It’s been a while since I checked in on EUO, Max Breedon’s “little project that could,” but in the interim it would appear that Max has made several enhancements to his Ultima-inspired project.

For those unfamilar with it, EUO borrows a fair bit from other RPGs; it is intended to be a real-time, single/multi-player, persistent-world RPG…one that looks and plays much like Ultima 4 or Ultima 5. (In fact, the project site proudly proclaims that those looking for mouse support and Diablo 3-style graphics should seek their fix elsewhere.)

EUO uses an Ultima Online-like skill system, without player classes. Combat is based on D&D dice rolling like in Neverwinter Nights (with additional Ultima Online influences, apparently). Although the original EUO did feature a U4-like tileset, the current iteration is completely original (although most monsters and traps will be familiar to Ultima 5 fans). Spells can be cast using either the Ultima 5 runes, or through a simpler list for the less-than-Ultima-proficient.

Additional enhancements, some made more recently, include:

• Farming, crafting, arenas, PvP, guilds, clans, food, booze, pets, housing, some minigames, and more
• 4 servers: the Regular server, the Player Death server (where xp and skills accumulate at 10x speed), the No Grind server (where there’s no xp, just skills and stats), and the Weekly Ladder* (which will soon be completely like old Nethack…i.e. random)
• Races now include: human, gnome, dwarf, draconian, shadowkin, bloodkin, half-orc
• Classes include: fighter, mage, priest, rogue, monk
• Yearly contests for best PvP on the Regular server

* Note: The Weekly Ladder will be wiped every week with the rewards going to the top 3 players.

So if, good Dragons and Dragonettes, old-school online gaming is your thing, you might consider giving EUO a(nother?) look; it’s got everything you’d expect to find in a classic Ultima title, after all! Max is hoping to build up his player base now that he’s managed to set up a new server to support the game with; if he can hit 100 players some time soon, that would probably make his decade!

And uh, oh…yeah…I’ve updated the EUO client installer download at the project entry.