Wizard's Crown

[DaveO]

SSI made the final optional fight against Anawt impossible. There are too many demons and even spread out my group was wiped out on each of my three attempts. At least Tarmon is much easier fighting in tactical combat.

 

[DaveO]

I progressed to the third game day with my minimal party. This is the point where the profit truly starts rolling in. With the inn filled with Brigantine and my group holding heavy crossbows or better the profit will be enough for enchantments. I already found a few good defensive items, so they will be improved to +5.

 

[Breshard]

Oh wow, I played through WC and ED a couple years ago and watched a lot of your let's play videos. I remember seeing that Eternal Dagger hadn't had new videos posted in many years so is weird to see new ones up there now!

 

[DaveO]

I had a nine year hiatus and just got back into finishing things I started. My Eternal Dagger LP is complete but the final videos won't be posted until the middle of June 2022.

 

[DaveO]

I decided to let night come on day 3 within the town above Arghan. It seems like every thug, assassin and thief came out of the woodwork to attack my party. If you are having problems getting the reward for cleaning the town this is your best bet. Just either have a torch available or cast Foxfire.

 

[DaveO]

Now I'm concerned. I did not get the reward that I thought I would. I'll have to etiher call it for that night attempt or run the risk of dawn and more morale loss within the town. I'll try the latter, but I won't save. If the second attempt to get the reward fails, I'll stop and try again the following night within town. Current morale loss is over 15(bad, but manageable with my current party income). I could and may likely go over 20 morale loss. This is high for the early game days and not recommended by me. 15 is the most I'd accept early. I have more since I'm trying to get that elusive town reward for this run.

 

[Ladonna]

Which version are you playing? I played the C64 one ages ago. I tried the PC one and the difficulty level goes off the charts not long after leaving town, whereas in the C64 version it is much more measured.

 

[DaveO]

I'm doing a run on AppleWin. It's the best version if you ask me. I'd say the difficulty is not too hard, but the early game is very tricky. For some odd reason, I did not get the reward. I fought countless enemies inside. And still no reward.

 

[DaveO]

I've proceeded further in my Apple run. The next comment is if you're planning to transfer to Eternal Dagger. I've found in ED that weapon skills should be at 300 and then you can put to 250 in others like sword. My first Apple party will make good use of the dwarven hammers and I'll probably diversify those a bit to have more variety for damage and not just rely on damage transferrence. I'd only go to 24-28 strength and put the other experience into the combat skills.

On my minimal party run in WC, I have one character training on flail early. This is beneficial to the group. He'll be the only dual weapon user on the front lines.

 

[DaveO]

The only reason I'm doing flail early is due to having a very fine flail. This means 12 bash damage instead of 8. Wierdly, mauls can have very sharp(they do bash damage too).

 

[DaveO]

Once you get a decent bow, the early game gets more manageable. I'm still using shortbows, but I have a +2 light crossbow. I found a few physical magic weapons and equipped them for the appropriate characters.

P.S. - No award yet for clearing the town on day 7, but running around at night inside the town certainly is bringing encounters so eventually I'll get a clear.

 

[Ladonna]

P.S. - No award yet for clearing the town on day 7, but running around at night inside the town certainly is bringing encounters so eventually I'll get a clear.

What was the counter for this?

 

[DaveO]

The counter is within the game itself. You'll likely run into the thugs threatening the girl early and get the good +2 broadsword as your reward. There are different pockets of enemies in the town. The east side is usually where most encounters are, but there are some in the graveyard and a few in the park area too(the park is to the north of the inn). The west side may bring encounters but that east side is definitely your target area. You could clear the Rusty Nail multiple times for easy experience but you lose all money if you attack the guild master in the northwest part of that place. So I'd avoid the Nail if I were you. The ruins are your better bet for treasure, but again Search is VERY important to max out quickly for two characters.

I also know that the game somehow keeps track of the progress your characters make. I suspect multiple flags are in place that specify when experience becomes harder to attain. Ideally you want to postpone night fights in the ruins but given the huge amount of experience it may be better to do a night run around day 25 or possibly 20. I'd not try earlier. There are 200 game days, so it should be enough time to get whatever party you come up with equipped and ready to fight much longer periods. I spent pretty much the whole time clearing from west to east and progressively heading south.

In the southern part of the map are dragons, and near Tarmon's Palace there are generally vampires and other undead. There are supposed to be White Rabbits that bring big treasure, but are like in the Monty Python movie.

I do remember encountering armies on the Atari version at the southeast middle portion of the map. I'm not 100% sure where they patrol.

 

[DaveO]

I'll probably progress some more. Up to game day 10 which is usually around the point that things get interesting. You're making profit, getting treasure, fighting monsters and generally getting the party better for the forays into the dungeons.

 

[DaveO]

Once I finish on Apple, I was thinking of trying the Demon's Winter games or Gold Box since WC and ED are the foundation to Gold Box.

 

[CappenVarra]

Once I finish on Apple, I was thinking of trying the Demon's Winter games or Gold Box since WC and ED are the foundation to Gold Box.

it's been on my mind for some time, so: i appreciate your contribution, you hear?

i would appreciate it even more if there was more text and pictures, less videos

i know videos are real popular nowadays, but i'm just not into that (unless it's rare footage of a live performance i couldnt attend or similar)

 

[DaveO]

What are you looking for specifically? I just got gaming headphones with an integrated microphone to make my videos even better. CRPGAddict DID cover both Wizard's Crown and Eternal Dagger on his reviews.

 

[DaveO]

CappenVarra if you don't respond again within a week then you're obviously not serious. I can't afford to waste time trying to guess or mind read on what folks "want" from me.

 

[DaveO]

I just found a very sharp flail on the east part of the map fighting goblins. I don't know if this is a bug since I've never found that before on my multiple runs. So now I have a bash of 18 which is far superior to just 12. So definitely an end game weapon against Tarmon and an awesome early weapon until I find either magic or life blast weapons. Thus far I only have a magic broadsword but that will change.

 

[DaveO]

I'm going to get enough strength to use both two handed axes and flails. This should require only 13 str IIRC. I found a decent life drain great axe.

 

[DaveO]

I hit the highest morale loss that I've ever encountered early: 41. That was due to the game not being generous and giving me the bonus experience at the inn. I went on a brief excursion in the ruins and finally got a clear in the town on day 11. Good lord, I lost count of everything I killed in the town over and over again. I DID get some pretty good defensive items and a decent magic two handed spear. My flail fighter is now ready to use the 18 bash weapon until he finds something better. This is more than double the standard 8 bash of a normal flail. I don't know what will happen, but the struggling part of the game is pretty much clear if my party can handle huge morale loss. I am now at game day 12.

 

[DaveO]

It might be my imagination, but Apple seems pretty generous with either items or treasure. I've found a life drain bow, a mid tier magic damage light crossbow and I decided to arm the two handed life drain great axe. Both the flail and axe characters now have 13 strength so this is not a huge sacrifice to have a chance to use the two handers. I'm basically doubling my axe cut damage compared to the +4 handaxe I found. Physical magic weapons are nice early, but magical or life drain weapons are what you are looking for. A hit with a fully enchanted magic or life drain weapon can either seriously hurt an enemy or kill or knock them out in one hit. Eternal Dagger corrected life drain and lightning damage. They are far less effective, but still quite valuable against enemies.

I reached game day 15, so I probably should target game day 25 as my night excursions beginning.

 

[DaveO]

I saw the ST version, and I'll give it a try. The menu interfaces are different and it is more mouse driven on this version. Too bad there is no sequel.

EDIT - I recreated my Atari 800 party with very slight differences on the ST platform. I gave my light crossbow character 11 strength off the bat to use claymores. I decided to use flail for my fighter/sorcerer anchoring the right flank. He is the slowest character for dexterity. I'll get karma up for two of the fighter/priest characters and have the other two fighter/priests focus on the important early Thief skills of Haggle and Search.

 

[Ladonna]

I saw the ST version, and I'll give it a try. The menu interfaces are different and it is more mouse driven on this version. Too bad there is no sequel.

EDIT - I recreated my Atari 800 party with very slight differences on the ST platform. I gave my light crossbow character 11 strength off the bat to use claymores. I decided to use flail for my fighter/sorcerer anchoring the right flank. He is the slowest character for dexterity. I'll get karma up for two of the fighter/priest characters and have the other two fighter/priests focus on the important early Thief skills of Haggle and Search.

Let me know how the encounter difficulty goes. The ST version is probably the most advanced version of this game ever released. I notice they never released a 16 bit Eternal Dagger.

 

[DaveO]

At the moment, this is the most advanced version. I mentioned a game company in my speculation thread and it is quite probable that this game plus Eternal Dagger along with the Phantasie games will be released as mobile downloads. Redoing the code for a mobile release would likely involve little effort. The company also trademarked SSI so it is probable that more of the SSI catalog comes under their new copyrights.