Ultima The Ultima Series Discussion Thread

[Jarpie]

Mouse look hack?

I would have liked to got this to work..
https://reconstruction.voyd.net/index.php?event=project&typeKeyword=remakes
it fails.
http://geocities.bootstrike.com/Minerjr Productions/akalabeth/akalabetho.htm

Combat:

FM-towns 1-3 (in game music sucks ass). Interesting added features in this one. It was ok tbh but still not the best.

I was always a fan of the c64 Ultima IV

THE Sega Master System. Weird dungeon style and combat is improved over other versions of u4

Always wanted Ultima 4 using U5 engine.

Ultima 5. Still ok combat imho
The amiga could only play a bastardized version of Metallica's "One"


So c128 was better but I guess its dos here

There really needs to be a series of vids on just combat for each.

Amiga-version of Ultlma 5 was a mess, it had input lag and sometimes it took commands twice and the last rows of tiles were half rows even though there would have been room.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Ultima 3 amiga wasn't terrible but tbh, I liked the c64 U3 better.

Vs

Relatively crappy vids.

The same goes for Times of Lore. Oh god kill my ears from the walking on Amiga. (I almost call this diablo ultima or RT Ultima even if a different world).

Vs.

 

[BruceVC]

Hi All

I have been following certain Codex discussions for years but I am new to making posts but this type of thread is why I may become more active on Codex

I love the fact their are still many people interested in the Ultima series, I am not being lazy but I am going to cut and paste a recent post I made on Obsidian forums to summarize my interest in the Ultima games

"
During the 1980's because of Apartheid sanctions SA lacked PC gaming investment and general access to any RPG games and paraphernalia but if you could go overseas on holiday you could obviously buy things like AD&D and tabletop games in London which we use to do and bring them back to SA. But we didnt ever buy anything PC related because we didnt really have actual computers in SA to run games

PC gaming investments in SA only stared slowly from 1990 and onwards so I only had my own PC in 1995 which was more for studies and work related than gaming. Which is why I missed the early days of the original RPG like M&M, Ultima, Wizardry etc.

Anyway I always use to read about these games in the Dragon magazine and I loved the concept and ideas of the Ultima world and in 2007 when I invested in my first real gaming rig I played Ultima 8 and Ultima Online for several years which was great but this MMO had passed its heyday which happens to many MMO

But I only ever played Ultima 8 and yesterday I bought on GOG Ultima 7-9 for under $5. I have decided to make an Ultima project and look at Mods to update these games and give them a try in the future. I know they are old but I am sure I can get into the game from Ultima 7 onwards

Their is still an active and committed fanbase on various dedicated Ultima websites like this one which is always encouraging because you know people still write Mods and updates for the entire Ultima series

https://ultimacodex.com/ "

Anyway since this post, made 1 week ago, I have decided to start on Ultima 5 with the Lazarus Mod

I look forward to future discussions around the Ultima series on Codex

 

[unseeingeye]

Hi All

I have been following certain Codex discussions for years but I am new to making posts but this type of thread is why I may become more active on Codex

I love the fact their are still many people interested in the Ultima series...

My circumstances are somewhat similar, in that I've not regularly followed the codex but have gotten such great information from it so many times across so many years that recently when I began to play the first Ultima Underworld game and Wizardry VI I finally decided to make an account and join in the conversations. It makes me so happy to know that there are so many other people who still enjoy the older RPGs and the wealth of information, mods, technical advice &c we have access to today, entirely for free, is truly remarkable.

 

[BruceVC]

Hi All

I have been following certain Codex discussions for years but I am new to making posts but this type of thread is why I may become more active on Codex

I love the fact their are still many people interested in the Ultima series...

My circumstances are somewhat similar, in that I've not regularly followed the codex but have gotten such great information from it so many times across so many years that recently when I began to play the first Ultima Underworld game and Wizardry VI I finally decided to make an account and join in the conversations. It makes me so happy to know that there are so many other people who still enjoy the older RPGs and the wealth of information, mods, technical advice &c we have access to today, entirely for free, is truly remarkable.

I havent played any M&M or Wizardry games but I also remember reading about them in the Dragon magazine which we could buy in Apartheid SA. I remember seeing in 1992 on the back of a Dragon magazine this advertising for Wizardry 7 : Dark Savant ....man it looked amazing back then, PC fantasy I had never experienced before. So I plan to play Wizardry sometime....I just have a long list of unplayed games on Steam and GOG. And Ultima to at least try first

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I tend to love reimaginings or alterations of the older games using different engines. I haven't seen a complete deconstruction of say U1-9 and creating an older game in a later ultima engine. I'd love.. just love to see UO put up for DL with a construction set to edit the world (be you make your iwn server or just for solo play). How big could the whole thing be?

 

[LarryTyphoid]

Is there a way to play Ultima IV with music without applying those gross ass VGA graphics? I even read that they were originally two separate patches but they "joined forces" and made one big fag patch. XU4 also appears to force you to use their MIDI renditions and I can't get its fullscreen to work. Fucking lazy homos at GOG can't ship this game with working music?

EDIT: Alright, so their website says you can switch between old and new graphics at will. Problem is I can't even get the shit to work. I go to the menu and the music's playing, but as soon as I click a button it says "thanks for installing our patch retard!" and boots me back to DOS. Even if you can switch the graphics when you're in the game I've looked this shit up and whenever anyone else asks this question they just say "bro use XU4". And I just realized that I made a backup but then I used that backup to reinstall the patch without making another backup so now my save is fucked. I wish I wasn't a dumbass.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Is there a way to play Ultima IV with music without applying those gross ass VGA graphics? I even read that they were originally two separate patches but they "joined forces" and made one big fag patch. XU4 also appears to force you to use their MIDI renditions and I can't get its fullscreen to work. Fucking lazy homos at GOG can't ship this game with working music?

Might want to play the Atari ST or Amiga version.

Fucking lazy homos at GOG can't ship this game with working music?

PC version of Ultima IV didn't come with music to the best of my knowledge. Just beeps and boops.

 

[LarryTyphoid]

Alright, PSA: Use Pix's Ultima patcher. It says you have to make a party before installing the patch but I started a new game and it worked fine for me, no crash. You can get original graphics and everything.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

8 months ago I was messing around with XU4 and VOH. VOH runs like crap on modern computers(crashed quite a bit and slow as hell). It did run better than that Akalabeth remake though.

 

[LarryTyphoid]

I managed to get a better sound (in my opinion) with an 8bit MIDI soundfont, sounds a bit more like the YouTube upload of the IV OST. Pretty nice!

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I managed to get a better sound (in my opinion) with an 8bit MIDI soundfont, sounds a bit more like the YouTube upload of the IV OST. Pretty nice!

If you want the most accurate soundfont it might be worth trying to figure out what hardware it was recorded on.

 

[LarryTyphoid]

Does running Ultima IV faster make more enemies spawn? I had to start a new playthrough because I could not walk fucking anywhere without being harassed by daemons and mages (I also made the grave error of having 5 party members). And you can't run away, cause that'd be unvalorous!

I'm considering running away from every enemy and just grinding valor at the end. That sounds fucking annoying but not as annoying as these random encounters. I wanna explore, talk to people, and cross-reference my notes to discover stuff, not bleep and bloop on some retarded bandits every 10 seconds. The RPG mechanics are the least interesting part of this game.

It also seems like melee weapons are just shit and everyone should use a sling, especially if you're being stupid and recruited 3+ party members. With slings you can just spam A+UP without worrying about formation too much. It's absolutely brainless but not as bad as actually trying to coordinate a strategy with a big party, especially when fights are so frequent and are too fucking long. I thought this game was really sick at first but now I'm just tempted to rush through it so I can play Ultima V.

I'm going to resist the temptation and just alter my approach, though. Maybe you should never travel on-foot and just wait by shorelines so you can hitchhike for a pirate ship. That might, for example, make the early-game journey from Minoc to the Vesper Guild Shop less painful. Maybe you could forgo Vesper altogether and take the moongate to Moonglow or Paws for sulphur so you can enter dungeons with the light spell. But in that case you'd have to give up viewing gems. You can use the view spell but I'm pretty sure it requires either nightshade or mandrake. I don't know where nightshade is yet but mandrake is straight in the middle of niggerville so if you're going to go through the pain of getting there you might as well go to Vesper too. Either way you absolutely need the Guild's magic keys to progress, it seems. You can't blink indoors so as far as I know there's no other way to get into all the plot-critical locked rooms like Lord British's treasure vault. The open spell doesn't open doors, it only opens fucking locked treasure chests in dungeons. Does the spellbook mention that? No, so I spent 10 minutes like a retard trying to find a way to chant "Appar Unem" on the door. The spellbook even has that shit in bold print like it's important. Appar Unem! Fuck Philpop the Weary and fuck his faggot spellbook. I'm going to Vesper.

 

[Denim Destroyer]

Enemy spawn rate in Ultima 4 is tied to how many people are in the party so I recommend maxing that out last.
Ranged weapons are significantly better than melee weapons so go for bows and wands when possible.
Every town has to be visited to completed the game usually multiple times so forgoing Vesper won't be fruitful.
The location of Nightshade can be learned from an NPC so obviously make sure you talk to everyone. I recommend writing down the names and locations of who said wait to make things easier to reference in the future.
If you aren't having fun why continue?

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

If you think U4 combat is annoying then U5 will drive you insane. I loved sega master system implementing targeting instead of just tgd shitty 4 directions. That'd be a fucking awesome patch for Ultima 3 & 4.

 

[octavius]

If you think U4 combat is annoying then U5 will drive you insane.

Huh?
U5 combat system is better, and random encounters can be avoided by traveling only in daytime.

 

[LarryTyphoid]

Does Ultima 4 contain the actual dungeon locations in any NPC dialogue? They'll say "I came from dungeon X" but won't tell you where that dungeon is. I wrote down the few dungeons I came across naturally but found the rest in the official cluebook that comes with the GOG release. That was also where I found out that you can get to Cove by sailing into a whirlpool, despite asking many NPCs about Lake Lock and getting no response. Before I knew that, I found Cove with magic gems and blinked my way in. Some might say that consulting the cluebook is just a step below looking up a walkthrough but hey, they included this shit with their official release of the game. LB approved. I guess you could find all the dungeons yourself by using a fuckload of magic gems, if you really want to sit through 50+ random encounters in the amount of time that'd take.

 

[Denim Destroyer]

You are meant to explore and find things yourself.

 

[LarryTyphoid]

Yeah, finding dungeons with magic gems is a lot more reasonable than I thought. They're mostly in mountains and the gems have a pretty far range.

After looting Despise and kitting my two party members with bows, random encounters are a lot less annoying. I wonder how many other people sabotaged their first playthroughs by recruiting every potential party member they came across.

 

[LarryTyphoid]

Now discovering that you actually only need to find one dungeon entrance since they're all connected. I retract all previous cluebook endorsement.

 

[LarryTyphoid]

Okay, so turning Ultima 4's sound effects off with "V" also skips the fucking battle animations so every single combat encounter goes by five times faster. Did everyone else know about this but me? Do you know how much fucking time I spent getting stunlocked by Reaper sleep spells? Fuck me.

 

[Bruma Hobo]

Ah, good times.

 

[LarryTyphoid]

The tombstone rhymes in Ultima V are so bad.

Underneath is Leif, who turned out to be a thief
Here lies poor Collin, off a cliff he had fallen
Strong and daring was young Laurel, tried the falls in a barrel
Far too frugal was Sir Robert, his employees lynched him to ease their poverty
Here we sadly buried Ian, what a bad boy he was bein

Did LB himself write these? It's good practice for the runic alphabet, I guess.

 

[LarryTyphoid]

If you think U4 combat is annoying then U5 will drive you insane. I loved sega master system implementing targeting instead of just tgd shitty 4 directions. That'd be a fucking awesome patch for Ultima 3 & 4.

I get what you mean after playing U5. U4's combat is actually faster if you know about the sound-disabling trick. U5 has no such trick and you can't brute force through random encounters by spamming A+up with bows due to the new targeting system. Dungeon encounters are better though because enemies like dragons and demons are actually threats, and I never got buttfucked by reaper sleep spam, although that's because I had the crown before I ever encountered any reapers so they were just jokes.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

The tombstone rhymes in Ultima V are so bad.

Underneath is Leif, who turned out to be a thief
Here lies poor Collin, off a cliff he had fallen
Strong and daring was young Laurel, tried the falls in a barrel
Far too frugal was Sir Robert, his employees lynched him to ease their poverty
Here we sadly buried Ian, what a bad boy he was bein

Did LB himself write these? It's good practice for the runic alphabet, I guess.

Warriors of the Eternal Sun did something similar in their graveyard. There are probably other games that do this.