Solution to Ultima VII BG Exult freezes found

[someone else]

Solution to Ultima VII BG freezes found(?)

Exult 1.4.9rc1: played U7 SI without freezing problems, then played U7 BG with freezes every now and then.
I noticed how many items are spawned by NPCs doing jobs like baking, sewing, waiting on tables. There are lots of shears and dining plates generated on one location. Britain it self has 5 NPCs doing this, and almost every town has a tavern keeper generating food and dining plates.

Now, the freezing in U7 BG is known to be accompanied by loss of items, so I decided to disable or change the NPCs behaviour using the cheat menu and altering their NPC schedules, I also deleted some crafting equipment like tables. This way they cannot generate items. I decided to be on the safe side and delete useless items lying around.

Starting a new game and doing this, there is so far no more freezing. I'm guessing that it is due to the crafters or the items generated. Try this and see if it works for you, remember to delete the excess generated items.


Alternative, you should just play in Dosbox.

 

[Jaesun]

I never once experienced freezing problems with BG using Exult.

 

[SCO]

They happen with the svn.

 

[someone else]

This is about me playing U7 now.
Once I tried starting the game with all chars with 8 str and dex and level one, it was lol when I take a beating from headless and half my party died when I encounter some brigands. I also implemented a no stealing policy(except for magic stuff) and restricted my party size, but once str reaches around 16 and with good armour, the game turns easy.
Now I am playing with only Spark for company, he is so cute! :D

Magic storm is an awesome spell. I think U7 has the best magic.

 

[SCO]

In U7 pt 2 try to not buy spells from scroll sellers but only transcribe scrolls.

It's pretty fun, pity they pussied out and didn't disable spell sellers.

It would be a great mod to do that in both and add the transcribe spell and scrolls around the place in U7.

 

[someone else]

Funny thing about U7 is training. If your dex > combat skill, you get the rubber band effect where combat catches up to dex. But as the gap closes you get less points, often only 1 combat per training skill. But for dex trainers, if combat is > than dex, you get 2 points per training skill, which is better than combat = dex -1.
Formula is this:
http://infinitron.nullneuron.net/u7train.html

So to min-max you train str until combat catches up to dex and then train dex were you get 1 dex and 2 combat per training point. Maybe more if combat>dex for Chad but you will be trading dex for combat.

 

[Varn]

I'm playing U7 BG in Exult at the moment, up to the part where you have to go to Minoc, but I instead grabbed the magic Carpet, headed to Moonglow, New Magincia, a weird small island with a cave and some sweet loot + a dead guy, and am now in Jhelom. Almost died in New Magincia after trying to betray the dude with the locket but the pirates ended up backstabbing me.

Playing on hard in Exult makes combat far more challenging than the original. I get killed by most enemies at level 4 even using this magic whip I found. Bridge trolls particularly stomped me on the way to the magic carpet. Looking sweet so far then as easy combat was my biggest gripe with the game. Need to go grab a telekinesis spell I think because in that cave with the dead guy was a ring of regeneraetion that I couldnt' reach - must regen my health presumably??

Anyway, awesome game. Is there a way to train STR as every time i train only thing that goes up is DEX and combat ability. I want to be able to carry more as the Avatar is wearing the plate from British's castle + carrying a musket + the whip and is 36/36 for weight. Reagents weigh me down a bit too. I'm using my mules to carry stuff but even still he's maxed out.

 

[someone else]

Need to go grab a telekinesis spell I think because in that cave with the dead guy was a ring of regeneraetion that I couldnt' reach

You just need to walk closer.

Anyway, awesome game. Is there a way to train STR as every time i train only thing that goes up is DEX and combat ability.

http://infinitron.nullneuron.net/u7train.html

: I know where the treasure is!

 

[SCO]

Don't spoil yourself.

Your str problems (and any problems really) will take care of themselves once

Spoiler

you do the expansion (if you have it).

 

[Infinitron]

Funny thing about U7 is training. If your dex > combat skill, you get the rubber band effect where combat catches up to dex. But as the gap closes you get less points, often only 1 combat per training skill. But for dex trainers, if combat is > than dex, you get 2 points per training skill, which is better than combat = dex -1.
Formula is this:
http://infinitron.nullneuron.net/u7train.html

So to min-max you train str until combat catches up to dex and then train dex were you get 1 dex and 2 combat per training point. Maybe more if combat>dex for Chad but you will be trading dex for combat.

Oh, wow, nostalgia. I made that webpage using MS-DOS Edit when I was in high school.

I determined the formulas by trial, not by looking at the game's internal rules. I tested each trainer multiple times, tweaking my Avatar's stats each time with the cheat mode, and tried to fit the results to a formula.
So, I can't confirm with absolute certainty that the formulas are correct.

 

[Grimlorn]

Ultima7 related question. Can anyone tell me why the Guardian's intro speech doesn't work in Exult? It works in Dosbox. I dled the all in one music pack and have digital music and speech enabled.

 

[someone else]

Oh, wow, nostalgia. I made that webpage using MS-DOS Edit when I was in high school.

I determined the formulas by trial, not by looking at the game's internal rules. I tested each trainer multiple times, tweaking my Avatar's stats each time with the cheat mode, and tried to fit the results to a formula.
So, I can't confirm with absolute certainty that the formulas are correct.

Still the best trainer info I can find on the web. The rest are wrong.

Locations for trainers not included. Need to upgrade that website bro.

 

[Infinitron]

Still the best trainer info I can find on the web. The rest are wrong.

Locations for trainers not included. Need to upgrade that website bro.

The locations are included...

Regardless of the exact details, it's clear that the way the stats work is that your primary stats (Str, Dex, Int) determine your training potential in the secondary, "applied" stats. The higher your Dex, the more trainable you are at Combat. The higher your Int, the more trainable you are at Magic.

That's a pretty interesting system which hasn't to my knowledge ever been used in other RPGs. Too bad U7's combat mechanics are so opaque that it's not clear just what these stats do anyway. (Probably the Combat secondary stat is more important to your combat performance than Str and Dex.) The Ultima games generally never revealed the math behind the stats - you usually got a one sentence high-level description of what each attribute affects in the manual, and that was it.

 

[someone else]

I remembered wrongly about the location.

Having combat > dex actually gives more combat increase.
18 dex 17 com training with Sentri will give 19 dex 18 com
But 18 dex 19 com training with Sentr will give 19 dex 21 com

Using this I max my companion combat to 30 by delaying dex training and focusing on str initially. Menion only gives +1 com if dex > com.

From Exult forums give the formula as only combat. On a dice 30, rolling a 15 hits, + attacker combat, - defender combat.

1/10 str damage bonus, str also gives health.
Dex affects the time between swings, proven by editing your dex. Also controls movement speed.

Armor reduces damage just like in U6.

 

[Infinitron]

Cool, so U7 is sort of like a "d30" system. At least for hitting people with weapons.
I take it every weapon has the same chance of hitting - only their damage differs? Or does each weapon also have different to-hit modifiers? I'm pretty sure different weapons have different speeds, as well.

 

[someone else]

I read the magic sword has a better to-hit. Don't have numbers.

There are also different damage types and some may ignore armour.

Previous Ultimas also use D30 system, using a combat stat derived from str and dex.