Show HN: Moongate – Ultima Online server emulator in .NET 10 with Lua scripting

Post by nzeid » Fri, Mar 06, 2026, 7:11 PM UTC

squidleon wrote: post #21

Fokamul wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most active is UO Outlands. Several thousands players? They've reworked a lot of systems and it's basically 100x better than original UO. There are several systems in place, which original devs wouldn't even dream of and saying that, official Ultima Online is still running. :D It's PvP server, but with balanced PvP which really works for everyone. Not like original devs, they just dropped PvP because cookie-cutter pl…

Outlands is impressive from a technical standpoint, they've put an insane amount of work into it and the player count speaks for itself. I played there for a while. Personally though, I feel they've overengineered it a bit. So many custom systems layered on top that it starts to feel more like WoW with UO graphics than actual UO. The original charm was in the simplicity you, a sword, and a world that didn't care abou…

Post by squidleon » Fri, Mar 06, 2026, 7:17 PM UTC

jdwithit wrote: post #87

Very cool work! This is giving me a big nostalgia hit, as a LONG time ago (when UO was a current game ;) I maintained a C++ UO emulator called UOX3. To be clear I absolutely did not initially develop it or even write any particularly large or difficult features. I just took over maintaining the codebase, taking patches and cutting releases, managing the community, that sort of thing. The original author decided to st…

Post by knicholes » Fri, Mar 06, 2026, 7:20 PM UTC

haolez wrote: post #18

UO was the only game that I've ever played where you had "commoner" players. A lot of players failed to scale up, or to obtain top notch equipment. But the game was fun even for underpowered players, so they kept playing. The really powerful players were famous, like celebrities. It's very different from modern games, where each player looks like the fantasy version of a Marvel super hero.

Post by knicholes » Fri, Mar 06, 2026, 7:22 PM UTC

_doctor_love wrote: post #44

haolez wrote: post #18

UO was the only game that I've ever played where you had "commoner" players. A lot of players failed to scale up, or to obtain top notch equipment. But the game was fun even for underpowered players, so they kept playing. The really powerful players were famous, like celebrities. It's very different from modern games, where each player looks like the fantasy version of a Marvel super hero.

UO was the best online game for me. All others stand in its shadow. It was the most "free" in terms of what you could do and the appeal was the non-gamification. I loved Everquest and World of Warcraft but those didn't feel "raw" enough for me. The Realm is my dark horse submission for best MMO. (Yea, yea, yeah Meridian 59 and Underlight too)

Post by SenHeng » Fri, Mar 06, 2026, 7:28 PM UTC

eclipticplane wrote: post #81

squidleon wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is such a good observation. UO had a real economy and social hierarchy because power wasn't handed to you. You could spend months as a fisherman or tailor and still have a meaningful experience. The gap between a grandmaster swordsman in full plate and a guy selling fish at the Britain bank was enormous, and both of them were having fun. Modern MMOs are theme parks where everyone gets the same ride (with pay per…

Core memories of carefully setting my fisherman on a boat with `ezmacro` before I got ready for school. I'd come home to either a boat full of fish (to later cook into fish steaks), or be dead from a player killer who found my boat and killed my macroing guy to try and steal the boat.