User:Xyzzy/Sandbox

The player begins by choosing a race, gender, and profession, each of which affects the starting attributes. Magic users are now divided into pacifist clerics & offensive wizards, which share a few spells.

While many elements of Ultima II are similar to its predecessor, it offers a much greater range of areas to explore. The player visits lands from five eras on Earth: the mythological Time of Legends, Pangea, 1423 B.C., 1990 A.D., the post-nuclear-holocaust Aftermath, and travels through space to other inhabited planets in the solar system. In the process, the player makes use of horses, frigates, airplanes, a rocket, and the silver moongates known as time doors.

This is also the first time that castles and towns use full-size tiles instead of being scaled to fit on one screen and that swamps that sap hit points appear in the wilderness. In the dungeons & towers, monsters are shown as solid tiles rather than transparent wireframes, and can be seen a couple of spaces away in a scaled-down form.

As in Ultima I, combat doesn't take place on a separate screen, a design that doesn't return until Ultima VI. The player can only hit an adjacent square even with a long-range weapon, and monsters can have special offenses like sleep spells, some of which can be prevented with the right attire. In addition to experience & gold, players now also get items from killing monsters and can take over ships from pirates.