Let's Play - Wizard's Crown: Completed!

[DaveO]

Let me get the obligatory image and review links out of the way 1st...

http://www.stageselect.com/12510-wizards-crown.aspx
Box Art

http://pdf.textfiles.com/zines/CGW/1986 ... ssue31.pdf
1986 CGW review of the game from Scorpia(she closed her site earlier this year)


Zero time spent on gameplayer, but probably too much detail in commentary(over 30 minutes) about the game and its influence. I thought about holding off the LP thread until there were not so many remaining on the first page of the Codex. I figured I might as well start since there are very likely fewer days remaining ahead then I have behind me. The updates won't be as often as Phantasie I, so if I go a while without replying it won't mean I've abandoned the game. 100+ hours for this game for sure, so hopefully just the overview, dungeons, and commentary will be sufficient.

 

[Wyrmlord]

DaveO, you have my approval for this LP.

Waiting for everybody else's.

This is bloody Wizard's Crown, people!

 

[DaveO]

The menu shows the game name as Wizards's Crown, and that's not the only bug with the game. There will be at least four overview videos without even taking a step into the town north of Arghan. But it's worth it since Wikipedia is a lousy resource for the game, and I felt it was necessary to provide the amount of overview detail I did.

 

[Ladonna]

Wow, someone actually LP's some oldschool games. Looking forward to seeing these videos for sure.

 

[Luzur]

OOORRAAAAA

 

[Weresloth]

Very fun game was wizards crown if i recall, and seeing that 2nd link brought back memories of 'Roadwar 2000'! I really liked roadwar 2000. So many great games from that era.

 

[DaveO]

Just a quickie overview of the outside map courtesy of Andrew Schultz.

 

[Country_Gravy]

Wizard's Crown is a fantastic game. It's sequel The Eternal Dagger was a great game as well. The C64 was just a great machine.

Roadwar 2000 is available as abandonware. I played it not too long ago and it still holds up. Tactical combat games like this just don't exist anymore. When was the last one? Temple of Elemental Evil?

 

[Zeus]

Hell yeah. This game laid the groundwork for the Gold Box combat system, right?

I'll get the popcorn.

 

[DaveO]

That's correct. The combat system is the one that led to the Gold Box games. I think the GB games just used a very refined version of the combat system here. I'm sure veterans can clarify which pieces were used again later.

 

[PorkaMorka]

fyi I am getting a little fortune city graphic instead of the image you were trying to post

 

[Lord Rocket]

Wizard's Crown is a wicked game. Every time I try to play it I get my arse handed to me unless I use the quick combat function, however, so some tips on combat would be greatly appreciated.

 

[DaveO]

The link below should take you to where you can click on the map image.
http://www.fortunecity.com/banners/inte ... /wcout.gif
You'll have to skip the Fortunecity ad to see the picture.

There will definitely be commentary about the combat system. It is 95% of the game after all.

 

[DaveO]

I underestimated how long it would take to get the entire collection of videos I've done encoded and uploaded. YouTube is acting like its standard failure in taking its sweet time to upload the videos. I should have links to all six of the overview videos later.

P.S. - I had videos of Savage Empire and X-Wing that I needed to upload.

 

[Ladonna]

I underestimated how long it would take to get the entire collection of videos I've done encoded and uploaded. YouTube is acting like its standard failure in taking its sweet time to upload the videos. I should have links to all six of the overview videos later.

P.S. - I had videos of Savage Empire and X-Wing that I needed to upload.

Throw up a link to the Savage Empire videos.

 

[DaveO]

All 18 Savage Empire videos??? I'll do it, but people may not like it since I have no commentary on it.

 

[Ladonna]

All 18 Savage Empire videos??? I'll do it, but people may not like it since I have no commentary on it.

Or keep it a secret until you do an LP...Are you just taking random videos? Or is this a "something I prepared earlier" thing?

Sorry, don't want to interrupt your WC playthrough.

 

[DaveO]

Well, I have no intention of doing a LP thread of Savage Empire on the Codex. I feel that only people with a lot of experience playing the game should do LP threads. That's probably why 90% of the LP threads fail here because people think they can choose a random RPG, do a LP thread, and then abandon it usually about a month or earlier into the replay. I've finished Savage Empire once, so I'm not a good choice to create a LP thread for it.

I've had the experience in managing my LP projects, although there is a price to pay for trying to do too much. Below are the overview videos for Wizard's Crown. If you don't want to listen to my voice for over 40 minutes, you can skip the videos.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1UFLH2b ... annel_page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FBULUGc ... annel_page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vusM-eFW ... annel_page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4NF3Wy5 ... annel_page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qba86mXH ... annel_page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBx-3mLf ... annel_page

 

[DaveO]

If Wizard's Crown bores you, then you have 18 Savage Empire videos that you may enjoy. It's a work-in-progress that I've progressed a few hours into.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZMIztBM ... annel_page
Intro

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjW5nzmF ... annel_page
Gameplay video #1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXVzBFSk ... annel_page
Gameplay video #2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJQ6YQCr ... annel_page
Gameplay video #3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiUOxrNI ... annel_page
Gameplay video #4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWHUxK4r ... annel_page
Gameplay video #5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTEMDcKB ... annel_page
Gameplay video #6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z5Ynwzy ... annel_page
Gameplay video #7

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9XOd3y1 ... annel_page
Gameplay video #8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X8GoSMQ ... annel_page
Gameplay video #9

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqHwhri8 ... annel_page
Gameplay video #10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=In7TI_Aq ... annel_page
Gameplay video #11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmsIl4mX ... annel_page
Gameplay video #12

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXzY8IKB ... annel_page
Gameplay video #13

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6qvTH9z ... annel_page
Gameplay video #14

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWDBgqSL ... annel_page
Gameplay video #15

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku8WHKou ... annel_page
Gameplay video #16

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k1KVGXL ... annel_page
Gameplay video #17


If you're still bored, I have a whole bunch of other videos and playlists on my channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/DaveCaspermeyer
Yes, the channel name is my real name not some sort of alt or alias.

 

[DaveO]

All eight characters have been created. It took some time due to randomization of combat skills, but I got what I wanted. I'll post videos of before and after skills since 20 experience points can give quite a bit of a boost in regards to skills. I also did a semi 'dummy' character skim where I dumped all 18 available slots in the inn with Brigantine, filled a few characters with heavy crossbows to sell(if they had small or one medium item), and gave Brigantine as armor to sell for seven of the eight characters. That should give us a bit of an early boost, but I'm not sure if a haggle score of 100 is realistic at the end of the first day. Given that our best haggler has a skill value of 36, I expect roughly maybe 40-50 experience points to get us to 100 on Haggle. All new characters start with a base of 20 experience points. My plan is to not save unless I get a 7 or 8 skill improvement on the early skill development.

 

[DaveO]

It turned out that our party was good enough to get a few victorious fights. The third fight against multiple thugs was a challenge since our group got ambushed.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Yl3_0K9 ... annel_page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Kt8F-Ta ... annel_page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06dI-xWn ... annel_page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6sP3hAj ... annel_page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qOL91eX ... annel_page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDcHJaLo ... annel_page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAwo9P26 ... annel_page

 

[SkeleTony]

Love the videos(watched all 6 overview, the two "New PArty creation" videos and the first 3 'Let's Play' videos) but I have this issue with YouTube videos and them halting at random spots during play and taking from 3-12 minutes to stop spinning their wheels and get going again.

 

[DaveO]

I rescued the young girl in town. I recorded over 20 minutes, but did not get any commentary so I won't bother posting to YouTube. I also got the +2 broadsword for Kingcomrade as the reward for the rescue. I'm still cleaning up the town, so that will probably take another game day to get the reward for that. I'm splitting up skills for characters to improve on early, and checked Eternal Dagger to see what its starting characters have for skills. I saw that Awareness is more important than Scan, and I'll probably improve Luck before Shield for the front-line Priests. Luzur is concentrating on maximum Haggle, and Kingcomrade just started improving Search. High scores on Search and Haggle early means a better chance to find good treasure.

 

[DaveO]

I finished the first day in game time. 11 fights for 13 morale loss, but almost 100 experience points. As your group gets better, you're forced to trek into Arghan and eventually do night fights since areas start to get cleared in the daytime. I don't have Turn Undead developed yet, so the second day may include attempts to go after brigands north of the town. My current plan is to have a video update every five days of game time. Once we start accumulating gold for weapon improvements and have good weapons to improve, the updates will happen every ten days of game time.

 

[DaveO]

Five videos to update things, and I will record each dungeon so that it's preserved for any future players.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s41BO37X ... annel_page
Rescuing the young girl - No audio commentary

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYSRGNtC ... annel_page
Getting the +2 broadsword

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_-FrGra ... annel_page
Day 1 overview Part 1 of 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnplYnFw ... annel_page
Day 1 overview Part 2 of 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6ZQ0Nfg ... annel_page
Day 1 overview Part 3 of 3