Yes, you read the title right, the first public release of The Feudal Lands is available. It’s available in a few formats on our project downloads page - a NSIS installed, a PPMd self-extracting archive, and a RAR archive. More formats will be forthcoming - I’ll add a .tar.gz file when cygwin decides to cooperate with me


So what’s in the Alpha Release?
The list is fairly long, even for an alpha - A Completely New Realm: The Feudal Land’s namesake is fully mapped in the chunk form, the broadest form in Ultima VII mapping. Even without all the items added, it offers an interesting new realm to explore. A redesigned Spellcasting System: allowing NPC spellcasting and also new spells in the future. Currently only Jaana works in the spellcasting system, but Mariah and other companions will work in the future, when certain conditions are met. Karma: the defining aspect of the Avatar has always been the Virtues, and you can always check the quality of your Virtue, or lack thereof, with the seer Chahiero at Castle Britannia. The classical ultima Gypsy intro: The Feudal Lands re-implements the classical Ultima gypsy intro. Properly Functioning Inns: inns will now require room keys to be returned and will clean rooms after the Avatar and his/her party have left. Implemented Lock Lake Cleanup: once the Avatar has gotten the bill for the cleaning signed, Lock Lake willslowly get cleaned up by the townspeople of Cove. Several New Item Interactions: the Quests & Interactions patch by Alun Bestor is included in the Feudal Lands and allows several new interactions with the world - forging swords, baking food, churning butter, and many more. A Black Gate Keyring: the Keyring Mod by Marzo Sette Torres, Jr. is also included in the Feudal Lands and adds a quest to receive a keyring in Black Gate, as well as a new party member.

Release Name: Alpha 0.1

Notes: ################################################## Ultima VII: The Feudal Lands ################################################## Readme Contents =================================================
1. Version History
2. What´s New in This Version
3. Introduction to the Feudal Lands
4. Activating the Feudal Lands Quests
5. New Features in the Feudal Lands
6. Troubleshooting
7. Contacting Us
8. Credits
=================================================

1. Version History =================================================
0.1 - First public alpha release

2. What´s New in This Version =================================================
Alpha 0.1 - Fully (chunk-)mapped Feudal Lands - Karma system - Gypsy intro - NPC spellcasting system As well as all the features of the following mods: - The Keyring Mod by Marzo Sette Torres Junior - Quests & Interactions by Alun Bestor - Redheaded avatar 3. Introduction to the Feudal Lands

=================================================
Welcome, seeker, to the Feudal Lands. What are the Feudal Lands you may ask? That depends upon your meaning. The Feudal Lands is the largest and most comphrehensive modding effort involving Ultima VII. It not only adds an entire realm, it´s namesake, it also changes and adds several underlying system. It will implement an entirely new economy, housing system, and guilds system. As well, NPC spellcasting will finally be possible in Ultima VII - a feature sorely lacking in the original. Finally, the Feudal Lands adds back to Ultima VII the essential element of any Ultima game - the Virtues. I hope you find thy stay welcoming and well, seeker. May the Virtues light thy path! 4. Activating the Feudal Lands Quests
=================================================
The Feudal Lands is designed in such a way that you can complete the whole original Ultima VII: The Black Gate without ever having to go on any of the Feudal Lands quests, simply taking advantage of the new systems present in the mod. As such, the quests that form the "hooks" into the Feudal Lands´ own quests are non-intrusive and can be ignored and sometimes glossed over, so the method for triggering them is detailed here. As of version 0.1, the alpha release, the opening quests for TFL are unimplemented, but you can travel to the Feudal Lands by switching maps in Exult - normally this is bound to CTRL+ALT+T. 5. New Features in the Feudal Lands =================================================
This section describes in brief the currently implemented new features of the Feudal Lands. A Completely New Realm: The Feudal Land´s namesake is fully mapped in the chunk form, the broadest form in Ultima VII mapping. Even without all the items added, it offers an interesting new realm to explore. Redesigned Spellcasting System: allowing NPC spellcasting and also new spells in the future. Currently only Jaana works in the spellcasting system, but Mariah and other companions will work in the future, when certain conditions are met. Karma: the defining aspect of the Avatar has always been the Virtues, and you can always check the quality of your Virtue, or lack thereof, with the seer Chahiero at Castle Britannia. Gypsy intro: The Feudal Lands re-implements the classical Ultima gypsy intro. Properly Functioning Inns: inns will now require room keys to be returned and will clean rooms after the Avatar and his/her party have left. Lock Lake Cleanup: once the Avatar has gotten the bill for the cleaning signed, Lock Lake will slowly get cleaned up by the townspeople of Cove. Several New Item Interactions: the Quests & Interactions patch by Alun Bestor is included in the Feudal Lands and allows several new interactions with the world - forging swords, baking food, churning butter, and many more. A Black Gate Keyring: the Keyring Mod by Marzo Sette Torres, Jr. is also included in the Feudal Lands and adds a quest to receive a keyring in Black Gate, as well as a new party member. 6. Troubleshooting =================================================
Problem: Jaana doesn´t have an option for me to tell her to cast spells! Solution: Jaana must be in your party to cast spells via the spellcasting system, and must have her spellbook available. Problem: I can´t seem to heat a sword blank to forge a sword. Solution: The game is fairly picky about the positioning of a sword blank on the forge - try different positions on the forge. If that doesn´t work, find another forge. Problem: My party members have left the party without my telling them to. Solution: Most party members and all of the "original" Ultima VII characters will leave your party if you act in an unvirtuous manner. If they leave because of a lack of Virtue you will have to make amends for your evil acts before they will rejoin you. Problem: Items on the map seem to be replaced with glowing blue squares or pieces of carpet (or other obviously misplaced shapes). Solution: This is a known problem with map editing with Exult Studio. Please refrain from editing the map in normal play; even just giving the Avatar and his/her party items via Exult Studio can cause this problem. To fix it, delete u7chunks in you /mods/tfl/patch directory.
7. Contacting Us
================================================
You can contact the Feudal Lands development team in a couple of ways: The official Feudal Lands site (and forum) www.thefeudallands.ca www.thefeudallands.ca/discussion The official Feudal Lands IRC channel #TFL on irc.freenode.net
8. Credits
=================================================
LEAD DESIGNER Peter M Dodge aka Wizardry Dragon CODING TEAM Lead Programmer Marzo Sette Torres Jr. Programmers Armror Dragon WRITING TEAM Lead Writer Micheal Kingston aka Vistaer Dragon Writers T J Brumfield aka Enderandrew ART TEAM Lead Artist Crysta the Elf Artists Koloboko MUSIC TEAM Justin Durban Ryan Reilly CONTRIBUTORS Alun Bestor Sissy Knox SPECIAL THANKS Mykellah "silverfeathers" and Jessica Lynn Mascola For keeping me sane.

Full changelog