Ultima IV Reborn
Produced by: Devi, Glanestel Dragon, DanCar, and Xenovant
Website: Ultima IV Reborn @ Neverwinter Vault
A remake of Ultima 4 for Neverwinter Nights.
An Ultima-themed GUI and launcher for Neverwinter Nights. See here for more information.
Ultima-themed music for the Neverwinter Nights main menu. See here for more information.
Ultima-themed (and other) character portraits for Neverwinter Nights. See here for more information.
This remake of Ultima 4 appeared on the Neverwinter Vault back in July 2003, although it only came to the Codex’s attention some years later.
Years later — in 2010, to be more precise — Ultima IV Reborn saw a number of bug fixes and updates made to it courtesy of Glanestel Dragon, mostly based on feedback from people who’ve played the mod. An Italian translation of the mod — which translated most of the text in the mod, and also included alternate portraits and a different version of Stones — was released soon thereafter, and for a while was the most up-to-date version of the mod.
As of 2017, however, the Italian translation has been converted to a dual-language (English and Italian) version, keeping all of the updates and enhancements of the Italian version, but adding in faux Middle English text and dialogue again. The appearance of many of the monsters has also been adjusted to bring them more in line with Ultima lore, and custom portraits (including many that have been brought over from Ultima V: Lazarus), custom item icons, and Ultima-themed loading screens have also been included.
Optionally, an Ultima-themed GUI, an Ultima music pack, and still yet more Ultima-inspired character portraits are also available.
While not completely faithful to the original, this remake does do a good job of re-telling the story of Ultima 4, and what few omissions/changes are present are a result of the choice of engine. For example, the moongates do not appear/disappear according to the moon phases of Britannia. And while this can be implemented in Neverwinter Nights, it does require a good deal of tedious and time-consuming event-scripting.
I downloaded the last version and could never get it to work, it seems like it required some sort of NWN expansions. I just have the plain vanilla NWN – do I need some other product to run this?
If you check the two website links, the compatibility requirements listed are NWN-1.30 for the vanilla module, and HOTU-1.69 for the update.
Which I guess means you need to look at getting the expansion packs, sorry t’say. But these days, they should be available for relatively cheap.
Glanestel Dragon has released Ultima Reborn 1.2.0. This update seem aimed more improving the general design of the module as he has renamed and changed some of the mosters to better fit Ultima universe and revised some of the town and wilderness areas. Here’s the link:
http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=modules.detail&id=6102
I’ll have to grab it. I love seeing this module undergo more development.
I’ve relased a small update on 1.2.0, 1.2.1, which tries to improve some balance stuff, such as more gold and less annoying respawn monsters. It hasn’t been thoroughly tested, so it may need a little more tweaking.
BTW, these updates ARE a standalone module. They do not require the original 1.0.0 module. These updates include and improve the original module. I’m not sure why that notice was included.
Good to know! I’ll make the update and note the correction.
I started out in Ultima 4 Reborn as the Paladin and I’m struggling to figure out how to “get anywhere”. There’s no compass that I can see (unless I just don’t know how to turn it on), and when I leave Trinsic to go explore, I get to a place where the grass changes color, there’s one of those door icons along the border, but it won’t let me progress any further.
Suggestions? Thanks!
DalTXColtsFan Dragon
DalTXColtsFan Dragon, what version are you playing? I might be able to help you out.
1.2.1. By the way I do see the compass now – I probably just didn’t notice it before – oops. Can it even BE turned on and off?
I got killed trying to walk north from Trinsic and ended up (surprise, surprise) in Lord British’s castle. From there I was able to walk around, but not very far – kept getting killed.
Any specific thoughts on the problem walking north from Trinsic will be appreciated, though they’re not such a big deal if I can just take the moongate to get elsewhere.
It’s not like I paid for the game :).
DTXCF Dragon 🙂
Btw, there should be a compass in the lower right part of the screen, and AFAIK, it is not possible to make it disappear.
If you go north after leaving Trinsic, and get to the border of the area where a road leads out, there should be a “blue” hotspot where the icon turns into a door icon. If you are nearby and left click there, you will be moved to the next area.
I’ve just tested this with NWN Diamond (both expansions), v 1.69, and version 1.2.1 od Ultima 4 Reborn. Maybe you don’t have some of these correct versions and that is the problem?
I replied before I read your own reply. I haven’t been able to repeat your problem with walking north of Trinsic. As I mentioned, I just tested it and it works. The only thing I can think of right now is that somehow you have an older version of NWN which is somehow messing the “door” between zones, but that’s just a wild guess. Other, simpler ideas: are you right or left clicking over the transition zone? Are you close by or over the transition zone when clicking? Maybe you’re being stopped by an obstacle, or as you are already walking over the transition zone, it doesn’t work; try standing back a little, and then trying the door icon.
It is easy to die at the beginning of this mod; you’ll get stronger quick enough. Try to gain experience by solving quests first before journing to dungeons or wilder zones.
I see that Glanestel released a 1.2.2 version of this.
Yeah, I know. Had some issues downloading it last night; will try again this evening.
Just completed the game!
Very well done on the remake and congratulations! I had a lot of fun even though I wasn’t the biggest fan of the NWN engine. I could never get into the old tile versions of any of the ultima games since I grew up playing more modern games, so the time and effort spent is much appreciated.
And Glanestel Dragon I think the game plays pretty well. I never really got stuck on what to do with the help of the journal even though it wasn’t overly descriptive.
A few minor issues
I could never find any info on the yellow stone, not sure why.
I really hate Nixie’s and I hate that there’s no gremlins in the game I love those little annoying guys.
I also thought Dungeon Destard was just as tough as the Abyss. Obviously someone had fun with that massive room full of dragons (and daemons in Hythloth)
Apart from that I don’t have much to complain about and I think it could be just left the way it is unless you want to put in a few side quests or something. But well done 🙂
Hey Spider Bait, I’m happy to hear that you liked the mod. The thanks should go to Devi, but I’m happy to have contributed refining the mode a little bit. I started playing this mode because of a similar reason: I wanted to replay Ultima IV, but in a more modern engine. And when I found this nice mod which had several bugs, I just went in and tried to fix them. Good to know people enjoy it!
I see the latest version (1.2.2) has still not been uploaded here, though the changes from the previous one are very very minor.
I still need to get around to that, yeah. Thanks for remind!
It’s been awhile since I’ve visited this page so I just want to confirm – if I have Neverwinter Nights Gold, the Hordes of the Underdark expansion and all patches to both I can play this game without having to buy the Diamond edition right?
Thanks in advance.
Never mind I have it up and running and am actively playing it!
Thanks so much for the time and effort that went into putting this all together!