It has been a little while since we last heard from The Ultima 6 Remake, but it would appear — based on the content of this news post by Zygon Dragon — that the team have been putting the quiet time to good use.

There is new music!

First of all, we’d like to welcome 2 new people to the team, Archangel and Natsu. Archangel has come on board to tackle the music, using his musical talents to update and remaster all of the tracks in U6. Currently, Archangel has finished the U6 Forest Theme and the gargoyle intro theme and they sound fantastic. The gargoyle intro theme sounds mysterious and adds the sense of danger in an unknown land which fits the situation perfectly. The U6 Forest theme (My favorite track in the game, by the way) adds to the mystique of exploring the dense forests and no longer sounds repetitive. I am looking forward to Archangel working his magic on the other tracks as well.

You can hear the new forest theme, as well as the re-done gargoyle theme, at the project website.

There are new sprites!

Crowley has been working on new sprites for the mod, such as a blonde Shamino which suits his U6 portrait better. Also, he provided us with magic locked chests. In the works are several other visual upgrades for npcs such as Blaine, Seggallion, and the gypsies such as Taynith. Sythifuge has been putting the finishing touches on the grave sprite for us, and from what I’ve seen of it so far it looks pretty well done.

There are new features!

This grave shape will function like his – when you use a shovel to dig up the graves, the ‘lid’ (the grave mound) will be removed, revealing the corpse/empty grave below, and leaving a pile of dirt next to it. I can’t wait to put it in game and try it out.

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I have also been experimenting with a few new interaction features that are currently working on a test mod and will be inserted into the U6 mod soon. One new feature is that you can now create campfires! It works similar to how campfires worked in UO; first you double click a dagger then target a tree, which creates “kindling” (currently, using the ‘branch’ imported from SI). Double clicking the branch on the ground will start a fire which starts small and grows. After about 2 hours or so in-game, the fire starts to dwindle down, until it goes to hot coals (frame 0 of campfire).

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Another new feature I have been experimenting with is being able to cook raw meat on frying pans after getting the meat from deer, cows, etc.

And there will soon be a demo!

In our next update, there WILL be a demo! We’ve received well above the amount I asked for in book submissions and still welcome more. Most are put in the game but I’m still working on inserting the others. The demo will be of the Trinsic area, as it received the most votes on our website poll. Within this area will be the city of Trinsic, some shipwrecks, the gypsies (with scripted Wanda interactions…) and the Shrine of Honor which can be freed from the gargoyles.

I, for one, look forward to exploring Britannia as I know it best, circa the Ultima 6 era, in the Exult/Ultima 7 engine. This is great news, and great progress by the team. And be sure to check out all the new screenshots Zygon has posted!