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Posts Tagged ‘Serpent Isle’

5
Mar

Return to Serpent Isle: March Update

   Posted by: wtf_dragon    in Site News

Every good thing comes in chunks, like bits of brownie in the DQ Blizzard.

Sergorn Dragon has posted the latest monthly update for his “sequel to ” project, and the biggest thing to take away from it is that unlike previous Ultima titles or fan projects, is going to be broken up into chapters:

…we have decided to release the game in an Episodic format. Now this might come as a surprise for an Ultima game – but after careful consideration it appeared to be a good decision when taking into account both the scope and the amateurish nature of this Mod. Return is a big and ambitious project – and crafting the game as a whole will probably take years – so we felt (and the Engine offers us this possibility) it would be a good idea to take a more Episodic approach in developing the project, by crafting and releasing one Chapter at a time.

Exciting! The project has also reached an initial milestone of developing NPCs for its first chapter.

In other news: I really need to get back into a rhythm of checking all the project sites on some kind of regular basis. Time to unearth that list of bookmarks!

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1
Feb

Return to the Serpent Isle

   Posted by: wtf_dragon    in Site News

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

Using the engine, this project is not a remake, but rather a continuation — a brand new adventure set in a familiar world: the .

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!

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18
Jan

Serpent Isle…Online?

   Posted by: wtf_dragon    in Site News

(Some of you Dragons may already have heard of this, but I just tripped over it, so it’s news.)

It looks like Razimus — who when last I heard from him was contemplating reviving the — has got a new project going: an -based remake (or possibly a separate story entirely?) of .

Check thou it out, good reader! At present, it seems to still be in its planning/templating stages. But hey…it’s nice to see that Razimus is still kicking around and working on things!

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8
Jan

More Ultima blogging!

   Posted by: wtf_dragon    in Site News

Dino links to a pair of articles (1, 2) by , a former Origin employee and now a senior game designer with , who has been in the gaming industry for 20 years.

She even worked on the cancelled Lost Vale expansion for !

The articles are worth a read; as Dino notes, [the] posts contain interesting insights on what it was like to work at Origin, as well as some trivia, info on the original plot of , and some new tidbits on The Lost Vale.

Check thou them out, good reader!

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5
Jan

To-do list for the site

   Posted by: Withstand the Fury Dragon    in Site News

Bumped again for my own purposes: there’s a few things left undone here.

reagents.jpg

This is mostly for my benefit, O Reader, as my memory is not what it once was (not that it was ever amounted to much to begin with) and a list of bases to cover will be highly beneficial at this stage of ’s re-development. A lot of the projects have advanced in their development arcs since the last update to the site, and I need to update the site files to reflect that.

So, at a glance, here’s what needs to get done:

  • Finish restoring old file categories and contentDONE!
  • Update the files for DONE!
  • Update files for Lazarus to v1.2. See if it’s possible to upload the mod in one chunk instead of 7 RAR segmentsDONE!
  • Get local copies of Milestone 1 and Milestone 2 of Archon onlineDONE!
  • Nodling Dragon’s website seems to have a number of useful downloads and utilities; get these onto Aiera if they are not alreadyDONE!
  • ZIO Interactive’s UW1 for seems to have a downloadable demo now; get thisFALSE ALARM!
  • Make sure the latest version of is available for downloadDONE!
  • Check to make sure that I have the latest downloadable files for on the siteDONE!
  • Get the files back onlineDONE!
  • Make sure I have the latest files for LOWDONE!
  • Make sure I have the latest files for DONE!
  • Get the latest downloads for , especially now that they have a OS X Universal binaryDONE!
  • Get the latest filesDONE!
  • Make sure I have the latest version of DONE!
  • seems to have a fair bit of downloadable media; see about getting hold of thisDONE!
  • Get the latest version of U6ODONE!
  • Make sure I have the latest version of U4 MultiplayerDONE!

That ought to keep my busy until the end of the week.

As I said, this is mostly for my benefit. However, O Reader, you are certainly welcome to look over the above list and take notice of anything in it which strikes you as being “news”; perhaps you, like myself, haven’t got the latest version of something yet. You can still make use of the old version of the site to find links to projects if they haven’t yet been ported to this new version of the site…go and do a little exploring!

Update: I thought of more to do:

  • Investigate the various mods and remakes (Legacy, Iris, etc.)DONE!
  • Check out the UO for NWN module
  • Investigate the Lands of Ultima hak paks on the NWVaultNOT WORTH THE EFFORT!
  • Investigate the UO map module on the NWVault

These are somewhat longer-term goals, and the immediate goals of getting Aiera back up to the level of its previous iteration remains the priority. But I think it would be neat to expand the site a bit, and these seem good avenues to approach to do that with.

Upper-date:

  • Download “offline” versions.DONE!
  • Update files (Sourceforge seems to be having issues at the moment) to version 0.93DONE!
  • Get 0.5.5 and ’s latest filesDONE!
  • BGKeyring for DONE!
  • Enhanced Graphics Mod for LazarusDONE!
  • Looking Up camera Mod for LazarusDONE!
  • Grail Quest’s Mods for LazarusDONE!
  • Bugfix & Mod collection for LazarusDONE!
  • Get newest installers
  • Check all links!
  • Check for updates to the utilities!
  • Identify dead projectsDONE!
  • Add again
 

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6
Dec

Stuff I read in the Exult forums

   Posted by: wtf_dragon    in Site News

I sometimes forget to check the Exult forums for a few weeks at a time, which I really shouldn’t do. Forget, that is…shouldn’t forget. Like as not, those forums are the hub of much of the activity in the community; much more is discussed there than just .

Case(s) in point:

  • Eric Fry posted a note in a discussion there concerning , his apparently dormant attempt to create a multi-platform engine for . Apparently, he’s doing some behind the scenes work with the game logic at the moment; hopefully this turns into something more tangible in the none-too-distant future.
  • Then there’s this little announcement, concerning what appears to be a total conversion for …into Serpent Isle, circa the end of the Ophidian era. That’s right: someone wants to make a mod to tell the story of the War of Imbalance. And to be fair, it looks kinda promising, at its outset. Here’s hoping it’s able to keep its momentum!
  • Finally, someone is attempting to add Beh Lem as a recruitable companion in , and appears to be making a lot of progress. My only gripe is that he’s given Beh Lem wings; I may be a touch out of date on my Ultima lore, but I’m pretty sure this should not be.

See what I mean? Hub of activity!

I suppose I should create a project entry for the middle one.

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23
Oct

SI BG Merge Updated

   Posted by: wtf_dragon    in Site News

This interesting project that imports shapes from into has been updated and patched since last I looked in on it. Specifically, it has been updated to version 6.8.7, which has also been patched to fix an issue with compilation.

Full details can be found at the project’s discussion thread in the forums. Updated downloads are available there, or through the project entry.

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22
Oct

SI BG Merge

   Posted by: Withstand the Fury Dragon    in SI Patches, Serpent Isle, U7 Patches, Ultima 7

u7box.png

Produced by: Malignant Manor
Website: SI BG Merge @ the Exult Forums
Releases:
* [drain file 544 url SI BG Merge v6.8.7] ([drain file 544 size])
* [drain file 543 url SI BG Merge Patch] ([drain file 543 size])

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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