In a lengthy update posted to the Ultima Forever forums today, Mythic have announced that the second major update to the game has been released on the iOS App Store. Ultima Forever version 1.6.55 brings about a number of changes to the game, including:

• Changes to Gear Damage: Worn items will no longer be degraded as a result of combat damage! Instead, gear has a chance to be damaged only upon player death. So do your best to stay alive!
• New Respawn Options: When you die, you now have the following choices: for a small Gold Key cost, you may respawn at your current location with no damage to your gear; or you may respawn for free at your last checkpoint, risking item damage.
• Combat Rebalanced: Monster difficulty has been re-tuned, higher-level monsters are now more dangerous. As a result, you’ll want to pay closer attention to your Dungeon Loadout rating, and remember the benefits of grouping up with other players!
• Healing Potions: Monsters now drop healing potions in addition to Keys and healing pickups. Due to this change, healing potions no longer drop from chests.
• Better Freeform Quests: Many freeform quests are now automatically granted if you obtain the related quest item, and are not already on the associated quest.

Here’s a couple more changes that are worth mentioning:

• Infinite Dungeons: Visit one of three new infinite dungeons: The Vault of Fear, The Vault of Lies or the Vault of Hate. Open to players level 5 or higher. Infinite means infinite – these Vaults never end, and get progressively more difficult the further you go! The Vaults reward players with special vanity sets that provide protection against all monsters in Britannia! Track your success in each of the Vaults with Leaderboards. How far can you get before dying?
• Item Store: The item store makes its debut! Open the Key store and switch to the Items tab to find potions, cards, vanity gear and limited time offers available for direct Key purchase.

And here’s one specifically for the Ultima Dragons. Let it not be said that Mythic does not listen!

• Don’t be Influenced: New setting available to suppress Virtue tags in moral quandary conversations so you can truly go your own way.

This last point really bothered a number of older-school Ultima fans, who did not like it — not one little bit — that the moral quandaries the game presented players with gave away which Virtue was associated with which answer:

Now, players have the option to disable these tips, making the results of each moral decision less obvious.

Of course, thus far, there is still no way of tracking one’s progression in each individual Virtue, nor (at present) does one’s rank in any particular Virtue affect the story of Ultima Forever to any significant degree. However, as the game expands and as the plot is expanded upon, that can be expected to change. Thus, those of you playing — or intending to play, when it comes to additional platforms — the game can now progress through it without the temptation to min/max individual Virtues.