Ultima IX Redemption is not simply a remake of the original Ultima IX Ascension but a complete new game. We use mostly new models and textures and use the last resources of the MW engine. So you can be sure to have up to date viduals (as far as possible with this engine). You will also have music in the spirit of original music scores. But most important you will get a true deep immersive story with 2 different endings. We also try to make the world as interactive as possible. Some of the features are: - NPCs have their schedules (go home at night or in a tavern,go fishing, etc…) - NPCs are no dull nobodies but have their own story with their individual needs - master intelligent quests where you have to use all your skills (not only fighting) - possibility to kill big monsters with brain instead of a weapon (traps, poison,…) - Quests that are implemented seamless in the story so you might not even notice that you are doing a quest (quest dont feel like work) - several ways to solve...
A large archive of assets for Ultima IX: Redemption, including 3D models, music, the story file, and a readme with instructions.
1.)How to run UIX
2.)Additional tools
3.)Ingame dev tool
4.)About what’s included
5.)How you can use those files (“license”)
6.)Why we cancelled UIX and why it took so long
1.) How to run UIX:
- Install Morrowind and the two addons Tribunal and Bloodmoon.
- install the last patch (in folder PATCH)
- copy our Morrowind.ini to your Morrowind folder
- copy our Data Files folder to the Morrowind folder. Overwrite if asked.
- start Morrowind Launcher and select “Data files”:
- choose ONLY the UIX-Redemption_LSrelease.esm:
Done
2.) Additional tools:
If you want you can use the Morrowind FPS Optimizer, which is especially handy if you want a better
view distance. Here is my setting:
You can also use the included MGE (Morrowind Graphics Enhancer).
You won’t need those tools if you use openMW
3.) Ingame Dev Tool:
We used a little item for some quick changes and teleportation without having to use the console
command each time. You can also use it to travel faster around Britannia:
Just drag it over the character:
And a menu will appear:
If you click on “teleport” you can chose from a list of destinations:
Have fun exploring ;)
4.) About what is included:
It is all of Britannia, a few NPCs and a few systems. I left the whole beginning of the game (Character
creation, gypsy camp quest) in as a reference of how you could create the rest of the game if you
wanted. There is also the NPC Katrina on New Magincia which was the first scheduled NPC, as
reference if you want to use it on other NPCs…
There is the story.doc which contains a big part of Redemption’s storyline.
Finally you also have a folder with the music in it.
5.) How you can use those files (“license”)
You cannot use any of the included files for a commercial project. All the Morrowind files belong to
Bethesda/ZeniMax Media. “Ultima” is owned by Electronic Arts.
You can however use all the files to create our own Morrowind mod or to continue development on
UIX Redemption.
All the files we, Titans of Ether, created can be used in other non-profit projects as well.
Be so kind and list us in the credits.
6.) Why we cancelled UIX and why it took so long:
As I learned recently there are a few people who will not accept any explanation, but for those of you
who are actually interested in why we worked on UIX for so many years, why we cancelled it and why
we started a new project, I have written a short explanation here, in 3 parts:
Part 1: History
In 2004 I started my own Ultima fan project called “Ultima X – The New King”. Back then there were
no full “free” game engines like Unity, all there was for people like me were mod tools some games
provided. Mod tools are NOT as powerful as full game engines. You can only modify the files of the
original game the tool came with and you have varying access to core game mechanics. In general
however doing anything the original game did not deliver was (almost) not possible.
I looked at some games and found the Morrowind Construction Set (MW CS) to be the most
powerful at the time, because at least I was able to script some sort of interactive items. I created
the “Ultimate Ranger Mod” with it and decided to use it for my real project, Ultima X.
Shortly after I started I noticed that there was another Ultima project, called Ultima IX Redemption,
also using the MW CS.
I thought, why not combine forces and work together on a common goal, new Ultima games. My first
idea was to simply share know-how and maybe some scripts to help each other get Ultima IX and X
done faster, but after I talked to them I quickly realized that they were in big trouble.
I will make this part as short as possible, but here is a summary of what Direhaggis and Chlortos
Dragon told me in or first online meetings. I cannot confirm that this is exactly what happened, but
this is exactly what I have been told by them:
After working with other engines they moved to MW CS and started anew. They made some good
progress, but Avatus Kingsman, the team leader back then, was suddenly gone and no contact was
possible anymore from one day to the other. Even worse: at the same time he disappeared he also
deleted all their files. They managed to collect some files from various members, but it was far from
what they actually had before. When I contacted them they were in the process of getting back on
their feet, but it was extremely difficult for them, understandably.
We agreed to merge our teams, call ourselves “Titans of Ether” and work on Ultima IX first because
there was already some work done, like the basic landscape and some dialogue etc...
However once I got the files I saw that the MW CS master file (the game file) was damaged and not
really usable and I had to start over and create a new basic Britannia in it. So all we really had from
the old Redemption team were dialogue files, a few concept art drawings and a nice banner. I
decided we work on Redemption first anyway.
However only ONE active member of the old team actually made the jump to the new team:
Direhaggis.
All in all, it is fair to say that we started completely new with UIX Redemption.
Part 2: So what were the problems with UIX Redemption’s development?
First of all, like mentioned above, we started new. So everyone who thinks we just
continued a project which was already going on for several years is wrong.
In all the years of development there were only 2 people who were constantly there,
Direhaggis and Zini… (and me). Yes we had many contributors, but always just for a short
period of time and it is extremely difficult to keep a steady workflow up when people
constantly leave and you have to start new with another person.
We were ambitious and MW CS is just a mod tool, not a real engine. We didn’t just want
to create a mod like so many other fan projects, where we put a new storyline in the
untouched framework of the game the mod tool came with. If we would have done it
this way I can honestly say that UIX Redemption would have been done in 2006.
But we wanted to create real Ultima gameplay... in Morrowind, which is a very static
game compared to Ultima VI or VII. However creating item interaction etc is very difficult
in a game that was not made for it and creating things like movable objects not possible
at all. I could list many features that were difficult or not possible, but the 2 examples will
have to do. Because the MW CS is not only just a mod tool, but a very very “difficult” one
to use as well, every feature that Morrowind did not have and we created on our own,
was not a matter of a few weeks of development but months. There were so many
hurdles along the way. Now some cynical folks might ask (well one actually did) “why did
you not plan this better and use a tool that would allow you to do what you wanted to
do?” and my answer to that is: First of all, this was not a professional project in any way
shape or form, this was, from the start, a project of some fans that wanted to create
something in their spare time that they liked. There was no business plan for the love of
god. Even more important: for a private fan project there was NO tool available beside
those mod tools. Licensing a commercial engine back then was something only
companies could afford. And anyway, paying for a commercial engine for a project that
can never be a commercial one because we do not own the IP (Electronic Arts does), is
pure stupidity. So dear cynical fellow: be real, thanks. So we just took the one that
looked the best (MW CS) and started.
It was just a fun project on the side. Nobody involved ever earned a penny with it. We
did it because we love Ultima. But after the first 2 extremely productive years we lost our
drive. Constantly having to deal with members leaving and things not working in MW CS
was extremely frustrating. About the leaving members: I blame not one of them. It was a
LOT of work without any reward (beside my “well done”). Even the fans did not have the
patience to be on the forum anymore and give words of encouragement, the only real
currency we would have been allowed to accept. Put yourself in those shoes, a lot of
frustrating work without payment in your little spare time. Doesn’t sound so great I
guess. But DH, Zini and me didn’t want to just give up, so we kept working whenever we
could. After a while getting people (well Ultima fans) who are familiar with or willing to
work in MW CS could not be found anymore. So we did what we could. But progress with
this tool (MW CS) that seems to work against you, not with and for you, was very slow.
Zini even started to work on openMW, an amazing project that tries to create an engine
which can run Morrowind files. OpenMW would in the end allow us to do what we could
not do in MW CS, but it took (and still takes) time to develop.
We worked on UIX on and off till 2015. But we all have families, careers and lives outside
of a non-profit project that requires a lot of time to get any little thing done.
Part 3: And now?
Then came Unity, a real game engine, affordable by folks like us. Unity started the trend
and Unreal Engine 4, Cryengine,... continued it. Testing Unity was the nail in the coffin of
UIX Redemption in MW CS. Seeing that you can do something in a day in Unity which
would have taken weeks or even months in MW CS was enlightening and frustrating at
the same time. It was clear that continuing to work on UIX in MW CS was no option
anymore. We would just have fooled ourselves. OpenMW was still not done, we all won’t
get younger and so we had to decide: start Redemption, a project that was not ours from
the start, a game which we do not own the IP of, new OR finally actually create our own
game without any creative or technical restrictions.
We decided to plan out the development of a new game which is roughly based on “The
New King”, the game we actually wanted to develop back in 2004. We won’t just do this
a little on the side like UIX, but we planned out how to consistently use spare time to
work on it and in the near future hopefully work on it exclusively. I am telling the truth
when I tell you that since we started I worked every day at least from 9 pm till 1 am and
more often than not from 7 pm till 2 am. We all collected a lot of experience over the
years. MW CS was the toughest school you can imagine and in our professional lives we
learned planning as a CIO, how to program a new game engine, how to write by writing a
published book etc. (just a few accomplishments of our team members). So we started to
create “Corven – Path of Redemption”, our own IP but with the soul of Richard Garriot’s
Ultima series. Please follow us on this new path. If you are an Ultima fan you won’t
regret it. If you are a single-player RPG fan who loves good stories you won’t get bored
either.
Here is a trailer done with the prototype of Corven: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL8-
UVa7MF8&
Our homepage: http://www.titansofether.com/
Thank you for reading!
Florian Kasper
Corv
January 2017