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[Borodin]

Another troll heard from. Back to the subject at hand...

I think Ultima VII would be far better known if Origin Systems' games at that time had not employed a form of proprietary memory management. This was towards the end of DOS, before the battle of the graphical user interfaces, and expanded and extended memory were necessary to handle all the coding in this huge game. As Garriott did with his other games, however, as soon as things changed, support was dropped. Origin Systems re-released Ultima VII, but they never bothered creating more than a sheet of suggested advice for a workaround. It's only thanks to the Exult people that we can really get the full flavor of the titles, today.

[MasterGrazzt]

I think another feature needed for U7 is inventory management of some sort. I'm not sure what kind, though

[Mad-E-Fact]

It's called realism. When you drop everything in your backpack you don't expect it to be magically sorted. The way to do it is to have different bags, for food, armor, weapons etc...

Nice feature with exult is you have the keyring from SI throughout the whole game, that already helps a lot.

[Borodin]

Originally posted by Mad-E-Fact@Jan 9 2005, 10:13 AM
It's called realism. When you drop everything in your backpack you don't expect it to be magically sorted. The way to do it is to have different bags, for food, armor, weapons etc...

That was how Garriott felt, too. But for all his claims of realism, they're flawed. First, by the assumption that people keeping things in their backpacks would not use some kind of arrangement and order for quick access. Second, by assuming his selection of portions of physical reality to include a game were automatically the right ones everybody would want. And third, by not realizing how constant access to an unsorted inventory with dozens of items for each party member would lead to buidling frustration on the part of players.

This also figures into Ultima VII's aggravating implementation of food needs. Healthy team members don't require it, but each will continually and individually shout for food as you wander until you give them some to consume. That's not realistic; that's annoying.

Nice feature with exult is you have the keyring from SI throughout the whole game, that already helps a lot.

Amen to that.

[MasterGrazzt]

Iolo: "Avatar, feed me! I am incapable of reaching into my own pack and consuming what I have myself! In fact, I'm going to need you to move my jaw with your hands to chew for me!"

[Mad-E-Fact]

Hmm, I don't recall having to feed partymembers constantly. I only played U7 with exult though, maybe that "feature" is not implemented there?

[MasterGrazzt]

They get hungry much less often with Exult. The constant empty stomachs of the companions was a classic complaint with The Black Gate, so they fixed it.

[Borodin]

Originally posted by MasterGrazzt@Jan 9 2005, 05:02 PM
They get hungry much less often with Exult. The constant empty stomachs of the companions was a classic complaint with The Black Gate, so they fixed it.

For this alone, the Exult folks deserve to receive stock options in Garriott's current company.

sorry
i forgot this is a english site
if any of you saw my last post
i was saying if they are going to upload Serpent isle
it have been a long wait...


Modified by Omuletzu
Reason: extensive use of emoticons for the sole purpose of annoying members!

[MasterGrazzt]

Thank you, we know about all the wonderful emoticons already. You don't have to remind us.