- INSTA-POLL -
Poll 10 Results
---
Poll 9 Results
---
Poll 8 Results
---
Poll 7 Results
---
Poll 6 Results
---
Poll 5 Results
---
Poll 4 Results
---
Poll 3 Results
---
Poll 2 Results
---
Poll 1 Results
|
News: September 1999
Select another month's news:
(July-August 1999)
(September 1999)
(October 1999)
(November 1999)
(December 1999)
| November 30, 1999 - Tuesday | |
18:28 - [Neocryte] - Short update on the official U:IX site...:
"Lord British (Richard Garriott) will be meeting Ultima fans and signing copies of Ultima IX: Ascension in New York City this evening! Join him today, November 30th, at the Virgin Megastore at Union Square, 52 E. 14th St., New York City, NY. Stop by from 6-7 PM to meet the creator of the Ultima series and grab your copy of Ultima IX: Ascension - the final chapter of the 20-year Ultima series!"
Also, CapnBill has been at the official U:IX boards today, leaving a long post behind himself. Here it is...
"First, it's really hard keeping up with all the messages; they flow in even while I'm reading them! Thank you all for providing feedback (even though it's not all positive, it's useful).
Second, I want everyone to know our feelings about negative feedback. This game is our baby! We've slaved for years on it, and invested huge amounts of time and sweat & blood into it. We're very proud of it. So, when we hear that a number of people are having a negative play experience, it certainly affects us. We want everyone to enjoy it! We want everyone to get the pleasure out of it that we built into it. If you're not, we're not just concerned; we're upset. And, we want to hear the types of problems you're having, so we have a chance to fix them.
I want to give you all a daily feedback about what we're doing here, to keep you informed. Updates will be in disorganized, brain-dump format. So, here's the first day's report!
Game design issues: The problems we'll be looking to fix in future patches won't be related to game design, unless they're plot-stoppers. In other words, there isn't much we can do about requests for more NPC schedules, etc. But, there are things we can do about blatant bugs (creatures standing still while you hit them, plot-stoppers, etc).
We've identified some bugs in the install programs that can allow you to install the game in an invalid way; we're working on a fix.
We've identified another bug in the Hardware Setup program; it over-writes any settings you made in your Journal Options. So, if you set your Journal to make the game run faster, then run the Hardware Setup program, you game will probably run slower. To fix this, just change the Options in your Journal again. We're fixing the Hardware Setup program; it'll appear in a future patch.
We have a patch that fixes the TNT2 driver problem (the latest TNT2 drivers break the game). We'll put this patch up as soon as it passes our QA process. This patch also fixes a number of crashers; it should improve stability.
We're brainstorming about D3D & performance. As usual, we have identified a lot of possible things we could do to the code to improve performance; but we have no proof that any of them will actually improve performance. We're working with Matrox & potentially some other vendors to identify exactly where the slow-downs are in our pipeline. D3D performance is occupying the majority of our time.
We're looking into finding & fixing memory leaks & crashes. We've found the Rule-Britannia-music-plays-forever-bug, and Audball is implementing a fix. We're addressing several problems in the creature AIs.
(BTW, you can improve performance and reduce crashes by turning off EAX.)
We've found various plot-stoppers (some by you, some by our QA dept) and have fixed them; again, they'll be available in a future patch in the next few weeks.
Performance perception issue: The Install scales the game engine's settings up, based on the type of CPU you have. So, if you have a fast CPU, you'll have more bells & whistles than others, but at the cost of speed. You probably don't notice the fact that your game looks better than someone else's (because you can't see their screen), but you do notice that it doesn't seem to run faster. So, you can just scale down your Journal Options settings for more speed.
Crashers: We really did QA the product pretty thoroughly before we shipped it. Our QA dept worked extremely hard on this. Obviously, and most regrettably, there are still crashers & problems in the game. We're still working on finding them & fixing them. From what we've seen here, and read in your reports, the crashes seem random, and related to low-memory and low-frame-rate conditions; there are currently no reported crashes I know of that are "repeatable" (example: "Every time I click on the lampshade of serenity, I crash"). In other words, the crashes don't seem related to a specific user action; they just happen at random. So, the single most important thing to do to improve stability, from your point of view, is to increase your Windows swap file size to reduce low-memory situations. If any of you experience repeatable crashes, please let us know. We are working to find & fix the "random" low-memory crashes, too.
Well, more tomorrow. I'll try to answer questions as best as I can, and as time allows!"
17:41 - [Neocryte] - Hey everyone, check out this awesome e-mail I got from All Games' Stephanie:
"Can't make the signing today to ask your questions? You'll have your chance
tomorrow, when Richard "Lord British" Garriot invades the AGN studios for
GameTime (http://www.allgames.com/gametime)!! At 6:00pm EST, you can ask
your questions in chat (by joining server chat.pseudo.com, channel
#allgames) or by calling in and talking to Lord British yourself
(1-877-pseudo-1).
Watch the show by using your Real player (http://www.real.com) , and chat
by pointing your handy dandy irc client to chat.pseudo.com, channel
#allgames, or by using our Java plugin located on the website. Game Time (http://www.allgames.com/gametime) is the world's only daily program about computer and video games."
Not bad eh? You get to talk to the man himself, so don't miss your chance! Remember, that's tomorrow at 6:00pm Eastern Time, be there!
06:33 - [Neocryte] - Here's some good news for everyone, woohoo! The official U:IX page has been updated with the following message from Amy Sage, aka Cynthe. Thanks to Glenn for the info:
"Greetings!
We have been following closely the responses of our fans, and we are aware of customer concerns, the greatest of which is the Direct3D performance of Ultima Ascension. The game is very important to us, and we have by no means stopped our work in ensuring that game is worthy of the legacy of Ultima.
We have also seen concerns dealing with the newer TNT drivers, and we have found a solution for this. A patch will be released very soon that will fix the TNT driver incompatibility, as well as address issues within the game, including some that we have seen from you. Our programming team is still hard at work improving the D3D support, and has, in fact, enlisted the help of D3D card manufacturers to ensure the greatest improvement possible. These changes will come in a later patch, after we are convinced that we have done everything we can to make sure that everyone can experience Ultima Ascension at its fullest. Please check here for announcements concerning the time frame of the improvements.
We also would like to announce that a FAQ is coming soon, which will provide not only official answers and recommendations pertaining to the game and technical suggestions, but also suggestions from the community as well. This FAQ will be updated frequently as new information is gained.
Check back tomorrow for more information.
-Cynthe"
|
| November 29, 1999 - Monday | |
21:59 - [Neocryte] - Check out the Ascension First Look at Gamer's Press:
"If you can get past the large hardware requirements, and you are an ULTRA die hard ultima fan
this is a keeper. If you like LONG games, it's a keeper. If you want a linear game, return it. This isn't
for you. It's intensive, and DEEP. So, be prepared to spend hours and hours playing! I know I will!"
Also, there is a nice troubleshooting FAQ up at Blues News.
13:41 - [Neocryte] - The new insta-poll question is up. Here are the last poll's results. In a nutshell...
to the question "How long do you plan to finish Ascension in?" the choices "100-250 hours" and "Never - will play it forever" were about tied at the top. Second place was "250-400 hours," and last - "Less than 100 hours." Thanks to all who participated, and please take a minute to vote in the new one.
09:45 - [Neocryte] - Woah, we got some Ascension new stuff here.. JackChaos has posted a couple of Ultima IX articles. First is 10 Hours of Ascension. This article is a whole 9 pages, describing the author's experience from the beginning of the game to the end of Despise:
"The game is certainly beautiful and definately worth playing. I'm impressed by the sheer amount of detail presented in the game world. You can re-visit places you've been many times and still discover something new or hidden from you when you were first there."
Next on the agenda.. JackChaos has created the Ascension Spoiler Ho-Down, which features tips and spoilers for many of the game's areas! Think of it in parts as a limited walkthrough :-)
Next, a moderator of RPG Planet has sent a letter to Origin.. Here it is:
"It's a sad day for some Ultima fans out there. It seems there are some serious issues with the D3D support that make game play virtually impossible without Glide support. The official Ultima online boards,
http://boards.owo.com/, are alive with irate users who have recently purchased the game that are complaining of
poor frame rates in the order of 3-5 fps and frequent crashes with their Direct 3D cards. As for my own
experiences, I cannot even get the game to load without receiving DirectX errors on my Pentium III 733 with an
Nvidia GeForce 256 card. I had to switch over to my old system, a PII 300 with a Voodoo 2 card, to start enjoying
the Ultima IX experience. If you have 3dFX card, go get it, the game is phenomenal despite some minor issues.
As for the rest of us, we'll have to wait for the patch."
Hehe, this isn't all, though. Here's a small bit from 3D News.. As much as my heart boils with anger at whoever wrote this article, I shall post it anyway, for information purposes:
"Origin/EA should really be embarrassed about their
actions here. I think it is safe to say that they knew
they were going to have problems with this game. If they
didn't know this, then shame on them for having the
worse beta testers on the planet. However, trusting that
they did know this, they waited until the mass shopping
is underway to make this announcement. I don't expect
a company to openly say their product in the current
state runs like a dog and to please wait for a patch. But
they never should have released it in the first place."
08:53 - [Neocryte] - It seems I forgot to post a little URL for those who might have trouble with Ascension. EA has put up a small U:IX tech support section, which now has 13 questions/answers. Yeah I know that info is a bit old, hehe, I was watching too much James Bond last night.
|
| November 28, 1999 - Sunday | |
19:01 - [Neocryte] - Here's a tiny helpful bit of info... If you are stuck in the dungeon of Hythloth (I know I was), check out this topic (started by Amy Sage - Cynthe herself) from the official U:IX boards.
Hopefully, it will clear up a lot of problems out there. If not, hey there's always the other discussion board :-)
16:40 - [Neocryte] - Well, finally the server is back up! I apologize to everyone for any inconvinience you might have experienced. Thank you for your patience :-)
16:38 - [Neocryte] - A new item added to the Miscellaneous Downloads section! It's an Ultima IX screensaver, created by me! It consists of 38 new and old images from the game and 6 soundtracks to listen to. If anyone downloads it, I would really appreciate some feedback through e-mail, guestbook, or my discussion board. Enjoy! :-)
|
| November 27, 1999 - Saturday | |
13:16 - [Neocryte] - Take a look at these two humorous shots sent to me by Havoc. The first one is inside LB's castle with the clipping distance pushed in close, and the second - well let's just say the roof must be leaking. Thanks Havoc!
11:05 - [Neocryte] - Woah, check this out from VoodooExtreme:
"Someone from Origin (who wished to remain nameless) sent in a clarification on why Ultima 9 was shipped out the door basicly unfinished. In a nutshell, here's how he/she sums the whole situation up:
U9 had a 'thanksgiving or the projects killed' deadline, which wasn't Origin's idea, it was Electronic Arts that forced it. Origin wanted to wait until January, which shoots the holiday sales theory to sh*t. So bash EA for caring more about money than games.
I apologize to all the folks at Origin so being so harsh :)"
Poor Origin. They are probably getting blamed again, with Pagan-similar messages. Maybe this will clear up everyone's mind. Anyway.... don't forget about the new discussion board! :-)
10:19 - [Neocryte] - Well, the brand new discussion board is up and running! Please feel free to post any questions or thoughts, to start any discussions :-) So, head over there now and check it out! I will also be posting more screenshots, possibly later today.
|
| November 26, 1999 - Friday | |
21:34 - [Neocryte] - Anyone out there wanna win a posted signed by the Dev Team? Then head over to Wewp! Entertainment and enter your name in their cool new contest. Since I am actually an owner of one of those posters :-), I must say that it is truly an awesome collectible - so try your luck and maybe you'll win! So... go do it.
As for another issue... I was just wondering if anyone out there would be interested if I created a discussion board for Ultima questions, answers, and discussions for this page - sort of like Jazar's Horizons board. I mean, I don't want to create it and have it sitting there blank, so.. I was just wondering how many of you would be interested. :-) So, if you are actually interested, send me an e-mail. If I get more than a few, then the board shall arrive.
14:21 - [Neocryte] - Another small update - six more pics posted, to complete page 6 of the screenshots. Well, that's about it. Oh.. thanks to all for signing the guestbook :-)
|
| November 25, 1999 - Thursday | |
23:58 - [Neocryte] - Just a quick tribute to whoever designed the dungeon of Hythloth.. It's quite hard to go through! :-) This is actually quite a pointless update... does anyone agree with me, though, that the ruins of New Magincia look breathtaking? In any case, if you are up to it, sign my guestbook.. just for the hell of it.. please.
15:00 - [Neocryte] - Yay, page 6 of screenshots is up! There are only nine of them, but they are all high quality, in 1024 by 768 resolution. Hehe, and these were actually taken by me. Yes, the pic of the day is one of them :-) Take a look at these beauties right here.
14:28 - [Neocryte] - Well, from playing the game for the last 10 hours, I have to say that it pretty much kicks ass :-) I was going to post some extremely awesome screenshots throughout my first adventures - I took about 100 pics, but alas, when I went to check on them, they were all corrupted.. I don't know why :-( So, now, I am taking some more, and I will post a new screenshots page with some 1024 by 768 pics later today. As for now, here's a small tidbit of information that might help you with creating your character with the gypsy. Thanks to Havoc, here are the virtues and the classes:
"Honesty - Mage :::::
Honor - Paladin ::::: Humility - Shepherd ::::: Compassion - Bard ::::: Sacrifice - Tinker ::::: Spirituality - Ranger ::::: Justice - Druid ::::: Valor - Fighter"
By the way, I play with a shepherd, because shepherds have a kick-ass staff! Oh.. and the Dragon Edition trinkets are very nice too. The manuals are great, the map and the cards are very detailed, and my favorite of all, the music CD, is simply amazing - 21 tracks of Ultima music!
|
| November 24, 1999 - Wednesday | |
16:47 - [Neocryte] - Ok, I just had to tell you all :-) I got my DRAGON EDITION!! Woohoooooooo!!! It sure was worth the wait :-) Well, I am off to Britannia!
16:01 - [Neocryte] - All done... If you spot any errors, however, don't hesitate to send me an e-mail.
15:39 - [Neocryte] - As you might have noticed, I updated only the index page right now with new insta-poll and links (Spacy's Biohazard and Game-Over)... Take a look at the old insta-poll results here. "Awesome," "Not too bad," and "Could be better" were about tied around 70 votes, and "Pretty bad" and "Umm.. beer!" were at about 30 each. So.. right now I am in the process of updating the rest of the page, so sit tight. :-)
15:26 - [Neocryte] - Forgot to tell you guys - Auric has posted two more audio files yesterday - "Dungeon Crawling" and "Moongates." Grab em right here.
15:09 - [Neocryte] - Ok, I actually have some freetime today - no swimming practice today :-) Anyway, I am in the process of updating the insta-poll/links, so the page may get a little crazy in the next couple of hours, hehe. But, fear not! Before I forget, if you didn't yet download the two MP3's of Ultima sample music, go do it NOW! I have not yet ever heard a piece of music this beautiful (especially Stones). So... stay tuned :)
|
| November 23, 1999 - Tuesday | |
22:33 - [Neocryte] - Hurry now to the offical U:IX site to grab two songs released from the soundtrack CD! That's right, two songs - "Stones" and "Good vs. Evil." Grab them right here.
14:57 - [Neocryte] - Just checked the EA Online Store for my order. The order is being processed right now. Hopefully, it will arrive in a few days.
On another good point, Desslock's RPG News has posted a cool First Impressions article about U:IX. Enjoy!
06:22 - [Neocryte] - Check out this e-mail I got from Alaska Dragon:
"Go to the EA store order status page, you will find your order or at least
mine as changed, and is being processed/shipping now!!"
How sweet is that!? :-) Hehe, the site still seems to be down though.
06:15 - [Neocryte] - Well,
today is the BIG day. Ultima IX: Ascension will hit the stores today. Hopefully, our pre-ordered copies will also be shipped today as well. I will check later today at EA Online Store to see if the order has been attended to - right now their site seems to be down :-( Oh well.. Here's a cheery quote from Computer Games Online about U:IX:
"Origin's latest chapter in the Ultima roleplaying game series, Ultima IX
Ascension, is scheduled to hit retail today. The final chapter in the
Guardian Trilogy (which began in Ultima VII: The Black Gate) comes to
a close. This will be the last Ultima game featuring the other worldly, hero
the Avatar..."
Can't wait to hold that box in your hands eh? :-)
|
| November 21, 1999 - Sunday | |
21:04 - [Neocryte] - Hey guys, finally done fixing everything up with my PC. Not much new, though. There is, however, one new audio file of the interview with Lord British. Check it out here at Wewp's Ultima Countdown. This new portion is called "Creating Worlds" and RG talks about building the towns.
On another issue, a few people requested to be added to the link section, so I will be updating the links along with the new insta-poll in a couple of days - I am burried with work right now :-( Thanks for all the feedback on insta-poll, and if anyone still has any ideas, send them over!
|
| November 20, 1999 - Saturday | |
21:10 - [Neocryte] - I am about to completely re-format my PC... so please be patient if I don't reply to your e-mails in the next day or so. Ok, here we go.
12:44 - [Neocryte] - Yay, two more audio portions of RG interview are up. Listen to them right here. They are "An Active Villain" and "Advantages of Ultima Experience." So, go listen to them.
|
| November 19, 1999 - Friday | |
|
15:04 - [Neocryte] - Two new audio portions of the interview with Richard Garriott are up at Auric's Ultima Moongates. Check them out right here. The two new ones are "Size and Scale," where RG talks about adjusting the size of Britannia and stuff like that, and "Rendering the Cutscenes," which talks about the tools used for rendering Ascension's cutscenes - actually a questions, asked by me, hehe. *proud aura* And of course, keep checking with the
Ultima Countdown.. only 4 days left till the game ships. Any more ideas for the insta-poll?
|
| November 18, 1999 - Thursday | |
|
15:07 - [Neocryte] - Auric has updated his Ultima Moongates with new sound parts from our preview of Ascension with Richard Garriott. Four new audios can be found here. Auric also added a really cool new section - Easter Eggs. Check it out! Oh, and don't forget to check back with Wewp's Ultima Countdown - 5 days left till U:IX ships!
|
| November 17, 1999 - Wednesday | |
11:56 - [Neocryte] - Well, if you perhaps noticed, the page has been changed a tiny bit. I removed a link, because apparently that page has not been updated for three months. Also, I added a link to one of my new personal favorites - Ultima Moongates. On another issue, the insta-poll isn't getting too many hits, so I wanna post a new one. Anyone have any ideas? If so, send me an e-mail.
11:24 - [Neocryte] - Here're some good news. Auric from Moongates has posted some audio portions of our meeting with Lord British! These are in Real Audio format and are really good quality. So, you can read a bit more about our trip and listen to the files right here, at Auric's great page! Thanks Auric!
Also, Johnny Tips from Wewp! Entertainment has posted some new stuff from our trip. You can find all the previews and links here and you can read more about our trip to Origin, written by Ascending Dragon, here. Thanks Johnny!
And, of course, I just have to mention that both Part I and Part II of my "day at Origin" are up, so go read them if you yet haven't. :) |
| November 16, 1999 - Tuesday | |
19:01 - [Neocryte] - Did you see the pic of the day? Am I the only crazy one out there, or did anyone else try this? :-) I can't believe how awesome Ascension looks with both clipping distances set at 100,000 in the options.ini file, instead of the 8,000 that the journal goes up to. What is really amazing though, is that the framerate is still very playable - maybe like 15+ fps or so! Any comments?
18:28 - [Neocryte] - The second part of "day at Origin" is now up and functional. So, both Part I and Part II are complete! Also, is there anyone here who didn't yet check out 3dfx's new Voodoo products?
|
| November 15, 1999 - Monday | |
19:34 - [Neocryte] - Ummm, okay, I just read the epilogue of the virtues stories.. If you haven't read it yet, do it NOW!!! Yes, I mean right now! Guess who the narrator is?
19:20 - [Neocryte] - Wow, the "day at Origin" came out to be a much more formidable task than I have expected :) Once I started writing, I just wanted to include every possible detail I remembered. Anyway, without any further delay, here is part 1 of "day at Origin." The second part should be up tomorrow.
16:53 - [Neocryte] - Ladies and gentlemen, go read the last part of the virtues story at the great official U:IX site: the Epilogue. I am working on the "day at Origin" right now, so it should be up later tonight. :) Thanks for your patience.
|
| November 14, 1999 - Sunday | |
|
17:38 - [Neocryte] - Hi everyone! I have returned. Unfortunately, I am very tired and got a lotta schoolwork to catch up on, so no trip description tonight. However, tomorrow - definitely, I will write all about it. In one statement, though, Ultima IX: Ascension is HUGE! :) In the meantime, check out Jazar's Ultima Horizons - he's got some pics up! |
| November 13, 1999 - Saturday | |
|
12:35 - [Zero] - Just updating the Pic of the Day. One more day till Neocryte comes back! Wohoo. Oh yeah, one more minor note: I have just recieved my new computer in the mail! WOHOO!! For those interested..it is only a mere 650 mhz Athlon, 128 mb ram, Voodoo3, DVD, CDRW, SBlive....Wipe that drool off your mouth! I have't tested Ultima 9 out with it yet, but as soon as I do, you guys will hear it; and probably see it on pic of the day. :)
|
| November 12, 1999 - Friday | |
01:00 - [Zero] - CapnBill has visited the boards and given us quite a bundel. In the first part, he discusses Direct3d and Glide. But if you are looking for a funy and more relaxing read, go on and take a look at CapnBill's Ultima 9 wrap-up; A must read. (note...take a deep breathe):
"We are indeed working on our D3D performance even now. Our D3D performance still is not a fast as Glide. We've completely re-architected our D3D renderer so that it does all the "recommended" D3D tricks for performance, and absolutely minimizes the state changes it puts D3D through; and we achieved only a minimal performance gain. After all that, our renderer is now a true Direct3D native renderer; it's not just a Glide renderer ported to Direct3D. We really expected a performance gain from these changes. At this point, we're working directly with some engineers at some of the D3D chip manufacturers to find out what's up...but it looks seriously like CainDragon is absolutely right. The problem isn't the so much code; it's the type of world scene we're trying to draw. Other products tend to have a high "triangle-to-texture ratio"; that is, for each texture in the scene, there may be about 100 triangles that all share that texture. Ours has about 10! This is a symptom of the large variety of textures in our scenes. So, it's visually stunning, but D3D just doesn't seem to know what to do with all these textures. At least, that's our current theory."
"First, we're already implementing a patch that addresses some D3D driver issues that have come up since we made our "final" version (sheesh!) The plan is to have this patch available when the game is on the shelves."
"Second, part of that patch will be a list of current 3D hardware, and how to configure U9 to run best with it. Our Installer tries to make its decisions based on what D3D says the card will do; but the D3D drivers aren't always accurate in that regard."
"Third, we're not purely table-driven; we have a large number of flags in the OPTIONS.INI file that control various D3D features; and you'll be able to manually configure U9 for future cards."
"But, I have to say, even after months of working on D3D (sigh), Glide performance is still much better than our D3D performance. We're continuing to work on that, even now, though..."
Okay, now is your chance to get up, stetch, and get a drink of water because CapnBill has a bit more to talk about. In this next part, he talks about a whole bunch of random stuff, but it is a great read and quite funny at parts. So without further ado, here we go:
"Screen shots: it is documented.
Facial animation: Yes, our artists created multiple frames of animation for characters' faces, and we just flip frames to animate them. They're not sync'd to the sound, but it's pretty effective.
Best moments: I could go on & on. My favorites were the times we'd get some new feature on-line (like the sky, the sunset, the creature animations), and we'd all just sit back & stare at the screen in wonder...we'd never seen anything like it!
Worst moments: I think just dealing with this project's checkered history & legacy code. It's been fairly frustrating. Some folks feel like "Hey, you've had 5 years--why aren't you done?", and we're like "But we've only worked on this for 2 years!" There have been a number of frustrating times that came from that sort of thing.
Funniest: Some of our bugs were truly hilarious; the talking dog-guard; giving a butterfly a whole bunch of stuff, and killing it to get them all back; the flying guards in the castle.
Quotes are in.
Future: REST! VACATION! Re-acquaint myself with my family.
Was it worth it? ABSOLUTELY. We're very proud of our work. Would we do it again? ABSOLUTELY. But, we'd do it differently!
Fans, by & large, were quite helpful! In fact, we incorporated a number of requested features, and I think it helped the game as a result.
How many Guardians to change a light bulb: Um, depends on how many polygons are in that light bulb. :)
400 hours: Sounds maybe a bit high. But, I think well over 100 hours will be typical, and the game has a lot of replay value. There's no way to do everything & see everything on your first time through. Feedback from all testers is "This game's HUGE!"
Old U9: It was, well, kind of sad compared to the current one. We have it around....maybe LadyMoi can do something.
Older Ultimas: I think every Ultima team works about as hard on their Ultima. Given the technology of the time, each Ultima has pushed the envelope as far as possible, and this one's no different.
Sadly, Chuckles isn't in the game....but we thought about it!
Most powerful weapon? Well, it's the <$@#!@#$> (censored for spoiler reasons). :) And you can quote me on that!!"
Hey! You made it to the end! I would say this is probably our longest set of quotes yet. phew! :)
12:32 - [Zero] - Alright, sounds like Neocryte is gonna have a great time in Texas. And I dont know about you guys, but I cant wait to hear about it. So in the meantime, I am your master and you guys are stuck listening to me..muhahaha! Uhh, anyway, as for news there isn't much right now, but for those of you who can read japanese, there is a new Ultima 9 page: NICOLE'S Ultima: Ascension Home Page which is solely japanese. And to tell you the truth, the page has a very nice layout. I suggest you take a look whether or not you know Japanese.
|
| November 11, 1999 - Thursday | |
|
06:03 - [Neocryte] - Well ladies and gentlemen, I am off.. I will be back on Sunday and definitely post something describing all the details of my trip, meeting Mr. Garriott and looking at Ascension. Meanwhile, I got an e-mail from my pal Zero. He assured me that he will keep the page updated while I am gone, so it's all good. :) See you soon!
|
| November 10, 1999 - Wednesday | |
16:40 - [Neocryte] - If you are having any troubles with the Ascension demo, check out this awesome help file created by LegolasDragon. It covers a lot of topics, from downloading, to installing and playing.
Ok, working extra hard, hehe, I pumped out the new insta-poll, so please take a minute to vote. Here are the last poll's results. For the question from which part of the world Ultima fans are from, 149 votes were for North America, 95 for Europe, 28 for Australia, 10 for Asia, 9 for South America, 3 for Other, and 1 for Africa. Thanks to all who voted :)
05:41 - [Neocryte] - The official U:IX site has confirmed today that Ascension
has truly gone gold! Here's straight from their site:
"Origin Systems is proud to announce that Ultima™ IX: Ascension has gone GOLD and will be shipping to retailers on November 23, 1999!
Prepare to embark on an adventure beyond imagination with the long awaited return of the best selling role-playing series of all time and Lord British's greatest masterpiece ever. In the ninth and final chapter of the 20-year legacy you return to Britannia™ for your last epic quest. Experience the most immersive 3D world ever created, with literally thousands of items to interact with and environments that practically breathe. Play the role of the virtuous Avatar, hero of Britannia, as you fight to save Britannia from final destruction. Meet hundreds of characters, all with full speech and animation. Discover new weapons and fantastic spells to use in the fight, as well as challenging puzzles to solve. From the skeleton-infested mines of Covetous to the underwater depths of Ambrosia, you'll find both familiar and unfamiliar territory, rendered in a more beautiful 3D than ever thought possible.
Ultima IX: Ascension will have an expected retail price of $49.99 and will be available at your favorite game retailer."
|
| November 9, 1999 - Tuesday | |
17:41 - [Neocryte] - Almost forgot to mention something.. LadyMOI has invited me, along with some others, to come and visit Austin, Texas to meet Richard Garriott and see Ascension! I am leaving Thursday evening and coming back Sunday afternoon. I asked Zero to take care of the page while I am gone, but he didn't answer me yet.. so possibly, there may be no updates untill Sunday. As soon as I am back, though, I will definitely write all about it. As for now, I want to change the insta-poll question before I am gone. If you have any suggestions, e-mail them to me!
17:35 - [Neocryte] - Ultima IX: Ascension has gone GOLD! Yep, here's what DurhamDragon stated at the boards today:
"This came from Blues News earlier today: "Origin has confirmed that their eagerly anticipated Ultima IX: Ascension has gone gold. The game is on its way off to production, and will be shipping on November 23rd, just in time for Thanksgiving."
I followed this up with Lady Moi this afternoon via email and her reply is as follows: "I am told it is true yes." Sounds gold to me!"
This is truly great news! Thanks to JLenn for the news tip.
|
| November 8, 1999 - Monday | |
17:34 - [Neocryte] - Hey guys... EB World has posted today that Ascension has gone gold! Yep.. hopefully it's true. Also, they got a tiny little info section up - nothing much, just links to movies. Actually, the news about going gold are probably untrue - check out this topic to find out why. Thanks to JLenn for the info!
15:57 - [Neocryte] - Quick update.. Part Eight of the virtues stories is up at the official Ultima IX site - this one is about Shamino and the spirits, highlighting the virtue of Spirituality. |
| November 7, 1999 - Sunday | |
|
19:24 - [Neocryte] - Check out this new preview at DailyRadar. Beware, though - it contains a major spoiler, which I almost allowed myself to read.. but then was able to restrain myself.. thanks to the virtues. Also, here is a topic on the boards where LordRat gives a nice summary of the history of all Ultimas, so take a look.
|
| November 6, 1999 - Saturday | |
|
20:20 - [Neocryte] - Sorry for the late update - had a very busy day today... Anywhere, here are a few new things. First, Part Two of the interview with Richard Garriott is up at Adrenaline Vault. And, there is also a new preview up at GameCenter. If those two articles don't satisfy your hunger for Ascension, check out this topic at the boards - it contains new demo download sites.
|
| November 5, 1999 - Friday | |
18:15 - [Neocryte] - The Movies section has been updated.. nothing really major, just a small movie added. Also thinking about a new insta-poll question. If you have any suggestion, e-mail them to me!
15:02 - [Neocryte] - There's an absolutely awesome interview with Richard Garriott up at Adrenaline Vault, called the ULTIMAte Experience. It contains a ton of new screenshots and even some pics of what the items in Dragon Edition look like! Here's a part from this awesome 9-pager:
"Richard: I've played the game beginning to end four or five times. I keep coming back after the first dungeon or two and being amazed that I just don't have enough money. I want to be able to train, but I just don't have enough gold, I need a bigger weapon, but I just don't have enough gold. Am I just a loser, or what? I don't have the gold I need and I think I'm being pretty diligent in checking chests and picking over bodies after I've knocked them off. Everybody else has like two or three times as much gold as I do, including the QA guys downstairs. I'm thinking, how are you doing that? Well, they're stealing from the villagers. That is cheating. So we actually had an interesting discussion with non-cheaters. It turns out there are things you can steal here and there throughout the game, and if you do, you get wealthier quicker. Since there are some things the game's not testing for, you get away with it. It's just kind of humorous."
|
| November 4, 1999 - Thursday | |
15:05 - [Neocryte] - Check out these two awesome high-res shots (1024 by 768) sent to me by Dragon of the Dark Sword:
14:57 - [Neocryte] - CapnBill has paid a short visit to the boards. Here, he explains some Direct3D issues and a short comment on G400:
"We're analyzing our D3D performance to find ways to improve it. It seems one of the major limitations we're hitting is
the number of textures in use at a given time. D3D >>hates<<
state changes (setting a new texture, setting solid vs
textured triangles, setting opaque vs alpha triangles, etc).
Any of these state changes should be kept to a minimum when
render a scene. And we have a lot of state changes, too many
it seems.
A typical scene in our engine contains between 200 and 350
textures! This is a huge number of textures compared to most
other products; it also explains why your performance drops
so much when you look horizontally vs vertically; you're
increasing the number of textures in the scene (Note: you
should be able to play while looking horizontally, the engine
is designed for this). Anyway, this may explain why your
hardware behaves the same; we may be hitting a limitation in
D3D itself that isn't related to your specific hardware or
drivers.
We're continuing to investigate this...thanks for the
feedback!
We like the G400, and U9 performs pretty well with it. But,
it currently suffers from the same D3D performance issues as
other D3D cards."
06:09 - [Neocryte] - The 'Other Videos' part has been removed from the Movies section, because they were removed from the server that had them. Sorry guys, but there is nothing I can do. Thanks to Bekenn for pointing this whole thing out to me.
|
| November 3, 1999 - Wednesday | |
16:54 - [Neocryte] - Whoops, forgot to mention Jaccl's comment on character creation... so, here it is, hehe:
"The results of the gypsy reading mostly impact your starting stats and equipment. This can have a definite impact on the player's strategy in the early part of the game.
Regardless of your starting 'class', any avatar has the ability to advance in all attributes and skills. This is not required however. Over the course of many playthroughs weve seen players taking different approaches (i.e. focusing on magic vs. weapons, or favoring a particular weapon, etc.) Its really pretty much up to you to decide which abilities to adopt and in what order. I have seen playthroughs where the game was completed without any significant magic abilities (beyond
required rituals) and/or using a single weapon."
16:38 - [Neocryte] - CapnBill stopped by the boards today, commenting on a few things. Here he is on Voodoo2 SLI:
"We've got two guys (one of them is LB!) who run with dual
Voodoo2's in SLI configuration, no problems. The main
advantage we've seen is that it lets you crank up to
1024x768. With only one Voodoo2, you can only go up to
800x600. There doesn't seem to be a speed advantage either
way."
And here's what he explained about Windows 2000:
"I've had multiple versions of Windows2000 Beta on my system, pre-release candidate this & that. At one point, I had a version that ran D3D pretty well. My system still runs quite well with the Glide NT drivers, on my Voodoo2; I still like my Windows 2000 installation, but apparently not all of you are that fortunate.
The latest version of Windows 2000 requires specific D3D drivers to be present before D3D will run on it; so I haven't been able to run D3D on my system for some time. Also, no version of Windows 2000 I've ever had supported the SBLive; I run with an Awe64.
Anyway, sorry to have created so much confusion. Durham's right; don't go with Windows 2000 until you're sure it supports your hardware. But, it's moot; the OS isn't out yet. As for EA "officially" supporting Windows2000, hmmm...I don't know either way. But, I predict the game will work fine on the final release version of Windows 2000!"
|
| November 2, 1999 - Tuesday | |
20:12 - [Neocryte] - CapnBill stopped by the boards and mentioned a few things about the demo:
"We have a rare bit of down time here, so I'd like to post some clarification notes about
the demo:
1) D3D support in the demo is problematic. The "black square" problem a lot of you are
seeing can (on >>some<< cards) be fixed by using 16-bit textures instead of 8-bit.
We've fixed this in the final product.
2) The Install for the final game configures your game better for D3D than the demo
did; the demo tends to choose engine settings that are too slow.
3) Higher res's than 640x480 won't work in the demo; they do in the game.
4) Turning mip-mapping ON, and selecting the MEDIUM texture detail level can improve
performance on D3D, with very little difference in visual quality.
The D3D performance for the final product is somewhat better than the demo. However,
the main difference between the game & the demo is that the game fixed the visual
glitches so common in the demo.
Glide performance is identical between the two.
For all of you being patient, and getting the demo working on your machine, thanks! We
believe you'll be very happy with the final product."
16:24 - [Neocryte] - Well, the demo is gone from 3D Files. If you haven't yet got it, well.. go and buy the December CGW. But here, on a happier note, is The1Mango, about making some cool U:IX stuff:
"We've just hired someone who's primary purpose is to beef up
the store and get some cool Ultima merchandise made.
Hopefully by X-mas. I'm sorry, it's too late to add anything to the Dragon
Edition. Thanks, this is great. Keep these posts coming. If we know
what you guys want, we know what we need to do :)"
You heard the man.. if you wanna propose some cool U:IX stuff ideas, post your ideas at this topic.
|
| November 1, 1999 - Monday | |
21:12 - [Neocryte] - Four words: boards are getting overwhelmed!!! Hehe. Nothing really new, just changing pic of the day. Umm.. go read the latest virtue story.. NOW!
15:29 - [Neocryte] - Part 8 of the virtues
stories is up, this one about the Virtue of Honor.. Dupre and the Gargoyles. Thanks to Mike Paige for the tip. Also, if you are stuck in the demo, try this demo walkthrough by Nozumas Dragon. Oh, and thanks to everyone for congratulating me. :)
|
|
|
