Ultima Ultima 6 Remake in U7/Exult Engine

[Infinitron]

Holy fuck still alive

 

[mck]

imagine how cool it would be if this ever got released

 

[Atlet]

imagine how cool it would be if this ever got released

Well, If Grimoire is out, everything is possible.

 

[Cael]

Would be interesting to see how they get the Orb to work in U7. U6 had the square grid, but U7 would need to depend on the distance and direction from Avatar, which would be fun for players to target.

 

[Junmarko]

imagine how cool it would be if this ever got released

Hehe. Dude, imagine how they feel. Arranging every spoon to match up . Good on them for getting this far. Prob at a point where they need to take longer and longer breaks from the madness before trudging on.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Infinitron]

There's also a Savage Empire Exult remake in development, but that project seems to be going much slower.

http://savageempire.ultimacodex.com/the-savage-empire-remake-for-exult/
http://ultimacodex.com/tag/the-savage-empire-remake/

http://ultimacodex.com/2018/08/the-savage-empire-remake-for-exult-sad-news/

It has been on hiatus. I had a motorcycle accident in 2016 and then almost died from sepsis, had to dissolve my pizza shop business, and am going through a nasty divorce and custody battle; fighting for equal time with our son who was born at 24 weeks in 2015. The situation at present is dire.

I had a very difficult time finding anyone who wanted to dedicate any time to the project, so I was mostly drawing sprites and experimenting with tricks in Exult.

I would like to revisit the project someday, as well as exploring pixel art for other projects, though I need to focus on resolving the divorce and custody dispute, and focus on my family.

 

[Roqua]

Are the making an attempt to make the combat somewhat good or are they using the U7 combat?

 

[Ranarama]

Is there any chance of playing U7 and U6 in a U5 engine?

 

[Infinitron]

Wow, this might actually be finished: http://www.ultima6.realmofultima.com/?p=494

Regaining the passion and diligently working on getting the mod under control!

It’s been a while since an official update, but huge amounts of work has been done since then. Hythloth is complete and you can travel to the other side to the gargoyle realm which is complete pending some cleaning up and adding a few things. All of the gargoyle shrines are done and working, I did a recolor of the U7 gargoyle shrines to make them look less weathered since they were underground for a while instead of out in the open air for 200 years. Beh Lem is now able to get in the party, but he just needs a new paperdoll and artwork. I’m working on plot essential npcs first to get some testing done while I flesh out the rest. Still working on the details of an interesting sidequest involving something Chuckles has been hiding from his past.. it will have a couple of alternate endings… a very “evil Avatar” ending which will give you a massive karma hit, a sorta evil ending that will give you a slight karma hit, and a few possible endings where there is a coverup (Think what happens when you talk to Torrisio in SI about those stockings!) and you can go no further. Either way, you get some payback from all those horrible jokes!

After a very long time, we now have a functional balloon! It’s still not 100% where I want it to be but you can unpack the balloon, get it up in the air, fly it around, land it, pack it up, and carry it. So now the Gargoyle shrine can be reached via the balloon.

Plot wise, we’re almost done…. as in very much almost done. I think some things need to be pieced together, like the gargoyle quests (submitting to Draxinusom, getting the broken lens, getting it fixed, getting a human lens, and so on.) Speaking of the amulet of submission, I did a recolor and editing of an SI Amulet and it turned out pretty good.

Not too far away now! Until next time!

-AOG

 

[mwnn85]

I wish someone would prioritize remaking Crusader No Remorse/Regret
Work on Pentagram appears to have stalled some time ago.

I'd (optionally) add a mouse/targeting cursor making the Silencer's aim follow it, independently of movement.
That'd be a huge QoL improvement over the old tank controls.
There seemed to be tons of map bugs/placeholder areas in the first game as well.
Plus it'd be lovely to run it outside of dosbox in a HD resolution.
Maybe someday...

 

[aweigh]

so he had an almost-deadly motorcycle accident, then almost died from illness and had to close his business... so naturally his wife decides he is no longer good enough and divorces him and tries to take sole custody of the child.

sounds about right.

:matriarchy:

 

[someone else]

Is the gypsie dog Kador implemented?

 

[Junmarko]

Wow, this might actually be finished: http://www.ultima6.realmofultima.com/?p=494

Haha, I never thought this would be completed before Nuvie.

One hell of an effort.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Infinitron]

Not even complete life destruction will stop vaporware Ultima modders: https://ultimacodex.com/2019/08/the-savage-empire-remake-help-still-needed/

The Savage Empire Remake: Help Still Needed

Scythifuge Dragon has posted an update to the long-dormant Facebook page for The Savage Empire Remake, his Exult-based effort to remake Savage Empire using Ultima 7’s engine:

It is a struggle on some days, especially under certain weather conditions (winter is horrible,) and life has been a bit dark, though I am getting back into drawing pixel art.

It is slow going as I get used to it again. I am self-taught, so it can take a while to draw something, though it should go faster as I continue to get back into it. My workstation has a better set up, using two large screen televisions for monitors. I am looking for my wacom tablet, and setting up my wireless receiver for my wireless keyboard and mouse so that I can work from my rocking chair when my back and leg become aggravated from sitting at my desk.

I won’t post anything new until I get used to it again. I just wanted to let everyone know that I have not abandoned my projects. In fact, getting busy with them will be good for me.

I love Exult, but it has limitations. My needs for help still exist. If anyone is a programmer and can help add needed features to Exult Studio, that would be awesome. I plan on researching Unity as an alternative, so if anyone wants to help with utilizing Unity, please send me a message. I’m not much of a programmer, but I am going to try to learn. If Unity is used, I would like to set it up so we have the option of the classic oblique perspective, or even better, isometric.

If we can set it up so that we can easily create dialogue trees, quests, and in-game cutscenes, I would be interested in making other remakes, and an original Ultima game (details are secret, but would be awesome!)

Anyhow, enough rambling. I will be working as I can, amd hopefully I will post something new soon. If anyone wants to help with programming, scripting, or drawing animation frames, please let me know. Without assistance, all I will be doing is drawing and creating mockups, at least for now.

I hope to have something new, soon!​

It’s not the most positive news, granted; Scythifuge has had a number of personal struggles in recent months, in addition to facing the technical obstacles discussed here. It would at least seem he’s open to changing engines, if doing so makes it more likely that the project will be able to move forward.

Mostly, though, he’s looking for some help bringing his vision to life. If you’d care to help out, drop him a comment on Facebook, or shoot a message to the project’s page thereat.

And my apologies to Scythifuge, as well; this article was one of a couple that I never wound up posting in April (when they were still fresh). It’s now August, and I regret the delay.

https://ultimacodex.com/2020/01/the-savage-empire-remake-more-sprite-samples-possible-plot-changes/

The Savage Empire Remake: More Sprite Samples; Possible Plot Changes

It’s been a while since we’ve checked in with Scythifuge and The Savage Empire Remake, his Exult-based remake of (what else?) Savage Empire. And, in fact, I missed a goodly number of the updates he posted to the project’s Facebook page in 2019. For example, back in April, he posted some thoughts about possibly changing engines for the project:

I am looking for the same things I have been looking for for years, however. I need help with drawing the frames for animations, and for people to learn how isecode/scripting/Exult Studio works. Programmers who could possibly take a look at Exult/E.S. and see if certain features could be added would be awesome.

Another idea, which I exchanged some messages about with someone, would be to switch to Unity, amd make a 2d looking game in a basic 3d world which could utilize artwork I have created, would circumvent the limitations of the current state of Exult Studio, such as height/lift constraints, the combat system which almost everyone hates from Ultima VII, and other cool features I envision for a retro game to be fun and accessible for everyone.​

He also mused, later that same month, about some of his planned changes to the plot of the game. Here’s the first three; you’re advised to click on through to check out the remaining dozen or so:

1. Eodon is now a pocket plane created by the Timelord in order to preserve cultures and creatures that were disappearing from Earth throughout history, almost like a preserve. The Kotl are going to be connected to the Annunaki/lizard people legends, and they originally assisted the Timelord, but became corrupted by power. The Timelord sends you to Eodon this time, not Lord British, and would be a character in the game. This also helps establish other ideas I have for other Ultima games, and is part of an overarching plan to fix plot holes in all of the games (I have studied Ultima since childhood like you wouldn’t believe.) Kotl city technology would allow the player to view footage of the Kotl’s opulant, imperial past, via cutscenes.

2. The Disquiqui will remain more lighthearted and peaceful than the rest of the tribes, though they will be depicted more realistically, and less silly.

3. Cultural differences between tribes will be more apparent. Each tribe will have their own style of dwelling and unique look and items.​

In May, he continued posting about some of his planned changes to the game, especially to its magic system:

Many Ultima games had the 8 schools of magic. The original Savage Empire had a few spells which required the use of three animal skulls.

I am thinking of expanding the magic system to 8 skulls and at least as many spells as Ultima VII. Many of these spells would fit the theme, such as being nature based (call lightning, summon creatures, etc.)

Offensive spells would be… savage. Looking through my canvases, I found one where I was working on a spell where red army ants would be summon to cover a paralyzed enemy, eating their flesh and leaving behind a skeleton. It would be a level 8 spell requiring reagents and a human skull.

Make no mistake, I want this game to be brutal, befitting a land of magic that is full of primitive, war-like tribes (one of which who sacrifices people,) and flesh eating beasts, and natural dangers lurking deep in the dark, dense jungles, temperate forests, chilly crags, sulfur and tar laden swamps, and volcanic wastelands of Eodon.​

Scythifuge also confirmed, also in May, that he was continuing to work on the project using Exult Studio…though he was also exploring the Unity engine as well:

I am creating assets so that they will work in Exult, though I am starting to go through Unity tutorials.

Sometimes it takes a while to create assets “just right,” because of the bounding boxes and offsets used by Ultima VII. I remember coming up with a cool mountainside texture, but had trouble taking it apart to apply to shapes that will snap together properly.

I am working on those now, and then finishing some waterfall animations, some trees and other plants, the Avatar frames, and some small creatures.

I hope to put something together in Exult in the coming weeks, as a prototype of sorts, to show off the style I am striving for. Even though I am starting to learn Unity, I will keep things compatible with Exult as I can, and use Exult for testing and prototyping.​

In December, having continued his studies of the Unity engine, he posted a truly interesting idea for a change to Savage Empire that would add a measure of urgency to the game. It wouldn’t work in Exult, of course, and Scythifuge still has given no indication that he’s actually going to change engines at any point, but this does sound like a really amazing thing even so:

I was watching videos on Unity and voxels, and imagining The Savage Empire made with voxels (tiny voxels to simulate pixels, not the Minecraft cubes.) In the original game, it is stayed that the Myrmidex are a threat, but they never do anything except for random attacks in the jungle.

What if, as you play the game, there are Myrmidex digging tunnels, unbeknownst to you. The hive population is growing, so they need to dig, and they need to eat -you. They are even a threat to large dinosaurs of they swarm, just like army ants.

Not only would they eventually cause the Valley of Eodon to collapse (and tear a hole in the fabric of time and space because my Eodon is in a pocket plane in between different dimensions of Earth,) but they could burrow beneath the player, erupt from the ground, and attack.​

Spoiler

Of course, over the same span of time (April 2019 until now), Scythifuge has also been working on creating graphics for The Savage Empire Remake (you’ll note he mentioned this in one of the news posts above). Happily, he has posted several samples to the project’s Facebook page, beginning with this collection from April:

Here are some sprites I have been working on over time along with Savage Empire sprites. I have many more. Some are finished, some are not…

I am drawing on a 65″ 4k television for more canvas real estate, with a 50″ 4k television as a 2nd display. I am still working on getting my workstation set up to be comfortable for me to work in. Office chairs aggravate my chronic pain.

And this collection, too (it’s great to see that Crowley is still helping out with the project, as well):

Here are some more sprites. Crowley drew one of the Nahuatla npc’s I believe (and he drew some other stuff too.) There may be other people’s sprites or Ultima VII here amd there since I study them and use them to maintain the proper scale.

And these explosion animation frames, for that matter:

Needs more frames and variations…

He has also been going back and reworking previously-created tiles (e.g. mountain faces) to add more variability, and has likewise been reworking creature sprites. In December, his focus had shifted to the flora of Eodon (graphics samples above); he’d like some feedback on how the various plants look. He’s also been considering adding additional realism and information to the game when things like plants are interacted with:

So when it comes to jungle plants, my original thought was “ultra-realism as close as I can get with pixels.” Like when you clicked on a plant, it’s scientific name would display (edutainment!)

This can be frustrating, to say the least. If this was am SVGA or 3d game, it would be easier. I would be doing a lot of rendering from pictures and models and all of that, rather than drawing by hand (though I may start penciling things, scanning them, and then rendering into pixel art. I also bought a book on drawing faces.)

However, I had to remind myself that this is Eodon, a pocket plane containing flora and fauna that is extinct on Earth, Verily, it is the valley’s main purpose. There are many extinct plants of which we lack evidence of in fossils, amber, etc.

What are the community’s thoughts on me using artistic license to create tropical and exotic looking plants along with ones bases on reality? Existing plants would surely exist due to the fact that they existed in the prehistoric record, and are required by the tribes/fauna. I have flowers that “look like flowers” yet are not drawn from a picture or memory, for example. When the player clicked on it, it would read “tree,” “bush,” or I (Dr. Rafkin) would invent names like “Arecaceae Eodonis,” for example.​

Feel free to click on through to The Savage Empire Remake’s Facebook page to offer your thoughts!

 

[Infinitron]

Unembeddable video in comments: https://www.facebook.com/permalink....d=373686836142464&comment_id=1332932810217857

If this works, it should be a video of something I finished up today, where you can have Glen cremate bodies (he would do it in the original in the conversation). It kind of goes along with a sidequest we are implementing

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.ultima6.realmofultima.com/?p=512

Quick update.

Hey everyone, time for another update! Right now the mod is finally in the later stages where plotwise the game is finished, just needing the fine tuning of every npc and testing. Some non plot essential dungeons need to be finished. Npcs need finished portraits and a few side quests need to be finished (solving the Quenton murder, a sidequest tying up a loose end from U5, and some minor ones. It’s been a slow process, but we are determined to get it finished! -AgentOrangeGuy

 

[Infinitron]

 

[mondblut]

Why would they remake the last Ultima with non-retarded combat on the engine of Ultima with retarded combat?

 

[Infinitron]

 

[mondblut]

2013:

Remaking Ultima 6 on Ultima 7 engine? Really? Taking the last functional and RPG-like Ultima and porting it into the realtime clusterfuck? Why not remake it on Ultima 9 engine straight away?

2020:

Why would they remake the last Ultima with non-retarded combat on the engine of Ultima with retarded combat?

I find this man's consistency admirable.

 

[Lord_Potato]

2013:

Remaking Ultima 6 on Ultima 7 engine? Really? Taking the last functional and RPG-like Ultima and porting it into the realtime clusterfuck? Why not remake it on Ultima 9 engine straight away?

2020:

Why would they remake the last Ultima with non-retarded combat on the engine of Ultima with retarded combat?

I find this man's consistency admirable.

It almost feels like you failed to log to an alternative account in order to praise yourself

 

[mondblut]

2013:

Remaking Ultima 6 on Ultima 7 engine? Really? Taking the last functional and RPG-like Ultima and porting it into the realtime clusterfuck? Why not remake it on Ultima 9 engine straight away?

2020:

Why would they remake the last Ultima with non-retarded combat on the engine of Ultima with retarded combat?

I find this man's consistency admirable.

It almost feels like you failed to log to an alternative account in order to praise yourself

Almost.

 

[ShaggyMoose]

I started playing the U6 remake in Dungeon Siege engine but got stuck at the library due to horrible lag and camera controls. Interested to try this instead. Can't believe its been six years since the OP...