Corv is on something of a spree where updating the brand new Titans of Ether website is concerned. In his latest post thereto, he discusses three different topics: what he and the team consider to be most important in a CRPG, the engine that will be used to complete Ultima IX: Redemption, and the existence of a Titans of Ether YouTube channel…which, at present, plays host to a single video:

Addressing the issue of what’s most important in a CRPG, Corv has quite a lot to say, including this:

For me it has always been the immersion, the overall atmosphere and everything that helped create that. My personal most important components are detailed graphics (not necessarily state of the art, bitmap graphics can be very detailed too), great music and most importantly a story which is so interesting that you can’t help but keep playing to see how it concludes.

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My ideal CRPG is one where you do quests not just because you were told to do so or because you think you’ll get some loot, but because you really want to know what happens next, it’s one in which you are not even really aware of the fact that you are doing a quest. Even a “fetch quest” is fine in such a RPG. Many Ultimas fit that bill exactly (see Ultima VII where Batlin gives you a box to bring to Minoc — it involves an interesting storyline and even a little mystery. You would really have think about it to be aware of the fact that you are just doing a little delivery quest). Few other RPGs, like Planescape Torment, come close.

He has also added a couple of soundtrack pieces to the post, in this section of it, as part of a commentary on the utility of music in establishing atmosphere; click on through to check out both tunes.

Finally, addressing what engine the project will be utilizing, Corv had this to say:

As you might have read somewhere else we came to the conclusion that openMW is definitely the way to go for us!

He then goes on to list several reasons for sticking with the engine that much of Redemption has already been built with. Among them:

2. OpenMW is mostly being developed because of Ultima IX Redemption since Zini (Marc Zinnschlag), essential team member of the Titans of Ether since 2004, became so frustrated with the scripting engine of Morrowind and its limitations that he decided to start working on this project created by Nicolay Korslund. This means most limitations we had before will be gone with openMW.

3. The lead programmer of openMW, Zini, is also the lead programmer/scripter of my team. This means we won’t just take an engine and hope to be happy with it, no, if something is not the way we want it we have the guy who can actually do something about it right here with us. Just look at how happy Chris Roberts is to have a direct link to some CryEngine programmers. Not every developer is lucky like that. We have the engine developer in our own team. I cannot stress enough just what a huge advantage this is over ANY other engine!

So…now you know! Ultima IX: Redemption will continue to be an OpenMW-powered mod. Or would it be a standalone game? Is Morrowind a requirement for running and using OpenMW?