Which expansion is your favorite?

Community Manager · May 1

Image: https://forum.uo.com/uploads/editor/6w/l68x8f5k8xz8.png

AmberWitch · May 1

Could you possibly post links to what each of those expansions offered? My old brain refuses to remember what some of those older expansions provided. Thanks!

Skett · May 1

T2A

Victim_Of_Siege · May 1

That would be the High Seas. Arrr!!

Victim_Of_Siege · May 1

AmberWitch said:

Could you possibly post links to what each of those expansions offered? My old brain refuses to remember what some of those older expansions provided. Thanks!

JackFlashUk · May 1

I have a hard time deciding wether I love SA more that HS. they are both amazing and enjoy the content even now

Skett · May 1

ya HS and SA are both great expansions for sure AoS and then ML was the worst tho

Pawain · May 1

Taming revamp.

Petra_Fyde · May 1

I don't have a favourite, is that allowed?

Mariah · May 1

AmberWitch In brief, just the main points.

2nd Age was the addition of Lost Lands

Renaisance was the introduction of Trammel

3rd Dawn was the first attempt at a new client, and only users of that client had access to Ilshenar

Lord Blackthorn's Revenge opened up Ilshenar to the rest of the player base

Age of Shadows brought the addition of Malas and the new combat system, giving us 'numbers and formulas' instead of names on our weapons and armor. Added Chivalry and Necromancy

Samurai Empire added Tokuno, Bushido and Ninjitsu.

Mondains Legacy added elves, new quests and the peerless encounters.

Stygian Abyss added the abyss, Ter Mur, Gargoyles as a playable race, Imbuing, throwing, Mysticism and a vast number of quests.

High Seas was a booster pack rather than an expansion, totally focused on the seas.

Time of Legends added Eodon and the dinosaurs.

@Victim_of_Siege - Play nice!

Lord_Nythrax · May 1

LBR was kind of a crappy expansion thrown together from leftover chunks of the cancelled UO2 project (at least partly in order to avoid EA being sued by Todd McFarlane) but it did mark the period in which I maintain that the game was at its all-time peak. Post publish 16, pre AOS.

Skett · May 1

^^^

Pawain · May 1

AoS first then taming revamp. I like to kill the heck out of stuff, not just fool, around.

Victim_Of_Siege · May 1

Mariah said:

@ AmberWitch In brief, just the main points.
2nd Age was the addition of Lost Lands
Renaisance was the introduction of Trammel
3rd Dawn was the first attempt at a new client, and only users of that client had access to Ilshenar
Lord Blackthorn's Revenge opened up Ilshenar to the rest of the player base
Age of Shadows brought the addition of Malas and the new combat system, giving us 'numbers and formulas' instead of names on our weapons and armor. Added Chivalry and Necromancy
Samurai Empire added Tokuno, Bushido and Ninjitsu.
Mondains Legacy added elves, new quests and the peerless encounters.
Stygian Abyss added the abyss, Ter Mur, Gargoyles as a playable race, Imbuing, throwing, Mysticism and a vast number of quests.
High Seas was a booster pack rather than an expansion, totally focused on the seas.
Time of Legends added Eodon and the dinosaurs.
@ Victim_of_Siege - Play nice!

Yes Ma'am.

Cookie · May 1

Personal Favourite was Mondains Legacy - I had always felt my magic users and archers should be elves. The Peerless bosses were cool.

I do not remember when they completed the Virtues, but that took a long time for them to finish, but that was another great part of the game, so completing an Elvin mage avatar, was about as good as it got for me.

Second favourite, Stygian Abyss. Underworld, and Stygian Abyss are in fact a work of art with their level of content, and the entire Imbuing system was fantastic, and logical, after all the random luck and chaos that had preceded via Reforging.

Unfortunately, Imbuing introduced Brittle, a horrific attribute, I could never understand why the Devs always felt they had to give with 1 hand, and take away with the other, in a fake semblance of "this maintains some sort of balance".

Age of Shadows - worst at the time - I even quit for 8 years after that one. Although Chivalry, and Necromancy skills were cool, it gave rise to the Sampire (with the next expansion), and UO was a Dexxer game ever since then.

Worst, Renaissance - in the long term.
When Trammel first came, I don't think anyone could have realised it would cause all the ingame issues it has today though. Unlimited scripting, no risk vs reward, destroyed the economy and 90% of the point of the entire game. There should have been no loot in Trammel, it should have had deco drops only, and been a character training, socialising and housing area only.

Lord Blackthorns Revenge was cool, but I remember it with disappointment that Illshenar was only in Trammel, the realisation then was that the game had given up. From then, I rarely went into Trammel, unless huge risk free reward events enticed me.

When most games introduce a new race, I usually groan, and that race is the new must-have OP race going etc etc, it does get boring, but UO managed to introduce both of its new races inside very good expansions. They did make the gargoyles too over-powered, then nerfed them pretty much instantly, and made their new race the weakest ever since then, only UO could do that... Of course, Gargs, and partially elves, with their different equipment, then gave the Devs a longer term armour consistency problem - another learning curve for the Devs.

Eodon barely raised an eyebrow, which is a little unfair to it. It was in Trammel, and by this stage, most players I know, were not the slightest bit interested in Trammel. Although of course it had roof, and the new artifacts, so that created a great grind. Eodon is judged unfairly I think though, in that it does have some decent content there, just most players cannot be bothered to leave Felucca to go there. Another learning point - I do not think No recall zones help, players do want ease of travel, I don't think UO needs to be scared of diminishing it's content by having quick travel, as it has so much content.

The issue with High Sea's, again, is most players just do not have that sort of time on their hands to play this content. Again - I'm sure, that is a decent expansion - I have it, but have never played it to know. Make the ships 5 x Faster, and we may have a game on our hands.

AtomicBetty · May 1

Age Of Shadows

Second Age

Are the only two good expansions.

CovenantX · May 1

Cookie said:

Personal Favourite was Mondains Legacy - I had always felt my magic users and archers should be elves. The Peerless bosses were cool.

Second favourite, Stygian Abyss. Underworld, and Stygian Abyss are in fact a work of art with their level of content, and the entire Imbuing system was fantastic, and logical, after all the random luck and chaos that had preceded via Reforging.

Unfortunately, Imbuing introduced Brittle, a horrific attribute, I could never understand why the Devs always felt they had to give with 1 hand, and take away with the other, in a fake semblance of "this maintains some sort of balance".

Age of Shadows - worst at the time - I even quit for 8 years after that one. Although Chivalry, and Necromancy skills were cool, it gave rise to the Sampire, and UO was a Dexxer game ever since then.

Worst, Renaissance - in the long term.
When Trammel first came, I don't think anyone could have realised it would cause all the ingame issues it has today though. Unlimited scripting, no risk vs reward, destroyed the economy and 90% of the point of the entire game. There should have been no loot in Trammel, it should have had deco drops only, and been a character training, socialising or housing area only.

Lord Blackthorns Revenge was cool, but I remember it with disappointment that Illshenar was only in Trammel, the realisation then was that the game had given up. From then, I rarely went into Trammel, unless huge risk free reward events enticed me.

I agree with the majority of this.

I'd say that the scripting part is the worst part to come from all of this, lack of rule enforcement has amplified it drastically though, and personally, that's killing UO for me. the cheat programs people are using today are nothing like the ones that literally did next to nothing of 10-15 years ago.

Overall, I'd say that's a pretty good summary of how I would describe it, based on my experiences as well.

Cookie · May 1

CovenantX said:

I agree with the majority of this.

I'd say that the scripting part is the worst part to come from all of this, lack of rule enforcement has amplified it drastically though, and personally, that's killing UO for me. the cheat programs people are using today are nothing like the ones that literally did next to nothing of 10-15 years ago.

Overall, I'd say that's a pretty good summary of how I would describe it, based on my experiences as well.

I think on a base level, we sometimes agree, however my viewpoint has now changed to that of the old days.

I think 20 years on, the world has changed, and what used to be the realm of an unethical rogue programmer, is now open to everyone, along with some amazing things that can be done.

I take the view these days, that society embraces this new technology, we all try to make our lives easier, and gaming is often at the forefront of it all.

I have 2 sons, and 1 has a genuine interest in coding. The interaction between UO and coding, or many other games, such as Minecraft and coding, is one that kids these days enjoy, immerse themselves in, and these are skills they could very well need as they get older.

In many of the kids games, the emphasis has gone away from "you play our game", to, you are part of a huge community, and "you can create your own games, or your own maps, your own concepts", within the framework.

I find these days, the fact these abilities are open to everyone, is a great leveller. And ultimately, in all sports, I want an equal playing field.

I do not think we can keep talking about Cheating anymore. It is progression in todays world.

CovenantX · May 1

Cookie said:

I do not think we can keep talking about Cheating anymore. It is progression in todays world.

as long as it's against the ToS, and players can be banned under any part of what these programs allow you to do, clearly there's a pretty massive difference between what the O***n Client allows you to do compared to the official clients & approved assistant programs, I'd say it's safe to say it's cheating, at least until it's officially 'allowed'... at the same time, the flood gates will open if there's ever an official statement condoning it. -that'll probably be when it's finally time to call it quits on UO for most. but i guess we'll have to see.

Cookie · May 1

Deleted. Trust me, you wanted this deleted.

AmberWitch · May 1

Mariah said:

@ AmberWitch In brief, just the main points.
2nd Age was the addition of Lost Lands
Renaisance was the introduction of Trammel
3rd Dawn was the first attempt at a new client, and only users of that client had access to Ilshenar
Lord Blackthorn's Revenge opened up Ilshenar to the rest of the player base
Age of Shadows brought the addition of Malas and the new combat system, giving us 'numbers and formulas' instead of names on our weapons and armor. Added Chivalry and Necromancy
Samurai Empire added Tokuno, Bushido and Ninjitsu.
Mondains Legacy added elves, new quests and the peerless encounters.
Stygian Abyss added the abyss, Ter Mur, Gargoyles as a playable race, Imbuing, throwing, Mysticism and a vast number of quests.
High Seas was a booster pack rather than an expansion, totally focused on the seas.
Time of Legends added Eodon and the dinosaurs.
@ Victim_of_Siege - Play nice!

Thank you Mariah! That was truly helpful.

And yes, Victim needs to learn to behave. I'm surprised he would think I would like my sausage small.

AmberWitch · May 1

For me and how I play I would say that Stygian Abyss and High Seas are what I have enjoyed the most.

At the time, the introduction of Trammel produced a lot of excitement and appreciation for new lands where we could place houses as just about every area had houses on top of each other. A good % of the population wanted a carebear land where it was safe to walk out their door without fear of being killed, rez killed and killed again. Unfortunately I think that over time, with reduced populations on every shard, people stagnated with things being too safe and unexciting.

Just my 2 cents in that regard.

Marge · May 2

As you can guess by my picture, UO Renaissance.

TimSt · May 2

Renaissance because it gave us Trammel. I detest PvP and would have stopped playing UO if Trammel had not come along.

keven2002 · May 2

I really liked things Pre-AoS but that could just be when I played UO the most when I was young and playing UO was my primary activity.

Hard to know for sure but I do think UO needed to come out with AoS (and other expansions) to keep the game going. I definitely remember when AoS came out (I also remember hating that we lost the silver vanquishing items) and trying to figure out the best way to add Chivalry and making a necromancer... which was fun at the time but hindsight this is when crafting started becoming obsolete and a list of other wrinkles.

Skett · May 2

^^^^^

Lord_Nythrax · May 2

Cookie said:

When Trammel first came, I don't think anyone could have realised it would cause all the ingame issues it has today though. Unlimited scripting, no risk vs reward, destroyed the economy and 90% of the point of the entire game. There should have been no loot in Trammel, it should have had deco drops only, and been a character training, socialising and housing area only.

The game would have shut down twenty years ago if you were in charge. There's a reason every would-be successor game that hyped itself as "recapturing the magic of oldschool UO" was some kind of miserable flop.

AtomicBetty · May 2

Lord_Nythrax said:

Cookie said:

When Trammel first came, I don't think anyone could have realised it would cause all the ingame issues it has today though. Unlimited scripting, no risk vs reward, destroyed the economy and 90% of the point of the entire game. There should have been no loot in Trammel, it should have had deco drops only, and been a character training, socialising and housing area only.

The game would have shut down twenty years ago if you were in charge. There's a reason every would-be successor game that hyped itself as "recapturing the magic of oldschool UO" was a miserable failure that died pretty much immediately.

There has been would-be successor games to UO? Like what I never heard of any before

Lord_Nythrax · May 2

Sure, there were a number of games that touted themselves that way, all with a heavy focus on unrestricted PVP. The most prominent one I can think of was Shadowbane. That one lived a whole six years. There were several others but I can't even remember the names offhand anymore.

Cookie · May 2

Lord_Nythrax said:

Sure, there were a number of games that touted themselves that way, all with a heavy focus on unrestricted PVP. The most prominent one I can think of was Shadowbane. That one lived a whole six years. There were several others but I can't even remember the names offhand anymore.

Fortnite with 390 million active players is doing pretty badly for a 100% pvp game I suppose.

For an almost direct, and certainly inferior game - Old School RuneScape which stuck to its PvP principals with 49 million players is also doing far worse than UO.

Fact of the matter is, pvp is popular, and successful.

Lord_Frodo · May 2

Cookie said:

Lord_Nythrax said:

Sure, there were a number of games that touted themselves that way, all with a heavy focus on unrestricted PVP. The most prominent one I can think of was Shadowbane. That one lived a whole six years. There were several others but I can't even remember the names offhand anymore.

Fortnite with 390 million active players is doing pretty badly for a 100% pvp game I suppose.

For an almost direct, and certainly inferior game - Old School RuneScape which stuck to its PvP principals with 49 million players is also doing far worse than UO.

Fact of the matter is, pvp is popular, and successful.

LMAO Maybe you should read about a game before posting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortnite

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