Wolfram_von_Thal: Exult is a very ambitious project, and Ultima 7 is fully playable with it. With the possibility to use mods (the Keyring mod is a real must as it integrates a new quest line and features different enhancements) and the different graphic options it's a real improvement. The infamous "disappearing item bug" is history, as far as I know and I played the game through this summer.
However there are some things still missing under Exult: Especially some of the schedules (daily schedules of the NPCs) are not fleshed out as they used to be. The lighting system isn't working properly (in the original, you have different grades of lighting, dependent of lightsources and your position, in Exult, that's broken) and some animations are missing. So if you are out for the real deal, like back in the days, Exult could be problematic.
My main reason to use Exult is the extremely bad performance of Ultima 7 under Dosbox. At the beginning of the game it's laggy, but bearable, but if you try to use the magic carpet later in the game or try to explore Lord British's castle, it's no pleasure at all... if you set cycles high on the other hand, most animations are working at light speed... there doesn't seem to be a acceptable configuration under Dosbox.
Cheers for the informative post! It was mighty interesting to know about that Keyring mod. The wiki page for it mentions some appealing additions. However, I've yet to find where to download it. I found a direct download link for an oudated version (0.11.09) on the 2nd forum thread discussing it, where the last post is from 2008. The modder's website seems mostly dead apart from the homepage itself. There doesn't seem to be a place with the mod up for grab. If you know of anywhere with the latest version, please do share it.
