GerryWright: I started playing Ultima VI a short while ago and the change in the map layout, with the seamless boundary between out-world and cities, makes for much less detailed cities. With the exception of Britain, the cities have many fewer buildings, many fewer NPC's and many fewer merchants. So, it has been a chore to find magical reagent merchants and spell scroll merchants. And the weapons and armor merchants are far pickier about what loot you can resell to them. I don't know if this was a deliberate attempt to make the game more challenging or what.
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Are you comparing Ultima VI against Ultima V?
I feel like Ultima VI cities are definitely a bit bigger and have more NPCs and conversation topics than Ultima V.
In Ultima V, there were 5 reagent sellers (Yew, Skara Brae, Moonglow, Lycaeum, Cove). In Ultima 6 there are 4 reagent sellers (Yew, Skara Brae, Lycaeum, Cove), but they also sell spells. So, one less reagent seller in Ultima VI vs. Ultima V doesn't seem to be that big a difference.
Weapons and Armor merchants are more nuanced. They don't all sell pretty much the same thing. Certain merchants only sell certain weapons/armor, and purchase only that same type of weapons/armor. It was meant to make the game more interesting and nuanced, but it made it more annoying. I needed to use the orb to sell all the goods I wanted to sell, and some goods (e.g., Gargoyle goods) don't have any buyers since Gargoyles share all of their goods for free. Purchasing/selling Gargoyle Goods don't exist in Gargoyle society.
