UO - Ultima Online discussion

[HydroSqueegee]

people that call their characters 'toons' make me want to choke a bitch.

fun game though. robbed me of a couple years of the prime of my life.

 

[Wreckem]

Holy fuck, people still play UO?

They had ~100,000 back in 2009. That was 4 years ago. Last year was its 15th anniversary.

 

[Cuda1447]

Played on LS and Chesapeake. I LOVED the moonglow Graveyard. The guardzones were so strange around Moonglow that you could really take advantage of the inexperienced. Going Gray in brit was what I would do when bored. GM Hiding, go gray, get aggro'd on. Run and hide, re-engage a minute 30 later. Hide again. Wait 30 seconds... THEN IT'S ON BITCH. 1 on 1, in Brit for everyone to see. Let's do this. The dude knew he was in over his head, but there was nothing he could do. And if anyone tried to loot my kill they'd go down too. (Which happened all the time).


I spent so many hours playing that game. It really was a game unlike any other. I'd still play it today if it had the player base and old school rules that he had. The graphics weren't the best and it didn't matter. It was about the gameplay.

 

[Cuda1447]

1. Then it would just be another MMO with all the other new MMO's

2. The many years of time invested by the playerbase in the current game

3. One of the main draws being the history and nostalgia of the current game

Updating is one thing, replacing another.

UO2.

If you brought it back to it's roots... it could be done. I know I'd give it a look at least .

 

[DougK62]

Ultima Online, wow. I remember following the development of that game for so long. It really was revolutionary. I participated in the Beta and still have the CD for it. Didn't have the resources to play the final release but it still has quite a fond place in my memory.

 

[Doppel]

Why? It just makes me sad to think that there's never been a game as good since then, and probably never will be. They gave us the freedom to make our own world with very few rules. It was destroyed by people who wanted to play on "easy mode."

So right I want to make a baby with you.

I have played games for years prior and after UO but none so memorable. I remember the day walking back from the post office with my preorder which included the cotton map of Britannica. I then spent the next three months obsessed. UO was so good I have never played an MMO since because I am scared of a new addiction.

UO was so good that despite the launch issues with the servers constantly crashing I kept going back.

The genuine fear and risk of leaving town was exciting. I started as a "noble" character and by the end became a prolific player killer with a mule character to store my loot in town. I had a top tier mage and the only thing I liked more than robbing people out for a stroll was killing other PKs. That was in 1997. In 1998 they changed the combat system and the best killers at that point were crossbow characters mounted on horses.

My favorite attire was to dress up in a dress and/or completely nude except for a deer helm just for lols. This ensured that even if I were killed I lost virtually nothing. When magic was king in 1997 I would only bring enough reagents to recall around and some vas flams 🙂

There was a purity to UO at first. The fact that a newb could have their experience "ruined" due to their own weakness early on with no protection out of town was a positive because everything was exciting.

One of the first skills I worked on was magic so that I could recall. Always had the back pack open and a hot key to recall that I could target on a rune. As such I rarely was a pk victim even early on. Cannot say that for some of my prey who were not so quick to the draw, particularly when spells eventually became possible to break mid spell, thus spelling doom for anybody getting attacked who was trying to escape.

 

[Andy22]

So right I want to make a baby with you.

I have played games for years prior and after UO but none so memorable. I remember the day walking back from the post office with my preorder which included the cotton map of Britannica. I then spent the next three months obsessed. UO was so good I have never played an MMO since because I am scared of a new addiction.

UO was so good that despite the launch issues with the servers constantly crashing I kept going back.

The genuine fear and risk of leaving town was exciting. I started as a "noble" character and by the end became a prolific player killer with a mule character to store my loot in town. I had a top tier mage and the only thing I liked more than robbing people out for a stroll was killing other PKs. That was in 1997. In 1998 they changed the combat system and the best killers at that point were crossbow characters mounted on horses.

My favorite attire was to dress up in a dress and/or completely nude except for a deer helm just for lols. This ensured that even if I were killed I lost virtually nothing. When magic was king in 1997 I would only bring enough reagents to recall around and some vas flams 🙂

There was a purity to UO at first. The fact that a newb could have their experience "ruined" due to their own weakness early on with no protection out of town was a positive because everything was exciting.

One of the first skills I worked on was magic so that I could recall. Always had the back pack open and a hot key to recall that I could target on a rune. As such I rarely was a pk victim even early on. Cannot say that for some of my prey who were not so quick to the draw, particularly when spells eventually became possible to break mid spell, thus spelling doom for anybody getting attacked who was trying to escape.

Yes...this! Making the trip between cities and then hearing the new city music knowing you were safe was such a relief. Loved the fear the open combat system induced.

 

[Juddog]

UO sucked compared to Everquest, and Everquest sucked compared with World of Warcraft.

 

[Juddog]

My "fond" UO memories:
* Working for weeks building up various skills. Discovering you can't steal in cities. Trying to role play with other players, and them just ignoring me to continue fishing (bots?)
* Trying to role-play, meeting someone on the road, starting to type out "well good day sir!" and getting one shotted even though I had a good amount of stamina. That was back in the day where if you specialized in damage spells you could literally one shot any other player in the game if you hit first. That was my first time of losing all of my stuff that I spent days collecting. Man I was pissed.
* After that the gank wave started. It reminded me of being in a war zone. Other players just popping out of the blue, exploiting any bug possible, to kill you. For example one guy sat behind a house and just one-shotted anybody that came close, then took all their stuff. You couldn't click on him because the game was a piece of sh!t that didn't allow you to rotate the map (since it was still garbage sprites instead of 3d). So it allowed him to freely kill anybody that came close with no chance of retribution.
* After a while they finally got rid of some of the bugs, but by that time the game pretty much became a gank or be ganked gank-fest. Players at that point had no interest in talking, or partying together, they just either belonged in a ganking gang or they belonged in a different gang. The game became a lawless wasteland. At this point I had cancelled my subscription since I wasn't interested in a one sided PVP fest where the side that hid the best won. I like playing games like DOTA, Starcraft, etc. where the basic premise is that you are there to fight other players. UO introduced this fairy-tale mentality that the developers trusted people to be nice, instead it turned into Grand Theft Auto with spells.

 

[lotus503]

My "fond" UO memories:
* Working for weeks building up various skills. Discovering you can't steal in cities. Trying to role play with other players, and them just ignoring me to continue fishing (bots?)
* Trying to role-play, meeting someone on the road, starting to type out "well good day sir!" and getting one shotted even though I had a good amount of stamina. That was back in the day where if you specialized in damage spells you could literally one shot any other player in the game if you hit first. That was my first time of losing all of my stuff that I spent days collecting. Man I was pissed.
* After that the gank wave started. It reminded me of being in a war zone. Other players just popping out of the blue, exploiting any bug possible, to kill you. For example one guy sat behind a house and just one-shotted anybody that came close, then took all their stuff. You couldn't click on him because the game was a piece of sh!t that didn't allow you to rotate the map (since it was still garbage sprites instead of 3d). So it allowed him to freely kill anybody that came close with no chance of retribution.
* After a while they finally got rid of some of the bugs, but by that time the game pretty much became a gank or be ganked gank-fest. Players at that point had no interest in talking, or partying together, they just either belonged in a ganking gang or they belonged in a different gang. The game became a lawless wasteland. At this point I had cancelled my subscription since I wasn't interested in a one sided PVP fest where the side that hid the best won. I like playing games like DOTA, Starcraft, etc. where the basic premise is that you are there to fight other players. UO introduced this fairy-tale mentality that the developers trusted people to be nice, instead it turned into Grand Theft Auto with spells.

Lawless wasteland is what made the game fun, you did have towns to hang out in, but then you had to contend with thieves.

 

[Nebor]

My "fond" UO memories:
* Working for weeks building up various skills. Discovering you can't steal in cities. Trying to role play with other players, and them just ignoring me to continue fishing (bots?)
* Trying to role-play, meeting someone on the road, starting to type out "well good day sir!" and getting one shotted even though I had a good amount of stamina. That was back in the day where if you specialized in damage spells you could literally one shot any other player in the game if you hit first. That was my first time of losing all of my stuff that I spent days collecting. Man I was pissed.
* After that the gank wave started. It reminded me of being in a war zone. Other players just popping out of the blue, exploiting any bug possible, to kill you. For example one guy sat behind a house and just one-shotted anybody that came close, then took all their stuff. You couldn't click on him because the game was a piece of sh!t that didn't allow you to rotate the map (since it was still garbage sprites instead of 3d). So it allowed him to freely kill anybody that came close with no chance of retribution.
* After a while they finally got rid of some of the bugs, but by that time the game pretty much became a gank or be ganked gank-fest. Players at that point had no interest in talking, or partying together, they just either belonged in a ganking gang or they belonged in a different gang. The game became a lawless wasteland. At this point I had cancelled my subscription since I wasn't interested in a one sided PVP fest where the side that hid the best won. I like playing games like DOTA, Starcraft, etc. where the basic premise is that you are there to fight other players. UO introduced this fairy-tale mentality that the developers trusted people to be nice, instead it turned into Grand Theft Auto with spells.

Some people thrive in that environment. I know I did. And my viewpoint is nothing like yours.

First of all, you COULD steal in towns. If you passed the highest skill check, you'd just turn grey to whoever you stole from. If you failed it, the guards would kill you on the spot, IIRC.

Second, I belonged to a thriving role-playing community on Chesapeake Bay that included several player towns, including my home in PaxLair where I ran a successful GM Bowyer business and frequented the local pub. PaxLair would go to war with the vampire town out West (can't recall the nearby city anymore.) PaxLair is still very active to this day, and participates in the GM sanctioned and run RP events as seen here on their news page.

Yeah, you could die and lose everything. But you could kill and gain everything. As much as you might like roleplaying, one of the greatest events that I ever experienced was when a horde of PKs descended on a wedding in PaxLair. We were all dressed to the nines in our valorite, verite and agapite platemail, and no weapons equipped, a juicy target. The battle lasted for 2 hours, with reinforcements pouring in from both sides.

*sigh* As predicted in the first post, now I'm just feeling sad. I'll never have that much playing a game again.