Thirty-three updates since the last devlog, and one of them changes how the game can look: Ultiro now has a 3D client. It is not a separate version. Same world, same server, same heroes: a hero in 3D fights, trades and parties with heroes in 2D.
Play in 2D or 3D
- Pick 2D or 3D on the home page or when you make a hero. PLAY 3D sits beside PLAY 2D on your character list, and the first line of the Settings menu switches client at any moment, with the same hero right where it stands.
- 3D is a beta and draws six maps so far: Settlers' Pass, the Vale of Aldwyn with Aldwyn Cross, Thornwood, Hearth Commons, Mirefen and Barrowfield. Walk onto any other map and the game goes on in 2D; walk back and it returns to 3D by itself.
- Every monster on those maps has its own 3D body, and every ability and spell its own effect, from the cast to where it lands: Fire Wall burns as a wall of flame, Meteor leaves a smouldering crater, Judgement drives a sword of light into the ground.
- Night is lit by street lamps, campfires and windows, every hero carries a light, and dusk turns the world gold.
- 3D needs a browser with WebGL2; without it the game simply stays in 2D. On a computer it runs smoothly. On a phone it works, with drag-to-aim on the skill ring as in 2D, but crowds cost frames, so 2D is the smoother choice there for now. Settings Video has Shadows and view Distance for 3D.
Two cities drawn by hand
- Sunmarch has a great step-well at its heart, a curtain wall with four gated towers and sandstone paving. Its wilds have salt pans, dune seas, an oasis and places to find, among them the Buried Caravan and the Old Doors cut into the canyon rim.
- Hollowfrost has its hot spring in a paved square, a granite curtain wall with icicled buttresses and a warm quarter to the south. The snowfields have frozen tarns, a frozen leat, the Steam Pools and the Stalled Sledges.
- In Aldwyn Cross the portal now stands in the open, with room to walk round it.
Abilities, spells and builds
- The Abilities window opens on a simple Light view with Auto Set: it builds your passives from your weapon and the monsters you actually fight, tries each build against them, and shows what changes and why. Nothing changes until you press Apply.
- Paths is a guide to every class and the builds inside it: a Mage's element, a Guardian's shield wall, a Warrior's damage or lifesteal.
- The Spellbook is one open book on a desk, with tabs per school. Two new earth spells: Stone Shard, a second-circle stone bolt, and Upheaval, a fifth-circle burst of rock over a 33 square.
- Every map plays its own theme, crossfading as you cross a border.
Parties, loot and the bank
- A party leader chooses how loot is shared: Individual, or Shared, where each item goes to a random member, with a custom list of what is shared.
- The loot window's Filter decides what Loot All picks up, down to which tier of gear is worth taking.
- The bank is redrawn and sorts in one press, and a purchase you are a little short for takes the rest from your bank.
A new hero's first minutes
- On Settlers' Pass, Halvard the Warden-Mage holds the road with a wall of dawn light until you have helped against the scamps.
- A new hero starts with two attacks, a sprint and bandages; the rest of the class joins in town. Shops have a Buy button on each item, and a double-click on a glinting tree or rock takes the right tool from your bag and starts work.
- On desktop the cursor shows what a click will do: walk, loot, talk, fight or gather.
Our mistakes, fixed
- Logging out with the quest log in use could end on an error screen. It now goes straight back to your heroes.
- On a phone, a thumb landing between two skill buttons counted as a tap on the ground and walked your hero out of the fight. It no longer does.
- Switching from 3D to 2D could leave the camera stuck at the corner of the map, and a phone could stay on Low graphics after a while in 3D. Both are fixed.
Free, in your browser, no download, on a computer or a phone. Play as a guest in one click and save your hero later:
https://ultiro.aidnd.uk/characters?utm_source=browsermmorpg&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=article_07
The next arena tournament is Friday 20 November at 21:00 UTC, and sign-ups open the day before. If something feels off in 3D, tell me in the comments or on Discord: https://discord.gg/hSF3dexDUJ
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