Oddities in Savage Empire
Oddities in Savage Empire describes features in the first Worlds of Ultima game that are obvious remnants of its development using the Ultima VI engine. These remnants offer a unique glimpse into the game’s development process and the challenges of adapting an existing engine.
The Oddities[edit]
Realm of the Gargoyles still in the Game[edit]
One of the more conspicuous leftovers becomes apparent when using a map viewer to look at the dungeon levels. Despite there only being three dungeon levels in the game, there are actually five maps. This is because they are a remnant of the original Ultima VI, which had that many levels.
Map number four is uninteresting, since it is completely empty. However, map number five is actually the Realm of the Gargoyles! This map was left in the game, devoid of all in-game objects. Of course, since the tiles have all changed in the game, the map looks completely garbled, but the basic structure still can be seen.
To access the map, the player has to cheat to teleport into it. However, the player cannot find anything notable in it.
Wandering on the map
Extra Slots with no Use[edit]
Another remnant are the paper doll slots for a helmet, footwear and rings. In Savage Empire, as there is no headwear, footwear, or rings at all in this game, these inventory slots are completely useless. However, since they are hardcoded into the engine, they remain. In Martian Dreams, developers found a use for the slots for head- and footwear, while the ring slots disappeared and were replaced with a slot for gloves.
The INT Attribute[edit]
In the game, the INT attribute serves no purpose at all. The only magic in the game is shamanic in nature and does not use mana. Since the number of spells available is solely measured by the number of reagents, INT does not even have any use for Triolo, the party’s only magic user. There is no need to ever raise this attribute at all. Again, in Martian Dreams, they did find several uses for this attribute (related to dreaming and imagination).