MMO's are currently massively disappointing to an old UO player :(

[insect9]

I remember my first experience with PK's. I was a noob, venturing outside britain. If you go to the west to where the mining spots are, then through that mountain corridor there is a crossroads spot where you can go 3 directions. About halfway through that mountain pass it turned from guard zone to non-guard zone. I would pinball back and forth, testing the waters for awhile. Eventually a group of blues chased back all the reds and we made our way out to the crossroads. I was sporting my best gear at the time too. Thinking we had overrun them, I was venturing off a little ways, killing shit and looking around. Then all of a sudden all the reds came back. Mad scramble, I couldn't get back to the guardzone so I ran south into the woods. I was chased and killed. Due to that incident, that area became my stomping grounds. So much so that I made it my goal to buy a house just south of those crossroads. A few weeks later I saved up enough money and placed a small house down there. I then started an anti-pk crossroads guild. We hung out there all day long, hunting reds. If shit got to tough we'd run back to my house and hopefully be able to survive. I literally would spend hours a day over there, just fighting reds and returning with their loot to my house. Or returning to my house to get more gear.


Anyone remember this? You get killed, bitch follows you and kills the healer so you can't get rezzed! Ah that pissed me off so bad, but it was so smart. Or the worst was when they killed your horse. Damnit, now I gotta run all the way back to town and buy ANOTHER horse for 700gp. I hope the guy with the horses has some more ready to go. He only had 2 left last time I was there.

That's where some of the best Glorious Lord/Dread Lord wars were fought. How fun.

 

[BathroomFeeling]

Anyone remember this?

I remember that place. "Y-roads" me & my guild called them. South to Skara Brae, North to Yew, East back to Britain. I also remember the Orc camp just north of this place, usually full of PKers. As a noob holding 2000 gold coins from Orc kills (back when they were worth something), I'd hide inside tents whenever they came & they'd never find me. Waited an hour to make sure they were gone then I'd run back to Britain or North-West to Yew.

Did anyone use UOExtreme or Ultimate Freedom? I wrote those.

Thanks for UOE Made my dial-up experience a tad tolerable with speed walking.

That's where some of the best Glorious Lord/Dread Lord wars were fought. How fun.

I thought the best were always just before "server down" heh . For those not in the know, every night a message will appear with the message to the effect of "The server is going down, your progress will not be saved" or something like that. With no repercussions for any actions thereon, everyone went crazy, bringing their absolute best gear they had, then going wild at each other. Hot spot include the aforementioned crossroads, as well as a small cemetery just North of Britain.

 

[Nebor]

You mark a rune to desired location. Cast moon gate on said rune. One gate opens up where you are, one where the rune was marked. Viola instant worm hole.

Gating ghosts to the tiny 2 or 3 tile islands... heh.

 

[Nebor]

Anyone remember this? You get killed, bitch follows you and kills the healer so you can't get rezzed! Ah that pissed me off so bad, but it was so smart. Or the worst was when they killed your horse. Damnit, now I gotta run all the way back to town and buy ANOTHER horse for 700gp. I hope the guy with the horses has some more ready to go. He only had 2 left last time I was there.

They could only follow you if you were talking, and thus visible...

 

[Cuda1447]

They could only follow you if you were talking, and thus visible...

Or they would just hunt down the healers before you could get to them.

 

[Nebor]

Or they would just hunt down the healers before you could get to them.

heh, remember the Tracking skill?

 

[Gothgar]

I remember my first experience with PK's. I was a noob, venturing outside britain. If you go to the west to where the mining spots are, then through that mountain corridor there is a crossroads spot where you can go 3 directions. About halfway through that mountain pass it turned from guard zone to non-guard zone. I would pinball back and forth, testing the waters for awhile. Eventually a group of blues chased back all the reds and we made our way out to the crossroads. I was sporting my best gear at the time too. Thinking we had overrun them, I was venturing off a little ways, killing shit and looking around. Then all of a sudden all the reds came back. Mad scramble, I couldn't get back to the guardzone so I ran south into the woods. I was chased and killed. Due to that incident, that area became my stomping grounds. So much so that I made it my goal to buy a house just south of those crossroads. A few weeks later I saved up enough money and placed a small house down there. I then started an anti-pk crossroads guild. We hung out there all day long, hunting reds. If shit got to tough we'd run back to my house and hopefully be able to survive. I literally would spend hours a day over there, just fighting reds and returning with their loot to my house. Or returning to my house to get more gear.


Anyone remember this? You get killed, bitch follows you and kills the healer so you can't get rezzed! Ah that pissed me off so bad, but it was so smart. Or the worst was when they killed your horse. Damnit, now I gotta run all the way back to town and buy ANOTHER horse for 700gp. I hope the guy with the horses has some more ready to go. He only had 2 left last time I was there.

Yeah I remember those crossroads, some good fights there.

Loads of places with really good fights...


I remember when they added the deal where skills could be set to not level down any more... that is about when I quit I think.

That was lame. Before that I remember running away from people doing skills cause I might get a point in something and then not be max in one of my other skills. Such random shit thinking back

 

[PingSpike]

Paradox is coming out with an MMO based in colonial times Salem, MA (appropriately it's titled Salem) sometime in Q2 of this year. It features permanent death. From what I've read, anytime you commit a crime (steal, kill, vandalise property, etc) you will leave a clue behind. Not sure the exact mechanics, but that will allow other players to track you down and punish you accordingly. And it's F2P so people won't be afraid to try it out and waste money.

That sounds like a cool mechanic.

 

[Cuda1447]

Alright, so there is a server called Hybrid which has about 600-1000 players on at any given time. Most people hang out at the Delucia bank for some reason.

Who wants to form an AT guild and join this server with the sole purpose of killing people with me?

 

[PingSpike]

How do you play on the free shards? I mean, can you just download the client somewhere?

Also, how do those shards run? Did some one leak the server code or is it all reverse engineered?

 

[Cuda1447]

I'm not entirely sure how they got the server code, I think EA released it sometime back. The client is free to download and the shards are free to play on. It's actually pretty damn easy to get everything up and running.

The only downside that I see is that the population is a bit light, compared to back in the days on the OSI shards. But if we get a decent group of people we can find stuff to do. And who knows, maybe it'll gain popularity. They have a pretty active forum/playerbase from the ones that actually play. And the devs are very active in keeping things fresh, introducing new content to the game, while keeping everything balanced.

*edit*

Here is their website: http://www.runuo.com/home/

 

[Arglebargle]

Hope you guys have fun!

This nostalgia thread reminds me exactly why I decided not to play.

Though if you want to see more of this sort of game/play, you all should really support similar games, even if they are small or not perfect. If they can't support their creators, no one will consider making them.

Aside from Eve, this type of thing is pretty much considered an evolutionary dead end. At least at the AAA level.

 

[lsv]

EVE-Online

The bottom line for better or worse is that most people do not want that type of MMO. EVE tends to have a fanatic fan base but still only has something like 350k subscribers. Compared to the millions playing WoW or SWTOR, that's nothing. Companies are going for what they think will bring them the most profits.

Came in here to write Eve is what OP should try. You're essentially always in danger when outside of the 'Empire' systems. Man I put so much time into Eve my god.

 

[Ns1]

Alright, so there is a server called Hybrid which has about 600-1000 players on at any given time. Most people hang out at the Delucia bank for some reason.

Who wants to form an AT guild and join this server with the sole purpose of killing people with me?

I tried going back based on the other UO thread. Gave up after a day. Nostalgia is better.

 

[gonvik]

VENDOR BUY THE BANK GUARDS

Good UO stories in this thread. Like Ns1, I tried going back to some of the free shards such as "secondageUO" or the "uogamers hybrid" server, but had trouble getting back into it all. I believe Hybrid contains content around the Renaissance age. Might try again this weekend.

 

[coloumb]

I've only read a few of the posts - but wouldn't old school SWG [pre-nge] with a few tweaks offer the same style of MMO? SWG EMU servers are being developed. Just tweak it so it brings over many of the things that made UO awesome [for those who played UO in it's day - I never did - I just couldn't stomach the isometric view].

 

[Arglebargle]

SWG was broken. It was released probably a year too early, and never fixed. While you may have enjoyed it (and some parts were pretty innovative), it was never fully working. I was interested in it at the time, but was warned away by friends who were part of the dev team.

Also, the source code isn't available, and probably never will be. Emulation is a bit more difficult. Especially when the source code wasn't working well to begin with.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Sony should've fixed the bugs, implemented CURB as originally planned, and concentrated on content and additional theme parks to add to the sandbox environment. The game was amazing but bugged. I still need to reload it on my new PC so I can log into the EMU.

As far as the EMU is concerned, the EMU team has done an outstanding job and it is quite playable, but as you can imagine, SWG was huge and not everything is done yet. My biggest fear is that they're going to take too long before they release v1.0 and people may have lost too much interest in the project to give it a try. I'll give them this much as well -- their approach to dealing with fans and the public has done a complete 180. They used to be very condescending and rude but a couple of years ago, decided to become more professional and it has been really helpful.

On the other hand, the lack of big sandbox MMOs now and in the near future may save it and we may see many populated servers.

 

[BathroomFeeling]

Also, how do those shards run? Did some one leak the server code or is it all reverse engineered?

Being an early MMO, UO was fairly basic in design it seems, not at all hard to figure out. Stats, items, drops, etc... everything could be researched within a week in the real game & implemented in an emulator. So much so that an experimental prototype was developed before the game went gold. UOX was awesome, I remember taking weeks building intricate & beautiful gardens & palaces. Then placing NPCs there, have them do certain actions, even during certain times of the day. The best bit was scripting their dialogue, it was stupendously easy. We can make them say a whole bunch of things based on keywords. We could theoretically script a single/multi player game from it - akin to something like the original Ultimas. The only thing you couldn't do was create new graphics.

I imagine the code would have advanced much by now, so who knows.

 

[OCNewbie]

I just miss the time when games were made with intentions of the game being awesome, and well received, instead of the absolute #1 goal to be how much money we can make, regardless of the actual quality of gameplay.