Stygian Abyss? ~ Main thread

[Wilfred Owen]

Yeah I love the Gargoyle lore! I wonder if they will all have wings? Another race I want to play as are lizardmen. They have a bit of lore in Ultima Underworld - the stygian abyss

[Unsupportable]

Is it me, or in Ultima 9 or 10, the Gargoyle near the start gives you a brief history of the gargoyles. I'm sure that there are no Males/Females in the gargoyle race. Pretty sure that the original gargoyles only had one race. I'm hoping that the gargoyle quests really reflect the original quests for the gargoyles.

I found one of the old cloth maps from the single player versions of Ultima, the similarity between UO and the Ultima series' world is quite good.

[Wilfred Owen]

Its Ultima 9 and you are right. There are no females in the race just the one queen. so the lore wont be the same as previous games then, which is a shame.

[Silverfoot]

Originally Posted by Wilfred Owen

There are no females in the race just the one queen.

Is the Queen's name Bruce? I always thought a Queen to be female, but this is the 21st century

[Tabbitha]

ABYSS

During the EA Mythic media event in Fairfax Virginia during January of '07, interviews with several high level producers and developers were available, and I had a chance to talk to UO Producer, Aaron Cohen. Aaron normally works out of a California office, but when in Virginia he uses a spare office within the EA Mythic area. His office had a laptop, a whiteboard, a desk and a phone. When I walked into the room, the laptop was running the new Kingdom Reborn client.

After a few moments of explaining my UO history, and oohing and aahing over the new client graphics, we got down to business! My first question was about the phasing out of the Legacy client that's standard among players, after KR is launched. Aaron said it depended completely upon how players adapted it. It will be easier to develop for only one client, so they're hoping it will take a year or less for the majority of players to begin utilizing the recoded engine. Once a large majority of players have downloaded and use the client, they'll begin to phase it out over time.

Before (now)




New KR Scene

When asked how they plan on improving the new player experience and shortening the learning curve Aaron said that the quest and skill system is being re-looked at. There will be skill building direction so that new players will know what must be done to accomplish increases (chopping trees for lumberjack, etc). Quests that allow faster skill increases through completion are in the works, decreasing the grind and promoting interaction.

We eventually got to some questions that of course couldn't be answered. The new housing designs, new pets, new crafting recipes, new skills, and new pets being offered with the UO:Stygian Abyss expansion are all still under discussion, or under wraps. The theme of the new dungeon is also not being currently released.

As all development companies have learned it's better to say nothing then to say the wrong thing. Development changes so quickly and often design and implementation issues can easily require something to not be added, or to be changed drastically!

The addition of the new dungeon and of the Gargoyle race are also, for the most part, not being discussed. I found out that the dungeon is far, far away, which is why it hasn't been discovered until now. In that theme, it will take quite a while to travel to it. Teleportation to or from the dungeon once it's been traversed is under discussion. If the Gargoyle race will need to be unlocked before it's available as a player race is also undetermined.

Asked how the merge with Mythic Entertainment has changed the development, Aaron positively shined. He said it was such a rare opportunity to get other industry people with a successful MMO to look at your game and give honest feedback, help, and technology that nothing bad could be said about the process. EA Mythic now shares technology for User Interfaces, Artificial Intelligence, sound, and the Gamebryo game engine as well as the experience to utilize them well.

It was made just as clear that the UO team has had input, ideas, and feedback on both the Dark Age of Camelot and Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning games that Mythic has had out for 5 years and is in development, respectively.

Player vs Player (PvP) is of course, one of the staples of UO, and 25% of players PvP exclusively! Aaron was quite clear on the team thoughts towards PvP. UO's system works. PvP is unpredictable, player controlled content that couldn't be matched by coding or interference from the team. As always, UO's goal is a reason to PvP without breaking the Player vs Environment (PvE) that so many enjoy. Balance for PvE and PvP both individually and against each other is always going on. Tweaks happen all the time to keep it as fair and fun as possible.

The last question was of course, exploiting and the hot story of selling gold. A term against not selling gold never made it into the Ultima Online Terms of Service, and the developers have never seen a reason to come out and add one. They don't intend to add one now, thereby changing the face of the game for many, many players, both for and against the practice. Aaron even mentioned that many players pay for their accounts by selling gold, and the money goes right back into the UO economy.

Of course, the gathering and selling of gold encourages exploits, and I was quite pleased to hear that not only is the UO team very much aware of it, but they're constantly working to prevent exploits both client and server side. The Kingdom Reborn client will make it much harder to exploit, though some will always find a way. The behind the scenes coding allows for quite a bit of control in fixing the exploit, once it's found, and is a priority for the team. The team knows that it's a wonderful feeling to earn what you have, what you get back from the game, and the community.

I'd like to thank Aaron for the wonderful interview, for getting me excited about UO years and years after I've moved on. The team is doing an awesome job, the merge with EA Mythic is not only not slowing people down, but it's expediting the changes and the growth that we all love to see in our MMO's.

Written by Rebecca "Tovin" Simpson - Jan. 28, 2007

[Tabbitha]

Been on a bit of a hiatus.

Happened to check out Stratics and saw the news about gargoyles.

Very cool.

The art looks neat, was hoping they'd have resembled the ones from UXO more though.

I liked the way the females in it looked.
The males as well, but the females were pretty sexy looking. *laughs*

I noticed someone commenting about the mammal aspects.
The ones in UXO had breasts as well, but were lacking the belly button and nipples. There was an image of one wearing a loin cloth, but topless, and it showed the...I guess a sort of tattoo/runes drawn across her body. Was quite neat. Was also the very same image with her wearing armor which looked great.

I'd imagine the breasts were to make them more feminine looking.

The concept of the female above seems her face is a bit strange.

Has the images I was speaking of.

I thought these gargoyles looked great

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cathat

I noticed someone commenting about the mammal (breast) aspects...
The ones in UXO had breasts as well, but were lacking the belly button and nipples.

Hmm - maybe, just like the feet, they'll send me in to do a stack o sketches and research on that too . Sometimes - its really fun being an artist. [tongue]


Don't mind me - i'm just workin here.




But Seriously, I've always found creating any humanoid female figure in any art job is always fraught with discussions and serious consideration on body shape and dimensions. Gets trickier when its a whole different species - like our Gargs.

I'm glad to see folks posting ideas and thoughts about it.

*gets back to work.

[Tabbitha]

Originally Posted by Unsupportable

Is it me, or in Ultima 9 or 10, the Gargoyle near the start gives you a brief history of the gargoyles. I'm sure that there are no Males/Females in the gargoyle race. Pretty sure that the original gargoyles only had one race. I'm hoping that the gargoyle quests really reflect the original quests for the gargoyles.

Long Live the Queen

As a race devoid of females for generations, gargoyles had very little concept of feminity or sex, and most considered themselves genderless. It was known through the Book of Family that gargoyles were hatched from eggs, but what was not common knowledge among gargoyles — and certainly not known by outsiders — was that a female gargoyle did actually exist. One single queen, who had remained guarded in a secret lair under the island of Ambrosia for more generations than any gargoyle alive — save the queen herself — could remember. Even after the gargoyles retreated from the humans and re-established Ambrosia on the ocean floor, she remained hidden away from most of her own race, producing eggs that would hatch into fertile winged and wingless gargoyles. All gargoyles were capable of producing eggs, but only eggs that came directly from the queen would yield a gargoyle capable of producing his own offspring later in life. This meant that every other generation had to come from the queen herself, or the gargoyles would eventually die out. This was considered by most learned gargoyles to be quite the Achilles' heel, since it was clear that there were humans who would gladly take the opportunity to ensure the end of the gargoyle race. Thus Queen Zhah, who had been queen for over seven full generations, had been guarded and cared for in absolute secrecy.

Long before the Guardian's dark columns had begun to tear through Britannia, corrupting Ambrosia with a crippling sense of false pride, the ruthless and proud Zhah had taken her own steps to ensure her place as the sole queen. Every generation, Zhah produced hundreds of eggs, but only three or four of each generation were female — and female eggs could only come from a female. By hiding and destroying those few eggs, Zhah believed she was safeguarding her rightful place in gargoyle society. In truth, she was cementing the precarious situation of the gargoyle race — a fact made all too clear when she herself was killed in the destruction of Ambrosia.


The Dominance of Winged: A Lesson in Gargoyle Genetics

Another sacred writing, the Book of Administration, states that for countless ages, there have been both winged and wingless gargoyles, each of equal importance to gargoyle culture. As the dominant of the two, the winged gargoyles are well-known to be more agile and intelligent than the wingless, but not as commonly understood is the fact that the winged gene itself is dominant over the wingless version, meaning that without a constant influx of wingless blood, the gargoyle race might have grown to be entirely winged. The few privileged gargoyles who understood this knew that in order to maintain the dual nature of gargoyles, it was crucial that the queen be wingless herself, thus ensuring that through her direct descendants, winged and wingless gargoyles would both continue to exist.

Early Artwork depicting the Gargoyles of Alucinor:




08-24-2003
The Female Gargoyle
From: Electronic Arts




08-24-2003
The Male Gargoyle
From: Electronic Arts

[Tabbitha]

Some information found in the Ultima IX Ascension, Dragon Edition (1999).

The Journal and spellbook have some interesting historical information that might be clues for the new UO?


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Under Dungeons: Abyss

"Near the heart of spirituality lurks a foul pit to swallow all but the surest warrior. As if dawn to Skara Brae by the forces of balance in the universe that seek to place emptiness near wholesomeness, the Abyss was discovered by a wanderer who, upon entering, was quite sure that he did not want to remain there. For all who dare to try the Abyss, the people of Scara Brae are full of tales of it. They who have returned tell a confused tale of perverted forces beneath the ground, where up is down, where trusted magic flies askance, where the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water are torn apart. In seeking escape, many have plunged ever deeper where madness or beast has consumed them."


Under Dungeons: Covetous

"The town of Minoc has played host to the mysteriuos hollows of a blackrock mine. Noted for its property of foiling magic, the pure blackrock herein commands a high price. With a metallurgy known to few, it can be forged into magic items to astound even mages. The blackrock mine has been in operation for many years, and the shallower veins have begun to dry. Hearty miners and warriors have begun to explore the deeper veins wherein undead creatures and fickle footing have proved their undoing. Yet, the richness of the blackrock therein continues to inspire the hearty townspeople to venture deeper into the mountain."

Under Rituals: Armageddon

"I have saved the writing of this ritual for the final day before the Practicum is to be delivered to Hawkwind, in fear that it may fall into malevolent or untrained minds. He and I bitterly disagreed on its inclusion, yet at his insistence, the Ritual of Armageddon has been included. In sum, the Ritual of Armageddon unifies all of the tidal forces of life itself, good and evil, law and chaos, sight and sound, fire and water, earth and air, into a singular event to which the temporal world has never been subjected. Its effects are unknown and must remain that way. Stupidity has no greater champion than he who would perform the Ritual of Armageddon."