Ship-ship combat questions

[gruck]

I was fooling around with the ship for about an hour today and for the most part it works perfect, but I have some questions about ship-ship combat. I think some of these are bugs but I wanted to make sure before posting a bug report. I'm using the newest 1.01 snapshot

When you first see the pirate ship, the four pirates aboard immediately switch to their longswords for weapons and stood around the boat waiting for me. Arn't they suppose to throw their daggers at me first? (which would see like a much better attack plan). When I teleported over to the pirate ship, their inventory contained about 10 daggers each. Is dagger throwing by pirates not supported yet is this a bug?

Are you suppose to be able to board the enemy ship? While the pirates were sitting around with long swords, I pulled right up to their ship and sropped my gangplank. Whenever I tried to use their gang plank, I just got the blocked message. Is this right?

This question is kind of silly, but... When you explode a powder keg inside a compartment (ie. inside the pirate ship's hold, after teleporting myself onto their ship) shouldn't an explosion appear somewhere, either in the treasure hold gump, or on the boat. As it stands you here the explosion sound but no explosion animation and the other powder kegs are ignored.

Kind of long winded and annoying, but I'm trying to help yas a little

[Aerick]

I'm pretty sure pirates are supposed to use their daggers first. It could be that exult chooses the default weapon differently than Ultima 7 does. Perhaps it should look for the weapon w/ the most distance first?

Regarding powder kegs in a container, I don't think you're supposed to be able to blow them up inside a container as per U7. Maybe someone else can verify this?

[drcode]

Pirate weapons: I've been doing a few improvements to combat in the 1.1x code, but I probably haven't fixed that yet. The 'weapon selection' logic is still fairly primitive.

Boarding enemy ships: Can't remember if this is possible in the original. I don't even remember seeing enemy ships in U7.

[MagicMop]

I boarded an enemy ship using exult... It was just a case of "parking" the ship at just the right spot so that both gangplanks can be lowered and meet in the middle... (of course, the pirates stood there with their swords and waited for me to get the ship in just the right position.

I can't remember ever seeing enemy ships in the original either. I was quite surprised when I ran into one in exult just off the coast of Serpents Hold... weird...

MM

[Ignitus Dragon]

Its definitly there in the original Magic, above the tip of Serpent's Hold and a few degrees south-west of Buccaneers Den.
It seems kind of lonely though, it'd be nice to have some type of pirate sub-plot so we could learn more about them.

[drcode]

It doesn't move, does it? I'm pretty sure we don't support that in Exult, but I don't know whether the original did.

It would be pretty nice if there were pirate ships sailing around, and if the ships had canons:-)

[Dominus]

Especially as I'd still would like to make a U4 with Exult (and you really need pirates for the endrun ).
Any ideas yet on the multiple maps?

[SB-X]

Did U5 have enemy ships that you could fight with using cannons?

[gruck]

I tried lining myself up with the enemy gang-plank, but I had no luck. Oh well

[SB-X]

> It seems kind of lonely though, it'd be nice
> to have some type of pirate sub-plot so we
> could learn more about them.
IgnitusDragonn I had this idea too. It is among many other things I've thought of that I or someone else could do as a U7 modification with Exult. But I don'th ave time to do it now.

[drcode]

Do you need multiple maps for U4? I thought it was U6 that especially needed them.

Unfortunately, I won't be working on any major features until I,er, get my employment situation improved.

[Dominus]

Yeah, the dungeons in U4 are far too big as to use the U7 map.

Well, understandable that you want to sort out your situation first.

[drcode]

Right, now I remember. Those went on forever.

[Meat Shield]

*sigh* yeah... they were great....

[drcode]

True:-) And they would be difficult to recreate with the Ultima7 engine. Maybe a remake of U4 could use Exult for the outside world, but have a separate engine for the dungeons.

SAY.... Since we'er GPL, and the Underworld remake is also, imagine a combined game, where it's U7 graphics above-ground, and Underworld (3D) below!

[Dominus]

now that is a really good idea.
(not to mention that little side quest with the kilrathi ship, which uses the Wing Commander Prophecy engine - only in my imagination though).

[gruck]

That would be an absolutely AMAZING idea for a game

[artaxerxes]

humm.... yummy!

Artaxerxes

[Clock Nova]

So, what are you guys waiting for? I want to see an alpha build of the U7/Underworld game by next week.

And if you want to remake Ultima 1, then we can add in the Wing Commander engine for the space flight sequences. Man, what a wierd game that was!

[Karlos]

Wouldn't adding multiple map support be actually easier than trying to fuse two engines together like that? It's an interesting idea though, I admit.

I've laways thought that the lack of multiple map support was the biggest weakness of the U7 engine.


-Karl

[drcode]

Karl: Of course. But it's fun to think about.

Dominik: There is a project on SourceForge (can't remember its name) to create a game similar to Wing Commander.

[Karlos]

Wasn't it Ultima ][ that had the space flight sequences?

Actually, I haven't personally played I or ][, just III and beyond. Though I couldn't bring myself to play 8 or 9 all the way through.


-Karl

[drcode]

I think I and II both did. The only numbered Ultima I haven't played is III.

[gruck]

Yup, both of them had space travel.

In 1 you flew through space sectors and blew up enemy ships

In 2 you flew around the solar system and landed on planets by typing in their co-ordinates. There was no combat.

[Clock Nova]

I think that's why the Kilrathi ship in Ultima 7 was so funny to long-time Ultima fans. It also opened the door to a bit of justifying that any Trekkie would be proud of- the presence of space travel in the first two Ultimas was justified by saying that the Kilrathi brought certain technology to Sosaria, or something like that.

Of course, the introduction of Serpent Isle was just a marvellous way to justify the fact that the world in Ultima 1 was nothing like later Ultimas.

The truth, of course, is that Garriot had no idea where he was going with Ultima until Ultima IV. That was the first time Ultima took on the unified concepts it has (had) today.

Don't ask me where UOL fits in here.

[Ignitus Dragon]

UOL Doesn't fit, probly Garriot trying to carry on the name because it was so attatched to his namesake- in other words he didn't want to ruin the legacy.
It probly also got him more cash than nameing it something like "Icandrus's Online World" or sumfinks.
I'm reasonably sure EA keeps the "Ultima" name because of its fame the fact that they net in more money because its so popular.
By the way, theres an Ultima 7(sounds really interesting but I don't have Quake and I can't remember where the download is for the add-on) for Quake III, and an Underworld for Unreal.

[Clock Nova]

Damn. I really need to find those MODs. Anyone have any idea where they can be found?

[Natreg Dragon]

most of that mods can be found at my Hard disk