Ultima Online: Third Dawn
Ultima Online: Third Dawn was a major expansion made to the UO universe in 2001. Electronic Arts sponsored a launch party for the expansion on April 6, 2001. In addition to the introduction of a 3D client, enhancements included the following: a new land mass; several new dungeons; numerous new creatures; several new armors e.g., samurai, ninja; as well as four new weapons.
Initially, the new land mass, Ilshenar, was accessible only via the new 3D client. The new land mass was intended as an adventure-only area: housing cannot be placed there. The Ilshenar addition was 10% larger than the previous play-area increase, namely, the Lost Lands, which were introduced by Ultima Online: The Second Age. Initially, the spells Recall, Mark, and Gate Travel were disabled, which forced players to enter and exit Ilshenar by one of eight moongates. While the ability to Recall out of Ilshenar currently functions in most areas, there are several areas where the prohibition remains.
3D Client
The Third Dawn 3D client rendered all monsters, characters, and terrain (with the exception of buildings) in 3D. It still, however, maintained the use of 2D artwork for objects. While it had an option to zoom in, it did not allow for any rotation due to the 2D artwork that remained incorporated. The view within the Third Dawn 3D client was isometric with movement limited to the eight directions. The client interface was redone, with the centerpiece being a 3D paper doll that mimics in-game actions and can be viewed from any direction. The new animation system permitted the addition of specific animations and particle-based effects to each spell cast.
The 3D client featured:
- The mouse wheel allowed a player to zoom in and zoom out
- The game window size could be resized. However, even at the most increased setting, zoomed out all the way, no additional view of the land is provided so as to prevent anyone having an advantage.
Third Dawn reportedly entered beta testing in December 2000. The Third Dawn 3D Client was replaced by the Kingdom Reborn client, which was released on June 27, 2007.