uriah
Latest
Ultima Online producer's letter promises revitalization of classic content
Did you wonder who was captaining Ultima Online since Calvin "Uriah" Crowner left his role as producer earlier this fall? Apparently, it's been none other than Jeff Skalski, who recently penned a producer's letter to introduce himself to the UO-faithful. In it, he explains that his goals for the grand-daddy of MMOs include heavily increasing the team's interaction with the community, implementing weekly Q&A sessions, squashing bugs, and "breathing life back into areas that have long been forgotten," i.e., revamping older content. In fact, some of that older content -- Shame, one of the original and iconic anti-virtue dungeons in classic Britannia -- is due for its revamp sooner rather than later. Publish 73, now on the test server, retools Shame with a truly massive itemization overhaul and difficulty scaling as players descend the dungeon's depths.
Ultima Online developer Q&A video covers... way too much for this headline
An Ultima Online developer Q&A was released today for all the undyingly loyal UO fans out there, and boy is it packed with information. Allow us a moment to take a deep breath and get a glass of water as we try to break it down for you. In the Q&A, UO Producer Cal Crowner (Uriah) and Associate Producer Bonnie Armstrong (Mesanna) cover a ton of territory, including spring cleaning, bug fixes, the potential addition of rare titles, and... woodchucks. A few notable responses, though, involved new additions coming to Ter Mur, the upcoming new player experience update, and the oft-discussed classic shard. Regarding the former two, the devs say that the tweaks to Ter Mur aren't finished just yet, with a new live event arc -- which will "encompass the history of Ter Mur" -- coming this June, while the new player experience is getting a huge revamp with the sweeping adjustment of many classic dungeons and the early play experience. And lastly, but very certainly not least in terms of "how likely is this to raise a firestorm from the deepest and most depraved depths of Hades," is the discussion of a classic shard. The verdict? There won't be one... for now. The team says, "We hear you... and yes it would be great, but there are so many ifs that people can't agree on... that it would be a really bad pursuit right now with what we're doing." That's right, light your torches and pitchforks, classic UO-lovers, and riot on past the cut for the full video.
