Starting Ultima Series

[mirrorshades]

That's Ophidian's blog. He was a bit of a lolcow back in the glory days of RGCUD (the Ultima Dragons newsgroup - newsgroups, remember those?) in the late 90's. I could tell you stories...

But he grew up to be a bro.

Awesome. Once upon a time, I was an Ultima Dragon. I recall the rec.games.computer.ultima.* newsgroups, with (UDIC) in my sig and the whole deal. I even recall the name Ophidian, I think.

Either way, I started following that blog before he "finished" so I was enjoying hearing his experiences. Still good for a read.

 

[MMXI]

Or you can just use this with regular Ultima IV: http://www.ultimaaiera.com/ultima4/ulti ... hloth-fix/

Been posted already a few posts above yours.

 

[octavius]

http://bloggingultima.blogspot.com/

It's a great blog by the way, highly recommended for all the Ultima fans here.

That's Ophidian's blog. He was a bit of a lolcow back in the glory days of RGCUD (the Ultima Dragons newsgroup - newsgroups, remember those?) in the late 90's. I could tell you stories...

But he grew up to be a bro.

I remember him from my Usenet days, even though I didn't frequent the Ultima Dragons newsgroups that often. I got the impression he was like some very eager 14 year old kid.

 

[Infinitron]

That's Ophidian's blog. He was a bit of a lolcow back in the glory days of RGCUD (the Ultima Dragons newsgroup - newsgroups, remember those?) in the late 90's. I could tell you stories...

But he grew up to be a bro.

Awesome. Once upon a time, I was an Ultima Dragon. I recall the rec.games.computer.ultima.* newsgroups, with (UDIC) in my sig and the whole deal. I even recall the name Ophidian, I think.

Either way, I started following that blog before he "finished" so I was enjoying hearing his experiences. Still good for a read.

The Dragons are still sort of active on this Facebook group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/4823328796/
Join up and experience some nostalgia.

 

[Stabwound]

So, does this finally make me eligible for my true bro card?

Yes, it was the VGA version with filters. I admit that I had to look at a walkthrough for some parts, namely the word of entry (no idea how you're supposed to find that in-game) and finding the skull. I didn't find the magic wheel at all, and didn't even know about it: I managed to kill all the pirates guarding the island without it. I finally understand the reference at the end of Nethack: you have to collect and perform exactly the same ritual (bell, book, candle) to enter the sanctum. I didn't even realize that was taken from U4.

I managed to fuck up and went through the entire Abyss only to find out that you had to have all 7 companions with you. At first I thought I'd lost an eight somehow in the Abyss, but it was actually that I didn't find Katrina at all and had to go back to get her. Also, fuck the person who decided to make the room with 10 reapers with phantoms and shit on floor 5. That was the most annoying part of the entire game.

The game was pretty damn fun, and finishing the Abyss felt like finishing Nethack/Crawl for the first time. I wish I had the time/patience to find the skull and word of entry myself, but by the time I got to the codex chamber there was no way I was going to go through it for a third time. I only wish the combat was more fun and challenging whatsoever. I didn't buy any armor and the only weapons I bought were a magic axe, magic wand and a halberd. I barely used any of the available spells, either.

All in all, a pretty damn good game and I regret not playing it earlier.

Onward to Ultima 5.

 

[MMXI]

So, does this finally make me eligible for my true bro card?

No. For that you have to complete the game without scalers.

 

[Nattvardsvin]

Replaying Ultima VII.
It's been a while since, still as fun as ever.

And that fucking manual.
Why don't they make as epic manuals nowadays?

Fucking Bethesda has thin shit manuals with no information.

Ultima has fucking awesome manuals with letters, stories and history on the world, the monsters, on all the cities and what you can find in them, on myths and fables, fuck, theres even instructions on how to decipher rune language so you can properly read the map.

Right now I'm looking at the map, figuring out were to head first.
Fuck the main quest man.

I'm going to hit the books in Moonglow, refresh my history on Ultima.
God damn I love this game, and I don't give a fuck if the combat is kind of shitty. It's not that bad.

 

[Stabwound]

So, does this finally make me eligible for my true bro card?

No. For that you have to complete the game without scalers.

Hah - well, you don't have much of a choice if you want to play windowed on a 1920x1080 desktop. Without 3x scaler the play window is about the size of a sideways deck of playing cards.

Anyway, U5 seems to be a big improvement over U4. I can already tell it's going to be great. Truth be told, I'm having a lot more fun with U4 and 5 than I did with Skyrim.

EDIT: WHY IS IT ALWAYS DARK? Fuck, everyone is asleep all the time and I can't see shit.

 

[Nattvardsvin]

Spoiler

Oh god I just pushed a baby out of it's cradle and put it in my backpack.

It's mother is in the next room.

Why is this even possible.
I now have an infant in my inventory.

EDIT: I am now talking to the poor woman, she being oblivious that her baby is residing in my fucking backpack, possibly suffocating and crammed along gold and weaponry. And bread.
EDIT2: I accidently hit a legless beggar with my horse and carriage, and he got stuck under the fucking wheel.

I have a stolen baby in my backpack and a legless beggar stuck under my carriage wheel.

This game...

 

[Wolfus]

I am a bit slower. I am complete avatar, have all the items, runes and first stone. I am going to go to second dungeon (they are quite boring) and my party has 7 members (including my character). I know I must have full party, but do I need all the classes? Shepherd class seems to be very weak. Can I have two paladins instead os one paladin + one shepherd?

 

[MMXI]

I am a bit slower. I am complete avatar, have all the items, runes and first stone. I am going to go to second dungeon (they are quite boring) and my party has 7 members (including my character). I know I must have full party, but do I need all the classes? Shepherd class seems to be very weak. Can I have two paladins instead os one paladin + one shepherd?

You can't recruit the class you are.

 

[Wolfus]

OK, I didn't even try it yet, thanks.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

So, does this finally make me eligible for my true bro card?

No. For that you have to complete the game without scalers.

Hah - well, you don't have much of a choice if you want to play windowed on a 1920x1080 desktop. Without 3x scaler the play window is about the size of a sideways deck of playing cards.

There's a straightforward 3x scaler that doesn't mangle the sprites.

 

[MMXI]

There's a straightforward 3x scaler that doesn't mangle the sprites.

Exactly. Having said that, text is quite a lot easier to read with sprite butchering scalers. For games like the Ultima series where 90% of the gameplay is the NPC dialogue I can sort of understand the use of them.

 

[Stabwound]

Well, shit. That is true, and I totally forgot about it. I guess I need to come out of the closet and say that I've been using smoothing scalers since the early days of emulators, and yeah, it does wonders on the text of old DOS games. I tried the non-smoothing 3x scaler on U5 and the text is an eyesore. Eh, whatever.

 

[kmonster]

Ultima has fucking awesome manuals with letters, stories and history on the world, the monsters, on all the cities and what you can find in them, on myths and fables, fuck, theres even instructions on how to decipher rune language so you can properly read the map.

Good games even have maps you can read without having to do the copy protection decipher work each time you look at them.

 

[Wolfus]

Runic alphabet in Ultima is the same as dwarven runes in Tolkien books. I learned them when I was a kid (1990?) so I don't have problems when reading Ultima maps

 

[taxalot]

The Book, Bell and Candle ritual in Nethack doesn't have to be an Ultima reference. I actually believe it is pretty much a christian symbol and that this ritual appears in a lot of exorcism tales.

Regarding Ultima, first, I am quite surprised to see that there are a few members who used to dwell on Usenet here, myself being a former and quite notorious Ultima Dragon (although I will not reveal my identity since I want no shame, and it can be easily guessed anyway). I truly miss the olden days of Usenet, when even trolls and flamewars were argumentative and polite, and at the very least correctly syntaxed. I miss waiting for Ultima IX and all of the screenshots and speculations felt like treasures to me ; except near the end of development when everyone figured it would probably be an awful game.

Still, though awful it was, I had waited for it for so long that I actually enjoyed it a fair bit. The same thing happened recently with Duke Nukem Forever, to be honest. The value of a game is sometimes very subjective.

As for the series itself, my personal favorites are of course 7s and 6. I remember being in awe at schedules and characters each having something uninteresting to say : and that's what actually made it interesting. It felt so fucking alive ! I had to wait for Oblivion to hope for that feeling again : people living their daily lives. And look at what we had ! This was even more a disappointment than Ultima IX ever was to me.

Fun fact : the only game that renewed that feeling I got while playing U7 was not a computer game. It was Shenmue, for the dreamcast. A small town that really, really felt incredibly alive because of an incredible attention to detail.

Maybe this is what's wrong with modern RPGs: everything has to be so huge and epic that they forget details. At least, the Elder Scrolls still have an interesting lore. Bioware games can have that too, but they add the lore for the epicness, not for the depth of the environment.

Since Ultima VII, it felt like every character who you could talk had a quest to give you, and all of his or her words were just circumvulations (sp?) to find a way to bring the matter to you.

I like games when people don't give a fuck about me but are always ready for a chat, while not straying away from the epicness. I like games that try to break new grounds and even Ultima IX did that (well, tried). These days will never come back, even with indie gaming.

 

[SCO]

Try Geneforge 5.

BTW, new exult svn builds have a alternate drag&drop that will not be always asking you for quantity if you enable it.

 

[Infinitron]

Regarding Ultima, first, I am quite surprised to see that there are a few members who used to dwell on Usenet here, myself being a former and quite notorious Ultima Dragon (although I will not reveal my identity since I want no shame, and it can be easily guessed anyway).

Moa, is that you?
He's not that notorious anymore, though.

EDIT: Yes it's you

 

[taxalot]

How did you guess.

 

[Infinitron]

How did you guess.

Hah, I wasn't around there that much, but even I remember that you were the newsgroup's official "troll", back in the late 90's. I don't think I ever fully comprehended why, it was just something that people said.
I think being a 'troll' was far more innocuous in those days.

 

[Wolfus]

I have a problem. I am stuck at Covetous lvl. 7. After I picked up orange stone, I cannot return to lvl. 6, because ladder I took was one way (down) only and second ladder is behind dungeon room with blocked exit (east wall) I cannot open... There should be some switch, but I cannot find it. Can anybody help me?

 

[MMXI]

I have a problem. I am stuck at Covetous lvl. 7. After I picked up orange stone, I cannot return to lvl. 6, because ladder I took was one way (down) only and second ladder is behind dungeon room with blocked exit (east wall) I cannot open... There should be some switch, but I cannot find it. Can anybody help me?

There are 5 ladders on that level, 2 going up and 3 going down. I don't understand the problem you are having.

 

[Wolfus]

OK, one more time:
There is only one ladder going up. Second "ladder up" is one-way only (you can use it to descend from level 6, but not back (don't ask me why).
What should I do in lvl. 8? I need to get out.