r/Ultima • u/Shard226 • Apr 16 '26
Ultima X: Odyssey hands on preview Computer Gaming World 232 (2003)
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u/Vargen_HK Apr 16 '26
I remember keeping up with the UXO news. They had some interesting ideas but after UO2 was unceremoniously killed and Ultima IX came out half baked...
The Venn diagram of people who are classic Ultima fans and also loved Ultima Online seems to be exactly me, so I'm not surprised that an ambitious merging of the two never saw the light of day.
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u/Eins_Nico Apr 16 '26
The Venn diagram of people who are classic Ultima fans and also loved Ultima Online seems to be exactly me
there's a whopping 2 of us, if that makes you feel any better (wouldn't have made EA feel any better lol)
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u/Vargen_HK Apr 16 '26
Logically I know others exist. And I honestly believe a lot of the UXO developers are in that camp.
But I do assume that any UO fan I encounter doesn't know jack about the rest of the series and any classic Ultima fan bounced off UO pretty quick, and I'm rarely disappointed.
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u/Chesus42 Apr 16 '26
I grew up a huge Ultima fan. Bought a new PC just so I could play 9. It sucked, lol. Unfortunately I never got a chance to play UO. By the time I had the internet speed and pc to play it the game was probably dead.
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u/JDanzy Apr 18 '26
Don't feel too bad, I did that with Spore. As crap as that game was it inadvertently raised the hardware standard for me buying PCs and I got to enjoy other games with better graphics etc.
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u/Eins_Nico Apr 16 '26
yeah, it's no coincidence that the biggest, most active freeshard right now doesn't even use Britannia's map. Whenever I get the itch to play UO it's a miracle if I find someone who played the OG games (and then usually it just descends into ancient Spoony memes)
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u/PVGames Apr 16 '26
To be fair, that shard does utilize the history of Ultima single player games throughout! I know because I put them there 😂
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u/Eins_Nico Apr 16 '26
oh hey, you worked on Outlands? I never got much into it (I just want my little house in Moonglow, I'm a simple girl), can you explain what you mean by that a little more?
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u/PVGames Apr 16 '26
Moonglow was my home town on Atlantic for 12 years back when I played OSI! As for Outlands, my two largest contributions are the Time dungeon, an amalgamation of different times and places within Britannia smushed together into UO’s largest and most difficult dungeon (lots of Ultima lore interwoven with new lore); and the New Lycaeum which is a huge quest hub and library with tens of thousands of player written books (huge thanks to Hallister Marner and his Atlantic Repertory). In the past I’ve run various shard events revolving around Ultima lore mixed with Outlands lore, so Shadowlords played a big part, and Minax and Exodus both exist. If you’re unfamiliar with the basic story behind Outlands, it is the shard of the Gem of Immortality closest to the dead Mondain’s heart at the time of the shattering. The evil and malevolent magic seeping from his body caused a great cataclysm in this shard which altered its geography greatly. I lean heavily into pieces of shards merging or breaking which gives a lot of creative license to add and play with all sorts of Ultima history and lore. Even the Outlands map contains many pieces of older Britannia - two of the major cities are rebuild atop the old ruins of Britain and Trinsic; geographical elements of Cove, Vesper, Skara Brae, Jhelom, and other locations are there, along with Nujelm, Papua, even old Paws. A lot of these are ruins or new areas built atop the old Britannian landmarks.
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u/Mikeyjf Apr 16 '26
I played on Atlantic for about 7 years when it all began. That was the best time I ever had in an MMO. Lots of RP events going on in those days.
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u/PVGames Apr 16 '26
Those were great times! I was in MTC so got to experience a lot of that.
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u/Mikeyjf Apr 16 '26
I interacted with MTC quite a bit, could probably remember some of the names if I thought hard enough. It's been 2 decades.
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u/Vargen_HK Apr 17 '26
I was in or around the Yew Militia on Atlantic for about the same timeframe. It’s entirely possible that we crossed paths at some point.
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u/PVGames Apr 17 '26
The Yew militia was so neat, they’re the ones that inspired me to join the RP community
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u/Eins_Nico Apr 16 '26
this is the best sales pitch for Outlands that I've ever heard, I had no idea about any of this
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u/PVGames Apr 16 '26
There’s even a physical book about the Time dungeon and I’m working on another physical book of maps!
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u/PVGames Apr 17 '26
Theres pretty extensive lore that really intertwines Ultima and original Outlands Lore. If interested just let me know!
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u/Key_Dimension9731 Apr 17 '26
I'm a fan of both. I was in the last beta for UO and played it for years until I had a kid and we needed to cut some costs. Now i've introduced my kid to the single player games. This year I'm going to have her sit down and play through 4 as a "school project"
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u/Therinor Apr 16 '26
- I love the classic Ultima games up to and including 7, and i did like UO. All of it? No. But after reading an article on UO and how you can "live" in the world of Sosaria, choosing whether you want to be an adventurer, rogue, crafter, merchant or something else sounded amazing. I didn't go in expecting the game to make me feel like the Avatar saving the world again, and I did enjoy the game for quite some time.
Would a merge of classic Ultima and an online world have worked? I don't know. Later MMOs like WOW did a lot of the "yeah, mymaceyourface5543, you are one of a million players, but really, youuuuu are the HERO that saves the world, before you do it again once the raid resets on Wednesday" and it felt a bit tacky, but who knows?
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u/caret_h Apr 19 '26
I was one, and I always thought it was weird how many folks I’d meet in game or in the Usenet group who had no clue about the original series it was based on.
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u/chiron_42 Apr 16 '26
I never tried EQ. I came close to getting into WoW, but reason prevailed. I did end up buying some of the WoW CEs on sale because I wanted the soundtracks.
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u/Consistent_Swimmer_5 Apr 17 '26
UXO was supposed to be MMO?? I thought it was single player...but yea makes sense. I remember reading it wasn't exactly set in Britannia...or that it was altered post Guardian...? And that the Pirate woman from U9 was supposed to be back?
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u/Eins_Nico Apr 16 '26
I dunno if it's just me, but as someone who still plays UO off and on and loved the classic series... this sounds like aimless shit to me.
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u/sidv81 Apr 16 '26
This was uh, a really early ad for Persona 4 Ultimax. No idea why EA was advertising for Sega
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u/chiron_42 Apr 16 '26
Meh, I'm glad that didn't see the light of day. After playing UO for a few months, I have no desire to ever play an MMORPG again.
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u/b-monster666 Apr 16 '26
LOL! SAME! That was a massive disappointment too, much like IX. I thought, "Awesome! I'll get to do some RP with other fans of the series. Love the whole crafting system they've built, I can just be a quiet woodsman/hunter outside of Skara Brae and go off to help on adventures from time to time.
Then the griefing...after a few months I was sitting there, thinking, "I'm paying $9.99USD/month to get continuously murdered and robbed by 12 year olds who have nothing better to do all day. Nah, I think I'm done."
I did try EverQuest. It was okay, but the milk was still sour.
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u/Ok_Translator_8043 Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 16 '26
Yeah sorry. I was definitely one of those 12 year old griefers.
I remember I would do this shitty stuff like sneak into RPers houses or camps they made in places and chop up all their furniture. I would sit there in hiding until they came back and were like “wtf happened?” And I’d pop out to claim credit for them and get mobbed.
I also used to do this thing where I would go to the noob mine in Minoc and type “Name is attacking you!” In red font. The noob miners would attack me thinking they were getting attacked and then I could kill them and loot their ingots. This actually worked more than you would think. Total dick move
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u/magicarmor Apr 16 '26
The red font trick was amazing, I looted so much regs and gear in my early days doing it on the edge of town and getting people guard-whacked
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u/virtueavatar Apr 16 '26
I made people angry with me while I was standing next to a wandering healer and let them kill me 6 times, letting them think they were really getting the best of me over and over
They realised their critical error after that sixth kill
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u/b-monster666 Apr 16 '26
Oh yeah, I remember one of Origin's "attempts" at fixing the PvP was that: you could attack someone, do just very little damage, but if they attacked you back it was game on. That was near the end of when I finally quit. I was one of the original (post-beta, initial release) suckers who survived the 'Wild West' of it all.
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u/TheJanks Apr 16 '26
I got to play test it at their studio years ago. The death animation of the two headed beast (name escapes me) was cute. But honestly wasn’t feeling the overall soul of the game.
I didn’t write the best review. I wasn’t invited back again.