Hey, didn’t I use that title once before already?

Having already mentioned the domain name change, I can just jump in today and start reporting the news. Many thanks to all the people who continue to pass along well-wishing over the wedding; it is much appreciated and received warmly.

Ultima IX: Redemption

Developer Kultan has a new development diary entry up at the Titans of Ether website, in which he remarks on his progress in developing characters and dialogues:

Paws is mostly done. Several characters are complete and the rest that are planned have at least their basic dialogue written if not more. It’s just a matter of polishing them off before the core dialogue is finished for the village. Anything after that will just be additional material added if we need to use an NPC for something else on down the line, or if I just feel like tweaking. Paws has two major local side quests that are closely connected, and will have a few minor ones as well. I’ll look into posting more info about it on the board.

Minoc is coming along as well. As the industrial center of Britannia (per the timeline), I’m looking to give it a distinct feel. I have an outline of industries and businesses located there as well as an overview for the major local quest: a murder mystery in a gloomy, industrial revolution type town. A little of the dialogue has been written, but I’ve got a lot of work to do fleshing the characters out.

Be sure, O Reader, to read the whole thing. As always, the dev-diary section of the Titans of Ether forums is only open to registered users.

Ultima V for TI Calculators

Ranman informs us that his project has advanced again, and the most recent update I have from him pegs the completeness of the project at 92% now. As usual, he provides some new screenshots to illustrate this.

Pentagram

The Pentagram team have released a new Windows snapshot of their project this month. I’ve made it available for download through the project entry here at Aiera.

Forgotten World

Hawkwind dropped me a line to let me know that this in-engine remake of Ultima 9 has adapted their world-editing software to make use of the OGRE graphics engine, moving away from the OpenGL-based version they had been using previously. This allows them to more easily incorporate modern graphics tricks and techniques (like shader-driven water, which they demonstrate with a new screenshot).

Nazghul

Gordon has released a Windows setup file for the latest release (version 0.6.0) of his Ultima-inspired engine and game. There is a copy available for download through the project entry here at Aiera.

Project Britannia

Several updates have been made to the core files of the project. britannia_art.dsres has seen the addition of textures and inventory icons for the clothing and equipment of Chuckles the Jester, while britannia_logic.dsres has been revised to give the conversation system the ability to launch conversations that are not attached to an NPC. Combat calculation has also been tweaked a bit, although this may have introduced new bugs.

These updated files have been copied to Aiera and can be downloaded at the project entry on the site.

NWN2 Ultima VII Part 2

The fast-paced development of this project continues with the news that the Mountains of Freedom have been completed (maps, NPCs, and dialogues all), as has the trial in Moonshade.

Lost Sosaria

My own Ultima project, in addition to having been moved to a subdomain of Aiera, has another new team member in the form of Helgraf Dragon, who will be taking on the role of dialogue writer/editor and lore advisor. No new screenshots yet, though.

Ultima 7 Babylon

A member of the team putting together the Italian translation of Ultima 7 informs me that the project (see its entry at Aiera here) has been completed. It can be downloaded from the developer’s home page.