(Online RP) Dark Age: Redemption, an Ultima Online Shard
-
Does anyone remember Ultima Online? Before I started MUing, I was RPing on an RP-enforced UO server, ran by regular(ish) people. We hunted trolls, we told stories, we had fun. That started back in 2000... Now, after a few years hiatus, Dark Age is back!
The RP in this environment is no MUing by any stretch, but it is decidedly deeper than the RP you find on many MMOs. Characters have thorough backgrounds, the plot is ever developing, the gameplay is meant to be immersive. Dark Age is set in a world where trolls and undead prowl, magic is uncommon and feared, and the nobility fight to maintain order in a Federation shakily rebuilt from the ashes of a formerly great kingdom.
Anyone who's interested can go here: http://da-redemption.com/ ... There's a link to the Discord channel, which is probably the best place to start if you've never played Ultima Online before. You can also message me here, I'm more than happy to answer questions.
And now some samples of what the game looks like:
-
Remember it? Hell, I was a beta tester. I played for years on the Chesapeake and Atlantic shards and only quit when Anarchy Online came out (which I still play, btw) because I found it a better game.
I tried playing UO again when it went f2p but I just couldn't get back into it. Good to see it's still around, though.
-
IN POR YLEM
I'll check it out. Will probably spend hours setting up triggers and macros, though.
-
I played a Drow with a bunch of other people way back then... That was a long, long time ago.
-
Interesting, so magic is locked and it takes IC development to learn it. What about alchemy, though? From what I recall, it's impossible to do the Vice Dungeons without a heavy mix of alch + melee or magic + alch.
-
@deadculture There's no Vice Dungeons. There's likewise a totally different combat system, based on a level system (not individual skill gain). That said, there is a rather fun alchemy system wherein you make your own recipes/potions based on things you collect in the wild, collect off monsters, etc.
-
@skew ...How much coding went into this shard? It's insane they're revamping all this stuff. Like, hours and hours worth of effort.
-
@deadculture A lot.
In brief history... Dark Age started in year 2000, I think, and it was using mostly an "out of the box" emulator. The map was a copy of the T2A map with the main cities changed, but otherwise a copy of the existing UO stuff. Over the years we customized and customized.
The current iteration of DA is actually using the code from a game called Khaeros, and I'm not sure where it all originated. There was a robust community that shared code, and in the Khaeros system, it's all written in C++ (I think), instead of silly proprietary stuff, so it's much easier to get people to add new things. So, the Khaeros guys took what they could from the community but did a LOT of work on their own. 5-10 years of development went into this stuff.
We have active development going on now, as one of the players volunteered to redo the magic system. It'll be completely original and have super fun stuff like collecting souls and summoning demons!
-
@skew What?! No more Balrog trolling in the middle of Cove?
