Where did you make your base...

[Dale]

A lighter question that I was thinking about today while watching some Ultima review videos ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mRb36-uMrc ... I rather enjoyed these.. especially since I did not play 1 - 3 and may not have beat 5 and 6.. or at least not at all recently)...

Where do you make your 'home base' in Black Gate and Serpent Isle? Even Pagan? I am sure I am not the only one that hordes excessively when playing and dumps unused party members all in one spot. I became curious after seeing that the reviewer used a different location (that I haven't quite pinpointed).

Black gate I use the top floor of the castle. Specifically the top right area.
Serpent Isle I use the Dark Path.
Pagan I used that old dude's house. Uhhh... Mythran. Had to look that up.

[Knight Captain]

Yes, I do have a hoarding problem.

BG, top of the castle, usually starting in the SW.
SI, Monk Isle's basement, now teleport cheating to Serpent's Fang main area, also used to use the basement there.

[Dominus]

on Pagan, I didn't bother.
BG and SI same as you

[Dale]

So.. Knight Captain.. everything alright?
Is that stuff all from a legit game!??!? Teleporting the only cheat?
I definitely use Serpent's Fang when doing the Silver Tree quest. The whole cool down on the amulet kinda killed that for me, though.

Twinsies with Dominus.
Wasn't each weapon in Pagan unique or something? I know the game isn't great.. but I couldn't just leave the different magic weapons behind. Also... I seem to recall just using the Slayer or whatever it was called the whole game anyway and you get that right at the start... so I guess I can understand, really.

I don't know what is standard and what isn't, but in BG, I had all the NPCs stand up there with my gear and they are stationary, but in SI, they all just wander around the Dark Path turning off lights and stuff.

On the subject of cheating, I just can't bring myself to use any of the options. This is why I have never had a chance to actually use the Death Scythe in BG. It isn't really possible to get it without cheating, right? Wonder why it was included or if they had other plans for it. That might be an interesting mini quest to make. Though.. nevermind because I think you find one in the Forge of Virtue area...? Maybe I just have a bad memory.

[Incriptus]

On the Serpent Isle, my first base was Lydia's house (you keep what you kill) ... of course then that thing happened and it became uninhabitable. I really didn't want the Dark Path as my home so I moved into the building in front of the knights test ... but that became inconvenient, so I ended up with 8 chests on the dark path.

I guess with 8 people I didn't feel the need to drop stuff off as much in Britannia, however going with my "move into the home of people you killed", I guess I have a few places to choose from next time.

[Knight Captain]

Yes in Serpent Isle, all legit. Keep in mind in Exult, "temporary" items don't disappear like they did in the original game. So if you go rogue on some spawned Pikemen and take their gear and stack it, it never disappears.

In BG I think I raided the cheat room, but there does seem to be more magic armor in-game than in SI.

[Dale]

That is something I was curious about, actually! So loot from a random spawn will stay in Exult but not the originals? This has confused me for years. I mean hell.. until a few years ago, I didn't even know it wasn't just a 'way to load the game.' Had no idea the levels of work that have gone in to it.

[Knight Captain]

Correct. In Exult it looks like anything that the party carries and then puts back down will stay, even if it came off a spawned monster or other temporary source. The original game probably would have done this if not for the computer limitations of 1992.

[mjohnston]

In BG I usually kept my loot pile in the middle of the stage of the theater in Britania; though a few times I've had fun with that ruined wisp infested castle in Yew.

In SI I used the dark path, though I don't remember where I kept my hoard before that part of the game.

[Knight Captain]

Hi Matt, I believe Dominus has been trying to reach you. Can you email me? Then I'll get you connected with him.

[Dominus]

Mjohnston your hotmail address must have expired and the other edu address as well. If you ever wondered why you don't receive anymore mail that's tbe reason...

[mjohnston]

there, my new email is mailmaker1523 at gmail... I haven't been doing much with exult lately, but pop in here every once in a while to lurk and see whats new.

[agentorangeguy]

In Black gate, in the era of innocence when I wasn't aware of the cheat mode, I made my bases in several areas. One was the castle in Yew, it only had a few unsightly cobwebs and a lot of space so I decked it out nice. When I discovered hackmover cheat, i started REALLY decking it out. That pesky wisp was chased off too. One other base that stands out was actually the house of Miranda and Raymundo the theater guy. When that jerk dared to deny my acting ability, he wound up a little dead in his bed, then buried in a pumpkin patch under lloose pumpkins. If forensics ever matched the bolt in his head with the murder weapon, Iolo would have been to blame since I used his crossbow for a nice and clean kill without guards. I then piked most of the museum and made a nice courtyard with logs and the runes and stones of virtue in the little patch of gras to the right. Miranda was a witness to the crime so she too had to meet her fate. I spared the kid since he was an excellent source of diaper bombs. His room was turned into an armory. One of the last times I beat BG, I built a big mansion from scratch with ES in the middle of Loch Lake.

On serpents isle, i had the same philosophy as Inscriptus. My first real base was Simon's inn once I wacked him (I stayed there before in a room i rented, then cleaned it all out when he croaked). Little did I know I would be forced to evacuate my base when the goblins took over. I remember how frantic things felt when I had to run back and forth trying to retrieve all of my goodies while the goblins were running amok. I think I evacuated to one of the guard towers. Later I would clean up and deck out Shamino's castle once i learned about the cheat menu, and would make my own staff made up of the many nameless npcs I killed since you could edit their shedules. The white dragon castle was much too big for me. At one time I made a survivor town out of the old "Hamlinburg" area where all the wolves were, using a wall made of caltrops and random junk i found to keep the wolves at bay

[Dale]

I enjoyed reading that

[agentorangeguy]

For some reason I was always quite fond of that lone cabin out in the woods near Yew near the shrine i think. It wasn't a main base but a retreat for when the Avatar was wanting to take a break from Avatar-ing and needed some exp fighting those fighters nearby. I've also comandeered the Observatory where that goofy guy lives, and many other random houses. There was one time I made it a point to have a house in nearly every town, with a stash of gold and other stuff i procured from evil npcs who had to meet their doom.

in Serpents Isle one thing I usually did was raid the empty towns after the die off and haul all the loot back to my HQ which usually ended up being Shamino's castle since it had a good proximity to a serpent gate. I'd try to set up the castle like it showed on his map, and bring the survivors of the die off back to live there (using the cheat and exult now of course lol).

[Gotcha!]

In the Black Gate I just like to store everything in my ship. Nice to have all my stuff nearby and those ship containers' storage seem (nearly?) infinite.

In Serpent Isle I usually keep everything in the ship container of that broken down ship in Monitor. When I am past the swamp I like to use Draygan's camp. It's got a nice wall around it and all the basics are available inside. Plus there's a serpent gate not that far off.

Also, I thought I was a hoarder but after seeing Knight Captain's screenshots I'm not too sure about that anymore. xD /respect

[Knight Captain]

Thanks Gotcha!

In BG I also used the magic carpet. It didn't have a weight limit so using crates and barrels was quite effective.

[BH4]

In Black Gate, for some reason, I never really had a base. I'm still completely flabbergasted that I never had a base. I -always- have a base in games like that. I'm mystified.

I'm Serpent Isle, I found that I stacked everything in the Serpent Highway. Warp gateways that are unlocked tend to be so convenient. I never had a problem with it. I'm surprised more people aren't using it.

[agentorangeguy]

I never used the Serpent Highway much since I don't care much for the ambiance and the music got a little on my nerves early on (when I didn't know I could move/delete/change the music egg). One thing I would do is drop items associated with the gate's destination so i wouldn't be confused as to where i was going. For example, I'd drop monetari in front of the gate to monitor, filari for fawn, pumice for furnace, pine cone for northern forest, etc.

All this talk of bases makes me want to play them again haha. I'm surprised I never thought of Draygan's camp..

[Knight Captain]

It might be cool do to a mod that has Shamino or the Avatar say where it goes, but only if the party has been there before. Sort of like the dungeons in BG trigger it.

[WJH]

I really like the idea of using Draygan's camp!

I never really had a base in the Black Gate, though I'm not sure why.

In a normal play through of Serpent Isle, I would use the Serpent Highway, or just as often I would dump stuff just outside the Serpent Gate in Moonshade.

But what I really enjoyed doing in Serpent Isle was to create many mini-bases throughout the lands. It would start with my room in the Sleeping Soldier, but would soon take over Marsten's quarters after his arrest. I would keep Monitor-ish things in there...never anything magical that would draw suspicion from the knights.

Then I would make my room at the Sleeping Bull a bit more homey.

In Fawn, I would take Voldin's quarters, and decorate according to Fawn sensibilities...jewelry and pretty things went there.

My final base would be to take over the Magelord's Palace, making it the main hangout for the people of Moonshade. The courtroom and holding cell would become a laboratory, and the depository for all things magical. I would have NPCs doing desk and lab work day and night. I'd renovate the Magelord's throne room into a music room, with automatons playing music, like the band in the Blue Boar Inn. His study would stay a study, but with serpent scrolls and books, again staffed with NPCs. Likewise, the banquet table remained, but would have NPCs feasting. The bedroom became my personal bedroom, and the secret Love Shack in the lake would become something of a vault for all the most important quest items and gear.

Not done yet! I made Rotuluncia's palace into an armory, full of weapons and armor, complete with a training area with NPCs training away.


I wish that I had taken some screen shots of everything. Now I'm kind of itching to do all this again!

[Dale]

I love the idea of dropping relevant marker items on the paths!!!
Better yet as a mod, though I can't quite visualize it...

[TDI]

In BG I always used Sentri's house as a base. It was large with tables, and had that neat little room in the corner that could be locked - for the valuables.

Using Lord British's castle seemed inappropriate and there were also too many people moping around, getting in the way.

In SI I think I didn't have a real base. Probably due to the different nature of the game and how you get locked out of areas until you have completed larger parts of the plot. This, and the wilder, more hostile, divided and unpredictable world didn't really make me fit in anywhere. So I guess it made me want to carry everything with me at all times.
I didn't even think about using the Serpent Path as a base.