Ambrosia Software Web Board: What do you want in future releases? - Ambrosia Software Web Board

I have a feeling I know what the most popular answers are going to be, but I'll ask anyway - what do you want to see in future releases?

This applies to:

a) new scenarios (with the more-or-less existing engine)
enhancements to the current Delver engine
c) future generations of the Delver engine

And to be more specific, please try to refrain from "that would be cool" ideas that aren't practical (here's a hint - Ambrosia doesn't have the resources that either Microsoft or Origin has available to it), or require cutting edge hardware that only a fraction of the user base would have...

this might be a little far fetched or unoriginal, but see if a multi-player option could be used. nothing fancy, but like maybe, certain missions are there for certain types of people (i.e. mages, warriors, etc.) where they can make a living on their own, using trading, plundering, "borrowing", or earning. the players could interact with each other and also trade, sell, etc. like they could set their own prices and stuff. the players could help each other with missions using their experience. it might be too much work to put all this in, but it was just a thought, everything else is pretty cool. great job.

I realize that the Delver code was not intended for this purpose and it would take a lot of work, but I think a major improvement would be the ability to create and use custom scenarios. Much of Escape Velocity's staying power is due to the ease with which developers can extend or replace its universe. Yes, there are a lot of rotten EV plugs out there. But there are also some wonderful ones. I remember reading a comment you made once about how little of the gameplay was tied to the engine. So we should be able to see a wondrous assortment of different game models if custom worlds are supported.

This concept has been discussed before, especially in the early stages of Delver development. A lot of major work would be involved:

* We would need thorough documentation of Delver's scripting language. This is probably the easiest task, since you probably created some sort of documentation during development.
* We would need an editor for placement of graphics, sounds, tiles, etc. since, as I understand it, none of the resources are easily accessible through utilities such as ResEdit. This would be a full development project in itself.
* The scripting language would probably have to be crippled somewhat to make it harder to do "bad things"-- since the language was created for your use, it probably lets one be too free for one's own good and potentially cause crashes.

So I doubt we'll ever see this. Maybe an alternative would be to agressively pursue the option of licensed outside developers using the Delver engine, as was also mentioned earlier. But I think it's more in the spirit of the game than a multiplayer Cythera would be, as that would require extensive retooling of the basic gameplay model.

--JB

1. more easter eggs

2. did cythera have any easter eggs?? if so what are they.

Statistics for weapons and armour.
I personaly don't mind it, but I have friends who complain about Cythera not having stats
Even if it was an extra patch you could download so that it wasn't standard
or at the very least a text file that gives us a better idea about how much damage the weapons do and how much damage the armour prevents.
If neither of these are possible or not likely to be done, start work on a new scenario or a second engine, Delver is a great engine but a new engine could open up a lot of new possibilties.

A way to get from place to place quickly. Something like a network of those teleporters in the seldane cave. My feet get tired walking all the way across the world .

I think that there should be a multi-player option... You can join people, and people can join you. You could attack people on the roads (ruffians), or open a shop in Cademia. It'd be really neat.

And you could play in a local network, so your friends can aid you . Then again, there is Bolo, there was Bolo...

Oh one more thing, you could make add-on plugs so you can put more fun and surprises into Cythera. Like you could make new islands, people, and plots.

[This message has been edited by DataSpot (edited 11-21-99).]

My top priority would definitely be the ability to easily add new missions and/or new scenarios to the game. That is by far my favorite thing about EV and EVO, not to mention other games like Lode Runner 2. Multiplayer support would be nifty too, but I know that's a lot harder to do. Focus first on the expandability, IMHO.

Glenn

PS: Nice first name, Mr. Andreas!

Speaking of lode runner, I loved the old lode runners. Where can I get them?

Lets ignore this little mistake...

[This message has been edited by DataSpot (edited 11-24-99).]

I want a Cythera editor in a future version. Do they have one already? It would be so cool to make cythera in different time frames, etc.

My point exactly, for example:
It would be in the 22nd century, and you would have telepathy instead of magic. And instead of Pnyx, you could make it a telepathy campus, and you would get an implant to use telepathy.

About the new genre of scenarios:

By amazing coincidence , IMG [Inside Mac Games] asked a lot of questions that are exact duplicates of what some are asking, during an interview with Herr Andreas. Lessee if I can pull that up...

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IMG: How flexible is the delver engine - could it be used for a sci-fi game?

Glenn: Depending on what you need, sure it could. It wouldn't support things like flying spaceships, but otherwise it should work. The underlying role-playing rules are fairly generic as well - there are three underlying stats, secondary stats like health and mana (which would probably be used as some sort of psi-power or something) and then a bunch of skills.

IMG: Can we expect to see more scenarios created using the Delver engine?

Glenn: Yes - I sure hope so, though probably done by others. I also plan on making new, more powerful engines (the sequel to Cythera requires some things that the engine currently doesn't do). There are other deviations using some of the core parts of the Delver engine that could also be done (off the top of my head, perhaps some sort of random dungeon exploration game - like the old Rogue/Hack/Moria/Angbad style games).

I would like to have the ability to run. Also, having the weights of things as well as Tobbles idea of weapon and armour stats. Better level gaining ability (i.e. the way the wonderful ancient game known as Moria does it, rather than using binary/number doubling like Ambrosia love to do). Better foes, such as goblins, trolls, wolves, real harpies (not flying sting rays), dragons (they're lizard based), ghosts as foes not just things flying around down in that city, etc. I would also like to have the ability to cure myself if I get terrorized or paralyzed. I would love it if it were more like Moria in spirit than a game that seems as though they didn't REALLY think about it.

Although others have complained about them, I hope future releases still have the red herrings and loose ends that give the world more depth and realism. Everything in the game should not be central to the main plot. That would make it too easy.

I disagree. I find loose ends to be extremely frustrating. I don't mind that there are things in the game that don't have anything to do with the main plot...but I like resolution. Sorry.

---Zelda

Ok, I have not played this game yet... Plan on it tonight, but if this is not implemented yet, I would highly suggest NPC schedules. Of course time-pieces would be needed to track time. I always was fond of Ultima's for this and felt that it provided a *worldly* feel to the game...

ProXimity

I have only been playing for about a week now (an hour or two a night), so I'm not terribly experienced yet, but I have thought of a few features I'd like to see added.

1) I agree that weapons stats would be nice. I would also like to see opponent stats of some sort. It doesn't seem fair that my NPCs know who is the weakest and strongest and I don't!

2) Along with the "Explain" feature of Ability, I would like a small description of how to use a particular spell or ability. For example: Acertainment - I don't know if I just havn't caught anyone in a lie yet or if I'm just using the spell incorrectly. (I just KNOW that seedy little Magpie is lying through his teeth but I can't seem to prove it!)

3) Perhaps down in my character's "DO" pop-up menu, I would like to have a "SHOUT" command that would bring my NPCs running back to me when they get stuck somewhere or wander off. I'm tired of getting jumped by ruffians and the rest of my gang is off fiddling around in the woods somewhere or hanging out in some crack house in Cademia.

4) I would REALLY like a search feature on the Journal. I log almost everything that everyone says and scrolling up and down in that itty-bitty window scanning for a name or a word gets pretty tiring and frustrating.

5) One of the things I like most about this game is the attention to time and the effect it has on events and on the daily lives of the people in it. So I thought in keeping with that idea, having the ocean tide rise and fall would be a unique feature. (At first I actually thought it did this. I was looking for something that I assumed was near the coast and when I couldn't find it I thought that perhaps it was just currently underwater. But it turned out that I was just looking in the wrong place.)

Those are my first impressions anyways. I am really enjoying the game so far.

I knew there was something else I couldn't think of at the time! Like Iheredoe said, the journal really needs some better way of organization. Rather than a search feature, though, I would like to see a way to define your own categories (not just like "Useful" and "Important", which don't really mean anything to me as far as organization goes, but ones like "Curing Alaric" and "Kesh, etc.") and be able to "jump" to a particular category. That way, you could create a category for each series of missions you are working on, and be able to refer to it whenever necessary without scrolling your entire journal every time.

Related to this, there really ought to be some way to edit your journal entries, so that you could, for example, annotate what someone said - "Ascertainment says he's lying" or "This matches what Alaric told me." These would be very helpful!

Glenn

I think that a great feature to be added to Cythera would be the ability to Sell Items such as Foodstuffs to inns and taverns, Armor/Weapons to Blacksmiths etc. It would allow people to make Oboloi faster, actually have a use for killing and taking stuff off of Ruffians, and make the game more fun. It would be a great feature, and a great improvement to an already great game. I love everything about Cythera except this feature which is something I hope won't be a hard thing to fix, but even if it is, it's a feature i think many would agree would render the game much more fun. I hope you will consider this request, it would make the game more realistic, more fun, more uses for haggling, and make making Oboloi a bit easier. Thankyou!

There are a few things that i would like in a future version of cythera

1 Magic Rings, for example, the ring of fire: when worn, the wearer is unaffected by heat and rune of flame, mystic arrow, fireball, and lightning.
ring of mana: wearer doesn't lose magic points when casting something
ring of life: wearer is invinsible
ring of knowledge: wearer can learn anything and knows it until the ring is taken off (and maybe you could use it to make your character super-everything then give it to a member of your party)
ring of time: stops time until your mana runs out

2 More stuff you can learn, like maybe you could talk to a certain blacksmith and learn how to make helmets and armor and swords.
or if you complete a special (very special) mission you could learn how to make oboli.

3 More goodies/easter eggs. a magic mirror ("mirror mirror on the wall, give me lots of loot")

4 Invisibility cloak. you can wander around without anyone/anything seeing you, you could attack but the enemy would only swing in random places.

You know what I find really annoying? I really hate it when I move something in the game, and then the next time I look for it, it has disappeared. If you were to fix this, would it cause say, a chest to come back six hundred times in the same place? If you can, try to fix this.

Just some idle musings of mine. These are some features that would be nice to have, would most likely be rather hard to put in the game. Oh well.

-Make the other members of your party show up on the automap thingy.

-Have your other party members be able to go off and talk to someone else without you starting the conversation. This way, you could gather information alot faster.

-As many other posters have said, allow you to sell weapons- armour-whatever to shop owners.

Keep up the good work!

Journal- being able to edit entries would be nice, i ended up doing a lot of cutting and pasting to the notepad and creating and deleting entries, and a simple edit feature woule have been very helpful.
also, be able to add info from scrolls, signs, books, etc to the journal, as i found a lot of info on bookshelves that i liked and wanted to keep, but i had to handwrite it all down.

also, I dont know if this is possible or not, but alter weapons and armor so that there is no one 'best' weapon, but that different ones are suited for different purposes, like swords would be good against soft/unarmored things(people, critters, etc) and maces would be good for armored/hard things(crabs, ruffians with armor, etc)
I dontknow if that can be done or not, i dont know the least bit about programming, but i think it would be nice if the different weapons and armor had thier strongpoints and weakpoints.

also, could it be possible to find slingstones? I would imagine that pretty much any fist-sized rock would do, so you should be able to find them lying around the ground and such.

also, make level advancment a little easier, i kinda got stuck cause i spent all my points on battle/magic skills, and i didnt learn how to cook(i figured i wouldnt need it since i could kill critters and ask the land-king-hall cook for food)

oh, and maybe some spell that can sort of 'proof' you against spells like fear and confusion, or a potion that gives you a resistance/immunity that you would use before getting in a fight with a demon

thats all i can think of for now, maybe ill add more later
oh, and make the world bigger