Hi,

Having finished Planescape Torment recently, I was trying to play Ultima VII, knowing it's reputation as one of the best CRPGs period.

Sadly, I got into one huge problems. The controls are godawful. I click everywhere and my character seems to move at complete random. It's kinda like controlling a dog with a bone on a stick. Now I'm wondering how this game got the reputation of being the best CRPG ever while haveing the worst controls in gaming history.

As for combat (tried Ultima VII Part 2 and there's combat right at the beginning), it's not that I didn't try, but I simply didn't understood anything. Your characters seems to move on their own and you don't control anything.

I tried looking in the manual and while that in-universe explanation is nice (I miss that in games today), there's zero explanations on how to control the game.

I really want to like that game, but I can't consider Ultima VII as a good game. What good is a good RPG system if your characters control like shit. Ultima VIII and IX, even if you don't like the games, controlled a lot better.

So, can anyone explain to me how the controls work. I'd like to get into that game (it has been in my backlog for a longtime), but I'd like to understand how it works first, and maybe some tips to start with (I'm supposed to investigate a murder, I found a key near the body, but since there's seemingly no 'LOOK' function like in Ultima VI, I'm a bit lost on what I'm actually supposed to do).

Thanks in advance.

Movement is covered in the reference card rather than the manual, IIRC.

When you click the right mouse button, your character takes a step in the direction of the mouse pointer. Holding the button results in continual movement. The further from the center of the screen, the longer these steps are and the faster he moves. If you move the mouse pointer around during continuous movement, the character will change speed and direction accordingly.

Though mouse-based, it's a method more akin to WASD or arrow key movement than the click-to-move style that you're probably familiar with from Infinity engine games.

Thanks. I think I'm starting to get the hang of this.

Just one question. How much food should I keep on myself at all times? I had to explore the town quite a bit to find the NPCs I needed to speak and I'm already out of food (and they're hungry quite often).

You'll usually find some food as you explore, so carry a little bit but don't worry about carting along weeks worth of provisions. Once you have your spellbook you'll also be able to create food in an emergency, and scrolls of the spell are also fairly commonplace. If you have one meat item (these are generally the most filling) per character then you'll probably be able to tide them over until you find something else.

With food, keep giving the character stuff until they won't eat any more (Serpent Isle automates this with the hotkey); food level is an undisplayed stat like health or mana so if you max it out then it will be longer before they start complaining again.

If you are looking for an easy cheap source of food go deer hunting in the northern forests. 1 deer provides 5 pieces of meat. 1 piece is usually enough for a meal. Watch out for reapers however, they look like dead trees and shoot lightning.