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My experience of resubscribing to Ultima Online (Atlantica)

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  • ScorchienScorchien Member LegendaryPosts: 8,914
    In any case, I still have been enjoying UO as much as I was on day 2. First day was just being confused as heck, but still having a good time because the community is so awesome.

    Even though the build/template thing isn't my favoritist thing in the world and guess some would rather see someone build their own character. That isn't how I play games with limited skill points to use. So I'm playing my own way, by following a build and find it FAR more fun than ending up with a sucky foambat character. That would just make me quit UO again lol. 

    Besides that though, the game has been surprisingly awesome. Its nice to see on Atlantic how busy it is, and that is pretty surprising for such an old MMO. Though what I'm more surprised about is how often I see either new people (though not as much in truth), but all the people that have been returning to UO as well. I see quite a lot of new players in New Haven at any given time. And the game is still being updated, which is awesome and also surprising.

    Honestly, I kinda expected the game to be on a lifeline, with minimal/no updates and kinda dead. But, no, that wasn't what I found out at all. Guess even though its really old, it still has quite a lot of life in it. Plus overhead cost I can't imagine being nearly as much as newer MMOs.
    Its a great game .. take yer time ...  Thats the beauty of UO also , so much to get lost in and enjoy , Save up for a house or small tower ...
  • flizzerflizzer Member RarePosts: 2,454
    I've never played this game but after reading this thread I almost want to jump in.  UO has been around since 1999, right.   Must be tons of content.
  • ScorchienScorchien Member LegendaryPosts: 8,914
    edited October 2016
    flizzer said:
    I've never played this game but after reading this thread I almost want to jump in.  UO has been around since 1999, right.   Must be tons of content.
    97 Endless Content
  • TheScavengerTheScavenger Member EpicPosts: 3,321
    Scorchien said:
    flizzer said:
    I've never played this game but after reading this thread I almost want to jump in.  UO has been around since 1999, right.   Must be tons of content.
    97 Endless Content
    Yeah, and it STILL gets updated. Which is really awesome. And as someone who hasn't played in over 10 years, its really like an entirely new game. For someone completely new, as a warning, it IS kinda difficult to learn. But it isn't so hard like EVE is, just harder than a lot of MMOs are these days. In a way, its really overwhelming with all there is it to do, but I really like that.

    It has that oldschool element, you die, drop your items (well your body is left behind that you go loot) and then have 15 minutes to go back to get it. Not so much an issue in the world, but in dungeons and hard content places, it could be nearly impossible to get the items back if no one is around to help.

    Though there IS insurance, so you can insure your armor/weapons, so it isn't too bad. I haven't died since I did that, but I assume insured items stay with you through death. Sorta like Asheron's Call kinda, in that you could have certain items that dropped instead of your main armor/weapons.

    My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB: 

    https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul



  • LynxJSALynxJSA Member RarePosts: 3,332
    You now have me itching to play again. You're on Atlantic?
    -- Whammy - a 64x64 miniRPG 
    RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right? 
    FPS Quiz - how well do you know your shooters?  
  • TheScavengerTheScavenger Member EpicPosts: 3,321
    edited October 2016
    LynxJSA said:
    You now have me itching to play again. You're on Atlantic?
    Yeah, that is the server I'm on.
    Post edited by TheScavenger on

    My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB: 

    https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul



  • TheScavengerTheScavenger Member EpicPosts: 3,321
    edited October 2016
    Lol. So you can sort of "breed" horses.

    In skara brae (a city on a small island), there is a horse pen. Every time you tame one, a new horse appears. So I've been taming them, naming them, having them follow me out of their prison, releasing them to freedom. Now skara brae is a horse island :D

    Found out by accident too, because went back to my taming character to raise taming. I want to get that done (and its fun "breeding" horses anyway lol:pleased:

    Dunno if they'll de-spawn or not, but I've seen peoples released tames last for days. So not sure how that works. But if they just remain in the game world that is kinda hilarious (and awesome) lol. A small island taken over by horses.

    Oh and I named most of them Heretic. So they are heretic horses :P Dunno why I made that a thing when I was naming them. Sounded good at the time.

    Which speaking of which. I named A Polar Bear to A Walrus. So if anyone happens to see a polar bear, they'll see A Walrus instead rofl. And I had to name A Walrus to A Polar Bear.

    Taming has got to be one of the most fun things in the game to me.

    My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB: 

    https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul



  • TalonsinTalonsin Member EpicPosts: 3,619
    Great to see people enjoying the classics.
    "Sean (Murray) saying MP will be in the game is not remotely close to evidence that at the point of purchase people thought there was MP in the game."  - SEANMCAD

  • TheScavengerTheScavenger Member EpicPosts: 3,321
    I haven't posted an update in a while. I'm still enjoying UO a lot, though I haven't felt like playing any games the past week. And...some things feel kinda meh with UO now that I played it.

    I ended up choosing a character "role", of an archer. An elf archer that rides a horse and its most fun I've actually had in an MMO. It kinda reminds me of being a horse archer in mount and blade, without the real combat mechanics. In fact, my favorite unit/role/etc in any game (and history) is the horse archer. Nothing beats a horse archer for me, best combat role ever. So when I found out you could be one in UO really sold me on it.

    Most MMOs dismount you in combat (which is super lame), so its awesome UO lets you actually ride a horse (or any other mount I'd assume) and lets you shoot arrows (and spells!) from on top of one.

    I also got a 17x14 sized house plot in Malas (sorta by Luna, the main trade hub in the game), which Malas/Luna being the main trade hub...makes finding ANY sized spot on Malas near impossible. But I watched a house decay, and then spot was open a few days and I grabbed it when I could.

    Having a house is kinda quicker to get these days than it used to be. When I played UO ages ago, I didn't have a house for many months lol...but maybe I just sucked :P But even then, there is a TON more gold in circulation than it used to be so things sell for a lot more and the NPC vanilla items seem cheap because of it...some stuff for sell is pretty damn expensive lol.

    I found a rare item that sold for 20 million gold, could have got 30 million but oh well, still a lot. Now I can buy all the ships/houses as I want lol.

    Sadly, some (if not a lot) of the gold circulation came from people duping for ages from what my guild leader told me, and it took them too long to stop the cheaters. So not only is there just a lot of gold in general because the game is so old, but all the duping as well. 

    In fact, duping is STILL an issue for some things. Someone dropped tons of piles of gold, but they were all bugged gold (you can tell because a pile had 99k gold in it. But picking it up automatically turned it into a single piece of one gold). 

    So while I'm enjoying the game a lot...with so much gold from that one item...everything is so cheap so now I can just buy everything in UO and never need gold again lol.

    Its not just the duping either or me selling a single item, its just, because the game is so old, everything is just so cheap unless its from another player. And if you buy a good/rare item from another player its stupidely expensive lol. 

    My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB: 

    https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul



  • vveaver_onlinevveaver_online Member UncommonPosts: 436
    the game always had runes for recalling, but the runebooks were introduced later. Before the books you had to carry around all your stones individually, and mages had to be used to portal people who couldent recall.
  • LynxJSALynxJSA Member RarePosts: 3,332

    So while I'm enjoying the game a lot...with so much gold from that one item...everything is so cheap so now I can just buy everything in UO and never need gold again lol.

    Its not just the duping either or me selling a single item, its just, because the game is so old, everything is just so cheap unless its from another player. And if you buy a good/rare item from another player its stupidely expensive lol. 
    Sounds like a perfect opportunity to start a project, event, or venue of some kind. 
    -- Whammy - a 64x64 miniRPG 
    RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right? 
    FPS Quiz - how well do you know your shooters?  
  • TheScavengerTheScavenger Member EpicPosts: 3,321
    Yeah, with all the gold I can start an event of some kind. That would be cool. Haven't actually even really been able to make an actual event in an MMO in quite a while. A lot of modern MMOs have pre-made events (UO seems to as well), but like in WoW, people set up RP events...but its all...kinda RP text pretend stuff through text lol. Its a lot harder to make just a random event in WoW that is actually in the game.

    A good example. UO, I was in a halloween maze event where there were 10 homes all near each other and they all coordinated with each other and built a giant maze out of their homes. That was a TON of fun. And then there is an event every weekend to fight a giant boss at sea which is a lot of fun.

    Today, I was able (with help from someone else) fight The Butcher at a graveyard for a pumpkin carving tool. And made my first pumpkin art :D I did already have the design, but just the entire thing of someone random person coming to help kill The Butcher (she even died a few times, but still wanted to help) was quite an experience.

    I still need to train up my combat skills to join in stuff with my guild leader, but once that happens it'll be epic of things I can participate in. And there is so much to do, don't see running out of combat any time soon.

    As for the gold, its actually kinda nice not worrying about it. Today I realized I was able to do a lot more, and was less limited with all the gold and could get better equipment to make grouping a better experience.

    Tomorrow though, I'll probably focus on making arrows for part of the time. I'd need to get feathers though. Since I'm an Elf horse archer, I need a lot of arrows lol.

    I used up nearly 1000 arrows fighting The Butcher (and all the undead he summons). Did get a lot of karma, fame, gold and skills from it though which was nice.

    My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB: 

    https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul



  • TheScavengerTheScavenger Member EpicPosts: 3,321
    edited November 2016
    I ended up not playing this anymore. When I found out the "big" player made event is a cheated event, kinda ruined it for me. I already was disappointed with all the duplicated glitched gold I found. But the killer was the one where you summon that water boss off the docks in new magica or whatever the town name is. You need a super rare net (that is found fishing). Then each super rare net, is then used to "ATTEMPT" to summon the super rarer than the net water boss. You need many dozens of nets to just get "lucky" to summon it once, that in no way can be done with the number of players every week, with multiple summons each time. The last time I was a part of it, he got summoned 7 times. And people were spamming nets like crazy. And the nets are some of the rarest items in the game. But not too surprising I guess, because I personally saw tons of bugged gold outside a portal.

    For further proof, since I didn't want to just assume...I asked my guild leader and he admitted that was the only way they could do the player made event as the net is very rare and the boss is incredibly rare to summon.

    I already knew gold and items are heavily duplicated in the game, but to realize I was part of an event from duplicated bugged nets and I got tons of stuff from it. That killed it for me.

    Plus, it didn't help barely anyone groups anymore. When I played UO a long time ago, people loved to group. It took me ages of asking in guild chat, and then general chat to get a group going. It does happen, but mostly for boss fights. I like to solo and all, but the game didn't seem nearly as social as it used to be. The entire time I played, it was mostly me just grinding my skills and then getting involved in the cheated boss fight.

    But yeah, knowing that player event is just made by duplicators and it wouldn't even be possible like they do it...no thanks. That meant all my items and gold came from a boss that people cheated to get. Which meant my items and gold I involuntarily cheated to get. I never want to cheat in any game, as that ruins the game completely. Even when I sometimes use cheats in singleplayer games, it ruins the entire game lol.

    I hate cheating, and realizing that is how I got my items from a cheated boss...destroyed any future I have of playing UO.

    My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB: 

    https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul



  • ScorchienScorchien Member LegendaryPosts: 8,914
    edited November 2016
    There are people cheating in every single MMO out there , to them that is the Game, you just ignore it ,(report if able to) and move on , But hope you find what you are looking for
  • TheScavengerTheScavenger Member EpicPosts: 3,321
    edited November 2016
    I didn't see an easy way to report people, it also seems highly widespread and no one in-game actually cares. My guild leader took it like it was completely normal for people to duplicate in UO (though he said he didn't do it). Which tells me that they don't do anything about the cheaters at all. Even my guild leader told me that the duplication was so bad, that it took them years for them to do something about it. But then its rising back to how it used to be, because they don't support the game as much as they used to.

    Also, I did try contacting a GM. But people in chat said it can take days, to weeks to even once someone said it took 4 months of waiting for a GM to contact her. 

    People also turned from nice, to "grow a pair noob" kind of talk when I was complaining in chat about the duplicated items. Its like a creepy horror movie where you go into a town and everyone is overly nice, but as soon as you don't go to their church or you find that there is some kind of secret cult in town or they are cannibals, they all turn evil and try to chase you out of town or kill you lol. 

    I mean, I did complain for a good minute about all the cheating I saw. So maybe it was how I came off. But everyone in chat seemed to be defending it and pretty much were rude, and didn't like me after that. I didn't use any foul language, but did complain about it for a minute. In any case. I don't want to be part of a game where the players encourage cheating or just don't care, and chase anyone out that is against it.

    Guess I was the outsider that they didn't like lol

    I saw better support against cheaters on free shards, but most free shards I played just had a bunch of automated macroers playing which is just as bad (to me) as all the duplicating items on official servers.

    I ended up sticking with EVE (which I've played 4 months now) and playing Black Desert Online (which used to have a huge hacker problem which is why I quit before, but I haven't seen any of that since I've played the past month and my guild said its super rare now and they are a lot harsher about hacking in the game than they used to be)

    My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB: 

    https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul



  • PwltPwlt Member UncommonPosts: 27
    I am back and loving it. I recommend people come back and join Atlantic. UO is so feature-rich now, it's mind-boggling. You can learn by posting on Stratics, reading UOguide, asking people. There are good guilds around. They just changed taming into full-blown Pokemon stuff where you can add skills to pets and train them fully. Very cool. There's more cool stuff coming this year. 


    TheScavenger
    UO, EQ, AC, AO, RM, WOW, AC2, SWG, EQ2, GW2, RIFT, TERA, AA, TSW.
  • AethaerynAethaeryn Member RarePosts: 3,149
    I'm tempted and used to play on Atlantic.  It seems a lot has changed (I stopped when DAoC came out).  I did take a run at siege perilous and liked that a few years  back.  Maybe it is time to try again.

    Wa min God! Se æx on min heafod is!

  • TheScavengerTheScavenger Member EpicPosts: 3,321
    Pwlt said:
    I am back and loving it. I recommend people come back and join Atlantic. UO is so feature-rich now, it's mind-boggling. You can learn by posting on Stratics, reading UOguide, asking people. There are good guilds around. They just changed taming into full-blown Pokemon stuff where you can add skills to pets and train them fully. Very cool. There's more cool stuff coming this year. 


    yeah, the game is actually pretty good. One of two PVE sandbox (or sandbox"ish") style MMOs. The only other one is Ryzom. Every other sandbox (or sandbox"ish") style MMO is forced PvP. I forgot why I stopped playing to be honest, I think actually my friends got me back into WoW and then I kinda just left UO behind. But now my friends are scattered through various MMOs (well two went super oldschool to MUDs, and most went to singleplayer/co-op/multiplayer games), and WoW isn't that fun anymore for me...so maybe its time to start up UO again. I did really enjoy my time there.

    Thanks for reminding me of this thread :)
    [Deleted User]Pwlt

    My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB: 

    https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul



  • Octagon7711Octagon7711 Member LegendaryPosts: 9,000
    I love reading stories about life in game.  In L2 there was a player named, Jute who told great stories about her experiences in L2.  It was called 'A Day In The Life.'  Well worth a read.
    http://boards.lineage2.com/showthread.php?t=102165
    [Deleted User]

    "We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa      "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are."  SR Covey

  • TheScavengerTheScavenger Member EpicPosts: 3,321
    So I got pretty bored of WoW and was wanting an MMO with house customization and an amazing crafting system, with it being either a sandbox or a sandpark. On the list was ESO, GW2, UO, Tibia, LOTRO, Ryzom and Istaria

    Well, ESO is fine except the classes are (to me) most boring classes I ever played in any game period, no matter what genre the game is. Which is a shame because the rest of the game is really decent. 

    GW2 runs too bad on my PC, too CPU intensive for my junk CPU. That and no housing system and (to me) bad crafting system. BUT, if it ran better I'd probably have chosen this one tbh. But not at 14-25 FPS on lowest graphics settings possible. Guess doesn't make much use if any of the GPU (cause I have a good GPU). I tried a lot to fix it and posted asking for help, but I can set it to lowest resolution possible and I get same exact FPS lol. Just doesn't work with my CPU. I do get better FPS turning off character models, but that removes NPCs too and is a stupid feature that I won't ever use cause then I can't see all the NPCs lol. 

    Tibia I have installed and sort of play, but its like UO-lite...so I play it and think "why am I not playing UO" but then I stay logged on for 3-6 hours grinding lol. But then afterwards I just think "that been better in UO". 

    LOTRO I won't play, not gonna say why or people will just make this thread about LOTRO. Game probably has my favorite world of any in this list though.

    Ryzom is most dead-alive MMO I ever played. You could wander the wilderness in middle of nowhere and be more likely to encounter people than Ryzom.

    Istaria actually is a lot of fun. No complaints here. Small sized community but not really dead. Ignoring UO, best housing/crafting system of any MMO...plus you get to be a dragon. My reason for not landing on this is cause the world is too dead and lifeless feeling. It is an older MMO, but the world felt...just lifeless. Ultima 7 for example still hasn't been beat for most living breathing game world, even Bethesda hasn't properly replicated it properly (they are closest though).

    Which leads me BACK to UO. Though I decided to do something different. One my friend is joining me. Two, we also decided to play on Legends server. Cause my friend wanted to play one of the least populated servers in the game (dunno if its #1 least populated or if there is something less populated. Tbh, my friend is 98% solo or co-op in any game. He does sometimes play with random people, but generally likes small groups or with close friends.

    So legends server of course we likely won't see anyone except rarely, and maybe its not the best server for me personally (I like Atlantica cause its lively and feels immersive cause of that) and kinda defeats the purpose of my reasons of giving up on Ryzom...except unlike Ryzom, at least vast majority of stuff can be done solo or with small groups.

    So that is my long post. I just started back up today, and my friend already has it installed and a character made. I'm going with FOTY (cause its been way longer than a FOTM) sampire build but instead of chivalry everyone uses, I'm doing mystic in replace of that, and my friend is either going necromancy focused or some kind of hybrid necromage kinda character since he prefers magic. And I think he is gonna heal as backup, but he doesn't tend to like healing so probably not much of that. So I'll be the OP WoW deathknight style tank and he'll be in the back with magic.

    My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB: 

    https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul



  • MaeEyeMaeEye Member UncommonPosts: 1,106
    So I got pretty bored of WoW and was wanting an MMO with house customization and an amazing crafting system, with it being either a sandbox or a sandpark. On the list was ESO, GW2, UO, Tibia, LOTRO, Ryzom and Istaria

    Well, ESO is fine except the classes are (to me) most boring classes I ever played in any game period, no matter what genre the game is. Which is a shame because the rest of the game is really decent. 

    GW2 runs too bad on my PC, too CPU intensive for my junk CPU. That and no housing system and (to me) bad crafting system. BUT, if it ran better I'd probably have chosen this one tbh. But not at 14-25 FPS on lowest graphics settings possible. Guess doesn't make much use if any of the GPU (cause I have a good GPU). I tried a lot to fix it and posted asking for help, but I can set it to lowest resolution possible and I get same exact FPS lol. Just doesn't work with my CPU. I do get better FPS turning off character models, but that removes NPCs too and is a stupid feature that I won't ever use cause then I can't see all the NPCs lol. 

    Tibia I have installed and sort of play, but its like UO-lite...so I play it and think "why am I not playing UO" but then I stay logged on for 3-6 hours grinding lol. But then afterwards I just think "that been better in UO". 

    LOTRO I won't play, not gonna say why or people will just make this thread about LOTRO. Game probably has my favorite world of any in this list though.

    Ryzom is most dead-alive MMO I ever played. You could wander the wilderness in middle of nowhere and be more likely to encounter people than Ryzom.

    Istaria actually is a lot of fun. No complaints here. Small sized community but not really dead. Ignoring UO, best housing/crafting system of any MMO...plus you get to be a dragon. My reason for not landing on this is cause the world is too dead and lifeless feeling. It is an older MMO, but the world felt...just lifeless. Ultima 7 for example still hasn't been beat for most living breathing game world, even Bethesda hasn't properly replicated it properly (they are closest though).

    Which leads me BACK to UO. Though I decided to do something different. One my friend is joining me. Two, we also decided to play on Legends server. Cause my friend wanted to play one of the least populated servers in the game (dunno if its #1 least populated or if there is something less populated. Tbh, my friend is 98% solo or co-op in any game. He does sometimes play with random people, but generally likes small groups or with close friends.

    So legends server of course we likely won't see anyone except rarely, and maybe its not the best server for me personally (I like Atlantica cause its lively and feels immersive cause of that) and kinda defeats the purpose of my reasons of giving up on Ryzom...except unlike Ryzom, at least vast majority of stuff can be done solo or with small groups.

    So that is my long post. I just started back up today, and my friend already has it installed and a character made. I'm going with FOTY (cause its been way longer than a FOTM) sampire build but instead of chivalry everyone uses, I'm doing mystic in replace of that, and my friend is either going necromancy focused or some kind of hybrid necromage kinda character since he prefers magic. And I think he is gonna heal as backup, but he doesn't tend to like healing so probably not much of that. So I'll be the OP WoW deathknight style tank and he'll be in the back with magic.

    Would love to see or hear if you're still enjoying Ultima Online in 2023. I returned after a 2008-2011 hiatus back in 2020. Although the game has changed a lot, it's still a really entertaining game by all means. More so than more modern MMO's. I transferred some characters to Atlantic, however I'm kind of wishing I would have stayed on my less populated shards like Napa and Chesapeake; something about the smaller player base is appealing to me.
    /played-mmorpgs

    Total time played: 9125 Days, 21 Hours, 29 Minutes, 27 Seconds
    Time played this level: 39 Days, 1 Hour, 24 Minutes, 5 Seconds

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