Editing Ultima IX: Ascension (section)

===Development===
There have been at least four distinct versions of ''Ultima IX'' in development, which have differed in both storyline elements and technological implementation.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/1571/the_history_of_computer_.php?page=3 |title=The History of Computer Role-Playing Games Part III: The Platinum and Modern Ages (1994–2004) [Page 3] |last=Barton |first=Matt |date=April 11, 2007 |website=[[Gamasutra]] |publisher=[[Informa]] |access-date=February 16, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120127034134/https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/1571/the_history_of_computer_.php?page=3 |archive-date=January 27, 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

The first version was as it was conceived of by Ultima creator [[Richard Garriott]] during his initial planning for the third Ultima trilogy as Origin began to work on ''[[Ultima VII]].'' The original concept for the third Ultima trilogy appeared to have focused on the [[Avatar (Ultima)|Avatar]]'s conflict with the enigmatic Guardian, each game taking place in a different world: ''Ultima VII'' in Britannia, ''[[Ultima VIII]]'' in the conquered world of Pagan, and ''Ultima IX'' in the Guardian's homeworld itself. Also, ''Ultima IX'' was planned to be built on the isometric ''Ultima VIII'' engine.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://ultimacodex.com/interviews/we-had-a-lot-of-fun-with-the-other-explosives-an-interview-with-jason-ely/ |title="We had a lot of fun with the other explosives…" – An Interview with Jason Ely |date=March 18, 2014 |website=The Ultima Codex |access-date=May 16, 2014 |quote=''JE: Originally Ultima 9 and Crusader were using the same code which was a more refined Ultima 8 engine. [...] At some point they took a very different direction and decided to go with a full 3D game and abandoned the bitmapped version.'' |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140522031243/https://ultimacodex.com/interviews/we-had-a-lot-of-fun-with-the-other-explosives-an-interview-with-jason-ely/ |archive-date=May 22, 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Criticism of ''Ultima VIII'' altered Origin's plans for ''Ultima IX'', which Garriott told ''[[Computer Gaming World]]'' in 1994 would go "back to the [[Virtues of Ultima|virtues]] that made ''Ultima'' as distinctive as it was originally". [[Warren Spector]]—the producer of ''[[Ultima V]]'' and ''[[Ultima VI]]'', whom Garriott put in charge of ''Ultima IX'' development—hoped that it would depict the Avatar on a quest for virtue with a more integrated story than in ''[[Ultima IV]]'', the game many believed was the best of the series.<ref name="cgw199408">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/issues/cgw_121.pdf |title=Back to the Virtues |magazine=[[Computer Gaming World]] |publisher=[[Ziff Davis]] |issue=121 |date=August 1994 |page=16 |access-date=June 10, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210405043422/http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/issues/cgw_121.pdf |archive-date=April 5, 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref> The second version of ''Ultima IX'' was developed between 1995 and 1997. In a text file included with the final [[Patch (software)|patch]] (v2.12) for ''Ultima VIII'', called "fans.txt", it is stated that "The design of Ultima IX (which is still in progress) relies heavily on this feedback and has resulted in a dramatic turnaround back toward classic role-playing. Even better, it has resulted in a classic Britannian Ultima."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://reconstruction.voyd.net/zips/u8patche.zip |title=fans.txt |last=Garriott |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Garriott |work=fans.txt in the 2.12 Ultima VIII Patch |publisher=Origin |quote=The design of Ultima IX (which is still in progress) relies heavily on this feedback and has resulted in a dramatic turnaround back toward classic role playing. Even better, it has resulted in a classic Britannian Ultima.}}</ref> At this point, the gameplay of ''Ultima IX'' would have been re-located to Britannia, and a new storyline would have to be written to incorporate this change. Garriott said that the game would be the final one in the original Ultima universe, concluding both the Guardian trilogy and the Avatar Chronicles. He shared his other plans for the game: "''Ultima VII'' had the most detailed world, so we're going to take that detail level, we're including a huge ethic parable like those of ''Ultima V'' and ''VI'', and it will contain the hard-core role-playing elements of the first three games, with a complete set of skills and attributes. From a technology standpoint, we've tried to add the visual detail levels of ''Ultima VIII'', but we'll drop that control method."<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://archive.org/details/NEXT_Generation_13/page/n105/mode/2up |title=NG Alphas: Origin |magazine=[[Next Generation (magazine)|Next Generation]] |publisher=[[Imagine Media]] |issue=13 |date=January 1996 |pages=105–8 |access-date=June 10, 2021}}</ref>

By early 1996, the first screenshots of ''Ultima IX'' appeared in gaming magazines and Origin started to reveal some information about the plot and gameplay aspects of the game.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://archive.org/details/powerplaymagazine-1996-02/page/n139/mode/2up |title=Interview: Richard Garriott: Lord British |language=de |magazine=[[Power Play (magazine)|Power Play]] |publisher=[[Magna Media]] |issue=2/96 |date=February 1996 |pages=172–8 |access-date=June 10, 2021}}</ref> These previews of the game demonstrated the software-rendered 3D engine that now powered ''Ultima IX''. The camera appeared locked into an overhead view that approximated the isometric point of view of ''Ultima VIII'', but could be rotated about its vertical axis and zoomed in or out. According to Garriott, this camera perspective was chosen because it limited rendering to the strip of the game world that was coming into view, allowing the team to include the sort of detailed objects that were standard for the ''Ultima'' series without making the [[frame rate]] unreasonably low.<ref name=NGen39>{{cite magazine |title=NG Alphas: Ultima IX: Ascension |magazine=[[Next Generation (magazine)|Next Generation]] |issue=39 |publisher=[[Imagine Media]] |date=March 1998|pages=62–69}}</ref> Images of the pre-rendered cinematics also began to appear at this time. Some of these images showed the Avatar in a rocky, barren landscape with a red sky and it was at this time that it was first stated that the Avatar had actually arrived in Britannia at the end of ''Ultima VIII'' and that the Guardian had now conquered the world. 

[[File:Ultima_9_-_original_design_screenshot.png|thumb|200px|right|An early screenshot of ''Ultima IX'' in development]]

{{Quote box
 | quote  = "By the time of ''Ultima VIII'', we really felt we had driven ourselves into this ''Ultima'' niche where we had lots of historical Ultima customers but we weren't getting very many new customers. So what we wanted do wo with ''Ultima VIII'' was focus a lot of attention on the animation and presentation, but the trade-off was that the world detail suffered, and so the game didn't go down quite so well with the old school of Ultima players. ... The real test is going to be ''Ultima IX'', because after ''VIII'' we're not sure if we have the same audience. We've picked up new players, but we may have alienated some of the old."<ref>{{cite magazine | magazine=PC Gamer | title=An Audience with Lord British... | date=October 1996 | volume=3 | issue=10}}</ref>
 | source = —Richard Garriott, October 1996
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With the unexpected success of the beta phase of ''[[Ultima Online]]'' (UO), Origin moved most of the ''Ultima IX'' team to work on that game in late 1996. By the time work resumed on the game in late 1997, corporate interest in ''Ultima IX'' had greatly diminished, many of the original team members had left Origin, and the 3D engine was already becoming out of date.{{Citation needed|date=August 2007}} ''Ultima IX'' had a technically impressive game engine, but it was completely software-rendered and would not be able to compete with newer engines taking advantage of 3D hardware acceleration.{{Citation needed|date=August 2007}} The 3D models were built in [[LightWave 3D]] with 16-bit textures, but when rendered in software the textures had to be reduced to 8-bit.<ref name=NGen39/>

Once ''Ultima IX'' resumed production in late 1997, Origin hired Ed del Castillo, who had produced such hits as ''[[Command & Conquer]]'', as producer of the title.<ref name=NGen39/> The third version of the game was developed between 1997 and 1998. The ''Ultima IX'' team experimented with different camera angles in the now hardware-accelerated 3D engine and decided that a third-person over-the-shoulder perspective, similar to that used in ''[[Tomb Raider]]'', made for the best view of the graphics and could run well even when rendering the full 16-bit textures.<ref name=NGen39/>

Over the next few months, it was revealed that the game would no longer have a party of companions for the Avatar and would once again be a single-character game. The amount of art and voice recording work required meant that there would not be a female Avatar option. The plot had changed as well. Many aspects of the previous plot still seemed to be present, but Britannia appeared to be a world much more firmly under the Guardian's grasp. The player would control the Avatar throughout most of the game, but some parts of the game would put him in control of Lord British, Shamino, or the female pirate Raven.

In early 1998, several designers of the game, including lead designer Bob White, left Origin. By the middle of 1998, del Castillo resigned due to "philosophical differences", Garriott took a more active role in the production of the game, and Seth Mendelsohn joined the team as lead designer. {{Citation needed|date=September 2009}} They re-wrote the entire story for the game, now focusing on the Avatar's final visit to Britannia, and the reaction of the people of Britannia to this news. Some elements of the previous storyline were kept, presumably to make use of the existing (and expensive) pre-rendered cinematics, but most of them were either heavily edited or used in a dramatically different context than originally intended, and sometimes both.