Another insomnia-ridden night lead to some real progress on TFL (I should have more of those, seems..) I’ve just got finished committing several changes to CVS.

A quick survey:

• Gypsy intro beginnings – I have mostly mapped out the beginnings for a classical Ultima gypsy introduction sequence, which TFL will be including (with some differences and tweaks.) It’s available on MAP01 for anyone following the CVS.
• Feudal Lands mapping – Some more work on Feudal Lands mapping. It’s actually much more time consuming than it would seem, but it’s getting there. Many of the houses now have roofs, the barracks’ second floor is mostly complete, and the walls have been worked on. As you’ll probably notice, I bounce between things when it comes to mapping (and in general) to keep the ball rolling,but I expect Virtue’s Hold to be completed from a map standpoint in the foreseeable future (I’m thinking March).  It’s available in MAP02, for CVS followers.
• Economy system – A little bit of housecleaning and a lot of NaturalDocs documentation work on the Economy system files. The NaturalDocs update is reflected both on the website and the CVS.
• Intrinsics documentation – I have added what I have of the intrinics documentation to the website docs and the CVS, as well!

Hopefully,the ball will keep rolling as much as it has been today.  Don’t think that a lot got done?  Well, let me rebuke that in the form of a graph!

Sourceforge CVS activity (dynamically generated, for anyone viewing through the archives)

Thats 14 devel read transactions and 20 devel write transactions today alone

Coming soon:

• An alpha version of the Feudal Lands. Once the gypsy intro is done, the first real release of the Feudal Lands will be hitting the site, including all the work we have to this point.
• Original soundtrack. One of the things that I want to use to really enhance TFL is going to be a full, original soundtrack.  I have currently some music done by Ryan Reilly I plan to use for TFL, and I hope to involve him and a couple other talented soundtrack composers in developing a soundtrack for the Feudal Lands.
• Economy system implementation. After the gypsy intro is done, the next thing I will be moving on to is implementing the economy system of TFL.  It is something Marzo and I are both fairly excited about adding, and it really lets the ‘crafting’ implementations Alun has programmed shine when there is an underlying economy system behind it.  It will include tracking commodity production, refinement, merchant inventories, and – eventually, an inter-city trade system.

And, now it is 4:46 am and I still have not slept, so bedtime for me   Stay tuned for more updates!

Cheers,

Wizardry Dragon

I’ve updated the source documentation with what I’ve gotten done thusfar – it’s still not an awful lot but it should be more useful to people than just the spells code. Read more to see what I’ve updated!

One of the things I’ve kept in mind throughout the entire, already lengthy development cycle of Ultima VII: The Feudal Lands, is that I know that while my ambitions are great and lofty, there are plenty of people who will want to add more to it. To that end, I’ve always taken some careful steps to make sure that it is accessible to ‘mod’ makers that they can edit it as easily as possible.

Read more to hear about how we’ve made U7:TFL modder friendly, and the tools we’ve provided to help.

One of the things that I always enjoyed about Ultima VII was the “world simulator” aspect of it, how well (for the time) it immersed people in the world of Britannia: NPCs following schedules, going about daily chores, etc. In our discussion, Marzo and I both agreed that a very neat way to really add some depth to that game world would be to add a little rudimentary economy to it.

Read more for an insight or three into the economy system TFL will be adding to Ultima VII.

A handful days off now means that there will be a few at least minor updates in the next few days. Read more to see what’s in store.