Information AboutUltima Ix |
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''Ultima IX: Ascension'' ( 1999 ) is the ninth and final part of the Computer Role-playing Game series '' Ultima ''. Following the Avatar 's escape from Pagan, he is transported back to Britannia for one final battle with the Guardian , who is increasingly ruining the physical and moral fabric of that land. He must restore the Runes of Virtue, cleanse the shrines of the Guardian's taint and restore the people to the way of the Virtues — knowing that he will now never again be able to return to Earth. ''Ultima IX'' was controversial in that it deviated from most of the previous Ultimas' isometric view and party based gameplay. It was ill received by many fans and did poorly in sales, creating sufficient outcry that Origin shut down an official online help page due to so many negative posts. Ultimately, Richard Garriott left Electronic Arts over creative differences, thus effectively ending the series. EA retains the rights to the "Ultima" brand. A '', began development at EA — but was cancelled in 2004 , before completion. It was to be set in a world named Alucinor, created by the Avatar following the events of ''Ultima IX''. DRAGON EDITION At the time of initial release, EA also produced a "Dragon Edition" of the game, named for the Ultima Dragons fan club. It included an extra-large box, prints of in-game artwork, tarot cards, an Ankh pendant, and special versions of the game books. Many of these extras recall the tradition of previous Ultima's including a trinket. Though the edition was intended as a collector's item, it reportedly proved difficult for some retailers to sell. CONTROVERSY ]] There was a gap of five years between '' Ultima VIII '' and ''IX''. The game caused a lot of debate among the fans of the series quite a long time before the game was even released. News of ''Ultima IX'''s development trickled from the developers as the development progressed. In the "fans.txt" file included with last patch of ''Ultima VIII'', Richard Garriott said that ''Ultima IX'' would be based heavily on the feedback they had received from customers, and it would be a "classic Britannian Ultima". Frustration among some fans grew as more and more of the "classic" features were dropped over time. Reportedly, the original plan for ''Ultima IX'' was to create a game with Isometric graphics, similar to ''Ultima VIII'' but technologically more advanced. This version was approximately three quarters finished around the time the entire development team went to focus on '' Ultima Online ''. When the team got back to ''Ultima IX'', they threw away the entire isometric version and started over. It was decided to aim for a true 3D game. The release was further delayed because the targeted Voodoo 3D Graphics Card s fell out of public favor and thus the Glide API -based code had to be readjusted another time for Direct3D . The game's release was initially complicated by a rather Buggy first release, with very advanced hardware requirements for the time; the design team had objected strongly to the timing of release, but the Electronic Arts management enforced it. A few months later, a fixed version was released; a further unofficial fix was leaked on the Internet a bit later by an anonymous member of the team. As it stands now, the game is not completely bug-free and still has Memory Leak s, but is generally quite playable on modern hardware. The game world was rendered in a detailed and seamless manner. Yet, with the technological constraints, Britannia was smaller in overall area than previous games. One of the chief criticisms of ''Ultima IX'' was that the story did not do justice to the continuity of earlier parts of the series. Many fans feel it is unfinished and not as polished as the earlier Ultimas were. It is notable that the plot was changed during the development. A summary of the original plot (often called "Bob White plot", after the lead designer at the time) was later released on the Internet. One prime difference from previous ''Ultima''s is that in ''Ultima IX'' you have less control of what path to take in the game. In fact, many areas of Britannia are blocked off until quests are completed, reducing the amount of initial exploring available in the world. Combat and strategy were vastly different from previous Ultimas, save perhaps ''Ultima VIII''. Combat in ''Ultima IX'' was reduced to clicking the mouse buttons as fast as you could in order to defeat your enemies. As previously discussed, the game also does not link to earlier ''Ultima''s as well as some fans hoped. Some facts and events from earlier games are disregarded, while others are altered to suit the plot of ''Ultima IX''. Some fans have found a considerable number of "errors" in the game. Because of this, many Ultima fans consider the game Non-canonical , going so far as to completely ignore that the game ever happened and look to fan made replacements. (See external links for a list of nitpicks.) FAN-MADE PATCHES Some of the most popular fan-made Patches are;
Any combination of these patches can be used if desired, though the Dialogue, Economy and Monster patches are distributed as a single package. Halfway through 1999, Origin sent to everyone that had registered the game a CD that contained the fix for almost all of the bugs found to that date. However, there remained some bugs which caused game crashes for some people. Electronic Arts publicly stated that this was the last official patch to be made public. Threats of a class-action lawsuit were passed around the online community but none of the threats ever materialized. FAN REMAKES There have been several community-based projects aimed at reproducing and/or replacing the original ''Ultima IX'' for the ''Ultima'' fans dissatisfied with the original game. One of the longest-running of these was Moa Dragon's one-person effort ''Eriadain''. Based on the Bob White plot (originally called ''Alter U9'', it was built on on RPG Maker 1995, and later became a '' Neverwinter Nights '' project). (Though this never came to fruition.) The most active project as of ''. The development of ''Redemption'' is managed by Titans of Ether team. The team also has developers from another fan project called ''The New King'', a new Ultima game set chronologically after Ultima IX. The developers of ''The New King'' came to help the project when the former ''Redemption'' manager left the team and the project was in danger of being cancelled. EXTERNAL LINKS
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