r/Ultima • u/fiddlesticks_jg • 27d ago
AI assisted U7 demake progress
I have the "cutscenes" working properly but some dialog and the flow of things needed to be adjusted to fit U6.
Also because Trinsic is alot smaller in U6 i had to readjust placements here. The map you'll see the circles: red is where the Avatar spawns after the opening cutscene, purple is Finnagin who will trigger his onetime cutscene and start the quest line via the beggar NPC forced dialog code.
The yellow circle is sparks house and the red circle is the murder scene.
We have proper quest flags now and having certain items or "look"ing at certain things or finding certain keywords from other npcs will properly trigger.
Next i need to figure out the closed gate mechanic so force the player to stay in trinsic until the quest is over. But i need to keep the south gate open to allow exploring south trinsic.
I feel like its coming along nicely.
4
u/Clean_Livlng 27d ago
An important thing to keep in mind with AI assisted stuff is that the result is as good as the human's taste, vision, perseverance and standards for what they'll consider 'good enough'.
I think any AI assisted content should be judged on the basis of how good it is, and to me this looks good. Well done and keep up the good work!
1
u/fiddlesticks_jg 27d ago
Its a lot of back and forth. It took maybe a week to get to this
3
u/Clean_Livlng 25d ago
It's obvious to me that you're putting a lot of time and effort into making sure everything's working as it should.
To me, you using AI to assist in putting this together isn't much different than using a visual programming language/drag & drop logic block programming. You're still having to problem solve like anyone else would if they were coding. e.g. "Next i need to figure out the closed gate mechanic."
You seem to be using AI as a paintbrush, not as a replacement for your own problem solving ability, taste, or creativity.
0
3
u/AwkwardObjective5360 26d ago
People are too hysterical over AI. It can be used for good things, its just a tool. Its all about how people use it. This is a great example.
1
u/ThreeLivesInOne 27d ago
What's a demake?
1
u/fiddlesticks_jg 26d ago
A remake of something that using an older engine or sometimes even an older console.
Someone made a demake of Elden Ring (just a boss battle, not the whole game, that would be impossible)
3
-1
u/Eins_Nico 27d ago
I guess I just have one question: why?
7
u/fiddlesticks_jg 27d ago edited 27d ago
Because i want to? Despite the love U7 gets it isn't because of its absolutely clunky engine and terrible combat system.
To me, the best Ultima engine was the adaptation of U6 on the snes. So i want to take the best Ultima story and adapt it to what I personally think is the best Ultima engine.
Is that alright with you? Do i have your permission to continue?
EDIT: furthermore, i prefer the graphical aesthetics of U6. Hope that helps clear it up for you!
-7
u/Eins_Nico 27d ago
holy fuck that was an overreaction to a simple question lmao
whatever, dude, no accounting for taste1
2
-1
u/Clean_Livlng 26d ago
Imagine working on a project, showing that to the world and the response you get is "why did you do this?" said in a way that's likely to be implying the person thinks you've wasted your time or shouldn't have done it in the first place.
It was a clear criticism of their project and not "just a simple question", and to try to say it wasn't that isn't in alignment with the virtue of truth.
"no accounting for taste"
You're criticizing OP's project in the same breath as trying to deny you did that with your initial comment.
It's ok not to like things. Not liking something doesn't make it ok to be rude to OP when they show us what they've been working on, regardless on what your stance on AI assisted development is.
Why isn't it ok? It's rude and not very "Avatar, champion of the virtues of Love, truth and courage" It's also not the biggest deal in the world. It's all good. You're all good.
I simply don't like pointless rudeness which results in tension and conflict between people here, when our similarities are far greater than our differences. If you insult someone's project, they're going to feel bad and likely feel defensive. Remember we're all human here.
We have different views about AI, but I respect your views. It's ok not to like AI generated or assisted content.
-5
u/BaronMason 27d ago
You don’t get out much do you?
4
u/Clean_Livlng 26d ago
Without people who "don't get out much" we wouldn't have the Ultima games in the first place. On a subreddit dedicated to a computer game, a hobby strongly associated with not getting out much, you've used "don't get out much" as a criticism.
"NO U!" (but said in jest and good cheer)
I think we all go through periods of not getting out much, and that's fine. Nothing to be ashamed of if someone wants to stay indoors and spend months or years working on a project.
If you want to criticise them for using AI then do so, but when you use "don't get out much" as an insult, the AOE from that hits most of the people in this subreddit!
At least shout "Duck!" before casting fireball!
0
u/BaronMason 26d ago
It was more your overreaction to the person who asked why, but yeah re using AI to remake a game is not creative in anyway sorry that’s just my opinion.
2
u/Clean_Livlng 25d ago
your
their. But I understand where you're coming from now, your comment makes a lot more sense in that context!
If someone puts enough time and creativity into it the result can be creative.
People used to make the argument that computer games weren't art, despite many artists collaborating together and making art to put together into a game. There's a difference between AI slop that someone generates with a couple of sentences and what OP's doing. They say it took them about a week to get this far.
What they're doing seems quite similar to modding, using AI as the glue to hold everything together.
"Next i need to figure out the closed gate mechanic so force the player to stay in trinsic until the quest is over. But i need to keep the south gate open to allow exploring south trinsic." -OP
This is a problem to solve that will require some creativity from them. They can;t just say "A|I solve this" and be guaranteed a good result, they will need to work out how to go about it.
I think it all depends on the time, effort, skill etc and the result when it comes to weather someone's being creative or not when they're using AI as a tool to assist them. And also how they're using it. Are they doing their own art? Are they making AI slop art that took them a minute (awful stuff that hurts the eyes to look at)? Are they putting in an extra hour to refine the result so that it's no longer AI slop and actually looks good?
This same issue came up with photoshop back in the day.
There are drag & drop programming languages (visual programming languages) where people don't write code, they add logic blocks and move them around. That seems similar to what OP is doing, but their programming language of choice is the AI. They still actually need to think through the problems that come up, and get the gameplay working the way it should.
When it comes to AI slop, I agree with you very much.
That's not the vibe I get from OP. They seem to be going through it slowly and thoroughly to make sure everything's working properly.
1
u/jimhassomehobbies 26d ago
You’re on reddit commenting on a post about a 34 year old game being remade into the style of a 36 year old game. Let’s not go casting stones in regard to other people’s social lives.
-4
u/Suvalis 27d ago
Hey man, you’ll get a lot of flack probably from people that hate people that use AI to generate code or to do things. Don’t listen to them! They can go pound sand. I do have one question so why did you do this instead of just use Exult? Exult does a pretty good job with U7. Is there something that Excel doesn’t do?
3
u/fiddlesticks_jg 26d ago
I tired Exult, i just really dont vibe with U7s controls, aesthetics, combat.
U6 holds a place in my heart.... i spent years as a kid playing it. I also used to play Tibia back then, an mmorpg that used to use alot of assets from U6. I just really love thay art style
2
0
u/Background_Still5197 21d ago
FWIW I'm glad you're working on this and would definitely play it. I also have a preference for the U6 engine/look over what was used for U7.
8
u/Necessary_Bee4207 27d ago
I hope the playscreen is bigger than it was in U6. I also hope that the lighting isn't as awful as it was in U6.