Can't Train in Monitor!!

[Eric]

Hi, I'm playing U7VII_SI and I'm at the point where I retrieved the Helm of Monitor. Unfortunately there appears to be no Pikeman in the Training Arena to allow me Train. Could one of you please take a look at my save game and if it's possible fix or tell me how to get the Pikeman back? Thanks

http://members.shaw.ca/eric-albrecht/u7/save.zip

LordAlbrecht7@hotmail.com

btw, I'm running v0.98rc1 Win2k.

[wjp]

It looks like the egg that creates the pikeman has been deleted. We've seen this bug several times already, but don't really have a good idea what causes it.

Did you maybe do the knight banquet since the last time you trained?
If not, any other 'major' things?

[Eric]

I have yet to do any training anywhere. I've done the Knights Test, Knights Banquet, Helm of Monitor, and the Fawn Trial. How do you recreate the egg?

[wjp]

You can't recreate it manually, and I don't think there's any usecode that creates it

[Eric]

Well I'm assuming the problem lies in the save file as previous save files contain the Pikeman. I don't suppose it's possible to hack (view) the save file code? I'm familiar with a few programming languages and am quite good at troubleshooting.

[Eric]

@ http://www.ultimainfo.net/FAQ/ultimafaqs.txt

13 Ultima 7 Part 2 - The Serpent Isle:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
13.1 SI Gameplay Questions:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
13.1.1 Q: How do I get into the List Field to fight or train?
A: You need to go up the stairs and talk to the
pikeman at the desk. There is a bug which makes him
vanish, and the only recommendations in this case
are to either try visiting another city for a while
and then return to Monitor, or load an earlier
saved game.

[Dirge]

I've had another problem with training in SI. Sometimes I go to the list field and the pikeman is there, no problem. He takes my cash for training, and then when he goes to unlock the door to the field, the cursor first turns into the little hand (normal) and then the little red X (not normal). After this the game gets stuck.

I only had this problem playing in Linux; on my win2000 machine I've never seen it.