Talk:Iolo's Hut

What was this letting "hinting" at Serpent Isle?
The article speaks of a letter in U7 that hints of U7.5. Can I see it? It'd make a good reference. AngusM 02:19, September 12, 2010 (UTC)
 * Yeah, there's a letter from Gwenno in the hut. I can't remember specifically where it's found, but it reads as follows:


 * Dearest Iolo,


 * In Buccaneer's Den I came across an old pirate who told me he had sailed across the waters of Britannia more times than I was summers old. On a gamble, I asked if he had ever heard of the legendary Serpent Isle. He had! And he even had a map that would tell how to locate the island. I bought the map and have already begun my search. However, I made a copy so that thou mayest follow me after thy current adventures have ended. I have left the copy with Lord British, but he promised he wouldst not give it to thee until thou hast completed thy explorations with _____.


 * 'Til I see thee again, my love!


 * Gwenno
 * --Terilem 04:37, September 12, 2010 (UTC)
 * Where it was found is not important. Clearly it hints at what the text says it hints at. But now that I've take a 2nd look at the text, what's this talk about a contradiction? I don't see the contradiction. Also, I'd like to know what that "originally" part is about. How does one know what the original intention of the note was?
 * And where does one find the text to this note? It's not at Notable Ultima. AngusM 05:09, September 12, 2010 (UTC)


 * I got the text from the U7 Usecode. This is why I'm hesitant to rely on transcripts. ;)


 * Re: "original intent" -- I'm not sure about that part of the article. The letter still works as a foreshadowing of later events whether both parts of U7 were one game or not. On that note, I don't think I've ever seen the source of the information that U7 and SI were originally one game. I'll try and research that.


 * I was also wondering about this so-called contradiction. I think what the article is talking about is that in the SI intro, there is no mention of the map copy Gwenno already gave to Lord British. I don't see how that makes it a contradiction, though. There's nothing suggesting that Batlin's map was the first to be seen by LB, otherwise that surely would have been a discrepancy.


 * Of course, one wonders at the logic behind why it took a whole 18 months after U7 for all this to come out in the open, but a contradiction? I dunno about that. --Terilem 05:52, September 12, 2010 (UTC)


 * Regarding Gwenno's letter it's found quite simply on Iolo's desk at his Hut, so it's difficult to miss unless you never go there. I don't think there is a contradiction per se with the SI intro, altough the 18 month between U7 and SI have always sounded a bit far-fetched to me - I've always thought personally that they chose this time-frame in order to shoehorn Underworld II and potentially other games between the two Ultima VII Parts (since at that time they were considering the ideas of other Ultima games with the Avatar experiting on his Orb while stuck in Britannia as a starting point)


 * Regarding the original intent of UVII and SI starting as one game, I've honestly never seen any official source stating this and I've always wondered if it wasn't just some fan speculation due to the fact that SI is called "Ultima VII Part II". The only thing I clearly remember is one interview with Garriott between UVII and SI where he said Serpent Isle was not called Ultima VIII because it used the Ultima VII engine and that traditionnaly any new core Ultima used a brand new engine and code


 * Also over the years I've basically seen mentioned two "origins" about Serpent Isle as a game, the first being the "one game cut in two part" aspect. The other being that it started as an independant kind of World of Ultima game that was latter decided to be made as a sequel to Ultima VII and that the original plan was for the Guardian to seize the Avatar through th Black Gate at the end of Ultima VII to send him to Pagan.


 * Now there are argument about the two versions that make sense (notably in case of the WoU theory, why the whole Guardian aspect seems so tengencial to the main story), but again I've never been able to find any official source proving either of these theories - which is why I'm uncomfortable at having either cited as fact on the wiki, but considering how potentially capital both these infos are, not having them mentionned anywhere would also feel silly --Sergorn 09:27, September 12, 2010 (UTC)


 * I was about to say that we are now revelling in speculation about how the text can be justified, and that if someone doesn't step up with some hard information on which to base that text, we should dock it. But I want to hear more about what Segorn is saying about these theories. Are you saying that the theories on why SI was a part 2, and not a U8 are so compelling that they need to be discussed (in articles)? Are you further saying that it was in SI that the Guardian's presence was tangential? It's been a while since I've played SI, so I don't remember the Guardian being so irrelevant.
 * Now my theory about SI is much simpler. As I understand it, U7 was the most lucrative Ultima. It was decided to harvest even more from the market, while keeping expenses down, by reusing the same game engine. Fans might feel cheated if they see the same engine released w/a new major number, therefore "part II".
 * In any case, I don't quite see these theories as an elephant in the room, so I don't have a problem w/not addressing them (in articles). AngusM 00:55, September 13, 2010 (UTC)


 * The more I think about it, the more I think the "one game" theory has its origins in a fan's mind. The distinct impression I get from Warren Spector's SI interview and Sheri Graner Ray's blog is that the two games were always parallel projects. Besides which, I can't imagine a design spec with such a monumental scope would have ever made it into full production without the team realising they'd have to make some big cuts to have it be a viable project.
 * And yeah, the Guardian's role in SI was admittedly rather irrelevant. He pretty much just shows up for Batlin's death and then again at the end to whisk away the Avatar. The rest of the plot essentially has nothing to do with him. --Terilem 03:46, September 13, 2010 (UTC)


 * I mean if we find real facts pointing to them we should mention it, since it's always interesting to have informations about how the games were being developped (and except for Ultima IX we admitedly don't have that many). I'd actually argue that we should remove all references in the wiki about Ultima VII and SI being one game cut in half and keep solely the verifable fact: meaning that it was called Ultima VII Part II because each new Ultima game traditionnaly used a new engine.
 * You're right about the game being done to cut expanses by reusing the UVII. I mean that was the basic idea between the Worlds of Ultima games and the Ultima VI engine too, and even later with the Ultima VIII engine (that was reused for Crusade and the first iterration of Ultima IX). Note that this is also why the "World of Ultima" thoery sounds plausible because it does feel the project has been started for the sames reasons as the WoU games. Also if you take into account Arthurian Legends, which also used the Ultima VII engine and was originally imagined as a World of Ultima spin-off before evolving into its own independant RPG, it does not sound far-fetched to think that SI might have started as a WoU game that became part of its core series. As pointed by Terilem the Guardian aspect of the plot really is secondary: I mean SI is mostly about saving the world from Imbalance and exploring the Ophidian Virtues, to the point really that it almost felt like the whole Batlin/Guardian aspect was added as an afterthought. But of course that's just speculation (perhaps someone should page Sheri Graner Ray or Bill Arminthrout? :P)
 * I got the impression as well that UVII and SI were parrallal projects from the start or almost from the start in any case, probably because OSI felt immediately they should reuse the UVII engine and assets. In any case it seems pretty likely that development was started before Ultima VII was out, and it's also established that development ran concurently with Ultima VIII (with basically the Spector/Armintrout team running things on SI, while the Garriott team ran things on Ultima VIII). --Sergorn 07:35, September 13, 2010 (UTC)


 * It's a real shame the Origin Museum is no longer online. They had uploaded a whole pile of internal Origin newsletters that might have shed some more light on this issue. I wish I'd had the foresight to save them all. --Terilem 08:21, September 13, 2010 (UTC)


 * Defintily aye, and it seems it's not avaiable either through the Web Archive :(. Also I have to say when I see all the stuff about Wing Commander the guys at the CIC managed to get over the years, from simple information to full-fledged design docs about existing or cancelled projects there is something very frustrating about the fact nothing of the stuff about Ultima ever leaked online. I mean I'd certainly love to have a look at the design docs from previouses iterations of Ultima IX --Sergorn 08:44, September 13, 2010 (UTC)

Article name
At this wiki, I think we have the bad habit of capitalizing every word in an article's name. In particular, this makes no sense for this article. It has just been decided that Iolo's hut is going to be treated a a common noun or term. That is, it's going to be called "Iolo's hut", not "Iolo's Hut". However, the article itself, for no real reason except the bad habit mentioned before, is called "Iolo's Hut". This is not very consistent. I think that we should 1) rename this article to "Iolo's hut", and 2) start doing the same with other articles where this applies.--Sega381 14:51, September 13, 2010 (UTC)
 * My view has always been that it is the title of the article. And being a title should be treated like a title. I'd find it pretty jarring to change. However I see that Wikipedia agrees with you as well as other wikis. So, as much as it pains me, I agree with you as I imagine they know better than I. -- Fenyx4 16:58, September 13, 2010 (UTC)