So, we all know that Ultima 8 was rather rushed when it was released, and had a lot of content cut.

What bothers me more, though, is that some of the features that WERE implemented seem to be buggy, incomplete, or poorly thought out. The odd thing is, I hardly ever see these bugs talked about or mentioned anywhere. So let's talk about them here and see if these have occurred to anyone else:

Bonecrusher
This is a magic hammer, initially found in some caves near the Plateau. In the initial, unpatched release, it was called the Hammer of Strength, but its name got changed to Bonecrusher after the patch.

There's a book that talks about this hammer - specifically, that it was created by Hydros so that her champion could defeat an army of skeletons.

The thing is, although the hammer does increased damage to undead, despite the lore and the name, it's actually pretty useless against skeletons, because skeletons 'killed' by it don't stay dead... they just resurrect again, like always. In my opinion, this weapon should have killed skeletons permanently, but this feature was never implemented.

Thaumaturgy
Thaumaturgy is weird and buggy in the game. To 'prepare' a Thaumaturgy spell, you need to buy or find a bunch of reagents and buy the relevant spellbook from Mytharn. Then you 'enchant' the book in a ritual which uses up the reagents. You can then cast the spell by double-clicking the 'charged' book.

The thing is, while the very first spell (Confusion Blast) allows only one casting before the book needs to be charged again (costing reagents and time), all other spells/books seem to get infinite charges. Just try it: enchant Meteor Shower, then just hammer the book repeatedly to cast the spell over and over again. It never runs out of charge, thus making Thaumaturgy ridiculously powerful.

Call Destruction Graphics Bug
Another Thaumaturgy related bug: if you cast the powerful 'Call Destruction' spell, but are interrupted during the middle of the casting (while the lightning bolts are descending), then the lighting graphics will pause, and remain static (and on-screen) forever. They'll stay there even if you leave the area and come back later, quit and reload etc. Looks hideous.

Summon AI
Using a Summoned creature from the Summon Dead, Summon Creature, or Create Golem (with the attack command) spells to attack an enemy is stupid, because if your summoned creature wins, it then turns on you. And in most cases, if you've summoned a creature (or enough creatures) to defeat an enemy, then you're now facing something worse than what you tried to defeat.

I'm almost certain that the fact that summons turn on you is actually a bug, since there's no mention of it in the documentation and it generally doesn't make sense. Why, for example, would a previously loyal golem suddenly turn on you after being asked to attack an enemy? It makes no sense, and is almost certainly the result of the AI routines not being programmed to handle reverting to a 'non-hostile' state. Notably, golems become hostile toward you if they get harmed by some other way as well (such as walking onto an exploding mushroom or something similar).

Amusingly, the only 'safe' summon is the Summon Demon spell, which one would think would be the most risky, on the grounds that the Demon actually vanishes after defeating your opponent.

Summon Creature Permanent Corpse Bug
Another rather nasty bug from the Thaumaturgy school. The corpse of any creature summoned with the Summon Creature spell is permanent. If you leave the area, quit and reload, or anything, the corpse will still be there. In some circumstances this can create rather problematic 'clutter' on the screen. The only way to get rid of such a corpse is to throw it into a pool of water (or lava) deep enough to sink it forever.

Golem Door Forcing
I could be wrong about this one, but I think the fact that Golems can open ANY doors (regardless of how locked they are) can't have been intentional. It opens up various game-breaking paths and removes the need to find a key for many doors. There were probably only supposed to be a subset of doors that golems could open, but this never ended up being implemented.

Inconsistent Spellcasting Targeting
Some spells, such as Grant Peace, will pause the action just before 'going off', allowing you to carefully target an enemy. However, many other spells (especially Pyromancy) do not, making targeting a very difficult affair.

Considering the zoomed-in game view, the long cast times, and the relatively low damage of direct-attack Pyromancy spells, the fact that Pyromancy spells don't pause the action right before firing makes Pyromancy pretty much completely useless for combat purposes, since most enemies will be moving unless they're already next to you, and casting a Pyromancy spell at an adjacent enemy is usually a bad idea. The inconsistent handling of spells seems to me to be yet another oversight in development.

Call Quake Is Useless
This Necromancy spell has pretty much no use. I can cause pretty much anything that is standing still to fall over - including the Avatar. However, because the Avatar has a long 'stand up' animation, and enemies don't, it's a much greater detriment to the Avatar than any foes.

Many enemies are also immune to it, and it seems to cause no actual damage, so it really seems to have no point.


So, what do people think? Are these bugs? Oversights? Has anyone else experienced these, or others?

I haven't seen most of those, but it doesn't surprise me at all. The game was just plain incomplete, so most of that I would call oversights. The golems opening doors for example. I'm sure the idea was there would be no dirt to summon them from anywhere near a plot door, but of course that didn't work out that way.

The "Bonecrusher"-Bug is actually not a bug, that is intentional. Lorewise, at least from the ingame books and the manuals, this weapon helps you kill shose skeleton buggers faster, but permanent dispatching is still only possible via spell or flame.

That "Call Destruction" Graphical bug happened to me once in what must be more than a dozen playthroughs. But yes, IF it appears, it is more than hideous. Luckily, since Spellcasting is made so weird in that gabe, I mostly resort to melee weaponry.

Now, the Summon AI however, IS mentioned at several places. That IS intentional, at least with everything that is not a Golem. The creatures you call are not magical beings, but living things that have been ripped through space to where you want them, and are not obliged to obey your orders. Notable exception, as you staded, is the SUmmon Daemon spell, but my first attempts on that one still left me dead, since there was no explanation on how exactly to use this. And, if you summon a daemon wrongly, it WILL most likely beat you to death with your own entrails.
However, I have never experienced the hostile Golem.

Permament corpse bug - I never hat this one, most likely due to the fact that I effectively do not use that spell, and due to the fact that I take immense pleasure in droping corpses into water or lava anyway :D

If I am not mistaken, it is JUST "grant peace" that pauses the game for targeting, and there is exactly one reason I could think for it: Ghosts. Finding the one clickable pixel on a ghost, which you will most likely not kill in ANY other way than the Grant Peace spell, while there are dozens of exploding glowing skulls on the field is nearly impossible - targeting a fireball spell at roughly the right area, however, can still be done even in crowded moments.
This does not, however, deny the fact that the whole concept of pyromancy is - as a combat scool - ridiculous. I prefer Theurgy and Melee for that =)

And "Call Quake" has a few uses - since items are jumbled around, too, you can use that for "shaking things off high ledges". But I believe, that spell was merely pit in for effect - imagine, if you will, how much someone will stand in awe of your power, if you can make the entire earth quake with a flick of your wrist? That would be great in political debates (as they go on Pagan). And let's face it - you only NEED the seance spell TWO times. (or three. not more). After that, you can actually TALK to the corpses of the necromancers. So, there are a few more useless spells.

Bugwise, however, Is this one great: the resurrection spell. You are SUPPOSED to use it to get by that arrow-shooting-mechanism, thereby dying and being resurrected. Sadly, for a prepared player, or a patient player, there are ways to avoid that - rock skin or a purple bottle for example make you invincible AND deny the drop from impact. So you can actually walk through it without losing a single point if health and having a MASSIVELY great spell at hand. Or, and this happens WAY too often in the game, there is a hidden passage that lets you bypass that arrow shooter. It is "hidden" in the black part of the map, that obscured area which would be perfectly visible on a top-down-view. Isometrics make it impossible to see through and obviously very difficuls to place objects - several times you can just walk through the blackened area to get where you want to go. You need to go blind, bit there is rarely any danger there.

Question though, on the Golem-thing - what doors are "game-breaking paths"? There is not a single door in which you NEED the golem, (yes, there is actually a KEY for the gigantic doors to the mountain king), and the only door that you actually can not open is inside a cave without dirt - and even if you open it, there's nothing behind it.
So, please tell me a game-breaking path, because I cannot think of one.

Using a golem instead of a key was, AFAIK, an intended alternative for the prepared Avatar.

Most of these are examples of the game being unfinished or inconsistent (the latter often due to the former) rather than buggy; the Call Destruction and persistent corpse bugs are actually bugs, though.

We can thank EA for most of these things. Damn them and their deadlines. :(