AoS:Redux is a new Ultima Online free server, developed for over a year, planned to launch on September 15th. Based loosely around the balance of P25, with numerous tweaks and additions, all of which keeping in line with the true 'feel' of UO whilst providing long term playability to even the most dedicated of players, regardless of playstyle.
A free server? Aren’t they all corrupt, unstable and dead within a few months?
Some are, for sure. A lot of servers are thrown up using default scripts from various sources, hosted on home PCs with no care or attention. AoS:Redux has been developed by a team of die-hard UO players and RL friends, with absolute dedication to the cause. A dedicated server, development team and GMs.
Alright, I’m interested. Tell me a bit more!
Youtube video here -
No Trammel, no excessive neon, no corruption. Our vision is to provide a home for years to come for people that wish to recapture some of that old magic, with a new twist. We’re a dedicated team, with years of experience in the game, as well as a history of working in OSI private focus groups (p25, p46) and a background in free shard design (Legacy 25). We have sound financial backing meaning we will not be relying on player donations, and will absolutely not be offering any kind of in game bonuses to players for donations.
To promote accountability for your actions, and encourage the development of true reputations, we are limiting to one character per account, with 2 accounts per individual player.
We have enchanced crafting, PvM and PvP, modified the world, added more secret locations, increased the amount of spawning rares, removed useless systems like BODs, and much more. An introductory (but not yet exhaustive) list of features and changes is found here – http://www.aosredux.net/?page_id=139
Our aim is to allow players to get setup with the basics relatively quickly, this is done via improved starting templates, slightly enhanced skill gain and improved PvM rewards. Nobody needs to be hunting lizardmen and skeletons for hours to be able to afford a few horses. That said, the top tier of game items and rewards will be a long time coming, and provide considerable end game goals.
You've convinced me, I’m in! How do I get started?
First, ensure you have no other versions of UO installed.
Download our custom client here – http://aosredux.net/files/AOSReduxSetup1.1.exe please note, due to map changes and other customisations we’ve made, you may encounter sync issues if you use an incompatible client. Be careful not to launch directly from the UO icon, as this will start your client patching, thus making it imcompatible with our server.
If you are using Windows 7, ensure you run Razor in compatibility mode for XP SP2/3.
Open Razor and configure the options as below: UO Data Directory – browse to the folder where your client.exe is located. Server – login.aosredux.net / Port – 2593
Click Ok and you’ll be taken to the ever familiar login screen. Accounts are automatically created so enter your chosen username and password (please remember these!) and you’ll be asked to select the server, and then create your character!
Humans only on Redux! You won't find any gargoyles, elves, samurais or ninjas here.
When you reach the character creation screen, you will be presented with a number of options. There are 5 'pre-set' character templates, and the option to begin with a custom skill set. All six options will see you start with the following stats. 70 Strength, 70 Dexterity, 70 Intelligence.
Custom - 100 points to spend between any two or three skills of your choosing. Blacksmith - 50 skill in: Blacksmithy, Bowcraft/Fletching, Tailoring, Tinkering, LJ & Mining. Mage - 65 skill in: Magery, Eval Int, Wrestling and Meditation. Necromancer - 65 skill in: Necromancy, Magery, Spirit Speak and Meditation. Paladin - 65 skill in: Chivalry, Swordsmanship, Focus and Tactics. Warrior - 65 skill in: Fencing, Healing, Anatomy and Tactics.
Do I need to be a PvPer to enjoy this server?
Absolutely not. There's no denying that many freeshard players are from the PvP community, and while we have spent a lot of time balancing and fine-tuning PvP mechanics, we want to create something more varied than just a PK vs PK community, and as such have provided many options and goals for players who prefer to avoid conflict. We have already attracted prominent RP and PvM guilds, and solo players who are determined to become recognised and trusted craftsmen (2 char limit per person - one char on each of two accounts which means no free-for-all mules!)
I quit before AoS was released, what do I need to know?
Hi. We've rented a server which can support 500+ online. We're hoping for 100-150+ within the first week or two, and expect it to climb steadily as word spreads.
EasyUO is banned, but AFK Macroing is fine, for raising skills etc, just no AFK resource gathering
You can still choose a custom template to get taming or indeed any skill you want, but correct, no 'advanced' template for that, it's a prestige skill that we feel really needs to be worked at, not handed out.
Hi - Custom Housing is allowed, although you cannot use the full set of 'private' housing commands available in AoS - which enabled you to make your house into a mini-trammel. It's basically AoS custom housing, with the UO:R housing rules, if that makes sense.
Economy is something we are concerned about, there are no real long term gold-sinks in UO. We've introduced a few - Housing prices at 3x. We have no factions enabled, but faction warhorses are available as 'prestige mounts' open to purchase by all players, but at a cost of 5 million gold. We've also ripped out the BOD system and it's rewards are now available as NPC vendor purchases - at the cost of millions per.
Check your connection @ login.aosredux.net - it's hosted in Northern France.
@Romeus Correct, but he also stated there will be a beta server going up as well a week or two before main server goes live. So it will be a good opportunity to get some information on it.
Hi guys. Beta will start on sept 1st. We hope to run this for 2 solid weeks keeping to a launch of 15th sept for the full live server. If you get involved in beta you'll have advance insight into a few things that may help you progress more effectively on live, but most importantly an early opportunity to re-live some of the old UO magic. See you there!
OT: This post also reminded me of the Realm -- Sierra used to send me mail slips all the time asking me to join. It's still freaking running!! http://www.realmserver.com/
Any tips for someone who never played UO (don't beat me up for not playing it, please ) and wants to start on your server?
It seems like you are rather adressing to people who have some experience, hence your guide for people who haven't played AOS but is there any good guide for people completely new to the whole game?
I end the finals on september 15th, maybe i will give it a try, UO is a game you cant ever say you wont play once again. Is the server EU based? would like to know and im too lazy atm to check the website
On August 27 2012 23:09 Bagel wrote: Any tips for someone who never played UO (don't beat me up for not playing it, please ) and wants to start on your server?
It seems like you are rather adressing to people who have some experience, hence your guide for people who haven't played AOS but is there any good guide for people completely new to the whole game?
The game is a bit hard to start with, you dont "level up" like regular MMOs nowadays, so you can put the skill points wherever you feel like, which give you a lot of customization if you know the game, but can make your character terrible in the long run if you are completly new. Also on regular UO, you dont have "quests", in the sense that you are not sent to one point to another of the world to complete quests and zones that are designed for your level. This way, you can skip zones and go to kill the hardests mobs asap, but if you dont know where to farm, it could be very confusing, more so if you add the PKs going around all the time.
This server looks like it have a lot of custom stuff, so they could have added some stuff to help newer players, but if not, I still recomend you to play at least for a while. TL started a guild in another server, and everyone there were really nice and helped ALOT new people with the game. In fact if I join, I can give you basic advices on where to go
You should really try it, ultima online is one, if not the best, game i've ever played, and i have played quite a lot of games in my life P.S: Sorry for my crappy english
It has some information on Ultima. Some of contens of the guide it is dated, and/or has been removed or modified by the staff of Redux. (For example, Only one Facet (world-felucca) and the removal of crafting "Bods", along with many more.) Either way, it will definately help you learn about the game if you haven't played it before.
Oh as for a guide for people who've never player before, it's nigh on impossible beyond reading what google throws up. Best way is to join our irc channels or forums and team up with other players for guidance, we already have a community i'm proud of.
On August 27 2012 00:40 Punkte wrote: Are there any TL players that also played on IPY??
I played on IPY for a little while but no mounts killed it for me.
Sorry, 2 accounts+1 character per account, no thanks.
I was sketchy about it at first, but to be honest.. That's what makes the shard enjoyable... You don't just login to 1 of your 10 characters you have and do whatever you want then log out...
Limiting how many characters you can have pushes in game interaction... Suddenly the Murderer with an alt Necro/mage needs to find a crafter buddy to make his armor for him...
Some characters will be all PvP, some will be all PVE, while others are a mix of crafters and PVE/PVP or plainly just crafters...
It allows for players to actually interact with each other.
Lets be serious, If I had limitless characters, I would log in, craft some pieces of armor, piece together good ones, put on my pvper, fight, pk some people, do spawns, log off. Never really talking to anyone else but my guild...
On August 27 2012 00:40 Punkte wrote: Are there any TL players that also played on IPY??
I played on IPY for a little while but no mounts killed it for me.
Sorry, 2 accounts+1 character per account, no thanks.
I was sketchy about it at first, but to be honest.. That's what makes the shard enjoyable... You don't just login to 1 of your 10 characters you have and do whatever you want then log out...
Limiting how many characters you can have pushes in game interaction... Suddenly the Murderer with an alt Necro/mage needs to find a crafter buddy to make his armor for him...
Some characters will be all PvP, some will be all PVE, while others are a mix of crafters and PVE/PVP or plainly just crafters...
It allows for players to actually interact with each other.
Lets be serious, If I had limitless characters, I would log in, craft some pieces of armor, piece together good ones, put on my pvper, fight, pk some people, do spawns, log off. Never really talking to anyone else but my guild...
I never thought about it like this, but I completely agree. OSI was built around being social and interacting with the server, the community needed eachother. Free Shards completely lost that, I'm not sure how but it was gone on UO:G and Second Age. I really like the fact that were limited with characters.
I admire the idea but don't think it's for me. Having community interaction is cool I'm not going to dispute that. But I've played a few freeshards now and my consistent experience is you'll be hard pressed to find useful vendors (except a few inside towns that will be overpriced). So if I just want a pvp and pvm character and can't find any useful vendor spots or they're sold out, I'm shit out of luck.
Let's take it from the other direction. What if I want a self reliant crafting character? Well it's not as simple as making a tailor/bs and making a resource mule. That's both my character slots. Hey, do you want to play UO today Probe1? Well, idk, do I feel like making chest plates? Because that's all I can do on this server.
Last month there was another UO freeshard that offered only 2 characters per account. I said that was too little. 1 per account seems just silly.
Re- ping/pvp. One thing that has been proven through testing here is that players have overreacted about their ping's effect on pvp. Most of our American players are pinging sub 100, and enjoying a very smooth gaming experience, even duelling EU players has been fine. West coast USA players may be a but stretched if your provider isn't excellent, but some of our guys are using a service like wtfast or lowerping.com to dramatically improve their connection. Long story short, don't miss out just because you're not geographically close to France, you'll find your experience and ability to enjoy the game is far better than you'd expect, we've had it proven countless times already.
As for the 1 char per account thing. Yeah it won't suit you if you think that an individual should be able to do everything independently. The reality is this isn't how the game was intended, and certainly not on line with our ethos. We already have players who are making preparations to secure prime vendor house spots and carve their reputation as reliable craftsmen etc. We don't intend to serve PvPers exclusively here, and we're attracting a lot more than just the freeshard PvP communities. Most players that have given it some thought are now genuinely excited that there are important decisions to be made, and your choices have real consequences on how the economy and politics of the server plays out.
If you accept that UO is a community driven game, and make your (admittedly difficult) choices to be a part of that, you'll love it.
That being said, we've been open in saying we will consider additional slots in the future, but just not at the beginning.
Thanks for the interest everyone, and thanks to those who have already introduced themselves on our forums!
I'm pinging around 85 from new York, pretty good! I wasn't too keen on the 2 character cap thing but after some thought I have come to terms with it and actually think its a wise move. It does force you to make done tough choices but means you'll care about your characters more, this feel more attached to them and the world they're in. This should bring back done immersion which has been missing for a long time! Looking forward to trying this out for sure! Ex Ls/atl player
On August 29 2012 03:02 insaprioy wrote: I'm pinging around 85 from new York, pretty good! I wasn't too keen on the 2 character cap thing but after some thought I have come to terms with it and actually think its a wise move. It does force you to make done tough choices but means you'll care about your characters more, this feel more attached to them and the world they're in. This should bring back done immersion which has been missing for a long time! Looking forward to trying this out for sure! Ex Ls/atl player
what guilds were u in on ATL? I transfered there from GL late in my UO career. Would love to grab some ATL players into a guild together... I got a group of friends playing from GL/ATL too.
On August 28 2012 09:21 Shelke14 wrote: My buddy and I were gonna join but after seeing the server being based in northern france, it will make good pvp impossible. sorry
Try pinging it. People from the eastern half of north america are generally getting below 100ms. Anything up to 120 is fine for 1v1 PvP and up to 150 is fine for group/dexxer PvP.
I'm in Chicago, my ping was 168... With a bad internet connection (ATT 6meg) I used lowerping.com and it got my ping to 102... Even with 168 I was fine dueling... And with 102, I don't have any lag problems at all.
Hey again guys. Seeing EasyUO banned as a EUO programmer of the past makes me sad but oh well
Got a couple more questions. I think my friend group will be giving this a go with the beta, assuming characters will be wiped with launch. To begin with, how do you limit 2 characters per player? Can multiple players play from the same IP/household?
On the topic of crafters, I've played on shards where BODs reign and people have 100+ bodders. Its good to see them removed, but why would anyone create crafters now? Isn't one actively online crafter per guild/group enough? How can one make money vis-a-vis crafting? (p.s. it's great we have runic toolkits for fletching)
I'm still wrestling with 2 character limit, but it is good in certain ways as well. No champ camping with ghosts, no mass bodding, no naked thiefs @ brit bank, no creating a character just to flame people... But I will also have to decide between a tamer/peacemaker, a treasure finder, a champ necro-thief, and a craftsman for my secondary character. Gah.
Edit: Just logged on to check, currently 4 people online. Should I be worried?
Hi - as Punkte says, it's only in 'alpha' testing currently, which means we have the shard hosted on the live server, but have TC conditions up etc, this has allowed us to fine tune lots of late game content, PvM, PvP (including exceptionally accurate spell cast timers!) as players have had access to loads of items and can set their own skills. As of Monday 3rd we are entering beta, which involves a shard wipe, removal of TC etc. We realistically don't expect many people to get involved here, as around 2 weeks later we are planning a final wipe, and launch. However we have had a group of 20-30 non-staff players who have provided considerable input throughout the past few monthsand all feedback has been welcomed. We haven't set ourselves a target for players online, only that it 'grows every week'. Some of the most successful free servers started with less than 20 online and have grown over the years to over 500. I'd like to think we can get 150+ online pretty quickly and grow from there. We have attracted heaps of old PvP, PvM and RP guilds from American and EU servers we had connections with over the years, in addition to a LOT of new faces.
As for your other points:
EUO - banned. Easily tracked and spotted. Razor does everything gameplay function and skillgain macro wise that you need, EUO just promotes the unattended resource gathering players we want to avoid, to keep the economy in check. Unatttended skill macroing is fine however, and there is no anti macro code.
Crafters will have plenty of ways to make money, providing they are sufficient gatherers also. There's no easy road to riches with any class.
You've hit the nail on the head with the char limit, it does force difficult choices for players, but we strongly maintain it's in the best interest of the shard. The main reasoning is to promote interaction, provide those who really want to play a crafter/trader a valid profession. I expect many organised guilds will have a crafter char between them, but it will be in their best interests to use that crafter outside of the guild also.
Multiple accounts - again we limit by IP of both creation and play patterns, monitoring from both the IP side and account side. Funnily enough whenever we announce a loose intent to make exceptions, everyone suddently has a brother/friend/dog they live with who also plays UO and needs 2 accounts of their own, so for now we need to be strict. That's not to say in the future we won't allow additional characters or accounts, but we don't want the first month of the server to be everyone macroing in town! (skillgain is faster in dungeons anyway)
Any more questions let me know. Better off joining up at www.aosredux.net/boards and asking there however, as you'll get a quicker answer from one of the staff or players who don't come here
On September 02 2012 19:38 Ashikata wrote: Hi - as Punkte says, it's only in 'alpha' testing currently, which means we have the shard hosted on the live server, but have TC conditions up etc, this has allowed us to fine tune lots of late game content, PvM, PvP (including exceptionally accurate spell cast timers!) as players have had access to loads of items and can set their own skills. As of Monday 3rd we are entering beta, which involves a shard wipe, removal of TC etc. We realistically don't expect many people to get involved here, as around 2 weeks later we are planning a final wipe, and launch. However we have had a group of 20-30 non-staff players who have provided considerable input throughout the past few monthsand all feedback has been welcomed. We haven't set ourselves a target for players online, only that it 'grows every week'. Some of the most successful free servers started with less than 20 online and have grown over the years to over 500. I'd like to think we can get 150+ online pretty quickly and grow from there. We have attracted heaps of old PvP, PvM and RP guilds from American and EU servers we had connections with over the years, in addition to a LOT of new faces.
As for your other points:
EUO - banned. Easily tracked and spotted. Razor does everything gameplay function and skillgain macro wise that you need, EUO just promotes the unattended resource gathering players we want to avoid, to keep the economy in check. Unatttended skill macroing is fine however, and there is no anti macro code.
Crafters will have plenty of ways to make money, providing they are sufficient gatherers also. There's no easy road to riches with any class.
You've hit the nail on the head with the char limit, it does force difficult choices for players, but we strongly maintain it's in the best interest of the shard. The main reasoning is to promote interaction, provide those who really want to play a crafter/trader a valid profession. I expect many organised guilds will have a crafter char between them, but it will be in their best interests to use that crafter outside of the guild also.
Multiple accounts - again we limit by IP of both creation and play patterns, monitoring from both the IP side and account side. Funnily enough whenever we announce a loose intent to make exceptions, everyone suddently has a brother/friend/dog they live with who also plays UO and needs 2 accounts of their own, so for now we need to be strict. That's not to say in the future we won't allow additional characters or accounts, but we don't want the first month of the server to be everyone macroing in town! (skillgain is faster in dungeons anyway)
Any more questions let me know. Better off joining up at www.aosredux.net/boards and asking there however, as you'll get a quicker answer from one of the staff or players who don't come here
Hahah, well not so much as a friend/brother/dog, but I've got a UO-crazy wife that will play along with me. Registering at the boards right now, cya there.
Great, welcome to the club! As mentioned we will find a way to make it work so you're not missing out, it might not happen straight away though, we'd rather protect ourselves and introduce a secure measure in due course!
I'll be putting up a thread on the forum shortly where people can request extra accounts for multiple players per IP situations, hopefully that way we'll have it in place in time for launch. We'll obviously be watching how those accounts are being used to prevent abuse.
Haha I can't believe how many people have already logged in for beta, more than other servers live launch... Looks good though, nice to see people running around getting geared uo, but maybe the loot packs are too high in some places... Looking forward to launch!
I saw some guy saying he was going to stream when the live server launched. IMO UO doesn't get done justice via streamsas it's a basic looking game, but it's the immersion and variation which is awesome, this server looks great so far.
Loot packs were way too high. My fault, got carried away without a complete understanding of the code. They are now adjusted back down to a more realistic level.
Open beta has been live for around 3 days now and is going really well. Some inconsistencies and loot/balance tweaks have been identified and rectified, but over all things are working as planned.
There has been a lot of activity from both new and old players and we have a great community already, we are really lucky.
Many bugs are being fixed within a few hours, and all feedback is being taken on board, but has been incredibly positive.
Still on course for a launch on 15th, please feel free to ask any questions if you are interested in Redux!
Awesome, I logged in to check out the beta and do a pre-release routine training and find out what ima do in game... So far everything is great. They fixed a few more bugs.. Skillgain is at a perfect level. You don't have to spend months to get your guy to gm.
Definitely worth checking out. We had 30+ players log on the beta alone. Looking forward to seeing the number of people we will be rocking during release!
i miss the good old Test Center lolol so much pvp everywhere. UO was the best game ever until EA bought it and fucked it up big time,i spent my childhood playing this game i failed so much in highschool because of this game... if u have never played UO dont look at the old graphic just play it its fucking good
We've just agreed to launch at 1PM (British Summer Time). There won't be an event as such, we want to keep everything really organic and not have scripted or unnatural events.
That said, we will have rewards for players who log in during the opening weekend, in the form of a gift box, but you'll have to log in to find what's in there! (it's not anything that affects balance)
It's not for everyone, but AoS has so much more to it for those that played beyond the initial month or 2 of horrendous balance/content malfunctions we already have plenty of converts.
I started before UO:R and in my opinion Age of Shadows was a step in the right direction. It was fun and added a lot of interesting things to the game. However after that things went to shit pretty fast so..
Anyway I'm going to give it a try even if I'd really much prefer 3 characters to 2.
Thanks for giving it a go! We hated AoS when it first launched, partly due to the game changing so much and partly due to the lack of balance. The team behind this server were part of a focus group with OSI devs to put together p25, the most balanced pvp era around that time. Agreed it went to pit when samurai empire came out though!
We have modelled the server around p25 rules and balance consistencies, and are quite proud and very confident of wha we have to offer, for free.
When the game became item based and insurance was introduced, the game got out of whack completely. You need demand for GM crafted weapons. If people don't need to replace their gear, the economy dies and crafters become useless.
Any shard with insurance isn't worth playing, period. Why play a 14 year old bad game?
Would be good to see a TL guild established. There would be plenty of competition! Punkte has been around for a while watching the server develop so he's pretty knowledgeable about stuff.
Hiding/Music/Provo/Healing/Magic Resist/Anatomy/Cart is probably my selection. Macro'ing in moonglow right now. If anything get's set up later, please be sure to post. Would love to continue playing with TL players.
Just hit the 'live for 1 week' mark. No server crashes (only one host outage for a few mins), population growing daily, superb feedback from players commenting how authentic and real everything feels, action in every dungeon, an awesome community already and lots of good features on the way.
On September 19 2012 03:22 Ashikata wrote: hi nennx - there are actually full instructions on the forums if you'd like to register at www.aosredux.net/boards
God, this shit brings back so many memories. Playing UO, my first MMO, all the awe and excitement that it entitled in the day. Such a different time, as opposed now to being relatively jaded by MMOs, man, what a fun time that was. I'm going to have to look into this.
Almost our 3 week birthday, come and celebrate with us this weekend.
As action hots up, champ spawns are becoming increasingly competitive, reliable crafters and honesty traders are making their mark, and guilds are forming custom built player towns, now is a great time to truly immerse yourself. You could be chopping trees, taming cats or fighting skeletons 30 minutes from now!!
Our server storyline events will be kicking off by the end of October so get your characters started to be involved!
I'm playing this server for 2 weeks. It's awesome, only Felucca makes it more exciting. Good fights vs Pks. Hope this server will be bigger and bigger. Join please!! I want ULTIMA ONLINE back!
I keep seeing this thread during the week wanting to play at my home pc during the weekend and I keep forgetting. Is there still plenty of room for housing? I tried giving another free shard a chance about 2 years ago and lost interest when I couldn't place the smallest of houses anywhere in the world because they had no limit on the number of houses you could own, most houses were just completely empty.
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/zzgRx.gif)
) and wants to start on your server?
we already have plenty of converts.
