Last Online

Ultima Online is a massively multiplayer online role-playing video game released on September 30, 1997 under the direction of Richard Garriot Origin Systems and is played online in a fictional universe similar to other games in the Ultima series.

Ultima Online has entered the Guinness Book of Records as the longest running massively multiplayer online role-playing game.

History

Richard Garriott in 2006.

Ultima Online was born as Richard Garriott's fantasy of bringing together thousands of people to share a fantasy world. There were a couple of games before that allowed this possibility, like The Realm Online, but Ultima Online was a significant step up from the other games, in terms of graphics and game mechanics. The initial team consisted of Garriot, Starr Long, Rick Delashmit, and Raph Koster, who became lead designer on the project.

It all started in 1995 and was shown to the public at E3 in 1996. For its time (mid-90s), Ultima Online was a very expensive and risky project for the company, since trusted a public accessing the server via modem. The launch cost was much higher than traditional games, and was trying to transform the entire Ultima series into a whole new genre. Ultima Online was a novel game in a number of ways, including:

• Players could buy land and build houses in the common landscape.
• A system of skills per percentage.
• Many elements of the game could be built by the players, which generated an economy within the game.
• Players could be attacked anywhere in the game, including cities (this has changed).

After its launch in 1997, Ultima Online proved very popular, reaching 100,000 player subscribers in its first six months. Subscriptions rose to reach 250,000. Origin was able to make a lot of money from the monthly fees required to play the game, and various companies started to follow suit, releasing their own online games. This was the case with EverQuest (March 1999), Dark Age of Camelot (October 2001) and World of Warcraft (November 2004)..

Game Mechanism

Ultima Online continued the tradition of previous Ultima games in many ways, but due to advancing technology and the simple fact that it was the first game to Origin's persistent line, there were also many new game mechanics. Partially designed as a social and economic experiment, the game had to account for extensive player interaction as well as deal with the tradition of players feeling like the center of attention, as had been the case in single player games. Being a first for both developers and players, a lot of what was planned never came to fruition and a lot of what was not planned did. Many new mechanics had to be incorporated to compensate.

Skills

Abilities (also called Skills) in Ultima Online are represented by a percentage that demonstrate the player's ability, and are advanced by using them or by paying the appropriate NPCs to train the player (but only up to 30%, generally). While there are about 50 skills, only seven of them, can be at 100% (or 120% through the use of some items), called Grand Master, or opt for any combination of skills that reaches 700%. Note that this limit is for the 'real' of the ability, on which the effects that the stats or some objects have on them are then applied. Each ability can be marked to gain points (set up), lose points (set down), or be locked to a value.

Originally, the skill system was very different since the player had no ability to put the skill into the states mentioned above, and skills that were forgotten slowly lost points when not used. Abilities also dropped every time a player died, especially if they immediately resurrected. This was a very tough feature for a lot of the 'newbie' players. that were randomly killed by other players.

Most abilities can be raised by mashing, and require only a series of repetitive mouse clicks. Some require the use of resources, such as raw materials, while others just cost time. All abilities are affected to some degree by the player's stats. Many skills benefit from each other, for example, having a high anatomy skill improves a player's efficiency with healing or other combat skills - this was not the case at launch, and this feature was added so that players could take advantage of the use of certain abilities considered a priori useless.

On the vast majority of servers, skills can be trained up to 120% with the use of Power Scrolls, which are purchased from players or obtained from "Altars of Champion" on Felucca. Even so, the total point limit on skills is still taken into account.

Stats

The basic qualities of the player (strength, dexterity and intelligence) are still maintained, from which those of health, resistance (stamina) and mana are derived; but now Ultima Online offers many more stats, all derived from armor, magic items or spells. These features range from luck, which improves the chance of finding more and better magic equipment, to LRC (lower reagent cost), which reduces the amount of ingredients or tithes (in the case of Chivarly abilities) needed to cast. spells.

Crafts

Ultima Online features an extensive crafting system that allows players with certain abilities to create most items that can be found in the game, from useful items like weapons or armor to more mundane items like furniture or costumes.. Player-made items are often of a higher quality than those found in NPC-run shops, especially those made by crafters who have reached the "GrandMaster" (100 points) or higher in the appropriate skill.

One of the most controversial issues related to crafting is that players are sometimes forced to craft large quantities of some item for which there is no demand, just to increase their skill level. This was one of the biggest downfalls of the economy system originally designed for the game, as people could not get enough money from the products they had created because the NPCs only bought the items that they could sell later (based on a bidding system). and simulated demand), rejecting some products. That system has been discontinued due to player complaints and a virtually unlimited amount of unwanted items can now be sold to NPCs, even if they are not going to make a profit on them, resulting in increasing inflation.

The appearance of problems

Ultima Online has seen many major revisions throughout its history. This includes game revisions, personnel changes, technical updates, and fundamental design changes. With few previous MMORPGs to learn from, the Ultima Online staff was exploring new terrain, and had to resolve complex issues that had never been faced in a commercial game on this scale. The importance of understanding psychology, social interaction, economics, and other issues became increasingly important as complex social behavior developed.

In the game's development preview, a well-balanced, realistic economy and a good social structure was the goal. While not nearly all of the features that were planned to be incorporated into the game were present in the first release, the developers managed to give players almost all control in terms of what they could do to other players, and at the same time world at large. This caused permanent repercussions that they still face in the game.

Expansions, sequels and other releases

Aftermath

• Latest Online 2 (UO2) - later retitled as Ultima Worlds Online: Origin (UWO: O) - was announced in 1999. It was a kind of "Steampunk" in a world where Sosaria's past, present and future were combined together by a mistake of Lord British while trying to rebuild the gem of immortality. They hired Todd McFarlane to design original monsters and new regions for the game, and to help form the story. It was canceled in 2001 before its launch; given the circumstances in the competition of online games, Electronic Arts feared that the release of this game would damage the amount of UO subscriptions, however a promotional video was published where you could see the 3D graphics used as well as the capture of movement. Some of the monsters and art made for UWO: Or was used later in expansion Latest Online: Lord Blackthorn's Revenge.
• Latest X: Odyssey - this MMORPG was supposed to be set in a new world, called Alucinor, created by the Avatar after the events in Latest IX: Ascension. It was cancelled in 2004 - again, according to EA, to focus on the expansions of Ultima Online.

Expansions

• Latest Online: The Second Age (1 October 1998): Offered a new area, called The Lost Lands or the lost lands, together with a built-in chat system and new creatures. Also known as T2A. It was released in two versions; the first one had another illustration and a single manual.
• Last Online: Renaissance (3 April 2000): The world was folded in size, as there were literally two copies of it. The two worlds were called Felucca and Trammel, like the moons of the Britannia world in Ultima. In Trammel the murder of the players was not allowed, while in Felucca yes. Felluca also adopted a darker look.
• Latest Online: Third Dawn (March 7, 2001): The main change was that this expansion included a 3D client to compete with MMORPGs 3D like EverQuest. Also, a third special world was created, called Ilshenar.
• Latest Online: Lord Blackthorn's Revenge (24 February 2002): I brought “a new dark world based on new characters from Todd McFarlane” to Ultima, with an improved Artificial Intelligence, built-in help, and improvements in character creation.
• Latest Online: Age of Shadows (February 28, 2003): He incorporated a new world of Malas, with space to place houses, two new classes (Paladin and Necromancer) and the ability to customize his home according to the particular requirements of the player. The object system was fully improved in this expansion. The strength of the armor was now divided into five types of resistance (physics, fire, cold, poison and energy), and added more features for weapons. Since now a good team was vital, this expansion brought with it the "insurance" system.
• Last Online: Samurái Empire (2 November 2004): I brought mythology and folklore from ancient Asia to the game, with two new classes (Ninja and Samurái), and a new area to explore, Tokuno Islands (Tokuno Islands).
• Latest Online: Mondain's Legacy (30 August 2005): He introduced a new race, elves, and a new skill, spellweaving. Several new cells were also added.
• Last Online: Kingdom Reborn (June 27, 2007): I brought a new client with new graphics. He didn't add content.
• Latest Online: Stygian Abyss (September 8, 2009): Provides a new breed (Gárgolas), new dungeons...
• Latest Online: High Seas (12 October 2010): Provides new maritime functions.

Other Editions

• Latest Online: Charter Edition (September 30, 1997): It was available as a pre-release of Origin Systems in the launch of Ultima Online and in small quantities next to the standard box. It included a signed lithography of the UO illustrations of Hilderbrandt's brothers, a logo with the Ultima Online logo and the box was signed by "Lord British" (Richard Garriott).
• Last Online: 7th Anniversary (25 September 2004) was a special launch of the game to celebrate the seventh birthday of Ultima Online. Like all the items listed in this section, this release didn't bring anything new to the game and it's not an extension, but included one more CD with more recent patches, but Age of Shadow remained the most current version at the time. This release was contained in a small cardboard box containing three CDs, offering the version Age of Shadows, but also included Ultima IX: Ascension with your installation and play CDs. Also available as a gift an additional slot for characters (the total of six characters was available now) and 7 registration codes for friends.
• Latest Online: The Eighth Age (25 September 2005) was a CD coming with a series of gifts in the game. However it does not bring any new feature, as the launch was to celebrate Ultima Online's eighth birthday. The box included an updated game CD (with more recent patches), a bright libretto with a Sosaria atlas, a gift between eight to choose within the game, a character transfer, an advanced character and a 45-day trial code. Also a blue "soulstone" limited edition.

Customers

Ultima Online can be played in two clients, the Classic and the Enhanced which includes 3D improvements, although the latter is still in its beta version. Both clients are updated together and are compatible with all OU expansions.

System requirements:

Classic Client 7.x

• OS: W98 / XP.
• CPU: 400 MHz (Pentium).
• RAM: 128 MiB.
• GPU: 8 MiB compatible with DirectX 9.0.
• SPU: Sound card compatible with DirectX 9.0.
• HD: 1.5 GB.
• Internet: 56.6 kbit/s or higher.

Enhanced Client 4.x (beta)

• OS: WXP / View.
• CPU: 1000 MHz (Pentium) (1800 MHz (C2D) recommended).
• RAM: 512 MiB (1024 MiB recommended).
• GPU: 64 MiB (128 MiB recommended) with 3D acceleration and compatible with DirectX 9.0.
• SPU: Sound card compatible with DirectX 9.0.
• HD: 4.0 GB.
• Internet: 56.6 kbit/s or higher.

Emulators

Technically savvy Ultima Online fans have reverse-engineered the game to produce emulators of the original servers. This emulation is legal, and Origin is aware of its existence, although in some countries the authors of these emulators are considered to have violated the software license by using reverse engineering, and may have been banned from official servers (other countries are not). allow reverse engineering of software). To remain legal, emulators do not distribute the client program.

These "player-held" sometimes they run on conventional machines. They usually work at no cost to the player. Sometimes they are set in a different universe than Ultima, and the rules of conduct for players vary from one to another. Many shards force their players to "role" and fit your character.

Although it has been considered that these emulators were only used to be able to take a look at the operation of the game but that they could not be equal to the original due to having different rules or because the emulator did not support too many connections without "crashing". More recent emulators written from scratch like RunUO have shown that they are capable of supporting large numbers of online players without any loss in game quality and that they can create a universe faithful to that of the official servers. There are even some servers that, to the delight of the most veteran players, maintain the rules of the game 'PreAOS' for the most part. from the official server with great fidelity.

List of important OU emulators:

• Lonewolf Emu - C/C++, open source (GPL)
• NOX-Wizard - C++, open source (GPL)
• Penultima Online (POL) - open source
• RunUO - C#/.NET, open source (OSI)
• SunUO - C#/.NET, Open Source Monkey (GPL)
• SphereServer - enclosed code
• Sushi X - C++, open source (GPL)
• UOX3 (Ultima Offline eXperiment 3) - C/C++/JavaScript, open source (GPL)
• Wolfpack Emu - C/C++, open source (GPL)