Iceblade has taken a break from his attempt to not write a book until he inevitably writes enough to fill a book — that is, his series of reflections on Ultima 9 — to bring us a bit of news about the state (and future!) of the Forgotten World project. For those of you just joining us now, Forgotten World is a fan project that has already produced a series of patches for Ultima 9, correcting bugs and restoring bits of lost content to the game.

…I am working on getting the first and most significant of the patches completed. My focus from here on out is not to fight the buggy scripting to get what I want and instead develop more stable work-arounds. In particular, the lift at the end of Deceit in the column chamber will be handled in as simple of a manner as I possibly can. Consistent, non-buggy, works without fighting for days to the scripting right.

Lastly, I do want to report that Forgotten World as a U9 mod won’t be implemented. I doubt I have the time or enthusiasm to create anything very large or significant without the help of 2-3 dedicated designers/world builders. As a result, my focus is just to complete patch 1.20. Then, I will decide if I can do patch 1.21. Then finally patch 1.22. Only then will I consider development of small scale mods for Ultima IX such as monster mods, enhanced towns, or altered dialogue.

Iceblade has also published a patch status page which gives some additional detail on the progress he has been making on Patch 1.20, and what specific issues are being targeted for the patch.