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Ultima Online

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Released on September 30, 1997, by Origin Systems, Ultima Online (UO) is a popular graphical massively multiplayer online role-playing game that was instrumental to the development of the genre, and is still running today. The game is played online, in a fantasy setting similar to that of the other Ultima games that preceded it.

Contents

Overview

The success of Ultima Online (UO) opened the door for the creation of many exciting new massively multiplayer games that have or are about to hit the market. UO is a third-person/isometric fantasy role-playing game set in the Ultima universe. It is online-only and played by thousands of simultaneous users (who pay a monthly fee) on various game servers, also known as shards. It is also known for its extensive timing-based player versus player combat system. Over a million paid accounts have been created in the game. To maintain order in the online community, there are Game Masters who resolve player disputes, police the shard for terms of service violations, and correct glitches in the game.

Several expansions have been released, but its aging game engine and graphics make it very outdated compared to competitive, new massively multiplayer games. Since the release of ' expansion, many veteran players have all but removed themselves from the game to either try new MMORPGs, free shards, or quit entirely. Since Ultima Onlines prime in the early 2000's, overall subscriber turnout has been dramatically dropping. Subscriber numbers peaked at around 250,000 in July of 2003, and have steadily declined to around 160,000-175,000 subscribers (Subscriber counts source Mmogchart.com). The number of subscribers achieved by UO was surpassed by EverQuest in 1999. According to [MMOGCHART.COM], Ultima Online holds a 1.0% market share of MMOG subscriptions (figures from May, 2006). Ultima Online'' is still losing subscribers, but as of May 2006, it is still holds about 130,000 subscribers. Part of this decline is due to natural aging of the game and its aged graphics, but it also no longer has the market to itself, and other MMORPGs are in close competition.

Game mechanics

Ultima Online continued the tradition of previous Ultima games in many ways, but due to advancing technology and the simple fact that it was Origin's first persistent online game, there were many new game mechanics as well. Partially designed as a social and economic experiment, the game had to account for the widespread player interaction as well as deal with the long history of players feeling as if they were the center of attention, as had been the case in single-player games. New to both the developers and the players, a lot that was planned never happened, and a lot that was unexpected did, and many new game systems were put in place to compensate.

Skills

Skills in Ultima Online are represented by a percentage that shows the player's proficiency in the skill, and they advance through use or by paying appropriate NPCs to train the character (but only to approximately 32% efficiency). There are over 50 skills available in the game, ranging from the fantastic (such as Magery, Alchemy or Necromancy) to the mundane (such as Herding, Tailoring or Blacksmithing).

All characters can currently earn 700 percentage points to divide amongst as many skills as the player would like the character to have, and any skill may be brought to 100% proficiency (or as high as 120% through the use of items aquired through game play or from other players) provided the character has enough spare points to do so. Skills can be set to raise, lower or hold their points, allowing the player to fully customize their character's skill set.

Some skills require the consumption of resources, such as raw materials, while others cost nothing but time. In the past players could raise many skills by simply using macro programs to automate the tasks for them; this practice was not only grounds for account suspension but recently was made inneffective through code implimented by Electronic Arts in an effort to encourage skill building through actual game play. Many skills have also been introduced in order to add balance and prevent characters from becoming too powerful; for example, the Anatomy skill was added which increases a character's proficiency with the Healing and various melee combat skills, while Meditation and Evaluate Intelligence were added as enhancements for magic-using characters. These additional skills, along with a 700 percentage point cap, dictated that players consider carefully how to develop their characters so that they are as proficient as possible in their chosen fields.

Statistics

The core character attributes of strength, dexterity, and intelligence, from which the characters' pools of health, stamina, and mana are derived, still remain, but Ultima Online now features many more statistics, all of them derived from items or spells. These statistics range from Luck, which improves the chance to find more and better magical equipment, to Lower Reagent Cost, which reduces the amount of reagents or tithing points needed to cast spells.

Crafting

Ultima Online features an extensive crafting system that allows skilled players to create the majority of items found in the game, ranging from useful items such as weapons and armor to the more mundane items such as furniture and decorative clothing. Many player-crafted items can be a good deal better than any items that the NPC shopkeepers might sell, especially if made by a Grand Master in the appropriate skill.

One controversial issue relating to crafting is that players are often forced to create huge quantities of items that there is no demand for, simply to advance in skill level. This is one of the major downfalls to the closed-loop economy originally designed for the game, because people could not make enough money selling items they had to create because NPCs originally only bought items that the NPC most probably sell later (based on simulated supply and demand). That simulated supply and demand has since been dropped due to player complaints, and now a nearly unlimited amount of unwanted items may be sold to NPCs, which are no longer required to make a profit, and so rampant inflation has taken place as a result.

Issues faced

In an infamous incident during the Beta, Lord British was assassinated
Enlarge
In an infamous incident during the Beta, Lord British was assassinated

Ultima Online has seen many major revisions throughout its history. This includes game-play revisions, staff changes, technical revamps, and even fundamental design changes. With few earlier MMORPGs to take lesson from, the staff behind UO was breaking new ground and had to solve complex issues that had never been faced in a commercial game on such a wide scale before. The importance of understanding psychology, social interaction, economy, and such became increasingly important as complex social behavior evolved.

Throughout the pre-release development of the game, a well-balanced, realistic economy and social structure was the goal. While not nearly all of the features planned for incorporation made it into the first release, the developers did manage to put almost all of the control into the hands of players in terms of what they could do to each other and the world as a whole. What ensued caused permanent repercussions still faced in the game today.

Macroing

Many skills in Ultima Online can be advanced via simple, repetitive mouse clicks and movements. Because of this, and with the help of the in-game macro system, widespread unattended macroing (using third-party macro programs to train their characters while away from their computers) once took place for advancing skills or statistics (and sometimes wealth). The same effect could sometimes be achieved by simply setting a roll of coins or some other weight on a user-defined hotkey.

Macroing is not as effective today as it once was. There is not only code in the game that detects the use of unapproved 3rd party programs, but the game itself has been changed at the server level to make skill gain almost impossible by simply repeating the same movements and mouse clicks over and over (with the exception of certain crafting skills).

On Siege Perilous and Mugen, shards designed to be more difficult than most, a modified skill gain system is in place that only allows small amounts of advancement each day. This was originally set in place to combat macroing on these shards.

Griefing

Originally, there were very few artificial restrictions on how players could interact, and the developers intentionally provided mechanisms for both attacking and stealing from other players. Most frauds and other indirect means for creating an advantage via the exploitation of other players were also not restricted, with the exception of when bugs were involved.

Many players saw a "punch in the nose factor" (as Designer Dragon, one of the original Ultima Online developers, put it) involved, as players were able to harm other players directly with little penalty, which allowed too much griefing. Others saw it as creating a more immersive and complex atmosphere where unpredictable and challenging situations could occur spontaneously between players, but expressed concern over the barrier to entry for new players and the seeming imbalance which favored anti-social behavior.

Gradual shifts in game mechanics and introductions of new systems took place. The developers initially added a system whereby the server categorizes criminals and murderers from the innocent in the form of differently shaded highlighting (blue for innocent, gray for criminals, and red for murderers) on mouse-over. Eventually, the ongoing depredations of the 'red' community caused the creation of a separate, mirror world, called Trammel, where only mutually consented PvP and theft could occur (within or between player guilds) that were in a state of war with each other.

Criticized as going too far in the opposite direction, many players cited the introduction as the downfall of the Ultima tradition of interesting and complex behavior, stating that the server-enforced laws were often too simplified to be appropriate in many situations and did more to harm the long-term health of the game world than it did to help it. Regardless, almost all player activity moved to Trammel, and the old world (given the name Felucca) became practically abandoned. Most subsequent MMOs have followed the example of Trammel, and do not allow unconsented PvP or theft (if there is a mechanism for theft at all).

In those subsequent MMOs that have allowed consented or unconsented player combat, usually the items that may be taken from a player's corpse are limited (in some cases nothing may be taken). Ultima Online originally had no such distinction and all items a player had at the time of death stayed with the corpse, and every item was removable by anyone. This gave a huge incentive to griefing because it was much more lucrative to kill and rob other players than a monster. An average troll may have yielded 200 or 300 gold. However, a player would often yield a full suit of armor, magic items, and consumables (IE potions, magic components, bandages, etc.) plus whatever gold he or she may have collected from fighting. As a result, often the richest players and the most successful murderers were one in the same. Successful player killers could easily make literally ten times robbing others than what they would fighting monsters. Those new to the game, who had played traditional computer RPGs, would often use the tactic of hoarding that worked in single player games, and would carry a majority of their possessions with them. When killed by another player, their murderer was richly rewarded and they were severely punished. Many new players quit in frustration when this would happen, as literally dozens or hundreds of hours of work could be invalidated in ten seconds with a prepared ambush.

Housing

Another problem was that of player-owned housing. UO has always allowed players to purchase houses, and build them on practically any flat piece of land. For the first few months, the primary issues with housing were that losing the key meant losing the house (often to another player who stole it or killed the owner), and if someone managed to get inside the house (either by exploitation of a bug or by simply waiting until someone opened/unlocked the door), they could steal everything inside. These issues were later addressed by making house keys “blessed” (non-stealable, non-droppable upon death) items, and by giving special commands to “lock down” items, so that even those who got in the house could not pick them up. Ownership of a house was also eventually defined separately from mere key possession.

After a few months, when some players and guilds had enough money to buy many houses, there came the problem of using tents and other cheap houses to wall off huge sections of the world as private areas. It was a common solution to the above problems (before they were fixed), if you owned a large house like a tower, to build three smaller houses around the entrance, walling you in, and then using the recall or gate spell to get inside that artificial courtyard. Since some players abused that tactic to create gigantic “courtyards”, the developers eventually opened up all of the major ones by deleting selected houses and by putting the additional restraint on house placement rules requiring that there be empty space around a building before it may be placed.

By the time Trammel was introduced, there was literally not a single empty space of land anywhere in the game where a house of any size could be built. Vast amounts of wilderness were covered with a thick layer of housing, making places supposedly “wild” seem like cities. When housing was enabled on Trammel, tens of thousands of players simultaneously camped out and tried to compete for prime locations for various types of houses, resulting in massive amounts of telestorming, where players were transferred amongst the sub-servers of a given shard, causing random teleportation and extreme amounts of lag. For many years, housing space was scarce, due in part to rising numbers of subscribers and only slowly increasing limitations on the number of houses each account may own. Several worlds were created without the ability to have houses built within them to protect their atmosphere from becoming another city. Almost all house transactions during this time were of currently-owned houses being sold, or people waiting outside houses that are about to “decay” (disappear from lack of use) – even though housing is limited to one house per player. In recent years, additional housing areas have been made available for all players. Many subsequent MMORPGs used instancing for housing or simply did not provide it at all.

Customizable housing was introduced with Ultima Online: Age of Shadows. Originally, the concept was prototyped by Vex (a designer on the Ultima Online team). Customizable housing is considered replayable game mechanic, a gold sink, and a tribute to a player's imagination. The massive amount of ingenuity put forth by the playerbase on their houses is a testament to how diverse the game has become. To this day, Ultima Online still offers the most comprehensive housing system in any online fantasy world.

Economy

Another large problem facing UO has been the economy. While remaining balanced, money (or more generally, value) has been added to the game much more quickly than it has been taken out, resulting in extreme devaluation of gold. Value often enters the game through killing monsters, treasure, and crafting, while the primary way it leaves the game is through NPC reagent sales. Throughout the history of UO, various “gold sinks” have been provided to compensate, and prices of items have steadily risen to compensate, but the effects are still felt.

One feature of Ultima Online was the ability to set up a shop. A player could purchase a contract that would allow them to place non-player character vendors around a house the player owned. These vendors were really just blank containers that would sell any item for a user defined price, requiring some money for upkeep. This indirectly contributed to the housing congestion problems, as houses placed near high traffic areas could make a substantial profit. Vendors near dungeon areas could often sell consumable supplies for several times what other player and non-player vendors sold for. Vendors contributed to the community aspect of the game in several ways. Over time advantages were given to items crafted by master player crafters. For instance, a sword may do 10% more damage. Thus, master craftsmen could set up vendors and become known by the quality of their goods. In this way vendors also encouraged redistribution of items, as it made it easier for players to get a fair price for a rare item, as non-player vendors ususally paid a small fraction of a rare item's value. Player vendors had a decided effect on magic use in the game. Casting of magical spells required consumable items known as reagents. Reagents could be found naturally occurring in small quantities in the wild. However, the main source of reagents were non-player controlled vendors, which would stock a limited supply of the item and then restock after a period of time. As a result, demand was much higher than supply, and thus players would purchase a vendor's entire stock and then resell through their own vendor for many times cost. In this way, player vendors became a primary distributor for reagents. As the resellability that vendors provided increased the overall market value of reagents, magic use became economically prohibitive to many players. The financial investment to become a master magic user quickly swelled into ranges unfathomable by many gamers.

MMO economy is always faced with the problem of inflation. This is due to the introduction of new players into the game and veteran players running out of choices to spend their money on. Each new player becomes a source of new income. This is reflected by real world economics. Inflation in any game, without a severely imposed closed economy by a game designer, is something that always occurs. Such problems were only increased in Ultima Online by the discovery of a quickly-squashed bug that allowed players to duplicate ('dupe') in-game currency.

A severe set of gold sinks, such as that employed in World of Warcraft, curtails inflation, but does not eliminate it.

Bugs

Ultima Online has suffered from numerous bugs throughout its long history that differ in both origins and complexity from those seen in most previous games. Many systems employed in Ultima Online could be seen in previous Ultima games, and much of the mechanics remained the same, but the employment of a persistent client-server infrastructure had radical repercussions that have changed the ways developers have designed MMOs since.

Unlike most prior commercial games, once a bug was found and exploited in Ultima Online, the effects of that bug were usually a permanent part of the game world. Customers would be lost if a complete reset of the game world was done, and many of the repercussions of bugs exploited were either too complex or affected otherwise innocent players, such as a player unknowingly buying an item created through exploitation. To remove the item would be offensive to the innocent player who bought it and to reverse the transaction would be impractical.

Many of the exploited bugs arose out the trust that was given to the client. Much of the restriction placed on the players was initially done so by the client, and programs were developed that effectively send packets to the server that would not be possible to generate in the client itself. Many newer MMOs try to address this problem through software design adhering to the Model-view-controller pattern.

Black dye tubs

Black dye tubs are a famous example; they were originally created by sending a false packet when a color was supposed to be chosen. A third-party program over-rode the color packet generated by the client, and changed the color chosen to a color that would not be possible to choose from within the client, in this case a darker black. Black dye tubs become so prevalent and in-demand that EA eventually made them a gift to players when certain criteria are met by the player, much to the dismay of those who paid large amounts of money to acquire illegal dye tubs, and to those whom would rather not have exotic colors so prevalent in the world.

Speed walking

Speed walking was accomplished via a program called UO Extreme. It sent "walk" and "run" packets to the server faster than the client would normally be capable of sending. Until a permanent fix was put in place, anybody caught speed walking was banned from the game, but it was prevalent nevertheless. While the permanent repercussions of speed walking may seem less obvious, its use during PvP dramatically affected many players and caused many indirect chains of events that still ripple through the game world today.

Walking through walls

The ability to walk through walls and other usually obstructive objects was accomplished by giving the client false information about those objects. Originally, the client was responsible for all collision detection with non-dynamic objects, and changing how it behaved could be accomplished in a number of ways. The "statics" files that contain all of the static objects in the world could be edited to remove all of the objects a player might want to walk through (in essence, deleting the walls outright). The obstructiveness of those objects themselves could be changed by either editing the clients item information files directly, or by using the clients patch file, called "verdata" to patch in false information about the obstructiveness of objects (leaving the walls in place, but making it possible to walk through them). Eventually, a verdata that did exactly that, began to circulate around the internet. Initially the more important areas, such as Britain and the other major cities, had all of their walls duplicated as dynamic objects on the server. Eventually, all collision detection was checked by both the client and the server, which led to a "rubber banding" effect later, when the server would deny movement that was allowed by the client (even traditionally legitimate movement).

Duping

A duping (duplication) bug exploit started soon after the game's release and was not resolved for over a year. It was accomplished by putting items on the ground (most often gold and reagents), teleporting far away, and shutting down the client before arriving at the destination. The virtual world had many computers controlling the different regions, and by moving a long distance, the character would be transferred between two computers, but by shutting down the client, the character would be lost in the transfer. When the player logged back in, the server would use its last backup of the character, which included the now duplicated items.

The massive counterfeiting of gold and reagents that took place contributed to the massively unbalanced economy. Bartering began to take place, especially since many of the goods players wanted could not be bought from NPCs using gold. After fixing the bug, the developers attempted to drain much of the extra gold out of the system via special auctions (such as a one-time-only red hair dye auction), as well as by providing special items that could only be bought for large amounts of money (gold sinks). In the end, though, everything they attempted made little impact, and it is questionable how much of an impact such measures made in the first place.

Child controversy

Ultima Online was originally intended to ship with artwork depicting human children. This artwork appeared in the beta version, but was removed before the final version was released over concerns that the game might not get acceptable ratings if players found ways to abuse the children, even though they had no fighting animations. The artwork has continued to circulate around on the internet, though, in the form of a modified "verdata" (a file which the client treats as a patch to all of its other data files), and they are sometimes used on emulated servers, usually for background filler.

Player dispersion

Ultima Online debuted with three main servers, one world on each, and about a dozen towns. Even with the relatively few players at the time (which were still many times the expected number); most towns were described as vibrant and alive due to the high concentration of players. Almost every town had players on nearly every corner, and the amount of player interaction was very high. That player interaction is often cited as the primary appeal of the new, groundbreaking genre Ultima Online was promoting.

To cope with internet lag, additional servers were quickly added to distribute the load. New servers were occasionally added with the additional intent of allowing players to start over in an unspoiled world, where the long-term affects of bugs could not be felt, and where there were few high-level players with whom to compete. This was even done as a marketing tactic with the introduction of Asian servers, where only Asian players could connect for the first few months of their existence. Rarely, additional servers were added to allow for different play styles, such as "Siege Perilous", some being temporary like "Abyss". The number of servers is now in the dozens.

In addition, with every expansion came additional land to be explored, in the form of additional worlds. These greatly added to the amount of land, and thus dispersed players further. The addition of Trammel also further dispersed players, though most migrated to Trammel exclusively. When you multiply the number of worlds per server by the number of servers, it is clear to see that the amount of landmass available per active player is much higher than at initial launch, making the likelihood of meeting other players, even in traditionally popular areas, unlikely and most of the unpredicted player interaction has been lost. As players bought houses, that also removed their need to be in towns, and so further dispersed player populations.

Expansions, sequels and other releases

Sequels

Expansions

Other releases

Timeline and milestones

August 1997

Lord British has an unfortunate accident. While giving a speech to a bright-eyed Britannian crowd, the King was engulfed in flames and spent some time in the realm of the dead. However, with the aid of his companions, he was revived shortly thereafter and finished his speech, much to the delight of those in attendance.

September 1997

Last day of the original beta test. The beta ended with a bang, as players were treated to an "end of the world" scenario with Shadowlords, demons, and other evil creatures slaughtering every character in sight.

September 1997

Ultima Online opens its doors to the public.

October 1998

The Second Age. Ultima Online's first expansion introduced an entirely new landmass, vicious new monsters, new dungeons, and a lush tropical jungle filled with surprises.

December 1998

Ultima Online achieves 100,000 users worldwide.

January 1999

Ultima Online expands into Asia.

May 1999

Origin Systems announces European launch of Ultima Online.

January 2000

Ultima Online expands into Australia with the Oceania server, UO's 21st shard.

February 2000

The invasion of Trinsic. A massive army of undead laid siege to the once peaceful city of Trinsic. Due to the overwhelming odds, the dark army managed to conquer the city under the leadership of Juo'nar and the Dark Mistress Minax. All hope seemed to be lost, but noble Britannians from all over rallied together and reclaimed the city from the clutches of evil!

February 2000

Ultima Online achieves 150,000 subscribers.

February 2000

Lord British disappears. Rumors fly on the wind about the disappearance of the King. Some claim he was abducted by mongbats, while others insist that it was the work of more malevolent forces.

May 2000

Renaissance. Ultima Online's second expansion marked the beginning of a new era in Britannia. With the splitting of the lands into the facets of Trammel and Felucca, players could choose their geography based on their play style.

November 2000

UO World Faire. Players from all over met and mingled in Austin, TX at Ultima Online's first official fanfest.

March 2001

Third Dawn. Ultima Online's third expansion introduced the new land of Ilshenar, new beasts and monsters, and an entirely new way to view the game.

January 2002

Online Worlds FanFest. Ultima Online's second official fanfest was held in Austin, TX. Players were able to meet the Developers behind the game, as well as special guest speaker Todd McFarlane.

February 2002

Lord Blackthorn's Revenge. Ultima Online's fourth expansion brought players into a world under siege, replete with more than 30 new and exotic characters created by none other than Spawn creator Todd McFarlane.

May 2002

A hero emerges. Dawn, Royal Knight of Britannia, leads the fight against Blackthorn and Exodus.

February 2003

Age of Shadows. Ultima Online's fifth expansion was the most aggressive yet, offering players the ability to custom design their homes, the Paladin and Necromancer professions, a new land called Malas, and 13 new combat moves.

March 2003

Ultima Online reaches 250,000 subscribers.

June 2003

Lord Blackthorn is defeated! During a speech given by the virtuous Dawn, Blackthorn orders his minions to attack the assembled masses. The battle was fierce, but in the end, the noble citizens of Britannia prevailed, and Lord Blackthorn was slain.

September 2003

Lord British returns! The Lost King returns to his people and speaks of the future of Britannia.

September 2003

6th anniversary Ultima Online.

Timeline and Milestone sources taken from : [http://www.uo.com/sept2003nl.html#grand]

Shard emulation

Technically-inclined fans of Ultima Online have reverse-engineered the game to produce server emulators of the original game servers. This emulation is legal, and Electronic Arts is aware of its existence, although in certain countries the authors of these emulators are considered to have violated their EULA by reverse-engineering the game, and may be banned from Electronic Arts Ultima Online servers as a result (other countries don't allow restrictions on reverse engineering). To stay legal, emulation servers do not distribute the original EA client files, and the users of the emulation software must not charge their players to be able to play on their individual shards.

With emulators, coders and players alike can enjoy a much larger variety of playstyles and UO time periods. From the Pre-T2A era, to the era of Samurai Empire, to fully customized shards which don't even seem like UO anymore. A few shards encourage or enforce their players to roleplay and remain in-character, while far more encourage PvP combat.

Ultima Online emulation has become quite a phenomenon, no other MMORPG had as many different emulators over the years, and none have achieved the quality of emulation provided by the various UO emulation teams.

While many players choose to play on emulated servers to avoid the monthly fee of the original servers, a good part of them migrated away from these servers because of disagreements in the changes the developers made to the original game play over the years. In recent years, the number of people who have begun playing on emulated servers without first playing on Electronic Arts servers has steadily increased. This is partly due to several free releases of the original client for download, as well as advertisement of the game by those who either create or support emulated servers.

Nowadays, some third-party servers rival the original in size and quality. It is possible to find complete and well-populated servers emulating the world as it was in the days before the Renaissance expansion pack as well as servers that provide support for all expansion packs to date. Many European and Asian servers boast of very high numbers of players, as well as extremely customized features, while a higher percentage of American servers have been predominantly small and less customized. One of the higher-profile and very successful American servers is UOGamers, built by the creators of RunUO, which rivals some of the largest European servers. This may in part be due to the fact that most of the mainstream emulation software is accessible to English-speaking countries, so there is more incentive for potential players to create their own instead of playing on somebody else’s.

Part of the reason why emulation in Ultima Online has been so successful is the relatively open format of the game's software; it is possible to change the server to which the game client connects by merely editing an ASCII text document, although many modern emulators require that the client packet encryption be turned off as well. Removing the packet encryption can be accomplished by either removing it from the client’s executable (as UORice does) permanently, or by circumventing it on a per-use basis by either filtering the packets or modifying the client each time it is run (such as UOGateway and Razor do).

Today, it is commonplace for many custom servers to not only feature custom game play, but also custom media, such as graphics and maps, as well. Almost all of the UO client files have been reverse-engineered, and a whole slew of editing software has arisen. With the addition of custom maps, graphics, and even sound, some of the more custom UO servers are barely recognizable as emulations of the original game at all.

Legal issues

Many players and server administrators wonder if operating or playing on an emulated server is legal or not. Doing so is often considered in the gray area of the law, but to this date, no emulated server has been shut down simply because it emulates the official servers. The only time operating one has been a clear violation of the law is if it uses trademarks owned by Electronic Arts, or when it distributes in some form copy written work, such as a client or client media (such as original graphics sent alongside customized/new ones).

Playing on and operating an emulated shard is, however, against the terms of service of Ultima Online. Therefore, doing either activity may result in account suspension on the official servers, though there has been no verified incident of this ever happening.

Notable server emulators

Emulation information

Clients

Official clients

Ultima Online features two distinct clients: the original client, which has 2D characters and lighting, and a very distinct 3D client, which uses 3D models for characters and lighting. The 3D client was originally released as a part of the Third Dawn expansion, but has received poor reviews from both veteran and new players alike due to a large number of performance issues (especially memory leaks early on) and what many see as sub-par graphics. Both clients, however, have strong followings, and EA continues to develop both simultaneously. A much needed update to the 3D Client was made on January 30th 2006 as characters and creatures from the game were scaled down to smaller size. A criticism often heard of the 3D client was how characters and creatures were disproportionate to the rest of the game's isometric environment.

Third-party clients

Using a third-party client may get your account banned. It is a good idea to only use the recommended client for the shard you play.

See also

The Ultima series
I - II - III - IV - V - VI - VII - VIII - IX
Akalabeth (Ultima 0)
Worlds of Ultima : The Savage Empire - Martian Dreams
Ultima Underworld : ' - '
Ultima Online
' - ' - Arthurian Legends
-

External links

 

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