Mod Request: Julia + chunk of lead = Bullets ?

[Francois424]

Hey all, first post on the Exult forum.

. . . First, I'd like to tank everyone involved with the U7 exult (and keyring mod too) for the incredible and awesome work that have been poured into this over the years. Often I see posts from before 2010 an I can't help but appreciate the enormous dedication of your staff and contributers.

. . . Ok, I am no coder and I really do not have time to sit down, read faqs and documentation, and implement this myself. So I have to rely on the community to judge if this is a good idea, and then if it is worth your time to do (eventually).

. . . So, I was playing U7-Exult-Keyring again for the last 2 weeks, and sometimes would plug-in Aulddragon's excellent LP of the game. Then it clicked (after almost 20 years, but w/e, lol). You have Julia the Tinker in your party, there are endless stock of lead that can be mined from the Minoc mines... There are a few muskets in the game (at least 2 that I know of, maybe more), but the ammo is rather rare and I think will run out rather quickly.

. . . Why not create a new conversation option (Name, Job, bye, Ammunition) where Julia scans the inventory and transforms chunks of lead into I don't know... 10 musket bullets ? Just a wild suggestion, but that would be very interesting. Maybe add the same line as for the reagents as well : "Why would you need bullets if thou dost not carry a musket ?" -- if you try to do it.

Well, that's it for me, I was just thinking it worthwhile to post this here before I forget. Thanks again for all your efforts, I'm back to enjoy Exult again for a few hours !

See you around guys
-- Francois424, aka Enlightenment Dragon.

[Dale]

A cool idea. I have never actually used the musket for this reason...

Though I DO seem to recall that you could get bullets from double-clicking those big dragon/serpent skulls in the swamps... but I can't say for sure if it only worked once. Hell.. I couldn't even be sure it's not a false memory.

[Francois424]

You are 100% right. But I believe it's a 1-shot deal. One shot per skeleton, which you have usually one of per swamp, based on my own exploring.
The amount is kinda burned thru quickly, and it's not like the musket is a hard hitting weapon (and no magical musket variant either like the Magic Bow, and you cannot enchant the ammo either).

It's a bit of a non-issue if you use the cheat console to spawn ammo pouches, but I'd rather have a nice line or 2 added into the code/a mod to make it "legit" and allow me to "farm lead" to make the ammo I need before doing a big dungeon.

It's a good idea, but I have to wait and see if anyone picks it up.

[Gotcha!]

"You are 100% right. But I believe it's a 1-shot deal. One shot per skeleton, which you have usually one of per swamp, based on my own exploring."

Nope, not a one-shot deal. You can double-click the dragon's skull, get the bullets, move away far enough from the skull, move back, double-click it again and have more bullets. I've collected loads of ammunition this way.
I'm assuming it's a dragon, since the powder dropping from its nose was likely naturally created by the creature to help it breathe fire.

As far as I know there are 3:
- One right at the start, at the edge of the swamp. These bullets can't normally be taken since there's no path to them.
- One in Skara Brae, behind the castle. This is the easiest location to get bullets from.
- One in the test of Courage, Isle of Fire.

[Knight Captain]

There's another North-Northeast of the Shrine of Sacrifice.

[Gotcha!]

Right you are! There's not a skull on those bones, but they give bullets anyway. I never knew.
Definitely the best spot to farm bullets.

[Francois424]

I didn't know the same spot could be used. Something to do for sure.
I'd still like to keep my request going in case anyone is interested tho.

It should be pretty much a copy'n'paste of the code used by the gem exchange dude in Britain, except of looking for gems he looks for chunks of lead, and instead of producing "30 gold pieces", it produces 10 bullet.

But thanks for the tip about those bones.

[TDI]

Back in my old days (or was it the young days?) when I was very OCD about Ultima, it really bugged me that the merchants in the game were so "unsatisfactory" in some ways.
Such as, why do merchants only offer some pieces of a certain type of equipment (e.g. leather armor) but never an entire set?
Why does mutton in the farmers market in Britain cost 3 gold, the same as buying it directly from Morfin, the butcher in Paws? (It should cost FOUR gold(!!!) Don't these guys want to make a profit?)
Why won't the jeweler buy any of my jewelry?
In general, why is there no one in Britannia to sell my PHAT LEWT to? And why will the merchant in Monitor only buy very specific leather armor types from me, instead of all of them?
Seriously?

And yeah, not being able to find a single merchant to buy muskets and ammo from was one of those things that bugged me.

I guess the realism of the U7 world was making me expect even more from it so it made me somewhat nitpicky about some of the things I felt weren't "perfect".

[Donfrow]

I agree with you on the merchants TDI. It became sort of disappointing to horde all sorts of armor, weapons, and random items and not be able to sell it.

I suppose though that there really isn't THAT much use for money in U7. Once you buy a boat, some spells, etc there isn't much more to do. Would be nice to have a bit more use for money.

[Dale]

re: buying muskets.. isn't it meant to be a one of a kind because Lord British brought it from earth? In fact.. that's why it always bugged me that there was one in the museum and in his horde.

Also. I feel like never playing these games until the complete U7 came out did me a disservice.. I always started with a boat. In fact... it's really difficult to play the game and not default to getting the carpet and then running off to the Isle of Fire to do all that jazz. I would LOVE to play this game again for the first time.. that and watch The Empire Strikes Back for the first time.

[Alexander]

I do partly agree also, but when playing SI again just recently, Krayg in Monitor would buy literally every leather item I had. Armor, helms, gloves, leggings, and boots were all things he would buy.

I also know Standarr in the blacksmith shop next door will also buy chain and plate armor pieces.

It would be nice if Standarr could buy non-magical weapons off of me. Also, since Pothos will sell magical weapons, it only makes sense that he should buy them too.

What bugs me the most is that Pothos only sells a few reagents, making it pretty much impossible to stock up on all reagents while my party was still stuck in Moonshade. You'd think he'd have every single reagent for sale (except maybe Bloodspawn), since it's a city full of mages. I had to wait until I made it back to the mainland to get more garlic & ginseng.

[Knight Captain]

I never liked that Standarr won't buy chain coifs.

Sadly I've done nothing with BG usecode or this could be fixable in a few hours.

[Knight Captain]

Pothos shouldn't have everything, since the storms have largely ended regular trade with the mainland.

[Alexander]

A fair point. I just thought it would be odd that a city full of deceitful mages would be hamstrung by the fact that they can only cast certain spells a limited number of times before they completely run out.

But I do see your point.

I stand by my assertion that Pothos should at least buy magic armor and weapons.

Maybe he could buy reagents too? It would certainly make sense.

[Cao Bao]

As far as I try, I think those giant bones only clicked once or twice to produce bullets. (the one in Skara Brae seems allowed to be clicked twice)
I also leave the giant bones for far away and get back and clicked again and there is no more bullets.
Looks like impossible to produce bullets again.