Wizardry The Wizardry Series Thread

[quasimodo]

Dracons rule! Their acid breath really helps to soften up the mobs.

 

[Higher Game]

Wow. Seems like this game is as much as a must have as i've been told. I need to get torreting right away.

If you play the 6-8 trilogy, you get many benefits in 7 from 6, and in 8 from 6 and 7, including the same party.

 

[Wyrmlord]

"* To use the disposable items--potions, bombs, wands, etc.--we constantly gave you as loot."

Ah, so the game dumps large quantities of buffing items onto you, without you needing the initiative to find them on your own.

IT'S A DUMBED DOWN GAME!

 

[Shannow]

Bosses, huh. I'm guessing that Gregory and that one beast that you run into when you go right instead of left when there's the path that branches out to Arnika and that other place are bosses, yes? So far my Samurai has insta killed both of them as soon as I ran out of mana. Yeah. Let's hope the good luck continues later on aswell.

Nope. Normal monsters. Just more dangerous than the rest in the area

Now that was a WTF?!?-boss ^^


Does the Dracon breathweapon "level" up? I always had the impression that it merely did something around 1-8 dmg and stopped using it fairly quickly.

 

[DraQ]

Bosses, huh. I'm guessing that Gregory and that one beast that you run into when you go right instead of left when there's the path that branches out to Arnika and that other place are bosses, yes? So far my Samurai has insta killed both of them as soon as I ran out of mana. Yeah. Let's hope the good luck continues later on aswell.

Gregor does qualify, being one of a kind, but it's still just a bug. The hogar was just one of many beasts of this type, regardless of it's ability to splatter less seasoned parties before any of their members could do as much as utter "oh shit!".

Wait till you meet

Spoiler

Nessie

, or

Spoiler

Souleater

.

Haven't tried the dracons yet. Being more resistent to koo-koo magic would be nice. Sometimes those lizard musclemen would chop my own party to pieces if they got insane or enticed. Not a nice sight to see.
Will have to try building a dacon tank.

More like "less susceptible" than outright resistant. They're still slightly disadvantages in this area. Overall they are much more versatile than lizardmen who's only function is to hit the opposition hard. Dracons are slightly less tank-like, but more agile, smarter and have innate AoE attack. They make awesome frontliners - not just fighters, like lizardmen, but lords, valkyries and samurai as well.
They can also make decent alchemists and mages - slight disadvantage in terms of points is offset by their physical resilience which makes them far more difficult to kill than usual races of choice for these professions.
Lastly, a humanoid dragon is infinitely more cool than some dumb oaf who can barely articulate "smash puny enemies!".

Anyhow, at high levels you either have shitloads of resurrection power or even a priest, who can cast it at will, so again.

Alchemists can reanimate dead too.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Currently dloading zhis, gonna play for the first time, and I have this one question:

Does it drastically need any patches or is it perfectly fine to play right after installation?

 

[Gragt]

There is patch 1.24 needed, unless your copyis already patched. I first got the fairlight release and realized it has sound glitches with the intro, not something game breaking but that may mean trouble later. So I got the copy from underground-gamer.com, it's nicer than fairlight because it's a clone so I could make a mini-image of the play disc, is already patched to 1.24 and has no sound glitches with the intro.

Mind you, I guess the FLT release, which from what I could see is like 95% of Wizardry 8 torrents, is fine, but problems with the intro might mean more later in game. I didn't want to take risks.

NowI just need time to play this puppy, though knowing me I'll want to play the others first.

 

[dragonfk]

You seriously need only one patch. Wiz-Fast or something like that. It allows you to hasten the battle by raising speed of enemy combat movement animations.

 

[theverybigslayer]

You must install the v1.2.4 patch (or wiz8patch2001_12_23_release). There are 2 serious bugs, one the Mook hologram bug , the other one is this:
-- Corrected duration and poison damage done by Toxic Cloud spells -- effects are no longer permanent!
This is deadly and the monsters are using this spell!

 

[ghostdog]

Wiz-Fast or something like that. It allows you to hasten the battle by raising speed of enemy combat movement animations.

This and the 1.24 patch.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

One of the better characters I had: Lizardman Priest. Very early on maxed out his vitality and piety, turning to S and Int next. Was actually good at healing too and was always at my front lines due to his insane amount of life. Eventually, I turned his ass into a Lord, and pwned everyone.
Try if you can to make some of the most imaginative and unbelievable creations for party members you can think of. It works, and while with some you'll have a tougher time with it, you can still do damn good.

 

[Hobo Elf]

I have a question conserning Mages. Should I invest spells in more than just two realms? Right now I have Fire and Water, but I'm looking at some of the Earth spells and I really dig the defensive capabilities it gives. Should I go for it, or would spreading out my character too much possible gimp him later on?

 

[DraQ]

I have a question conserning Mages. Should I invest spells in more than just two realms? Right now I have Fire and Water, but I'm looking at some of the Earth spells and I really dig the defensive capabilities it gives. Should I go for it, or would spreading out my character too much possible gimp him later on?

Best thing would be planning your spell use. The manual describes all the available spells along with their realms and schools. Pick those that you'll want to use and are not available to the other schools first. Assign the remaining ones to those casters, who have the best proficiency in given realm. Develop your realm skills accordingly.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Yup, I just consulted the manual (thank god my friend saved it) and planned my Mage.
Also, someone mentioned that some people grind level 10 in the Monastery. My party just recently hit level 10 and I'm in the Swamp now. Just wondering if I'm severly under leveled for this area, as it seems pretty hard so far. Those Bloodsucker bugs are no laughing matter.

 

[Castanova]

Just picked this up myself. Great game so far, I just finished the Monastery.

Question: how the hell do you effectively close distance between you and the enemy? Using the "move" command basically gives the enemy two turns - the one they just took and the one they get again before you're allowed to move. Is there any way to mitigate this or does it just mean I should be exploiting corners to get people to come to me?

My party btw:
Dracon Fighter
Human Valkyrie
Human Samurai
Hobbit Gadgeteer
Fellpur Monk
Faerie Bishop

 

[Hobo Elf]

Using geometry to your advantage is the way to go.

 

[Thrasher]

In general it's not to your advantage to close the distance (spellcastering enemies being the exception sometimes). It's usually better to let melee oppoents come to since you can get yourself positioned around and in a corner or at least against a wall to protect you rear row mages. And, it gives you a round or more to fire some arrows or cast offensive spells. For ranged (and sometimes spellcasting) apponents it's better to hide around a corner so they have to get in your face before attacking.

 

[DraQ]

Yup, I just consulted the manual (thank god my friend saved it) and planned my Mage.
Also, someone mentioned that some people grind level 10 in the Monastery. My party just recently hit level 10 and I'm in the Swamp now. Just wondering if I'm severly under leveled for this area, as it seems pretty hard so far. Those Bloodsucker bugs are no laughing matter.

Disregard all the advice of this kind. It might make things easier, but isn't worth the the hassle, time spent grinding and breaking the flow of the game.

Besides, Wizardry has some rather heavy-handed level scaling - it's a wonder, actually, that it doesn't suck.

Just picked this up myself. Great game so far, I just finished the Monastery.

Question: how the hell do you effectively close distance between you and the enemy? Using the "move" command basically gives the enemy two turns - the one they just took and the one they get again before you're allowed to move. Is there any way to mitigate this or does it just mean I should be exploiting corners to get people to come to me?

It's not two rounds. Your party stands still till the member with the least initiative can move (usually the end of the round ) and moves before the next one begins. You can also reasign the targets of members' actions while moving (provided those actions target enemies or allies, not area of effect), so, if you don't move too far, you can often attack in the very same round.

Of course, if you can get the enemy to jump on your sword, why not? You can even use the move command to wait for the enemy to move first, for example to let them get close, so that your tanks can crush them with powerful melee attacks rather than wasting their turn by going defensive or shooting the enemy with weaker ranged weapons.

My party btw:
Dracon Fighter
Human Valkyrie
Human Samurai
Hobbit Gadgeteer
Fellpur Monk
Faerie Bishop

Nice, albeit very light on magic.

You'll have some trouble developing your bishop. Buy all the books you can find, and cast a lot of non-combat spells whenever possible.

 

[ghostdog]

This "first time" party lacks a bard. My bard was by far the best party member in the first half of the game. The bard has buffs, mass healing and some extremely useful confusion/mind mass attacks on the enemy.

 

[DraQ]

This "first time" party lacks a bard. My bard was by far the best party member in the first half of the game. The bard has buffs, mass healing and some extremely useful confusion/mind mass attacks on the enemy.

Bards plain own and are especially good for noob parties, but they are by no means obligatory.

 

[theverybigslayer]

There is only one annoying thing when playing Wizardries on expert difficulty: the frequent spell fizzles. When my Level 38 Mage fizzles the Nuclear Blast, that's maddening

 

[DraQ]

WTF have you done to wizardry?



Also:

If only Wizardry wasn't first person...

Epic fail.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Just started Wiz8 and even though I'm still only in the very first dungeon, this game seems like a really good chunk of fun.

 

[Castanova]

Yeah, I've been regretting not having a bard. I've already found like 3 or 4 items made specifically for bards so far - I just arrived in Arnika.

BTW, the OP was complaining about how hard Arnika road is... I'm assuming he's talking about a segment of Arnika road that's AFTER you get to town? Because I had no trouble getting to town at all.

DraQ - yeah I guess the party might be a bit light on magic but I am playing the Samurai as a hybrid. I'm pumping his Wizardy as much as his fighting. Also, the monk has some magic as well. And the Valkyrie too, now that I think about it

You're correct on the Bishop, though. So far she's pretty useless except for the occasional heal. I've been saving spell picks but I broke down from the pressure and gave her "Terror".

 

[JarlFrank]

Just started Wiz8 and even though I'm still only in the very first dungeon, this game seems like a really good chunk of fun.

The first dungeon is one of the most well-designed dungeons in the history of CRPGs.