Ultima X: Odyssey Interview, Part 4

Among the elements that helped the Ultima series to attain its position of honor in the history of electronic gaming, the foremost may be its incorporation of a philosophy or system of ethics based on eight characteristics collectively known as the Virtues. These are derived from three principles. Truth is a quality that is inherent in all things, Love the kindness and beauty that lie within our hearts, and Courage the inner spirit and determination that drive us to act for the greater good. From Truth comes Honesty, Love leads to Compassion and Courage to Valor. Truth and Love combined create Justice, Love and Courage produce Sacrifice, and Truth and Love engender Justice. All three together result in Spirituality. Pride, which is caused by the absence of the principles, is not a virtue, but it's opposite is Humility, which is.

Officially announced in late August of this year, Origin's Ultima X: Odyssey holds the promise of a return to this core aspect of the hallowed single-player RPG series, but within a persistent state environment wherein gamers will have the chance to create their own epic legacies by embodying the Virtues and ascending to the status of Avatars. As for some other notable features, there will be six playable races ranging from Humans to Elves, Gargoyles, Orcs, Pixies and hamster-like Phoda. The game's adventure system will encompass both quests and missions, with some taking place inside private areas. Combat is said to be fast-paced and strategic, with an intriguing twist being "intelligent" weapons that can level up and improve. Recently, we were provided the chance to question Lead Designer Jon Hanna and Designer Amy Sage on various features and elements.

Jon Hanna: Yes, there are parties and guilds. Let's start with how the party system works first and then talk about guilds.

Inviting someone into a party in UXO is really easy. To invite someone, all you have to do is click their character and drag the mouse cursor to the right of the screen. As you drag, a little icon will appear on your mouse cursor. When you drop the icon on the right side of the screen, the other player will automatically receive an alert that you invited him into the party. You can also right click on their name in the chat window and selected "invite to party" from a drop down list of options. Once the player(s) accept the invitations, your party is formed and you'll automatically have a party chat-channel available to all of you. The party system interface makes it really easy to invite further characters, remove characters and set various permissions such as party type, search flags and loot distribution.

Jonric: Probably a larger question is how to find suitable players to group with or parties to join. How will Ultima X: Odyssey handle this aspect?

Jon Hanna: The party leader can set the party type as public, private or open. A private party means you won't show up in other characters' searches for a party. A public party will appear in these searches, allowing characters to send you a message if they want to join. An open party takes this one step further, allowing other players to send you a request to join the party. If you accept, they are automatically added.

This takes some of the pressure off the party leader by skipping the invitation process. So instead of having to answer a tell and then send an invitation, you just accept the player's request and they're in the party immediately. It's a great option if you want to form a party quickly.

If you're not in a party but want to find one, you can use the search options in the party interface. The options allow you to search for parties that are looking for characters of your level and Path. Party leaders can set parameters for Paths and level ranges. When another player performs a search for public or open parties, he'll only see the parties whose criteria he meets. This makes sure that you always only see parties that are interested in characters of your Path and level.

Jonric: From an earlier question, it seems that there will be few if any restrictions as to which characters can grou with one another. How did this come about?

Jon Hanna: There are very few limitations for grouping. In fact, the system is designed to allow even the lowest level characters to group with the most advanced characters. We know that friends can't always spend the same amount of time in the game and sometimes fall behind one another. It never made sense to us to penalize someone just because they fall behind or to make it impossible for them to be able to group with their friends.

In Ultima X: Odyssey, you won't be penalized at all for grouping with lower or higher level characters. This may mean that high-level characters can help a lower level character advance at a slightly faster rate than normal, but we'd rather that than have friends unable to play together.