Ultima Online Classic Client Upgrade!

bulldoglegion

It does it’s called razor 

MacroPlanet

We might have been annoying and at times it felt like we were a broken record, but this is why it’s important to say what you believe in. Obviously we’re dedicated to this game and want to see it flourish. This is a big win for the official game!!

Thanks for taking the feedback to heart!

username

Happy for everyone that's used cheater clients thus far. You get them legitimately now. I am worried about a 3rd client being supported but maybe those devs will be in charge of keeping it up to date idk. 

However, for myself, and many others I've spoken to, we plan to stick with the CC and occasional EC. I will probably check out this new client when it launches but I've never had issues or major complaints with the 'performance' fps/resizable window features of the CC so I really don't care. Then again, I've given up on PVP a decade ago due to the over proliferation of these clients in the first place. We'll see.

One decider would be if it had some of the QOL features I've requested, such as "toggle item insurance" be able to be set to a hotkey, is that available in the 3rd client?

Also, I'm quite concerned about the 'higher fps' in the classic client. It runs off a very old version of DirectX and IT CRASHES ALL THE TIME at whatever low FPS it runs at already. I can only imagine it will crash more often at a higher fps rate. I would like to see some sort of optimization added to reduce 'lag' at EM events and ToTs where high concentrations of people are.

Stinky_Pete

Does this mean we can say "CUO" now or do we have to keep pretending it doesn't exist until they release an official fork?

Army

Community Manager said:

https://uo.com/2024/09/25/ultima-online-classic-client-upgrade/

Posted on September 25, 2024 by UO Dev Team

9/25/2024

The feedback we have received since Ultima Online: New Legacy entered into beta testing has been incredible!  Players current, former, and new are excited about a fresh start in this new world.  It has been important to us throughout beta testing to listen to what the community is saying and acting on that feedback to bring the best version of New Legacy to full release.

There is no mistaking the iconic aesthetics of the Ultima Online Classic Client are irreplaceable.  Since its release in 1997, players have come to appreciate the performance and quality of life upgrades that are now a cornerstone of an enjoyable gameplay experience.

As such, we are extremely excited to announce that we are working with the developers of the third-party client “ClassicUO” with the goal of making available an officially sanctioned version for use on all shards!

We also want to make sure that the official Ultima Online Classic Client meets the expectations of our players from a performance standpoint.  To deliver this performance we will be upgrading the Classic Client renderer to support higher frame rates and a larger play window.

We will be releasing more information about these updates in the leadup to the launch of Ultima Online: New Legacy!

See you in Britannia,

UO Team

Two words…hell yeah.


now make sure to make an assistant to stop scripting and ban all other connections. Do it right

Victim_Of_Siege

Community Manager said:" . . .we are extremely excited to announce that we are working with the developers of the third-party client “ClassicUO” with the goal of making available an officially sanctioned version for use on all shards! . . . "

AmberWitch said:

So, @ "Community Manager" , can we start using it now? Legally?

I would think no, because the "Officially Sanctioned version for use on all shards" hasn't been created yet.

Petra_Fyde

My thoughts. 
1. just as Tugsoft had to remove some things from UOA before it was approved, this will be a 'version' of the client, it won't have everything the freeshard client has.
2. It's not totally unprecedented, the team worked with Pinco to improve the EC client. 
3. Those who can't play without cheating will still use the unapproved clients. I hope there is a way to discourage that without too much impact on player numbers. 
I am encouraged by one post I read on Stratics that ended with the comment 'I'm coming back'. 

I will still be using EC, I'm used to it now.

McDougle

Petra_Fyde said:

My thoughts. 
1. just as Tugsoft had to remove some things from UOA before it was approved, this will be a 'version' of the client, it won't have everything the freeshard client has.
2. It's not totally unprecedented, the team worked with Pinco to improve the EC client. 
3. Those who can't play without cheating will still use the unapproved clients. I hope there is a way to discourage that without too much impact on player numbers. 
I am encouraged by one post I read on Stratics that ended with the comment 'I'm coming back'. 

I will still be using EC, I'm used to it now.

I agree probably staying with EC but I want auto follow so might try it 

Urge

I have no idea what this is but any upgrade is fantastic and the willingness to work with other devs is a huge step. 

Hopefully it'll have some more features than Uoa. 

Thanks to whoever made that call. 

sibble

Ya'll know how to use Google right?

• ClassicUO already has a 3rd party assistant program called ClassicUO Assist
  
• ClassicUO Assist already has powerful python "macros" - actually scripts
  
• There's already a public library of scripts available

First off defining a new up-to-date client for legal use is GREAT the QOL features are way overdue.

Will it stop scripting?

Will they take action against players who don't follow the rules?

Community Manager

AmberWitch said:

So, @ "Community Manager" , can we start using it now? Legally?

I would say to wait until there is further information available on uo.com as to when it will be fully available for use. Thank you kindly!

firec

As a returning player not too long ago, I chose to use the EC.

I am fairly satisfied with EC, as it can do most of what I want to do in terms of automation - with some guidance.

There are things like the ability to follow other players, that if I had access to, would drastically improve playing.

That, and I haven't figured out a good crabbing macro.




I only played in the CC way back in the day, when there was no alternative - and as a reutrning player it is way too cumbersome to play with.


Could anyone give a summary of how CUO stacks up against EC/CC? Does it have the minimal LUA support that EC provides? As well as the tons of built in functions like - empty ninja belt, bandaid self, slayer gear, equip / unequip all?

Lord_Nythrax

So real talk, Broadsword went from "war on third party" all the way to "third party please make a client for us" in the span of like eight weeks, and I don't think it's just because a few of us yelled at them on the forum. Atlantic Luna hasn't been itself lately, and ancedotally I know freeshards have reported a surge in users.

I wonder how many people actually quit, and how much damage this little "war" really did to the game.

Smaug

This is huge. I just want to run around in a classic client at 60fps with only tree stumps. Oh, and auto-opening doors and corpses? I freaking love CUO, great news, team!

Petra_Fyde

Agreements to do stuff like this don't happen overnight. There have probably been negotiations happening behind the scenes for weeks. Maybe even 8 weeks.

AtomicBetty

Lord_Nythrax said:

So real talk, Broadsword went from "war on third party" all the way to "third party please make a client for us" in the span of like eight weeks, and I don't think it's just because a few of us yelled at them on the forum. Atlantic Luna hasn't been itself lately, and ancedotally I know freeshards have reported a surge in users.

I wonder how many people actually quit, and how much damage this little "war" really did to the game.

I doubt it has anything to do with damage control. They said that the war on 3rd party programs was just the first step of many, so they've probably been planning this for awhile.

Lord_Nythrax

Nah, there's absolutely no way this was the plan all along. If that were the case they would have been infinitely better off waiting to announce both the official CUO and the "war" on everything else at the same time. Instead they patched the game to try and break CUO functionality and then stood around for two months being silent on the subject while people quit the game, forum users complained, and negativity crept into what little coverage NL has received.

McDougle

Petra_Fyde said:

Agreements to do stuff like this don't happen overnight. There have probably been negotiations happening behind the scenes for weeks. Maybe even 8 weeks.

COMMUNICATION  create happiness 

bulldoglegion

It’s the only real way forward as they don’t have the capacity to make their own client 

Classic client uses the cpu to render graphics not your gpu hence why you see such a dramatic improvement in open source clients that use the PCs graphics card 

Go and look on cuo discord for the details of what’s happening 

broadsword are not making their own fork 
the agreement is better comms and an agreement to bug fix osi / broadsword issues 

Cuo is staying open source so basically any feature you want client side can be ‘community’ developed and included in your own version of cuo 

The lack of frank discussion on uo development in this forum has always been a joke now the jokes on all of you ‘cheaters use 3rd party clients’ people as it’s the future of the game and it’s in the hands of anyone with VS code - broadsword have decided that it’s better for users who ask for client features such as fast rotation and gridded containers to implement these themselves 

They are just going to do server side development 

I don’t see anyone using ‘classic’ in a years time 

some shards allow you to play via chrome 123+ it’s better than classic and it’s in a browser ! 

What would be useful is for broadsword to make EC open source in gratitude so that can be fixed too 

It’s the same model as free shards and the era of uo your way .. long overdue 

Lord_Nythrax

bulldoglegion said:

The lack of frank discussion on uo development in this forum has always been a joke now the jokes on all of you ‘cheaters use 3rd party clients’ people

I absolutely agree. And consider, even if you leave CUO out of the equation entirely, look at the CC improvements they also announced here. There certainly would have been no reason to keep those secret if this had been the plan all along. They would have said "We're banning third party programs but stay tuned for our improvements to the classic client!" from the start, not let everyone stew and complain for two months for no reason.

This is all absolutely a reaction to how players responded to their "war" declaration. It turns out that yes, players demand more than five frames per second or whatever, and they don't care what some weird desperate cheerleader on the forum thinks. It turns out that no, they're not just going to decide to use the EC. They're going to either keep logging in with third-party clients, or as it turns out, just quit logging in at all.

RonFellows

Wow some crazy rambling on here. Wanted to stop in and say thank you for doing this. I know lots of (normal) people who don't post here, are excited for this change. 

Psycoder

Aye, most of my guild is excited and looking forward to this. If the rumor about the CUO client getting approved without being forked/chopped off is true then it is even better.

Cookie

Psycoder said:

Aye, most of my guild is excited and looking forward to this. If the rumor about the CUO client getting approved without being forked/chopped off is true then it is even better.

It is really great news, and our guild feels the same.

I don't want to dwell on the how we got here, or on any sort of blame game, I am relieved we are getting here, it has been a long hard road.

I have argued with everyone on the way (I lose 50% of my posts - those damn forum mods, you wouldn't believe I actually like them, and think they are doing a great job, just sometimes, I feel I have to knowingly push boundaries), I have put my best cases forward to the Devs, and honestly, I have a seriously long list of the amount of times they have listened, and implemented good ideas - I am grateful for this.
I think it is important we move forwards, as amazing as UO is, it cannot stand still forever, it needs to progress a bit also.
Sometimes, it does feel like it takes years, for sure.

McDougle

It doesn't matter how we got here but the developers need to continue to communicate 

CovenantX

If it's going to stay open-source, this is definitely going to have the reverse impact on cheating then everyone should be expecting.

It's going to open the flood-gates far more than they're open now. unless something else is in the works and we're seemingly left in the dark about it.

Lord_Nythrax

CovenantX said:

If it's going to stay open-source, this is definitely going to have the reverse impact on cheating then everyone should be expecting.

It's going to open the flood-gates far more than they're open now. unless something else is in the works and we're seemingly left in the dark about it.

Those gates have been open forever and are never closing. The devs last attempt at modifying the game to keep third-party clients from working only slowed them down for a couple of weeks at most. If anything, being on good terms with CUO has to be better than not when it comes to trying to prevent outright cheating.

creampie

Psycoder said:

Aye, most of my guild is excited and looking forward to this. If the rumor about the CUO client getting approved without being forked/chopped off is true then it is even better.

who you change name and dont get shootgun3 for username ?

Psycoder

creampie said:

Psycoder said:

Aye, most of my guild is excited and looking forward to this. If the rumor about the CUO client getting approved without being forked/chopped off is true then it is even better.

who you change name and dont get shootgun3 for username ?

3 and 4 were taken

Lol, I am joking. I decided to get back into the game now that few of my other guild mates are coming back. I will probably last until I get pissed off again. 

That being said, I still can not wrap my head around how they perma banned people for being afk, yet they refuse to ban a single account of this guy: https://forum.uo.com/discussion/14797/current-situation-of-housing-market-on-atlantic#latest This topic literally makes me rage... But better not think about this at the moment. May be in a month or so when we get the Dota2 Act4 patch.

InLor

This is the best news ever. The classic client aesthetics are indeed iconic. And a proper client upgrade is just fantastic. Can't stand the Frankensteinian EC with gliding characters and disjointed feel all across. 

CC forever!!

CovenantX

Lord_Nythrax said:

CovenantX said:

If it's going to stay open-source, this is definitely going to have the reverse impact on cheating then everyone should be expecting.

It's going to open the flood-gates far more than they're open now. unless something else is in the works and we're seemingly left in the dark about it.

Those gates have been open forever and are never closing. The devs last attempt at modifying the game to keep third-party clients from working only slowed them down for a couple of weeks at most. If anything, being on good terms with CUO has to be better than not when it comes to trying to prevent outright cheating.

   I don't disagree, but the main point of a "War on Third-party programs" is to curb cheating.

 with open-source anyone that codes can do anything their coding ability allows.

 There's gotta be some restrictions and punishments for breaking the rules otherwise UO would be even less worth playing than it is currently... which for most, it's not.. hence the dwindling population.