f13.net

Stole this from Lum.

https://www.lordofultima.com/en

UO: BROWSER EDITION

Except it's a free to play RTS? I don't understand. I need to try it.

I signed up. I'm weak.

I liked how it read "About Lord of Ultima ---> AND OTHER EA PRODUCTS <---" on their e-mail opt-in.

investigating

someone page WUA


Edit:  "Empty reply from server"  FFS.  Will try later.

ATTENTION EVERYONE

THE WORLD WAS CREATED IN SIX DAYS AND IS FLAT

ALSO, SERENITY WAS A FAR BETTER MOVIE THAN REVENGE OF THE SITH IN EVERY QUANTIFIABLE WAY

I can't get in yet, sadly.

They really outdid themselves with the registration page. :awesome_for_real:

Edit:
Temporary bug, nevermind.

HAHA SUKKAS WE PWN JOO

Yeah, I tried to sign up earlier today. Same thing.

If it didn't have the word Ultima in the title, I wouldn't bother trying again.

So I guess they're lucky that they paid for that. With me, anyway. Everyone else? I'm not so sure.

It makes me a woman with a beard.  I can't play this game until they add a Schick Quattro.   :ye_gods:

These are the same guys who did Battleforge, which is actually a pretty damned good game regardless of its long-term power and popularity.  As usual, the Germans chunk out small, robust progs. with speed.  I'm gonna try this if I can scam a key.

WHO DARES SUMMON ME?

(http://legendsmagazine.net/100/cthulhu.jpg)

I also would have accepted "UO sucks" and "mechs are better than tanks".

Do you need a key?  I think all you need is an EA account, like for DAoC or something.

There's a place in your account where you can add a key that I assume gets you in even though all server slots are full.
Even if you have an EA account though, right now you cant get in.  (shrug)

Y'know what this reminds me of is the glut of HoMM: Kingdoms-type (ubisoft) games that are on the horizon.  These bigger studios are tackling this genre with the force lately.
This one came outta left field though.  It's not even on the Phenomic website (that I can find).

Ah, I don't know, then.  I just saw the bit where it says you can just log in if you have an EA account and took it at face value.  That'll teach me!

They just opened some slots. First come first serve! Go go go!

SERVERS FULL



...


Don't bother. They opened four slots, apparently?

Yeah I got the e-mail 50 minutes before I tried... eh.

This is probably going to be a Travian clone.

Has nobody taken a look at it yet, even?

Unless someone has seen the damn thing and it's super cool, I'm really done caring now.

Yeah to be honest I'm expecting bad things. The website is put together in a pretty shitty manner. I'm almost certain it's not reading my account information correctly to login.

Well, I'm expecting good things.  Phenomic has yet to make a bad game... 'course, this was before EA got involved

Oh jesus fucking christ, this first-come first-serve system is bullshit. I always seem to get their e-mails in traffic and the servers are always full within 30 minutes, though I'm expecting they fill up after 5 from the e-mail.

I don't see why they can't just authorize on a first-come first-serve from REGISTRATION instead of going with the stampede these assholes have implemented.

Okay, I didn't miss much then. I was all sad when I got to work and it was full already.

 :awesome_for_real:
This is kinda funny...   interesting marketing tool

I'd say they've got a large sum of people's attention.  Y'know, it'd be really cool if we had someone from Phenomic on f13.  Those guys always seemed a bit "off" to me, errrr "on" depending on your pov.   Damned Germans, they be wierd.

Same as HOMM. I'm hoping a big-name company does a web game that is actually pretty damn good. Good small project for interior people.

I find it interesting how pbbg's are getting bigger and your big-block 3d MMOs are getting smaller.  We're almost to a point now where the retention and profit margins are smarter devving a damned webgame.

We've been past that point for years now.

%-wise, shear dollar amount, or both?  [when talking about margins]

I'd say the bigger 3d studios overall clear more money, but percentage-wise it's less than a pbbg.
Even this is changing of course.

Are people still having problems getting in?  I just randomly tried and got right in.

Optional PVP.  Open city building plan (build your buildings anywhere you want).  Lots of unit and building types.  Dungeons to raid.  Seems pretty good so far.

(http://www.ddcrew.com/rageguy.jpg)

Grebo woke up, sat there all morning, and spammed the "Play Now" button.  Then gave us a generic, quasi-NDA-breaking synopsis.

 :facepalm:

Yeah I like how there are lots of monsters to fight, treasure to get, and cities to build, all with the Ultima theme.

Mind you, I have never played this ever, nor seen any screenshots. But still.

I stumbled across the page for this game right after it came live, noting the original style font it struck me as weird being one of the kids that breathlessly purchased Ultima in a ziplock bag that I was now too bleh to even bother registering for this, sorta like all the superhero movies I haven't seen.

still can't get in to hate it

NDA?  Wha?  I don't remember signing nothin. 

I swear tho, I only tried to get into this twice.  Once when this thread started and again yesterday.  I apparently have superpower luck magic.

Now on to building stuff and killing things.

5 million user Facebook games pull in $50k a day.

More slots for this opened up this morning - I was able to get in.

I too hath gotten in.

Every single time I read about this or get the e-mail, I'm a half hour to an hour from a computer. Ugh.

Still open at 8:30 am PST. I might get in this time...

I'm in.

I liiiiiiike.

Meh.  I dunno.  This game is to regular city builders like Nile Online like Starcraft on fastest map is to regular Starcraft.  I don't like Starcraft on fastest map.

I like it.

They made starting fun, which is... out of the ordinary for these games.

That there is a PVE / PVP switch is something worth noting. They've smartly implemented the ability to be at a "certain level" before you can be attacked based on progress rather than time. That you can stock cities with defenses that are separate from your army cap is also a plus.

Selling Iron.

Are we actually allowed to talk about this game or not?  Wth kinda closed beta doesnt have a formal NDA?

Does it count as a closed beta if you can just go make an account? Either way, still haven't seen an NDA. Although I could have sworn they said not to post screenshots somewhere..

Game is actually pretty decent. Disregard my sour grapes from earlier and try it out.

You guys got an Alliance yet?

Welp, since there's no NDA;  I've only played for a few hours and I like the feel of the game (so far).  Geometric resource gathering and construction always is cool to me, e.g. you cant just place structures willy nilly (well, you CAN, but you'd be gimped).  And you're given quite a large area to manage.  I'm testing another game that has a similar mechanic.

The constuction speed is spot on early-game... very fast (might as well be an RTS).  Whether this stays pretty linear throughout I cant tell yet (i.e. you're given enough to do and/or times or short enough to make an evening of it).  So yah, this may be one of those pbbg where most strength is determined by logged time, rather than RMT.  Army movement however, seems pretty slow.

The tut. is very basic for now.   Also, quests, the shop, items, and social element are missing.  So really, much of our opinions are based on lack of info. right now.  So far though, I like the foundation.  Nice UI, decent crunch, good speed, good lore obviously, and so on.

No alliance yet, really haven't messed with that side of things. I'm working on building up resources and getting my place as defensive as possible before the newbie protection wears off. Assuming it does, at least. Can you only be attacked if you build a castle? That would be sort of annoying.. once I get to the point I put one up I want to be able to attack all of the people around me.  :oh_i_see:

Nope.

Just spent 18 hours knocking down some rocks, then 9 1/2 building my town house.

When do you hit Castle? Is that a Level of upgrade?

I only sorta know what I'm doing here and the documentation is a bit sparse. This is like playing the Eve Skill Trainer except in additon to the progress bars, I get buildings :-)

Anyone able to mess around in the dungeons yet?

I've sent Berzerkers and got like 2 wood, 1 iron and 2 stone. Not 2,000, nor even 200, 2! I just sent a newer larger force to a Level 2 dungeon though. Not sure what I'll get in return. The round trip is looong.

I have a level 2 dungeon near me. Hour long trip one way. Sending 150ish men (Mostly Dwarves and the first Elves, at the moment. Currently making Crossbowman, who can carry double loot so we'll see if that helps.) I only get about 32 wood, 32 rock, 240 iron, 96 wheat, each time. Sometimes less, rarely, if ever, more. It seems to have a cap based on dungeon level. I sent out an army to a level three last night, and picked up 122 wood, 906 stone, 120 iron, 362 wheat, with the same 150ish units. (If only it wasn't six hours one way.  :heartbreak:)

I don't know what the Progress % means on a dungeon nor what the different attack types mean. Woefully undocumented for testers.

My understanding of Progress is that it is basically the percentage of the dungeon killed off. Once it gets to 100%, the dungeon closes ("Dungeon is abandoned"), and a new one opens up somewhere else. I assume, at least. I've seen abandoned dungeons on other isles, but it could be at 100% progress a dungeon goes to the next level, which would be sort of neat.

Takes awhile to do that, looks like.

Ok. So basically they're a waste of time at the moment. I don't even need to be logged in to make 8+ times that an hour. I imagine there's a lot of balancing that needs to happen still. Or maybe there's some rares in the dungeon I'm missing out on.

It is still extra income. What else are you going to do with those soldiers? (Assuming you recruit at all, that is.) No point in having them sit there when you can send them out to the nearest dungeon for free resources. Certainly not a primary way to gather supplies, though. Hell, I make 1200+ of each resource (other than wheat) an hour currently, and I doubt I'm at the high end of that scale.

It might be a good way to supplement your gold income, if you can find a good dungeon. I've seen in chat people talk about getting 400+ gold from level 3 dungeons.

I take it diamonds are real world bought currency, not currently activated?

I'm getting about 30 per resource every dungeon raid.

It takes hours, and I make over a thousand times that per hour doing nothing.

Read over that doc the junior designer submitted before it gets coded, yeah?

Also: 288% build speed and shit still takes FOREVER.

Feels more like Lord of Travian than anything.

I started playing and then got this feeling. I instantly shut my browser and havent looked back.

That would lbe what I did. I mean yeah, you don't have to invade other people, but then what's the point? And  if you do, you're in an instant arms race that you're going to lose unless you're psychotically addicted to the game  :and: got in at the start.

At least they give the option to simply build.
I cant knock it until I see the other features that arent even implemented yet.

Also, that arms race only begins once you're ready.  Obviously, if you're able to build economically uncontested you're in a much better position than otherwise.  All of these games have little to do with production of arms and more to do with the resources required.

Gotta wait and see what the dungeons, quests, trade economy, and social/alliance structure are all about.

I'm fuzzy on how PvP works in this game -- is it opt-in so that you can choose to skip PvP entirely and just build your city up free of distractions?  Or does PvP mode engage once your city gets to a certain size?

If you build a castle, you can be conquered.  If you dont, you merely become farmed.   :grin:

The resources you get from dungeons are based on the number of enemies you face. You get 15x of the primary resource (wood from forest, iron from mountain, stone from hill), 2x of the other two resources, and you always get 6x food. Assuming you have the carrying capacity to haul it back with you. The monsters in each type also have different weaknesses, broadly speaking.

The largest dungeon I have tried so far was a level 4, which had 317 orcs.  I brought home 4,744 Iron, but it was somewhat costly in lost troops. Raiding dungeons doesn't hold a candle to steady production, but it's something extra to do, especially as the build times increase, and becomes more useful with a larger army. You can split forces and run more than one at once, for example. Sticking with cavalry once you have it also does a lot for turnaround time.

Feels even more like Eve skill tree management. I "play" about 20 minutes a day, which is about 4 log ins to max out my build queue :-) There's nothing realtime about this game except the smokestacks. Oh and progress bars.

If I'm reading the date thing right, the newbie halo drops on Saturday. That's when it gets interesting maybe? How does one get a Castle? I've got quite an army getting fat and lazy.

I wish I could tell my troops to haul off / target a specific resource.

It's on the regular progression of buildings which open up as you upgrade your Town Hall. It's in the row following the Stonemason. Not recommended to build it the first moment it's available, you're just going into PvP at the weakest possible time, and you can lose your town but you can't yet take over anyone else's. That requires a Baron unit.



The dungeon type determines which resource you get the most of: wood from forest, iron from mountain, stone from hill. Again, it's not a lot, but they might as well be attempting to earn their keep.

Castle is good if you have weak neighbors. I have people who put up a Castle and no army to support it. I now have three farms for resources. Only bottleneck is building time and army caps for me.

Out of curiousity, does this actually have anything in common with Ultima?

From what I can tell...

...not a damn thing.

Server wipe right when I conquered my first city. ;_;

Not actually a wipe Lorekeep - they just opened a second world and steer you there by default.

You can still get to your old city from the log-in screen.

So you can have 2 cities doing absolutely nothing very slowly.

wat.

Oi...

Yea, I'm not sure a) why they called it Ultima; and, b) why this isn't on Facebook. Perfect game for that system and easier to get a lot more people.

Game's in Open Beta now.

Is it a Travian clone?  Any interesting innovation?

I'm still not entirely sure what the game is here. If it wasn't called Ultima, I wouldn't have even checked it out. But there's no Ultima to be had here really either. It's just optimizing build orders and resource collection. You can go PvP if you want, but you're not forced to. There's trading, but I haven't ever seen my resources get depleted. So it's not so much what I need as much as how long I'm willing to wait for it.]

Is that how Travian is?

It's a Travian clone.  Yes, some interesting innovation.  It's released open beta now.  Nice graphics.

Until you build a castle, you can't attack other players and other players can only scout and plunder you.  As long as you've built enough hideouts to protect your resources, you can play the game in a mode where other players have zero incentive to attack you.

Dungeons provide a reason (though not a great one) for the castle-less to have an army.  

The Ultima naming is a joke.  Originally, the only Ultima reference was the name of the game (and it's font).  They made it "more Ultima" in a recent patch by changing the name of the Mage's Tower to "Moonglow Tower" and the Temple to "Trinsic Temple".  Those three names are quite literally the only Ultima in the game.

They recently went live.  You can now spend real money to buy in game diamonds, which you use to buy/hire various advantages in game.  Unfortunately, they made the classic move of reducing what you can do in order to make the upgrades worth buying...  Things like:  You use to have a building build queue of 10 buildings.  Now you have a build queue of 6 buildings and can spend X diamonds per week to hire a building minister who will expand your build queue by 10 to 16 buildings.

Also interesting, most of the in game store items have different ranks.  Higher rank players can buy significantly more powerful (like double), slightly more expensive variations of items.

The role of positioning things is kind of interesting.  There are quite a number of cases of building X gets a bonus when placed next to building Y situations, including, of course, a building Z which gets a bonus for each empty adjacent location.

I've played it to the point where I have a well developed, non-castle'ed first town, almost ready to create a second.  I probably will create it, make sure my hideouts mean I'm not leaving behind a farm, and then stop playing.

Edit: Fixed release state.  

Meh.  Those Travian clones are getting more annoying than RTS clones after Starcraft and Red alert 2.

Tough for me to be real critical of this game because I like the Studio, but yah... the force is not strong in this one as of now.

I started building up a city in open beta, and then couldn't really find any inspiration to log back in.

I logged in two days in a row and then forgot about the game until now.

Maybe cause it's so easy or not that in depth, but I've been logging in daily to this.

Help me.

What server are people on?

World 3. I'm on Continent 13.

I'm server 3, continent 11

What's your user name? We can be friends!

I'm on as JWIV. 

And yah, the earlier critiques are still completely valid I think.  Straight up clone with no tie to the IP outside of the title.  Still, it's a nice timekiller for a bit.

Yeah, I just pop in once a day and set stuff to build/upgrade and send off a raiding party.

(http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/1224/500xult2.jpg)

 :awesome_for_real:

anyone else having issues getting in?  it says waiting for...