Ultima Online: Age of Shadows Preview

Though Ultima Online has fallen off the radar of those gamers looking for the latest and greatest, things are still busy in the online world of Britannia. Released back in 1997, Ultima Online laid the foundation for a generation of online role-playing games, and it hasn't been forgotten by its fans. Remarkably, this online patriarch is still growing, now with 225,000 subscribers worldwide. With so many still playing a game essentially based on a 5-year-old engine, something must be working. To meet the demands of its fans, longtime developer Origin Systems continues to respond with new expansion packs, the newest of which will be Age of Shadows. The goal of the new expansion is to improve on Ultima Online's core appeal, particularly the unique ability players have to own houses, and to overhaul the interface and mechanics to keep up with modern innovations.

In all the time since Ultima Online was released, no game has reproduced the game's success in letting players own houses. Housing has been one of the game's most loved features, and Age of Shadows takes it a step further by adding a house design tool. Previously, you needed to purchase a specific deed for a prebuilt house, but you are now given a plot of land to do with as you please.

Using the design tool, you will be able to construct each floor of the house, creating the floor plan and design and picking the style of each component, like walls, windows, and floors. Each floor of the house is broken down into a uniform number of tiles, upon which you can design your house. There are a lot of options available--for the walls alone there are 48 different categories of tile designs. In all, you can choose from more than 1000 different tiles. Once you've found the styles you're looking for, you simply paint your house with the different textures.

The interface for the house design resembles the system used in one of EA's most popular franchises, The Sims. The house components are divided into major categories and subdivided into pages containing scores of different styles. The interface also includes an option to turn walls transparent to better see parts of the house that might be obstructed by objects. There are also some convenient tools borrowed from common art applications. For example, there's an eyedropper tool that lets you grab a style from any tile and apply it somewhere else.

After deciding on the look for the house, you can build stairways and teleporters. Teleporters are great for making the best use of all available space, and setting them up is actually easier than it may sound. Simply select one teleporter tile design from the menu, and place it twice. The two identical teleport tiles will link, and when you step on one of the tiles, it will teleport you to the other.

With these and the many other options available, you are free to make any kind of house you can imagine. Origin envisions players using teleporters and enclosures to construct rental rooms. Other ideas involve players turning their houses into theaters, shops, and gathering halls. The goal is to give you tools that let you use properties in any way you see fit. You can also decide whether or not you'd like to fit in with the neighborhood. The artwork for the tiles you can use for your house will include the same artwork used in the surrounding city. You can choose to fit your house into the neighborhood's look or to build the equivalent of the ugly pink house on the corner that stands out. Origin hopes communities will develop their own architectural style and identity, where you can really feel at home.

Just because you can design a home doesn't mean you can necessarily afford to build it. A cost indicator tracks the cost of your house as you design it, and once you have your design finished, you can either build it then or save it until you have the money to complete construction. At the front of each piece of property is a house sign that you can click to restore a saved house design or to launch the house design interface for first-time builders. In the house construction menu, you can choose from classic houses like the traditional plain vanilla variety, or you can select a tile size for your custom house. The new process marks a drastic simplification from the earlier building process where you had to select a specific land deed from a vendor. Now there's one object for most house activities.

More than Houses

The simplification brought by the new property sign is indicative of the kind of interface changes in Age of Shadows. New for the series are context menus, which pop up when you click on specific things in the gameworld. For example, when you click on a vendor, a menu pops up where you can select the purchase screen. The old method of walking up to a merchant and typing "vendor buy" is still available for those who care for it. But the new context menus update the game's interface to a level of convenience most gamers would expect.

Similar additions to the interface are generally aimed at allowing you to easily learn more about many facets of the game while inside the game. Previously, you were forced to find information on the Web at fan sites or through other documentation, but new elements in the interface, like books that list skills and spells with full descriptions and icons that allow easy casting of spells and include scroll-over text descriptions, alleviate that hassle. Floating damage numbers are also in. Now, when you hit a monster, a red number indicating the damage done will float up above the creature.

Other new changes abound. The monster spawning system has been revamped so that enemies now appear in random locations. The creatures also appear with random loot, fostered by a new magic item system where thousands of different item attributes are combined to create an unending number of items. Also, you can now move your mouse over items for a pop-up description.

The point-and-click interface changes may add up to make Ultima Online oddly reminiscent of Diablo--a comparison which Origin doesn't have a problem with. The comparisons between Age of Shadows and Diablo extend further to the new paladin and necromancer player professions. The new classes have plenty to offer for those looking for something different. A unique magic system has been created for the necromancer, including 16 new spells. Necromancers can also shape-change into four different forms, such as "horrific beast." Like with all transformations, there's a trade-off. In the case of horrific beast, the necromancer becomes more powerful but loses his magic. The necromancer can also summon five different familiars. A new combo system of special moves has been built for the paladin, along with 10 new abilities and various new skills. The two classes are meant to be opposites, one the defender of good and the other the menace of evil.

There's also a new continent in Age of Shadows. Called Malas (pronounced "malice"), the new continent floats above Britannia in the stars. Instead of rivers, you see space. Malas will be the biggest land expansion to Ultima Online to date and will include enough virgin real estate to contain a total of 40,000 additional player houses. Malas is also home to the new dungeon, Doom, which will be the largest dungeon in the game and will be the place to find the best and rarest items. You will also be able to find rare items much more frequently in player-versus-player areas, which Origin hopes will cultivate some not-so-friendly human interaction. To compensate for the added risks, a new insurance system has been added. For a flat fee, items cannot be looted off your body if you die.

Age of Shadows is built on the 3D engine introduced in the previous Lord Blackthorn's Revenge expansion, but it also includes some graphical upgrades. 20 new monsters make their appearance, and Origin hopes they will look better than ever. A new particle system has been added, too, which is especially visible on spell effects. Also new are the weapon trails, which Origin refers to as "swooples." Though swooples may sound like a small addition, it was in fact one of many requests made by fans. Another facet of Age of Shadows taken directly from player feedback is the item insurance.

The beta test for Age of Shadows is scheduled to start later in January. In the meantime, Origin has created a Web site that exhaustively details all that's new in Age of Shadows. The retail launch of Age of Shadows is planned for late February.