Happy Anniversary!!!

[JC the Builder]

On August 30th we will be celebrating the release of the last UO expansion Mondain's Legacy. It seems like just yesterday that we were diving into the new dungeons, tackling new peerless creatures and burning through stools in hope of a new runic kit. Oh no, it wasn't yesterday. It was 3 years ago. I was hoping at the Town Hall they were going to reveal an expansion coming this fall. But it doesn't look like that is happening from what was said in the Five on Friday. Factoring in that a UO expansion is usually announced 4-6 months in advance, we are possibly looking at nothing until late Spring 2009. Stygian Abyss will be nearly 2 years behind schedule at that point.

Another interesting thing to note, since Mythic came into the picture (late 2006) there hasn't been an expansion release or announcement. Stygian Abyss came about before Mythic.

*Added*

Here is what the new directory of community said on December 7, 2007:

In the coming months you will be hearing much more from me. I want to continue and extend the reputation EA Mythic has built for integrity, honesty and quality in community and customer support. Our job here is to be the voice of the community inside EA Mythic and the voice of the people working hard at EA Mythic to the community. The Community Relations team is a feedback loop and our goal is making the community better, day by day. I, for one, take that job very seriously and enjoy it immensely.

Well that didn't happen. Here is what the new development manager for Ultima Online said on Feburary 5, 2008:

I am here to break radio silence. First and foremost: by no stretch of John Cleese’s imagination is Ultima Online going away. On the contrary, if you could see and smell the amount of right and left brain molecules burning between developers here, you might wonder how we could stand to work among the palpable sulfuric fumes. We have some great plans in the coming months.

It goes on.

In addition, we are taking a bit of course correction from Jeremy on prioritizing our feature list. You should know that we have been working pretty steadily on answering the mail for both live events and several major systems the community is clamoring for. Understand we are by no means idle, and against all sanctioned methods of scope and project planning, we are doing a bit of parallel engineering. Do not try this at home without a certified project lead.

Thus far this year we have had nothing but painfully slow live events which go on for weeks at a time. Events like the Royal Council Massacre which should have lasted a week at most went on for a month.

I am trying to find the announcement from the new producer but haven't yet. Instead we get another speech from the previous guy on April 11, 2008.

Well, since the “hello” in February, a substantial publish in March, and the launch of Mad Mage … I am going to say this: we aren’t done yet. Yes, I am going to continue to state that we have big plans. What we have on the schedule for the next six months does not even begin to describe the amount of effort, creativity, passion, and downright ultra-engaging- sultry-deliberately mind-altering-should have swallowed-the blue pill, psyche-shattering, toe-sweating, eye-ball tearing goodness that we have in store.

Here we are 5 months into that 6 month schedule and all that is being announced is the next phase of the live event content.

Next update is from the same guy again on May 14, 2008.

"WHAT ABOUT Stygian Abyss?! ..." He pauses slightly, without turning, a mild chuckle pressing the corners of the room, “We announced the expansion over a year ago, and you should be hearing more news about it soon.” He continues a slow shuffle into a dark room, most likely to be eaten by a grue.

May. June. July. August. Almost four months later and nothing.

Mythic has consistently been boosting about stuff to come, yet has failed to deliver anything. It seems the only stuff we get currently comes from a few developers handling the live events. While those are fun and all, they don't address core game issues such as PvP, PvM and general game updates.

*Added 2*

Going back a little further I was able to find the message from our phantom UO producer posted on October 24, 2007. It touched on the upcoming development team move.

So what does this mean to you? This is a big move for the team, but we expect it to have very little impact on the game and community in the short term. Planned development and operations will continue with minimal interruption.

In the long term, we believe this move will be a big win for UO and will allow us to better support the game as we move into its second decade of operation. By having all three MMO teams together here in Virginia, we'll be better able to focus on Ultima Online’s development and ensure a long and lively future for the game.

Moving the UO team into the same studio that currently houses the Dark Age of Camelot and Warhammer Online teams has other advantages as well. We'll be bringing a wealth of MMO experience together under one roof with a clear studio vision and strong leadership. This will benefit all three titles as we'll be able to share resources, experience and technology to continue to improve all of our games.

We know what UO means to you and it is as much a part of our lives as it is yours. For that reason, we are committed to the game's continued development, support and success. Moving the UO team to the EA Mythic studio will provide this most cherished game and its community with the love, attention and resources it needs to continue to grow and thrive.

*sigh*

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

The move, while understandible from a company standpoint has done us the UO players no favors thus far regardless of client we play or expansion we desire.

I hope we start seeing something to reinvigorate the game and the base soon. All it takes is action... even small things can have a big effect on people's attitude towards the game (something that has been evident working with the Exchange).

We'll see. I'll be tuned in and might do the same bullet point quick-highlights of what I hear (though I do not in any way guarantee any lack of bias depending on the topic at hand).

Like I said in the FoF thread... I withold judgment until I hear the town hall itself.

 

[Eslake]

3 years on /ignore so far.

When we heard about the merge, we complained.

We complained UO staff would be moved to work on Warhammer.
They claimed it wouldn't happen.
It happened.

We complained resources that Were to go to improve UO would be redirected.
They claimed it wouldn't happen.
It happened.

We complained UO would be left to rot while they focussed on the new game(s).
They claimed it wouldn't happen, and further that having Mythic's devs to confer with, UO would see more frequent/higher quality improvements.
*cough* umm.. okay.

This is the longest the game has ever been without an expansion.
Vet rewards are a year late (will probably be the metal tub and a pair of resist or stat shoes).
And new players cannot even enter the game because the store requires you subscribe for a month before you can buy the game.

They claim the townhall will bring great news. But they have been claiming "something huge coming soon" for over a year now. Someone even posted a string of quotes of them making it sound like the next week or month was going to revolutionize the game, and the only thing that changed was lockdowns in lockdowns and a few spellweaving nerfs.

I want to hope they have good news - I really do. But their track record does not instil confidence.

 

[Pickaxe Pete]

And new players cannot even enter the game because the store requires you subscribe for a month before you can buy the game.

I agree the instructions for new players on uo.com are outdated. However, if one starts by installing the client, and uses a 14-day trial code, she/he is then allowed to enter billing information and play, accruing account age also.

Admittedly, it seems silly that new players can't start off with ML, if what you say is true. However, if I were new to a game, I would definitely start with the free trial, even if a friend recommended it.

What I would do, were I in charge of these things, would be to institute a new trial code that includes ML, and locate that code in plain view in place of the 'go to uogamecodes' step.

 

[Doomsday Dragon]

Seriously this game is on a major decline. I hate to be a doom and gloomer but this is the worst state I have seen this game in to date.

I try to hold out because I really believe a new expansion might be released some day. But right now I have a hard time justifying the monthly bill when I play less than 1 hour a week. Log in check vendor stock if needed check a few other vendors and log out rinse repeat it gets old.

I do play when they have a chunk of the event rolling though. It helps to have something temporary going on to hold my interest for 5 seconds but we really need some serious new content not this little event filler stuff.

I knew it was about 3 years since ML and for what it might be worth ML actually kept me busy for the first 2 years but this last year I have been waiting to at least hear news of a new expansion but EA seems to think giving out any info about UO is taboo or something.

Anyhow without so much as a whisper about a new expansion in the works I am beginning to doubt I will be around for the next one when of if it does get released.

Anyways I will stick around if for no other reason than to tick off a few people on LS

 

[sirion]

I dont even understand why EA is doing the townhall stuff. They dont even have the resource/staff to support even the smallest request from customer. Basically I am really expecting UO to be unplugged in 2 years.

 

[Ozymandies]

They said they were going to release SA piece-meal. It had been assetized or something. We'll see.

OZ

 

[Thangorodrim]

From the public comments of Mark Jacobs it is quite clear that Mythic views UO as an albatross.

Death by neglect. What a shameful way to go.

 

[Der Rock]

On August 30th we will be celebrating the release of the last UO expansion Mondain's Legacy. It seems like just yesterday that we were diving into the new dungeons, tackling new peerless creatures and burning through stools in hope of a new runic kit. Oh no, it wasn't yesterday. It was 3 years ago. I was hoping at the Town Hall they were going to reveal an expansion coming this fall. But it doesn't look like that is happening from what was said in the Five on Friday. Factoring in that a UO expansion is usually announced 4-6 months in advance, we are possibly looking at nothing until late Spring 2009. Stygian Abyss will be nearly 2 years behind schedule at that point.

Another interesting thing to note, since Mythic came into the picture (late 2006) there hasn't been an expansion release or announcement. Stygian Abyss came about before Mythic.

3 years, i remember , we (3 familie members) had A LOT of fun, we made melissande 10 times a dayand other bosses, to get the quest was also funny, an abscess here and there, and hartwood quests also made a lot of fun,we got high end loot(99% of them i broke with enhancing, but it was fun)
and then........some weeks later
the tweak and "balance" hammer trashed the whole ML,
quest loot was only trash,
that was the last time for ever i will buy another uo expansion for rl mo´
catching customer with new features and items and after they bought they trash the whole package,NO thx
today i am the only one in the familie who hold an acc open here and there,also some friends i brought to uo dont play anymore.
to bad, the DEV team listen a way tooooooo much to the false "playerbase"(whoever those are)

 

[Connor_Graham]

hartwood quests also made a lot of fun,we got high end loot(99% of them i broke with enhancing, but it was fun)
and then........some weeks later
the tweak and "balance" hammer trashed the whole ML,
quest loot was only trash,

Of course you can't see how having EVERY single piece of jewelry, armor, and weapons dropping as fast as it takes to click on a stack of empty bottles with properties at 85%-100% intensity would damage the game irreparably if left at those levels. Just be happy you got in while the getting was good and got some of those items. I've got around 300 pcs of jewelry, along with a stack of bows that I got from those quests. I've sold some of my bows for as much as 20mil, and have been offered well above that for a few of the ones I kept for myself. I can only imagine what the jewels would go for.

But no, you can only see that the easy, overpowered loot was adjusted and you could no longer get all that cheap stuff that was worth millions anymore.

 

[Maplestone]

Simply make it clear that you will judge all future EA/Mythic subscription products by how you feel UO is treated. That's about as much leverage as a customer has.

 

[Der Rock]

Of course you can't see how having EVERY single piece of jewelry, armor, and weapons dropping as fast as it takes to click on a stack of empty bottles with properties at 85%-100% intensity would damage the game irreparably if left at those levels. Just be happy you got in while the getting was good and got some of those items. I've got around 300 pcs of jewelry, along with a stack of bows that I got from those quests. I've sold some of my bows for as much as 20mil, and have been offered well above that for a few of the ones I kept for myself. I can only imagine what the jewels would go for.

But no, you can only see that the easy, overpowered loot was adjusted and you could no longer get all that cheap stuff that was worth millions anymore.

your logic is contraproductive (as it is always)
so u say :
empty heartwood is more fun then heartwood full of player?
making the game more and more scripter friendly is better?
wasting the time to get 1 good peace in a month makes more fun as to brake 10 items a day during enhancing?
and
extremly leech-mod cap for archers helps the archers in uo?
let crafting a ring with 50 EHP and then cap EHP to trash is fun??
and so on...

i wrote nothing about the bottle quest and jewelery, if the dev´s had changed these two problems ,that would be enough tweaking for haertwood,but they tweaked heartwood to death,after that time only scripters was there,
bravo, problem solved

 

[Maplestone]

You do realize that the definition of "good" is a moving target, right? No matter what intensity is offered by a system, after a month it will feel like it's taking twice as long to get "good" stuff.

The initial heartwood intensities were severely misjudged - if they had stayed there, every other system in the game would have felt complete devalued in no time.

 

[Connor_Graham]

your logic is contraproductive (as it is always)

If by counterproductive you mean not interested in my own personal greed for overpowered items, and thinking of the balance of the game as a whole and not just of myself, then yeah, I guess I'm being counterproductive...

*rolls eyes*

so u say :
empty heartwood is more fun then heartwood full of player?

Show me where I said that. What I said was the items were overpowered, and if left at the intensities they started with, the game balance would have been damaged irreparably.

making the game more and more scripter friendly is better?
wasting the time to get 1 good peace in a month makes more fun as to brake 10 items a day during enhancing?
and
extremly leech-mod cap for archers helps the archers in uo?
let crafting a ring with 50 EHP and then cap EHP to trash is fun??
and so on...

Again, show me where I said anything about any of this.

i wrote nothing about the bottle quest and jewelery, if the dev´s had changed these two problems ,that would be enough tweaking for haertwood,but they tweaked heartwood to death,after that time only scripters was there,
bravo, problem solved

The bottle quest was merely the easiest one for people to farm. If only that one had been changed the players would have just moved to another quest and farmed that one. EVERY quest in Heartwood dropped the same overly high intensity items, so EVERY quest in Heartwood needed to be adjusted.

And btw, it doesn't take months to get good items from Heartwood. I've gotten quite a few items in the time I've spent there recently, including a bracelet that I sold immediately after posting it for sale for 5 mil.

I see that you have a tendency to be biased and overexaggerate like a certain Tamer we all know....*sigh*

 

[Der Rock]

You do realize that the definition of "good" is a moving target, right? No matter what intensity is offered by a system, after a month it will feel like it's taking twice as long to get "good" stuff.

The initial heartwood intensities were severely misjudged - if they had stayed there, every other system in the game would have felt complete devalued in no time.

i think it is much more important to realze the truth.

i feel that MOST in UO is absolutly scripter friendly,the scripter DONT care if they have to spent 100 hours to script,or 100 hours more, over time they get what they want automaticly.
the question here is, how to hold players in game active with fun.
time spend in game compare to the reward to get over time
who devalue what in UO?
scripter/duper/cheater devalue almost 100% in UO
average player are the loser at end
no one says the quests in heartwood should always reward with godly mods,but the change was from good to trash, from one day to the other.
the dev´s could made moderate tweakings, but this looks like impossible for them.

f.e.: if i get 100 good/verygood items from the quests, and then i brake 99 of them during enhancing, it is still funny to do the quests.but if u spend weeks for 1 good item, then that drove players out of heartwood.

and remember, they tweaked heartwood quests to death, BUT they let this damn bird in ilsh for years alone.LOL, what a joke.

 

[Uriah Heep]

On August 30th we will be celebrating the release of the last UO expansion Mondain's Legacy. It seems like just yesterday that we were diving into the new dungeons, tackling new peerless creatures and burning through stools in hope of a new runic kit. Oh no, it wasn't yesterday. It was 3 years ago. I was hoping at the Town Hall they were going to reveal an expansion coming this fall. But it doesn't look like that is happening from what was said in the Five on Friday. Factoring in that a UO expansion is usually announced 4-6 months in advance, we are possibly looking at nothing until late Spring 2009. Stygian Abyss will be nearly 2 years behind schedule at that point.

Another interesting thing to note, since Mythic came into the picture (late 2006) there hasn't been an expansion release or announcement. Stygian Abyss came about before Mythic.

Kinda makes ya wonder, doesn't it JC. Long time, and here is what is coming up: 11th anniversary on Sept 25, nothing said
Halloween, Thanksgiving (US), the Christmas holidays, New Years...
Probably nothing special for any of those, unless its just turn the code back on from the 2 years past.

I'll believe Stygian Abyss and a playable KR when I see em, and NOT when they announce em (since that ahs happened once already)...

Heck, they can't even get the publishes out the door, how they gonna do anything else? Remember: We are delaying Pub 55 to work out some kinks, and to make up for it we are gonna toss in Pub 56 at the same time, so your patience will be rewarded with two great pubs in one. (not a direct quote, thank you)
Now: Ooops , can't get it out, we are pulling everything out except the plants and a few bug fixes...the rest we promised ya will come later. (down here, we call this the SoS)

So to expect us all to hang on every word at Seattle, and blindly believe everything we are told, is BS. Show us, for once, DO IT and THEN talk about it.

 

[Der Rock]

What I said was the items were overpowered, and if left at the intensities they started with, the game balance would have been damaged irreparably.

aha,
and scripted and duped runics damaged nothing????
my so overpowered items was it?
balance??
yeah, they balanced the game in such a manner that i could place a castle for free last year.
ah i forgot, because i had a so overpowered bow, i lost the gladiator event(short time after ML release), and the well known and now banned scripter/duper won the gladiator arms
(if i remember correctly he/she was under the gladiator-event winner two times)


and why u care about game balance?? as i know, u never do pvp in game, so what have balance to do in pvm? to kill a monster in 2 hits or in 4 hits, who cares about balance here?

 

[Infiniti]

Agreed that it's been a long time since the last expansion and getting tired of all the BIG promises that are being handed out. However, I will wait and see what this townhall meeting holds in store. I know, the big optomist, but I can't help but hope they do something to help the game that I love.

 

[Jeremy]

Thanks for digging up that date, JC - I didn't know that!

 

[Der Rock]

Thanks for digging up that date, JC - I didn't know that!

That's not really a surprise.(joke,sorry couldn´t resist)

 

[JC the Builder]

I have added a summary of Mythic's constant lack of performance this year in the original posting.

 

[Slasherpvp]

3 years ago,heh, time flies. Just from a gaming standpoint, in those three years, how many WOW expansions compared to UO expansions have actually been in stores on shelves for those who don't play yet to get a first look at UO? I'm really curious on actual facts of which direction EA is heading as far as promoting the two games when UO might not have enough graphic artist for KR but WOW seems to keep moving forward? Just facts, not opinions. We can draw our own conclusions afterwards.

 

[Uriah Heep]

I have added a summary of Mythic's constant lack of performance this year in the original posting.

*sighs*

All too true, I am afraid
And still, all we hear are crickets, from Mythic. I really do hope that this Townhall lives up to all the fanfare they created around it, But regardless of what they announce at this point in time, I'm afraid its too little too late. A vast majority of peeps I have talked to about it, won't buy into it. We will celebrate the doing, not the talking about it.
Because, we've been here before...

 

[Maplestone]

I have added a summary of Mythic's constant lack of performance this year in the original posting.

Thank you for that.

*withholds analysis until after tonight's much anticipated town hall*

 

[Kith Kanan]

Thanks for digging up that date, JC - I didn't know that!

Thats ok I bet your busy replying to the mails of the banned account holders... ohhh no that cant be it... my bad............

 

[Arcus]

Thanks for digging up that date, JC - I didn't know that!

Seriously , thats all you can say? You really need to consider a new career. At least wilki would have the guts to say something, we may not like it but geez...awful.

 

[Ender]

Seriously , thats all you can say? You really need to consider a new career. At least wilki would have the guts to say something, we may not like it but geez...awful.

Yeah, that response was just pitiful. First, you should know if you're working for a game at least around how long its been since there was some substantial addition. Second, there was no info/response in that reply...

 

[Halister Marner]

I love the dev team since I know they are trying their best, but the higher ups at Mythic obviously don't care about UO, as shown by their reluctance and dragging of feet when it comes to even recognizing or working on anything UO related.

When you get a new product, you always try and display it prominently alongside your other products, however Mythic has refused to even acknowledge UO on most occasions, like a red headed step child that was forced into its care.

Even as someone who tries their best to assist the dev team and stay positive, I'm not blind as to Mythic's blatant apathy when it comes to UO.

 

[Mordocuo]

Thanks for digging up that date, JC - I didn't know that!

I can't believe that more people are not jumping on this post. All I can say is "Wow!" great post from the community coordinator.

 

[Kith Kanan]

peopel just aint surprised.....

 

[AdamD]

but the higher ups at Mythic obviously don't care about UO, as shown by their reluctance and dragging of feet when it comes to even recognizing or working on anything UO related.

And the fact Mark Jacobs the VP/CEO of Mythic, doesn't post on here, or any other uo forum, but does post on a DAOC forum and the warhammer alliance forums.

 

[Galad]

Awesome thread. Especially Jeremy's post.

 

[ravenwaves]

And the fact Mark Jacobs the VP/CEO of Mythic, doesn't post on here, or any other uo forum, but does post on a DAOC forum and the warhammer alliance forums.

Clearly, Jacobs is jealous because he's always known that his little DAoC was never as good as UO. How the tables have turned.