Ultima VII, a good place to start?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Bohica, Apr 19, 2014.

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  1. Doppelganger [MGT]

    Doppelganger [MGT] Avatar

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    To the OP: While I haven't read this entire thread, I can say that if you are truly interested in playing Ultima IV, but find the PC version to be too dated - try the port of it for the 8-bit NES! You could get an emulator and play it for free via ROM.

    Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar for the NES was actually my very first Ultima experience. I found it to be fantastic and I hold very fond memories of it. The graphics and GUI are NOTHING like the PC version and have been totally updated for the console. There may be some purists here that will disagree with me, but I found Quest of the Avatar for the NES to be a great port that was both easy and fun to play.

    [​IMG]

    Another one I could highly recommend is Ultima: Lazarus. This was a "from the ground up" remake of Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny on the Dungeon Siege engine. All you need to play it is a copy of Dungeon Siege, and the free 500+ MB download for Lazarus. It's basically a "mod" for Dungeon Siege that just happens to be an entire game lol. A team of talented (Ultima fan) designers, got together and devoted over five years to its production and trust me, it paid off! It is a very detailed and immersive Ultima experience that allows players from a more modern era to enjoy this classic title. I had a lot of fun with this one and found the story to be very dark and intriguing. I was too young to play the original U5 upon release, so I was thankful for team Lazarus putting forth the time and effort on this remake!

    [​IMG]
     
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  2. Floors

    Floors Avatar

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    III and IV on the NES are like a japanese take on the 2 games.

    They're really kind of cool and different, especially if you play the PC version first, and then play them a couple years later.

    Fun times.
     
  3. iwanbo

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    Oh wow, I never heard of this before. I will have to check this out when I get home this evening. Thanks man!
     
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  4. Sundews

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    I tried these options, and some of the graphics was skewed. It was fixed when I changed the Scaling to x4.
     
  5. Sunsanvil

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    Not sure why that would be. Maybe your particular video card has...umm...interesting OpenGL implementation. :) If you kept the 1024x768 window but with 4x scaling, you are not seeing enough and may run into problems playing.

    The Window Size and Scaling are both related and independent.
    • Window Size is literally that, the size of the game window on your screen.
    • Scalling is the scaling factor applied to the original 320x200 raster. So in the case of 3x, an area 960x600 represents the "original" view regardless of window size.
    If you decrease the scaling relative your window, everything ends up smaller (and not so blocky) but you see progressively more....though at some point you end up seeing too much in that you see into adjacent structures you were never meant to etc (try setting a big window with 1x scaling :)). If you increase scaling relative to your window, you simply blow things up more, and at some point can blow them up too much where you cant even see all of your paper doll (if your window size isnt big enough).

    So in my case, at a windows size of 1024x768 and 3x scalling, I actually "see" a tiny bit more of the world that I did 20 years ago on my 14" viewable CRT. :).

    Scaling factor and recommended minimum window size:

    x1 / 320x200
    x2 / 640x400
    x3 / 960x600
    x4 / 1280x960 (note: 1280x800 is not an option in Exult)

    If you want to run a Window size between these, go with the lower of the two scaling values you are between (since seeing a little more is better than not seeing enough of the world). Example, if you want to run a 1024x768 window, use 3x.

    As for a maximum Window Size, I would suggest no more than double the resolutions given above (which will literally add 50% to your view all around), though I haven't played around enough to know if that will get you into spoiler trouble or not.

    PLEASE NOTE: This is all relative to the OpenGL scaller. All the others such as bilinear, SaI and so on, work completely different. With those ones it uses an interpolation filter to scale the 320x200 area to whatever your chosen Windows size is (ie, it will always be the authentic view) UNLESS you change the Game Area (yet another setting) to Auto at which point the x of the filter (if available) determines how much/little you see.
     
  6. Sundews

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    Actually, I did use a larger window size, though with a scaling of x3 some of the screens in the opening scenes was off so bad they weren't usable. When I upped it to x4, then everything looked OK.
     
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  7. Sunsanvil

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    Yea, if you try to set a window size/scaling combo which will result in not being able to see things you should, it usually warns you with a "may be unusable..." message.
     
  8. Ultima Codex

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    I'll just add my support for Ultima 6 here. Try it in full screen mode with Nuvie.
     
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  9. Sundews

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    I'll play with it some more, but the key thing seems to be to use a window size with a 1.6 ratio.
     
  10. enderandrew

    enderandrew Legend of the Hearth

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    Can you do a full play-through with Nuvie these days?
     
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  11. docdoom77

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    I would like the answer to this as well. I was really excited by the fullscreen view with pop-up menu stuff they were showing a while back.
     
  12. Ultima Codex

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    That's my understanding. Might be a few minor things missing from the game here and there, but finishing it shouldn't be an issue.
     
  13. OrionSnake

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    Could you share your Nuvie setting to play U6 in full screen?

    My current setting:

    <scale_method>2xSaI</scale_method>
    <scale_factor>2</scale_factor>
    <fullscreen>no</fullscreen>
    <screen_width>640</screen_width>
    <screen_height>400</screen_height>
    <game_width>320</game_width>
    <game_height>200</game_height>
     
  14. docdoom77

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    I just started today. I'm using (for a 1366 by 768 screen)

    <scale_method>2xSaI</scale_method>
    <scale_factor>2</scale_factor>
    <fullscreen>yes</fullscreen>
    <screen_width>683</screen_width>
    <screen_height>384</screen_height>
    <game_width>683</game_width>
    <game_height>384</game_height>

    You have to divide your screen width by the scale factor. The sprites are a little small, but you get quite a view outside! I'm playing it with the "new" setting, so it's uses the whole screen and you use hotkeys and double clicks to bring up gumps and pop-up menus.
     
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  15. FXguy

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    I'd have to say no, but to start with Ultima IV, so that you get a better understanding of the virtues, mantras, shrines, and colors for each. This will segue into V and VI to understand Blackthorn and the gargoyles, respectively. Then, I'd tackle VII on.
     
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  16. rune_74

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    So did the OP play ultima 7 yet? That seem to get lost as the thread went on...
     
  17. Floors

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    Yeah. I have to say regardless of technology, the best games in the series were IV, V, and VII.

    VI was okay.. I didn't really like the whole gargoyle plot or how far from medieval times britannia had come.
    It was a great game, but after IV and V I just felt like it wasn't quite as good plot wise. VII and all the expansions was pretty amazing,
    especially considering it was state of the art at the time too, we'd never seen anything like that and wouldn't again :(
     
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  18. OrionSnake

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    Thank you. I will give this a try.
     
  19. redfish

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    I thought it was pretty fun to explore the world in VI regardless. A lot more detail to the world than U5, including things like rabbit pens in Britain. And the tools they gave you to play the game in many ways were fun. So for instance, instead of finding a key to some door in a dungeon, I remember bringing a powder keg down there to just blow it down. There were also multiple ways to defeat the gargoyles at the shrines. My way involved invisibility rings for my party and powder kegs again :) Looking for books in the library, and using Sherry to go through mouse holes was also pretty cool. A lot of cool spells, too. And carrying skiffs to get across lakes and rivers...

    Back the the original topic, I really have no idea why people are trying to dissuade the OP from playing the games in sequence, and the original versions. If she doesn't feel any of them are fun, after playing them a bit, she can make the choice herself to move on to the next game.
     
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  20. FXguy

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    I quite agree. I started with Ultima III on the Commodore 64, but I did not become truly immersed until IV, and spent many months unlocking that final word. I picked up Ultima V the first week it was released, and it blew me away. Everything I loved about IV but ten times the fun and immersion, taking a little over a year for me to complete, notebook of clues in hand. That one is still my favorite computer RPG of all time, so that's why I felt as you did with part VI. It was good, but nothing could live up to V. When I heard that part VII would be released for the PC only, I went out and bought one just to play VII and Underworld.
     
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