Ultima III nitpick and vent
tennis...@yahoo.com
"hiding" a 3rd. The first 2 say <Dig> for exotics and <Dig>
carefully. The 3rd says <Dig> on isles.
Is there a way to get 1 of the 2 wizards to move or disappear so you
can get at the 3rd clue without killing them?
Question 2: I know I could figure this out on my own by exploring but
I'm just curious if anyone remembers off the top of their heads: Is
there a better missile weapon than the bow available anywhere on the
mainland besides Dawn, i.e. are there better weapons than the bow
anywhere in the main cities like Gray, Montor East, Montor West, Yew
etc? How about armor - is there anything better than what you can get
in Britain for sale anywhere else besides Dawn? I sure didn't see
any.
Question 3: Is there anywhere that makes it blatantly obvious that
Powder is what you need to negate time? Did I miss something, or do
you just have to guess?
Now my vent: Doesn't it seem like the game waits way, way, way too
long before letting you know where the best weapons and armor are? By
the time you even find out about Dawn's EXISTENCE you either have 500+
HP or the mark of fire (because the Jester who tells you where Dawn is
is inside a lake of fire), either way you've been playing a long time,
and then, unless I'm missing something, you either have to be powerful
enough to defeat a horde of guards or have spent money on powder and
figured out that it's how to negate time. Either way that's even MORE
time.
When the best weapon available to you is a bow, it takes a long time
to build up your characters, and then you're constantly spending money
on food while you stand there waiting for your cleric to regenerate
enough MP for heal spells. And armor? If you don't know ahead of
time where the best armor is, you're spending EXTRA time amassing
enough money for armor that could be spent amassing money you'll go
spend on attributes in Ambrosia, making the game take even longer.
I finally gave up and went and dug up the exotics even though I was
nowhere near where you would "normally" find out they exist. Game's a
little easier and considerably more enjoyable now.
4th question: When you raise your thief's dexterity does that
automatically increase his probability of successfully opening a chest
without setting off the trap? I.e. there's no training or anything
like that you have to do?
Thanks as always,
DalTXColtsFan Dragon
Linards Ticmanis
> Question: In the SE corner of Dawn there are 3 wizards, 2 of them
> "hiding" a 3rd. The first 2 say <Dig> for exotics and <Dig>
> carefully. The 3rd says <Dig> on isles.
>
> Is there a way to get 1 of the 2 wizards to move or disappear so you
> can get at the 3rd clue without killing them?
Don't think so. But so what? Scruples? They're just stick figures
anyway, and this is the age of darkness after all.
> Question 2: I know I could figure this out on my own by exploring but
> I'm just curious if anyone remembers off the top of their heads: Is
> there a better missile weapon than the bow available anywhere on the
> mainland besides Dawn, i.e. are there better weapons than the bow
> anywhere in the main cities like Gray, Montor East, Montor West, Yew
> etc? How about armor - is there anything better than what you can get
> in Britain for sale anywhere else besides Dawn? I sure didn't see
> any.
Why "on the mainland"? Getting a ship isn't all that hard. But then I
don't remember if Fawn or Death Gulch offer anything better. Do you
consider Devil Guard "mainland"? You just have to figure out the
Moongates to get there.
> Question 3: Is there anywhere that makes it blatantly obvious that
> Powder is what you need to negate time? Did I miss something, or do
> you just have to guess?
Remember, this is 1983. Games of that time don't hold your hand all the
time like many modern games do. Given that gems, keys and torches are
all for sale at the guild too, and all of them are needed for certain
single-key commands to work, is it all that hard to figure out powders?
> Now my vent: Doesn't it seem like the game waits way, way, way too
> long before letting you know where the best weapons and armor are? By
> the time you even find out about Dawn's EXISTENCE you either have 500+
> HP or the mark of fire (because the Jester who tells you where Dawn is
> is inside a lake of fire).
You have to take only three steps in the fire to speak to the jester and
get out again, and I think somebody in Montor explicitly tells you to
speak to him. Since I don't have characters without the mark of fire
handy, I don't know how many HP you lose per step in the fire; but if
it's 100, then having 350 HP should be enough. Building one character to
350 HP isn't all that difficult (remember you can always reorganize your
party; just leave the others at home). There are also several other
clues that hint at Dawn's existence, and with a bit of persistence "Dawn
comes up every new pair" and "Dawn rises in the deep forest" could get
you there even when you don't speak to the jester. After all the deep
forest isn't all that big in this game.
> either way you've been playing a long time,
> and then, unless I'm missing something, you either have to be powerful
> enough to defeat a horde of guards or have spent money on powder and
> figured out that it's how to negate time. Either way that's even MORE
> time.
Guards can't just be fought or slowed down, they can also be bribed, or
fled from on horseback. I just tried it, 200 gold got me out of dawn
without a single fight after killing the wizard. And I didn't even plan
my way very carefully.
> 4th question: When you raise your thief's dexterity does that
> automatically increase his probability of successfully opening a chest
> without setting off the trap? I.e. there's no training or anything
> like that you have to do?
No training exists in U3, so I'd assume that yes, visiting the shrine is
all there is to it.
--
Finire Dragon UDIC (Linards Ticmanis)
Linards Ticmanis
> Question 3: Is there anywhere that makes it blatantly obvious that
> Powder is what you need to negate time? Did I miss something, or do
> you just have to guess?
I just noticed: When you press N, the game asks "WHOSE POWD?" which is
pretty darn obvious if you ask me.
> When the best weapon available to you is a bow, it takes a long time
> to build up your characters, and then you're constantly spending money
> on food while you stand there waiting for your cleric to regenerate
> enough MP for heal spells.
Using a druid or two early in the game, healing is much faster; and of
course you don't have to just stand around while waiting for MP to come
back. I've always played more in a "heal as you go" style, where you go
about your normal business, casting healing spells whenever MP is high
enough again.
But you're right, running out of food is an annoying problem in this
game, at least when you're just starting. A way around too severe
resource starvation is creating a couple of "useful idiot" characters.
You form parties of one of your real characters and three idiots at a
time; let the idiots hand all their stuff to your real character, and
then non-ceremoniously dump them. Rinse and repeat as needed.
There is one point you didn't mention where I agree that the game has a
balance problem: Most people won't reach the shrines until relatively
late in the game; but spell-caster power is highly limited until you do.
And some of the higher-power spells (for example, Sanctu Mani) are very
rarely useful, as for the same amount of MP you can cast a weaker spell
(Sanctu in this case) several times for a greater cumulative effect. So
unless your dying character is surrounded by balrons and likely won't
survive the next round on a single Sanctu spell, Sanctu Mani has no
point. The same goes for some of the medium-strength combat spells, a
row of Mittar spells is often just as good, if not better, at the same
MP cost.
tennis...@yahoo.com
> I just noticed: When you press N, the game asks "WHOSE POWD?" which is
> pretty darn obvious if you ask me.
I noticed that about 2 hours after my original post - I was like,
duh :)
> I've always played more in a "heal as you go" style, where you go
> about your normal business, casting healing spells whenever MP is high
> enough again.
If you're nowhere near the Perenian Depths that's pretty much all you
can do. The nice thing about that dungeon (NE of Lord British's
castle) is there's an easily-accessible healing fountain in the NW
corner of level 2.
> There is one point you didn't mention where I agree that the game has a
> balance problem: Most people won't reach the shrines until relatively
> late in the game; but spell-caster power is highly limited until you do.
It does take awhile to reach the shrines, and if you don't know ahead
of time that you need keys you're hosed and can't go back to Sosaria.
Takes awhile to map it too, costing you lots of food just to explore
and map.
> And some of the higher-power spells (for example, Sanctu Mani) are very
> rarely useful, as for the same amount of MP you can cast a weaker spell
> (Sanctu in this case) several times for a greater cumulative effect. So
> unless your dying character is surrounded by balrons and likely won't
> survive the next round on a single Sanctu spell, Sanctu Mani has no
> point. The same goes for some of the medium-strength combat spells, a
> row of Mittar spells is often just as good, if not better, at the same
> MP cost.
Agreed.
> > Is there a way to get 1 of the 2 wizards to move or disappear so you
> > can get at the 3rd clue without killing them?
>
> Don't think so. But so what? Scruples? They're just stick figures
> anyway, and this is the age of darkness after all.
Agreed. Just wanted to know if anyone found anything I missed.
> > Question 2: I know I could figure this out on my own by exploring but
> > I'm just curious if anyone remembers off the top of their heads: Is
> > there a better missile weapon than the bow available anywhere on the
> > mainland besides Dawn
>
> Why "on the mainland"? Getting a ship isn't all that hard. But then I
> don't remember if Fawn or Death Gulch offer anything better. Do you
> consider Devil Guard "mainland"? You just have to figure out the
> Moongates to get there.
You're right that's not hard to get a ship. My point was more around
how you don't get access to a better weapon than the bow until very,
very late in the game unless you know where Dawn is ahead of time or
know where the Exotics are ahead of time. You addressed that in your
original post as well with your points about some of the other clues
about dawn rises in the deep forest every new pair and seeking the
jester in castle fire (I thought castle fire was Exodus's castle, i.e.
"Castle Fire" not "Castle Sosaria" :). I liked your point about
horses by the way - I don't know why, I just never tried them.
> > 4th question: When you raise your thief's dexterity does that
> > automatically increase his probability of successfully opening a chest
> > without setting off the trap? I.e. there's no training or anything
> > like that you have to do?
>
> No training exists in U3, so I'd assume that yes, visiting the shrine is
> all there is to it.
>
Seems that way. I raised his dexterity from 20 to 50 and he seems to
be able to open chests without suffering the traps more often than
not. Haven't tried him in the dungeons yet.
Please understand that I'm not trying to overly bash the game or
completely condemn it for not being able to "stand the test of time"
like Ultima IV and Ultima V do. Ultima III is an ULTIMA - and that
means something. It's a piece of history. It's part of the evolution
that led to the Avatar series which put Ultima in the hall of fame
forever.
And once you get to the point where you know where the marks are, you
know where the exotics are, you have your stats raised to the point
where combat becomes an afterthought etc. it's a perfectly fun game -
you get towns to explore, dungeons to map, TWO worlds to explore,
monsters to fight, spells to cast, and you get to rid the world of a
spawn of evil - what more can you ask for :). And people like me who
HAVE played all the way through IV, V, VII etc. will recognize a lot
of the names and places from III - Sentri, Shamino, Dupre, the Blue
Boar tavern, Iolo, Gwenno, Lord British himself, Yew, etc. (any
others?)
Any serious Ultima fan SHOULD take the time to play through it once,
especially today when you can do a Google search and find 15 website
with maps, eliminating 95% of the unnecessary tedium from the game.
Maps don't ruin the "secrects" of the game IMHO - it's still fun to
play through.
DalTXColtsFan Dragon
tennis...@yahoo.com
time). It's a fun game once you get beyond the initial tedium.
Claus Dragon
wrote:
> Just to let everyone know, I finished Ultima III (for the first
> time). It's a fun game once you get beyond the initial tedium.
Congrats :)
I solved it years after first playing it - ultimately (sic!), the game
is not overly long and not that hard.
erimess
questions here. It just reminded me....
I have all these old print-outs from online and all my old notes and
such, and used to be able to find answers to questions such as these.
(At once time I might have actually remembered of my own free will.)
But the sad part is that I don't have any idea where all my stuff is
since I moved. I certainly didn't throw it away, but it's all in the
depths of unknown for the moment, since that stuff wasn't really a
priority when I was sorting out my unpacking.
So sad.
Sorry, just a nostalgic comment...
--
Erimess Dragon
-==(UDIC)==-
d++e+NT++Om UK!1!2!3!A!L!
U+uCuFuG+++uLB+uA+ nC+nH+nP+nS++nT-xa8
Never compare yourself to the best others can do,
but rather to the best you can do.