Originally posted by outfctrl I remember playing UO before Trammel went in. I worked on getting my hiding skill up. This gave some hope of not being ganked. DF:UW does not have a skill like this, so you are totally open. I wish they had the hiding skill in for crafters and explorers.
Agree but the "PvP"-crowd in DFUW isnt the skilled oldschool UO PvP:ers, they want defenseless easy prey to gank. They're actually not PvP:ers they're griefers. Crafters gathering ore solo outside safe areas is just this easy prey these poor excuses of PvP:ers search. During UO the skilled PvP crowd usually searched a challenge but that spirit is long gone in these so called "UO" replacement MMO:s, what a joke.
I really enjoyed pre-Trammel UO... other than the fact I was stuck with dialup because of my location. It made things pretty interesting, to say the least. I couldn't stand the original Darkfall, or Mortal Online. I looked at Unholy Wars, and I don't think I would even bother with it.
Originally posted by outfctrl I remember playing UO before Trammel went in. I worked on getting my hiding skill up. This gave some hope of not being ganked. DF:UW does not have a skill like this, so you are totally open. I wish they had the hiding skill in for crafters and explorers.
They do. Line of sight. Plus 3d directional sound. When you hear someone hide or kill them. When they see you, lose them and hide.
So what you are saying, is that this game supports complete surround sound systems?
Originally posted by outfctrl I remember playing UO before Trammel went in. I worked on getting my hiding skill up. This gave some hope of not being ganked. DF:UW does not have a skill like this, so you are totally open. I wish they had the hiding skill in for crafters and explorers.
They do. Line of sight. Plus 3d directional sound. When you hear someone hide or kill them. When they see you, lose them and hide.
So what you are saying, is that this game supports complete surround sound systems?
I guess so. I use my head phones and I can tell the direction (most of the time) of the mob or noisy player.
Originally posted by outfctrl I remember playing UO before Trammel went in. I worked on getting my hiding skill up. This gave some hope of not being ganked. DF:UW does not have a skill like this, so you are totally open. I wish they had the hiding skill in for crafters and explorers.
They do. Line of sight. Plus 3d directional sound. When you hear someone hide or kill them. When they see you, lose them and hide.
So what you are saying, is that this game supports complete surround sound systems?
I guess so. I use my head phones and I can tell the direction (most of the time) of the mob or noisy player.
Havent bought the game yet. I have been lurking around the forums, reading the manual, watching Youtubes and looking at the ratings.
I have a surround sound system in my game room and was curious if it utuilized all the speakers. Most of the games I have played, don't.
I will search a little more. Would be nice if it did.
Yeah, like it or not, Trammel saved UO and doubled it's customer base by catering to the MAJORITY as well as the minority of hardcores. Origin made a very smart move, the only possible, even if a bit late and not perfect.
The first duty of every officer in Startfleet is to the truth. Whether scientific truth, or historic truth, or personal truth.
If you can't find it in yourself to stand up and tell the truth, then you don't deserve to wear that uniform.
Originally posted by outfctrl I remember playing UO before Trammel went in. I worked on getting my hiding skill up. This gave some hope of not being ganked. DF:UW does not have a skill like this, so you are totally open. I wish they had the hiding skill in for crafters and explorers.
DF:UW as it is now is not a replacement for UO. The only fantasy sandbox MMO out there right now that shares alot with UO is Mortal Online. I like both games, but if any of them are a replacement for UO it's MO.
The game has just launched. (yes, the old game was around for years but they are trying something different this time around, it does seem like a step in the right direction. They will definitely be making changes to certain things in the future but as it stands right now, the game is solid and fun as hell (surprising to me as a DF1 vet since beta)
The exploration, I can assume would be fun as a new player to the game. You actually even get rewarded for exploring and discovering all tiles of the map via prowess (in game leveling system)
If you enjoyed the feeling of having to look over your shoulder in UO while farming, this is the game for you.
You even get rewarded via prowess for crafting, pretty much everything in the game.
I really do suggest you check it out, it's a great game and will only get better with updates. Aventurine is ACTUALLY updating it multi-weekly, optimizing the client etc. Lookin' great!
If DF isn't a sandbox than wtf is it? It sure as hell isn't a themepark.
Applying the term 'sandbox' to all current MMORPGs is a mis-nomer. What they mean to say is 'simulation'. For your interest, the term 'sandbox' was invented by Eve Online's marketing department because it sounded cool - but this doesn't make it a 100% accurate description.
Personally, I would prefer to play an MMORPG that's a 'simulation' - you get better immersion. It's like you are really there.
I would call Minecraft a 'sandbox' because the blocks are the grains of sand - you can build what you want anywhere you want. This doesn't make it a game I prefer to play though.
Originally posted by outfctrl I remember playing UO before Trammel went in. I worked on getting my hiding skill up. This gave some hope of not being ganked. DF:UW does not have a skill like this, so you are totally open. I wish they had the hiding skill in for crafters and explorers.
crouch + bushes = hiding.
Ahh...well that makes a difference. So your name doesnt show up on the screen or any indication that you are there if you hide behind something? Interesting
Originally posted by outfctrl I remember playing UO before Trammel went in. I worked on getting my hiding skill up. This gave some hope of not being ganked. DF:UW does not have a skill like this, so you are totally open. I wish they had the hiding skill in for crafters and explorers.
crouch + bushes = hiding.
Ahh...well that makes a difference. So your name doesnt show up on the screen or any indication that you are there if you hide behind something? Interesting
In UO...you saw a red tag
Not if you hided or used stealth, then you saw nothing.
Originally posted by asmkm22 I still don't know why people think UO was so great.
I owned a house (Actually several over the years oO) in UO that was an extension of my personality. It was my bank, it was my home, it was where I displayed my most prized possesions (These changed through the years. At one point it was the heads of the more notorious griefers in the game lol), it was a gathering area for me and my friends. My house had everything you could thing of in it. A crafting station with parts I picked out and layed out the way I wanted it to be. Labeled chests for all my mats, gear, consumables, quest items, excess furtniture, items I was planning on selling, etc. My house had a garden that produced mats and consumables that I needed and could sale. My house had a stable so that I could store all my pets and I made the area look like an actual stables with wodden fences, bails of hay, a water trough, grass and dirt, etc. I had a mailbox at my house as well as a message board so that people could leave me both items and messages. Durring the holidays I would decorate my house for the season. Christmas I would break out my piles of snow, nutcrackers, santas, reindeer and sleighs, wreaths, and change the color shceme of my house to be more in line with christmas. Durring halloween I would break out the pumpkins, bails of hay, stack dyed bandages and such to make scarecrows and witches.
I owned pets. I had unique pets. Sure every tamer had a dragon but with the randomization in the pet stats (Within certain range limitations) no other tamer had MY dragon or at the very least so few did I never felt like I had the same dragon as everyone else. I culled dragons for months looking for the perfect one. Then spent a great deal of time training it to cap its skills and named it. My Greater Dragon was named Clifford oO. I had a large number of pets. A Rune Beetle that was superb at poisoning that I teamed up with a Nightmare (Pitch black) that was both my mount and a mage. I had a WW that was an excellent caster and a great deal sturdier than my Nightmare. I had a fire steed just for the looks of it and it did team up well with my imps from Spell Weaving. I tamed fire beetles and blue beetles to sale to crafters and others. Blue Beetles were pack animals and acted as a ridable back pack. Fire beetles acted as a walking and ridable forge for miners. I had a Cu sidhe that was a big wolf that was ridable and was an excellent melee fighter. He had healing skill so he could heal himself and me. They also had a nasty bleed attack. I had way to many pets to list to be honest. The variety in UO was insane and I had different pets for different reasons. I had a necro I used to RP with and he had 5 spiders as pets for RP purposes.
Non combat related activities were in unbundance. I use to hold chess tournaments in my house. Since there were actual board games in game that you could place on a table or anywhere really and interact with I once converted my lower floor into a chess room with several tables and chairs and chess boards. I did this because of a mild argument between me and some others about who was the better chess player. So we held a tournament and invited any that wanted to participate. This became a regular event for a little bit due to the popularity and success. We even gave out prizes and an engraved piece of gear. Crafting was another great part of the game. You could craft almost anything from practical to purely cosmetic. Social clothes, armor of all types, weapons of all types, consumables of all types, furniture of all types, ships, and the process was fun for many including myself. Sac ball was never my thing but many enjoyed it. Snowball fights were always fun in a pinch if you had a pile of snow in your backpack. The amount of non combat related activities to do in the game was more than any other MMO (That I know of) has yet to offer.
The community was the best by far. There was a guild of elves that roleplayed as elves even before elves were a playable race. They would hold festivals for the server and typed in elvish. They were a huge boon to the game. There was a guild of players that roleplayed as orcs. They used sub par gear but they attacked with numbers. They would only talk like the orcs in the game did and dressed like them. They too were a boon to the community. Lots of groups like this existed in UO and held a great number of events. Some times it would seem like the entire server came together to hang out. This was besides the Devs and EMs hosting live events as well. Getting an announcement in game was always a treat as well. The heralds would start announcing that Lord British (Richard Garriott the games creator) had an event to start, announcement or proclamation to make and we would all head to his castle. Players would gather around on the balconies and flood the castle. It was impossible to count how many were there.
Then there were the bugs and glitches. In most games these annoy me, in UO they could be fun and cool. The UO devs knew there were just some bugs and glitches you don't fix or completely remove. Some true rares came out of it as well as some fun things. The item bugs they fixed didn't effect items currently in game, it just prevented the bug or glitch from happening again making for some truly rare items worth a great deal of in game currency. Some bugs they just never fixed because players liked them like the random lama vortex bug. Every once in awhile when you summoned a Swirling Vortex which was supposed to be a pinkish purplish tornado looking thing it was a pinkish purplish lama instead.
This is only a fraction of what I liked so much about the game. No other game experience has come even remotely close. No game has offered even half of what UO offered.
Sure the graphics were dated, the combat itself was pretty lacking as well. What made the game shine though was that it felt like a living breathing world more often than not. You weren't constantly slapped in the face and saying "Man, I wish you could..... in this game" because there was little you couldn't do. If you wanted to do nothing but be a prankster you could and there was at least one I knew of that simply pulled pranks constantly. He would make tapped boxes and poison food and such and leave them places for new players to find. He'd use incognito and mess with people that he knew. If you didn't make your house private he would tame all kinds of pets and take them to your your house and release them so that when you came home you were in for an unpleasant surprise.
It wasn't really a game, it was more of a virtual fantasy world simulator.
Originally posted by Drolkin UO lost its luster when Trammel/Felucca were introduced.
I know some keep saying this, but it didn't hit its current sub or concurrent user peak until after the split. The split actually increased the number of players lol...
Originally posted by asmkm22 I still don't know why people think UO was so great.
I owned a house (Actually several over the years oO) in UO that was an extension of my personality. It was my bank, it was my home, it was where I displayed my most prized possesions (These changed through the years. At one point it was the heads of the more notorious griefers in the game lol), it was a gathering area for me and my friends. My house had everything you could thing of in it. A crafting station with parts I picked out and layed out the way I wanted it to be. Labeled chests for all my mats, gear, consumables, quest items, excess furtniture, items I was planning on selling, etc. My house had a garden that produced mats and consumables that I needed and could sale. My house had a stable so that I could store all my pets and I made the area look like an actual stables with wodden fences, bails of hay, a water trough, grass and dirt, etc. I had a mailbox at my house as well as a message board so that people could leave me both items and messages. Durring the holidays I would decorate my house for the season. Christmas I would break out my piles of snow, nutcrackers, santas, reindeer and sleighs, wreaths, and change the color shceme of my house to be more in line with christmas. Durring halloween I would break out the pumpkins, bails of hay, stack dyed bandages and such to make scarecrows and witches.
I owned pets. I had unique pets. Sure every tamer had a dragon but with the randomization in the pet stats (Within certain range limitations) no other tamer had MY dragon or at the very least so few did I never felt like I had the same dragon as everyone else. I culled dragons for months looking for the perfect one. Then spent a great deal of time training it to cap its skills and named it. My Greater Dragon was named Clifford oO. I had a large number of pets. A Rune Beetle that was superb at poisoning that I teamed up with a Nightmare (Pitch black) that was both my mount and a mage. I had a WW that was an excellent caster and a great deal sturdier than my Nightmare. I had a fire steed just for the looks of it and it did team up well with my imps from Spell Weaving. I tamed fire beetles and blue beetles to sale to crafters and others. Blue Beetles were pack animals and acted as a ridable back pack. Fire beetles acted as a walking and ridable forge for miners. I had a Cu sidhe that was a big wolf that was ridable and was an excellent melee fighter. He had healing skill so he could heal himself and me. They also had a nasty bleed attack. I had way to many pets to list to be honest. The variety in UO was insane and I had different pets for different reasons. I had a necro I used to RP with and he had 5 spiders as pets for RP purposes.
Non combat related activities were in unbundance. I use to hold chess tournaments in my house. Since there were actual board games in game that you could place on a table or anywhere really and interact with I once converted my lower floor into a chess room with several tables and chairs and chess boards. I did this because of a mild argument between me and some others about who was the better chess player. So we held a tournament and invited any that wanted to participate. This became a regular event for a little bit due to the popularity and success. We even gave out prizes and an engraved piece of gear. Crafting was another great part of the game. You could craft almost anything from practical to purely cosmetic. Social clothes, armor of all types, weapons of all types, consumables of all types, furniture of all types, ships, and the process was fun for many including myself. Sac ball was never my thing but many enjoyed it. Snowball fights were always fun in a pinch if you had a pile of snow in your backpack. The amount of non combat related activities to do in the game was more than any other MMO (That I know of) has yet to offer.
The community was the best by far. There was a guild of elves that roleplayed as elves even before elves were a playable race. They would hold festivals for the server and typed in elvish. They were a huge boon to the game. There was a guild of players that roleplayed as orcs. They used sub par gear but they attacked with numbers. They would only talk like the orcs in the game did and dressed like them. They too were a boon to the community. Lots of groups like this existed in UO and held a great number of events. Some times it would seem like the entire server came together to hang out. This was besides the Devs and EMs hosting live events as well. Getting an announcement in game was always a treat as well. The heralds would start announcing that Lord British (Richard Garriott the games creator) had an event to start, announcement or proclamation to make and we would all head to his castle. Players would gather around on the balconies and flood the castle. It was impossible to count how many were there.
Then there were the bugs and glitches. In most games these annoy me, in UO they could be fun and cool. The UO devs knew there were just some bugs and glitches you don't fix or completely remove. Some true rares came out of it as well as some fun things. The item bugs they fixed didn't effect items currently in game, it just prevented the bug or glitch from happening again making for some truly rare items worth a great deal of in game currency. Some bugs they just never fixed because players liked them like the random lama vortex bug. Every once in awhile when you summoned a Swirling Vortex which was supposed to be a pinkish purplish tornado looking thing it was a pinkish purplish lama instead.
This is only a fraction of what I liked so much about the game. No other game experience has come even remotely close. No game has offered even half of what UO offered.
Sure the graphics were dated, the combat itself was pretty lacking as well. What made the game shine though was that it felt like a living breathing world more often than not. You weren't constantly slapped in the face and saying "Man, I wish you could..... in this game" because there was little you couldn't do. If you wanted to do nothing but be a prankster you could and there was at least one I knew of that simply pulled pranks constantly. He would make tapped boxes and poison food and such and leave them places for new players to find. He'd use incognito and mess with people that he knew. If you didn't make your house private he would tame all kinds of pets and take them to your your house and release them so that when you came home you were in for an unpleasant surprise.
It wasn't really a game, it was more of a virtual fantasy world simulator.
That sounds utterly brilliant.
Thank you for sharing your fond memories with us.
Do you still play? If not, why not? - You've sold it to me!
Originally posted by asmkm22 I still don't know why people think UO was so great.
I owned a house (Actually several over the years oO) in UO that was an extension of my personality. It was my bank, it was my home, it was where I displayed my most prized possesions (These changed through the years. At one point it was the heads of the more notorious griefers in the game lol), it was a gathering area for me and my friends. My house had everything you could thing of in it. A crafting station with parts I picked out and layed out the way I wanted it to be. Labeled chests for all my mats, gear, consumables, quest items, excess furtniture, items I was planning on selling, etc. My house had a garden that produced mats and consumables that I needed and could sale. My house had a stable so that I could store all my pets and I made the area look like an actual stables with wodden fences, bails of hay, a water trough, grass and dirt, etc. I had a mailbox at my house as well as a message board so that people could leave me both items and messages. Durring the holidays I would decorate my house for the season. Christmas I would break out my piles of snow, nutcrackers, santas, reindeer and sleighs, wreaths, and change the color shceme of my house to be more in line with christmas. Durring halloween I would break out the pumpkins, bails of hay, stack dyed bandages and such to make scarecrows and witches.
I owned pets. I had unique pets. Sure every tamer had a dragon but with the randomization in the pet stats (Within certain range limitations) no other tamer had MY dragon or at the very least so few did I never felt like I had the same dragon as everyone else. I culled dragons for months looking for the perfect one. Then spent a great deal of time training it to cap its skills and named it. My Greater Dragon was named Clifford oO. I had a large number of pets. A Rune Beetle that was superb at poisoning that I teamed up with a Nightmare (Pitch black) that was both my mount and a mage. I had a WW that was an excellent caster and a great deal sturdier than my Nightmare. I had a fire steed just for the looks of it and it did team up well with my imps from Spell Weaving. I tamed fire beetles and blue beetles to sale to crafters and others. Blue Beetles were pack animals and acted as a ridable back pack. Fire beetles acted as a walking and ridable forge for miners. I had a Cu sidhe that was a big wolf that was ridable and was an excellent melee fighter. He had healing skill so he could heal himself and me. They also had a nasty bleed attack. I had way to many pets to list to be honest. The variety in UO was insane and I had different pets for different reasons. I had a necro I used to RP with and he had 5 spiders as pets for RP purposes.
Non combat related activities were in unbundance. I use to hold chess tournaments in my house. Since there were actual board games in game that you could place on a table or anywhere really and interact with I once converted my lower floor into a chess room with several tables and chairs and chess boards. I did this because of a mild argument between me and some others about who was the better chess player. So we held a tournament and invited any that wanted to participate. This became a regular event for a little bit due to the popularity and success. We even gave out prizes and an engraved piece of gear. Crafting was another great part of the game. You could craft almost anything from practical to purely cosmetic. Social clothes, armor of all types, weapons of all types, consumables of all types, furniture of all types, ships, and the process was fun for many including myself. Sac ball was never my thing but many enjoyed it. Snowball fights were always fun in a pinch if you had a pile of snow in your backpack. The amount of non combat related activities to do in the game was more than any other MMO (That I know of) has yet to offer.
The community was the best by far. There was a guild of elves that roleplayed as elves even before elves were a playable race. They would hold festivals for the server and typed in elvish. They were a huge boon to the game. There was a guild of players that roleplayed as orcs. They used sub par gear but they attacked with numbers. They would only talk like the orcs in the game did and dressed like them. They too were a boon to the community. Lots of groups like this existed in UO and held a great number of events. Some times it would seem like the entire server came together to hang out. This was besides the Devs and EMs hosting live events as well. Getting an announcement in game was always a treat as well. The heralds would start announcing that Lord British (Richard Garriott the games creator) had an event to start, announcement or proclamation to make and we would all head to his castle. Players would gather around on the balconies and flood the castle. It was impossible to count how many were there.
Then there were the bugs and glitches. In most games these annoy me, in UO they could be fun and cool. The UO devs knew there were just some bugs and glitches you don't fix or completely remove. Some true rares came out of it as well as some fun things. The item bugs they fixed didn't effect items currently in game, it just prevented the bug or glitch from happening again making for some truly rare items worth a great deal of in game currency. Some bugs they just never fixed because players liked them like the random lama vortex bug. Every once in awhile when you summoned a Swirling Vortex which was supposed to be a pinkish purplish tornado looking thing it was a pinkish purplish lama instead.
This is only a fraction of what I liked so much about the game. No other game experience has come even remotely close. No game has offered even half of what UO offered.
Sure the graphics were dated, the combat itself was pretty lacking as well. What made the game shine though was that it felt like a living breathing world more often than not. You weren't constantly slapped in the face and saying "Man, I wish you could..... in this game" because there was little you couldn't do. If you wanted to do nothing but be a prankster you could and there was at least one I knew of that simply pulled pranks constantly. He would make tapped boxes and poison food and such and leave them places for new players to find. He'd use incognito and mess with people that he knew. If you didn't make your house private he would tame all kinds of pets and take them to your your house and release them so that when you came home you were in for an unpleasant surprise.
It wasn't really a game, it was more of a virtual fantasy world simulator.
Well written and i agree on most.
Combat in UO was not lacking, sure melee and archery wasnt that amazing but the magic system still is the best ever created. Still havent found a MMO that demand same twitch- and tactical skills.
Originally posted by asmkm22 I still don't know why people think UO was so great.
I owned a house (Actually several over the years oO) in UO that was an extension of my personality. It was my bank, it was my home, it was where I displayed my most prized possesions (These changed through the years. At one point it was the heads of the more notorious griefers in the game lol), it was a gathering area for me and my friends. My house had everything you could thing of in it. A crafting station with parts I picked out and layed out the way I wanted it to be. Labeled chests for all my mats, gear, consumables, quest items, excess furtniture, items I was planning on selling, etc. My house had a garden that produced mats and consumables that I needed and could sale. My house had a stable so that I could store all my pets and I made the area look like an actual stables with wodden fences, bails of hay, a water trough, grass and dirt, etc. I had a mailbox at my house as well as a message board so that people could leave me both items and messages. Durring the holidays I would decorate my house for the season. Christmas I would break out my piles of snow, nutcrackers, santas, reindeer and sleighs, wreaths, and change the color shceme of my house to be more in line with christmas. Durring halloween I would break out the pumpkins, bails of hay, stack dyed bandages and such to make scarecrows and witches.
I owned pets. I had unique pets. Sure every tamer had a dragon but with the randomization in the pet stats (Within certain range limitations) no other tamer had MY dragon or at the very least so few did I never felt like I had the same dragon as everyone else. I culled dragons for months looking for the perfect one. Then spent a great deal of time training it to cap its skills and named it. My Greater Dragon was named Clifford oO. I had a large number of pets. A Rune Beetle that was superb at poisoning that I teamed up with a Nightmare (Pitch black) that was both my mount and a mage. I had a WW that was an excellent caster and a great deal sturdier than my Nightmare. I had a fire steed just for the looks of it and it did team up well with my imps from Spell Weaving. I tamed fire beetles and blue beetles to sale to crafters and others. Blue Beetles were pack animals and acted as a ridable back pack. Fire beetles acted as a walking and ridable forge for miners. I had a Cu sidhe that was a big wolf that was ridable and was an excellent melee fighter. He had healing skill so he could heal himself and me. They also had a nasty bleed attack. I had way to many pets to list to be honest. The variety in UO was insane and I had different pets for different reasons. I had a necro I used to RP with and he had 5 spiders as pets for RP purposes.
Non combat related activities were in unbundance. I use to hold chess tournaments in my house. Since there were actual board games in game that you could place on a table or anywhere really and interact with I once converted my lower floor into a chess room with several tables and chairs and chess boards. I did this because of a mild argument between me and some others about who was the better chess player. So we held a tournament and invited any that wanted to participate. This became a regular event for a little bit due to the popularity and success. We even gave out prizes and an engraved piece of gear. Crafting was another great part of the game. You could craft almost anything from practical to purely cosmetic. Social clothes, armor of all types, weapons of all types, consumables of all types, furniture of all types, ships, and the process was fun for many including myself. Sac ball was never my thing but many enjoyed it. Snowball fights were always fun in a pinch if you had a pile of snow in your backpack. The amount of non combat related activities to do in the game was more than any other MMO (That I know of) has yet to offer.
The community was the best by far. There was a guild of elves that roleplayed as elves even before elves were a playable race. They would hold festivals for the server and typed in elvish. They were a huge boon to the game. There was a guild of players that roleplayed as orcs. They used sub par gear but they attacked with numbers. They would only talk like the orcs in the game did and dressed like them. They too were a boon to the community. Lots of groups like this existed in UO and held a great number of events. Some times it would seem like the entire server came together to hang out. This was besides the Devs and EMs hosting live events as well. Getting an announcement in game was always a treat as well. The heralds would start announcing that Lord British (Richard Garriott the games creator) had an event to start, announcement or proclamation to make and we would all head to his castle. Players would gather around on the balconies and flood the castle. It was impossible to count how many were there.
Then there were the bugs and glitches. In most games these annoy me, in UO they could be fun and cool. The UO devs knew there were just some bugs and glitches you don't fix or completely remove. Some true rares came out of it as well as some fun things. The item bugs they fixed didn't effect items currently in game, it just prevented the bug or glitch from happening again making for some truly rare items worth a great deal of in game currency. Some bugs they just never fixed because players liked them like the random lama vortex bug. Every once in awhile when you summoned a Swirling Vortex which was supposed to be a pinkish purplish tornado looking thing it was a pinkish purplish lama instead.
This is only a fraction of what I liked so much about the game. No other game experience has come even remotely close. No game has offered even half of what UO offered.
Sure the graphics were dated, the combat itself was pretty lacking as well. What made the game shine though was that it felt like a living breathing world more often than not. You weren't constantly slapped in the face and saying "Man, I wish you could..... in this game" because there was little you couldn't do. If you wanted to do nothing but be a prankster you could and there was at least one I knew of that simply pulled pranks constantly. He would make tapped boxes and poison food and such and leave them places for new players to find. He'd use incognito and mess with people that he knew. If you didn't make your house private he would tame all kinds of pets and take them to your your house and release them so that when you came home you were in for an unpleasant surprise.
It wasn't really a game, it was more of a virtual fantasy world simulator.
That sounds utterly brilliant.
Thank you for sharing your fond memories with us.
Do you still play? If not, why not? - You've sold it to me!
Why dont you try out Richard Garriotts, maker of UO, new coming game instead? Seems to be pretty much like old UO/Ultima.
Originally posted by asmkm22 I still don't know why people think UO was so great.
I owned a house (Actually several over the years oO) in UO that was an extension of my personality. It was my bank, it was my home, it was where I displayed my most prized possesions (These changed through the years. At one point it was the heads of the more notorious griefers in the game lol), it was a gathering area for me and my friends. My house had everything you could thing of in it. A crafting station with parts I picked out and layed out the way I wanted it to be. Labeled chests for all my mats, gear, consumables, quest items, excess furtniture, items I was planning on selling, etc. My house had a garden that produced mats and consumables that I needed and could sale. My house had a stable so that I could store all my pets and I made the area look like an actual stables with wodden fences, bails of hay, a water trough, grass and dirt, etc. I had a mailbox at my house as well as a message board so that people could leave me both items and messages. Durring the holidays I would decorate my house for the season. Christmas I would break out my piles of snow, nutcrackers, santas, reindeer and sleighs, wreaths, and change the color shceme of my house to be more in line with christmas. Durring halloween I would break out the pumpkins, bails of hay, stack dyed bandages and such to make scarecrows and witches.
I owned pets. I had unique pets. Sure every tamer had a dragon but with the randomization in the pet stats (Within certain range limitations) no other tamer had MY dragon or at the very least so few did I never felt like I had the same dragon as everyone else. I culled dragons for months looking for the perfect one. Then spent a great deal of time training it to cap its skills and named it. My Greater Dragon was named Clifford oO. I had a large number of pets. A Rune Beetle that was superb at poisoning that I teamed up with a Nightmare (Pitch black) that was both my mount and a mage. I had a WW that was an excellent caster and a great deal sturdier than my Nightmare. I had a fire steed just for the looks of it and it did team up well with my imps from Spell Weaving. I tamed fire beetles and blue beetles to sale to crafters and others. Blue Beetles were pack animals and acted as a ridable back pack. Fire beetles acted as a walking and ridable forge for miners. I had a Cu sidhe that was a big wolf that was ridable and was an excellent melee fighter. He had healing skill so he could heal himself and me. They also had a nasty bleed attack. I had way to many pets to list to be honest. The variety in UO was insane and I had different pets for different reasons. I had a necro I used to RP with and he had 5 spiders as pets for RP purposes.
Non combat related activities were in unbundance. I use to hold chess tournaments in my house. Since there were actual board games in game that you could place on a table or anywhere really and interact with I once converted my lower floor into a chess room with several tables and chairs and chess boards. I did this because of a mild argument between me and some others about who was the better chess player. So we held a tournament and invited any that wanted to participate. This became a regular event for a little bit due to the popularity and success. We even gave out prizes and an engraved piece of gear. Crafting was another great part of the game. You could craft almost anything from practical to purely cosmetic. Social clothes, armor of all types, weapons of all types, consumables of all types, furniture of all types, ships, and the process was fun for many including myself. Sac ball was never my thing but many enjoyed it. Snowball fights were always fun in a pinch if you had a pile of snow in your backpack. The amount of non combat related activities to do in the game was more than any other MMO (That I know of) has yet to offer.
The community was the best by far. There was a guild of elves that roleplayed as elves even before elves were a playable race. They would hold festivals for the server and typed in elvish. They were a huge boon to the game. There was a guild of players that roleplayed as orcs. They used sub par gear but they attacked with numbers. They would only talk like the orcs in the game did and dressed like them. They too were a boon to the community. Lots of groups like this existed in UO and held a great number of events. Some times it would seem like the entire server came together to hang out. This was besides the Devs and EMs hosting live events as well. Getting an announcement in game was always a treat as well. The heralds would start announcing that Lord British (Richard Garriott the games creator) had an event to start, announcement or proclamation to make and we would all head to his castle. Players would gather around on the balconies and flood the castle. It was impossible to count how many were there.
Then there were the bugs and glitches. In most games these annoy me, in UO they could be fun and cool. The UO devs knew there were just some bugs and glitches you don't fix or completely remove. Some true rares came out of it as well as some fun things. The item bugs they fixed didn't effect items currently in game, it just prevented the bug or glitch from happening again making for some truly rare items worth a great deal of in game currency. Some bugs they just never fixed because players liked them like the random lama vortex bug. Every once in awhile when you summoned a Swirling Vortex which was supposed to be a pinkish purplish tornado looking thing it was a pinkish purplish lama instead.
This is only a fraction of what I liked so much about the game. No other game experience has come even remotely close. No game has offered even half of what UO offered.
Sure the graphics were dated, the combat itself was pretty lacking as well. What made the game shine though was that it felt like a living breathing world more often than not. You weren't constantly slapped in the face and saying "Man, I wish you could..... in this game" because there was little you couldn't do. If you wanted to do nothing but be a prankster you could and there was at least one I knew of that simply pulled pranks constantly. He would make tapped boxes and poison food and such and leave them places for new players to find. He'd use incognito and mess with people that he knew. If you didn't make your house private he would tame all kinds of pets and take them to your your house and release them so that when you came home you were in for an unpleasant surprise.
It wasn't really a game, it was more of a virtual fantasy world simulator.
That sounds utterly brilliant.
Thank you for sharing your fond memories with us.
Do you still play? If not, why not? - You've sold it to me!
Why dont you try out Richard Garriotts, maker of UO, new coming game instead? Seems to be pretty much like old UO/Ultima.
only thing that game(s) have in common with UO is Richard... other than that, no its nothing like UO. Or maybe you could try to sell it to us... why do you think this supposedly heavily instanced game, which you can also play offline, is gonna be 'just like old UO' ?
Originally posted by asmkm22 I still don't know why people think UO was so great.
I owned a house (Actually several over the years oO) in UO that was an extension of my personality. It was my bank, it was my home, it was where I displayed my most prized possesions (These changed through the years. At one point it was the heads of the more notorious griefers in the game lol), it was a gathering area for me and my friends. My house had everything you could thing of in it. A crafting station with parts I picked out and layed out the way I wanted it to be. Labeled chests for all my mats, gear, consumables, quest items, excess furtniture, items I was planning on selling, etc. My house had a garden that produced mats and consumables that I needed and could sale. My house had a stable so that I could store all my pets and I made the area look like an actual stables with wodden fences, bails of hay, a water trough, grass and dirt, etc. I had a mailbox at my house as well as a message board so that people could leave me both items and messages. Durring the holidays I would decorate my house for the season. Christmas I would break out my piles of snow, nutcrackers, santas, reindeer and sleighs, wreaths, and change the color shceme of my house to be more in line with christmas. Durring halloween I would break out the pumpkins, bails of hay, stack dyed bandages and such to make scarecrows and witches.
I owned pets. I had unique pets. Sure every tamer had a dragon but with the randomization in the pet stats (Within certain range limitations) no other tamer had MY dragon or at the very least so few did I never felt like I had the same dragon as everyone else. I culled dragons for months looking for the perfect one. Then spent a great deal of time training it to cap its skills and named it. My Greater Dragon was named Clifford oO. I had a large number of pets. A Rune Beetle that was superb at poisoning that I teamed up with a Nightmare (Pitch black) that was both my mount and a mage. I had a WW that was an excellent caster and a great deal sturdier than my Nightmare. I had a fire steed just for the looks of it and it did team up well with my imps from Spell Weaving. I tamed fire beetles and blue beetles to sale to crafters and others. Blue Beetles were pack animals and acted as a ridable back pack. Fire beetles acted as a walking and ridable forge for miners. I had a Cu sidhe that was a big wolf that was ridable and was an excellent melee fighter. He had healing skill so he could heal himself and me. They also had a nasty bleed attack. I had way to many pets to list to be honest. The variety in UO was insane and I had different pets for different reasons. I had a necro I used to RP with and he had 5 spiders as pets for RP purposes.
Non combat related activities were in unbundance. I use to hold chess tournaments in my house. Since there were actual board games in game that you could place on a table or anywhere really and interact with I once converted my lower floor into a chess room with several tables and chairs and chess boards. I did this because of a mild argument between me and some others about who was the better chess player. So we held a tournament and invited any that wanted to participate. This became a regular event for a little bit due to the popularity and success. We even gave out prizes and an engraved piece of gear. Crafting was another great part of the game. You could craft almost anything from practical to purely cosmetic. Social clothes, armor of all types, weapons of all types, consumables of all types, furniture of all types, ships, and the process was fun for many including myself. Sac ball was never my thing but many enjoyed it. Snowball fights were always fun in a pinch if you had a pile of snow in your backpack. The amount of non combat related activities to do in the game was more than any other MMO (That I know of) has yet to offer.
The community was the best by far. There was a guild of elves that roleplayed as elves even before elves were a playable race. They would hold festivals for the server and typed in elvish. They were a huge boon to the game. There was a guild of players that roleplayed as orcs. They used sub par gear but they attacked with numbers. They would only talk like the orcs in the game did and dressed like them. They too were a boon to the community. Lots of groups like this existed in UO and held a great number of events. Some times it would seem like the entire server came together to hang out. This was besides the Devs and EMs hosting live events as well. Getting an announcement in game was always a treat as well. The heralds would start announcing that Lord British (Richard Garriott the games creator) had an event to start, announcement or proclamation to make and we would all head to his castle. Players would gather around on the balconies and flood the castle. It was impossible to count how many were there.
Then there were the bugs and glitches. In most games these annoy me, in UO they could be fun and cool. The UO devs knew there were just some bugs and glitches you don't fix or completely remove. Some true rares came out of it as well as some fun things. The item bugs they fixed didn't effect items currently in game, it just prevented the bug or glitch from happening again making for some truly rare items worth a great deal of in game currency. Some bugs they just never fixed because players liked them like the random lama vortex bug. Every once in awhile when you summoned a Swirling Vortex which was supposed to be a pinkish purplish tornado looking thing it was a pinkish purplish lama instead.
This is only a fraction of what I liked so much about the game. No other game experience has come even remotely close. No game has offered even half of what UO offered.
Sure the graphics were dated, the combat itself was pretty lacking as well. What made the game shine though was that it felt like a living breathing world more often than not. You weren't constantly slapped in the face and saying "Man, I wish you could..... in this game" because there was little you couldn't do. If you wanted to do nothing but be a prankster you could and there was at least one I knew of that simply pulled pranks constantly. He would make tapped boxes and poison food and such and leave them places for new players to find. He'd use incognito and mess with people that he knew. If you didn't make your house private he would tame all kinds of pets and take them to your your house and release them so that when you came home you were in for an unpleasant surprise.
It wasn't really a game, it was more of a virtual fantasy world simulator.
That sounds utterly brilliant.
Thank you for sharing your fond memories with us.
Do you still play? If not, why not? - You've sold it to me!
No, I no longer play. I think I finally quit for good because I know Sosaria/Britannia (it's the name of the world) to well these days. I played the game for over a decade.
It was a very fun ride. The Devs even discussed development with us on a regular basis and asked for our imput. The last full expansion the devs went into very detailed explanations and allowed us a great amount of imput on it. Prior to development of it they actually discussed with us what we would like to see and what we might think is fun and implemented what they could and thought was appropriate.
I actually did another few month stint not that long ago but my time there is over. I was a Alpha and Beta tester, I was a GM as well as later a counseler (Volunteer GM with limited powers basically) and I forget what we were called before we were counselers or maybe counselers was the old name and I don't remeber what they called us after. In either case I was involved in that game as much as possible for over a decade. Met many long lasting friends that I still see in real life every so often. One buddy of mine I met in game lives in Canada and I go see him or he comes and sees me about once a year and we hang out for a week talking about old times and catching up on whats new with each other.
Originally posted by asmkm22 I still don't know why people think UO was so great.
I owned a house (Actually several over the years oO) in UO that was an extension of my personality. It was my bank, it was my home, it was where I displayed my most prized possesions (These changed through the years. At one point it was the heads of the more notorious griefers in the game lol), it was a gathering area for me and my friends. My house had everything you could thing of in it. A crafting station with parts I picked out and layed out the way I wanted it to be. Labeled chests for all my mats, gear, consumables, quest items, excess furtniture, items I was planning on selling, etc. My house had a garden that produced mats and consumables that I needed and could sale. My house had a stable so that I could store all my pets and I made the area look like an actual stables with wodden fences, bails of hay, a water trough, grass and dirt, etc. I had a mailbox at my house as well as a message board so that people could leave me both items and messages. Durring the holidays I would decorate my house for the season. Christmas I would break out my piles of snow, nutcrackers, santas, reindeer and sleighs, wreaths, and change the color shceme of my house to be more in line with christmas. Durring halloween I would break out the pumpkins, bails of hay, stack dyed bandages and such to make scarecrows and witches.
I owned pets. I had unique pets. Sure every tamer had a dragon but with the randomization in the pet stats (Within certain range limitations) no other tamer had MY dragon or at the very least so few did I never felt like I had the same dragon as everyone else. I culled dragons for months looking for the perfect one. Then spent a great deal of time training it to cap its skills and named it. My Greater Dragon was named Clifford oO. I had a large number of pets. A Rune Beetle that was superb at poisoning that I teamed up with a Nightmare (Pitch black) that was both my mount and a mage. I had a WW that was an excellent caster and a great deal sturdier than my Nightmare. I had a fire steed just for the looks of it and it did team up well with my imps from Spell Weaving. I tamed fire beetles and blue beetles to sale to crafters and others. Blue Beetles were pack animals and acted as a ridable back pack. Fire beetles acted as a walking and ridable forge for miners. I had a Cu sidhe that was a big wolf that was ridable and was an excellent melee fighter. He had healing skill so he could heal himself and me. They also had a nasty bleed attack. I had way to many pets to list to be honest. The variety in UO was insane and I had different pets for different reasons. I had a necro I used to RP with and he had 5 spiders as pets for RP purposes.
Non combat related activities were in unbundance. I use to hold chess tournaments in my house. Since there were actual board games in game that you could place on a table or anywhere really and interact with I once converted my lower floor into a chess room with several tables and chairs and chess boards. I did this because of a mild argument between me and some others about who was the better chess player. So we held a tournament and invited any that wanted to participate. This became a regular event for a little bit due to the popularity and success. We even gave out prizes and an engraved piece of gear. Crafting was another great part of the game. You could craft almost anything from practical to purely cosmetic. Social clothes, armor of all types, weapons of all types, consumables of all types, furniture of all types, ships, and the process was fun for many including myself. Sac ball was never my thing but many enjoyed it. Snowball fights were always fun in a pinch if you had a pile of snow in your backpack. The amount of non combat related activities to do in the game was more than any other MMO (That I know of) has yet to offer.
The community was the best by far. There was a guild of elves that roleplayed as elves even before elves were a playable race. They would hold festivals for the server and typed in elvish. They were a huge boon to the game. There was a guild of players that roleplayed as orcs. They used sub par gear but they attacked with numbers. They would only talk like the orcs in the game did and dressed like them. They too were a boon to the community. Lots of groups like this existed in UO and held a great number of events. Some times it would seem like the entire server came together to hang out. This was besides the Devs and EMs hosting live events as well. Getting an announcement in game was always a treat as well. The heralds would start announcing that Lord British (Richard Garriott the games creator) had an event to start, announcement or proclamation to make and we would all head to his castle. Players would gather around on the balconies and flood the castle. It was impossible to count how many were there.
Then there were the bugs and glitches. In most games these annoy me, in UO they could be fun and cool. The UO devs knew there were just some bugs and glitches you don't fix or completely remove. Some true rares came out of it as well as some fun things. The item bugs they fixed didn't effect items currently in game, it just prevented the bug or glitch from happening again making for some truly rare items worth a great deal of in game currency. Some bugs they just never fixed because players liked them like the random lama vortex bug. Every once in awhile when you summoned a Swirling Vortex which was supposed to be a pinkish purplish tornado looking thing it was a pinkish purplish lama instead.
This is only a fraction of what I liked so much about the game. No other game experience has come even remotely close. No game has offered even half of what UO offered.
Sure the graphics were dated, the combat itself was pretty lacking as well. What made the game shine though was that it felt like a living breathing world more often than not. You weren't constantly slapped in the face and saying "Man, I wish you could..... in this game" because there was little you couldn't do. If you wanted to do nothing but be a prankster you could and there was at least one I knew of that simply pulled pranks constantly. He would make tapped boxes and poison food and such and leave them places for new players to find. He'd use incognito and mess with people that he knew. If you didn't make your house private he would tame all kinds of pets and take them to your your house and release them so that when you came home you were in for an unpleasant surprise.
It wasn't really a game, it was more of a virtual fantasy world simulator.
Well written and i agree on most.
Combat in UO was not lacking, sure melee and archery wasnt that amazing but the magic system still is the best ever created. Still havent found a MMO that demand same twitch- and tactical skills.
I can agree with that. UO by far had and has the best magic system ever implemented in an MMO. Me and 3 other mages made a group and practiced something we called the death box. What we would do is stealth around together and look for a target or targets. When we found our prey we would inclose them in fields of force and fill it with poison fields and fire fields. Later we just started doing the X which stopped them just the same. It was fun having some bait lead them into a narrow dead end because then we could really lock them down and mess them up. The 4 of us took out 20 Dread Lords that way once lol.
Applying the term 'sandbox' to all current MMORPGs is a mis-nomer. What they mean to say is 'simulation'. For your interest, the term 'sandbox' was invented by Eve Online's marketing department because it sounded cool - but this doesn't make it a 100% accurate description.
Personally, I would prefer to play an MMORPG that's a 'simulation' - you get better immersion. It's like you are really there.
I would call Minecraft a 'sandbox' because the blocks are the grains of sand - you can build what you want anywhere you want. This doesn't make it a game I prefer to play though.
The distinction was made long before MMOs. Some popular MUDs were kind of sandboxy, skill based, and had huge degree of players freedom. Then DikuMUD appeared, which was different - it was hack-and-slash with level based character progression.
Origin hired LegendMUD designer Raph Coster to help with UO. He was later responsible for original SWG.
Everquest guys (and later Blizzard) copied mechanics from DikuMUD, sometimes so close that some people suspected that they've copied Diku source code.
The distinction couldn't be more clear - either MMO is inspired by LegendMUD and all it's MMO successors, or by DikuMUD / Everquest / WoW. The best example that there is a difference, and some players strongly prefer one over the other, is NGE for SWG.
Comments
Agree but the "PvP"-crowd in DFUW isnt the skilled oldschool UO PvP:ers, they want defenseless easy prey to gank. They're actually not PvP:ers they're griefers. Crafters gathering ore solo outside safe areas is just this easy prey these poor excuses of PvP:ers search. During UO the skilled PvP crowd usually searched a challenge but that spirit is long gone in these so called "UO" replacement MMO:s, what a joke.
I really enjoyed pre-Trammel UO... other than the fact I was stuck with dialup because of my location. It made things pretty interesting, to say the least. I couldn't stand the original Darkfall, or Mortal Online. I looked at Unholy Wars, and I don't think I would even bother with it.
So what you are saying, is that this game supports complete surround sound systems?
I guess so. I use my head phones and I can tell the direction (most of the time) of the mob or noisy player.
Havent bought the game yet. I have been lurking around the forums, reading the manual, watching Youtubes and looking at the ratings.
I have a surround sound system in my game room and was curious if it utuilized all the speakers. Most of the games I have played, don't.
I will search a little more. Would be nice if it did.
The first duty of every officer in Startfleet is to the truth. Whether scientific truth, or historic truth, or personal truth.
If you can't find it in yourself to stand up and tell the truth, then you don't deserve to wear that uniform.
crouch + bushes = hiding.
Population increase didn't happen until the split. Trammel was actually good for UO. Age of shadows was bad for UO.
In any case UO had so many mechanics and systems that DF:UW couldn't implement it will never be a UO replacement.
You make me like charity
The game has just launched. (yes, the old game was around for years but they are trying something different this time around, it does seem like a step in the right direction. They will definitely be making changes to certain things in the future but as it stands right now, the game is solid and fun as hell (surprising to me as a DF1 vet since beta)
The exploration, I can assume would be fun as a new player to the game. You actually even get rewarded for exploring and discovering all tiles of the map via prowess (in game leveling system)
If you enjoyed the feeling of having to look over your shoulder in UO while farming, this is the game for you.
You even get rewarded via prowess for crafting, pretty much everything in the game.
I really do suggest you check it out, it's a great game and will only get better with updates. Aventurine is ACTUALLY updating it multi-weekly, optimizing the client etc. Lookin' great!
Applying the term 'sandbox' to all current MMORPGs is a mis-nomer. What they mean to say is 'simulation'. For your interest, the term 'sandbox' was invented by Eve Online's marketing department because it sounded cool - but this doesn't make it a 100% accurate description.
Personally, I would prefer to play an MMORPG that's a 'simulation' - you get better immersion. It's like you are really there.
I would call Minecraft a 'sandbox' because the blocks are the grains of sand - you can build what you want anywhere you want. This doesn't make it a game I prefer to play though.
Ahh...well that makes a difference. So your name doesnt show up on the screen or any indication that you are there if you hide behind something? Interesting
In UO...you saw a red tag
Not if you hided or used stealth, then you saw nothing.
I owned a house (Actually several over the years oO) in UO that was an extension of my personality. It was my bank, it was my home, it was where I displayed my most prized possesions (These changed through the years. At one point it was the heads of the more notorious griefers in the game lol), it was a gathering area for me and my friends. My house had everything you could thing of in it. A crafting station with parts I picked out and layed out the way I wanted it to be. Labeled chests for all my mats, gear, consumables, quest items, excess furtniture, items I was planning on selling, etc. My house had a garden that produced mats and consumables that I needed and could sale. My house had a stable so that I could store all my pets and I made the area look like an actual stables with wodden fences, bails of hay, a water trough, grass and dirt, etc. I had a mailbox at my house as well as a message board so that people could leave me both items and messages. Durring the holidays I would decorate my house for the season. Christmas I would break out my piles of snow, nutcrackers, santas, reindeer and sleighs, wreaths, and change the color shceme of my house to be more in line with christmas. Durring halloween I would break out the pumpkins, bails of hay, stack dyed bandages and such to make scarecrows and witches.
I owned pets. I had unique pets. Sure every tamer had a dragon but with the randomization in the pet stats (Within certain range limitations) no other tamer had MY dragon or at the very least so few did I never felt like I had the same dragon as everyone else. I culled dragons for months looking for the perfect one. Then spent a great deal of time training it to cap its skills and named it. My Greater Dragon was named Clifford oO. I had a large number of pets. A Rune Beetle that was superb at poisoning that I teamed up with a Nightmare (Pitch black) that was both my mount and a mage. I had a WW that was an excellent caster and a great deal sturdier than my Nightmare. I had a fire steed just for the looks of it and it did team up well with my imps from Spell Weaving. I tamed fire beetles and blue beetles to sale to crafters and others. Blue Beetles were pack animals and acted as a ridable back pack. Fire beetles acted as a walking and ridable forge for miners. I had a Cu sidhe that was a big wolf that was ridable and was an excellent melee fighter. He had healing skill so he could heal himself and me. They also had a nasty bleed attack. I had way to many pets to list to be honest. The variety in UO was insane and I had different pets for different reasons. I had a necro I used to RP with and he had 5 spiders as pets for RP purposes.
Non combat related activities were in unbundance. I use to hold chess tournaments in my house. Since there were actual board games in game that you could place on a table or anywhere really and interact with I once converted my lower floor into a chess room with several tables and chairs and chess boards. I did this because of a mild argument between me and some others about who was the better chess player. So we held a tournament and invited any that wanted to participate. This became a regular event for a little bit due to the popularity and success. We even gave out prizes and an engraved piece of gear. Crafting was another great part of the game. You could craft almost anything from practical to purely cosmetic. Social clothes, armor of all types, weapons of all types, consumables of all types, furniture of all types, ships, and the process was fun for many including myself. Sac ball was never my thing but many enjoyed it. Snowball fights were always fun in a pinch if you had a pile of snow in your backpack. The amount of non combat related activities to do in the game was more than any other MMO (That I know of) has yet to offer.
The community was the best by far. There was a guild of elves that roleplayed as elves even before elves were a playable race. They would hold festivals for the server and typed in elvish. They were a huge boon to the game. There was a guild of players that roleplayed as orcs. They used sub par gear but they attacked with numbers. They would only talk like the orcs in the game did and dressed like them. They too were a boon to the community. Lots of groups like this existed in UO and held a great number of events. Some times it would seem like the entire server came together to hang out. This was besides the Devs and EMs hosting live events as well. Getting an announcement in game was always a treat as well. The heralds would start announcing that Lord British (Richard Garriott the games creator) had an event to start, announcement or proclamation to make and we would all head to his castle. Players would gather around on the balconies and flood the castle. It was impossible to count how many were there.
Then there were the bugs and glitches. In most games these annoy me, in UO they could be fun and cool. The UO devs knew there were just some bugs and glitches you don't fix or completely remove. Some true rares came out of it as well as some fun things. The item bugs they fixed didn't effect items currently in game, it just prevented the bug or glitch from happening again making for some truly rare items worth a great deal of in game currency. Some bugs they just never fixed because players liked them like the random lama vortex bug. Every once in awhile when you summoned a Swirling Vortex which was supposed to be a pinkish purplish tornado looking thing it was a pinkish purplish lama instead.
This is only a fraction of what I liked so much about the game. No other game experience has come even remotely close. No game has offered even half of what UO offered.
Sure the graphics were dated, the combat itself was pretty lacking as well. What made the game shine though was that it felt like a living breathing world more often than not. You weren't constantly slapped in the face and saying "Man, I wish you could..... in this game" because there was little you couldn't do. If you wanted to do nothing but be a prankster you could and there was at least one I knew of that simply pulled pranks constantly. He would make tapped boxes and poison food and such and leave them places for new players to find. He'd use incognito and mess with people that he knew. If you didn't make your house private he would tame all kinds of pets and take them to your your house and release them so that when you came home you were in for an unpleasant surprise.
It wasn't really a game, it was more of a virtual fantasy world simulator.
I know some keep saying this, but it didn't hit its current sub or concurrent user peak until after the split. The split actually increased the number of players lol...
That sounds utterly brilliant.
Thank you for sharing your fond memories with us.
Do you still play? If not, why not? - You've sold it to me!
Well written and i agree on most.
Combat in UO was not lacking, sure melee and archery wasnt that amazing but the magic system still is the best ever created. Still havent found a MMO that demand same twitch- and tactical skills.
Why dont you try out Richard Garriotts, maker of UO, new coming game instead? Seems to be pretty much like old UO/Ultima.
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/
only thing that game(s) have in common with UO is Richard... other than that, no its nothing like UO. Or maybe you could try to sell it to us... why do you think this supposedly heavily instanced game, which you can also play offline, is gonna be 'just like old UO' ?
No, I no longer play. I think I finally quit for good because I know Sosaria/Britannia (it's the name of the world) to well these days. I played the game for over a decade.
It was a very fun ride. The Devs even discussed development with us on a regular basis and asked for our imput. The last full expansion the devs went into very detailed explanations and allowed us a great amount of imput on it. Prior to development of it they actually discussed with us what we would like to see and what we might think is fun and implemented what they could and thought was appropriate.
I actually did another few month stint not that long ago but my time there is over. I was a Alpha and Beta tester, I was a GM as well as later a counseler (Volunteer GM with limited powers basically) and I forget what we were called before we were counselers or maybe counselers was the old name and I don't remeber what they called us after. In either case I was involved in that game as much as possible for over a decade. Met many long lasting friends that I still see in real life every so often. One buddy of mine I met in game lives in Canada and I go see him or he comes and sees me about once a year and we hang out for a week talking about old times and catching up on whats new with each other.
I can agree with that. UO by far had and has the best magic system ever implemented in an MMO. Me and 3 other mages made a group and practiced something we called the death box. What we would do is stealth around together and look for a target or targets. When we found our prey we would inclose them in fields of force and fill it with poison fields and fire fields. Later we just started doing the X which stopped them just the same. It was fun having some bait lead them into a narrow dead end because then we could really lock them down and mess them up. The 4 of us took out 20 Dread Lords that way once lol.
The distinction was made long before MMOs. Some popular MUDs were kind of sandboxy, skill based, and had huge degree of players freedom. Then DikuMUD appeared, which was different - it was hack-and-slash with level based character progression.
Origin hired LegendMUD designer Raph Coster to help with UO. He was later responsible for original SWG.
Everquest guys (and later Blizzard) copied mechanics from DikuMUD, sometimes so close that some people suspected that they've copied Diku source code.
The distinction couldn't be more clear - either MMO is inspired by LegendMUD and all it's MMO successors, or by DikuMUD / Everquest / WoW. The best example that there is a difference, and some players strongly prefer one over the other, is NGE for SWG.