New UO Expansion OFFICIALLY announced

[eidolon]

Hey wait just a minute folks...

I thought i remember seeing ninja items when I was last using InsideUO. I bet they are just selling re-colored and re-named crap again. Fraud.

Indeed, there are some Japanese weapons present in there that haven't been used. I was playing around with Pandora's Box in the NPC items and noticed that there is a No Dachi and Naginata graphic present. The NPC stuff doesn't look as polished as the rest of the graphics though, so I dunno if thats what they'll be using.

 

[psz]

Indeed, there are some Japanese weapons present in there that haven't been used. I was playing around with Pandora's Box in the NPC items and noticed that there is a No Dachi and Naginata graphic present. The NPC stuff doesn't look as polished as the rest of the graphics though, so I dunno if thats what they'll be using.

Those weapons and clothing have been in the client for some time, but were never used (Hence why you cannot equip the No Dachi without changing to the Item ID).

NOW they'll finally be using the items/clothing.

 

[GM_Mith]

Hrm, I would think they would more likely go the monk route before both a ninja and an assassin. Hand to hand combat has always been in uo and benefited noone but mages really.

It would be nice if they would make an expansion that updated the graphics engine to uo, and had the dev team here do it for them so we wouldn't have to worry about bugs nearly as much. But hell, played UO for over 6 years and apparently if the graphics are my biggest problem anymore, I must love this stupid game.

 

[Revan]

Those weapons and clothing have been in the client for some time, but were never used (Hence why you cannot equip the No Dachi without changing to the Item ID).

NOW they'll finally be using the items/clothing.

Well actually they were usable, in the 3D client
I remember that one of them were armour from Ultima 9 (!!)
Some sort of purple armour or something...

 

[Horde_Pil]

hmm

any new news?

 

[Dr.]

There releaseing it as they are getting big compititon from World Of Warcraft as its ment to be coming out soon, so OSi will need to keep there players from drifting to WOW.. it what businesses do to keep players, gain money or get more.

Thats what i think anyway

 

[sidsid]

Announcement from EA dated 5/11/2004 -
UO: The Phantom Expansion has been released! Hurry today to your local software outlet to purchase your new life! No install or setup necessary! In fact there is nothing in the box but a picture of Lady OSI's ass! It only costs $69.95 in addition to the new monthly price structure ($49.95 a month and you can set your own skills/stats on any shard!) and is REQUIRED to continue playing on your favorite shard. Hurry and upgrade your account today!

 

[Revan]

aaah.. now ain't that the truth..

 

[nomad707]

there are many many unused artwork in the uo files, use inside uo, there is ninja masks, ninja swords, bracers, new tunics, sheilds, (i actually found a unused cool looking sheild that has ALL the frames nessecary to equip) there are Tons of unused artwork/gumps floating around in uo. rawhide underwear, single peice studded leather suit, different looking female/male chars, dreadlock hairs, and alot more, this thread,(starter) almost made it sound like it was aos that was being released, because, stealthing is installed in the game already, so is palidan. ive heard so many stories about the next release, that i cant believe any of them, ive heard they were completely changing the graphics engine, adding new lands, adding new animations, bagging 2d up and throwing it off a bridge, etc. i wouldnt get my hopes up for the next release, so far, it seems that every release sucks more and more then the last.

 

[psz]

there are many many unused artwork in the uo files, use inside uo, there is ninja masks, ninja swords, bracers, new tunics, sheilds, (i actually found a unused cool looking sheild that has ALL the frames nessecary to equip) there are Tons of unused artwork/gumps floating around in uo. rawhide underwear, single peice studded leather suit, different looking female/male chars, dreadlock hairs, and alot more, this thread,(starter) almost made it sound like it was aos that was being released, because, stealthing is installed in the game already, so is palidan. ive heard so many stories about the next release, that i cant believe any of them, ive heard they were completely changing the graphics engine, adding new lands, adding new animations, bagging 2d up and throwing it off a bridge, etc. i wouldnt get my hopes up for the next release, so far, it seems that every release sucks more and more then the last.

Then you need to re-read my original post

I never made ANY claim that Stealthing or Paladin were the new classes/skills.

I said Ninja and Samurai. I ALSO posted the initial info from the OFFICIAL press release.

I Also Also said that some of the unsused EXISTING artwork would finally be used.

 

[Revan]

Ooh, you got served!

 

[Ragnorix]

Like a turkey dinner!

 

[Brazen]

[rant]

If OSI were not such cheep bastages, the defective graphics would have been cleaned up years ago. Example the halo effect on almost any headgear, just one tiny example mind you. If any self respecting up and coming game design corp tried to put out such trash they'd be back to flipping burgers in a fortnight. (20 days). Yes they have all these unused graphics and all these releases, but what good are they when the core of the game system is graphics oriented and the graphics are sooo crappy.

This summer.. me and a few others are starting to rework some of these defective images & animations thanks to some of the aplications on Orbsydia, and may even share them for you all to put decent graphics on your shards too.. LOL Okay we will most likely share em... [edit] Okay actually the point of the utility I referenced, is to be able to share the images and easily add them to your mul files for each and every shard reguardless of any other custom graphics already added etc. (and yes can add in customs as well obviously) so like the UOAR forums where housing styles can be shared, so will the new statics and animations be.[/edit]

But the point is that OSI has the $ to do stuff right, and yet half steps at every oppertunity. It's as if the graphics are done by the secretarial pool when they find some "freetime" at work. (you know like 5 minutes every 3 months). But a few people who actually care can redo it in a short chunk of time, and will do so with better results than EA's paid staff of well.. whatever they are, cuz they aren't graphics artists! Just makes one sad to see such a big business do such shoddy work, and expect premium $ return on it.

[/end rant]

 

[Revan]

Will you attempt to replace the 2d animations aswell?
I hope not.. It would be too much work for such little result..

 

[Aenima]

Unbelievable.

Why do people care so much about what OSI does? I don't get it.

You don't like it, you've got RunUO. You're not forced to play on OSI. Who really cares if they screw up? It doesn't affect me, and if it affects any of you who still play OSI then just quit it.

There you go, all problems solved.

No reason to go yell and scream about it on RunUO's forums, hah. Just let it be.

 

[sidsid]

its starbucks dude

 

[Revan]

Unbelievable.

Why do people care so much about what OSI does? I don't get it.

You don't like it, you've got RunUO. You're not forced to play on OSI. Who really cares if they screw up? It doesn't affect me, and if it affects any of you who still play OSI then just quit it.

There you go, all problems solved.

No reason to go yell and scream about it on RunUO's forums, hah. Just let it be.

You're supposed to discuss things here, right?

You can't just QUIT UO man.. I need my fix!

 

[shadeuo]

[rant]

If OSI were not such cheep bastages, the defective graphics would have been cleaned up years ago. Example the halo effect on almost any headgear, just one tiny example mind you. If any self respecting up and coming game design corp tried to put out such trash they'd be back to flipping burgers in a fortnight. (20 days). Yes they have all these unused graphics and all these releases, but what good are they when the core of the game system is graphics oriented and the graphics are sooo crappy.

This summer.. me and a few others are starting to rework some of these defective images & animations thanks to some of the aplications on Orbsydia, and may even share them for you all to put decent graphics on your shards too.. LOL Okay we will most likely share em... [edit] Okay actually the point of the utility I referenced, is to be able to share the images and easily add them to your mul files for each and every shard reguardless of any other custom graphics already added etc. (and yes can add in customs as well obviously) so like the UOAR forums where housing styles can be shared, so will the new statics and animations be.[/edit]

But the point is that OSI has the $ to do stuff right, and yet half steps at every oppertunity. It's as if the graphics are done by the secretarial pool when they find some "freetime" at work. (you know like 5 minutes every 3 months). But a few people who actually care can redo it in a short chunk of time, and will do so with better results than EA's paid staff of well.. whatever they are, cuz they aren't graphics artists! Just makes one sad to see such a big business do such shoddy work, and expect premium $ return on it.

[/end rant]

sorry to bust your bubble but..... the halo is there for a reason. heres an example for ya. Make a female character with long hair then add a bandana and equip it see the halo actuly hides the hair that would normaly (without the halo) be seen this also applys to plate arms most all helmets etc. etc.

 

[Tremerelord]

As for the name, I did see this.

March 24, 2004

Name the newborn

The Dev team is running out of imagination and needs your help to come up with the new expansion's code name. So if you think you can come up with something other than Asian Pwnage, read below:

Perhaps you can help. We need a good internal codename. Some developer who will remain as yet unnamed (and probably without having had their morning coffee) suggested "Asian Invasion." I've rejected this suggestion for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that as an acronymn, it perhaps promises too much...

I'm sure one of you can do better. All entries will be judged on creativity, cultural relevance (there's no such thing as Chinese Ninjas), and downright coolness. How would you like to be the person that came up with the internal codename for UO's next expansion?? Hints, think PvP, feudal japan, exploration, etc...

and...

My wife read my post and asked me if I thought the phrase "Asian Invasion" could be considered inappropriate or insensitive. I certainly didn't intend it to be, and that's actually the primary reason that it never recieved serious consideration. It's silly and potentially divisive. No suggestions along those lines will be considered or even responded to.

Anyway, I hope that no one reads my original response and feels that I was being crass, as that was not my intent. As such, I'm not editing it.

Anthony Castoro
"SunSword"
Producer, Ultima Online

The UO Expansion Code Name

Quite a few people have been submitting names. A few are actually quite nice. They didn't get "Asian Pwnage" thank God :-P but a few other "interesting" ones were submitted. As SunSword said, if nothing else, they give a good chuckle:

Wow, lots of great responses!

As several people noted, we're looking for a good internal name.
Here are some of the one's I like so far...

Shogun
Sushi
Wasabi (Waaasssaaaabiiiii)
The Art of War (Chinese, but pretty universal)
Oni
Tsunami
Nippon
Otaku
Edo

Here are some of the one's that cracked me up, but we probably can't use:

Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto
Geisha's gone wild
Wok the UO
Avatars Gone Hentai! (UO:AGH!)

Thanks for the chuckles

Anthony Castoro
"SunSword"
Producer, Ultima Online

The new expansion

An article on the japanese game site 4gamer.net details some of what SunSword discussed during a video conference with the Japanese media. They attempted a rough translation of the article, but rough is somewhat of an understatement. So I just pulled out what I felt were the few important items discussed in the article:

Addition of the new map which designates Japan as theme
The new item which parallels to theme, addition of the new monster
New addition of occupation "samurai" "ninja"
Japanese-style tile "of house design tool" business
PvP expansion and the like of system
New items will also be added:

Large sword (Dai-Katana)
Nodati (No-Dachi)
Short sword (Wakizashi)
Armor (Yoroi)
Kimono (Kimono)
The new land is NOT for housing, only hunting, and the difficulty will be for middle to higher level players. Whether or not there will be a Doom-like dungeon isn't quite clear either. They are hinting a lot about the changes in PvP where more of it would be allowed in Trammel. Seems like more Fel rules may be leaking over to Tram and vice-versa, but no official comment about it yet.

The UO expansion was originally scheduled to be released in September, but with the move, they are now mentionning late fall, early winter.

Then Sunsword stepped in and clarified a few things:

Well, that's certainly a bizarre take on the whole thing. A few corrections:

Question: SunSword came out from hiding!

Answer: I wasn't hiding. As you can imagine, I've been extremely busy helping the UO team and the studio prepare for our transition to California. Between the personal challenges of moving my family from Austin to the SF area and the logistical challenge of moving our operations, there is little time left to hang out and post on the boards.

Question: He spoke about new expansion at press conference at EA Japan,

Answer: Actually, the reporters were at EA Japan. I was at EA HQ in California. The wonders of technology!

Question: 1) Asian taste new world,

Answer: I don't seem to remember commenting on the cooking system, but I suppose we could add chow mein and sushi...(for those of you without a sense of humor, this was a joke, not a promise)

Question: -New land like Malas, with starting professions of Ninja & Samurai
--Samurai = Noble Warrior who fight with Honor
--Ninja = Mysterious Assassin with expert skill of Stealth

Answer: Really, what I said was that we were looking to add a new land area with an Asian theme, specifically Feudal Japan. We intend to add 2 new professions, and Samurai and Ninja are under consideration.

Question: -New monsters and fairies based on asian myth

Answer: I never used the word "fairies"

Question: New area (dungeon?) where you can get new items like champ spawn(PS) or Doom (artifacts)

Answer: I never mentioned champ spawn or doom-like artifacts.

Question:-New asian taste armor, weapon and clothing
-New asian taste house deco tool

Answer: I don't know what asian armor tastes like, but I suppose we could add that. Seriously, those are things under consideration.

Question: 2) PvP change He did not mention much about PvP, but he said "Unification of Felucca & Trammel is UO's ultimate goal"

Answer: No, what I said was that ultimately, we want a unified pvp system that addresses the issues surrounding Felucca & Trammel, in particular the disparity in population distribution. Whether that entails somehow unifying the lands themselves was not part of the discussion.

Question: 3) New Graphic Engine still strong emphasis on 2D... UO's most merit is you can play on laptop

Answer: When asked about a new graphics engine, my response was that for this expansion, we are not making any major changes to the client. And then I followed up with the fact that UO's playability on low-end machines and laptops was a valuable trait of the service. I also mentioned that we cannot currently talk about any efforts to update UO's client to be more competative with contemporary games.

Question: Maybe he was joking, but he mentioned about new mountable frog. Also he mentioned about release time 'winter'

Answer: Don't overfocus on the mountables thing. The reference to the frog (really a toad) had to do with one of the legends about elite Ninjas, which included the ability to ride a toad. It wasn't a promise, it was really something we all just got a chuckle about.

I spent the rest of Friday and Saturday escorting UO team members and their families around EA Headquarters and touring silicon valley. EA was really great to us. They had huge plasma screens running footage from a variety of Origin's best games all over the campus. Very cool. The facilities are amazing, from day care to the spinning room. Not to mention the state of the art offices.

Still, no matter how much the company helps out, this is going to be a tough transition for many of us. We're going to make it quick so that our work on the expansion and our greater plans for UO can stay on track. In the next couple of weeks you'll see a new flurry of activity, and probably quite a few job openings.

More on this expansion and our move to EA Redwood Shores coming soon!

Anthony Castoro
"SunSword"
Producer, Ultima Online

Link for the above message
Link to Sunswords discussion in their forums

 

[KingSmidgens]

not to be racist, but most of the Asians that I have seen on UO haven't played before AOS.. and AOS is the Age of Sissies! Most people (on Napa, mainly where I play) never go to felucca, and I have actually soloed Barracoon a few times.. Once, I saw a guy named "Greenthrtrs" or something like that, as soon as I got near him he said "Kal Ort Por" and vanished, probably to his Malas house.. I believe the new expansion will be to get money, at this point I don't really think they care about what the game plays like.. they've got a ton of people paying them, and when it says "Asian" landmass, it would be a very bad idea to have it be PvP oriented, since most of the AOS fans hate PvP with a vengeance. It may be cool, if they make the new landmass no-pvp and add pvp into Malas, would certainly make Doom a lot more fun, heh heh.. one of the reasons I think AOS ruined PVP is that some of the weapon's special abilities just plain suck in pvp!.. the pvp in old ultima was cool because all weapons were balanced for speed and damage.. you could use a halberd for a single strike or use a bardiche to try to hit a few times and disrupt your opponents casting, though i'm no pvp expert =\.. anyway, very interesting topic. :S I am FOR the expansion, I still play AOS, and the way I see it.. it can't really get any worse!

I haven't played Beta, though my friend was trying to get me in to it, I didn't have the time..
I think I first started a little before T2A was released, and quit shortly after Third Dawn to play EQ, which was a big mistake..

I haven't known a GM while he was a GM, but a friend of mine on Napa used to be a GM on Atlantic.. I personally haven't seen one in a loong time, but saw some in the counselors guild, and talked to one in person when my account got hacked, he didn't do anything =\

And I don't hate Origin, I hate EA, but I actually liked Origin! They hosted events and stuff, though rarely, they were very fun.. GMs used to be pretty easy to get in touch with, too!

May be a little late for most of this stuff, but it's my two cents and I hope you can argue about it because I love to argue about arbitrary stuff =\