Fluent Plays Wizardry 8

[theSavant]

As a beginner I wouldn't hesitate to keep on playing on Novice. My last playthrough with a 4-member-party was also only Novice. Better for the peace of mind. It's still a challenge in certain parts of the game. Experience gain remains the same, so you don't miss out anything really.

 

[Black]

It's interesting because if you play on harder difficulty your party will be stronger since encounters take longer and so your party improves more.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

I'm done with Wiz 8 bros. It's a bit too much for me. Combat is kind of tedious and there's too much of it. I'm going to find something different to play, or maybe take a break from gaming for awhile. Not sure what else is really catching my interest. I desire an old-school, nerdy and hardcore game but not one that is painful to play. Any suggestions for what I should play next? Almost thinking Dragon Age Origins, which at least has some fun combat, right? I need something a little speedier and engaging. Sorry to break the news so suddenly, but Wiz 8 and I must go our separate ways. It's been real...

 

[Darth Roxor]

I'm done with Wiz 8 bros. It's a bit too much for me. Combat is kind of tedious and there's too much of it. I'm going to find something different to play, or maybe take a break from gaming for awhile. Not sure what else is really catching my interest. I desire an old-school, nerdy and hardcore game but not one that is painful to play. Any suggestions for what I should play next? Almost thinking Dragon Age Origins, which at least has some fun combat, right? I need something a little speedier and engaging. Sorry to break the news so suddenly, but Wiz 8 and I must go our separate ways. It's been real...

get the fuck out of my forum

 

[Strange Fellow]

"I desire an old-school, hardcore game, because I love old-school, hardcore games, only I don't want it to be old-school and hardcore because I can't handle it"

Yeah, Dragon Age sounds more like your speed.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

I think I'm just going in to a gaming hiatus for now. It's not the game, it's me. When I return to gaming refreshed and reenergized I'll give it another go. I think I'll be making music for awhile.

 

[theSavant]

Watching you play shows well how overwhelming the game is for a beginner. I understand you're struggling around (I too was back then when I played the demo in 2001). Because of that remaining at "Novice" difficulty is almost obligatory for you. No shame in doing that. As you saw, it's still challenging.

As someone in the thread mentioned already, for faster combat you need to download the this mod (direct link) for faster combat. This mod is basically essential. After extracting the files to your Wizardry folder, you need to click 2 exe files: one makes faster animations, another let's you set speed. Both are required for faster combat. Otherwise the game takes 10 times as long.

Another thing is, that imo your party is too "complicated" for a beginner. I get that in you'd like to have "a taste of everything" (every possible class in your party), but maybe you should go for "simple parties" first.... like 3 pure fighters and 3 pure casters.

The most used tactical positions are front and middle. So basically 3 fighters in front and 3 casters in middle. You don't even need to change the positions throughout the game anymore.

You should always retreat or position yourself in the environment, so you don't get surrounded by enemies. Either you block a doorway or you retreat into a corner of the map. By that enemies can only attack the frontrow, and the others are protected.

Don't try to engage every enemy because just they're there. Outside of the monastery for example are "Crusher Crabs" which can wipe out your party immediately. As you can see them from a distance though, you can run around them and avoid them altogether.

That said, feel free to take a break whenever you need. A game should be enjoyable and not break you.


About "rather playing Dragon Age Origins": don't underestimate it either. It's not a game which makes you move your characters step-by-step, but everything at once (or realtime-with-pause). It can also get quite complicated and cumbersome. When I tried to re-play it 3 years ago I was annoyed by the amount of clicking, pausing, retargetting and micromanagement involved (and while you can "automatize" some character behaviours it also requires you to dig deeper into their own tactical system).

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

Thanks for the thoughtful post savant. I will give it another go wih the speed mods when I feel the urge to play again. My mind and heart is not really in gaming right now. But I'll be back with a vengeance. For the future Fluent Plays thread it will be Fluent Plays Music with me sharing my RPG soundtrack music I make. Thanks again bro, much love.

 

[Dorateen]

Sad to hear. I love the Wizardry 8 character personality system, but those accents. Your party had an eclectic group including a Frenchman, an I-taliano, a vaguely eastern European, some English upper class twit, a regular American broad, and a Klingon. It's like you were traveling with the united nations.

 

[Martyr]

Thanks for the thoughtful post savant. I will give it another go wih the speed mods when I feel the urge to play again. My mind and heart is not really in gaming right now. But I'll be back with a vengeance. For the future Fluent Plays thread it will be Fluent Plays Music with me sharing my RPG soundtrack music I make. Thanks again bro, much love.

I haven't touched a game in days and I also don't have any desire to do so. every once in a while I get really burnt out on games and at that point I know it's time to let go and concentrate on other hobbies or even work. imo you're doing the right thing by focusing on music rather than trying 10 more games and quitting them too.

 

[Black]

Look at this faggot
https://steamcommunity.com/app/245450/discussions/0/1680315447966993889/

 

[Darth Canoli]

Thanks for the thoughtful post savant. I will give it another go wih the speed mods when I feel the urge to play again. My mind and heart is not really in gaming right now. But I'll be back with a vengeance. For the future Fluent Plays thread it will be Fluent Plays Music with me sharing my RPG soundtrack music I make. Thanks again bro, much love.

I'll add my voice to thesavant

Usually, when you leave the monastery, you just try to "rush" to Arnika avoiding as many monsters as possible (using chameleon potions, tincture of shadows or something) and once in Arnika, you also try to avoid patrols until you're better equipped and get 2 more companions.

These companions allow you to put 2/3 fighters on the frontline, the rest using extend/long range weapons.
Mage/Bishop/Alchemist/psionic in the middle.
Engineer/Valkyrie (or any not so squishy fighter) on the side, Valk with a spear, engineer with a gun and an alternate cc weapon just in case.
Ranger on the rear to protect the mages in case you're surrounded.

Mastering the formation is the first step.
You need a mage and a ranger on a beginner run and a priest (you can multi-class him later to bishop eventually to get more offensive power)
A warrior is also really good as he'll be the big things killer with his berserk ability.

So, that's 4 fixed party members, i wouldn't go for 3 warriors personally, i think diversity is fun so either a gadgeteer or a bard (not both) and maybe a samurai or a ninja, because they're fun to play (lightning strikes for the samourai, a lot of crit for the ninja)

The last step is using the right spells, you need the buffs and debuff fast, anything else but fireball is not necessary, don't pick the same spells on different char because you might find spell-books and buy some in Arnika and later.
Spells like sleep can save your life (don't pick it if you have a bard), paralyze isn't very accurate at first but if you can paralyze a strong opponent, you just won the fight.
Freeze flesh is one of the most powerful spell early on.
I believe an extensive study of the manual is necessary, that's what we all used to do when playing those "old school" games, without it, it's harder.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Look at this faggot
https://steamcommunity.com/app/245450/discussions/0/1680315447966993889/

everyone on the codex who's played this for more than 15 minutes tells me to use the fast combat mod, but shud i really do that?

two dumb-ass steamtards seem to deny that claim, so i should be ok with not using it!

*3 days later*

WAAAAAAH WHY EVERYTHING SO SLOW

 

[Invictus]

I think that the problem of newcomers trying to get into old school blobbers like Wizardry is that they have been spoiled by the newer “swiss army characters” where they want to have all the skills... this is a mistake; unless you know the systems or have played this sort of game before the best advice is to go for a straight vanilla party and focus on their core skills

Pick a straight up fighter, ranger, bard, mage and cleric and you will be golden; notice I left the last spot empty for players to experiment with, maybe the can pick up a straightforward Thief, Ninja, Samurai or Lord for the melee focused parties or add in a Gadgeteer, Alchemist or Psonic for more caster style parties

I believe the Wizardry 8 XP and skill point system might be the perfect combination; you get xp from combat and other activities but skill ups mostly go up from use so you can “train” your characters to use their various skills both in combat and outside of it; want to make sure your Lord can cast that healing spell in the middle of battle? Have him cast more during combat to train up his skills... as simple as that

The monastery is a pretty great training ground for this because by the time you leave you should have a pretty good hang of the combat where melee is king, spell effects like blindness, terror or paralysis are mandatory for crowd control and Bard are invaluable for their limitless spell effects from their instruments since most characters have pretty weak damaging magic at the start and their melee skills are low and tend to miss a lot too

 

[Strange Fellow]

As a beginner I wouldn't hesitate to keep on playing on Novice.

Usually, when you leave the monastery, you just try to "rush" to Arnika avoiding as many monsters as possible (using chameleon potions, tincture of shadows or something) and once in Arnika, you also try to avoid patrols until you're better equipped and get 2 more companions.

Darth Cannoli and theSavant confirmed for really bad at this game. Arnika Road can throw some curveballs at you, but it's usually nothing a little running away can't fix, and the vast majority of encounters are survivable, even your first time through when you don't know anything about anything. Putting the game on Novice and avoiding Arnika robots is just plain weak shit.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Also, one thing we forgot but always use is to use the battlefield to our advantage, when strong enemies are coming at you, just pick a spot you can defend without getting surrounded, if they're ranged enemies, hide behind a wall and wait for them, that kind of things helps a lot.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Putting the game on Novice and avoiding Arnika robots is just plain weak shit.

Yeah, why the hell would you avoid the patrols in Arnika? The bots are ez, and the higardi bandits can drop good early game gear.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Darth Cannoli and theSavant confirmed for really bad at this game

That's beginner advices, dude.
Also, some patrols can be very powerful and if you're unlucky, kill some of your goons before you have the spells to resurrect them, that's expensive, i prefer to buy weapons and armors rather than rez powder.

Still, as i'm not a beginner anymore, i don't avoid arnika patrols, i just pick myles and domina first, equip them and then take on anything the game throws at me, i hate having them too far behind, xp wise.

 

[Shadenuat]

never used fast combat mod.

also higher difficulty means more training, which means you end up with stronger party and doesn't really make game that harder.

 

[Darth Canoli]

There's also the fast anim mod that does what it says, fast combat just speeds up monsters movement speed.

 

[theSavant]

Darth Cannoli and theSavant confirmed for really bad at this game

That's beginner advices, dude.

As Darth Canoli said, it were beginner advices. Reading comprehension and inflated ego a lot in this thread...

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

As I said, it's not really the game. In the past I'd be fine with the game speed and amount of combat and so on to explore the world of Wizardry 8. But I feel like I'm nearly burnt out on gaming and need to do something different for awhile. It's really not the game's fault, it just happened to be the game I was playing late in the burnout phase of gaming for me. So when I return I'll give it another shot and I'm sure I'll make a lot of progress in it. But for right now, I'm rebuilding my music studio and focusing on that now. Lots of RPG music to make.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Darth Cannoli and theSavant confirmed for really bad at this game

That's beginner advices, dude.

As Darth Canoli said, it were beginner advices. Reading comprehension and inflated ego a lot in this thread...

when i was a wiz8 beginner, i took the wrong turn out of the monastery and almost killed the hogar guarding the way to the wilderness by the umpani base

DAS RITE

 

[theSavant]

Darth Cannoli and theSavant confirmed for really bad at this game

That's beginner advices, dude.

As Darth Canoli said, it were beginner advices. Reading comprehension and inflated ego a lot in this thread...

when i was a wiz8 beginner, i took the wrong turn out of the monastery and almost killed the hogar guarding the way to the wilderness by the umpani base

DAS RITE

I recall this Wiz8 voice saying: "Almost, but not quite!". So back to Novice with you.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Beginner advice or not, it's excessive. I never had to do any of this. Then again, when your audience is Fluent I guess it's appropriate.