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Ultima seriesUltima 3: where are all the boats?(34 posts)solved(34 posts)solved
(34 posts)solved
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This is my favourite topic
Posted January 31, 2013
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TheDogg2012: I can't get boats to appear either. I just donloaded the game a few days ago and I went through 1000 food and no boats. I've had squid and serpents appear, no boats. Please help. I've spent quite a bit of time to have it wasted like this.
I don't know why this forum topic is labeled solved, it isn't.
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VisElEchNon: The reason it's labeled as solved is that the reason for such a low spawn rate have been given. This is something in the original game and not something that GOG will be fixing.
I keep reading about a patch. Is there a patch I should try?
Posted January 31, 2013
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TheDogg2012: I can't get boats to appear either. I just donloaded the game a few days ago and I went through 1000 food and no boats. I've had squid and serpents appear, no boats. Please help. I've spent quite a bit of time to have it wasted like this.
I don't know why this forum topic is labeled solved, it isn't.
avatar
VisElEchNon: The reason it's labeled as solved is that the reason for such a low spawn rate have been given. This is something in the original game and not something that GOG will be fixing.
Can anyone send me a saved game file with a boat? Maybe it's in the file. Hoefully I can use my file and combine them to get a boat...
Posted January 31, 2013
avatar
TheDogg2012: I can't get boats to appear either. I just donloaded the game a few days ago and I went through 1000 food and no boats. I've had squid and serpents appear, no boats. Please help. I've spent quite a bit of time to have it wasted like this.
I don't know why this forum topic is labeled solved, it isn't.
avatar
VisElEchNon: The reason it's labeled as solved is that the reason for such a low spawn rate have been given. This is something in the original game and not something that GOG will be fixing.
I got it to work! I loaded it on my desktop and a frigate came up pretty quickly. It's odd that my laptop and desktop are both running Windows 7, but it worked on one.
Posted February 04, 2013
yeah, i'm having issues with pirate ships as well.
my party's levels are 10,9,7,3. i read that pirate ships start spawning at level 5, but does every character have to be at least lvl 5? i've seen everything else in the ocean so far (whirlpools, serpents, man-o-wars) but no pirate ships yet
Posted March 10, 2013
I finally found a solution - through the power of cheating! First get this nice little tool for editing save files in Ultima 1 - 5, then launch it, choose the Ultima 3 tab -> "Open" -> navigate to where the save file lies (PARTY.ULT in the game's directory) -> create a new boat at your desired location -> Save.
http://ultima1.ultimacodex.com/the-ultima-1-to-5-savegame-editor/

While you're at it you might as well give your characters a good amount of food, torches and other useful stuff. The program is Windows-only, so if you are on Linux or Mac OS X you'll need to run it through Wine. It works fine for me version 1.4.1 or CX12.1.2 (Crossover fork of Wine) with Wineskin (Mac only), but you must put the file mfc42.dll (google it) in the same folder where the program's EXE lies. I haven't tried with the Mac version GoG provides, I prefer to run my DOS games in Boxer, but the procedure should be the same if you can find your save file (probably somewhere in ~/Library/Application Support). I'll see to get the DLL bundled with the download provided above, I need to get in contact with WtF Dragon from Ultima Codex first.
Posted October 18, 2013
I think I may have the definitive answer (following from guizhang's post & mcmagi's post):

1. All Characters in your Party needs to be Level 5 or higher before the Pirate Ships spawn (as noted by guizhang).
a) After you commandeer the frigate, you can re-compose a party with characters of less than level 5.
b) It is untested whether this still works if your party is not full (less than 4 characters).

2. There is Still the Low Spawn Rate (described by mcmagi) to contend with, which may necessitate a bit of waiting.

I found this out after reading guizhang's post & then testing. I spent 5000 gold on food = 50000 turns on the surface with a party of 10, 10, 5, 4. Nothing, except Sea Serpents & Man-O-Wars. I was careful in combat not to allow the level 4 to gain experience during this phase. Then, in the next phase, I levelled up the level 4. Shortly after the level 4 became level 5, a Pirate Ship very quickly found me.


Yiren.
Posted December 29, 2017
To help U3 ships spawn, try Dispersing the party and playing with a few new characters for just a bit. Then disperse and reform the original Party. This seems to clean all the monsters out (as noted on this forum) and so they seem to start spawning from scratch, lower level monsters first. Ocean monster traffic will eventually pick up and then Pirate ships should start getting aggressive.
Post edited December 29, 2017 by Z0rster
Posted December 29, 2017
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mcmagi: Well, it could be one of two things. First, the monster generation rate in U3 is very low. There is a 5% chance a monster will appear with every step you take. I have often wandered the map two-three times before finding a single monster. This does not seem to happen when I play the Apple or Commodore 64 versions where the monsters seem to appear much more rapidly.
The Amiga version also has a greater spawn rate for monsters on the world map.

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guizhang: yeah, i'm having issues with pirate ships as well.
my party's levels are 10,9,7,3. i read that pirate ships start spawning at level 5, but does every character have to be at least lvl 5? i've seen everything else in the ocean so far (whirlpools, serpents, man-o-wars) but no pirate ships yet
That requirement, I believe, only applies to the NES version. In the Amiga version, pirate ships can appear even when your level is very low.

(Interestingly enough, in the NES version, pirate ships can spawn inside the Isle of Fire; if you are very lucky (or know how to manipulate the RNG, as is done in speedruns), you can skip getting the Mark of Snake entirely in that version.

Edot (in October 2018): In the Commodore 64 version, I got a boat at level *1*, so the requirement is clearly specific to the NES (and, I assume, MSX cartridge) version.
Post edited October 03, 2018 by dtgreene
Posted October 01, 2018
I am a little vague on this, but I actually played the Apple II version in 1989 and wrote a letter to Origin Systems Inc. they said(according to memory) IF you were level 5 they would no longer attack you and that sux because you are stuck on the mainland and the objective is offland! if you want a ship, I think you can break into LB's castle and steal one, then save game, not with the patch though. you will need keys.
Posted December 29, 2018
Hi all,

I hacked my save manually by trial-error.
The savegame editor mentioned by OP would not work for me (crashes when spawning boat, reported by other users as well).

There may be a lot of redundancy in the description below but oh well.
Works for standard GOG version.

1. Start the game, leave Sosaria map (e.g. enter Castle Lord British).
2. Create a backup copy of your SOSARIA.ULT file (e.g. rename it to _SOSARIA.ULT).
2. Get a Hex editor. I used HxD.
3. Open your SOSARIA.ULT file in the editor.
4. Change the value of bit 000004EF from 00 to 2C.
5. Save the file in the editor.
6. Return to the map - the boat should be there, no pirates to defeat.

Whenever a whirpool destroys your boat, repeat these steps.
If the game acts funny, restore your backup:
1. delete SOSARIA.ULT
2. rename _SOSARIA.ULT to SOSARIA.ULT
your party will not lose any of the progress it made.

It's nothing but cheating, getting defeated by a game, but I really want to know what's next.
I probably won't read the thread anymore, PM me if I made a message or am otherwise needed here.
Posted August 04, 2019
As someone working on a speedrun of the game, I've found (after extensive Google searching) an exploit you can use to get a ship. It is definitely a glitch, bug, or exploit, and it's certainly cheating, but in this game (after having many a run end with me standing on the coast for tens of thousands of steps) I think it's worthwhile.

You need: two keys, and possibly 500gp for resurrection

- Enter Lord British's castle,
- go through the locked door in British's chamber
- go through the locked door north of there. A guard should be following you, but not attacking you.
- follow the land to the south, where you can find an unattended ship
- board the ship
- attack (not {F}ire on, but {A}ttack) the guard that's following you
- LET THE GUARDS KILL ONE OF YOUR CHARACTERS; this instantly autosaves
- Once the new party data is saved (I play a couple more rounds of combat to be sure), close the game, and reload
- Your party should be positioned on British's castle, on the Sosarian overworld, in a ship.

Now you have a boat. And a dead party member, which may or may not be of concern to you, at the low, low cost of two keys and not tens of thousands of passed turns.
Posted August 05, 2019
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organmike: As someone working on a speedrun of the game, I've found (after extensive Google searching) an exploit you can use to get a ship. It is definitely a glitch, bug, or exploit, and it's certainly cheating, but in this game (after having many a run end with me standing on the coast for tens of thousands of steps) I think it's worthwhile.

You need: two keys, and possibly 500gp for resurrection

- Enter Lord British's castle,
- go through the locked door in British's chamber
- go through the locked door north of there. A guard should be following you, but not attacking you.
- follow the land to the south, where you can find an unattended ship
- board the ship
- attack (not {F}ire on, but {A}ttack) the guard that's following you
- LET THE GUARDS KILL ONE OF YOUR CHARACTERS; this instantly autosaves
- Once the new party data is saved (I play a couple more rounds of combat to be sure), close the game, and reload
- Your party should be positioned on British's castle, on the Sosarian overworld, in a ship.

Now you have a boat. And a dead party member, which may or may not be of concern to you, at the low, low cost of two keys and not tens of thousands of passed turns.
What version did you test this on? Does this work on the DOS version? (I've only heard about this trick in the Apple 2 version.)

(It's worth noting that, even if this does work on the DOS version, if you are using the upgrade mod with the option to disable the autosave on character death, then it won't be possible, as this trick relies on the autosave working.)

Edit: One other idea: Instead of reviving the character, just create a brand new character, and use a throwaway level 1 character for this trick. If you disembark, save, and reform your party, you *should* still have the ship (though you will lose your horses, if you have any).

(This sort of autosave abuse can also be used to escape from a dungeon or from Ambrosia, where saving isn't normally possible.)
Post edited August 05, 2019 by dtgreene
Posted August 06, 2019
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dtgreene: What version did you test this on? Does this work on the DOS version? (I've only heard about this trick in the Apple 2 version.)

(It's worth noting that, even if this does work on the DOS version, if you are using the upgrade mod with the option to disable the autosave on character death, then it won't be possible, as this trick relies on the autosave working.)
The version from GOG, unmodded.


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dtgreene: Edit: One other idea: Instead of reviving the character, just create a brand new character, and use a throwaway level 1 character for this trick. If you disembark, save, and reform your party, you *should* still have the ship (though you will lose your horses, if you have any).
While that's true (you would still have to reload, move, and disembark from the ship to make this happen) it's not really ideal in a speedrun. Move, disembark, save, close the game, reopen it, organize the party, disband the party, reform the party with a new member... it's easier and faster to run in to British's castle at some point and patch up the body. 500 gold is faster than reloading, at least in my route.

Casual play? 100%. Go for it! It was my first thought too.
Posted August 06, 2019
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dtgreene: Edit: One other idea: Instead of reviving the character, just create a brand new character, and use a throwaway level 1 character for this trick. If you disembark, save, and reform your party, you *should* still have the ship (though you will lose your horses, if you have any).
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organmike: While that's true (you would still have to reload, move, and disembark from the ship to make this happen) it's not really ideal in a speedrun. Move, disembark, save, close the game, reopen it, organize the party, disband the party, reform the party with a new member... it's easier and faster to run in to British's castle at some point and patch up the body. 500 gold is faster than reloading, at least in my route.

Casual play? 100%. Go for it! It was my first thought too.
Fair enough. I would actually be interested in watching this speedrun to see how it plays out (and how it compares to the NES version).

(Incidentally, twitch user squibbons has been recently running the NES version of the game, which might be worth looking at. I have a feeling that the speedrun route is very different; the fact that the NES route uses heavy RNG manipulation definitely makes the run very different. Also, there are other differences, like the fact that 0MP spells can be used successfully more than once per battle (and it's easy to manipulate them into working), and that a pirate ship can spawn in the Isle of Fire.)
Posted August 08, 2019
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organmike: As someone working on a speedrun of the game, I've found (after extensive Google searching) an exploit you can use to get a ship. It is definitely a glitch, bug, or exploit, and it's certainly cheating, but in this game (after having many a run end with me standing on the coast for tens of thousands of steps) I think it's worthwhile.

You need: two keys, and possibly 500gp for resurrection

- Enter Lord British's castle,
- go through the locked door in British's chamber
- go through the locked door north of there. A guard should be following you, but not attacking you.
- follow the land to the south, where you can find an unattended ship
- board the ship
- attack (not {F}ire on, but {A}ttack) the guard that's following you
- LET THE GUARDS KILL ONE OF YOUR CHARACTERS; this instantly autosaves
- Once the new party data is saved (I play a couple more rounds of combat to be sure), close the game, and reload
- Your party should be positioned on British's castle, on the Sosarian overworld, in a ship.

Now you have a boat. And a dead party member, which may or may not be of concern to you, at the low, low cost of two keys and not tens of thousands of passed turns.
I can confirm that this trick does, indeed, work on the PC version using the Upgrade mod (but with the autosave still enabled; disabling breaks this trick for obvious reasons).

Note that at least one character still needs to be alive for you to keep the ship after deathsaving.

(One other use of deathsaving; have a new thief steal chests from town, then if you get caught after stealing a decent amount, die on purpose, trade money and items to someone else, then delete and recreate the character.)
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This is my favourite topic
Community
Ultima seriesUltima 3: where are all the boats?(34 posts)solved(34 posts)solved
(34 posts)solved