Wizardry The Wizardry Series Thread

[random_encounter]

There's party-banter between characters if you create them all yourself? That's... kindda cool!

Yep. There are 36 personalities with corresponding voicesets and they comment on every single fucking thing including comments made by other characters. Plus there are several recruitable, premade characters (up to two travelling with the party at the same time) who have their own voices and personalities too. All in all the party is much more lively than biowarian bunch seen in BG1.

I especially loved the commentary from each character when they leveled up, or were brought back from the dead. The sheer variety was incredible stuff to listen to.

"And a big hello from all of your dead relatives!"

Bard+cursed-yet-awesome weapon from robbing the bank sets you in good stead as well. It's a good weapon for any character, but by giving it to a part-time melee character you can skill up that one weapon style enough to make him a good fighter, and you won't get a better melee weapon for a support character for a LOOOOONNNNGGG time.

And no, I'm not telling you HOW to rob the bank

Robbing the bank was awesome lol

Especially robbing it twice.p

One of my favorite early things to do. Also a handy repository for dumping stuff I thought might be useful later, but didn't want to clutter up my party's inventory with.

In hindsight, guess you could dump stuff anywhere in Wiz8 as long as you could get to it and it seemed fitting to use the bank as a nice, safe spot to dump crap in without having to worry about it disappearing later. Some RPGs today won't even give the player this kind of option. At one point, I dumped so much at the bank that approaching it actually slowed the game down so I had to sell some of my hoard just to free it up.

I've always found those Rapax filled corridors a crowd control heavan, assuming your own protective spells held.

I used doorways to force the Rapax into clumps that I could deal with my Dracon fighter and cat samurai in the front line and with my Valkyrie in the center. I used the blacksmith's area with the two doors and the elevator to lured as many Rapax as I could there. The trick was to do it so that the blacksmith didn't get killed at the same time. Didn't expect him to start helping me, him being Rapax and all.

 

[Broseidon]

asdg

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Wizardry is always a favorite.

I occassiaonally experiment with the Wizardry 8 editior tool, see what new items and what not I can come up with (giving rapax items new skins and icon art in the game but not used, etc) and modifying various NPCs.

 

[SkeleTony]

Just get the 'wiz8fast' utility to make enemies walk 300% faster in combat, and that's it, really.

This. Other than that, there is little non-spoiler advice possible for this game as it support huge variety of party builds and compositions, just don't forget that it's extremely combat centric - plan accordingly.

Oh I will. I'm in the middle of reading the manual right now, but my main reason for choosing this Wizardry to start out with is that I heard what you said; that it supports a lot of party builds.

EDIT: I noticed it uses level-scaling btw. How ironic

The level scaling was probably the only REAL criticism leveled at this game(the anti-combat fags should be ignored). other than the level scaling and some difficulty/balance issues in the early game(after leaving the monastery), it is damned near perfect.

I would not bother with any mods, other than Mod God's "Cosmic Forge" editor(which you can use to tweak a ton of things...like if you do not want your RPCs quitting on you when you enter a specific area, you can remove that).

 

[DraQ]

The level scaling was probably the only REAL criticism leveled at this game(the anti-combat fags should be ignored).

I really enjoy combat in Wiz8, but it would be better if going to an outhouse didn't constitute a major military campaign.

other than the level scaling and some difficulty/balance issues in the early game(after leaving the monastery), it is damned near perfect.

What difficulty issues?

(which you can use to tweak a ton of things...like if you do not want your RPCs quitting on you when you enter a specific area, you can remove that).

Popamole faggot.

If you don't want them to leave, you find a way to drag them there anyway (teleport, uncounsciousness, death) and enjoy their extra dialogue where they complain a lot.

 

[Darth Roxor]

RFS-81 CANNOT OPERATE OUTSIDE SPECIFIED AREAS.

 

[Azrael the cat]

Fuck I hate those psionic water-freaks. Way way more annoying than the Rapax on my playthroughs. The Rapax just had huge hp and hit pretty hard - still just a matter of disabling them and pwning. Those mind-controlling, AoE-pwning Bayjin were something different altogether.

That's true, but

Azrael the Cat cannot into soul shield and magic screen

this.

Helm of Serenity for Lizardman, Dracons can go with Amulets of Energy or even nothing at all, problem solved.

Oh, I do that - I spam the shielding spells so they're constantly up, to the point where I really wish there was a mod that let you automate that (i.e. allocate a caster a responsibility to maintain certain buff/s or shield/s at all times, that you can recustomise for different locations). Nothing that changes the gameplay, but rather that simply cuts down on the repetative selection.

I just still find those areas much more annoying than Rapax. I've just never found myself in any kind of trouble in Rapax areas, whereas the water areas are routinely difficult (and I don't tend to make my parties vulnerable through lots of scaleys either - I go the dual 2-school bishops route, which by that stage gets you great casting in all disciplines, and b/c progression is determined by how many schools you spread yourself over, 2 school bishops still learn spells at a good rate. Relies on bard to cover them in the early game, though.

It could be a matter of what order I tend to hit the areas in, although I'm not exactly lowlevel when I get there. But I do tend to leave the higher-end Rapax areas til rather late, so that's part of the factor. But even so, compared to other nasty mobs I just don't see what is tough about Rapax. They're just tanks - they go down with disabling spells easy enough, and it's pretty much just the standard 'disable and kill tactics that you've already been using during 90% of the game. Even aside from the Bayjin, I find the Rapax easier than some of the wandering casters in the early/central areas (when they scale up, but more mid-game than late-game), or that fricken temple of undead pwnage (the one with the necromancer and other high-level undead that is sitting all friendly-looking on a pleasant looking hill in an otherwise easy zone, waiting for you to explore such an unimposing looking place...).

 

[Major_Blackhart]

God I remember the first time I came across that battle completely accidentally. My guys were chewing shit up like crazy left and right, then I wander into this massive and scary looking cathedral. Hmmm, no problem fellas, we'll take care of whatever is in that foreboding place of religious death.

BAM! Lords of Death everywhere! Elementals coming out of the walls, and a sorceror bitch casting nuke (I think) on us. Game over man, game over!

Great fucking battle, and a complete surprise at that.

 

[DraQ]

God I remember the first time I came across that battle completely accidentally. My guys were chewing shit up like crazy left and right, then I wander into this massive and scary looking cathedral. Hmmm, no problem fellas, we'll take care of whatever is in that foreboding place of religious death.

BAM! Lords of Death everywhere! Elementals coming out of the walls, and a sorceror bitch casting nuke (I think) on us. Game over man, game over!

Great fucking battle, and a complete surprise at that.

You forgot deathlords spamming deathclouds and toxic clouds while you just sit there and stare at the screen in state of utter shock.

 

[JarlFrank]

Oh, I do that - I spam the shielding spells so they're constantly up, to the point where I really wish there was a mod that let you automate that (i.e. allocate a caster a responsibility to maintain certain buff/s or shield/s at all times, that you can recustomise for different locations). Nothing that changes the gameplay, but rather that simply cuts down on the repetative selection.

That's a thing I loved about M&M World of Xeen: the spells Day of Sorcery and Day of Protection included all the buffs you need and lasted for a whole day, reducing the tedium of casting each spell individually.

 

[m_s0]

This was the case with the later games as well. These spells were a nice touch, especially since I don't recall anything similar in other games outside the M&M series, at least not at the moment

 

[Major_Blackhart]

The thing with that game was though for me, the dungeons: simply not enough of them! Yes, you had the unatomspheric throwback dungeons that were hidden all over the place. But really, what dungeons were there that had that great of a feel to them?
Besides the Monastery I mean. That one was just sooo damn good.

There was nothing really like the monastery out there. You had a few caves in a mountain with Rhino Furries. You had marten's bluff filled with thing-rangs. And you had an underwater lair filled with calamari and sushi.
You had bull headed man-bear-pigs that loved the tropical climates at the base of a volcano, yeah, but it was FILLED with the same rapax over and over again. Above the castle was interesting, with the zoo and some of the puzzles involved in the upper levels.

 

[JarlFrank]

I'll just hijack this thread for a question:

Is Wizards and Warriors any good?

 

[JarlFrank]

No replies yet?

 

[dr. one]

No replies yet?

one of the most difficult cRPGs out there when it comes to getting it properly work on modern systems. that´s all i have, sorry . failed twice.
from a let´s play i´ve read here it seemed "any good" to me.

 

[m_s0]

I played it about 7 years ago and it didn't seem terrible from what I remember. Then again, my memory of it is somewhat vague. I think I've still got the cds somewhere

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

Is Wizards and Warriors any good?

I loved it and made this wonderful Let's play but it's sort of a poor man's Wizardry (which it's still better than many games that are poor man's BG or Diablo).

 

[DraQ]

Was there ever a rich man's BG? :/

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Was there ever a rich man's BG? :/

Depends what other games would fall under 'Baldurs Gate'. If Wizards an Warriors is under that category, then it is a very wide net.

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

Was there ever a rich man's BG? :/

Depends what other games would fall under 'Baldurs Gate'. If Wizards an Warriors is under that category, then it is a very wide net.

I don't think it is. I mentioned BG and Diablo since many contemporary games seem to me like clones of those. W&W is also a clone but a Wizardry one and it's a better source to clone from.

 

[JarlFrank]

Well, there's always The Broken Hourglass, but that one counts as vapourware until proven otherwise.

 

[Bruticis]

No replies yet?

one of the most difficult cRPGs out there when it comes to getting it properly work on modern systems. that´s all i have, sorry . failed twice.
from a let´s play i´ve read here it seemed "any good" to me.

I was going to give it a try again as I just came across my old CD's. I take it my odds aren't so good using Win 7 x64?

 

[DraQ]

I would be pretty happy if I could actually find the game itself somewhere.

 

[m_s0]

I've just installed and patched it. Didn't encounter any problems running it on xp. It's pretty basic but quite fun at first glance

 

[Sceptic]

I would be pretty happy if I could actually find the game itself somewhere.

Legally or not-so-legally? because if the latter then I'm sure I can arrange for a copy to not physically remove itself from inventory and find its way towards you.