Hey all, EnDeViDUAL here. I'd like to tell you a brief version of my Ultima Online experience.
I started playing Ultima Online in 2003 because my high school girlfriend's brothers wouldn't stop talking about it. I played on Pacific for a few years. I was never very good back then and was really clueless. I remember one of the first times I played I saw my friends saying "In Vas Mani" and a sort of animation happened. So I typed it in. "In Vas Mani" appeared above my head and they couldn't stop laughing at me. LOL, it is kind of funny thinking of it. I was a part of a small family guild. My girlfriend's four brothers and two cousins all played together. Eventually we started practicing fighting each other and recruiting more people. One day we decided to do our first Champ Spawn. I died a lot, really we all did, but we had fun doing it. We had fun right up to the end when a massive number of red names flooded the screen and one by one we were slaughtered.
Fortunately we had a guest watching the whole thing on a stealth character. He was a guild leader of a spawner guild looking for recruits and asked if we'd be interested. After joining he taught us a lot about how spawning works and how to improve our PvP skills. Oh there were some epic battles that followed. I remember thinking that this guy has to be some sort of genius to be able to manage all these players. He would organize full parties with specific tasks. PvP parties at each choke point whose sole job for the spawn was to cast fields to keep enemies out. Supply runner party that would run regs and other supplies from a mobile "HQ" out to members in need. And champ parties for those who were working the spawn. It was a really great experience being apart of such a large group like that, with all the teamwork and the coordination it took to win battles (or die trying!)
However, soon I found myself in a financial bind and looked for alternative fee servers. I hopped from server to server for a long time. Made a lot of new characters, familiarizing myself with EasyUO to help macro. Most free servers didn't have the player base I was looking for. Then I found Demise in 2005. It was the game I was used to and had plenty of players.
A buddy of mine and I started together, macroing our skills while looking for IDOCs and farming for gear. With in a month we both had ok LRC suits and and 18x18 plot in Fel so we decided to start a guild. We recruited fast and within days we had a solid crew running champs and we started pulling in cash. Not long after we had a large guild with often times 20+ people on at any time. Not nearly as big of battles as on OSI but it had a similar feeling to it. We had modeled our guild structure and policies after the guild who taught us everything and things were going very well for us. So well that we had lined up several Harrower skull sets. We set a time for our first one and about 30 people showed up. With that many of us working together vs only about half unorganized trying to get in, it was an easy win. Then when it came time to distribute Stat Scrolls my buddy, our guild leader, who's sitting in the chair next to me, says, "I forgot to move my protector to T2A." Well that was a HUGE embarrassment and damn near everyone was pissed that we only received half the scrolls we could have. There was really no way to make it right and we tried to fix things but the guild was a mess. Slowly everyone started dropping out.
We tried reviving the guild later on but unsuccessfully. So I decided to run solo and focus on PvP. I still wasn't the greatest and neither was my gear. But I was determined. Every day I would go with an LRC suit to Fel with nothing on me and flag gray to get everyone's attention. Then I would try to live. It took me a while to survive for a decent length of time but after I could I started bringing pots with me so I could survive longer. First refresh, then health, until I would load up with about 100 total of all types. LOL I remember all the names people would call me during the process and my "noob" tactics. Well after I learned to live I started learning how to and when to separate my enemies. I started learning the best combos to use and how to survive with a mount. After a very long time I became very successful. My ritual was to wake up several hours before work and log in. China was usually on at that time and they always came in numbers. So many days I remember having six guys chase me around while I slowly separated and killed them one by one. Some days I couldn't kill more than one and once or twice I would fail to kill even one. But it was always a win because they could never kill me.
After becoming successful at PvP I started talking with a lot of the other better PvPers and soon joined an all red PK guild - you know, like the one who wiped me out during my first champ spawn, lol. With probably the best leader I have ever played with I learned how to PvP as a team. Group fighting was a slightly different tactic than what I had been used to. Eventually that guild broke apart but I made a good friend there. He and I started playing 2 vs the world. We became very used to one another and were very difficult to beat. We even took out a guild of about 15 or so that was doing a champ spawn all by our selves. Granted that guild was two good guys hiding behind 13 meat shields who didn't play as a team, but a good feat nonetheless.
My friend had to take a break and I started getting bored of playing solo so I ended up taking a break as well. It's been a little over a year now since I've last played. I've lost my houses due to decay but I've always refreshed my accounts. My friend recently hit me up to play but after playing all these newer games I really don't want to go back to those gross graphics. But it is these memories and the incredible gameplay that Ultima Online has to offer that makes me want to. I decided that if I can get the Enhanced Client to work then I would play. And that is what brought me to this site.
Demise restricts you to certain clients and client versions. I don't script, I push all of my own hotkeys, and I've never needed any sort of assist to win program because I learned how to play on my own. Nothing against those that do. In fact I respect all of you that work on any part of ScriptUO or UO Stealth or any programming at all. I did some Visual Basic in high school and got an A+ for final grade with all the extra credit I did. I enjoy programing a lot and understand what it takes to make something great. Basically all I'm looking to do is fool the Demise servers into thinking I am running an acceptable client version to allow me to play the Enhanced Client. I tried UO:SA Client Loader and Demise kicks me for having an invalid client. I found UO Stealth and even with it set up to launch the Classic Client, Demise still kicks me. So it is my hope that eventually I will find the answers here (even if it is that it cant be done) so that I may be able to enjoy this game once again.
