Month: March 2011

A Little Bit of UO Nostalgia

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Massively has an article up asking readers how long they’ve been playing MMOs/MMORPGs. Plenty of their readers did get their start with Ultima Online.

There is a very interesting article at Gamasutra (short version and long version) with Rich Vogel who was an associate producer at Origin in the 1990s and who is now working at BioWare Austin on EA’s next MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic.

What was your role on Ultima Online?

RV: I was an associate producer and my job was to get the game together in a shippable state and make sure that it had everything it needed to be an online game. At the time Origin didn’t really have the experience of ever making an online game before. So there were lots of things that were not there when I got there and needed to be there, such as all the customer support tools and making sure the game mechanics looked good and forward advancement.

We were kind of pressured on time. I wish we’d had a little bit more time. We could have actually put some of the things we wanted to put in that game. But unfortunately when you have a game like that you have core mechanics that are very difficult to change once launched.

The full interview is a good look at the other side of UO – how Origin and the developers saw things, how they worked against them, how they knew there were problems with certain things such as PKing or economics.

Bareknuckles Boxing on Lake Superior This Evening

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If you are looking for something to do and want to watch some fights tonight, or even participate, and you are anywhere near Lake Superior, you have just a short time to get to a nice little EM-run event.

All you need to do is show up. You can’t be wearing anything, although the standard Ultima Online-issued gray robe is allowed.

It’s a 1-on-1 fight against their strong man, with three levels of difficulty, which you must proceed through. Should you make it all the way, you will be marked down in the Hall of Champions.

When: Sunday March 6th
What Time: 8PM eastern, 7PM central.
Where: Jhelom Pits (Tram)

Read for full details and rules: Lake Superior EM Website

UO Graphics Update = Booster Pack?

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I read Hermes’ post about the graphics speculation and I thought I’d throw my own two gold pieces in. The booster and the graphics were probably two of the biggest items they were most cryptic about, or refused to really discuss. We got a lot of info about Magincia, about Publish 70, about the New Player Experience (NPE). Maybe not as much about the NPE, but they weren’t being very cryptic about the NPE – it was clear to me that when they wouldn’t discuss certain aspects, it was more because they hadn’t decided, not because they were trying to hide certain things.

With the booster and the graphics/artwork update, they were cryptic and dodged the issue.

In part two of the House of Commons transcript, this was said about the booster pack:

Off Camera: Estimate on the arrival of the next booster
*Silence and sighing*
Cal: Uhh…might as well just (said quietly)..hrm…let’s put it this way. When you see the new items, you’ll probably see the new booster at the same time. How about that. I don’t know, it’s just..fine
Mesanna: You don’t
Cal: Okay, fine…Umm..You will see an…You know what, I’m not going to take..I’m just going to say it wrong, and Bonnie keeps looking at me..so Uhh…I cannot give you an update on the date, but you will see some new items soon. How about that, is that alright (last bit said quietly)
Mesanna: Okay, it’s not going to be a full-blown booster though.
Cal: Right.
Supreem: Yeah.
Mesanna: Okay.
Cal: So.

This was said about the artwork:

Off Camera: More questions, a mention of high resolution artwork was made on the short video, is there any update on that or plans that one can be made aware of.
Cal: Umm..I can say one thing..umm…and that it’s not going to be just one blast of an art update…Umm..we’ll be doing it in pieces. One so you guys can see progress, and then two so that it actually looks like it’s planned, and then three, so we don’t miss anything.

We’ll see the new booster at the same time we see the new items. If the new items involve new artwork or artwork that is of a higher resolution, then we could be seeing the new booster pack.

If the booster pack was simply an expansion, a smaller expansion than High Seas, but in the same vein – some new quests or a new area like the market in High Seas, Cal could have just said we’d see a new area and some new quests or mobs. Instead Cal got really careful about what he said.

We don’t know at this point if we are getting brand-new artwork or artwork used previously with the Kingdom Reborn expansion. If it’s new artwork, it would be pretty easy for them to charge a fee of sorts. Mesanna did say it wasn’t going to be a full-blown booster. If it is all new artwork for Ultima Online, I can’t see EA giving it to us for free, and I wouldn’t have a problem paying a bit extra for some kind of graphics booster pack. If the artwork we get is from the KR expansion, I wonder how that would work for those who paid for KR. You probably shouldn’t charge them twice.

The speculation is not as good as what Hermes was discussing as far as the gaps/delays pointing to the major decision being an artwork update, and for the record, I think he’s probably right. We get this mysterious gap between January 3rd and late in February that Cal references, and then we get a mention of new artwork, just a few seconds in the dev video diary, and then a very reserved mention of artwork in the House of Commons chat, and then just a few days later we are told that the planning is done, and we’ll soon get details.

They wouldn’t have decided on new artwork in just a few short weeks between when Cal announced the video and when it was supposed to be posted in early January. At the time that Cal mentioned the video, it seemed like a very low-key video that would be done in a day or two and posted on YouTube. That does not fit a graphics update either. I could see them spending 6 weeks deciding what to do about the graphics update. It would also explain why this video became such a big deal, why it had to be so heavily edited, and why they clammed up when talking about the booster or graphics.

Remember, that’s just speculation, not news.

Let’s Play the Speculation Game About the Graphics

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I may not be able to contribute a lot to the site for the next several days, but I can still post from my phone. Please excuse typos or a lack of shift key usage. Deck can fix those.

This is commentary, not news. Actually it’s speculation to be precise, but if you are after news, skip over this. Just so you know, my track record with UO speculation is about 50%, less if you ask my friends.

Hopefully Deckard will add appropriate links after I post this, but here goes. Tonight, somebody with UO posted on Facebook that the graphics document is written (link). This is their plan for whatever you want to call the graphics upgrade or the higher resolution or enhanced artwork. Details are supposed to be released soon.

The other night during the video panel, they had to discuss whether or not to discuss the artwork. They even muted the audio on us and went to a UO logo screen.

Last week, Cal made a very cryptic reference to a lot happening between January 3rd and now (link). Deckard can provide the date/links, but you can search for January 3rd and probably hit it. It was a very cryptic reference that implied that major things involved UO were happening. I don’t think our archives are back online just yet, but prior to January 3rd, it seemed they had a pretty clear plan for UO moving forward, and it didn’t seem to include a graphics update. By now most of us had expected the next booster to be announced, since that would match their schedule. Cal also made a reference to pr adding game footage, and that played out really weird as far as where the footage came from and whether it was stock EA footage.

Last week, we also get the dev video diary (link). It was butchered, and I’m being kind. There was something like 5 seconds devoted to the upgraded graphics and Supreem’s comments before and after his brief mention of the upgraded graphics were edited out.

From the video HOC (link) they were clearly no where close to talking about the new player experience.

But they have the graphics plan finished.

I’m going to say that what held up the dev video diary and what led to the mysterious butchering of the dev video diary was also what Cal cryptically referred to as happening between January 3rd and now, which is the graphics upgrade and its discussion.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the dev video diary was delayed for so long and then within a week of it being released, they announce they have the graphics plan finished, nor was it a coincidence that they actually had to discuss whether to talk more about the graphics at the HOC.

It also makes complete sense to have the graphics upgrade in place before the new player experience is ready.

A Bit About the Ultima Online Graphics Upgrade

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If you aren’t following the official Ultima Online Facebook page, and how can you not be, you might have missed this from a few hours ago.

Dear Ultima Online, apart from the great lore you guys have, will we see any upgrade graphics system? apart from the 3rd person, 2d-3d perspective?

The official answer:

Well we are working on some updates to the graphics this year. It’s one of our priorities. A bit more details soon :) As in the doc is written, need to clean it up for public consumption :)

If they are that close to releasing details about it, that might explain the large amount of off-camera discussion that went on during the UO Video House of Commons when it was brought up.

Read: Facebook.com/UltimaOnline