Lord of Ultima



Lord of Ultima is a browser-based, real-time strategy game developed and run by EA Phenomic. It is free to play, however premium features require the purchase of Play4Free Funds.



The game is set in the land of Caledonia, a series of island that has risen from the sea with the destruction of Sosaria. In Lord of Ultima, gameplay primarily resolves around collecting resources, including: stone, wood, iron, and food to expand one's cities and armies. Players can use these resources to expand their cities and armies, and then battle against each other for power and prestige.

Players start off being given control of a single city, which they must expand and protect. For the first 7 days they are protected from attack by other players, but after this they can be freely attacked. They can also use their armies to attack surrounding dungeons, monsters, and other players. Alliances can be joined, and they often offer protection from attack by other players. The player can even purchase EA's Play4Free Funds online to more rapidly progress in game, enabling the player to hasten resource gathering and building speed.

Expansions
Each expansion for Lord of Ultima is named after a previous game in the Ultima series, but are unrelated to the respective game.

Serpent Isle
Released on October 7, 2010, "Serpent Isle" includes the following new features:
 * New overviews
 * Report filters
 * Alliance report sharing
 * Customizable Alliance member rights
 * Player and Alliance Ranking

Ascension
Released on November 2, 2010, "Ascension" includes the following changes:
 * Research to create purified resources
 * City Building modifications
 * Building and Defense Ministers
 * Build Queue
 * Alliance Forums
 * Combat Reports
 * Chat

Forge of Virtue
Released on December 8, 2010, "Forge of Virtue" includes the following new features:
 * Lord of Ultima Quest
 * Trade Minister
 * World Map
 * Event and Newsletter System
 * Art Update
 * Music & Sound
 * Overviews

Other Game Updates
After "Forge of Virtue", Game Updates have been released steadily, but are unnamed and are generally referred to by release date. A number of improvements have been made, but none with such sweeping changes as the above expansions.


 * Moongates were added with the 3/13/2012 patch. Along with this, Moonstones were re-added to the game, and two new artifacts were added for obtaining Moonstones.
 * Two new artifacts were added with the 4/24/2012 patch to speed the movement of trade units.
 * The July 2012 patch included a Fortune Teller card reading, which provides a daily bonus artifact, along with light and dark castle customization, and six new buildings.
 * In March 2013, a new artifact, a new raid drop, and a new unit were introduced as a spring event. It is assumed that these will continue to be available hereafter.

Trivia

 * Lord of Ultima originally has its own wiki, The Great Libraries of Caledonia, which were shut down and moved to Wikia in early 2013. Much of the information from the original wiki was incorporated into the Codex of Ultima Wisdom before the new Wikia database was unveiled.
 * The gameplay is similar to other browser-based strategy games based on the Settlers] series. One of the founders of Phenomic, Volker Wertich, has been called "the mastermind behind the Settlers series."
 * An unrelated, cancelled Origin project from 1988, multi-player Ultima, has some similarities in concept to Lord of Ultima.
 * The music introduced with "Forge of Virtue" is the same soundtrack that was composed for use in the late Ultima X.
 * EA Phenomic was criticized for using provocative advertising, similar to the ones Evony used at the time.
 * There are several player-made mods (in form of browser scripts), which enhance the game interface.