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Offline Nejira

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Gemstone
« on: November 18, 2009, 05:26:27 PM »
Funny the things you find when browsing the internet. Did you guys know that once upon a time (late 80ties) that ICE were involved in a MUD? It was called Gemstone, but in 1995 the business relationship expired. It took place on Kulthea, with gamemechanics based on the system we all know. But was de-ICEd after the relationship ended.

And....boy is that a letdown, I soooo wanted to play in Kulthea!

The game is still around but is now known as Gemstone IV, and is one of the longest runnings of its kind still active today.
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Offline markc

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Re: Gemstone
« Reply #1 on: November 18, 2009, 05:51:42 PM »
Wow ICE history as well as game history. Bummer it was de-ICE'ed but what can you do.
MDC
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Offline munchy

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Re: Gemstone
« Reply #2 on: November 19, 2009, 05:54:26 AM »
Wow, there has been a computer game using RM as a system. I cannot believe that hasn't been continued.
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Offline Nejira

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Re: Gemstone
« Reply #3 on: November 19, 2009, 08:32:13 AM »
From what I understand, Dark Age of Camelot was originally intended to be based on Rolemaster as well.
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Offline Mider

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Re: Gemstone
« Reply #4 on: November 19, 2009, 08:48:08 AM »
Oh, god

I thought Gemstone died out long ago, I used to play MMUDs back in the day before EQ and other games, dang I might have to take a look at it again.
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Offline Guillaume

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Re: Gemstone
« Reply #5 on: November 19, 2009, 10:34:38 AM »
Some of us knew...
Some of us played on it...
Some of us are waiting for a RM based MMO...

And yes DAoC was supposed to be RM based, but had to be rebuilt almost from scratch ( on the game system side ) because of the Old ICE bankrupcy.
I don't think Gemstone was ever de-ICEd... It just went sideway somewhere in the 90s and ended up having only a few references that might lead towards Kulthea.
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Offline munchy

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Re: Gemstone
« Reply #6 on: November 19, 2009, 12:02:24 PM »
What this reminds me of is that we definitely need more software utilities to aid our gaming with RM (whatever version you fancy) and HARP. Automatic combat resolution, i.e. looking up critical hits that is for me. (I'm a modest person. :))
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Offline pastaav

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Re: Gemstone
« Reply #7 on: November 19, 2009, 01:42:36 PM »
Quote from: Guillaume on November 19, 2009, 10:34:38 AM
And yes DAoC was supposed to be RM based, but had to be rebuilt almost from scratch ( on the game system side ) because of the Old ICE bankruptcy.

If my memory is correct the actual bankruptcy was argued to be caused by delayed payment from DAoC. The popular theory at the time was that DAoC calculated that the cost to purge DAoC of enough RM content to stay below radar from a defunct ICE was cheaper than pay the license to ICE. The idea was that it would have cost DAoC lots of more effort to clean the game it from RM content if ICE had been around to verify that they had removed all RM content. I do of course not know if these theories are based on reality, but they do seemed plausible at the time.
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Offline Guillaume

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Re: Gemstone
« Reply #8 on: November 19, 2009, 03:35:17 PM »
It's more complex... if you were on the lists at the time you know a good part of it... but I don't think it's the place to expand on that, as there's another party involved in the mess. Said other party being of the hitting quite hard kind. ( check my sig and guess what's behind the green words and you'll understand )
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RM, RM2, RMSS, RMFRP, HARP,  MERP, Cyberspace, SM, SM2, SM:P, Star Strike, Armored Assault, SD , SD : The Next Millenium, Bladestorm, Battle of the Five Armies .... Collecting ICE production since the epoch...

Offline munchy

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Re: Gemstone
« Reply #9 on: November 20, 2009, 03:32:30 AM »
Just by accident found another one (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BurningMUD) using Shadow World elements.
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Offline Kurgath

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Re: Gemstone
« Reply #10 on: November 25, 2009, 03:08:36 AM »
Quote from: munchy on November 19, 2009, 12:02:24 PM
What this reminds me of is that we definitely need more software utilities to aid our gaming with RM (whatever version you fancy) and HARP. Automatic combat resolution, i.e. looking up critical hits that is for me. (I'm a modest person. :))

A couple of years ago a friend of mine created an MS Access application that runs combat automatically. It looks up crit tables, attack tables, looks up spells, applies all relative modifiers to combat rolls, spell rolls, etc. calculates xps, and so on and so on......

It's pretty slick (uses RMSS by the way) and even if you didn't want to automate the whole thing it could be used in a modular fashion to at least look up crits, attack tables, etc.

He approached ICE about it back then - the issue being that it contains ICE IP therefore it is of course only for the use of our gaming group but potentially it could be something that ICE might wish to market.

Back then I don't think he got any response from ICE. If any ICE people read this and think there might be interest now let me know and I'll put you back in touch with him.

K
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Offline Witchking20k

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Re: Gemstone
« Reply #11 on: November 25, 2009, 07:26:04 AM »
sounds lik a good six beer solution.
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Offline munchy

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Re: Gemstone
« Reply #12 on: November 27, 2009, 05:16:38 PM »
I know that it does not quite fit this discussion but I thought I still mention it. I've just read that the developers of Diablo III will chuck the whole skill tree thing and may even do without mana in the newest incarnation of the series. Wouldn't it be great to have a HARP or RM computer game? ... sorry, one can still dream ...
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