Well, it looks like my quest is at an end in Wiz 4, at level 4 - The Maze of Wandering -, which Crooked Bee described thus:
It also broke crpgaddict's morale when he peeked at the map in a walkthrough.
My experience is somewhat different.
When I first entered the level, I saved and quit, then reloaded and started exploring. I soon discovered that walls would change position as I moved in the maze, seemingly trapping me. I even found the cage where it "looks like you have found a new way to spend eternity". However, when I Camp and exit the menu, the walls will shift again, so the Cage and the area north of where you enter the level are not really dead ends. But to further complicate it, when I reload the game now the walls don't shift the same way they did when I first loaded the level. So my party is stuck after only two moves! But if I load the game, go down the stairs and up again, the walls shift again.
This must be a bug, right? If not I don't see how you can get through the whole level in one go, if you need to "reactive" the whole level by going down the stairs and coming up again. I tried saving in the small area after the first two steps from the stairs, but the walls still don't shift. Entering and exiting the Camp menu does not help either.
Also it seems that every time I load the game I meet enemies sooner and there are more of them each time. First time I explored a good deal before even encountering enemies, but now the enemas pop up after two steps and there are four of them instead of just one. And they all cast insta-kill spells and move before my own guys. And the Lakanito spell that worked so well on the level below is now totally useless; none of them are affected anymore.
EDIT: I noticed the game saves the SAVE4.DSK when quitting the game, so it looks like it punishes you further every time you need to reload.
EDIT2: I loaded a save right before heading up to lvl 4, and it had the same result: the level becomes static once I save and reload. What a shame, as this level looks like the ultimate mapping challenge.
I tried googling it, but can't find mentions of others having this problem. I can guess most players never got this far, and of those that did not many played the DOS version.
this level is nightmare material. In fact, it is probably the most difficult to map in any CRPG that I know of. I can almost picture Roe R. Adams going "you may have gotten this far but it will be as far as you go" and laughing maniacally when designing it.
It also broke crpgaddict's morale when he peeked at the map in a walkthrough.
My experience is somewhat different.
When I first entered the level, I saved and quit, then reloaded and started exploring. I soon discovered that walls would change position as I moved in the maze, seemingly trapping me. I even found the cage where it "looks like you have found a new way to spend eternity". However, when I Camp and exit the menu, the walls will shift again, so the Cage and the area north of where you enter the level are not really dead ends. But to further complicate it, when I reload the game now the walls don't shift the same way they did when I first loaded the level. So my party is stuck after only two moves! But if I load the game, go down the stairs and up again, the walls shift again.
This must be a bug, right? If not I don't see how you can get through the whole level in one go, if you need to "reactive" the whole level by going down the stairs and coming up again. I tried saving in the small area after the first two steps from the stairs, but the walls still don't shift. Entering and exiting the Camp menu does not help either.
Also it seems that every time I load the game I meet enemies sooner and there are more of them each time. First time I explored a good deal before even encountering enemies, but now the enemas pop up after two steps and there are four of them instead of just one. And they all cast insta-kill spells and move before my own guys. And the Lakanito spell that worked so well on the level below is now totally useless; none of them are affected anymore.
EDIT: I noticed the game saves the SAVE4.DSK when quitting the game, so it looks like it punishes you further every time you need to reload.
EDIT2: I loaded a save right before heading up to lvl 4, and it had the same result: the level becomes static once I save and reload. What a shame, as this level looks like the ultimate mapping challenge.
I tried googling it, but can't find mentions of others having this problem. I can guess most players never got this far, and of those that did not many played the DOS version.
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