Exult Forum

It's been a long time coming, but The Feudal Lands alpha release is now available!

Full info and download links are available in the site news article:
http://www.thefeudallands.ca/?p=117

Cheers, Wizardry Dragon
Lead Designer, Ultima VII: The Feudal Lands
www.thefeudallands.ca

As an all too predictable "we released something so something had to mess up" kind of hiccup, trying to put the wordpress authentication for the website has resulted in issues since WHM/Cpanel regenerates the vhosts file I have to use to setup the https to serve the /public_html/ properly, so I am currently having a tech look into that. Hopefully that can get resolved.

What this means basically for you guys is if you have a login you won't be able to login, and you'll be unable to comment.

Sorry for any inconvenience, in this case, the control panel software is more hindrance than help

That said, I'm eager to hear what people think of the alpha release. Download links for those too lazy to go to the site:

win32 installer: http://www.thefeudallands.ca/downloads/ ... allTFL.exe
7zip PPMd sfx: http://www.thefeudallands.ca/downloads/alpha01/tfl.exe
WinRAR rar: http://www.thefeudallands.ca/downloads/alpha01/tfl.rar
Tarball: http://lfs.lfhost.com/seventowers/files/tfl.tar.gz

Cheers, Wizardry Dragon
Lead Designer, Ultima VII: The Feudal Lands
www.thefeudallands.ca

Now, does this include the keyring mod, or is it completely separate?

It includes the Keyring mod in its entirety, yes.

That's really cool!

Sooo... ummmm... did that installer actually just overwrite the mod I've been working on for these many months?

Cuz, y'know, if it did....

Can't reproduce it, but something freakin' happened. *poof*

Ah well.

Unless the mod's name is "tfl", no, it wouldn't've.

Cheers, Wizardry Dragon
Lead Designer, Ultima VII: The Feudal Lands
www.thefeudallands.ca

To be more specific, unless the mod was installed under /bg/mods/tfl/ (or you changed the directory to your own mod's directry) the installer would not have touched it.

It's possible the .cfg file got eaten by Exult, though, that's happened to me several times over the span of developing TFL, and can be easily fixed by remaking the file.

You can see the entire installer script in ViewCVS on sourceforge, if you won't take my word for it

http://u7feudallands.cvs.sourceforge.ne ... iew=markup

Cheers, Wizardry Dragon
Lead Designer, Ultima VII: The Feudal Lands
www.thefeudallands.ca

Will give this a shot soon as I have free time, been waiting in anticipation for a very long time!

What version of Exult should I use with this?

Most recent snapshot.

The option "pocketwatch" from the conversation with Shamino doesn't work. The option cant be selected.

To answer some frequently asked questions:

What version of Exult should I run with The Feudal Lands?
You should use the most recent 1.4 snapshot as posted on Exult's downloads page.

Is there a way to skip the introduction?
Until the final release, players will be able to choose their class outright in the gypsy intro. This will probably be removed come the full release but that will not be for some time I imagine

I can't get the forging to work. How do I use the forging items?
If you follow the prompts in the book on forging from Serpent's Hold, you should be able to forge. The forge is rather picky about the position of the blank though, you may have to fiddle with it.

What can I do if party members leave my party?
Presuming that they left your party because of unvirtuous behaviour, they will tolerate your presence once more if your karma in certain virtues rises above a certain threshold again. Specifically as of the Alpha 0.1 release, Jaana will be wont to leave your party if you do a lot of stealing.

How can I use the NPC spellcasting system?
Currently it is only implemented for Jaana, who will have a dialogue option if her spellbook is equipped. It must be _her_ spellbook.

I'll be making a FAQ page shortly accessible through the main TFL page, soon.

@Martin: I will look into the dialogue bug. I went through all the overwritten dialogues before the release and found no issues, but it is possible the changes Marzo made could have affected it (though unlikely). Either way - I'll look into Shamino's conversation

Cheers, Wizardry Dragon
Lead Designer, Ultima VII: The Feudal Lands
www.thefeudallands.ca

PS. If there's a forum mod around, it'd be nice to get the above message formatted (or the HTML tags removed at least.)

but it is possible the changes Marzo made could have affected it (though unlikely).

The unlikely scenario wins: I never touched Shamino's usecode. But a quick glance reveals that the pocketwatch bit of the conversation is missing.

That probably goes as far back as when you refactored the conversation then :- ) I probably missed it in the testing, but it's easy enough to fix.

Also in need of some fixing is Shamino's handling of the karma - it wasn't fixed when the new KarmaManager code was added as the rest of the code was - though Im not sure that would have been noticed anyways since the TFL intro is not yet implemented.

Cheers, Peter M Dodge
Lead Designer, Ultima VII: The Feudal Lands
www.thefeudallands.ca

That probably goes as far back as when you refactored the conversation then :- )

That refactoring was all you :-p (note that there isn't even an usecode file for Shamino in Keyring; all I did was perform the initial commit of the files you had sent to me and add in a newline along the line).

Also in need of some fixing is Shamino's handling of the karma

He has any? I mean, I fixed everything needed for the usecode to compile, so if there is anything Karma-related for Shamino, it is in a file not included anywhere.

Oh, OK, found Shamino's Karma code. Still using props, which is why the compiler didn't warn of anything.

It's directly in his conversation, he reacts to the Avatar's spirituality karma:

if (!UI_get_item_flag(item, 28)) // 28 == is_met)
{
item.say("Your old friend Shamino stands before you and you marvel that he has finally progressed into what some might call 'middle age'.");
}
else if (spirituality < 31)
{
item.say("Shamino looks concerned when you address him.");
say("@" + avatarname + ", thou seems to have lost touch with they self and thy identity as the Avatar. Perhaps thou shouldst meditate at a Shrine.@");
answers = [answers, "meditate", "Shrine"];
}

And actually, IIRC the character conversations were refactored when you were looking at adding the NPC spellcasting. Either way - it will need fixed, regardless of who forgot it

The CVS has the fixes for the karma in Shamino's conversation and will now remove the pocketwatch option when chosen. I will need to lookup how to move items between NPCs to properly fix it though.

Cheers, Wizardry Dragon
Lead Designer, Ultima VII: The Feudal Lands
www.thefeudallands.ca

IIRC the character conversations were refactored when you were looking at adding the NPC spellcasting.

Nope: I only did it for Mariah and Jaana; all others cast exclusively from their items.

The CVS has the fixes for the karma in Shamino's conversation

Iolo and Perth suffer from the same problem as Shamino.

I will need to lookup how to move items between NPCs to properly fix it though.

Or you can simply copy the item in question from Shamino's usual usecode.

... Perth's code got fixed, but I forgot to submit it to CVS.

Oops.

Cheers, Wizardry Dragon
Lead Designer, Ultima VII: The Feudal Lands
www.thefeudallands.ca

I'll have to do a reinstall to check this out (my Exult is rather bloated from object testing, many tiles are messed up, having random crashes from my experimenting!). Congrats, I am glad to see some progress with Exult mods! It truly gives me hope!

Glad to hear the enthusiasm, as you may have gathered, I somewhat succumbed to the "I need to release _something_!" urge and there probably could have been a little cleaner of a release - but it's only intended to be an Alpha and to be honest, I think it's tremenously stable and playable for an Alpha of anything

Though, by all means, if you find other things that are broke,please report them! It's one of the ways the mod is always improving,

By ways of an update:
* The KarmaManager references that hadn't gotten added before are now in the CVS. When I get home from work tomorrow I will update the distribution files.
* The website should now allow you to login/comment. Until the tech fixes the OpenSSL installation, I have reenabled plain HTTP logins.
* The website now includes a FAQ page with questions from here, emails, and so forth, so before posting, please read the FAQ to see if your question isn't covered there first!

Cheers, Wizardry Dragon
Lead Designer, Ultima VII: The Feudal Lands
www.thefeudallands.ca

It's a great job, i feel like playing it for the first time all over again

Of course I'll take your word for it. The lesson to be learned here is, after working a 14-hour shift, to sleep *first* and install later. No idea what I did, but my Mod was gone (it's all backed up, of course) and so were all of the regular out-of-the-box Ultima files.

Haven't had much time to play yet, but what I've seen so far is great. I loved the Gypsy, and I've glanced at the "new lands" (not enough to spoil it, though.) Everything looks smashing!

Gotta say, though, I was hoping to beat you to the punch with adding all the classes. Drat!

Got some time to play today... this is gonna be fun!

Great to see that you are making real progress on your mod.

I'm missing some kind of "vision statement" on the homepage of TFL. There is bucketloads of info there, and there is a "what is included in the alpha", but I can't find a simple "What is U7 The Feudal Lands" link, which is usually the first thing of interesest when visiting the page of any mod. I think that link should be right at the top of the page. Even the FAQ assumes that you already know what TFL is.

For some reason, it's a pretty common neglection though... often when visiting mod pages I find all kinds of infos about news, changes and improvements since last version... and have to dig real deep to find any info on what the mod actually does.

Anyways, I'm eager to check it out.

@Scyth: Inspiring enough to see the SE mods first release, maybe? *hopes*

@Sepia: I have no idea what happened then, unless you installed it over your own mod, but I'm glad to hear you had your backups in order. In the future if you use CVS, it's a pretty handy way to keep backups and revision histories. I'm glad to hear you're enjoying the mod though

@TDI: I have done a few posts like that, they could probably be included on an "about" page, but the site is already quite cluttered as is. I'll look into it though.

The Readme (you know, those things you usually skip over reading in the install) has a laundry list of what's in TFL and what it's about, though.

Cheers, Wizardry Dragon
Lead Designer, Ultima VII: The Feudal Lands
www.thefeudallands.ca

Quote:

@Scyth: Inspiring enough to see the SE mods first release, maybe? *hopes*


Sorry, not yet! I still have to complete the terrain blocks and am still experimenting with how the map is going to be put together, as well as still working on the mountainside textures. Since I took a few months off of the project due to being in a new relationship (and redrawing a bunch of graphics), I'm still in art development phase.

Here is a more minor issue I just noticed: the tfl.cfg sets an incorrect value for required version: it should be 1.4.05cvs as it will not work in earlier snapshots.

What happens when we beat the first quest (TBG)? We get access to Serpent Isle? Or the Feudal Lands? If the answer to these questions it NO, then it's there a way to travel to the FL other than by cheating?

AAARGH. I meant to write "IS there a way", not "IT'S there a way".

For now, just use the map teleport keybinding. In the future it will be possible both though the intro (thats what the cave is for) and when you complete TBG.

Cheers, Wizardry Dragon
Lead Designer, Ultima VII: The Feudal Lands
www.thefeudallands.ca

1.This might be obvious, but what cave are you talking about? The place where you start the game at?
2.So the only main quest there's right now is TBG, right?
3.After completing the three main quests, you will be able to travel through the three lands whenever you want (without cheating)?
4.I take it there aren't plans for a fourth continent (ie: the LOTDU), be it in this project or a future one?

1: In the introduction, the path forks off before the gypsy. It leads to a cave that will have a sequence you can use to skip TBG to go to The Feudal Lands. I actually have the usecode for that now, I am writing it currently. It will be in the 0.2 Alpha Release.

2: That is mostly correct. The main quest story is in some of the NPCs of Virtue's Hold, and alluded at, but you cannot currently make much progress in it.

3: I wouldn't say freely, as extraplanar travel will require some substantial resources, but once the main story arcs are completed I will have it so you can continue to play in a sort of "Daggerfall"-esque "sandbox" more, yes.

4: No, that is beyond the scope of TFL. As is TFL is a _huge_ amount of work -- it's taken several years just to get where we are! I would love to do such a thing, myself, perhaps as some addon to TFL when it is done - but at the moment, it is simply outside of the projects aims and goals.

Cheers, Wizardry Dragon
Lead Designer, Ultima VII: The Feudal Lands
www.thefeudallands.ca

I see. Thanks for the replies. Don't kill me, but I got two more questions (plus two sub-questions):

"I wouldn't say freely, as extraplanar travel will require some substantial resources"
That means that we will not be able to visit past continents, or that it will be possible, but it will be hard?

"but once the main story arcs are completed I will have it so you can continue to play in a sort of "Daggerfall"-esque "sandbox" more, yes."
So that means that there will be a fourth continent of sorts, whose layout (and NPCs?) will be randomly generated? If so, then interesting idea. Will it be bigger than Britannia? And the layout will remain "stable" once generated (ala Daggerfall), or it will change constantly (ala Arena)?

1: That is to say you won't be able to go between the continents "willy-nilly" so to speak -- it will probably require some powerful reagents of some sort or a ritual or something like that. It will, however, be possible.

2: What I mean to say is you'll be able to continue playing the game even after the main plot arc has been completed. You can pick up the side quests you missed, just kick around in dungeons, or take advantage of the random quests system I am working on that will generate random side quests, much as Daggerfall's guilds and temples had (indeed, that's the inspiration for the random quest system)

Cheers, Wizardry Dragon
Lead Designer, Ultima VII: The Feudal Lands
www.thefeudallands.ca

I'm experiencing a dilemma. On the one hand, I'd like to thoroughly check the nuts and bolts of the very incomplete alpha, to give constructive feedback that might assist in its progress. On the other hand, I'm reluctant to do that, because that kind of examination would ruin the rather unique chance for me to experiencing a whole new Ultima once again, once TFL is in a completely playable state. :-/

TDI: Same here. I haven't played U7 in a long time, after getting pretty tired of playing through sections way too many times while debugging Exult.

Now I'm looking forward to trying this, but hope to have it in a mostly playable state.

If it makes you feel better, none of the major TFL plot points will be in until later in development. A lot of the current changes are things Marzo and I have been working on to set the groundwork for TFL to be much more interactive -- the Karma system, a Economy and Trade system, reworking UCC (significantly) to let it do what we want to do, and tying up a lot of ends in Britannia proper.

Cheers, Wizardry Dragon
Lead Designer, Ultima VII: The Feudal Lands
www.thefeudallands.ca

Is that me or the Feuodal Land is empty in lot of place ?

What will be the goal of this mod ?

In the future does it will have a "Dark Unknown" Mod ?

When I go diagonaly, the screen shake awfully. Does it have a method to avoid this little bug ?

Is that me or the Feuodal Land is empty in lot of place?

It is an alpha version. There is a lot done, but everything up to now is a small fraction of what will be there on the final version.

In the future does it will have a "Dark Unknown" Mod?

Unlikely; not in TFL, at least.

When I go diagonaly, the screen shake awfully. Does it have a method to avoid this little bug?

That may be more about smooth scrolling than TFL; do you have smooth scrolling on? If so, can you try turning off and see if the screen still shakes?

It's seem you can't meditate at the shrine of spirituality

The avatar bark: "I can't get there"

If the shrine is based on the one from Marzo's BG-Keyring - hackmoving should help

Ack. I forgot to port that bugfix to TFL. Thanks for the reminder.

With Feuodal Land, I can't forge the black sword completly. It always said :"The edge of the sword has improved". Strange

Ah, it looks like Alun Bestor's Q&I mod that I implemented seems to have forgotten that we have a special case of forging in the Black Sword. It should be easy enough to fix, so I will take a look at that and see what I can do.

Cheers, Wizardry Dragon
Lead Designer, Ultima VII: The Feudal Lands
www.thefeudallands.ca

I thought you guys had stopped working on it.. everything went all dead and such. If I had known I prolly would have been around more.

Hey everyone,

A long-time Ultima fan here, unfortunately not the most tech-savvy though - I'd love to try this mod but I can't figure out how to install it
I couldn't find proper installation help files either, maybe that would be a good addition on this site?

I've managed to set up Exult and the original Ultima (both BG & SI) with the sounds and everything, and the original game seems to work fine. I downloaded the latest "snapshot" of Exult from their website.

I then ran the InstallTFL.exe file, so that now there's a C:\Feudal\mods folder, with sub-folders tfl\patch and so on. I have the original U7 game files in a different folder, but the paths in the config file point to them correctly.

But when I run the game (from Exult.exe), I only get to the "normal" game. There are only two choices in the launcher, Black Gate and Serpent Isle. So how do I run the Feudal Lands mod? Do I have to make some changes in the exult.cfg file or tfl.cfg, or what?

I'm really looking forward to playing this, so some help would be much appreciated here.

Duh, I think I already figured it out!

I didn't realise that I have to install TFL in the same directory with the original game files...

However, now I have another question. I read that the Feudal Lands mod "seeks to merge The Black Gate and Serpent Isle into one seamless narrative". I only installed the mod to the directory where the original BLACK GATE files are. Since SERPENT ISLE is installed in another directory (C:\Exult\ULTIMA7 and C:\Exult\SERPENT), do I have to install TFL there as well...?