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Anything I should know before starting UU?
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>>4138025
Yeah, it's shitaccording to Spoony
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Read the manual, just skip the part about the control icons and go directly to the neutral, context dependent mode.
Don't savescum or cheat.
Strength is the key attribute. It determines your carrying capacity and fighting prowess.
The your strength, the easier the game gets because you can carry around a lot of stuff without backtracking and excessive management.
Your skill points are limited. You shouldn't have issues if you learned a useless skill or got a low roll but try not to overdo it.
Melee combat is king, ranged weapons and offensive magic is too restricted to be a mainstay.
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>>4138025
Just that it's the best game ever.
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>>4138627
that's not its more focused spiritual successor, system shock
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>>4138084
Expanding on this, you cannot increase your physical stats (STR, DEX, INT) in Ultima Underworld. Ever. Not with leveling up, not with potions, not with magical equipment. Your carrying capacity is fixed by your STR from minute one for the entire game. If you have less than, say, 25 STR you should just accept that you're not going to wearing plate armor ever unless you keep a very light backpack. You cannot hoard everything in this game and must make stashes of items on the dungeon floor.
You can improve some skills like Mana to offset the effects of your INT, but your INT will still determine the cap when your Mana skill is maxed out. Some skills are useless (stealth) so don't even think about a thief build. Good advice here:
https://www.gog.com/forum/ultima_series/creating_a_good_character_in_ultima_underworld_i_the_stygian_abyss/page1
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The Lore skill is important and under-documented in the manual. Ultima Underworld uses a pseudo-identification mechanic for magical items. It will not tell you if ANY item is enchanted when you look at it on the ground. You have to pick it up and look at it in your inventory, and then depending on your Lore there is a chance of it saying "a green potion of healing" instead of just "a green potion." Similarly with items, as your Lore goes up it might say "a magical shortsword" or even "a magical shortsword of increased damage" if you're lucky. The only other way to learn magical properties is by casting an Identify spell via runes or scroll. Even then, if you drop the item back on the ground, you can't see it's identified description anymore until you pick it back up.
Magic skills should be treated as a supplementary toolkit. There isn't enough mana or high-damage spells to play a pure Mage and walk around zapping everything, even with max INT and magic skills.
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Be aware of the object list bug. No one is 100% sure of what causes it or how to avoid it, and it doesn't usually seem to be game-breaking, but basically the game has trouble keeping track of all the items sometimes and stuff can get corrupted. Read more here:
https://www.gog.com/forum/ultima_series/uu1_object_list_bug/page1
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Finally, anyone trying Ultima Underworld 1 or 2 should be aware that these games are 50% hack-and-slash dungeon crawler and 50% adventure game. There are LOTS of puzzles to solve and clues to piece together, and you need to keep track of EVERYTHING important that NPCs say. There is no quest log. If you don't take extensive notes, you'll find a crucial item on level 9 and completely forget that Morblax the Unbilgeable was looking for it so he could trade to Shimsham the Feeblebrix on level 4. You have to bring pieces of information together from across the entire game.
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>>4138757
>The only other way to learn magical properties is by casting an Identify spell via runes or scroll.
One of the seers can also identify for you but it's obviously a cumbersome approach.
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>>4138696
Does UW lack focus?
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>>4138780
i think the RPG elements literally do not matter and that it would be a better game without them
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Treachery and doom!
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>>4138780
>>4138783
Yeah, UW is pretty sloppily designed as far as the stats and skills stuff goes. A generic "fighter bolstered by magic" is obviously the superior choice and you end up dabbling in every useful skill anyway. And then there's dumb stuff like the weapon proficiencies, where you're basically hoping the designers put in enough good items of the type you chose. I think UW would have a much tighter design without any character creation choices.
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>>4138793
I think UW2 added a bit more options.
Overall it feels like one of the points where the game was too ahead of itself. They implemented a stealth system where monsters have a hearing range but there's no actual incentive to sneak.
You also have to keep in mind that skill systems were still a relatively new thing in computer RPGs.
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>>4138793
>And then there's dumb stuff like the weapon proficiencies,
Like in most fantasy WRPGs, swords are the best. Though in UW2, there's a firedoom axe, which was basically a click to win weapon, and it's ridiculously hard to find.
>>4138025
It's the superior dungeon crawler despite what TES fags say.
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>>4138757
>There isn't enough mana or high-damage spells to play a pure Mage and walk around zapping everything, even with max INT and magic skills.
Using hit n run tactics with fireball is quite doable.Fireball can accidentally destroy dropped items though. For weaker enemies in UW2, you can just spam the snowball spell.
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>>4140310
>there's a firedoom axe, which was basically a click to win weapon,
Unless you have fire protection it's going to kill you. Plus it burns items around you.
There are also decent maces and you can enchant your own items so you are fine with any of the melee skills.
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>>4140323
>you can enchant your own items
I thought that spell only recharges wands and sceptres? Does it add a random enchant?
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>>4140483
Yes. It also increase the level of enchantment so you can get Unsurpassed quality items.
http://wiki.ultimacodex.com/wiki/Enchant_Item
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>>4138029
Spoony is shit
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>>4138025
Keep a piece of paper and pen by your side at all times.
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