Ultima Online Chronicles, or My Adventures on Pacific in 2000 Year

After a few minutes, it was all over. All of "ours" went down rather quickly, and Herbalot chased me four times before my connection failed. The lag did its black work, and I continued to watch the scene in black and white as a ghost.

And then the black-horns acted in such a way that if I had been there I would have shaken hands with them and bought them a beer. In one voice they started saying things like "Sir, you're the greatest, you are the best…" To which he replied that it was a pity he couldn't be "blue" because he liked killing so much…

That's it – the Evil you believe in, which makes you resent, worry and enjoy the game to the fullest.

Nevertheless, I took them all on my pencil. Perhaps we'll get some more fighting. I'll sentence them without malice, or at least I'll try.

Some players put a sentence-command on the macro that covers all cases

Monster to monster

As you can easily guess, game monsters are also differentiated by the color of the name or title. Even the most undeveloped character will always be able to find a creature that he can kill. You start with rabbits, small feathered creatures, and I have yet to see the limit of perfection. I watched the dragons from a distance and with due reverence. Fauna is constantly respawning, just as the flora. It's impossible to turn trees completely into usable logs, it's just that after a certain stroke they cease to give out wood. Of course, you can't make a lot of logs within the city or its nearest suburbs. However, the concept of "wilderness" in Ultima can be considered abolished. The most "wild" places are recognized by the toughness of the local monsters, but often we have to fight with the trolls and ettins in the vicinity of private property of some rich players.

What got me absolutely thrilled was the NPC's hitmen! My first encounter with them ended sadly: the character was already exhausted and hungry, and then as if by chance there was a lag. A trio of red-named PKs rushed after me and, alas, after half a minute the screen went black and white. And then my assassin comments appear on it like, "Okay, look, what kind of armor do we have here? Bone armor?! And what's in here? Magic reagents! Wow!". Only at that moment did I realize that I was in the company of NPC, the inscriptions on the screen were changing each other too quickly, people don't print on the keyboard at that speed.

To this lady blacksmith I promised that I would only buy armor from her

The density of monsters per square pixel is not constant, sometimes you can stomp through the forest for a ten or twenty minutes before something worthy of wasting arrows appears. But the game seems to sense when you are low on ammo: trolls, two-headed ettins, all sorts of orcs, and snakes immediately pick up your trail. Once I saw a fighter get chased through the woods by 5 or 6 orcs supported by a troll. Lucky for him there weren't any mages among them.

Each creature has its own intelligence, its own habits. If big "game" can be easily lured into a dead end formed by good mutual arrangement of trees, hills and other obstacles, then, for example, orc-mages or Dire Wolves will get to you in any case. And if you're not wearing any decent armor, all you can do is maneuver and shoot arrow after arrow at the pursuer (in archers' way).

Another curious thing – monsters don't always coexist peacefully, I witnessed myself a panther fighting with a living magic tree.

The dragon is taken from the stable, where he was during the absence of the owner

Professional growth

There is no point in trying to become a multi-tasker, the more often you apply a skill, the higher the corresponding skill becomes. At the beginning of the game, it is better to spend the night (in real time) in the training room, practicing basic combat skills on dummies. Or, for example, your character can try to talk to spirits on each cycle (which also increases Intellect) and strike the dummy with the weapon of his choice. Other times, put him on the sidewalk and let him play the lute. In addition to the art of music-making this way is pumped up Dexterity. Just do not forget about the food. With available macros system (adjustable for each game session) and unsophisticated software UOLoop! which can be downloaded from the Internet, you can automate the training process and do in parallel other things. And do not be tormented with reproaches of conscience, in this case it's just a time saver.

Almost every NPC is able to train people in several ways. If only there was money. Pay the requested amount in cash (or as much as you have in your pocket at the moment) and your abilities instantly increase by the corresponding sum.

One "but" – it's impossible to get above a certain level in this way. All serious achievements are based on the constant practice of skills in the field. That's why I'm no longer surprised at the sight of a mage who casts a wall of fire, then walks into it himself, stands and grunts, and increases Spell Resistance. Or materializes polar bears one by one with a few memorized gestures.

UO is fashioned in the best fantasy tradition – all the female characters are beautiful

What is good and what is bad

Like it or not, but you can't avoid communicating with other players in Ultima. And you play, by and large, to establish yourself in the society that has developed in the game, to gain a certain influence in it, to change it in some way to your liking. Of course, without knowledge of English, the pleasure of the game shrinks.

Like any social system, Ultima has its own ethics, which most players honor. So, if you become a witness to the player's fight with monsters, you do not need to rush to the rescue, most likely he can handle it without you. Another thing is when a player is trying to get away from some creature, and it does not work. In such a situation, you can first get involved in the course of events, and then ask if anyone will be against it. The fact is that for ridding the world of any monster characters get an increase in Fame and Karma. I, for example, was hurt when a couple of gawkers finished off the ettin I'd mauled. Only the blow that puts an end to the monster's life counts. And when I said what I thought of them, one of them threw back, "This is life".

Maybe that's how the first PK appeared?

Who wants red dragons? Cash payment only, only 8 thousand a piece…

During the last "immersion" in the game I was offered to join a guild. I thought it over and over, and I didn't refuse. Now my character's name consist of "two lines" and is drawn in green. The objectives of the guild are quite noble: to do good, to earn good and not to give our own in offense. With time I will gain experience, accumulate gold, secure a site with a log cabin and create my own primary organization. This goal, from the looks of it, is not hard. And I also want to buy a ship because I am curious to sail around the sea, fighting sea monsters.

And what of this endeavor has turned out, I'll tell you next time. Only at once I warn, the next time will not be born quickly. After all, as one bastard remarked, this is life.

Part II

What was supposed to happen happened. A month flashed by, and the game time I had paid for when I bought the box came to an end. Naturally, I was not happy with this turn of events, so I tried to get things back on track. To begin with I checked a few retail outlets that sold UO, asking the same question everywhere about the availability of 90 game days special coupons. Everywhere I was turned away. True, in one place I ran into an old trail – in March they were sold for 1250 rubles. A simple recalculation disappointed me: this method of payment was twice as "painful" as using a credit card. The final call to Soft Club confirmed that I should not look for coupons, it was not worthwhile. Selling games – yes, selling game time – no. Do not blame them for that, who knows what kind of difficulties in this business.

Looking ahead, I should say that I got a credit card in one of the Moscow banks. VISA Classic. I had to pay two hundred green portraits, but the reanimation of the account went off without a hitch.

Illegal UO

It so happened that the credit card issuance was delayed for a couple of days, the cashier forgot to do some operations. But I had time to poke around the Internet "Ultima" resources. And then I found out some pretty amazing things.

And the world is quite three-dimensional!

It turns out that there is an Ultima Online emulator in nature, or rather, on the Internet. It's called The Ultimate Server, which, according to the FAQ posted on the site, is very clearly denying any connection to Origin Systems or Electronic Arts. And it seems they are pretty good at it. Judge for yourself, currently this emulator is installed on almost a hundred servers around the world.

Searching through Russian-language resources (starting point was http://www.ultima.ru/) also yielded results. For a start, I realized that, despite the newly appeared prefix "Respectable Master Warrior" to my character's name, I still look at the Ultima world with my eyes wide open. It also turned out that a lot of my compatriots use those very emulator servers. Naturally, curiosity got the better of me, and soon I got free logins on Zuluhotel (http://zuluhotel.dynip.com/uo) and the local The Lost Fort (http://www.lostfort.ru/).

Tribal UO

The Zuluhotel is completely free. Updating the client part of the fun happens in the process of communicating of the client program with the "native" patch service of the game. The first impression – the most favorable. In appearance – the same UO, but viewed from the side. From the side, in the sense that the original universe is there, but the accompanying service is at a complete standstill. It's understandable – the universe is written in the client, and in order to organize a normal game process you need a server based on Sun with a full-fledged team. As a result – constant glitches, lag periodically appearing, a lot of standard features don't work. A kind of ersatz, but people who are hooked on UO gobble it up and even smack their lips. Character development here is going at an accelerated pace. After all, not many people hang out here, and that's why the leveling of skills and characteristics of heroes goes "by the hours, not days". That's how the game works – the fewer characters use a skill, the faster it grows. A lot of players become blacksmiths and miners here. For ore is never depleted in the hillside, which is located 10 seconds walk from the "forge" in Britain. And the ore is mined at once of all the colors and shades, regardless of the level of the Mining skin. With one cycle of "mining/production of armor," a beginner can get 400–500 coins. No other occupation is able to give such income.

An example of the mayhem on Zulu. If you look closely, the victim character is standing right at the intersection of the conjured walls. Only his helmet is sticking out

Except for PK'illing, of course. On Zulu, there's a lot of mayhem. Guards are often simply impossible to summon, you are killed, and they look the other way, three meters from the scene of the crime, pretending that the screams "Guards!" are not for them. The server has a "PvP" feature, Player vs. Player. Each player can set the appropriate flag for his character. If its value – Yes (which is set by default), it means that this character agrees in advance to participate in any combat. As a result, all the newbies are constantly being "pummeled" with impunity (and not only in the john), and they can't understand anything. A guy walks through town, bang! – Lightning, and the guy's gone. And so on, time after time, until some kind soul enlightens him. There's a huge ankh standing by the bank, and it's used to put up or take down PvP flag.

Ultimers celebrate Christmas and New Year's Eve. All citizens of the game received a gift ticket. If you combine two tickets in the exchange window, you can choose a gift. For example, snowballs to throw at each other, a jeweled Christmas tree or Blessing Deed. With the latter you can make any item of clothing "blessed," after which it can not be taken from the owner, even in the case of death of the latter

A characteristic feature of Zulu is the lack of normal fauna. Forests look extinct, and monsters are found only in special locations and dungeons, and their quantity and "quality" does not match the range of the game on the official servers. Beating of all sorts of evil spirits in the cemetery became a local sport, thankfully they respawn at a wild rate. Sometimes, you can see a completely abnormal picture, when the various skeletons, zombies and ghosts under the overall command of the Lich chase through the streets of Britain after some good citizens. Fun!

But the most annoying feature of Zulu – pumped up troublemakers who have nothing to do and look for fun at the expense of other characters: then start putting up walls that prevent people to move, then just kill right in the city, regardless of negative PvP flags.

Nevertheless, Zulu has a fairly stable community, as evidenced by the presence of several guilds (including Russian – Ice Friends and Angels of Apocalypse).

Particulars of national Ultima

At the time of writing the material on the first Russian emulator server UO – The Lost Fort players spent a total of over 64 thousand hours (if we believe the Fort statistics). And I was there, managed to drink a honey-beer, until the "Russian team of fans of this game" announced that since December, the pleasure of playing ersatz-UO without lag will be charged. At the rate of 10 cents a day, for at least a month, i.e. three bucks. Yeah. Looks like "amateurs" decided to become "pros", condoning the fee with server maintenance costs and all that stuff. There is no desire to comment on this point, but about the "Fort" itself I can tell a little bit.

The world of UO is in constant development. Within a few days a fort of the human-orc guild emerged in a deep forest. Copying the clothes of the orcs, remade language (for example, the warning phrase about the PKs roaming in the forest in their language is Der ur pks ina furest dabu) are all elements of complete role-playing. Already during the first meeting, they demanded from me a Tribute, as it turned out – under the tribute meant the skins of the killed game

There is more order here than at the Zulu Hotel, but all other problems are present. Animals in the forests and fields are found, but there is no abundance. Birds are not seen at all, and if there are no birds, there are no feathers for self-made arrows and crossbow "bolts". The range of goods in the stores compared with the official servers is not impressive. Locations in which there are decent monsters – one, two and that's it. True, I never got to the local dungeons, except once, when I was "invited" to hunt together. As soon as I got out of the portal, a paralyzing field was immediately cast on it. Fifteen seconds later I was dead, and I was told that I should deliver my deepest apologies on such-and-such ICQ account for the fact that the day before a good girl had died because of me.

That's when I remembered how the day before, right outside the bank I was attacked by three pumped comrades. Just because I told the girl mage that she looked cool in her outfit. Taking the compliment as a pick up attempt, I was immediately informed that they were going to kill me. When the process went on, I called the guards, who sent the beauty to death with one blow. And I managed to get away on my feet.

After that there were long conversations on ICQ, and we parted as buddies. One of us realized that a compliment is not a crime, and the other – that you should not go with unfamiliar chars to kill monsters in the unknown places.

PK'illing on the "Fort" is flourishing, with bounty hunters on duty at all the more or less attractive "hunting grounds".

Character development here also goes at an accelerated pace due to the small number of the playing fraternity. For example, the intelligence and dexterity begin to grow before your eyes, it is only necessary to pick up a lute.

In general, those who have not had a chance to try the real UO, will be fully delighted, staying in the dark about what they are deprived.