Wasn't sure where to post this. We really need a "General Discussion" forum! heh

EA announced yesterday day that they are releasing an all-new client, with all-new art, in 2007. I kinda saw this coming back when they announced they were dropping support for the 3D client.

Anway, some links with more info, and some early screenshots:

http://uo.stratics.com/news/SiegePerilo ... 702,75902,
http://www.uo.com/uokr/kingdomreborn.shtml
http://www.uo.com/uokr/UOKR/UOKR.html

I'm not overly impressed with the characters, but they still have a long time to work on it I guess. The enviroment looks pretty damn nice though.

Hmm... I dunno. I mean, sure... it looks nice-ish... but for as old as UO is, and compared to how all the other games look nowadays, I'm not sure why they are bothering.

To me, it sorta looks like they changed some textures a little bit, and maybe removed some of the other bad features they could never really get working right in 3D, and just slapped the stuff into a client based on the 2D one they already had, and just ran with it.

And on top of that, I remember all the really cool pre-release pics they had of the 3D client before they released the piece of poop that they eventually did, there. 'Course, this is EA, and not OSI... so maybe it won't even be that good.


All that said... the UO client sure is long overdue for a facelift!

I for one will definately be looking into this new client when it's released! The improved textures alone are well worth the switch, IMO.

As for compatibility with POL and it's development, one can only hope.

If they want (as they stated) to preserve compatibility with older clients, the netcode won't change, it will only be extended for the new functionalities (like they do whenever a new expansion if shipped) and maybe broken in little, fixable points (again, like they do whenever a new expansion if shipped). What could change is the file format. Not a big problem if they change art.mul, sounds.mul, tiledata.mul, anim.mul and so on, new tools can be developed. A bit more complex if they change maps and statics formats, which I hope they don't

I like the look of the new client and I like even more the fact that they are building a new set of graphics which a decent level of coherence, which actual uo (with all the expansions) lacks. I think I'll try my best to use this client with PO in 2007

Well, if they change all the formats... someone could (hopefully) release a patch for the older clients that include all the new graphics in the old format... it would take a long time, though.

OSI will be backwards compatible with old clients. That's already been said, so no issues there I would think.

Hmmm very nice. Can't wait to test new client

btw. general discussion is here: http://forums.polserver.com/viewforum.php?f=14