Test of Courage - Mage is not there so I can't proceed

[TwiiK]

Title basically tells the whole story.

I enter the test of courage and the mage which should have the key doesn't spawn. Neither does the baby on the altar for that matter.

This was happening to me last time I tried to play with Exult as well and I had to stop. That was many years ago. No this exact scenario, but essential npcs were disappearing making the game unplayable.

Monsters also seem to appear and disappear at will. When I first entered the test of courage there were no monsters at all. When I ran back all the skeletons and headless spawned and when I ran back to the locked door the golems had spawned as well. I tried restarting the test a number of times even after restarting Exult and my computer, but the mage is never there.

Can't seem to find anyone with similar problems and it's not a known bug from what I can see.

I'm using this version of the game: http://www.gog.com/game/ultima_7_complete

[Dominus]

Exult version? And a savegame please before the test.
Only try with the snapshot and please tell us whether you use a mod or not.

[TwiiK]

I downloaded this one: http://exult.info/snapshots/Exultwin32.exe

It says 1.5.0svn ingame. The latest entry in the changelog textfile is from 2014-03-24.

I'm not using any mods.

- I installed Exult
- Pointed it to where I had installed the games
- Then I tried playing, but realized I had no sound.
- Downloaded the all in one pack (http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/exul ... taller.exe)
- Started the game again and have been playing since. I've mostly been exploring and collecting loot and not actually trying to progress all that much.

Here's 2 save files:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/766 ... ckgate.zip

The last one is saved when I just arrived at the Isle of Fire because I loaded an earlier save to see if anything would change. In that save the baby is actually there, but not the mage.

The first save is the one I was actually playing with.

In both saves I've just joined the fellowship.

The rest of my system is:
- Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
- Intel 6 core i7 cpu
- 24 gb ram
- Geforce GTX 580 gpu

[TwiiK]

Just as an added note and question.

I've never actually played Ultima 7 originally or with dosbox and this is the furthest I've gotten in the game. I've only tried playing it 2 times, both times with Exult and both time I've experienced these issues.

There also seem to be a random number of enemies everywhere I go. Not sure if Ultima 7 is made that way or if it's another bug with my setup. For instance in the Test of Courage there can be no monsters, nearly 20 headless and skeletons, or just a few headless and skeletons. And they will continuously respawn if you run away and back. The same goes for any dungeon or encounter. I must have killed 30 dragons in the Destard dungeon before I got tired and recalled.

[TwiiK]

Bleh, I'm a tool.

I found him in the bottom right corner:
http://i.imgur.com/YykMWdw.png

But I never killed him! In both my save games he's already dead in the bottom right corner and I even tried starting a brand new game and he's already dead in the bottom right corner in that one as well.

The last thing I tried was a brand new game with dosbox and there everything happened according to the walkthrough. He would summon a lich, attack me etc.

Overall the game feels a lot more "solid" with dosbox in that things happen like they're supposed to, but man it's completely unplayable in my opinion. The frame rate drops below 1 fps at times and it's so unresponsive.

Guess I'll venture fourth then. Sorry for wasting your time. Hopefully I'll manage to complete the game this time. It's easily one of my all time favorite games even though I've never completed it. :p