Wizardry The Wizardry Series Thread

[TheDeveloperDude]

https://af.gog.com/forum/wizardry_s...t_enter_building_in_umpani_base?as=1649904300
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/cosmicforge/fixes-for-too-high-steps-at-umpani-base-camp-t189.html

 

[Grauken]

I've played this game way more times than I'd like to admit and not once had a problem with angle-running in there. How did you even play the game if you couldn't start the umpani quest chain?

I never even heard of that problem before

 

[TheDeveloperDude]

I had an unpleasant surprise. Towards Trynton I saw a green something running on the field. It was interesting so I run after it. It was a wild raptor!

 

[Daemongar]

I haven't played Wizardry 7 in quite a few years, so I was interested in firing it up. I stumbled on some FAQ that rated the classes and suggested a party. Having never really done a lot of class switching, I thought it would be nice to follow some guide. I also wanted to apply some of the Wizardry 7 patches (fighter double damage, and few other non-game breaking fixes.)

This last weekend I put about 5 hours into Wizardry 7. A couple of observations:

1. Walking directly to New City, you get jumped and murdered in the "Ambush" area. Not quite sure of this programming decision, but no warning and assured death is kind of a crummy way to get players to Take a different direction. It was Ratkin Bandits or Rogues (6+) over and over. A 1st level party was no match. So I reloaded a few times before I wised up and went to the nearby dungeon.
2. Chests. Had 5 points in Skullduggery from my thief. We died over. And over. And over. See, you need that there key in the first chest to open the gate to go lower and advance levels. Either poison killing half the party before I could get to the healing fountain, or dying outright from the explosion. Yes, I know knock-knock - maybe I should have taken that...
3. No penetration. Yep, I'm aware of the different attacks, but damned if I didn't go minutes without actually harming a crud or such. The early game build up of skills as you use them is rewarding, but painful.
4. Ra-Sep-Re-Tep - ok, he wasn't all that tough as I pretty much remembered everything about the starter dungeon... except how lethal traps were and that you should go directly there.
5. New city. Never made it. Walked out of the starter dungeon, ran into the wandering Dane. I don't remember this happening this early in all my playthroughs. Maybe it was one of those patches. Either way, my hand moved of it's own accord and I selected "Diplomacy" and selected my character with the highest Diplomacy - my monk with 3 points in it. I was trying to stop myself even as I was moving the mouse and clicking. I didn't stop myself in time. I pissed him off and him and his friends proceeded to murder my party.

So, all in all I realized a) just how much internal knowledge I had of this game b) just how easy it is to die (think I reloaded at least 10 times) and c) I forgot where the map kit was - the banks of the river(?) seems to ring a bell. I am already quite invested in my party and this playthrough, but I'd like to think that D. W. Bradley had such high expectations of RPG players that he put this in front of them to make them stronger. It's easy to talk about this being one of the greatest games ever and not understand how new folks can get turned off by it. All in all, I think this game is a little rougher than Wizardry 8.

The 5 hours I spent was somewhere around 2 hours creating my party, 2.5 hours in the starter dungeon, and .5 hours trying to disarm traps and reloading. The good news is that when I last checked I had 20 points in skullduggery and think my thief was level 4 or 5, but I know I'll need it a lot higher in New City.

 

[Butter]

I don't think I've ever encountered a wandering party in the starting area (minus the initial encounter with Jan-Ette of course). That might be a mod change.

 

[Baron Dupek]

There are mods for Wizardry VII (or VI) outside of automapper?

 

[Ryzer]

I wonder who decided to put such a high encounter rate. It really pissed me off in this game and they renewed it for Wizardry 8. I wish there was an option to reduce it.

 

[Daemongar]

There are mods for Wizardry VII (or VI) outside of automapper?

Yes. The "Cosmic Forge" tool can edit anything, the game, saves, chars, etc., but also includes patches for some bugs in Wizardry 7. Examples are: Under the hood calculations, fighters taking double damage, and some other stuff. It's a little too powerful with the char editor and such, but it was seeing the patches that made me want to fire up the game again. I just used the patches I wanted and was done with it.

 

[Grauken]

I don't think I've ever encountered a wandering party in the starting area (minus the initial encounter with Jan-Ette of course). That might be a mod change.

He means the surprise rattkin attack on the way to new city that kill you if you don't level a bit in the beginner dungeon

 

[Butter]

He means the surprise rattkin attack on the way to new city that kill you if you don't level a bit in the beginner dungeon

New city. Never made it. Walked out of the starter dungeon, ran into the wandering Dane. I don't remember this happening this early in all my playthroughs. Maybe it was one of those patches.

 

[Grauken]

He means the surprise rattkin attack on the way to new city that kill you if you don't level a bit in the beginner dungeon

New city. Never made it. Walked out of the starter dungeon, ran into the wandering Dane. I don't remember this happening this early in all my playthroughs. Maybe it was one of those patches.

Never happened to me either, but could just be really bad luck

 

[Dungeon Lord]

There are mods for Wizardry VII (or VI) outside of automapper?

https://www.zimlab.com/wizardry/mods/wiz7mods.htm

Only this two one.

Interesting for Wiz8 there are a dozen mods. Minimum.

 

[Fowyr]

[*]Walking directly to New City, you get jumped and murdered in the "Ambush" area. Not quite sure of this programming decision, but no warning and assured death is kind of a crummy way to get players to Take a different direction. It was Ratkin Bandits or Rogues (6+) over and over. A 1st level party was no match.

First when I played it, several decades ago, I just killed them with a default characters. It depends on the luck and party composition. Lute of Sleep, for example, is really great in the early fights.
To find a map you should travel back from the starting point. Just don't travel to poppy field.

 

[Humbaba]

Lute of Sleep, for example, is really great in the early fights.

Bard is pretty much mandatory for any party in 7, or 6 and 8. The Lute remains useful throughout the entire game and there are so many other fantastic instruments that you are only gimping yourself if you don't bring along a a bard.

 

[Desiderius]

Cherry Bomb should take care of Ambush on way to New City. Just stay on Road.

 

[Desiderius]

This guy has also made a Wizardry 7 rebalance mod. The link to it in this video description is broken, but if you join his Discord there's a current link that works.

This looks pretty cool. Can anyone walk me through how to install if for Wiz8? I can get Cosmic Forge but have only used it with Wiz7 and can't remember how it works either.

 

[Butter]

I'm playing Wizardry 4 and the combat log advances so fast I can't keep up with it. I was barely able to tell that my priest used Milwa in the first room. Is there a setting in-game or in DOSBox to slow it down?

edit: I found a cycles setting in DOSBox config. I'll have to play around with it to find the ideal setting. Right now I'm using 1000.

 

[Grauken]

I'm playing Wizardry 4 and the combat log advances so fast I can't keep up with it. I was barely able to tell that my priest used Milwa in the first room. Is there a setting in-game or in DOSBox to slow it down?

CTRL-F11 to reduce speed, CTRL-F12 to increase speed (decreases or increases CPU cycles)

For more information
https://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Performance

 

[newtmonkey]

Butter
There are also some in-game keys to adjust messages, which might be helpful if you can't get the right speed by adjusting CPU cycles in DOSBox.

According to the manual:

T : Adjusts message speed (can only be used outside combat)
SCROLL LOCK : Switch message pauses on/off

When I was playing through the original games, I think I had cycles set to 1000, also, and then used T to adjust message speed slightly. I never used SCROLL LOCK, so dunno if it actually works or not.

 

[Butter]

OK, Wizardry 4 is fucking evil but I love it. I've played for about 6 hours and I've yet to escape the bottom floor. My experience has been cruising through the first two rings only to get instantly killed by the third Guardian's Mahalito, and once even making it through the third ring only to learn there's a fourth Guardian and he can hit for 18 damage.

Everything you know about RPGs gets turned upside down in Wizardry 4. Saving is almost always a terrible idea, because it resets the Guardians and can cut you off from the pentagram. Thieves are the best random encounter, and you actually want them to steal your item and run away, because it means a future opportunity to refresh Milwa. Consumables are the best loot, because you can't use most gear and you don't start with any priest spells.

 

[octavius]

Just make sure you don't forget something.

 

[TheDeveloperDude]

Expanded mod

My Level15 party went Arnika and met some very nice Little Robots. They keep summoning Level19 Savant Henchmen.
I have played/tried all Wiz8 mods and it occurs too many times that every monster has 100% magic resistance and a lots of HP, so you have to run to the monsters one by one and slowly grind down 'em.
Nevertheless this is a great mod.

 

[Butter]

I'm on level 8 now, mostly done mapping the minefield. The game trolls you into thinking you're done by spitting you out near one of the walls, only to throw more mines at you as you run along the south side of the room. I have Mahalito now, which makes party encounters a lot less scary, but there are a lot of single-enemy encounters on this level, and Mahalito happens to be the best damage spell against them too.

I like that with each level, you have to figure out the right combination of minions, and sometimes you have to change it up. Gaze Hounds being able to paralyze is pretty cool in party encounters, but against single enemies it usually results in them not dying and any spells you used during the fight being wasted. Dragon Flies seem quite good though.

I stopped playing because I was nearly at the end of the minefield with all enemies dead and fucking Trebor caught me.

 

[gman42]

Yeah, wiz4 has a fun (read: not fun at all) see-saw of battle difficulty, just wait until your enemies can cast Makanito and literally every battle with a mage is a potential reload. Fortunately you outgrow that vulnerability, eventually.

Are you trying to play totally spoiler-free? I'd be interested to see how far you get and which ending you wind up with, I'm still convinced no one has ever legitimately completed the "ideal" ending on their own.

 

[Butter]

Are you trying to play totally spoiler-free?

Yes. It might take a while.