Ultima: Quest of the Avatar - Humble Shepherd Run Part 5

Channel:

Master Knight DH

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Published on August 12, 2019 1:14:44 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdH4RGcvdL8

Game:

Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (1985)

Duration: 1:13:30

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1

Rules:
-Shepherd Main Character
-No deaths
-No Orbs
-Hack used to halve the Might values of physical range weapons, and also shift a quarter of the stat influence for physical range attacks from Dexterity (the actual Dexterity) to Strength
-No Virtue drops or farming
-Given spells may be banned as deemed fit
-No using the Paladin or Tinker

I think in light of the recent mass shootings, I'd want to get a good project off the ground. Obviously, anything involving guns casually (Advance Wars or Lost Frontier) is out, but why not involve something involving welcome messages. Obviously, Ultima 4 is dated with Guide Dang It handling and other questionable handling of its own virtue system, but the ideas are certainly there at least, and I'd rather make it clear that #VideogamesAreNotToBlame no matter how messed up video game communities in general are. Besides, I'm for going with something tame enough at the moment after my venture with Startropics, even if 2x Speed would be recommended for usage with this series, because the combat system IS rather dated.

Time for the dungeon of Despise. And there's a bit of memorization I did so that I could allocate EXP to Janna and thus divide it up to where I wouldn't have somebody at or above 800 EXP before the whole thing is over. There's sadly not much to dungeon design in this game, given how they rip from Dungeons And Dragons with the first person view, and even then there aren't too many features involved. For reference, each dungeon in the game has one Stone room and is connected to at least one Altar room based on the Principles making up the involved Virtue. The Stone room is supposed to involve a test of Virtue, but the one for Compassion is as good as any Stone room ever gets, adding to the answer of "yes" a need to donate Gold to the guarding Beggar. Spoilers: you ALWAYS answer "yes" to the guard and that's always it for every other Stone room. Oi.

At least some spaces are forced combat rooms, which are the real highlight. These rooms can have more variable terrain, even if there's only so much to keep things interesting and sometimes you can see incompetent pathfinding happen. At least positioning is coming into play, however, even if it does help when some rooms have enemies start close to you. I also inadvertently glitched through the Cyclops room just right outside the Stone room and ended up starting that fight on the north end, which also showcases a bite of failure to playtest, because I believe the staircase in the Stone room warps the player right to the dungeon's entrance and players would do that. I didn't make use of the free exit regardless because I don't want to be cheap that way, and also because treasures in the dungeon actually respawn when exiting and reentering it altogether, which allowed me to allocate about 3000G. Well, hey, if the game wants to overprice the Key and the Reagents, I might as well be funny about obtaining Gold from dungeons.

By the end of all this, I'll be wondering how much I'll be missing the higher tier range weapons.

Spell ingredient learning of note ATM:
-Tremor: Ash, Manroot, other ingredient(s) unknown (Beggar at Skara Brae and Soldier at Jhelom)
-Life: Garlic, Moss, Fungus, last ingredient only known by Marina of Empath Abbey (Nigel, Lycaeum)

Coordinates of note thus far:
-69,105 - unknown so far, could just be a joke by all indications
-149,46 - unknown so far, but search should be done during double New Moons

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