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)

And, of course, they still need team members. Especially (I speak now as one of them) someone with 3D modeling skills.

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!

Some interesting tidbits that can be teased out of the short notes from various team members include:

• Zini is working on a cooking script
• Spyder is working with the Ultima 6 Project team on some character and creature models, including the Guardian

It’s always nice to see development teams pooling and sharing their efforts.

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!

I’m thinking I may need to make a point of adding forum links to project entries.

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:

• Titan Zini is, evidently, an absolute godsend for the team; what doesn’t he do?
• Dungeons and cities alike are in the process of being populated. The game world is coming alive, it seems.
• Direhaggis is working on endings, and has completed three so far. My question: already at three, and more to come? How many will there be, and how easy/difficult will it be to eventually see them all?
• I wonder what this undisclosed “cold” location could be? The frozen world from Underworld 2, prehaps?

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.

*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)

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:
* Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

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.