NEWS [UO.Com] Ultima Online: New Legacy Launches October 15th

[shootgun]

Just coming back from a 2 week vacation and reading up on all the UO news... I saw the "NL Launches Oct 15" and clicked it expecting to see details of expected results/functionality for season 1 (less than 2 weeks away) and I'm not sure if I was surprised there were zero details on that or if I was expected that.

So quick cliff notes summary of NL... Development started 5ish years ago / announced 4.5ish years ago / 2-3 videos on their idea 4ish years ago / whole lot of nothing for for 3ish years / beta testing past 2 months (with a ton of changes from start to finish) .... and still no info on Dev team expectation on how the shard will work or how long the first season will be and what actually happens at the end. It almost feels like the Dev team is just going to play things by ear and randomly stop the season on short notice (or just keep it going indefinitely) based on a whim; ie doesn't feel very well fleshed out.

On top of all of that; they are starting the season on Oct 15th which is likely going to be during the Oct/Halloween Prod event (first "fresh content" since spring) that seems like it will be 1 month and will be followed by what appears to possibly be the ToT event in Nov. Seems like poor timing with people focusing on their "home (permanent) shard" for Oct/Nov/Dec (Artisan Fest / Krampus).

Mesanna is the only person to say something. She wont say something because she doesn't know. If someone else from the team says something they will get chewed.

As mentioned in the other thread, NL was initially marketed as "an expansion to bring the biggest crowd to UO". When all plans failed and interest divindled after the beta weekend, they started panicking. Right now, they are telling people NL is just another shard where players can have a fresh start with different ruleset.

That is 5-6 years of development time going towards an expansion that is pretty much dead on arrival. They will try to spin NL in whichever way they believe will keep the current users occupied. I believe, right now, they don't even have a plan. They will play by ear.

Given Mesanna's history of continuously misreading the players demands, and then doubling down whenever players criticize her, I would not expect much.

We all are here because of what Garriot and Long built. Mesanna believes she is a genius because UO is still not dead. She seriously believes the success of UO is all her making.

 

[Anon McDougle]

The world is watching reach out to massivelyop.com and ask them to cover the Halloween contest rewards issue narcissist hate attention..

 

[shootgun]

The world is watching reach out to massivelyop.com and ask them to cover the Halloween contest rewards issue narcissist hate attention..

LoL, while we are at it, can we ask them to cover the fact that a player has had housing monopoly for 2 years now. The said player made 20k to 30k real dollars. The devs and Mesanna are refusing to take action? But, they don't even wait a second to action other players even for minor stuff.

 

[Anon McDougle]

LoL, while we are at it, can we ask them to cover the fact that a player has had housing monopoly for 2 years now. The said player made 20k to 30k real dollars. The devs and Mesanna are refusing to take action? But, they don't even wait a second to action other players even for minor stuff.

You kinda don't matter anymore and make me wish bans there were used here as well..

 

[shootgun]

You kinda don't matter anymore and make me wish bans there were used here as well..

LoL, the strangest fact is that you assume people think your opinions matter

 

[Lord Nabin]

LoL, the strangest fact is that you assume people think your opinions matter

*glances up from the dusty tome he was studying, at the sound of little fly buzzing by*

"Ort Jux"

*returns to his quiet studying by the fire*

 

[Sargon0101]

Two things are happening:
1. They will integrate performance improvements into CC (higher FPS, smooth scrolling etc.).
2. There will be an officially sanctioned ClassicUO client, which is optional. I'm pretty sure, that ClassicUO in its current state won't be sanctioned and they have to remove features in order to have it sanctioned. In the end there will be two versions of ClassicUO, one with its full feature set, which is not allowed on official shards and one with a reduced feature set, which will be allowed.

I don't think this is correct.

My understanding is 1 and 2 are one and the same. They are planning to upgrade the Classic Client with the features you mentioned in #1, and they are achieving that by working with the team who is responsible for ClassicUO. Unless I missed it, I don't think they are improving the existing Classic Client AND supporting another separate ClassicUO client. That would be downright silly (which I suppose we can't rule out).

Sent from my Pixel 8 using Tapatalk

 

[Pawain]

Unless I missed it, I don't think they are improving the existing Classic Client AND supporting another separate ClassicUO client.

Ya, that's how I read it. If the CUO is the same look and same basic buttons to push, then just replace the CC with it.

Plenty will be mad when they do not include features like auto heal and stuff. O well.

 

[mihali]

Soften it up a little bud! Why all this negativity?

Are you guys interested in playing this? Few people I know were interested before the open beta.

:answer: Yes lots of people are interested to play this, and looking forward to the opening date. Just something different, for fun.

She wont say something because she doesn't know. If someone else from the team says something they will get chewed

You cannot know these, since no proof.

Mesanna is the only person to say something. She wont say something because she doesn't know. If someone else from the team says something they will get chewed.

Again, guessing.

That is 5-6 years of development time going towards an expansion that is pretty much dead on arrival. They will try to spin NL in whichever way they believe will keep the current users occupied. I believe, right now, they don't even have a plan. They will play by ear.

Wrong again, somewhat buggy is not dead on arrival. All new games have bugs, they are fixable potentially. Their plans we cannot know since we are no mind readers. Let it be a (pleasant) surprise. Also in these 5-6 years NL is not the only thing the Devs have been working on.

Given Mesanna's history of continuously misreading the players demands, and then doubling down whenever players criticize her, I would not expect much.

Mesana in all likelihood is a human being, and as such she may be mislead by 100 different recommendations by 100 different players. Impossible to please each and everyone in her player base. Also doubt that she doubles down.

We all are here because of what Garriot and Long built. Mesanna believes she is a genius because UO is still not dead. She seriously believes the success of UO is all her making.

Absolutely disagree. He very long ago started a game, then he quit. He has been a no presence presence, someone who pioneered the single player versions, just touch this one, then disappeared, permanently. I doubt Mesanna ever hinted that she feels she is a genius. She is a software developer with an engineering degree, far as understanding goes. Also it is very likely that she knows the game survival is a combination of efforts by the Dev team, plus most importantly the UO community staying onboard, for whetever reason including nostalgia etc.

Also there are lots of positive changes in process right now, including a desirable client change, NL, new content coming up, and a show of plans for the near future.

I think that a couple of nice words may be in order.

 

[Anon McDougle]

Soften it up a little bud! Why all this negativity?


:answer: Yes lots of people are interested to play this, and looking forward to the opening date. Just something different, for fun.

You cannot know these, since no proof.

Again, guessing.

Wrong again, somewhat buggy is not dead on arrival. All new games have bugs, they are fixable potentially. Their plans we cannot know since we are no mind readers. Let it be a (pleasant) surprise. Also in these 5-6 years NL is not the only thing the Devs have been working on.

Mesana in all likelihood is a human being, and as such she may be mislead by 100 different recommendations by 100 different players. Impossible to please each and everyone in her player base. Also doubt that she doubles down.

Absolutely disagree. He very long ago started a game, then he quit. He has been a no presence presence, someone who pioneered the single player versions, just touch this one, then disappeared, permanently. I doubt Mesanna ever hinted that she feels she is a genius. She is a software developer with an engineering degree, far as understanding goes. Also it is very likely that she knows the game survival is a combination of efforts by the Dev team, plus most importantly the UO community staying onboard, for whetever reason including nostalgia etc.

Also there are lots of positive changes in process right now, including a desirable client change, NL, new content coming up, and a show of plans for the near future.

I think that a couple of nice words may be in order.

The developers do seem to be trying to communicate better but Mesanna still needs to step up and address the Halloween rewards mess

 

[firec]

All this talk of the double down.... I hope KFC brings it back soon.

 

[Thrakkar]

Unless I missed it, I don't think they are improving the existing Classic Client AND supporting another separate ClassicUO client.

Well, if you look at Ultima Online Classic Client Upgrade – Ultima Online you have two paragraphs:

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!

They are explicitly calling it "ClassicUO" here.

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.

They explicitly calling it "the official Ultima Online Classic Client" here.

Sounds like to me, they clearly distinguish between ClassicUO and CC...

 

[Sunghun]

Just coming back from a 2 week vacation and reading up on all the UO news... I saw the "NL Launches Oct 15" and clicked it expecting to see details of expected results/functionality for season 1 (less than 2 weeks away) and I'm not sure if I was surprised there were zero details on that or if I was expected that.

So quick cliff notes summary of NL... Development started 5ish years ago / announced 4.5ish years ago / 2-3 videos on their idea 4ish years ago / whole lot of nothing for for 3ish years / beta testing past 2 months (with a ton of changes from start to finish) .... and still no info on Dev team expectation on how the shard will work or how long the first season will be and what actually happens at the end. It almost feels like the Dev team is just going to play things by ear and randomly stop the season on short notice (or just keep it going indefinitely) based on a whim; ie doesn't feel very well fleshed out.

On top of all of that; they are starting the season on Oct 15th which is likely going to be during the Oct/Halloween Prod event (first "fresh content" since spring) that seems like it will be 1 month and will be followed by what appears to possibly be the ToT event in Nov. Seems like poor timing with people focusing on their "home (permanent) shard" for Oct/Nov/Dec (Artisan Fest / Krampus).

No, Legacy Shards last for one year and then reset and a new season begins.

 

[Keven2002]

No, Legacy Shards last for one year and then reset and a new season begins.

Are you speaking in general for other games or specifically to UO? I haven't seen anything said about how long a season will last so if it's for UO please share the link to where that info is because I don't think I'm the only one that has missed that.

 

[shootgun]

Soften it up a little bud! Why all this negativity?


:answer: Yes lots of people are interested to play this, and looking forward to the opening date. Just something different, for fun.

You cannot know these, since no proof.

Again, guessing.

Wrong again, somewhat buggy is not dead on arrival. All new games have bugs, they are fixable potentially. Their plans we cannot know since we are no mind readers. Let it be a (pleasant) surprise. Also in these 5-6 years NL is not the only thing the Devs have been working on.

Mesana in all likelihood is a human being, and as such she may be mislead by 100 different recommendations by 100 different players. Impossible to please each and everyone in her player base. Also doubt that she doubles down.

Absolutely disagree. He very long ago started a game, then he quit. He has been a no presence presence, someone who pioneered the single player versions, just touch this one, then disappeared, permanently. I doubt Mesanna ever hinted that she feels she is a genius. She is a software developer with an engineering degree, far as understanding goes. Also it is very likely that she knows the game survival is a combination of efforts by the Dev team, plus most importantly the UO community staying onboard, for whetever reason including nostalgia etc.

Also there are lots of positive changes in process right now, including a desirable client change, NL, new content coming up, and a show of plans for the near future.

I think that a couple of nice words may be in order.

Things I said were not random guesses but samples of past behavior.

 

[Veldrane]

You cannot know these, since no proof.

Numerous past employees have commented on Bonnie's abilities and management style. While this is hearsay, there have been enough separate points of feedback to be statistically relevant. By all accounts, Bonnie is a micromanager who does not take constructive feedback or criticism well. Her behavior toward the player base at various engagements supports this impression. Management is hard; managing a community is harder. I'm sure Bonnie isn't a bad person, but she desperately needs to listen to some feedback regarding her project/program management abilities. She could BE a great Producer if she would take constructive feedback better.

It's hard, I get it. Nobody likes hearing about their shortcomings, but if you want to be a truly good leader, you must listen to what frustrates your employees and customers. They may not correctly understand the root cause of their frustration, and their recommendations for " fixing" their frustration will be incorrect. However, a good leader can listen to that feedback and discuss the problem with their team to determine the root cause and address that instead.

The developers do seem to be trying to communicate better but Mesanna still needs to step up and address the Halloween rewards mess

Yes, they are trying to communicate better. I hope they stick to it and move into a more formal fashion. It's a good sign; now, we just need to follow through beyond the hype of NL.

No, Legacy Shards last for one year and then reset and a new season begins.

Can you point to your source on that? I recall discussing it being a year, but I thought that was forum speculation.

 

[Maldar]

Are you speaking in general for other games or specifically to UO? I haven't seen anything said about how long a season will last so if it's for UO please share the link to where that info is because I don't think I'm the only one that has missed that.

I remember quite some time ago they announced that the Legacy shard will be wiped after one year and restart clean. This was years ago now. That is what I have had against it but I will still play it for something new to do.