Ultima Online: Age of Shadows Preview
Here's a look at the upcoming Ultima Online expansion that adds a new continent, two player classes, and an interface to design player houses from the ground up.
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.
- Electronic Arts
- Fantasy Online...
- Release: Feb 8, 2003
- ESRB: Teen
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