First, is it possible to get a description of an item like stats from a weapon or what something does other than the name?

Second, in Trinsic where you start off it I seem to have a feeling that you should be able to use the blacksmith's workshop somehow but I tried a few things randomly but nothing happened.

I've tried to find a compilation that explains the game mechanics like a good manual but with little to no spoilers and if anyone knows something please post it.

I just entered combat outside of the city, I met a few wolves and one bandit I think. How does combat actually work? I press E and everyone starts to auto-attack but in Exult you're suppuse to be able to pause with space but nothing happens, I wonder if that function is yet to complete (I'm using latest Snapshot).

Answering the first and last questions because I don't actually know on the others...
First: No, that's one of the things about Ultima games. It's supposed to be as realistic as possible in a fantasy setting, so you have to just use the weapons and armor to find out if they're better or worse than what you currently are using. If you picked up a sword in real life, you wouldn't expect it to have a list of statistics on it would you? :)

Last question: I don't know about pausing with space but the combat you've described is what most players hate about Ultima VII. That's actually how it's supposed to be. Sorry. :(

About the stats, I can accept that but because of the quick combat it makes a dag to do trial & error to see if an item is better. The text that pops up and says damage disappear after 0.5 seconds and I don't know which of my party members deal that damage. It's really annoying.

About combat, yeah it sure seems to be the weak point here. Fortunately so far it's easy so I can at least continue playing.

The hint books that were published at the time the games first came out did provide a list of weapon/armor values, and I believe there was also an in-game one somewhere, although there was no formula given for how they all interacted. Generally speaking, magic = 4, plate = 3, mail = 2, leather = 1 as far as armor values, although a few things (like gorgets) only have three 'tiers'. A nonmagical sword has a damage value of 6; a greatsword has 10 or 11 (BG and SI have some slight differences) and a halberd 11 or 10 (same issue). Reach varies from 1 to 4 (halberds have 4) for melee weapons (which matters mainly on high Int characters, since they'll take advantage of it if fighting someone with a shorter-reach weapon).

Generally, a magic weapon only has a damage value 1 point higher than a nonmagic version, or gains some other minor benefit (sheds light, in the case of a fire sword, or +1 accuracy, in the case of a magic sword). The exceptions are generally unique or semi-unique items like the Black Sword, the Death Scythe, or the Hoe of Destruction, which have MUCH higher damage values (the Death Scythe has a damage value of 50, and applies a couple of status effects in the unlikely event that the target survives the hit). Glass Swords effectively have a damage rating of 255, but are single-use. Missile weapons follow the same principle, with a triple crossbow having the best overall damage rating (but using ammo far more quickly).

Excepting the unique outliers, the choice of weapon is mostly cosmetic beyond magical ones being ever so slightly superior to nonmagic ones, two handed being a little more damaging than one handed (at the cost of losing a couple of points of potential armor from a shield), and reach weapons in the hands of an Int-heavy character giving them a slight advantage over enemies without them.

Interesting, hard choice to know when one should use it especially if they are limited or very expensive. I remember some similar weapon the old MMORPG called Tibia. Ice Rapier had 100 attack (compose one item stat as damage and hit rate), 0 defense but would break after the first hit.

I posted a similar thread at the Exult forum and one of users replied with a table of stats for different weapons based on a book that you can find in-game. I'm going to avoid it as much as I can as I can see the challenge to avoid it but I might use it later in the game.

can you run the gog game on exult? if you do does your savegames go away and have to start over if you change to exult?

Exult will take the resources of the GOG release. It's the original game repackaged. But no, it won't import your saved games. It's a different engine using the resources of the original (like BGT and BGTutu do with Baldur's Gate). The saves are incompatible.

To answer the stat question, I believe there is a book in one of the houses in Trinsic that gives stats for weapons and armor. Can't say if it gives stats for all weapons in the game but it should help somewhat.

There are various books scattered throughout the game realm that give armour and weapon ratings. Ditto for potions and their colors/uses.

Walkthroughs can also provide this info, but like you said, may take away from your experience of learning the game yourself. Trinsic blacksmith shop - not much there except some gold and a lot of crates. However, if you stack enough crates and such to get onto the roof, a game breaking cheat awaits you if you go behind the chimney.

As for game mechanics, I'll give you some hotkeys if that helps. I don't recall ALL of them, but will do my best.

C = combat mode
F = feed party members
T = target, stops NPC's so you can talk to them or kill them or whatever. Also opens doors, etc.
W = watch (tells the time of day)
B = book, brings up your spellbook

Just to add a few second opinions:

1) There are various copies of a 'magical weapons and armour' book (or something similar). It's a very long time ago, but I seem to recall one around the serpent's hold; either in the tasty weapons locker in the blacksmith's at the north of the keep, or perhpas belonging to the blacksmith in the house to south of the keep, next to iolo's south. I have a feeling there also might be a copy in Alagner's secret storeroom (northern New Magincia). Anyhoo, there are various copies all over the world, just have a poke around Blacksmiths' shops. The book gives damage for common and uncommon weapons and armour (on a kind of 1-10 scale)

2) Not sure if you mean the 'cursed' workshop or another one. I don't thknk you actually need to go in the cursed one for the 'solve murder' quest to progress. If you mean 'is it possible to actually forge weapons?', I could never get it to work properly except of course during the forge of virtue. As to the blacksmiths in Trinsic There are few interesting spoiler points that I'll put at the bottom (seeing I can't find a way to 'spoiler' tag this post:

3) Combat in U7 has always been totally crazy, haphazard and random. You press 'c', and if you make sure your guys have good enough gear, you win. There are icons on each character screen to assign combat roles; they're reasonably self explanatory (the ones at the bottom with white and black blobs. IIRC, there's also a 'halo' that you can toggle on and off. I think Halo means 'protected' and there are some 'white and black blob' settings that tell characters to protect the haloed ones, like a white blob blocking in front of another white blob. They seem to have a cursory effect on what goes on, but not really. Anyway have a play around, you'll see what I mean. Once in combat, you can double click to attack targets, but it's so crazy and laggy, I never found user input to have much relevance to this aspect of the game.





SPOILERS: So the cursed blacksmith in south Trinsic has a portal to the 'cheaters' area. You need to get on the roof and walk behind the chimney. This can be achieved by hack moving yourself up there or by making a starcase using lots and lots of crates. The area has 8 full sets of magic armour, some crazy weapons, a full spellbook, lots of reagents, every unique item required to complete the game, and portals to just about anywhere you want.

The blacksmith to the north west with the cream walls and the grumpy bearded guy has a great dagger on the table (you may not notice) and there's a switch to his back room stock behind a shield on the left hand side of the room.

Amazing what you can remember from 20 years ago, isn't it?