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Hello!
I'm an infrequent poster here on TL, but a frequent visitor. It's been quite a few years ago, but there's one post way back in 2011 that I remember fondly, and that's when (Schmufle I think his name was) had a huge thread running about the upcoming new Ultima Online freeshard In Por Ylem 2.
Many people here on TL were interested back then, and we did get a huge guild going, and it got my interest back for UO, which has since been one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences in my life.
In Por Ylem 2 has since been closed, and other shards have been taken the reins and continued with shards in a similar vein regarding mechanics and playstyle. Notably we've had An Corp, An Corp 2, Rel Por and Rel Por 2, which are cut from a similar material so to speak.
Fast forward to 2018 and here's the most ambitious UO Freeshard project ever about to launch, Ultima Online: Outlands. It's the work of two people mainly: Owyn, who have spent several thousands of hours creating an extremely impressive custom map with all the bells and whistles that go along with it, and Luthius who has spent just as much time coding the entire shebang. There are many of us who have been following it for years, and beta itself has been ongoing for 16 months.
If you have any interest in Ultima Online or have played it before then I would recommend that you take the chance and join up when the shard launches, there has been nothing like it in the past and probably nothing like it in the forseeable future.
If you haven't heard about Ultima Online before, or have never played it before, then I can guarantee you that you are in for the wildest ride of your life. There is nothing quite like Ultima Online in it's old school wild west, anything goes style.
In a nutshell, Ultima Online is one of the original MMORPGs, released back in the 90's. For more than a decade freeshards, i.e. player created servers, have existed and have long since exceeded the quality of content, gameplay and player count of the official servers. At the core of Ultima Online is the totally free sandbox experience. You can put your character together any way you'd like, and do pretty much anything that you want. The huge range of different experiences and playstyles and the freedom is what has kept players coming back. You can play out your existence as a crafter that barely sees the outsides of a town (as I did on the In Por Ylem server), and still become one of the wealthiest characters on the server, or you can play out your life as a murderer who roams the world and kills any player you come across and rob them off everything they have. In between those extremes are many more possibilites that are far too numerous to list.
Here are some useful links. If you have questions, feel free to ask them here, or go to the Discord, where you will find many more seasoned UO veterans, who can answer any question you may have. I also encourage you to go to the Launch Announcement!
A quiet night at the Water Spirit shrine.
There are a ton of new features to talk about. Since Outlands has been in development for several years, it's hard to list everything that exists in the game in a comprehensive way. I have taken information from the launch announcement below to give you a sense of what Outlands is about. Without further ado, upcoming features of the shard:
The town of Terran, home of rangers and woodsmen.
Corpse Creek, the town of murderers and thieves, where there are no guards and you can kill one another freely without punishment.
The entrance to the Mausoleum dungeon, where unholy scientists are assembling abominations of flesh and bone. The boss at the deepest levels is the Gatekeeper. + Show Spoiler +
The quiet gardens of the King & Queen of the city of Andaria.
That's it! If you made it this far, that's a small taste of what Ultima Online can offer. If you have any further questions, or anything else, feel free to post here or go to the Discord/Forum above. I hope there are still some interest for Ultima Online amongst the people here on Team Liquid, and perhaps some of you were not already aware of Outlands launching. If you are completely new and plan on playing, you could not have chosen a better time.
See you on launch day, Oct 27th!