Wizardry The Wizardry Series Thread

[ilitarist]

You won't be able to get much skill advancement in Wiz8 without gaining exp leading to level-up, will you? Also in Oblivion you can advance skills that don't lead to level-up. In both games suboptimal build is much more fatal than in an usual RPG. This is not a superficial thing.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

You won't be able to get much skill advancement in Wiz8 without gaining exp leading to level-up, will you?

Yes, there's literally shitton of ways to do it, Wiz8 is kinda (in)famous for it, did you even play it?

 

[Sentinel]

You won't be able to get much skill advancement in Wiz8 without gaining exp leading to level-up, will you?

Yes, there's literally shitton of ways to do it, Wiz8 is kinda (in)famous for it, did you even play it?

I have not played Wizardry 8 since 2001 or 2002. How do you advance combat skills without actually fighting and thus gaining experience?

 

[an Administrator]

You won't be able to get much skill advancement in Wiz8 without gaining exp leading to level-up, will you?

Yes, there's literally shitton of ways to do it, Wiz8 is kinda (in)famous for it, did you even play it?

I have not played Wizardry 8 since 2001 or 2002. How do you advance combat skills without actually fighting and thus gaining experience?

I don't think it's possible to advance combat skills without fighting.
You gain some XP(which may lead to level-up) after combat then some skills advance automatically.

 

[Fowyr]

Constant hiding and using instruments(that's two skills already)+shitty weapons+weak (or weak but tough) enemies.
I think some people made all 100 weapon skills before even leaving Monastery using that giant beetle/cockroach/whatwasitsname.

 

[ilitarist]

Huh. I thought this leveling in Wiz8 was problematic but didn't even know it was this close to Oblivion.

This means you can game the system the way you do in Oblivion and your levelups are not just an increase in power like in a traditional RPG, but a part of a system you should use to remain competetive with a world that somehow becomes more dangerous when you levelup. In a traditional RPG bad player leveling up just doesn't become stronger, in Wiz8 and Oblivion you can either fall behind the world or exploit the systems to get ahead of it. Still think in Wiz8 it's harder to fall behind but you can make a bad party from the very beginning. In Oblivion falling behind or getting ahead is much easier and inevitable. Same with Morrowind or Skyrim or Fallout 3 or (I think) modern Bioware games but those games have more sane enemy level scaling.

 

[V_K]

Nope, it's not necessary to exploit the game in Wiz8, because enemies will stop leveling after a certain threshold (each area has its own).

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Constant hiding and using instruments(that's two skills already)+shitty weapons+weak (or weak but tough) enemies.
I think some people made all 100 weapon skills before even leaving Monastery using that giant beetle/cockroach/whatwasitsname.

Plus healing of course. Wiz8 gives a ton of possibilities for power training, I think it's pretty much unavoidable in learn skills-by-using system. And of course can spoil the game rather quickly, though at least all the leveling in Wiz8 is a conscious decision made by player (with the useless communication skill as exception), not the retarded "level up by accident" crap from TES.

And no one was talking about combat skills specifically, there's a wide set of magic and utility skills that rise naturally without combat exp.

Nope, it's not necessary to exploit the game in Wiz8, because enemies will stop leveling after a certain threshold (each area has its own).

Honestly, this level scaling thing in Wiz8 is blown out of proportion all the time, the game just draws monsters from certain available pool based on the area and party level withing certain range. It's pretty much exactly the same thing you get in more linear games where monsters get stronger the farther you go or "scaling" that was present in BG2. It's still perfectly possible to encounter cannon fodder or tough groups that will force you to run for it. Even trying to compare it to super intrusive scaling from new TES games shows that someone treated "know what you're talking about" as a dump stat.

 

[ilitarist]

Nope, it's not necessary to exploit the game in Wiz8, because enemies will stop leveling after a certain threshold (each area has its own).

I see your point. You can grind your way out of Wiz8 bad levelup decisions (similar to later Bethesda games) and it would be much harder in Oblivion. My initial comparison was wrong.

 

[Sigourn]

Where do I get Wizardries I to V, again?

I want to play the PC IBM versions and have the ability to import party from one game to the next.

 

[BlackGoat]

myabandonware has what you need

 

[Sigourn]

myabandonware has what you need

I'd checked that site, but I'm worried about playing and not being able to import my party.

How would I go on to do that, once I'm finished with the first game?

 

[an Administrator]

If recall correctly you basically had to import the party from Wiz I to Wiz II in original version.

 

[janior]

myabandonware has what you need

I'd checked that site, but I'm worried about playing and not being able to import my party.

How would I go on to do that, once I'm finished with the first game?

Get Llylgamyn Saga - snes version, it's much better and importing party is no problem.

 

[Sigourn]

Get Llylgamyn Saga - snes version, it's much better and importing party is no problem.

Hmmm, alright. I had heard about that one and it does seem pretty sweet. I wanted to play the original game, but maybe I'll get around to do that once I'm familiar with the game through the SNES version.

Thanks!

 

[janior]

Get Llylgamyn Saga - snes version, it's much better and importing party is no problem.

Hmmm, alright. I had heard about that one and it does seem pretty sweet. I wanted to play the original game, but maybe I'll get around to do that once I'm familiar with the game through the SNES version.

Thanks!

theres nothing diffrent from the orginal, you just get nicer grafics and soundtrack

 

[BlackGoat]

I had to do some tricky shit to get importing working, but I was eventually able to do it. I'd have to go back thru this thread to see where I talked about it and what exactly I did, but it's not impossible.

For what it's worth, I rec PC-IBM over the snes version. Not because SNES is worse. It's fun and attractive and I think good for future playthrus. But it's just not the same. Something so much more pure about the PC-IBM version. For instance, the way the mapping spell works is completely different. Getting a coordinate versus actually seeing a map completely changes the feel of the game.

 

[janior]

There are some nice comparisons on hardcoregaming.

Spoiler

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/wizardry/wizardry5.htm

 

[BlackGoat]

myabandonware has what you need

I'd checked that site, but I'm worried about playing and not being able to import my party.

How would I go on to do that, once I'm finished with the first game?

To import your party, the instructions on this post did the trick. http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showpost.php?p=457664&postcount=17 (using the Wiz2.dsk from the Wizardry Archives). Bit of a pain in the ass, alas, but for me it was worth the trouble.

One of the things you want to make sure to do is make comprehensive backups of your saves. Wiz2 and Wiz3 have no character creation system, so if you lose your party in Wiz3, you'd theoretically have to go all the way back to Wiz1 and make a party from scratch. Which you're really not gonna want to do.

 

[octavius]

I don't recall the details am to lazy to look it up, but there are problems with at least some of the non-DOS and non-Apple versions of Wiz 1-5, like censorship and some redesigned levels. One platform also switches the sequence of 2 and 3.

Myself I prefer to use the Wizardry Archives version (from one of the abandonware sites) and using the D-Fend Reloaded version of DOSBox to play the games.

 

[an Administrator]

Wiz V runs fine on SNES emulator for me(android). Graphics are fine but the combat is ridiculously easy. Just click and win :/ is it harder on the DOS version?!

 

[octavius]

Wiz V runs fine on SNES emulator for me(android). Graphics are fine but the combat is ridiculously easy. Just click and win :/ is it harder on the DOS version?!

Don't know if it's harder, but combat in parts of the DOS version of Wiz 5 is very hard.

 

[Sigourn]

To import your party, the instructions on this post did the trick. http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showpost.php?p=457664&postcount=17 (using the Wiz2.dsk from the Wizardry Archives). Bit of a pain in the ass, alas, but for me it was worth the trouble.

One of the things you want to make sure to do is make comprehensive backups of your saves. Wiz2 and Wiz3 have no character creation system, so if you lose your party in Wiz3, you'd theoretically have to go all the way back to Wiz1 and make a party from scratch. Which you're really not gonna want to do.

Using the instructions on this post worked! I'm using the files from the Wizardry Archives. It was fast and easy, so thank you!

 

[Sentinel]

Honestly, this level scaling thing in Wiz8 is blown out of proportion all the time, the game just draws monsters from certain available pool based on the area and party level withing certain range.

This is exactly the definition of level scaling. Oblivion "draws monsters from certain available pool" too. Wizardry might have a level scaling cap, but you do not revisit early areas in late game anyway.

 

[an Administrator]

We don't revisit Savant Tower in late-game?! :/