HERE IS SOME IMPORTANT INFO FOR RUNNING FRUA UNLIMITED ADVENTURES YOU MUST READ FIRST!!
By the way, I intend to post a new post on the best game modules for FRUA! STAY TUNED!
ESSENTIAL LINKS
The community forums are located at ua.reonis.com. Join us to ask any questions that this introduction didn’t answer, to give feedback on modules or just talk about the game. We’re a friendly bunch. In addition to all things UA the forums are also home to the community of Dungeon Craft, an open source project that aims to recreate and expand on the general idea of UA without the need for DOS emulation, and IceBlink, another indie RPG toolset. The UA archive with all the downloadable community content is located at frua.rosedragon.org/. You can also find module lists, newsletters and older FAQs archived there. Another (curated, not exhaustive) module list can be found here. Just browse the UA file archive for the file names in brackets. For more links and FAQs check out the UA forums.
THE LAME DEMO CAMPAIGN ITS NOT ALL THERE IS TO OFFER! UA includes a demo campaign called "Heirs to Skull Crag". Don't mistake this for all UA has to offer, and play it at your own risk. Some people like it, but most that I know don't, and there are tons of community created campaigns that easily surpass it in quality, so don't judge UA solely based on the demo campaign.
Did I mention there were mistakes in it??? Not game killing mistakes mind you but really dumb mistakes!!
CUSTOM ADVENTURES AND CAMPAIGNS In UA, custom modules are usually referred to as "Designs". There are three types of designs in the UA community: Vanilla, Hacked and French Vanilla. Vanilla designs are the most basic ones, they only use the assets that came with the game, without adding any new pictures.
French Vanilla designs are like Vanilla designs but they also feature some new pictures and icons which were added via the editor's Import function.
Hacked designs are modded modules that can significantly alter the look and experience of the game by not only adding new pictures, but also new fonts, new frames, new intro sequences, new wallsets, new sounds and music, new races and classes etc.
They've modified the game files with the help of third party tools that allow for greater customization than the editor itself.
To play Vanilla and French Vanilla designs all you need is the original game and nothing more.
To play Hacked designs, you need to install UAShell, a shell that backups your original files and then overwrites them with the hacked files of your chosen design, before running the game.
DISCLAIMER: The following instructions assume that you've installed the English version of Unlimited Adventures which is patched to version 1.2. GOG also offers the German version of UA, but I don't recommend to use it, as the German version is stuck at 1.0 and therefor outdated and incompatible with UAShell and most hacking tools and modules, on top of being badly translated.
General design installation
Designs are stored as folders in your main UA directory. Their name should not be longer than 8 letters, followed by ".DSN" (Example: GAMENAME.DSN).
To install a design, just extract the .DSN folder contained in the zip file to your main UA directory
ONCE AGAIN! MAKE SURE THE FOLDER YOU EXTRACT HAS .DSN on the end!
HACKED DESIGNS
Hacked designs are where UA really shines, and besides, you only have to do this once, for 100+ hours of fun. If you know your way around Dosbox you can check out Nol’s installation guide for FRUA newbies instead of reading on. If you don’t, here’s a step-by-step guide for installing UAShell in Windows or Linux without prior knowledge of DOSBox or the need for third party tools (thanks to joeshell for the advice on DOSBox configs and Linux!). On OSX, check out these instructions first, then follow those for Linux (thanks to Gydion!).
TRANSFERING CHARACTERS:
By the way, I intend to post a new post on the best game modules for FRUA! STAY TUNED!
ESSENTIAL LINKS
The community forums are located at ua.reonis.com. Join us to ask any questions that this introduction didn’t answer, to give feedback on modules or just talk about the game. We’re a friendly bunch. In addition to all things UA the forums are also home to the community of Dungeon Craft, an open source project that aims to recreate and expand on the general idea of UA without the need for DOS emulation, and IceBlink, another indie RPG toolset. The UA archive with all the downloadable community content is located at frua.rosedragon.org/. You can also find module lists, newsletters and older FAQs archived there. Another (curated, not exhaustive) module list can be found here. Just browse the UA file archive for the file names in brackets. For more links and FAQs check out the UA forums.
THE LAME DEMO CAMPAIGN ITS NOT ALL THERE IS TO OFFER! UA includes a demo campaign called "Heirs to Skull Crag". Don't mistake this for all UA has to offer, and play it at your own risk. Some people like it, but most that I know don't, and there are tons of community created campaigns that easily surpass it in quality, so don't judge UA solely based on the demo campaign.
Did I mention there were mistakes in it??? Not game killing mistakes mind you but really dumb mistakes!!
CUSTOM ADVENTURES AND CAMPAIGNS In UA, custom modules are usually referred to as "Designs". There are three types of designs in the UA community: Vanilla, Hacked and French Vanilla. Vanilla designs are the most basic ones, they only use the assets that came with the game, without adding any new pictures.
French Vanilla designs are like Vanilla designs but they also feature some new pictures and icons which were added via the editor's Import function.
Hacked designs are modded modules that can significantly alter the look and experience of the game by not only adding new pictures, but also new fonts, new frames, new intro sequences, new wallsets, new sounds and music, new races and classes etc.
They've modified the game files with the help of third party tools that allow for greater customization than the editor itself.
To play Vanilla and French Vanilla designs all you need is the original game and nothing more.
To play Hacked designs, you need to install UAShell, a shell that backups your original files and then overwrites them with the hacked files of your chosen design, before running the game.
DISCLAIMER: The following instructions assume that you've installed the English version of Unlimited Adventures which is patched to version 1.2. GOG also offers the German version of UA, but I don't recommend to use it, as the German version is stuck at 1.0 and therefor outdated and incompatible with UAShell and most hacking tools and modules, on top of being badly translated.
General design installation
Designs are stored as folders in your main UA directory. Their name should not be longer than 8 letters, followed by ".DSN" (Example: GAMENAME.DSN).
To install a design, just extract the .DSN folder contained in the zip file to your main UA directory
ONCE AGAIN! MAKE SURE THE FOLDER YOU EXTRACT HAS .DSN on the end!
HACKED DESIGNS
Hacked designs are where UA really shines, and besides, you only have to do this once, for 100+ hours of fun. If you know your way around Dosbox you can check out Nol’s installation guide for FRUA newbies instead of reading on. If you don’t, here’s a step-by-step guide for installing UAShell in Windows or Linux without prior knowledge of DOSBox or the need for third party tools (thanks to joeshell for the advice on DOSBox configs and Linux!). On OSX, check out these instructions first, then follow those for Linux (thanks to Gydion!).
ou can transfer characters from one design to another by copying the character files from the first design's SAVE folder to the new design's SAVE folder. Character files are composed of the character's name (up to 8 letters), followed by the extension .CCH (Example: ARWEN.CCH). You should only do this with unhacked (that is Vanilla) designs, or with Hacked designs in the same series.
Before you copy the character files though, you will probably want to update them, so that the progress you made in the first design, all the levels you gained, the items you found, are stored in them. To do that, either have your party visit a training hall in-game or click PLAY THE GAME in the main menu and on the next menu screen load your last savegame in which your progress with the characters is stored.
Either way, your party will now be displayed in the upper window. Select a character and click on REMOVE CHARACTER. The game will ask if you want to update the character. If you click on YES, your old character file (e.g. with the lvl 1 guy you created at start) will be overwritten with the updated stats and inventory you gained during your adventure (e.g. your lvl 5 guy with his collected loot). If you click NO, the old character file (GUY.CCH, lvl 1) will not be overwritten, and you will be asked to type in a new file name for the new character (e.g. GUY2.CCH, lvl 5).
That means that you will now have two characters with the same name, two versions of the same guy (GUY lvl 1 and GUY lvl 5). Regardless of whether you choose to overwrite the weaker version of your hero or just save a stronger duplicate of him, repeat the same process for all characters you want to transfer and then you can copy them as described above. If you duplicate your party members, make sure that you're copying the right versions (that is the files with the new names, GUY1.CCH, not GUY.CCH).
HOW TO SAVE GAMES WITHOUT A PROBLEM!!
You may have noticed Ill bet, YOU GET A MESSAGE INSERT SAVE DISK YES NO
Don't get mad
each .DSN folder also contains a "SAVE" folder where characters and savegames are stored. If there is none, UA will miss it and prompt error messages about inserting a save disk. So if your design folder does not contain a SAVE folder after you've extracted all files to it, just create one yourself.
THAT USED TO ANNOY ME!!
AND...
I'm thinking of making a good FRUA CAMPAIGN BASED SORT OF ON HEIRS TO SKULL CRAG THAT REALLY REALLY SHOW WHAT FRUA CAN DO!!
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