2010-12-24 A Britannian Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays all,

The Awesome Screen this week is just an appetizer for something even more awesome.  In the image, you can see Mariah actually standing on the balcony of her house.  This shot was actually taken just after cleansing of the Shrine of Honesty because she doesn’t appear there before the shrine cleansing.  Yes my friends, we have successfully added triggers into the map that allow Jaana and Mariah to appear after (and only after) shrine cleansing.

Even more good news, we can state with confidence that NPC schedules can be created using the present Ultima IX engine.  Our understanding of the highway.dat is growing, and we will soon be making our first attempts at NPC programmed movement.  Now I will tell you that NPC schedules will not be added in any of our patches, but they will be included in releases of our main project Forgotten World.

Now for the main course.  We present to you a very special Christmas gift.  A patch that allows both Jaana and Mariah to appear in their respective towns in the middle of the game.  I think I can honestly say that this patch is by far the most significant fan-made patch or mod for Ultima IX to date, and we are far from done.  Due to the significance of this patch, we have increased the letter.

This patch requires Ultima IX to be patched to version 1.19f, and it includes the music fix previously released.  This patch should be compatible with the Beautiful Britannia demos as well, though some objects added by the demos might be missing.  Note that you must start the game from the beginning.

– Forgotten World Team