Ultima IX: Infinity Eternal

Thepal has completely overhauled the appearance of his project’s website, giving it a much lighter feel (although as yet it has not been populated with much in the way of media content). He also gives some details about the project and its conversion to the Oblivion engine:

I decided that the website needed an upgrade, so I threw this one together.

As for the progress, it goes along at a steady pace. The Wiki is taking slightly longer than I anticipated, probably because I’ve just started a new job and therefore am working a lot. Life doesn’t seem to want to let this project progress quickly.

The good news is that two people have contacted me about joining the team. Jeremy LaMantia is a talented composer who has already written eight different themes that I’ve heard.

MartinLoki is a world-builder who is hard at work creating the heightmap for Britannia.

If you’re wondering about the size of this game, picture Britannia in Ultima 7. Then double it. Then double it again. Then multiply it by around 100. Ok… that might be a slight exaggeration. But it is huge. Those of you that have played Oblivion, we’re aiming for around four times the size of Cyrodiil. For some real world figures, we’re talking 8 miles by 8 miles (13km x 13km). Which is 64 square miles (165 square kilometres). And that’s not including the other worlds you can visit as well. This will be Britannia like it has never been seen before.

Here’s a renewed wish of good luck to this project team — that sounds awesome. The technical details of creating a massive world like that can be daunting, and I hope that the UIX:IE team can stay the course.

Also, when you have a moment, swing by the project forum.

* * *

The Ultima 6 Project

Zephyr posted a bit of news to the Project Britannia website yesterday concerning the Ultima 6 Project:

Just a quick update to let everyone know we’re still alive. Sorry that we have not kept the news up to date. The U6 Project has primarily been working on their content, and they are finishing up what they’re calling M3 Part 1 as we speak. No timeframe has been announced, but most of the content is in place and is being tested.

Frilly Wumpus has been busy working with WyrdWeb on revamping the Project Britannia conversation system to use what’s known as Usecode. This is a more complex and extremely flexible way of editing NPC conversations. This will allow a whole host of new quest concepts to be implemented, plus a bunch of new, fun features.

The U6 Project still looking for people conversant with the Siege Editor to help us finish up their content. That is their main blocking item. All the technology is in place; they just need people to help finish building the world. They also still need portrait artists.Stay tuned! We
are very much still alive and kicking.

It’s good to see that this project is still being worked on. Like Lazarus before it, it’s a promising-looking remake indeed. Ultima 6 has always been my personal favourite Ultima, and the opportunity to play it in a gorgeous 3D world is exciting, to say the least.

Relatedly, Frilly Wumpus makes note here of the fact that Gileathane Dragon, who worked on writing and QA for Lazarus, has joined the Ultima 6 Project team.

* * *

Ultima: Iris

Iris is the 3D client for Ultima Online (works with most freeshards and with the Origin servers as well). The team has stopped working on their first version of the game — Aiera should have Iris 0.8.7, the final release, up at
some point later this week — and have devoted all their efforts to a second version built around the Ogre 3D engine. No releases of “Iris-Ogre” have yet been made, but if you’re an Ultima Online player, this might just be the
project to watch!

* * *

Seven Towers Exult Mods

There’s a new mod for Exult over at Seven
Towers which I will have to add to Aiera. The “Avatar Pack” makes a number of modifications to the Avatar portraits for both The Black Gate and Serpent Isle, as well as making any relevant changes to paperdolls and/or gumps. Marzo Jr. has also updated his Black Gate Keyring mod with some of this data.

(Hat tip: Petrell at Dino’s Ultima Page)

🙂 WtFD