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

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

Tags: Aiera, Akalabeth Mobile, Arx Fatalis, Britannia, Dark Core, Dransik, Eriadain, EUO, Exult, Haxima, IRE, Labyrinth of Worlds, Lost Sosaria, Mac, Nazghul, Pentagram, PocketPC, Project Britannia, Serpent Isle, SI French, Ultima 4 Multiplayer, Ultima 5, Ultima 6, Ultima 6 Online, Ultima 6 Project, Ultima 7, Ultima Online, Ultima Underworld, Ultima Underworld 2, Ultima V: Lazarus, UW2 Revival

Reader galway brought to my attention another YouTube-based effort to play through an Ultima game. Or, in this case, an Ultima remake: Ultima V: Lazarus.

Ladies and Luke, I give you: Let’s Play Ultima V Lazarus: Warriors of Destiny!

This undertaking is only a few days old, and only about 20 episodes in. I’m not sure how far he’s gotten in the game proper, so if someone could enlighten me, that’d be great!

Tags: Ultima, Ultima 5, Ultima V: Lazarus, YouTube

Almost a section unto itself, the downloads for Ultima V: Lazarus are working again, so check thou them out!

The rest of the Ultima 5 downloads will hopefully be uploaded soon.

Tags: Ultima 5, Ultima V: Lazarus

Produced by: Team Lazarus
Website: Lazarus
Releases:
* Lazarus 1.2 (Windows) (521.0 MiB, 173 hits)
* Lazarus 1.2 (Mac) (528.3 MiB, 96 hits)
* Lazarus 1.2 French Patch (Windows) (8.2 MiB, 78 hits)
* Lazarus German Patch v1.0 (12.6 MiB, 75 hits)
* Blink Activation Patch (4.3 KiB, 96 hits)
* Difficulty Override (16.1 KiB, 101 hits)
* Font Patch (11.5 KiB, 100 hits)
* Portrait Patch (615.4 KiB, 127 hits)
* Lazarus Editing Environment (Windows) (3.3 MiB, 95 hits)
* Chronicle of Lord British's Expedition (1.0 MiB, 76 hits)
* Lazarus Game Manual (10.3 MiB, 110 hits)
* Map of Britannia (638.6 KiB, 88 hits)
* Lazarus Soundtrack (142.2 MiB, 81 hits)

Patches and Upgrades:
* Enhanced Graphics (11.5 MiB, 251 hits) – (pictured) from 3DWorx
* Looking Up Camera Mod (40.8 KiB, 145 hits)
* Grail Quest's Mods (622.9 KiB, 112 hits) – see this text file (12.7 KiB, 161 hits) for details
* Bugfixes and Modifications (599.5 KiB, 167 hits) – see the Lazarus forums for details
* Project Britannia Compatibility Mod (22.4 KiB, 110 hits)
* Comfortability Mod 1 (3.6 KiB, 116 hits) – start with a bedroll
* Comfortability Mod 2 (3.6 KiB, 89 hits) – start with a bedroll and the sextant (may break a later quest)
* Comfortability Mod 3 (7.5 KiB, 123 hits) – reduced daily food consumption rate
* Comfortability Mod 4 (3.2 KiB, 112 hits) – adds hotkey support for the pocketwatch (if the party has it)
* Regeneration Ring Health Loss Bugfix (3.2 KiB, 106 hits)

Spell-related Mods:
* Spell Scroll Icon Mod (51.9 KiB, 142 hits) – (pictured) replaces the default icons for spell scrolls with graphics that make it easier to identify which spell is on which scroll. Only works on new scrolls added to inventory, not scrolls already held
* Spell Scroll Icon Mod with Chuckles Scroll Changer (61.7 KiB, 91 hits) – adds to the above mod the ability to talk to Chuckles the Jester and have him “exchange” all your current spell scrolls for new ones, thus updating their icons

Weapon Mods:
* Magic Weapon Fix (25.7 KiB, 123 hits) – fixes an issue with weapon enhancement damage not being applied.
* Magic Axe Redux v1.1 (12.6 KiB, 98 hits) – uses spell damage to cause the magic axe’s bonus damage
* Magic Axe Redux v2 (14.5 KiB, 110 hits) – addresses balance issues with the previous version of the mod
* Cheerful's weaponfixes (20.2 KiB, 93 hits) – fixes some scripting and bug issues with weapon-based spells
* Flint Item Changer (9.9 KiB, 59 hits) – talk to Flint to “upgrade” your magic weapons to bug-fixed, modded versions

Cheerful Dragon’s Weapon Addons:
* Undead-slaying Silver sword and Stronger glass sword (10.6 KiB, 92 hits)
* Ranged Throwing Aze (4.7 KiB, 78 hits)

One of the most high-profile remakes during its development, Ultima V: Lazarus is a Dungeon Siege-based remake of Ultima 5 led by Tiberius Moongazer. It was completed and released in the early part of 2006.

Lazarus features an enhanced and expanded musical score, additional plot elements, many new and exciting characters and side quests, and fully rendered cut scenes.

The project is available for download in its entirety here, and in addition there are available for download several mods, patches, and bug-fixes; Lazarus has spawned a modding community of its own.

Tags: Dungeon Siege, Ultima 5, Ultima V: Lazarus

Produced by: Team Lazarus & Team Archon
Website: Project Britannia
Releases:
* [drain file 432 url Milestone 2 Release] ([drain file 432 size])

Updates (may be unstable):
* [drain file 421 url Britannia Art] ([drain file 421 size])
* [drain file 422 url Britannia Logic] ([drain file 422 size])
* [drain file 423 url Britannia Sound] ([drain file 423 size])
* [drain file 417 url Britannia Map] ([drain file 417 size])

Utilities
* [drain file 430 url Project Britannia Development Environment] ([drain file 430 size])
* [drain file 429 url Container Override example] ([drain file 429 size])
* [drain file 428 url Dungeon Siege Font Builder] ([drain file 428 size])
* [drain file 427 url Dungeon Siege Skrit API] ([drain file 427 size])
* [drain file 426 url Skrit/Template Cross-reference] ([drain file 426 size])
* [drain file 412 url Dungeon Siege Toolkit] ([drain file 412 size])
* [drain file 416 url Lazarus Lorebook Editor] ([drain file 416 size])
* [drain file 433 url Rapid Tank Creator] ([drain file 433 size])
* [drain file 415 url Siege Tools for Eclipse (Full)] ([drain file 415 size])
* [drain file 419 url Siege Tools for Eclipse 1.0.29 (Plugin)] ([drain file 419 size])
* [drain file 413 url Siege University Compilation] ([drain file 413 size])
* [drain file 434 url Tank Viewer] ([drain file 434 size])
* [drain file 435 url U6 Project UI Designer] ([drain file 435 size])
* [drain file 425 url Conversation Compiler] ([drain file 425 size])
* [drain file 420 url Conversation Editor Plugin for Siege Tools] ([drain file 420 size])
* [drain file 418 url Book Editor Plugin for Siege Tools] ([drain file 418 size])
* [drain file 424 url NPC/Schedule/Chest Generator] ([drain file 424 size])

Milestone 1 Release:
* [drain file 110 url Project Britannia (1 of 3)] ([drain file 110 size])
* [drain file 111 url Project Britannia (2 of 3)] ([drain file 111 size])
* [drain file 112 url Project Britannia (3 of 3)] ([drain file 112 size])

This ambitious project, a joint venture arising from the copperative developments of Ultima V: Lazarus and the Ultima 6 Project — both Dungeon Siege-based remakes of their respective Ultima titles — aims to create a platform for the easier creation of Ultima remakes (and, one would assume, spinoffs).

It’s “short list” of features is really too long to name here, but includes dynamic weather, ship navigation (a feature lost in many modern RPGs), complete day/night cycle, NPC scheduling, reagent-based spellcasting, moongates, dynamic factions, and a custom-build branching conversation system.

Or, to sum it all up in three words: it looks cool.

Now, the development team for Project Britannia is pretty active, and they are constantly putting out updates. The ones hosted here are current to the best of Aiera’s knowledge, but they may be a few days stale. To that end, the most current versions of the update files can always be found at the Project Britannia Change Log. Please note that these updates are likely unstable at present.

Tags: Dungeon Siege, Project Britannia, Ultima, Ultima 6 Project, Ultima V: Lazarus

Despite the lack of new news, I’ve been busy.

A discussion unfolded last month about Ultima-related art, with one commentator, Hexxer, noting:

I have had a very hard time trying to find decent resolution Ultima art. It would be nice if someone perhaps made a post requesting this stuff…

Ergonpandilus Dragon dug up a handful of very nice examples thereof, drawing on content from Ultima 9, Ultima V: Lazarus, and other projects as well. One hopes that his findings were but a sampling of content that is available “out there” however. Whether this is the case or not, I cannot say for certain. Regardless, Hexxer had one more observation which is worth repeating here:

I am sure there must be some community members willing to scan some classic stuff at high res, if its not done at some point this stuff is going to fade away!

I think that he’s right. The Ultima games had some great art associated with them — game boxes, manual illustrations, in-game and cut-scene graphics, and promotional material — and have also inspired the creation of a lot of really high-quality art as well in the years since their release. And I think it would be a good idea to have an archive of high-resolution copies of that art, in order to preserve it.

To that end, I’ve made a few changes here at Aiera.

As the Reader should know, images are integrated into many project entries here on the site; these images are stored and called up from a gallery, powered by the Coppermine gallery system, which until now I have kept “out of sight” of the casual visitor. This was due primarily to the fact that I couldn’t find a template for Coppermine which matched the template I am using for the visual layout of Aiera.

That has since changed, in that I have ported Aiera’s template to Coppermine, more or less (a first for me, and quite the learning experience if I do say so myself!). And so the user is now both able and invited to visit the Aiera gallery. What is more, I have opened user registration on the gallery, so that those who wish to submit content for consideration may do so.

Using the gallery is simple, if the Reader but follows the steps below:

1. Register as a user in the gallery
2. Wait for me to confirm the registration
3. Log in to the gallery
4. On the sidebar, click on Create/Order my albums
5. Create an album — this is necessary in order to save uploaded pictures
6. On the sidebar, click on Upload file
7. Upload as many as ten files from a hard drive, or five files from online sources
8. Save the files to the album previously created
9. Wait for me to review and approve the images — those images that meet the criteria outlined below will be ported over to the Ultima Art section of the gallery
10. If I don’t approve the images within three days, let me know and I’ll get my act together
11. Enjoy!

Guidelines for image submissions are as follows:

• Images must be Ultima-related (obviously)
• Images must be of fairly high resolution. Printable resolutions are preferable.
• Images smaller than 800×600 pixels will be rejected unless it can be demonstrated that they are the only extant representation of that particular piece of artwork
• Images must not already be in the gallery

Due to the fact that most of the images we are talking about here likely fall under a copyright of some kind, their being archived here will be assumed to be covered under fair use provisions in copyright law; they will be stored for posterity only, and not out of any intent to use them for profit generation or money-making ventures.

Update: Registration should work now. There was a problem with the Captcha security image plugin, and this has now been corrected. I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.

Tags: Aiera, Coppermine, copyright, fair use, Ultima, Ultima 9, Ultima art, Ultima V: Lazarus

First off, Happy New Year to everyone. I hope that you were able to ring in 2008 in a way that was both safe and enjoyable for you and your friends or family; I spent it with my wife and her two sisters at the big New Year’s bash in Edmonton’s downtown core.

Here, I’ll share a photo:

Anyhow, I said I wouldn’t be posting again until the new year, and this has happened. In the interim, a few things worth reporting on have taken place in the Ultima community. Dino’s Ultima Page has tracked a number of these, so let’s get down to those updates first:

Forgotten World

The Forgotten World team report that their world editor is progressing ‘fairly’ — rendering is essentially done, and they are almost ready to begin work on UI design. That’s a promising development for this in-engine remake of Ultima 9

To that end, they need someone to join the project to help out with that aspect of development. So, O reader, if you happen to be:

• an experienced user of world building software
• willing to help us design the user interface of our world editor
• interested in the Ultima series and in creating maps for the game
• patient, communicative and team-oriented
• experienced with programming (perhaps even with wxWidgets) as a plus

…then perhaps, just perhaps, you should drop the Forgotten World team a note and let them know you’d be interested.

Forgotten World was also evidently featured in a German game magazine, “PC Action“, recently.

Lost Sosaria

I have added a dozen new screenshots to the Lost Sosaria website, showcasing the mountain areas I’ve been working on recently. Hopefully, these will be the last screenshots released using the current version of the mountain tileset for the project; a new version is slated to be released shortly after the next update to Neverwinter Nights.

Ultima IX: Redemption

Spyder has posted a number of screenshots of Moonglow in the relevant developer’s diary (you have to be a registered user of the Titans of Ether forums to see them), including one of an Observatory and one of what might be a blacksmith’s shop.

Also, Direhaggis left a comment on the Redemption entry here at the site, imparting the following information:

The progress has been quite good. I think our 3D artist and the new writers helped to re-stimulate us all, as well as the main plot coming to a close in the next 3-6 months.

Management decided that a demo would slow down production. Originally, we thought of isolating New Magincia and allowing the Avatar to solve the quest there. As it is, we want to try to get the game out by the end of 2008.

Good to know!

Ultima V: Lazarus

The German version of Ultima V: Lazarus has been released. I have updated the project entry here at Aiera with the new files.

Ultima 5 for TI Calculators

Ranman puts his development progress at 94% now, and notes that several new features have been implemented since last we checked in with him:

• the Lord Blackthorn cut scene
• Stargazing with the telescope
• Quit and Save, with game resumption
• the Shrine of Spirituality
• food consumption and food obtaining, starvation
• Skiff and Frigate navigation, sea combat

Ultima: Iris

Build 1648 of the 3D client for has been released. A copy is available for download from the project entry here at Aiera.

Additionally, I noticed that the following updates had also taken place on other remake project sites.

Pentagram

There’s no news from this Ultima 8 remake, but I did notice that a new version of the Windows snapshot had been uploaded on January 1st. This can now be downloaded from the project entry here at Aiera.

Project Britannia

Three core files for this project — britannia_art.dsres, britannia_logic.dsres, and pb_laz_comp_layer.dsres — have all been updated. Changes are as follows.

britannia_art.dsres

• 2 new lutes have been added
• More journal labels have been added — untested
• Two chest icons were brightened a bit
• A new trail ration texture was added

britannia_logic.dsres

• bookshelf animation reverted to a previous version
• minor bug-fixes to the sleeping system
• updated lute screen names
• updates to the journal UI
• a function was modified to allow NPCs to ignore locked doors
• …and at least 40 other changes

pb_laz_comp_layer.dsres

• minor change, just synching the compatibility layer with the latest updates in other areas of Project Britannia

The latest versions of these files are available for download through the project entry here at Aiera.

Ultima VII Mod

Matt Johnston informs us that he has done a bit more work on his Exult total conversion:

the outdoor areas of the main map are mostly done; I’ve done a bit with usecode, including one NPC who sells some mostly useless things; sewers and theives guild areas under the south-western city demonstrate use of newly implemented support of Z coords in intermap teleports.

While not complete yet by any means, Matt assures us that he continues his work on this project. As he periodically uploads new content to the site (without announcement of this fact, however), I have updated the copy of the project available for download through the project entry here at Aiera.

Serpent Isle for NWN2

Jaesun gives notice that the project is ON HOLD — it appears that the state Jaesun lives in suffered some catastrophic flooding recently. While he lost nothing project-wise, he did lose his vehicle, and was physically unable to enter the building for a few days as well.

In the meantime, he will be assisting with the Realms of Ultima project, a project he feels is “very important” for the Ultima community.

Which brings me to…

Realms of Ultima

What Project Britannia is doing for Ultima using the Dungeon Siege engine, Realms of Ultima is doing for Ultima using the Neverwinter Nights 2 engine. This is an exciting looking project indeed; NWN2 has a gorgeous engine, and Jaesun’s efforts above would seem to demonstrate that it’s possible to build very quickly with the engine.

A screenshot gallery has been posted online, with several amazing visuals. I have also added a project entry here at Aiera. There are even a few downloads for the project (although these primarily appear to be components of the whole, rather than early snapshots of the entire project).

Update: Ultima 7 Wizard

A user reported difficulties getting the Ultima 7 Wizard to run on their system, so I have updated the entry here at Aiera with the latest version (1.9) of the program, as well as a technical document. Source code (Borland Pascal) is included with this version.

Tags: Aiera, Dino's Ultima Page, Dungeon Siege, Edmonton, Forgotten World, Lord Blackthorn, Lost Sosaria, Morrowind, Neverwinter Nights, Neverwinter Nights 2, PC Action, Pentagram, Project Britannia, Realms of Ultima, Serpent Isle, Shrine of Spirituality, The Elder Scrolls, Titans of Ether, Ultima, Ultima 5, Ultima 7, Ultima 7 Wizard, Ultima 8, Ultima 9, Ultima Online, Ultima V: Lazarus, Ultima: Iris