Talk:Ultima IX: Ascension

The Ultima IX page needs a lot more objectivity. I know everyone dislikes the the game (myself included), but this is supposed to be an encyclopedia, not an editorial column. I did a quick update to get rid of all the most obvious bias, but it still probably needs some work.

Also, is it true that Garriott has said the game was a failure? I'm pretty sure he actually posted a letter to the fans on the Ultima IX website the day before it was released that piled on praise for the game. He also defended many of the apparent inconsistancies in the plot. I removed this particular piece of trivia yet, but I might soon if I don't see a source for it.-- unsigned comment by Incarnadine256.


 * I don't think Garriot has ever said that. The last time I've hard Garriott speak of Ultima was around the time when he formed Destination Games. He basically summed it up at "Ultima IX was a great game at its that could only be released due the dedication of a few peoples. I'm aware of its shortcomings, but I'm proud of what we've accomplished." Basically I'd say that he considers UIX the best they could have done under the cirumstances at EA, though I doubt this is the game he really dreamed of.--Sergorn 21:06, 5 December 2008 (UTC)


 * One thought about the music of the game. The article state : "While previous Ultimas would saturate gameplay with constant music, the music was restricted mostly to scenes in towns, castles and FMVs. It was also less conspicuous, and remained more in the background unlike the imposing scores that would dominate the scene in previous games."


 * Isn't this somewhat untrue though ? Ultima VII and Serpent Isle probably where the games where the music was the most in the background - the games often had silent moments based more on ambiant sounds and even when a music started it never "looped". This is true to some extent in Ultima IX, especially when in the Wilderness or Dungeons (at least when not combatting monsters because combat music did loop then), but all the towns had the music looping non stop, much like in older Ultima games.


 * So basically it's not that different from previous Ultima games, coming as a mix between the traditionnal approach, and what I'd call the Ultima VII (which really did break the mold in that domain I think)


 * Also while the article mentions that the music wasn't synthesis like in older Ultima games, it fails to mention the biggest different : that George Oldziey's music was played on a 40 piece orchestra, thus making it the first and only Ultima game with actual orchestral music.Sergorn 17:54, July 4, 2010 (UTC)

Damn you Ultima IX!
This may not really be proper Wikia discussion, but here we go. So I decided to try to play Ultima IX, it has been 10 years after all, and I was curious to see if my opinion has changed. Unfortunately, it seems the Ultima IX installer doesn't work in Windows Vista, and trying to fiddle around with my compatibility modes still won't let it work. Checking online, I've seen other people have had this problem, but none of them offer any solutions that are feasible for me. Any ideas? Also, does Windows Vista compatibility mode actually even do anything? I've had numerous programs that don't work properly in Vista, and changing my compatibility settings have never changed anything. Dungy 01:19, October 5, 2010 (UTC)


 * I gave it a try. Now I man under Windows 7 and not Vista, but this is close enough. Now the autorun installer doesn't work. With the original install disc it just don't run, and with the updated install disc it crashes when you click install. However... you can install the game by opening the CD and running directly "Setup.exe". This appears to be working and should allow you to install the game from either of these install discs. (As for compatibility I have come up with a few games that work with compatiblity set to Windows 95... but they're very rare). --Sergorn 07:39, October 5, 2010 (UTC)
 * Tried setup.exe last night. That crashed on me too. Weird.  Dungy 10:47, October 5, 2010 (UTC)
 * And then I tried it again this morning and it worked beautifully. It seems my problem was I kept trying to run autorun before running setup.exe.  The issue I had was autorun so completely screwed up my laptop, that setup.exe would no longer work either.  This morning I ran setup,exe without even using autorun, and things went swimmingly.  Dungy 11:02, October 5, 2010 (UTC)
 * I have Win 7 Ultimate, and it installed fine under the XP Virtual Machine that was included. Didn't try to install without it. I may try by using setup directly and see how it runs; the VM makes the game seem even more sluggish than I remember... Browncoat Jayson 17:19, October 5, 2010 (UTC)

Platform gameplay elements?
The gameplay area mention the game was critized of "the inclusion of action or platform gameplay elements". Might I say... huh? As I recally Ultima IX had a grand total of one jumping puzzle in the entire game in Hythloth - so I'm not sure you can argue it had "platforming" elements to be critized. This sounds more like a complain that should be on the Ultima VIII page rather than Ultima IX.

(Also I'd be inclined to rewrite the "most controversial Ultima" part as "one of the most controversial Ultima" since I don't feel we can objectively say which one was more controversial between U8&U9) --Sergorn 19:03, October 7, 2010 (UTC)

While we have greatly improved the objectivity towards Ultima IX over the last few months, I suppose the job continues. Dungy 19:12, October 7, 2010 (UTC)