Wizardry How to best enjoy Wizardry 7?

[Jasede]

Lady Error While certainly not winning any awards, that does look a lot better.

 

[jackofshadows]

I was talking about UI, not UX. It just looks... BAD. Agree to disagree.

I have no idea how anyone can say that this user interface LOOKS bad:

Don't tell me you haven't played Arcanum, Fallout, Diablo, Starcraft, HoMM II-III... You know, games with good-looking UI to compare. Kingdom Come Deliverance actually has an awesome art UI but it's kinda different since it doesn't take screen space most of the time.

But this looks very, very sloppy, tiny icons and descriptions, questionable color choices at best, joke cursor, font is nothing special... Like I said, it's the ugliest that I've seen. Can't recall worse, really. I guess it's quite possible to get used to but it's the first time something like this has repulsive effect. I mean, UIs are far from being really important game's element. UX is not scare me as well, I did Dragon's Dogma playthrough after all.

Second screen does look better: elements are much more distinctive, background is more pleasant but overall level is still unbeleivably low.

 

[Shaewaroz]

The Conqueror Inn seems to be the best place to train pickpocketing skill. Since one of my main goals with this party is to be able to pickpocket as much as possible, I'll probably grind a lot of skill points here. I looks like you can raise pickpocketing as much as you like here - I already gained 15 points by stealing a mountain of bread, a dozen beers and over 1500 gold. And some bananas to boot.


EDIT: Ended up training pickpocket skill to 60, it seems to be high enough to get some sweet loot. Stole some healing potions + 1000 gold from Father Rulae.

Now heading North, trying to find the fabled Orkorge Castle. Had an epic battle 18 Gorn Rangers - used all my spell points healing blindness and irritation and casting confusion and sleep to keep them at bay. Really tough fight, but it was very satisfying to defeat them just barely by using every tool I had available.

 

[octavius]

Remember, if things get too hairy a chef can always run.

Spoiler

 

[Shaewaroz]

Based on these new info sources it seems Ninjas are even more overpowered than I believed. Their saving throws are miles ahead of any other class. Their number of attacks is not reduced by using weapons vs. going unarmed and the crit chance is also the same with weapons. They are practically equally good at thievery skills as thieves, being only slightly worse at identifying trap types. The high experience requirement is ultimately completely negligible. The number of attacks is higher than Samurai's. AC increases with levels and and with ninjitsu skill. These and a bunch of other things seem to make it by far the best class. One of the only downsides is the average MaxHP, but it's really not that bad either.

 

[Lady_Error]

Yeah, unarmed ninjas are surprisingly effective...

 

[LilWololoMane]

Tried messing with CPU cycles in DosBox? I found combat animations and stuff too slow by default which is why I cranked it up to 5000 cycles. Text quickly flashes by but its still enough for me to know what's going on mid-battle, perfect for my low attention span zoomer brain.

 

[Shaewaroz]

Tried messing with CPU cycles in DosBox?

I've been playing with Dosbox well before GOG was ever a thing, so naturally I adjusted the cycles to a desirable level. The game is running nicely, however having to wait for sound effects to finish before mouse clicks are registered is still slightly annoying even after increasing the cycles.

The automap mod has made life so much easier for me. I've actually made quite a lot of notes to the automap, which is very handy for finding the various houses in New City.

 

[Shaewaroz]

BTW, I haven't found enemy encounter rate to be that high at all. I can often run from one side of the New City to another without any encounters. And early wilderness areas don't seem to have high encounter rates either. I was expecting much higher encounter rate to be honest.

 

[Shaewaroz]

OK, so the Gorn leader drove me off their land. Maybe I was stupid for thinking I could just go hang out in the orc fortress without being invited.

Maybe I need to release the Gorn Officer the Dark Savant Guards are holding prisoner in New City to gain access to the Gorn Empire? Well, the fight to release the prisoner is too difficult for now, so maybe later.

So I headed toward the Munk Holy City instead. Crossed the river after telling the secret phrase to the bridge guard. The Holy City looks to be one huge puzzle. And it looks like it's mandatory to swim there, which I of course haven't bothered to train.

 

[Jasede]

Not going to lie, when I played this game, I had the Wizardry 7 Gold guidebook by my side. As far as I remember it doesn't outright solve the puzzles, but gives hints on a 'as many as you need' system.
If you beat the whole thing without looking things up you're definitely impressing lots of us old folks here...! Wizardry 7 is full of puzzles that seemed pretty hard when I was little.

 

[Shaewaroz]

OK, now we're talking. I encountered that wandering Umpani guy and managed to steal a Walriblade from him. Well, after the initial excitement it turned out to be only marginally better than the broadsword my Lord was previously using, but it's still exciting to finally be stealing equipment my guys can actually use.

 

[Arrowgrab]

*stuff*

Shaewaroz, I just want to say I really enjoy your little updates, and I hope you'll continue writing them. Or even increase the volume, maybe.

 

[Jasede]

+1

 

[Shaewaroz]

So it turns out being able to summon a Frost Giant at level 7 is a good thing. You can pretty much start sleeping with your guys and the Frost Giant will keep casting mass destruction and annihilating even large enemy groups.

 

[Jasede]

Summon a frost giant? What class does that again? It's been a while.

 

[Shaewaroz]

Summon a frost giant? What class does that again? It's been a while.

Priest spell "Conjuration". I cast it on power level 4 and a Frost Giant appeared. I really like how random the summoned monsters can be - so far I've summoned those 4 Blinking butterflies, 3 Faerie Witches and a Frost Giant. It's also great that enemies can attack your summoned monsters instead of your party members, so summon spells also indirectly function as a protection spell.

 

[octavius]

Hmm...I must have missed that when I played. Sounds like the equivalent of the Wind Dragon in Bard's Tale 1.
OTOH it was easier to spam spells in BT than in Wiz 7.

 

[Shaewaroz]

I'm spending a lot of time trying to come up with an answer to the dark well riddle in the Holy City.

I know a thousand faces
And count the tallied heads,
Feasting bright upon the eyes
Of the many who have died;

Wielding well a mighty power
Who hath but humble stature,
Masses fall upon their knees
To scarce behold my only side!

It has seen a thousand faces... The eyes of the dead stare at it... It is something inconspicuous... Masses fall on their knees when they see it's only side... It has only one side... like a mirror? And what counts the heads of the dead?

A mask... or maybe darkness? Moon... Time...

I guess I should learn more about the Munks before attempting to solve this riddle. They seem very focused on "The Holy Work" that's found under the New City. A holy book of some kind maybe... But what do the Munks stand for? Maybe knowledge? History? Of course a riddle found in their Holy City has to have something to do with their core philosophy.

Maybe the Holy Work has something to do with the Astral Dominae / Phoonzang. The bridge guard mentioned that Dark Forest Munks are working with Danes trying to gain access to it. Or maybe the Holy Work is simply the Crypt map that's supposedly also in the Holy Temple? Everyone seems to be searching for these different maps.

The holy city has a lot of urns and other vessels. Do I need to pour some liquid into them? Do these vessels tell something about the Munk philosophy?

Perhaps I should just read the thoughts of some Munks to find more clues.

I should really invest some points to swimming.

 

[Shaewaroz]

I started mapping the South side of the holy city. The encounters there are really hard, I can barely defeat monsters like Witches, Rattkin leaders and Spirits. Nearly every enemy type here causes some kind of status effects that are really bothersome. Dunno if I should venture here yet, but from the map I saw that there's a settlement called Ukpyr here. Maybe I could find more Munks there that can help me solve the well riddle. My guys are getting quite powerful, so I might actually soon go back to New City and rescue the Gorn Officer.

 

[Lady_Error]

The Gorn castle should be easier and prepare you for Munkharama and Ukpyr.

 

[octavius]

For a new party there's really no easy areas after Old City and New City.
The Gorns can be pretty nasty too, with some very powerful Gorn types having a chance of spawning, at least inside the castle.

 

[Shaewaroz]

So I'm about to do some class changing. Does the option to switch class appear only during level up when you have the required stats? Sorry for the basic question, but I've not changed class before in Wiz7 and can't remember how it was done in Wiz8.

Going back to New City. Encountered some helazoids on my way to Ukpyr and quickly came to the conclusion it was not a good idea to push any further. Managed to kill two of them for 10000 exp and a credit card. Might be a good place for some exp grinding a bit later.

Does casting Missile Shield help against the helazoid guns as well?

 

[Butter]

You can just click on the character portrait to bring up the spells/inventory screen, then click on the portrait again and you'll get the option to change name or profession. You can do it from level 1 if you want to.

 

[Invictus]

Along with Might and Magic 3 Isles of Terra and Darklands, Wizardry 7 has been the game I have replayed the most and to be honest it is very hard to screw up as long as you keep good notes and keep a careful eye on your inventory. Going for a basic fighter, ranger, thief, bard, priest and Mage party is foolproof for you to get a good feel for the game.

Try to read the manual to get a feel for the different races and have a nice mix in your party

If you feel adventurous the best way to ensure good character growth especially for magic spells is for start with a Ninja (fairy or elf) and a Bard and characters like a priest to switch later on to Lord or Valkyrie, alchemist to switch to ranger and so on...if you have a good feel for the game a Bishop to develop quite carefully for best results.

Remember that these games are all about constant combat spam so spells like Magic Screen and Enchanted Blade are a must to have them at all times active.

Also every combat is also a chance to train abilities so even your fighter types should use spells to make sure their oratory skills are well developed for when they really count

Finally go to New City, then to the Gorn Kingdom and then Munkarama for a nice character progression.

And simply have some fun; other than the superb Grimoire they just don’t make them like these anymore