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From: Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
Subject: Re: TIL: Ultima 6 NuVIe
Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2024 23:14:44 -0400
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On Mon, 23 Sep 2024 12:52:51 +0200, "Werner P." <werpu@gmx.at> wrote:

>Am 19.09.24 um 18:07 schrieb Spalls Hurgenson:
>> I replayed Ultima 7 a few years back. I was disappointed to learn that
>> the experience wasn't as great as I remembered. Without argument,
>> "Ultima 7" was a groundbreaking game, taking many of the ideas of
>> "Ultima 6" and giving them some necessary polish.
>
>Ultima 7 did not age well, the combat system was a mess and that drags 
>the experience down nowadays.
>I will stick to my fond memories, had the same experience as you!

A lot of people complain about Ultima 7's combat, and understandably
so. The game stripped out all strategy -and pretty much all control-
from the game. You'd hit the "c" key to switch your party into combat
mode, and the AI would instantly take over, automatically running
about willy-nilly swatting at enemies until all nearby foes were dead.

Technically, you _could_ control the characters manually but -because
the game was real-time- this was functionally useless. The enemy AI
didn't wait for you, and managing the characters was a mess.

Worst was when a party member got seriously wounded; he'd run away
(often dropping his weapon and equipment) and -if the enemy chased
him- might even die offscreen and you'd never find him.

That said, I actually sort of _liked_ the combat system. Not because
the combat was fun (it wasn't) but because it de-emphasised the combat
entirely. Your party generally was incredibly overpowered anyway, and
by mid-game you could easily trounce any enemy. Pressing "c"
essentially turned into a "make the bad guys go away" button; no fuss,
no muss. That let me focus more on the bits that Ultima 7 _was_ good
at; the exploration and world-building. 

I'm not sure if that's what Origin intended, but that's the effect it
had on me.