Iceblade has posted a brief update to the Forgotten World website, in which he discusses the progress made on the next patch he plans to release for Ultima 9:

A quick update about the patch. I’ve found a rather annoying crash issue with one of my changes, so I’ll be dealing with that over the next few days. I’ve also found it difficult finding the time and motivation to play through the game, which has slowed things down as well.

In other news, I’m looking for a texture/2D artist. The primary job I have available is adding talking animations to all of the npcs. The “animation” mechanic is nothing more than a series of facial images in various stages of mouth and eyebrow movement — basically it works like a gif. If interested, contact us via our yahoo email: forgottenworld2

Also, if you are part of the Ultima Dragon’s facebook group, please vote in the Ultima IX poor dungeon design poll. I’m interesting in learning which dungeons had serious design flaws that hindered their enjoyment.

The poll he mentions above is here.