Favorite FRUA mods?
 

I was looking at converting another FRUA mod to DC. (Maybe even a couple of them.)

What are some of peoples favorite FRUA mods? I haven't decided what I want to do yet, so you could help me out by giving me some ideas. :)

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

I've only played 3 so far... but the remake of the 1st dragonlance module "DRAGONS OF DESPAIR" was a good one.

ST

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

Hey, I never saw that latter one - sounds interesting, is it available somewhere? (Would like to see how they tried to implement Dragonlance with DC.)

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

I don't think you can play "Dragons of Despair" with DC, unless you converted it first. :D

I had a very weird experience last night. I was thinking about FRUA, so decided to look through the directories of games I had currently available (not counting my zipped archives) and saw a folder name that didn't look familiar from downloading at Rosedragon. I started playing it and was having a good time until a band of kobolds wiped out my first level party (they would have been fine if two of the fighters hadn't been mauled by a cave bear). I wanted to see who made it so I could find more of their stuff if the rest of the design was as fun to play. I opened up the readme and saw that the mod was started in 2001, which is a few years ago but did have some good art. Anyways, I looked at the mod author's name and it was... (any guesses here?)
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manikus. Boy was I surprised. Even after going back in and checking out the mod in the editor, I only have the vaguest of memories of creating this.

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

Ha ha... Wow! You must have made that one while you were sleeping (maybe if you search some more, you may find a complete module just ready for playing... also made by manikus) :D

(Doh! Sorry - Dragons of Despair is a FRUA module... I must be tired today...)

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

I'm pretty sure the mod is done, as I went to all the trouble of writing a readme.txt file. :) Though some sections do look a little light on events - but this could be do to the fact that there are such a limited number in FRUA.
I guess I can remake this in DC, and I won't even be converting somebody elses mod. :D:D:D

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

Er... guess I will look out for the cave bear for when I try it, then! :D

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

FRUA cannot do the correct abilities of the draconians (exploding, turn to stone and take weapon, turn to acid puddle, ect) even with the hacks. DC may need some work B4 doing them right also.

ST

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

Ah - that is a shame. There are lots of "death effects" that need implementation... Even besides Dragonlance, there are lots of creatures that warrant such abilities:

1. Explosion - gas spores
2. Reviving and fighting for a few rounds more or until hp are -15 (or whatever) - wild boars (I remember fighting wild boars in some Gold Box game)

There are others, but I can't think of them right now...

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

I'm hoping to just get the effects/abilities that FRUA has, notably the dragon breath weapons, gaze effects, owlbear/umber hulk hugs, immunity to ___, etc. :)

There are so many designs that would be fun to covert or make, but, you know, you can't yet. :(

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

Yeah, those are needed quite often as well (lots of creatures have the "hug" ability, for example). Another one would be the "one hit causes the creature to get stuck and automatically hit thereafter" ability (could be complicated, as often the sticking hit and after hit are different damages/effects).

And of course dragon breath would be nice.

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

Sometimes I feel like DC is pretty close to being done, and then other times I start to actually enumerate what we have left to do and realize it's a lot to do. I think it's a lot harder for Tarlanon to work on the code than CocoaSpud b/c he doesn't know what CocoaSpud was going to do next or was planning for things yet undone. :(
But, hey! That's okay. :) Tarlanon is working on DC. :D:D:D

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

Hooray for Tarlanon! :D It's a hard job, I know...

But anyway, some creatures will have to be wimpier versions of themselves for a while (same XP values, though!)...

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

I've been thinking about that for mods I'm working on, and I might just make the XP lower for the creatures that are missing half their abilities. I've also thought about giving them more normal attacks and/or more damaging attacks.

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

Yeah, that might make sense... (We try to emulate what we can, anyway...)

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

I've thought about having a fight with a dragon that didn't take place in the combat event, that way you could simulate a lot through text events, damage events, etc. Of course, that would mean at least doing a sprite of a dragon, if not more... Well, it was a thought. :)

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

I did have the idea of at least having the dragon breathe on the party before combat (thus as a sprite or small pic maybe) first...

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

I had thought about something similar - have the party effected by dragon fear and do damage to them before they can act, maybe including the breath weapon (I hadn't thought it that far out). :D

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

We could even do an animation of the breath that way...

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

:D That would be cool. But, I bet it would also be hard and labor intensive.

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

Well, blobs of energy are always easier to draw than detailed, scaled creatures of large size :D

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

Easier to draw perhaps, but much, much harder to render. :)

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

Ah - that is true :D

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

It's really hard to get them lit properly. I think some of them might need to be lit from inside actually, and that often as not returns som unexpected results.

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

A module I'd like to see in DC is Tomb of Horrors. That and Expedition to Barrier Peak. I loved all of Gary Gygax's old modules from the late 70's early 80's but I think those are the one's I think would be cool to play in DC.

I think I saw Expedition to Barrier Peaks done in FRUA a long time ago but can't remember for sure. I remember there being a little humor thrown in like an 80's arcade machine. And I recall there being some of the original art from the module in there but colorized. I have the original module so I could do the converting to DC if I had the FRUA module or even without the FRUA module though that would take a lot more time, editing art from the original module.

Oh! and thinking of horror mods like ToH, I just thought of those great old Call of Cthulu modules! Can't remember the guys name but I remember those being among the coolest [creepiest] hacked FRUA modules I played.

Another one I remember loving was a kind of parody FRUA module with lots of little references to pop culture. The funniest for me being the appearance in the fantasy world of Dana Scully and Fox Mulder [of the XFiles - my favorite show of all time] who are overheard discussing the strange world they find themselves in, arguing over the impossible vs the possible existence of dragons, and magic and such [I might be adding to what I remember since I dont really remember much of it] and I think Mulder explains that they've somehow crossed over into a parallel universe in which fantasy is real. I remember one of the first NPCs you meet was called big-n-greasy. I remember laughing the whole way through the game.

Anyone know which one that was? I'd love to play it again for inspiration.


LOL! Man thats funny. Kind of cool though. That is exactly the kind of object detachment every game designer attempts to achieve when play testing his own work but seldom ever really achieves it which is why he usually needs [and seldom gets] beta-testers. Yet here you are practicing this objective detachment from your own work with no effort at all. Whats your secret Manikus?


Does that mean CocoaSpud has retired from his work on DC? Or is it just a break for a while? My thanks to Tarlanon for keeping it alive and carrying the torch. If he needs a tester for anything I can volunteer.



I thought about doing that too. I kind of like the old Bard's Tale and Wasteland style combat. I like seeing the colorfully pixeled and animated close-ups of the creature your are fighting. When there are a group of them you see the closest type of monster first. When it dies you see the next closest or whichever has initiative or higher speed or whatever.

At the risk of sounding heretical I actually never really liked the Gold Box style combat that much until DC came along with it's upgraded graphics allowing us to have much more detailed combat icons and combat wallsets, and effect sprites.

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

Heretic! Heretic! Just kidding. I dug the Goldbox style partly b/c that was all I knew. When FRUA came along, I saw all the cool new icons and was hooked. :)

The Call of Cthulu mods were by John Rudy. How funny that you mention those, as I've just now begun working on Cthulu himself. :) He will definitely end up being the biggest icon I have done.
I haven't played any of the other mods you mention, though, so I can't really help you with the names. :) Do you know about the Rosedragon repository? It houses just about every known FRUA mod.

And as to my secret for object detachment, it's called being very busy and waiting 7 years. :D:D:D

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

Yeah Rudy! I remember that name. Cool thanks. Yeah I have a link to Rosedragon from my Forum, but I haven't checked there for the modules I mentioned as I only just today thought of them when I read your thread. I'll check for them. Hope your all having a swell Independence Day. And watch out for the big bad Uncle Sam [aka Big Brother]! http://www.ironworksforum.com/forum/...ons/icon12.gif
http://www.ironworksforum.com/forum/...1&d=1215202042

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

There are some good mods there. It would be cool if someone made an index with like a two or three sentence description of each. Unfortunately, the name of the zip file does not always convey the mod very well.

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

I liked the Gold Box combat system because it made range and area an important part of combat (older systems like that of Ultima (and the derivative Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, etc.) ignored all of that).

The best system I have played was the Temple of Elemental Evil (demo) - very well done, but I wish they had made it for 1e or 2e, not 3e...

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

I still like the Goldbox system compared to modern systems b/c it's not about reflexes, it's all turn-based and I can really focus on the strategy. :) (What can I say, I'm getting old and have fat fingers. ;))

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

I think that was The Final Reckoning (it's thefinal.zip on the Rosedragon Archive). I remember playing that one before.

Other modules I found funny were the Yezukriis series, where the 2nd game used George Bush Sr.'s picture for the high blade of Mulmaster.

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

Ya, the Yezukris modules were pretty fun, I recall. :)

One of my all-time favorites was "Mars in Misalignment" by hans. Then there are the Ben Sanderfer modules which are easily on par with the better Goldbox games.

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

There already is one. Here. http://frua.rosedragon.org/modulelist/file.php

Thats the full list for PC games there is another list for Mac


I've tried many of the mods in the FRUA database, especially those from the 90's when I was getting into making hacked FRUA adventures and playing those made by others. In my opinion the best ones are those based on original classic AD&D modules.
I guess its the big part of me that is into nostalgia and preservation of things I consider under appreciated classics.

Here are the two I mentioned by name earlier.

barrier.zip Expedition to the Barrier Peaks 678 Nol Drek 9 None Hacked 27 Jul 1998
The classic AD&D Sci Fi tournament module. Your party of doughty adventurers are recruited by His High Radiance, Owen III, Grand Duke of Geoff to explore a mysterious armored cave in the mountains.

tombofh.zip The Tomb of Horrors 147 Narsham 11 +1 Not Hacked 14 Oct 1996
S1: The Tomb of Horrors, one of the more infamous AD&D modules of all time, is converted into a UA module.

Theres a whole bunch of mods set in the world of Ravenloft. And Ray Dyer did a whole series of classic AD&D Realm modules.

As for the original stuff, I think the one's which do not take themselves too seriously are my favorites, I like to laugh and humor can turn a horrid tragedy [in terms of game design] into a lovable laugh fest.

Oddly enough, in addition to laughter, I also really enjoy horror for some strange reason... lol. So heres John Rudy's Cthulu mods..

stars.zip The Stars are Right! 488 John Rudy Pregen None Hacked 2 Aug 1995
The first C all of Cthulhu module for UA. (Requires UATOOLS). Reviewed in UANL 13.

thecrawl.zip The Crawling Chaos (Call of Cthulhu) 1247 John Rudy Pregen Modest Hacked 9 Apr 1996
The single most hacked module in FRUA. Reviewed in UANL 15.

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

Yeah thats the one, thanks! I'm going to try the Yezu series too now.

@Manikus: I'm going to play those you recommended as well.

Oh almost forgot to ask. I haven't been able to get that ckit-crk.exe thing to work. Is there a better password hack util somewhere? That codewheel password thing is a total pain.

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

I completely forgot about this list. Too bad the newest mod on it is 4 years old. Of course, I don't how many have come out in that time...

Thanks for posting the link. That should be a valuable resource. Looking through the list, I think that I have literally downloaded all of them and at least started playing them. I count just about 50 that I've played the whole way through and I have about half of those archived on my system in case I ever want to play them again. :)

I'm starting to get nostalgic here, and am going to have to bust FRUA out for a couple of hours. :D:D:D

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

I use UAShell to run all of my FRUA games through and it takes care of it for me.

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

Is there still an active FRUA community and people still using it to make their games?

No prob. Glad I'm not the only one feeling that way. Yeah I had already went through them all before picking out ones I wanted to try but now I've archived every last one with the same thing in mind. Even with the descriptions you can't really know which ones are diamonds in the rough without actually trying them. And I think it would be great practice to try and remake our favorite ones in DC as well as a way to preserve them as classic games and to have more DC mods to show people new to DC. And maybe encourage some of those FRUA pioneers to come back the scene.

Thats what I've been trying to do this weekend but the password thing is cramping my style. I know I cracked it before, years ago with UAtools or something but now I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. Here are the steps I took:

I followed the steps outlined in UA Newsletter #35, article by Brett (airamil@yahoo.com)

Step #1. Download Dosbox and install to default directory. (Already had latest version of DOSBOX installed so on to step two.)

Step #2. "Download D-Fend v2 setup" version 2.0.62.42. -- I went there and found the newer version which is D-Fend reloaded - got it.

Step #3. Run/install the program with default options. (check)

Open D-Fend
select 'Profile'
select 'Add with Wizard'.

Add a Profile name; i.e. UAShell or FRUA.
Under GameEXE,[D-fend reloaded is a little different here but I managed to figure it out] ...

hit the browse button and select either uashell.bat or start.bat in your FRUA/UA directory. [the new D-fend recommends putting any files or folders your running in DOSBOX into the root folder of D-Fend which is the Virtualdrive folder in C:\Programs\D-fend.. etc. so I had to stop what I was doing and move the FRUA folder there..] Ok, done

Next click on the setup.exe and add install.exe from the FRUA/UA directory. Click on the '>>' button twice. On this screen you will see an 'auto create' button, click on that once. Next click on '>>' six times taking the default settings. Then click on 'finish' button. This will add your game to the D-Fend games menu. Click on the one you created and it will automatically run DosBox. [that last paragraph was really confusing in D-Fend REloaded which is different. But after some minor bungling I figured it out.] Done.

You might have to tweak your settings if you are running anything strange; the default soundcard settings are Address 220, IRQ7, DMA1. Because this is an emulator, it can emulate any of the old soundcards. At this point in its development it will run about 95% of all DOS games, with a few exceptions among the latest games just before DOS died. Let me know if you have any more questions and how it goes. :) [Didnt have to change anything. Except I changed it from full screen to windowed so I could multitask while playing and also so the graphics aren't stretched out on my 1280x1024 screen. So everything worked fine. Its just that damn passworded codewheel annoyance in FRUA thats stopping me now.]

Edit: @Manikus - I am using Uashell from within Dosbox from within Dfend to load FRUA. Do I need to apply one of the hacks in UASHell before running a design? Which one is it? Does it come with Uashell basic or do I need the c version with all the hacks included?

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

I use Dosbox and D-Fend for all of my Goldbox games, but, I don't use it for FRUA. UAShell runs just fine on it's own, at least under XP Pro/Home. I'll poke around in UAShell a bit and see what I can find. I'll report back shortly. :D

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

I think the icestorm site had the manual as a zip you could DL and then have the passwords for FRUA.

ST

Re: Favorite FRUA mods?
 

True, you could do that in a pinch. I'm just too lazy to do it when I know there's a little tool that will solve the problem for all time without me having to do anything after that first time. :D:D:D