Ultima VI: The False Prophet - Exult Mod Nearing Release

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Written by ValH on February 11th, 2023

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Those of you who enjoy a good Richard Garriott production might be aware of the existence of Exult, an enthusiast project that ports the seventh entry in the Ultima series into a new engine that allows us to play it on a modern system without any hassle.

And while a project like this is commendable purely for its existence, its focus on a single entry in the venerable RPG series might feel somewhat limiting. Which brings us to another enthusiast project that's currently working on remaking Ultima VI: The False Prophet in the Exult engine.

In fact, that project, according to a recent blog post, is all but finished, with its developers now setting their sights on the second Ultima game. We also get an extended gameplay video there:

And here are some extra details:

The end is near! I've been working on this project off an on for longer than I'd like to admit but finally it's pretty much ready to get out the door. Over the past few years I've worked from home so when things have been slow I've been able to do a lot of work on it. It will never be "truly complete" but at least getting it out there in workable form there is always room to pick it back up and make changes here and there. Pretty much everything is done. All npcs have new portraits that I did by hand after writing a java program to help convert the original U6 portraits to an SI style format. Most npc conversations are in a uniform format that I have made to resemble SI style conversations, albeit a few npcs I have missed. The plot works, the game can be played through to the end and I have wrapped up a few sidequests. There will probably be updates to it eventually as I had other plans for sidequests but as is the game works. So with that said, we are shooting for an end of February beta release!

Obviously some things will need polishing, but I'm ready to reveal a new project we've been working on - Ultima II for Exult! It had been retconned in U6 to take place on Sosaria, so we have been coming up with something to fit within the lore and it should be pretty awesome. Knowing what I know now, and all the tricks I've learned along the way, and an (almost) minor in game design.. shouldn't take me this long! In fact, I already have the bare bones of the map ready (at least one of the maps that is!). But more on that later...

I have uploaded the beginning of a playthrough of the Ultima 6 mod on my youtube channel to hype up the release and to provide a walkthrough of sorts. I will also do a video on the sidequests and other secrets out there (The ones I can remember!). Once the mod is released, I am going to probably either release videos of the progress on the Ultima 2 mod, or possibly stream it live as I am working on it since people like that kind of thing!

You can view the first video here on my youtube channel:

https://youtu.be/rX3p-C8BsYc

Until next time!

- AOG

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