The "New" effect

[Ziggurat]

I first noticed something along these lines in Wiz 7.

When you learn a new spell, get a new instrument, or meet a new monster, you will have more difficulty in the first few tries than later, even on the same game day. I call it the "familiarity" or "new" factor but I'm sure there is a better name for it.

For example, when you first battle Crimson Poppies they are unidentified. They tend to be more dangerous until you can name them. OK, that one is easy. Identification lets you somehow take advantage of their physical or magical weaknesses. Hmm, not obvious how this works, though.

Ok, harder is why a new instrument often backires or malfunctions on first use but is almost smooth sailing later, even on the same day when used later. The level "cast" seems lower then when you have tried it maybe 5, 10 or 15 times. You can cast much higher music spells even when your music stats have barely changed (say, from music ability 52 to 54).

OK, I'll leave the discussion here. Any comments?

Do you mean Wiz8???

[Ziggurat]

Yes, Wiz 7 and now Wiz 8. Didn't notice the effect in Wiz 6.

[Scatter]

might have something to do with your Skill scores going up, that's what i've noticed; not that just because something is new to me i can't deal with it as well...

[vesselle]

hrmmm... i haven't noticed that effect in my humongous number of restarts.
my experience has been more like, my skill stats govern how often i mess up the skill. i'd even say that, for the first few days of using something new, i usually do rather well with it. well, except for the fact that i can't use it too many times before i must rest to renew it.

V***V

[Riftmaker]

The whole monster thing doesn't really exist in wiz7. In wiz7, a 'black bird' can be a raven, a night rook, a vampire rook, a spectral raven, or a fire rook (in case you didn't notice, those are listed in order of difficulty). These monsters all have static stats, and their difficulty doesn't change with the number of times you run into them.

As for the monsters in Wiz8, I don't really notice a difference. For that matter, I don't really notice a difference with instrument usage either. All I really notice is that the smaller the music / level difference is between the required amounts and the actual amounts the more often the instrument will mess up.

[babar]

I noticed one time on expert, if you have a lousy party that repeatedly beats a superior group (judged according to levels and presence of menancing combat music), the computer starts sending more of the same until you get it in your head to run away (or die).