f13.net

I hear there's a new game called Ultima Online looking for beta testers:

http://www.uoherald.com/beta/

Just in case anyone's interested. Don't think news of the beta had been posted yet.


http://www.uoherald.com/kingdomreborn/overview.php

The earlier thread on the revamp is here:

http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=7972.0

I still think UO is the best MMORPG ever made, I just don't think I could bring myself to play it again. All those hours spent making fancy shirts have traumatised me.

Odd the spell checker likes it with the Z and with the S. I'm traumatized.

This might be the worst thread I've ever seen on the internet. And it hasn't even begun.

Yay ugly threads!

Also postcount++

Also UO rocks.

Oh ho, I smell comedy!

So instead of beating a dead horse, they have reanimated it, and want us to ride the stinking rotting corpse around for a test drive?

I like Kool-Aid.

I wonder what they'll call it...

UO2
UOX
UOPOS

Seriously though, considering the cost to revamp this bad boy, in terms of a business investment, I'd wager that it's going to be pretty cheap to produce and the revenues will make it more than worthwhile.

UO:SloppySeconds
UO:OnlyWUAStillPlays
UO:WeFinnalyMadeEQOutOfIt
UO:BaybeJessusTears
UO:ItsNotAMirrorThisTimeWePromise
UO:PeachesThinkIamCool
UO:DevUniversityFailedProject
UO:WhatWentWrong
UO:LordBritishAcidTrip

Can we skip 12 pages of rampant asshatery and proceed to den this? We *know* where this going.

I've still got beta discs for the original UO beta and the Turd Dawn beta.

UO /was/ the best mmo ever made. Ten years ago. The bar has been raised and UO has pretty much trashed the majority of what made it unique, the things we liked about it.

That said, the new overhaul looks atrocious.

I heard pink neon is new black.

Cool. They brought the graphics up to about Diablo 2 level. *yawn*

No matter how good the game looks (and it isn't good), I cannot go back to quad-directional movement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_spelling_differences#-ise_.2F_-ize
 :thumbs_up:

So about that trammel thing...

UO: There Is No Z-Axis.

Maybe this is EA's way of testing if there is support for another attempt at UO2.

Eh.

Looks like ass.

I like ass.

Oh, I see what you mean.  Never mind ;)

OR you and a number of others could just, you know, not be a dick.



Anyway, is this the expansion / new UI we had another thread about where WUA was already excited, or is this something new?

Woo hoo!  I'll play!   :lol:

Call me crazy, but when even AFTER their graphics update, diablo 2 still looks a shitton better, why am i supposed to really care?

To me the upgrade it's not really on the visuals side. It's more on how the characters will move. I still have to try it, but if the chars will be able to move as smooth as Diablo 2 ones, then it'll be very good.

About the visuals, you all should stop yapping and point me to a game with UO gameplay and better graphics. Oh look, there's none. Let's stick to this one then,maybe on Siege, you know.

Of course you'll try it.  You're every bit as bad as I am!

Ehm, I actually thought someone might want to know EA were beta-ing this thing because they might want to sign up. Funny how things turn out sometimes.

They all secretly like your post, Palmer, they're just too afraid to admit it. At least fivefourthreetwo of them have already signed up for the beta. I have, of course, already signed up days ago. :P

Considering EA's new relationship with The9, I wonder if they did this work to push UO over to China, where it seems like every other MMO is isometric.

In all honesty, I appreciate you posting this palmer. I'm actually interested. UO is the only game I ever left after getting rid of everything and deleting my characters. And it's been since Third Dawn since I've been there, so I'm pretty curious. Plus, while it can't hold a candle to D2, the graphics way much better than the UO of old, particularly the lighting. Finally, I'm very interested in the vamped UI. About time.

No idea if or for how long I'll last seeing as what scant hours a week I have are in LoTRO. But it's worth checking out.

EA has its own studio in China.

Precisely.

Besides, know what reminds me of Diablo 2?  Characters of the same class and general level looking almost indistinguishable from one another.  At least in UO I can pick my friends out of a lineup by looking at their clothes/armor.

I haven't played UO since before they changed it, so what gameplay is that in today's terms?

Commonwealth English = s
American English = z

Lots of words like that.

Yeah, the English never got around to fixing their incorrect spellings.  Or converting to metric. 

They're too busy being American lapdogs.

Oh, I applied.  I never played the original.  It might be briefly amusing.

Building, hosting, and distributing MMOs?

Well, I have to admit that UO was probably the most fun I've ever had in a Video Game... but updating it like this is like remodeling the local historic landmark... the only reason people ever go around there is nostalgia... If it doesn’t look anything like the glory days, wtf would I want to go back?

Not that I'm aware of though their Japan center does that so they do have people over in Asia that can do it. I thought you were saying that The9 should do the localization work for UO if they wanted to sell it in China.

I don't think the graphics are great (and I don't think they're meant to be, I'm assuming that they're keeping system specs demands low because much of their userbase are operating on lower end machines) - but one thing I do think is that they did a fine job of making the new graphics "feel" like the old ones, in a way.

Obviously UO graphics are UO graphics and anything else isn't the same, but I'd say they've done a good job for what they were trying to do.

What offends the olfactory senses to me, anyway, is the mishmash of philosophy here. On one hand, they create a new client without placing strain on their existing userbase to upgrade their computers. They make the new graphics look, at least mostly, and feel - as much as they can, really - like the old graphics.

They seem to know that, rightfully, they're not stealing anyone from WoW - and that existing users are what they need to worry about first.

But now they'll start working on an expansion to add Draenot and 40 man raids to add to their elves, ninjas, robots, cooshies, artifacts, whatever.

I don't know.  The current dev team seems to be actually keeping to their blurb about "putting more Ultima in UO" this time around.  All of the recent in-game events have been based around lore from Ultimas 5-7, and the new race in the upcoming expansion is gargoyle ala Ultima 6, and not... you know... dwarves or tauren or some shit.

And in retrospect, I don't really mind the samurai/ninja thing.  It would be one thing if they just slopped it in with no explanation, but it's segregated logically.  All of the Japanese-themed clothing, equipment, monsters, and trainers are found only on the Japanese-themed landmass.  The Moonglow tailor can't sell you a kimono, and no amount of farming Despise will ever net you a wakizashi.  What the hell, at least it makes Tokuno feel more like a separate land, with different critters in the field and different items in the shops.

The elves piss me off, but whatever.  At least they'll be balanced by a non-pretty and lore-relevant race now.  And if anyone can show me a non-Diku fantasy MMO with as much sandboxyness as UO but better graphics, well shit, I'd be glad to hear about it.

/shrug

There were katana's and french bread since the beginning of UO, not exactly fitting into Brittania from the get-go. Was this a sign of things to come? Did a hero take a moongate from Earth and drop off the French Bread recipe to some local baker? Stay tuned for these answers and more with the next expansion: UO: The Hun Invasion

God, I hate those pesky Huns.

Hey!  :?

There, there.  I'm sure he couldn't possibly mean you because you are very lovely.

www.eve-online.com
(Sort of).

Implementing events dealing with early Ultima games is... nice, but more of a thing to be done in 97/98 for a bit of fun, no? I just don't see how it could even be a mentionable part of any feasible game plan. It seems more like a gimmick than a plan. A new landmass with Gargoyles and what not.. sort of falls in the same category I suppose. I'm sure Gargoyles play more authentic to the crowd, and that's nice.. if anyone playing UO would still notice that type of thing. But I just don't see a revival strategy to go with a revival opportunity here.

At this point, UO doesn't need autopilot plans. I like that there seems to be a direction, sort of, as opposed to years past. But I think they're going to need more than that.

At this point they may be happy with holding onto their current subs for another five or six years? I don't know. I think the new client will help, but I also think it's at least three or four years late and probably won't garner the results they're hoping for. I'd love to be wrong about that. I'm a big fan of UO. I just think it's been mutilated too badly over the years and needs a serious captain to take hold of the wheel and go "Alright, this is what we're doing. This is where we're going with it. This is why. And this is why it will work. Here is how it will pan out over the next three years.".

I think the game has been desperate for that guy or gal for a long time now though. The worst thing for a MMO, really, is a total loss of direction and a complete identity crisis as the game changes hands repeatedly.

The shame I see in this is that the release of the new client will probably be their last solid chance to right the ship, and I can see it passing without incident like so many expansions past. But hey, prove me wrong.

Come on.

That and pulling back however many folks they can who have churned away over the years, but basically yes.  If it's 2012 and UO still has it's 100k+ subscribers, I don't doubt that EA/Mythic will be tickled pink.  Going balls-out for a "revival" of a decade-old MMO in today's marketplace sounds like the sort of thing that leads to NGE territory.

Graphical and UI overhauls, and content derived from Ultima instead of the ELF-COWBOY-ROBOT-NINJA-JEDI-MAFIA dartboard?  I don't really know what else they're supposed to be doing.

You mean other than bringing back pre-casting, beeotch?

For my money, I would want it to be something other than "coast into the darkness". I also sincerely doubt they have 100k+ subscribers right now, let alone in 2012 - upgrade or no upgrade.

The last thing I'd suggest is an overhaul, anyway. Remember where I said that current users come first.

This is more along the lines of what I mean. But I don't see how it's being accomplished?

Look. Like it or not, UO worldlyness and PvP are still unique. Among other things, given the lack of meaningful PvP fantasy MMOs and worldly non-dikus, they are trying to:

a) get some visibility back, letting the world know the game is alive and kickin with expansions, investments and revamps
b) give old players a reason to get back retaining the feeling but giving them something new to look at
c) improve the way the game "moves" (scrolling was horrible, moving the char around was awful, etc...), enhancing the overall game experience and eventually the PvP part

What's so hard to understand? The game is alive, healthy, unique, and worth improvements of all kind. As much as I love the old 2d graphics, which will remain on duty anyway, I think they are on the right track, steaming. In-game events included (Can't get enough of those).
Wasted chance you say? They are redoing the visuals, putting in the gargoyles and re-introducing the legendary Stygian Abyss (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_Underworld:The_Stygian_Abyss). As WUA said, "I don't really know what else they're supposed to be doing." Exactly.

Anyway, if what you are trying to say is that it won't beat WoW in 2008, alas, I agree. But it'll go close.

I'm agreeing with Azaroth here. As an outsier looking in now (last I played was a few months after the paladin and necromancer skills expansion) it seems the devs are interested in adding new monsters and tacking on new systems, skills, races, and landmasses. Now while that's all fine, I don't recall them overhauling any of the old systems that are just shit now that it's no longer the 90s. Crafting would be the biggest one, I couldn't for the life of me stand to make another GM <crafting skill> without EasyUO running the whole time while I do something else. Skilling up in general is very poorly done and quite painful if you just want a character in a hurry, and lets face it, that's what you want nowdays, a character thats ready to take on the toughest monsters or craft the best stuff. As I understand it PVP besides moongate camping and champions spawns is largely dead everywhere. Etc. UO for me went from a PVP and crafting paradise with dressup (yes I admit it, I spent hours putting my outfit together), treasure hunting, fishing up MOBs, and some monster bash on the side to all monsterbash with some other shit left over from the old days. That's the main reason I don't come back, it just never was about the monster bash for me and it seems to me thats all they care about.

I also hate the legacy system. Nothing says to me "and STAY out!" like making a new account only to not be able to use leather dye tubs and not have a horse that doesn't run away, etc, etc. I don't pay $15 to become a second-class citizen just because I'm not obsessed enough to have played for 10 years.

If they hope for any kind of revival they need to address issues that made people quit. It wasn't old graphics, so I don't see new client going to bring more subs.

Timing release of 'classic' server with new client would be best shot they can get at pulling some subs back.

I wasn't going to bring up the 'classic server' thing, cause if it was going to happen im guessing they would have done it by now. Here's to hoping, you know I'd give it a go.

Like what?  I'm not being facetious.  I'm just a little puzzled at how they can cast their entire interface and all their graphics to the wind, pile on some new content, and people think they aren't going far enough.  Now granted they could use something like an improved faction system for PVP, but that's hardly make-or-break, and anyway we can't comment fully until we know all the features of the content expansion.


Bruce had them at around 135k as of last year.  I mean yeah, it's Bruce, but I seem to recall UO being one of his more reliable figures thanks to some obscure investor report EA puts out.

What?
Non-Diku, worldly, PvP (with item loot, no less), player housing, etc, etc. EVE owes almost as much to UO as it does to Elite.

I think he wants elves.  Because, really, who doesn't ?

Sure.

Flasback. We are back in 2001.
Allakhazam Boards:

Clueless Guy: "Sup guys? I am bored with EverQuest but I want to play that kind of game again, just not EverQuest anymore. Can you give me some directions?"

Smart Guy: "Not sure about now, but in a few months Earth and Beyond is coming out. That should be exactly what you are looking for."

I heard that in this game people can kill you and take your stuff, but that they don't because of player-enforced justice?  Does that work, because it sounds pretty awesome to me!

They'd have to hire me for that. I'm not being facetious. I also probably wouldn't be able to take the job, but I have plans of my own that don't include laying out every thought in my head on messageboards or blogs.



From everything I've read and heard from people who still play, that number seems wildly... "fluffed"? Unless about 80k or so of that comes from Japan. Which wouldn't surprise me either. I do think they could do better. I don't think the answer lies solely in add-on content (that nobody is really noticing).

I also think they should probably just make UO2 for real. With two chopped attempts at UO:Diku, the new client, and Warhammer.. that's just not going to happen. Which is why everything I say doesnt' go something like "Yeah but here's what you do when you start to remake the game".

It still has 26 servers. I know they are "smaller" than most recent games, but as far as I know they never merged one.
And it probably has more subscribers than Vanguard. Plus, if you do the math, even if it has like 40k subscribers, 12$ * 40k = 480k $/month. Almost 6 millions/year.
How much do you think it costs them to run the whole boat?

I don't know shit about business, but I'd say it is still a goldmine for them. A discreet but endless goldmine.
With upcoming Kingdom Reborn and Stygian Abyss they are raising the stakes, and in the right direction. As I said I don't know shit, but I really don't think they could do better.

EDIT: That said, I still have to try the new client. Maybe it sucks donkey ball and they are finally sinking it.

Right.


Bingo.  At least 50% of the playerbase was Japanese last time I heard.


You could tell us what it does lie in, but then you'd have to kill us!


Given that AC2 died, EQ2 was plugging away with fewer subs than EQ1 last time I checked, and that even the most optimistic guess has it at less than half of peak EQ1, just what is supposed to convince anyone that an MMO sequel is a good idea?

I'm not sure what exactly makes people assume that I'd like to spend my time engaged in conversations with condescending pricks.

Look, if you want to look cool by being an asshole - go back to middle school. If you want to have a conversation about something, speak to me like an adult. I thought my lack of a response to others in this thread would have made this clear by now.

Too be fair you started with the condescension first, I would think that the reason people think that you want to have a conversation would be that you are talking to them.

Folks,

   Just a few random thoughts while I'm finally getting around to answering my messages here:

1) You would be pleasantly surprised at the current number of monthly paying subs to UO.  I know I was when EA acquired us.  As you know I can't give out numbers for all sorts of legal/investor/public company issues, but consider whether I would have continued to have the UO guys work on KR if it didn't make financial sense.  It's not like I couldn't have found work for them on DAoC/Warhammer eh? 

2) When we came in, the UO team was not made up of veteran after veteran who knew the game inside and out.  Unlike Mythic, which still has a ridiculously high amount of people left even from the pre-DAoC "old days", the UO team didn't have that.  There was some institutional knowledge but changing ten-year old code, even in the best of circumstances, isn't easy.  Doing it while you are trying to update the game, integrate Mythic's client engine & more and make a schedule is really, really difficult  They are doing a fine job, all things considered.

3) I remain, as I have always been and said (E3, GDC), a big fan of the Ultima series and of UO.  It wasn't perfect but it was the first game that hit 100K paying subs and made it possible for the rest of us to finally convince some publishers that there might be a future in these crazy games.  What I find stunning is that after 10 years+ and even games like WoW, there are still publishers who don't believe in MMORPGs.

4) I've always believed in taking things one step at a time and doing them in the right order (around Mythic I talk about building the foundation of a game before you build the damn penthouse) and the same thing applies to UO.  They are taking it one step at a time and we'll see how that goes.  Considering (2) and (3), I think you can figure out the future depending on how things go with KR.

Overall, I'm proud of what the team has done so far.  They are working hard and we are seeing results.  Now, as always, the best measure of those results will be 30 days after KR goes up. 

Mark

You talk a lot in a UO topic for a guy who clearly don't know shit about UO.

 :roll:


Don't worry, I'll be sure to cut that out immediately.

And yet, here you are.  Again.

THAT would be the thing to bring me back.

I'll have a look at Kingdom Reborn just out of curiosity, but I can't possibly see myself subscribing as long as there's Trammel, the Age of Shadows ruleset, and ninjas/elves/samurai.

You're posting on an Internet gaming message board, perhaps?

I really doubt there is anyone who currently pays EA $x/mo for UO that knows or cares about the original Ultima lore from Ultima 1-7.

WUA might be the black sheep there. Maybe. I doubt even he cares about it. Obviously, because he's paying to whack robotic ninja elves. In the Ultima universe.

That video showing some dipshit demoing the new client - it opens with a powerpoint and one slide had a big picture of a dwarf, then he hit next slide and put a big X over it - "there will be no dwarves in UO". But they have elves. Weren't there dwarves in Ultima Underworld? Isn't the next fucking expansion NAMED AFTER ULTIMA UNDERWORLD?

God damn. Jacobs sit those stupid motherfuckers down and make them all play BOTH UNDERWORLD GAMES THANKS.

Bring back Bobbits BIOTCH.

I'm pretty sure I could be an elf, human, hobbit or dwarf in Ultima 2. I'm pretty sure I could also fly a spaceship. I really liked U2.

(http://www.rpgclassics.com/shrines/pc/ultima2/images/cleric.gif)

Give PvP some love.

Heck Ultima 3 had steamships, cannon and the UPE was a mainframe computer.  That you had to defeat with PUNCH CARDS.

There is nothing that is not in the spirit of Ultima, I'm pretty sure I recall Ninja as a class also, though that may have been Might and Magic.

Ultima I had guns you could pew pew with, if I remember correctly.

Ultima 6 and 7 are the only Ultimas that can be considered canon. So sayeth Calantus.

There are some.  Not a majority by any means, but what the hell?  To the people who don't give a shit, blackrock and gargoyles are still new content.


It wasn't an X, it was a circle and slash.  See, there was some event fluff dialogue a while back which hinted at the existence of dwarves.  I unbanned myself from Stratics and proceeded to make as huge a stink as possible.  I even spent five minutes in Paint making a sig, which a couple other people also adopted.

(http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e121/GrimDysart/dwarfsux.jpg)

This was months before the aforementioned demo.  At least now I know someone noticed.

PS:  Azaroth.

"This isn't what they should be doing."
"Uh, ok, what should they be doing then?"
"I have plans of my own that don't include laying out every thought in my head on messageboards or blogs."

Well fuck you then.  Next time don't bother opening your mouth about said ideas in the first place.  As if anyone in the universe, outside of me and my very mild curiosity, could possibly give a fuck about them.  Yeah, you couldn't possibly post your UO revival idea on a messageboard.  It would be so awesome, people would steal it.

Are they serious about the application.

no 8800's, no vista seems like an old cut and paste from earlier applications.

EA you can do better then this

:)

You guys ever see something so incongruous that you really can't seem to make out what the hell is going on with it?

I think I just saw something like that.

From Stratics:
Hurrah?

Shits hot.

The stratics monkey are slightly amused, apparently. There is some drama, including a one-armed guy and a petition against ugly paperdolls, but overall looks like the thing is working (fine).

Ok, I just tried it.

One word: weird.

EDIT: I might like it. I don't.

I'm on a UO hiatus.  I'll try it in a month or two when I'm feeling like it and they've had time to iron it out a bit.

It's really beta-ish. It sucks, at the moment. Really. Darn!

I've never been in any sort of beta.  For anything.  Never even tried to get into one.  I like my software as complete as possible before I try to use it, thank you very much.  I'll wait past product release for a patch or two to come out if I think it's merited.

So what's the scoop?  I know sitting animations aren't in, scroll bars are broken, people are having technical problems, and a bunch of other beta horseshit, but it's impossible to get any sort of detailed read from the screeching of the Stratics monkeys.

I am afraid there's no scoop. First few things that come to my mind:

- Characters moonwalk
- Inventory/backpack is horrible. Like in ugly to look at, hard to organize and basically user-unfriendly.
- The lack of black space (at the moment) makes you blind anytime you open a window, the backpack, or the paperdoll.
- Characters look grainy and incredibly low-resolution when you zoom in.
- The new radar is awfully useless.
EDIT: - The fonts, oh the fonts... it's unreadable. My eyes oh my eyes kind of unreadable.

And most important of all...

- Combat feels stupid and unsatisfying without the excuse of the old graphics anymore.

Most of the above points could be fixed (I guess) during the next few patches, but that's why I said that it feels SO beta that it isn't fun at all. On the contrary, sucks.

I can't get passed the tutorial. Crash every time, at the Iron Gate you click to get through after finishing the Worn Katana. Created multiple characters, reinstalled, played windowed and fullscreen, nothing. And of course, I have no idea where to go for support. It's so bad I've gotten a 401 error at the EA site. I assume I'm one of the rare this is happening to.

From what I was able to see: looked pretty, they ripped out my memories and replaced it with a modern DIKU UI, and you have to set an item to be seen as a quest item by the game. For some legacy reason I'm sure.

Edit: And ironically they release a patch I download right AFTER this post and all is working. Nice responsiveness ;)

The patch righted a few wrongs. The thing is more UO-ish now, but it still needs a lot of work. The chat fonts are still a pain for the eyes and the heart, I can't get past that.

So, this means they used the same unreadable fonts from the original client?  Admittedly, I've only played on mod shards, and not for very long, in part because they expected everyone to know everything already, and I knew nothing.  But the original client had this awful hollow serif font that was just terrible to try and read.

--
Alkiera

I wouldn't worry.  For a long time now the old client has allowed you to select from a good variety of fonts, and I can only assume the new one will as well once it's finished.

The only real issue I had with this version of UO is that the major highlights of improvement only make it more like the standard DIKUs that have clocked UO since EQ1. While the UI now is a bit more approachable in its intuitiveness, it's only because they cribbed the standard hotkey bar, inventory management, equipment management and quest systems (and probably others) from everything that has come since. And the goal is what? To attract new players to a game that still looks as old as it did when it first launched because the basis of comparison has moved light years since?

You enter the game doing exactly the same thing you do in any normal DIKU. The only differences are for veterans who know the breadth the world offers.

It is funny to see how trying to contemporize UO's UI runs against the traditional system. For example, having to "set" an item to be a quest item just so you can turn around and hand it in. I have no idea why they couldn't just have some sort of lookup thing at the time of quest turn in to see if what is being offered fills the task.

Anyway, I didn't have much expectation. I loved UO almost like no other. Starry-eyed newb's first real MMO and all. But it's also the only game I ever left so completely I literally had nothing left to return to. Gave away my stuff, deleted my characters, no emotional pull left. Not sure that makes me objective...

Or why they didn't just spawn the item with the quest-item properties in the first place, allowing you to just pick it up and deliver it with no more fuss.

But that's adding more unique items to the database. Oh noes!!1/1 Think of the database man, the DATABASE!

*rezzes thread*

An unsurprising delay of the gargoyle expansion.


And then some weird shit they're doing on Test Center, with player-controlled cannons that can blow up a city.

UO has a database? Not likely, it's probably just flat files loaded the same way Muds do, considering it's age and background.

This is the sort of shit Raph or Calandryll would know about.

How many simultaneous players can a shard have?  With being able to put so many things on the ground I would think there is at least a minimal database.

On my MUD, we had to get creative in implementint trash clearing procedures for excess mobs and items or else the server started choking with everything being active in memory.  It's amazing how thousands of pure trash items doing absolutely nothing can grind a server to a halt.  A very simple, but decently implemented, database would have raised our tolerances for garbage quite a bit.

Necro!
(http://bestgamewallpapers.com/files/ultima-online/t/necro-brom.jpg)

This just in, UO still 'alive' in its undeath.

I think UO is way past the point where any new development, regardless of what it is, could make any difference. People that follow and still play it will do so regardless.

It's a flat file.  .txt style.

Thats prolly because they haven't tried anything new to deal with the old problems.

They never dealt with unattended macroing.

They never tried to bring back that old feeling that it was like to go to a Blacksmith and have your armour repaired.

So many servers, bite the bullet collapase a few servers into one, and re-open that freely opened resources with rulesets. I do not care nor want to hear about the problems of multiple developer time on muliple ruleset servers. Otherwise your simply shoving the same old same old down my throat and I quit because it sucked.


Back in 2005 I shut down my grandfathered account 6 houses across 6 different servers, re-openedt he account once at 3month mark to preserve all the houses from decaying for about 3 months only played one of those months was careless let it dawdle on, shut it down again and never re-opened nor tried to sell it, let it all decay, even opened a free trial account once to go see if my houses were there many months after they were decayed, they weren't my ties to UO = gone. Only chars and bankboxes exist.    I admit I bought a couple of those houses from ebay before the grandfathered thingie went into affect.

That more or less happened in the early days of UO.  I vaguely recall someone posting on VN about depositing trash in monster corpses to help combat up the server.  After several minor flame wars, one of the devs posted that this actually did help server performance.  Don't remember when they actually fixed decay but when I first started I made a fairly decent amount of gold by picking up everything I found (empty potions, discarded weapons and the like) and selling it to various NPCs.

From this week's "Five on Friday".


I just find the idea of a dev going to a player's house to investigate a bug really amusing.

Heh, imagine sending them a list of people you don't want coming to your house, sorry this Developer cannot come this one can't but if you send this one fine, I'll give that one a 30minute window. :P

This thread needs more Corp por. Thanks.

Griefer.  :evil:

Doors are open, fourteen day trial as well (http://www.uoherald.com/kingdomreborn/)

Why do I feel that there should be "Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here" engraved above this post?

Maybe a "May god have mercy on your soul." pop-up if you click the link?  Trippy seems to have fun embedding javascript into peoples links I'm sure he could stick an little alert box action into it.

I assumed that, by now, any post I made would automatically be flagged as such.

The trailer wouldn't load.

They should just throw up a feluccia only server already if they want some new subs. ;)

If anyone falls for that bait...  :angryfist:

I read 4737 once a month. My sig says so. :)

I've been playing with the new client.  It's been getting much better with each patch, and it's most of the way there.  Hopefully it'll be all the way there before they go ahead with the expansion.  Right now it needs a few graphical bugs fixed (some weapons seem attached to my elbow rather than my hand) and some easy stuff they just haven't gotten around to yet.  Speech text fonts, the warning popup when you're about to be auto-logged for being idle too long, etc.

It's coming along.  I actually like how my character looks in it, unlike the old UO3D.

(They're doing this weird thing where it's supposedly out of beta and "gone gold" but they're delaying the expansion until they finish cleaning it up with huge patches and whatnot.  So it's not beta, they're just testing and fixing and polishing before going to retail with it.  Right.)

I think its time for 4738... also with sticky in the den it will be convenient, since we can copy-paste most of the material.

By polish you mean adding different Neon variations to Thigh boots and pitchforks?

Good point; actually, where is the direction going with items in game?  I am extremely tempted to get this.  I am not too happy about itemization, though.  Beyond neon.

I haven't really been following the new client but when I originally read some about it I remember at least something saying they would be cutting out the neon on the new client.  That was fairly early on though and the neon-lovers might of successfully derailed such a thing by now.

The crazy colors exist, but in a more muted and less "omfg my eyes" sort of way.  Frankly they could really stand to tone down the crazy oranges and blues some more.  I'm not sure if it's an oversight or not.  Everything looks tasteful in your inventory, but some of the stuff is still too neon when you look at your character.

Complaining about neon in UO is like complaining that deadly tree frogs are too brightly colored.

Hey, cut me a break. Its all I'm allowed to bitch about anymore. ;)

I got this off LTM via the wayback machine.  I'll toss it in here just for flavor.

Channeling the Capt?

I thought blocking was active on the original, not a mirror side.

Ya he was saying after he went through the moonstone he couldnt block some noob to cause em to die, or FS em. You know, the Trammie way.

Well, its always good to know which side you are on, no?

Hey, I was just clearing that up for him  :evil:

They want my credit card information.  I'm not comfortable with the possibility of accidentally giving EA more money for UO.

Made a character on Atlantic since I'm missing Europa's afternoon primetime a lot lately.  By the time I get on a lot of nights, it's 3am local time and all the Euros I know are in bed.  So yeah, I make a newbie warrior and get dropped off in New Haven with some gold, some NPC grade gear, and 30 in the expected skills.  I collect a bunch of the newbie quests.

Nothing terribly exciting.  There are trainers for all the major skills, all of whom want you to go to the ruins of Old Haven and kill the undead that infest it.  When you hit 50 in whatever skill they train, they reward you with a blessed item related to that skill.  Do the quest to hit 50 swordsmanship, and you get a named sword with some minor mods.  Do the quest for parrying, and you get a shield.  You can do as many of these quests as you have skills to raise, and thus outfit yourself with some equipment better than what you started with.

Oh, and as long as you're on at least one newbie quest and are within the bounds of Old Haven, you gain skill faster than normal.  And some of the monsters drop enough regs that a beginner mage won't put himself out of business.  So it's not too bad.  Between this and the veteran who was throwing GM leather armor at anyone looking newbish, I'm doing okay for a character who's like 60 or 90 minutes old.

What's fun are the people who don't know what UO:R was, or what UO3D was, or how tamers got nerfed in Publish 16, or how once upon a time all you needed was a skinning knife and three black pearl to take over the world, because it's 2007 and they just started playing Ultima Online like... today.  "You know, Newbert, I don't really know how to mine for fish on this client.  If you figure it out, let me know."  Although obviously I can tell them stuff like how to buy cloth and make their own bandages.

Take off your rose colored glasses. UO isn't getting new players, client upgrade or not.

I'm watching some guy tell a newb how to feed his horse at Haven bank on Atlantic.  There have always been newbies coming in.  That's why the game still exists.

Hell, given churn and the amount of time that's passed, half the playerbase is made of up veterans of years standing who don't even remember all the shit you miss.  Not only did the game survive without it, it's become a historical trivia tidbit known only to the really really old-school.  "There used to only be Felucca!" is right up there with "You couldn't bring ostards out of T2A back in the day!" in terms of weird old shit most players don't remember.

That is quite possibly true. Because if my rather difficult financial situation at the moment, I went back to playing Shadowbane. There are new players all over the place.

(God, I have been looking for a thread where I could come out of the closet (regarding me playing SB, mind you) for weeks now)

Here, here. You are PvPsexual. It doesn't matter, you still can love.

Heh, apparently Space Admiral British (http://www.paxlair.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2882&Itemid=1372) (or whatever he is now) took a couple hours off from fighting aliens to show up at a UO "town hall" meeting and collect a plaque from some guy almost as crazy as he is.

Tried it out last night, it was not very compelling so I canceled the trial.  I played for 2 years or so after launch, resubbed again when 3d came out and lasted a month, this time I made it 32 minutes, based on welcome and cancel confirmation e-mail headers.  I guess you really can't go back.

Yeah, I'm giving them until the expansion release until I pass official judgement, but so far they're cruising dangerously towards UO3D Part Deux territory.

Who are you kidding WUA? You will buy and play with it even if they shit in the box and ship it out that way. As a matter of fact they did it many times in the past.

(http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e121/GrimDysart/carebear-749173.jpg)

You are both dumb motherfuckers. Let it go. Christ.

I'm responding to this only because I want my sig on this page because I think it is relevant.


Do people other than WUA actually still play UO?

I imagine Peaches still plays. Perhaps WUA is Peaches alter ego?

If you're going to let the retarded kid shoot spitballs, that's fine, but quit bitching about the noise everytime I turn around and throw something at him.

I by mistake clicked on this thread. You were both being retards. Stop being retarded and don't tell me how to do my job. You don't have that right.

I've been listening to the same couple of retards troll every third post I make for years now.  If I worried about how you do your job, you'd have heard about it long before now.  I'm just damn tired of being bitched at everytime I post "well there was a patch today" and some fucking idiot runs in to smear feces on the walls.

Hey WUA, and rest of us have to deal with your festering UO posts that constantly remind us what happened to UO. Did you not yet get that nobody gives a fuck about UO expansions here beside you. STFU and make your next UO thread when they roll out classical server.

See?

Just den this fucking thread. WUA is not playing by the rules and brought up you-know-what.

Sinij, stop turning WUA's posts about a shitty game into a troll. You look just as retarded as him. If not more retarded for being a 1/2 pick pony to WUA's 1 trick pony.

You know what?  Yeah, den it.  Next time I have something to post, I'll make a new thread.

Except one thing will be different.  Sinij, this is the very last time I will ever read or reply to anything you post ever again.  You're manually killfiled.  You don't exist.  Eat shit.  Post all the nonsense you want, I'll never see it.

EDIT:  Posting about shitty games nobody cares about is the entire purpose of this forum.  Either that or some of you people are actually playing Vanguard and SWG.

(http://img.verycd.com/posts/0608/post-449737-1156100461.jpg)

I'm hoping that a big picture of Joan Baez will fix this thread.

Try Maggie Glyenhal (however the fuck she spells her last name)'s new photo shoot for Agent Provaceuter lingerie. (Yes, that's ALSO spelled wrong.). That'll fix this thread.

Is that a plunger in the picture?

Her son had the room next to me freshman year at boarding school. He wasn't asked back for sophmore year. Nice guy, though.

> He wasn't asked back for sophmore year.
What does that mean?

What is a plunger doing in that picture?

It's not a plunger, she's being attacked by a Dalek.

Damn you. Beat me to it.

Daleks in UO would be awesome.

Somehow they'd seem appropriate too. More appropriate than Dwarfs anyhow.

The school doesn't want him as a student for whatever reason. Since it was a private school, they can do this. He didn't get into any serious trouble that I knew about so it was probably academically motivated.