chinese help) anyway... all books/games point to this.(with a little help from common sense)
Monsters have many diffrent names. my personel favrite is illithids for mind flayers. Gazers are also known as eye tyrants, ect.
and these are a few examples.
I have never played ultima much less heard of it before euo (but i want to try it) but what ive heard reminds me of a favrite game series called Exile made by jeff vogel with spiderweb software.
I almost forgot this... im a beggining mapper and i have a few ideas im trying to make (hopefully egg will like them) people have wanted good training grounds for ages ive been told and i think i may have one.
An idea i just had: monsters attacking other monsters INCLUDING players. as in pvmavmb. dont know how well this could be implemented but hey players could stumble on territory wars between diffrent monster tribes.
I belive your all forgetting the numero umero source of monsters features ect... FOLKLORE!(or if u want to go further the human imagination, fed by real events as a matter of fact dragons were thought of the chinese from dinausaur bones but other cultures may have come up with the idea without chinese help) anyway... all books/games point to this.(with a little help from common sense)
Monsters have many diffrent names. my personel favrite is illithids for mind flayers. Gazers are also known as eye tyrants, ect.
and these are a few examples.
I have never played ultima much less heard of it before euo (but i want to try it) but what ive heard reminds me of a favrite game series called Exile made by jeff vogel with spiderweb software.
I almost forgot this... im a beggining mapper and i have a few ideas im trying to make (hopefully egg will like them) people have wanted good training grounds for ages ive been told and i think i may have one.
An idea i just had: monsters attacking other monsters INCLUDING players. as in pvmavmb. dont know how well this could be implemented but hey players could stumble on territory wars between diffrent monster tribes.
Im Rimaldi/Nergal Devaad just suits me better.
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Always remember the 6-P principle: Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance
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Always remember the 6-P principle: Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance
I almost forgot this... im a beggining mapper and i have a few ideas im trying to make (hopefully egg will like them)
Sent 'em to the Email listed in 'Mappers new address yadda yadda'.
Please read the guide- it really does show if you send in maps & haven't read the guide.
I'm doing a big edit this weekend- hopefully maps will be sent monday ish.
Sent 'em to the Email listed in 'Mappers new address yadda yadda'.
Please read the guide- it really does show if you send in maps & haven't read the guide.
I'm doing a big edit this weekend- hopefully maps will be sent monday ish.
Re: Hostile NPC detail and musings
Working on it alreadyCogliostro wrote: Mongbats: Fraggin' flying monkeys. 'nuff said.
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Growing old is mandatory; Growing up is optional!
of approval! 
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Kodiak
- Stop posting already --;
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Then lets bring in the most feared creature of Newfie folklore! The JACKALOPE! A Jack Rabbit with Antlers. They look innocent until they ram you, breaking your shins and kneecaps!Devaad wrote:I belive your all forgetting the numero umero source of monsters features ect... FOLKLORE!
BTW, there really is such a thing as Jackalopes in Newfie folklore, and yes it's just a joke we play on those stupid mainlanders. Hell, I talked with some tourists in Terra Nova once who said they were all over Newfoundland but didn't see a Jackalope, so I told them to look for the Jackalope petting zoo........
If you treat them like equals, it only encourages them to think they are your equals. -Thief
It's not my fault you suck. -Me
It's not my fault you suck. -Me
Kodiak, I just have to say. That was funny as hell. I was even expecting one of your sarcastic replies. I may just be tired, but I got a really good laugh out of that.Kodiak wrote:Then lets bring in the most feared creature of Newfie folklore! The JACKALOPE! A Jack Rabbit with Antlers. They look innocent until they ram you, breaking your shins and kneecaps!