Ultima Online 2: Technical Design Document

Origin Systems tried to create an Ultima Online 2 a couple of times, but was never able to get the idea very far into the development stage. And in this treasure from the Mythic Archives, we get a very detailed, technical look at what was probably the last UO2 iteration proposed at Origin before its closure in 2004. Interestingly, as the dates in this document make clear, this UO2 idea survived the closure of Origin Systems, and was subsequently worked on by other developers within EA.

This document is dense, and disucsses almost all the technical details that would have concerned the Ultima Online 2 development team. Early in the document, for example, a comparison of different game engine technologies is performed, and it would appear that Maxis’ GZ engine (which powered The Sims 2, for example) had been chosen as the engine that would power the game. (The Renderware engine was chosen as a backup plan.) Later on in the document, the intentory UI and paperdolling system get discussed.

Thus, enjoy! Pull up each page of the document and pore over it; ferret out every little detail that you can. This attempt at creating Ultima Online 2 was likely the last such attempt made, and you will likely not get a clearer understanding of just what Origin (and then EA) were aiming for with it.