Lord of Ultima

Lord of Ultima is a massively multiplayer online strategy game similar to other kingdom building browser-based games, popularized by Evony. Despite the title, it has little in common with the Ultima series of role-playing games, taking place in a different world, called Caledonia, risen from the ashes of Sosaria. The gameplay is primarily based on two aspects: city building and raiding using recruited soldiers. Additionally, players can interact with other people by joining alliances, sieging their cities and trading. Similarly to other casual strategy games, most actions require significant waiting time to be completed, and it's possible to buy artifacts with real money that can speed up the process.

The bulk of the game relies on erecting structures in the player's own city, which in turn generate resources, allow for recruiting of combat units, increase storage space, enhance production values of other buildings, add special defenses to the city wall and so on. All types of buildings can be upgraded up to level 10. Higher levels augment their output and bonuses, and may even unlock special combat units for recruitment. The most important structure in a city is the Town Hall, which provides basic storage space and determines how many buildings can the city host. Upgrading it will make new types of buildings available to be constructed. Most actions (including building, upgrading, recruiting and raiding) spend resources, of which there are four: wood, stone, iron and food. These are obtained by creating specific buildings: woodcutter's huts to produce wood, quarries for stone, iron mines for iron, and farms for food. The location of the city, or better said the surrounding region's relief and natural particularities determine how much of the resources are available, not to mention that harbors can only be added with direct access to the sea. Placement is important inside the walls as well, as certain structures give bonuses to other buildings if they are adjacent to them, in the same way as the number of fields a farm possesses is multiplied if constructed near a lake. All resources must be kept in the city's storage, which can be increased by having more warehouses and upgrading the Town Hall. The city cannot produce more than it can store.

The training grounds and the city guard houses allow the recruitment of various troops, while most units are available only after meeting certain requirements, such as having a level 6 Trinsic temple for paladins, or a level 10 stable to recruit knights. Soldiers consume food every day and may require gold to recruit. The most basic method to collect gold is by imposing taxes through townhouses. The player can send soldiers outside of the city to raid dungeons, kill epic creatures and attack the settlements of other players. There are forest, hill, mountain and sea dungeons, each type being vulnerable against particular player units. Successful raids reward the player with more resources and gold, while killing bosses actually yields artifacts. Artifacts are used for various purposes, like skipping time in the construction or recruitment queues, gaining more resources or even protecting the city against invaders. They can also be acquired in the shop, won randomly with a free daily token for the Fortune Teller or by completing quests.

Lord of Ultima offers a multitude of quests tied to the development of the city and the kill count (e.g. recruiting 1000 berserkers, killing 1000 ghouls, building a castle etc.), rather than flirting with a particular story line. By gaining access to purified resources, the player can research different bonuses and advance in title. It is possible to found additional cities on the world map as well. Ultimately, however, the goal is to become the Lord of Ultima after gaining the support of an alliance of players. In order to win the game, an alliance must have level 10 palaces of each of the eight virtues: Compassion, Honesty, Honor, Humility, Justice, Sacrifice, Spirituality and Valor.