Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar Previews
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IGN brings word from senior creative director Paul Barnett that the combat will be similar to Diablo's:
Virtues are a system that play heavily in Ultima Forever. You level them up in a variety of ways, including some that encourage multiplayer. For instance, your "Sacrifice" virtue is tied to helping other players, which Barnett and company have integrated into a system wherein high level players can temporarily lower their level in order to assist a lower-level player. At the end of a dungeon, the high-level player won't earn nearly as many rewards as the lower level-player for completing the quest, but they will earn progress in their Sacrifice virtue. Essentially, said Barnett, "the entire logic was, 'wouldn't it be great if you bothered to help other people you got to help yourself?'" Smart, right?
While we haven't had a chance to see it for ourselves, Barnett likens combat in Ultima Forever to Diablo. "You're clicking around to move, you're clicking on monsters and you're selecting your abilities a la Diablo," he said. "It isn't the timer based '1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3' combat you see in MMOs."
Kotaku has a lengthy and positive piece:
The multiplayer aspect makes the specter of the dreaded "social game" loom, but Barnett and BioWare are clearly aware of the troubles many iPad and free-to-play games face. "Can we bring BioWare stories to casual space, and can we avoid all the pitfalls that are in the casual space? You know what those pitfalls are," he said. "The games are kind of sucky and they kind of demand you give them money every two seconds and they're not very good. So our plan has been: not to design a game like that."
So if Ultima Forever is trying to avoid the known problems that casual and tablet games routinely face, and yet still be a free-to-play game, how does EA plan to make their money? "It's not 'energy,' it's not like a Facebook game," Barnett confirmed. "The entire game can be completed for free, although it would take you a long time. You can play it and play it and play it and play it, and enjoy it and enjoy it and enjoy it and enjoy it, and ultimately what will happen is you'll love it so much you'll go, 'you know what? I'm going to give you guys some cash.'"
Finally, Massively has a small piece:
And what about the gameplay? Is Ultima Forever an MMO?
No, though Barnett says it has "a lot" of players in it. "It's very tribal in the way we're building it," he explained. The game is a small-group affair, with "tactical, positional" combat that is less about hotbar abilities and more about where your characters stand, what kind of equipment they have, and how you use your abilities together.
Barnett compared the game to the hunting areas in older BioWare titles like Baldur's Gate, and he pointed out that the essence of Ultima Forever is focused on improving your virtues through a BioWare storyline and plenty of dungeoneering. "It's very much a classic RPG adventure. It's more in Dragon Age's territory than that of an MMO," he explained.
