Redemption Interview
Parcival, 2003-10-07

Ultima IX Redemption is an alternate last instalment to the Ultima series. It will be a classic end to the trilogy of trilogies that long term fans never saw in Ultima Ascension. We had a chance to interview the initiator and project leader Scot Nicholas on his ambitious project.

UltimaDot: Could you please tell us something about yourself? Who is Scott Nicholas alias Avatus Kingsman?

Avatus: A 32 year old Australian living in California right now, but a bloke who first played Ultima IV back in 1986. The impact the game had on me changed the way I looked at "intelligent gaming" forever more. So since that year, I've been Ultima obsessed.

UltimaDot: For how long have you been working on a project to create an alternate (worthy) ending to the Ultima Series? Could you tell us something about the projects history?

Avatus: I suppose you could say I have had 'U9 story ideas' floating around in my head ever since reading Richard Garriott's letter to the fans in the Ultima 8 patch. We originally wanted to use Dungeon Siege, but Morrowind felt so much more right and had a lot more "out of the box" scripting features already in place.   After the flames and smoke had cleared from all the UA bashing, Chlorthos and myself got together and decided to make our own U9 project. At this time I had already spent two years in Ultima Legacy, [an online server set in the TRUE Britannia between Serpent Isle, but before U9], during my time in Ultima Legacy I was able to develop thousands of stories, characters and plots, both minor and major, many of which were embryo's for U9R's story.  So it was a simple leap for me and Clorth to develop our own U9.

UltimaDot: Who are with you on the team? How many people are working on it?

Avatus: We have Ralph Damiani, who's artistic talent you can see in the custom foliage of the recent U9R screenshots. There's Mayday, who's our lead programmer, Chlorth who does the music, and who is also my partner-in-crime for developing U9R. We have about eight active people on the team, and we REALLY would like more. Hey you, yes you the 3D modeller and experience Morrowind worldbuilder reading this. JOIN US! *ahem*...next question?

UltimaDot: Do you have any contact with other teams working on an Ultima project?

Avatus: Indeed. Tiberius Moongazer of the Lazarus [U5 remake] project and I often yak about Ultima stuff and our projects. Lazarus is my favourite other Ultima remake as I know most of the lead guys on it and they share my unadulterated vision of how Ultima should be.

UltimaDot: How far in the development are you?

Avatus: My -favourite- type of question.  We are as far as we should be at this time :)

UltimaDot: Do you have any idea how long it will take to finish the project?

Avatus: Hrm, probably a year or two? A year if we double our team, two if the team size stays as is. This game is big. It's HUGE. It'll be epic beyond epic and I guarantee you whatever wait it takes will be worth it.

UltimaDot: Any words on the demo?

Avatus: Wish it was done by now. We could release what we have and it'd be playable, you'd have quests and dialogues and all that rich Ultima goodness you'd find from say, Ultima 7, but it'd bother me that it wasn't polished and customised. We're doing Ultima, not just a generic Morrowind add-on, which is why it's taking as long as it is.

UltimaDot: Even the people who really liked Ascension will recognise that it does not tie up all loose ends, that the story is inconsistent with the rest of the series and that it definitely is not what the long term fans hoped (and thought) it would be.
What is you judgement on Ascension? Do you think they did anything right?

Avatus: Well, Ascension didn't tie up ANY loose-ends, in my mind anyway. 0 count for UA tying up loose ends. In fact it created about 200 more contradictions.  Did they do anything right? Despite the butchered and contradictory Britannia layout, the scenery and worldbuilding was quite immersive. I loved sunset and sunrise whilst standing on a beach, and despite it's age, I think it's ocean is better than Morrowind's

UltimaDot: Could you tell us something more about the Redemption storyline? How and where will the Avatar get back to brittania?

Avatus: The opening cutscene/story will be the U8 ending entwined together, so it picks up right where U8 ends.  The U8 ending explains how the Avatar gets back, though the U9R intro will add a lot more depth in how, specifically, the Avatar found his/her way through the endless void to find Britannia.

The Avatar will find himself/herself in a world conquered by the Guardian, wanted by the bad guys, on the run, Lord British imprisoned, kind of like U5's setting, but a lot less good guys than bad. It's a lot deeper than that of course, as it will involve building up your Titan of Ether powers and a hundred other major plot reasons.

UltimaDot: Could you give some examples of the side-quests you are planning?

Avatus: Sidequests? The museum was sacked during the war/riots in Britain, many of the objects gone. Lots of fun sidequests to bring them back to the museum for rewards. Kind of like how your items were scattered at the start of Serpent Isle by the imbalance storms and the fun things you had to do to get them back. Though that was plot-critical, the museum quests will be optional. But what Ultima fanatic wouldn't consider clawing and digging through every square inch of Britannia as "optional"? :)
Each of the companions will have major sidequests as well. Poor old Gorn, will he ever see Balema again?

UltimaDot: What´s you top-3 list of loose ends you want to tie up?

Avatus: Top three loose-ends that U9R will tie up?

1. -Why- is the Guardian so obsessed with the Avatar and Britannia.
2. Why did he put him through Pagan instead of crushing him in his hand, as well as all those other times he could have killed the Avatar but didn't. 
3. How the Guardian started.

UltimaDot: Sorry, just have to ask this: Will Sherry the mouse be in the game? And smith the horse? An avatar imposer side plot?

Avatus: Sherry? She'll be there if you are diligent enough to find her, same deal for Smith.  No Avatar imposer, but, a certain old Avatar-imposer from past Ultima might be able to help the Avatar out by imposing a bad guy...

UltimaDot: I am very confident U9R will have a strong and consistent plot. Do you equally devoted to world-consistency? When there is wine, will there be vineyards? (and more of the great nitpicks from Hacki´s Ultima Page). I myself played through U9A as a Shepard once, never to meet a sheep.

Avatus: Bloody oath there will be! If somebody's a miller, there better be a mill churning out the back.  If the Abbey makes wine, there better be vats and vineyards nearby. If there are guys who work for the Britannian Taxation department, there better be a physical tax office in the government district of Britain. And if a master poisoner has a little hut where he says he sells vials of poison he extracts from animals, he better have a caged yard out the back with poison animals you can shoot your crossbow at. You get the point...

UltimaDot: Have you considered appearing in the game yourself?

Avatus: Well, my net handle 'Avatus', came from a character I created back in 1996 called "Avatus Kingsman", who had his own Ultima adventures in the period following U6, so if you read a book about him, it's not me appearing in the game, but it is kind of... clear?

UltimaDot: It will be close to 10 years from the release of pagan when you release Redemption. Although there is a vast ultima community that will take interest you will get a lot of interest from people who have not played many ultima's, or just U9A. Will you provide anything like an intro or source of background info for these players? Do you have to be a Dragon for at least 10 years to fully appreciate Redemption?

Avatus: I'm about to release a grand Ultima timeline on the website that will tie together all the Ultimas and what happened in a very consistent and story-rich way. Just by reading the timeline you'll get a clue as to how intent U9R will be on tieing loose ends together. The timeline starts millions of Sosarian years ago and concludes on the day the Avatar begins the quest in U9R. So yeah.  Also, our goal for the Lycaeum will be 500 books, so if you are into reading inside a game, you could sit in the Lycaeum for hours reading away.

UltimaDot: Can you tell us something about the RPG system? What attributes and skills are you going to use?

Avatus: Well, apart from adjusting weapon stats, armour stats and combat stats to match say, U4 to U6, there isn't much else that can be done to Morrowind's hardcoded combat system.  Though I do personally enjoy the fact we can change the text of skills, say, "Security" to "Traps" so it seems more Ultima, or "Magicka" to "Mana"

UltimaDot: Could you give some examples of the changes you want to make regarding (close) combat?

Avatus: See above :\\\\  However, as far as I see, we can remove the damage bar and replace it with classic Ultima's "Lightly wounded - Heavily Wounded." feedback system.

UltimaDot: Will we find all the different weapons from previous ultima's? And some exiting new ones?

Avatus: You know what, the combat system is in too early of a stage to discuss. We want to get the world setup and built first. But yes, all the classic weapons from past Ultima will be there.  And yes, some new ones, such as an evil sword for a very evil avatar who solves a very evil task...

UltimaDot: To what extent will it be possible to create things yourself. (I expect it will be possible to bake bread : ) ) Can we forge weapons ourselves?

Avatus: Imagine what you could do in U7 interactivity wise. Tenfold that. Baking bread? Try cakes, pies, cookies, rolls.  Yes, forging weapons, but for plot reasons. I think being able to forge weapons to make oodles of cash unbalances the already delicate economy systems in RPG's.

UltimaDot: What about the magic system?

Avatus: Magic system is already underway and working as it did in past Ultima.  You'll need to have a spellbook in your inventory, find a spell scroll, read it to learn the spell, the spells will be in the classic Eight circles and will require the reagents to cast. Drop your spellbook or run out of reagents and no casting for you. Mana plays a role of course.  True Ultima alchemy system as well with the classic eight potions; Yellow for healing, Purple for protection, etc, as well as a slew of new potions.

UltimaDot: Could you reveal something about the two ´secret´ schools of magic?

Avatus: Two secret schools? There's no such thing as the guardian-opposing 'Black Tower' mages or the now Guardian controlled 'Scintillus Academy' mages. It's all lies that they have some custom, and very powerful magic the Avatar could use.

UltimaDot: Will you implement horseback riding? Do you have an update on the question from the faq on your site regarding dragons and other means of flying travel?

Avatus: I did not want horseback riding at first, but after studying the infamous ridable guar mod in the Morrowind community, you can disable 3rd person view and inventory while riding. So there WILL be horseback riding, but only for one-off plot events, there's too many problems it creates if you allow it during the whole game, especially in terms of your party members. Ditto for Magic Carpet, Hot Air Ballon and Dragon-back riding.

UltimaDot: What kind of map will there be in-game? Will you need to find a map within the game to use it?

Avatus: Morrowind map is hardcoded, but the current plan is to make it a little more Ultima style in that you'll need a map of Britannia and a sextant in your inventory to get it to work.

UltimaDot: Do you have any plans for the future? More project like this or a job in the industry?

Avatus: There was SO much content planned for U9R that involved the Avatar travelling to multiple other worlds from past Ultimas, we felt that it was a bit too much to chew for the initial project, so after U9R is released and polished, we're going to work on an expansion pack that will fit seemlessly into the story and allow the off-world travelling.  Each world will be a major sub-plot self contained adventure that ties into U9R's main story. I'm sure UU2 fans will understand.
However, I'll always be working on fan created Ultima content and yes a job in the industry would be nice.  My ultimate goal [fantasy?] is to re-aquire the rights to Origin and Ultima and give rebirth to the company. Though I think that goal remains in the fantasy realm unless I win the lottery.

UltimaDot: Is there anything else you would like to add for our readers?

Avatus: Thanks for all the support and encouraging emails. It's support like this that keeps us going.

UltimaDot: Thank you very much for this interview.