ULTIMA 6 3D - Final Release Stage!!!

[Tramponline]

Do you still remember the Ultima Series?

[Especially Ultima 7: The Black Gate & Ultima 7 Part II: The Serpent Isle - I loved those games - this is where Adventure meets RPG.
Really clever and well thought through clue gathering and puzzle solving, in a vast world with seemingly endless possibilities of interaction (harvest wheat, grind it to flour, add water, put in oven, bake bread, sell it/ forge your own weapons - just some examples) and where every NPC had his own personal daily routine.] <--- insignificant rambling!!!

Now,
Ultima 6 Project has remade the 6th part of this grand series in a 3D environment.
This massive project has been under development for the last 8 (!) years.

It's in the final beta testing stage, before release.
 
Downloaded it for fun the other day, not expecting much:
I have to tell you, this is without a doubt, the single most IMPRESSIVE fan-effort I have EVER seen in any game!!

If Lazarus(*) was a grand effort - Ultima 6 Project, and what you get, is INSANE!!

Even if you're only remotely interested, check it out and if it's only to support another independent game development community, they've earned it twenty times over.

It's a refined Mod though, you'll need 'Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna' or just the standard DS with a downloadable patch (I got it off some garage sale for 5$)

Have a look and let me know what you think!

Links:


Ultima 6 Project main page


Project's forum         ...info, hint requests & technical stuff and in case you encounter any bugs, be nice, help them & post'em here!


Nightly builds             daily up-dated, improved beta builds (tanks) (I strongly recommend installing those!)


Scuse for the whole speech thing , but I wasn't THAT impressed in quite a while!


cheers,

Tramp


Ps: If you are afraid of RPGs - believe me, as an adventure game fanatic, I don't care much about RPGs - but this
     game makes up for some hack&slash with intelligent plot lines and great riddle & puzzle solving!
     And you don't have to know anything about the series, to enjoy this game!


(*) Some years ago an U5 remake, called Ultima: Lazarus, was released to some acclaim (similar effort, same engine: Dungeon Siege) Huge game world, incredible amount of work went into it - though - somehow it didn't really capture me.      

[Tuomas]

Hi.

This in fact is the 3rd beta we released in April. There are some bug fixes to the earlier and, well, you can see everything at the main page... But the game isn't quite finished yet, so every play-tester is welcome .

The project is brilliant as you said, there's quite a lot to do, and the guys have been really diligent (?). The engine is really nice, I've liked working with it a lot, it's quite simple but still very versatile. I'm still a bit unfamilar with the coding, but that doesn't affect my work. Once the game finally is finished, there'll be a german, a french and a finnish version of it too. A fun detail

[Tramponline]

Sorry Tuomas, I really hope I didn't jump the gun here! I was just so impressed. I saw your name on the other board, however didn't make the connection with AGS though. So, you're working on the team, not just hunting bugs like me?
Really, would I've known earlier, I would have asked you before posting - just thought the more bug hunters the better?!

[Tuomas]

Haha, jump as far ahead as you like. All the promotion is worth it. And I'm glad you found it interesting enough to get excited. Yeah, I've been in the team for about a year now, so I'm kind of a rookie too But we'll take any help we can get as I said, so the more bug-cathers the better. And spotting me on a different forum is like looking for hay in a needlestack because I'm boring enough to use my first name as my nick

Regarding your redded text, I can't seem to remember really forging your own weapons... was that really possible, I haven't got that far in the code yet

[Sslaxx]

Think I have Lazarus around somewhere... sounds like it might be time to crack out my copy of Dungeon Siege again (I brought it solely to play U5!).

[Tramponline]

I hear ya, Sslaxx. Bought it for Lazarus too. Tried the original DS just once, out of pure boredom. After the first excuse for a 'dialog' saying "go there because you have to and there'll be plenty of enemies blocking your way", I hack-slashed some randome cannon fodder enemies (I think they were only five or so) and quit the game never to run it ever again.
Yeah, give Ultima 6 Project a try - far superior to Lazarus (...just in case anyone of you worked for Lazarus/ disclaimer: just my opinion - but it IS anyway!!! ")

@Tuomas
In the Ultima 7 add-on 'Forge of Virtue', you were able to forge the blacksword and embed a gem with a demon's soul imprisoned in it. "Most powerful weapon in the realm" - and it really was - plus you could talk to the imprisoned daemon and annoy him for kicks - hilarious fun!

[Sslaxx]

The only weapon which could kill Lord British (never mind the bronze plate above the throne room door!). Fun times with that.

[Tramponline]

Yeah, I totally missed the one with the bronze plate though. Read about it half a decade later in some forum.
Did you give it a spin, Sslaxx?

Am still exploring the world and it's just incredible. You can experience the love for detail and diversity in every nook and cranny throughout the game. The development time of 8 bloody years shows - a period absolutely utopian for any commercial project  . Just plain and simple the most complex game world I've ever encountered. Let me know what you think, if you checked it...

PS: They just released the latest builds before Final on their "Project Britannia wiki" page. Those are closing in on bug-free. Ahhh,"bug-free" the devil's word in any game project!!!   :    

[Tuomas]

You were able to kill Lord British in 6 by pickpocketing him, taking the ring. He'd became mortal, and you could wear it and never die. Though I recall it would fade out after a while?

[Sslaxx]

Waiting for actual release now. Going to reinstall Lazarus, too.

[Tramponline]

Waiting for actual release now. Going to reinstall Lazarus, too.

Yeah, I understand. I was asking in particular, because every beta-tester is very, very welcome in this 'hot' final stage. Tuomas will probably comply to that.
Obviously the team did it's own beta-testing, but that's not the same, because they used tools to omit whole quests lines and the few rare 'bugs' that are still in there mostly involve convos that might still appear even after finishing the related quests or perhaps logic issues.
Players without any prior knowledge (like knowing the walkthorugh and such) tend to find those more easily. At the forum itself we're only three people beta testing at the moment.

Besides it's fun to devise devious ways of how to "break" the game!!   Just kidding Tuomas!