My apologies on getting this 14th NL out so late...But here it is, so enjoy!! :D
This issue, we tried to focus on a Winter theme, but it was a difficult one. So, while we do have many articles focused on Winter, many are not. Don't despair--we have a great mix of articles, information, and tutorials in here, no matter what the need!
You may also notice a new section in the Editorials section: Letters! We finally started receiving some, and we are going to publish them as we get them! So write in, fire away with questions, comments, and criticisms, and let us field it all the best we can!
Without further ado...UANL14!
Title: Wrath of Ktulu Author: RedZWolf and EmilB Type: Horror (Ravenloft) For:IBM PC or compatibles Reviewer: Don Boyd (UAGansta@aol.com)This module is the winner of the 1995 AOL halloween contest. Knowing that, I rushed to download it. I am telling you this so that you will not make the same mistake. This mod does not live up to the quality we associate with a contest winning mod. This mod is not the second coming of "Heart of Darkness." That being said, this mod is not a bad one. It is just not a very good one. This is of the same quality as much of what is being uploaded these days.
You adventure in the land of Barovia. Your adventurers are travelling "vistanci" (good thing you are not "vistani," they hate having their names mispelled) warriors out looking for a good time. You find yourselves in Barovia and are told that Strahd has been overthrown by an even more terrible evil, Lord Ktulu. This should not scare you because Lord Ktulu is like a creampuff.
This mod is supposed to be set in Ravenloft. The only thing that confirms this is the abundance of the undead. The art in this mod is mostly imported and is of pretty good quality. There is only one icon that I have not seen before. Once you get pass the art, this mod feels more like you are adventuring in the land of Pigeonloft. There are no text events or hacks that give you the sense of travelling through the Demiplane of Dread. In fact, this mod is completely void of any hacks. All we get is the same old music, walls and backdrops that you can find in 200 other mods on AOL.
The events in this mod are decidedly simple. Well, let me take some of that back. There is a lengthy combat chain that lets you choose from a variety of combats. It is set up to be like a gladiator arena, but I don't remember many of those in Barovia. You are supposed to fight in the arena to gain money for buying information, but an enterprising adventurer will discover trading to be more profitable. Other than that one event, you only need about fifteen minutes (after you've worked your character up a little) to run through every event in the game.
Ratings: On a weighted scale from low to high (1 to 10, 5 is avg.)
Plot: 4
Art: 8
Hacks: -
Text: 5
Events: 4
Originality: 4
Errors: 6
Difficulty: 4
Overall: 52 % or a C (average)
Title: Elves (more specifically, elven icons) Author: Autery For: IBM and compatibles # of pics: 34 Type: .PCX Reviewer: Donald Boyd (dboyd11074@aol.com)These are some most excellent icons done by the master of icons, Autery. The artwork is completely original except for a borrowed weapon pic. As you may have guessed, all of the icons are of elves. Included are elven fighters with swords, halberds, flails, bows, mounted lancers and archers. Some of the icons are female elves, but the majority are male elves. These icons are suitable for player icons and monster icons.
I'm sure there are people who are still using the original FRUA icons and they need to step into the next generation and bring some fresh faces to FRUA combat. Autery's icons are among the best out there and if you don't believe me, just download some. A real treat in this collection are the mounted elves. The horses look like true horses, something I've not found in UA before. I've already asked him to do a complete mounted knight collection and sooner or later he'll probably get around to it. Till then, we can download this collection and do some cutting and pasting.
Rating:
Quality: 9
Usefulness: 8
Overall: 86 % This is basically an A - on our scale.
EKSTRA's uploaded music, so far, has varied in quality and utility. Some of it is eminently suitable, and some will be of almost no use whatsoever.
The first collections made available (with 5 and 6 tunes in them) are a mixed bag. Three of the tunes are from Star Wars, and are poor quality (EKSTRA's Star Wars collection corrects this problem). The other music, however, is especially good. Two eerie pieces of music (one of them Danse Macabre) of good quality are included, just waiting for a proper moment of horror in your mods, and Huma's theme is quite impressive, and suitable for a knight or a samurai.
EKSTRA includes 13 songs in his second collection. These are also widely variant in usefulness. This collection includes Ave Maria (for those temple scenes, I suppose?), and Hall of the Mountain King. Unfortunately, Hall begins with a particularly long pause, and then cuts off abruptly.
This problem brings me to one of the major concerns with the music collections. Many of the musical pieces have pauses before they begin. While this is not always a concern, designers will have to be cagey about coordinating the music with the action in the mod. EKSTRA is aware of this problem, but it seems to go along with the Adlib music format.
The 13 song collection has several useful pieces, including one (called 3ravens) that strikes me as being very suitable for a royal overture. Most of the other songs would probably be most at home in a tavern, or perhaps a pirate adventure (any takers?).
The next collection has 9 pieces of music (actually, it has more, since it allows you to replace the shorter pieces of music as well as Overture and Victory). This set includes the national anthem of Japan, the William Tell Overture, and all of the music from Buck Rogers: Matrix Cubed. Most of this set is usable, especially for background music, but the Buck Rogers stuff would probably only work for a sci-fi mod (and it sounded awfully quiet on my system).
EKSTRA has released a few other works since then, including updates of the Star Wars music, and a separate posting of the Emperor's Theme (familiar to anyone who has played Tie Fighter). This music is so recognizable that it might not work in most mods.
Sadly, the Adlib music has puny bass and rhythm sections. A wonderful melody like the Emperor's Theme comes out sounding rather drained. Specially composed music (which doesn't have a "better" version out there on CD or video) avoids this problem, for the most part. On the other hand, the William Tell Overture and Danse Macabre came out sounding great...
All of these pieces of music are basically worthless if you only use UA to play mods on. I suppose you could change the music anyway, but it could disturb mods that use the replaced music. Designers who want to surprise players with new music (well, not exactly surprise, since the music files have to be copied into UA's Disk 1 directory) will want to check these files out, though. Finally, some audio to go with all the visual!
Usefulness: 7 Ease of Use: 4 Overall: 61%Narsham the Wizard
"The Dungeon of Gulg" by Robert Szarek and Jesse EllmanWhen the opening titles came up, and I immediately spotted a grammatical error, I thought to myself, "Uh oh." On completion of the module, I must augment my initial impression--this is a mod that could have been good, and ends up merely fair.
The mod has a number of good points. Despite the opening, the number of grammatical mistakes is low. The mod has a few custom monsters, and very little imported art, but the battles are (for the most part) challenging without being overboard. All in all, it was not an unpleasant way to spend an evening.
Having said that... there are also a lot of problems here. Most of them could have been corrected if the mod had been playtested carefully.
The single biggest error committed is the failure to use the Event Occurs Only Once button. In a few cases, it is possible that this failure is intentional (in which case, the problem is more serious). The opening, for example, can be repeated by simply stepping back onto the overland map square where you start.
More troubling are the combats that are repeated. The worst offender is a battle that occurs just before the Evil One's fortress is reached. This battle cannot be avoided. It involves five Bulettes (versus a party that's around 11th level) in a magic-free zone. Since the battle takes place on the overland map, it isn't even possible to prepare for this battle. I found it possible (although difficult) to win this battle, but another battle occurs before the fortress can be entered, and there is no chance to rest between them. The alternative (going back to rest somewhere else) leaves the battle to fight over again. After five or six attempts, I finally looked up the password and got into the mod to correct the problem.
While I'm on the subject of irritating quirks, all of the shops, inns, and so forth in this mod leave you inside the buildings after the event (the back up one square when leaving button is not active). If there were any point, I wouldn't mind, but having to back out of the inn every time I visited grew annoying.
This mod has a more serious problem, however. There are a large number of monsters that the party must battle which are able to deal over 100 points of damage in one round. With a party at this level, that can kill 1 to 2 party members per round without much trouble. The designers, to correct this difficulty, chose, instead of raising the party's starting level, to make Girdles of Giant Strength, Vorpal Weapons, and +5 items readily available.
I simply can't tell you how depressed I get when my party enters a shop and I see that we can buy any +5 weapons, Vorpal Swords, and (even worse) the horrifically cheap Girdles of Giant Strength. (Just why are they cheaper than Gauntlets of Ogre Power, anyway?) This sort of power inflation tells me that the module is going to get out of hand very quickly. I've seen it happen in pen-and-paper games as well: In either case, it isn't pretty.
The result: Characters and monsters that can deal nearly as much damage per round as they have hit points. I had more dead characters in this module (without losing the entire party) than I've had in just about any other. In addition, I couldn't believe some of the battles. On one occasion, the party turned a corner and ran into THREE Liches!! This was just a generic set encounter, not a special one.
While I'm discussing my pet peeves, I'll mention another that appears in this mod: The hidden rest area. Rest areas in the actual main dungeon are not easy to find, and often, if you make a right turn instead of a left, you won't find one for a while. I find it most useful to provide rest areas directly on the main path, or to provide a large number of them. Having few places to rest really doesn't do much, as long as it's possible to backtrack and find an inn or another rest area. All it does it make the game longer, as you trace back through the dungeon, leave, and hit town, and then go all the way back again (if there are random encounters, it's even worse!). While this mod isn't a bad offender in this area (and has no random encounters), when you're fighting opponents that can do such a high percentage of your character's hit points in damage in one round, frequent rest stops are required, and that's sometimes hard to arrange in this mod until you find the rest area down the other fork.
I had been hoping that, in spite of these design flaws, the character of the module, the background story, would save it. No such luck. A promising training area, where the group can talk to a number of people about The Evil One, led to almost nothing. In one city, the game refers to an "evil pope" in a way that suggests I should be familiar with such a priest already. Dazmilar makes an appearance, "defending his turf", but upon defeating him, I discovered that he had been defending a 2 X 3 square room with NOTHING in it.
Two battles involve allies that appear out of nowhere, and with no explanation. In one, a bugbear joins to help fight Thri- kreen. In the other, two Rakshasa help to battle an assortment of baddies. No reason is ever given for such allies, and nothing more ever comes of all this.
The last straw, for me, was finding a scroll and an amulet lying around in the overland map that indicated the Evil One's plans. Both of them clearly belonged to the Evil One himself, and one was left lying just outside his fortress! The scroll, supposedly, was dropped during a battle, but there is no explanation for the amulet. I have to wonder, also, why the Evil One wouldn't have missed these items and recovered them. Perhaps one of his greatest evils is littering?
The finale battle was not too bad, but disgustingly easy compared to some of the other battles leading up to it. An NPC ally joins the group at the end (Sir Dutiocs), appearing out of nowhere to fight the Evil One (how did he get in, and why couldn't we sneak in the same way?). Regardless of how well the battle goes, the game kills him off, and then proclaims that "he is the true hero!!" I was, frankly, quite angry that this paladin snuck in for the last in a long series of difficult battles, only to be proclaimed the true hero! I guess the party members are just working-class heroes.
The ending promises a sequel. There is no way, however, to save your final party after you win the game. Just another irritation.
Despite all of these problems... I find that I actually enjoyed the module. I've played a number of mods that have left me asking, "Was I supposed to find this fun?" For some reason, this module was not one of them. In that respect, it was successful.
I'd call "The Dungeon of Gulg" a fair module. It isn't worth downloading immediately after you finish reading this review, but it might not be a bad adventure to wile away those hours while you're waiting for a really good module to come along.
Ratings: Plot Matter: 3 Artwork: 5 Hacks: N/A Text: 6 Events: 4 Originality: 5 Errors: 6 Difficulty: 5 Total Rating: 49%Narsham@aol.com
"Domains: Demon's Legacy" by Alan Armstrong (Sky Render)This module is quite sizable, and has a great deal of imported art. It is a good module, that, sadly, fails the test of greatness thanks to niggling errors that playtesting should have cleared out, and some subtle problems with the plot. Nevertheless, it stands as an enjoyable adventure whose primary element is combat.
When the adventure began, I viewed it with mixed emotions. A nice piece of imported art was paired with a grammatically dubious introduction (sorry, but we English students can get very picky about such things). My concern increased when the party entered a shop, only to see +5 weapons and Girdles of Giant Strength for sale. The party was 3rd level!!
Fortunately, the inflated availability of magic items didn't seem to imbalance the game as much as it did in Gulg. The party's opponents were sufficiently nasty that every extra hit point of damage was valuable, but not so tough that party members routinely died. Availability of good magical armor made the party difficult to hit, also (a few of my characters had AC's around -15: Not bad for 8th level characters!).
The battles were challenging, and, for the most part, fun, although some of the random encounters began to grow old after a while. There were some truly nail-biting battles, including a few featuring level drainers (awfully scary with low level characters), and one free-for-all where the party faced nearly a dozen demons and devils led by four Marilith!
There were also some good pieces of atmosphere in this game. The main NPC actually had an identifiable character, although I grew annoyed with him because of a problem with his character icon (see below). The world is seen from two different points in time, and I enjoyed the differences between the two (although, again, there was a problem here as well). The main adventuring areas also had some real atmosphere, especially the two "home bases". An inn filled with a number of people (including actual craftsmen inside the shops!), and a library of Lathander filled with priests of various sorts (and degrees of sobriety) provided local color and some comic relief.
Additionally, there were a few puzzles (not very difficult), and a maze of glass (where the walls were impassable arches) which could annoy those who are unwilling to map. Unfortunately, two of the puzzles were spoiled by mistakes in the events related to them.
One puzzle requires the group to find a scroll with a password written on it, so that they can use the password to get into a building. The scroll, when found, gives the password, but it doesn't work because of a typo in the scroll text. The word "is" was mistakenly typed in as "in". I had to get into the editor to discover the problem.
The other puzzle is mathematical (simply addition, actually), and not very tough. The password event that asks for the solution does not back the party up if the answer is wrong, though, so the entire thing can be bypassed--finding the correct answer makes no difference.
There were a number of other minor flaws that had a cumulative effect on me: Occasional misspellings, a total disregard for punctuation, traps that caused damage even when I had Find Traps spell in place, traps that caused damage every time I passed by them (including a pit trap--very annoying!), and a staircase that had no clear direction (it led down, but I thought it led back up, and ended up wandering the level for a while before I caught on). Additionally, the main NPC (mounted on a griffin) was depicted with a wide combat icon. The art had been imported as a big icon, though, so the two blank spaces directly above him were impassable for the group. Eventually, I grew thankful when the guy died and stopped blocking the hallway!
There was clearly a great deal of attention paid to building the atmosphere of the areas vital to the adventure. The same attention was not paid to the side quest areas. Often, they were just areas with a few traps, and a lot of monsters, without any sense of character or organization. I felt like the overall atmosphere of the adventuring world was injured as a result. One small city (along with a few of the adventuring areas) managed to go unchanged when the party went back in time, even down to the tavern tale! (Talk about a conservative area...) Also, the party could re-enter the house of the wizard who sent us back in time. She gave us the whole explanation, and sent us back in time again!
A paladin named Morningstar is supposed to give the party invaluable assistance in the past. She is given dialogue (in a Text Statement, not NPC Says event) at the finale. In my party, I must have avoided the event that dropped one of my two NPC allies, because the group was full when I got to Morningstar, and she never joined the group. No particular problems seemed to be caused as a result, but it made the ending strange. Perhaps Morningstar should have appeared as a friendly monster in the final battle?
The subtle problems I mentioned have nothing to do with the time travel motif (I won't even get into varied paradox theories). They center around four points. Firstly, there is a LOT of treasure in this adventure (My party ended up with over 200 pieces of Jewelry alone!). Since extremely powerful magical items are for sale, all the money flying around becomes a bit of a problem (although you get a lot of it in the past, where there are fewer stores to spend it in).
Secondly, the game suffers a bit from the old "I've locked the door so I'll hide the key under the doormat so anybody can get in if they bother to look" problem. The key isn't under the mat all that often in this game, but it seemed like most of the villains had huge, unexplained holes in their defenses. At least the "I'll hide the only item in the universe that can kill me in my antechamber" problem doesn't surface.
Thirdly, the game proceeds by missions once the party travels back in time. Reception of the next quest can be an adventure in itself, though. Instead of finding out where you should go next on your way out of the last quest, you have to step into the right square on the overland map. I had to get into the editor to find where these squares were--they are all within one square of the last quest location. Perhaps the Transfer events out of those locations were supposed to set the group on those squares? They didn't in practice.
Lastly, there is no distinction made between demons and devils (pardon: Tanar'ri and Baatezu) in this game. The primary villain, and the two toadies trying to bring him back, are all described as demons, but their forces are much more mixed. Marilith and "Minor Demons" fight side-by-side with Lemures, Barbazu (not Bearded Devils?), Pit Fiends, "Daemons", Red Bane Minions, and Abishai. I would anticipate some serious discipline problems in this force. The standard immunities don't seem to hold for some of these creatures, either. I was horrified when my Delayed Blast Fireballs (off scrolls) failed to damage the Mariliths, Tanar'ri which should suffer HALF damage. Skeletons suffer full damage from slashing and piercing weapons, and Blood Elementals turn AS GHOULS (I think somebody forgot to reset the Turn As after replacing Ghouls with Blood Elementals).
The primary difficulty (Tanar'ri and Baatazu fighting together, not in opposition) could be cleared up if there were any explanation offered for it. There isn't.
After all these complaints, it may sound like I didn't like Domains. I enjoyed it quite a bit. It was a good module, and I'm sure that anybody who enjoys combat mods (and is willing to download a mod with this much extra art--some of which is only shown in snapshots at the end of the mod) would have a great time with Domains. I only regret that this module, which could have been wonderful, had as many problems as it did. SO CLOSE!
If you've got the time to download it, I'd recommend checking this mod out, keeping in mind all of the problems I've mentioned above. Remember, "In" should be "Is", look for your next quest outside the location of the last quest, and visit everybody on the present day map before you allow the wizard in her hut to send you back in time. I'm sure I missed a quest that would have cleared out my extra NPC (probably because some rooms had their inhabitants on the far wall--it was necessary to search for them!).
Ratings: Plot Matter: 7 Artwork: 8 Hacks: N/A Text: 5 Events: 5 Originality: 5 Errors: 3 Difficulty: 4 (7 if you can't ignore the lack of punctuation) Total Rating: 56%Narsham@aol.com
Character Editor v2.1 by Bart JacksonThe major difference between this version of the character editor and the last is the addition of special ability editing. It is now possible to make PC's that regenerate, or are immune to certain attack forms, or that take half damage from piercing weapons... and monsters can be given up to 10 special abilities (even those which offer fewer slots). The program does give a warning that strange things can happen if a party has too many special abilities between them (I suspect that the same thing might happen in combat with hacked monsters, but there is no mention of this).
The character editor, for those of you who aren't familiar with it, allows editing of PC's, NPC's, and monsters. Stats, classes, levels, saving throws, thief abilities, attack forms, money, special abilities, and spellbooks can all be edited as you wish. This version comes with Bart's latest Monk hack as well (I'm not fond of the class, but others still swear by it).
The only real danger with using this editor is that, as I mentioned before, strange things can happen. The program can be rather dumb about some matters (like if you change the XP of a high-level character to 0), and certain strange combinations can have unusual results.
As an example: I'm currently working on a mod which features a Lawful Evil paladin as one of the PC's. Naturally, I altered the character's alignment using the character editor, while retaining his paladin class and his paladin levels. In the original version (under an earlier editor), the character could lead NPC's like a paladin, but had no other paladin abilities. Under this version, he appears to have the Lay on Hands ability, but cannot Cure Disease or cast spells.
Another situation I've run into: Changing the race of a dual-classed human character causes the dual-class display to vanish. I have no idea at this point whether abilities of the first class remain, and I can't even speculate on what would happen to a dual-classed character who gains full use of her first class after being switched to another race (or even if the first class would be accessible). Instead of playing around with it, I simply changed the character's race back to human (my, aren't I boring?).
I'd recommend the character editor to any designers out there. Even if you never end up using it, having the ability to edit characters is useful in itself (rather like getting a Pentium to play Tetris, but still...).
Usefulness: 9 Ease of Use: 8 Overall: 87%Narsham the Wizard
In the City of Man by DuckyboysThis is a big module, packed full of great imported art, with an actual storyline and some innovative touches. Put quite simply, this is a very good module, and I'm looking forward to Duckyboys' next effort.
First, a warning: Duckboys says, in his readme file, that the characters he has provided MAY be used. I would change that to SHOULD. If you don't use the characters provided, make sure that you use a character editor, both to turn them into monsters, and to raise their stats and hit points. The weakest member of the party has a 17 Str and more than 80 hp (the wizard), while the strongest has a 24 Str. At first, I was shocked at these numbers, but they turn out to work well, and the adventure is surprisingly playable.
The story follows the efforts of a group of monsters to help preserve a prince, and arrange events so that he will, eventually, produce a line of heirs who will create a city where monsters and humanoids can live in harmony. Opposing the prince are a number of villains, some of whom have motives which are not entirely evil, just misguided. The party is given a great deal of background within the game, including a legend, and a view of the future. Duckyboys has left a lot of room for sequels, and I, for one, hope he follows up someday.
The party starts out at a meeting of monsters. Something goes wrong, though, and they end up captured by humans. There follows a brief series of arena fights, all of which are highly enjoyable. Thereafter, the party is loosed on the city, which is designed in much the same way as the city blocks of Phlan in Pool of Radiance. Passage from block to block is via stair/passages found on the outer wall of each block. One warning here: It is necessary to travel through the Cemetery to get to another block (I spent a long time looking for the Asylum until I found this out).
The text quality is high in this mod. Characters have actual personalities! The monsters which the party spends a lot of time associating with become quite likable after a while. Sometimes, Duckyboys uses an odd word or phrase, but this almost never causes problems.
Duckyboys has chosen to include several riddles in this adventure. They are reasonably traditional riddles, but not tremendously easy, and two of them gave me some trouble. For some reason, Duckyboys used the maximum number of allowed failures before the password event kicks the party out again. Annoying. On one occasion, I wanted out of the event so that I could save the game, quit, and think about the question for a day or two. Having to cycle through the question 50 times was a bit much. Perhaps 10 allowed failures would have been more reasonable.
The first riddle I encountered demonstrates the sometimes odd word choice in the mod. The word "Enter" is used, where, in my opinion, the word "Divide" would have been more appropriate. Having been a student of mathematics for some time, I can appreciate that "Enter" can indicate division, but it is a rather colloquial term, and I didn't make the connection until after I had answered the riddle (by getting into the editor and cheating).
There are a few other glitches in this mod. A question- button event that allows the party to purchase a few items allows you to pay for an item, receive it, return, select the same item, and pay for it again. Only the give treasure event was set to occur once, so it's possible to throw money away. If Duckyboys had used three quest events to keep track of which items had been bought, he could have avoided this problem.
There is one location, a mansion, which is not supposed to be entered until a certain event has occurred. Duckyboys put a password event (one which requires you to know the name of the mansion's owner) in front of the door, and set it to occur when the party was facing the door. The problem is that since it is possible to get next to the door from more than one direction, the password event can be bypassed by stepping into the square from the wrong direction, turning to face the door, and entering. That's what I did, and so I missed a small piece of the plot. Nothing serious, but it was confusing, and the plot moves along so smoothly that hitting a hole like this one was startling.
There are a few sundry room descriptions which should only occur when the party enters the room (facing direction), but I've been guilty of the same thing myself. There's a random encounter set in one map which can appear behind a wall, depending on where it's triggered. Note to all designers: When designing a random combat, make sure that it's either set to occur in front of the party, or outdoors. Any other setting risks putting monsters behind a wall.
Items for sale were actually priced realistically, like a Ring of Wizardry for 120,000 pp. Virtually impossible to afford, of course, but probably pretty accurate...
I did have a problem finding a place to train my fighters. The one training hall I located which would train them was charging extremely high prices (prejudice against monsters, you know). There was a single place where they could train for less money, and it was not difficult to find: I simply managed to miss it. Just another reminder to make sure that all of the buildings on each map have been checked.
There were also a few events which should have occurred one time, but were instead repeated. Another minor problem, and not a big one, either.
This adventure has a good plot, a lot of really fun battles (with some neat allies and enemies), and a lot to look at. I highly recommend it. It is well worth the download time.
Ratings: Plot Matter: 9 Artwork: 10 Hacks: 8 Text: 9 Events: 8 Originality: 9 Errors: 9 Difficulty: 5 (not too tough, not too easy...) Total Rating: 90%
Soulfire's Time by Robert SzarekThis mod was written by an author of Dungeon of Gulg, and it demonstrates some improvements over that design, but some of the same problems make a second appearance.
This mod is set on Athas. Having said that, there is absolutely no indication that this world is, indeed, Athas (other then the city names). Wizards are not referred to as Preservers or Defilers, there is no mention of psionics, no bone weapons, no water problems... in short, this mod doesn't belong on Athas at all.
There are some interesting touches in this mod. At the end, the party receives advice on how to defeat the villain (named Soulfire) from several sources. The sources, however, do not agree on the method, and the choice is left up to the player's wisdom.
In addition, there is a glass maze in this mod (like in Domains). I did not find it nearly as exasperating, though, and mapping should not be necessary to get through it.
The battles in this mod are far more balanced than the ones in Gulg. This came as quite a relief to me. The cheap and easy access to magic remains in place, though, with Girdles of Giant Strength for sale for a full 750 pp. (I'll take 20, thanks...)
There are some minor problems here. The various buildings in the towns have no signs outside them (a minor annoyance, but still an annoyance). Drow items can be preserved, since only one of the two exits from the dungeon where the Drow hang out destroys them. It is simply a matter of sticking them in a vault, and pulling them out again later. One text makes reference to a room... in a forest! I think it would be a clearing...
Which brings me to the major problem with this mod: It really doesn't DO very much. There is no imported art, and worse, many of the combats make use of the default "Monsters Attack!" I admit that a mod can be good without any imported art, and I'll even admit that unoriginal combat text can be overcome by original combats, but neither of these cases applies here.
This mod is, at heart, a Foozle hunt, much like Dungeon of Gulg. Like that adventure, the Foozle is not very formidable, nor does he have much character. Soulfire does have a few threatening lines, but they sound a lot like parodies of the stereotypical villain's speeches, where the villain tells the heroes all about his plans, tells them that they can't stop him because they'll be dead, and then takes off, allowing the heroes to pound his servitors into the ground. Soulfire does not sound like a Darth Vader clone, but he sounds like he's chatting with the party! (Too much time underground, perhaps?)
Soulfire attempts to conquer several towns in this mod. He uses wizards to attack one town, thieves to attack the second, and fighters to attack a third. There is, however, no explanation as to why. After all, wouldn't it make more sense to attack all three cities with mixed forces?
Soulfire's Time shows considerable improvement on Dungeon of Gulg, but it isn't particularly engaging. The absence of imported art does make it a fast download, though. You might want to check this mod out, eventually, but it really is rather routine.
Ratings: Plot Matter: 5 Artwork: 3 Hacks: N/A Text: 5 Events: 7 Originality: 4 Errors: 8 Difficulty: 3 Total Rating: 51%
Wrath of Ktulu by RedZWolf and Emil B.Wrath of Ktulu is this year's winner of the annual Halloween contest. I therefore had very high expectations of this mod, and I'm sorry to say that it completely disappointed me.
The mod is set on Ravenloft (in Barovia, in fact), but, like many of the Ravenloft mods, it just doesn't feel right. For one thing, there are some serious problems with the environment here. For example, amongst the many misspellings in this mod appears the word "Vistanci," which is almost uniformly used instead of Vistani (I say almost uniformly--I saw a second wrong spelling also). In addition, the basic plot element (Strahd has fled before a powerful being named Ktulu) describes an event which would be inconceivable in a Ravenloft setting. Strahd still lives, apparently, but he is said to have FLED BAROVIA! Unfortunately for Strahd, the nature of his imprisonment and torment in Ravenloft absolutely prevents him from leaving this land, save for very brief periods under very special circumstances (when Azalin and Strahd were trying to research an escape together). No matter how much Strahd might want to leave the land, he simply CAN'T.
Unfortunately, my favorite element in this mod does not belong here: It is out of place in Barovia, and adds nothing to the Halloween atmosphere. It is an arena (a Barovian arena!!), where the party can choose from a long list of possible foes and fight battles. This event is quite cleverly done, although the party really shouldn't get the items off of defeated opponents. It is all too easy to equip the party with magic from defeated arena opponents, magic which is generally superior to anything else available in the mod. Nevertheless, the idea was a good one, and well implemented.
There is an extremely concerning design flaw in this mod. There are two stores in the town (which doesn't have labels on the buildings...what happened to all the signs reading "Ye Olde Gemme Shoppe"?) which are only a short distance apart. One store sells magical weapons and armor at a fairly low price. The other sells protection items, wands, and scrolls, at higher prices. The problem: It is possible (if not easy) to purchase a +3 2- handed sword at the first store, for 1200 pp, and sell it at the second sword for 1800!! Can you say, infinite money? Not bad, for an initial investment of 1200 pp...
The imported art in this mod is all pretty good, and appropriately used. There are some fairly good monsters, too. Having said that, there's no more atmosphere here than the art and the combat... the text is pretty matter-of-fact, and Lord Ktulu is nothing beyond another monster. Other than the economic system, there's nothing particularly scary about this mod--a Halloween mod needs more than undead to be great. Ktulu isn't an awful mod, but it doesn't live up to its first place status.
Ratings: Plot Matter: 2 Artwork: 8 Hacks: N/A Text: 4 Events: 7 Originality: 4 Errors: 7 Difficulty: 6 Total Rating: 55%
Necessary Evil by DBoyd11074This mod was DBoyd's entry for the Halloween contest (yes, this is my fellow reviewer). It has undergone some changes since it was submitted. The adventure casts the player in the role of Vahnos the Lich, who has just been swallowed up by some mists which, to those who know Ravenloft well, are all too familiar...
In my opinion, this is one of the best Ravenloft mods available at this time. It ranks up there with Hunted and Strahd's Need. Most of the Ravenloft mods do not possess the appropriate Ravenloft atmosphere, but this is one of the few that does.
Since I did some of the final playtesting for this mod, most of the problems that I was able to identify have been eliminated. What remains is a well-plotted adventure, which features some terrific art and a lot of character.
I've found a single error lurking around: In the graveyard, it is possible to enter a chamber where you are supposed to find treasure (after defeating the current lord of the graveyard), and the message informing you of the discovery of treasure will happen before you defeat that lord. Also, I didn't end up receiving the treasure after that event...
There's a second odd problem I've had with this mod. When I was initially testing it, I had occasion to pause and scribble down notes of various kinds. While I was doing so, the added music played on to its end, and then caused the program to crash. While I have not experienced this problem in the revised version, I have observed another strange music error. After playing the main theme a few times, the game suddenly plays all of the music in the wrong key. It's as if all of the notes have been shifted. I have no idea why this is happening, and it may have more to do with my system than with anything else...
My only regret is the shortness of this mod. Its length was restricted by the Halloween contest rules, but there's still a lot of room to play with here, and these characters are compelling enough that they deserve a bigger adventure around them. Regardless, there's still a lot here to play around with.
It's difficult to comment much further on this mod without ruining some of the surprises that are included. Suffice it to say that my fellow reviewer has created a very good module, indeed. I highly recommend Necessary Evil, and I look forward to the next appearance of Vahnos the Lich.
Ratings: Plot Matter: 8 Artwork: 9 Hacks: 7 Text: 9 Events: 9 Originality: 8 Errors: 10 Difficulty: 6 Total Rating: 86%
Title: Dragon Fodder Strikes Back! Author: Narsham Type: Adventure For: IBM PCs and compatibles Reviewer: Don Boyd (UAGangsta@aol.com)I would like to congratulate Narsham on a quality mod. DFSB is a fat, rolly polly kitten of a mod (where did that come from). This mod has a cool plot and presents the story from a completely different angle. Suddenly you are not the omnipotent wizard. Instead, you are the champion of kobolds everywhere. You are their bravest warrior. What that means is you are the best of the worst. From start to finish, this mod separates itself from the other mods that are being uploaded these days. I feel that the majority of players will thoroughly enjoy this mod, but I feel compelled to warn you about my major problem with this mod. I think I'll call it the "Kitten Clause."
I can't blame Narsham. He tells you what to expect in the text file. From beginning to end, you are going to get a boat load of combat. Whether it is baby dragons (with all the basic breath weapons) or it is a common field mouse (also with all the basic breath weapons), there are a multitude of monsters that love the taste of kobold flesh (although they normally want to cook it first). Narsham managed to come up with a quality assortment of baddies (I would like to award him with a ribbon for being the first to use the scarecrow icon). All of the monsters fit into the plot and you never feel like any of the combats are just thrown in to make the game longer. I really began to appreciate that when I considered the sheer number of combats and how difficult it is to win them. Narsham planned the combats so that they got harder as you go, but you never get more powerful (not enough xp to go up until the very end) and there is only a set amount of magic potions that you can get. I will go ahead and admit that I couldn't beat a certain group of combats until I brought in the help of my favorite lich. I overwhelmed my enemies with a flurry of fireballs. If you don't have any or don't want to use any help, make sure you have a couple of hours to kill (so you can keep restarting) and bring your rabbits foot. This mod requires more luck than the witch encounter in Heart of Darkness.
The only other problems I found with this mod are a couple of congratulation messages that play more than once and it seems that you can get a NPC to join you, but I never got him to join. That might have made the combats easier.
After saying all that, I hope I have not scared anyone off. This mod is still a good download. I actually enjoyed the game and really only reached for my baseball bat once. This mod is well thought out and should provide players with a couple of hours of enjoyment. There are some hacks in this mod and they help to further solidify the plot. The new items are cool (why carry around a dagger when you can carry a +2 carrot) and I especially liked the potions (look for the potions of good stuff and the potions of very good stuff. They can be a life saver). I'll also mention that this mod was entered in the 1995 AOL Halloween contest. I don't feel it was appropriate for that contest as it is more of an adventure mod than a horror mod. It is still a good mod and I recommend that you download it at your earliest convenience and play it whenever you feel particularly inferior. Narsham has shown us that inferiority can breed a champion.
Ratings: (on a weighted scale from 1 to 10, 5 being average)
Plot: 8
Art: 6
Hacks: 7
Text: 7
Events: 7
Originality: 8
Errors: 7
Difficulty: 9
Overall: 71% (a B on our scale)
Title: Gwalhafed and the Giant Ghost Author: Kaviyd (David Knott) Type: Fantasy (Arthurian) For: IBM PCs and compatibles Reviewer: Don Boyd (UAGANSTA@aol.com)I sit here and I don't know where to begin. Perhaps I should simply begin at the beginning. This mod is set in an Authurian setting. I don't know how true it is to the myths of King Authur, but it kind of gives you the feeling of adventuring in Medieval England. I thought that this game was pretty well done. However, being a UA mod and me being who I am, I did have some problems with this module.
Let me start with the good stuff. This mod has a pretty cool slide show that you can run completely separate from the mod. This slide show gives you some general history and information on the current status of the Island of Might (Britain). I don't remember seeing any of the art in the slide show before. I believe the slide show is supposed to play some music too. I wouldn't know about that because I couldn't get any music to play. From what I did get to hear (in the game), Kaviyd chose some appropriate music. One tune, Three Ravens, I thought was particularly fitting (it is planned to be the main tune in my own upcoming mod, Captain of the Guard). This game uses some cool new icons. I believe that some of them are by Autery, the master of icon creation. Perhaps the best art in the game is the overland map. It is a color cycling map of Arthur's realm and is surely an original by Kaviyd or one of his contributors. The last good thing that comes to mind about this mod is the very informative text file that comes with it and the way the modules design and text events really back up what you are told in the text file.
With all that being said, I suppose we've gotten to the bad stuff (let's call it the UNgood). All of the combats in this game are set so that you can not win them. You are fighting against a giant ghost and his armies, but you have no chance of defeating him in combat. Fortunately, the combats are set to PARTY NEVER DIES, but that sucks some of the realism right out of the mod. Your character, Gwalhafed (Galahad), is a pretty good fighter, but the mod doesn't allow you to really prove that. Most of the NPCs are good fighters, but they never have a chance to win. You don't have to kill the bad guy in order to kill him. Instead, you will discover some of his remains and throw them into the sea. There is only one real error that I found in this mod. It seems that you could get two versions of the same NPC in your party at the same time. I believe that Kaviyd has fixed that problem, so the majority of you won't have that happen.
In conclusion, I thought this mod was pretty good. I didn't like the combats, but I did get the feeling that I was travelling through England under the banner of King Arthur. This mod was designed for the 1995 UA Halloween contest. It finished second, but I don't believe it was appropriate for the contest. Gwalhafed and the Giant Ghost is not a horror or even a spooky mod. It is more of your basic fantasy adventure mod. This is supposed to be the start of a series by Kaviyd. I'm sure the sequels will be just as good, if not better. I would recommend that you download this mod at your convenience and play it whenever you feel particularly chivalrous.
Ratings: (on a weighted scale from 1 to 10, 5 being average)
Plot: 6
Art: 8
Hacks: 7
Text: 8
Events: 7
Originality: 8
Errors: 8
Difficulty: N/A (you don't really have to try)
Overall: 76 % (a good B by our rating)
"I see you return, Josk. What news do you bring? I trust it is good," you ask as Josk enters your chamber. His body scrunched over to keep from grinding his fur covered hair on the ceiling of your crypt.Once again, the mists have cleared and Ravenloft awaits."I fear it is bad, milord," responds Josk with a raspy, harsh voice. "It seems that the vistani were correct. A powerful cleric has come to Mordeth and the masses are rushing to his cause. He is bent on freeing Mordeth from your control."
"If only you knew how absurd that sounds, Josk. Mordeth can't be freed from my control. I am Mordeth. I am the lord, the law and the land. Without me, there is no Mordeth," you say with an ever widening grin. "Take the pack and surround this cleric's camp. I will journey there at dawn. I shall make this cleric aware that I have always been and always shall be...the Master of My Domain."
"Master of My Domain" is the sequel to "Necessary Evil."
Features:
New art (pics, icons, maps)
New wilderness combat art
New wall art
New music
New player icon
A Lich player character
and whatever else I can come up with!!
Title: Master of My Domain
Author: UAGansta
Release: Mid January
John
Is uanl@aol.com still a valid address? An e-mail to there hasn't bounced, but neither has it been replied to. For that matter, is UANL still a going concern?
TIA,
Bill B.
bblohm@boi.hp.com
Alas, uanl@aol.com is no longer a valid address for entry into the UANL. You must use uanl2@aol.com. As for whether or not UANL is still a going concern, well...I would have to give a resounding "yes" as my answer! :D --John
I did appreciate your article recommending backing up of UA game files -- it is an excellent idea. However, I am a little nervous about your advice to module designers to create batch files to apply and remove hacks. As I pointed out at least once before, many people (including some who do not know what they are doing) will be uploading modules. I REALLY do not want to have to trust a module designer to create a batch file that applies and removes hacks correctly. That is one of the main motivations behind that new linker for UATOOLS -- it makes swapping hacks a much safer process.
Kaviyd
Well, one of our own staffers! Hi! Anyway, I hear what you're saying, but there are a couple of fine points: 1) When the article was first written (and even published), neither UAT130 nor BATCH130 (the files that have the new linkers) were available. 2) Many people are, unfortunately, reluctant to go through the horrendous learning curve of UATOOLS, and they do not as yet understand that you can make a UATOOLS-compatible module (and, hence, a BATCH130-compatible module) without using UATOOLS--just by renaming files. Since these folks are reluctant to rename the files properly (hey, my own mod used this method! :D), the usage of batch files is (for the time being) an acceptable workaround. However, in the future, I will be 100% UATOOLS-compatible, and I (personally--there is no official UANL position on this) implore everyone else to be. After all, you have to rename the files to *something*, it might as well be compatible with UATOOLS!!--John
Let me start by saying I love the NL!! My question is: How do you capture music from other games to get into UA? I wanted to get music from Eye of the Beholder II. I don't know if your familiar with that one, but is there a certain way to get music from any game?
Steve
Thanks for the boost of ego! We're all very glad you love the NL! The more people who love the NL, the better! Now, on to actually answer your question: Grabbing music from most games is going to be considered illegal, just as grabbing art from most games is illegal. However, since EoB2 is an SSI game, we don't have to worry about it. On the other hand, grabbing music from EoB2 is nearly impossible. The little music I *did* get from it was actually gotten from the demo I have on some CD or another. Grabbing music from many games (such as Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession, and Buck Rogers: Matrix Cubed) is as simple as downloading and running RIPXMI on whatever files look like they have music. Then, you need to use XMI2MID to convert the XMI to a MIDI file. Then, you need to edit the file (as per the instructions given in UANL10 and UANL12) so that it can work with UA. Then, you need to obtain MIDIFORM (which is in newer versions of MIDPAK and DIGIPAK. Then, you use MIDIFORM to convert the music from MIDI back to XMI format. Finally, you copy it over your old UA music files, and make sure it works. Long process? You bet--that's why there's so little music uploaded! :D--John
Rules: (Official as of now)
John
A snow covered wasteland grants false security as malevolent arctic beasts threaten to consume unwary travelers. Some beasts are more hungry than others...
Do you need pictures of your UA towns and cities? How about magical items? Or maybe a background picture for your figures? Instead of drawing it by hand two dimensionally (which can be a chore), how about rendering it in three dimensions?
3D rendering has many advantages, when compared to working in 2D. The first is its simplicity: wire frames the base of all 3D rendering programs, are much easier to plot than drawing the picture. Perspective, lighting and shadows, and viewing angles are all handled by the rendering program, leaving your creative juices much less to consider.
The next advantage is quality. Drawing a quality picture in 2D is quite an undertaking (even for me). It takes a lot of practice, patience, and persistence (talent is made up of these qualities). In 3D rendering, quality is a given, and texture mapping (wrapping a two dimensional texture around an object) assures it. Texture mapping makes your objects very realistic, as real textures from real objects can be used. Creating textures is easily done. You can draw them by hand (gasp), as any 2D art can be used as a texture. You can scan it from every day objects; like the wood grain of a plank of wood, the patterns from the wallpaper in your room, or the chrome like steel of the bottom of an iron (the possibilities are endless). Lastly you can use the thousands and thousands of textures available online or from the commercial market. Another advantage of 3D art is that because it is easier for a computer to handle plot lines than it is for it to handle pixels, resizing or reshaping the objects will not reduce its quality (this is a godsend to any two dimensional artist).
The last advantage is speed, because of the time saving techniques of is simplicity a quality three dimensional picture can be done in a fraction of the time it takes to draw the same by hand. What does this mean? Well in UA terms, your quality module can be done faster. Things like wall art, overland maps and battle area, scenic pictures, object art, even people and monsters can all be done on a 3D rendering program.
Now to review some 3D rendering programs:
Note: All references to online (libraries and such) are made to the America Online Service. The Internet, Compuserve, Sierra Online, etc. services may contain the same but cannot be verified by said author. Prices said are suggested retail prices as of December 6, 1995 (Yes, I called the companies myself to get them for you). Therefore, prices may vary by location, retailer, date, and such.
3D Studio and AutoCAD by Autodesk, inc. (both commercial) - 3D Studio $2995 CD\disk - AutoCAD Release 13 $3750 CD\$3995 diskThese are the top boys of their field. In fact professional game and multimedia artists, draftsmen, movie effects studios, & architects all use these programs in their respective fields. These programs handle all the tools that quality 3D rendering programs should: modeling, fonts, material handling, texture mapping, camera views, and lighting. The downside of these programs for UA use is their costs (ouch!). They are a considerable strain on the budgets of most UA artists (Even mine, as they were both reviewed by using the programs at the colleges that can afford to have them). Alas, due to the limited time of use, this resulted in a limited review. A shame as these are two wonderful and highly recommended programs for those who can afford them, still they bear mentioning.
TrueSpace by Caligari Corporation (commercial, demo available online): - TrueSpace2 $795.00 CDTrueSpace offers 3D modeling in a 3D environment. This little ingenious technique in 3D modeling is its greatest asset as well as its worst liability. Modeling in a true 3D area is, at best, tricky and difficult to master. Still, if precision is not your concern, TrueSpace is an easy to use program that provides all the tools necessary in a 3D renderer: modeling, fonts, material handling, texture mapping, camera views, morphing, and lighting. Contained within are several ready made models and textures, and also imports and exports .3ds (3D Studio Format), .dxf (AutoCAD format), .obj (Wavefront objects) as well as a few others making the vast library of objects online available for use in your 3D rendering. In art it imports (for textures) and exports to .dib/.bmp (Bitmap), .jpg (JPEG), .tga (Targa), and for you who wish to do multimedia presentations .avi (AVI) and .flc (Flic). Because of its environment, I cannot recommend this program for UA use, but I suggest you try the demo and see how you fare.
Visual Reality and Simply 3D by Visual Software (commercial) - Visual Reality 2.0 $259.00 CD - Simply 3D $59.00 CDThese programs are my favorites as their costs are relatively low, and offer powerful yet simple to use rendering tools. Visual Reality contains all the tools for 3D renderings: modeling, fonts, material handling, texture mapping, camera views, morphing, and lighting (this is starting to be redundant, but I tried to keep a standard in the products I reviewed). Contained within are over 500 ready made models (registering will get you more), including furniture, scenes from a medieval castle to a space city (all fully furnished), and (my favorite) lots and lots of dinosaurs (all in various poses). Also included are hundreds of textures (too many to count) backgrounds, even AVIs (for moving backgrounds, also by the way AVIs can be mapped onto objects--think about it--you can create a working TV or movie screen. Unfortunately it can't really be used for UA, but still fun). Though limited in exporting models (in fact it only exports to Visual Software tools), it imports .dxf (AutoCAD), .obj (Wavefront objects), as well as .wmf (Windows MetaFile) and .ai (Adobe illustrator) which both can be extruded into a 3D object. In art it imports (for textures, backgrounds, as well as cutouts to be seamlessly placed onto a scene) & exports to .bmp (Bitmap), .gif (GIF), .jpg (JPEG), .ras (SunRAS file), .raw (Raw files), .rgb (RGB files), .tga (TARGA), and .tif (TIFF, though it seams a bug in the program causes TIFF files to be imported as a garbled mass). For those wishing to do multimedia files it also exports to .AVI files.
Simply 3D is basically Visual Reality minus the modeling tools and many of the objects and textures. Still, you can extrude .ai (Adobe Illustrator), and .wmf (Windows MetaFile) files into 3D objects. Even with their perspective limitations, both Visual Reality and Simply 3D are highly recommended for your 3D rendering needs.
Well that's it for this issue! Oh! By the way, the picture included (figure1.pcx) was rendered with Visual Reality (reviewed above). Until next time, this is...
-Dika Wolf (dikawolf@aol.com)
ERRATA: I've said in past reviews that Photoshop does not allow you to reduce colors to any amount you want, I've found recently that this is not true. In fact Photoshop does it better than any art program I've reviewed. My apologies for this mistake, if there are others y'all should let me know (sheesh!).
figure1.pcx
Hey, there! A lot of folks won't trust me writing an art column--and who can blame them? I'm not an artist--and many of you can corroborate that! However, I seem to have a special gift with Backdrops and Wall Art, so I am focusing a series of articles on this type of newly- editable art.
In this first article, we cover the basics of backdrop editing: Simple things, like cut-and-paste (my specialty!), and a Backdrop Master Sheet. These are the first steps toward backdrop mastery.
So how will these articles run? Well, each will start off with a bit of an introduction (what you just saw), a short bit to describe the last article (that would normally be here), a list of the programs and hardware you will need for the current "lesson," and then we'll get right into the article itself, explaining the nuances of drawing in the 3-d perspective. Pretty soon you will realize that drawing in 3-d is actually *easier* than drawing in 2-d!
So, what will we need this time out? Here's the checklist. Note that if there is an Asterisk (*) next to something, you *need* it, but if there is a Dollar Sign ($) next to it, you don't necessarily need it-- it just helps. Here we go!
* Microsoft Windows 3.1 or higher * 4 Meg of RAM * Paint Shop Pro 3.0 or higher * Deluxe Paint II Enhanced * UA256 * A text-file (plain text) editor--DOS EDIT will do. $ Neopaint 3.0 or higher $ Video card that supports 16-bit (65,535 colors) or higher color depth in Windows. $ It is advisable that you have more than 4 Meg of RAM, but it should suffice--I hope! I happen to belong to the elite group with 16, so I rarely get too much slow-down from this process.First tip of all is to download every backdrop online--even the ones which have been marked unusable (due to copyright problems--Any World of Xeen backdrop immediately pops into mind). Download them all. (Trust me.) Now that that's done, let's take a gander at what we've got:
We have a lot of backdrops that are obviously cut-and-pastes from not only UA, but other games such as (but not limited to) Pools of Darkness, World of Xeen, and Doom. (Note that World of Xeen art is no longer accepted for upload on America OnLine.) It's not enough. Use your favorite screen-capture program to screen-grab all of UA's default backdrops--just to make sure you have them all.
So what now? Well, fire up Paint Shop Pro for Windows! (This is why you needed Windows and Paint Shop Pro.)
Using Paint Shop Pro, convert all of these LBM files into PCX files. (You may have a better package to do this with, such as Graphics Workshop or Hijaak--Naturally you can use those if you wish! You can also convert them with Deluxe Paint II Enhanced.) This is an important step for our first lesson: The Backdrop Master Page!
Now that you have a PCX file for each LBM file (plus your UA screen grabs), go into Neopaint. (There is a PIF file for those who like to run under Windows all the time. I do this--because I'm on Win95 and really have little choice. One odd little aside: When I was running Windows for Workgroups 3.11, Neopaint ran *faster* under Windows than under DOS! Check this option out if you have the computing horsepower!) Anyway, open up Neopaint, and select a resolution in at least 16-bit color. You can only do 16-bit color on version 3.1 or higher, otherwise you will have to do 24-bit color. It really doesn't matter one way or the other--backdrops each have a maximum of 32 colors, so it would take 2,000 backdrops on a page (much more than we will allot room to) before there would be a problem! What? Your video card doesn't support high-color or true-color (16- or 24-bit, respectively) video modes? You have two choices: Skip to the part for users without high-color video cards, or upgrade. (The former is cheaper, the latter is faster and gives better image accuracy and quality.)
Okay, so you're in Neopaint, in high-color mode. What next? Well, create a new image (File menu, New) at a size of...hmmm...Well, I use 1600x1200--but that's probably too big for most of you. (It's a bit big for me, but I ran out of at 1024x768, then again at 1280x1024! I have a lot of backdrops that haven't been uploaded yet, obviously!) Now, open every PCX copy of every backdrop you have--ignore the warning asking you to change video modes (use the option to convert the image to the current mode). You don't have to open them all at once, BTW. Select every backdrop (be careful to *only* get the backdrop!) from their original files, and use the Copy command (Edit menu, Copy). Go back into the backdrop master page (Neopaint allows you to keep multiple files open at once), and paste them into that page. Note that you will have to do this one at a time, so it may be a bit repetitive and boring. Once this is done, save the backdrop master page. Use a name you're likely to remember, such as BDROPMST.PCX or something similar. (Mine is either BDROPMST.PCX or BDRPMAST.PCX, I don't quite recall.) This will be a *very* large file--undoubtedly in excess of 1 Meg.
What? You don't have a video card that supports 16- or 24-bit color in Neopaint? That's okay, because you can use 16- or 24-bit color files even in 16 or 256 color modes in Paint Shop Pro for Windows! However, the display will look messed up, so be prepared. The steps are otherwise identical.
So now you have a big page with all the backdrops on it. How do you use it? Well, it's very complicated, so let's see what we can do to explain it.
You plan your backdrop. Let's say you want your backdrop to be a plain gray floor and a wood ceiling. You would use the selection tool (in either Paint Shop Pro or Neopaint) and select the gray ceiling from Marble. You would use the Copy command. Then you would use the New command (File menu, New) to create a new image. The size of the image would be 90x90, and in Paint Shop Pro, you would want to specify the number of colors to be 16.7 million. Use the Paste command, and position the ceiling so the the bottom of it is one pixel from the bottom of the image. Use the Flip Horizontal command, and your ceiling instantly becomes a floor! (For Paint Shop Pro users, the process is slightly different: Use the Paste as New Image command, use the Flip Horizontal, copy it again, then Paste as New Selection in the 90x90 image that you previously created.)
Okay, you've got a floor made from the Marble backdrop's ceiling. You like it, but you want a wooden ceiling for it, to top off the look. Select the wooden ceiling from the Wood backdrop, copy it, and paste it into the image. Position it so that the top of the ceiling is one pixel from the top of the image. (In Neopaint, at 640x480, you can see a one-pixel difference on a 14" or higher monitor. In Paint Shop Pro, you can use the zoom function to zoom in as far as you need to go. At 1024x768, I usually zoom in 3:1, as it nearly approximates the proper sizing for a 320x200 image.)
If you did these steps properly, you have a six-to-eight pixel blank gap in between two backdrop pieces. (If not, that's okay--your backdrop is still quite usable, but it won't look quite right. Most of mine that are uploaded don't for this very reason, in fact.) Generally, in most UA (and Pools of Darkness, and Buck Rogers) backdrops (excluding outdoor scenes), there was a small pattern in that area representative of the environment. (In UA and POD, it's usually just a very dark gray or brown solid fill; in Buck Rogers it was often a type of futuristic-looking pattern.) Since we're trying to be easy, we'll just take a dark brown color, and fill in the gap area with that. (Fancy types might try a top-to-bottom gradient from a shade of brown to a shade of gray.)
Well, now, that backdrop is done. And it looks quite nice, too! Wait, we're not quite finished yet! Nope, this is where it gets complicated. (By the way, I will probably not repeat this in every article, so memorize this process. It'll save you some frustration.) Save this backdrop as something like MRBWOD.PCX, and fire up Paint Shop Pro. Open this image in Paint Shop Pro, and use the Reduce to X Colors command. A dialog box should pop up. In the text box, type 32 (this is the number of colors to reduce to), and click on "Nearest Color." Use the Zoom function to view the image at a size close to what it would look like in UA. (On my 1024x768, I zoom 3:1; at 640x480, you should zoom 2:1; I'm not sure about other resolutions.) Make sure the image looks okay, then save it (keeping the same name.)
Nope, we're still not done. Quite Windows, and go to DOS. Run UA256 on your image. The command line should be something like:
UA256 MRBWOD MRBWOD01When the menu pops up, use option 2 (Pic). Move the selection box until the entire backdrop is within the white frame. Hit Enter. Now, you should have an image file named MRBWOD01.PCX. We're almost done. Fire up Deluxe Paint II Enhanced. Load in your image. Looks nice, doesn't it? The next step is to go into the palette, and swap all of the colors of the backdrop (they'll start at #33, if you count the first color as #1) with the colors starting at color #144 (#145, if you're counting the first color as #1). These colors should start at the top color nine rows in from the left. Once this is finished, click on Done. Use the ReMap Palette command (remapping to the new palette), and save this image using Save As. Keep the same filename, but save it as an LBM file.
Now you are done. Your backdrop is completed. A lot of work for some simple cut-and-paste, huh? ;) Make sure to run your image through the backdrop editor to make sure it works!
Next time around, we'll have some real fun. We'll actually modify the artwork with our own little touches, and try to make some usable backdrops out of 'em! Till then, this is John!
--Ekstra
Ummm... well... enough about that. ;] <grin>
Although I've written several articles for the NL, I've always just jumped in with both feet... as if I were here all along. So, I hope I can be forgiven for taking a few moments to ramble before beginning the article itself. ;>
First, allow me to introduce myself; I'm Dan Autery <yes, Autery *is* my real name... who'd make something like that up? ;), and I carry a sense of humor... ;P <grin>
I also create combat icons. Sometimes I mug, borrow, or retouch existing ones, but for the most part, I try to bring something new to UA with each new upload. ;>
I do take requests. ;) Most of the icons I've created started out from someone e-mailing me personally, posting a message on the boards, or submitting a desperate plea to the UANL Want Ads. ;]
I'm not very fast, though... :/ Actually drawing an icon takes me an average of 3 hours, and that's when the muse is upon me. Lately, the muse has been on vacation to Rio or some other exotic locale. ;p Believe me, I feel at least as frustrated (perhaps more so) about this as those who're waiting for me to send them something.
Still, three hours isn't bad for a person who's not actually an artist...;> If you can't bear with a frightening delay, and there's nothing in the AOL UA art folder that suits you're needs, there *is* another way... ;>
Yes, it could be time to dust off that old (or new) paint program and start plugging away. ;)
Hmmm... and that just happens to bring us to....
To start off, a little preparation was required... I needed a subject. Since the NL theme was a winter one, a timber wolf seemed ideal. ;> That decided, it was time to start Neopaint. :::It always seems easier to choose what to draw *before* opening the paint program... Staring at a blank template and waiting for inspiration gives me horrible flashbacks of my old college English days.. ::: ;p
After loading the template (c_misc.pcx, depicted in UANL13), I chose a wide icon box to work with. :::Wolves are small <generally>, but any icon is easier to depict when you have plenty of room to work::: ;> I also copied the template to a new name so I wouldn't forget to do it later.
c_misc.pcx from UA Newsletter #13
The final stage in preparation was altering the combat icon palette.. Generally, modifying the palette isn't a wise thing to do (since it has no effect in UA), but there's one color that should be changed from the default if you intend to do any copying, cutting, or pasting. That color is #79 on the combat icon palette.
Note: if you're not sure which color is which, double-click any color on the palette. The "palette editor" menu will come up with a box depicted around the color you clicked on; the number will be listed in another box to the lower right.
In the drawcpic.pcx (and c_misc.pcx), color #79 is the same as color #255 (the transparent color). When you copy an icon (or sprite) without changing that color, Neopaint will usually switch colors to the non-transparent one.. and since they both look the same, this won't be obvious until the artwork is imported into UA. If you've ever seen a white border around part of an icon after importing it, that's the effect I'm referring to...
Preparation done, it was time to actually start drawing...
c_how2wf.pcx
:::Although the icon was eventually intended to be a white wolf, against the pale green, transparent color, it was easier to view with darker shades than lighter ones:::
Deciding that the tail outline needed changing, I erased it and modified the shadow below it... again, as an idea for what I later intended. The outline of the front legs was then added, as was the rest of the lower body, and a rough outline of the mane.
This was easily repaired after returning to Neopaint. First, I made a copy of the missing detail area by removing all of the other colors from a copy of the unmodified version.. with the universal (?) fill tool (the one that looks like two tubes of paint). After pasting this over the icon, I used the same tool to change all but the two darkest colors to lighter shades. I also added touches of pure white at strategic locations. :::If I'd simply used the "lighten" effect, the wolf would've looked rather ghostly... more appropriate for the Halloween issue of the NL than this one.. ;> :::
Finally, since I thought others would appreciate having more than one wolf for their campaigns <the brown ones were certainly usable ;>, I created a slightly different pose for the newer wolf by modifying its front legs, giving it a lunging attack, and adding the appropriate adjustments to its shadow.
Enjoy!
c_wolf02.pcx
That's all for this month.. ;> I hope this article has proven insightful, has given you a few ideas of your own, or at least has provided a chuckle or two to warm your imagination. ;D
Until next time, this has been...
Dan Autery <autery@aol.com> ;p
For all who are looking for a screen grab utility, I have the following ftp addresses that should prove useful for finding the newest version of PCXDump: ;>
oak.oakland.edu/simtel/msdos/graphics garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/graphicsThe former has a maximum user number of 196, the latter is limited to 100 users at a time. Another possible site is:
wuarchive.wustl.edu/mirrors/msdos/graphics.:::I was unable to access this last site, but it also has a 100-user limit, and was full at the time I checked.:::
Note: The oakland site apparently has the *most recent* version (9.3). Look for a file called "pcxdmpXX.zip" where XX is the version number. For example, the garbo.uwasa site listed above has the file, pcxdmp92.zip (which is version 9.2). :]
AOL users can find a host of screen grab utilities by using the "Go To" menu, followed by the "Search Software Libraries" utility. At the next screen, type in "screen grab." At my last check, 48 different programs were listed.
Good luck and Happy Gaming! ;D
<<Note from John: If you have Win95, you have no need of a screen grabber. While you are playing a DOS game (provided that Win95 didn't force you into its "MS-DOS Mode"), you can just hit Print Screen. Then, use ALT+TAB to move back into Windows, open up any paint program, and use the Paste command. Voila! This works on ANY game that will work under Win95--I've tested it on Ravenloft I (Strahd), a bunch of LucasArt games, Doom, etc. Note that you can still only use SSI art in a game, so being able to capture from Doom and LA games does not help much, but I digress...>>
Autery
Yes, there are two ftp sites on the Internet that carry UA material. :] There's actually a couple of ways to get there: If you have AOL version 2.5, you can go to the FRUA web page; the address is:
http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/usr/jk9t/From there, links are provided for navigation to both of the ftp sites.:)
Otherwise, the direct way is to go to keyword "Internet." When the next screen comes up, click on the button labeled <ftp>. At the following screen, click on <go to ftp>, then click on <other site>. From there, you can go directly to the UA ftp sites by typing one of the following:
ftp.csua.berkeley.edu/pub/frua ftp.cco.caltech.edu/pub/UAUA, frua, and pub in the above addresses are case sensitive. If you type "Pub," for instance, you'll be told that the address couldn't be found (or something similar).
It's no bother at all. :] I'm glad to help in whatever way I can.
If it's any help, I wrote an article for UANL13 that describes what to do when using UA Tools to modify the character icon file. I'd suggest that as a good place to start. :] However, the best thing to do for installing UATools is to print out the download description. :] That gives an in-depth description of what new and old users need to do prior to and during installation.
The most important thing to do before installing UATools is to upgrade your version of UA to 1.3. Then, make a copy of your FRUA program (and any games you've created) and store them elsewhere. The chances of UATools messing up your game are almost nil, but it's better to play it safe from the very start. :]
I can't stress this enough; *Always* back up your FRUA files..
After that, you can safely unzip UATools in your main FRUA directory and read the setup instructions. The UATools package is actually a zipped file containing several other zipped files, so you needn't worry that things will go in the wrong place if you just want to unzip it first. :] I'd suggest creating the document directory first, then unzipping the doc (text) files into that. The best bet is to print out all of the docs--they're fairly in-depth.
Basically, you'll need to create several new sub-directories in your frua directory. The Daimyo and Docs directories aren't needed for UATools itself.
The former is simply for an included game that uses some of the UATool hacks, and the latter is for the text files describing how to use the program. If you make a print-out of the latter, there's little reason to keep them on the hard drive (though it'd probably be a good idea to store the entire uatool13.zip archive on disk).
All the information needed to install UATools is contained in the readme.1st file. :] It's pretty easy actually -- create 4 directories, extract the appropriate zip files into them, then run 3 .bat files -- the difficult parts lie in complex changes to UA, and even those can be mastered with time and patience. :]
:::Note: the following also addresses a previous question on the use of the Utilities event:::
Even if you're limited to a low baud rate, I'd recommend trying to grab "Thieves' Run" (called "trpdsn11.zip") from AOL or one of the frua ftp sites. It's only about 55Kbytes, the majority of which is imported artwork (for the special effects ;).
I used the Utilities event quite frequently in "Thieves' Run" because it's one of the only events in which you can do two (or more) things at once. :] In this case, I used it to give two quests, items, or keys at the same time. Thieves' Run also takes advantage of the concept of using keys and items as the "quest" in quest events. ;>
Hmmm... More specifics on items and keys, eh? ;) Well, I'll do the best I can. :] First, items and keys are treated much the same as quests in UA. In fact, you can use them in exactly the same way. The only difference is that as soon as 1 or higher is stored in the item or key, it'll show up in the party inventory. Note that the actual number doesn't show up, so if you have 1 amber key (for instance) or 25 (as a quest variable) the player will only see "amber key" in the inventory.
One advantage of using utilities (or quests) with automatic failure or completion is that it allows a designer to re-use some of his items, keys, and quests. :]
For example, lets say that the party in your game is required to find a platinum sceptre (an item) at one point in its journey. You, as the designer, could program certain events to happen once the party has the sceptre -- i.e, when the party returns to the queen with the item, she congratulates the player via a text event. The Text event condition (on page one) could be set to "only happens if <party has platinum sceptre>." But, if you want to use the sceptre as a trigger for differing events, a better way to set the condition here is "only happens if <quest in progress> (the quest being "platinum sceptre").
This allows you to set up other conditions for owning the sceptre. In this case, the queen could say, "Congratulations, adventurers. But I must warn you that the powers of the sceptre are useless to you until you unlock it's secrets. You must seek the answers within the College of the Bardic Masters."
Within the college, you could then set up an encounter with a sage (who must be rescued from the dreaded paper & quill golems ;). In gratitude for his rescue, the sage aids the party... in this case, by setting its "platinum sceptre quest" to completed.
The latter can be done with a quest event (set to "automatic acceptance") or a utilities event that stores 255 in the "platinum sceptre" quest.
Utilities gives you a bit more flexibility here and allows for different ways to accomplish the same goal. The quest event used above would require the party to get the sceptre before triggering these events. Using utilities, the sage could be rescued first -- giving the needed information -- and then the party could be sent to find the sceptre.
This could be accomplished by setting the quest to failed if the party meets the sage, but doesn't have the sceptre -- keep in mind that it won't matter whether the sceptre quest is failed, completed, or in progress to the party. The sceptre will still show up in inventory. In this case, failure of the quest is just a temporary condition. ;>
Here's how I'd set it up:
At the Queen's palace (Set the following events to "do only once."):
At the place where the party finds the sceptre:
I know this last sequence is a bit complex, but it's basically set up to do several jobs at once. First, it allows combat with the guardian. Then it allows the party to pick up the sceptre now... or return for it later. The quest or question event (depending on what the party did before getting here) will continue to fire until the player answers yes to the question. The last event will only happen if the party has previously answered <yes> to one of the above questions and then came back to this area. :]
And this should give a pretty good idea of how the rest of the adventure would be set up. ;>
So, you've been playing mods for a while now, and you'd like to design one of your own, but you're not really sure HOW. Well, I've got a lot of tips for you...
My first point: Start SMALL. Working on your first mod and _finishing_ your first mod are two different things. It seems easier to crank out a big mod after you've already got some experience (it just SEEMS easier :). Another advantage to making a small mod is that it is enough to establish your ability in the UA community: Us old hands are more likely to take on chance on a newcomer if it involves a short download time. On the other hand, if your mod is big and GOOD, it's forgivable.
My second point: Be distinctive. If you've got a particular talent or interest, use it to make your mod unique. Some examples: PCC JohnR's first mod was set in the modern day, and his next mod will also occur then. DBoyd's first mod featured a main character with a twisted past. My own mods have centered around unusual main characters. If you've always wanted to create an adventure whose villain is a well-meaning Paladin whose strict morality is destroying those around him, DO IT!
Pay attention to criticism. By reading the reviews and tips in this NL, on the boards, and wherever else they appear, you can see what people don't like in mods. Being aware of common problems can help you to avoid them. Also, by playing a lot of mods, you can identify those elements that annoy you, and those that you enjoy, and design your own mod accordingly.
Our review categories can help you out, too. Take a look at those elements that we consider: They're important.
Your own playtesting can catch major problems and fatal errors, like quests that don't actually happen, or the somewhat common one-way staircase. What you won't catch are the reactions that somebody who isn't familiar with your mod, and may not think the way you do, will have. There are plenty of UAers who will gladly check your mod out and give you comments (if you ask nicely :).
So start planning! And watch this space for more helpful observations!
Narsham
Quests, quest stages, and all of the various things that go with them, are vital tools for the designer. I'm going to go over some of the basics of quests, and then give you some suggestions on how to use them.
Quests operate by storing a number between 0 and 255. In other words, if you ask UA to do something with, say, Quest 14, UA will check the number stored in Quest 14. For UA purposes, 128 indicates a failed quest, while 255 indicates that the quest is complete.
Knowing this, we can examine the possible conditions and uses of a quest. For example, consider the uses of our proposed Quest 14, for triggering events:
Party does not have Quest 14--in other words, Quest 14=0. Party has Quest 14--in other words, Quest 14 is anything but 0. Quest in Progress--in other words, Quest 14 is anything but 0, 128, or 255. Quest Failed--Quest 14=128. Quest Complete--Quest 14=255.In addition, Quest Stage events may be used. These events will trigger only when the number stored in the appropriate quest is one less than the stage number of the event. Example: A Quest Stage event set to go off at stage 5 of Quest 14 will not occur until Quest 14=4.
For beginning designers, it's usually best to minimize the complexity of quests. Just the five different triggering conditions I've listed can be more than enough, on occasion. Therefore, if you're just starting out, I have the following recommendations.
Under this system, Quests indicate, not the assigning of a mission, but the completion of a mission. While this does simplify things considerably, it doesn't allow for a non-linear sequence of events, nor does it permit events to occur only when the party is on one specific quest (well, actually, this is possible, but it requires you to check that the party has completed the quest before the one they're on now, and hasn't completed the quest they're currently on).
ALTERNATIVELY, you can use Quest Stage events to set quests to complete after they're completed. This makes the most sense in the game, although it does make things a little more complicated for the designer (since a Quest can now be in one of three states, instead of two). Under this system, the quest is given to the party when it is assigned (or when they accept it), and is set to complete when it is finished.
(PS: Thanks to anyone who contributes these, as we need to spread the word when they are found!)
--John
When in the Encamp menu, the picture automatically switches to whatever is in Camp2 Pic after selecting spells. That means you select Camp3 as the picture while designing, then the player encamps. They see Camp3... but they choose spells to memorize. Suddenly after the memorization selection has been completed, it switches back to the Encamp screen. Now they see Camp2! Oh, well. (I am pretty sure it also works when you view a char. or view the spells that are on them.)
WodahsEht1 (thEshadoW)
P.S. - Another bug (it's been reported already) happened to me... I lost my Basilisk spot. Only re-creation of the design gets it back! Dow! (You CAN, however copy from... in the Edit Modules File menu, saving time.)
Quite some time ago, I reported that the "party never dies" option doesn't always work - namely for "disintegrate" spells. This is in error; when I encountered the bug, I had a "traitor NPC" in the party (basically, an NPC who joins the opposing side in combat). In such cases, the "party never dies" option isn't really available. The game treats the special npc as one who has fled from the combat... in such cases, a party will lose its unconscious or dead pc's if it's defeated.
Sooo, to the best of my knowledge, "party never dies" works correctly.
Autery
Upon transferring, I was given two sets of treasures (one from the zone event, and one from an event set in an entirely different square), and then asked if I wanted to leave the map (ie. it executed the Transfer Module at the destination point). I proceeded to move the entry point off the square of the Transfer Module event, and after doing so, I only got the zone event treasure (it should be noted that neither square happened to be in that particular zone). I had to remove the zone event treasure and set it up as a regular square event.
This happened transferring into map 7. I don't know if it's one of those ultra-unique bugs, or if it's more common...
--Narsham
This quirk could be put to good use in a science fiction module. Let us say that you have a race from a low-gravity world that can only get around in special anti-grav suits. Their classes are set up so that they can always wear heavy armor. So, they would have a movement allowance of 6 or 9 while wearing their special armor, but a movement allowance of 1 if they try to do without it. The "Black Pudding" attack would definitely be the bane of such characters!
--Kaviyd
After seeing a recent question on the UA message boards, I made a few experiments and found an interesting exception to a long-standing UA glitch. Namely, that "execute event at destination" does not trigger properly in overland modules. In fact, most of the time, it doesn't work at all.
What this has meant for designers was that it was never possible to have events trigger as soon as a character party transferred to an overland. In games where the designer didn't know about this quirk, a player could wander a map for hours, never knowing that his/her party was supposed to get instructions, a battle, or some other important event immediately upon arriving...
I've discovered that the glitch can be bypassed, in a round-about way.
First, to get the "execute event at destination" (from either a teleport or transfer module) to work on an overland, your game must be set to "start" at an overland map. (I've been told there are other cases where it can work, but this is the only method I've been able to verify).
The bad news is that the "execute event at destination" won't work on any overland except the one chosen as your starting point (in your "Game Settings"). Furthermore, no matter where the party is teleported to (or transferred to on this map from another), the events that will be triggered by "execute at destination" are the ones at the entry point the game started at.
Thus, if a game were set to start at entry point 1 of overland one, and you set a teleport that asked the party if it wanted to be transferred to entry point 2, the party would be teleported to entry point two, but the events that were triggered afterwards would be those from entry point 1 (i.e., the party would be asked if it wanted to be transferred to the other entry point, even though it was already there..).
An enterprising designer could still find a way around this problem by adding in some sort of quest variable for each possible location, then place the actual events that are supposed to happen at the original entry point.
I.e., don't put the events at the place the party teleports to... put them at the entry point where the game began. ;>
For example, if the characters are meant to trigger a one-time battle on an overland after returning successfully from a dungeon, the actual combat could be placed at the starting entry point of the game, but set to only happen if a certain quest had been completed (ideally, a quest that was completed after conquering the above dungeon's inhabitants).
This has it's limits, obviously, but does give some previously unknown possibilities...
I hope this helps. :D
Autery
"... [W]hy would players want to go adventuring in the Ice Age? There's no metal-working -- ergo no armor, no steel for weapons, and no _money_. There's no civilization -- ergo no castles, no cities, no society (as we tend to think of it) to adventure in. There's no agriculture, no commerce, and no writing: just lots of ice, dangerous animals, and death lurking in every corner...."Survival is indeed the key concern in an Ice Age adventure. A party of player characters would most likely all be members of the same clan (and thus all of the same race). The "Weather" demo could be adapted to represent the hazards of the environment. There was also some recent discussion on the frua-dev mailing list and in the AOL message boards for UA about using quests to keep accurate track of time. These methods could be used to keep track of food (or starvation from lack of same) as well as the size and strength of the clan (which would be reduced by accidents, violent encounters, or starvation; it is unlikely that the adventure will take place on a time scale that would permit clan size to increase to any significant degree)."After reading _The Clan of the Cave Bear_ by Jean Auel, I got a hankering to adventure in the Pleistocene. Cavehalflings danced before my eyes, blizzards blew through my fevered brain, and _survival_ became the only game in town...."
The article in _Dragon_ describes the daily life of these primitive hunter-gatherers. To survive, each adult required one hit die of meat and two bushels of vegetable matter per month, while each child requires half that amount. Each adult is available two days per week for obtaining food; the rest of the time is consumed by mundane chores such as preparing food and making and repairing weapons, tools, and clothes.
Str: 15-19
Int: 3-17
Wis: 6-18
Dex: 3-17
Con: 13-19
Cha: 3-14
Cave-men may be Fighters, Shamans, Druids, Fighter/Magic-Users,
Fighter/Scouts, Shaman/Magic-Users, Druid/Magic-Users, or
Druid/Scouts. They are limited to level 8 as Scouts and to level
2 as Magic-Users (level 3 if intelligence is 16, or level 4 if
intelligence is 17+). Thieving skill adjustments are as for
Half-Orcs. Their racial special ability is "Short Guy MR".
<SPECIAL NOTE: There is a module (!) using this hack included in your > <UANL package! It is in CHILLS!.ZIP! Just UnZIP and run like any other> <UATOOLS module! Special bonus: If you don't have the batch files to > <run UATOOLS modules, they are included! Now, you will EASILY be able > <to link and run modules, as well as restore UA to its default state > <after playing them! See next article for info on this module! >
I tried quite a few new things in this module, and some of them may actually work as I intended them to. The "race check" mentioned in the design notes is simply a string of Utility events that adds one to the Quest 1 variable for each of the six possible races. A Quest Stage event set for stage 2 takes you into the game if only one race is present in the party -- otherwise the game ends.
It is assumed that the player characters are the eight best warriors and spellcasters in the clan -- the rest are currently ineffective in combat but must be kept alive for the future of the clan. Once all the women and children have died out, the clan is doomed even if all of the player characters are uninjured. On the other hand, if the player characters are all killed off, the clan is equally doomed.
Timekeeping and tracking consumables (primarily food) are two problems that have never been satisfactorily solved. One problem is that rest events have a maximum duration of about four hours, which prevents any rest at all if the event has a 100% chance of occurring and prevents accurate timekeeping if there is any lesser chance. I compromised by having a 100% chance of a rest event every four hours -- but only in the daytime. The assumption here is that the clan will normally be active and eat during the day, thus keeping the spellcasters from regaining spells, but nobody will interrupt them at night. Also note that only one zone ("caves") permits rest.
Also, since rest in a Camp event cannot be interrupted, this module includes only two such events -- one at the beginning and one at the end of the module. Also, you may notice that the game never ends if you "win"; instead, you are allowed to rest and train to your heart's content before saving the game and transfering the characters to any sequel that somebody may write to this module.
In any event, the chain of events that follows each step or rest period is as follows:
Weather is handled much as in the old "Weather Demo", but I found one event (a blizzard) that could be handled better as a Combat event. If you ever find the party in combat with "storm spirits", your clan has been caught in a blizzard. You cannot defeat these spirits with weapons, but they are quite vulnerable to fire and magic. The spells that a "storm spirit" can cast rather accurately reflect what can happen to people who are outside during an extremely severe blizzard.
Fire, as mentioned earlier, is a key to survival. If possible, you should have a Cleric with access to level 2 spells cast the "Make Fire" spell on himself. Then, your party will be able to use fire for cooking and warmth for as long as that Cleric remains alive and with the party.
Another key to survival is to choose your battles carefully. Fights with hostile clans are to be avoided if possible, as they are as intelligent as you are and do not make a good source of food (as your clan leaders know from long tradition that human flesh is more likely to make you sick than animal flesh). However, if you see a game animal, attack -- it could give you a week or more worth of food, and you need every bit of extra food you can get.
There are a few items of interest in this module:
Also, Human Magic-Users cannot cast spells while wearing armor unless they are also Rangers of level 9+. Making Humans multi-classed and hacking the items so that Magic-Users can wear armor do not help here.
Rangers of level 9+ can cast Mage spells of up to level 4. They automatically know every Mage spell that they can cast up to their highest level Druid or Mage spell, whichever is less. They can acquire additional Mage spells as they gain levels in the same manner as Magic- Users; this point is especially important for Ranger/Magic-Users. Rangers of level 8 or less cannot cast Mage spells unless they are also Magic-Users of level 1 or higher. Even spells that are already in a Ranger's spell book remain unavailable at level 8.
--Kaviyd
Jim Grunst (dragon21@ix.netcom.com)
Has anyone captured the art from this game, and if not, could someone? I don't have the resources :(
Steve (SYREK@delphi.com)
About the 200x300 size on all 'cept the diety symbols I need really small like 20x20 or something.. but I can shrink 'em how I need em (I hope..) Dika Wolf laughs when someone says they aren't an artist.. ::flashes a red light over his head:: I'm guilty but it's TRUE! ;> I'm even a lousy cut and paster..
;>
Wiz
Artistically deficient.
Anybody who wants to respond to these requests, please contact me at UAGangsta on AOL or by email to uagansta@aol.com
The reason it is included in this fashion is manyfold: For one thing, the story is simply TOO LARGE to be included in the NL. For another, the story arrived very late in the process of the NL's creation, and was submitted in Windows Write format. I, alas, did not have the time to convert it...:( At the same time, I did not want to exclude it. Therefore...It is here, in this form.
Therefore, you can load it up using Windows Write, Windows 95 WordPad, or Microsoft Word. Surely, if you purchased your computer in the 90s, you will have one of the above. (Windows Write comes with *every* installation of Windows--and, to my knowledge, there is no way to circumvent its installation in the Setup program.)
My apologies for this inconvenience. However, it is a REALLY GREAT STORY, so you'll like it anyway! :D
--John
(Fiction by DaNightOwl)
He looked up again. A snowflake landed right on his eye, making him blink rapidly. " Damn and curses!" he shouted to the sky. He raised a mailed fist and shook it at the dark grey cloud cover. After he got his sight back, he slogged forward again, leading his horse. He couldn't ride the animal for fear of stepping off into another hole. The last one, luckily and unhappily, had only managed to dismount him, but had not lamed his horse.
Aramach was unused to this sort of weather. He had come from the south where it rarely got cold, let alone cold enough to snow. If this was any indication of how it was to live this far north, the Corvynn and their ilk were welcome to it! Aramach was sorry he had agreed to come visit his old companion.
The wise fighter stopped a moment and peered with one hand to cover his face. He looked deeply across the drifts and tried to find what his senses told him was there: Danger. Aramach's huge left hand went to draw his sword from its scabbard across his back. He couldn't see it, but he knew there was something nearby. His mother had called it a Gift of Sight, but Aramach fancied it was more like horse sense for bad things that were about to happen near him.
With his sword, Lop, in both his hands, Aramach turned to where he sensed the danger and drew his horse along with the reins in his teeth. At one point he stopped and closed his eyes, waiting. A few seconds of that and Aramach was rewarded with a glow about three spans before him in the snow. It seemed the very air came alive and sparkled as the fighter from Ransdor concentrated on the feeling he had.
In the same instant, Aramach let loose the reins by opening his mouth and lunged forward, bringing the sword high in both hands as the snow exploded into a fury of white, heading his way. Aramach knew not what it was, but he knew that running away was not a thing that would be wise under the circumstances. Better to fight what one doesn't know than to turn's one back upon it.
The sword came whistling down and struck into the maelstrom of snowflakes. It stopped, biting deeply into something. That something arose from the snow, sword stuck in its hide, with a bellow of pain that was unmistakably a telling wound. The sword lifted Aramach a few feet off the ground, his feet even left the depths of the snow. He wiggled himself violently to the left and the right to try to free his weapon, but to no avail. Whatever it was, it was bloody big.
Red hair swirling under his cap, Aramach let loose his own war cry and let go the sword, trying to flip back and away from the beast. He landed, Phwoof! in the snow upon his back and rolled over to regain his footing. The creature lunged forward, dripping a reddish brown ichor upon the snow. Aramach made a grimace of pain as something clamped down very painfully upon his right leg.
He was lifted once again out of the snow, only this time he was upside down. He reached up and pulled free his footman's mace, somehow managing to get the thong around his wrist where it belonged. In that instant, he was whipped around like a cornhusk doll and flew freely away from his horse. He landed with a much less pleasant thud which knocked the wind from him. He heard his horse scream in fright and then there was a loud whacking sound which silenced the horse.
Aramach feared that he had a few broken ribs. He rolled over and grimaced in pain from the force of his landing. He felt around and there was a tree stump under him. For once he was sad that he hadn't landed in the snow. He shook himself off and looked around. His horse was gone and there was a bloody brown trail leading deeper into the wood.
There was nothing to decide. All of Aramach's belongings were on the saddlebags on the horse and his sword, Lop, was still lodged in the beast. Judging from the amount of pain he had suffered and the distance he had flown, Aramach figured the beast would have no problem eating something the size of his horse. How much longer it might live with a span's worth of magicked steel sticking into it was something that Aramach had more trouble in deciding.
Alas, there was only one thing to do if he was going to keep from freezing tonight. He brushed himself off carefully and wiped at his mustache. He readjusted the straps on his helmet and hefted the mace. The now wary fighter also pulled a long dagger from his belt and kept that in his right hand. It would have to do. He had no other weapons on his person. The rest of his combat gear was tied to his horse. Aramach marched into the wood, following the bloody trail in the snow.
He came upon a copse of trees that kept most of the snow out and was grimly satisfied when the trail seemed to be fresh and clean. There was even a bit of steam rising from the trail and that told Aramach that he must be quite close to his quarry. At this point, however, Aramach wasn't terribly certain who was hunting whom? The creature had been very large and hard to see in the snow. Were it not for the fact that Aramach knew he had struck a vigorous blow, he might well have given up on his horse and belongings and tried to make for the next house, village or inn along his way.
He slowed and tried to keep the crunching sound of the snow under his boots as quiet as he could manage. He felt he wasn't doing a very good job. He was still too new to the snow and he clearly didn't wish to stay long enough to get good at this sort of thing. He topped a rise in the wood and peered over as best he could without actually going over the hill.
Gods! It was huge! There it sat at the bottom of the dale, half in half out of the lair it made in the snow. His horse lay stiffly upon the surface of the snow a dozen steps from the creature's grasp. As far as Aramach could tell, the beast had died as it made it to its glade. It had dropped his horse and tried to reach its lair before it expired. It had almost made it.
Still, Aramach had no way of knowing how sly the creature might be in life and assumed that it could be playing a deceit upon him to lure him to his death. The fighter eased up to the creature's flank and carefully aimed a blow at the exposed hindquarters. His mace went whicking down and struck the haunch of the beast. It bounced a bit, but otherwise, it was a very solid strike and should have gotten some reaction. He aimed another blow for the backside of the creature and the result was the same.
Aramach hadn't lived as long as he had without learning a thing or two about caution. He took his dagger and carefully balanced it upon the flesh of the best and then, when he was ready, he leaned all his weight into and let it bite into the beast. It had sunk most of the way in before there was a responsive shudder along the length of the beast! It convulsed and attempted to encounter Aramach, but could not in its current state.
"Well," thought Aramach, " that is the end of that." He now had a dead horse, but all of his gear and a creature, the name of which he knew not. He looked carefully along the length of the animal into the depth of its hiding lair. He tried to peer as far as he could down the hole, but the side of the beast engulfed the entrance completely. There was still the matter of his sword, Lop. He must have it.
Aramach could tell that there would be a problem with this. He was no expert at creatures, to be sure, but he had dealt with enough in his time that he was fairly certain that this was one that would have only the one entrance. He doubted strongly that this beast had any other natural enemies beside brave and foolhardy men. Therefore, it would have only this one entrance to its lair. How was he to gain entry to get the sword?
After a few minutes of intense inspection, Aramach swore under his breath. There was no way that even he, mighty as Aramach was reputed to be, would be able to simply push the beast aside. He would have to cut a way through the earth or the animal. Neither alternative was very satisfactory.
As he approached the monster from the side with his dagger and spear to try to dig out a path in the dirt, Aramach had an idea. Lop would survive the heat and he did need a fire by now. Perhaps he could pour some oil on this foul thing and burn it? He turned and went back to his saddlebags.
With a soft "whoomf" the fire began. Aramach stumbled back as the creature burst into flames much more readily than he had imagined possible. It had singed his eyebrows and mustache, making him slap hurriedly at his face to keep from catching fire himself. He sat back a distance that allowed him to be warmed by the fire, but not too close to the stench of the thing as it was consumed by the flames.
While it burned brightly and violently, it seemed to burn quite slowly. Aramach had time to consider some of the more telling features of the animal. It had a long body and many legs, at least six that Aramach could see on the beast's body that was not inside the hole. It had a brownish undercoat and a large blurred streak of grey white running along its top length that blended slowly to the brown undercoat. Each of the limbs had ended in claw like feet that had little grasping pincers on the end. It had a jointed body, covered with plates that overlapped from front to back.
Aramach considered the makeup of the beast as far as he could tell. It would probably have trouble going backwards into its hole the way the body plates were laid together; they might cause it to get stuck in the dirt or rock as they lifted up from going backwards. The legs looked as if they could be powerful digging claws and the joints looked like they allowed a great degree of flexibility in performing the task of digging through soft earth or even a bit of rock.
There were also things like hair all over its body, only they were very big. Very much unlike the hair a human had. They looked more like the feelers on a catfish. The real difference was that they were all over the back of the creature, like feelers. Aramach nodded to himself. This must be a burrowing beast then. It has claws along its length and it has an ability to sense the surroundings of the terrain without having to come out and be vulnerable to the elements above the ground.
This made Aramach even more unhappy about the North. If there were beasts like this, how did the folk survive? He had never encountered such a creature in his lands South. Ransdor, even the Skrael, began to look a lot better compared to the Corvynn of the Old Empire.
The fire began to die out and Aramach could see that there would still be an unhappy need to use his blade or his spear. He frowned deeply and set his jaw. The warrior took off his cloak, though it was deathly cold, but he was bedamned sure not to want to have that beast's remains all over it if it could be avoided. He was sure that what remained yet to do would cause him to work up a sweat, in any case.
He surveyed the wreck of the body and knew that the best method to acheive his goal would be to start form the middle of the body and cut through, then out. He would have to hack and flay the creature in small measures. He shuddered at the thought of such a grisly task. He stepped up onto the scorched remains of the beast and worked his way up to the hole in the ground. The stench was near overpowering!
As Aramach poked and probed for bones with his spear, he received another surprise from the beast. He pulled the tip of his spear out of a deep soft flashy pouch near the back of what used to be the stomache-- though he was not certain of this-- and saw it blackened and smoking as he withdrew it. Trained as he was, Aramach resisted the urge to cast away his spear. Instead he held it away from him and examined it carefully.
The head of the spear was badly blackened now as was the wooden shaft where it had bit into the pouch. The smoke smelled acrid and sour, stinging his nose and eyes smartly. He backed off the creature and thrust his spear into the snow, stirring it in the powdery flakes. It hissed and smoked even more, giving off an occasional Pop! It slowly quieted and Aramach re-examined the spear.
It looked as if it had been eaten. He held it closer to his eyes and saw the tell-tale marks of something that made him wonder more about the task of retrieving his sword. That was an acid burn. Nothing else he knew could burn metal and wood. It would also burn his clothes and skin, he was certain. Perhaps burrowing around the body wasn't such a bad idea, he mused.
Halfway through the job, Aramach realized that this would not be finished ere the fall of night. He was cold, his horse dead and he was basically lost until the sun rose to show him the east again. It would be wise to make camp. The cold was a real challenge, but it at least kept the smell of death and putrefaction to a more tolerable level. If it were the summer and this task was at hand, Aramach wasn't sure he could stomach it.
As an after thought, Aramach had hacked some holly bushes and lined the entrance to his shelter to discourage any but the hardiest of beasts. He had been told by a townsman the day before that bears and many other such creatures hibernated for the winter, so fears of a large predator were relatively baseless. Still, this thing that lay dead in its burrow had not slept and it was Big!
That evening, Aramach dined on cold venison jerky and some travelling bread. He cleaned off his dagger and did the best he could for his spear, then lay them inside the lean-to where it was driest. He pondered the welfare of Lop, stuck within the head of the beast that had attacked him. It had acid in it and that meant that Aramach was probably very lucky. It also meant that Lop might be eroded in the morning. Still, though it pained Aramach to think it, it was not worth freezing to death in the middle of the night.
He settled in for the dark of night and pulled a metal pot out and poured some of the mulled cider out of his water skin into it. He placed the pot next to the fire and looked up at the sky. As his eyes adjusted to the night above him, he listened to the sounds of the pot hissing and popping as it was warmed by his campfire.
The snow was coming down now in little flakes and they were widely spaced. When he could fully see in the dark, he could make out rents in the cloud cover. From these, tiny stars showed through, blinking and burning, like snowflakes of light, Aramach mused. It seemed for a moment that Aramach was somewhere else, some other time. He blinked away the thoughts as he blinked a snowflake out of his eye.
He sat there, before drifting off to sleep, sippng his hot mulled cider, watching the stars and snowflakes. After a time, the snow stopped entirely and the moon came out from behind the clouds. She was almost full, waxing so, and the pearlescent light she cast upon the snow and trees made Aramach's heart ache from the lovliness of the sight. It reminded him of the love that had eluded him all his life. Of the friends he had and those who were no longer alive. Of all the times that he wished he might have been something other than a warrior, someone more respected for the ability to create good, not to destroy evil.
He set the cup of cider down and said aloud a prayer to E' loi Shu'lar`a, the Mother of Good, his patron deity to whom he was sworn. " Oh, Mother, bring to me the strength to continue. Give me the courage and the wisdom to keep true to my vows. Help me to see the good and rightness of what I do, to avoid making use of my skills for evil , wittingly or unwittingly."
A tear eked out of the corner of Aramach's left eye, then one on the right, blurring his vision into a smeared starscape of moonlight on shadow of shadow black night. Somehow, to Aramach, it made it all the more beautiful to see it this way, forcing an emotion out of him he had not felt since he was a child-- passion for life.
" Oh, Mother, please let me see your path and keep with me the light of your greatness. Let me never forget why you chose me to be what I have become. Lastly, E'loi Shu'lar`a, Mother of Good, the Night and Winter, teach me to become more than what I am, by showing me who I have been." The last was said with a sob that almost made it impossible to tell what he said, but Aramach knew the Mother had heard. The moment was too powerful for her to have ignored him. She heard.
He had to sit there, blinking away the tears and calming his heart for many minutes. He finally had himself back under control and then he picked up his cup of cider. It was still warm. Aramach quaffed the rest of his drink in a long, languid draught, inhaling deeply and contentedly when he set the cup down. He felt the power of sleep creeping upon him and he felt the warmth of the cider seeping into him from inside. Before he lay down, he banked the fire to keep the coals alive and set a few large branches over the firepit in case more snow should fall. It would not do to have the fire go out completely.
It was a dog. It had been around for more than a few minutes as there were tracks all over the place. Aramach also noted that the sky was clear and blue and the sun was just making the east turn orange and red with impending sunrise. He could still make out the morning star and a few others. Yes! There was the star of the Mother, just above the treeline! As he noted it, it seemed to wink out.
He heard the crunch of snow under heavy feet. That was not a dog. Aramach decide that it was time to awake and get up. He pulled his cloak about him and pushed aside the holly. As he stepped out he heard a sharp gasp of surprise. He turned to look.
It was a woman, dressed to be hard to see in the snow and the wood. She had somehow missed Aramch's shelter for a pile of -- well, it did look a lot like a snow covered bush, thought Aramach. He smiled at her and held out his hands in a sign of peace. She lowered the bow and relaxed the nock of her arrow. She whistled.
The dog came bounding from over where Aramach had found the creature. It stopped at her side, tongue lolling and cocked its head at Aramach in a puzzled fashion. It wagged its tail. It looked at its master and then came forward to sniff Aramach's outstretched hand. He patted the dog and scratched it behind its ears.
The woman looked at him and gave a curious half smile, almost a smirk. " Well, surprise and surprise again, good sir Knight. It is most unusual that a Cooshie be so easily tamed by a stranger. You cannot be an evil person I am certain." She put the arrow back into her quiver and slung the bow across her back. That was when Aramach realized that he had just been addressed by an Elven huntress. As she moved, her long braided hair slipped back from the side of her face and revealed the pointed ears of one of the Faerie Folk.
" My humble apologies, Ke'al Mu`och, Sha`r la vi`el'te," Aramach said politely in both Common and High Elven, and bowed as low as the snow would permit. " I did not mean to come out of apparent hiding like that. The snow of last night-- well-- you see how it has covered my lean-to..."
The Elven woman smiled brightly. " Clearly you are well bred, Human. I might even consider taking you home for a dinner this eve, if you like to dine in the company of the Sidhe?" She lilted the last into a question, but clearly she expected Aramach to decline?
It was a tough decision. " M'Lady, I would be honored," Aramach began--
"But, you have urgent business that would prevent you from accepting--" she completed.
Aramach blushed happily. Here was a woman he could enjoy speaking to. " Well, actually no." She opened her eyes a bit wider and her pupils dilated a tiny bit. " You see, I had a run in with a beast, just over yon," Aramach pointed to the snow covered hillock that was lair and grave for the beast, " but it has managed to wrest from me a possession which I value highly and which I must retrieve `ere I enjoin any company," he said, then added, " no matter how enchanting the offer."
She smiled, but did not blush. Aramach, in all his dealings with the Elvenkind had never seen one blush. Perhaps they knew not how? Mayhap they were just that forthright and it never occasioned that they should be embarrassed?
" How may I help you?" She asked. Then added, " That is, if you wish to have aid at all?"
Aramach rubbed his hand across the lower portion of his beard. " An interesting question, M'Lady. How might you be of aid? You see, there in the snow lies the beast. It is buried head first into its lair and I still have yet to find a way to gain entrance to the lair deep enough to allow me to remove my sword from the creature's head. There is acid in its entrails. Quite strong, I might say. I was going to cut my way through after burning much of it, but the acid made me stop."
The elven eyebrows shot up in surprise. " Acid, you say? You did not tell me that the creature was a Draco Negronte. How did it get here?"
Aramach looked surprised himself. "A Black Draco? Oh, no, M'Lady. This is no serpent or wyrm. It is more like a giant bug of a sort. It has too many legs to be confused for a dragon. It looks almost like a bug that I recall from my days in the Skrael. Our mage and loresman called it a centipede." Aramach shrugged and began walking to the snowdrift. " They never got this large, though."
He was scooping snow off the back of the thing when the female elf joined him on the other side. She began scooping large handsfull of snow off on her side. In another few moments, they had the beast's carcass cleared of most of the snow.
She stepped back carefully and put her hands on her hips. Aramach noted that it seemed all women, whether they be Elven, Dwarven or Human, were able to turn their arms in towards them in a way that men never seemed capable to match. It almost made it seem as if they turned their arms around just to place the palm of their hands outward.
" Surprises abound this morn, they do. This thing should not be here. This is an Ankheg. They do not winter here, or if they do, then they hibernate as do the large beasts of the forest." The woman peered very cautiously into the burned remains of the creature. " Where did you discover the acid? I could use it in trade to the Dwarven Folk."
Aramach shook his head in wonder. An Ankheg? He had heard of these things, but this was the first time that he had seen one. Gods and curses, he hadn't believed the tales of how large they could be. He would have sworn, travelled as he was, even, that his fellow companions were lying to him. He smiled ruefully at some of the tales that his friends had shaken their heads at that he had told. He had a moment's devilish satisfaction in knowing that someday, they would be as surprised as he had been.
He shook himself out of his reverie and pointed. "Just yon, M'Lady. Where one might think the stomach would be."
She almost pounced upon the location. "Yes, that would make sense. Here?" She asked as she pointed almost exactly at the point where Aramach had buried his spear. Aramach nodded.
She pulled out from beneath her cloak a skin of some sort and pulled out a glass stopper. She also removed a piece of glass. At first, Aramach thought she had a wand, but she gently probed the beast's carcass with it and then stabbed gently down. They were both surprised by the response. The acid came up the pipe of glass readily. Almost as if it were being forced out. The Elven huntress quickly and deftly placed the skin at the top of the pipe before any acid came out. She spared a smug look for Aramach.
"This will bring in a fair trade to the Dwarven folk. They can get acid from other places, but they have to filter it and it is very time consuming. This," she nosed at the pipe with the acid sluicing upward, "will be very pure and very strong. They might even have to dilute it to use it." Her eyes flashed. "Yes, indeed, if that is so, I may be able to demand my own trade."
Aramach was more absorbed by the fact that the skin was holding the acid. "How does the skin not burn through if the acid be so strong" That was when he noted that the Elf was removing her foot from the beast and then the acid flow stopped going up the tube. Ahh. She had been placing pressure on the acid bag in the beast with her own foot. Clever.
"Oh, that." she said as she removed the skin and replaced the stopper. "You see, this is really a galss bottle. I wrapped it in hide and skins to prevent it from making too much noise and to prevent it from breaking if it banged against something--well, as long as it doesn't bang too hard. Then---ssssssssssss!"
She laughed as she placed it back under her cloak and produced another! One was odd enough, but two?
Aramach was too experienced in going travelling to know that this was no accident. "If you pardon my being so bold, M'Lady, how come you by two of those at such an opportune time?" She didn't even look as she place the next bottle up to the pipe and placed her foot back upon the spot she had used before. Up came the acid as she answered.
"Actually, I was hunting just such a beast. You note that my Cooshie was over here before I was and that is where you saw her when you came out of your shelter. She is trained to sniff out these beasts. I use her only in the winter, when they should be hibernating. When in that state, they are relatively easy to dispatch. I was hoping for just such a thing to find."
She bent up after filling the second bottle and placed it back beneath her cloak. "I am in your debt, Sir Knight. It is certain that had you not killed this thing, my hunt may have ended on a much more unpleasant note." Her eyes were very dark, Aramach noticed, while she said this.
Aramach merely nodded, saying, "I live to serve." She smiled and for the first time, Aramach saw an Elf blush. It was not altogether unpleasant to know that his courtesy and kindness was the cause. Aramach looked up to the corner of the sky where the Mother's Star had last been. Did he catch just the faintest hint of a twinkle there? He shook his head.
"... bout that 'item' of yours."
Aramach tried to focus on her words again. "M'Lady?"
She cocked her head at him and smiled brighter than before. "I said, now we have to see about that 'item' of yours. How would we go about retrieving it?"
Aramach brushed away the snow that had covered where he was digging the day before. "I was trying to tunnel my way through on this side of the beast. I was doing my best to avoid the acid." He struck out through the earth. It was hard and cold, but he could see that it would be easier than the other side, where there was a huge boulder hindering any progress he could make.
The Elven huntress surprised him this time. "Why do you not merely figure out where the front of the beast is and dig down in front of it from the top?"
"Ahhh, I can see that you are my better at matters of the mind. It never occurred to me to do so." He laughed and slapped his forehead. "Were I any more clever, M'Lady, we might never have met."
Her eyes twinkled merrily and she moved to the area above the beast's lair. "I call it good fortune, then, that you are not more clever. For to not meet someone such as yourself, knowing you now, I would count that as a true tragedy. Come up here and help me dig, oaf."
Aramach knew when he was being teased and complimented at the same time. He bounded up to where she stood. She thrust a funny looking mattock into his hands. It was almost like a battle axe or-- she once again surprised him! This was a Dwarven mining axe! Not a very common thing to have in an Elf's possession. Here was a truly extraordinary Elf. He stared at it for a moment.
"Go on, dig, Sir Knight. You will do it much faster than I could." She nudged him in the ribs.
Again Aramach found himself strangely drawn to this woman, Elven though she be. He gave her his best knightly smile and hefted the mattock high above his head. "You may wish to stand further back, for your safety, M'Lady." He teased back. She grinned and then took a mincing step away. He sucked in a lungful of the crisp morning air and let the mattock start down. He flexed and pulled mightily. It struck the hard earth with a ring that could be heard for many spans away.
The Elf stepped further back and gave him a look of awe. "Mayhap you are correct, sir. It is best I should stand away." He raised the axe and swung again. Dirt and sparks showered the air around him. Aramach found that he was warming to this rapidly. It was not so different from the chopping of wood that he had done so many years as a youth in service to the local pottery guild in Ransdor. He began to increase his pace.
Before he realized it, Aramach was through the earth. In fact, it took him by such complete surprise that he fell through the opening as it broke away. To the Elf, it seemed the Knight was swallowed by the earth itself. With a startled, "Oooff!" Aramach fell through and struck the bottom of the lair. The next sound to waft up to the ears of the Elf was a curse.
Aramach's eyes were adjusting to the dark. The light coming in from the hole was more than enough to allow him to adjust quickly. Just as he was beginning to be able to see clearly, the light darkened to almost nothing. He looked up quickly to make sure the rest of the lair was not caving in. He had been caught in one or two of those in his time underground. It was not something you forgot easily.
The face of his new companion stared down at him, concern etching lines in her face that made her even more appealing to Aramach. He shook himself and tried to get his head straight. He did believe that he was becoming quite smitten with this woman. He looked up at her and responded to her question as to whether or no he was alright.
"Quite, I should think, M'Lady, save for the lack of light these poor human eyes need to be able to see in this accursed and foul place."
She smiled apologetically, "My apologies. I quite forgot that you were human for a moment. You disappeared so quickly, I began to believe you were an earth spirit." The last was clearly a joke. Elves were ever mercurial and lighthearted, Aramach recalled. A few seconds later, a torch was tossed down, burning brightly.
A moment later, it was followed by a length of rope ladder and the Elf. She was definitely prepared for hunting these things. She moved carefully forward and then stopped. She turned to look back at Aramach.
"You never said that the item you lost was a sword."
"Aye, I never did." Aramach stepped forwad and got close enough with the torch to make sure that Lop was okay. He pushed his nose closer than he cared to, for the sword had bitten into the beast's enormous head, almost right between the eyes. It had gone almost four fifths of the way down to the hilt. The handle still shone with the filigree work as did the runes etched down into the blade's surface. For just a second, there was another gleam there. One of magick. Then, it was replaced by the ruddy glow of the torch.
There was a hissing sound and then lots of little clickings to the right. Aramach's hand stayed in midair, frozen as it went to grasp the hilt of Lop. His left hand felt for his dagger. He sensed danger once again. Dagger in hand, he turned to the sound. The Elf had her shortsword out and was backing carefully away from the sound. Her eyes were opened wide in surprise and a trace of fear.
Aramach lifted the torch higher, almost thrusting it into the roots and dirt above him. The light shone upon a horrifying scene. In the corner of the lair were hundreds of smaller versions of this huge beast! Hundreds! They were the babies of this one.
Aramach deferred to the Elven woman, she seemed to know about these creatures. "What do we do, M'Lady?"
She glanced at him and shrugged. "I know not. Never have I seen this many before." She licked her lips. She continued to back away. "I do not see how these things can survive without aid. Clearly they are her young. I believe it is prudent to let nature take it's course with no further interference from us."
Aramach nodded assent and backed over to the rope ladder. He guarded the Elf's ascent. He paused at the bottom of the ladder. The Elf looked down at him and then said, "Hurry, they may be hungry!"
Yes, indeed they might, Aramach mused. If it were not for the ability to sense danger, they may very well have been fed from his flesh last evening. To that thought, his mind went back to Lop. He sidled over to the beast's large head and gripped the sword in both hands after setting the torch between him and the many young.
He tugged mightily and felt the sword barely budge. He got a good look at the creature's eyes. They were very much like the eyes of a dragonfly. Big, round and full of little circles that were almost hypnotic in the patterns that showed up there. He also noted that the mouth was protected by a large set of mandibles, not unlike that of a praying mantis, or even that of a thri-kreen. Only this was much, much bigger. The mandibles were obviously what had bitten down on Aramach's leg the day before.
He was thankful that he kept his armor on, even though it made him feel colder. It hurt quite a bit as it was. If his leg had been unprotected, the beast may have won the day. As he thought this, he felt the sword give a bit. He shrugged his shoulders to clear the kinks out of his mucles and tried again. He took a deep breath and heaved upward on the handle.
Aramach was rewarded with the sudden release of his sword. It slid up and out of the wound in the Ankheg, almost making him fall on his butt. He bent down to retrieve the torch and was bitten on the hand by one of the little Ankhegs. Aramach cursed softly and shook the beast off. It had left holes in his gloves and he could feel the signs of a puncture wound on his hand.
He hefted Lop and made to advance on them, but he saw how many of them there were and caught some of the Elf's fear. This would perhaps at best be unwise. He would be better off leaving them to starve. He wiped Lop off quickly and then resheathed him in his scabbard. He pulled his dagger out and placed it between his teeth. Aramach then gripped the upper rungs of the rope ladder and hauled himself up. At the top he was greeted and helped by the Elf.
"You had me wondering a moment. I began to fear you would try to take them all." She smiled at him.
Aramach returned her smile, measure for measure. "I am a Knight, not a knave, good Lady." He held out his hand and she slipped her arm into it. "Now, you said something about a supper, I believe."
She laughed and leaned against him just a little. She whistled and the Cooshie returned almost instantly from where she had been wandering. "I did, did I not? Well, then, sir Knight. Perhaps you would be good enough to introduce yourself?" her eyebrow shot up quizzically.
He let go her arm and stepped back. He patted his breastplate and got to one knee. "I hight, Aramach do'Coulot, Knight to the Mother, E'loi Shu'lar`a, at your service. Master of the claymorgh, mace and spear, serving in His Majesty's service as Knight Errant of the Lands Ransdor." He then stood and made to take her arm again. As she raised it to have her arm taken, Aramach hesitated and smiled. "And you might be?" he asked, mimicing the raising of one eyebrow as she had done.
This was the second time he had seen an Elf blush. He rather liked it, he fancied. She looked up at him and said, "I am called, She Who Trades with Dwarves in your tongue." She trilled out the sound in Elvish. " Shar'la Mor'o esh`t Cear'lish Kuhash." He then slipped his arm over hers and they settled in for the walk.
"By the way," she asked, "aren't Knights supposed to be upon horseback?"
Aramach smiled as he picked up his saddlebags from the lean-to, then picked up the bit, bridle and saddle of his now dead horse. "Normally, M'Lady, we are, but mine was dispatched by that Ankheg. I am now a Knight afoot. An ungainly sight to behold, I know, but nonetheless, I can do nothing about it until I can buy another one.
"We will see to that after supper and an evening of storytelling and song. My father has many loyal followers, Elven and Human alike in the surrounding areas. I am sure that someone will be able to donate a satisfactory mount. Come, this is not as far as you might think. You were actually quite close to our enclave." She smiled at him and they walked, arm in arm to her home.
Erlich com Fuland relit his pipe, puffed it back into life and smiled at them. "You two make a wonderful pair, that you do." He lifted the small present that Aramach had brought him. "Thank you for the present, Aramach. It's perfect!"
It was a small pendant, a sculpture of a draco, wings displayed, head guardant and tail entwined. All done in silver. Anything less for the man who knew more about dragonkind than anyone else Aramach knew seemed unfitting. He'd had an especially good artisan he knew in the Skrael make it from a description out of one of Erlich's journals that remained in the Library of the King of Ransdor.
They spent the rest of the evening in conversation, telling stories and recounting some of their more hilarious moments in the times they had shared, for Shar'la's benefit. They all made off to bed in the wee hours of the morning. When they awoke, except Shar'la, who did not need to sleep, they found that a new layer of snow had fallen as they were in bed.
Aramach opened the shutter and looked out at the whiteness. He said nothing, but when Shar'la stood beside him, leaning into him, he smiled and thought, "Thank you, Mother, E'loi Shu'lar`a. You have given me the wonder of wonders. You have given me the love that has so long eluded me." He hugged her tightly to his side and said nothing. There was no need.
They stayed that way for many minutes. Shar'la nudged him as a jackrabbit, its winter coat of white making it almost invisible, popped out of hiding and loped across the wide expanse that was Erlich's front lawn. They both watched it frolic about and play until it was gone. They would have stayed that way forever, but for the smell of the mornings' breakfast being made by Erlich's very able cook.
They were sitting there for the third breakfast in as many days when Erlich broached the subject. "Well, I suppose that you and your lovely wife will be wanting to make your way back down to Ransdor soon. Do you suppose that you will come back and visit me sometime soon? I really missed you, Aramach. I would go visit, but --" he trailed off, lifting the remains of both his legs. They had been crushed a few years ago and there was nothing any of the holy men of any of the religions here could do. He was reduced to a life of very lavish caretaking, by the leave of the Emperor himself. Still, one didn't need feet to be a Mage Efficacious, and Erlich had been made the Region's local head Mage.
"Actually," said Aramach, "I was thinking that I might make my home a little closer than Ransdor. I do not think that I could live all my winter in the snow as you do, but I must admit, there is now a certain appeal to the snow that I didn't have when I was travelling through it to arrive." He looked down at Shar'la as he said the last and gave her a hug.
Erlich stopped a moment in the tamping of his pipe, mouth agape. "Why, Aramach, I do not believe that I have ever seen an Elf blush before. You are blushing are you not, my dear?" She nodded in a small manner and Aramach was smiling as wide as a river.
Erlich managed an embarrassed little smile. Truly, this was a great surprise. An Elf blush? Hmm. The things you encounter. Erlich shook his head and continued to tamp his pipe and then light it. Hmmm. He rather thought he fancied the way she looked when she blushed. Quite charming, really.
for now...
And now on to...
Let there be Life: Part I.I - Character Creation (the Character)
[Excerpt from The Third Dream of Primion]In case you haven't guessed by the preceeding excerpt, the character we will be creating will be a gargoyle.Malbech allowed his people, the Drow to excel in the magical arts. Often, they suprised him with their understanding of the art. Velkrys was once such a Drow. He is the mage responsible for creating the first Gargoyle.
Gargoyles as a magically created race are very limited, unlike their god created counterparts. They cannot reproduce. Their intelligence is limited to only a fraction of that of their creator. And finally, they must spend large parts of each day motionless, usually during the day, at rest. However Velkrys found them more than adequate for his purposes. One day he had several of his Gargoyles pay a visit on one of his rivals, Magirus by name...
Kraegoth (pronounced 'Kray-gauth') is the name of the gargoyle character. He is a minor character in the whole scheme of things, but his aid to the adventuring party can be invaluable. Kraegoth was created, as all gargoyles are, by a mage. In this case, a drow mage. In keeping with the text above, Kraegoth cannot reproduce; however, we will make a few changes to the character of Kraegoth that will make him different from the usual gargoyle.
First of all, Kraegoth is more intelligent than most gargoyles. The average gargoyle is incapable of any independant thought. They merely carry out orders they are given to the literal letter. Kraegoth has an IQ equivalent of a 6-9 year old human. And while gargoyles rarely speak, Kraegoth is capable of three or four word sentences.
Perhaps the most important distinction between Kraegoth and his gargoyle kin, is that Kraegoth only needs what humans would consider 'normal' periods of rest. The trade-off for this is that Kraegoth has trouble standing absolutely still. Normal gargoyles can remain motionless for hours on end and can fool most beings into thinking they are merely statues. Kraegoth cannot do this without a supreme exercise of will.
Kraegoth is exceedingly strong, as his construction from stone would lead one to believe. In addition he is also very hard to injure. Kraegoth usually does more damage to metal weapons than they do to him. Again, though, there is a trade-off. Kraegoth weighs several hundred pounds (like around six or seven hundred). There are many places he cannot go as a result of this. Also he makes a rather loud grinding stone sound when he moves, and his voice is very loud and deep.
Kraegoth's creator was trying to make a special gargoyle when he created Kraegoth. However, what he got was not what he expected. He abused Kraegoth until Kraegoth killed him and fled from his tower. Kraegoth knows the way to the city of drow, where the golden fountain resides. He doesn't know that he knows this, but once the party begins down, he will take up the lead saying things like, "we turn here," or "That wrong way. This right way." And, finally, Kraegoth's great strength can help to overcome Zethus, the Guardian.
Kraegoth's character is one trying to break out beyond the limits of his creation. It is possible that he must choose between his own destruction, or the safety of his friends. What he chooses can decide the outcome of this saga.
Next month we will discuss "LET THERE BE LIFE-PART II GIVING MONSTERS PERSONALITY",
Until swords part,
Alex D. Karaczun
Chain events are probably the most difficult events to handle in UA. A particularly complex set of chains (which is common if there is a single location which assigns all of the quests and rewards to the group--the King, for example) can produce a huge number of possible branches, especially if Quest Stage or Question events are involved. In addition, there are a number of problems with how chains are handled in UA. Basically speaking, they operate as IF THEN ELSE statements, but there is no way to get from one branch of the statement to another. Well, I've figured out a way to reproduce subroutines and generate loops, both of which will help get around the limitations of chains. (Any non-programmers out there, forgive the occasional programmer's jargon that I'll be using in this article...)
First, let me construct a typical chain, to illustrate the particular problem that I've managed to solve:
CHAIN: Party doesn't have Quest 1
King tells the party to defeat the Saracen, and recover the
Holy Grail. Party gets Quest 1.
[Normal Chain]
If event doesn't happen, chain to
CHAIN: Party has Holy Grail
King congratulates and rewards the group, takes the Holy
Grail. *
[Normal Chain]
Chain to
CHAIN: Party doesn't have Quest 2
Chain to CHAIN: Quest 1 Complete
King thanks party for defeating the Saracen, rewards,
assigns Quest 2.
[Branch]
If event doesn't happen, chain to
King tells party to find the Saracen and defeat him!
[Normal Chain]
Chain to...
And so on. The problem spot is marked by a *. If the party has
the Holy Grail, they end up in a branch. Suppose, though, that
they've also completed Quest 1. The events that are supposed to
occur when they complete Quest 1 appear on the normal chain...
but since they've got the Holy Grail, the program goes down a
branch, instead.
This problem crops up in a few other places, too. For instance, suppose I want the party to be able to ask questions of the King before he assigns them the quest. I could use a Question-Button event... but this kind of event will spawn more branches, all separate from the normal chain of events...
Wouldn't it be nice if we could just tell UA to loop the chain? In the example above, we'd simply go back to the top of the chain after taking the grail, and everything would work perfectly. Well, we CAN!
The solution is horribly simple. Having said that, I'd have never thought of it if it weren't for the space restrictions on the Halloween Contest mods. My mod had to use a separate dungeon for the King event... and that's when I stumbled onto the solution... use Teleporters or Transfer Modules!
Here it is in a nutshell: At the end of the branch above that occurs when the party has the holy grail, put a teleporter event. The teleporter will put the party on the same square where it is now, facing the same direction (note: It would be a good idea to make sure that this chain of events can only happen if the party is facing the right way--limiting their approach would be one way...). In addition, set the teleporter to do Event at Destination. This way, the entire chain will start over again!
Quite frankly, the possibilities are mind-boggling. We can now do FOR NEXT loops, by using Utilities and Quest Stage events. An example of a simple FOR NEXT loop in UA code, using Quest 33 as the indicator:
[The FOR NEXT loop is called from a particular location... we'll say, entry point 2. The loop itself is at entry point 4. Before the Teleporter event calls the loop, it stores 0 in Quest 33.] Quest Stage--Set to go off when Quest 33 is at stage X+1, where X is the number of times we want the loop to execute. Acceptance is automatic. On Acceptance, chain to Teleporter to entry point 2, or elsewhere. [FOR] LOOP BODY: Whatever we want to happen, happens here. Utilities--Add 1 to Quest 33. Teleporter--to entry point 4, Execute Event at Destination. [NEXT]It's also possible to do subroutines. For example, suppose I want training halls to offer a choice (Question-Button or List) of which class wants to train there. Certain locations might offer different choices. I can do the following: Suppose there are three training halls in three different cities. One hall allows training of all classes. The second allows training of Fighters only, but Mages can train there after one of the party's quests (rescuing a wizard) is complete. The third allows only Thieves and Clerics to train.
First, I assign a number value to each of these locations. The first hall=1, the second=2, and the third=3. I set aside a Quest to represent the location (say, Quest 24).
Second, I assign a number value to the classes. For example, 1=Fighter, 2=Thief, 3=Wizard, 4=Cleric. (We'll ignore Paladins and Rangers, for simplicity). I set aside a Quest to represent the class (say, Quest 25).
For each training hall, I first have a Utility which sets Quest 24 to the correct number for the location. I then have a Question-List event, asking which class wishes to train. Only valid classes are offered. For the second hall, there are two possible Question-Lists. The second might feature a Text Statement (which occurs only once), as the rescued wizard thanks the party.
The player selects a class. Suppose the player selects Fighter. A Utility event sets Quest 25 to 1, and then a Transfer Module transfers the party to the subroutine (which can be located just about anywhere).
The subroutine consists of a series of Quest Stages. They operate in reverse order: Stage 5 of Quest 25 is checked first, then stage 4... and so on to stage 2. A Training Hall event then occurs. Prices may vary based on the class, and the picture shown can also vary. At the end of each of these stages, Quest 25 is set to 0. Then, a Teleporter loops the routine. (Alternately, you could forget about Quest 25, and simply Teleport to a second subroutine, which sends the party back where they came from, as follows.)
After this series is a second series of Quest Stages. They operate in reverse order, as well: Stage 4 of Quest 24 is checked first, and so on. These events chain to Transfer Modules that return the party to the appropriate training hall. By returning them to the original event, and setting the Transfer to Do Event at Destination, you can put the player back into the Question-List, in case another class wants to train.
These subroutines aren't quite as efficient as your normal programming subroutines, mainly because of the unwieldy way that they use to return to the proper starting event chain, but they do offer a number of possibilities to inventive designers. GO FORTH AND CONQUER!
[Quest 47 (go forth and conquer) assigned...call normal chain...]
Narsham
I've come up with a few more tricks to use with chains, loops, For Nexts, and so forth. I'm also going to suggest a few more possible uses of these techniques.
Goto statements are now almost possible. More specifically, I've come up with a way to get a loop to execute further down the chain than the very beginning. I suppose that you could actually get more than one Goto position out of this technique...
Let's examine a good use of the Goto technique. Suppose we want a chain which executes a few events, calls a For Next subroutine, and then continues executing events AFTER the For Next call in the original chain. Under the system I proposed in the first article, it's not possible--the loop starts back at the beginning again. Suppose, however, we do this:
Main Loop:
Events
Events before the For Next transfer are set to happen if the
Party doesn't have Quest 16 (or some other indicator).
For Next called (Transfer Module or Teleporter)
Also set to occur only if Party doesn't have Quest 16.
Special Item: Take Quest 16 from Party (resets the Goto).
Events
We want these events to happen after the For Next was
called.
For Next:
Special Item: Give Quest 16 to Party (sets the Goto).
Regular For Next loop
Transfer Module or Teleporter back to Main Loop.
When this sequence executes, the main loop calls the For Next
routine, which runs, and then returns to the main loop, AFTER the
For Next was called. Unless you've got really complex chains
happening, you can use a single Quest indicator for all of your
Goto statements. In fact, you can get two separate Gotos out of
a single indicator: Use the Party doesn't have Quest 16 switch
for the first, and the Quest in Progress for the second. Give
the party Quest 16 to use the first Goto, and use a Quest Stage
event to set Quest 16 to complete for the second. (The problem
here is that all of the events after the first Goto will only
happen if Quest 16 IS in progress...)
I've got a few possible uses for these coding techniques, and a VERY strong warning to those planning to use them. Not all of the uses I've come up with are practical, but they do represent possibilities, and I can imagine some situations where they might be useful...
First, the warning. Since loops are now possible in UA, ENDLESS loops are also possible. OTHER THEN REBOOTING, THERE IS NO WAY OUT OF AN ENDLESS LOOP. DO NOT SET UP A LOOP UNLESS YOU ARE CERTAIN THAT THERE IS A WAY OUT.
An example endless loop: Text Statement: "This is an endless loop." Teleporter: Teleports to its own location, execute event at destination. THERE'S NO WAY OUT!Here's a possiblity which doesn't seem very useful to me, but I can imagine some complex situations where it might be useful. The chain can be used to add the contents of two Quests together. The problem is that one of the two Quests will end up a zero. Would that UA allowed one Quest to be set to the same number as another Quest...
[This routine adds the contents of Quest 14 to Quest 1]
Chain: If Party has Quest 14
Utilities: Add 1 to Quest 1
Utilities: Subtract 1 from Quest 14
Teleporter: Loop the chain. (ie transport to the location
of these events)
OR If Event Doesn't Happen
[Normal Chain]
Transfer elsewhere...
Why use this routine, instead of just adding a particular
number to Quest 1? Because the Utilities event won't let you add
a variable number to a Quest. On the other hand, this method is
somewhat unwieldy...
Notice that the same routine, with a slight modification, can be used to subtract the contents of Quest 14 from Quest 1...
I suppose that multiplication of two Quests is also possible, but the code for that is even more unwieldy...
Here's a way to handle multiple locks on a door. By adding Quest Stage teleporters/transfer modules in the appropriate places, and by setting Quest 22 (or whatever number you use) to the appropriate value, it's possible to use this routine for any and all locks in your mod...
Chain: Party doesn't have Quest 22
Chain to Teleporter/Transfer Module--party has picked all of
the locks.
If event doesn't happen
[normal chain]
Text Statement: The door is still locked (or some statement to
that effect).
Who Tries: Who will try to pick the lock? Event checks for
success or failure of Pick Lock skill. [if you want individual
locks to have different required values, you can use Quest
Stages... and count up instead of down]
On Success: Utilities subtracts 1 from Quest 22. Loop.
On Failure: Teleporter/Transfer Module--party has failed.
[there are several possibilities for this part, though. You
could use a second Quest to keep track of the number of failures.
You either loop the chain, to give the party another try at the
lock, or you transport them to some other event, like a
combat...]
There are other possibilities for this sequence. If your design
is set up so that only one of these locked doors can be accessed
at a single time (ie. you must have gotten through one door in
order to be at a second), you can offer the player the option to
try again later (if the guards are getting too close--simulated
by various Quest Stages in a second Quest which keeps track of
failures). When they come back, they can resume with the lock
they were picking at the time, instead of having to start all
over.
OK, here's one more idea, and it's INSANE! I'll present it in a big, general kind of way, but you could use it for more practical situations (I'll mention one of these at the end).
Set up all of your shops, temples, training halls, and perhaps other events as well, to occur in subroutines. Assign each location a number value, between 1 and 255. Designate one or two (or more) dungeons to return from your subroutines. A chain in the first dungeon would be called by a Tranfer Module from all of the subroutines. First, a Utility would subtract 1 from the Quest you're using to keep track of the location the subroutine was called from (using those values mentioned above). Then, use Quest Stage events (where stage=location number value) to transfer back to the appropriate location. This takes 2 * the number of locations (Quest Stage + Transfer) +1 events total. If you're going to need more than 100 events to complete the procedure, simply stick a transfer module on the normal chain, at the end of a long series of Quest Stages, to transfer to a second (or third...) dungeon and continue checking.
If you REALLY wanted to get crazy, you can have step events which move the party elsewhere and then return them to their original location. You'd want to use a small map, and you'd either need a lot of one- or two-way passages, or a lot of dungeon maps connected together to form the actual map. Every square would have 1 or 2 (or 3 or 4) events in it, setting the location number, and possibly setting the facing as well (using Party Facing, to ensure that the party is eventually returned facing the same direction they were when the subroutine was called). Using the technique described above, you could then return the party to their original location and facing after sending them elsewhere by a step event...
A more practical use for this technique: Multi-square dungeon interfaces. To rephrase... you may want the party to be able to move between two dungeon maps (which actually represent a single map) by stepping into a particular zone. If the transfer zone is sizable (multiple squares), and you want to transfer the party to the appropriate square on the other map, you can use Utilities to set a location indicator on the map squares. The problem here is that step events happen before set events, so you'll actually need to set the location one step BEFORE the actual transfer zone. As long as you've got the transfer zone "walled off" by these location events, you can pull this off...
It should be mentioned that this method doesn't actually save much time. It is, in fact, easier to simply set up Transfer Modules along both borders. This method WILL, however, save you some time if you have several borders in the same mod. You can just copy the mod with the subroutine into another dungeon map, set up the other borders in the same manner, and slip into the transfer module events and change the destinations. It's a bit of work, but the more borders you want to link using this method, the more time you'll save doing things this way.
If you come up with other uses for these new capabilities, feel free to let me know. You could even write your own article for the NL!
Narsham
Most modules completely ignore the fact that the party doesn't eat, doesn't need torches to see in the dark, and only sleeps when the party needs to heal or memorize spells. This isn't necessarily a bad thing --- just an unrealistic one.
Included with this newsletter is a sample dungeon showing how food can be easily added to an adventure. A complete walk-thru is given in the module, but I will demonstrate it here as well. First, the party needs to have food. Perhaps they start out with some, or they may need to buy some from a market. It is also possible to find rations with a pile of treasure.
Make one of the items RATIONS, FOOD, or whatever else you may want to call it. Unfortunately, when the module is played, the player will not be able to see exactly how much food he or she has, only that the party does have some. The player must keep track of the food as well. The computer will keep track of the number of RATIONS with the RATIONS item, rather than using a Quest.
A chain of events should be created for all zones. It would look like this:
UTILITIES (if day) - STORE 0 in Quest 1
|
always chain
|
CHAIN (if party doesn't have Quest 1)
|
chain to:--\
|
CHAIN (if night time)
|
chain to:--\
|
UTILITIES - STORE 1 in Quest 1
|
always chain
|
CHAIN (if party doesn't have RATIONS)
/--------|
| chain to:--\
| |
if event doesn't happen |
| |
| TEXT STATEMENT - "THE PARTY IS STARVING!"
UTILITIES |
subtract 3 from RATIONS |
DAMAGE - whole party, d3 points of damage
There are some problems with this, though, which are listed at the end
of the sample module. If anyone can find a way around them, let me
know.
Beowulf / James
beowulf@MAIL.clemson.edu
-The UANL staff:-) *Editorial staff: Editor-in-chief: PCC JohnR <pccjohnr@aol.Com, syfon@enter.net> Assistant Editor: Kaviyd <kaviyd@aol.com> Associate Editor: MntnBkeDan <dan666@mcs.com> Associate Editor: Autery <autery@aol.com> *Columnists: Reviews & Previews: Narhsam <narsham@aol.com> and DBoyd11074 <dboyd11074@aol.com> Art: Dika Wolf <dikawolf@aol.com> Beginner's Corner: Narsham <narsham@aol.com> The Writing Workshop: ADKaraczoun <adkaraczoun@aol.com> UA City: Dead project? *Contributors (all from AOL unless noted): Beowulf / James <beowulf@MAIL.clemson.edu>, DaNightOwl <danightowl@aol.com> The UANL address: <UANL2@aol.com>The UANL address (uanl2@aol.com) is having MAJOR troubles with its e-mail system!! Namely, we aren't receiving it!! Don't panic, tho, because you can officially contact us through any of John Rudy's e-mail addresses: pccjohnr@aol.com (PCC JohnR on AOL), or (his new address) syfon@enter.net. So you CAN still get in touch with us! And, of course, you can always submit your work (and contact us for other reasons) through the UANL FTP site! ftp://users.aol.com/UANL2! In addition to being able to contact us there (by uploading a file with your comments, questions, submissions, etc. in the incoming directory), you can also download the latest NL there in the Latest.NewsLetter directory!
The UANL address (uanl2@aol.com) is having MAJOR troubles with its e-mail system!! Namely, we aren't receiving it!! Don't panic, tho, because you can officially contact us through any of John Rudy's e-mail addresses: pccjohnr@aol.com (PCC JohnR on AOL), or (his new address) syfon@enter.net. So you CAN still get in touch with us! And, of course, you can always submit your work (and contact us for other reasons) through the UANL FTP site! ftp://users.aol.com/UANL2! In addition to being able to contact us there (by uploading a file with your comments, questions, submissions, etc. in the incoming directory), you can also download the latest NL there in the Latest.NewsLetter directory!
Submissions are a key part of any hobbyist newsletter; ours is no exception. As I've said time and time again, this is YOUR NL! If you want it to be the best that it possibly can, you need to submit. We, the editors, cannot do it all by ourselves; we need your help (esp. you Internet users!)
All kinds of submissions are welcome. You're welcome to send in demos of your mods (provided that they are under 100K; we will only publish a maximum of 100K--that's file size, not the number of files --each issue because we want to keep the file size down). You can send in original pics, bigpics, sprites, and icons if you want. (If you send in a scan, you better have drawn/painted/photographed the original!) You can send in articles on almost anything UA-related, if you like. If you want to include a small set of hacks or whatever (like a PC icon file, or a set of item hacks, or some backdrops, or whatever), we can publish it. In other words, if you can think of it, and it's UA-related, we can probably publish it!
(NOTE: all submitted material is subject to editing for clarity, brevity, and/or vulgarity. The UANL staff accepts no responsibility for anything said or implied in the free-lance articles; if you have a gripe, see its author. ;)
As 1995 draws to a close, I am inclined to grab my UA box and take a look at it. A HARD look. I found what I was looking for: Copyright 1993. Has it only been two years? (I really had thought it was three, but you know...I've been wrong before, and will likely be again. :D) In two years we have come from small, plotless mods with very little "eye candy" (imported art, new monsters, etc.) up to outstanding mods with professional quality (and better, with Autery and Dika Wolf exercising their creativity) artwork, new music, hacks galore, and some of the best plots and storylines around.
So, I thought I'd take a trip down memory lane, such as it is. I'm not one of the original members of this area, as many know. I was a late bloomer--I waited until UA's price dropped to 35$ before I bit in and bought it. How glad I was...And still am!
And we have come a long way...Especially in just two years. UA itself has not changed, but the editors have made much possible that was not before. The NewsLetter has undergone some massive changes in staff, in format, and in readership. Everything is still changing, but we try to keep up well.
Two years ago, UA was a difficult to use program (remember the box? "Design the dungeons of your dreams and test them with a point-and-click interface that makes errors gone forever--at the touch of a button!") that many purchased but few understood, and rare was the individual who understood it well enough to turn out a good (much less great) adventure module. Today, it is still a pain in the butt (many will argue that it is moreso, with all of the new hacks. In the grand tradition of Dickens' Ebenezer Scrooge, I offer them all a hearty "Bah-Humbug!"), but is (thanks to the editors and hacks) one of the most versatile products around.
I have no idea when the first UANL came out, so I will take a guess (if you don't mind :D) based on the earliest date of the earliest NL. The first UANL seems to have come out on April 16, 1994. It's been only a short year and a half since UANL1...It was a loose collection of e-mails to a certain Bryan Smith (aka Coric, Bryan SM, PCC Bryan, and now BRY SMT), all of which were tremendously small. The total package (unZIPped) was 15K. At UANL4, something radically different began. Bryan brought on a new interface (the one we are still using, although we have a convoluted introduction), more staff, larger and more varied articles, and some truly outstanding information. Hack information started coming out, and the UANL showed true class. Now, the UANL is probably one of the largest electronic hobby newsletters around, with an America OnLine readership in the 300-400s, and an internet readership of (hopefully) countless thousands. We have a convoluted introduction that makes a title pic and opening music possible. We have a mostly-new staff comprised of an extraordinary mix of "new blood" and "old hands" that makes the NL at once familiar yet always fresh and new.
UA has grown with many new hacks and editors, just in 1995 alone. This year we saw the earliest quasi-working version of UATOOLS and saw it progress to a fully-functional "universal" (if people obey the naming conventions) linking program. We saw almost every graphical aspect of UA get hacked, from backdrops to wall art, wilderness art and PC combat icons. We saw that UA music hacking was nowhere near as difficult as many believed (a simple MIDI editor and conversion program was all that was needed all along!), and the results have been astounding.
Between the hacks, the art, and the modules that this year has spawned, we must declare 1995 the year UA shined. But, as history has shown us, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
As my MIDI of "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again" closes, I feel the urge to close this little note to everyone.
1995 was the year UA shined. 1996 is coming.
It's gonna be a great year.
John
Everything appeared to be going well back in late November--the stuff I was receiving was good, and I was able to put together a smaller version of what you have here. (Maybe half the size.) Then, along came the problems.
Ironically, this was perhaps the single first time (in the history of the NL) that the deadline was met by EVERY SINGLE STAFF MEMBER. The staff of the NL did a terrific job this time--high quality articles, ALL ON TIME. I just never received any of them after, I believe, the first of December. (::GRIN::) And, so, I decided to let anyone who had anything further for the NL contribute all the way up to Christmas Eve--December 24th. All the while, I informed potential contributors to send the articles/files/whatever to either pccjohnr@aol.com or to upload them to the UANL FTP site. I got a few, and on Christmas Morning, got the rest.
SO, what have I been doing since then? You wouldn't believe...Between ten thousand financial aid meetings, interviews, and tests (to learn how to be a Certified Novell Engineer--I'm gonna step out of the minor leagues, job-wise), work, the holidays, a (slight) windfall resulting in major computer purchases (Visual C++ 4.0, Corel Draw 5, etc.), I skimped a bit on the NL...
I CLAIM FULL RESPONSIBILITY.
However, you have it now. And it is good. (Thank god!) I am satisfied with the job, and (frankly) feel that it was worth the wait.
I hope you do, too. And I hope you can forgive my slip...I *hope* it won't happen again. But if it does, then you can count on me to make sure that (like in this situation), it is worth the wait again!
John
The UANL wants to hear from YOU!!!! Yes, we have started a Letters column, where you can give us feedback on our job! You can talk about (and rebut) reviews, columns, and anything else in the NL! We want to hear from YOU!!!!
There is a whole bunch of neat junk in this file. To make sure you have it all, here is a listing:
uanl14 com Startup file. Type UANL14 to run.
musplay dat Data for playing MUS file.
show dat Data for showing GPH file.
uanl14a dat Data for the NL itself.
uanlrun dat Data for running the NL.
title gph Title graphic.
uanl14 mus Opening theme music.
genmidi op2 Data on incorporating General MIDI on an SB/Adlib card.
c_mnstr1 pcx An excellent set of icons by Autery!
c_wolf02 pcx Example file for Autery's art column!
c_how2wf pcx Example file for Autery's art column!
figure1 pcx Example file for Dika Wolf's art column!
readme!! txt This file!
snowflak wri DaNightOwl's excellent piece of fiction for this month, in
Windows Write format.
chills! zip Kaviyd's excellent module, demonstrating the incorporation
of hacks described in this NL.
food zip Example module for freelanced article demonstrating how to
make player characters require food.
To run the UANL, simply type UANL14 at a DOS prompt and hit ENTER. From Win95,
simply use either My Computer or Explorer to find the directory you unZIPped
this to, and double click on the UANL14 icon,
--UANL Staff
c_mnstr1.pcx
snowmap.pcx
snowmap1.pcx