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Wizardry The Wizardry Series Thread

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aweigh

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aweigh

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nah, I bought a "recent" gen NVIDIA GPU (the 1050 GTX) and much to my surprise the fucking thing has built-in transcoding chip! Wowie.

So now I just went and torrented Bandicam and that program automatically recognizes the GPU's thing and I can now make videos like the one I'm about to embed at 60fps, as HQ as I want it to be, and with very small file sizes! It's great.

(Sure, maybe OBS also automatically uses and takes advantage of your GPUs transcoding capabilities, but whatever Bandicam is brain dead easy to use, and all I have to do click on PRESETS and then click on NVIDIA HEVC (or H264) CODEC option and then press RECORD: boom, instant HQ capture consisting of only 3 clicks and with very minimal "footprint" being left by the Bandicam program itself. I've gronw rather very fond of it, heh.



Wait for the 6min mark (emedding beigns at 5min mark or so); that is not me doing a leap of knowledge, that is me doing a leap of faith simply because there was a canyon precipice, and I wanted to see what'd happen if I jumped (I thought I'd just die). Feel free to watch it from the beginning, of course, as you can see the game's first village in that Hub/area I'm exploring there.

(It's an action-RPG game, btw, though very light on the RPG stuff, it does have tons of NPCs, quests, loot/weapons/armor, and even party members).

This shit is what I'm currently playing.
 

hackncrazy

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I already finished Nier Automata, and I'm surprised that there are things down the pit, I always thought that only death waited for me there.

Congratulations on your GTX 1050 acquisition. :)
 
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aweigh

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big part of the reason I have fucking fallen in love with dis game :D

I jumped cos I wanted to be awesome, only to land in a pit of super high level enemies and then find a supa secret dagger weapon and just when about to escape dying due to enemies buttraping me literally as the door to safety is closing.

11/10 would agains.

BTW, I played a TINY bit more of Wiz: LLoLS.

I will refrain from writing further about the game as... I am starting to see a very small, very tiny "spark". I want to play further to see if the game blossoms into "something", and if it doesn't then it truly will be the most generic/boring/uninspired Wiz scenario in yeeeeears.

The "spark" i talk about is that the dungeons are starting to get hella maze-y and suddenly the difficulty spike came out of fucking nowhere. I am always in danger, as should be in Wiz games, but not enough so that I am not enjoying trying to survive make it back alive with my loot. Yes, that is the exact same shtick since 76 years ago from Wiz 1 came out; but it works, and if it's done correctly it will always manage to be worthwhile, because it fucking works.

I'll keep you all posted to see if this scenario eventually becomes an adult.
 

hackncrazy

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big part of the reason I have fucking fallen in love with dis game :D

I jumped cos I wanted to be awesome, only to land in a pit of super high level enemies and then find a supa secret dagger weapon and just when about to escape dying due to enemies buttraping me literally as the door to safety is closing.

11/10 would agains.

BTW, I played a TINY bit more of Wiz: LLoLS.

I will refrain from writing further about the game as... I am starting to see a very small, very tiny "spark". I want to play further to see if the game blossoms into "something", and if it doesn't then it truly will be the most generic/boring/uninspired Wiz scenario in yeeeeears.

The "spark" i talk about is that the dungeons are starting to get hella maze-y and suddenly the difficulty spike came out of fucking nowhere. I am always in danger, as should be in Wiz games, but not enough so that I am not enjoying trying to survive make it back alive with my loot. Yes, that is the exact same shtick since 76 years ago from Wiz 1 came out; but it works, and if it's done correctly it will always manage to be worthwhile, because it fucking works.

I'll keep you all posted to see if this scenario eventually becomes an adult.

I remember reading the Wizardry LOLS thread on Neogaf and people over there were liking the game a lot, even though some of them admitted that this love was just there because of the name the game carried.

Is a good read, though, I recommend it.
 
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aweigh

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I would prolly love LoLS, but I've been spoiled by the other almost-a-dozen-even-more-counting-non-English-ones Japanese scenarios. Simply put Starfish SD perfected the Wizardry blueprint, no, it's fucking D NA, to the ultimate level of elegant mechanical design and polish with Wizardry Empire 2; and now the Elminage series (series made by the very same studio, now called StarFish), is basically new Wiz scenarios, with the name of Elminage, each one adding more new mechanics than the previous ones, with Elminage: Gothic introducing a wide range of "Ex-Skills" that each party member can choose during their char-creation, and stuff like Summoner class and their optional "gotta-catch-'em-all" class design.
 

hackncrazy

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aweigh or anyone that knows this:

The Wizardry I-III for the snes has the ability of carrying the party through the games?

Also, is this required or a new party from W3 is as good as a imported one?
 
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aweigh

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You can also transfer chars from Wiz Gaiden 4: Throb of the Demon's Cock (SNES) over to Gaiden 5, i.e. "Dimgui" the very very first Wizardry game to reach release and publishing for the brand newPSX console at that time.

I think it works to this day actually because of the console gap they simply oopted to go for a convoluted password system. If you ever (whoever is reading) boots up Gaiden 6: Dimguil for PS1 be sure to go to the library room in the game's first hub where one of the options is writing in a diary, when I selected it the thing asked me for a looooooong ass string of numbers/gibberish and it had the game title from Gaiden 4 right underneath.

Just a random bit of thing there for knowing. In the end, tho, I would say fuck Dimguil instead play Gaiden 6 on PS2 which features all english for everytihng but the dialog (all items, spells, all enemies, literally everything 'cept what the Town NPCs, the shop keeper, the priest, etc, tell you; only that stuff is in Jap).

It's a fantastic Wiz game that perfectly cherry picks all of the best bits from 5 and 6 and adds its own stank on the proceedings by introducing my personal all-time favorite weapon/armor enchantment system ever: upon using IDENTIFICATION on any item in Gaiden 6, each one has an RNG "seed" which triggers when the item is identified and that "seed" is the weapons hidden magical enchantment.

You then take the item to the game's 1 and only town/hub (because people who complain about Wiz having only "one town" are fucking cancer on this earth and most certainly suffering from severe ZIKA bites to their brain parts, UGH what a dumb complaint); right, so you then the shop keeper charges a modest fee and then enchants the item, though in reality all the gmae is doing is just triggering the already-present enchantment on that item.

They did it this way in order to completely avoid save-scumming, as saving/reloading after the item has been ID will never, ever have chance of changing the hidden game value in the item that has the enchantment set in STONE.

I think that is, frankly and hopefully by now without hyperbole: the single most elegant way of dealing with both SAVE SCUMMING for better loot/buffs on loot, and simultaenously they managed to make enchanting weapons ORGANIC and coherently similar to how Wizardry's play slices work; you take one thing to be ID'd, and in Gaiden 6 they logically went ahead and simply said to themselves, "now they have the same existing incentive and reasons for bringing the items back to town, this time to see enchantment buff instead of identification".

It doesn't get simpler than doing the game's enchantment like that, literally the completely opposite of thinkingo utside the box, and a great case example of when being "traditional" in design implementation but doing it intelligently from an understanding of how the actual mechanics work you see how that approach also can produce GREAT results.

And that was about 200 words more than I thought would come out of me writing about RNG buffs on Gaiden 6 and how the game is impossible to save-scum, hehe. That part, that is what I most enjoy, kjnowing they cooked that up specifically to prevent the scumming, and they did it like motherfucking kings.

Oh! and of course alos play Wiz Gaiden 4 on SNES, that one is fully english translated by MrRichard999 and Helly and many others who worked for almost 6 years chipping away at that rom, until finally, finally it was Helly himself who had landed the finishing move on the ROM and thus, now it is there for anyone to play.

Gaiden 4 on SNES is my Number Three faovirte alltime Wizardry scenario. It almost too perfectly designed. It plays very similarly to Wizardry FIVE (5), btw, and each dungeon houses many npcs who blather on about somehitng or other (i.e. some item you must get., at least early game) and then when you do this for whoever who nelly magically now a new section of the dungeon opened up!

Like I said, VERY similar to Wiz 6, (sorry I meant 6), specifically on the whole keeping the player confined to one area until the NPCs flags were triggered, though Wiz 5 is literally the prototype/beta for Wiz 6 so I stand by my words.
 
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aweigh

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Because I've already done it, brah, and without any doubt whatsover more than you have, brah! I was playing that SNES port of Wiz 3 specifically to enjoy its great sprite work, BRAH, and I already had not only played them frames and wires, bro, but I'd also played the japanese ports for the japanese PC the NEC PC-98 which featured a special processing chip designed originally for making very early-game anti-aliasing kanji and katakana characters!

Why? Because DEM JAPANESE WIRE FRAMES ON THAT SHIT LOOK FUCKING INSANE BRAH. BEST WHITE LINES I EVER FUCKIN SEEN, all thanks to a chip made for drawing kanji characters... with perfectly straight and vibrant, almost luminous wires and frames!

Oh my!
 
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theSavant

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Hmmm... I've recently been considering a low maintenance party for Wiz8. Anyone has good suggestions?

What is low maintenance anyway?

- should rely on melee weapons (sword/spear)
- should have basic resistance against magic attacks

- No archery (because of limited ammo)
- No magic (because of limited spellpoints and spell selection micro-management)

It's not meant for full exploration, it should just work for a playthrough without too much micro-management and clicking around. I thought about having Dwarf, Rawulf or Mook in the party but not decided yet...
 
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theSavant

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Yeah, possible. Battles should always happen in places where enemies can be bottlenecked by a narrow passageway. Definitely part of the challenge.
 

Grampy_Bone

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What is low maintenance anyway?

Low-maintenance would be a party that doesn't require multi-classing or excessive grinding.

6 Valkyries. Give everyone spears, never have to worry about positions. If one of them dies, pops back up in a round or two. Could be interesting.

Wouldn't it be slow AF without the AoE nukes?

Nukes aren't great in Wiz8, buffs and control effects are more useful.


Most basic party would be Fighter, Fighter, Fighter, Bard, Priest, Mage. Fighters will obliterate everything with berserk attacks, Bard does lockpicking plus free heals, Mage and Priest can comfortably max out their spell lists without grinding. Add Vi and the robot, give them reach weapons and put them on the flanks. Casters in the middle, bard brings up the rear.

You can combine the Priest and Mage with a Bishop and add another caster, fighter-type, ranger, or gadgeteer. A 2-role Bishop requires a little more grinding and will be more behind the pure casters. A full 4-book bishop really requires grinding so isn't low-maintenance at all.

You can put the bard up front and put a ranger or gadgeteer in the back, you just need someone there to keep the swarms from buttfucking your mages. Thieves and Ninjas are best in melee so they're a waste in the rear.

Only reason to use non-fighters is for variety's sake or to take advantage of some of the class weapons. Faerie ninja should be avoided, Lord's don't have much going for them, and Fighters can use all the easily available weapons for both valkyries and samurai (mystic spear, fang, ivory blade). Making useful hybrid casters is not low-maintenance.

The only RPCs you should ever use are Vi and the robot. The others are too hard to take anywhere and too shitty. Both can be your flank position easily.
 
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theSavant

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6 Valkyries. Give everyone spears, never have to worry about positions. If one of them dies, pops back up in a round or two. Could be interesting.

Valkyrie party is definitely an interesting one, especially with their extended weapon range.

And man... I have just read in the manual and overwhelmed already (in a positive way) by the multiple possibilities even for a Melee combat party only - especially if you think in advance:

- Iron Will (requires maxed out Piety) and would reduce or resist magical damage or effects, which would be very useful if you have only fighters
- Maxing out Dexterity & Senses edit: should be Dexterity+Speed, can result up to 9 attacks a round when they reach level 20 (quote from jeff ludwigs website).. Imagine you have 6 fighters and each one of them attacks 9 times...

Hmm I wonder what that "Natural damage resistance" is from Dwarfs... physical or magical only? And does this add up on top of the same "natural damage resistance" of a Monk class (a Dwarf Monk)?
EDIT: most likely physical damage. Also the internet thinks both resistances stack on a Dwarf Monk...
 
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Darth Roxor

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I'm nearing the end of my 6-8 playthrough, and I'm already having funny thoughts about replaying 8 with some weird-ass party.

I was thinking of going 6x ninja, but the more I think of it, the more it seems like a bad idea, cuz of no magic screen or soul shield. Maybe I could cheat by going 4x ninja + monk + sammy, but meh that's lame.
 

Grampy_Bone

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Maxing out Dexterity & Senses can result up to 9 attacks a round when they reach level 20 (quote from jeff ludwigs website).. Imagine you have 6 fighters and each one of them attacks 9 times...

All melee classes should go Str + dex until maxed, then Vit + Spd. Max strength doubles your damage (for fighters that means 4x weapon damage). Vit is nice for HP and carrying capacity. The encumbrance struggle is real. Spd contributes to extra attacks and swings more than dex but it won't really matter in the long run, and reflexion is better than snake speed. Senses is pointless for anyone not going full ranged. Also you want to get power strike and reflexion asap to start letting them level on their own. Sacrificing damage for 1 extra swing a few levels earlier really isn't worth it.
 
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theSavant

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- Maxing out Dexterity & Senses can result up to 9 attacks a round when they reach level 20
All melee classes should go Str + dex until maxed, then Vit + Spd.
Senses is pointless for anyone not going full ranged.

Damn... of course it's Dexterity+Speed and not Senses. I even quoted wrong from the website. Where is my head...

- Iron Will (requires maxed out Piety) and would reduce or resist magical damage or effects, which would be very useful if you have only fighters

It seems that IRON WILL only gives a bonus to the character's existing magic resistances, but not create "new" magic resistances:
Example: if the character race has only a resistance of +10 against Air magic, it will only enhance the resistance to Air magic, but not create "new" resistances against Water, Fire, Earth... is this correct?

Also l wonder about amulets and equipment which give magic resistances. Will these be included in the IRON WILL calculation?
 
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hackncrazy

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What is low maintenance anyway?



6 Valkyries. Give everyone spears, never have to worry about positions. If one of them dies, pops back up in a round or two. Could be interesting.

That post made me curious. In general, is there a party comibination in Wizardry games that makes it a walk in the park (like the 6 valkyries seems to) and some that makes the game almost impossible to beat?
 

TigerKnee

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Personally I think if you have a Bard in the party, I don't think there's really any real use for a Priest - it's considered one of the worse pure caster classes in the game. Might as well double up on a Valk even if you're recruiting Vi.
 

Grampy_Bone

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Example: if the character race has only a resistance of +10 against Air magic, it will only enhance the resistance to Air magic, but not create "new" resistances against Water, Fire, Earth... is this correct?

Also l wonder about amulets and equipment which give magic resistances. Will these be included in the IRON WILL calculation?

All the equipment bonuses stack together. By the end game you will have 50-100% resists on everyone for everything, even without Iron Will. Plus there are the conveniently available defensive spells such as magic screen, soul shield, and element shield. Iron Will on everyone will basically save you some buffing and give your casters extra Spell Points, but it probably won't make a huge difference in your overall defensive abilities.
 

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