Brad Hannah has posted a new development update for Ultima 5 Redux, his 3D voxel-based remake (reskin? revamp?) of Ultima 5, detailing progress he has made on it as of the beginning of April, 2020:

This was an interesting update because it seemed every time I wanted to implement some small component of the feature list then I would end up having to create some new system I had never considered.

As an example, he discusses the process of implementing searching for moonstones:

So you want to ‘G’et a moonstone? Well first you ‘S’earch for it of course. But when you search in game for things that aren’t moonstones you could have stacks. The stacks do not translate well into the 3D game since they stack. So I had to create a queuing system that essentially puts them in a first in first out (FIFO) structure where the next item would appear as you ‘G’et the “exposed” item.

Next, typical inventory items are stored in a consistent way in the saved.gam file which makes it super easy to keep track – except moonstones are different. Moonstones are either “buried” or “not buried” and if they are not buried then I must assume they are in the Avatar’s inventory. This does not quite fit with the original games logic, and I still have to solve for it (but as I write this, I think I figured it out)

In addition to implementing moongates and moonstones, Brad has also added a full day/night cycle, full moon cycles (visible in an on-screen widget), a [P]ush mechanic for moving objects around, complete [Z]tat descriptions, and several other enhancements. You’d be well-advised to click on through to the post on the development blog to find out more!

Additionally, Brad has released the first of what will be a series of development vlogs (video blogs):

In this vlog, we get a look at some of the tools with which Ultima 5 Redux is being crafted.