Ultima X: Odyssey Designer Diary #4
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In UXO, instead of having to wander around looking for NPCs to give you something to do or having to read Web sites looking for lists of quest NPCs, the quests come to you. Going back to the The Lord of the Rings example, imagine if Frodo walked around the shire asking if anyone needed an evil ring destroyed. That would be silly. Instead, the ring quest finds Frodo, and he is thrust into a grand adventure. That's what being a hero is all about, and that's what happens in UXO.
The adventures are all hand-built and take advantage of our private-area technology. For example, you may receive a quest to travel to Red Fang Keep to investigate some strange activities. When you enter the keep, a private version of that map is created, and the quest elements (monsters, ambush points, cinematics, special events, and so on) are loaded on the map. Since you and your party-mates are the only characters on this private map, you can venture through the quest without having to wait in line to fight the boss monster and without having to worry about griefers or kill-stealers. Even though you may have been inside Red Fang Keep before, you'll find that the spawn locations of the monsters, or even the monsters themselves, may be different. Private areas allow us to create very deep quests, filled with surprises and unique challenges.
