So how many endings are there?

[Steelrend]

Ultimately, I see only three. But what's about the case when you were not able to cope with disarming the bomb somehow? What happens if you ascend after the Dark Savant leaving the bomb a threat?

I think there should be at least 10 endings (including the previously mentioned one), depending on whether you decided to exterminate the Umpani/T'Rang or conclude a peace treaty between them, even not counting your relations to Higardi, Rapax etc by the final battle.

Too bad such a game is unfinished. =/

[biogoo]

If you dont disarm the bomb, Dark Savant will blow the planet (including you) before you can get to the Cosmic Circle. Thats about as an end to the game as any other random death:)

[morbidfacination]

Yea, it had the potential to be much larger than it is. Saddly with money run out and noone willing to publish the game, it sat for quite some time before it was finally released. The Curries, SirTech Canada dumped a lot of their own time and money to finish this game up as much as possible to get it released. With such an archaic engine, what few mods out there are mostly item and spawn changes. I suppose it would be possible for someone to take on the daunting challenge of addnig more robust content, but I just don't see that happening. I just enjoy it for what it is, and personally use the Flamestryke mod. It adds some unique mobs and items and bumps the difficulty up a bit. Then again, I'm old hat at this game

[Syrris]

Actually, failing to disarm the bomb does give you a fourth (albeit unsuccessful) special ending.

Aside from the development being cut short, the main reason that you don't get a large number of sub-scene combinations is that two of the successful endings effectively make those relations meaningless - you've recreated the universe in an evil image, or you've essentially negated the majority of cosmic history.

Even in the third case where, cosmic forge in hand, you do write things into being regarding most of those factions, their situation becomes whatever you want it to be - so again, your personal relations with them only matter if you want them to... and the nature of Phoonzang's fall strongly suggests that this is not a good idea.

[Seewhyseeoh]

Oprindeligt skrevet af morbidfacination:

Yea, it had the potential to be much larger than it is. Saddly with money run out and noone willing to publish the game, it sat for quite some time before it was finally released. The Curries, SirTech Canada dumped a lot of their own time and money to finish this game up as much as possible to get it released. With such an archaic engine, what few mods out there are mostly item and spawn changes. I suppose it would be possible for someone to take on the daunting challenge of addnig more robust content, but I just don't see that happening. I just enjoy it for what it is, and personally use the Flamestryke mod. It adds some unique mobs and items and bumps the difficulty up a bit. Then again, I'm old hat at this game

+1 for Flamestryke mods!! (The sadly late flamestryke was amazing!)

[Steelrend]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Syrris:

Actually, failing to disarm the bomb does give you a fourth (albeit unsuccessful) special ending.

Aside from the development being cut short, the main reason that you don't get a large number of sub-scene combinations is that two of the successful endings effectively make those relations meaningless - you've recreated the universe in an evil image, or you've essentially negated the majority of cosmic history.

Even in the third case where, cosmic forge in hand, you do write things into being regarding most of those factions, their situation becomes whatever you want it to be - so again, your personal relations with them only matter if you want them to... and the nature of Phoonzang's fall strongly suggests that this is not a good idea.

Uhm I guess you're rather right at this point than not. Even so, I hoped at least to fight arm in arm with both Umpani and T'Rang against the Dark Savant, I'm so sad that didn't happen. Generally speaking, I'm disappointed at the final battle being too easy.

[Syrris]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Steelrend:

Uhm I guess you're rather right at this point than not. Even so, I hoped at least to fight arm in arm with both Umpani and T'Rang against the Dark Savant, I'm so sad that didn't happen.

What was part of the plan - but had to be cut because of the time constraint - is that your alliance(s) would have factored into events in the Ascension Peak region. It was meant to be a full-on battlefield with the T'rang and/or Umpani (depending on how that turned out), the Brotherhood of Ascension (Anselm's squad, at least), and perhaps others being involved in a region-spanning battle against the Rapax and Savant forces (although even there, maybe with some differences among the Rapax depending on how you handled them).

This was simply beyond them to get done in time, and in fairness, probably would also have been a nightmare to make work well given the limitations of the game engine.

[Steelrend]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Syrris:

and in fairness, probably would also have been a nightmare to make work well given the limitations of the game engine.

I wouldn't know, once I had a flock of more than 40 enemies at a time, and it kind of worked smoothly during the entire fight somehow. I mean, the game didn't get crashed nor freezing etc.

[Nuee]

This would be an excellent KickStarter game. Wizardry 8A or some such. (as there are others past 8 but not as good). New engine, New story, Same basic rule set.. Though making swapping classes more viable again. In 6 and 7 one of the keys is to swap classes regular.

[biogoo]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Nuee:

This would be an excellent KickStarter game. Wizardry 8A or some such. (as there are others past 8 but not as good). New engine, New story, Same basic rule set.. Though making swapping classes more viable again. In 6 and 7 one of the keys is to swap classes regular.

I would be very cautious with that. Class swapping is already overpowered as it is in w8. I would allow class swapping, but at the same time create a maximum skill level that would be bound on certain classes level. Like you could only have 50 stealth if you have 5 levels of rogue, ninja and monk combined. This would need some balancing, but it would allow for creativity while supressing powerleveling a bit. I would also add similar rules to gear requirements, while allowing the gear to be used even when you are another class at the moment.

[Syrris]

Even if such a remake kept the same game system, I really wouldn't want to see a return to the class-of-the-day swapping of the earlier games.

A kickstarter would require securing permission from the current license-holder. That seems unlikely, and it's even less so that development (and sales) would be left alone.