With the release of its version 1.2.17 update yesterday, Ultima Forever saw a number of significant overhauls. Producer Carrie Gouskos took to the official Ultima Forever forums, in fact, to explain in some detail what was changed for this release:

Features

• Economy Balance – Item repair costs have been reduced and chest prices updated to reflect the quality and quantity of items received.
• New Reputation Levels – See how you rank in 50 reputation levels per town! Existing players will automatically scale to the new curve.
• Improved Balance – Level curves have been improved, making higher levels more accessible.
• Fast Travel – Quickly make your way across Britannia with bronze keys.
• Interface Improvements – New item color coding system makes it easier to identify superior items.
• Touchy-Feely – We made a pass on all the smaller buttons on the iPhone version to make them easier to tap. Tap away!

Bug Fixes

• Made a number of changes to the servers and back-end processes to ensure stability.
• Made changes to how the client will handle error messages and prevent crashes in rare error cases.
• Made adjustments to how the client handles memory to prevent build-up and prevent crashes with repeated logins.
• Optimized how we deal with particle systems and reticle effects to improve client performance and help prevent client crashes.
• Fixed the Repair all function to properly discount the cost from if you repaired items individually.
• Fixed an issue where having an ability selected before the ability tutorial opened would cause the window to block progression.
• Fixed an issue where clicking on a friend during the grouping tutorial caused the friend context menu to stay open. Also fixed an issue to prevent the auto group tutorial from appearing over the social menu.
• Group leader icon will now update properly if the leader changes.
• If a user’s device is full when opening the game, the app will note this and advise the player accordingly.
• Fixed a rare issue that could occur while patching.
• Fixed an issue where the level up window could incorrectly appear twice if a player levels up.
• Fixed audio for level up so that it doesn’t go to everyone in zone and only the intended player.
• Tweaked the teleport effect to ensure it looks better and more teleportery.
• Fixed an issue where logging out from inactivity while the offerwall was up could block the user from logging back in.
• Zoning will automatically close the map now to prevent issues with the UI.
• Tweaked the item comparison algorithm to ensure it takes all stats into context properly.
• Fixed a typo in the credits.
• Music will properly play in Yew.
• Fixed an issue where players who exited while talking to Darrel in the Castle Sewers could be blocked. This was a rare issue and was fixed earlier via hotfix.
• Fixed two quests in Paws to ensure you can get them at any point in the game if you haven’t done them previously.

As was mentioned yesterday, the most significant change implemented in this update was the adjustment made to the cost of item repair, which received a significant discount. I took a couple screenshots yesterday of the change in “Repair All” costs, but this didn’t really paint the complete picture of the scope of the changes that were made. Browncoat Jayson — who curates The Digital Lycaeum — grabbed a handful of screenshots on his iPad of the repair costs of individual items from the Uncommon, Rare, and Epic loot classes:

These are significant changes indeed. Let’s take the example of just the Epic gear, which saw its repair cost adjusted from 60 silver keys to just 15. To get 60 silver keys, one would have to convert 180 bronze keys (assuming one didn’t buy keys), which would have taken quite a while to amass. I did a run through the Barrowgrove dungeon last night, and netted about 70 bronze keys for my trouble, which is fairly typical of most of the game’s larger dungeons. Farming the Britain Lighthouse, meanwhile, will typically net you between 20 and 30 bronze keys. So to repair a single piece of Epic gear, I’d have to do three Barrowgrove runs, or as many as nine Lighthouse runs.

In contrast, 15 silver keys requires only 45 bronze keys to obtain, which (given the numbers above) a single Barrowgrove run would easily cover (assuming I didn’t hit up any chests).

This will, as I said, make the game much more viable as a free-to-play title.

Of course, speaking of chests, it’s worth also taking a look at the prices that went up in the 1.2.17 update. Chests now cost more to open:

Jayson argues (and I agree) that this aspect of things could use a bit more adjustment, including reducing the silver key cost by one so that a single bronze/silver exchange covers the cost of opening the chest. His suggestion of a “convert all” feature is also a good one, as there really isn’t much reason to keep bronze keys on hand (unless you’re looking to take advantage of the game’s fast travel system).

Still, overall, this is a good update to the game, and several steps in the right direction for its economic model. You still have to work at it a bit harder to play the game for free, but with the diminished repair costs it has now become possible to actually do just that without having to waste multiple lengthy play sessions grinding for keys. The real reason to pay for keys now is to crack into more chests on each dungeon run, and/or to crack into chests for more valuable loot.

Which, in Ultima Forever’s fairly simplistic freemium model, is how it should be.