Hi everyone! Hope you're having a good day ;)

I've been playing MMO's for over a decade (quite religiously, hehe) and my favorites are UO, EQ, DAoC, and Shadowbane. After these, it kind of tapered off to be a mush (not a MUSH, but a mush like mashed potatoes mixed with too much gravy). Although I am not the biggest fan of Darkfall, I love the developers. Why? They love Ultima Online, and it shows despite Darkfall being a completely different game in every way. (That's my opinion, anyway).

I love Ultima Online for many reasons, but honestly it's close to every reason. The art style, the 2D 2.5D engine, the bank, the big world, tons of NPC's, sandbox gameplay, dungeons, backpack, paperdoll, skill cap system 7xGM, the spells-- everything! FFA PvP is the least of my concerns, because UO had some of the best PvE. Sure it wasn't as amazing as EQ's PvE, but it sure was great! Heck, even as a hardcore PvPer, I still probably spent more time fighting monsters than players. I just love UO's "world".

I'm still developing my game, and I just finished the Lizardman prototype, which I think is ready for the game, if I don't spruce him up a bit more before release. Being such a fan of Ultima Online and talking about it recently, I typed in google "Ultima Online Lizardman" and got this image. I thought I'd put it in the game engine and see what it would look like in my game (a comparison). Not having a swamp, I played around for about an hour to make one. It probably won't be the swamp in the game itself (I didn't like it) but it's good enough for now. All the characters are animating, but I froze them in my game to take the screenshot.

And yes, before I implement any additional features, the game WILL be very very similar to Ultima Online, although I can't say the combat system will be so...small? After the "base" of the game is setup (a fully working world, with a tutorial island the size of Moonglow) it will then add my own additional features and actually will end up closer to DAoC than Ultima Online. I will still have the legendary Paperdolls and Backpack though! Although, closer to a 2011 version.

Anyway, I just love to share my appreciation for Ultima Online, especially its art style, which I have loved and still appreciate today.

Enjoy!

I am with you. I would love to see a game with modern 2d graphics, like a Diablo 3  but a mmo.

UO will always be king in my book.

Originally posted by Consequence

I am with you. I would love to see a game with modern 2d graphics, like a Diablo 3  but a mmo.

 

UO will always be king in my book.

The same here. 

I keep thinking a modified version of the Titan Quest engine would be a great foundation to build a new UO on.

Please let me play your game.

Titan Quest? Pathfinding Engine? 3D? No way. IMO, games like Diablo, RTS games, etc. they don't even need 3D, and IMO it's overkill, especially on system requirements. 2D makes a game accessible to everyone. Literally. Even people without graphics cards (integrated gpu's).

Richard Gariott said it quite well,

"In an our interview with designer legend Richard Garriott, he made a very convincing argument (although he was addressing the constant technical progress of games in general, not only the graphics): “The closest thing to a first person shooter you had 20 years ago was a top-down game like Space Invaders. And then there were top-down shooters where you could run around in a maze and shoot monsters [...] But as soon as there was simple software 3D, you could say: “Skip the story, let’s just make a 3D version of the shooter”. And because it looked so much cooler, that was enough reason for gamers to buy it. And to compete with that software 3D game, you had to add depth. But as soon as you had 3d hardware, it went back to its simplest form.” Garriott’s conclusion: The constant resetting of the art form computer games to its lowest denominator limits its ability to explore serious topics or add depth. "

http://www.gamersglobal.com/special/report/why-2d-still-beats-3d

This isn't just in relation to graphics, but all game design. MMORPG's are so simplified these days, they are resetting to the lowest denominator. No serious topics. No depth.

It's time to change that.

I love your art but something to think about...  A slight change of shade for the lizardmen so they dont blend in too much with the grass.  Since you have the colors so close, you miss some of the brilliant detail on a few of them.

Great stuff, keep it up mate!

UO art is very nice.  I also loved the artwork in Lineage along with the music.  2.5D can still be a beautiful and immersive experience, at least for me.

Originally posted by Talonsin

I love your art but something to think about...  A slight change of shade for the lizardmen so they dont blend in too much with the grass.  Since you have the colors so close, you miss some of the brilliant detail on a few of them.

 

Great stuff, keep it up mate!

Hehe, I agree.

Unfortunately, players get to decide what color their want their lizard skin to be.

Yep, that's right, the Lizards are actually in grayscale, and a player picks their skin at character creation. (Yes, the Lizardmen are a playable race).

After the game has plenty of content, I hope to update each race with at least 4 different body types, or in the Lizardman's case, skin types. (Different snake skins; spotted, etc.) I also purposefully left the spikes/horn on the head blank, because the Lizardmen's hair is actually spikes of various types.

Unfortunately, these tiny polished parts of the graphics, while finished and ready, will be put on last priority. I want to see the first set of player races with at least 1 set of each armor type unique to their own race, at least a few hair styles, and 4 skin type or body types.

Skin type (spotted, scarred, etc.)  has priority over body type (buff, short & stout, tall & thin) though because a new body type means creating thousands of new images, as opposed to hundreds. (In 2D graphics, a new lizardman body TYPE would be a new model entirely with its own equipment which must fit. A new skin type keeps the same equipment, so it's easier ot add).

Depending on the race or object, it might likely will be grayscale so players can customize their characters like the dye tubs of UO or the dye sliders of more enhanced 3D games. Others might be permanently dyed (such as specific elemental weapons or ore types) while some might not be grayscale at all.

I love grayscale :) it gives you the wonderful details of an otherwise gorgeous texture, with the ability to change its colors any way you wish.

I also hope to add Paperdolls as a bonus feature after the game is ready. These paperdolls will be upclose images (Upper Chest to Head) and possibly even full figured toe to head (unlikely, but possible.) These are not just used in Trades, important/quest conversation between PC and NPC, but also for further character customization, such as eye color, scars, etc. Details which you cannot see up close.

I did not care for UO at the time (I did prefer the EQ experience), but I completely agree that you can still make an excellent game using 2D sprites over 3D polygons. I have always loved the isometric view used by games such as Diablo, Baldur's Gate, etc.

Best of luck with your efforts and your game.

Currently playing UO again lol, as a filler until something else comes out.

I have to agree and disagree in terms of graphics, I have always been a long term supporter of a UO2 3D project, while 2D UO has its charms and is very nostalgic the true feature that imo has never been beaten is its gameplay, UO is a fun game to play, not just to look at which is soemthing that seems to have been tipped on its head with all the newer MMOs, they are nice too look at but boring to play.

When I say gameplay what i mean is the feel and diversity of it, the ultima gameworld is something we can all relate too, the towns and cities in thegame were 'personal' places, not just the next quest hub or place to sell your stuff, they had real character and the players attached themselves to that, then you had the player housing, it was the next step in that ability to connect themseleves to a certain town or city.

Then the other layers, the whole good and bad thing, most games dont give you much of a choice in relation to that, they just hold your hand along the way to your 'hero' status, problem is when everyone is a hero then being a hero mean nothing. UO is different in that respects with the virtue system and lore. Whats even more suprising is that all these existsed at its launch which is more than can be said for alot of these so called skeleton mmo which have absolutely no depth or lore behind them.

From these forums and other mmo sites, the themeparks have been done to death, people are wanting something different which hopefully the companies will pick up on and realise there are a ton of misplaced mmo players looking for something other than the next cloned wow. I have no doubt that it will happen at some point but with numbers dwindling in UO now, maybe EA/Mythic will clinch the opportunity to make UO2.

Did OP happen to play on Catskills or Great Lakes? First pic looks like a couple of the roleplaying Orc clans that ran around UO for a long time. Based on the apperances of the 3.

I'm an old school gamer. I could handle the 2 D graphics, i'm in it for the game anyway.

I'm sure this mmo is deep. HOWEVER I downloaded the trial about a year ago, and found the UI, and sizing is just horrible.  For asking $9.95 a month is like saying " we don't need any new players, so we don't have to update anything ".

Originally posted by page

I'm an old school gamer. I could handle the 2 D graphics, i'm in it for the game anyway.

I'm sure this mmo is deep. HOWEVER I downloaded the trial about a year ago, and found the UI, and sizing is just horrible.  For asking $9.95 a month is like saying " we don't need any new players, so we don't have to update anything ".

The UI is the most customisable ive ever seen, you can even adjust the size of it in the Enhanced Client. As for the subscription, yes i agree its never changed that much and to be fair for its age and lowering population it should be reduced or even go F2P at this point.

There are frequent updates however.