Archon sent over this press release for the final release of the v1.1 update for their Ultima 6 Project:

It is with much pleasure that we announce the release of the 1.1 Final Release of Team Archon's Ultima 6 Project (U6P), for Dungeon Siege 1 (PC and Mac). U6P features an open and varied world for you to explore with dungeons, caves, islands and towns for you to discover; a non-linear plot line with many, many quests; ships you can sail and navigate across Britannia’s oceans; a second world to discover; both a “virtuous” and an “evil” plot line, and much, much more.

With this release we are also making available PDF Map Books containing high-resolution versions of the following:

·       Copies of the in-game dungeon and Britannia town maps

·       Maps of the Gargoyle lands and dungeons

·       The in-game World Map, with both a spoiler and non-spoiler version. The spoiler version has islands that are not shown on the in-game map.

Some things to look forward to in this release:

·       Both English and French versions

o   A German version is in the works, but is not yet ready

o   A localization pack is available for those who would like to translate the game into another language

·       Brand-new Moongate subsystem that now scales - things don't break later in the game any more

·       Generally better performance - major optimization of various components and special effects

·       Many quest improvements

·       Many dozens of bug-fixes

·       Interesting new places to explore

·       Far more accurate world map coordinates

·       Huge enhancements to the dungeon map system - new "helper" pins and better maps to make our immense dungeons easier to navigate - or optionally, just as hard as before if you disable the helper pins  (you can see samples of the new maps in the picture below)

·       It should be noted that anyone using a previous version will have to uninstall it prior to installing the  1.1 Final Release and start a new game,

If you find problems with the release, want to exchange play hints with other players, want to give us kudos, or (heaven forbid) want to tell us what you really think, join us at our forums. We have set up a special forum for the 1.1 Final Release on the Project Britannia forums:  (http://www.projectbritannia.com/index.php).  

To download the 1.1 Final Release, go to the Ultima 6 Project web site at:  http://www.u6project.com/

Archon sends news a public beta of the v1.1 update for the Ultima 6 Project is now available:

It is with much pleasure that we announce the release of the 1.1 Public Beta Release of Team Archon's Ultima 6 Project, for Dungeon Siege 1 (PC and Mac). Some things to look forward to in this release:

• Both English and French versions
• Brand-new Moongate subsystem that now scales - things don't break later in the game any more
• Generally better performance - major optimization of various components and special effects
• Huge enhancements to the dungeon map system - new "helper" pins and better maps to make our immense dungeons easier to navigate - or optionally, just as hard as before if you disable the helper pins  (you can see samples of the new maps in the picture below)
• Many quest improvements
• Many dozens of bug-fixes
• Far more accurate world map coordinates
• It should be noted that anyone using a previous version will have to uninstall it prior to installing the  1.1 Public Beta Release, and start a new game.

New Enhanced Dungeon Maps

Please note - there are a lot of problems that have already been reported that we could either a) not fix for various reasons, or b) we're not going to spend the time to fix, so please don't be upset if we don't fix the bug you found. We're trying to wrap up this project and put it to bed; unfortunately that has to happen someday, so some bugs will indeed go un-fixed. The plan is to only leave those bugs that we can live with, or just can't fix for whatever reason. But we're pretty proud of this release.

If you find problems with the release, want to exchange play hints with other players, want to give us kudos, or (heaven forbid) want to tell us what you really think, join us at our forums. We have set up a special forum for the  1.1 Public Beta Release on the Project Britannia forums:  (http://www.projectbritannia.com/index.php).  

To download the 1.1 Public Beta Release, go to the Ultima 6 Project web site at:  http://www.u6project.com/

About The U6 Project

The Ultima 6 Project was formed in 2001 by Sliding Dragon to develop a remake of Origin's Ultima VI: The False Prophet with newer graphics and a more immersive engine. Soon assembled under the banner Archon, the team members, who hail from all over the globe, have set about recreating the world of Britannia, adding an enhanced storyline to bolster intraseries continuity and building on the Ultima legacy in a way that will please fans new and old.

It had never occured to me there might be mods for the Ultima 6 Project. Anyway, Ultima Aiera has a handful little additions to consider - they're minor things, such as "Spiders drop more silk" but they might make that little difference.

The eagerly awaited patch for Archon's recent release of The Ultima 6 Project is now available. Here's the official Press Release:

Patch 1.0.1 Release
Written by U6P Aletys  
Tuesday, 7 September 2010:
Team Archon has released the 1.0.1 patch for the Ultima 6 Project for Dungeon Siege 1 (PC and Mac). This release fixes a number of issues which prevented players from completing the game, including:
•    Issues with teleporters and orbing
•    Conversation loops and broken conversation triggers
•    NIS sequences which were not clearing the letterboxing upon completion
•    Other miscellaneous items which were affecting game play
If you find problems with the release, want to exchange play hints with other players or discuss the game in chat, want to give us kudos, or (heaven forbid) want to tell us what you really think, join us at our forums at:
http://www.projectbritannia.com/index.php 
To download the 1.0.1 Patch release, go to the Ultima 6 Project web site at:
 http://www.u6project.com/

About The U6 Project
The Ultima 6 Project was formed in 2001 by Sliding Dragon to develop a remake of Origin's Ultima VI: The False Prophet with newer graphics and a more immersive engine. Soon assembled under the banner Archon, the team members, who hail from all over the globe, have set about recreating the world of Britannia, adding an enhanced storyline to bolster intraseries continuity and building on the Ultima legacy in a way that will please fans new and old.

Guest writer blatantninja describes his experiences with the Ultima 6 Project, as he returns to the beloved franchise through Archon's work.  Here's a snip from the review:

Dealing with the NPC's and related quests is a fantastic and deep experience.  Many quests have more than one way to finish them, and not all paths are always virtuous.  Even deciding how to answer a question can have ramifications.  This is not a game where the player can just always click through each response or inquiry until there are no longer any options and then look at the journal afterwards for the synopsis.  The player must pay attention and often really think about the choice he is about to make and how it might impact his Karma.  It's a refreshing return for many of us that have grown weary of games with superficial conversations with no real consequences from the choices available.

Read it all here.

The Ultima 6 Project has finally left beta and the full v1.0 release is now available. Read about the features, check out some new screens and, of course, grab links to play this incredible game.

The Ultima 6 Project has just released a 3rd updated beta which fixes most of the problems people experienced with release 2. Here's the official notification:

Beta 3 Release

Written by U6P Aletys  

Monday, 19 April 2010:

It is with much pleasure that we announce the release of the Beta 3 Release of Team Archon's Ultima 6 Project, for Dungeon Siege 1 (PC and Mac). Some things to look forward to in this release:

*         Many bug fixes have been implemented since the Beta 2 release.

*         All NPC's are in place, and all the quests have been implemented.

*         Those players with proclivities to the dark side can now follow an evil path.

*         Additional enhancements have been made to the map and journal systems, and the Compendium is now complete.

*         Performance improvements have been implemented

*         It should be noted that anyone using a previous version will have to uninstall it prior to installing the Beta 3 Release, and start a new game.

While this is not the final release of the game, we feel that it is reasonably polished, enough for public consumption (read: scrutiny). We still expect that there will be some bugs, and are soliciting your help in finishing it.

Dark Savant writes in to let us know that the Ultima 6 Project has released their second Beta, and it's now available for download.

From the announcement:

It is with much pleasure that we announce the release of the Beta 2 Release of Team Archon's Ultima 6 Project, for Dungeon Siege 1 (PC and Mac). Some things to look forward to in this release:

• Many bug fixes have been implemented since the Milestone 8 (Beta 1)      release
• Weapon and armor restrictions have now been applied, by class
• The entire world is complete, and ready for players to explore 
• All NPC's are in place, and all the quests have been implemented.   
• Those players with proclivities to the dark side can now follow an “evil path”.
• Hydras are now in game, and should pose a nasty surprise to unwary travelers.
• Additional enhancements have been made to the map and journal systems, and the Compendium is  now nearly complete.
• Minor performance improvements have been implemented.

It should be noted that anyone using a previous version will have to uninstall it prior to installing the Beta 2 Release, and start a new game.

While this is not the final release of the game, we feel that it is reasonably polished, enough for public consumption (read: scrutiny). We still expect that there will be some bugs, and are soliciting your help in finding them. If you find problems with the release, want to exchange play hints with other players, want to give us kudos, or (heaven forbid) want to tell us what you really think, join us at our forums. We have set up a special forum for the Beta 2 Release on the Project Britannia forums ( http://www.projectbritannia.com/index.php ).

Thanks, Dark Savant.

Aletys brings us up to date on the Milestone 8 release of this ambitious Ultima 6 remake, which marks the Beta phase.  Hit this link to read about this release, check out three new screens of the map and journal UI and head to the U6 Project site to download the game.

Aletys from Archon announces the release of Milestone 7 - the Alpha release for their Ultima 6 remake:

It is with much pleasure that we announce the release of Team Archon's next milestone of the Ultima 6 Project, Milestone 7 (M7) for Dungeon Siege 1 (PC and Mac). This is the alpha release for the project, which will be followed shortly by the beta and 1.0 releases.

Read on for the full press release and some new screens, then follow the link to download and play this Milestone.

Team Archon has just released an easy to use patch for their Milestone 6 release. Here's the official Press Release:

Press Release – May 2009 – Patch Available for M6
For more information please contact:
Jesse “Zephyr” Strachman
zephyr@projectbritannia.com
Co-Producer, The U6 Project
zephyr@projectbritannia.com
http://www.u6project.com
Author:  Zephyr

Ultima 6 Project Update – Patch Available for M6
It's been brought to our attention that there is a bug present in the M6 Milestone that makes the game unplayable at a certain point in the plot. We have posted a patch for this here:
http://www.u6project.com/download/m6patch/u6p_npc.dsres
Just copy this file into your Resources folder of the U6 installation (…\U6Project\resources\). You will not have to restart your game.
If you have not encountered this problem, then you don't need the patch. I can't tell you what the problem IS because that would be a spoiler. :) Sorry!

About The U6 Project
The Ultima 6 Project was formed in 2001 by Sliding Dragon to develop a remake of Origin's Ultima VI: The False Prophet with newer graphics and a more immersive engine. Soon assembled under the banner Archon, the team members, who hail from all over the globe, have set about recreating the world of Britannia, adding an enhanced storyline to bolster intraseries continuity and building on the Ultima legacy in a way that will please fans new and old.

Milestone 6 for the Ultima 6 Project has now been released - read all about the new features, check out two new screens and grab the download link in our latest update, straight from Archon.

With Milestone 6 rapidly approaching, the Ultima 6 Project team is urgently looking for playtesters to get this milestone ready for the planned April 30th release.

Check out two new screens and read more about it here.

Aletys from Archon brings us up to date on their project to recreate Ultima 6 as the M6 milestone approaches.  Hit the link for a bunch of new screens and details on their latest progress.

Read it all here.

Aletys from Archon brings us up to date as Milestone 5 for the Ultima 6 Project is released.

Milestone 5 has the overworld basically complete and a new UI system, so should be worth checking out.  Read the article here for the full details, brand new screens and links to try it yourself.

Archon's Aletys and Jesse "Zephyr" Strachman have a new progress update on the U6 Project for us, with details of new towns and some great screens:

The Lycaeum Keep, shown in the 1st screenshot below, is the headquarters of the Britannia mages, and the mages congregate there to discuss their most important business. It will in the future include their great library. When you visit the Lycaeum, be sure to also pop over & check out Xiao's workshop with all that interesting looking equipment (see 2nd screenshot below). Xiao is a mage who likes to experiment, but what on earth (or Britannia, in this case) is she doing with all those gears & pulleys? Obviously there's no OSHA in Britannia – looks downright dangerous in there!

Read the article. 

 Team Archon have posted their latest Developer Diary, this time from WyrdWeb. Many members of the team are introduced, the latest updates on the progress of Milestone 5 are outlined, and there's 3 new screenshots to whet your appetite. Here's a small taste:

Some things that I've been working on:
* Steadily working on getting quest items into game - if I can find a suitable mesh to work with, I create the textures and inventory GUIs and add in the new templates
* Creating some new textures and GUIs for new items, or create variations of items, with some that add to the in-game interactivity
* New textures for furniture, rugs, buildings (long task, but it's started) and more.
* Just finished first shrubbing pass for Serpent's Hold
* I've already been placing NPCs into the world (and will soon be placing more for the Lycaeum and Serpent's Hold). We have a few surprises to show off some of Frilly Wumpus' new tech. You'll have to visit Jhelom in M5 is all I'll say. 

Head on over and take a look. 

Jesse “Zephyr” Strachman from Archon fills us in on the latest happenings with the U6 Project:

The Ultima 6 Project team has been busy expanding the world of Britannia, and adding new content to the game in preparation for the upcoming Milestone 5 (M5) release. The plans are to have most of the entire overworld more or less complete, with most of it playable and accessible. Another four towns have been added since the Milestone 4 (M4) release, complete with townspeople, for players to explore and interact with. New Magincia, Jhelom, Moonglow, and Skara Brae are now in the game, as is the keep of Nicodemus the Mage. Trinsic is nearly complete, and the Lycaeum is currently in work. In the following paragraphs, you'll find some previews of Moonglow, Nicodemus' really cool keep, and Skara Brae.

Read the full update here. 

Nicodemus from Team Archon has posted his second Developer's Diary over in the forums at their official site. This time he explains how they began work on the city of Jhelom. Here's a small taste:

Now when planning for Jhelom commenced I had to take a few things into consideration.  Jhelom, as I am sure most of you Ultima-lovers know, is a city chock full of people who like to FIGHT.  So I had to think in terms of how people who like to fight “think”…that’s kinda difficult for me because I’m a rather peaceful guy and tend to let words win my battles, but nonetheless, I had some ideas anyhow.  We already have the original game as a base…and WyrdWeb is the Ultima Lore expert on the team and pretty much knows everything (Think: Hermione from Harry Potter, but all grow’d up) so we already have the ideas for the armourer, the Sword and Keg Tavern, the Warrior’s Stead Inn…. so on and so forth.  So Wyrd and I get to talking and Wyrd has this idea to have a List Field in Jhelom.  Remember folks, we plan on adding material to the original game where and when appropriate…so we figure a nice List Field where fighters can train to fight the oncoming “Red Horde” of Gargoyle Baddies is in order.

There's lots more, plus five new screenies to illustrate what they've been doing, so head on over here and check it out. 

Thanks Aletys 

U6 Project developer Nicodemus has begun the first of a series of developer diaries at the official forums. Here's a small taste:

Now I’m sure most of you know that Lazarus and the U6P project work off of the same map…. utilizing the Project Britannia map.  Most cases, we are working off of just an empty landscaped area with only trees, hills, rivers and the like to start off with…in order to fit all of our buildings and whatnot in, typically quite a bit of terraforming is in order.  Some examples of this is if you look closely and compare Project Britannia, or even Lazarus’ version of Paws area you will see in our game the Sea is pushed back a little bit and some hills had to be what I have just taken to calling “Terra-formed”.   I’ve had to use this process quite a bit….Buc’s Den had to be slightly terraformed, the Skara Brae islands actually had to be merged together in one case…Project Britannia’s Skara Brae has 3 islands…I condensed it down to 2 and removed the river that ran through the bigger island…(this made our version more in line with how the original game layout looked.)  Whenever feasible I like to keep with the original game layout as much as possible…this also comes into play with some of the décor which I am sure I will cover with my subsequent Dev Diaries….

There's some new screen shots included as well, so head over here and check it all out. 

The release for Milestone 4 seems like a good time to release our latest feature. Corwin catches up with the U6 Project team to discuss their Dungeon Siege-powered remake of Ultima 6:

RPGWatch: What are the major 'selling' points of the game?

JS: The original Ultima VI (6) had a rich storyline full of lessons about prejudice, and how misunderstandings can often lead to uncontrollable violence. I personally think this is directly relevant to today's world, and probably will remain relevant for the foreseeable future. The game itself is incredibly immersive; even with the small piece that is available today, you can have comprehensive conversations with residents of Britannia, play games with them, solve their problems, and watch them go through their daily lives. I think we have approached the level of complexity and realism in an RPG that hasn't been seen since Ultima VII (7). We have a weather system, a day/night cycle, and even an economy system. We also have a lot of cool dungeons to explore. Essentially, it's a huge world with a lot of great stuff in it.

Read it all here.

 Great news, the official release of Milestone 4 is here. I've been playing a pre-release version and it's definitely worth taking a look. Here's the official notice from the U6 forums.

 

It is with much pleasure that I announce the release of Team Archon's next milestone of the Ultima 6 Project, Milestone 4 for Dungeon Siege 1 (PC and Mac).   Some things to look forward to in this release:

    * New areas to explore ( Buccaneer's Cave, Wrong, Empath Abbey and Minoc )
    * New game intro which draws from the original classic game
    * Enhancements to existing areas
    * New plot details and other subtle refinements
    * Numerous enhancements to the core gameplay such as:

        * A prototype of a customizable journal system so you can take notes on your journey
        * The ";" key now gives you extra information, such as reagent counts, projectile counts, etc.
        * New "Gameplay Settings" from the Options menu
        * Many more tunings and tweaks to the core Project Britannia systems ( for the nitty gritty details, check the change log )

Download the Milestone 4 Release

The 375Mb M4 Release is available for download here at U6P. To download it, right-click this link and save the installer to your hard drive.

If you want to mirror this download, please feel free to do so and post the link in our forums so we can update this news article with your mirror. At the moment, here is/are the only location(s) from which you can download M4:

    * Mirror 1
    * Project Britannia (in Downloads section - must be logged in to download)

This is not a final release of these sections of the game, but we feel that they are reasonably polished enough for public consumption (read: scrutiny). If you find problems with the release, want to give us kudos, or (heaven forbid) want to tell us what you really think, as always you can find us lurking about in our forums. That is, when we're not busily scratching away at building Milestone 5.

As the hard working team over at the U6 Project (for those new to the genre it's a remake of the classic Ultima 6 The False Prophet using the Dungeon Siege engine, similar in scope to Lazarus ) makes final preparations to release their Milestone 4 build, the word has gone forth seeking more volunteer help.

We need people with world-building skills, DS modders who like to work in the Editor, especially those who like to build dungeons and/or towns. 

If you would like to assist with this project, head here, or here. 

Project Director Frilly Wumpus has just announced the release of their eagerly awaited Milestone 3. Here's the main section.

It is with much pleasure that I announce the release of Team Archon's next milestone of the Ultima 6 Project, Milestone 3 for Dungeon Siege 1 (PC and Mac).   Some things to look forward to in this release:

    * New areas to explore ( Spider Cave, Buccaneer's Den, Yew, Paws, and Continental Britannia )
    * Enhancements to existing areas (Swamp Cave, Sewers, Britain, Cove )
    * Gargoyles, both winged and wingless (intro only)
    * Numerous enhancements to the core gameplay such as:

        * Complex branching conversation system
        * Class based equip requirements
        * Party banters
        * Right+click menus on usable items such as door and chests
        * New customizable gameplay settings ( accessed via a menu reached by pressing the ";" key )
        * Enhanced creature spawners
        * Many tunings and tweaks to the core Project Britannia systems ( for the nitty gritty details, check the change log )

You'll find all the details here . Here's the main link to the Download .

Came across this interesting post from Project Lead Frilly Wumpus in response to a question about making the game Turn Based:

 This actually got me thinking.... Baldur's Gate had a neat feature that would allow you to pause the game on different "triggers" such as when a party member is attacked.  I've just added something similar to the latest unstable build of britannia_logic.  I'm calling them combat pauses and eventually they will be exposed via a settings screen, but are currently tweakable in k_inc_pb_config.skrit.  They are disabled by default, but to turn them on, go into the debug console and type:
  x combat_pauses true

What they do is:
- If a party member is attacked or attacks something, the game pauses.  If there is no combat for 40 seconds real-time, it will reset and pause again on the next attack. (This is so the game doesn't pause after every sword swing..though if you want to turn that value down to 1 second for near-turn based, be my guest. )
- If a party member dies, the game pauses
- If a party member crosses over a total health threshold, the game pauses. ie: it's currently set to pause if a character dips below 10% total health...again.. configurable in k_inc_pb_config.skrit.

For more information on this remake of the classic Ultima game using the Dungeon Siege engine (as Lazarus did), head over to their forums . 

 Zephyr has sent us a follow up to the update post we made last week. Here it is for your reading pleasure.

Just a quick update to let everyone know we're still alive. Sorry 
that we have not kept the news up to date. The U6 Project has 
primarily been working on their content, and they are finishing up 
what they're calling M3 Part 1 as we speak. No timeframe has been 
announced, but most of the content is in place and is being tested.

Frilly Wumpus has been busy working with WyrdWeb on revamping the 
Project Britannia conversation system to use what's known as Usecode. 
This is a more complex and extremely flexible way of editing NPC 
conversations. This will allow a whole host of new quest concepts to 
be implemented, plus a bunch of new, fun features.

The U6 Project still looking for people conversant with the Siege 
Editor to help us finish up their content. That is their main 
blocking item. All the technology is in place; they just need people 
to help finish building the world. They also still need portrait 
artists.

Stay tuned! We are very much still alive and kicking.
"

Almost missed this. U6P project director Frilly Wumpus has posted an update which includes information on the eagery awaited M3 (milestone 3 for the uninitiated ). Here's the post:

Here is a quick update on how the project is progressing.

U6P Milestone 3 is in heavy development and will mainly consist of
  - Yew
  - Buc's Den
  - Spider Cave
  - possibly Paws
World building is slow, meticulous work, but pushing forward nicely.

We've also added a few new team members recently:
- Quentico - World Building and QA
- WyrdWeb - Writing and QA
- KooK Dragon - QA

On the low level coding side, not much has been happening in U6P, but there have been quite a few changes to the core Project Britannia systems.  Some highlights include:

  - Many enhancements to the conversation system to support some of the complex conversations in U6P
  - A system we fondly call our "usecode" system which allows us to perform many more complex actions inside conversations, banters, and dynamic right+click menus on items. 
  - A totally revamped banter system to allow us to build complex banters reminiscent of some of the Bioware classics.
  - Many, many tunings and bug fixes.

The latest unstable builds of Project Britannia can always be found in the Project Britannia Wiki and changes can be seen in the Change Log

For more information on the project, visit their site.