What Would a Semi-Regular/Regular Festival of Sosaria Look Like?
This is just me throwing something together in 15 minutes from https://wiki.ultimacodex.com/wiki/Main_Page, UO.com's wiki and UOguide.com. I enjoy festivals in other MMOs, and when they are held regularly, can be fun meeting places for friends. It can and should be somewhat simple like WOW's Darkmoon Faire (which is mostly fixed in its location and happenings), versus the insanity of the dozen or so festivals held throughout the year in Final Fantasy XIV.
What:
- A fun, semi-regular event/meeting place for current, new, and returning players that over the long run provides something new while minimizing dev involvement (re-using assets, location)
Goals:
- Tie into Ultima or Ultima Online lore
- Something on a regular basis, maybe a weekend a month (or a week every month), so that dev resources aren’t wasted on an event that only happens once a year - this should be looked at as a long-term investment in something “new” for UO, while re-using assets and minimizing dev time.
- Replaces a lot of holiday stuff, if not all, and also at the same time provides a convenient place for people to get their holiday fixes - could use different decorations every so often throughout the year (either EMs do it or automate it), UO certainly has enough decorative items that can cover most times of the year (pumpkins, snow, summer harvests, spring flowers, etc.) and specific items could be awarded as prizes based on the time of year (cuddly teddy bears with hearts, Halloween-related stuff, etc.).
- Having a regular event means that FOMO goes away and people aren’t stressed or disappointed if they miss it.
- Re-use of existing in-game assets, systems, and locations
- Could be also used by the EMs in their events, as well as player guilds, etc.
- Really beautify the place, and have some interesting NPCs from Ultima’s history (there are 3-4 NPCs in New Magincia in Ultima VII that play up their Festival of Spring).
- Great place for guilds to recruit, or to host new players
- Neutral ground, available to everybody (Tram and Fel alike)
Examples in Ultimate History or using Ultimate lore
- From Ultima III and shortly before Ultima IV: There was a festival held to commemorate the defeat of Exodus, and it was at this festival that the land was rechristened as “Britannia”, referenced in future games (such as the 200th anniversary of the founding, etc.).
- From Ultima VI: “Where better to start an account of Britannia than with her largest and greatest city? Home to merchants, artisans, farmers and craftsmen, as well as our beloved king, all are welcome in Britain. As Taynith reminded me, during the last great festival they lit off enough fireworks to turn night into day, and the fountains, nay, the very rivers themselves flowed red with wine! Or so do I recall it, at least.
- From Ultima VII: Festival of Spring, mentioned prominently by several NPCs in Ultima VII, held in New Magincia (I’m not a fan of the location because of player housing ruining the look and lag). (but if hosted throughout the year, Festival of Spring loses its meaning)
- Also from Ultima VII: The Solstice Festival, mentioned prominently by the King of the White Dragon as he plotted against Shamino (he wanted to hang, draw, and quarter Shamino). Unfortunately he held the Solstice Festival to commemorate the death of his daughter (broken heart) and the siege of the goblins by inviting all of his subjects to a “grand banquet for the Solstice Festival” in his castle where he had them all slow tortured to death and then threw himself out of a tower of the castle. If we want to go the Game of Thrones route, there you go.
- From Ultima IX: “ Now there was a certain inn, located midway between Britain and Yew, and famous for its excellent autumn ale. So good was the brew that many fine folk were given to retire to that place for a fortnight's holiday when the new casks were breached. Tents had to be pitched on the grounds to hold all the guests, and for two weeks each fall the place took on the air of a fair or festival.”
- Ultima Underworld II/Ultima VII: Festival of Rebuilding, mentioned by Lord British, held at Lord British’s Castle - not sure what we would be rebuilding though, unless the Shattering requires it. Originally meant to celebrate the rebuilding after the destruction of the Black Gate, and it was celebrated throughout Sosaria
- Ultima: The Terror of Exodus (Manga, Japanese novel): the Founding of Sosaria was celebrated
- Lord British’s Birthday (doesn’t seem like the kind of thing he would want)
- UO: Any number of things, commemorate the Trinsic invasions, the splitting of Tram/Fel, etc.
These are just examples, UO can have its own Festival of Sosaria
Locations
- Has to be in old-school Sosaria. No Malas, no Tokuno Islands, no Ilshena, no Ter Mur
- No nearby player housing, mainly for lag, but also for not ruining the overall vibe/look of the area with Borg cubs and vendor malls. New players will get exposed to that soon enough, better to have an area consisting of a coherent design..
- Add in a gate to wherever it is at if there is not a nearby one
- If on the mainland, a coastal area (Paws? - dang it, I just want to see The Cat’s Lair done right!), could be used to revitalize the history of Paws, between Britain and Trinsic as an example. The problem with coastal areas is there is usually housing near the nicer areas. Has to be a coastal area, because we need to maximize the re-use of assets, etc., and it’s an easy to way to add events that are water-based
- Nujelm - has the area that memorializes those players who have passed away, doesn’t have a lot going on outside of Prism of Light. Is a bit large, but that means a lot of space to work with. Has a large palace, some fine entertainment establishments.
- Jhelom as well, would require more work than Nujelm (because not as much open space and is smaller) but doesn’t have Prism of Light and has a closely located gate
- Trinsic - has a great location, lots of facilities, is fairly self-contained, would be easy to decorate, but it has also been a great location for epic invasions/etc. in the past and don't want to interfere with that going forward - feels like with an island, it's easier to keep it clear of larger events.
- Lord British’s Castle - intriguing, there are 2-3 events from Ultima lore that could be tied into it, would bring some life back to Britain, but could be a lag fest, and is extremely small, without room for larger stuff.
Events
- Being on an island or a coastal area, have a deep-sea dock with some kind of seaborne events (net tosses on the dock, etc.).
- Have some kind of hunting challenge, which we already have in Skara Brae, but make this one hyper-focused/themed or cover other stuff. People may have to travel to the mainland to hunt
- BOD turn-ins (think Artisan Festival) - example, the ones for the Christmas tree stuff
- Have a mini-dungeon that can be soloed, and maybe one that requires a team. Think of the mini-dungeon on New Haven
- Have the various mini-games we’ve had in UO/Ultima available (board games, darts, archery buttes, etc. and make use of the training dummies, etc.).
- Daily quests, maybe scavenger hunts,
- Quests for new players, profession-specific quests, and quests for everybody
- PvP fighting arena.
- Boat race around an island? Foot/mount race? This is tricky because of client differences.
- Concerts by NPCs playing various Ultima-specific songs.
Facilities
- Large meeting hall or arena for player-run or EM events
- Deep-sea fishing off the docks (think net tosses)
- Arenas for fighting
- Have a Royal Zoo with truly unique creatures (worst of the worst dungeon dwellers, etc.).
That's just the tip of the iceberg. Point being, we can do something in place of the holiday events, and provide an actual gathering area for players once a month that isn't Malas or a champ spawn.
Comments
The lore of UO is so mixed up and confused and in some places contradicts itself.
As I already said, the developers understand all this and do it, not as quickly as many would like. The problem is that NL has received an unworthy little attention to itself and therefore people go in circles with ideas that are already in the game. In my opinion, the problem is in retail, yes, it brings money, but if we want a new life for UO, we need wipes and reformatting to a new vector, If we continue to flounder in the retail swamp, all your ideas will remain dreams.
The lore is extremely confusing at times, but there are festivals and events that do span multiple games, such as the one celebrating the founding of Britannia, the Spring Festival (obviously it'd need to be renamed if it happened every month or two), etc. The Solstice Festival would be a no-go, both because of timing, but also because that is Ultima's version of the Red Wedding (and it happened long before that Game of Thrones book was written).
I know you're not talking about wiping the production shards (that would end UO), but having the NL fill in some gaps that production shards do not handle I think helps, as people aren't missing out on events, and it's scratching the quest itch that new players might have. As I've said on another site, I also don't think the NL is meant to stand alone - I think it's a part of something else, because on its own, it doesn't bring in revenue, but they put a lot of resources into it, and wouldn't do that if there wasn't a plan for it to help bring in revenue in some manner.
I just think it would be cool to have something setup to run on autopilot as it were, with only the occasional swap in deco/gifts/rewards (as I said, all using previously created art assets).