The Legend Of ‘Ultima Online’ Lives On In The Open-World Sandbox MMORPG ‘UO Evolution’

Ultima Online has the distinct honor of often being considered the grandfather of MMORPGs. It is certainly the first one that was popular enough to put the game genre on the map. To this day there hasn’t really been a game quite like it that offered such unprecedented player freedom in a persistent online sandbox. A custom free shard called ‘UO Evolution’, is actually built by many of the original RunUO developers and absolutely has the spirit of what made it so iconic over the decades.

In fact, there is an entire custom server named ‘UO Evolution’ that was created to alter the original game mechanics and rules to keep Ultima Online current with the trends of more modern games

UO Evolution has been battle-tested over 12 years now and continues to have a healthy player base and a cult-like following. The development team continues to produce new custom content every week, which is arguably better than the original production shards

The Nostalgia of taking your first step in-game and hearing the familiar theme music still makes my heart pound in anticipation of the thrill of adventure!

When you log into the world there is very little direction in terms of where to go, what to do, and how not to get “murdered”. FYI that IS by design. You are supposed to join the Discord, read the Wiki, and be prepared before you ever even hit that login button. And failing all of that, you should at the very least get friendly with strangers around “safe” towns in the hopes of finding someone willing to help out.

Once you do navigate the GUI and successfully win your first fight, things start to get exciting. There are hundreds of formal quest lines to enjoy to get the feel of the game, but the real fun is doing literally anything you want in a true open world sandbox…you actually create your own story

You can get very elaborate with your storyline and character creation…feel free to roleplay, or not. There are limitless ways to roleplay your character on UO Evolution

The next step on your MMORPG journey is getting set up with armor, clothing and a trusty weapon. The majority of shops are player-run by actual real-life people. It is truly rare to find a self-sufficient, player driven economy. Spread across the world you’ll find shops setup with goods displayed for sale and many of those will be themed with certain types of items like weapons, armor, spell reagents, and more.

That aspect of total freedom, combined with the free-form nature of the player housing system, plus the PvP that’s enabled on the Felucca facet landmass, makes it feel dangerous and untamed like few other games on the market. There are many safe zones and facets to operate on until you build up your character. Make sure you prepare for the Player vs Player aspect of the game. There are lots of professions and combat options including the use of powerful creatures and pets.

The new custom enemies and monsters are more powerful and relentless than ever before, but the real excitement comes when other live players attack you in the open PvP areas of the shard. If you die, your body leaves behind all of your possessions that you had at the time. This is truly a game of risks and rewards.

This sort of exciting, adrenaline-inducing action is something you rarely experience in other games, and it delivers a marathon of everlasting enjoyment

It is FREE to play, just download the shard launcher and start today!

https://www.uoevolution.com

Remember Ultima Online?

Feeling nostalgic? Now is the best time to start playing Ultima Online again, one of the greatest MMORPGS of all time.

UO Evolution custom Ultima Online Freeshard has been adding new content every Friday for the past 10 years. We are the top Ultima Online development team, creating new systems and improving the original game to produce the best UO experience for all players in the UO community

Want to play for free?

Join us during the “New Player” Weekend and skip the grind!

Start with a +700 skillball, max stats and 50k gold during this New Player weekend event!

How to Connect Guide>>>
https://uoevo.com/wiki/How_to_Connect

UO Evolution Website

UO Evolution Wiki
http://www.uoevo.com/wiki

UO Evolution Forum
http://www.uoevo.com/forum

Discord Channel Invite: http://www.discord.gg/JwEBhPH

>>>Legend of the Evolution Items<<<

During a recent excavation in the Stygian Abyss, several diggers discovered these strange items that seemed to pulse with energy. Upon their return to Luna, several leaders of the Order Of Mages were called in to determine the properties of these unique items. It was discovered that each item had the ability to learn from every encounter it faced and that that knowledge allowed it to evolve into a more powerful artifact.

Some of the vendors in Luna heard about this discovery and smuggled the items from the Luna Vendor Vault and are now selling them, keep your eyes open, if the artifacts are being sold, there are sure to be limited quantities!

Every Evolution artifact gains experience from attacking and killing. You can keep track of how many experience points and the new attributes your weapon has by hovering your mouse over it in your paperdoll. The number in () next to the name is how many experience points the weapon has. The Evolution items can be obtained from doing the Peerless Monsters Quest https://uoevolution.com/wiki/index.php/Peerless_Monsters

>>>Special Evolution Items<<<

There are currently 3 items in game that also have this ability to level

>Evolution Cloak

>Evolution Ring

>Evolution Earrings

Hello Fellow Britannians!

UO Evolution is calling all brave warriors to return to the kingdom!

***UO Evolution Reunion***

We sent out an email to all of out old players from the past 7 years and invited everyone to return for the grand auction and Father’s Day events.

If you want to return to the shard this weekend, we are setting up new accts and giving max stats for new/returning players to skip the grind and preview the shard.

I ask the community to welcome all of the new players as well as the returning players. Make sure we help them all get started again with some gear and friendship!

UO Evolution has been growing again and I would like to keep the momentum going.

We hit the 978+ players online mark, which very few freeshards have ever achieved.

Our next goal would be to break 1000 players online! We will need a community effort to attract new players and to continue growing our playerbase. Please log in often and keep voting daily, to keep us #1 on all the top shard lists!

***House Drops/IDOC Events***

We are going to do house drops asap. This is a great time to get a bunch of old rares and gear. It’s also going to free up a ton of prime housing locations, so get ready for the land rush!

Even if you are not participating in the events, make sure you log in and refresh your accounts. Inactive accounts with no log ins for over 6 months are subject to deletion! LOG IN NOW!

***New Custom Content***

Kane continues to deliver weekly updates every Friday and adds new content for us to all enjoy! See the forum and developer logs for details.
https://uoevolution.com/wiki/index.php/UOE_Development_Logs_2017

***Event Schedule***
https://uoevolution.com/forum/index.php?board=11.0

We are committed to running the best custom freeshard and are focused on customer service and player satisfaction. If you have had any issues with old staff, banned acct or left for any reason, please contact Dante to resolve the issue

We look forward to seeing you again!

Dante, Zoe, Kane, Zeus, Domino, Morsax

New Player Weekend on UO Evolution – Ultima Online Freeshard!

Feeling nostalgic? Now is the best time to start playing Ultima Online, one of the greatest MMORPS os all time.

Start with a 700 skillball and max stats and 50k gold during this New Player weekend event!

Join the New Player guild and get a shard tour

New Player Guide and wiki>>>
https://uoevolution.com/wiki/index.php/New_Player_Guide

How to Connect Guide>>>
https://uoevolution.com/wiki/index.php/How_to_Connect

Follow the UO Evolution Development Team

The 2010-2013 Dev log have been archived

https://uoevolution.com/wiki/index.php/UOE_Development_Logs_2014
https://uoevolution.com/wiki/index.php/UOE_Development_Logs_2015
https://uoevolution.com/wiki/index.php/UOE_Development_Logs_2016
https://uoevolution.com/wiki/index.php/UOE_Development_Logs_2017
https://uoevolution.com/wiki/index.php/UOE_Development_Logs_2018

Staff Positions – UO Evolution

I am looking to expand my staff again. We have been online 7 years and have a very active player base of 700+ online daily. We run events daily and have meetings weekly. Most of my staff has been with the shard over 5 years. You must be able to commit your time, be flexible and work well in groups

I’m looking for some mature players to work as councelors to meet and greet all of the new players. You would be responsible for pages, questions and tours. You can work into a GM position if you learn fast. Player experience and customer service skills are required. We will train the right individual, based on your interview

We need one experienced GM that already knows the GM commands and has XML Spawner skills. You would be responsible for daily pages, events and the new councelors

I am also looking for an Asst Developer that can help the Senior Developer add new game content weekly, server knowledge is a plus, I prefer you to have experience with the GM commands and professional knowledge of c# scripting.

Please visit UO Evolution
www.uoevolution.com

Contact Dante
[email protected]
UO Evolution “The Game Has Evolved”

https://www.uoevolution.com/forum
https://www.uoevolution.com/wiki

UO Evolution – 6th Anniversary in January!

UO Evolution is excited to announce we are celebrating 6 glorious years Online!

As many of you know we are about to celebrate our 6th year online on the weekend of January 28th-29th. We will have a big reunion with all of our old players. Everyone is invited back to check out the progress and success of UO Evolution.

I want to thank all the players for supporting this UO project over the years and making this a great community.

We will be running special staff events and giving away many unique anniversary prizes and gifts over the weekend.

We are very excited to see a record of 689 players online last month and an avg of 500+ daily!

The shard has prospered and has added new content every Friday for the last 6 years, and the player base has at least doubled. The game continues to “evolve” and it is absolutely better than the original game. We have 99% uptime and almost zero crashes since Kane has taken over the scripting. Most of the major systems have been completely rewritten or improved.

Kane and the staff have made over 150+ new shard content updates in 12 months and we continue run several events daily

We just did another content update, if you would like to follow along with the development of UO Evolution, you can now view the 2017 Development Logs here https://uoevolution.com/wiki/index.php/UOE_Development_Logs_2017

We are the #1 custom era shard for 6 years straight, and we can all be proud of that accomplishment!

This is YOUR shard!

We are committed to running the best custom UO freeshard and are focused on customer service and player satisfaction! If you have had any issues with old staff, banned account or left for any reason, please contact Dante to resolve the issue.

We look forward to seeing you again!

Dante, Zoe, Kane, Expo, Domino, Zeus, and Joker

www.uoevolution.com
www.uoevolution.com/wiki
www.uoevolution.com/forum

Event Schedule
https://uoevolution.com/forum/index.php?board=11.0

Also make sure you like us on facebook. We are going to start running more daily events and will post times on facebook andto the front page of the website to keep you up to date
https://www.facebook.com/UO-Evolution-Ultima-Online-Free-Shard-195686500452241/

Legend of the Evolution Dragon

“Tonight we dawn our armour, sharpen our blades, and dust of our spell books. This Dragon has been terrorizing this kingdom for long enough!” – screams the king on his throne. His audience of warriors cheered. “No longer will we live in fear, no longer will we starve. For you, the strongest and fiercest warriors, will take up arms and rid this land of the foul Guardian Dragon!”

“Quit writing boy! You heard the king, gather my things”
“Yes sir.”

We marched up the mountain. The air was still, the night was quiet. The men knew most of them wouldn’t return. As we neared the top there was a massive explosion. A fireball rose from the path ahead of us, the sky itself seemed to be on fire. It has begun. I handed my father his sword and I hid.

Already there were bodies strewn about. All I could hear was the screams of men and the chanting of spells. They fought valiantly. It was a bloody battle, but in the end the mighty dragon fell. I raced out to find my father.

“Father! Where are you father?”
“Cough, Son”

His voice was feint. He was struggling to call to me. Finally I found him behind the dragon, clinging to life.

“Son. You are safe. Take care of your mother.”

He passed soon after. He had delivered the deathblow to the beast. But his wounds were mortal. In His clutches he held an egg. It was a soft white glowing egg. It was warm, it began to shake. It was hatching! Out of the egg slithered a snake. I was afraid, but it clung to my leg, huddling for warmth.

“Kill it!”
“Yes Kill it, we will end this beast’s line once and for all.”
“No! Look at it, it’s harmless. I will raise it. I will keep it”
“But this will grow into a beast as foul as the one we have slain tonight.”

A voice speaks up from the back of the small crowd of survivors,
“But what if we could command such a beast! The boy will keep it.”

It began killing rodents on the farm for us. But as time went on it grew bigger. The more it killed, the bigger it grew. No beast ever threatened our kingdom again. We traveled the land in search of foes worthy of my might “Evolution Dragon.” We vanquished many evils, and found many treasures. But most of all, this friendship lasted a lifetime.

https://uoevolution.com/wiki/index.php/Evolution_Dragons#Evolution_Dragons

The Begining of Ultima online

As far as online games go, Ultima Online is considered the granddaddy of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs). Back in 1997, before the days of voice chat, in the dark age of dial up, Ultima Online (UO) was paving the way for a whole new genre of entertainment, bringing together people from around the world into one (actually several but I’ll talk about that later) persistent world and letting them engage in conversation, trade and even player vs player combat…many for the first time ever!

http://i1373.photobucket.com/albums/ag362/trunomadic/UO%20Evolution/Wiki%20Pics/367223-uoart_zpswixofmps.png

A Very Brief History

Based on the epic role-playing game series of Ultima, created by Richard Garriott and Origin Systems, UO brought to life the world of Sosaria, along with much of its lore and legendary characters such as Lord British, Lord Blackthorn, Exodus, Dupre, Iolo, Minax, and more.

Players could take part in storyline events or completely ignore them and live in a virtual world of endless possibilities. UO was designed as a “sandbox” style game with no real set of rules or objectives. This has made the game extremely unique, even compared to modern-day MMORPGs, where there is typically a “final level” or “end” to the game. There is no such thing as “the end” in Ultima Online, as many people STILL play to this day, 18 years later, on the official servers or on free shards.

What are Official Servers and Free Shards?

The official servers of Ultima Online, run by Origin Systems, Electronic Arts, and now by Mythic Broadsword are a subscription based model, which means you must pay a monthly fee to play, and support both the Classic and Kingdom Reborn client. The KR client completely changed how UO looks and feels, which I will let you research on your own, as this guide shows only the Classic client.

As the number of subscribers has dwindled on the official pay servers, UO hobbyists continued to support the development of the game and created free servers that emulated their favorite era of gameplay.

The freeshards are run independently of the official servers. They were created to emulate specific eras and rule sets of UO. Some custom shards are under constant development, adding new content often, while others stay true to the original game mechanics, tailoring to the “old school” days of PvP in the Renaissance(UOR) and The Second Age(T2A). There are now hundreds of shards to choose from, Take a look at this list of the top free Ultima Online shards and start playing!

Let’s Connect to Ultima Online!

To play on the freeshards you can follow this easy guide or go to the specific shard website for detailed information. I will provide a walk through on how to connect to the Ultima Online, UO Evolution free shard I have been playing on for almost 5 years.

Step 1 – Download the UO Evolution Client With all the unique features available, downloading the custom client is essential to viewing the new custom graphics, mounts, monsters, hues/colors, landscapes and more. Download and unzip the files somewhere you’ll remember for later.

Step 2 – Download Microsoft .Net Framework. Most new computers already have this software installed. This software is required to run properly.

Step 3 – Download Razor or UOSteam or AssistUO
These programs are “assistants” for Ultima Online, allowing you to automate certain tasks and enter server information to play on free shards.

Step 4 – Connect the Client to the Shard
Open Razor/UO Steam/AssistUO (as administrator) and set the Client Options to the directory you installed to earlier and then the Server/Shard to play.uoevolution.com and the port to 2593

Step 5 – Log In and Play!
Create a new account by entering your preferred Account Name and Password. Select the server UO Evolution. Customize your character’s appearance and clothing. Selecting a Human or Elf to play is suggested as Gargoyle’s are not fully implemented and have restrictions. Select the type of character you would like to play. This will set your skills according to what you pick. If you want to be really adventurous, click Advanced and pick your own.

There is no skill cap on UO Evolution so you can pick whatever you like. Regardless of where you select, you will begin in Britain on UO Evolution. Your character has now been created and you are playing Ultima Online!

Congratulations! You have a vast new world in front of you where you can do and be anything. This can be a little daunting, but with the help of our friendly community of players and online guides, you will be on your feet in no time!

Want to play on the Top Free-to-Play Ultima Online Shard? Here are the links to get set up!

See you in game!

Automatic Installer – Full Download, Classic Client+UOE Custom Patch + UO Steam
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4lua18mk1p5s40a/UOEInstallationSetup.exe?dl=0

Manually Install – Full Download, Classic Client+UOE Custom Patch
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vaa3csmyz1grpc6/UOEvolution%20Custom%20Client.rar?dl=0

How to Connect Guides – UO Evolution

https://uoevolution.com/wiki/index.php/How_to_Connect

How to Connect Videos – UO Evolution

New Player Guide – UO Evolution
https://uoevolution.com/wiki/index.php/New_Player_Guide

https://www.uoevolution.com/wiki
https://www.uoevolution.com/forum/