It is with much pleasure that I announce the release of Team Archon’s next milestone of the Ultima 6 Project, Milestone 3 for Dungeon Siege 1 (PC and Mac).   Some things to look forward to in this release:

• New areas to explore ( Spider Cave, Buccaneer’s Den, Yew, Paws, and Continental Britannia )
• Enhancements to existing areas (Swamp Cave, Sewers, Britain, Cove )
• Gargoyles, both winged and wingless (intro only)
• Numerous enhancements to the core gameplay such as:

• Complex branching conversation system
• Class based equip requirements
• Party banters
• Right+click menus on usable items such as door and chests
• New customizable gameplay settings ( accessed via a menu reached by pressing the “;” key )
• Enhanced creature spawners
• Many tunings and tweaks to the core Project Britannia systems ( for the nitty gritty details, check the change log

Download the Milestone 3 Release

The 280Mb M3 Release is available for download here at U6P. To download it, right-click this link and save the installer to your hard drive.

If you want to mirror this download, please feel free to do so and post the link in our forums so we can update this news article with your mirror. At the moment, here is/are the only location(s) from which you can download M3:

• The U6 Project website (offline)
• Mirror 1
• Ultima 6 Project Area on Ultima Aiera ( Thanks WtF!)
• Strategy Informer

This is not a final release of these sections of the game, but we feel that they are reasonably polished enough for public consumption (read: scrutiny). If you find problems with the release, want to give us kudos, or (heaven forbid) want to tell us what you really think, as always you can find us lurking about in our forums. That is, when we’re not busily scratching away at building Milestone 4.

Finally! It’s here! The U6 Project is officially releasing Milestone 2, a.k.a. M2, also affectionately known as “the most recent labour of love.” Yes, you too can download this 230MB (approximately) mod and explore the towns of Cove and Britain, roam the new dungeon (if you can find it), talk to the denizens, die a few times, cast a few spells, etc. etc. etc….

This is not a final release of these sections of the game, but we feel that they are reasonably polished enough for public consumption (read: scrutiny). If you find problems with the release, want to give us kudos, or (heaven forbid) want to tell us what you really think, as always you can find us lurking about in our forums. That is, when we’re not busily scratching away at building M3, which hopefully will be finished some time this century.

If you want to mirror this download, please feel free to do so and post the link in our forums so we can update this news article with your mirror. At the moment, here is/are the only location(s) from which you can download M2:

• The U6 Project website (offline)
• Mirror 1

Just wanted to share this little tidbit. Yes, there will be gargoyles in M2. Special thanks to Niko for all the work he put in to making these little critters work.

Hi folks. Zephyr here to give you an update. The U6 Project team is still hard at work on Milestone 2 (M2), but we will not be able to make our anticipated July deadline. Since the deadline has already slipped once before, I hesitate to give a new deadline at this point. For the moment, it will be “done when it’s done.”

Here is a quick rundown of what has been done and what is left to do:

• The town of Cove is fully populated, and is somewhat expanded over the original U6.
• Britain is nearly fully populated. Most of the houses are furnished. We still need to finish the museum, the town hall, the mint, and the conservatory.
• NPC shopkeepers need to have shop inventories populated.
• NPC houses need to be stocked with items that are interesting (such as things you might be able to steal, etc.).
• A few of the NPCs that live in and around Britain are not going to make it in to M2.
• The drawbridge for the castle works. Niko recently completed the last piece of it, which I still have to get in-game.
• The “getting out of the castle” quest is not yet implemented.
• Some additional plot points need to be revised.
• A brand-new encounter will take place in Cove. No work has been done with this.
• Lots of in-game unit testing will need to happen before we can play-test.
• One of the dungeons needs to be fully stocked. This dungeon is roughly 2/3 stocked at this time.
• Guards need to be added to all three of the major locations: Castle Britannia, Britain and Cove.
• About 2/3 of the NPC portraits for Britain need to be completed.

So, I’m sure you can see why I’m reluctant to give a new date just yet. I’d like to reiterate how much help we’re going to need to get this done. If you’re good with the Siege Editor, or you can do fairly realistic portrait art, we need your help NOW. Please post in the forums if you can help us.

Jesse Strachman (a.k.a. “Zephyr,” a.k.a. me) has been interviewed by Tim West of the (now defunct as of 2013) website “I Kick Puppies” (http://www.ikickpuppies.com), which is a gaming review website. Download the interview here.