Jolt Country

I have send this email to the author what do you guys think?

Hello,

My names is Fahed Al Daye I remember using this program back in the 199x when the program was version below 2.2 it was filled with bugs and riddles but I had believed back then it was the potential for making my dream come true, make an Ultima game system finally. I am surprised now that not only is it alive and kicking but there is a beautiful main website for it and that the author is still working on new versions for major improvement, better GUI and so on. I am so happy :D:D:D:D:D:D

I have a suggestion or request to add if you could please implement a new version that support Ultima 6 engine? I know right now it is VERY CLOSE to that but there are still some missing features that are missing and if implemented will actually be a complete full pledge Ultima 6. Here are the features I hope you would be able to implement ^__^:

1) Join NPC up to the maximum I specify where they follow you in the back like Ultima 6 and Ultima 7.
2) When you enter houses the roof disappears to show the content inside but you can still put stuff on top of the roof for example and it would disappear too with the roof and reappear when the roof appears (if you leave the house it reappears)
3) Able to open door/close door, shudder, etc.
4) Turn on/off light source
5) Have the option to require food (you set your own food level etc)
7) Battle engine of Ultima 6 (option to have turn based or live). When you kill the monster (like Ultima 6 (spread blood on top of the bood) have a body with weight, depends on the setting you can carry the body or not) you can search the body all the items that the monster was carrying will appear and you can pick them up.
8) Have book editor where you can write as much as you want with no limitation for the book without having to open a whole new screen like Ultima 6 for example (simply look at Ultima 6 to get an idea). I also would like to have an option to trigger an event after reading the book, for example an NPC in the party or not (but is around within the screen) will talk or do action after reading the book.
9) I noticed here that you have regions like ACS which is awesome, but it would be cool if you could implement this feature as an add on (in case a person wishes to work the world style as well) I can make one LARGE map to draw the world, mountain, etc. If I enter the mountain the roof will disappear without loading a whole region like for example Ultima 6 or Ultima 7 and if a monster can go out of the dungeon or not (but still have the option to add new maps to load to new maps which represents new levels of dungeon and places).
10) Experience leveling like that of Ultima 6.
11) Conversation like that of Ultima 6 (with portrait) but I would also like the option for another NPC (wither in party or not) to be part of the conversation.
12) Have anger level for NPC, they start friendly but if you talk bad or mean to them it goes down or if you steal from them it goes down until they become hostile.
13) Add the ability for an item to belong to NPC if the NPC is in the same room as me or view (where they are not behind a wall that they cannot see me) and if I steal an item that belongs to the NPC they will shout at me to stop stealing and if I continue their angry level will drop to hostile call guards and attack me.
14) I like the option or ability that NPC can too be attacked by monsters or when they hit a trap or swamp and they don't have boots that NPC can be poisoned or fight for it's life.
15) Ability to send an NPC from one point to another and you see the NPC walking from point A to point B.
16) Improve the sprites of the NPC and change all the sprites from 2D to isometric like that of Ultima 6 or Ultima 7 and it is animated like that of Ultima 6.

In terms of an isometric graphics engine, roofs disappearing when you enter a building, detailed animated sprites, etc - I think that kind of stuff goes far beyond the limits of what ACK's built for. ACK is built to handle top-down Ultima V/ACS like graphics, and to give an Ultima V and earlier experience, and to aim for Ultima 6 graphics instead would require a complete re-write of its graphic engine, which I don't think Chris has on the agenda. An Ultima VI experience would really require a different system -- say, for example , the IRE engine.

That being said, there are certain things on your list that can be implemented currently, and there's one wish-item I do agree with -- extra party members. I've discussed this with Chris before, and he said making ACK single-party was a design decision based on wanting Ultima II-like mechanics in terms of inventory management, and wanting to simplify the kinds of triggers objects have (ie not needing different triggers for different characters). I understand that rationale, but I still feel an ACS/Ali Baba method of handling multiple player characters could work. Instead of a party that acted like a unit, each player character would just get its own turn, in the same queue as the npcs and monsters. This means that PCs could go off in totally separate directions if wanted. Inventory management could be handled by one PC dropping something and the other picking it up, so that no extra functionality would need to be added there. In terms of triggers for events, dialogs etc - I think the burden of handling that could be placed on the adventure author instead of the engine -- ie, by default all triggers would respond the same, no matter which PC does the triggering -- if you wanted more PC-specific responses, you'd have to roll that yourself with macros, complicated object stacking, etc. I think that could work and be cool, but it might be too much to add to ACK.

Here are some things that could be implemented now:

5) Have the option to require food -- you can set a daily or hourly macro that increments a variable. The macro also checks if the variable is over a certain numbers, at which time it gives you "You're hungry", etc messages and can deduct HP. Using (eating) food items lowers this variable.
10) There is experience leveling now, you just have to roll your own macros to decide what happens at each new level
11) You can do this - see "Custom Skins - Dialogue Skins" in the manual -- also allows 'interrupting' NPCs.
12) You can do this with macros

JJ

Pretty much is true what you said because this is the response I got from Chris:

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Hi,

Thanks for writing, and thanks for your enthusiasm.

Some of those are in fact possible now. These are now native features to 3.0:


10) Experience leveling like that of Ultima 6.
11) Conversation like that of Ultima 6 (with portrait) but I would also like the option for another NPC (wither in party or not) to be part of the conversation.

And these can be done with macros:


3) Able to open door/close door, shudder, etc.
5) Have the option to require food (you set your own food level etc)
12) Have anger level for NPC, they start friendly but if you talk bad or mean to them it goes down or if you steal from them it goes down until they become hostile.
13) Add the ability for an item to belong to NPC if the NPC is in the same room as me or view (where they are not behind a wall that they cannot see me) and if I steal an item that belongs to the NPC they will shout at me to stop stealing and if I continue their angry level will drop to hostile call guards and attack me.

Most of the rest of the ideas would unfortunately involve a complete rewrite of the game engine (there's no way to support parties, for example) or the graphic engine (for isometric graphics.) In many cases, they add to the technical sophistication of the game without really adding to the gameplay, not to mention making graphics very, very difficult to draw for a casual user. ACK is really for people that specifically want that lack of technical sophistication in the look and feel, for people with an ACS or Ultima V nostalgia. People who want visual realism might be better served with a more modern RPG-authoring tool like Neverwinter Nights.

Again, thanks for writing -- it's great to see someone who remembers the original!

- Chris

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Well I love this PROGRAM alot and I hope in the future I can make a deal with Chris to make a full blown Windows base GUI Ultima 6 construction set.