Ultima IX: Redemption

Ultima IX: Redemption (U9R) is an attempt to create a replacement for Ultima IX, which many saw as a disappointing climax to the Ultima series. U9R features a completely new story, set after the events of Ultima VII. The storyline, written by Direhaggis and in part by the project leader Corv, spans both U9R and its future sequel, Ultima X: The New King.

The game uses the Morrowind engine, but except for the engine itself and some models, the content has been custom made for the game.

Status
In April 2013, the use of OpenMW and the party system were eliminated from the game. The party had been rudimentary and problematic anyway, and this decision helped the progress move forward. Since the companions no longer travel with the Avatar, they instead play a much bigger role in the plot and the interactions with them when in their presence will be improved as well. This means that parts of the plot have to be rewritten. Companions will react to quest progress and offer new or different dialogue and new quests as the game progresses, thus replacing the banter in the party with this more plot-heavy role.

Citing technical issues conflated with team instability, in October 2013 the Redemption team declared the project in its current form to be on indefinite hiatus.

Development
Although plans for Ultima IX: Redemption have existed since 1999, there have technically been two vastly different attempts to produce the game.

The first project originally started shortly after the release of Ultima IX 1999/2000. The game was to use the Dungeon Siege engine. Its goals were to create multiple endings, the ability to travel to worlds the Avatar had encountered previously, and more. Plans to use the Dungeon Siege engine were scrapped early on in mid 2002. The first U9R team finalized pre-production and agreed to use the forthcoming Morrowind engine. The finalized plot of the first project was never released but still exists in the Titans of Ether archives (see below).

The development by the first U9R team, never officially named, was generally slow. Management problems, tepid team recruitment, conspicuously frequent "hard-drive failures," and low retention were consistent problems. The master file was also prone to inexplicable errors in-game.

In late 2003, the team leader, Avatus, suddenly disappeared. He had wiped the FTP server with no explanation, erasing nearly all of the work produced. Chlorthos Dragon, a co-writer of the main quest and musician, took control of the group along with another team member. The team did not recover from Avatus' departure, however, and production came to be at a standstill.

In late August 2004, Chlorthos was contacted by Corv, the team leader producing Ultima X: The New King. Corv struck a deal where the old Redemption team would be incorporated into the Ultima X: The New King team, forming the "Titans of Ether" (ToE). The new team agreed to make U9R first, followed by The New King as a sequel. The vast majority of the old Redemption team either left or simply disappeared, with the exceptions of Chlorthos and a relatively new writer, Direhaggis.

The old data, master file, and almost all of the concepts from the first Redemption team were deemed to be unusable. The only exception were NPC dialogues written by Direhaggis and some portions of the U9R premise. The Titans of Ether thus started with a completely new foundation, introducing more streamlined concepts and expanding the gameplay options available in U9R (e.g. mini-games reminiscent of the Final Fantasy series, intra-party conversations, multiple methods of solving quests, ambiguous moral decisions, etc.).

While the team size and composition varied between 2003 to 2006, the size of the team has stabilized in the last few years. Production has moved briskly ever since then.

As of July 2010, the game was progressing rapidly. Exterior worldbuilding had been finished, and the main narrative was nearly complete. Areas of production included interior world building, side quests, and generating non-critical NPCs for remaining areas.

Beginning in 2012, the team encountered technical issues with the Morrowind engine, which they hoped to avoid by switching to development under OpenMW, an open source reimplementation of Morrowind. Progress on the game was delayed until this new engine was deemed to be usable. In April 2013, the Redemption team instead purported to circumvent this by removing the party system altogether, thus restarting development without the need for OpenMW.

Currently (2015) the team is working on polishing the world and implementing quests while they are waiting for OpenMW to be finished to be able to add features which could not be done with the Morrowind construction set.

Setting
Compared to what Ascension did to the world of Britannia, the Britannia of the Redemption project will be a far more conservative approach, ensuring that long-time fans of the series will feel at home in this Britannia.

While the war had changed some of the settlements, the land itself will be modeled mainly after Ultima VII and Ultima VI, so that its shape will be familiar to long-time players and fans alike. For example, places like the Isle of Fire, the western of the Valorian Isles or Ambrosia will reappear, since they existed in Ultima VII. Additionally, lost places like Bordermarch and Windemere reappear after having vanished for some time. The shape of the islands is that of Ultima VII.

New areas will also be presented, both below and above ground to utilize more of Britannia. Certain deformations of the main continent that happened in Ultima VII are all corrected. The only two points of confusion are, that Spiritwood seems to have wandered further north, while Yew and Empath Abbey have switched places on the map. No explanation exists for these changes.

Plot
Seventeen years after the Avatar had left for the Serpent Isle, and five years after the Artakans, the army of the Guardian, had invaded Britannia. The war had been bloody and had brought much suffering over Britannia, but the Guardian's troops seemed to have been unstoppable, conquering the lands. Lord British is now a prisoner, the ways of Virtue forbidden territory while the invaders plan to force their own "virtues" onto the land. The land is now conquered and declared a colony that from now on has to follow the word of their new master: the Guardian.

But as much as the invaders want to appear unbeatable and unstoppable, holding the land in a stranglehold of rules, laws, and inquisition to maximize their control, unrest is brewing. Conquering the land was easy, but to actually get permanent control over it proves far more difficult than first thought, with many not accepting the invaders as their new rulers. Then strange comets appear at the sky, heralds of big changes to come, disturbing the mages of the occupation force.

It is the Britannian year 380, and the Avatar finally returns after breaking free of the prison of Pagan. But this is not the land the hero remembers; right from the beginning being confronted with a massive monument of the Guardian. Now the Avatar is faced with his last and biggest challenge: to give Britannia its freedom back, cleanse the land of the invaders and once and for all deal with the Guardian.

Details
Sub-pages for more details:


 * How stats, skills and classes work in Redemption: Classes in Redemption


 * A timeline leading up to the events of Redemption: Timeline of Redemption

Links

 * Ultima IX: Redemption main page


 * Ultima IX: Redemption discussion board


 * OpenMW - the engine used for the future release