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Ultima seriesHow buggy is Serpent Isle?(7 posts)solved(7 posts)solved
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Posted March 11, 2015
Hey everyone,

I finished Ultima 7 about a few months ago and it was honestly one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had. I didn't play it with Exult and I actually liked the vanilla interface and had a blast overall. Anyway, I'd love to continue the adventure with part 2, but I read that it's considerably buggy compared the Black Gate; like there are game breaking bugs in it. Can anyone who's played Part 2 share their experiences on how buggy it is? Is it playable? Do I have to constantly lookout and avoid triggers etc. Does Exult have any bugfixes and should I use it? Thanks in advance :).
This question / problem has been solved by Garranimage
Posted March 11, 2015
I can only think of two significant bugs (barring someone playing around with the cheat codes, at which point all bets are off): the first is a bug relating to a certain NPC's appearance - they won't appear when they're supposed to. This was eventually tracked down (after various false leads) to the script code attached to a specific item when it's picked up. If you do it the wrong way(s), the script code doesn't register that the item was picked up and the NPC won't appear. This can be dealt with after the fact by a couple of methods but it's easy to avoid by picking it up 'correctly' to begin with. This has been by far the most common game breaker.

The second (rare) one - I've only heard of this happening a couple of times - will cause a certain ship captain to appear and take you on a journey before you've released him from jail. He thus keeps using his 'in jail' dialogue after arriving at the destination, making it impossible to get a critical piece of information from him later. This can be avoided by staying off of the docks at the Sleeping Bull Inn until he has been released, or if you must wander out onto them, save first so that you can reload if he pops up to start the ship ride.

There's a third, cosmetic bug that comes to mind in the non-Exult version: walking south when near the southern edge of Monitor can cause the game's light level to brighten to completely white, preventing you from seeing anything. Moving back north causes it to fade at the same rate and once light levels are normal, you can go back south again and things should behave normally. (Presumably this is something related to light sources temporarily going haywire.)

While they're rare, there are a few potential scripting issues that have been reported with the List Field. Save before using it just to be on the safe side. (You'll usually only need to visit it a few times for plot purposes and training, so this isn't a big deal.)


While it won't break the game, there's a potentially huge spoiler possible if you "talk" to certain ghosts, specifically the ones found in a ruined alchemy shop north of Sleeping Bull. They trigger a dialogue that should not happen until much later in the game with a specific ghost NPC.


AFAIK, Exult fixes all of these things.
Post edited March 11, 2015 by Garran
Posted March 11, 2015
I've played the game a lot and never ran into those first three issues. It's very much playable. I wouldn't even call it a buggy game, really.
Posted March 12, 2015
Thanks for the responses. I thought the game would be buggier but I'm glad it isn't. Garran, can you tell me more about the item that has to be picked up correctly? How do I do it correctly?
Also, I was searching and I found a Silver Isle bugfix patch for Exult that fixes a few of the bugs you mentioned, including the ghost one so I might install that. Overall, how would you guys say Silver Isle is when it comes to playability? Will I have a smooth experience similar to the Black Gate?
Posted March 12, 2015
IIRC it was the Serpent Staff, located in a small room, and you had to make sure to actually walk into the room to trigger a flag before picking it up. Most people would probably do this anyway without thinking about it.

You mean Silver Seed? Only one bug there I can remember. There's a certain pillar you don't want to double click on. It's the same one used elsewhere to teleport you to another area, so you can potentially trap yourself or at the least waste some time backtracking. Again not a huge deal since there's normally no reason to doubleclick on pillars in the first place.

Serpent Isle works just as well on dosbox as Black Gate did. On Exult there will be no difference between the two as it's the same engine for both games.
Posted March 12, 2015
Okay, so I'm assured and convinced now. I'm going to play with Exult and the SI Fixes mod (I might replay the Black Gate in Exult first though). Thanks a lot for the answers. I don't know how to mark both you guys as giving the solution, or if that's even possible. But really, thanks for the help :)
Posted March 17, 2015
I was thinking of the Serpent Staff, yes. Exult changes the scripting to actually check whether the item is in your inventory or not, rather than using the on-pickup script, IIRC.

There's one other small issue with The Silver Seed, and it isn't really a bug: the walkthrough in the manual suggests using powder kegs to clear a certain blockage. Don't bother with those - they don't work very well/at all. Just pull out a high-damage weapon and start hitting the rubble.
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Ultima seriesHow buggy is Serpent Isle?(7 posts)solved(7 posts)solved
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