For a game that launched thirteen years ago, Ultima Online is still doing well for itself as one of the few MMOs on the market to bring competition to the Everquests in the field of “how many paid expansions can we pump out?” Ultima Online this past year saw the release of Stygian Abyss, a part of the Ultima world many of you haven’t seen since around 1992 with Ultima Underworld, bringing with it new skills, a new race of gargoyles, and new housing tiles (yikes). More importantly, the Stygian Abyss dungeons brought in what all Ultima Online players love, non-consensual PvP.
Last month (August), we learned that Ultima Online would be moving away from the expansion pack model, and moving towards a booster pack system, allowing shorter development time, lower price, and faster turnaround. The whole plan would culminate in a rate of two boosters per year at fifteen dollars each (think the MMO answer to episodic gaming, but not the way Valve does it).
This fall will see the release of Adventures on the High Seas, focusing on sailing (I don’t see the connection) and the new pirating skill, alongside new ships, pirate NPCs, and a new boss encounter (the Rarely Ignored Autonomic Armament beast.) The fishing skill will also be receiving an update, with a new cap and new things to catch, and presumably will allow you to hone your torrenting skills from “waste of time” (pirating Tabula Rasa) to “how did you find that?” (downloading the Tabula Rasa collector’s edition dog tag, but digitally.)
The booster back is currently in open beta on Ultima Online’s website.
MMO Fallout 