Ultima Online turns 20 on the 24th

If it's a video game it goes here.

Moderators: LawBeefaroni, Arcanis, $iljanus

Post Reply
User avatar
Daehawk
Posts: 63526
Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:11 am

Ultima Online turns 20 on the 24th

Post by Daehawk »

Hard to believe huh? 20 years ago. I was in my mid 20s. And the game is doing better than me lol. The fun me and my friend had in the beta. As I told him I can remember the stuff we did in that beta more than 20 years ago but I cant tell you what I did last week. My life has become nothing but waiting on death. 20 years ago were the best times of my life.
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
User avatar
Zarathud
Posts: 16434
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 10:29 pm
Location: Chicago, Illinois

Re: Ultima Online turns 20 on the 24th

Post by Zarathud »

I seem to remember hours of drudgery followed by getting ganked after walking inside the first dungeon.

Then miles upon miles of player houses filling in the continent so you couldn't walk, let aline scavenge anything.

The only redeeming part was the reputation system. Dread Buddha and Dread ZombiJesus were both kill on sight with the guards, who could be trained while they rushed into town. They were Leroy Jenkins before the meme.
"If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts." - Albert Einstein
"I don't stand by anything." - Trump
“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” - John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address Delivered to the University of St Andrews, 2/1/1867
“It is the impractical things in this tumultuous hell-scape of a world that matter most. A book, a name, chicken soup. They help us remember that, even in our darkest hour, life is still to be savored.” - Poe, Altered Carbon
User avatar
GreenGoo
Posts: 42239
Joined: Thu Oct 14, 2004 10:46 pm
Location: Ottawa, ON

Re: Ultima Online turns 20 on the 24th

Post by GreenGoo »

Fascinating experiment and the start of some pretty amazing gaming.

While I don't spend much time with MMO's any more, the concept is cool and they are straight out of science fiction from my youth, so that's cool as hell. In fact except for neural interfaces and crap like that, modern MMO's are actually far cooler than the ones in the scifi I read as a kid.

Ultima Online was my first exposure to them, even though I never played it.
User avatar
Blackhawk
Posts: 43496
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 9:48 pm
Location: Southwest Indiana

Re: Ultima Online turns 20 on the 24th

Post by Blackhawk »

Zarathud wrote:I seem to remember hours of drudgery followed by getting ganked after walking inside the first dungeon.
Wait, you got all the way to a dungeon?

My experience was similar, except that after hours of drudgery to get a sword and shield, I made it about 30 seconds out of town before getting ganked for them. I looked at hours more drudgery to try again, and said screw it.
(˙pǝsɹǝʌǝɹ uǝǝq sɐɥ ʎʇıʌɐɹƃ ʃɐuosɹǝd ʎW)
User avatar
baelthazar
Posts: 4365
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2007 10:12 am
Location: Indiana

Re: Ultima Online turns 20 on the 24th

Post by baelthazar »

You babies!

I remember leaving the town and having a nice route to hide through the trees and TONS of houses that literally blanketed the landscape to avoid getting ganked. My character was named Lan Mandragoran and I spent a lot of time up in Despise, north of Britain. It was the lowest level of dungeon that I could do and not lose everything. Occasionally, PVP unfairness reared its ugly head, but overall I had some good headway. I had an alt character that I used to mine ore in the mountains to take back to town for forging. The katana was the best weapon, so every used the katana, which was a strange aesthetic. Crossbows were super unfair, and I remember running away from a bolt that would make turns around trees to eventually catch me (ranged weapons hit based on skill and not location, which meant homing arrows).

My favorite story was my friend (who was a GM in fishing), was at the bank one day. He caught a guy pickpocketing and called "guards," which summoned the guards to auto-kill the pickpocket. Everyone suddenly started looting the dead guy. Well, my friend ended up getting a backpack with hundreds of magic reagents (worth a king's ransom) among some other nice bits. He was so overloaded, however, he couldn't move! So he was trying to inch his way close enough to open the bank when the dead guy shows back up demanding his stuff from everyone. Needless to say, he did not get it!

We went back in with the expansions and after they added the PVE-only shard Trammel. The game was much better then, without having to worry about constant ganking.

I was a freshman in college when it came out, and it was a way to keep in touch with my friend who was at another college (until I transferred). Great memories. I still view UO as one of the most innovative games I have played and one of my favorite MMORPGs (next to Asheron's Call and Dark Age of Camelot). I played WoW way more, but always missed some of the player based economy of UO.
User avatar
Blackhawk
Posts: 43496
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 9:48 pm
Location: Southwest Indiana

Re: Ultima Online turns 20 on the 24th

Post by Blackhawk »

baelthazar wrote:You babies!
Maybe, but having two days of effort wiped clean in seconds by someone who didn't even have to to blink to kill me, who looted for something worth copper that was useless to him, but took me hours to get, just so he could show me he was 'superior' was the exact opposite of fun, and the reason I won't play an open PVP MMO to this day.

Assholes aren't fun.
(˙pǝsɹǝʌǝɹ uǝǝq sɐɥ ʎʇıʌɐɹƃ ʃɐuosɹǝd ʎW)
User avatar
Sepiche
Posts: 8112
Joined: Mon Feb 21, 2005 12:00 pm
Location: Olathe, KS

Re: Ultima Online turns 20 on the 24th

Post by Sepiche »

I played UO in the beta and for a year or so afterwards. In retrospect I think the original design was incredibly naive about the ability of players to ruin things for others, but there was also something magical about the freedom you had.

My favorite story was one time I was coming back from a successful mining trip outside of the town limits and saw a gold coin laying a little way off the road. So I walked over and picked it up, and then saw another coin a little way off, so I went over and picked it up too. Then another, and another... you can probably see where this is going. The coins of course led me a good distance from the road where I found a chest lying on the ground, clicked to open it, and was immediately blown up by the powerful explosive trap on it. Then as a ghost I watched as two guys came out of the woods, looted my body, reset the gold coins, and one of them lectured the other guy on the mounds of loot he had gotten using that trap setup.

Pretty annoying to have a full load of ore stolen, but at least he came up with something more clever than hiding behind houses and ambushing anyone that came along with Corp Por. :P
User avatar
Daehawk
Posts: 63526
Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:11 am

Re: Ultima Online turns 20 on the 24th

Post by Daehawk »

Im laughing. Also I wont apologize for ganking. It was the most fun Ive had. I was bi poler . I had a glorious lord and a dread lord.

I could take my good guy out to the xroads and hang out fine because I knew all the pks...even before I was one. On Pacific btw in a guild called MOD Minions of Death. I was named Titan and a GM Archer. Over the years I had GM Archer, lockpick,bard, tamer you name it. As a good guy I traveled around with my friend Phacerros who was a GM Fighter. At the orc fort near Cove one day a big PK group rolled in and just passed us by. One stopped and said "Mental note do NOT attack GM Archer" and ran off to his buds for their fun. We laughed and laughed.

As my bad guy I was a bad bad boy. It was on our pk side called Brute Squad I think.Id pk anyone and everyone. I had a house out near the xroads and a merchant on my front porch where I put ganked folks belongings and sold them back to them if they wanted them. In a dungeon run one day I found a Heavy Xbow of Vanquishing and well that sealed everyone's doom right there :P I looted a home off some guy once out there. My friend did the same but it was a GMs alt and before he could place his new found home the server mysteriously reset :)

In our guild we'd have mock up fights to practice and Phac and me would be the only two left standing. From UO we moved on to all the rest of the MMOs...EQ,DAoC, AC, WoW...you name the mmo initials we probably played them. He actually became Guildmaster on a lot of them.

But for UO Ill never forget names like Bob our guild leader, Tygon, Cierra, Talos, Swiftwind, weird bob, Phacerros, Titan and and ass that both me and phac could NOT pk cause he somehow kept drinking potions and somehow cheating named Water. I remember you sucker!

Fun fun days. I just dont have those like back then.
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
User avatar
Daehawk
Posts: 63526
Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:11 am

Re: Ultima Online turns 20 on the 24th

Post by Daehawk »

My friend reminded me of another adventure we had in UO.

I had a GM Lockpick and we grouped up and headed around breaking in peoples houses. We were cleaning up and havign a blast when we broke into this one guys home. Either he was there when we broke in or he just happened to log in while we were there. Pretty comical to us but must been a surprise to him to say the least. We were unlocking and looting all his stuff and telling him how he should improve his security and how to actually do it......and still looting away. We finally ended up outside and figured he must have banned us from his house lol. Too funny.
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
User avatar
baelthazar
Posts: 4365
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2007 10:12 am
Location: Indiana

Re: Ultima Online turns 20 on the 24th

Post by baelthazar »

Blackhawk wrote:
baelthazar wrote:You babies!
Maybe, but having two days of effort wiped clean in seconds by someone who didn't even have to to blink to kill me, who looted for something worth copper that was useless to him, but took me hours to get, just so he could show me he was 'superior' was the exact opposite of fun, and the reason I won't play an open PVP MMO to this day.

Assholes aren't fun.
Fair enough, and the rampant PKing (and Starcraft) made me leave UO (only to return when Trammel was implemented). That said, we had no other frame of reference. I was an avid Ultima fan and this type of game was so new (it was not the first but it was the most innovative for the time). So we did not know better, that there could be an MMORPG where you couldn't lose all your stuff unfairly.

I think it is funny, after all the "Carebear" trend in MMORPG, that things like Rust, PUG, Ark, and even Minecraft are repopularizing the die and lose it all to PKing past.
User avatar
Blackhawk
Posts: 43496
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 9:48 pm
Location: Southwest Indiana

Re: Ultima Online turns 20 on the 24th

Post by Blackhawk »

baelthazar wrote:
I think it is funny, after all the "Carebear" trend in MMORPG, that things like Rust, PUG, Ark, and even Minecraft are repopularizing the die and lose it all to PKing past.
I generally avoid roguelikes and lose-everything games (although I did play a good bit of Minecraft), as I dislike frustration-as-entertainment, but I do think there needs to be a happy medium. I haven't been back to WoW in years because it has become so easy that death is almost impossible unless you're AFK, and it's irrelevant if you do die.
(˙pǝsɹǝʌǝɹ uǝǝq sɐɥ ʎʇıʌɐɹƃ ʃɐuosɹǝd ʎW)
User avatar
Holman
Posts: 28907
Joined: Sun Oct 24, 2004 8:00 pm
Location: Between the Schuylkill and the Wissahickon

Re: Ultima Online turns 20 on the 24th

Post by Holman »

I grew up on the Apple II Ultima games but never tried Ultima Online.

I remember reading avidly about it in PC Gamer (print issues!), though. I could tell that it represented something totally new and permanent in entertainment.

Its silly failures were probably a necessary part of the learning curve.
Much prefer my Nazis Nuremberged.
User avatar
GreenGoo
Posts: 42239
Joined: Thu Oct 14, 2004 10:46 pm
Location: Ottawa, ON

Re: Ultima Online turns 20 on the 24th

Post by GreenGoo »

baelthazar wrote:
I think it is funny, after all the "Carebear" trend in MMORPG, that things like Rust, PUG, Ark, and even Minecraft are repopularizing the die and lose it all to PKing past.
Er...no.

Things are more carebear than ever. I enjoy pvp in an open setting now, but I didn't used to, but I don't enjoy ironman pvp unless the game is designed to allow for the loss of everything and the regaining of everything in a relatively short period of time.

PUG is by design a battle to the death. That's like saying Unreal Tournament popularized player killing. I mean, I guess you could say that, but in this context, not really.

Rust has between 11k and 35k daily players. That's pretty good, I'll check it out because I don't know a thing about it.

Ark on the other hand, is such a mix of public and private servers, modded and unmodded, that I have a hard time using Ark as an example of unbridled pvp. Sure it exists, but that's not the only way it exists. WoW has pvp servers as well, but I think pretty much everyone would call it a carebear mmo.

I guess what I'm saying is that you seem to characterize "now" as some revitalization of no holds barred pvp gameplay, and I'm just not seeing it. If anything, the games that stick out with their gank or be ganked gameplay (DayZ, PUG, etc) stand out because they are extremely unusual compared to the VAST majority of games that hold your hand and keep the dying penalties low.

And I say this as a convert from pve to pvp (in controlled doses). I find I play a LOT more ironman in my single player games now too. Whether that's related or not, I have no idea.
Kelan
Posts: 106
Joined: Wed Feb 03, 2016 8:21 am

Re: Ultima Online turns 20 on the 24th

Post by Kelan »

I have lots of great memories from Ultima Online, and quite a few bad ones too!

I played at release and the lag and problems then were pretty brutal. I believe the first dungeon I ventured into was Destard, and it was quite a slide show. Trying to avoid the fireballs from drakes or dragons was awful. It didn't help I randomly picked one of the toughest dungeons to step into first.

Once I finally did gain some traction, I played on Napa Valley and then Great Lakes. We would hang out in Minoc and run down to the mountains on the other side of Covetous and do some mining and run back hopefully with our ore still so we could smelt it and make a few weapons to sell back. It was slow going, but we eventually worked out a routine and knew the best routes to maximize tree cover and try to avoid PKers.

I did eventually manage to buy and place my first house in that valley there, near the mountain. Once you got your magery high enough to mark/recall, it became much easier to avoid Pkers if you kept your wits about you. My favorite times were spent in Shame killing elementals and I GMed my first skill (Swordsmanship) fighting earth elementals there. I later started to focus on being a Mage more, but really enjoyed the melee days early on.

My best memories were when they added the Treasure Maps. I dedicated a brand new alt to being a treasure hunter, and eventually maxed out Cartography and very nearly Lockpicking. He also later on became a GM Mage/Eval/Resist character and my main farmer later on. Still, the early days of getting a group of us together and me reading the map and finding the treasure chests for the first time (before they were all mapped out) was quite a bit of fun. Later on, my buddy and I would buy up masses of maps and spend the evening doing maps all over and then spending the rest of the night IDing loot in one of our houses and hoping for that rare Vanq weapon. I never did get that lucky, but was particularly fond of my Lich killer Silver Katana of Power.
User avatar
Paingod
Posts: 13132
Joined: Wed Aug 25, 2010 8:58 am

Re: Ultima Online turns 20 on the 24th

Post by Paingod »

Daehawk wrote:I wont apologize for ganking. It was the most fun Ive had.
I just need to know where you live, and I'll be able to send you the present I've always wanted to send to gankers. My only hope is that after opening it, you'll run in a small circle while screaming "CURE! CURE! CURE!" before falling over and being looted by the neighborhood children.
Black Lives Matter

2021-01-20: The first good night's sleep I had in 4 years.
User avatar
Daehawk
Posts: 63526
Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:11 am

Re: Ultima Online turns 20 on the 24th

Post by Daehawk »

Back then lag was the toughest monster. It always popped up at the worst times.

I forgot I had a GM Fisherman and or map person. Id fish a lot and then do the maps and the whole guild would go out to dig them up. You'd have to fight off the monster spawns and the other players.

I had SO much fun. But these days Im a different player. I got killed in a free MMO yesterday when I accidentally put on the pk clothes instead of my new outfit and instantly some jackass was there higher lvl than me and killed me. I lost nothing but some weapon durability but damn I was mad for a moment lol. So unlike my old self.
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
User avatar
baelthazar
Posts: 4365
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2007 10:12 am
Location: Indiana

Re: Ultima Online turns 20 on the 24th

Post by baelthazar »

GreenGoo wrote: I guess what I'm saying is that you seem to characterize "now" as some revitalization of no holds barred pvp gameplay, and I'm just not seeing it. If anything, the games that stick out with their gank or be ganked gameplay (DayZ, PUG, etc) stand out because they are extremely unusual compared to the VAST majority of games that hold your hand and keep the dying penalties low.

And I say this as a convert from pve to pvp (in controlled doses). I find I play a LOT more ironman in my single player games now too. Whether that's related or not, I have no idea.
I guess I thought PUG was something it was not. That said, I stand by my assessment. There are a lot of new games releasing, particularly indie games, where you can lose all your loot and progress by dying and have to do the old loot run (like in UO or Everquest). Minecraft is a great example, but only one (The Forest, The Long Dark). Coupled with that you have Rust, DayZ, etc., which follows UO's model pretty closely - you can get ganked. Ark was, at least initially, billed for having a player-based world where you could burn down the villages and homes of other players. EVE remains popular, and it has a similar model of unrestricted ganking and PVP in certain areas (and losing your hard earned resources).

I could even argue that the Dark Souls style games employ a similar mechanic in a solo-play game - you die and you lose something precious. It isn't nearly as hardcore as UO, but it is something.

Remember, I never claimed the majority of games were doing this, but that several major sellers on Steam were employing a style found in past games (that was largely shouted down). Clearly, people are demanding a return to some of the older models.
User avatar
Daehawk
Posts: 63526
Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:11 am

Re: Ultima Online turns 20 on the 24th

Post by Daehawk »

Back in those old days I didn't mind the death and corpse runs and such.I mean EQ corpse runs in the bottom of a dungeon were both a nightmare and a fun romp at times. By the time DAoC came out they were starting to change them a bit. Now days if I had to d othe standard EQ corpse runs Id kill myself....or delete the game probably lol. I just am not the same. I started out with turn based strategy as one of my favorite genres and now Im too gogogogogo to enjoy stuff like that. Also Fallout and turn based action point combat games were one of my favorites..now I cant take them and have been barely getting through Shadowrun . 15+ years ago I would have been in heaven.
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
User avatar
Paingod
Posts: 13132
Joined: Wed Aug 25, 2010 8:58 am

Re: Ultima Online turns 20 on the 24th

Post by Paingod »

Daehawk wrote:Back then lag was the toughest monster. It always popped up at the worst times.
I still remember upgrading from 56K Modem to Cable - and suddenly I could literally outrun someone on horseback while I was on foot.

The day I quit this game was when I was down in a cave somewhere and some jackass kept running in and looting everything I killed. I got so fed up that I murdered him and took it all back. Of course, I was a murderer then. This was also back in the days of selling accounts - so I sold a well trained crafting/swordsman and quit. I didn't like that I had to be an asshole just to 'enjoy' the game.

EVE Online was an amazing experience until I bumped into my first real player and lost two weeks of work. Brand new player on a trial account, loving the game - took my only ship, my biggest ship, and tip-toed through a gate to 'zero' space ... and greeted by someone who had me locked and dead in seconds. Uninstall, unsubscribe.
Black Lives Matter

2021-01-20: The first good night's sleep I had in 4 years.
User avatar
Daehawk
Posts: 63526
Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:11 am

Re: Ultima Online turns 20 on the 24th

Post by Daehawk »

Im not sure if I had my half ISDN by the time of UO. I believe I either did or I did soon after it started. It did help. I know I have like 4 or 8 megs of ram because in EQ I doubled it to 8 or 16 and it made zone loads MUCH faster.
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
User avatar
baelthazar
Posts: 4365
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2007 10:12 am
Location: Indiana

Re: Ultima Online turns 20 on the 24th

Post by baelthazar »

Daehawk wrote:Back in those old days I didn't mind the death and corpse runs and such.I mean EQ corpse runs in the bottom of a dungeon were both a nightmare and a fun romp at times. By the time DAoC came out they were starting to change them a bit. Now days if I had to d othe standard EQ corpse runs Id kill myself....or delete the game probably lol. I just am not the same. I started out with turn based strategy as one of my favorite genres and now Im too gogogogogo to enjoy stuff like that. Also Fallout and turn based action point combat games were one of my favorites..now I cant take them and have been barely getting through Shadowrun . 15+ years ago I would have been in heaven.
I think what happened here is that our lives changed. Back when I was 18 and playing UO, I had all the time in the day. All I did was go to class, do homework, and then play games. I was far away from friends and family (until I transferred) and spent whole weekends on games or watching dumb horror movies. When I transferred, we devoted late nights on Thursdays to board gaming. It was like the days had 48 hours each.

Today, with wife, kid, family, work, grading, research, and my own homework (I am enrolled in a class), I basically get to play a few hours before bed. A corpse run taking 30+ minutes basically would eat up a fourth of my gaming time a night. That just is not a good use of time. And since there is no shortage of great games in my backlog, I can just switch to something else. I know it sounds weird, but as we get older I think our time gets more precious. I swear, now it feels like days have like 12 hours in them.

I may get to play a board game taking 3+ hours once a year now. If that. People just can't get away from kids, spouses, and work like they used to.
User avatar
Greybriar
Posts: 440
Joined: Mon Aug 04, 2008 10:40 am
Location: United States

Re: Ultima Online turns 20 on the 24th

Post by Greybriar »

I played a little bit of Ultima Online in 1999 and 2000. Except for its PvP, I liked UO better than EQ. EQ had better graphics, but I could live with that a lot better than the gankers in UO. Then one day I logged in to find all my characters and items on my account had been deleted. UO support did not help me at all, and that was the end of me playing UO.

So I played EverQuest for six years. Then World of WarCraft for going on thirteen years after that. It's been a long haul and I've had a lot of fun.
The education of a man is never completed until he dies. --Robert E. Lee
Kelan
Posts: 106
Joined: Wed Feb 03, 2016 8:21 am

Re: Ultima Online turns 20 on the 24th

Post by Kelan »

Paingod wrote:I still remember upgrading from 56K Modem to Cable - and suddenly I could literally outrun someone on horseback while I was on foot.
I didn't quite have cable yet, but I did have two phone lines in my house (one was for a business I had for a while) and two ISP dial up accounts. I would frequently fire up UOMon and check which ISP was giving me the best ping with 0 Packet Loss. One of the accounts was frequently better than the other. As long as I was getting <200 ms pings with no packet loss, my performance didn't seem to suffer too badly in game.

I did feel bad for my buddy who I saw many times fall victim to PKers because his connection wasn't as good as I sped away to Recall in the next room of a dungeon. I guess I wasn't such a good friend in those times :).
User avatar
Redfive
Posts: 1905
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:12 am
Location: Back in Texas

Re: Ultima Online turns 20 on the 24th

Post by Redfive »

I played for awhile. Never got good enough or equipped enough to be competent with the PK'rs.

I finally quit in pretty much frustration as well but UO was the very first online MMO I ever tried and the anticipation was crazy while waiting for it to release. I was in the beta and lag was terrible too.

The PK scene was ridiculous though. I remember getting killed by some guy that was wearing nothing but yellow boots and a yellow floppy hat at the crossroads westish of one of the cities.

He was just killing anyone that came by and was being all 'I'm Phr3d da K1LLa' about it. I was enraged because all I wanted to do was get through the area, and then I found that I could say anything I wanted as a ghost and it would just show up as 'OOooOOO' on screen--and a lightbulb went off.

I typed a bunch of nonsense on the screen and when I hit enter (as a ghost where the PK couldn't get me) it would show up as:

'OOOoooOOOoo
ooOoOooOOOo
oooooOOOOOo
OOOOOOooOO
ooooOOOOOOo
OOOOOOOOOo'

so I did nothing but stand right on top of this guy and moan like a ghost for about 30 minutes and he lost his shit and logged. It was amazing. Truly my best experience at UO.
Battle.net: red51ve#1673
Elder Scrolls Online - @redfive
User avatar
baelthazar
Posts: 4365
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2007 10:12 am
Location: Indiana

Re: Ultima Online turns 20 on the 24th

Post by baelthazar »

Actually, learning how to understand "ghost speak" was a great way to raise one of the stats (I think INT or WIS). Whatever the skill was called, you had to basically hit the button and it would "practice" the skill. In the early days you could practice it without having a ghost around. So my friend and I created a simple macro for the skill and then left the game playing while in town, placing a stapler or some other smallish item on the keyboard key for the macro. You came back after going to bed, going to class, or whatever, and your character was a GM Medium with a massive boost to the stats needed for casting spells. Eventually they patched this so that you had to be around a ghost to practice the skill. Being a GM Medium had its advantages too, as you could chat with people recently PK'ed and they would tell you where the PKer was.
User avatar
Sectoid
Posts: 3712
Joined: Thu Aug 04, 2005 9:35 am
Location: Cydonia, Mars
Contact:

Re: Ultima Online turns 20 on the 24th

Post by Sectoid »

I remember making a macro to up my combat skills by using training dummies, then trying to find a place to build a house (after much grinding) with no luck because the continent was full. It was a great concept, but had 0 forethought. Letting players control a finite resource (build-able land) in a game is a recipe for disaster.
I also loved the bard because you could just randomly buff other players with songs to up your skill.
For some reason I remember baking a lot of cakes too.
(V)(;,,;)(V) - Why not Zoidberg?
Model Mayhem # 641920
Kelan
Posts: 106
Joined: Wed Feb 03, 2016 8:21 am

Re: Ultima Online turns 20 on the 24th

Post by Kelan »

Dang you all! Now I keep thinking about re-subbing and poking around again in game.

I thought it was only a few years ago when I last played, but checking back through my old computer directories, it looks like it was back in 2008. I was also messing around with my own RunUO server at the time while also subbing to the main game and that was pretty cool messing around with settings and looking into doing C# modifications.

I am going to see if I still have my old account info, lol.
User avatar
Daehawk
Posts: 63526
Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:11 am

Re: Ultima Online turns 20 on the 24th

Post by Daehawk »

Theres plenty of high quality free servers. No need to pay money for it. There are a lot of them and each can have their own rules and version. So if you like some older version its out there for you.
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
Kelan
Posts: 106
Joined: Wed Feb 03, 2016 8:21 am

Re: Ultima Online turns 20 on the 24th

Post by Kelan »

Good point. Thanks for the tip. I poked around for a bit and found one I am going to give a try. I really like the idea of having no skill cap and a much higher stat cap and trying some things.
User avatar
Daehawk
Posts: 63526
Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:11 am

Re: Ultima Online turns 20 on the 24th

Post by Daehawk »

You're quiet welcome :) If I do play again thats my path as well. My friend swears by them.
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
Kelan
Posts: 106
Joined: Wed Feb 03, 2016 8:21 am

Re: Ultima Online turns 20 on the 24th

Post by Kelan »

Just in case anyone else has an interest:

I ended up joining UO Evolution. They seem to have a solid 500-800 players online all day, although I am not sure how many of them are real players actively doing things.

They seem to have very good performance, and very low pings for a shard of this type. They even have a dedicated staff that actually enforces rules and adds content frequently. This is something that was sorely missing in my recent adventures on the recent EQ progression servers. I have yet to encounter people a lot yet, but they seem to enforce a "play nice" policy from what I have seen.

I really like that they have a starting 300 stat cap (can increase with power scrolls), and no skill cap so you can have all skills maxed on the same character. This really has me excited to try some of the new spell books and things like taming or bard stuff that I never had room for before. My first character also got a note with 50,000 gold and a 700 point skill ball on creation that you can use to instantly train up some skills, if you desire. So, there is plenty there to allow you to jump in with a 7xGM character and get to some meat of the game immediately. I haven't used mine yet as I would like to reserve it for the harder to gain skills, and ones past 100 (if I ever get some power scrolls), but it is there when I am ready.

They also have a one time newbie bonus you can purchase, if you want to support the server, for $20 that gets you 3 power skill scrolls (120 skill), another 700 point skill ball, and instantly raise all your stats to 100 (Str/Dex/Int). They are only available on up to 14 day accounts, it seems, so I grabbed one as it seems I will be playing at least for a little while and may want that boost to the good stuff sooner than later :). Also, the higher Str sure helps with the carry weight and health pool. The shard also has lots of custom content, which doesn't really mean much to me as there is a huge amount of things in the game that I haven't seen before from previous expansions. I had them all purchased in the past, but never got far enough to try them out in the past.

I am still super new, but if anyone has any questions, give me a shout. So far I have been training some Lumberjacking and Mining and did my first BOD contract. I never did a lot with the colored ores before and got to 99 mining in a day, so going to see what I can do about raising Blacksmithing next, I believe.
User avatar
Daehawk
Posts: 63526
Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:11 am

Re: Ultima Online turns 20 on the 24th

Post by Daehawk »

A free server is one thing but getting money for someone else's work Im surprised EA hasn't taken them down yet.
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
Kelan
Posts: 106
Joined: Wed Feb 03, 2016 8:21 am

Re: Ultima Online turns 20 on the 24th

Post by Kelan »

Good point. I tried to read up a lot about that years ago, and again recently, and opinions seem to vary. It may have something to do with a certain legal Act coming out after UO was already made. This quote from reddit, "Ultima Online was made prior to the DMCA being enacted. What that means is that people can emulate their servers without being threatened with lawsuits. Under US law, they can't go after people for running servers."

I have no idea, though.

Personally, I was going to sub again just to feel better myself and play on the other shard, but I had so many troubles trying to resurrect my original old account I finally said screw it.
Post Reply