Ultima Online

atlantia

This will be a day by day thread of my experiences with the game, from the first day, today, (7 hours roughly of play time). To about a month of playing before the subscription runs out if I will keep subbed or not. I definitely won't play every day (never do that with any game) for the entire month. And as the month goes on, I may play less if I don't like it or play the same or more.

I also played UO so many years ago, I joined when they changed how PvP works. Which is the version I liked, because I'm not a big fan of sandbox PvP, and only sandbox MMO PvP I like is EVE. But this is a UO thread, so won't go into long winded post about why EVE PvP system/mechanics are a lot better than other sandbox PvP mechanics.

So onto my first 7 hour experience.

I did some reading into different builds (you have to do A LOT of research outside of the game, builds you can kinda just make your own as you play, but I wanted a build pre-planned) and went with a mage build. Especially focus a bit on summoning, since I love summoning in games.

Dex at 10, locked it. 15 might be better as a new player, but 10 seems good enough.
Str started at 30, dunno what it is now, but I didn't lock it
Int at 50 and obviously need it as a mage

Skills I started with were necromancy, magery, mysticism and spirit speak (needed for necromancy)

Skills I plan to level up to a high level or raise to a high level with items (over level 100 in each of these skills, again some will be with items) are Mysticism, focus, spirit speak and MAYBE spellweaving (dunno if I want to get it or not)

Necromancer I raised to 50, but its...kinda broken. As in, doesn't work. Its stupid, and the worst necromancy I ever used in any game. yes worse than GW2 necromancer and  I thought that was the worst I ever played, that one looks great compared to UO necromancy. Anyway, more on that later. I'll be lowering it to 30-40, just enough to cast wraith form without it being a pain to cast (wraith form is epic for mages, because it gives you mana when you attack in the form)

I'll need evaluating int, but only will take it to the mid-levels. And meditation I accidentally rose too high, so it will be lowered to 20, since I don't really need it too much with my build.

So, first. Magery and mysticism have epic summons. Mysticism especially has one of the best summons in the game, but I don't have enough skills for it yet and I'm working on magery. But its a collosus that makes a really good tank and is good for a lot of content. But magery also has a lot of summons, like daemons, elementals and some other fun stuff. Someone showed me a vortex summon and it worked really well and attacked all the nearby enemies (but you can't control it and can't move it from its spot). Its how I pictured necromancy "pets" to work.

So my first major disappointment. Necromancy. Holy shit is it the stupidest mechanic I've ever seen in any game with necromancers. In fact, the worst "pet" class I have ever had the misfortune to experience. You summon various undead I guess (though they aren't really undead, ones a horde minion that looks imp-like but without wings, ones a wisp, ones a wolf and some other stuff.). The problem is...

The necromancy pets don't attack the enemy. Even if you stand there getting beat on, they don't attack. If you are ranged (like a mage should be), they also don't attack. You have to run around (VERY CLOSE!) to the enemy and once in a while they'll attack the enemy...maybe...if you are lucky...probably not, they'll likely just do shit.

Can't tell them to attack. Can't tell them to do anything, and all they do is follow you by a mere inch and don't do shit. To be honest, it was so terrible and so broken I was about to quit the game and go "well this is the worst game, MMO or not, I have ever played. Even no mans sky is better than this crap"

"Luckily" some dude showed me his elemental summons, and they actually worked and attacked the enemy and they looked awesome, were actually useful and looked fun to use. Completely opposite of Necro summons. Then he showed off the collosus (the last, highest skill (summon) mysticism get) and it was awesome. Okay so he saved me quitting and never playing again.

Which I should say, the community is really nice. I see more people talking in-game chat than I do in GW2. In GW2 I barely see anyone chat at all, but UO has people talking sorta often. UO has a very social feel to it though, that only EVE has for me as far as more modern MMOs go. Ask a question, and people jumped up in chat to help. I even got some free starting stuff, and a couple free spellbooks (you need spellbooks because the spells you cast are inscribed in the book). Of course, everything requires ingredients to cast and bows/crossbows need ammo, but someone gave me a suit of clothing that with all the different clothing pieces added up decreases spell ingredient cost by 100%. Not really overpowered, because at endgame it becomes too weak, its kinda like...a balanced version of WoW's special account-bound armor, which in WoW that scales up with you when you level, but then becomes useless later on. UO sorta the same, but made for mages to help skill up easier, but doesn't offer any overpowered stats besides removing ingredient cost from spells.

Which is very helpful, because ingredients are hard to get, and merchants don't always have what you need. Playing a mage without a suit of armor that removes ingredient cost...well...I'd put that as a con, because they should give that to you at the start or through a quest, but maybe they wanted people to ask for it and actually socialize/trade with each other.

With that said about the community. Even on atlantic, chat is well kinda quiet  (but not dead) compared to trade chat in WoW. However, on the other hand, I see VASTLY more people in all the different cities and world itself than I do in WoW (partly because everyone is sitting in one place looking for dungeon/raid and doing instances non-stop). And like I said, the community is pretty friendly and awesome. 

From there, the game, 7 hours in feels kinda like diablo sorta. I remember UO was a lot different when I played. But unlike Diablo, UO has a huge open world open-ended system, with awesome sandbox-like elements to it. But a lot of the items have special stats on them that drop randomly in the world, dungeons and TONS of quests everywhere. Actually, a better example isn't so much Diablo. But it feels VERY similar to Asheron's Call back in its hayday. I think that is the closest example I can think of.

It feels kinda grindy raising skills, but at same time, it doesn't really feel that bad and skills raise at a nice speed. And there is TONS to do, I've really only done combat stuff because I want magery to get high enough so I can summon elementals. But I know there is a HUGE incredibly in-depth housing system and a lot to look forward to.

I'd say so far enjoyed my experience, mostly. Except necromancy. Holy shit is that a fucked up skill that they made. Only good to get to 30-40 for wraith form lol.