Sergorn Dragon has just re-launched a project idea he’s had for a few years now: Return to the Serpent Isle.

Using the Neverwinter Nights 2 engine, this project is not a remake, but rather a continuation — a brand new Ultima adventure set in a familiar world: the Serpent Isle.

The site just “went live” on the ‘tubes this morning, Dragons. Although, in the interests of full disclosure, I know that because I helped design the thing, and will be involved with the project in a production and world-building role.

Which reminds me: we’re looking for people! Be sure to check out the Recruitment page for details!

Tags: Neverwinter Nights 2, Serpent Isle, Ultima

Now there’s a sentence one doesn’t usually expect to type.

Mark Mitchell contacted me a couple months ago, and then again just this week, to inform me of his ambitious project to create a realistic heightmap of Britannia using such tools as Photoshop, Terragen, and L3DT.

This in turn would be useful for some Ultima project developers, since I know for a fact that tools exist for some game engines (Neverwinter Nights 2 especially) that allow for the automatic creation of terrain based on imported heightmaps.

But that’s not the reason Mark has undertaken this project for himself. As he creates this work, he also wants to consider: “size and scaling of the continent, political and demographic issues, economy and trade routes, [and] geology and land formation.” In that regard, it’s as much an anthropological study as it is a really cool piece of artwork.

You can check out some of his sample work at the project’s current “webpage,” a forum thread at the Cartographer’s Guild (registration required). I have also created a project entry, at/through which can be viewed an early sample of Mark’s work.

Tags: Neverwinter Nights 2, Photoshop, Ultima

This is an ambitious project to create a realistic heightmap of Britannia using such tools as Photoshop, Terragen, and L3DT.

This in turn would be useful for some Ultima project developers, since I know for a fact that tools exist for some game engines (Neverwinter Nights 2 especially) that allow for the automatic creation of terrain based on imported heightmaps.

But that’s not the reason Mark has undertaken this project for himself. As he creates this work, he also wants to consider: “size and scaling of the continent, political and demographic issues, economy and trade routes, [and] geology and land formation.” In that regard, it’s as much an anthropological study as it is a really cool piece of artwork. You can see just how cool by clicking on the project’s image there on the left; that’s a sample/preview image he sent me a couple months back. It can be viewed in somewhat better detail at Aiera’s Flickr page.

Tags: Flickr, L3DT, Neverwinter Nights 2, Photoshop, Terragen, Ultima

The Realms of Ultima project — the Neverwinter Nights 2-based version of Project Britannia, a project which aims to create a pre-fabricated Ultima world for others to use as a basis for their own projects — has been updated twice since last I checked in with it.

For starters, project lead MokahTGS has posted an article in which he discusses a few of his inspirations, as well as some of the new features of an upcoming NWN2 expansion pack that he is looking forward to making use of.

But additionally, he and fellow developer Jaesun have been working on a contribution to Bouncy Rock Entertainment’s “Community Halloween Project.” Their contribution will evidently be the Grumpy Strumpet tavern, which will in due time become the tavern in .

Tags: Bouncy Rock Entertainment, Buccaneer's Den, Neverwinter Nights 2, Project Britannia, Ultima

It has been another busy week for Ultima-related news, O Reader, and on the site as well. Full implementation of the download manager is progressing apace, and I think I’m going to add a new feature to the news postings — the top five most downloaded files. But we’ll get to that in a bit. In the meantime…here’s what’s news. And a couple of shout-outs go to Petrell at Dino’s Ultima Page for spotting some things that I missed in assembling the list below.

Project Britannia

I see that the folks over at Project Britannia have switched servers due to speed problems with their old hosting company. The site has been configured at the new host, so there shouldn’t be any interruptions in accessing it.

EUO

I see that EUO 3D has been updated to version 0.14, fixing a bug with window minimization. Updated versions of the download are available through the project entry here at Aiera.

Realms of Ultima

Development proceeds apace on this promising Ultima-themed prefab for Neverwinter Nights 2, although news posting to the project website has been a little bit light of late owing to the fact that team leader MokahTGS is presently moving to California to take on a new job.

Savage Empire for Exult

Scythifuge has started a new discussion thread at the Exult forums to keep us all up to date on the latest developments he is making in his adaptation of Savage Empire using Exult and the Ultima 7 engine. At present, he seems to be working very heavily on graphics and tiles for in-game use. He has even posted a few screenshots for us to feast our eyes on.

Seven Towers Exult Mods

Marzo Junior has put his Seven Towers website back online at a new host, and has released updates of all three of his Exult mods — Black Gate Keyring, SI Fixes, and the Avatar Pak. All of the latest versions can be downloaded from the respective project entries here at Aiera.

Ultima VII: The Feudal Lands

Wizardry Dragon has put his project’s website back online at a new host.

Ultima for the Civilization Series

Frilly Wumpus alerted me to these. General Maximus has produced an Ultima-derived scenario (in two forms) for Civilization III. Both are set in Britannia after the events of Ultima 9. The forms of the scenario are as follows (one appearing to be a more difficult version of the scenario than the other):

Ultima X Conquest:

In the kingdom of Britannia, Lord British lost hold of his kingdom with breakway of the other seven city states now ruled by deviant warlords. Play as British under civilization group Bards. Forces and castles still loyal to you are now isolated in hostile teritory and may not hold for long. With news of the arrival of the hero of Britannia, the Avatar; the rebelion states begin marching towards Britain, the capital of Britannia for an pre-emptive strike. With the help of the mighty Avatar and his heroic companions, reclaim your entire kingdom!

Ultima X: Medieval Deity Challenge

In the kingdom of Britannia, Lord British(LB) lost hold of his kingdom with breakway of the other seven city states now ruled by independent warlords who were once friends of Lord British(LB) himself. Play as LB under civilisation group Bards. Forces or cities still loyal to you are now isolated in hostile teritory and may not hold for long. With news of the arrival of the hero of Britannia, the Avatar, the rebelions states has begin marching towards Britain, the capital of Britannia for an pre-emptive strike. With the help of the mighty Avatar and his companion Iolo, reclaim your entire kingdom!

The second form of the scenario seems to be more combat-oriented, and provides fewer allies/companions for the player. Either way, this seems like a neat idea, and I have created a project entry complete with downloads here at Aiera for it.

General Maximus also has an Ultima-inspired scenario for Civilization IV in the works, although as yet he has not released any downloads for it.

Ultima V for TI Calculators

Ranman informs us that his project — porting Ultima 5 to the Texas Instruments calculator — is nearing completion. He pegs the current project status at 98%, and his latest revisions to it include:

• “Acknowledgments” menu option is now working
• “Introduction” menu option is now working
• “Create New Character” menu option is partially working

He’s getting close, O Reader! Very close!

Ultima IX: Redemption

Sage has added a couple of new entries to his development diary. As usual, the would-be reader must be registered at the Titans of Ether forums.

Most Downloaded Files

1. [drain file 200 url Ultima 9 Official Patch 1.18] ([drain file 200 size])
2. [drain file 202 url Ultima 9 Unofficial Patch 1.19] ([drain file 202 size])
3. [drain file 199 url Ultima 9 Combined Patch] ([drain file 199 size])
4. [drain file 389 url Ultima V: Lazarus v1.2 (Windows)] ([drain file 389 size])
5. [drain file 8 url Alter U9 (RPG-Maker 2000 version)] ([drain file 8 size])

Let’s see if any of the above changes in the coming weeks!

Tags: 3D, Aiera, Avatar, Britannia, Civilization III, Civilization IV, download manager, Dungeon Siege, EUO, Exult, Morrowind, Neverwinter Nights 2, Project Britannia, Realms of Ultima, Savage Empire, Serpent Isle, Texas Instruments, The Black Gate, The Elder Scrolls, Titans of Ether, Ultima, Ultima 5, Ultima 7, Ultima 9, Ultima IX: Redemption, Ultima VII: The Feudal Lands

Produced by: MokahTGS
Website: Realms of Ultima Blog
Releases:
* Moongates Prefab
* Moongates Demo
* Starter Module
* Realms of Ultima 2DA Pack v1.11
* Realms of Ultima Icon Pack v1.11
* Realms of Ultima Extras Fixes
* Realms of Ultima Prefab – New Magincia

This project also requires the Neverwinter Nights 2 Community Content Compilation and the Armor in Progress Compilation.

Doing for Neverwinter Nights 2 what Project Britannia did for Dungeon Siege, this project aims to create a complete “prefab” of Britannia — with a fully-implemented world map, all the historical Ultima quest objects, and pre-implemented scripts — for NWN2 builders to use as the base for Ultima-themed modules.

Tags: Britannia, Dungeon Siege, Neverwinter Nights 2, Project Britannia, Ultima

It hasn’t been a tremendously busy couple of weeks, but several projects have posted significant updates.

Ultima IX: Redemption

There is a lot of news from this promising, Morrowind-based remake of Ultima 9 this week. Firstly, “de facto” project spokesperson Direhaggis writes in to inform us all of the following:

Our team has stayed consistently productive for the last year, especially making gains in exterior cell worldbuilding (which is nearly done) and 3D models. I myself write the main quest and it’s 80% complete, with a word count of approximately 180,000 (where U7:BG had ~175,000). Overall, production is 75% done. With our current team roster, the game itself will definitely be completed–it’s just a question of time.

On that note, we are right now looking for more worldbuilders for interior cells, as well as dialogue writers. There’s also a position for a 2D artist to help create more cutscenes for the game.

Our director, Corv, is going to update the status page fairly soon. He has recently become a new father, though, so I am acting in his stead to spread the news far and wide.

I would dearly appreciate your sharing this news with your readership. Thank you for your time, thought, and especially your dedication to keeping Ultima alive and well.

And to Direhaggis, I can only say: no problem at all, good Ultima fan and true!

It is indeed the case that the Redemption team are looking for worldbuilders to help with interiors, as well as dialogue writers and (possibly) even a 2D artist. If, O Reader, you feel you could fit into one or any of those categories, pop on over to the Ultima IX: Redemption website and drop Direhaggis a private message in the forums there.

PT-BR Translation for Ultima Underworld

I was informed via the contact form that a Portuguese translation of Ultima Underworld is available for download as well:

We have a small group with a project, its about 90%, but we have a lot of work like font editing and replay the game to check any flaw.
There is alreadly a patch avaliable.

I have created a project entry for this translation here at Aiera, and have uploaded the current version of the patch (v0.2) for download. If, O Reader, you would be interested in helping this small team with font editing and playtesting, you can contact then through their website/forum.

Exult 3D

From his comments at the end of this discussion at the Exult forums, it appears that Sam Matthews has stopped work on his 3D re-interpretation of the Ultima 7 engine. If so, that’s a pity.

For the moment, the project entry here at Aiera won’t be changed, as the project had come a fairly long way and could conceivably be used to play through Ultima 7. It won’t look terribly pretty in places, but that’s an aesthetic concern as opposed to a technical one.

EUO

Speaking of 3D, it appears that a beta-stage 3D engine has become available for EUO, the Ultima-like online RPG. The look and playability are still rudimentary, but this is certainly an interesting development for this fun little project.

Downloads and installation instructions are available at the EUO forums, and the downloads are mirrored through the project entry here at Aiera.

Realms of Ultima

This promising, Neverwinter Nights 2-based set of “prefabs” has just released its latest content — New Magincia. It’s not a completed release just yet, and will soon see the addition of caves, house interiors, and the Gargoyles that live there, but it’s enough to wander around in…and it’s spectacular.

(My wife bought me NWN2 a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve had a bit of a look at the town…it’s top-notch work)

The prefab can be downloaded either from its entry at the Neverwinter Vault, or via the project entry here at Aiera.

Tags: 3D, Aiera, Britannia, EUO, Exult, Morrowind, Neverwinter Nights 2, RPG, Serpent Isle, The Black Gate, The Elder Scrolls, translation, Ultima, Ultima 7, Ultima 9, Ultima IX: Redemption, Ultima Underworld