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Ultima: Aiera

an Ultima Project archive site

Redemption development diary, U5 for TI screenshots, Project Britannia changes

Last updated: November 15th, 2007

Filed under Site News

Hey, didn’t I use that title once before already?

Having already mentioned the domain name change, I can just jump in today and start reporting the news. Many thanks to all the people who continue to pass along well-wishing over the wedding; it is much appreciated and received warmly.

Ultima IX: Redemption

Developer Kultan has a new development diary entry up at the Titans of Ether website, in which he remarks on his progress in developing characters and dialogues:

Paws is mostly done. Several characters are complete and the rest that are planned have at least their basic dialogue written if not more. It’s just a matter of polishing them off before the core dialogue is finished for the village. Anything after that will just be additional material added if we need to use an NPC for something else on down the line, or if I just feel like tweaking. Paws has two major local side quests that are closely connected, and will have a few minor ones as well. I’ll look into posting more info about it on the board.

Minoc is coming along as well. As the industrial center of Britannia (per the timeline), I’m looking to give it a distinct feel. I have an outline of industries and businesses located there as well as an overview for the major local quest: a murder mystery in a gloomy, industrial revolution type town. A little of the dialogue has been written, but I’ve got a lot of work to do fleshing the characters out.

Be sure, O Reader, to read the whole thing. As always, the dev-diary section of the Titans of Ether forums is only open to registered users.

Ultima V for TI Calculators

Ranman informs us that his project has advanced again, and the most recent update I have from him pegs the completeness of the project at 92% now. As usual, he provides some new screenshots to illustrate this.

Pentagram

The Pentagram team have released a new Windows snapshot of their project this month. I’ve made it available for download through the project entry here at Aiera.

Forgotten World

Hawkwind dropped me a line to let me know that this in-engine remake of has adapted their world-editing software to make use of the graphics engine, moving away from the OpenGL-based version they had been using previously. This allows them to more easily incorporate modern graphics tricks and techniques (like shader-driven water, which they demonstrate with a new screenshot).

Nazghul

Gordon has released a Windows setup file for the latest release (version 0.6.0) of his Ultima-inspired engine and game. There is a copy available for download through the project entry here at Aiera.

Project Britannia

Several updates have been made to the core files of the project. britannia_art.dsres has seen the addition of textures and inventory icons for the clothing and equipment of , while britannia_logic.dsres has been revised to give the conversation system the ability to launch conversations that are not attached to an NPC. Combat calculation has also been tweaked a bit, although this may have introduced new bugs.

These updated files have been copied to and can be downloaded at the project entry on the site.

NWN2 Ultima VII Part 2

The fast-paced development of this project continues with the news that the Mountains of Freedom have been completed (maps, NPCs, and dialogues all), as has the trial in Moonshade.

Lost Sosaria

My own Ultima project, in addition to having been moved to a subdomain of Aiera, has another new team member in the form of Helgraf Dragon, who will be taking on the role of dialogue writer/editor and lore advisor. No new screenshots yet, though.

Ultima 7 Babylon

A member of the team putting together the Italian translation of informs me that the project (see its entry at Aiera here) has been completed. It can be downloaded from the developer’s home page.

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We have a domain now

Last updated: November 15th, 2007

Filed under Site News

That’s right, dear Readers — Ultima: now has its own : www.ultimaaiera.com. Don’t worry, though — your bookmarks for aiera.timeimmortal.net should still work. is cool that way.

There’s actually a reason for the move, in that I’m looking to counteract the “subdomain sprawl” I seem to have developed on my server, and in so doing make the arrangement and distribution of subdomains a little more intelligent. In this specific case, I’ll be moving the Lost Sosaria subdomain over to this domain — it makes more sense to me, from an organizational perspective, to have my Ultima-related project be attached directly to my Ultima news website.

There’s one other reason as well, and that is to provide a framework through which to offer project developers who need web space the opportunity to have a subdomain set up for their project at Aiera directly, whether to host downloads or an entire project website as need dictates.

At any rate, the site has been configured to use http://www.ultimaaiera.com as its base URL, so when you click on links from now on, even if you came here via the old address (which will, as I note, continue to work), you’ll be taken to the new domain. I don’t foresee any problems, but if the reader should notice any I encourage him or her to let me know.

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Ultima 7 Babylon

Last updated: November 14th, 2007

Filed under SI Patches, Serpent Isle, U7 Patches, Ultima 7

u7box.png

Produced by:Babylon Team
Website: La Traduzione Italiana
Releases:
* See the developer’s download page!

An effort to translate and into Italian, which is now complete (as well, the Keyring Mod has also been translated).

Please note that this project requires Exult 1.4 in order to work.

 
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U5 for TI Calculators update, SI BG Merge, Siege Tools update, Nazghul 0.6.0, and much, much more

Last updated: November 5th, 2007

Filed under Site News

Okay, so at least a few people contacted me while I was away with news of -related news, either via the contact form, direct email, or the comments for this post. Once again, it’s good — no, great — to see the community pitching in to help the site move along. Thanks go out to everyone who submitted information.

So…what’s news?

Ultima 5 for TI Calculators

Ranman dropped us a line about the status of his port of this classic Ultima title to the TI calculator. He pegs the development status as being 90.5% complete, and offers a new screenshot of Orcs in the game.

SI BG Merge

This was an interesting little tidbit that I tripped over in the Exult forums. It’s a patch that imports the shapes from into , fabricated by Malignant Manor.

I’ve created an entry here at Aiera for the project, and uploaded the latest version of the patch (6.7) for download. It looks like this is a pretty active project at the moment, so I’ll be sure to keep an eye on it.

Project Britannia

Frilly Wumpus posted news at the Project Britannia website concerning an update to Siege Tools. This is definitely a developer-oriented update, and he notes that the improvements include things such as:

  • DS1, DS2, LOA, and BW code completion
  • Built-in API explorer and the ability to add additional documentation to core GPG classes
  • Basic Syntax checking
  • Code completion for Gas templates

The latest version of (1.0.29) is available for download either from the PB website, or through the project entry here at Aiera.

A forum for posting information and comments about Siege Tools has also been set up, which developers using this engine will hopefully find useful.

Ashes

The project website for this Ultima-like game has been changed a bit, and now features an updated note from project lead Andrea concerning what the game is and what its inspirations are. No new news is present, however.

Nazghul/Haxima

Gordon has released version 0.6.0 (only the source at present, though) of his Ultima-like engine Nazghul, and the associated game he is making with it, Haxima. You can download the updated version from the project’s SourceForge page, or from the project entry here at Aiera.

Hopefully there will be and OS X binaries available soon.

Notable improvements in this version of include:

  • Detailed speed handling
  • Better support for diagonal movement
  • Partial opacity support has been added to the terrains
  • Improvements to the map editor
  • New spells
  • Improved dungeon randomization code
  • …and a whole lot more

Serpent Isle for NWN2

Continuing with his tendency to move with alarming speed, Jaesun has made several updates to his remake of Serpent Isle. Notably, he has finished the Arrival Area, dialogue for Moonshade, the Northern Isle quest, the Mad Mage Isle, and Monk Isle. And all this in the last couple of weeks.

There are a few nice screenshots to see at the project site, so be sure to give them a look!

* * *

Also, there seems to be a bit of an interesting debate going on in the forums over the practical and technical implications of making an “online” version of . We’ll see if that turns into any sort of project in the future. It wouldn’t be the only one to come along, of course.

Personally, I count myself as being in the camp of people who would like to see Ultima 7 go online, as has been done with , although I admit that I lack the necessary technical skill to put any sort of meaningful work into the code necessary to realize that dream.

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SI BG Merge

Last updated: November 5th, 2007

Filed under SI Patches, Serpent Isle, U7 Patches, Ultima 7

u7box.png

Produced by: Malignant Manor
Website: SI BG Merge @ the Exult Forums
Releases:
* SI BG Merge v6.7 (1.72 MB)

This interesting mod for Exult imports the shapes from into , adding hundreds of new shapes, with a few being repeated for use with The Black Gate’s usecode.

It is still in development, and still buggy (some in-game functionality may be lost by use of the patch), but for users of this may well be an exciting development indeed, as it vastly expands the versatility of available shapes when modifying or creating maps.

 
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