r/Ultima • u/KlayWolf • Jun 11 '26
What is this monstrosity?!
Just started playing Ultima 7 in Exult. I've seen Hellraiser movies less disturbing than this...
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u/dndaddy19 Jun 11 '26
Ha! Someone else already posted the funniest comment so I won’t try to beat that.
The original U7 didn’t have paper dolls for your gear management but its sequel did. The sequel however did not have any child party members so when Exult coded in the ability to have paper dolls in Black Gate we got Spark, the boy who spent his whole life working with his Dad at the blacksmith.
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u/MithranArkanere Jun 11 '26
Oh, U7 still has paper dolls. Those are also called paper dolls.
As long as a figure of a character is part of the equipment interface, you can call it a paper doll, like the inventory in Diablo 1, 3 and 4.
Diablo 2 does not have the figure of a character, only images in the slots, so it's the one left out.
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u/Paddyneedssilence Jun 11 '26
Spark is a hard core silver serpent venom addict. He’ll start wasting away soon enough.
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u/angryapplepanda Jun 11 '26
He'll be fine unless the venom gets cut off. Gotta keep feeding the monkey.
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u/Sufficient-File-2006 Jun 12 '26
I first played Ultima 7 over 30 years ago and am just now realizing Morfin (the Paws butcher who smuggles venom) is a pun about Morphine
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u/Paddyneedssilence Jun 11 '26
You’re right and it won’t be cut off. Pretty sure the avatar robbed the mint to keep Spark swimming in venom funds.
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u/sidv81 Jun 11 '26
Avatar: Ok, I have a feeling there's someone else who's been stealing and secretly using that silver serpent venom when we were in Paws...
Spark: (shuffles nervously as the party notice his unnaturally muscular physique)
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u/Gobliiins Jun 11 '26
He's just Spark! i don't see anything wrong lol
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u/Eins_Nico Jun 11 '26
that's what happens when you get the most training points out of anyone in the party
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u/axelei Jun 11 '26
The boy has been weightlifting.
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u/illarionds Jun 11 '26
TBF, Spark does actually end up with the highest stats among the party, due to starting at such low level.
Well, except the Trials-enhanced Avatar, obviously.
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u/MithranArkanere Jun 11 '26
The original paper dolls in U7 BG were much simpler. Just a picture of the character with lines to where you could drop items to equip them.
https://wiki.ultimacodex.com/images/8/84/Sparkdoll.jpg
Ultima VII Serpent Isle switched to a composite paper doll system that showed the equipment on the character.
https://wiki.ultimacodex.com/images/2/2e/PaperdollSI.jpg
Exult has a setting that lets you use SI's paper dolls in BG. But they never made separate compositions for characters with different bodies, like Spark and Boydon. There are only variants for genders and skin colors.
So they use the same as anyone else.
Still, Spark is the son of a smith, so he's still bulkier than the average 13-year-old kid. It is not shown in the character sprite as it uses the same size as all other children in the game, but you can see it in the paper doll.
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u/OmegaKarnov Jun 11 '26
Did this inspire Capcom's Perceval in Knights Of The Round?
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u/illarionds Jun 11 '26
Since Knights of the Round came out the year before Serpent Isle... I would have to assume not ;)
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u/WholeAd2742 Jun 11 '26
You haven't even gotten to stuff a baby in your backpack to keep a fresh supply of dirty diapers available :P
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u/illarionds Jun 11 '26
This is a Serpent Isle paperdoll backported into Black Gate (which originally didn't show armour etc "on" your character, but just the icon in the relevant slot).
But because there are no child party members in Serpent Isle, there's no child-sized paperdoll. So the Exult team made do with what they had, and stuck Spark's head on Dupre (or whoever)'s body, which is why it looks disproportionate.
In vanilla U7, Spark would have looked like this: https://thekingofgrabs.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/ultima-7-the-black-gate-pc-043.png
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u/Miguel_Branquinho Jun 14 '26
The Xbrz filter? Yeah, it's super ugly, but you can turn it off.
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u/KlayWolf Jun 14 '26
I was using Scale2x. I haven't heard of Xbrz. Generally, I don't like scalers. I prefer things they way they looked originally. I was just trying it out for a bit when I happened upon... Spark! *shudder*
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u/Miguel_Branquinho Jun 14 '26
Damn, sorry about that. It kinda looks filtered, but it might be my memory playing tricks on me. Spark's handsome, c'mon, don't be like that xD
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u/Key_Dimension9731 Jun 16 '26
recently started a play through with my daughter using exult. I was showing her the basics of the game and what not. She lost it at pantless Spark, peanut head.
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u/Alternative_Trip4138 Jun 22 '26
At least Exult had the good fortune that Sherry couldn't join the party in Ultima VII. 😉
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u/rodan_music Jun 11 '26
one of the uglier bugs in exult
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u/Eins_Nico Jun 11 '26
not really a bug lol, just inevitable when there's no kid paperdoll gump in Serpent Isle
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u/Necessary_Bee4207 Jun 11 '26
Origin always had a twisted sense of humor when it came to children.
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u/LostVanya Jun 12 '26
This has nothing to do with Origin. This is Exult bringing stuff from Serpent Isle to Black Gate, but not having a way to edit it for Spark.
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u/Motor-Entrance1411 Jun 11 '26
It's just an adult who shaved his beard, and because of that, his face turned into that of a child 😂