I'm very curious to hear more about this too - I had been thinking how cool an ACK remake of Ultima II could be. I had some ideas kicking around in my head but I hadn't actually started anything. It sounds like someone's been making some great progress along these lines!

No updates on this one in a while, and the original download link for the WIP files at xmission doesn't appear to be working now...

Heather, any news/updates on this?

Garth's Equipment Shop wrote:Sounds great Heather, especially the Aftermath part. I'm a sucker for anything with a post-apocalyptic theme.

I think you'll like the movie "Book of Ely" then.

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I think I speak for all of us when I say that we are looking forward to it!

I am using 0.2. I might have to take a look at it; perhaps there is an error in the definition of the shortbow. Other weapons seem to work fine.

Sorry I haven't been around for a while. My life has been busy lately. I have gone back to school to get a second Bachelor's degree, and it is taking a lot of time, so progress on this is likely to be slow for a while. My first degree - in electrical engineering - is too useful and too good for making money, so I need another one that is far less practical. This time, I'm majoring in English, and I'm spending a good deal of time reading difficult books that make my brain hurt (which is precisely what I wanted).

Despite this, I continue to pick away at this game, and I'll post an update when major progress is made.

Heather

Heather -

Which version of the mega-patch are you currently using with the game? Still 0.1, or have you updated it to use 0.2?

The reason I ask is that I was trying out your current version with 0.2, and the combat seemed to be working oddly right off the bat (the rats in the initial part of the world map were invulnerable to my starting shortbow weapon). Just wanted to make sure you had actually modified the game to use 0.2 before I started trying to figure out if this is a bug I need to fix.

Here is what I am implementing in macros. Maybe some of this can be implemented in the code. (Note that this is currently in progress and not fully tested, and I might change my mind on some features.)

1. In the dialogue, a number of variables are set, and these are used to indicate what the merchant sells, what the merchant will buy back, and what menu is displayed. Separate dialogue commands to buy from the merchant or to sell to the merchant are used, and each one can therefore have different settings. For example, a merchant might sell certain items, but be willing to buy a different selection.

2. The macro displays a long message (which must, of course, be created manually for each merchant), which is the shopkeeper's menu. Additionally, the player's money is displayed, and if the player is selling to the merchant, it displays how many of each item the player has. Then, the macro accepts a key press.

3. ACK's object numbers are not used directly. The variables set in the dialogue use different numbers which indirectly reference the ACK object numbers. This is done, first, to save bits so that I can get more use out of limited variables. Since, for example, one would never find a merchant selling mountains, it is not necessary for it to be possible to place mountains on the merchant's menu. Also, this allows me to assign different codes for quantity purchases. For example, 13 might be one loaf of bread, while 14 might be a dozen loaves of bread.

4. Standard prices are hard-coded into the macros, and one of the variables passed to the macro is a factor that can modify the price.

5. When the player presses a key to select the item, the macro looks up the price, the quantity, and the ACK object number, and adjusts the player's inventory accordingly.

I decided to do this because I wanted more control over pricing, the ability to add simple quantity purchases to standard merchant menus for items commonly purchased in bulk, and to limit the items a merchant will buy back. The existing system, in which any merchant will buy anything, does not make sense - why would a merchant who sells potions want to buy used swords? I have already implemented a special menu-based system for food vendors, but I want to generalize it.

If you find some of these features reasonably easy to add to the code, it would be helpful. It would certainly make it easy to implement a merchant system like this in other games. The macro method I'm working on is definitely a kluge, but it seems like it will work, albeit at the cost of using up 10 or more macros.

Heather

Heather Harrison wrote:I haven't done much lately with the maps, but I have been working on macros. I am working on a series of macros to give me more control over how merchants operate, and I am making some changes related to rld's tile change patch.

If you think of any changes that you would like to see to the built-in merchant/shop functionality, let me know and I will see what I can do. This is a fairly self-contained portion of the code, so it shouldn't be too difficult to modify.

I haven't done much lately with the maps, but I have been working on macros. I am working on a series of macros to give me more control over how merchants operate, and I am making some changes related to rld's tile change patch. That will allow me to provide a lot more variability in the appearance of towns and dungeons, and it will allow me to create more types of monsters. Implementing these changes will take some time, but they will make this rather large game a lot better. When these changes are complete, I will upload a new version.

The merchant macros will be the most complicated series of macros I have created so far, so they could be buggy at first.

Heather

Hi Heather, how's the WIP going?

It's been a while since I've posted on my progress. Work continues on various elements of the game. Some of the planet wilderness maps are now done, and the various locations on Earth are closer to completion.

Also, I am starting to implement a macro that will be executed after the Ready command. It will impose minimum strength and intelligence requirements on certain weapons and armor, and it will apply skill taxes and bonuses for various items that are equipped. The player's innate weapon skill and ranged weapon skill will now be stored together in the variable N, and this variable will be modified during training. In general, cumbersome weapons or armor will require higher strength and may have significant skill taxes, while certain magical items, although they might have significant strength and/or intelligence requirements, will have skill bonuses. Also, a few of these items will remove any skill taxes due to other items that are equipped.

If the player tries to equip a prohibited item, the macro will immediately un-equip it.

I will post another message when this feature is done and tested. Perhaps this idea will be of use in some of the other games people are creating.

Also, I've uploaded the latest version. See the release thread for details.

Heather

I've been working on a few things, and it's time for an update.

Devonian: The wilderness, Rhea (town), Summerfield (village), Port Granville (ruin), Wardley Farm, Antler Farm, Sandstone Ranch, and the Iron Mine are fully mapped, and some life has been added, but only the Iron Mine is fully populated. The large castle/dungeon/prison complex owned by the crazy Emperor of Gondwana is partially mapped. Caledonian Caverns has not been started.

Triassic: The wilderness, Baradin's Town, and Port Panthalassa (town) are fully mapped, but not fully populated. The Bog Cave and Penninsula Prison are complete. Wizard's Retreat (village), Dawn Farms (village), Triassic Tower, Iapetus Mine, Cynodont Burrows, Lazy R Ranch, Cheston Farm, and Wardick's House are not started.

BC: Complete. I have recently fixed a few minor bugs.

AD: The wilderness, Port Bonifice, Temple of Peace, and three lighthouses are fully mapped but not fully populated. The Ruins of Thule, the Ruined Temple, The Boneyard (cave), and Bat Roost Mine are complete. Lord British's Castle, New San Antonio, New Vladivostok, and Lair of Thieves (cave) are partially mapped. There are more towns, villages, lighthouses, houses, dungeons, and towers that are not started yet.

Aftermath: The wilderness, Pirate's Harbour (ground level), and York's House are mapped but not fully populated. The ruins of Lord British's Castle, Dead Cave, and Rocky Cave are complete. Destiny (dungeon/town), Pirate's Harbour (sewer), Ultima Thule (dungeon), and Lava Cave are not started.

Most of my work at mapping new locations is in the Devonian right now. I have planned out the Emperor of Gondwana quest, and I intend to finish that time period next.

I will send out another release soon. The next release will implement some of the features from rld's patch and fix a few bugs.

Heather

A little more progress this weekend...

I have done a lot of work on the Gondwana Castle/Prison/Dungeon complex in the Devonian time period. A major quest in the game will be set there, and it is a huge place - a custom worldmap as large as the wilderness areas. This isn't the sort of place where the player just uses brute force to reach the final goal (like the Troll Caves in BC). Instead, there are puzzles to solve. It features switch puzzles, teleporter puzzles, and a changing maze. I have much of this place mapped out, and I have planned out (but not yet written) the macros that govern the various puzzles. There will be monsters here and there, but it won't be as monster-infested as the Troll Caves. In a way, I see this place as preparation for the final quest. The dungeon and castle leading to Minax will be like this, only worse. Hopefully, having some places with a lot of puzzles to solve will make the game more interesting.

Also, I got ideas for the introduction and death sequences, and I have been implementing those. I'll probably post an update when they are done. The introduction provides a choice of four paths, and the path chosen affects initial skills, abilities, and equipment. The four paths correspond roughly to the four professions in the original Ultima II - fighter, thief (equivalent to fighting bard in the new version), wizard, cleric. I might decide later to have the chosen path affect parts of the game. For example, a non-cleric might need more training points and have higher level requirements to learn and cast cleric spells, or a wizard might gain combat skills more slowly than a fighter. The chosen path could even affect dialogues and quests.

Heather

Here is a quick update.

I have completed the Iron Mine (Devonian), Penninsula Prison (Triassic), Bog Cave (Triassic), and one level of sewers under Port Bonifice (AD). This includes placement of all monsters and treasure. I have also placed most of the NPCs in Port Bonifice, but I still have a few dialogues to create there, so it isn't entirely complete yet. My plan is to have deep sewers connecting Port Bonifice and Lord British's Castle, and an important NPC (one of the escapees from Minax's ranks of slaves) will be living down there in a hard-to-reach place.

Summerfield (Devonian), Port Panthalassa (Triassic), and three of the eight lighthouses (AD) are now fully mapped, but not all of the life has been placed yet. The expanded New San Antonio is nearly done; I just need to place some stuff in the northwest corner of town. Port Panthalassa and New San Antonio are heavily populated towns, so I will have to create a number of dialogues before those can be considered finished.

Also, ideas for quests involving the lighthouses and the Temple of Peace in AD are coming together; this should make them more interesting to visit. I'm also planning out the quests related to the crazy Emperor of Gondwana in the Devonian. I'm thinking that the village of Summerfield and the ruin of Port Granville will be key to this quest. (The entire village of Summerfield is a big pop culture reference. It will be interesting to see who gets it.) I've already determined which of the magical items necessary to defeat Minax will be in the Emperor's possession. Once I have this quest fully planned, I'll probably prioritize the completion of the Devonian locations and might offer that time period as my next release, with Triassic, AD, and Aftermath partially completed. I'm glad I decided to add the Devonian. The geography of that time is quite interesting, and it makes a good setting for a game.

The other locations have not changed since my last post.

Heather

Here is the latest. I will probably be busy for a while mapping all of the areas in Earth's other time periods.

Devonian

Mapped, but life not placed yet: wilderness, Sandstone Ranch
Partially mapped: Summerfield (village)

Planned but not started: Castle Gondwana, Rhea (port town), Port Granville ruin, Wardley Farm, Antler Farm, Gondwana Prison, Caledonian Caverns, Iron Mine, Gondwana Dungeon

Triassic

Mapped, but life not placed yet: wilderness, Baradin's Town

Partially mapped: Penninsula Prison, Port Panthalassa (town)

Planned but not started: Wizard's Retreat (village), Dawn Farms (village), Triassic Tower, Iapetus Mine, Cynodont Burrows, Lazy R Ranch, Cheston Farm, Bog Cave, Wardick's House

AD

Mapped, but life not placed yet: wilderness, Ruined Temple, Temple of Peace (ground level), Port Bonifice (ground level)

Partially mapped: New San Antonio, Lord British's Castle

Planned but not started: Sewers underneath Lord British's Castle and Port Bonifice, New Kinshasa, New Vladivostok, Darwin (village), Paradise (village), Ruins of Thule, Tomb of the Pharaohs (tower), Baffin Tower, The Gulag (tower), Lucky Strike Mine, Eureka Farm, Patagonia Ranch, Orin's Farm, The Boneyard (small cave), Bat Roost Mine, Sahara Cave, Lair of Thieves (small cave), Jungle Road House, Sven's House, Ruined House, eight lighthouses

Aftermath

Completed locations: Lord British Ruins, Dead Cave

Mapped, but life not placed yet: wilderness, Pirate's Harbour (ground level), York's House, Rocky Cave, Ruined Farm

Planned but not started: Sewers under Pirate's Harbour, Destiny (dungeon-town), Ultima Thule (dungeon), Lava Cave

As you can see, I have a lot planned, and it might take a while to get all of this done. It isn't quite as bad as it looks; many of the locations are small, and AD is especially full of small locations.

The planets: A lot of planning is done, but I haven't mapped anything yet.

Quests: Many of the quests in the game are roughly planned, but changes are likely.

Heather

The first installment will be ready for people to try out within a day or two. I have finished a complete play test (without using cheat/debugging codes to speed things up) of the major BC quest, and I have gone through all of the dungeons in the BC time period. It is now fully playable up to the point of getting the time machine to work and using it to travel to all of Earth's time periods except for Legends. As I mentioned, the other time periods have their wilderness maps done, but I have not extensively tested them, and I have not placed the creatures. I did just fix up the time machine macros, and I have confirmed that the time machine will properly access all of these time periods. After implementing this, I have decided that I like this method better than the time gates of the original game; it just seems to make more sense, especially considering that Ultima I had a time machine.

I just have a few loose ends to tie up; once I have fixed these few minor problems and tested the fixes, it will be ready.

I am sure there will be lots of bugs that I haven't found. That is why it is useful to have other people try it out. I have a few friends who want to try it, and anyone who stumbles upon this forum will be welcome to try it as well. Any feedback will be appreciated.

While others are trying out the BC portion, I will be working on the other time periods, and hopefully before long they will be finished and fully populated. That will give everyone a lot to explore.

Heather

Wow! This is going to be amazing. Look out Chris, I think you have a worthy competitor. :D

I'm still working on play testing, but should be done soon. The magic system is complicated, and that has required some debugging.

To conserve objects, I have created one spell object for all wizard spells, and one object for all wizard spells. Casting these spells brings up a request to choose a spell (by entering the first letter of the spell name). That way, I have ten spells in one object. The macros to do this are rather long. There is also a complicated magic training macro that is called by dialogues. It takes over from the dialogue and brings up a training menu. Specific training options are controlled by a variable that is set in the dialogue.

(An Ultima V-style spell system could be fully implemented using similar macros, and only one object would be needed for all spells.)

I have also done some minor housekeeping. The horse and skiff vehicles have been properly tested, and the macros that govern entrance portals now cover vehicles. A skiff (or, later, ship) can sail into a port town and will appear at a location different from the location the player appears if on foot or horseback. Also, horses refuse to go into caves, mines, or dungeons, and cannot climb ladders, but will go into other entrance portals.

In addition to the final play testing of BC, I have been creating a few more maps.

The following maps now exist:

Wilderness maps - all terrains and entrance portals placed, but wandering monsters are not there yet. Devonian, Triassic (Pangaea), AD, Aftermath

Towns, dungeons, houses, etc.:
Completed locations: Lord British Ruins (Aftermath), Dead Cave (Aftermath)
Locations fully mapped, but no creatures yet: York's House (Aftermath), Rocky Cave (Aftermath), Ruined Temple (AD), Temple of Peace (AD), Baradin's Town (Triassic), Ruined Farm (Aftermath)
Locations mapped, but details and creatures not placed yet: Sandstone Ranch (Devonian), Penninsula Prison (small dungeon - Triassic), Lord British Castle (AD), Port Panthalassa (Triassic), Pirate's Harbour (Aftermath)

Time Machine: All connections except Legends have been created and are working. When I release the BC game, these other regions will also be there to explore, but they won't be fully populated or working.

Heather

I've made more progress. I decided to fully implement the magic system and the training related to magic, and it seems to work but it hasn't been fully tested yet. Some of the related macros are very complex, and there are probably bugs. Substantial play testing of magic will be necessary.

Here are the basics of how it works. There are 10 wizard spells and 10 cleric spells. Unlike in the original, the player can learn both types. For each type, training at novice, intermediate, and advanced levels is required before spells can be learned; each instance of this training requires one training point. Learning particular spells does not use training points. Novice-level spells do not require any items to cast. For higher levels, certain items must be equipped - green idol (amulet - cleric intermediate), magic ankh (amulet - cleric intermediate or advanced), magic wand (weapon - wizard intermediate), wizard staff (weapon - wizard intermediate or advanced). These items are all very valuable and difficult to find; acquiring them is one of the challenges of the game. Wizard spells are mostly combat-related and light spells. Cleric spells include healing, opening doors and chests, teleportation, and protection from death. Training to augment magical energy (1TP = +5MP) is also available. The game starts with 5 training points, and each level increase gives 5 training points.

I've also been fixing bugs and tying up loose ends through play testing. Things seem to be working well enough now that I should be able to do a proper play test without using debugging commands to speed things up.

Heather

Another quick update...

I have just finished a quick play test (i.e. using cheats, debugging commands, and good items) to quickly run through the main quest and the Ruined Temple quest. It is now possible to play the game from the beginning through getting the time machine to work (and even using it, although right now BC is the only time period for which there is a proper exit from the machine), and it is possible to clear the Ruined Temple of monsters and get credit for it.

The next step will be to play through it without using cheats or debugging codes, and starting with the crappy weapons and skill levels that players always start with on Ultima games. (I have already done this a few times for the first part of the game.) I'm sure there will be more bugs, and I'll probably have to tinker with monsters and make minor changes to the maps.

Hopefully, in the process, I will figure out the vehicle problem and get that fixed. However, if I don't, the game will still be playable; the regions where it is not possible to exit the vehicle are few, and it doesn't cause critical problems.

Once this is done, I will post an archive somewhere on the web, and I will post a link to it in this thread.

Depending on how many bugs I find and how much time and energy I have this weekend, there is a good chance that this game will be posted within the week. Hopefully a few people will want to help test it out; that way, the debugging process for BC can continue while I start mapping out the other time periods and the planets.

Looking ahead, the next installment will likely include all of the Earth time periods except Legends, with all their towns and dungeons, and the next major quest in the game will be to purloin a spacecraft from Pirate's Harbour, which will be a far more difficult task than it was in the original.

Here are some of the ideas that are in my plan for Earth's other time periods.

Devonian - a new time period. Native monsters - labyrinthodonts and placoderms. I might add one or two tiles representing Devonian vegetation if I think I have enough available. Will include a substantial ghost town, a castle inhabited by a mad king, and some pop culture references. The mad king will have one of the items necessary to gain access to Minax, so a visit to this time period will be necessary.

Triassic (Pangaea) - The astronauts who are in Baradin's Town in the original will be expanded into full dialogues, and they will hold the key to reaching Planet X, as they do in the original. Native monsters - labyrinthodonts (they were around for a long time) and cynodonts. If I have enough tiles, I might add a primitive dinosaur.

AD - Many new locations. Expanding on the New San Antonio theme, I plan to add other "New" towns - New Kinshasa and New Vladivostok. I also plan to add a few villages and isolated houses. There will be rat-infested sewers beneath some of the towns. Lord British's Castle will have an extra level. There will be eight lighthouses. I still plan to make AD the most heavily populated time period, and it will probably be a lot of work. The quest for the Ring of Life will go from New San Antonio to Planet X back to New San Antonio as it does in the original, and Santre the Swashbuckler will still have the quick sword, but I might move him to a different town and make him hard to find. The quick sword, however, will need to have an enchantment applied to it before it can harm Minax. (I might have to make Minax a terrain object rather than a creature for this to work as I want it to.)

Aftermath - I have already created some new tiles for broken walls, sludge pools, polluted water, and an ugly mutant. I also plan to use the familiar Headless monster as a type of mutant. Pirate's Harbour will be inhabited by rather suspicious Soviet-type people, and stealing their spacecraft will not be easy. There will also be a dungeon-town called Destiny which is inhabited by the few remaining good people, and they will help the player gain access to the shuttle. Also, there will be ruins of Lord British's Castle. I have already started mapping this.

Farther into the future, I plan to add to the existing list of planets, and I have hand-drawn rough sketches for the maps of some of them. In my plan are Earth's moon, Ceres, Makemake, Haumea, Eris, Quaoar, Sedna, Io (a good excuse to use lava and brimstone tiles), Titan, Oberon, and Triton. If I get finished with everything and feel like adding more (and I haven't maxed out ACK), there are plenty more moons and Kuiper Belt objects to choose from. Like Planet X, not all of these locations will be immediately accessible upon getting the spacecraft; the player will have to search for the information needed to reach them. More than just Planet X will be necessary to finish the game, and many of those that remain optional will have quests that can add to experience and treasure.

When finished, this will be a huge game. Even with BC by itself, it is already quite large.

Heather