A Question of Realmz??
| Author | Topic: A Question of Realmz?? |
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Warrior
Member # 5520
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written Saturday, February 19 2005 21:24
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Hello. . . Am a very new member. . . never joined any of this forum thinggy before. . ."Pls be gentle with me^^" Very surprised that there are still many people fondly playing Exiles, like myself, . . the first game I really enjoyed after ultima III and IV on Apple platform. Well the question is. . . when I first played exile on Mac, there was another game called 'Realmz' which looked very similar and I kindda had difficulty in figuring out that these were actually from two different companies. . . Both had many similarities but most of all, some icons of the characters were/are exactly the same, for example, the female mage in red holding a stick, and the one with one handed axe(or hammer) with red top. . . Do any of you know the relationships between Spiderweb and the producer of the Realmz? just wondering. . . Hope I am not arousing the wrath of Mr. Vogel and his colleagues or the S.E.P. [ Saturday, February 19, 2005 21:28: Message edited by: whitenightever ] Posts: 53 | Registered: Saturday, February 19 2005 08:00 |
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Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
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written Saturday, February 19 2005 21:28
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The question comes up every now and then. Spiderweb rarely makes its own graphics; it purchases them from outside sources. Evidently somebody sold the same graphics to Spiderweb and to the makers of Realmz at one point (which is perfectly legal, since neither company actually bought exclusive rights to the graphics). -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, February 19 2005 21:35
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[Edit: Kelandon posted while I was writing all this. Oh well!] Fantasoft, the creator of Realmz, was somehow related to Exiles 1 and 2, probabably only for distribution. Fantasoft appeared in the credits and information for those two games years ago, but I don't know if that's still true for newer versions. Exile 3 was purely Spiderweb, and it's the graphics from that game (later also added to Exile 2 and Exile 1) that appeared in Realmz. I don't know which game got them first, but I'd bet both companies purchased them from a freelance artist without paying extra to have exclusive rights to the sprites. Now for something slightly off-topic. As another mostly former Realmz player, I have to say that even Exile 1 is really a superior product to Realmz. Realmz is buggy and has severe balance problems, and whoever wrote the text for it desperately needed an editor. It has potential, but that potential is largely unrealized. Even Divinity only helps it so far, and BoE far outshines it in that arena too. In conclusion, Spiderweb makes good games and Fantasoft made a good effort. Yes, that was a long complaint against Fantasoft. I can't help being bitter. —Alorael, who also supposes that Spiderweb and Fantasoft could have pitched in together and made a joint purchase of the art. The early relationship between Spiderweb and Fantasoft suggests some willingness to cooperate. [ Saturday, February 19, 2005 21:36: Message edited by: This moniker is even better. ] Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Saturday, February 19 2005 21:40
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Fantasoft originally distributed Spiderweb's games when Jeff was just starting out, and I believe they also accepted the registrations for SW games. [ Saturday, February 19, 2005 21:46: Message edited by: Thuryl ] -------------------- My BoE Page Bandwagons are fun! Roots Hunted! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
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Infiltrator
Member # 4592
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written Saturday, February 19 2005 22:05
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Well this is rather cool. Oh, hello WNE and, welcome man. A few months I also started posting in this forum for the first (as a complete newbie since I had never posted nor check any forum before that), it's good to see another person like that. I played Realmz before Exile. Back then, way back then, if I remember correctly SpidWeb was also based on Madison. Maybe that helped the original collaboration between them. I'm glad to chat (?) about Realmz, since I've been hoping to do so for some time, and was wondering if anybody here had played it. I have a love/hate relationship with Realmz. I agree wholeheartedtly with Alo on this one. Exile is superior to Realmz. There's little (well next to none) role playing in Realmz as far dialogue. It is mostly and exploration and combat game. What I like most about it is the combat system (remeniscent of the SSI (SSI?) D&D gold box games. I also like the wide variety of character classes and races, and the vastness of it, though caves there tend to annoy me after a while. One thing I always wished they had done more is use the "Explore" button which was there but hardly ever was used for anything. Still, it is a cool game, as Alo pointed out, a good effort. Any of you played New Centurions? I downloaded a while back but haven't played it. Is it good? I was excited back then because it looked like Realmz with guns. Is it just that? Or did they fixed some of the annoyances Realmz had? Cheers! -------------------- quote:Random Jack Vance Quote Manual Generator Apparatus (Cugel's Saga) Posts: 604 | Registered: Sunday, June 20 2004 07:00 |
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Warrior
Member # 5520
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written Monday, February 21 2005 18:09
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Thank you . . . ummm . . . *Concubine*. I didn't know this thread was still hanging on here and thought it got deleted for some reason. . . Still learning my way around. :) Yes, I also love to chat about the Realmz. Despite the similarities, there were, obviously, some differences which I think still make good points for comparison. No doubt that Exile was and proved to be better, especially, in my opinion, regarding its plot and its ability to draw and drawn the player into the story. On the one hand the Reamlz was very very open-ended and could just roam about without any obligations - well depended on the scenario. But on the other hands it made me wonder what I was doing this for. And the bugs and crashes apart! Oh, I remember making my characters do 30 attacks every turn with weapons that did not exist in the inventory by exploiting the unfortunate multiple save files and import-export player option in the middle of a scenario. But, Realmz also had its attraction for me. The idea of a town that is spread out on the same surface map, rather than entered into different level looked more realistic(?); Some of the battle features like quicker ones gets more turns and enemy-first battles when surprised. NPCs, summoned and charmed monsters following the party around to assist in the battles, which makes it possible to move with a battalion of monsters. I played both of these years back, and in between I moved to many other countries, changed my com several times, and forgotten about these. Recently had a serious urge to play some good addictive games and found out the Exiles were still there with new series I never knew. . . well I only played up to Exile II. That's when I found out about this forum. I also tried Realmz but they never sent me the registration code nor replied my e-mail. About the New Centurion. Personally I didn't like the idea of guns, lasers, cannons, bombs, and the likes in an RPG game and never attempted though these constituted a nice surprise in one of their scenario - was it the mithril mountains??? [ Monday, February 21, 2005 18:20: Message edited by: whitenightever ] Posts: 53 | Registered: Saturday, February 19 2005 08:00 |
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Warrior
Member # 5520
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written Monday, February 21 2005 18:52
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Oh yes. . . also the vastness of characters and 'races', restrictions and specialties attached to each, made me play again and again trying different combinatoins. Though, the Exile made this all upon the skill points distribution making it possible for the player to develop their own. Cheeers! Posts: 53 | Registered: Saturday, February 19 2005 08:00 |
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Infiltrator
Member # 4592
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written Monday, February 21 2005 19:35
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WNE: I recently registered Realmz again. It took me about. . . I think two or three months to receive a reply from them. -------------------- quote:Random Jack Vance Quote Manual Generator Apparatus (Cugel's Saga) Posts: 604 | Registered: Sunday, June 20 2004 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Monday, February 21 2005 19:40
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The Avernum games have just as much wandering as Realmz, but they have the added benefit of a plot that makes sense. In the case of A1, there's not a huge amount of overarching plot, but at least the world is cohesive. Most of the good ideas from Realmz have appeared in Avernum in one form or another. There still isn't much in the way of outdoor towns (although I prefer the details of town mode), but NPCs appear in Blades of Avernum, action points can be increased or decreased (not to the level of Realmz, granted, but Realmz has insane movement and attacks). The endless races and classes of Realmz were mostly for show. They weren't even remotely balanced, and there was little effort spent on integrating the later additions. Exile and Avernum don't compare at all, though, since they have nothing in the way of classes and races that only amount to an extra special trait. [Edit: New Centurions is a minimally altered copy of Realmz. It's such a copy, in fact, that it still says Realmz in a few places, or it did in the last version I downloaded. Paying extra to register it after enduring Realmz would be voluntarily adding insult to injury.] —Alorael, who will point of Blades of Exile and Blades of Avernum as examples of what can be done with the respective engines by diligent designers. BoE in particular takes Divinity, Realmz' scenario editor, and heartily puts it to shame. [ Monday, February 21, 2005 19:42: Message edited by: Kamchatkan Legionnaire ] Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
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Infiltrator
Member # 4592
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written Monday, February 21 2005 21:00
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Alo, thanks for the comments on NC. Now I'm definitely reserving it for a boring afternoon with nothing to do. That's a shame. I'd hoped that it was an improvement over Realmz. Besides, even if I liked it and wanted to register, it seems I wasn't the only one who had to wait a while for the Realmz code. I wonder if Fantasoft are becoming moribund. Oh, a quick question off-topic: Have any of you played Darklands? I've heard some good things about it. Is it good? [ Monday, February 21, 2005 21:00: Message edited by: Bireme sailor's concubine ] -------------------- quote:Random Jack Vance Quote Manual Generator Apparatus (Cugel's Saga) Posts: 604 | Registered: Sunday, June 20 2004 07:00 |