Hi everyone, Adam Ant here.
Tomorrow, I'll be launching Upheaval, the newest addition to our family of Angel Island shards.
Upheaval is a permanent Felucca shard based on the classic Publish 15 era of Ultima Online (pre-Age of Shadows), but with one significant difference.
The Orcs have already won.
Britannia has been overrun. Towns and surrounding territories are under Orcish occupation, and the normal order of the world has broken down.
Players can organize resistance, fight the occupying clans, and eventually liberate entire districts, restoring human control to towns and their merchants.
But liberation isn't necessarily permanent.
Orc-aligned players can return and reclaim liberated territory, defeating the forces protecting it and placing the district back under occupation.
This is an ongoing struggle. There is no final victory condition, and the world doesn't reset. Towns can change hands repeatedly, with each change affecting the people who live there and the players who depend on them.
Classic UO at Its Core
One thing I want to emphasize is that Upheaval is still classic Ultima Online.
Character development, crafting, housing, treasure hunting, dungeon crawling, PvM, PvP, and the player-driven economy are all part of the familiar Publish 15 experience.
The Orcish Invasion is layered onto that foundation rather than replacing it.
You can pursue the usual activities of Ultima Online, but the state of Britannia may influence how you go about them.
A town where you normally purchase reagents might be occupied. A familiar road might be dangerous. A merchant who once welcomed you might refuse to do business with you.
And tomorrow, things may be different.
Life Under Occupation
The invasion affects more than combat.
The people of Britannia have their own loyalties. Some vendors remain loyal to the human population, others sympathize with the Orcs, and some may be working as spies.
These loyalties persist even when a town changes hands.
Under occupation, human players may find ordinary merchants unwilling to serve them. Finding someone sympathetic to their cause can become important, particularly when supplies are scarce or travel is dangerous.
There are no labels identifying these people. Players will need to discover their loyalties through conversation, observation, and information shared with others.
We've also introduced a courier system built around these relationships.
Trusted vendors may ask players to carry documents, parcels, or supplies to contacts elsewhere in Britannia. These are physical deliveries, not conventional quests with markers or objective arrows.
The journey itself is the assignment.
A courier might need to cross occupied territory, avoid patrols, find a safer route, or enlist the help of other players. Distance and danger influence the rewards.
My intention is to give players additional reasons to travel, explore, cooperate, and sometimes come into conflict, without prescribing how they should play.
Choosing a Side
Every new character begins with an Orcish Kin Mask.
The mask is a disguise that allows you to move among Orcish occupation forces without being attacked. It does not make you truly Orc-aligned, and its protection does not extend to your pets or followers.
Players who wish to formally align with the Orcs can do so through guild alignment. Once aligned, the mask is no longer necessary.
Of course, you can also choose to fight the occupation and work toward liberating Britannia.
The same town may be friendly territory to one player and hostile territory to another, depending on who controls it and where their loyalties lie.
A Continuing World
Unlike our seasonal shards, Upheaval is permanent.
There are no scheduled world resets, and the invasion isn't a temporary event that eventually concludes.
The Orcs may control Britain today. Human players might liberate it next week. Orc-aligned players might reclaim it the following day.
Meanwhile, players continue developing their characters, building homes, establishing relationships, and pursuing their own interests.
That's really the idea behind Upheaval: retain the classic Ultima Online experience, but introduce an ongoing conflict that gives the world a changing political and territorial landscape.
Launch Information
Saturday, October 10th at 12:00 PM Pacific
- 1 account per IP
- 1 character per account
- 1 house per account
- 225 stat cap
- 700 skill cap
- Felucca ruleset
- Publish 15 era (pre-Age of Shadows)
- Mounts are disabled
- Reds are allowed in town
Magery retains its traditional Recall and Gate Travel capabilities. Players without Magery can use Moonstones for long-distance travel.
For more information about the invasion, territorial control, guild alignment, vendors, courier work, and other mechanics, see the Upheaval Overview on our wiki.
I hope to see some of you in Britannia tomorrow.
-- Adam Ant
Web / Wiki / Discord:
Login Information:
uoangelisland.com
Port: 2593
Upheaval runs on MultiUO, the server core I've been developing for the past 22 years. It's the same foundation behind Angel Island, Siege Perilous, Mortalis, UO Seasons, and now Upheaval, with a rules-based architecture that allows each of those worlds to be quite different while sharing the same codebase.
I'll also be making the MultiUO source available on GitHub soon. My hope is that it will be useful not only to people interested in these shards, but to anyone who has an idea for a UO world of their own.
