Wizardry The Wizardry Series Thread

[Kylearan]

Hi all,

So I've decided to finally get down to playing Wizardry 8 for the first time (with the party I brought through 6 and 7, diamond ring intact), but I'm having a small problem. The game is running just fine, but the FMV intro and the startup splash don't play properly; they play the sound, but there's only a single frozen, slightly messed up image to go with it. I know it's a minor point, but if there's more cutscenes throughout the game I'd sure like to be able to see them. If any of you have any suggestions, I'd greatly appreciate them. I'm running Windows 7 64 bit, and I've already tried every possible combination of video drivers and resolution, and the problem hasn't been rectified. Thanks in advance!

oh, and I'm running the latest version of the game too. 1.2.4.

Not sure if you've solved the problem already, but I had something similar (posted here on GOG, http://af.gog.com/forum/wizardry_series/scrambled_cutscenes?as=1649904300) and found that the solution was, of all things, to set the battery power setting to "High performance". Obviously helps only if you have a laptop, if it's something else thought, not sure)

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, it didn't work

ah well. From what I remember the last time the videos look kinda junky anyway.

 

[elodman]

As for mapping,
Anyone used this automapper tool with success, (half?) made exclusively for Wiz 7?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPhzzbTYm5c

http://rpgassist.90edges.com/

 

[Dedup]

I'm thinking of doing a semi-hardcore run of Wizardry 6. Taking the first roll in character creation and only reloading on a party wipe, not when characters die or if doors get jammed, traps go off, etc. A potential problem with this is that characters can die pretty easily if you're unlucky and at the start you only have a few charges in the amulet of life you find. Once the amulet runs out I'd like to replace the dead characters with fresh ones. The manual mentions a Replace function for adding new characters but it doesn't seem to appear in the character's edit menu. I've tried a few things to get it to appear but without success. So was this feature actually implemented or am I missing something? If not I guess I'll have to savescum if the amulet runs out, at least until I find another source of resurrection in the game.

 

[kmonster]

I'm thinking of doing a semi-hardcore run of Wizardry 6. Taking the first roll in character creation and only reloading on a party wipe, not when characters die or if doors get jammed, traps go off, etc. A potential problem with this is that characters can die pretty easily if you're unlucky and at the start you only have a few charges in the amulet of life you find. Once the amulet runs out I'd like to replace the dead characters with fresh ones. The manual mentions a Replace function for adding new characters but it doesn't seem to appear in the character's edit menu. I've tried a few things to get it to appear but without success. So was this feature actually implemented or am I missing something? If not I guess I'll have to savescum if the amulet runs out, at least until I find another source of resurrection in the game.

Shouldn't be too difficult. Just grind until you're so high level that the game gets boring. Resurrection potions can be bought from Queequeq.

 

[treborSux]

I'm thinking of doing a semi-hardcore run of Wizardry 6. Taking the first roll in character creation and only reloading on a party wipe, not when characters die or if doors get jammed, traps go off, etc. A potential problem with this is that characters can die pretty easily if you're unlucky and at the start you only have a few charges in the amulet of life you find. Once the amulet runs out I'd like to replace the dead characters with fresh ones. The manual mentions a Replace function for adding new characters but it doesn't seem to appear in the character's edit menu. I've tried a few things to get it to appear but without success. So was this feature actually implemented or am I missing something? If not I guess I'll have to savescum if the amulet runs out, at least until I find another source of resurrection in the game.

The documentation for Wiz 6 was bad. AFAIK you can't replace characters, personality and karma were useless, and piety didn't affect mana regeneration.

Did personality and karma have any use whatsoever in Wiz 6 or 7? Diplomacy skill and luck in Wiz 7 seemed to be the only thing that affected how traveling NPCs befriended you.

 

[Infinitron]

First Wizardry 6-8 GOG sale: http://af.gog.com/promo/gem_promo_wizardry_series_stacking_260813?as=1649904300

 

[felipepepe]

$6.38 for the ring, sounds nice.

 

[ForkTong]

I'd pay 63.8$ for Wiz8 alone.

 

[MicoSelva]

Nice. I already have Wiz8, but I might buy it again, if this saves me some Win7 trouble. Anyone knows if there are any issues?

 

[felipepepe]

Anyone knows if there are any issues?

Every version I played had a bug where armies of level-scaled trash mobs appeared everywhere... besides that, it plays perfectly.

 

[MicoSelva]

You've just reminded me why I never finished this game (or ever will, probably). Still, I am going to give Wiz6&7 a shot sometime.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Um, repeating fights against respawning mob is a standard feature of tb blobbers. If you didn't like it in Wiz8 you sure as hell aren't going to like it the earlier instalments, where fights are more clunky and arguably much harder/more resource draining.

 

[JudasIscariot]

Every version I played had a bug where armies of level-scaled trash mobs appeared everywhere... besides that, it plays perfectly.

That sounds like it could have been some sort of copy protection. I am no expert on the subject, but I do recall that "spawn overly powerful enemies if the game is cracked" copy protection was popular at the time. At least, that's what I remember from those halcyon days of the 90s :D.

 

[MicoSelva]

That does not seem likely, I always had a legit version.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

That sounds like it could have been some sort of copy protection. I am no expert on the subject, but I do recall that "spawn overly powerful enemies if the game is cracked" copy protection was popular at the time. At least, that's what I remember from those halcyon days of the 90s :D.

Wiz8 isn't a game from the nineties and no, it doesn't have any copy protection of this kind.

 

[JudasIscariot]

Wiz8 isn't a game from the nineties and no, it doesn't have any copy protection of this kind.

Wasn't sure if he was asking about Win7 or Win8 as it wasn't exactly specified. Then again, I never did roll that high of a Reading Comprehension stat

 

[octavius]

I seem to have opened up a can of worms over at GOG.
It was an honest question from my side to the claim that class changing is cheating:

Then why they make it so that when you switch class, you are reset to level 1? As opposed to just being promoted to a new class, but keeping the same character level?
That way there would be no reason to change class to get all those skill boosts.

It seems it would have been so easy to change just one little detail, namely keeping the same character level when changing class, to avoid this "exploit". Or am I missing something?

 

[ScottishMartialArts]

First Wizardry 6-8 GOG sale: http://af.gog.com/promo/gem_promo_wizardry_series_stacking_260813?as=1649904300

Yeah I picked that up. Haven't gotten started yet because I'm still working on my Morrowind game, but I have started reading the manual, and it looks like I'm in for some fun times, complete with graph paper! (I love mapping out old RPGs.)

 

[Zetor]

I seem to have opened up a can of worms over at GOG.
It was an honest question from my side to the claim that class changing is cheating:

Then why they make it so that when you switch class, you are reset to level 1? As opposed to just being promoted to a new class, but keeping the same character level?
That way there would be no reason to change class to get all those skill boosts.

It seems it would have been so easy to change just one little detail, namely keeping the same character level when changing class, to avoid this "exploit". Or am I missing something?

I remember reading some PC gaming mags in 1992-1993, and most of their Wiz7 'strategy' and 'party optimization' advice revolved around class changing a whole lot... especially when discussing the Gorrors.

 

[octavius]

I seem to have opened up a can of worms over at GOG.
It was an honest question from my side to the claim that class changing is cheating:

Then why they make it so that when you switch class, you are reset to level 1? As opposed to just being promoted to a new class, but keeping the same character level?
That way there would be no reason to change class to get all those skill boosts.

It seems it would have been so easy to change just one little detail, namely keeping the same character level when changing class, to avoid this "exploit". Or am I missing something?

I remember reading some PC gaming mags in 1992-1993, and most of their Wiz7 'strategy' and 'party optimization' advice revolved around class changing a whole lot... especially when discussing the Gorrors.

Yes, I too think it's a valid tactic, at least in Wiz 7, since if you keep to one class you advance too slowly and it takes "forever" to get the the high level spells and key spells like Cure Poison and Cure Disease, mainly because unlike Wiz 6 you can't pump all your skill points into the magic skills, but also have to allocate to "useless" (since they advance quickly enough by use) weapon skills.

But according to the GOG guy the dev(s) said class changing was only supposed to be used to get prestige classes if you were not able to roll them at character creation. kmonster has also claimed the same thing before, I think.
But in that case it's poor design that could have easily been avoided.

 

[Stabwound]

Does the version of Wiz 7 gold on GoG have the bugfixes mentioned somewhere? Fixed diplomacy, etc?

Embarrassing confession: I can't stand to manually map games, and played Wiz6 using online maps, and never played 7 for more than a few minutes. I hear the automap of Wiz7 is pretty useless, but the gold version makes it a little more helpful by giving it a hotkey.

I have an awful memory for remembering dungeons and that kind of shit and there's no way I'm going to hand-map Wiz 7. So, my questions are:

1) Is it necessary to hand-map Wiz 7 standard edition?
2) Does the Gold version on GoG fix the bugs, and if so, is the automap at all useful?

 

[Lady_Error]

1. Just use the online maps, if you need them. In the case of Wizardry 7, you will need to look up a few puzzle solutions anyway.
2. The non-gold version doesn't have any big bugs. Also, the Gold version manga-style portraits are a big

 

[JudasIscariot]

Does the version of Wiz 7 gold on GoG have the bugfixes mentioned somewhere? Fixed diplomacy, etc?

Embarrassing confession: I can't stand to manually map games, and played Wiz6 using online maps, and never played 7 for more than a few minutes. I hear the automap of Wiz7 is pretty useless, but the gold version makes it a little more helpful by giving it a hotkey.

I have an awful memory for remembering dungeons and that kind of shit and there's no way I'm going to hand-map Wiz 7. So, my questions are:

1) Is it necessary to hand-map Wiz 7 standard edition?
2) Does the Gold version on GoG fix the bugs, and if so, is the automap at all useful?

IIRC, the diplomacy bug SHOULD be fixed. I do know we fixed the fast moving text bug in that one. I am about 90% sure we got most, if not all, of the legacy bugs fixed. 90% sure because a) it's been a while since the game's release and b) I am at home so I don't have access to work-related things from home .

 

[TigerKnee]

It seems it would have been so easy to change just one little detail, namely keeping the same character level when changing class, to avoid this "exploit". Or am I missing something?

Well, they did that in Wiz 8 and multi-classing was pretty much completely useless in said game.

Whether or not class-changing for powergaming purposes is "cheating" is probably just semantics. Multi-class rules are one of the things that are very hard to get right in RPGs so I think switching classes 1 billion times is at least exploiting a not very robust system.

Why didn't the game designer make minor change X to easily fix a problem? It seems most similar to the level-up/down trick in FFT (level up as good stats growth class, level down as something shitty, net gain in stats) where the game designers probably didn't expect anyone to do it.. Most RPG designers aren't very good at their jobs.

 

[Coriolanus]

I think of class changing in Wizardries as a cool feature to make the game easier (and it's hard enough even if you do), but it's far from a "free exploit": if you switch from someone like Ninja it may take *forever* to get the stats to switch back. Unless you also save/load to get the good stats on every level up, but then it becomes a bit like the infamous nethack black pudding farming:

"The DevTeam has arranged an automatic and savage punishment for pudding farming. It's called pudding farming."