Incline Wizardry 8 Enhancements - A Call to Arms!

[Izuela]

The Orb outside the tower in Arnika, it used to pretty much always drop a holy water spell book for me. Well, I have now reloaded and killed it several times and it keeps dropping other random low level divinity books, instead. Is this something that was changed by the mod, or am I just weirdly unlucky? I used to always get a holy water book from that fight.

 

[Izuela]

I have a question not directly related to this mod. The Steam version of the game comes with a bug:

Missing sound effects. Music and NPC speech seems to be intact but about half of the mob and spell sounds are gone. Example: Spell fizzle sound and piercing pipes are still working but lure and light, among others, are completely muted. Adding this mod to my Steam game did not fix it, so the problem is not among the files that were modded. I also tried replacing the [sound] folder, with the ones of the CD, but that also did nothing to improve matters. With all you modders here I'm hoping one of you would know which file, that is not actually in the sound folder, could be responsible for this.

 

[Kaucukovnik]

Weird problem. I have no knowledge of the game's inner workings, but let's try.

The only files from Wiz8 root dir that aren't already present in my mod are these four dlls:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/d1w9tu2cpyjnyt7/

Since you have already tried replacing the sound data, this is the best I can come up with.
Maybe the main DATA.SLF is faulty? Should be 149 080 629 bytes.


Regarding the spellbook drop, I didn't even know it can drop from anything and I doubt any of my changes could alter that, so it's probably just luck.

 

[Izuela]

I guess the spell book could be something that the Steam version of the game changed. I reloaded the fight at least 10 times, so bad luck would be unlikely. Or there is something I did different from the way I play usually. I don't have a bishop or a priest in the party. Just a lord to carry the responsibility of the piety. Do party class makeup have an effect on loot drops that I'm not aware of?Anyway, it's a shame. It was the only reliable holy water book in the game.

I tried replacing the DATA.SLF file but the sound problem with the Steam version continues. I'lll try those 4 DLLs, one at a time, next.

 

[DraQ]

I'll settle with the non-stretched 3D, I can live with the stretched UI.

Time to unearth those old Wiz8 CDs !

Doesn't stretched UI imply stretched portraits?

Because in that case I'll just stick with black bars.

Or would it be possible to stretch the UI frame, but not sub-windows?

 

[ghostdog]

I'll settle with the non-stretched 3D, I can live with the stretched UI.

Time to unearth those old Wiz8 CDs !

Doesn't stretched UI imply stretched portraits?

Because in that case I'll just stick with black bars.

Or would it be possible to stretch the UI frame, but not sub-windows?

Yeah the portraits would be stretched. I have no idea how exactly the UI is implemented, as far as I can understand the dude that made the mod hasn't dealt at all with the UI. If you don't have the right tools messing with the UI can be a very difficult experience, I'm not sure what you can do with the already existing wiz8 tools. Maybe something can be done with the wiz8 portraits editor about the portraits (you know, import them stretched vertical so when they are stretched horizontal they look fine).

BTW, I just found this :

http://zombra.deviantart.com/gallery/

 

[Kaucukovnik]

If someone finds a way to rearrange the UI for widescreen, I'm willing to make the required .STI graphics. Otherwise 800x600 + black bars is still the optimum for Wiz8.

Also worth noting is that UI gets stretched at anything but 640x480, and some parts become noticeably blurry. No big deal though.

 

[DraQ]

If someone finds a way to rearrange the UI for widescreen, I'm willing to make the required .STI graphics. Otherwise 800x600 + black bars is still the optimum for Wiz8.

I see I'm not the only one who finds the prospect of having to name my every character something along the lines of "Stretch McWideface" unattractive.

Also worth noting is that UI gets stretched at anything but 640x480, and some parts become noticeably blurry. No big deal though.

As long as it's stretched uniformly in all directions, that is.

 

[Izuela]

As I was harassed by the 26783rd poppy on my journey across Dominus, I had one of my rare thoughts, angry flowers should have more color. When I looked closely at the poppies, I could see some detail, greenish veins and such. But they were so muted I only noticed because I was looking for it. Not everthing needs to pop, by all means keep those bats brown (maybe turn the vampire bats black with bright red eyes?). But it would be nice if some salamanders, frogs, poppies, pixies, crabs etc had brighter colors and even some spots or stripes. This princess wants to be licked by a neon yellow frog with black spots in the swamp!

Is it be possible to make Wizardry 8 more vibrant and colorful, or are we stuck with these grubby shades of red and green.

 

[Broseph]

 

[Izuela]

After running all over Mt Gigas power station with detect secret I still could not find the x-ray chip. Was it added for sure? Also, I found a second Ptorch in the unexplored section of mt gigas caves, in one of the water pit you jump into and then have to climb out using a rope. So back to the same problem as last version, 2 Ptorches and no chip. :p

Also, I saw the part about the sai, it being specifically mentioned as being sold by Ferro. Does that mean Crock wont sell them anymore? Or does he still sometimes have them while Ferro always does?

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Crock never sold Sais.

Sent from my RM-821_eu_poland_360 using Tapatalk

 

[Izuela]

Hmm? I've bought sai's (and ninjatos) from Crock lots of times over the years, in my unmodded game. It was just a thing he would have now and then.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Stop lying, Sais cannot be bought anywhere in vanilla Wiz8. And Crock doesn't sell Ninja to's either btw, Ferro and that T'Rang vendor whose name I cannot recall can have them.

 

[Izuela]

...
I'm not lying.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Yes you are, check the Cosmic Forge or some site with full lists like Flamestryke ffs.

 

[I_am_Ian]

Speaking of ninjas and daggers. I recently created a ninja and gave her two doublestrike daggers. These daggers grant an extra swing. My logic of course is that the pitiful damage of the daggers (1-4) will be offset by the increased likelihood of a critical.

Anybody know the math well enough to determine if this is more efficient in increasing a critical than using something like dual sais which have an extra 5% kill chance?

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Since exact crit math is unknown all I can tell you is that I tried a build like that and apart from rare moments of brilliance, like crit-killing two greater picusses (sp?) in a row at lvl 11, it mostly sucks. Like discussed many times before, crits don't happen often enough to compensate for a poor dmg output. And you can easily build characters that can dish out decent dmg with added status effects on top of good crit chance (SoD/Zatoichi monk being the best example imo, ranger with decent arrows or samurai with giant's sword being the others). Lower exp requirements too, so no contest.

 

[DraQ]

SoD/Zatoichi monk being the best example imo

Is there any particular reason to not use SoD/Zatoichi samurai when compared to monk?

 

[I_am_Ian]

So you're telling me my ninja is a useless whore?

I'm thinking I should have gone with a dual stiletto rogue now.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

SoD/Zatoichi monk being the best example imo

Is there any particular reason to not use SoD/Zatoichi samurai when compared to monk?

Stealth is the main reason, bonus staff points a minor one. But samurai would work too, yes.

So you're telling me my ninja is a useless whore?

Larp away, if you want to try such character then why not. But yes, it's not a very cost-effective way to develop a ninja who is already the least cost-effective class in the game imo. Rogue with two thief daggers will hilariously outperform it and that's without adding a good sword to the mix.

 

[I_am_Ian]

I just tried a ninja for variety's sake. And a powercasting/powerstriking Samurai and Lord. Still can't really see the value of Hybrids without having to train magic which is beyond tedious.

 

[DraQ]

SoD/Zatoichi monk being the best example imo

Is there any particular reason to not use SoD/Zatoichi samurai when compared to monk?

Stealth is the main reason, bonus staff points a minor one. But samurai would work too, yes.

I'm thinking of staff LS with SoD. Rare and random but it should absolutely murderize unfortunate shit it hits.

Larp away, if you want to try such character then why not. But yes, it's not a very cost-effective way to develop a ninja who is already the least cost-effective class in the game imo. Rogue with two thief daggers will hilariously outperform it and that's without adding a good sword to the mix.

That's why I've been calling for transforming ninja into critting Rogue++, but keeping the XP requirements and making the class an absolute glass cannon (shit AP, HPs like mage) - a character capable of wreaking havoc when put on the front, but incapable of staying there for prolonged periods of time, crit and auto-penetrate on throw would help them stay helpful while in the back.

BTW: it would be better if stealth didn't provide any AC bonus and was only active when in defend mode (not performing any actions).

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Powercasting for hybrids is a bit of a waste imo, it's mostly needed for offensive magic anyways and offensive magic kinda sucks. I mostly think about hybrid magic as means of supplementing my parties with essential (=mostly buffs, healing and some debuffs) spells that aren't available via pure casters and bard/gadgie that I picked.

 

[I_am_Ian]

My hybrids are my only casters. I started a ranger as an alchemist, lord as a priest and samurai as a mage and changed classes after level 1. It helps a little to have those extra skill points when you become level 5 and can start raising points through use again. But I did some training to compensate for their slow growth.

Now they're level 18 and finally have access to level 6 spells. They're decent enough casters at this point and pretty good at melee too. I gave the lord Staff of Doom and the Samurai Zatoichi Bo. The Ranger uses a Dread Spear.