I have spent the last 2 weeks examining the source code of an Ultima Online server emulation. (Basically, a few people re-engineered UO from scratch using the prgramming language C#, and created a server emulation which has 95% of the functionality of an productive UO server.)
When I dug through the code and checked out some examples of what other people already programmed in their spare time, I was amazed and shocked at the same time:
The list of the features is endless, and it is absolutely incredible what COULD be implemented into our Ultima Online with not too much of an effort. It makes me wonder why the UO Developers were unable to make UO the most exciting and dynamic MMORPG ever, and keep adding more and more static and boring content instead.
Who needs another dungeon full of stupid and predictable monsters? Who needs another landmass? Who needs more creatures standing there doing nothing? Britannia itself is completely deserted (only filled with player houses), and so are the Lost Lands and Tokuno.
Sure, many of the new features are great. But mostly they are targeted at feeding us with new content and pixels, instead of improving the quality of the game.
WHY? IT WOULDN'T EVEN BE VERY DIFFICULT!
P.S.: When I read all the fantastic ideas being discussed on this board, I now know that all this can actually be done, and most of it wouldn't even be very complicated.
When I dug through the code and checked out some examples of what other people already programmed in their spare time, I was amazed and shocked at the same time:
- Intelligent monsters that change their fighting strategy depending on the opponent.
- Monsters swarming out or going someplace, triggered by certain events (hunger, nightfall, and so on).
- Animals running from players/hunters, just like real animals.
- Birds that are actually flying and can only be hunted with bow and arrow.
- Animals and monsters interacting with each other in a real biological cycle (distinguishing herbivore, carnivore, omnivore etc.).
- Hunger, thirst, weather affecting players.
- A complete agricultural system, allowing players to grow and harvest different kinds of crops, brewing ale, making wine and liquor, planting fruit trees, breeding animals etc. (And those goods actually have a use!)
- Guards that go off duty and go into the tavern to drink.
- Intelligent and dynamic spawns in a completely dynamic wildlife. Compared to this, a champion spawn is a joke.
- A system for spreading different diseases and providing different methods of cure. (From a simple cold to being bitten by a Vampire and turning into one, which results in daylight damaging you.)
- And many many more.
The list of the features is endless, and it is absolutely incredible what COULD be implemented into our Ultima Online with not too much of an effort. It makes me wonder why the UO Developers were unable to make UO the most exciting and dynamic MMORPG ever, and keep adding more and more static and boring content instead.
Who needs another dungeon full of stupid and predictable monsters? Who needs another landmass? Who needs more creatures standing there doing nothing? Britannia itself is completely deserted (only filled with player houses), and so are the Lost Lands and Tokuno.
Sure, many of the new features are great. But mostly they are targeted at feeding us with new content and pixels, instead of improving the quality of the game.
WHY? IT WOULDN'T EVEN BE VERY DIFFICULT!
P.S.: When I read all the fantastic ideas being discussed on this board, I now know that all this can actually be done, and most of it wouldn't even be very complicated.