2011-08-05 Humming with Activity

Well hello Dragons and Dragonettes, Travelers and Community Members, Players and Modders;

This week, I present to you not just one…

or two…

or even five…

but seven awesome screenshots.  All of them of the now functionally complete Activity Editor. (#22)

Though it will be some time before it is released, it is no less complete.  All that remains now are a few minor features, some clarifications on a few parameter descriptors, and some polish to clean up minor bugs.  As of right now, the editor can edit any activity sequence, add new sequences, and essentially establish full schedules for any unique NPC with limited game map alteration.

In addition, I would like to officially welcome two new composers to the Forgotten World team:  Michal Ratkowski and Arthur Varkvasov.  Both of whom are professional composers and their websites can be found on our team page.  With the addition of these members to the team, we have added a new content page that will house the music that we plan to add to the World of Ultima IX.  Right now there are two songs available:

Ruins of the Hold by Michal Ratkowski

Stones Town Theme by Arthur Varkvasov

While the location for the first song is obvious, we have not yet determined a fitting place for the second, so we are posing a new poll question to answer just that.  As you can see from the first option, we plan to actually give the town of Cove its proper dues.  In fact, you will be able to visit this location soon after entering Britannia.

One note about Arthur Varkvasov, he will not currently be able to compose further music for Forgotten World at this time, but he plans to return at a later date.

In other news (yes there is more), I would like to officially thank Ewan Munro for providing Forgotten World with 12 books from his canceled Dawn of Virtue Ultima IV remake.  Included in these wonderful books is a treatise on Healing by the Shadow of Light.  So thanks to both of you for these books.  Which reminds me, we have yet to receive any other books from the community.  Of course, you may submit at any time during Forgotten World’s development and there is no limit on how many books we will accept.

Finally, we are announcing a new goal for Forgotten World.  In addition to adding new models, we plan to finish what the UIX animators had started:  full facial animations for all of Ultima IX’s talking NPCs.  A feature that was seen a few times, but probably completely forgotten amongst the myriad of bugs that players experienced early on.   

So that is all for now, enjoy the music folks.

– Iceblade