Which I will get uploaded to Aiera shortly.

Update: Downloads now available via the project entry…which I also finally got around to renaming.

(hat tip)

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

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!

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 Aiera’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 content – DONE!
• Update the files for Akalabeth Mobile – DONE!
• Update files for Lazarus to v1.2. See if it’s possible to upload the mod in one chunk instead of 7 RAR segments – DONE!
• Get local copies of Milestone 1 and Milestone 2 of Archon online – DONE!
• Nodling Dragon’s website seems to have a number of useful downloads and utilities; get these onto Aiera if they are not already – DONE!
• ZIO Interactive’s UW1 for PocketPC seems to have a downloadable demo now; get this – FALSE ALARM!
• Make sure the latest version of Exult is available for download – DONE!
• Check to make sure that I have the latest downloadable files for UW2 Revival on the site – DONE!
• Get the Eriadain files back online – DONE!
• Make sure I have the latest files for LOW – DONE!
• Make sure I have the latest files for SI French – DONE!
• Get the latest downloads for Pentagram, especially now that they have a Mac OS X Universal binary – DONE!
• Get the latest Project Britannia files – DONE!
• Make sure I have the latest version of EUO – DONE!
• Arx Fatalis seems to have a fair bit of downloadable media; see about getting hold of this – DONE!
• Get the latest version of U6O – DONE!
• Make sure I have the latest version of U4 Multiplayer – DONE!

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 Ultima Online mods and remakes (Legacy, Iris, etc.) – DONE!
• Check out the UO for NWN module
• Investigate the Lands of Ultima hak paks on the NWVault – NOT WORTH THE EFFORT!
• Investigate the UO Britannia 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 Dark Core “offline” versions. – DONE!
• Update IRE files (Sourceforge seems to be having issues at the moment) to version 0.93 – DONE!
• Get Nazghul 0.5.5 and Haxima’s latest files – DONE!
• BGKeyring for Exult – DONE!
• Enhanced Graphics Mod for Lazarus – DONE!
• Looking Up camera Mod for Lazarus – DONE!
• Grail Quest’s Mods for Lazarus – DONE!
• Bugfix & Mod collection for Lazarus – DONE!
• Get newest Dransik installers
• Check all links!
• Check for updates to the utilities!
• Identify dead projects – DONE!
• Add Lost Sosaria again

You can find downloads at the project website, or at the project entry here at Aiera. Note that I have only restored the downloads for Iris2; downloads of the original Iris (before the transition to OGRE) have not yet been restored.

I mention this here because a reader sent me a request over the weekend that is kind of an analog to the above. For some of us, Ultima is a game which predates us; perhaps we were born after the first one was released, or perhaps we did not come to be gamers until the series had achieved a level of maturity. This is certainly the case for me: the first three games I ever played, in order, were a Winnie the Pooh puzzle solver/RPG, Sierra’s Mixed-Up Mother Goose, and Ultima 6…all within the span of about 18 months. If I was 7 years old by the time U6 and I first met, I’d be surprised.

But it got me hooked, and I’ve played most of the other Ultima titles since that time. (U6 remains my favourite, though.)

The last Ultima game released a decade ago. Think about that for a moment. Even Ultima 9 represents a bygone era of gaming…or, perhaps, several eras; game-related technologies move ahead with truly alarming speed.

If someone wanted to get into the Ultima series today, where would they begin? Is it still best to start at the beginning, with Akalabeth, and from there to play through all the games in game-chronological order? Or is this not the right approach? Should a person instead begin somewhere in the middle, then move to earlier titles, and then play through the Guardian saga? And should one play through the originals? Or the remakes?

That is what reader Lance wondered in his email:

Between 2000 and 2003 I played a lot of Ultima Online on various free shards; before that I hadn’t played any Ultima Games. Since then I’ve put a couple hours into the following: U1, U7 (in Exult), U8 (in the other Exult-like project) and U9 (completely patched up and using the developer-released patch).

In each I lost interest: U7, U8 & U9, I was obsessed with going into every
house and stealing useless junk like candles, cutlery and bananas…which meant the locals would eventually get angry at me.

I’m thinking about starting with U1 again and working my way up to U9, but I’m not sure if I should play the remakes instead of the originals in
DOSBox, or maybe start with U9 and work my way down to U1.. or even put Ultima’s best foot forward and start from there and work my way to the worst in the series (maybe U7, then U8, U9, then U6 etc)?

To be honest, I’m not sure what sort of answer to give him, apart from recommending beginning with U6; that is the best starting point, as far as I’m concerned. From there, the order I suspect might work best would be: U4, U5, U8, U9, U1, U2, U3, the Underworld games (optional), Akalabeth (optional), and then U7 (both parts, in order). This balances higher quality against lower, modern against classic; to my mind, it should work for the average gamer.

But what do you all think? Recommendations can be left in the comments (please give explanations for your suggestions, as well).

Crispy Gamer: Ultima VII is one of my favorites in the series because it’s so immersive, interactive and easy on the eyes, but it is also very dark. To me it felt like you were tearing down what you created in the first six games. Would that be a fair statement?

Garriott: Ah, yes. Here’s how I would frame it. The first three Ultimas were really when I was, frankly, learning how to create a game. Ultima I was written in basic, Ultima II was the first assembly language program I ever wrote, and Ultima III was really the first time I felt that I had succeeded at creating a game, despite its level of sophistication. Ultima VI, V and VI were created at a time when I was learning the process of being a storyteller. They introduced things like the Virtues, etc. I began to pay much more attention to the craft of storytelling.

Frankly, Ultima I, II and III weren’t related to each other at all, in the sense that their stories weren’t connected. Ultima IV, V and VI were only related to each other in that I kind of realized that the series was going to go on for awhile, so I tried to pick up where I left off with each game.

Ultima VII (for me, the most important moment for the series since Ultima IV) was the first time I really sat down and said, “OK, what am I really trying to accomplish with this game?” I was trying to do things like set up stories and characters that would survive for more than one product. I had seen how people were reading into the philosophy I had put together with Ultima IV, V and VI, and so I was trying to — what you describe as “tearing down” — open it up, and say there are lots of other forms of thought that are either just as good or positive, or that might also seem good or positive but are actually quite dark. So I was trying to drive what I call alternatives.

Ultima IV, Ultima VII and Ultima Online are my favorites. And for me, the reason why VII that was true for was because it was a game where I most completely realized the virtual world I was trying to create. In other words, the depth of interaction and responsiveness of the world it played in.

As the bloggers say, read the whole thing!

And while you’re there, don’t forget to check out another interesting Ultima-themed feature currently underway at CrispyGamer: The Black Gate Murders — an “alternative” play-through of Ultima 7 in which the object is to a) kill everyone apart from respawning characters, and to b) pass the game. At the very least, this implies a rather careful methodology in regard to the order in which NPCs are dispatched, and I for one would be curious as to whether the blogger can pull it off.

He’s already done Trinsic, the Road to Paws, and Paws proper…

Powered by ScribeFire.

Featured in this update are new graphics in the program’s 2D and 3D modes, an updated version of the OGRE engine, and numerous bug-fixes.

Also, the licensing has been updated to GPL version 3.

Iris2 (Iris-Ogre)
* Iris2 Installer (Windows)
* Iris2 Binary (Windows)
* Iris2 (SUSE) (RPM)
* Iris2 Latest Source Code

Also required (for Windows):
* Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redist. (x86)
* DirectX9 End-User Runtimes

Ultima: Iris is a 3D game client for Ultima Online, which gives the game a more modern feel in keeping with the evolution of 3D MMORPGs while still retaining the Ultima “feel” of UO (such as it is). Iris is only compatible with a number of different “freeshard” server types. See the project website (actually a wiki) for full details.

Iris requires a legal copy of Ultima Online, preferably one of the later-edition versions of the game, but it serves to note that trial versions of UO can be used for play on freeshards without suffering limitations. Trial versions of the game can be obtained from the links given on the Iris2 forums.
]]> http://www.ultimaaiera.com/ultima-online/ultima-iris/feed/ 16 http://www.ultimaaiera.com/spin-offs/euo/ http://www.ultimaaiera.com/spin-offs/euo/#comments Wed, 17 Sep 2008 06:01:30 +0000 Withstand the Fury Dragon http://aiera.timeimmortal.net/spin-offs/euo/

Produced by: Max Breedon
Website: EUO
Releases:
* [drain file 77 url EUO Installer] ([drain file 77 size])
* [drain file 76 url Patcher Update (use only if needed)] ([drain file 76 size])
* [drain file 16 url Launcher (Client Configurator)] ([drain file 16 size])
* [drain file 75 url Map Editor] ([drain file 75 size])
* [drain file 103 url 3D Client] ([drain file 103 size])

Borrowing a fair bit from other RPGs, EUO is intended to be a real-time, single/multi-player, persistent-world RPG…one that looks and plays much like Ultima 4 or Ultima 5. The project site proudly proclaims that those looking for mouse support and Diablo 3-style graphics should seek their fix elsewhere.

EUO uses a Ultima Online-like skill system, without player classes. Combat is based on dice rolling like in Neverwinter Nights (and with more Ultima Online influences, apparently). Although the original EUO did feature a U4-like tileset, the current iteration is completely original (although most monsters and traps will be familiar to Ultima 5 fans). Spells can be cast using either the Ultima 5 runes, or through a simpler list for the less-than-Ultima-proficient.

Also, the game now incorporates the LUA scripting language, meaning that the player can influence the dungeons to a greater degree through certain key actions. Leveling is done at shrines, with stats being upgraded along the same lines as happened in Ultima 6.

The game features over 100 NPCs and over 50 quests, with more being added all the time. And now, a 3D client is even available!