The current Exult installer seems a bit backwards - the user is asked to specify paths to Black Gate and Serpent Isle during the install itself. Not sure about other users, but I always install in the following order:
* Exult
* Create C:\Program Files\Exult\Games directory
* Create C:\Program Files\Exult\Games\BlackGate directory
* Create C:\Program Files\Exult\Games\SerpentIsle directory
* Edit exult.cfg
The current installer doesn't let you do this, meaning a lot of manual work is required to get a basic game up and running. It would be really nice if Exult, by default, created blank directories with an autoconfigured exult.cfg so you could just copy in the game files and be good to go :)
+1 on this being a pain point.
Exult already uses the Windows user's \AppData\Local\Exult folder, but this is intentionally not easily accessible on Microsoft's part. That's easily fixable by putting a shortcut in the Start Menu, named something like Exult AppData.
The \AppData\Local\Exult folder should have a new 'original_games' folder, with the default folders:
blackgate
forgeofvirtue
serpentbeta
serpentisle
silverseed
Exult already has logic to tell which game is in which folder, so 'blackgate' can have 'forgeofvirtue' in it without any trouble.
Then the default exult.cfg and config example should use these new paths.
This avoids the need to set Write access on any Program Files folder, and avoids further work needed to split out the original games from mods and patches folders.
Kindly consider reopening this request.