Wizardry The Wizardry Series Thread

[Paula Tormeson IV]

They're a trilogy, right?

Yeah, and you can import your characters into the next game, and they will start at different places and plot situations depending on how you completed the previous game. Only new parties start at the monastery in Wiz8.

I spent some time trying to remove the copy protection in Wiz6 before I realized there was none in the version I was using (don't ask where I got it, I don't remember). All I ever had to do was press enter when the game asks for the magic word.

I'm off to finish the trilogy now. For the first time ever. See you in a couple of weeks.

 

[Black]

Everyone wants to know whether RPGCodex lives up to its reputation as a hardcore place for hardcore RPG gamers.

Since RPGCodex gives its recommendation to generic shooters in space I think the answer is already obvious.

 

[mondblut]

I finished it with a walkthrough and foreknowledge of Wizardry 7. Mostly to replay Wiz7 with the diamond ring

There are 2 different identification modes, one with a spell, another with assaying, they give different info. At least in Wiz7, assaying does depend on a skill, you can't assay an item if your skill is too low until it was spell-identified first (or maybe successfully assayed by other character too).

 

[Paula Tormeson IV]

I'm stuck in the first castle.

I have a bunch of quest items or important artifacts I don't know what to do with.

One door that seemed to lead to a rather useless place ate my gold key (maybe it doesn't fit elsewhere; I tried about half of the closed doors in the castle before this one opened with it).

I've literally mapped every inch of the castle that I've had access to, except for the clock tower, and the four towers, and some short passages and rooms on otherwise empty levels. The clock tower ends in a door that looks normal but won't open even with 4x knock-knock spell.

I've never been able to use copper keys for anything yet. The same goes for the one iron key I have.

I'm about ready to give up and consult a walkthrough.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

weak

protip: the solution is easier than you might think

 

[Paula Tormeson IV]

I'll sleep on it. I'm always a bit slow except in the mornings.

 

[sirfink]

I'm right in the middle of Wiz 6 right now. Quite the co-ink-of-a-dink!

The keys are a pain, especially with the limited inventory space. My mage has 7 or 8 keys (I give them all to him so I can keep track of them). The bell tower door requires a key. It's called the Bell Key. You find it by searching in some room. Don't forget to use the search function in just about every corner. Actually, I think you tend to get some text when there's something you should search for. There's a spell that's supposed to help search, too.

Copper keys open many of the ordinary wood doors. Those you can pick if you don't have a copper key. I think I have a dozen copper keys. Haven't needed them because my Thief does alright just picking the locks.

I went thru the trouble of trying the Amiga version of Wiz 6. It looks exactly the same as the DOS version. Sound is a touch better. The sound in the DOS version bugs me: that constant atmospheric shit that never goes away. It sounds much more realistic on the Amiga, but I can't be bothered with all that disk swapping on the Amiga. That, and I'll be able to import my guys into Wiz 7 (did they make that one for Amiga?)

 

[Fowyr]

I finished Wiz6 ages ago. May be I should play once more and this time equip the ringcross.

 

[Zomg]

I played it to the point where you fight the samurai guy with his buddies (it's pretty close to the end) and I deemed it an impossible fight in hard mode if you haven't cheesed class changing, and having found the game shit in most aspects I decided it was a good time to quit.

Edit - I think I played it without a walkthrough as a general rule, but I'd break down and check one at a few specific points and I generally felt no shame for not having done the obscure or tedious bullshit thing the walkthough indicated as the solution.

 

[Paula Tormeson IV]

The bell tower door requires a key. It's called the Bell Key. You find it by searching in some room.

The Bell Key rings a bell. I don't know why. I'm sure I would have tried it if I had had it.

Well, I googled it, and it's found in a room I've already visited. I usually search every corner, but I can see how I could have missed searching that particular spot.

I like the idea of adventuring in a puzzling dungeon with only a piece of paper where to draw a map as my aid etc.

 

[Fowyr]

I like the idea of adventuring in a puzzling dungeon with only a piece of paper where to draw a map as my aid etc.

Do you find piece of cheese?

Spoiler

If so, try to find very interesting wall.

 

[LusciousPear]

"Bane of the Cosmic Forge" would be a fantastic power/thrash metal album.

 

[Paula Tormeson IV]

The cheese puzzle didn't cause problems. I may have heard about it before.

Anyway, I tried to look for the bell key where the walkthrough said it was located at, but didn't find it. Assuming that that's where it should always be, and that it can be found at any time, then I suppose I already found it but didn't have room in the inventory of the character I gave it to, which I suppose means it's gone for good.

 

[Paula Tormeson IV]

Ah, OK. So I hadn't found the bell key after all (unfaithful memory). I was looking at the wrong map in the walkthrough.

The real problem I had was the place where you get with the gold key. It didn't occur to me that there can be buttons on walls which you have to face and then "search" to press.

But I found a good Wiz6-Wiz7-Wiz8 editor:

http://www.angelfire.com/magic2/madgod/CosmicForge.html

 

[Paula Tormeson IV]

weak

protip: the solution is easier than you might think

Indeed.

 

[Fowyr]

It didn't occur to me that there can be buttons on walls which you have to face and then "search" to press.
l

Buttons on the walls not problem. Real problem is secret buttons on the wall. They gave me nightmare in the Wiz7. Try to learn detect secrets spell.

 

[sirfink]

Remember that you have a Swag bag in addition to your normal inventory. If your normal inventory is full, items will go into your swag bag. Items in swag can be used outside of combat, but not in combat.

I'm currently in the dwarven mines and going totally insane. I need to whack 4 sides of a crystal, but to get to those 4 sides I need to make my way through this completely maddening maze of a mine. Looking at maps and walkthroughs does little help, though. Someone needs to do a proper map of the mines, because this is killing me. I think you just get a treasure. So I could just leave it and move on with the game but it's killing me to do that. I must smash that damn crystal!

 

[Damned Registrations]

Want to play it but haven't been able to get it running to my satisfaction so far. I'll get around to it someday when nothing else of interest is available to me.

Love the chargen/stat system in it.

 

[Paula Tormeson IV]

Want to play it but haven't been able to get it running to my satisfaction so far.

Use this dosbox version ("save file to your PC", bottom right). The latest dosbox comes in the box; the config says 0.72, but it's really 0.73.

Then adjust the CPU cycles up or down as needed. You can do this (and it's best to do it) while you're playing the game (ctrl + F11/F12). I use 2500 or 3000. There are some rare bits of text that flash by too fast with 3000. The combat info-details always flash by rather too fast, but that didn't bother me after a while. You can usually tell who, exactly, managed to hit, and spell damages are easy to notice.

The sound is what it is. The background noise bothered me at first, but not anymore.

Make a shortcut of the Wizardry6.Play.bat, which is in the Wizardry VI directory, and use it.

 

[Paula Tormeson IV]

Want to play it but haven't been able to get it running to my satisfaction so far.

Use this dosbox version ("save file to your PC", bottom right). The latest dosbox comes in the box; the config says 0.72, but it's really 0.73.

Then adjust the CPU cycles up or down as needed. You can do this (and it's best to do it) while you're playing the game (ctrl + F11/F12). I use 2500 or 3000. There are some rare bits of text that flash by too fast with 3000. The combat info-details always flash by rather too fast, but that didn't bother me after a while. You can usually tell who, exactly, managed to hit, and spell damages are easy to notice.

The sound is what it is. The background noise bothered me at first, but not anymore.

Make a shortcut of the Wizardry6.Play.bat, which is in the Wizardry VI directory, and use it.

Just to clarify a bit. That's a ready-to-game version for Windows (32 bit). You can unzip it anywhere. All you need to do to play the game is unzip the archive and then double-click Wizardry.Play.bat.

Anyone who doesn't have Wiz6 properly installed should grab that. I'm pretty sure you won't even have to adjust the sound config.

 

[Paula Tormeson IV]

And it very usefully includes the manual (in pdf form). The magic-words list is useless, since you can get through the password screen by pressing enter.

On to another topic.

Is Wizardry 7 much bigger than 6? What size is Wiz8 in comparison? VI doesn't look very big (I glanced at the walkthrough maps after I got into the mines, something I'm going to resist doing in the latter two cases).

 

[rpgcodexusername]

The bell tower door requires a key. It's called the Bell Key. You find it by searching in some room.

The Bell Key rings a bell. I don't know why. I'm sure I would have tried it if I had had it.

Well, I googled it, and it's found in a room I've already visited. I usually search every corner, but I can see how I could have missed searching that particular spot.

I like the idea of adventuring in a puzzling dungeon with only a piece of paper where to draw a map as my aid etc.

I got a nice bell tower for yer right here

 

[Jasede]

And it very usefully includes the manual (in pdf form). The magic-words list is useless, since you can get through the password screen by pressing enter.

On to another topic.

Is Wizardry 7 much bigger than 6? What size is Wiz8 in comparison? VI doesn't look very big (I glanced at the walkthrough maps after I got into the mines, something I'm going to resist doing in the latter two cases).

Yes, Wizardry 7 is much bigger than 6 and will take about four to five times as long without a walkthrough, and twice to three times as long using one. The game is very large and dynamic, and also very difficult.

For reference, I have completed Wizardry 6 three times without a walkthrough the first time through. I only got stuck once at the language-based bridge puzzle. I mapped the game in my head (easy in this one, impossible for me in the older Wizardries). The second time I used a guide to learn how to get the Diamond Ring as I wanted to use it in Wizardry 8. It's not a very long game, but that's why it is pleasant to replay. Playing it on hard mode is not recommend, I quit at the Samurai fight also, just like a poster mentioned earlier.

I wish they made more of these games. Fortunately my Japanese is getting better and Etrian Odyssey 3 is about to be released - I will gladly deal with anime-graphics if it means I can crunch a dungeon or ten the way I used to.

 

[Fowyr]

Is Wizardry 7 much bigger than 6? What size is Wiz8 in comparison?

Wiz7 VERY big. All this wilderness maps and dungeons maps and towns maps and fucking sea... is awesome.
Wiz8 is small. Maybe like Wiz6.

 

[Paula Tormeson IV]

Playing it on hard mode is not recommend, I quit at the Samurai fight also, just like a poster mentioned earlier.

I hadn't noticed that setting. Are there some benefits in playing on expert, as in Wiz8 (if I recall right ... something about getting more xp or skill points)?