Игорь Бойко
Ultima Online Chronicles, or My Adventures on Pacific in 2000 Year
Part II
What was supposed to happen happened. A month flashed by, and the game time I had paid for when I bought the box came to an end. Naturally, I was not happy with this turn of events, so I tried to get things back on track. To begin with I checked a few retail outlets that sold UO, asking the same question everywhere about the availability of 90 game days special coupons. Everywhere I was turned away. True, in one place I ran into an old trail – in March they were sold for 1250 rubles. A simple recalculation disappointed me: this method of payment was twice as "painful" as using a credit card. The final call to Soft Club confirmed that I should not look for coupons, it was not worthwhile. Selling games – yes, selling game time – no. Do not blame them for that, who knows what kind of difficulties in this business.
Looking ahead, I should say that I got a credit card in one of the Moscow banks. VISA Classic. I had to pay two hundred green portraits, but the reanimation of the account went off without a hitch.
Illegal UO
It so happened that the credit card issuance was delayed for a couple of days, the cashier forgot to do some operations. But I had time to poke around the Internet "Ultima" resources. And then I found out some pretty amazing things.
And the world is quite three-dimensional!
It turns out that there is an Ultima Online emulator in nature, or rather, on the Internet. It's called The Ultimate Server, which, according to the FAQ posted on the site, is very clearly denying any connection to Origin Systems or Electronic Arts. And it seems they are pretty good at it. Judge for yourself, currently this emulator is installed on almost a hundred servers around the world.
Searching through Russian-language resources (starting point was http://www.ultima.ru/) also yielded results. For a start, I realized that, despite the newly appeared prefix "Respectable Master Warrior" to my character's name, I still look at the Ultima world with my eyes wide open. It also turned out that a lot of my compatriots use those very emulator servers. Naturally, curiosity got the better of me, and soon I got free logins on Zuluhotel (http://zuluhotel.dynip.com/uo) and the local The Lost Fort (http://www.lostfort.ru/).
Tribal UO
The Zuluhotel is completely free. Updating the client part of the fun happens in the process of communicating of the client program with the "native" patch service of the game. The first impression – the most favorable. In appearance – the same UO, but viewed from the side. From the side, in the sense that the original universe is there, but the accompanying service is at a complete standstill. It's understandable – the universe is written in the client, and in order to organize a normal game process you need a server based on Sun with a full-fledged team. As a result – constant glitches, lag periodically appearing, a lot of standard features don't work. A kind of ersatz, but people who are hooked on UO gobble it up and even smack their lips. Character development here is going at an accelerated pace. After all, not many people hang out here, and that's why the leveling of skills and characteristics of heroes goes "by the hours, not days". That's how the game works – the fewer characters use a skill, the faster it grows. A lot of players become blacksmiths and miners here. For ore is never depleted in the hillside, which is located 10 seconds walk from the "forge" in Britain. And the ore is mined at once of all the colors and shades, regardless of the level of the Mining skin. With one cycle of "mining/production of armor," a beginner can get 400–500 coins. No other occupation is able to give such income.
An example of the mayhem on Zulu. If you look closely, the victim character is standing right at the intersection of the conjured walls. Only his helmet is sticking out
Except for PK'illing, of course. On Zulu, there's a lot of mayhem. Guards are often simply impossible to summon, you are killed, and they look the other way, three meters from the scene of the crime, pretending that the screams "Guards!" are not for them. The server has a "PvP" feature, Player vs. Player. Each player can set the appropriate flag for his character. If its value – Yes (which is set by default), it means that this character agrees in advance to participate in any combat. As a result, all the newbies are constantly being "pummeled" with impunity (and not only in the john), and they can't understand anything. A guy walks through town, bang! – Lightning, and the guy's gone. And so on, time after time, until some kind soul enlightens him. There's a huge ankh standing by the bank, and it's used to put up or take down PvP flag.
Ultimers celebrate Christmas and New Year's Eve. All citizens of the game received a gift ticket. If you combine two tickets in the exchange window, you can choose a gift. For example, snowballs to throw at each other, a jeweled Christmas tree or Blessing Deed. With the latter you can make any item of clothing "blessed," after which it can not be taken from the owner, even in the case of death of the latter
A characteristic feature of Zulu is the lack of normal fauna. Forests look extinct, and monsters are found only in special locations and dungeons, and their quantity and "quality" does not match the range of the game on the official servers. Beating of all sorts of evil spirits in the cemetery became a local sport, thankfully they respawn at a wild rate. Sometimes, you can see a completely abnormal picture, when the various skeletons, zombies and ghosts under the overall command of the Lich chase through the streets of Britain after some good citizens. Fun!
But the most annoying feature of Zulu – pumped up troublemakers who have nothing to do and look for fun at the expense of other characters: then start putting up walls that prevent people to move, then just kill right in the city, regardless of negative PvP flags.
Nevertheless, Zulu has a fairly stable community, as evidenced by the presence of several guilds (including Russian – Ice Friends and Angels of Apocalypse).
Particulars of national Ultima
At the time of writing the material on the first Russian emulator server UO – The Lost Fort players spent a total of over 64 thousand hours (if we believe the Fort statistics). And I was there, managed to drink a honey-beer, until the "Russian team of fans of this game" announced that since December, the pleasure of playing ersatz-UO without lag will be charged. At the rate of 10 cents a day, for at least a month, i.e. three bucks. Yeah. Looks like "amateurs" decided to become "pros", condoning the fee with server maintenance costs and all that stuff. There is no desire to comment on this point, but about the "Fort" itself I can tell a little bit.
The world of UO is in constant development. Within a few days a fort of the human-orc guild emerged in a deep forest. Copying the clothes of the orcs, remade language (for example, the warning phrase about the PKs roaming in the forest in their language is Der ur pks ina furest dabu) are all elements of complete role-playing. Already during the first meeting, they demanded from me a Tribute, as it turned out – under the tribute meant the skins of the killed game
There is more order here than at the Zulu Hotel, but all other problems are present. Animals in the forests and fields are found, but there is no abundance. Birds are not seen at all, and if there are no birds, there are no feathers for self-made arrows and crossbow "bolts". The range of goods in the stores compared with the official servers is not impressive. Locations in which there are decent monsters – one, two and that's it. True, I never got to the local dungeons, except once, when I was "invited" to hunt together. As soon as I got out of the portal, a paralyzing field was immediately cast on it. Fifteen seconds later I was dead, and I was told that I should deliver my deepest apologies on such-and-such ICQ account for the fact that the day before a good girl had died because of me.
That's when I remembered how the day before, right outside the bank I was attacked by three pumped comrades. Just because I told the girl mage that she looked cool in her outfit. Taking the compliment as a pick up attempt, I was immediately informed that they were going to kill me. When the process went on, I called the guards, who sent the beauty to death with one blow. And I managed to get away on my feet.
After that there were long conversations on ICQ, and we parted as buddies. One of us realized that a compliment is not a crime, and the other – that you should not go with unfamiliar chars to kill monsters in the unknown places.
PK'illing on the "Fort" is flourishing, with bounty hunters on duty at all the more or less attractive "hunting grounds".
Character development here also goes at an accelerated pace due to the small number of the playing fraternity. For example, the intelligence and dexterity begin to grow before your eyes, it is only necessary to pick up a lute.
In general, those who have not had a chance to try the real UO, will be fully delighted, staying in the dark about what they are deprived.
UO fashion
Pacific
VISA Classic worked flawlessly, it took only a couple of minutes to pay for the next month. Another half hour, during which the server rehabilitated my rights, and I was back.
Immediately I faced the choice of choosing who I should be. If I kept pumping up the Fletcher profession, I'd make a lot of money. If I focus on Archer, I'll get a lot less money, but my life will be richer. Anyway, I still haven't bought a house yet.
This is the kind of pretty scenery you find in Second Age territories
There is a lot of money in the woods and dungeons. The problem is getting them to the bank. In the dungeon, you need to be extremely careful that the character is not jammed somewhere in a bottleneck. In the woods, fighting one monster, keep a close eye on whether others are coming to his aid. Especially you need to calculate carefully the strength when fighting with casting opponents. Some orc-mage can foolishly use a couple of the most powerful spells in a row, of which he never run out. And if you're not careful, the screen will soon turn gray.
When in the backpack lies any decent amount of money, expendable reagents are about to run out, the weight of trophies is close to a critical point – in general, it's time to go back to town.
Thrifty chars have a couple of recall runes that allow them to use a spell to travel to a predetermined location. Even more thoughtful players have a Recall Scroll, a magic item that works 100 percent of the time.
The funny thing about our town: there are only six coins in each pile. But the idea of putting money in front of the place where the murdered are brought back to life is priceless:)
Such a kit – rune+scroll – is called SOS kit because it almost always allows getting out of the most threatening situations. For example, to escape from a sure death at the hands of a player killer.
However, on one condition, the character must not be hindered: with fists, swords, spells – whatever.
I love PKs – they make us stronger
The phrase, by the way, was plagiarized. In the original, it was issued by the reddest PK, and it was spelled out on the screen as follows: "I love players – they're…" You know the rest.
Ultima once again showed me how well it reproduces relationships between people. Just like in real life, there's no all-bad and all-good characters here. And I'm no longer surprised to see a group of blue characters interacting peacefully with a red PK. There can be many reasons for that, for example they can just be "friends at home" in a neighborly way or belong to the same guild. Or maybe there is a process of "debriefing", for example, I witnessed such a conversation after having just been killed PK brought back to life and have quietly continued to clarify relations. Revived PK – a harmless PK, no weapons and reagents, his health is undermined – in this state he is not dangerous even for the one-day newbie. By the way, as it turned out from numerous conversations, most of the murders of novice Ultima citizens are committed by "blue" players.
Stand here, my children. Did you bring the temporary rings?"
"Yes, Counselor."
"Groom, pass the ring to the bride. The bride give it to the groom. Put the rings on."
"Done, Counselor."
"I now pronounce you man and wife. You may now kiss."
As an example, my Sotnik was attacked near a cemetery on the outskirts of Britain. While I was checking out a bow for sale in one of the lodges, a horsewoman named Kali came along. A disquieting name from the Hindu pantheon, the first "bell". About thirty seconds passed (apparently, during that time my character was evaluated by Anatomy and Evaluating Intellect skills), and I was attacked by macro-assisted attack spells. After putting an arrow into my attacker, I darted away, as the odds were stacked against me. Ten seconds later I felt safe in the city. Kali stopped a few meters away and encouraged me to keep fighting. I explained to her that I hadn't had time to write my will yet, or I could have. In response, she completely opened her cards – give me, she said, your crossbow because I like it so much. I had to write her "Kiss my ass." And what do you think? This girl goes behind my back, and on the screen appears *Kissing ass. Give it to me NOW!* I almost gave her a crossbow after that. But at the last moment I felt greedy, good weapons are not found on every corner.
Organized harassment of SirCrono ended inconclusively on the doorstep of the killer's residence
One of the favorite tricks of the "blue" PK is provocation. Outside the city limits two chars are fighting, one of them shouts to a passing newbie: "Please help! He's PK!". The names of the fighting men are blue. As soon as the passerby joins the fight, the former opponents will immediately beat him up. The point is that they are members of the same guild, who are permitted to spar freely – the exchange of blows does not lead to a change of "color".
Another lesson, learned from my own sad experience. A draconid roams the forest – a large lizard, an attractive enough object to hunt. Only its name is strange, not the usual meaningless string like Gorkhub, but quite readable – Trinity. After a double click a picture appeared – the monster is like a monster, but the name – with the prefix Honorable. While I was curious, I was attacked with spells, and finished off with a poisoned halberd. It was really just that Trinity had cast a Polymorph spell, turned himself into a lizard, and began to prey on newcomers with impunity.
Winter. Evergreen forest. Cold. Killed again, and then my robe was somewhere lost too
A lot of players fall victim to their own carelessness. I witnessed a pretty huntress cast a wall of fire outside of town and stand in it to pump Spell Resistance. Out of nowhere, a character appeared and ran through the fire. The hunter's name immediately turned gray. After a couple of seconds a "blue" knight in armor appeared next to the girl and attacked her with his halberd without any foreplay. She rushed to run, but the attempt was in vain.
But what a pleasure to finish off a blue PK! The other day I was walking through the woods, shooting trolls and slaying orc mages. Stopped making arrows, and next to me came some char, who in front of me tamed a brown bear. Suddenly, he nudges his bear at me. Tally-ho, so to speak, tally-ho! I killed the beast with three arrows, and the gray-haired tamer took only two. That would teach him a lesson.
From time to time in the game world occur unique events. So, in the first days of the new millennium from the portal near the dungeon Covetous suddenly burst evil creatures. About this unanimously broadcast heralds in all the cities. But that's not what happened, and that's not what happened at all. No one saw any evil spirits, but plenty of PKs showed up. And so began the battle between good and evil, in which, I must say, evil prevailed at first. As you might expect, PK attacks of this scale are always organized. Only after a couple of hours, the Reds, feeling that they were starting to lose, teleported back to their apartments, taking the loot
I had to look for the trouble a couple of times to take the screenshots you see here. I didn't spare my stomach. Personal score was 3:1, this most CHUEN once I shoot when he got carried away in pursuit of another victim and away from the main battle
True PKs are a special contingent. It's not easy to be in the constant crosshairs. At first, I recklessly attacked all the "reds" in a row, and then I got smarter:). It's stupid to go to the trouble without good reason. It's one thing when a red char is attacking you or chasing a blue char. That's when you have to stand up and take action. It's another to fight the same monster together, crammed into a tight spot in a dungeon.
Aware of their special nature, PK'ers also join together in guilds and help each other to do dark things. "Ultima" section also exists on the official PK website at http://www.pk-hq.com/. It's a cool, I have to give a lot of credit to the site, it's responsive. Its creators suggest that all killers honor the three commandments:
* Kill by staying alive
* Destroy, demolish, harm
* Not to touch fellow killers
And, by the way, I have to admit that I was wrong to think that our Russian PKs are tougher than any other. There are plenty of calculating and competent scoundrels around. It all depends on the individual. There are those among them, for whose head there is a price on which you can (theoretically) build a small neighborhood in the suburbs.
By the way, the path to the title of Murderer is not so short. For five consecutive murders the name of the character becomes red, the massacre of such a character is welcomed by the game as a good deed. After that, the backward counter starts – after a certain time "red" will become "gray", and then "blue". Permanent bloody coloring killer acquires in the event that he managed to turn red five times. And the stigma of "killer" replaces all the other titles previously obtained.
A special position in the game belongs to advanced thieves. Everyone hates them, but there's little they can do about it. They appear out of nowhere beside your char, and just have time to read the message on the screen that he was pulling stuff out of your backpack. I was once near a harpy cave, and a Pink Flamingo came at me, snooping around in my pack. She's all cute as hell. I first warned her, I said, go away, or I kill you. And she responded with an offer to try.
You have to be a very talentless, pushy, insolent and stupid thief to get yourself killed four times
I tried it, and I could barely get away. I was saved by the three armored horsemen in the vicinity. I – to them, saying, please save me, bros, she kills me! She – to them too, saying, please help, this bastard attacked me. The reply was that, "you better shut up, you pink professional bitch, we know you." After that, I was healed, and the thief was driven into the little house, which turned out to be her residence. This was the end of the pursuit, for the simple reason that no one is able to get at the owner in his house. And she was such a nice-looking girl.
Real Estate
The Ultima Online is a very crowded place. On the Pacific server alone, there are currently about five and a half thousand people playing. Once a huge virgin space is now built up, as they say, up to the eyeballs. Houses, cabins, lodges, castles sometimes stand as densely as dachas of new Russians in the built-up areas near Moscow. In some places it's simply impossible to push through. And wander among them fauna, both harmless and monstrous. Sometimes, you can see a picture of a whole crowd of monsters trying to get the owner who is put on the "macro" training. You get to the side of them and start a systematic shooting off.
Good Doc recounts how, not far from the guild, an entire crowd was waiting for a decaying house to collapse
Having saved enough money to buy a house, I began to wonder about the accompanying questions such as "which house is more decent?" and "where is the best place to settle down?" And then I was "delighted" to learn, that all the available areas for the placement of dwellings are occupied. One of the locals told a sad story of how he spent three months wandering around, but could not find a free site. They say, however, that the gamemasters are soon going to allocate land for housing. Well, there's no harm in hoping.
In the meantime, people walk around and look for houses, which, because of the progressive deterioration are about to collapse. And they watch them, hoping to be a second ahead of the competition.
Dungeons
I can't boast that I've been to all of them, so far – only to three. And even in those, I didn't get to the very bottom. It's a particular feature of the archer – he can make his way forward only if he has a stock of arrows. As supplies come to an end – it's better to "take off your feet," because the monsters are respawning with enviable consistency.
In the dungeons, you go for the money, loot from the hacked chests and boxes, reagents, and to pump the character. The fact is that as you increase the skill of mastering of a particular type of weapon, you can only get a further appreciable increase if you start effectively dropping more and more powerful monsters.
To hone Archery on Earth Elementals is a nice thing to do
Dungeons are a favorite place for PKs to hunt. Only they go there not for monsters, but for players. And they go there in mixed companies – fighters supported by mages, red killers with blue escorts. They try not to fight with monsters at all and dash at full speed through the mazes looking for victims. Sometimes at the entrance to the dungeon cast a pair of "locking" walls, so that someone doesn't accidentally leave. I've walked away a couple of times:). Once – into the depths of the dungeon, the second time – with the help of recall SOS-kit.
Working on the mistakes
There is a limit to perfection in UO. The sum of the main characteristics – Str, Dex and Int – cannot exceed 225 points. If the limit is reached, the value of any characteristic will drop as the value of the other one continues to grow. Similarly, the situation with the skills – they are allotted 700 points. As selected – the further development of some of the skills is carried out only at the expense of the other. You'll ask – but why pumping unnecessary skills? First, out of curiosity, to see and tell others. Second, there are skills (musicianship, fishing, etc.), which can be pumped with the macro, while you go to sleep. The musician plays music, and Dexterity grows along the way.
She stands on the stage, almost naked, and plays the harp. I sat and listened, and even decided to pay for the performance. But she didn't take the offered 50 coins, the macros couldn't foresee that
By the way, on the "emulator" servers there is mayhem in this matter too, often the mentioned restrictions simply do not exist. On the other hand – it is often impossible to "unlearn" something.
Guild
I wasn't in my first guild (1st Ultima Rangers) for long. One day, I was shooting harpies in a dungeon when my guildmate Steve, a captain in rank, showed up. A minute later I was attacked by a powerful PK. The odds were stacked against me, but I bravely fought, counting on the help of a clanmate. In vain. Steve, as if nothing had happened, continued to hit the harpies five paces away from me. Then, he told me, "Sorry". Chickened out. I remembered the words "to do good, to earn good and not to give our own in offense," and realized I couldn't follow them.
The dream of my own guild became even more elusive – no real estate, no way to create a guild.
A safe haven outside the city limits is a must. First of all, I need to train, because Spell Resistance and Magery are more convenient to pump in a place where I can stand up and cast attacking spells on myself without fear that someone will sneak up on me and strike a treacherous blow.
The BW Guild gathered for a meeting. As you can see, everyone has dismounted and is nicely seated in their chairs
To exist as a loner in a world, even in a game world that has a well-defined community of players, and to be outside of it is to deprive yourself of a whole layer of experience. I received another offer to join the guild from a very pretty female rider with red hair, after we had killed a troll together. They call themselves the Black Watch (BW), and their four-story headquarters tower is located northeast of Britain, on the edge of the swamp. When I asked about local politics, I heard the following: "We are good and anti-PK." Well, that suited me fine.
This time no one was in a hurry to put me on the list. They were looking out for me, and I was looking out for them. Life became somewhat cyclical – slaying monsters for profit, buying reagents, and practicing Spell Resistance and Magery. Soon I was invited to hunt Cyclops and Titans in Second Age territory. Interestingly, the manual for this very UO: Second Age never told me how to get there.
Cyclops are being hunted, the hunt is on! The yellow predators…
I returned from the expedition alive, having fired four hundred arrows in one go. The Honorable prefix had changed to Admirable, and my Archery skill had increased by a few points.
The next day, however, was a nightmare for me. I lost the Bow of Vanquishing and the Heavy Crossbow of Power. People who know will understand. And in the second case, I was killed while practicing on the guild rooftop. Quite the "blue" Admirable TypeR rode up to the training area on horseback to see who was casting spells there. He even healed me up. And sort of rode off. The rest was done according to the classic scheme. He hid (applied Hiding), waited until I almost killed myself with the Fire Field spell, then appeared out of nowhere and rode over the spell I cast. Naturally, my character instantly "grayed out" and became available to be killed with impunity. A couple of spells were enough to knock the remaining few life points out of me. He offered to bring me back to life, and said it was all a lesson. To which I gave him a combination of words, which he could read on his monitor as "OoOo oOo". I think he understood.
TypeR still thinks he's the smartest
I told the guild leader about it. At the next meeting I was told that TypeR had paid for his treachery. He had been killed, and I had been asked to take the items he was carrying out of storage at the earliest opportunity. When I inquired as to how it was that they had managed to kill the "blue" and retain the high reputation, I was told how it was done. It turns out that TypeR was first persuaded to join the guild (members of the same clan can fight each other, which is often done for training purposes, and if there is a murder, it is not perceived by the game as a crime). Then, he was immediately killed, stripped naked, "expelled from the lists" and "banned" from entering the tower. They did not forget to say why they did that to him. His gear, though, went somewhere, in the end. But it wasn't about the equipment, was it? The lesson was mutual.
So my Sotnik became a Guildsman. No titles yet, but it's not over yet, is it?
As it turned out, I was allowed to put my own vendor in the tower, a vendor-NPC who would trade items I would give him for that purpose. The Good Doc immediately gave me a short lecture on how to trade competently. It is the duty of the vendor owner to take care of replenishing the assortment, to keep the "store" in order. It is desirable to sell goods of high quality and at prices that are acceptable in the region. No one is against all kinds of resales, for example, magical weapons can be bought in the neighborhood Moonglow, where they sell for cheap, add to the price of 50 % and put in the "showcase". Magic reagents and scrolls with spells are also in constant demand.
War
This grandmaster of the [HOK] guild is very aggressive…
A simple reconnaissance revealed a hidden pair of dragons…
And the next day the Black Watch guild was declared war by the [HOK] guild.