STICKY: Nol's Installation Guide for FRUA Newbies

[Nol Drek]

Do you want to play hacked FRUA designs? Have you heard of something called UAShell which allows for designs set in other campaign settings such as: Ray Dyer's Realm, Sci-Fi, Super Hero, and Oriental Adventures? Have you found the UAShell documentation to be less than 100% user friendly? If so, read on...

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****** Nol's Installation Guide for FRUA Newbies                                                ******
******                                                                                          ******
****** I assume that you have DOSBOX installed on your PC Windows machine                       ******
****** DOSBOX is a DOS emulator that allows you to run older games http://www.dosbox.com        ******
****** Knowing how to mount a directory and then type in "UASHELL" and press Enter is essential ******
******                                                                                          ******
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1) Install FRUA from your diskette, CD, or zip file.

1A) The game can be purchased from gog.com:
http://www.gog.com/game/forgotten_realms_the_archives_collection_two

2) Make sure that you are using version 1.2. If not download and install the v1.2 patch:
http://frua.rosedragon.org/pc/misc/fruav12.txt
http://frua.rosedragon.org/pc/misc/fruav12.zip

2A) If the version you have asks for a password, download this patch:
http://frua.rosedragon.org/pc/misc/ckit-crk.txt
http://frua.rosedragon.org/pc/misc/ckit-crk.zip
Extract the one file ckit-crk.com into the same folder as your FRUA installation and run it.

3) Download UAShellC from Rosedragon:
http://frua.rosedragon.org/pc/uashell/uashellc.zip

4) Extract the UAShellC zip file contents to your FRUA directory.

5) Run the UAShell batch file which is named "UASHELL.BAT". Ignore any warnings about your temp directory containing files. You should see a message saying "Installation of UA editor(s) successfully completed."

6) Make your choices for music and sound. When in doubt, answer no.

7) Another message says "Check files in TEMP subdirectory -- they must be deleted or moved elsewhere before you can run UA-Shell."

8) Click on the Design menu. The only available options at this point are Show, Default, and Exit. Choose Exit.

9) Open up your FRUA directory. Open up the TEMP subdirectory. You should see a file in there called "UASHELLC.TXT". Cut and paste it to a more appropriate subdirectory, such as DOCS.

10) Now, go back to your main FRUA directory and run the UAShell batch file again. You should see a message that says "Default settings restored." Click on the Designs menu. The Designs menu should now have more options available. Choose Exit for now.

11) Next, download a hacked design from the Rosedragon Magic Mirror site. Ray Dyer's conversion of "Keep on the Borderlands" might be a good one to start out with, since it's for 1st level characters:
http://frua.rosedragon.org/pc/modules/g/game02.txt
http://frua.rosedragon.org/pc/modules/g/game02.zip

12) Extract the hacked design into a new subdirectory called "GAME02.DSN". For example, the path to the subdirectory might be "C:\FRUA\GAME02.DSN". Make sure all the files in the zip end up in the subdirectory named "GAME02.DSN", because you don't want them cluttering up your main FRUA directory.

13) Run the UAShell batch file again. From the Design menu, choose Apply, then select GAME02.DSN, and click the "Open" button. You should get a message that says, "GAME02.DSN successfully applied."

14) Congratulations. All that is left to do now is to press F8. This will start your new hacked design.

******** Let the Adventure Begin! ********


[AmigaDave]

Again, great job Nol!

[LurchBrick]

Thanks for this walk through Nol! Very clear and concise. I finally have gotten UAshell to work after a number of frustrating attempts. Thanks again.

[UlionFrostforge]

Please STICKY this thread.

[Olivier Leroux]

Done. 

I also took the liberty of modifying the thread name a bit (put in "Installation"). Please protest if that's overstepping my boundaries!

[jrudy]

This is awesome  ... I just posted a question to the list about this, before checking here.

One question: Are there any extra considerations for those of us using DOSBOX to run this? I've heard tell of various issues with UAShell specifically in a DOSBOX world.

[ProphetSword]

One question: Are there any extra considerations for those of us using DOSBOX to run this? I've heard tell of various issues with UAShell specifically in a DOSBOX world.

There's a discussion about that very subject going on in another thread:

<< Link Removed >>

[jrudy]

@ProphetSword, thanks!

[jrudy]

A DOSBox update:

I've had no issues playing hacked designs via UAShell and DOSBox (using Boxer on the Mac), using the technique described above.

I'd like to try my hand at designing a mod, but don't know enough about hacking anymore (it's been almost a decade!) to know how to use the tools. Thus, I don't know if simply following the above directions will get you a functional copy of the hacking utilities themselves.

[Vix]

I don't know about Mac and Boxer, but I cannot hack using DOSBox, I have to run UAShell in native XP for the hacks to actually take effect. This is for CKIT changes only. graphics and tlb drop-ins should work as normal as they are not truly hacks.

[jrudy]

I suspect I will run into that limitation once (if) I begin designing again. I hope not. But I suspect so.

Which is a shame, as I'd like to begin designing again. I'd like to adapt a book I started writing long, long ago. (But of course never finished.) I think it'd be a neat idea ... But it would require extensive hacks. And art. And ... Well, maybe I should make a little vanilla mod or two just to get back into the swing of things before trying anything like that.

[Olivier Leroux]

Remember, even if you run into these limitations there are always workarounds and people ready to help out.   

[Vix]

Start small, John. Follow Ben's example and try to make a 3 or 4 dungeon module using pre-existing hacks (The Realm hacks would work) and art.

For myself, who has never written a module, nor released one, I am starting small, too. Basically, my first foray into mod designing will be a basic introduction to characters your party of adventurers will be interacting with in (hopefully) future installments based out of the same town.

By going small, as you  design you will refamiliarize yourself with the game engine, new tools, and find out if the design bug has bitten you like a rabid rottweiler or merely nipped you like a playful ... well, some small, innocuous dog known for playful nipping.

[ProphetSword]

I'm going to chime in and agree. 

Short modules are easy and quick to write.  You can do them in a few weeks (a few days if you're motivated).  And, you can always write sequels to continue the story.

I'm not knocking big modules, but doing short modules will definitely get your feet wet again.

Steal other people's hacks at first.  Or, borrow from your own.

[PetrusOctavianus]

Where does the unofficial FRUA v1.3 patch (fruav13a.zip) and CPIC.TLB and MONST.GLB Update v1.0 (cpic_v10.zip) fit in?
I also have a file called TO.rar in my UA download folder which I'm not sure about. It contains a large number of PCX and TLB files, but no ReadMe.