Ultima Online facts for kids
Ultima Online is a super popular fantasy-themed MMORPG. That's a fancy way of saying it's a huge online game where lots of players can explore a magical world together! It's played all over the world. In the game, servers are called shards. The game first came out in 1997 from a company called Origin Systems. Now, Electronic Arts owns it. Just like in many games, a big part of playing is making your character the best they can be!
Contents
How to Play
Ultima Online uses ideas from the older single-player Ultima games. It was designed to be a cool social and economic experiment, meaning players could interact and trade a lot.
Skills
Your character has many different skills, like Magery (magic), Necromancy (dark magic), Alchemy (making potions), and Mining (digging for treasure). There are about 50 different skills! Skills are measured in percentages. The highest you can get is 100%, but special items can sometimes boost them up to 120%.
Character Stats
Every player character has basic statistics (or stats) that show how strong they are. These are strength, intelligence, and dexterity.
Crafting System
Ultima Online has a really big crafting system. This means players can make tons of different things! You can create everything from powerful weapons to entire ships.
Game Expansions
Over the years, Ultima Online has added many expansions (also called datadiscs). These usually bring new monsters, items, and maps to explore.
- Ultima Online: Second Age (1998)
- Ultima Online: Renaissance (2000) – This one split the game world into two copies: Felucca and Trammel.
- Ultima Online: Third Dawn (2001)
- Ultima Online: Lord Blackthorn's Revenge (2002)
- Ultima Online: Age of Shadows (2003)
- Ultima Online: Samurai Empire (2004) – This expansion added a cool samurai theme.
- Ultima Online: Mondain's Legacy (2005) – A new race, the Elves, joined the game!
- Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn (2007)
- Ultima Online: Stygian Abyss (2009) – This expansion brought another new race, the Gargoyles!
Game Servers
The official game servers are called OSI shards. OSI stands for Origin Systems Inc., which is now part of EA. These official servers have been running for over 10 years!
Fan-Made Servers
People can also change Ultima Online game files pretty easily. This lets many fan-made projects create their own game servers, called shard emulators. To run your own shard, you need a server emulator program. The company EA Games usually allows these fan projects to exist. Some popular ones are:
- RunUO
- Sphere
- POL
Cool Facts
- Since the Renaissance expansion, the game world has been split into two copies: Felucca and Trammel.
- The Trammel world is safer. It doesn't allow players to fight each other (player vs. player, or PvP). It focuses more on fighting monsters.
- The Felucca world is more dangerous. It allows players to fight each other, which makes it a "darker" and more challenging place.
- The game client uses only images, not 3D models. For example, each character has about 500 different images to show how they look!
- Characters only have graphics for four directions. The other four directions are made by simply flipping (mirroring) those images.
- It's easy to change the game's graphics and other files. This is a big help for those fan-made servers!
What Your Computer Needs
To play Ultima Online, your computer needs:
- Windows 95 or any newer version of Windows
- At least 32 MB of RAM memory
- DirectX 5 or a newer version
- An internet connection of 32kbit/s or faster
Images for kids
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Garriott (left), Long, Koster, and Rich Vogel at the 2018 Game Developers Conference
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A screenshot from Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn.
See also
In Spanish: Ultima Online para niños
