I miss original ultima online

[Cuda1447]

Man, I used to freaking LOVE UO. I would consider playing on a shard with an AT guild again. What type of player base does this shard have though? The worst thing is when there is a ghost town.

 

[Ns1]

Man, I used to freaking LOVE UO. I would consider playing on a shard with an AT guild again. What type of player base does this shard have though? The worst thing is when there is a ghost town.

Not sure yet. I'll do some research this weekend and see what's up...I would love deal some Ikariam-level ownage with AT.

I noticed that SomethingAwful has a fairly large active group on one of the main PvP shards.

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3268472&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=1


Another option actually presented by another ATOT'er...

I don't know how many nostalgia-clouded Ultima Online veterans inhabit the Anandtech forums, but I thought this might be of interest.

In Por Ylem, the largest player-run UO shard ever (as far as I know), is coming back on Friday, 21 January 2011. Key features include:

A skill gain system designed to balance out the casual and the hardcore, the players and the macroers. Skills gain most quickly at the beginning of your play session, 200% skill gain in dungeons, and soft-caps on gains after an extended play session.
A player justice system that assists and rewards players who hunt down murderers.
Randomly-placed portals that transport you to skill-appropriate mini-dungeons.
Enhanced crafting.
A political system that is too complicated to summarize.
Presumably, much more.

The goal of the developers is to balance out the "wolves and sheep" situation that was classic Ultima Online. They've tried to give anti-PKs a reason to exist, PvEers more content, and crafters more influence on the economy, all without destroying what made UO great in the first place. Whether or not they'll succeed, I can't say; I'm not in the beta. But I'll be playing on the 21st.

For more information, see:

The lead developer's blog
The shard site
A Something Awful post that does a better job than I did of summing up the shard

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2135690

Mac client...

 

[insect9]

Just installed the uo client and jumped on that UORevived shard. Holy hell this brings back memories. It's been 9 years since I've played this game. Man do I miss it...

 

[Ns1]

Just installed the uo client and jumped on that UORevived shard. Holy hell this brings back memories. It's been 9 years since I've played this game. Man do I miss it...

So are you saying we should get this atot guild off the ground? =D

How's the shard? Populated?

 

[insect9]

Might be worth a shot. Not like it'll cost anything but time.

I didn't get to play much; I was at work. The bank in Brit had about 30 people milling about, mag had about the same. About 7 or 8 people created their characters either right before or after me. Seems like it COULD be pretty populated, don't know yet though. Never made it out of town before I had to actually DO stuff at work.

Edit: Got on this morning and only 36 people are online. Could be because it's early, we'll see.

 

[Ns1]

I'm checking out IPY now...will report back. 18 minutes until mac client finishes dl'ing...

 

[Wreckem]

I'm checking out UO Revived.

It seems sparesly poplated. I guess because its a Euro Server.

Let me know how IPY is. I might move over to there.

 

[Ns1]

@Wreckem it's also a new server...



@Mac Users: Mac Port

http://www.reddit.com/r/IPY/comments/g39l1/mac_version_of_ultima_online_with_ipy_and_razor/

FYI

haven't had time to play yet though (can't figure out how to start a new account/char? lol. only gave it 30 seconds to confirmed it works tho)

 

[Wreckem]

@Wreckem it's also a new server...



@Mac Users: Mac Port

http://www.reddit.com/r/IPY/comments/g39l1/mac_version_of_ultima_online_with_ipy_and_razor/

FYI

haven't had time to play yet though (can't figure out how to start a new account/char? lol. only gave it 30 seconds to confirmed it works tho)

For UO Revived you just entered the username and password you wanted. It creates you an account and you log in with that next time. I believe IPY2 works the same way your initial login.

Right now I only have access to a MacBook Pro and I dual boot OSX and Win7. I think Ill keep UORevived on Win7 and try out the Mac client for IPY.

 

[Ns1]

IPY2 900 players logged in @5p PST...


in other news, I walked around and now Im' stuck. Man I can't even find the freaking bank

//edit

oh fuck i forgot how high the learning curve was on this game ahaha

 

[I Saw OJ]

What programs do I need to get back into UO?

 

[Nebor]

You guys are giving me a UO boner.

 

[insect9]

Anyone playing any of these servers?

 

[mizzou]

Stupid question, would it be better to re-up my old UO account before getting involved in an emulated server?

 

[Wreckem]

I'm on IPY.

UOrevived was just too dead being it was new/european based.

And there is no need to reup your old UO account if you are just going to play on private servers.

Most private servers are completely different than the current version being played on EA-Mythic servers.

 

[Wreckem]

What programs do I need to get back into UO?

You need Razor and whatever client the server you want to play on requires, as well as the patch for that particular server.

Any of the larger servers will have websites linking you to what you need.

 

[insect9]

I'll have to try IPY out. I've been on uosecondage for a few days, seems decent too.

 

[Doppel]

The original UO was amazing. Once they broke it off into "PVP" world and "Cupcake" world it was horribly uninteresting to me.

I loved being able to go out of town, and worry about what might happen to me. There were no reigns and little punishments for those who preyed on people, and little reward for those who defended people.

My favorite moment had to have been a day when I get ganked outside of a town, lost all my stuff, along with some other newbs, then went into town and rallied some veteran players to come to our aid and clean out the bandits.

This sort of mechanic just doesn't happen anymore in any MMO I've ever played since, and I can't figure out why it's not there. I think it's part of the reason why UO shot to such huge success and then kind of tapered off after the 3d MMO's came out.

Eventually though I guess, everyone is a "veteran" player, and it makes it much harder to live among newbs and elders on such a small map where the only thing that really seperates you from skill are certain dungeons.

Games like WoW put you in your own little newb area and generally discourage any travel outside of those areas until you are ready. The original UO, well, you could do anything you damn well pleased. But you had a pretty good chance of getting killed


Anyone else feel this way about the MMO mechanic? Why constrain player will so much?

I love the social aspect of MMO games and honestly, thats why I get so uninterested in them. You aren't being social by ganging up on AI to get skills. And I'm not impressed with the PVP battles that do take place. What is the fun in bringing a battle to someone in their "battle zone"? I want to bring the battle home...to where people feel most vulnerable.

That's when things get really interesting!

I don't want to go into depth here but I absolutely get you here. I also beta tested UO very briefly and spent the fall of '97 engrossed in it. Quit after a few months because I was spending way too much time on it, but picked it up again the following summer and repeated. The PvP of it was epic. The fact that anybody leaving a town was under constant threat of attack or death made the world exciting. It is why, to this day, I consider UO the best game I've ever played.

Personally, I built in the fall of 97 a very powerful character with mining and magic (more powerful than most, PK or not) and was anti-PK, until I switched, and then that character became a monster of PKing hell unto all I came upon, using a mule character to get in and out of town. During Christmas of that year I was playing with somebody doing the same thing, in the same house so we had excellent real-time communication between each other as we played and murdered hapless victims (though we very much enjoyed killing other PKs to humble them).

 

[Ns1]

I'm on IPY.

UOrevived was just too dead being it was new/european based.

And there is no need to reup your old UO account if you are just going to play on private servers.

Most private servers are completely different than the current version being played on EA-Mythic servers.

I tried it and gave up, learning curve was too ridiculous and I don't have the time to relearn everything.

I don't want to go into depth here but I absolutely get you here. I also beta tested UO very briefly and spent the fall of '97 engrossed in it. Quit after a few months because I was spending way too much time on it, but picked it up again the following summer and repeated. The PvP of it was epic. The fact that anybody leaving a town was under constant threat of attack or death made the world exciting. It is why, to this day, I consider UO the best game I've ever played.

Funny, I really loved UO cuz you could buy a house and play Ikea with it. (don't get me wrong though, I did my order/chaos warring and PK'ing too )

 

[Martimus]

I loved being able to go out of town, and worry about what might happen to me. There were no reigns and little punishments for those who preyed on people, and little reward for those who defended people.

My favorite moment had to have been a day when I get ganked outside of a town, lost all my stuff, along with some other newbs, then went into town and rallied some veteran players to come to our aid and clean out the bandits.

This sort of mechanic just doesn't happen anymore in any MMO I've ever played since, and I can't figure out why it's not there.

This kind of game mechanic is pretty prevalent in Eve: Online, but it is based in space rather than a Medieval fantasy setting. I haven't played any Medieval fantasy MMO's unfortunately to know if there are any current games like this.

 

[BathroomFeeling]

There probably are, but they're likely small & unpopulated, or have some kind of fused class/level-based system which would severely impact the 'freedom' aspect of character customization, advancement, & gameplay.

 

[lozina]

Come on guys, let's hold hands and humm this tune together in a circle jerk of nostalgia:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mDcGDx4QyA

I have so many fond memories of this game, definitely made a much bigger impression on me than any other MMOs - this game had a soul- I felt toally immersed in it.

One of my favorite memories was when I first started playing which was when the game went live. I started in Minoc on Lake SUperior and wandered over to dungeon Covetous. At the entrance was this big green tent, and bodies everywhere! Miscellaneous items strewn all over, it looked like a bomb was dropped there!

Then this guy in a pale yellow robe and one of those skull helmets (I think it was the skull helmet but it might actually been a regular metal one which my scared mind made seem like a skull) came at me with the golf club looking axe in his hand. He proceeded to slaughter my noob ass and then I rezzed and came back and found him in his tent sifting through some loot in his chest and I just started talking to him, and he let me start looting corpses he finished looting. Even though it was scraps it was awesome

Other fond memory of dungeon Covetous was I remember walking into the entrance and then of course there is the loading screen while the game loads the dungeon. It finally finishes and I'm a ghost- You are dead!. WTF? I then realize there were two mages inside (I even remember their names - one was Ice the other was Moon) and they would just hide behind the rocks and cast wall of fire on the first row of tiles inside the entrance. People's avatars would show up there and take damage before they actually loaded the dungeon. It was hilarious..

There was also alot of fun bugs/imbalances that would sweep through the game at certain times. Like one time there was a lightning bolt bug or test they were doing, where if you wore any metal it did like phenomenal damage to you. So I'd go out and all Id see is Port Ort Grav all over the screen. I think there was also a bug where you could pre-cast the lightning bolt, run a few screens over and then target someone and it would look like a lightning bolt from god striking down on someone randomly. there was a similar bug with fireballs doing insane damage to people wearing clothes.

But my all time favorite bug... the house looting bug! I looted so many damn houses this way, and this was once they implemented unpickable doors. You stand enxt to their stairs at the entrance of the house and make sure your graphics setting that fades objects next to you which can obstruct sight is on - forgot what it was called. But it allowed you to see the ground under the stairs. You then drop an umarked rune there, and mark it. Then you recall to that rune and you appear inside the stairs, and from this tile you can then place the rune under the floor boards of the house. SO you repeat the steps of dropping rune and marking it, and then next time you recall you are standing inside the house. Might have had to log out log back in so that your avatar pops up on top of the floor boards inside. But then you just load up whatever you want and recall to your bank! Man I made off with so much stuff doing this every day until they fixed that....

 

[BathroomFeeling]

I think this music really exemplifies the free-natured spirit and essence of the game.

 

[smackababy]

My favorite thing was polymorphing into an orc and killing people with a single Corp Por if they had a silver weapon equipped. That and the double hit Halberd salute bug. That made pvp fun!

 

[gonvik]

I have so many fond memories of this game, definitely made a much bigger impression on me than any other MMOs - this game had a soul- I felt toally immersed in it.

So damn true in my case as well.

UO, in it's classic form, is without a doubt my most memorable MMO experience. My nerves would skyrocket every time I ventured out to purchase some valuable item from a player's vendor far deep in the wilderness. I would have my Kal Ort Por scroll handy to teleport right back to town after a purchase, but I'll be damned if there weren't times that I was ganked to hell and back and lost all my possessions.

Then there were the times I wanted to increase my mining and blacksmithy skill. I was still relatively new at this point, and the only decent mine I could find was way north-west of Britain, which meant out of the guards watch. It was a known spot for PKers to ambush you once in a while, since there was a forge right in the middle of the mine. I packed up as much ore as I could without a pack mule, then at the bottom of my screen I saw the red name of a murderer approach.

In UO, when you were near another player or monster, the name would show on the corner of the screen as a warning. If you were new like me and saw that the name happened to be red, you panicked. I was out of recall. The only option I could think of was to utilize the "hiding" skill, to which I had a measly 35% in.

Luckily, it worked after 2 tries and I became completely invisible. I watched the PKer and his buddy mow down the other poor sobs who were mining. I thought I was safe and they would leave, until one got close to me and the dreaded "you shove something invisible out of the way" must of appeared on his screen, which of course alerted him to an invisible presence on that square. 3 seconds later, I was revealed, killed and looted. All I could do was watch as a ghost as they took my ore and stripped my corpse down to naked flesh!

I loved the freedom you had in this game. I could be wrong, but couldn't a player rob you right at the town bank, their name turned grey, and if no one shouted "Guards!!" nearby, they could get away?

I met a lot of great people in that game. No other MMO really came close after that for me.