Page 4, let the story continue
-
Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.
"This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.
Let's Play Ultima: From Akalabeth to Ascension! (Now on VII)
- Thread starter Elzair
- Start date
Elzair
Cipher
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2009
- Messages
- 2,254
Ultima III Part 3
Ultima III: Exodus
Part 3
Alright, these last few days have been hectic, so I was slow to get stuff done on the Ultima LP front. Wednesday night and Thursday night I played heavily and managed to beat the game. I will probably have to break my coverage of it into two parts because of its length.
Anyway, since I have already shown a large chunk of the game, I might as well come out and reveal all of the mechanics and "mysteries" of the game. I have covered some of this material before, but I want to get it all out in the open. Let's start from the basics. Ultima III is a fantasy cRPG where the player controls a group of up to four (and there is very little reason not to have four) characters that s/he has generated. The player can choose from five races (human, elf, dwarf, bobbit, and fuzzy), eleven classes (alchemist, barbarian, cleric, druid, fighter, illusionist, lark, paladin, ranger, thief, and wizard), and three genders (male, female and other). The race details the highest number an attribute can be raised; the class effects the best weapons and armor a character can equip, and what attribute or attributes determines his or her pool of mana. Rounding out this are four attributes: strength, dexterity, intelligence and wisdom. Strength affects the damage done by a character's physical attack. Dexterity determines their chance to hit and dodge attacks (and traps). Intelligence just affects sorcerer spells (mostly by affecting the mana pool), and Wisdom does likewise for priest spells. Attributes can only be increased by offering gold at the shrines in the lost continent of Ambrosia; for each 100 gold offered, a character's attribute will increase by one. The magic system revolves around Mana, and a character can cast any spell in their type provided they have enough mana. There are two types of magic in the game: priest spells and wizard spells, and each type has sixteen spells each. Characters gain EXP from slaying monsters, and with every 100 exp they gain, they go up in level. The only benefit to leveling-up is that, when the character talks to Lord British, he will increase their maximum HP to 100*current_level+50; however, he will only do this up to level 25 (maximum HP for all characters = 2500), so there is no point in leveling-up beyond that. Unlike in the past games, HP now has a maximum limit; however, healing spells (and services and fountains in dungeons) have been added to make achieving the maximum current HP easier. As always, each character must have a supply of food which will be used up as they travel, and if their food stores reach zero, they will starve (which means they will take damage every few turns). Another, similarly functioning status-effect, poison, has been added to the series; a character can be poisoned from fountains in dungeons, trapped chests, and enemy attacks. Each character will also keep their own store of food, pile of gold, keys, gems, torches, weapons, armor, etc. However, these things may be traded among party members with the Hand command.
Like in the past, the game has two modes: overhead (for exploring the overworld and towns) and a first-person perspective (for dungeons). When a hostile creature is encountered, the game switches to a battle map. The game is turn-based, and each party member is given the chance to move one space or perform one action (attack, cast a spell, equip a different item, etc.); then it is the enemy's turn to do likewise. In the overworld, monsters will appear randomly and chase the player across the screen.
The dungeons, however, feature random pop-up encounters a la Wizardry et al. The dungeons now have various traps as well as marks, fountains (that either heal a character, poison him, or do nothing), monsters and chests of loot (that are often trapped themselves). It also seems like >60% of the chests in this game are trapped. There are three traps in order of frequency: Acid (does damage to one character), Bomb (does damage to all characters) and Poison (poisons one or more characters). The dungeons are also dark now, so the characters require torches (or light spells) to see.
Two new stores have been added to the towns: healers and guild shops. Healers will heal a character's wounds, cure poison, or revive a fallen companion. When a character's HP reaches 0, s/he is dead. Revival (that can also be done with a priest spell) has a 50-50 chance of bringing them back from the dead or reducing them to ashes. Ashes can be restored (even though all later Ultimas say no) with the priest spell Anju Sermani that costs 75 MP and permanently reduces the caster's Wisdom by 5. The other store is a shop that sells keys (used for unlocking doors), gems (used for viewing a map of the area), torches (for lighting in dungeons), and powder (a time stop).
A player has only two transportation options in this game (apart from Moongates): horse and ship. Horses can be bought in some towns; ships can only be taken, and they appear randomly (and rarely I might add). A horse just moves a bit faster on the world map and reduces food consumption. A ship allows travel by sea and allows the player to attack a creature from afar with cannons. Unlike previous games, a monster killed by cannons will not yield XP or gold. A ship will not move when the wind is calm or it is blowing in the direction a player is trying to move. There are eight moongates in Sosaria, and each one corresponds to one of the phases of the two moons. A moongate will rise from the ground when the left number corresponds to it, and it will travel to the moongate corresponding to the number on the right.
The purpose of this game is to storm Castle Death and destroy Exodus. To do this, you will need a ship, four Marks (Kings, Fire, Force, and Snake), four cards (Love, Sol, Moons, and Death), four sets of exotic weapons and armor, and enough hitpoints and attributes to withstand the onslaught.
My mouth is tired. Let's play the game!
Here are some giants.
Here is a gem-view of the Sosaria overworld.
Here are some sea serpents. They have a ranged attack.
Uh oh! Wizards mean bad news!
Anyway, I grind in Yew for a little while longer.
I just noticed that the tavern in Moon is called the Blue Boar. This bar comes back in later Ultimas.
Anyway, let's hear some rumors.
I paid over 200 gold for this!
Anyway, I had enough of this, so I decided to scour the land in search of a ship.
I finally find one on the north coast, and I have a nice little chat with its crew.
The ship is mine! Now I will sail the seven seas in search of booty. ARRRRR!!!
Here is me preparing to give some unexpecting orcs a taste of lead balls.
Now that I have a ship, I can reach this village.
It is rather strange to name your fishing village after deer. Anyway, here is what the various townsfolk have to say.
Since my food was getting low, I restock here as well.
Here is a band of skeletons.
Finally, Frodo's Pontori spell works!
I now head to the eastern chain of islands to visit the town there. This is the "friendly" Devil that greets me.
Here is a gems-eye view of the place.
These are the only guards in the game that will accept bribes to leave me alone. However, due south of the entrance is a "secret" way to get around the guard and the door.To bribe them, I select the Other command, select the character, type "bribe" and input the direction.
I don't get what something called Death Gulch is doing in a Tolkien rip-off; it would sound better in a Western.
I should come back here later when I can walk across fire.
To the south a bit is another "secret entrance"
I bribe this guard with 100 gold to get out of my way.
HOLY SHIT!! I HAVE HIT THE JACKPOT!!
Since one of the townsfolk suggested digging on islands, I do just that.
Nothing here either!
Hello Exotics!
Nothing!
Hello more exotics! I now have exotic weapons and armor for all my characters. I equip everyone with exotic armor, but I only equip Frodo and Furry with the exotic weapons. Sam and Gimli keep their bows because ranged weapons are more useful on the outside.
Here is the result of a successful casting of Repond by Furry on a pack of goblins.
Since I need healing before I loot Death Gulch again, I decide to scour the dungeons in search of a healing fountain. I first check the Perinian Depths, which is located just north of Death Gulch.
I search the first floor to no avail. I then head for the ladder down to the second level in the southwest corner of the floor. I discover a healing fountain in the northwest corner of the floor.
How wonderful, indeed!
Here is the result of another successful casting of Pontori.
After looting Death Gulch enough to give all characters 9999 gold, I decide to head for Ambrosia to improve my attributes. To do that, I have to sail the ship into a whirlpool. Finding it is a bitch!
I finally catch up to it near the Snake dungeon.
Uh oh! I need to find a new ship!
Here is an overview of this place.
In the bottom-left corner is a pseudo-maze that leads me to a clearing where a pirate ship attacks me.
After defeating the crew, it becomes my ship.
I sail it east past the whirlpool that leads back. I defeat the next ship and unlock the gate.
A little ways north, I find a shrine.
This is the Shrine of Dexterity. When a character offers the shrine x*100 gold, it increases their dexterity by x. Right now, I just bump up Sam and Gimli's dexterity a bit.
I Search the shrine for one of the cards.
I then head all the way to the north, then west, then south a bit to get to the Shrine of Strength.
On the way I am attacked by Manes. They are not too hard.
This is the only spot in the game where I am attacked by wild horses. No, they can't drag me away, either.
Here we are! I bump up Sam and Gimli's strength and get another card.
I now head to the northeast.
So this place is called Ambrosia, eh?
To the west is a lake that I hijack another pirate ship to cross.
Here we are again! As usual I search for cards.
I bump up Sam's intelligence a little and max out Fuzzy's.
It looks like a Balron is standing between me and the Shrine of Wisdom. As you can see by my HP, I am in no position to fight.
Oh well! It is just some Orci.
I use Fuzzy's nameless spell to kill all of them.
I then search the shrine for the last of the cards.
I raise Gimli's wisdom a bit and max out Frodo's.
Look ma! I'm playing with a full deck!
I am done here right now, so let's head back to the whirlpool.
I arrive back in Sosaria safe and sound!
In the next update, I will probably finish the game.
Ultima III: Exodus
Part 3
Alright, these last few days have been hectic, so I was slow to get stuff done on the Ultima LP front. Wednesday night and Thursday night I played heavily and managed to beat the game. I will probably have to break my coverage of it into two parts because of its length.
Anyway, since I have already shown a large chunk of the game, I might as well come out and reveal all of the mechanics and "mysteries" of the game. I have covered some of this material before, but I want to get it all out in the open. Let's start from the basics. Ultima III is a fantasy cRPG where the player controls a group of up to four (and there is very little reason not to have four) characters that s/he has generated. The player can choose from five races (human, elf, dwarf, bobbit, and fuzzy), eleven classes (alchemist, barbarian, cleric, druid, fighter, illusionist, lark, paladin, ranger, thief, and wizard), and three genders (male, female and other). The race details the highest number an attribute can be raised; the class effects the best weapons and armor a character can equip, and what attribute or attributes determines his or her pool of mana. Rounding out this are four attributes: strength, dexterity, intelligence and wisdom. Strength affects the damage done by a character's physical attack. Dexterity determines their chance to hit and dodge attacks (and traps). Intelligence just affects sorcerer spells (mostly by affecting the mana pool), and Wisdom does likewise for priest spells. Attributes can only be increased by offering gold at the shrines in the lost continent of Ambrosia; for each 100 gold offered, a character's attribute will increase by one. The magic system revolves around Mana, and a character can cast any spell in their type provided they have enough mana. There are two types of magic in the game: priest spells and wizard spells, and each type has sixteen spells each. Characters gain EXP from slaying monsters, and with every 100 exp they gain, they go up in level. The only benefit to leveling-up is that, when the character talks to Lord British, he will increase their maximum HP to 100*current_level+50; however, he will only do this up to level 25 (maximum HP for all characters = 2500), so there is no point in leveling-up beyond that. Unlike in the past games, HP now has a maximum limit; however, healing spells (and services and fountains in dungeons) have been added to make achieving the maximum current HP easier. As always, each character must have a supply of food which will be used up as they travel, and if their food stores reach zero, they will starve (which means they will take damage every few turns). Another, similarly functioning status-effect, poison, has been added to the series; a character can be poisoned from fountains in dungeons, trapped chests, and enemy attacks. Each character will also keep their own store of food, pile of gold, keys, gems, torches, weapons, armor, etc. However, these things may be traded among party members with the Hand command.
Like in the past, the game has two modes: overhead (for exploring the overworld and towns) and a first-person perspective (for dungeons). When a hostile creature is encountered, the game switches to a battle map. The game is turn-based, and each party member is given the chance to move one space or perform one action (attack, cast a spell, equip a different item, etc.); then it is the enemy's turn to do likewise. In the overworld, monsters will appear randomly and chase the player across the screen.
The dungeons, however, feature random pop-up encounters a la Wizardry et al. The dungeons now have various traps as well as marks, fountains (that either heal a character, poison him, or do nothing), monsters and chests of loot (that are often trapped themselves). It also seems like >60% of the chests in this game are trapped. There are three traps in order of frequency: Acid (does damage to one character), Bomb (does damage to all characters) and Poison (poisons one or more characters). The dungeons are also dark now, so the characters require torches (or light spells) to see.
Two new stores have been added to the towns: healers and guild shops. Healers will heal a character's wounds, cure poison, or revive a fallen companion. When a character's HP reaches 0, s/he is dead. Revival (that can also be done with a priest spell) has a 50-50 chance of bringing them back from the dead or reducing them to ashes. Ashes can be restored (even though all later Ultimas say no) with the priest spell Anju Sermani that costs 75 MP and permanently reduces the caster's Wisdom by 5. The other store is a shop that sells keys (used for unlocking doors), gems (used for viewing a map of the area), torches (for lighting in dungeons), and powder (a time stop).
A player has only two transportation options in this game (apart from Moongates): horse and ship. Horses can be bought in some towns; ships can only be taken, and they appear randomly (and rarely I might add). A horse just moves a bit faster on the world map and reduces food consumption. A ship allows travel by sea and allows the player to attack a creature from afar with cannons. Unlike previous games, a monster killed by cannons will not yield XP or gold. A ship will not move when the wind is calm or it is blowing in the direction a player is trying to move. There are eight moongates in Sosaria, and each one corresponds to one of the phases of the two moons. A moongate will rise from the ground when the left number corresponds to it, and it will travel to the moongate corresponding to the number on the right.
The purpose of this game is to storm Castle Death and destroy Exodus. To do this, you will need a ship, four Marks (Kings, Fire, Force, and Snake), four cards (Love, Sol, Moons, and Death), four sets of exotic weapons and armor, and enough hitpoints and attributes to withstand the onslaught.
My mouth is tired. Let's play the game!
Here are some giants.
Here is a gem-view of the Sosaria overworld.
Here are some sea serpents. They have a ranged attack.
Uh oh! Wizards mean bad news!
Anyway, I grind in Yew for a little while longer.
I just noticed that the tavern in Moon is called the Blue Boar. This bar comes back in later Ultimas.
Anyway, let's hear some rumors.
I paid over 200 gold for this!
Anyway, I had enough of this, so I decided to scour the land in search of a ship.
I finally find one on the north coast, and I have a nice little chat with its crew.
The ship is mine! Now I will sail the seven seas in search of booty. ARRRRR!!!
Here is me preparing to give some unexpecting orcs a taste of lead balls.
Now that I have a ship, I can reach this village.
It is rather strange to name your fishing village after deer. Anyway, here is what the various townsfolk have to say.
Since my food was getting low, I restock here as well.
Here is a band of skeletons.
Finally, Frodo's Pontori spell works!
I now head to the eastern chain of islands to visit the town there. This is the "friendly" Devil that greets me.
Here is a gems-eye view of the place.
These are the only guards in the game that will accept bribes to leave me alone. However, due south of the entrance is a "secret" way to get around the guard and the door.To bribe them, I select the Other command, select the character, type "bribe" and input the direction.
I don't get what something called Death Gulch is doing in a Tolkien rip-off; it would sound better in a Western.
I should come back here later when I can walk across fire.
To the south a bit is another "secret entrance"
I bribe this guard with 100 gold to get out of my way.
HOLY SHIT!! I HAVE HIT THE JACKPOT!!
Since one of the townsfolk suggested digging on islands, I do just that.
Nothing here either!
Hello Exotics!
Nothing!
Hello more exotics! I now have exotic weapons and armor for all my characters. I equip everyone with exotic armor, but I only equip Frodo and Furry with the exotic weapons. Sam and Gimli keep their bows because ranged weapons are more useful on the outside.
Here is the result of a successful casting of Repond by Furry on a pack of goblins.
Since I need healing before I loot Death Gulch again, I decide to scour the dungeons in search of a healing fountain. I first check the Perinian Depths, which is located just north of Death Gulch.
I search the first floor to no avail. I then head for the ladder down to the second level in the southwest corner of the floor. I discover a healing fountain in the northwest corner of the floor.
How wonderful, indeed!
Here is the result of another successful casting of Pontori.
After looting Death Gulch enough to give all characters 9999 gold, I decide to head for Ambrosia to improve my attributes. To do that, I have to sail the ship into a whirlpool. Finding it is a bitch!
I finally catch up to it near the Snake dungeon.
Uh oh! I need to find a new ship!
Here is an overview of this place.
In the bottom-left corner is a pseudo-maze that leads me to a clearing where a pirate ship attacks me.
After defeating the crew, it becomes my ship.
I sail it east past the whirlpool that leads back. I defeat the next ship and unlock the gate.
A little ways north, I find a shrine.
This is the Shrine of Dexterity. When a character offers the shrine x*100 gold, it increases their dexterity by x. Right now, I just bump up Sam and Gimli's dexterity a bit.
I Search the shrine for one of the cards.
I then head all the way to the north, then west, then south a bit to get to the Shrine of Strength.
On the way I am attacked by Manes. They are not too hard.
This is the only spot in the game where I am attacked by wild horses. No, they can't drag me away, either.
Here we are! I bump up Sam and Gimli's strength and get another card.
I now head to the northeast.
So this place is called Ambrosia, eh?
To the west is a lake that I hijack another pirate ship to cross.
Here we are again! As usual I search for cards.
I bump up Sam's intelligence a little and max out Fuzzy's.
It looks like a Balron is standing between me and the Shrine of Wisdom. As you can see by my HP, I am in no position to fight.
Oh well! It is just some Orci.
I use Fuzzy's nameless spell to kill all of them.
I then search the shrine for the last of the cards.
I raise Gimli's wisdom a bit and max out Frodo's.
Look ma! I'm playing with a full deck!
I am done here right now, so let's head back to the whirlpool.
I arrive back in Sosaria safe and sound!
In the next update, I will probably finish the game.
Elzair
Cipher
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2009
- Messages
- 2,254
yolesaber said:
I am trying to stay as close to the original games as possible, so I will likely run U7 in Dosbox. I will also run Ultima IV (coming soon) in DosBox rather than using xu4. The mods I used in these last games have only enhanced the graphics and sound and provided a few minor conveniences like the ability to reload/quit to DOS.
GarfunkeL
Racism Expert
Ah, I knew that the gfx was too good to be completely authentic. No matter, it's a glorious undertaking and it's great to see the old ones again. I don't think I ever played the first three ones, at least, not much.
Elzair
Cipher
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2009
- Messages
- 2,254
Ultima III Part 4
Ultima III: Exodus
Part 4
Alright, I have bumped up my stats and gotten some nice equipment. It is now time to get my characters up to level 25, collect the three remaining marks, find the Time Lord, and go to Castle Death and kick Exodus's ass!
Look what Daddy can now cast! Honestly, it only restores ~50 HP. Healing spells are only useful at the beginning of the game.
Here is Fuzzy's Dag Mentar spell making quick work of a pack of goblins. It is one of several area-of-effect spells in the Wizard's repertoire.
Okay, it is now time to retrieve the Marks of Force and Fire.
The best place to do this is the Fire Dungeon.
Here is a view of the first level. Since I have not covered dungeons much, here are a few random screenshots of the journey down. I could have just cast Rec Du and Dor Acron a few times to get to level 8 (where the marks are), but I wanted to cover a dungeon and save my MP for the monsters (and my getaway).
I have been accosted by a pack of gargoyles. They aren't too difficult.
I finally take the southwest ladder down to the level 8.
As you can see, there are two parts of this level that are cut-off from each other.
Here is the Mark of Force. I make sure all my characters touch it. As usual, they each take 50 damage. This mark allows me to pass through force fields (those annoying yellow things).
Now, where do I go from here?
Frodo casts Lib Rec, which teleports the party around the current level.
Aha! The mark is as good as ours.
Here is the Mark of Fire. It allows me to walk on fire (that red stuff) without taking damage.
Frodo casts Sequitu, which takes us up to the surface.
Three down; one to go!
I then head for the Snake Dungeon. Guess what I will find there?
The journey down is mostly uneventful. The mark is at the bottom on the left side.
Uh oh! Luckily, my mages still have full MP. Furry makes quick work of them with the nameless spell.
After the battle, I cast Alcort to heal two poisoned party members. The wind keeps blowing out my lights as I navigate this passageway, so I have to rely on the map.
Here is the Mark of Snake. This will allow me to pass the snake guarding Castle Death.
Aww, yeah!
Frodo sequitus us out of there.
Now that we have gotten all the marks, we need to level-up.
What I did was to travel to Fawn and keep attacking the first guard I see and retreating before more can swarm me.
These are some of the toughest opponents in the game, but the XP reward is quite nice. There is over one level worth of experience from these battles.
Fuzzy casts Altair, which stops time for several turns. Sam and Gimli then go to town.
Frodo casts Zxkuqyb, the cleric's version of the nameless spell. It kills everyone.
I kill guards for a while (stopping every so often to buy food, heal and visit Lord British). Finally, everyone is at level 25 with 2550 HP each.
It is now time to find the Time Lord. He will tell us how to use the cards to defeat Exodus. This is not strictly necessary if you already know the order, but I wanted to be complete.
He is located in the Dungeon of Time. To reach it, I have to navigate the moongates. I then begin experimenting with moongate #1.
We are then transported to moongate #4.
This takes me to moongate #6. This is the area inside the ring of mountains located in the centre-left part of the map.
Apparently there is a town here! Let's visit it.
I wonder what kind of devil they are guarding.
Here is a view of the place. Now, let's see what the folks here have to say.
Well, enough of that! I make my way back to moongate #1.
I finally arrive at the Dungeon of Time!
Here is a view of the first level. Levels 2 and 3 are not that bad.
I then make my way to the ladder in the bottom right corner. This one takes me all the way down to level 8.
I think the Time Lord is located in the upper-left corner of the level.
In this proto-cutscene, the Time Lord tells me the proper order of the cards is Love, Sol, Moons and Death.
I cast Sequitu to leave the dungeon, and I head back to my ship, and I travel to Death Gulch to stock up on gold for one final trip to Ambrosia.
Uh oh! A poison trap poisoned all my characters. Frodo casts Alcort to heal them, but since Alcort costs 35 MP, he only has enough MP to heal three of them.
Furry has to heal himself. To do that, he casts Fal Divi which allows him to cast the priest spell Alcort. Since Fal Divi costs 45 MP, he can cast no spell better than Sanctu Mani.
For laughs, I check up on Lord British. He tell me he will give no further HP bonus. I then head back to Ambrosia and max out Frodo's strength and dexterity and bring Gimli rather close to maxing out. I then give Frodo and Furry some extra dexterity to help them avoid attacks.
Now it is time to kill Exodus!
Here is the passage to Castle Death. Unfortunately, it is guarded by the Great Earth Serpent. He will show up in a later game.
To get past him, I yell "EVOCARE". Since I have the Mark of Snake, I am transported to the other side.
This is it. I make sure all my characters have their exotic swords readied and are wearing their exotic armor; then I head in.
Here is a gem view of the place. Exodus is in the very back of the place. I will try to make my way around the left-hand side. The bright yellow represents force fields, and the bright red represents lava.
I enter the place and make my way to the left. On the way I am accosted by four bands of dragons and one band of balrons. The balrons poison my entire party, but Frodo and Furry have used up all their MP already and there is no good place to wait for MP to regenerate. I then remember that poison only takes 1 HP away every few turns and that I am at the end of the game, so I ignore it.
I am now only a few steps away from Exodus. However, once I get past the forcefield and the lava, a new surprise awaits.
Where the hell are the enemies?
Okay, I already know what the deal is, so I move all my characters into a line at the back wall.
Apparently, the floor itself is an enemy. I end up killing eight floor tiles, since Ultima 3 only supports battles with up to eight enemies.
After two battles, I get back to the castle. That grey thing is Exodus. Apparently, it is a computer, or, at least, it is an entity using a computer to interact with the world. I don't quite know; the Forge of Virtue add-on for Ultima VII will provide more information.
Sam then inserts the Love card in the leftmost slot.
This causes that part to blow-up.
Moving right, Gimli inserts the Sol card, which destroys that part of Exodus.
Frodo then inserts the Moons card. This time I managed to capture the explosion.
Finally, Fuzzy inserts the Death card. This causes Exodus to die.
The screen here goes a bit funny.
Success! Exodus is defeated!
Well, that is all for Ultima III. Stay tuned for Ultima IV.
Ultima III: Exodus
Part 4
Alright, I have bumped up my stats and gotten some nice equipment. It is now time to get my characters up to level 25, collect the three remaining marks, find the Time Lord, and go to Castle Death and kick Exodus's ass!
Look what Daddy can now cast! Honestly, it only restores ~50 HP. Healing spells are only useful at the beginning of the game.
Here is Fuzzy's Dag Mentar spell making quick work of a pack of goblins. It is one of several area-of-effect spells in the Wizard's repertoire.
Okay, it is now time to retrieve the Marks of Force and Fire.
The best place to do this is the Fire Dungeon.
Here is a view of the first level. Since I have not covered dungeons much, here are a few random screenshots of the journey down. I could have just cast Rec Du and Dor Acron a few times to get to level 8 (where the marks are), but I wanted to cover a dungeon and save my MP for the monsters (and my getaway).
I have been accosted by a pack of gargoyles. They aren't too difficult.
I finally take the southwest ladder down to the level 8.
As you can see, there are two parts of this level that are cut-off from each other.
Here is the Mark of Force. I make sure all my characters touch it. As usual, they each take 50 damage. This mark allows me to pass through force fields (those annoying yellow things).
Now, where do I go from here?
Frodo casts Lib Rec, which teleports the party around the current level.
Aha! The mark is as good as ours.
Here is the Mark of Fire. It allows me to walk on fire (that red stuff) without taking damage.
Frodo casts Sequitu, which takes us up to the surface.
Three down; one to go!
I then head for the Snake Dungeon. Guess what I will find there?
The journey down is mostly uneventful. The mark is at the bottom on the left side.
Uh oh! Luckily, my mages still have full MP. Furry makes quick work of them with the nameless spell.
After the battle, I cast Alcort to heal two poisoned party members. The wind keeps blowing out my lights as I navigate this passageway, so I have to rely on the map.
Here is the Mark of Snake. This will allow me to pass the snake guarding Castle Death.
Aww, yeah!
Frodo sequitus us out of there.
Now that we have gotten all the marks, we need to level-up.
What I did was to travel to Fawn and keep attacking the first guard I see and retreating before more can swarm me.
These are some of the toughest opponents in the game, but the XP reward is quite nice. There is over one level worth of experience from these battles.
Fuzzy casts Altair, which stops time for several turns. Sam and Gimli then go to town.
Frodo casts Zxkuqyb, the cleric's version of the nameless spell. It kills everyone.
I kill guards for a while (stopping every so often to buy food, heal and visit Lord British). Finally, everyone is at level 25 with 2550 HP each.
It is now time to find the Time Lord. He will tell us how to use the cards to defeat Exodus. This is not strictly necessary if you already know the order, but I wanted to be complete.
He is located in the Dungeon of Time. To reach it, I have to navigate the moongates. I then begin experimenting with moongate #1.
We are then transported to moongate #4.
This takes me to moongate #6. This is the area inside the ring of mountains located in the centre-left part of the map.
Apparently there is a town here! Let's visit it.
I wonder what kind of devil they are guarding.
Here is a view of the place. Now, let's see what the folks here have to say.
Well, enough of that! I make my way back to moongate #1.
I finally arrive at the Dungeon of Time!
Here is a view of the first level. Levels 2 and 3 are not that bad.
I then make my way to the ladder in the bottom right corner. This one takes me all the way down to level 8.
I think the Time Lord is located in the upper-left corner of the level.
In this proto-cutscene, the Time Lord tells me the proper order of the cards is Love, Sol, Moons and Death.
I cast Sequitu to leave the dungeon, and I head back to my ship, and I travel to Death Gulch to stock up on gold for one final trip to Ambrosia.
Uh oh! A poison trap poisoned all my characters. Frodo casts Alcort to heal them, but since Alcort costs 35 MP, he only has enough MP to heal three of them.
Furry has to heal himself. To do that, he casts Fal Divi which allows him to cast the priest spell Alcort. Since Fal Divi costs 45 MP, he can cast no spell better than Sanctu Mani.
For laughs, I check up on Lord British. He tell me he will give no further HP bonus. I then head back to Ambrosia and max out Frodo's strength and dexterity and bring Gimli rather close to maxing out. I then give Frodo and Furry some extra dexterity to help them avoid attacks.
Now it is time to kill Exodus!
Here is the passage to Castle Death. Unfortunately, it is guarded by the Great Earth Serpent. He will show up in a later game.
To get past him, I yell "EVOCARE". Since I have the Mark of Snake, I am transported to the other side.
This is it. I make sure all my characters have their exotic swords readied and are wearing their exotic armor; then I head in.
Here is a gem view of the place. Exodus is in the very back of the place. I will try to make my way around the left-hand side. The bright yellow represents force fields, and the bright red represents lava.
I enter the place and make my way to the left. On the way I am accosted by four bands of dragons and one band of balrons. The balrons poison my entire party, but Frodo and Furry have used up all their MP already and there is no good place to wait for MP to regenerate. I then remember that poison only takes 1 HP away every few turns and that I am at the end of the game, so I ignore it.
I am now only a few steps away from Exodus. However, once I get past the forcefield and the lava, a new surprise awaits.
Where the hell are the enemies?
Okay, I already know what the deal is, so I move all my characters into a line at the back wall.
Apparently, the floor itself is an enemy. I end up killing eight floor tiles, since Ultima 3 only supports battles with up to eight enemies.
After two battles, I get back to the castle. That grey thing is Exodus. Apparently, it is a computer, or, at least, it is an entity using a computer to interact with the world. I don't quite know; the Forge of Virtue add-on for Ultima VII will provide more information.
Sam then inserts the Love card in the leftmost slot.
This causes that part to blow-up.
Moving right, Gimli inserts the Sol card, which destroys that part of Exodus.
Frodo then inserts the Moons card. This time I managed to capture the explosion.
Finally, Fuzzy inserts the Death card. This causes Exodus to die.
The screen here goes a bit funny.
Success! Exodus is defeated!
Well, that is all for Ultima III. Stay tuned for Ultima IV.
Silellak
Cipher
Fuck yeah. This shit just got real.
I meant to ask - do you plan to play through the Forge of Virtue and Silver Seed expansions as well? How about the Underworld games? Worlds of Ultima?
Keep up the good work!
Elzair
Cipher
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2009
- Messages
- 2,254
Silellak said:
Well, I plan to play through all of the canonical Ultima games. This means no Escape from Mt. Drash, no Runes of Virtue, and NO Ultima Online. I will try to play through IV, V, VI, SE, MD, UW1, VII+FOV, UW2, SI+SS, VIII, and *shudders* IX.
I might break my rule and cover the parody game IV1/2 (even though someone else already LPed it) since it is so short, but I am not promising anything.
Thanks!
Oooo! Savage Empires and Martian Dreams both? Good stuff!
Yes, keep up the good work, I'm thoroughly impressed and entertained!
Yes, keep up the good work, I'm thoroughly impressed and entertained!
Silellak
Cipher
Elzair said:
These are very fun to read. I hope you complete them all. It sure is quicker to read the LP to bring back the memories of these games instead of going through the work of replaying them myself.
Andyman Messiah
Mr. Ed-ucated
As young as I am this still bring back a lot of memories. Awesome, Elzair!
Castanova
Prophet
Elzair said:
School sucks, dude. Just drop out until you finish, at least, the U7 LP.
Elzair
Cipher
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2009
- Messages
- 2,254
Interlude
Interlude
Alright, I have made some decent progress in Ultima IV, and I will catalogue it soon. However, before I do that, I want to take a few moments to introduce the changes in the series that will remain mostly constant for a good chunk of the rest of the games.
The most major change is that the land of Sosaria has become the land of Britannia. Of the six remaining numerical games, all but one will take place in Britannia. It will mostly look like this.
The second major thing is that the nonhuman races have been completely cut out of the game and will no longer be mentioned. Furthermore, in the games that allow the character to pick his or her class, s/he will have eight choices: fighter, mage, bard, druid, tinker, paladin, ranger and shepherd.
Each class corresponds to one of the eight virtues: valor, honesty, compassion, justice, sacrifice, honor, spirituality or humility respectively. The eight virtues arise from the three principles of truth, love and courage (which were blatantly copied from the Wizard of Oz). Here is a better explanation.
The relationship between the eight virtues and three principles are best represented by the Codex symbol.
Something else to be aware of is that the Britannian runes will become more important as the series goes on. You have already seen them on the maps, but they will begin to make their way into the game itself. Here is a chart to become familiar with them. I will try to translate where appropriate.
Alright, that should be enough for now. I will upload the first part of my Ultima IV playthrough tomorrow.
Interlude
Alright, I have made some decent progress in Ultima IV, and I will catalogue it soon. However, before I do that, I want to take a few moments to introduce the changes in the series that will remain mostly constant for a good chunk of the rest of the games.
The most major change is that the land of Sosaria has become the land of Britannia. Of the six remaining numerical games, all but one will take place in Britannia. It will mostly look like this.
The second major thing is that the nonhuman races have been completely cut out of the game and will no longer be mentioned. Furthermore, in the games that allow the character to pick his or her class, s/he will have eight choices: fighter, mage, bard, druid, tinker, paladin, ranger and shepherd.
Each class corresponds to one of the eight virtues: valor, honesty, compassion, justice, sacrifice, honor, spirituality or humility respectively. The eight virtues arise from the three principles of truth, love and courage (which were blatantly copied from the Wizard of Oz). Here is a better explanation.
The relationship between the eight virtues and three principles are best represented by the Codex symbol.
Something else to be aware of is that the Britannian runes will become more important as the series goes on. You have already seen them on the maps, but they will begin to make their way into the game itself. Here is a chart to become familiar with them. I will try to translate where appropriate.
Alright, that should be enough for now. I will upload the first part of my Ultima IV playthrough tomorrow.
Shall we go for a new page first?
Luzur
Good Sir
yes
But how?
Silellak
Cipher
Elzair said:
As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.