Ultima Ultima VII help

[Excommunicator]

Huh? Well, all the Ultima games are sort of a continuation. But it's not like you'll miss anything important... VII is the start of a new story that goes from 7 to 9. I'd just play VII-2, the best one.

It doesn't matter which one you start with, story-wise, since all of them up to VII-2 come with gigantic manuals explaining everything.

i'll try a bit more of VII (as i said before) and if i like it i'll complete it, if i don't i'll do VII-2, what about VIII andIX?

Don't play them as part of the "RPG education". If you like action-adventure games with some minor RPG elements then you should enjoy them. In fact, if you were to play them without a prior understanding of Ultima you may enjoy them quite a lot. If you look at them only as action adventures, they're still quite above average.

i have about 36 games on my list of 'games i really need to play but i don't because i'm procrastinating too much on the internet'

What's the purpose of playing games as if to be on a schedule? Are you trying to build some kind of academic understanding of RPGs or are you just trying to enjoy yourself? I would struggle to savour the experience on a schedule like that. Seems a bit like drinking wine just to empty the bottle?

 

[deamento]

Huh? Well, all the Ultima games are sort of a continuation. But it's not like you'll miss anything important... VII is the start of a new story that goes from 7 to 9. I'd just play VII-2, the best one.

It doesn't matter which one you start with, story-wise, since all of them up to VII-2 come with gigantic manuals explaining everything.

i'll try a bit more of VII (as i said before) and if i like it i'll complete it, if i don't i'll do VII-2, what about VIII andIX?

Don't play them as part of the "RPG education". If you like action-adventure games with some minor RPG elements then you should enjoy them. In fact, if you were to play them without a prior understanding of Ultima you may enjoy them quite a lot. If you look at them only as action adventures, they're still quite above average.

i have about 36 games on my list of 'games i really need to play but i don't because i'm procrastinating too much on the internet'

What's the purpose of playing games as if to be on a schedule? Are you trying to build some kind of academic understanding of RPGs or are you just trying to enjoy yourself? I would struggle to savour the experience on a schedule like that. Seems a bit like drinking wine just to empty the bottle?

The list is there because i forget which game i have and haven't played, this isn't a schedule really, it's because i even forget what games i have installed on my PC, i guess you can look at it as a quest journal but every quest is a game.

 

[taxalot]

The list is there because i forget which game i have and haven't played.

I'm sorry to report that U7 doesn't have a quest journal.

 

[deamento]

The list is there because i forget which game i have and haven't played.

I'm sorry to report that U7 doesn't have a quest journal.

I've already made my own for the murder, allows for speculation aswell :D

 

[Gord]

Does friendly fire lead to party members attacking each other?
Lately it has happened a few times that during a fight, my party seemed to attack each other instead of the enemy.
It would even happen, that an enemy stops being aggressive while my party happily chops up itself.

It is sometimes accompanied by a strange graphical effect that looks like an concentric "explosion" of arrows, for a lack of better words.

 

[Infinitron]

It is sometimes accompanied by a strange graphical effect that looks like an concentric "explosion" of arrows, for a lack of better words.

http://wiki.ultimacodex.com/wiki/Burst_Arrows ?

 

[Gord]

http://wiki.ultimacodex.com/wiki/Burst_Arrows ?

Hah, indeed.
I had given Tseramed some more normal arrows, but had not checked if he had equipped them (he had not), instead he switched to the burst arrows I had previously found in some dungeon and forgotten about.

 

[Infinitron]

The Golden Age of the Mouse:

 

[Gord]

One more of my "strange" promblems:
What can lead to characters in my party unequiping their weapons?

I had it happen a few times that party members suddenly had put their weapons into their backpack.
This can be a bit dangerous if they then auto-equip another weapon from their inventory that might be unsuited for most combat situations, like a fireball-throwing mage staff...

 

[SCO]

If you can find some reason that is other than a missile weapon running out of charges, that's probably a bug to report (i think they should remember the last weapon equipped even if they 'have' to put it away for cutscene reasons or something)

 

[deamento]

The Golden Age of the Mouse:

that's an amazing add, we need more shit like this!

 

[SCO]

Good job ruining the ending on the ad.

 

[Jaesun]

One more of my "strange" promblems:
What can lead to characters in my party unequiping their weapons?

I had it happen a few times that party members suddenly had put their weapons into their backpack.
This can be a bit dangerous if they then auto-equip another weapon from their inventory that might be unsuited for most combat situations, like a fireball-throwing mage staff...

They didn't equip a different weapon at all? They will try to equip the best weapon in their inventory. Though I have not played the latest snapshot build.

 

[Gord]

Yes, I assume that they equiped the "best" (i.e. most powerful) weapon in the inventory, which is often the most dangerous to the party.
I am a bit confused though at which leads them to unequip weapons by themselves.

 

[SCO]

Running out of ammo on a missile weapon (or charges). Maybe some cutscenes. Forced eviction from the party and rejoining (i think).

You should open a bug requesting them to remember the last melee weapon (instead of following the retarded original scheme which simply equips the best 'melee weapon' (the firedoom staff apparently is one ), which i think it's what is happening).

 

[Jaesun]

Yes, I assume that they equiped the best weapon in the inventory, which is sometimes the most dangerous.
I am a bit confused though, at which leads them to unequip weapons by themselves.

Just curious, can you provide an example of what character had what weapon equipped, and then unequipped it?

 

[Gord]

Hm, thinking about it...
It has definitely happened to Iolo and Spark and i think to Dupre.
Iolo is using a crossbow, so in that case it could be due to him being out of ammo, but I'm not 100% sure it only happened in that case.
Spark is using a magic axe, and Dupre was doing so as well for a while.
Might it be caused by them using the magic axe as a throwing weapon, maybe?

I will try to watch out for the next time I catch them without a weapon and see if I can see any rule behind it.

 

[Jaesun]

Gord just to confirm, you are using the Snapshot build? NOT the 1.4.9rc1 (that is ancient history and has the items can disappear bug).

 

[Gord]

Yes, snapshot, latest one (I updated recently).

 

[Gord]

So, that was U7, part 1

I had some trouble "getting into it" at first, but after 2 or so hours it picked up and became really good.

The good:
The world. Definitely. A large open world to explore (and exploration can be very rewarding), NPC schedules done right, a lot of details to discover, etc...
I liked the story. It's the old big bad coming to destroy the world story, but it worked.
Finding the solutions to the quests can be quite rewarding. The game was made before such modern conveniences like quest compass or even a automatical notebook/quest journal.
When you figure out the solutions to some of the more complex puzzles, it just feels good. Also, the seemless integration of the world and quests by the engine.

The problematic stuff:
Forge of Virtue is imbalancing. You get a ship right away, what otherwise would have been an achievement and the rewards are maybe a tad bit exaggerated as well.
I understand that along your way through the story, you are practically supposed to join the Brotherhood, but in the end, the only reason to do so is to enter the Meditation Retreat, except...
...for the Flying Carpet. The most convenient way of travelling in the game. Also the most convenient shortcut through some quest locations, amongst them the Retreat. Considering that it's almost impossible not to find the Carpet, I wonder why they even bothered with that "join the Brotherhood" part - at least they could have included some undercover investigation quest or such.
Companion AI.
Some stuff simply didn't seem to work. Most annoying: Traps. The Detect Trap spell never did anything for me, and consequently neither did the Destroy Traps spell. Therefore, all I could do against traps that could not be dispelled by Dispel Field was trying to walk around them, or most of the time, endure the damage.
Has been stated again and again: combat of course, and the rather simplistic character system.


Anyway, on to Ultima Underworld II - which was why I originally started with U7, it always bothered me that I hadn't played U7 before.
And while I'm at it, U7-2 waits as well...

 

[Jasede]

U7-2! I envy you. I wish I could get to play that for the first time again. It's one of those games.

 

[SCO]

It also has no connection to UU2 except (very very slightly) the intro; SO YOU MIGHT AS WELL PLAY IT NOW.

Still, UU2 is a great game too (i prefer UU1)

 

[Gord]

I wanted to replay UU2 for some time now, but had decided to play U7 first, which is why I will wait with U7-2 until after UU2.

 

[Pots Talos]

Companions will unequip themselves when the Avatar takes a nap, it will happen in U7-2 also.

 

[SCO]

^
Terrible.