Comments on Blogging Ultima: Ultima IX, Day 1

This was my second Ultima (my aborted efforts to p...

2009-01-26T21:57:00.000-08:00

This was my second Ultima (my aborted efforts to play U6 notwithstanding).

The game, mehh.

The player is led about by the nose throughout the game. Whereas U5 allowed the gamer to explore at his own pace, and choose when to venture out on a particular quest, U9 puts you on a path and won't let you stray. Consequently, this game never felt like it was MY game; it felt like I was merely abiding the desires of a programmer.

Additionally, the world did seem small Brittania lost its epic feel, this despite numerous references to its epic past.

While I don't hate the game, I do hate that it is mediocre.

How did that dagger from U8 end up in the britanni...

2008-09-03T19:36:00.000-07:00

How did that dagger from U8 end up in the britannia museum anyway? Maybe the guardian just dropped it there with a note to the curator.

I don't see what's so canonical about Gargoyles na...

2008-02-11T06:57:00.000-08:00

I don't see what's so canonical about Gargoyles naming their city "Ambrosia". There is no motivation for it, and considering what Ambrosia was in Ultima VII, I'd say it's just damn weird.

I think the 3D representations you were talking ab...

2008-02-07T13:03:00.000-08:00

I think the 3D representations you were talking about were on Televar's site; http://www.surfing.net/ultima/index.html

But I can't find the items on there anymore... I think I have them on my harddrive somewhere...

RE: Grandor
I agree with Justin on this. Changing the name from Ambrosia to something else would be breaking canon wouldn't it?

Re: Grandor Dragon. I don't get it. If your goal w...

2008-02-07T11:40:00.000-08:00

Re: Grandor Dragon. I don't get it. If your goal was to make the game feel more canonical, why would you change names to make them LESS canonical?

About the closeness of Ultima VII: I agree with it...

2008-02-05T17:23:00.000-08:00

About the closeness of Ultima VII: I agree with it, but there was one thing that worked with it really well: the fact that Britannia was slowly modernizing. The way everything began to cramp made me think of how all this technology was making Britannia less of a grand area and more of a world that is slowly being conquered of all its dangers. And, of course, of the new ones that hid underneath the civilization.

Hehe, I am pretty sure Baltergres meant something ...

2008-02-05T11:57:00.000-08:00

Hehe, I am pretty sure Baltergres meant something different. But I can't bother to look it up. Evil Feak Dragon, who wrote tons of Ultima fan fiction, came up with that one. Originally I didn't want to change the name, but it was quite silly to call it "Ambrosia".

Yeah, I agree that canonicity is a problem with fanwork. We decided to take chances since, for so many, the original U9 did not feed canonical at all.

Terrible screenshots are better than no screenshot...

2008-02-04T14:50:00.000-08:00

Terrible screenshots are better than no screenshots. Please post at least one or two.

The cards should obviously be punch cards, but I l...

2008-02-03T16:37:00.000-08:00

The cards should obviously be punch cards, but I like to think that the items in the museum aren't necessarily authentic! Just a shame that the Avatar didn't notice that they weren't the originals.

Sounds like something is definitely amiss, if you'...

2008-02-03T13:42:00.000-08:00

Sounds like something is definitely amiss, if you're having so many graphics glitches. Still, if the game doesn't CRASH, I'd call yourself fortunate. Just make sure you save plenty and often so you can restore if you need to.

Regarding Stonegate, if you recall, it was a tower in mountians in Ultimas 5 and 6, and then in 7 it was inexplicably moved to a swamp. So it's a bit unfair to slam Ultima 9 for putting it back to it's original form, while ignoring what Ultima 7 did, isn't it? :)

I've checked out the dialogue patch, but it has some elements to it I don't agree with. This is a common issue with fan works; a fraction of the fan-base likes it, the rest discount it as "not canonical". Fact is, like it or not, U:A is the ninth Ultima, and unless Garriot buys back the Ultima franchise from EA and says "I declare it an ungame, now we're going to make it properly." and does a new one, it's what we got.

In particular, I can't fathom why they renamed Ambrosia "Baltergres"... which means in Gargish "Bad opening". How is that in any way similar to Ambrosia?

Great to hear that you started blogging U9 - many ...

2008-02-03T00:53:00.000-08:00

Great to hear that you started blogging U9 - many aspects of the game are bad, but from a blog reader's perspective, this is what makes it interesting. It's like looking at a car crash site.

I agree that some dungeons are pretty cool - I guess Destard is my favorite. Others are simply horrible, especially Deceit, Wrong, Shame and the Abyss.

If you want to have the full U9-nightmare-experience, please read every new entry the Avatar makes into his quest journal.

One last thing: Of course the cards that defeated Exodus should be punchcards. It's this level of reality that makes U3 clever. It's a shame that Ascension decided not to be clever.

An essential link for everyone who is interested in Ascension is Hacki's Ultima Page, which lists all the plot inconsistencies.

http://hacki.bootstrike.com/english/index.htm

It also plugs the "Ultima: IX Dialogue Patch" which I wrote with the help of a few others.