Ultima III Day 2 - I -

So I ended up going back and re-creating my second paladin as a bobbit. Since I wanted his role to be that of the main cleric in the party it was logical to have him as a bobbit, sacrificing some dexterity in the process. I also realized that I could create a bunch of dummy characters, form a party with them and one of my main characters and transfer all of their gold and food unto him. I did that a couple of time giving me quite a bit of gold and a lot of food. First thing I did with that gold is buy chain mail for my two paladins and bows for everyone. That was pretty cool :)

However I have to admit I am a bit disappointed with the game so far. The beginning is sloooooooow, I couldn't find any monsters! That combined with the once again absolutely insane rate of food intake makes for a pretty stressful early game. Running around looking for monsters while seeing that food counter go down and down. I was frustrated because I was spending far more money in food than I was making. Luckily at one point I stumbled on a pirate boat and immediately started hunting for the exotics. At first I didn't really remember how to get them, I kept (L)ooking for them but something didn't feel write. I kept looking for a 'search' button but there wasn't any. After looking on every island I check out the player reference card and noticed the 'other' key and then I remembered that I had to use that. At first I 'searched' with it but then out of the blue I suddenly remembered that I had to dig, so I did that and pretty soon everyone was equipped with exotics.















Now I understand that me doing so kinda ruins a part of the game. But it also brings some complaints from my part, namely the sameness of the character classes once you reach the endgame. At this point in time my party is much weaker than it would have been if I had picked a bunch of extremely specialized characters such as wizards, clerics, thieves and whatnot since they'd all be equipped with exotics anyway! I realize that's my own fault since usually you're supposed to look for exotics much later in the game but still I don't think an all powerful set of weapons and armor should exist. At least my characters will all be able to use +4 bows once they become available which is pretty cool while still wearing awesome armor.

Obviously at this point my party is extremely powerful because of the exotics. I had no problem going into a dungeon and getting the mark of kings to lift the 500hp limit on my characters. The reason I knew that is because I read it on Ophidian's blog when I first stumbled on it :) Now from my memories of Ultima III, here is what I remember:




- There are four marks and four cards to get. I believe all 8 are contained in the 8 different dungeons of Sosaria.

- To up my stats to their maximum I have to visit the island of Ambrosia by way of the whirlpool. However I don't really remember how much money I need.

- To get past the serpent I have to yell a certain word but I don't remember what I'm supposed to yell.

- I need to insert the four cards in a particular order to defeat Exodus but once again I don't remember the order.

That's pretty much it. I don't remember where I can get the magical weapons so that's a bummer, anyhow I wouldn't have enough money for them. Right now my money is all going into buying food :)

I have to say that after a slow start the game has certainly picked up. I'm not sure it can live up to the memories I have of it though, it's basically like Ultima II in design except it's not as random and you have a party of adventurers instead of going solo.

So next I'll go into other dungeons to get whatever lies in them and go from there!