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Ultima Online continued the tradition of previous Ultima games in many ways, but due to advancing technology and the simple fact that it was Origin's first persistent online game, there were many new game mechanics as well. Partially designed as a social and economic experiment, the game had to account for the widespread player interaction as well as deal with the long history of players feeling as if they were the center of attention, as had been the case in single-player games. New to both the developers and the players, a lot that was planned never happened, and a lot that was unexpected did, and many new game systems were put in place to compensate.

Skills in Ultima Online are represented by a percentage that shows the player's proficiency in the skill, and they advance through use or by paying appropriate NPCs to train the character (but only to approximately 32% proficiency). There are over 50 skills available in the game, ranging from the fantastic (such as Magery, Alchemy or Necromancy) to the mundane (such as Herding, Tailoring or Blacksmithing).

All characters can currently earn 700 percentage points (slightly higher with older accounts, up to a maximum of 720) to divide amongst as many skills as the player would like the character to have, and any skill may be brought to 100% proficiency (or as high as 120% through the use of items acquired through game play or from other players) provided the character has enough spare points to do so. Skills can be set to raise, lower or hold their points, allowing the player to fully customize their character's skill set.

Some skills require the consumption of resources, such as raw materials, while others cost nothing but time. In the past players could raise many skills by simply using macro programs to automate the tasks for them; this practice was not only grounds for account suspension but recently was made inneffective through code implemented by Electronic Arts in an effort to encourage skill building through actual game play. Many skills have also been introduced in order to add balance and prevent characters from becoming too powerful; for example, the Anatomy skill was added which increases a character's proficiency with the Healing and various melee combat skills, while Meditation and Evaluate Intelligence were added as enhancements for magic-using characters. These additional skills, along with a 700 percentage point cap, dictated that players consider carefully how to develop their characters so that they are as proficient as possible in their chosen fields.

The core character attributes of strength, dexterity, and intelligence, from which the characters' pools of health, stamina, and mana are derived, still remain, but Ultima Online now features many more statistics, all of them derived from items or spells. These statistics range from Luck, which improves the chance to find more and better magical equipment, to Lower Reagent Cost, which reduces the amount of reagents or tithing points needed to cast spells.

Ultima Online features an extensive crafting system that allows skilled players to create the majority of items found in the game, ranging from useful items such as weapons and armor to the more mundane items such as furniture and decorative clothing. It is possible for player-crafted items to be of a higher quality than the items that the NPC shopkeepers might sell, especially if made by a Grand Master or higher in the appropriate skill.

One controversial issue relating to crafting is that players are often forced to create large quantities of items that there is no demand for, simply to advance in skill level. This is one of the major downfalls to the closed-loop economy originally designed for the game, because people could not make enough money selling items they had to create because NPCs only bought items that the NPC could most probably sell later (based on simulated supply and demand). That simulated supply and demand has since been dropped due to player complaints, and now a nearly unlimited amount of unwanted items may be sold to NPCs, which are no longer required to make a profit, and so rampant inflation has taken place as a result.

• Ultima Online