2011-07-30 BHWA
The Britannian Highway Administration is now open for business.
The editor for the highway database for Ultima IX is now complete. Editing this file is a key component to NPC scripting and schedules.
It contains an ID/coordinate database of the waypoint objects used in the game for engine to know where to teleport the Avatar, NPCs, objects, etc. and for NPCs to know where their “marks” are for movement during events or schedules. So in a sense, any waypoint or target location we add to the map has to be “registered” in this file to be used by the engine. I observed this issue back when I fixed Mariah and Jaana’s post shrine cleansing scripts. Until I added their teleport targets to the highway file (by hex editing), they wouldn’t teleport to their places.
In addition, this file contains highway segments with each segment being a route of waypoints with seemingly no restriction on the number of waypoints in a path. A waypoint can be repeated multiple times within a route, so an NPC could be made to pace back and forth between two waypoints or to play fetch.
Anyway, for those curious, I’ve posted a screenshot. (Awesome/Featured Screenshot #21) Obviously, the tool usefulness is limited by the functionality of other tools, but my rapid progress so far probably means a complete scheduling editor will be ready in a week or so.
In other news, I have received several applicants for composer (in only 12 hours), so no more applicants. I will be making my final decision regarding the new composer in a few days.
Also we have yet to receive any beta testers for the books editor. For that matter, nobody has submitted any books for Ultima IX. Hopefully that is a good sign that people are at work on short stories rather than short summaries.
Our other programmers are also hard at work, but more news on that at a later date. Reverse Engineering is continuing at a steady pace, and several more critical files have been heavily decoded allowing for continued progress with our tools. There are still, however, many trigger commands and a number of object properties left unknown or unclear, but progress is being made.
I’ve updated the team page, and several of you might notice an open position for 3D modeler. Let me clarify that. At present, we do not have a tool to import models into the game. Also, we do not have a clear idea on what the requirements will be or the kinds of limitations that will be placed on the models. We hope to have several of these issues dealt with in a matter of months. We will keep you guys posted.
If you are a 3D modeler and are very interested in joining up and staying for long haul (5 years max – we hope FW will be nearly finished by then), you can help with upgrading the graphics in the game. At present, there are a number of objects that could use upgraded or even redone textures. If you require the models themselves, I’m sure we can create an exporter tool from our Mesh Viewer’s code in a relatively short period of time.
– Iceblade
