Wizardry The Wizardry Series Thread

[Dorateen]

the rest of D.W.Bradley's work pretty much sucked. Be it Cybermage, Wizards & Warriors...

The dungeon design in Wizards and Warriors was not too bad, and some puzzles were fairly obtuse in the tradition of Crusaders. I'm not saying that overall the game lived up to Wizardry standards, but it had its moments.

Now Dungeon Lords, that's a whole nother story.

 

[cvv]

Ok, playing W7 for the first time with an imported party - and it's boring. It reminded me why I hate this hole importing business. Plowing through the scores of weak monsters with my full plate clad lords and valkyries with their Avenger and Maenad Lance and my Samurai with his Muramasa Blade is mindnumbing.

I just deleted all my saves and restarted with a brand new party and oh yeah - that's how the game is supposed to be played. Just sayin.

 

[octavius]

Ok, playing W7 for the first time with an imported party - and it's boring. It reminded me why I hate this hole importing business. Plowing through the scores of weak monsters with my full plate clad lords and valkyries with their Avenger and Maenad Lance and my Samurai with his Muramasa Blade is mindnumbing.

I just deleted all my saves and restarted with a brand new party and oh yeah - that's how the game is supposed to be played. Just sayin.

Which areas did you play before restarting?
New City is quite easy, but I found Old City, Munkharama and Orkogre Castle quite difficult even with an imported party.
It takes a long time to find good weapons in Wiz 7 if you don't import them, and with mundane weapons you'll just chip away at the bloated HPs of the armies of monsters the game throws at you.

 

[cvv]

Ok, playing W7 for the first time with an imported party - and it's boring. It reminded me why I hate this hole importing business. Plowing through the scores of weak monsters with my full plate clad lords and valkyries with their Avenger and Maenad Lance and my Samurai with his Muramasa Blade is mindnumbing.

I just deleted all my saves and restarted with a brand new party and oh yeah - that's how the game is supposed to be played. Just sayin.

Which areas did you play before restarting?
New City is quite easy, but I found Old City, Munkharama and Orkogre Castle quite difficult even with an imported party.
It takes a long time to find good weapons in Wiz 7 if you don't import them, and with mundane weapons you'll just chip away at the bloated HPs of the armies of monsters the game throws at you.

I played about 4 hours, basically finished the New City and was about to go to Orkogre. At that point I got bored by mas murdering the trash mobs. There wasn't a single creature that could remotely hurt me.

Alternatively, from the "import" starting area, I could go to Dane Tower or Nycthalint. But that was too hard. Game threw at me T'Rang Assassins, Dane Wizards, Spectral Ravens and such which was way above my capability at that point.

But it's true with a brand new party the initial fights can be a chore. You said from Orkogre on the challegne picks up? Hmm, maybe I should've persisted a bit longer...well, too late, the saves are gone

 

[Lady_Error]

Most of New City and surrounding areas are for weak beginner parties. If Nyctalinth was too hard, you could have gone to Ukpyr through Munkharama, which are both somewhere between New City and Nyctalinth on the difficulty level.

Or explore the Giant Lands and Witch mountains up the Eryn river, which are about the same difficulty as Ukpyr.

 

[treborSux]

Most of New City and surrounding areas are for weak beginner parties. If Nyctalinth was too hard, you could have gone to Ukpyr through Munkharama, which are both somewhere between New City and Nyctalinth on the difficulty level.

Or explore the Giant Lands and Witch mountains up the Eryn river, which are about the same difficulty as Ukpyr.

After getting a thermal pineapple in Ukpyr, I would get too lazy and impatient not to use it on any 2+ row mobs. Nyctalinth and specifically Rattkin Ruins will never go past two rounds. I kind of hate that they give you access to such a powerful item so early in the game. Of course I'm going to use it, duh.

 

[octavius]

Most of New City and surrounding areas are for weak beginner parties. If Nyctalinth was too hard, you could have gone to Ukpyr through Munkharama, which are both somewhere between New City and Nyctalinth on the difficulty level.

Or explore the Giant Lands and Witch mountains up the Eryn river, which are about the same difficulty as Ukpyr.

After getting a thermal pineapple in Ukpyr, I would get too lazy and impatient not to use it on any 2+ row mobs. Nyctalinth and specifically Rattkin Ruins will never go past two rounds. I kind of hate that they give you access to such a powerful item so early in the game. Of course I'm going to use it, duh.

I thought it was a one use item, to be used against the T'rang Queen?

 

[treborSux]

Most of New City and surrounding areas are for weak beginner parties. If Nyctalinth was too hard, you could have gone to Ukpyr through Munkharama, which are both somewhere between New City and Nyctalinth on the difficulty level.

Or explore the Giant Lands and Witch mountains up the Eryn river, which are about the same difficulty as Ukpyr.

After getting a thermal pineapple in Ukpyr, I would get too lazy and impatient not to use it on any 2+ row mobs. Nyctalinth and specifically Rattkin Ruins will never go past two rounds. I kind of hate that they give you access to such a powerful item so early in the game. Of course I'm going to use it, duh.

I thought it was a one use item, to be used against the T'rang Queen?

Nope. It's a rechargeable level 6 nuclear blast

 

[theSavant]

Maybe developers should just create remakes of their old classics.

I would love to see a Wiz6 or Wiz7 in Cry-Engine graphics (not necessarily in Unity-Engine graphics). Now we've had every RPG story already dozens of times anyways, it just repeats itself with each new game - so why not make hi-end remakes instead? This doesn't mean devs should stop creating new games, but for all these RPG veterans and studios claiming they have no money for new games and it's too risky to create a new franchise, and oh it's all so dangerous... - they could just remake their classics!
It would still be lots of work: e.g. All new orchestral soundtrack, sophisticated particle effects, refactored environment, 3D models and animations, and of course better GUIs. But still... less work with than imagining everything from scratch. And definitely an existing fanbase who pays.

Edit: oh wait... maybe the rights for remaking a Wizardry was also sold to the Japs

I mean, what are they doing all these Romero and Bradley gangs... I've heard of no new project from them since 10+ years... are they waiting for the retirement already?

 

[cvv]

I would love to see a Wiz6 or Wiz7 in Cry-Engine graphics

Problem with W6 was not graphiscs, it was the controls.
W7 graphics is probably the most timeless one ever. Been playing that thing on and off for 20 years and can't stop be amazed.
Only serious problem with W7 is the automap.

 

[mondblut]

I thought it was a one use item, to be used against the T'rang Queen?

It is supposed to be a one-use item.

But devs forgot magic items can be charged up to 99 rounds with a certain spell

 

[Dorateen]

I thought the pineapple was used to destroy something important to the T'Rang Queen, not the T'Rang itself.

Never knew it was rechargeable. Learn something new all the time here.

 

[cvv]

I thought the pineapple was used to destroy something important to the T'Rang Queen, not the T'Rang itself.

Never knew it was rechargeable. Learn something new all the time here.

The first day I joined the Dex I learned womenz are useless and Baldur's Gate is the greatest RPG ever.

Boy, what an eye opener.

 

[theSavant]

Problem with W6 was not graphiscs, it was the controls.
W7 graphics is probably the most timeless one ever. Been playing that thing on and off for 20 years and can't stop be amazed.
Only serious problem with W7 is the automap.

Yeah, better interface and controls would help a lot to replay. Though I must admit, that the most awful thing for me is the screeching, feeping, noise of midi music and sound effects. I mean there was nothing else 20 years ago, but now it just sounds like Tinnitus. Sound is something of the most important things in games (even more than graphics) because it builds up atmosphere. Watch a horror movie without sound and there is no suspense anymore. So if you disable the sound it kills the immersion. If you enable it, you get Tinnitus. This somehow kills the replay value of many classics

 

[cvv]

Problem with W6 was not graphiscs, it was the controls.
W7 graphics is probably the most timeless one ever. Been playing that thing on and off for 20 years and can't stop be amazed.
Only serious problem with W7 is the automap.

Yeah, better interface and controls would help a lot to replay. Though I must admit, that the most awful thing for me is the screeching, feeping, noise of midi music and sound effects.

Yeah, sound back then was extreme basic. Me, I played W6 with all original sound/music switched off (speeds up the game too) and kept Gustav Holst playing in the background.

Works all the time

 

[Lady_Error]

I thought the sound effects in Wizardry 7 are just fine and quite good actually. I always turn the music in games off after a while, so maybe that part is not too great.

 

[cvv]

I thought the sound effects in Wizardry 7 are just fine and quite good actually. I always turn the music in games off after a while, so maybe that part is not too great.

Yeah they're passable but still way too 90s'.

On the other hand some bits of the W7 music is so fucking briliant I can't even... just listen.

 

[DraQ]

Problem with W6 was not graphiscs, it was the controls.
W7 graphics is probably the most timeless one ever. Been playing that thing on and off for 20 years and can't stop be amazed.
Only serious problem with W7 is the automap.

Yeah, better interface and controls would help a lot to replay. Though I must admit, that the most awful thing for me is the screeching, feeping, noise of midi music and sound effects. I mean there was nothing else 20 years ago, but now it just sounds like Tinnitus. Sound is something of the most important things in games (even more than graphics) because it builds up atmosphere. Watch a horror movie without sound and there is no suspense anymore. So if you disable the sound it kills the immersion. If you enable it, you get Tinnitus. This somehow kills the replay value of many classics

I don't know, some classics managed to have superb sounds and music, even despite using MIDI (or SID, for that matter ).

Maybe developers should just create remakes of their old classics.

I would love to see a Wiz6 or Wiz7 in Cry-Engine graphics (not necessarily in Unity-Engine graphics). Now we've had every RPG story already dozens of times anyways, it just repeats itself with each new game - so why not make hi-end remakes instead? This doesn't mean devs should stop creating new games, but for all these RPG veterans and studios claiming they have no money for new games and it's too risky to create a new franchise, and oh it's all so dangerous... - they could just remake their classics!
It would still be lots of work: e.g. All new orchestral soundtrack, sophisticated particle effects, refactored environment, 3D models and animations, and of course better GUIs. But still... less work with than imagining everything from scratch. And definitely an existing fanbase who pays.

Edit: oh wait... maybe the rights for remaking a Wizardry was also sold to the Japs

I mean, what are they doing all these Romero and Bradley gangs... I've heard of no new project from them since 10+ years... are they waiting for the retirement already?

Combined 6-7-8 remake with unified engine and mechanics.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lootdrop/an-old-school-rpg-by-brenda-brathwaite-and-tom-hal

Funding Canceled Funding for this project was canceled by the project creator on October 23, 2012.

 

[I_am_Ian]

Like I said in the Wizardry 8 enhancement thread, Brenda Brathwaite should have just Kickstarted a wizardry 9. Call it 9 wizards or the 9th Wizard or something and its guaranteed funded. Argh, what were they thinking!? Somebody please email her and explain how this works.

 

[Lady_Error]

Except her Wizardry 9 would probably not live up to our hopes. And D.W. Bradley lost it like 20 years ago too. Our best hope for a new Wizardry-style game remains Cleveland Mark Blakemore, folks.

 

[DefJam101]

Would be cool to see a wiz7-like with wiz8 production values

and no, I don't mean using the same shitty graphics engine

 

[treborSux]

I thought it was a one use item, to be used against the T'rang Queen?

It is supposed to be a one-use item.

But devs forgot magic items can be charged up to 99 rounds with a certain spell

Devs definitely wanted people to examine the pineapple. It didn't even need to be a magic item since all it does outside of battle is an animation of eggs blowing up.

 

[Coriolanus]

Yeah they're passable but still way too 90s'.

On the other hand some bits of the W7 music is so fucking briliant I can't even... just listen.

Same, with a hardware Roland courtesy of Jaesun (?): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGOPHZnAjOg

Huh, I guess MUNT isn't so bad after all.

Holy shit eargasm. Is there a way to get this sound in DosBox? (I'm a complete newbie to this)

 

[Themadcow]

I would love to see a Wiz6 or Wiz7 in Cry-Engine graphics

Problem with W6 was not graphiscs, it was the controls.

I really don't see an issue with the controlls in Wiz 6 apart from Swag / Inventory management. Sound is definitely the weakest area of the game (unless you have zero imagination, then maybe graphics).

 

[theSavant]

Brenda Brathwaite should have just Kickstarted a wizardry 9. Call it 9 wizards or the 9th Wizard or something and its guaranteed funded. Argh, what were they thinking!? Somebody please email her and explain how this works.

"The 9th Wizard"

Simple and genius! I would have never thought about such a simple name, but it's great, and it sounds strong! People would have associated automatically with Wizardry successor.

Omg... but instead we got "Shake me baby one more time".