Teleport storms? Phah!

[training15]

How can you lose a ship in Black Gate? Let me count the ways:
1) You can change course while crossing the lines where the game loads new data; in this case, you can get yourself a vastly different ship - lacking the hood ornament or the bottom half (with companions aboard), both of which from that point on become geographical fixtures. I guess this could be seen as a "storm".

2) You can sail the ship into a narrow strait and get stuck. The area around Serpent's Hold is particularly fraught with this peril.

3) You can anchor your ship at Isle of Avatar, go hunting, come back and find that the ship is INFESTED WITH FISH. You can kill some of the fish but their dead bodies will block the gangplank, and you're stuck. If you try to move the bodies, the game will say smth like "Can't reach" or "Too heavy".
Some of the fish actually ended up on top of the mast. I guess this could be explained as attack of the killer sharks, as in Jaws, where they maul the ship.

4) Memory fails me where this happened, but several times I could get off the ship happily, walk around, then come back and find that the gangplank won't close, as it now turns out to be "blocked", even though there's nothing on it. As in:

"Captain: The 20 000-ton ocean liner seems to be ready to take off. 200 passengers await - the state of the art engines begin to roar - (*prays to himself quietly, upon noticing Spark approaching*)
Ship Expert Spark: Captain, the gangplank (*the captain winces*) SEEMS TO BE BLOCKED.
Captain: (*quietly speaks in tongues to himself for a while*) OK everybody, let's go find the nearest moongate."


And besides all this - what's up with the party members being unable to properly seat themselves? I had to click on the seats about five times every time we got on board, since apparently all the seats have names on them but Dupre always wants to sit in the front. I could live with that as long as they do get it right eventually, but this really sucks when you have to use the Ferry to Skara Brae - if you don't get it right the first time, you have to pay again!

(Also, in Skara Brae: after I reunited the smith with his wife, I had a really hard time asking them to go jump in the soul-rending thingie - when I clicked on them, they just said "Oh where oh where is my dear husband/wife, we must be together", ie, no time to talk - even though the spouse is like 2-3 meters off. What do they mean by "together"?!?)

[IgnitusDragonn]

nitpick nitpick nitpick
Err...well...it doesn't get blocked if you pull up to a straight side of land.
Anyway, how would you open a gangplank in real life if you were standing right in front of it? Exactly- you'd move, so follow the same advice, as to the fish...err I've never ever had that happen to me. I despise the seating formation, jesus...Spark always wants to sit up front and Dupre sits there first, and they squabble, one of them always winds up thrown overboard.
Why does the female characters take forever to get any training points? I think U7 is biased against women take for instance, theres only one naked one in the whole game and yeah thats just mean...dammit...

[MagicMop]

Geez, am I the only one whe never bothers with ocean travel? The problems with boats were just as bad in the old DOS days...

Give me a flying carpet (with convenient seating) anyday!

MM

[MrPaul]

The Flying carpet can be nice, but IMO, sailing a ship seems to fit with the Ultima VII world a bit better than flying around on a magic (and also perfectly flat?) magic carpet.

Just saying of course... to each his/her own...

[Gileathane Dragon]

"The Flying carpet can be nice, but IMO, sailing a ship seems to fit with the Ultima VII world a bit better than flying around on a magic (and also perfectly flat?) magic carpet.

Just saying of course... to each his/her own..."

*ahem*

Ultima V. Plenty of magic carpets. They have been around for quite a while.

[SnowyThing]

Yuck.. boats. Too expensive and always bugged up on me. When I found the magic carpet.. heh.. heh.. heh.

.... then the heavens spoke... "May the Avatar feast upon his every whim as he floats through the sky on the bird made of linen...."

Then that was that. The Avatar flew past Lord British and gave him a mighty thwack with his Black Sword, bringing us into the second age of darkness.

~Snowy

[SB-X]

I never used magic carpets unless I had to (Ultima V had climbing gear to get over mountains didn't it?). Ultima VI had a balloon instead of a carpet so that doesn't count, I used it a lot.

[SnowyThing]

When I was new to Ultima VII, I thought that to climb mountains (such a newbie, huh?) that you had to use the whip or something.
Psh.

Climbing gear reminded me of that.

[suraimu]

I loved getting 99 carpets in the beginning of Ultima 5.

As for the climbing gear...





FELL!!!!!!!
FELL!!!!!!!
FELL!!!!!!!
FELL!!!!!!!
FELL!!!!!!!
FELL!!!!!!!
FELL!!!!!!!
FELL!!!!!!!
FELL!!!!!!!
No evil lies here, only peace and darkness....

[drcode]

When I was new to Ultima7, having mostly played Sierra and LucasArts games, I thought the whole thing was a mystery to be solved within Trinsic, and that you only got out when you 'won'.

[IgnitusDragonn]

You must have felt amazed when you actually got out of Trinsic.
I know I did, I honestly felt like I had just been transported into an entire world.

It started out, I bought a "10 for 10$ Pack" at Walmart, it was a collection of EA games, and one of them was U7-The Black Gate/Forge Of Virtue and U7-Serpent Isle/Silver Seed.
I had a 586, Win95, 16 mb of ram(if I was lucky) and a healthy dose of imagination and creativity.
I was set to play some of those games. I had to fiddle w/ the config's of several of them but I was playing Strike Commander(Wing Commander was included, but very unstable on my computer) and several other EA/Origin games, when I came across Ultima 7, I go in the game, realize I can't move, due to no mouse driver being present.
A day or so later I was looking at the picture on the back of the game box, and there I saw the avatar standing in a dark street in Trinsic, and I thought to myself, "Woah this looks amazing" So I found a mouse driver on diskette. I load up the mouse driver, and Ultima 7 then I start playing. Quickly, I'm amazed at the amount of interesting stuff in this game, the people, the day and dark, the way everything has a personality, the music, even those little clicking sounds when you close or open a door gave life to the game.
I finally figured out how to read that map(it was in PDF format) and got the coordinates for the password out of Trinsic, I was set...
I couldn't belive this, I had dreamed of worlds like this, it was a cerebral trip to some fantasy world. I loved that game, I am still not tired of it, and its been over three years from then.
I'm still behind on the latest computer stats, I've got a 500mhz with 128 mb of ram and 12 gb of harddrive space, which infact is now about 2 gb of space free because I tend to download lots of junk. Anyway, this game is amazing, always will be to me, even though no one else I know of, sees it the same way as I do.

[MrPaul]

Gileathane Dragon:

>*ahem*
>
>Ultima V. Plenty of magic carpets. They have been around for quite a
>while.

I was just saying that I prefered to use a ship and that (as I said before) In my opinion, they seemed to fit in with the world better... I realize they have been in Ultima games for a while.. but if Im not mistaken.. in Ultima: Exodus you could get a ship (or ride horses even?)... but no carpet...

---- more relevant conversation ----

I thought the entire game was pretty much trinsic as well... I played the town out so much memorizing where each and every coin could be found, and all the 'best' items, etc... After having so much fun with the gameplay in just the small town it was like a dream come true to find an entire world the same way!

[IgnitusDragonn]

Quick, how many coins in the blacksmith shop??!

[SB-X]

uh...
uuuhh...

"Aiiii!"

*runs to the corner of the room*

[IgnitusDragonn]

You are not funny.

[SB-X]

You are not a Dragonn, what's your point?

[SnowyThing]

*wonders what an SB-X is and if he is one.* SoundBlaster-eXtigy?

Speaking of teleport storms, what they teleport (not your own belongings) is random, isn't it? I found a small block of... what seemed to be a horizontal Black Gate once. Then I found a dirty diaper. I wonder if it'll work a la U7 nursery?

[SB-X]

What was the original question?

[SnowyThing]

Probably about lack of mental and physical hygeine in Ultima VII and Serpent Isle, SB-X.

I don't recall seeing any Psychiatrists or Dentists.

*keeps blabbing on.*

[IgnitusDragonn]

I can see the need for a psychiatrist...*looks at snowything's last post *
dentists? britain is renowned for its lack of dental health.
SB-X, I thought it stood for SoundBlaster -Xtreme or something.
I lost my pass on "Ignitus Dragon" so I had to make a new name w/ an N in it. Wilem said he'd delete my old account so I could make a new name but apparently he didnt get around to it, so I made Ignitus Dragonn, and yes, I am a dragon(n) an Ultima Dragon. So der. Pschawa.

[wjp]

Um, yes, I did delete it, actually.

[SnowyThing]

I think that we need a Goblin or two saying.. 'Der' and 'Pschawa' in Serpent Isle.
It sounds so.... so.... right.

*dances around like Yurel.*

[IgnitusDragonn]

Snowy- how would you know what Yurel dances like, did you find him? Or was that someone else looking for Yurel...hmm

Wjp - I couldn't renew my old name a while back so I figure I wont try now, I'm completly happy with this cheap knockoff;-)

[SnowyThing]

Ignitus - I remember seeing Yurel in one of that guys' saved games on Garneshes or Bootstrikes website way back in my Ultima VII DOS days.

Also, I've noticed characters (NPC's) being in places that they shouldn't. Such as Pikemen on roofs and Lord Marsten on the List Field.

Weird.

[IgnitusDragonn]

the game teleports the NPC's to certain locations, based on, x,y,z I think.
X = Horizontal
Y = Vertical
Z = Level
I could be wrong about Z but I'm pretty sure thats what it stands for.
Anyway, I suspect it doesnt teleport the npc's at Level 1 which is where I think they should be.

[SnowyThing]

Intriguing... and provocative. I'll further my case study into these XY and Z co-ordinates.

*plots against Ignitis.*

[IgnitusDragonn]

Oh by the gods! I have unwittingly provided my arch-nemesis with secret intelligence previously only known to the Exult team and/or top level programmer/ultima internal map enthusiasts.

[SnowyThing]

Since I'm an arch-nemesis now, I'll require an eyepatch, a residence in Buccaneers Den, a long history of gambling and prostitution in the Bath House(sic), and a ship. Plus I'll need to be Dyslexic.

Tra la la...

[IgnitusDragonn]

Muhahaha, I *own* Bucccaneers Den.

[SnowyThing]

Who are you? Hook? Tony Soprano? Psh... I own Paws...

[IgnitusDragonn]

Who are you? Jon Boy Walton? - "pa's"

[SnowyThing]

I'm Bart Simpson, who the hell are you? -Bar... you know who.