Ultima IX Economy/Monster Hitpoints Unofficial Patch/Mod v1.0 Created by Novum (edward.pinniger@redhotant.com) with help from froods (froods@alphalink.com.au) Ultima IX is a great game in many ways, but many fans including me were disappointed by a number of its features, such as the linear plot, poor dialogue, unchallenging combat and poorly-balanced economy. Nothing can be done about the plot (except by Origin, and they aren't likely to do anything about it) but thankfully Ultima 9's other problems can be fixed to some degree by modifying its data files. So I've created a patch which modifies both the economy (shop buy/sell prices and item lists) and the strengths of most monsters. Another Ultima fan, Grandor Dragon (vzimmerer@gmx.net) is currently working on a dialogue patch. I have no idea when this will be finished, but hopefully it shouldn't be too long! To install: Just unzip this file into your Ultima 9 directory, with the "extract directories" option checked in Winzip. If you want to return to the original Ultima 9 prices and monster HPs without reinstalling, back up the runtime/npc.flx and static/books-en.flx files (these are the files replaced by this patch) Economy Modifications: Ultima IX features plenty of shops, and a reasonable buying/selling system, but unfortunately the prices and item selections are mostly so poorly-balanced that buying and selling anything is usually unnecessary. Most weaponry and armour is far too cheap, and the item selections in the shops are set up so that by the time you can buy an item you've already found several of them in dungeons or elsewhere. The prices of basic essentials such as potions and reagents are very high, with little difference between a simple healing/cure potion and a valuable invisibility potion. Meanwhile, selling items (with the exception of gems!) is generally useless except to free some inventory space - most items, even magical items and blackrock armour, are worth peanuts when sold! Gems and jewellery can be sold for plenty of money, but you so rarely have to buy things that if you sell every gem you find you'll soon have more money than you know what to do with! These factors combine to make the buying/trading/treasure-hunting element of Ultima IX irrelevant for the most part.. except for a few special items like blackrock weapons and armour, it's possible to play the entire game simply using the weapons and items found in dungeons or scattered around the countryside (or in people's houses, if you don't mind being an unvirtuous thief :) Since I've found that the shop item lists and prices are stored as easily editable text in the "books-en.flx" file, I decided to create a small patch to make the shop buy/sell prices and item lists somewhat more balanced, and encourage more buying/selling. These changes make Ultima IX a bit more of a role-playing game, in that you have to make far more choices about how you develop your character, rather than just getting more powerful in every area as you go along - items are generally more expensive, but you also have much more choice over what to buy and where you can go, so you're often having to make choices as to what areas to specialise in, as, unlike before, you can't always buy the best of everything (weapons, armour, bows, etc) - especially at the beginning of the game, you need to choose quite carefully. Exploring and searching for treasure and equipment is not only vital but also more rewarding, as in addition to gold and gems, equipment and other items you don't need can be sold at a reasonable fraction of the buying price (unlike the miniscule amounts you previously got for selling most items!) The patch makes the following changes to prices: Weapons - Between 1.5 and 3 times as expensive when bought. Can be sold at 25% to 50% buying price, rather than 5%-10% Arrows are 2 to 2 times as expensive. Armour - Leather armour is approximately 2 times as expensive, chain 2.75, plate and blackrock 1.5. Food - Between 0.25 and 0.5 as expensive. Magical items and weapons: Cannot be bought in most cases (although flaming swords, frost swords and war bows can be bought in some places, for a price!) but are much more valuable when sold. Gems - Slightly greater variation in price; in order of value, gems are ethyst, black pearl (now can be sold at jewellery shops), topaz, sapphire, ruby, emerald and diamond. Cut gems are also more valuable than before. Reagents - Much greater variation in price between common/rare reagents. Garlic is very cheap (5-15) ginseng reasonably cheap(10-25), sulphurous ash (20-45) spider silk (50-100) and Scrolls - Between 1.25 and 2 times as expensive. Worth around 25-15% selling price when sold (rather than 5%-1%!) It also makes the following changes to buying/selling lists: Most general stores/provisioners sell a much larger and wider variety of items. The Britain blacksmith sells chain armour, and a much better variety of weapons and shields. The Britain bowyer sells target and long bows, and the Yew one siege bows. All bowyers now sell oil flasks too. The Minoc and Trinsic smiths sell both plate armour and chain, along with a much better selection of weapons, etc. The Moonglow magic shop sells a huge variety of magical items - reagents, scrolls, potions, etc. Moonglow is supposed to be the city of mages, so it makes sense that it should be the best place to buy magical items! Enemy HP Modifications: Combat in Ultima 9 isn't generally very difficult due to (a) the poor AI causing enemies to get stuck in the scenery and (b) the fact that most enemies are pathetically weak! I can't do anything about the AI, but my patch increases the hit points (i.e the maximum amount of damage they can take) of most of the monsters and enemies in the game, between 1.5 and 5 times generally. Rats, for example, are more than just a nuisance now - a good incentive to stock up on arrows! Monster/enemy hit points are changed as follows: Old New Pirate 32 85 Winged Gargoyle 80 160 Goblin Chieftain/Shaman 100 215 Dagger Bandit 20 65 Goblin Captain 120 230 Vampire Bat 25 40 Staff Bandit 70 120 Creeper Plant 60 130 Icehound 85 140 Hellhound 99 175 Archer Bandit 20 60 Gargoyle Drone 150 200 Ghost Warrior 60 80 Mage 50 100 Slasher Demon 101 185 Stone Demon/Golem 150 230 Crab 200 240 Arctic Wolf 70 150 Blue Dragon 350 500 Sea Monster 250 320 Small Spider 3 20 Demon 135 300 Mimic 45 100 Vulture 20 55 Goblin 30 100 Giant Bat 5 10 Giant Rat 7 40 Phase Spider 75 165 Wolf 30 75 Gazer 140 240 Skeleton 60 85 (not much increase since skeletons are so annoying anyway :) Zombie 80 170 Brute 130 245 Fish 1 8 Red Dragon 350 510 Giant Spider 50 105 Thug 40 115 Lich 150 240 Dragon 250 420 Generic Wyrmguard 120 220 IMPORTANT notes: Monster hit points will not be changed until you start a new game from scratch. If you load a game saved before you installed this patch, monsters will be The economy modifications do,however,work with saved games. Many weaker monsters are still quite vulnerable to arrows, it seems that arrow resistance is stored as a seperate value to hit points. This makes bows, spells etc far more useful though. Some plot-related enemies such as Wyrmguard companions (not generic Wyrmguards) have not been made tougher. Weapon, spell etc. damage values have not been changed, I don't currently know how to do this! Note that some prices have not been changed much, intentionally.. for example, the shopkeepers in Minoc and Cove will still charge insanely high prices, and pay you virtually nothing, until you cleanse the Shrine of Sacrifice! (Although they will buy and sell rather more things than before). Herzog's general store in Buccaneer's Den is also not the best place to sell weapons and armour.. whilst he pays you much more than before, it still isn't much compared to what you'd get in a blacksmith's shop! Finally, weapon trainer costs have not been changed, for the same reason as weapon/spell strength - I have no idea where the data for this is stored, so can't modify it. Disclaimers - This patch is not created, supported or endorsed by Origin or anyone involved in the development of Ultima 9. I take no responsibility for this patch messing up your computer, Windows, etc. However, I don't think that it will, and if you have any problems getting it to work with your copy of Ultima 9 then feel free to e-mail me about it!