By Igor Boyko aka Sotnik
Ultima Online Chronicles, or My Adventures on Pacific in 2000 Year

Ultima Online Chronicles

Author & translator – Igor Boyko

This edition was created and published by Aegitas

From author

It all started with a short article in a gaming magazine, in which the author came to the delight of the fact that in the game, he just stood on the shore of the pond and watched frolicking dolphins. It took place in the world of Ultima Online. I also found this moment extremely interesting. In the vast fantasy world of the game the player found something beautiful, which, perhaps, was not intentionally arranged. There was something Japanese about it – the ability to admire simple things. And I decided I had to see it with my own eyes. And not only that.

In the end, I settled on Pacific, which was the server I had the least lag. And the connection speed with the 14,400 modem wasn't great. In the game any character could outrun me (if he had time, of course), I was just a little bit slower. But these were the little things in life, the very virtual life in a fairy-tale world, where the struggle between good and evil was in the first place. I realized this a bit later, but on the first day I was happy about the most trivial things. For example, that a bird shot with a bow could be gutted, and you can obtain the meat and feathers that can be used to make arrows.

And then I understood that one short article in the magazine where I was (and still am) the Editor-in-Chief would not be enough for this world. I realized that I had a unique chance to tell the story of a traveler who finds himself in an unknown country. Who every day discovers something new, meets and makes friends with different good people and opposes Evil to the best of his ability. For that was my choice, my philosophy.

As a result, I hovered in the game for 12 months, giving away an article in each successive issue. That's how the Ultima Online Chronicles came to be. A lot of water has flowed since then. Veterans of the game may say that the author is a noob and remains one. And in some ways I agree with them. But let them remember their first steps in UO. That excitement of exploring and learning a new world. This is what I have tried to convey to readers.

At E3 2003, I met the creator of Ultima Online – Richard Garriott. I gave him a dagger as a present, and thanked him for the great pleasure I had.

Later we met a few more times, both in America and in Russia, where he came to fly into space. He is a very active and busy man. That's probably why he didn't respond in any way to my friendly request to write a few lines about his vision for Ultima Online that I could quote in this book.

Hey, Richard, if you're reading these lines, know that the offer still stands.

Part I

What was going to happen happened. I'd had a taste of online role-playing before, and yet I was virtually unprepared for what awaited me in online Ultima. Just as you'll be unprepared when you first get there. It's one thing to read about it in a magazine, while looking at screenshots of graphics squeezed out of a not-so-fresh engine. And it's quite another to feel yourself a part of a beautifully designed fantasy world.

I won't try to tell you about UO all-in-all, I can't compare it with other online giants for the simple reason that I'm making my first, rather shy steps on this field, supported by my offline RPG experience. Therefore, consider the following material as a kind of report, a report on a trip to an exotic far away.

There was a time when, while visiting all kinds of computer expos, I was involuntarily seized by the urge to take a double-edged sword and smash it heartily on the so fascinating and at the same time inaccessible wonders of the computer industry. Without elaborating on the topic, I will immediately state that these days the home PC has become quite an ordinary phenomenon. A similar trend can now be seen in the field of paid online games. Judge for yourself: the cost of the boxed edition of Ultima Online: the Second Age – $30. It includes payment for a month of playing time. In the future, those who "get hooked", will have to pay for the pleasure around $10 a month. A lot? Same amount that the peddlers will ask for five pirated CDs. No comment.

Of course, all this trouble is worth making if you have decent access to the Internet. The system requirements of the game claim a connection of 28.800 and, as practice has shown, this speed is really enough to feel like a master of your own destiny.

I sell iron ingots. Such luck is rare – on the body of slaughtered troll there were as many as 1325 of them!

We live! And not only twice!

After registering an account on the corresponding site, the player gets access to a couple of dozen game servers, geographically scattered around the world. The closest to us – Europa, but do not hurry to create a "char" there – the program allows you to sort servers by the communication quality. Choose the one that took the top line, connect and proceed to create a character. In my particular case, Pacific was the best option, which turned out to be played by Europeans, Americans and New Zealanders.

Think carefully before endowing your character with the three "innate" skills, as your choice will determine how he lives his life. If you are inclined to wander around, exploring the unknown wilderness, measuring by steps the valleys, mountains, dungeons, wondering what it is behind the turn of the road, then do not become a blacksmith or a carpenter. For the latter it is better to stay close to the city, getting the source materials and cautiously listening to the rustles of the surrounding nature, ready at the first sign of aggression from any enemy to run away with shouts of "Guards! Guards!" This is true of any newbie.

First the harpy fell into this trap, and a few minutes later the orc managed to be lured into it as well

When selecting skills, your eyes are simply scattered – there are almost five dozen of them. Some are quite standard, while others seem to be too complicated and superfluous, such as Forensic Evaluation. If you apply this skill to a corpse, you will know the circumstances of the deceased's death.

I've decided that my char should feel like a fish in water in the wild. So I made him an archer/fletcher. On the one hand I can hunt all sorts of wildlife, on the other I can make money quite quickly by selling manufactured bows and crossbows. Not the least factor in choosing this combination was being able to defeat significantly stronger but slower critters.

And if you decide to change, all avenues are open to you. You can learn any specialty from scratch. If you want to become a tamer, just try, then try again, then again. See at what speed you began to grow the corresponding skill. In just a few minutes you'll be able to charm the rabbit! After a while you can tame a dog, after a sleepless night you can tame a wolf, after a few days you can tame a bear, but how long will it take to learn how to tame dragons, I can't say – I only know that it's a long time.

I'm afraid I'm in danger of some mutual misunderstanding on the Japanese server

Commodity-money relations

If you're playing for the first time, choose the main city – Britain – as the place where your hero appears. Here there are all the conditions for the initial "char" pumping – stores and shops of all types, training castle with mannequins on which anyone can hone their skills, and the people in the city hangs out a lot, if you stand around the bank, you can get on the "distribution of elephants" – from time to time there are characters who just stick to the right and left all sorts of things, sometimes – magical. Some simply have nowhere to put the stuff, and to go to the store – a bummer, while others do it from altruistic motives, simultaneously advertising their own guild. Here also come those who need something to sell/buy.

The local banking system allows the player to store not only money, but also items. And your bank chest can be accessed from a bank in any city. Funds are also taken from the bank at the time of purchase of any items in stores organized by the players. Likewise, payment is made for real estate. All of this makes life much easier, allowing you to do without large sums of cash, which can easily be stolen.

The gold armor is as if designed for the archer, with +30 protection and only a -3 loss in mobility

The initial capital of the player is only 100 coins, and he is also given production tools and weapons according to the chosen specialization. The latter will be of low, "training" quality, you will not even be able to sell them.

From this moment life begins, without the carefree childhood and adolescence, but you can do whatever you want. It's logical to develop the abilities that you have thought of when generating your character. The more often and more successfully you will perform some operation, the faster the corresponding skill will grow. Over time the quantity will pass into quality, blacksmiths, for example, will learn to forge magical weapons and armor, whose value is comparable to the cost of real estate.

Buying your own house is one of the player's first goals. This is a completely safe haven, and a warehouse, and, if desired, your own business. The price of the simplest house is approximately 12 thousand coins, for comparison: a simple bow carved with a dagger you can take to a store for 25–30 GP.

It's a shame: there's an unclaimed chest right on the road, but it's locked, and you can't open it

Man to man

In online Ultima, depending on how well the player behaves towards his neighbors, his name will be written in blue, gray or red. True, if the sneaky PK, I mean player-killer, will in between the killings of innocent travelers or workers to deal with all sorts of demons, skeletons, evil-mages, and negative NPC, then he may well return to the blue coloring. "Gray" character becomes such as a result of some initial evil deeds, for example, he might try to see what's in the neighbor's backpack, or killed a couple or three pets – cats, dogs or cows.

If the crime is committed in the city, the victim can call on the help of the city guards, who, sometimes appearing just out of nowhere, kill the offender with a single blow.

A "gray" or "red" character can be killed by anyone who wishes to test the sharpness of his blade on their neck, without affecting his reputation or karma. If he manage, of course.

And here is the first quest I have to give up as I have no bolts for the crossbow

In general, the PK'illerism is worth a special discussion. The possibility of becoming a "bad guy" is in the game itself, and at different levels. For example, you can become a thief and stealing on a grand scale. Play the role of scoundrel, which you will never be in life. Can you imagine how difficult it is to reach the top level of thievery skill in a game like this? After all, it is enough for someone in the crowd to notice that the thief is trying to examine the insides of someone else's backpack, and one can start killing him immediately.

It seems that the most competent PKs are ours, the Russian ones. I assert this, having experienced on my own skin how they and their overseas counterparts operate. Our guys will first process you with a couple of spells, depriving you of the ability not only to cast in response, but also to move in general. Only then they kill you. Professionals at their job:). Not ours – stupidly apply brute force and attacking spells usually.

At first, it pissed me off that some bastards, instead of going to crush the monsters, stand on the high road and bully everyone to the right and left. But as time passed, I realized I was wrong. Without PK, the game would have lost the lion's share of its appeal. After all, PK is Evil personified, and it's good that it exists, that you can fight it, serve justice, protect the weak, etc. The "good" characters have a constant opponent, and it is not dumb monsters, but often an enemy superior to you in many ways.

These good people will soon finish killing earth elementals and bring my ghost back to life

The most important thing here is role-playing. The game is an environment, and if players don't behave the way fantasy characters are supposed to, the integrity of the world is destroyed.

Here's an incident that happened to me shortly after I pumped up my skills slightly and decided to go outside the city – to chop wood and make bows for sale. I was walking through the woods, along the road that leads to Minoc – you can't chop wood quickly enough near the town, you need to go a bit farther away. My attention was caught by some well-equipped characters who were running toward the town. When they stopped, they told me not to go any farther – there were PKs out there, so I could get killed. Soon it became clear that there was only one PK, but there were quite a few of us, so I had the idea of attacking the villain with the whole gang and killing him. In the end a final "GO!" appeared on the screen, and we went east to establish justice and restore the self-respect of those chars.

As it turned out, PK by the time of our arrival also managed to get a company – next to him settled four blue players in the same, almost uniform clothes – black robes, thrown on full bone armor. My character automatically began firing arrow after arrow at the gold-clad red Herbalot, and my companions went at him with swords and axes. But the "blacks" covered the assassin with themselves, leaving only one side of him accessible. Moreover, they began to heal him with spells!

This dungeon can be accessed without leaving the Britain

After a few minutes, it was all over. All of "ours" went down rather quickly, and Herbalot chased me four times before my connection failed. The lag did its black work, and I continued to watch the scene in black and white as a ghost.

And then the black-horns acted in such a way that if I had been there I would have shaken hands with them and bought them a beer. In one voice they started saying things like "Sir, you're the greatest, you are the best…" To which he replied that it was a pity he couldn't be "blue" because he liked killing so much…

That's it – the Evil you believe in, which makes you resent, worry and enjoy the game to the fullest.

Nevertheless, I took them all on my pencil. Perhaps we'll get some more fighting. I'll sentence them without malice, or at least I'll try.

Some players put a sentence-command on the macro that covers all cases

Monster to monster

As you can easily guess, game monsters are also differentiated by the color of the name or title. Even the most undeveloped character will always be able to find a creature that he can kill. You start with rabbits, small feathered creatures, and I have yet to see the limit of perfection. I watched the dragons from a distance and with due reverence. Fauna is constantly respawning, just as the flora. It's impossible to turn trees completely into usable logs, it's just that after a certain stroke they cease to give out wood. Of course, you can't make a lot of logs within the city or its nearest suburbs. However, the concept of "wilderness" in Ultima can be considered abolished. The most "wild" places are recognized by the toughness of the local monsters, but often we have to fight with the trolls and ettins in the vicinity of private property of some rich players.

What got me absolutely thrilled was the NPC's hitmen! My first encounter with them ended sadly: the character was already exhausted and hungry, and then as if by chance there was a lag. A trio of red-named PKs rushed after me and, alas, after half a minute the screen went black and white. And then my assassin comments appear on it like, "Okay, look, what kind of armor do we have here? Bone armor?! And what's in here? Magic reagents! Wow!". Only at that moment did I realize that I was in the company of NPC, the inscriptions on the screen were changing each other too quickly, people don't print on the keyboard at that speed.

To this lady blacksmith I promised that I would only buy armor from her

The density of monsters per square pixel is not constant, sometimes you can stomp through the forest for a ten or twenty minutes before something worthy of wasting arrows appears. But the game seems to sense when you are low on ammo: trolls, two-headed ettins, all sorts of orcs, and snakes immediately pick up your trail. Once I saw a fighter get chased through the woods by 5 or 6 orcs supported by a troll. Lucky for him there weren't any mages among them.

Each creature has its own intelligence, its own habits. If big "game" can be easily lured into a dead end formed by good mutual arrangement of trees, hills and other obstacles, then, for example, orc-mages or Dire Wolves will get to you in any case. And if you're not wearing any decent armor, all you can do is maneuver and shoot arrow after arrow at the pursuer (in archers' way).

Another curious thing – monsters don't always coexist peacefully, I witnessed myself a panther fighting with a living magic tree.

The dragon is taken from the stable, where he was during the absence of the owner

Professional growth

There is no point in trying to become a multi-tasker, the more often you apply a skill, the higher the corresponding skill becomes. At the beginning of the game, it is better to spend the night (in real time) in the training room, practicing basic combat skills on dummies. Or, for example, your character can try to talk to spirits on each cycle (which also increases Intellect) and strike the dummy with the weapon of his choice. Other times, put him on the sidewalk and let him play the lute. In addition to the art of music-making this way is pumped up Dexterity. Just do not forget about the food. With available macros system (adjustable for each game session) and unsophisticated software UOLoop! which can be downloaded from the Internet, you can automate the training process and do in parallel other things. And do not be tormented with reproaches of conscience, in this case it's just a time saver.

Almost every NPC is able to train people in several ways. If only there was money. Pay the requested amount in cash (or as much as you have in your pocket at the moment) and your abilities instantly increase by the corresponding sum.

One "but" – it's impossible to get above a certain level in this way. All serious achievements are based on the constant practice of skills in the field. That's why I'm no longer surprised at the sight of a mage who casts a wall of fire, then walks into it himself, stands and grunts, and increases Spell Resistance. Or materializes polar bears one by one with a few memorized gestures.

UO is fashioned in the best fantasy tradition – all the female characters are beautiful

What is good and what is bad

Like it or not, but you can't avoid communicating with other players in Ultima. And you play, by and large, to establish yourself in the society that has developed in the game, to gain a certain influence in it, to change it in some way to your liking. Of course, without knowledge of English, the pleasure of the game shrinks.

Like any social system, Ultima has its own ethics, which most players honor. So, if you become a witness to the player's fight with monsters, you do not need to rush to the rescue, most likely he can handle it without you. Another thing is when a player is trying to get away from some creature, and it does not work. In such a situation, you can first get involved in the course of events, and then ask if anyone will be against it. The fact is that for ridding the world of any monster characters get an increase in Fame and Karma. I, for example, was hurt when a couple of gawkers finished off the ettin I'd mauled. Only the blow that puts an end to the monster's life counts. And when I said what I thought of them, one of them threw back, "This is life".

Maybe that's how the first PK appeared?

Who wants red dragons? Cash payment only, only 8 thousand a piece…

During the last "immersion" in the game I was offered to join a guild. I thought it over and over, and I didn't refuse. Now my character's name consist of "two lines" and is drawn in green. The objectives of the guild are quite noble: to do good, to earn good and not to give our own in offense. With time I will gain experience, accumulate gold, secure a site with a log cabin and create my own primary organization. This goal, from the looks of it, is not hard. And I also want to buy a ship because I am curious to sail around the sea, fighting sea monsters.

And what of this endeavor has turned out, I'll tell you next time. Only at once I warn, the next time will not be born quickly. After all, as one bastard remarked, this is life.

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.

Part III

What was supposed to happen happened. A month went by, and I became a Grandmaster Archer. It happened while I was shooting Skeleton Knights near the orc fort in Ultima: Second Age. The Tactics score froze at 100.

This event once again raised the question of how to develop Sotnik further. By the way, I confess where this nickname came from. I had an ancestor, who commanded a hundred Cossacks under the hetman Sagaidachny. Together with the troops of Polish Prince Wladyslaw he took part in the march on Moscow. My heartfelt thanks to him that he managed to return alive:). But this is quite another chronicles.

The liches are laid out to the sides of the world. The backpack is full; a little more and I won't be able to move. Time to recall to the nearest town

I consulted with the guildmates and other chatty gamers and decided to implement the following plan. First, it is time to give up those skills that I was unable to live without at the beginning of the game. There is no longer a need for Camping, Cooking and Item Identification. In the first case, you can always get to the guild or inn, in the second – near the bank sometimes appear GM fishermen. From them you can buy thousands of fish steaks for a small sum (and sometimes get on SALE), in the third – in the game there are many multi-charged (up to two hundred charges!) wands and staves of Identification (in particular, these items constantly carry liches).

Second, it was strongly suggested that I should teach my character a second martial art. There's no arguing – arrows are good until they run out (especially on the bottom floor of the dungeon). And during close combat is not unreasonable to equip the shield. In general, I opted for Fencing, with my 100 Dex (by the way, the characters with such a score in the game are called Dexterity Monkey) to wield a dagger or a short spear should be a pure pleasure. Especially since the dagger stays with the hero even after the meanest murder. Further pumping should be done for Spell Resistance and Anatomy.

Ultima WANTED list. You can get over 400 thousand for the head of the killer Odysseus. He's put a lot of headhunters to death…

One day not far from Delucia, I almost automatically "saved" a pretty unarmed girl in full plate armor from a scimitar-armed skeleton knight. The lady was polite, almost silent – it turns out I interfered with her pumping of Wrestling. I was saved from being shot by a barrage of epithets by the fact that another knight was on my tail. When she started to wrestle with him, I stuck close to him and started… That's right, fix her up. We talked at the same time. It turned out that in her second year of play she had decided to "turn" her fighter into a tank-mage, i.e. a heavily armed mage. One of the reasons for this decision was a certain advantage of powerful mages over all other classes, which arose after another patch-up of the game. After hearing about my "crossroads" she told me about one possible option: to become a so-called "townie" – an urban warrior who joined one of the global clans – Chaos or Order. In this case I automatically join the global war, which is conducted throughout the game, including the cities. And the killing and other acts of aggression in this war is not considered criminal. There is just the eternal struggle between good and evil.

Tribal UO – return to the subject

I got an Email from Gazgolder – the guildmaster of the Russian guild Ice Friends on the Zuluhotel shard, who is also the Game Master there. He told me that the gameplay shortcomings mentioned in the article were largely corrected, and others are not shortcomings, but special features. For example, the guards respond to cries for help only if you can see them on the screen. According to gamemasters, it is more realistic. And ore from the nearest to the main city hill "pumped out" by the grandmaster in ten minutes. And lag will soon become less – with the transition to the new server. And impressive pile of scripts was written, and there appeared two dozen of new colors, and Capture the Flag was made, etc., etc. Everything is great, right?

It is only unclear what the local players will do, if Origin one day will shut down all these illegal servers.

War in pictures: Black Watch vs. HOK

Well, I almost forgot about my promise to tell you about our quarrel with the HOK guild. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find out exactly what caused all the commotion. But as it turned out, practically the entire HOK is made up of former Black Guards. At one time their guildmaster Vio was kicked out of BW for actions incompatible with the ideals of the guild. He held a grudge and became a nuisance. By hook or by crook.

War has been declared on us. Guildmaster Koric summoned the fighters and mages you see in this screenshot on the meeting The horses, as usual, were left in the anteroom. At the meeting it was decided not to "accept" the war, since the main purpose of HOK is to take revenge on the guild leaders for past offenses, and to get some booty at the same time. Most of the Black Watch are untrained craftsmen who do not stand a chance in PvP (Player vs. Player) showdowns. As a reminder, guild war kills are not considered player kills by the game.

Grandmaster-tamer from HOK tries to provoke our Good Doctor mage to attack, "Koric himself admitted that we can slaughter BW". But the doctor likes talking:).

Here comes the cavalry. The reason for the Tamer's overconfident behavior was only ten paces behind him.

A full-scale war has not been started. HOK begins to engage in so-called "hit-and-run" attacks. The first to die was Good Doctor, whose horse was also not spared. They started to beat him on his approach to the tower, and when he tried to take cover inside, a trap set on the door went off.

They want a war, they'll get one. Only by our terms. The Good Doctor stripped down to his underpants and went out to the enemy to be killed again. He kept setting himself up until the HOK remembered the player-killer counter. It was not in their plans to become red PKs or Murderers.

One of the killers would now have to go 40 hours without hurting anyone to get back to his original state – Doc did his best.

The killing stopped. My shootout with Ignoble Lifen was a draw. We were both great at taking health points off each other, but we never got to the point of killing each other. The episode ended with a little chitchat. In response to her "I'm so sexy it hurts," I had to point out that Ignoble title somehow doesn't fit that statement well.

A Willie flew into the guild tower at full throttle. The HOKs liked his blue GM plate armor, so they chased him for about five minutes, and he was lucky enough to come to us. As it turned out, Willie was a seven-time GM, including a blacksmith. The next day Koriс accepted Willie into the guild and made him a Friend of the House, so he could put up his vendor, selling cool armor and weapons at bargain prices.

Ambush! Somehow the main HOK fighters had been unbanished and given access to the guild. My Sotnik was not prepared for this turn of events. I took the fight in front of the tower, and when it was time to escape, there was nowhere to go. My pursuers came after me in the guild.

It turns out that there's an undocumented ability to use the Meteor Storm spell to hit characters that are hidden behind walls.

After reviving Sotnik, I returned to the tower and quickly banned all the attacking HOKs.

There came a moment when Vio realized that such a war was pointless. To begin with, he told us about the provocateur Willie. It was this "goon" who opened HOK's access to the guild. Moreover, he had hacked our Guild Stone, and as a result the titles of our fighters were changed to something like Chicken Rapist.

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