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Ultima seriesUltima VII: Beginner's Questions(24 posts)solved(24 posts)solved
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Posted August 26, 2014
Hello guys,

I'm new to this game, just bought it on sale. So have some questions.

1. What is the strange square button with dots in the paper doll screen for?

2. How can I see the stats of the characters? Can I see stats of Iolo or only Avatar?

3. Is there a party system? I mean, can I join other characters to my party?

4. How the hunger works? Avatar tells me he wants to eat. I feed him an apple and give a bottle to drink. How it works? Does in affect on some stats or what? I see no hunger progress bar or something.

5. What are the white dove and the halo in the paper doll window for?

6. Manuals. I've got a lot of docs with this game. Are they useful? Cause at the first glance, they seem like a fiction, like a book, with no practical info on the game. Do I need to read them?

7. Is there some info on the items except for just its name? For instance, boots, what are they, how heavy, what damage they absorb or what special qualities they posses? What's the dagger? For now I see only names.

8. What a new user should know about the game to get started and play with fun? Maybe some of your tips?

Plenty of questions, ha? But I just want to make sure I'm not missing anything playing this game.

Thank you!
This question / problem has been solved by GeistSRimage
Posted August 27, 2014
1. It represents how that character will fight. They can attack the closest enemy, the strongest, or the weakest. They can try to flank, or protect an ally, or keep their distance. You don't really need to ever change it from the default setting to complete the game.

2. Click the heart on their paperdoll or press Z multiple times.

3. Yes, mostly just the Avatar's old companions, but a couple others as well if you happen to meet them.

4. Small things like an apple or a drink aren't very filling, and they will soon complain of hunger again. Feed them good food to satisfy them longer.

5. The dove means 'peace mode' so doubleclicking on an npc will talk to them rather than attack. If the halo is lit it means that person will be protected by any allies set to the guard ally behavior in combat.

6. The manual gives you backstory on the game and the rest of the series if you haven't played. Also has the needed information for copyright protection. Most of the 'how to play' info should be on the reference cards.

7. There are some books ingame that rate various weapons by effectiveness, but usually it is fairly obvious. Likewise with armor - leather is better than nothing, chain is better than leather, plate is better than that, and magic armor is the best. As for boots, swamp boots are the best as they prevent you from being poisoned while walking through marsh, and they have the same protection as all other boots, even magic.

8. Don't try to pick up every object you see. No one will buy random junk; this isn't Elder Scrolls. Keep your stuff organized so you can find it. Easiest way is to keep one character in charge of each thing, like Iolo with gold or Spark with food, for example. The game has many keys, but they're normally only used once. Stash the used ones somewhere else to reduce clutter.

When you level up, you will need to hire a trainer to actually raise your stats. All trainers raise different stats at different rates. Some of the best trainers are Menion at Serpent's Hold, Sentri in Britain, and Inforlem on Terfin.

If someone dies, you can pay a healer to resurrect them, or bring them to Lord British for free. You will need to carry their body back though, including their stuff.
Posted August 27, 2014
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GeistSR: 8. Don't try to pick up every object you see. No one will buy random junk; this isn't Elder Scrolls. Keep your stuff organized so you can find it. Easiest way is to keep one character in charge of each thing, like Iolo with gold or Spark with food, for example. The game has many keys, but they're normally only used once. Stash the used ones somewhere else to reduce clutter.
Thank you very much for all the answers and that particular tip about objects. You see, I have an addiction to unlock every container I see and get everything out of it and then to sell. So I think I would be very frustrated here. :)

Thanks a lot!
Posted August 27, 2014
There's another reason not to loot everything you see: the Avatar is (as per the storyline of the series to date) the champion of the eight Britannian virtues, and theft is very much against those - loot from dungeons is okay, but if you ransack peoples' houses then your companions will quickly start to lose faith in you.

One thing I will suggest with the tactical options in the party menu: if you have a few characters using ranged weapons, set them to "flank" to reduce the likelihood of your melee-weapon characters getting shot in the back. If most of the party is using ranged weapons then setting the melee characters to flank may be more efficient.
Posted August 27, 2014
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Garran: There's another reason not to loot everything you see: the Avatar is (as per the storyline of the series to date) the champion of the eight Britannian virtues, and theft is very much against those - loot from dungeons is okay, but if you ransack peoples' houses then your companions will quickly start to lose faith in you.

One thing I will suggest with the tactical options in the party menu: if you have a few characters using ranged weapons, set them to "flank" to reduce the likelihood of your melee-weapon characters getting shot in the back. If most of the party is using ranged weapons then setting the melee characters to flank may be more efficient.
Thank you! Valuable tips. I will have that in mind.
Posted August 27, 2014
Guys, I don't really get three things: how to find food, how to feed my companions (I have Iolo and Spark) and how to control companions. For instance, do they have their own inventory and paperdolls? I can't find them.
Posted August 27, 2014
You can buy food in many places. The cheapest is the slaughterhouse in Paws. Or you can hunt various animals for food. You can also pick it up wherever you find it, but this may often be considered stealing. Feed them the same way you do everything else: doubleclick food, click hungry person.

Keep pressing 'I' to open each character's inventory, just as pressing 'Z' opens their status windows. You don't have much direct control of them except what they are equipped with and setting their combat behavior. When you toggle combat on, they will automatically attack anything hostile, or anything you doubleclick. When you turn combat off, they will resume marching behind you.
Posted August 28, 2014
Thank you very much!

That's clear now. But what about maps? I see only the world map. Is there a map of town? How am I supposed to navigate there?

And what about quest log? As I see, there's no any? Yesterday I wrote down all things about murder in the stables in my Evernote. :)
Posted August 28, 2014
This game is from an era where you made your own maps and kept your own journal!

The clue book (which is included in the bonus content) does provide maps of the various significant areas, but those can be a little bit spoily.
Posted August 28, 2014
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Garran: This game is from an era where you made your own maps and kept your own journal!

The clue book (which is included in the bonus content) does provide maps of the various significant areas, but those can be a little bit spoily.
Oh, I see. So I'm supposed to draw my own map, right?
Posted August 28, 2014
If you feel the need to, yes. Most cities are easy enough to navigate once you've been there. Britain is the only one large enough that it can be a bit confusing.

The "Maps" download in your bonus content should give you scans of the cloth maps that were included in the original games, and they have a bit more detail than the in-game version, which gives you a pretty good idea of the general layout of the world. It's largely only the cities and the dungeons/caves that you may find yourself needing to map out.
Posted August 28, 2014
Thanks! But maps are written in runes? I can't read them and understand the names of the places. Is there a map written in English?

And how can I get the password from the mayor of Trinsic? He told me he wanted to hear longitude and latitude of some places from the map. But I can't see the numbers on the map. There are some runes instead of numbers, again...

Please help me out. I want to leave Trinsic. And do I need to travel on foot? Or there will be some kind of teleport to the Britain?
Posted August 29, 2014
And one more thing: I can't get how I can play Serpent Isle. I bought the complete edition, so somewhere there should be the second game, right? How do I start it? Or is it already added to the first one?
Posted August 29, 2014
The game manual has a section describing the runic alphabet, and you can use that to translate the runes on the map and on signs in the game. (There is a similar one for Ophidian writing in the Serpent Isle manual.) Most people who played games in the series quickly learned to read the script directly; it's actually one drawn from real-world Celtic culture.

One you leave Trinsic you're pretty much free to travel the map as you please. Teleportation does exist by way of the moongates and the virtue stones with the Mark/Recall spells, but the former is an erratic form of travel in this era and you'll need to collect the second before you can use them. For the most part you'll travel by walking at the beginning. Carts, ships, and (eventually) a flying carpet will all provide alternative modes of transport.

(One warning: if you have the flying carpet, don't fly over the Isle of the Avatar. This can trigger a gate to close in the caverns inside, which causes you to become blocked later.)

There should be a second shortcut for The Serpent Isle. It is a completely separate program from The Black Gate, even though it uses the same engine with a few improvements.
Posted August 29, 2014
Thank you very much! I'm just not used to doing so much on myself for the game (drawing a map, translating the runes, writing down a lot of notes).

As for the second shortcut to Serpent Isle, I have none. Please look at the screenshots attached. That's my disk image and then the main menu of the game.

Any thoughts?

By the way, how can I load my saved game? Only by choosing Journey Onward?


Oh, I understand. The shortcut is inside the Boxer. Forget my question about it.:)
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Post edited August 29, 2014 by bartolomey_wong
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Ultima seriesUltima VII: Beginner's Questions(24 posts)solved(24 posts)solved
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