EA, NetDragon Partner on UO Overseas

EA and NetDragon have announced their partnership today to develop a new MMOG based on Ultima Online.

EA’s Mythic Entertainment will cooperate with NetDragon in the development of the title. NetDragon will hold exclusive operating rights for the game in China, Macau, Hong Kong, and India.

When contacted, representatives at Mythic Entertainment confirmed the project, but made clear that this its aim is to bring the UO experience to those foreign markets, not to create a sequel.

Via JLM Pacific Epoch

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Looking Into the Stygian Abyss

MMORPG.com Ultima Online Correspondent Ryan Tullis writes this look at the Stygian Abys dungeon in the classic MMORPG.

Many Ultima games featured the expansive, hard dungeon known as Stygian Abyss. It even received its own game known as "Ultima Underworld." Well, many feel it’s about time it made its debut on Ultima Online. Well, the wish has been given an answer, and it might be a scary one.

Despite all of the excitement surrounding the dungeon (particularly the sheer mystery), some have asked how its coming effects them. It’s a strong question; particularly because it features something that has never appeared in the Ultima universe: PvPvM.

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Chivalry Skill Training

MMORPG.com Ultima Online expert Vitaliy Dikker has provided us with this guide to Chivalry Skill training in the classic MMO.

Chivalry Skill Training Guide

If you are a Paladin then Chivalry is a required skill for you, and it is also of great use for all melee characters because it allows casting of magic spells to heal and to enhance combat abilities. The only real requirement for those spells will be tithing points. Focus is also a good skill to have depending on the type of combat you have chosen, since it will regenerate both mana and stamina passively.

Tithing points are like mana for mages. The difference is that tithing points are bought with 1 piece of gold per point, and you can only have a maximum of 100,000 points at a time on your chivalry spell book. In order to purchase points you have to go to any shrine. There is one in Luna, the Shrine of Wisdom. While carrying all the gold you can in your bag you single click the ankh and in the menu select ithe Gold Now it will ask how much you wish to donate, and it must be in increments of 100 gold pieces. The price of tithing points never changes, but having high karma will reduce the amount of points required to cast each spell.

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Welcome to Sosaria

MMORPG.com Ultima Online Correspondent writes this at-times amusing introduction to the world of Ultima Online and your character’s early experiences.

Congratulations, by logging into Ultima Online you’ve made your first step toward a life of confusion, rewards, and freedom on an epic scale.

But what now?

You’ve created your character, tried to make your elf (let’s be honest) look as close to some anime character as possible, picked your starting skills, and you’re ready to be dropped off at the town of your choice, right?

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Looking at UO

MMORPG.com Ultima Online Correspondent Shannon Young writes this editorial overview of the classic MMORPG, Ultima Online discussing the game from launch to today.

In September of 1997 the evolution of role playing games found its catalyst. Role playing games had already been enjoying a long history of success. The video game boom of the late 80 and early 90 saw companies such as Square become household names in the United States with the series Final Fantasy and in Japan, games like Dragon Quest (made by future Square partner Enix) found themselves in similar graces.

RPGs were the thinking man’s video game. They catered to the gamer who wanted to feel like a part of the world they were playing in, and established connections to it through meaningful dialogue and memorable characters. Each RPG tells its own story and has its own personality, but quickly becomes shadows of each other with common central beliefs such as a hero rising up to face an extraordinary evil or an epic quest to save the world.

Read Looking at UO

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Cartography Skill Training

MMORPG.com’s Vitaliy Dikker has provided us with this new guide to Cartography Skill Training in Ultima Online.

Cartography is the skill you must know if you want to be a treasure hunter. The skill allows you to decode treasure maps found on monsters, and then use them to dig up the treasure. It isn’t a very fun skill to train in but the ends do justify the means. Like most skills, it gains up fast and steady in the beginning but it crawls down to near halt when you get high up there. Pretty much the way you raise this skill is just by drawing maps over and over again. Pure excitement!

SKILL TRAINING

The first step in Cartography training is buying a mapmaker’s pen from a NPC mapmaker (or another player with a high tinkering skill can make one for you). Next is buying a lot of blank scrolls in any mage shop or blank maps from the shipwright who is usually where a lot of the NPC mapmakers hang out. I recommend using blank scrolls because they are much cheaper, and since they will stack in your bag you can carry more of them at one time.

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Bushido Skill Training Guide

MMORPG.com’s Vitaliy Dikker provides us with this guide to Bushido Skill Training in the classic MMORPG, Ultima Online.

Bushido is the traditional code of the Japanese samurai which stresses courage, loyalty, self-discipline and simple living. It is not a complete skill, however. In order to be effective it should be combined with a weapon skill (Archery, Fencing, Macing, or Swordsmanship). Mostly, it is a melee combat supplement and to use the abilities you need the required skill and mana. This skill has its own spell book, but doesn’t require any reagents or tithing points.

This is another skill that you gain in by just doing it. Repetition is the key of learning, and the thing to remember is Bushido improves your chance to parry without a shield, so if you want to get that skill out of this and become a samurai you have to be ready to say goodbye to your shield completely. Even if you were to become Grand Master in both Parry and Bushido, there is a 29% chance to parry with a 2 handed weapon, 25% with a 1 handed weapon, and only mere 5% while holding a shield.

Read the Bushido Skill Training Guide

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Arms Lore and Blacksmithy Guide

MMORPG.com Ultima Online writer Vitaliy Dikker writes this Arms Lore and Blacksmithy Skill Guide to the classic MMORPG, Ultima Online.

ARMS LORE

With Arms Lore you can evaluate the condition and stat of armor and weapons and with a minimum of 80% in this skill as well as Wrestling you can attempt to disarm any opponent!

SKILL TRAINING

Training in this skill is easy… Keep using it. My suggestion, just go to a mall somewhere in Luna and open a bunch of vendors bags. Now just use the skill on any and all weapons and pieces of armor. It’s kind of dull, but that’s just how it goes:

Read Arms Lore and Blacksmithy Guide

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Bowcraft Skill Guide

MMORPG.com Ultima Online expert Vitaliy Dikker has provided us with this Bowcraft Skill Guide for the classic MMO.

Bowcraft and Fletching is the skill that is useful to know if you are going to be an Archer. They go hand in hand because this skill is what you need to know in order to make bolts, arrows, bows, crossbows, and heavy crossbows. Ideally you should put this skill on your crafter character.

SKILL TRAINING

It’s very easy to reach GM with this skill, it just takes a while. Make sure you have tons of boards (100k to GM) and have a lot of empty bags available and at least 20 fletching tools because they do break often.

Be sure to have an empty bag or container in your backpack that you can put as many boards as you can carry. When you double-click your fletching tool and select the item you want to make it will automatically be created inside that bag. This is useful for when you get too heavy and just want to empty out you backpack, because you can throw full bag away:

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Archery Skill Guide

MMORPG.com’s Vitaliy Dikker has provided us with this guide to the Archery Training Skill in Ultima Online.

Archery is for ranged fighting. This is good, because you can do damage to your opponent and stay safe unlike melee fighters. The difficulty is making sure you are far away enough to reload safely, but not so far away that your shooting range is limited.

As an archer you will need a ridiculous amount of arrows or bolts. If you train in fletching you will have a 99% chance of success to make these with only 30% skill level. You will need to gather wood from the forest and kill birdies or harpies for feathers. Also, centaurs, ratmen mages, and juka lords are usually good sources of free arrows after you kindly explain you would like them to die and give you all their belongings. Alternatively, you could buy arrows and save time. I personally recommend doing just that!

Read the Ultima Online Archery Skill Guide

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Animal Taming

MMORPG.com’s Vitaliy Dikker has provided us witht his guide to the Animal Training Skill in Ultima Online.

Animal Taming is an important skill to have if you want to have impressive pets beyond ones you can own normally without any special skill required, such as are horses, pack horses, llamas, ridgebacks, beetles, ostards, and swamp dragons. If you have one of these and they go wild, you will be able to re-tame it since it was already yours. Aside from those animals, you need to know Animal Taming in order to own and control pets.

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Animal Lore

MMORPG.com Correspondent co-ordinator Vitaliy Dikker provides us with this guide to Animal Lore in the classic MMORPG, Ultima Online.

Animal Lore is a very valuable skill to have if you want to have a pet, and it is a skill that supports both Animal Lore and Veterinary very well. The level of your animal lore will determine how well your pet listens to you, or if he doesn’t listen at all.

Below 100% skill you can view the following for any tame creature, with 100% any tamable creature and 110% any creature:

• Numeric values for Skills, Strength, Hits, Dexterity, Fatigue, Intelligence, Mana and Barding Difficulty
• Any pack instincts the pet may have
• The preferred food
• A general description of how well you can control the pet based on your skills, the taming difficulty, and current loyalty
• Elemental resistance and damage percentages

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Anatomy Training Guide

MMORPG.com Ultima Online guru Vitaliy Dikker writes this short guide to the Anatomy skill in the game, defining what it means for each score bracket in both Strength and Dexterity.

If you are a fighter, then there is absolutely no reason to not complete your Anatomy training. Anatomy is essential for all fighting characters. Being well skilled in anatomy provides your character with the knowledge of where to hit opponents for the most damage. Also you will have the ability to heal if you possess any healing skill, and a good anatomy skill will make you able to heal a higher number of points. For example, when you reach 61% you can cure poison, 80% (and 81% healing) you can resurrect another player using bandages. When you reach GM level, you will cause 20% extra damage with each successful hit to your enemy.

Read the Anatomy Trainging Guide

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Shield and Armor Pricing Guide

MMORPG.com’s Vitaly Dikker writes this shield and armor pricing guide for the classic MMORPG, Ulitma Online.

This guide will help you with UO armor and shields pricing. With so many different outcomes for item properties it is quite a task to determine a value of each item. We will attempt here to help you price your gear whether looted, crafted or enhanced.

The way this guide will work is it will list out all possible properties for magic Armor, Weapons and Jewelry along with recommended price for each range. It will be your job to sum up all the properties your item has to find out the final item value, so please see tables below:

Read the Shield and Armor Pricing Guide

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Alchemy Training Guide

MMORPG.com’s Vitaliy Dikker has provided us with this Alchemnt Training Guide for the classic MMORPG< Ultima Online.

Alchemy is a skill used to create potions by grinding reagents. It is more convenient than magery because potions use none of your mana and require only that you have one free hand and plenty of reagents. The potions you can create can be used for good (cure, heal, temporarily increase stats), or bad (explosions, poisons), or useful effects (refresh, nightsight).

Basic necessities of alchemy are reagents (the ingredients for your potions), mortars to grinds the ingredients, and a means to carry your potions. You can carry potions in either an empty bottle (1 potion only) or an empty keg (up to 100 of the same potion, but it must be poured into a bottle for usage). You can obtain an empty bottle from a NPC alchemists or a GM alchemist with glassblowing skills, and kegs can be made only by players that have carpentry and tinkering skills. If you do not have an empty bottle available you will get a message telling you so when you try to make a potion.

Read the Alchemy Training Guide

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A Beginner’s Guide

MMORPG.com Flyff Correspondent Michael Hoyt writes this look at Flyff for beginners.

After you have registered for your GPotato account, click the download tab. Select the website you want to download the client from. Depending on what browser you use, click the link and run the file. Keep everything already written such as file names and folders that contain major information. After a while you will see a download status bar. Usually it will say that you have hours to wait. This is not a joke. FLYFF does take some files from the internet while downloading. Therefore it is not advised to download FLYFF on a wireless computer. Even on a high speed internet computer it is advised to leave the computer alone, do nothing on it while the game’s client is downloading, and relax. Soon it will finish downloading and a message will pop up. Click the finish button and you’re done downloading the client. Now pat yourself on the back and say "Well done".

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V13 Launch and Screenshots

Gala Net has announced the launch of the newest update to their high flying MMORPG, Flyff. V13 brings in a number of new systems and zones for players to enjoy.

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Get Your Closed Beta Key For V13

MMORPG.com has been given 1,000 beta testing keys for Flyff V13 to give to our community members! Get your key while supplies last! All keys must be used by May 20, 2009!

GET YOUR FREE CLOSED BETA ACCESS KEY AT THIS LINK!

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Version 13 Coming Mid June

Gala Net has announced that version 13 of Flyff will arrive in the game in mid June, adding player housing, a new region to explore, couples bonuses, and more.

Gala Net, Inc. has announced the launch of Flyff V13, scheduled to go live this summer through the gPotato game portal. V13 will be Flyff’s most comprehensive version to date.

This new version brings a slew of features that focus on the user experience and interaction in game. V13’s expansive update provides for a brand new territory for players to discover, Coral Island. This island provides an area designed specifically for low to mid level users to explore and offers double the XP and double the drop rates. Players will revel in this opportunity to level up at an expedited rate and stockpile items as they do so.

Players will also see an achievement system where they are instantly recognized for their feats and accomplishments. Avid Aibatt conquistadors can now be recognized as Aibatt Hunters across their server. More of a lover and less of a fighter? Users who couple up with over 100 other players will be dubbed as Casanova! Over a 100 couplings? That’s certainly an achievement indeed.

V13 will also introduce players to domestic bliss! Players can now form couples and receive special bonuses while playing together. In addition, all players will receive their very own home in game for the first time. Players can decorate their rooms as they wish, and even hold gatherings and get-togethers in their humble abode.

The most anticipated new feature in Flyff is guaranteed to be the Rainbow Race. Not only are users tested on their ability to quickly race from one area to the next, they will have to complete and solve a series of tasks and puzzles in order to win the race. The Rainbow Race can essentially be described as Flyff’s very own grand scale scavenger hunt across all continents—with amazing prizes to boot. Sound familiar?

Read more here

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Halloween Extravaganza

The folks at Fly for Fun have have announced their plans to hold in-game Halloween events.

Halloween is traditionally favorable to the most macabre tricks, and monsters are likely to take advantage of it in their eternal struggle against the adventurers. The magical world of the free-to-play MMORPG FlyFF is no exception, and from the 28th of October to the 11th of November, many events will be held to delight the European players !

An enigmatic young woman dressed in red appeared today in the city of Flarine, telling a terrifying story to the adventurers who are willing to listen. What kind of curse haunts Madrigal? The warriors will have a lot of work, because in addition to this new quest, the rumor says that the terrifying Jack-O-Lantern would return soon on Madrigal with his Pumpkin Army…

New challenges await the FlyFF players from the 28th of October to the 11th of November, and to complete the festival, the towns of Madrigal have been covered with pumpkins while all monsters began releasing strange boxes full of treats…or tricks! Many other surprises are expected during this period, and it is advisable to fighters of all levels to arm themselves if they want to go out on the evening of Halloween…

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Version 12 Coming on October 7th

Introduction

Sunnyvale, California – September 25th, 2008 – Gala-Net Inc. will release the next chapter to Flyff: Fly for Fun this October 7th in its North American market through its game portal (www.gpotato.com). In this new version, known as Version 12 (V.12), a new boss NPC called, Rangda, will be unveiled to players that have been anxiously waiting for this exciting update.

The Rangda is the soul of a cursed witch that lies deep within the forest of Darkon. There are four incarnations of the Rangda: Rangda, Horrible Rangda, Uncanny Rangda, and Dreadful Rangda, and each offer players an opportunity to obtain rare items which are extremely valuable in the world of Madrigal.

Details of the Rangda:

Challenging Boss NPC: Only mid-to-high level players (at least level 70) should challenge Rangda.
Special Item Drops: Rangda will drop special items and appear in various places on the map.
Higher Tier Weapon Drops: Each Rangda drops unique weapons that are from the tier of items above her level (Ex: Lv 70 Rangda drops Lv 80 weapons).
Rage: Her HP recovery and attack power will increase when its HP is low.

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Lord System Overview

Gala-Net has released details about the Lord System which will be added to Flyff with the game’s October update. The Lord System will allow a player to be elected as lord of their server for a limited time, gaining access to new skills and gear.

Sunnyvale, California – September 8, 2008 – Gala-Net Inc. will release the next chapter to Flyff: Fly for Fun later this October. The Lord System will play a key role among the many new features to debut in Flyff Version 12 (V.12).

In V.12, the new Lord System will allow eligible players to be voted as the Lord of their server for 2 weeks. In order to qualify as a candidate to become a Lord, players must have obtained Hero or Master status in order to be considered. For a player to be elected as the Lord of their server, 10% of the eligible voting public must participate for a Lord to be chosen, otherwise no Lord will be elected. In order for a player to vote for a candidate, a player must be at least level 60, and must have logged into the game within the last 30 days. In addition, a player may only vote for 1 candidate.

An elected Lord will be given exclusive skills and equipment which includes:

Special Powers, including the ability to start EXP or item drop events on his server
Lords Cheer – EXP and Drop Rates are increased by 10% for 60 minutes.
Lord’s Blessing- boost a player’s Attack or Defense Power by 10%
Lord’s Love- Increases all stats by 15 for 60 minutes
Lord’s Anger- Silences a player from talking for 60 minutes
Lord’s Call- Allows the lord to summon a player to his/her location
A set of fashion clothes to be worn by the current Lord, The Cloak of the Sea God which gives players +20 to all stats, and the Lord’s own Limousine Bike to fly around in!
And so much more!

Read more here

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Version 12 Coming this Fall

The folks at Flyff have announced that Version 12 of the game is set for launch sometime this fall, and will add plenty of new content including the Lord System.

Sunnyvale, Califorinia – August 29th, 2008 – Gala-Net Inc. will release the next chapter to its most renowned MMORPG game, Flyff: Fly for Fun later this fall.

Flyff, Version 12 (V12) will be saturated with new content changes that Flyff users have been eagerly anticipating. Among the many updates in this new version is the Lord System, which allows users to vote for a “Lord” in each cluster. The honor of becoming a “Lord” comes with the ability to start EXP or item drop events, boost a player’s Attack or Defense Power by 10%, and much more. In addition to the Lord System, V12 will captivate users with the Forsaken Tower and its Secret Rooms. Located deep in the south of Flaris lies the Forsaken Tower where the most horrendous creatures dwell. This tower will entice users to explore the Secret Rooms, where they will face off against new monsters, and gain abundant experience points for leveling up one’s character. V12 also features Rangda, the soul of a cursed witch that lies in the deep forest of Darkon. The four incarnations of Rangdas: Rangda, Horrible Rangda, Uncanny Rangda, and Dreadful Rangda – each drop unique items. Rangda will drop up to three special items and appear in various places on the map. V12 brings a wide variety of exciting updates to this next chapter of Flyff. Users will notice the many changes and improvements to the gameplay of Flyff, designed to streamline customization and enhance the user’s experience altogether.

As Flyff continues to grow worldwide, Gala-Net strives to elevate the experience of its dedicated fans while also attracting new players to its virtual world. “Gala-Net Inc. and Aeonsoft have undoubtedly worked very hard to bring V12 to life,” says Senior Producer Keehwan Her. “Each update and change was made with the user in mind. We know that V12 will be welcomed by the Flyff community.”

Read more here

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