Talk:Ultima III: Exodus

Retreating

Is it possible in any of the other versions to retreat/flee from a battle? It wasn't in the NES version, so you either win or you die. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.189.38.183 (talk) 01:32, 20 December 2011 (UTC)

Nope. Retreating from combat wasn't introduced until Ultima 4. Scottman 01 (talk) 22:09, 25 September 2017 (UTC)

Report thy victory

The message "REPORT THY VICTORY!" at the end of Ultima 3 is not cryptic at all... if you called Origin and told them you beat the game (i.e. report thy victory), they would send you a small certificate signed by Lord British. I have several of these from the 80's.—Preceding unsigned comment added by MuZemike (talk • contribs) July 16, 2008

I fixed that problem up. —Preceding unsigned comment added by MuZemike (talk • contribs) July 16, 2008

"is considered one of the most influental video games ever made."

Not really, to be honest. Most people have never heard of it. (User unknown)

Not exactly for the players, but for the designers (Piajeno 18:05, 4 October 2006 (UTC))

Something does not have to be contemporarily popular or well-known to be influential. If you look at early pioneers of console RPGs like Dragon Warrior and Fire Emblem, they are essentially based on a combination of elements from Ultima III and Wizardry. Even today the majority of strategy RPGs are still basically built on the system that Ultima III started, and the influence of Wizardry is still felt on modern RPGs despite most gamers not having played either game. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.180.44.242 (talk) 17:52, 14 January 2007 (UTC).

Reference card colors/addresses

Listing the reference cards' colors and addresses seems to be a futile effort to me, as they not only vary with the platform, but also with the production year. Later versions of the IBM PC port for example have a black-font reference card, not a purple one, and my early IBM PC version has a MA address, not a NH one. I suggest removing this information completely, as IMO it is completely useless trivia. (WP:NOT#IINFO). NewRisingSun 14:57, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Ultima3.gif

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Races

If anyone every chooses to add more detail about the available races (not sure if it's a worthy endeavor), I thought I would mention that the Fuzzy is almost certainly from Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper. Maybe I should actually try to add that information sometime - it does exist for other games, doesn't it? Krilia 15:44, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Such trivia isn't really relevant, as this is not a game guide, but rather an encyclopedia entry. Furthermore, identifying a connection between something in the game to some other literature without reliable, third-party sources constitutes original research, and is inappropriate here. Xihr 19:58, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Richard Garriott has stated the only fantasy book he ever read was the Lord of the Rings. Instead of Hobbits, his first game had Bobbits, to avoid copyright issues. He may have called the fuzzys later on. Dream Focus 01:21, 20 May 2010 (UTC)

"Each class has a specified race among five different races. The default race for each class is the recommended race, but this can be edited..." While this may be true for the NES version, most versions of Ultima 3 have the player choose their own race and class, independent of each other. Scottman 01 (talk) 22:13, 25 September 2017 (UTC)

Pictures used in the article

Most of the sales of the game were on the Apple, the Nintendo version coming out four years later. So why are there screenshots from the Nintendo version instead of showing what the game originally looked like? Dream Focus 01:30, 20 May 2010 (UTC)

Seconded. The NES version wasn't similar to the actual game, and compared to the massive popularity and influence of the Apple II and DOS versions (not to mention the other home computer ports) the Nintendo version is almost unheard of. These screenshots are of an obscure product that shares a name with Ultima III, but they don't represent Ultima III itself. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.248.8.173 (talk) 14:46, 29 August 2010 (UTC)

This is what I came here to post, but somehow I doubt anything is going to happen if it has been two years since we pointed out how little sense it makes for the screenshots to be from the Nintendo when the opening line talks about how amazing it was to display animated characters on a personal computer. 174.31.158.199 (talk) 19:32, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

Feel free to fix. Complaining does nothing. Ckruschke (talk) 16:10, 5 April 2012 (UTC)Ckruschke

StarCraft

Is the disclaimer for StarCraft really necessary? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.62.51.231 (talk • contribs)

Some people might get confused. I have no problem with it being there. Dream Focus 22:05, 17 October 2011 (UTC)

It seems reasonable to me as well.  Xihr  01:36, 18 October 2011 (UTC)

Classes

"For the most part, all the classes of characters are built around four main classes with very minor differences." This is misleading, as any hybrid classes divide powers and abilities evenly (Illusionists, for example, are half-thief, half-cleric). Scottman 01 (talk) 22:24, 25 September 2017 (UTC)

"Fighter type classes are strong in melee and in defense, but with the exception of the Ranger, have no spells or abilities..." False... depending on what the author means by "Fighter type" (again, misleading). The Paladin has clerical spells. Scottman 01 (talk) 22:24, 25 September 2017 (UTC)

"Cleric type classes have healing spells and spells strong against undead enemies and are limited to cloth/leather armor and staffs/maces." Not exactly. Prayers have one spell that can destroy undead enemies. Clerics can also wear chain armor. Scottman 01 (talk) 22:24, 25 September 2017 (UTC)

Gameplay

"Obtaining a boat is necessary in order to visit the underworld ("Ambrosia")" Ambrosia is an island, not an "underworld". Scottman 01 (talk) 22:24, 25 September 2017 (UTC)

"The look of the game is no longer based on certain characteristics of the Apple II hardware; it is rather a carefully designed screen layout." This is unspecific and could use some expansion (if it's even necessary). Scottman 01 (talk) 22:24, 25 September 2017 (UTC)

Question about the necessity of player commands in towns. Given that most RPGs allow fighting and stealing, is it even necessary? Maybe it could be at least altered to be more in-line with other RPG entries, such as "The player can perform the usual actions as in other RPGs (fighting, stealing, talking, etc), with the addition of secret 'other' commands to be discovered through gameplay, such as bribing guards and digging for treasure", etc.

The mention of killing Lord British could use some more relevance to it, as the layperson might not know why there's a secret to killing him. Perhaps "All townspeople can be fought and killed, except Lord British, who is notorious in the Ultima franchise as being invulnerable", etc. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Scottman 01 (talk • contribs) 23:26, 23 March 2018 (UTC)

At that period in time, did any other games have the ability to do this? Yeah, the Lord British thing should be explained better. Dream Focus 03:03, 24 March 2018 (UTC)

Wow, work and the dreaded real life have gotten crazy. In the interest of improving quality per Wikipedia guidelines, I'll just be focused on reliable sources (when I have time to do so) for the time being. Thanks again for your input in all of this. Scottman 01 (talk) 20:45, 29 March 2018 (UTC)

Sorry, didn't even answer the question before I vanished. For what it's worth, other RPGs at the time... Fighting and Talking: Almost all RPGs did. Stealing: Most of them. Searching: I'd say about half-ish? Bribery: Few. Praying: Few (if any). Inserting cards: That one was unique to Ultima 3, as it only had one world-specific use. Scottman 01 (talk) 20:53, 13 April 2018 (UTC)

Any other thoughts? It's been a couple weeks. Is it fair to move forward with these changes? 192.100.29.4 (talk) 18:41, 26 April 2018 (UTC)

Plot

"...Exodus, a creation of Minax and Mondain that the series later describes as neither human nor machine."

Is this article about the whole Ultima series in general? If so, then bringing up later games is reasonable. But if not, then it's out of scope of this article.

"Although a demonic figure appears on the cover of the game, Exodus turns out to something like a computer (possibly an artificial intelligence)..."

Saying "something like a computer" and "possibly an artificial intelligence" is odd here. Is Exodus a computer? Is he an AI or not? (FWIW, the game doesn't describe him in any such terms, but his graphics definitely look like a machine.)

"and to defeat him the player has to acquire four magic (punch)cards and insert them into the mainframe in a specific order."

Putting "punch" in parentheses is odd here. Are they punch cards, or just cards? (FWIW, the game describes them simply as "cards".)

"...Exodus is terrorizing the land of Sosaria from his stronghold on the Isle of Fire."

The Isle of Fire isn't named as such in the game or any documentation. Scottman 01 (talk) 19:31, 29 April 2018 (UTC)

Hardcore Gaming 101 discusses this a bit. NinjaRobotPirate (talk) 20:45, 29 April 2018 (UTC)

Indeed, there are actually many fansites that call it the "Isle of Fire". It was not, however, officially named as such until Ultima VII, which was nine years after Ultima III was released. (Until then, the only reference to Exodus' lair was the word "Death", which has since been adopted as the name of his castle.) It might be more accurate to simply say "...Exodus is terrorizing the land of Sosaria from his stronghold." Scottman 01 (talk) 11:44, 1 May 2018 (UTC)

"...places in the game such as Ambrosia and the Isle of Fire make cameo appearances in later games, such as Ultima VII and Ultima Online."

Neither Ambrosia nor the Isle of Fire are in Ultima Online. If another example is needed, might I suggest Dawn in Ultima XI? Scottman 01 (talk) 11:44, 1 May 2018 (UTC)

I read that Ultima III in the trilogy collection had pages of it manual eliminated, they making it shorter. Any manual for Ultima III I find online could be from that. Are you sure it isn't listed in the original manual or map? Also was Isle of Fire the name of one of the songs in Ultima III? Ambrosia is the name of a song on Ultima Online soundtrack. Anyway, you can say what would later be named the Isle of Fire makes its first appearance here. I doubt it matters though, there no reason to mention that at all. They aren't really that important. Dream Focus 12:07, 3 May 2018 (UTC)

FWIW, the quoted text came from me, so I'm essentially telling myself that I was wrong. :) The music for Exodus' castle was, I believe, "Castle Death" or "Castle of Death". The original map had no such notation, and in fact doesn't even show the island. It was left to the player to discover as they explored the land. Ambrosia wasn't (and still isn't) in UO, but it is an important island to visit in Ultima 7. For what it's worth. Though you're probably right, they might not be quite important enough to bother with. (There are plenty such locales that come and go throughout the Ultima series, and to keep tabs on them all might be more effort than it's worth.) Scottman 01 (talk) 22:43, 3 May 2018 (UTC)