[MUD-Dev] The MLI Project

[Koster]

On Wednesday, February 25, 1998 5:16 PM, 
cg at ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA wrote:
> [Caliban:]
>
> :One of the things I've been enamored with lately is a throwback to 
Ultima
> :1. If anyone remembers that game, the way it worked was that you 
wandered
> :around in a tile-based graphic world until you got to a dungeon, 
and then
> :it went to a 3D first person view. So I got to thinking...
>
> I played a bit of the early ones on a friend's Apple-II. Is it true 
that
> there was also a space mode on the first one? It doesn't sound 
reasonable,
> but that's what I was told.

Ultima I used a redefined B&W character set at 80x24 for all 
graphics,including the "3d" dungeon view, which was very simple. The 
space sections were overhead view, with an asterisk for a star, and 
little ship icons... Space got left out of all subsequent Ultimas, and 
Richard now says he was "putting the kitchen sink in" and now knows 
better. :)

Ultimas II through VI were basically still an overhead system, though 
more colors and detail accrued. (e.g by II it was no longer B&W). 
Starting at VII the perspective started to change.

>  Ultima went to a third display mode for tactical stuff,
> but I don't think that would be appropriate for a MUD, since the 
arrival
> of wandering NPC's or other PC's could then trigger a mode switch - 
bad
> user interface design! I also don't like some of the alternatives - 
the
> icons for PC's and NPC's bumping into each other, and thus blocking
> passage unnecessarily; the icons overlaying each other, resulting in 
an
> often incomprehensible blur of jiggling pixels; etc.

Believe it or not, I had players ask for exactly that sort of third 
display mode in UO. It took long hours of explaining why it wouldn't 
work to get them to subside...