Wizard's Crown

[octavius]

I think I'll play the Apple II version. Unlike the emulated ST version, it's very fast with no lag (I really like AppleWin). And unike Wiz1 there's no horrendous colour bleeding. And I can transfer to Eternal Dagger.
The only real downside is the movement keys not corresponding to the numpad, so that will take som time getting used to. Fortunately it says on the screen which direction corresponds to which key.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Joytokey and use a game pad.

 

[octavius]

Pads are for women.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

You could use a joystick instead. SSI games work well with them one way or another. I’ve used a converter to use many 9-pin controllers from atari 2600, colecovision, intellivision, fairchild, sega genesis, Epyx 500xj, etc etc etc in emulators, dosbox, and other games. I was looking for some modern controllers with up to 20+ buttons but seems a lot are personal creations and not for sale or available. I’ve yet to get the modified jaguar controller.

I’ve even used a Bluetooth special numpad separate from the keyboard. I haven’t gotten into gaming keyboards though. I imagine there are some damn good customized ones out there. Options are certainly there even if using a laptop (which I always use a usb keyboard and mouse with. Fuck that onboard shit.

 

[octavius]

Joysticks are for kids.

A real nerd uses a keymapper.

 

[newtmonkey]

octavius
There's this patch for the Apple II version that remaps movement to work better with a numeric keypad when playing on an emulator:
https://archive.org/details/wizards-crown-numeric-keypad-patch

I personally have not tried it, but you might want to a take a look.

 

[octavius]

I'll check it out (looks like it's best for starting a new game, since all four disks are included in the zip file). For the time being the keymapper works fine.

Some questions:
What's up with getting 10XP for visiting the Inn?
And can lockpicks break? IOW, can you sell all extra ones you find?

 

[octavius]

Are dead characters supposed to disappear if you can't Raise them in the field?

I had a fight against some rats in the Ruins, and a Huge Rat insta-killed one of my characters. None of my surviving priests have enough Karma to Raise him. When I try to leave camp I get this message:

So I unpoison him and cure him of all bleeding and injuries, and heal all life force, so his only negative status is DEAD.
But he disappears from the party when exiting camp!

Is this a bug, or an undocumented design feature? I can't find any mention of this in the manual, nor when I google it.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I don’t recall. I’ve had it happen on c64 after a bad battle with gnarled trees.

It must be rare. I’d try to replicate with a test party maybe. I laughed a bit at CRPG Addicts assessment that you’d have to be crazy to tactically fight each combat. It simply is what we did back then. SSI was a tactical simulation games company so no kidding we’d fight each fight. Later play-throughs I did use quick more often to test. I can’t recall all the difficulty modes attempted. I think I really didn’t like the easiest ones for some reason (maybe loot /xp related). Damn shame atari ST didn’t get Eternal Dagger. I was unaware of no sound for appleII (what little there is anyway).

 

[octavius]

Oh well, I think I'll just restart knowing that dead characters will be left to rot by their callous team mates.

I'll check it out (looks like it's best for starting a new game, since all four disks are included in the zip file). For the time being the keymapper works fine.

Checked it some more, and according to the documentation, for the 9 key on the NumPad it intsead uses 5.
So I'll stick with the keymapper, which works.
I've worked with data entry before, so using the NumPad is second nature to me.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Which keymapper is this? Is it one in the program? I know vice or ccs64 allowed you to remap keys.

 

[octavius]

SharpKeys. It works swimmingly, but it does it by editing the registry, so I can't change it on the fly.

Microsoft has some horrendous bloatware that should do the trick, but after installing the bloatware, the bloatware informed me that it only works with Microsoft mice and keyboards. Microsoft's own bloatware even triggered Windows into complaining that the setup program was from an unknown source.

 

[Fedora Master]

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Good read?

 

[octavius]

This one is more interesting, being written by our own DaveO:

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Wizards and their crowns.

 

[octavius]

It's bizarre how much better the AI is in Wizard's Crown than in the Gold Box games.

 

[octavius]

But then the Gold Box games doesn't have any AI...

One way to break the Orcs' shield tactics is to surround them, so they can't cover all the angles. The only downside to this cunning plan is that they outnumber my party 3 to 1...

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Axes can destroy shields and I believe flails can bypass them. Spear can strike 1-2 squares away similar to halberd in Ultima 4. And I liked ranged weapons. Go have enemies suck on some heavy crossbow.

Yeah, far more tactics and options in these two games. It makes Goldbox look like babies first adventure.

 

[octavius]

Well, the GB games did have - Backstab! - and opportunity attacks and sweeping, but the real difference to me is how the enemies in WC are actually quite smart. In the GB game I beat the dreaded Beholder Corps by abusing the AI (and not the Dust of Disappearance), while in WC if you barricade yourself in a room, the Orcs will not walk into the trap, but their archers will find the right angle to shoot in. And they are masters of (nearly) always having their shields at the right angle. If your own shieldwall breaks, you can be sure that they will take advantage of the weakness.

My usual tactics is to form a battle square, with to Figher/Priests at the front corners, two archers at the back corners, a Ranger/Priest with a Spear in the middle. Usually it turns into a five man front, though.
After I restarted, knowing that Dead characters are dead weight and must be Raised in the field, I've not lost any characters so far, and I haven't done any reloading except to try quick combat first. If I can't do it with no or minimal damage, I reload and do it manually.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

You might want to try the Roadwars games eventually if you enjoy your bout with WC/ET.

I kind of laugh that some blogs on this game want to just win it and forget it. Back in the day when releases were tight and you had only one computer, you’d milk these games for a long long long time. This would be a damn fine game to use one of those modern mappers with esp if you like to make custom tilesets. I’ve long lost my hand maps and mapping overhead 2D games is far different than your blobber style. Damn fun and I agree on the smart AI. Just wait until you start hitting the magical battles and undead more and more. Even a tanked up party whose done the dungeons a dozen times will find quick-combat in the lower section of the ruins not a great option.

I wish I could get some pics of my c64 party on disk but I just don’t have a crt monitor/tv and I ponder if the drive and c64 itself even works. I should have sent more disks to a few guys on Joltcountry to make me some digital copies for the emulator. (Or I should learn how to do it myself). Bah!

Edit—— side scrollers are even more of a pain to map. Lordy my time with metroid which I blame Castlevania teasing via it’s funny map intermissions.

 

[octavius]

I got so tired of attacks being blocked by shields that I bought Flails for half my party and invested some XP in the relevant skill.
So now I fought the brigands, the assassins, 3-4 parties of orcs, feral dogs and giant rats, and the only loot I've got so far is a +2 Bottle and a +1 Buckler.

Yay...

You might want to try the Roadwars games eventually if you enjoy your bout with WC/ET.

How come?

 

[octavius]

So I kind of restarted with a new party, where I gave about half the guys 16 STR. It's really astonishing how much difference the loss of DEX is. With high DEX my characters could do most of the fights in town by quick combat, but with my high STR party the first guy who got a Plate Mail was insta-killed by an assassin when breaking in the armour.

It annoys me how much is left out of the manual.
It doesn't say that it's the effective Karma that caps the Turn Undead skill.
Or that spells and prayers can be disrupted, and that even with no message about it.

Anyway, I cringe when I read my old messages from some years ago in this thread. I'd like to give myself some

ratings.

 

[octavius]

Found a Bracelet +1.
Very nice item, since it doesn't require any of the usual item slots. +2 AC against physical attacks and +1 versus magic sure is nice. I decided to enchant it, and the numbers are now doubled.

Also found a Very Fine Heavy Crossbow (for my one guy with 16 STR), a Sharp Dagger, a +2 Short Bow that casts Magic Protection, and a Cloak that casts Foxfire.
Now on day 6.

 

[octavius]

So is it worth enchanting a Forst Claymore to a Flaming Claymrore? It adds an extra 10 magic damage.
Enchanting the Broadword +2 only adds 3 more magic damage.