Ultima never dies

First, thanks are necessary for this wonderful game. From a long-time fan who was playing Quest of the Avatar before I could even read all of the words; my appreciation goes out to everyone who put thier effort and earnings into this.
Ironically the first day of login for this test round was Apr. 24th, my birthday. Me and the first Ultima game are only a couple of months apart, so maybe that makes everything extra shiney and awesome for me.. Hehe. Thanks for the unintended birthday present, SoA.

It almost brought a tear to my eye the first time I jogged through town and saw the sights.
I walked into the forest scene and had to stop to catch my breath. Such beautiful graphics!
The music really sets the atmosphere, too. I hope there will be more songs to cycle through later on.
Combat (what worked) was enjoyable and I think the system is good so far. Crafting went much the same way, with some hang-ups on recepies (alt-tabbing to look up wiki pages and figure out what you're doing crashes the game) as well as disappearing items. (furnishings in house vanished after I left, components in crafting table vanished on a game crash)

Overall, I'm hooked. Without even touching the surface of quests and exploration, I've got a great feeling about this game and I can't wait to see more.
I'm sure this will be one for the ages, so keep up the good work!