Ultima The Ultima Underworld I & II Thread

[Doctor Sbaitso]

only in the codex does a flame war erupt over whether or not crouch-jumping constitutes parkour

You have a very low watermark for 'flame war'.

 

[aweigh]

i blame it on the amount of time i've spent posting on the jrpg sub-forum recently. no flame wars over there ever, so when i do read threads on this forum and see people calling each other retard and the like it's a bit surprising.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

i blame it on the amount of time i've spent posting on the jrpg sub-forum recently.

 

[Fowyr]

Fowyr you have been messing about with the innards. Can you extract a list of item descriptions?

I quick checked it, probably not. My unpackers can't unpack exe and files in DATA don't have text. Even then you could find only item suffixes. You should remember how I tinkered with items somewhere in this thread. Some from these 16 bytes could make absolutely inane shit like Coin of Jumping.

 

[aweigh]

Unkillable Cat

 

[Ash]

^what's the name of that film? Pretty sure it's a classic Jackie Chan romp.
I need to go on another HK cinema binge. Best content for action junkies.

Why has a mouselook mod not been made for UW 1/2? For such legendary games they do not get their just desserts. Too hardcore, too intelligent, and too progressive for a big bunch of the PC gaming tards out there.

Spoiler

*Signs out to go play some Doom*

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Unpack the data files as you can and use this: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897439

 

[aweigh]

jackie chan's dragons forever, directed by sammo hong who also stars in it. a fun bit of trivia: the actor from that gif, who is the antagonist in the movie, used to be bruce lee's go-to stunt double.

 

[Fowyr]

Unpack the data files as you can and use this: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897439

Downloadan.
Albeit no one used Unicode back in the times.
UUW developers were very fond of XOR, though. Start of save games (where stats, skills and unspent points are) XORed by character's name.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Yeah, why not eh? Simple obfuscation for the casual poker.

 

[Neki]

Gotta love that game.

Was playing last night,after an epic battle against those of worms i manage to die to an spider.

There is an axe better than the Battle axe?The damage is good but the charge time is too slow for my tastes.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

I thought there was a higher damaging axe than the Battle Axe but I was wrong. There is a jeweled axe that does slightly less damage but swings faster.

Highest damage melee weapon the UW is the highest tier mace.

 

[---]

I'm replaying the game right now (the last time I abandoned it when I was on the third level).
Do you know if there are some ways to add items to the inventory (maybe a save editor?)?
I accidentally dropped the recipe for the rotworm stew, and I don't have a previous save in which I still have the scroll.

 

[Neki]

I'm replaying the game right now (the last time I abandoned it when I was on the third level).
Do you know if there are some ways to add items to the inventory (maybe a save editor?)?
I accidentally dropped the recipe for the rotworm stew, and I don't have a previous save in which I still have the scroll.

You shoud be able to pick if you didn't dropped on lava.
Items will stay in the drop point till you pick them up(or destroy them)

 

[Unkillable Cat]

He could have thrown it into water, which also destroys it.

Vital quest items for completing the game will not get destroyed, no matter where you drop them. Sadly the Rotworm stew recipe is only needed to get an Item of Interest, not a quest item.

As for --- predicament - adapt or die. Now you can't walk on lava like a boss. Improvise. The game allows for it.

 

[Neki]

I think you can get it back if you are fast and have the swimming skill.
Never tested though

 

[Unkillable Cat]

...I'm in Oktoberfest mode right now, but even I think that's preposterous.

Once a (non-vital) item hits the water, it's gone for good. Not even a pile of ash that shares its properties remains. Bye-bye.

 

[Neki]

...I'm in Oktoberfest mode right now, but even I think that's preposterous.

Once a (non-vital) item hits the water, it's gone for good. Not even a pile of ash that shares its properties remains. Bye-bye.

Yep,Just tested.

Anyway,you can beat the game without it.I never knew that the recipe existed till my 2 or 3 playthrough.

 

[agris]

I've never played an Ultima, but I'm going to change that with UU1.

Does anyone have some recommendations before I dive into the game? Unofficial fixes or files I should know about, or just fire up dosbox and play? Should I look up tips and tricks? Sometimes these old games have really obscure quirks that were well known at the time, but for someone in 2016 playing for the first time, would be completely unknown. I don't want spoilers or power builds or anything though.

Infinitron cuz I know you love your Ultimas.

edit: I'll RTFM first, of course. and consult any maps that would have been in the box.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

First, of course, RTFM. Goes without saying for games released before the year 2000.

Second, you'll need the DOSBox SVN Daum-build to play the Underworld games properly. IIRC it's so you get the audio right.

Third, you'll need to keep your own notes. Pen 'n' paper will do, but you can use pages of the in-game automap as well.

Fourth, avoid reading tips online, they will probably spoil your fun. Ask us here instead after reading the manual if you want answers to how specific skills or attributes work.

Otherwise you're making a good choice with UUW1 as a starting point for Ultima. It only introduces you to the philosophy of the game, not the Big Story and all the characters. If you like what you see here, then go for the others. Note that UUW2 is not a direct sequel to UUW1, but more of a sequel to Ultima 7 that uses the Underworld engine.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Read the manuals. Other than that make sure you have sound set up correctly. I prefer SBPro audio but my experience is that people prefer it as they first played it. I found the MIDI music really loud and not nearly as atmospheric as SBPro. Maybe try them both a bit and decide for yourself.

Enjoy man. You are in for a real treat.

 

[agris]

I prefer SBPro audio but my experience is that people prefer it as they first played it. I found the MIDI music really loud and not nearly as atmospheric as SBPro.

How do I toggle between the two?

 

[Kahr]

Playing it first time too and it's amazing and all, but from the situation i'm in now (level 7) i can give you following two tips:
-taking a character with more strength makes the game less annoying (i've got a bard with ondly 16Str) because you will have to carry a lot of stuff later on
-there are items which seem not important, but get latter on, so remember where you put anything or the game get's more annoying later on

Real spoiler for the game:

Spoiler

DAAMN SPIDER SILK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!....

Read the manuals. Other than that make sure you have sound set up correctly. I prefer SBPro audio but my experience is that people prefer it as they first played it. I found the MIDI music really loud and not nearly as atmospheric as SBPro. Maybe try them both a bit and decide for yourself.

Enjoy man. You are in for a real treat.

Are there different themes as you progress in the levels or is there just the "normal" music and the combat one?
Found it weird. Expected maybe one theme each 2 levels.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

agris there is a config program for dosbox and one for the game, I think it is uwsound.exe

_____ There maybe a couple of areas where specific tunes are played. Remember this was very early days. The fact it has dynamic music is remarkable.

 

[Great Deceiver]

I prefer SBPro audio but my experience is that people prefer it as they first played it. I found the MIDI music really loud and not nearly as atmospheric as SBPro.

How do I toggle between the two?

The reason why you need the Daum SVN for best music is because it incorporates MT-32 emulation. You can also use other DosBox distributions but you'd need the standalone MUNT MT-32 emulation driver, and manually select that midipath through config, so it's more complicated.

I don't think the FM synth is bad, though. The game is perfectly fine just playing with regular Soundblaster/Adlib music - but if you're going to play UW for the first time, then I'd recommend doing it with MT-32 music.