Fri, Mar 23: New title!

As I'm starting to get into cutscenes, I'm in need of a good artist or two. There's this flight from peril, a daring rescue, and standing against impossible odds kinda stuff going on. If you're interested, let me know!

In other RuneSword news, Darwin of RS3K has started a #RuneSword IRC room. It's registerd on NewNet, located at irc.newnet.net, port 6667. If you've never used IRC before, or are just having a hard time finding the channel, Darwin has a help page set up.

Thurs Mar 22: I've added a link to the links section. Ukla has open his tome for beta test, and it's a big one!

I should have a map of Dereth ready for download later today.

(Later....)

Okay, it's 11:30 P.M., so I almost missed my self-imposed deadline. But Dereth is ready for download, and I've updated Making to describe an interesting solution to the way I'm telling this story.

Tues, Mar 20: Here's a list of known issues that I'm working on for the updated version of Sosaria:

  • The time elapsed until you are sleepy is too long.
  • No wandering monsters. I did this on purpose, because I hate random encounters! Nothing frustrates me more than being on a quest, and I'm halfway to figuring out a puzzle, and suddenly the screen switches to combat. Yuck.
  • There are hundreds of goblin archers running around Sosaria, who aren't using their bows.
  • There should be more music from the previous Ultimas.
  • It's not entirely clear that the inns are a method of exiting the tome.
  • Nystul of Lord British's Castle doesn't exist; neither does the chef.
  • Kelvin of Yew will still join you after you rescue him, rather than have a new agenda once he returns home.
  • There is only one representative in Britain; Gormel, Sib and Yavia don't exist.
  • The mayor of Britain, as well as numerous other NPCs, don't show the "talk" button when you first approach them. Mazreth of Death Gulch doesn't even give you the option to talk.
  • The mayor of Britain doesn't seem to realize that there's an inn in his town.
  • Iolo doesn't know he's been elected representative of Britain's artisans.
  • You can phase through the doors in Death Gulch.
  • Death Gulch's guards aren't friendly (you have the pop-up option to fight them.)
  • There's no quest in the thieves' guild, regardless of what Felwyn tells you.
  • Lack of a readme file, telling you how to "install" the tome for play.

These will all be fixed with the next edition of Sosaria, except for the wandering monsters. If there's enough of a desire for them, I will add them after all. And if there's anything else I've missed, let me know.

That said, I know next on my list was Sin'Vraal's journey. I'm still excited about that one; it's going to be smaller, yet more detailed, as you represent the gargoyle who first met Lord British in the Underworld, and later went on to help the Avatar in his quest to save Britannia in Ultima V. But there's something I've been wanting to do for a long time, and I need a break from Ultima.

I tried to make a Civilization II scenario that detailed the time in Turbine Games' Asheron's Call, where the Isparians revolted against the slave-driving Olthoi. I couldn't make it work in Civ II, but I realize I can do wonders with RuneSword! So as of now, this site is an Ultima/Asheron's Call RuneSword adventure site! I'll still keep the same title for now, but I may rename it "Avatar's Adventures" or something self-congratulatory like that. ;)

So while we're on the subject of Asheron's Call, coming in the next few days is a map of early Dereth!

Sun, Mar 18: I had the wrong .rsa file (that stands for RuneSword Area) in my download. It's fixed now. Slowly but surely, we'll get it running. :)

Sat, Mar 17: Updated! The download page was linked to the wrong zip file. Doh!

As I was saying...I'm considering Sosaria done for now. I could just keep adding more and more quests to it, but if I did that, I'd never finish. There would always be something more I could cram in there. (And if it got any bigger, it would take too long to load into RuneSword!) There are bound to be more than a few bugs in it; e-mail me if you find anything funky. Meanwhile, I'm going to turn my attention to other adventures....

So please download at will!

Sun, Mar 11: Just to let you know I'm not dead, here's a bit of a progress report:

  • All dungeons and towns are populated.
  • Two mini-quests are in place, with more on the way.
  • More areas to explore...but I'm not telling you what they are. ;-)
  • The Ultima magic system is almost done. (Thanks to Kensngton!)
  • Wandering monsters are being worked on.

It's coming along! Expect a fully-functional tome within the next couple of weeks!

Sat, Mar 3: Brighter background. Pretty. Shows off Vaul's title graphic better. :)

Well, I know I said I'd have two more towns and two more dungeons ready to explore, but I just couldn't stop myself. I also added the ruined city of Grey and the dungeon of Doom! Be careful in Doom; I think this one's a bit tougher than my other dungeons. And in the Mines, well, let's just say you now have a reason to use that shovel they sell in the store. (And thanks to Cold Brains for making a better shovel graphic than I could!)

This will be my last update to the tome before it's actually finished. You know, with more NPCs, a couple more things here and there, and hopefully an actual quest or two.

So go download it, and let me know what you think!

Fri, Mar 2: Kensington of the RuneSword message board community came up with a scroll that allows the caster to cast a Weakness spell, a la Ultima Online. I have extrapolated off of that, and created every spell I could feasibly program with my pitiful skills. And naturally, that means I had to make the reagents, too! Check it out on the downloads page!

Meanwhile, I've populated the dungeon of the Snake, as well as the city of Death Gulch. I'm not going to release another preview until tomorrow though. By then, I should have preliminaries of the city of Moon and the Mines of Morinia!

Tues, Feb 27: I'm back at my own computer, and I'm hitting Sosaria hard, as I said I would! Fawn is now semi-functional as a town (you can buy stuff there, at least), and I've added monsters and treasure to a new dungeon. To top things off, I've added the camping ability; it's a skill anybody can use to rest and recuperate during your adventures. Thanks be to Dave and RK_Inc for revising the heck out of camping! There are no wandering monsters yet, because I want to tweak that aspect of camping to fit with the world of Sosaria.

But enough chit-chat; go download it and let me know what you think!

Wed, Feb 21: Sorry for the lack of updates, but I've been at my parents' house for the past several days. Next week, I should be back home, and I'll return to Sosaria with a vengeance!

Wed, Feb 14: Happy Valentine's Day! I've fixed the Sosaria Preview, so you can exit Dardin's Pit now. Thanks to Crusher for pointing out the error there!

Fri, Feb 8: My Sosaria preview tome is ready for download! I think I included all the files you'll need to play it. Some graphics may be duplicates of others, maybe not, depending on what you've downloaded from my page or from the RuneSword forums.

E-mail me if anything goes wrong, or if there is any way I could improve how it's organized, designed, balanced, or any suggestions at all!

And a big thank you goes out to Vaul of Vaul's Castle for improving the "Ultima" title atop my page! I've always had problems with highlights and shading.... :-) Thanks!

Thurs, Feb 7: Dardin's Pit is packed with monsters and treasure! And on top of that, I've got the merchants in Britain working. To celebrate, tomorrow I will release a simple tome that lets you explore Dardin's Pit, and return to Britain to rest and resupply.

Wed, Feb 6: Many thanks are in order today. Thank you Darwin, of Runesword 3000, for helping fix my training trigger! And thank you Epyx, for all your monster and item graphics. Many of the graphics I'm using for creatures and items are from him!

Tues, Feb 5: The companions are done; all eight characters from Ultima 4 that can join your party are now in RuneSword format. They are zipped and available in the downloads section. I would definately appreciate any input from any Ultima fans out there; their conversion to RuneSword is highly subjective!

As a note, these won't be the only characters that can join your party. You'll have to explore and see if you can find any others, once my tome is finished!

I have also updated making with any changes I made.

Mon, Feb 5: I'm still plugging away at the NPCs. Foolish me for making a world so big! It's a good thing it's so fun. :)

By the way, thanks be to Darwin, of Runesword 3000, for creating a great graphic of a grandfather clock. If you haven't seen it on the RuneSword message forum, you can download it on my downloads page.

Fri, Feb 2: I've finally moved the site! I'm sure the move will be a positive one, for many reasons. Angelfire is quicker to access for me, and uploads can be larger. Plus you shouldn't have trouble downloading from here. Let me know if you encounter any difficulties.

Thurs, Feb 1: I've begun work on the companions that join the party. Dupre, Katrina, Iolo and Shamino are done, and I'm now working on Sentri. I'm trying to make it so that you can pay Sentri 100 gold, and he trains your Agility up to 13, one point at a time. There will be other trainers throughout Sosaria, but this is the only one I'm telling you about. :-)

Once they're finished, I'll make them available for download, and I'll update the making page to show the trials I went through learning Runescript! (There's a bit there right now, regarding making NPCs join your party.)

I should be up and running on Angelfire tomorrow.

Wed, Jan 31: I've begun work on the companions that join the party. Iolo and Shamino are done, and I'm now working on Sentri. I'm trying to make it so that you can pay Sentri 100 gold, and he trains your Agility to 13, one point at a time. There will be other trainers throughout Sosaria, but this is the only one I'm telling you about. :-)

Once they're finished, I'll make them available for download, and I'll update the making page to show the trials I went through learning Runescript!

Mon, Jan 29: The dungeon of Time is complete. I believe that covers the entire land of Sosaria, and then some! Next, I plan on attacking the encounters that compose my adventure.

(As a note, that is proper English. The parts compose the whole, while the whole comprises the parts. I hate it when people get that mixed up!)

Anyway, I'm recovering from a cold, trying to find a job, and I'm also involved in another Ultima project; Ultima 5: Lazarus. As a result of this busy life, updates to Tales from Sosaria will come at a slower pace for a while, but I assure you, I am still working on it!

One more thing: if anybody has a knack for the Runesword script, let me know. I'm not much of a programmer, so I could certainly use the help!

Sat, Jan 27: I have a mirror site up for those who are having trouble downloading from here. It's here.

Fri, Jan 26: I just got an e-mail from someone saying that he has better results downloading when he turns off Download Accelerator. So if you have DA turned on, and you're having download problems, try turning it off. Thanks to Tom for that bit of troubleshooting advice!

Thurs, Jan 25: Castle Exodus is done, the dungeon of Doom is done, and I'm working on the last dungeon; the dungeon of Time. This one's going to be bizarre!

An increasing number of people are having trouble downloading from here. There is no password necessary; you should be able to click on the link and it will download like normal. I attribute these problems to my "wonderful" host, Freeservers, simply because Angelfire has never had problems like this.

I will therefore be moving this site to Angelfire soon. In the meantime, let me put my maps and tiles up on the official Runesword site, under their message board titled Maps and Tiles.

Mon, Jan 22: I fixed the link to the map of Devil Guard; sorry for the mix-up. Download at will! Also, it seems people are having trouble downloading my maps. I'm not sure why this is, but if you want, I can e-mail you the files. It's a total of 815k, but we can always break it down into chunks. Just let me know and I'll hook ya up!

Sat, Jan 20: Dawn is ready for download!

I've also started playing around with conversations. The branching tree effect is exactly what I need, but it's taking a bit of getting used to. Lord British has a lot to say, so I'm just now figuring out how to let the player click "(continue)" without disrupting the conversation. It's a bit of a task, but as soon as I iron everything out, I'll post how I did it in the making section.

I've also added a new link on the links page; Runes of Horror, dedicated to horror-themed tomes for Runesword! Check it out!

Fri, Jan 19: Devil Guard is finished, ready for download, and uses the Monitor tile set. After the map was finished, I realized that there are different kinds of trees in Devil Guard, than there are in Monitor, so I had to revise the tile set. You will want to download Monitor and its tile set again -- unless you want the Monitor guard posts to be filled with trees!

Also, I've uploaded the map of Moon, so that link is fixed. Heh, sorry 'bout that. :-)

Thurs, Jan 18: The cities of Grey and Monitor are ready for download, both with their own tilesets! So far, most cities in Sosaria have remained untouched by the cataclysm. Some, like the East and West Montors, have prospered and grown. Some, like Grey, have not fared so well....

Tues, Jan 16: Moon is ready for download!

Mon, Jan 15: The city of Fawn is complete, as is the dungeons of the Snake and Fire. You can download Fawn, though of course the dungeons remain secret.

Thurs, Jan 11: Work on "Forging Sosaria" has slowed down, as I have committments elsewhere. You can expect more coming next Monday! Until then, have a great weekend!

Tues, Jan 9: The Mines of Morinia and Castle Britannia are finished. You can download Castle Britannia, but I'm keeping Morinia a secret for now!

Sun, Jan 7: Yew is ready for download!

To better manage my files, I've moved all the downloads to a seperate folder within this web site. It won't effect the download process from here, but if you're directly linking to my files, the URLs have changed.

I've also figured out the problem with downloading and using my maps; I neglected to include the accompanying tiles in the zipped file. The tile sets are now available (seperately) in downloads.

Sat, Jan 6: Magincia is finished (and available in downloads.) Perinian Depths and Daradin's Pit are finished (though not available in downloads.) And I am just now getting to work on Yew.

Sosaria is going good!

I've been informed that some of my zipped files are empty. The problem was that I didn't save the individual maps as individual files (in the library), so some of them didn't actually contain map files when I zipped them. I had thought I fixed them all, but let me know if some of them fall through the cracks.

Wed, Jan 3: Last night I made the new frontier village of Trinsic, and this afternoon I finished Death Gulch. Both are available in the downloads section. Also, detailed in making, is how I dealt with the Herculean task of putting so many mountains in the Death Gulch.

Mon, Jan 1: Happy new year! I've finished my map of Ambrosia. I would love to share it with you, but I don't want to spoil the surprise! Needless to say, I've tinkered with it quite a bit. I had to answer a number of questions, like "Why are there doors attached to the mountains?" I think you all will be happy with the way I tied everything up, and how it bridges the Ultimas!

I'm also getting quite adept at changing tiles. If you're apprehensive about running a paint program and altering the tiles sets, don't worry! It's much easier than it seems!

Fri, Dec 29: I'm back at my own computer, and have just completed the map of Britain! You can check it out at the downloads section. Visit Making to see the difference between the old and the new!

I've also seperated Making Sosaria and Making Magincia. For one thing, all those jpeg graphics were taking a while to load. Also, I'm going to be keeping seperate "Making Of" pages for each project I'm working on.

Naturally, Making Magincia won't be updated for quite a while. But I'm keeping the page because, well, I can't bear to throw anything away.

Sat, Dec 23: I've revised my Britain tile set to include bridges and roads, and it can be downloaded from the downloads section. I've thus begun my map of Britain. Woohoo!

I will be extremely busy at work over the holiday season, so I will not be able to work on Runesword nor update this site for the next week or so. I wish everybody Happy Holidays!

Fri, Dec 22nd: Sosaria is complete once again! I'm very happy with the outcome. It changes the map a bit, adding some speculation as to how it eventually becomes Britannia. You can download it, naturally, from the downloads section.

Tues, Dec 19th: I have revised my Britain tile set to include water, and I fixed the reversed chairs so they can line up with tables a bit better. World building continues.

Sun, Dec 17th: I've completed my tile set for Britain, which uses a mix of the indoor tiles in cavern.bmp, and the outdoors set called bdout2.bmp. You can check out the Britain tile set (britain.bmp) in my downloads section. I'm having a bit of trouble with the overflow error, though. Either the tiles are overlapping into other tile areas, or I'm not using the correct color for the transparent background. If anyone has any suggestions, please e-mail me!

Also available in my downloads section, courtesey of Ghost, is a tile set template. With this, you can create your own tile sets without worrying about overlapping one tile with another (although I still seem to be having a bit of trouble in that respect, heh).

Fri, Dec 15th: I am so happy I have this opportunity to remake Sosaria. I've just finished the coastlines, and I'm getting ready to add mountains, deserts, and forests. I think I was born to be a world builder. I just wish someone would pay me to do it. ;-)

Wed, Dec 13th: I've been wrestling with the "flat earth" effect of Runesword for a while, and I've received numerous suggestions on how to make it seem "round;" I could add entry points along the edge of the map, or I could paint a trigger over the edge that teleports to the other side. However, if you've downloaded my map of Sosaria, you'll see that the way the map is positioned, it won't be a very effective method of making the world round. You'd walk to the "edge" of the world, and couldn't see the other side, until you took that last step, and found that you just entered a one-tile space of grass.

So, I've decided to redraw Sosaria as an island. It will actually be better this way in the long run, as I'm making certain...changes to the world. Bear in mind that this is between Ultima 3 and 4, so there is a cataclysm going on, and the world is being changed into Britannia....

Other than that, I'm experiencing the "run time" error when I try to play any tome, so playtesting is at a standstill at this point. Worldbuilding, however, continues as normal.

Sat, Dec 9th: I've moved to another state, and I'm getting ready to cancel my previous Internet account. Naturally, this meant a move to another web host. I'll be resuming work on "Forging Britannia" real soon now, I promise! I'm having a bit of trouble with the graphics refreshing when I move from one region to another, so there's one stumbling block. I've also discovered you can't make "round" worlds, where you scroll off one edge and resume your journey on the other side of the world. I'll probably solve this by just making Sosaria one continent, unless the grand folks at Runesword release a patch that allows map scrolling.

Sat, Jul 15th: Sosaria is done! At least, the overworld map is ready to be downloaded and critiqued, if you feel so inclined. Jump on into the Downloads Section. Next, I'll be creating the town of Britain, and then the dungeon known as the Perinian Depths.

Wed, Jul 12th: Sosaria is coming together nicely. It's especially fun to compare the two versions of Ultima III. Check it out yourself!

Sun, Jul 9th: It's been a while, as online gaming has been dominating my time. However, I am once again feeling the need to create! I am working on a simpler game than the Magincia scenario. It's going to be just the map of Sosaria from Ultima 3, with a few changes, as it takes place after the defeat of Exodus. By itself, it will be a decent dungeon romp, as you gather fight monsters, gather treasure and experience, so that you can fight tougher monsters and gather better treasure and more experience. However, this will be an ideal world for the Tome Wizard to create adventures with. The goal is to simply load it up, and let the Tome Wizard create the quests for you!

Mon, Feb 21st: Amidst all my other projects, I have finally finished the preliminary outdoor map of Magincia Island. The inside of the buildings are not done yet, but once they are, the entire thing will be available from the downloads page.

If you want something Ultima-esque to tide you over, and if you enjoy playing Civilization II, I invite you to download my Sosaria scenario from my Civilization fan site.

Sun, Feb 6th: I have begun construction of Magincia: Before The Fall. I've created the preliminary map of the island of Magincia, and it's coming along nicely. I ran into a bit of difficulty as I was working on the coastline, because I was confused how layering tiles worked. But with some trial and error, I managed to layer the land into the water seamlessly. If you're having similar problems, here's a tip on how I did it.

I'm also playing the premade adventure that comes with RuneSword; Tosspot Island. It's a bit challenging, bugs and all. But I highly recommend that you play it, if only to get a glimpse of what RuneSword is capable of.

Sat, Feb 5th: Welcome to Avatar's Ultima: Tales From Ancient Sosaria! Here, I will be publishing my adventure modules for the new freeware RPG, RuneSword!

Right now, there's not much here except a couple links. RuneSword is just so intricate that construction will be a long time in the making. But the wait is sure to be worth it!

Please keep in mind that RuneSword is still in the beta testing stage. That means you are bound to encounter some bugs along the way. Be patient, and enjoy. And of course, feel free to e-mail me with any suggestions, improvements, criticism or praise. But please don't e-mail me about bugs within RuneSword itself. Direct those comments and questions to the fine people who made the game.

Email slyfeind@yahoo.com