The Titans of Ether have, of course, been busy this last month. Progress has been made on NPCs, the endgame, Destard, the “Deus Ex choice at the end that results in the Voltaire quote” (Direhaggis, you tease…), Jhelom, Buccaneer’s Den, and texturing on armour models.
A good month, then, July. A very good month. And for the first time in quite some time, the Titans have a full roster, with no open job postings. That’s good to see, too.
(hat tip)
The Titans of Ether have updated the media section of their website with two exciting new additions. The first, which graces this article (in a condensed form) as a preview image, is the latest version of their world map. The second is a fan-created version of that classic Ultima tune, Stones.
(hat tip)
First, Sergorn Dragon’s Return to the Serpent Isle has posted its June update, which makes mention of the magic system that the project team is in the process of developing. Work is also proceeding with the development of classes and skills (along the lines of Ultima Underworld), a character creation system, and the introductory sequence.
He also announces a new team member, offers his assurances that in spite of the D&D-based engine, the final game mechanics will not feel too alien to Ultima fans, and even makes mention of the Ultima 6 Project release.
Second, the Titans of Ether have also posted their June update. Most notably, they are looking for a new writer to handle a handful of dungeons and one “very specific overall quest.”
The team also reports on the creation and implementation of a minotaur model and the implementation of a goodly portion of the necessary equipment models, the completion of Skara Brae’s writing, the completion of various tutorials, and the progress of work on Destard.
(hat tip)
Not unlike the Titans of Ether, the team making this continuation of Serpent Isle doesn’t have a lot to report this month. However, they do report that they have developed a working food system, and also a functional resting system…and have also managed to get themselves a working Serpent Gate system (although this has not yet been made public).
And, of course, they still need team members. Especially (I speak now as one of them) someone with 3D modeling skills.
The Titans don’t have much to report on at this time, although we do bid team member Direhaggis congratulations for being granted his Ph.D!
Other highlights from the report include Zini’s brief mention of a fully-implemented cooking system, and various team members commenting on work done on interior worldbuilding. Britannia, as the Titans will tell it, sounds as though it will be very much alive indeed!
Doesn’t look like the team has that much to report this time around, and no positions are presently open. Which is probably a good sign; it means (I can only assume) that they got the people they needed previously, and have put them to work.
Some interesting tidbits that can be teased out of the short notes from various team members include:
It’s always nice to see development teams pooling and sharing their efforts.
The Titans are still looking for interior worldbuilders, by the way.
Outside of that, the team has made some progress on Ultima IX: Redemption, though it sounds as though things were a bit slower last month than had been hoped for.
Direhaggis asserts that he wrote five additional endings during that time…which brings the total to…uh…quite a few (I’ve lost count). Five separate endings are themselves quite a lot!
The team at Forgotten World have made an arrangement with the Titans of Ether to set up a discussion area for their project at the Titans’ forums.
I’m thinking I may need to make a point of adding forum links to project entries.
Actually, it sounds like the Titans are doing pretty good; they’re basically just looking for interior worldbuilders at this point.
The updates tell a similar story to past updates, of course: things are being worked on. Still, there’s a few tidbits buried in them that are worth mention:
Can’t wait to play this one, good reader? Yeah, me neither.
Which reminds me: general offer to all dev-teams out there at present…if you would like FTP access to the folder where I store your project’s current releases, or if you would like me to set up a folder and FTP access for you so that you can upload project releases whenever those come about, please let me know. I can’t help but think this will help streamline things greatly in the future.
Direhaggis has posted a much-belated New Year’s greeting at the Titans of Ether website, and notes that there are several openings on the team that need filling:
*Interior worldbuilders wanted. Houses, dungeons, toolsheds, castles, and more. All you need is the MW CS, time, and patience. If I can vaguely learn how to put plates on tables, anyone can.
* Writers wanted. We still need 1 more dungeon writer. We also need a new writer for Jhelom. There may be other opportunities as well.
* 3D Modeler wanted. Spyder is one of our best Titans, but we are looking for additional help with models, textures, and the like.
Several updates from individual team members have also been posted, and Direhaggis himself has a new development diary entry for your reading pleasure on the Titans’ forums.
(hat tip)
It’s been half a year since last we heard from the Titans of Ether, but in his most recent news posting, Corv assures us that things are alive and well with his team’s remake of Ultima 9.
Just want to asure you that we are still working on this baby. Right now work is mostly about quest writing, scripting the whole thing … you can imagine. Everyone who visits the forum regularly knows that anyway.
Of course we also still have to build parts of the world itself, but I hope you understand that we don’t want to spoil it all for you by showing everythig on screenshots. It’s difficult not to brag with our Moonglow for example, but you should have some surprises while actually playing the game.
I am also happy to tell you that we have a new “master” up and running (= new game version).
The longer we need for this project the more I actually think about a demo… to show you what you can expect. But for now it’s just a thought.
As usual, we continue to wait with anticipation for the release of this promising remake/re-invention of the finalé to the Ultima series.
Produced by: Darkheart Dragon, Avatus Kingsman (formerly), and many others
Website: Ultima Legacy
Releases:
* Custom Data Files (516.2 KiB, 24 hits)
Ultima Legacy was a modified version of Ultima Online which could be played for free, set in a post-Ultima 8 Britannia. Its premise includes the assumption that Ultima 9: Ascension did not happen, and out of that it has spawned a complex and involved storyline that included the Atarkan invasion of Britannia. Legacy doesn’t exactly form the backstory for the Titans of Ether project entitled Ultima IX: Redemption, although there is a relation there as both projects were founded, in part, by Avatus Kingsman (although where he has gone to, none now know).
Joining Legacy was a bit of an involved process — the modified data files that were necessary for game play are provided here for download, but there was more to it than just that. For starters, you needed to own a copy of Ultima Online: The Second Age, and it was actually recommended that you have Ultima Online: Renaissance instead. Ultima Online: Lord Blackthorn’s Revenge may also have worked.
The rest of the joining process was explained at the Legacy website. However, as of 2008, Legacy was being revised to tell a Serpent Isle-based tale, and was also switching from the Sphere freeshard system to RunUO. The project website is now little more than a placeholder page.
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:
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
Let’s see if any of the above changes in the coming weeks!
