Wizardry The Wizardry Series Thread

[Mother Russia]

Play Realms of Arkania.

This. But play it after playing Wizardry 8 until you get bored with Wiz 8 or finish it.

 

[Themadcow]

As the resident Goldbox fag, I highly recommend you give Pools of Radiance a try as well. It is an utter blast. But do give Wiz 6 a try. It's fucking great, and be sure to get something. As well as be careful how you end the game. What you do determines where you start wiz 7.

Aside from the benefit of running through the games sequentially, is there any reason to play PoR instead of Pools of Darkness? The latter strikes me as being more refined (in terms of interface etc), expansive and generally fun than the earlier games in the series.

 

[Incantatar]

In regards to interface yes but PoR is regarded as the better game overall. I only played PoR and it's recommendable.

 

[ColCol]

Play Realms of Arkania.

Second this.

 

[Lady_Error]

Play Realms of Arkania.

Part 2 is totally awesome...

Oh and regarding: "Wizardry 8 is like having sex while getting kicked in the groin, I love it"

I always suspected combatfags have masochistic tendencies.

 

[Xavier0889]

You just can't go wrong with RoA. I'd prefer RoA over Wizardry though, just a personal choice.

Play Realms of Arkania.

Part 2 is totally awesome...

Oh and regarding: "Wizardry 8 is like having sex while getting kicked in the groin, I love it"

I always suspected combatfags have masochistic tendencies.

And storyfags are larpers and fanfic authors.

 

[Gruffalo Soldier]

Thanks guys, going to have to play realms of arkania now. Im so going to turn into a social recluse. I have a backlog of around 10ish games to play haha. Been playing world of xeen and so far enjoying it. Took me awhile though to settle into it.

 

[Primordial Soup Nazi]

Ah, I envy your virgin Wiz8 experience; would that I could play it again for the first time. Imma copy-pasta my advice from another Wiz 8 thread:

As wacky as the Dark Savant trilogy's settings and characters can be, its still worth it to go through all three of them, at least once. And its nice to be able to bring a few doodads in from the previous games via importing.

That being said, here's what I prefer as a party in Wiz 8 (and its reasonably min-maxy):

Lord- Wears the heavier armors, regenerates (and can, by extension, safely use items that drain health but have other nice effects), and can cast Priest spells. This guy is very solid at tanking and decent at dealing damage. Lords are designed for dual-wielding, however the Lord dual-wield skill bonus is literally useless, unfortunately. A Valkyrie is a great choice instead of Lord, but I prefer a Lord here as there is a nifty recruitable (and very plot-relevant) Valkyrie available at Arnika. Dwarves make great Lords; they come with a solid attribute point bonus and racial damage resistance.

Ranger- Ranged crits, Alchemy spells, and a serviceable auxiliary front-liner if necessary. The damage they can crank is great, and having an extra healer is always useful too. This guy can also mix potions for you, which can be a great money-maker. Most importantly for somebody that can't be bothered to play through Wizardries VI and VII, Rangers have a permanent auto-search function, so that you don't have to manually search for hidden items. Mooks are your best-bet here; lots of bonus points and IIRC, there is a nice 2h sword for Mook Rangers.

Samurai- This one is somewhat subjective, but I like having a Samurai; a lucky crit or lightning-strike turned the tide for me in a few fights over the course of the trilogy. And if you're all about using the most items possible, there are quite a few Samurai-only pieces of armor and a sword or two, I think. And they're immune to fear. And they cast Mage spells. Which is ok-ish. I made mine a Dracon, but if you're really a min-maxer, Hobbits get the most bonus points.

Gadgeteer- Your Roguish duties will be split between two characters, and this is one of them; Gadgeteers can handle locks and traps. They have a gun that gets progressively better as they level up (I wanna say every two character levels = one Omnigun level?), and can construct MacGuyver-esque gadgets by combining various items found in the game. Some of these gadgets provide the effects of very potent spells, and do so at a cost of stamina instead of mp, which is shweeeet. Gadgeteers are a little gimp early on, but they're the first runner-up for group MVP by the end of the game. I like a Hobbit as Gadgeteer, and you should too.

Bard- Here is your other Rogue-replacement, used for pick-pocketing when desired. Bards have a bonus to communication, which is somewhat useful for certain NPC interactions. More importantly, though, they use instruments much the same way that Gadgeteers use gadgets; Bard instruments also allow you to cast spells at the cost of stamina. I made mine an Elf to be able to use that race-specific bow, but Hobbits or something else are probably better for bonus points. Hobbits are like that for a lot of classes, actually. There are some great Bard-only drops from some of those Higardi goons in and around the monastery, but do your homework, since I don't think every type of them will drop these.

Bishop- Yes. This guy. THIS is the guy. If you have a Bishop, it will hands-down be your MVP. Make sure to read up on how to level them properly, if you're the power-leveling type. If you don't fuck it up, though, this chap (eventually) will be able to cast every spell from all four schools. Having all these schools on one character is largely what lets you comfortably choose...pretty much whatever else you feel like for the rest of your party. And as if that wasn't enough, these guys can dispel undead, have a bonus to identifying items, and can remove cursed items, which is nice for using those cursed items that are actually worth a damn. Faeries are a solid choice here for the resistances and mp recovery.

I used this party through all three games (starting with a Ninja in VI, then changing it to a Gadgeteer in 8), and it worked pretty swimmingly. Seriously, go through all three games; it'll feel like more of an accomplishment when you finish 8.

And I'm pretty sure somebody still hosts Flamestryke's old Wiz8 site, which is a very handy piece of reference material, but try to avoid some of the more spoilery sections, IMO.

The Lord and Samurai are pretty interchangeable, but for my money, Ranger, Gadgeteer, Bard and Bishop are all must-haves; they're just too good.

 

[Gruffalo Soldier]

Been playing a little more today, made all the glass in the monastery explode which was rather fun. Thought at first the place was going to explode and ran around in a circle for a few seconds indecisive as to whether to run for it or not haha. Just sitting outside the main door to the something road. Got a brotherhood pass (hopefully come in useful). Wish I had a samurai with me though. Got some really cool samurai drops. Almost forgot to ask, my bard now has a horn of something or another. The description for it as far as I remember is that it acts the same as bless. Would casting bless with my priest, then having the bard play stack the effects. or just increase the duration?

 

[Kukulkan]

You should probably follow what the devs intended in Arnika Road by focusing on avoiding enemies rather than wasting resources killing them.

 

[Primordial Soup Nazi]

Would casting bless with my priest, then having the bard play stack the effects. or just increase the duration?

Nope, no stacking. Just have your Bard do it; it uses stamina instead of mp. Not to mention it gives your Bard something practical to do in combat other than Sleep spamming.

 

[Gruffalo Soldier]

Would casting bless with my priest, then having the bard play stack the effects. or just increase the duration?

Nope, no stacking. Just have your Bard do it; it uses stamina instead of mp. Not to mention it gives your Bard something practical to do in combat other than Sleep spamming.

Never thought about stamina/mp way before that makes sense. Just got my ass handed to me by some plants! lmao. I underestimated them big time. Next time I see something a few levels higher than me that has strong in its description is getting insta fried with a 6th lever (or higher) fireball. Bad thing is I didn't save so im back at the start of arnika road :/

 

[Jaesun]

Ahhhh Arnika Road..... heh The true test.

 

[Gruffalo Soldier]

Ahhhh Arnika Road..... heh The true test.

Well made it to the anrika-trynton road, got pummelled again a few times on my there. Seriously for me at least if those damn plants get into close combat its game over for me. Funniest part was blowing up 15 ants in one go with fireball. That was soooo satisfying. Wish there corpse stayed there though on fire would of made a nice camp for the night hehe. Hope I can get some new equipment when I finally get there. Feels like im a walking shop at the moment with all the crap I have no use for.

*Edit* Scratch that im in Arnika, thought the Arnika-Trynton road might have been a halfway point. Was surprised it was just around the corner haha.

 

[DraQ]

Almost forgot does my characters sound ok,

Pretty much ok.
The only problems are that your party is awfully heavy on divine magic, and light on other schools apart from wizardry (well, at least, you will be able to spam Heal All and remove debuffs later on), and that you seem to lack a locksmith type of character.

Any advice would be nice but nothing spoiler-ir-ly (???)

Try to max out at least one main stat with each character as early as possible to gain expert skill.

Edit:
Wait, where did you get Bard all of sudden?

 

[Major_Blackhart]

FUCKING LOVE THIS GAME!

Seriously, I have yet to try the Mook samurai.

 

[Gruffalo Soldier]

Thanks guys for still taking an interest. Had to take a small break at the moment as I have had a few problems with my computer. Probably going to have to reinstall windows. Anyway on a better note I will probably restart wiz 8 and try a more rounded party. Put alot of harwork into it aswell, one thing I couldnt be annoyed with where the guards in arnika. Got in the way all the time. Think I managed to kill one of them with bad bowmanship. I will back up my save just in case though, I love to replay games but get easily annoyed at restarting games and having to do the same first few hours over again.

 

[DraQ]

I love to replay games but get easily annoyed at restarting games and having to do the same first few hours over again.

Well, Wizardry 8 has this advantage that different party compositions and character builds play very differently despite game's combat focus.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

It's probably one of the best things to do, start from scratch and find that build that works juussst right.

 

[Johannes]

I don't see how different parties play very differently except in cosmetic ways, nevertheless it's the same war of attrition with pretty slight variance in what buffs and debuffs you use, and what manner of healing you use and how fast your warriors kill things.
With the exception of soloing and such, or other really suboptimal choices.

Now if the game had more tough, well-designed encounters than I have fingers on my hand, the differences might get interesting... But when there aren't, they aren't.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Listen, a Dwarf Monk, mook samurai, and faerie Psionic can make for a damn interesting base to any party.
Get a rogue thrown in there for good measure, and take a Priest and an alchemist (both whom will multiclass to Lord and Ranger or Ninja respectively) and BAM.

 

[Majk]

But actually the slowness of the game does encourage some Ironman-esque behaviour - you really don't want to redo a fight where you lost people, rather pay the price of resurrecting them than waste time redoing it.

Heh ok, I saw this complaint in so many forums i just had to register to answer this one. (And hi everyone hehe)

Other then wiz8fast there is a very easy way to drastically speed up combat speed with cosmic forge editor.

Fire up the editor, click on the 'monsters' button and on the bottom right corner, above the monster animation, there is a 'Model Script' with 'higardi_monk' selected by dafault.
Further to the right there are two buttons, press the one shaped like a scroll and you will see the text script editor.

Now you gotta find the following lines:
ATTACK_PUNCH higardi_monk_punch
ATTACK_MELEE higardi_monk_melee
SPELL higardi_monk_spell
DODGE higardi_monk_dodge
GET_HIT higardi_monk_pain

You can insert values at the end of each line to change the speed of each of those animations, from my experience 90 works best as it speeds them up incredibly while keeping them pleasant to the eye. So for example:
ATTACK_PUNCH higardi_monk_punch 90
This is all that is needed to speed up attack animation and you can go do this for every monster model.

Second step is for missiles and whatnot. Ever got annoyed that your power rangers with tripleshot xbow shooting 4-5 missiles 3 times every round take effing forever... especially if the misses go straight for the sky? Well this is what you can do:
Fire up the cosmic forge and click on the 'Missile Editor'

Again: below the 'RENAME' button there is a little script button, click it and once in the script editor find the 'velocity' line the add a value to it, 350 for arrows and crossbows makes them fly nice and fast and those barrages of xbow assault will actually feel like rapid fire now.
Oh and uuuh speed up the green ooze projectile and web thingie so those annoying seekers and spiders don't take hours to fight.

With this out of the way, battles are 2-3 times shorter and you can actually use slow liberally without going on a coffee break while slowed monsters finish their round.
Enjoy your new and improved combat, the only thing i couldn't figure out how to change are pauses when the ai switches between monsters and speeding up your characters melee attacks.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Hey, that's pretty cool, although I never really complained about the speed of Wiz8 combat. Apart from the slow spell that is.

Also, I guess many people might have missed it, but Kaucukovnik posted his graphic mod on the Workshop some time ago:

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...-enhancements-qwinn.75221/page-3#post-2353954

It replaces many item icons (for example all the special ammo and potions have their own graphics now) and is p fucking sweet.

 

[DraQ]

Heh ok, I saw this complaint in so many forums i just had to register to answer this one. (And hi everyone hehe)

Other then wiz8fast there is a very easy way to drastically speed up combat speed with cosmic forge editor.

Fire up the editor, click on the 'monsters' button and on the bottom right corner, above the monster animation, there is a 'Model Script' with 'higardi_monk' selected by dafault.
Further to the right there are two buttons, press the one shaped like a scroll and you will see the text script editor.

Now you gotta find the following lines:
ATTACK_PUNCH higardi_monk_punch
ATTACK_MELEE higardi_monk_melee
SPELL higardi_monk_spell
DODGE higardi_monk_dodge
GET_HIT higardi_monk_pain

You can insert values at the end of each line to change the speed of each of those animations, from my experience 90 works best as it speeds them up incredibly while keeping them pleasant to the eye. So for example:
ATTACK_PUNCH higardi_monk_punch 90
This is all that is needed to speed up attack animation and you can go do this for every monster model.

Second step is for missiles and whatnot. Ever got annoyed that your power rangers with tripleshot xbow shooting 4-5 missiles 3 times every round take effing forever... especially if the misses go straight for the sky? Well this is what you can do:
Fire up the cosmic forge and click on the 'Missile Editor'

Again: below the 'RENAME' button there is a little script button, click it and once in the script editor find the 'velocity' line the add a value to it, 350 for arrows and crossbows makes them fly nice and fast and those barrages of xbow assault will actually feel like rapid fire now.
Oh and uuuh speed up the green ooze projectile and web thingie so those annoying seekers and spiders don't take hours to fight.

With this out of the way, battles are 2-3 times shorter and you can actually use slow liberally without going on a coffee break while slowed monsters finish their round.
Enjoy your new and improved combat, the only thing i couldn't figure out how to change are pauses when the ai switches between monsters and speeding up your characters melee attacks.

Neat, though combat speed doesn't bother me enough to make me consider this kind of messing around.

Wizfast is perfectly sufficient for me.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Goddammit I love this game.