Is Ultima Online 2 a doomed prospect?

[Morreion]

The Game Archaeologist: Is Ultima Online 2 a doomed prospect? (Massively)

But the dream of UO2 persisted because whether they're realistic or not, dreams captivate the imaginations of players, particularly if that dream is a sequel to something that was immensely enjoyable in the past.

Every so often, a rumor would pop up of an Ultima Online 2 project, only to be squashed by the following silence. People never did stop asking about UO2, but as time went on, it seemed more and more unlikely. There was a possibility that EA had authorized such a project in Ultima Forever, but it turned out not to be an MMO at all. Then there's always Richard Garriott, who claims that his "Ultimate RPG" will one day be the spiritual successor to UO.

Plus, as usually happens when there's a shared dream around the subject of a sequel, it's hard to get any general consensus on what an Ultima Online 2 would look like. Would it be a sandbox just like Ultima Online, only improved? Would it hew to the classic single-player RPG series and take its cues from there? Did either of the canceled UO2 projects have the right idea?

[Regolyth]

If we ever got a second UO, which I don't think we will (not officially anyways, it'd have to be a "spiritual successor"), I don't think it would be very good. The original was too awesome and any kind of sequel wouldn't be able to live up to the hype (especially the hype created by all the fanboys, like us). I think they would try to stick too closely to the original, thus making a bad game (let's face it, the game is 15 years old at this point). Or, they would try to modernize it too much, thus bastardizing it (just think about the types of games we keep getting).

To stay true to the original, I think we would need a crafting system like in the original, where crafted weapons and armor reigned supreme. The crafting would have to be fun, being able to create virtually everything in the world.

It would need to keep the thievery system, which would mean we need the criminal system, which would mean taking from people. This is where a lot of people would cry and whine. Thus we would need Trammel and Feluccia again. So if we get T&F, then we'd have to have reasons why people would even want to go to Fel. Why risk dying and losing your stuff if you can do the same thing in safety? You can't just go to Fel for PvP, not enough people care. Maybe mining there produced twice as much ore. Or skills gained twice as fast in Fel versus Tram. If there's no incentive other than PvP, then there were faction wars for that.

To be better than the original, obviously it would need a graphics overhaul. I think a "painted," cell-shading type of 3D would be cool. The newest series of Prince of Persia games on the PS3 did this (also the DBZ games of recent have been doing an excellent job of it, but slightly too cartoony for UO). Then again, full on realism would be fine with me too.

Gaming improvements would be keeping all skills useful (so many were useless) and keeping them on an equal playing field, such as difficulty. Think of how hard it was to raise skills such as stealing, stealth and magic resist versus skills like tactics, anatomy and meditation.

One area I see the developers making the game fail, is grinding. I see them adding in some type of gear grind (adding magic drops the way WoW and other games have will kill crafting and the game!). I also seem them trying to add in quests... ugh. I think if the game gets created, these things will be the norm. They'll also probably get rid of any reason to group.

Anyways, it would be awesome to see, but I think they'll either screw it up or it'll just never get created.

[Morreion]

Oct 22, 2012 15:52:44 GMT -5 Regolyth said:

Gaming improvements would be keeping all skills useful (so many were useless) and keeping them on an equal playing field, such as difficulty. Think of how hard it was to raise skills such as stealing, stealth and magic resist versus skills like tactics, anatomy and meditation.

Magic Resist, arghhhh! That one was ROUGH!

[Regolyth]

It's the one skill I ever used that I never GMed. When they added the +20 scrolls... man, 120 resist? That had to be such a pain to achieve. Although, I did hear that 120 resist basically made you invincible to any magical attacks.