Ultima Online in 2025 and beyond -- Classic UO!

MacroPlanet · January 1

With the release of New Legacy and Broadsword's renewed dedication to maintaining and evolving Ultima Online in 2024, now is the perfect time to focus on shaping UO's future. A true classic shard could be the next big step to achieve this.

I’m not talking about another seasonal shard that blends modern and new elements. I mean a full-on, authentic classic Ultima Online experience—one that captures the magic of UO in its early days. Recently, I revisited my old Ultima Online: The Second Age disc and even played through the demo. To my surprise, the old world build is already fully decorated with some of it's old code injected, showcasing the potential to craft a complete, playable experience rooted in UO’s origins.

This isn’t just about nostalgia. A classic shard could reinvigorate the player base, drawing back those who have drifted away over the years and attracting players who currently seek this experience on grey-shards. The demand is real—people crave that raw, unfiltered UO magic that made the game revolutionary. Revisiting the 1998 demo reminded me just how captivating the game was back then, and I believe Broadsword has the tools and opportunity to bring that experience back to life.

By embracing UO’s past, Broadsword could secure its future—revitalizing its community and proving that Ultima Online is as timeless as ever.

Happy New Year everyone!

Pawain · January 1

You can't return Nostalgia. We know what to do now.

If you like junk armor play NL.

If they did this, everyone would say nobody asked for it, even tho posters have asked for it over and over.

Old UO - junk armor
NL - junk armor

You just skill faster. Which is great.

Taking years to skill like it did in 1990s is not fun anymore.

loop · January 1

Hi MacroPlanet,

Happy New Year to you as well.

Perhaps a classic server would be an interesting experiment. There are equivalents in other games, and many players ask for it. However, I’m not sure the demand really reflects reality.

Consider that there already is a faithful T2A free shard. It’s a ghost town compared to the most popular free shard, which as we are all aware is a complete reimagining of UO. There’s also the question of the clients and the very real acknowledgment that players experience the game differently than they did 20+ years ago and in ways that the official servers aren’t currently prepared to support.

We need to ask ourselves why would people play an official classic server when so few play free ones that permit any manner of QoL clients?

I think it could work if the team were bigger and had the capacity to see it through. I’d be just as concerned about a classic server as I am about NL — yet another divergent thing for the devs to support which risks becoming as neglect as Siege.

loop · January 1

As a follow-up, I’d be more interested in a classic server less as a means of “revitalizing” the game (I don’t personally think it would achieve that) and more as a way of preserving its history in some official capacity without the expectation that it would be anything more than an emulation of the game as it was long ago.

Urge · January 1

I used to want this before but you can't get 3 people to agree which era was classic.

I've heard arguments for 1997, Ren, ML, AOS, SE.

Venom · January 1

I think the idea of a retro shard sounds decent but would be a waste of resources. As others have stated, these retro servers do not appear to be the "popular" ones that are out there. People tend to want new content and depth. As much as I have rosy memories of the "good ole days," it was severally limited in comparison to now.

The most common ask I had seen was pub 16.

KroDuK · January 2

Urge said:

I used to want this before but you can't get 3 people to agree which era was classic.

I've heard arguments for 1997, Ren, ML, AOS, SE.

I'd say the griefing era was the classic one pre-Trammel (like the most popular illegal shard is for cheaters that enjoy "PvP"/ griefing).. I hated UO; a zergy zerg game for griefer.. a Sandbox with non consumable gears+Insurance system & trammel/illshenar/tokuno had the most to offer for the players..

If NL was that with fast leveling and everything pre-SA (like necro,chiv,ninja,bushido) on top of heavy RP (like u cannot FPK; utilizing your family;Legacy system)
With a couple twist like to be able to use a tamer in PvP u'd need herding and a couple twist to the ninja like u need 120 stealth and considering all those OP items wouldn't be in the game..

We'd have a pretty strong UO version.

Personally I'm just consider when UO was the most popular.. u start from that and make things even better for a modern audience BUT u keep that old school vibe like heavy RP.. this would be a UO any nerds fan of DnD, PvP, PvE, crafting, etc would enjoy if they can play iso game.. I know a couple kid that just cannot play a game from top down.. those people would be the only people that couldn't enjoy UO even in it's best itteration.. instead they did a niche for a niche with NL for prodo.

They pretty much create the problem themselves with theme gated game to justify NL direction.. they downgraded the sandbox version imo to justify working on the theme park NL version.. the niche they built for that niche downgrade the initial niche.. just the fact the dev team ain't bigger with 2 totally different game is a huge downgrade.. without even considering the theme gated game UO has become with a tons of heretic BEst In Slot items (a litteral bribe for using tons of bots/subbing lots of automated account)

Oreogl · January 2

Please, no more new shards for a long while.

Pawain · January 2

Oreogl said:

Please, no more new shards for a long while.

If they start now, it will be a long time!

username · January 2

I think they need to fix the abomination that is the current state of of the game before they even think about doing anything else. Not like they were going to do anything else anyways...

KroDuK · January 2

They def need a new legit shard or a new ban world shard short term.. the ban world would be the best option considering NL extra work.. cuz a legit shard u'd need to work first; on the CC and to bring back the sandbox while working on the balance (wich could happen in 2030 if they start tomorow at the speed they does stuff with a tiny dev team working on 2 similar games totally different, not utilizing their experienced player base like it should be utilize)..

Wich won't even happen since NL exist.. if u gave up on prodo for NL like u gave up on CC for EC.. the ban world new shard would be the first step to do.

Give them what they want a Bots vs Bots server for frame skipper. Then we can have a grown up discussion about what the sandbox UO really need to address.. cuz NL ain't it nor the theme gated game for bots prodo actually is under BS.. like EC was before that for high sea, imo.. a new management is needed.

JohnKnighthawke · January 2

Every time they come closer to what posts like this say they want it doesn't work the way everyone thinks it will and the lesson is never learned. The past is gone. Mostly, just to be honest, that's by far for the better.

I used to have a standard post I'd put up on Stratics that explained why but, really, why bother at this point. Folks are just immune to reality, and NL was one of several results.

KroDuK · January 2

On paper NL was addressing some issue and following a sandbox trend, it was not bad.. but the execution is mental!

Was never a big fan of "season" system specially on a sandbox, but it's popular.. if the legacy system would deliver it could have been good, even for me.. but it can't even deliver on the sandbox aspect.. so what is the point.. it looks like a passion project from a casual PvE dev that love a bit too much his theme park game and did not understand the essence of UO (dragonball evolution style of movie.. you got your items ID; ain't u happy?) or why a theme park MMO top down in 2025 wasn't it immersion wise for most people.. the sandbox game we all loved.. pretty sure that dev never went at fel yew gate for example.

NL is on par with the solo RPG Ultima more than the sandbox MMO.. it wants to be tESO more than UO
Just the questing for housing.. who ever had this idea.. hvn't played much sandbox or even MMO in his life.. just the trailer video for NL release.. was.. i'll stop here cuz i still got the flame in me -.-

and btw your first sentence.. this is what i meant when i said they not utilizing their experienced players base like they should..
PS: you also wrong.. if u want proof of it look at d2 remaster or WoW classic or old school RS or any of those project.. why some fails and other succeed.
Hopefuly BnS NEO classic nailed it.. but i doubt it, for similar reason as UO.. the dev team do not have the same vision as the original one and do their own homemade recipe and brand it as classic

Say what u want about NL.. at least unlike the prodo shard.. it has a vision and ambition (love from the dev team).. like KR and EC before them -.-

Oreogl · January 3

Pawain said:

Oreogl said:

Please, no more new shards for a long while.

If they start now, it will be a long time!

. Man I don’t think the game would survive another round of that at this point.

MacroPlanet · January 3

Pawain said:

You can't return Nostalgia. We know what to do now.

If you like junk armor play NL.

If they did this, everyone would say nobody asked for it, even tho posters have asked for it over and over.

Old UO - junk armor
NL - junk armor

You just skill faster. Which is great.

Taking years to skill like it did in 1990s is not fun anymore.

Rather subjective take. I believe Blizzard said something similar to the effect of

"You think you do, but you don’t. You don’t want to do those things anymore, and they were a pain in the neck. And that’s why we changed it."

Obviously that was proven wildly incorrect as WoW Classic has become very successful because we do in fact want to return to those games. Not because of nostalgia, but because that is what the game was and what we all grew to love.

As I stated, playing around with the old demo disc and loading up the entire world, it feels good to play with that level of grind and risk.

Pawain · January 3

Make a new toon, just have 100 skills, only buy gear from an NPC. Boom you have classic UO.

Lord_Nythrax · January 3

It took them like five years to pull off NL, during which time everything else stagnated and they completely lost control of client development for their own game. Even if they saw this thread and decided to get to work on a proper classic shard right this minute it wouldn't come out until 2030+ by which point the standard production game would have gone more than a decade without any real developer attention.

MacroPlanet · January 3

Pawain said:

Make a new toon, just have 100 skills, only buy gear from an NPC. Boom you have classic UO.

I take it you didn't play the original UO.

Pawain · January 3

MacroPlanet said:

Pawain said:

Make a new toon, just have 100 skills, only buy gear from an NPC. Boom you have classic UO.

I take it you didn't play the original UO.

I played when you could not lock any skills and skills only went to 100. You could gain skills when someone near you did some skills. Players would harass GM skill people by making campfires and the GM person would lose points and gain camping.

I had a Silver weapon but it remained in the bank because there was no insurance. So, ya I only used things I could buy from an NPC. Armor had ratings not resist numbers.

NL is very classic armor and weapons.

I started a little late because I read the guide book before I made an account. I was also playing Diablo at the time. I never played any of the Ultima Games, I preferred games made by Sierra. Or any games compatible with my Roland MT 32.

Image: https://forum.uo.com/uploads/editor/75/q66bokzutry8.png

Victim_Of_Siege · January 3

Pawain said:

MacroPlanet said:

Pawain said:

Make a new toon, just have 100 skills, only buy gear from an NPC. Boom you have classic UO.

I take it you didn't play the original UO.

I played when you could not lock any skills and skills only went to 100. You could gain skills when someone near you did some skills. Players would harass GM skill people by making campfires and the GM person would lose points and gain camping.

I had a Silver weapon but it remained in the bank because there was no insurance. So, ya I only used things I could buy from an NPC. Armor had ratings not resist numbers.

NL is very classic armor and weapons.

I started a little late because I read the guide book before I made an account.

Slacker . . .

Drago · 1:45AM

Pawain said:

You can't return Nostalgia. We know what to do now.

If you like junk armor play NL.

If they did this, everyone would say nobody asked for it, even tho posters have asked for it over and over.

Old UO - junk armor
NL - junk armor

You just skill faster. Which is great.

Taking years to skill like it did in 1990s is not fun anymore.

Facts. You'll never get that feeling you did when 1st playing UO.... because you've already experienced it (along with several 100 games since then probably). We didnt know any better in 98 what 'grind' really entailed, it was new, therefore was exciting....that feeling rarely comes around as you get older...atleast in video games...bc its all same crap.

Pawain · 2:55AM

Drago said:

Pawain said:

You can't return Nostalgia. We know what to do now.

If you like junk armor play NL.

If they did this, everyone would say nobody asked for it, even tho posters have asked for it over and over.

Old UO - junk armor
NL - junk armor

You just skill faster. Which is great.

Taking years to skill like it did in 1990s is not fun anymore.

Facts. You'll never get that feeling you did when 1st playing UO.... because you've already experienced it (along with several 100 games since then probably). We didnt know any better in 98 what 'grind' really entailed, it was new, therefore was exciting....that feeling rarely comes around as you get older...atleast in video games...bc its all same crap.

Exactly. I don't get that feeling from any new game I play. That does not mean I don't like that game. We know how to play games. Back then we did not have a game experience like UO.
I like top down games, not first person.
(Jagged Alliance is pretty cool)

There was no game where you could leave town and just keep going. Everything was new, especially if you had not played the Ultima games.

The first day of NL was an unknown. But we all knew what to do, the only thing we needed to figure out was how to do it. Any UO they make will be the same. We know what to do.

I still can play UO and do things that makes my adrenalin flow.

KroDuK · 10:24AM

Lord_Nythrax said:

... without any real developer attention.

What would you call proper dev attention?
Just curious.

MacroPlanet said:
I take it you didn't play the original UO.

What would you call the original UO?
Cuz saying like that.. I picture the "Beta" Test CD-rom

To me the "classic" should be a better version of the most popular version.. what any good classic remake were.

Owning an old account does not make u an OG.. no way on earth an OG would believe more Archery equal more DMG on the paperdoll.. It's like saying u got a master degree in math and cannot compute a basic formula.
We might have a case of Pay2Fast.. just saying.

So far @JohnKnighthawke had the best take on the problems, imo.. bad opinion, but good take.

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Ultima Online in 2025 and beyond -- Classic UO!

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