Plot break? (SI)

[Lurker]

Hi,

First; amazing job on BG, Exult, finished it a couple of days ago.

Moved on to SI.
I'm not sure if I'm stuck, or something is broken. Synopsis:

1. Arrived via Hawk's ship (game normal to that point).
2. Explored around Moonshade, had banquet with Adepts.
3. Went exploring to north shore of island. Either left party
in combat mode or stumbled upon a monster; party started
attacking "something" inside mountains with wall penetrating
magic slings. "Something died" and I continued on.
4. Talking to Stephan(sp?) later on in Moonshade, he was
surprised to hear that I (the Avater) had killed the Red Witch,
Rotoluncia(sp?). I hadn't encountered her since the banquet,
unless it was her inside the mountain.
5. Nothing is progressing in the city; I'm stumped.

Can killing an NPC accidentally (thru the mountain) break
the plot and leave me stranded?

Any input appreciated.

Gary

[Neutronium Dragon]

When you say nothing's progressing, have you tried the Bucia/Pothos stage of the plot, or is nothing turning up when you try to talk to Bucia about him?

Neutronium Dragon

[Lurker]

Thanks for the tip, ND.

I restored an older game and avoided the magic slings. Kept going and had a fling with the Ice Mage which got me sent to the Freedom Mtns. I'm REALLY stuck now.

Something I left out of the original post. My party is Shamino, Iolo, and...
Stefan. Dupre was killed outside Monitor by goblins and his body is in a backpack in the Monitor jail until I can find someone to resurrect him. Stefan offered to join my party and now he refuses to leave.

Back to the Freedom Mtns... I could NOT get the two blue levers to switch.
I finally looked at a walkthrough which told me Stefan should appear to help me out with the levers. He never shows up. I "think" its because he is a member of my party.

I have an old savegame where Dupre is alive (on the way to the Goblin King) and I think I'll have to go back and start there, unless someone can tell me how to get the two levers actuated. Sigh. A lot of game hours burned.

I absolutely hate to cheat or use hints in these games; most of the fun is figuring the puzzles out. But if I can save the game in Freedom Mtns, I would.

TIA

Gary

[DreamMaster]

Dude - the Hourglass of Fate you got at the start of the game can be used to resurrect your companions free of charge. As for the levers, AFAIR, as long as Stefan is in your party, trying to use one will automatically cause him to use the other one.

[Lurker]

Thanx DM.

I'll check on the Hourglass, which I have, but have never been able to get it to do anything. I've clicked it, put things on it, placed it on altars, etc. I thought it would just be needed for something later on.

No joy on Stephano showing up or helping in the Mtns. I've checked several walkthroughs now; they all say he should be there.

I'm just gonna start over and keep the original party alive.

Gary

[Neutronium Dragon]

How did you end up with Stefano in the party before going to the Mountains of Freedom? That's the first place you meet him.

Iolo and Shamino shouldn't be in there with you, either.

It sounds to me like the game is corrupt. Did you play around with the cheat system at all?

Neutronium Dragon

[SB-X]

Are you playing with a high resolution (large game area) in Exult? Doing so can make a lot of things in the game happen incorrectly before they are meant to happen. (because you trigger them from a farther distance than normal)

[Lurker]

ND,

Stefano was running around Moodshade when we arrived on Hawk's ship.

During a conversation he asked to join the party. Now he won't leave.

I am alone in Freedom Mtn. I have tried bringing the jailer automaton back to life, but he doesn't help with the levers, either.

I'm working my way back through the game. Indeed, after starting a new game the Hourglass brings a monk who ressurects party members; I think my original game was corrupted.

The only cheat, if you could call it that, I use is the Alt-k universal key trier if I don't have the SS keyring.

And don't get me wrong; I'm not complaining here. U7 was, and still is, one of my favorite RPGs. I really appreciate the Exult team bringing it back to life on my XP platform. I didn't play the add-ons back when, so I got a "total" U7 CD and have been trapped in the Void here for a week. I need sleep and something to eat besides snack food and coffee.

Thanks for your input. I'll post the results of the new game when I get to the levers again.

As an aside, I didn't like Ultima VIII and quit the series after it. I understand there was an Ultima IX: if I liked VII the best, is IX worthwhile?

Thx,

Gary

[Lurker]

SB-X,

I'm a bit ignorant of what you are asking.

Yes, I am using Exult to run the game.

I'm on a 640x480 screen with X2 scaling; 2xSaI

I do notice that my mouse wheel will scroll north/south across what seems to be the entire map.

If these settings ARE what you consider to be a problem, which settings might work better?

TIA,

Gary

[SB-X]

If your mouse wheel is scrolling across the map then cheats are enabled.
(but this is probably the default setting in the XP install of Exult)

The original screen size is 320x200, with any scaling level you want. (but this probably isn't why Stefano was in Moonshade)

[Lurker]

I was able to get Stefano to join my party again in Moonshade before being sentenced to the Freedom Mtns. I retraced my steps from the original game to see if I could duplicate the problem. Sure enough.

I did it by going to the NW side of the island where the naked woman lives amongst the trees. You can see her through the magic telescopes.

I moved around under the trees next to the music box and bed and all of a sudden Stefano's Freedom Mtn. dialog pops up and he offers to join the party.

I imagine that this outside location is close to Stefano's location inside the Freedom Mtns and an egg triggers because the Avatar is within range.

Just thought I would let people know: DON"T let him join your party at this location/time because he will not show up when needed if he is part of the party before the trial. He will NEVER leave once he joins here ("But you need my help, milord."). This is a game stopper.

I'm running the latest Exult windows binary release in 640x480 resolution, x2 scaling., all other settings are install defaults The game CD is "The Complete Ultima VII" classic games release from EA.

Gary

[SB-X]

Confirmed here with the same settings. It took a while standing there before Stefano approached the mountain edge though.
Avoid this glitch by not running in 640x480 resolution.

[marzo]

He also tries to talk to the avatar in 320x200 resolution also; it is possible he might succeed, but I didn't wait enough. In comparison, in the original he would not even move from his starting place unless (while ethereal) I moved through most of the wall. Methinks that configures a bug.

[Lurker]

Marzo,

Thanks for checking at lower rez.

No game is perfect and I certainly don't expect Exult to run the game exactly like the original. Again, I am just happy to be playing Serpent Isle at all and I have not found anything else which leads me to believe the game is not playing exactly as designed.

But I think this particular glitch is important to know about since the location shows up in the telescopes. That fact made me explore a little longer and more carefully in the area as I believed it to hold some special significance. When Stefano talked to me, I thought I had found the "special significance" of the location and immediately asked him to join the party. Others may do the same and come into early contact with Stefano. If they let him join, its over.

Now, if I can just figure out what to do with the evil Cantra on Monk Isle...

Gary

[drcode]

Sounds like a bug we ought to fix. Is it that he speaks to you through a wall?

[marzo]

I already commited some changes; but it seems that NPCs still talk through walls if you are close enough and the wall is thin enough [edit]: AND there must be an open door nearby.

[drcode]

I think we're allowing the NPC to talk if there's a path from the NPC to the Avatar. The problem with changing this in any way is that you have to completely play both games to verify that we haven't broken anything!

I'm pretty sure we allow the player to talk to any NPC he can click on. This seems reasonable, since you ought to be able to talk to anyone across a chasm or behind a door.

[marzo]

What I have changed is not so much what an NPC does when he has a path to the avatar; that has basically remained untouched. What I *have* changed is how the NPC behaves on the other case -- if no path is found. As it was, the NPC would start to follow the avatar until he found a path; now, the NPC will just sit there while trying to find a path. Which, BTW, seems to be how the original did it -- as evidenced by Stefano.

But you are right, some testing will be needed; in SI far more than in BG.

[drcode]

That sounds good.

[Dalian]

I just recently got to Moonshade in the game I'm playing, and have encountered several problems. Pothos has not shown up in his shop at all. Also when walking past a building with locked doors, someone kept saying they wanted to speak to me, and Stop! I finally got curious and used the Hack Mover to move him outside where I could talk to him. It was the MageLord, and he was acting as if I'd spoken to him already. "Any progress yada" and I couldn't ask his name. I have cheats enabled but haven't really used them (with the exception of using it to teleport to Monitor from Fawn once or twice).

[marzo]

Pothos appears only after the banquet; from your description, this hasn't happened yet.

Re: the magelord: Maybe we should also prevent the NPC from saying anything unless he has a path to the avatar?

[Dalian]

Ahh you're right about Pothos. It's been awhile since I've played through. Is this a bug or not then - the provisioner there responds to me asking about the bloody hand, but the necromancer acts like I don't have it on me, which I do.
I can't remember what triggers the banquet either, but I think I've talked to everyone in town that I can. I got the scroll delivered to me etc. The issue with the magelord has me concerned that my game is broken tho.

[marzo]

If you can, I'd advise returning to an earlier savegame.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

As for the banquet: it is triggered by talking to Flindo and making him promise to arrange a meeting. Some time later, talk to him again and he will say that he has arranged the meeting; after wandering for a while, the banquet will begin.

[Dalian]

Yeah I think something's definitely wrong. I thought it would be okay, because I talked to Flindo (I'd forgotten to), and went through the banquet. Had the kidnapping. But the magelord is nowhere to be found, even after sleeping a whole day. Also realized I hadn't seen Frigidazi in her house the whole time. So I got curious and looked for them with the cheat. They are both at loc 4080,4080,00, which seems to be a corner somewhere. His schedule indicated he was supposed to be moving to the next thing. It's also where Selina is being 'kept' at the moment since she's out of the game for now. Yeah I might have to go back to a much earlier save

[wjp]

Dalian: please don't hijack threads. Start a new thread instead. It's very confusing to read a thread which switches topic halfway through.



It's very normal for plot-critical NPCs in SI to be off the map regularly. Try talking to everyone in town, doing quests, and they'll show up again when the time is right. Did you already try getting a spellbook?



The bloody hand is buggy. If I remember correctly, it is animated, but only recognized when it's in a specific frame of its animation. This is a problem in the scripts of the original SI.

[Dalian]

Well sorry, I thought it would be better to have potential plot breaks for the same area of the same game in the same thread rather than creating a new one.

[Hammerite]

I had the same problem with Stefano as well at the location with the naked women, he is able to speak to you even through the mountain and join you. Luckily i reload as i was aware that it would break the plot.