Features and Changes to Ultima IX:

• Unused maps will be included into the Worldmap along with changes to the Worldmap
• Reduced linearity of the main quest
• Improved and expanded version of the storyline envisioned by Richard Garriott
• Expanded World including more quests, towns, npcs, and scheduling

Overview

FORGOTTEN WORLD is a project for Ultima IX Ascension, a game created by Origin Systems (an Electronics Arts Division) in 1999. Ultima IX Ascension was an outstanding game for its time, featuring a game world in full 3D, and one of the first games ever released with an implemented physics engine.  Even though Ultima IX was a milestone in the history of computer games, it was rather unpopular among fans. Not only that the hardware requirements were too high for the time it was released at (not to mention the bugs in the initial release), some players also found that the story could not compete with the one of previous Ultimas.  Some people do not even call it a real Ultima as many dialogues showed the lack of background knowledge of different new developers that had never worked on an Ultima before.

While some of the critics might be legitimate, it is also a true fact that the finally released game was not the one that was supposed to be released (from the developers' view). Electronic Arts set the Ultima IX Ascension developer team a deadline that prevented the team from fulfilling its original plans.

Some parts of earlier game versions can still be found in the various Ultima IX files. For example, the bitmap files include gumps from older game versions and there are still map files for different locations that were not seen in the released game. Other parts - such as summaries of earlier story drafts or screens from cutscenes that had to been cut due to a story change, can be found on the internet.  Also, the canon of the main plot and origins of the Guardian as presented by Richard Garriott in a post-release interview provide a clear indication of the true story partially implemented in Ultima IX.

Our intention is to use this knowledge (about "old stuff" in the game) and to improve Ultima IX Ascension to make it a "better" Ultima or a "real" one as some would say.  Of course it is a long way to go until we have gathered enough information to do that and we cannot promise anything concerning what is possible at the moment.  But we have a dream that we keep working for!

In short, this is Forgotten World, the one true Ultima IX mod.

Details

First of all, the following is our overarching vision for improving Ultima IX using the released engine with possible upgrades to components of the engine mainly to reduce graphical issues and crashes.

The main goal of Forgotten World is to improve the execution of the game's plot and expand the dialog, plot, background, and quest structure of Ultima IX to provide players with a better narrative of the Ultima IX storyline as envisioned by Richard Garriott.  In addition, the dialogue will be greatly improved and expanded to take into account previous Ultimas including U8.

The game world and quest progression will also see improvement.  First, the linearity of the game will be cut back allowing the player the ability to visit more towns and accomplish more quests earlier in the game.  The size of the surface world will also be expanded by at least 4 times the size of the original Ultima IX surface map to allow for increased exploration and greater distances between towns.  This increased play area will allow for additional caverns, creature camps, mini-dungeons, and structures.  In addition, new quests and NPCs as well larger towns will be added.  In addition, attempts will be made toward incorporating a scheduling system to add more life to the world of Britannia.

Finally, the overall gameplay experience will be improved.  These improvements will include an improved economy system, more balanced loot and gold gathering, a town economic system where you can trade goods with different npcs, a complete system of specific enemy weaknesses, tougher combat, traps, and possibly improved spells from damage to function.

It must be noted that the above is what is an ideal goal, but not everything can be improved upon either due to issues of time, inadequacies of the engine or the inability to alter certain aspects of the game.  Even still, many of these things can be affected in some way without a lot of additional tool work.

What are the details for the creation process?

The creation of FORGOTTEN WORLD is based on a self-developed world editor (developed by Hawkwind, with the support of all the other team members) along with various other tools that have been or will be developed.  The editor will be the primary tool for Forgotten World (when its completed) and will allow full 3D worldbuilding for terrain, all available objects, and incorporation of various new elements including models, NPCs, and art created for Ultima IX.