Eagerly Waiting

[Rathswid]

I just bought the game online after reading through countless reviews and many threads in this forum. Over the years, I’ve learned to take game reviews with a grain of salt. The problem with reviews is it’s, all too often, painfully obvious that the reviewer hasn’t really played the game for any significant amount of time before writing his/her review. Well I started to get that impression the more reviews I read on this game. And I haven’t even played the game yet. [img]smile.gif[/img]

I typically hold forums such as this as my determining factor on the worthiness of any game. I must say that it’s a very good sign when I see posts at recent as today regarding a game that’s nearly 4 years old. Reminds me of the game Demise.

Anyway, this is my first post and I just wanted to get my feelers out and ask a few questions even though I’ve yet to play the game. I am running WinXP and have already read all the fixes and workarounds to getting the game running so hopefully I won’t have any technical questions in the coming days.

I’ve read quite a bit on guilds and changing character classes but I haven’t seen anything dealing specifically with character levels in regards to changing professions. At what level do you typically make these changes? For example, if I have a Wizard, at what level would you recommend upgrading him to a Warlock?

Also, what is the max character level that’s attainable in the game and at what level are you, roughly, when you reach the end game?

I realize these questions may be easily answered once I actually start playing but I couldn’t help asking. I won’t get the game for another 3-4 days so I’m a little anxious. [img]smile.gif[/img]

I appreciate any feedback and look forward to future discussions.

[ 11-19-2003, 12:31 PM: Message edited by: Rathswid ]

[bsftcs]

Welcome to the board, Rathswid. [img]graemlins/happywave.gif[/img] It is always nice to meet new fans of our favourite game. Especially one who is a fan without having played the game. [img]smile.gif[/img] May the game prove to be everything you expect.

Reading the topics in various forums is a very commendable method of assessing a game before buying it. And as you can see we are still clinging to this four year old game.

The subject of role ascensions is a very delicate matter, and everybody has his or her favourite method. I personally change the role of my characters only once and then keep that role. If you use the forum search option you will find an ocean of topics dealing with this matter.

There is not limit to the attainable level of a character, but each time a character changes role the level is reset. Also a character cannot go back to a previous role once the character has taken on another.

As you have probably discovered there are three special roles in the game.

Keep us posted on your progress (once you get the game [img]smile.gif[/img] ). And may you feel at home at the forum. These people are the best. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Wyvern]

Welcome to the board, Rathswid!!!

Reviews are meant to be taken with a BIG grain of salt! I rarely trust them unless I have followed the reviews of a particular reviewer for a long enough time to understand how their and my tastes in games are similar or different.

You'll find a wealth of information on this board and lots of friendly help to answer your questions.

One of the great things about this game is the flexibility of character development - there are so many possibilities and it is near impossible to make a mistake! My general rule of thumb as to when to change class is as follows: For magic users learning a new school of magic - I won't change them until they have learned all the spells I want them to learn (there are some spells which are not worth learning at all). You can, however, change a Wizard to a Warlock earlier than that implies with no problems, the wizard will continue to learn the spells he/she was learning. Fighter types I generally will switch earlier than magic users. There are advantages to changing a warrior into a barbarian or paladin at a lower level than you might consider changing those learning magic spells.

The best advice any of us can give you is SAVE SAVE SAVE - multiple saves. Try something, if you don't like it, reload the save prior to the changes. This is a very flexible game and lots of fun!

Do keep us posted on how your game is going once you finally get it!!

Wyv

[Bungleau]

Welcome to the board, Rathswid! May the mention of your name cause your enemies to drop dead from fear throughout the Gael Serran.

As I'm fond of saying, there ain't no wrong way to play this game...

No max level (I think Felix was close to a level 200 assassin) in this game, unlike others. I generally finish around level 20, but I change character classes fairly frequently.

Magic is tricky. There are a couple of posts in the forum about when to change classes for magic users. It helps if you realize that there are two types of spell schools -- native schools and foreign schools.

Native schools, like sun and stone for wizards, vine and spirit for priests, sun for samurai, vine for ranger, and so on, are ones where you can learn a given spell level (say, 7) if you are that level character and have that level spell skill. A 7th level wizard with level 7 in sun magic can learn firestorm.

Foreign schools are ones not native for your class. Vine, spirit, moon, and fiend are foreign schools for a wizard. In a foreign school, you get a 50% penalty. So a 7th level samurai trying to learn vine spells could only learn level 3 spells. At 8th level, he could also pick up level 4.

There's a catch: You can't learn level 7 spells in a foreign school unless you have level 14 sorcery (in addition to being level 14). Now, as I'm writing this, I'm getting confused as to whether you need level 14 sorcery or level 14 in the spell school. And you know, dagnabbit, that I just can't remember. So I take the easy way out -- I stay in a native school until I've got the level 7 spells, because I can always learn the other ones later on without too much difficulty. So my wizards tend to stay wizards until around level 13 or 14, when I've gotten all the level 7 stone and sun spells.

Aside from that, the reasons to stay in a particular class usually involve staying around for a particular trait. The most important one in my book is Fletchery, which comes to a warriors' guild level 5 ranger. The Zenmaster's enlightenment is also pretty cool.

Anywaywhohow, there are no wrong ways to play the game. No matter what you do, you can continue on and finish the game. We should know... we've tried just about everything, including stacking up stoned monsters to reach the highest summits [img]smile.gif[/img]

So go! Have fun! Play a bit, and come on in to tell us how it's going!

*aside to board regulars* okay, new odds. If he hasn't read the best tips thread thoroughly, 9 to 1 he gets stuck in the crypt entrance...

[Rathswid]

Wow. Thanks for all the feedback guys. [img]smile.gif[/img]

This sounds great. The more complexity the better. I just finished Wizardry 8 and my biggest complaint there was that it was too short. And the multi classing in Wizardry 8 leaves a lot to be desired but WW sounds like a nice system. I'm dying to get started.

This game sounds like its right up my alley. I think the more recent releases of CRPG's have lost the appeal that I grew accustomed to from the old days. Newer titles seem to be getting away from deep and complex character development and more into flashy graphics and simplistic game play. I loved the Wizardry and Might & Magic series and WW seems to be in that mentality of game play.

Anyone ever play Demise? That’s another deeply misunderstood masterpiece. If you haven’t played it, I would highly recommend giving it a try.

I’m hoping the game arrives this weekend but I think next Monday or Tuesday is probably a little more realistic. I will give you a report once I get started. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[the mighty stamar]

Hmmm...

I would not say the length of wizards and warriors is even half that of wizardry 8.

There are three main land areas, one of them being small. eight or so dungeons...


I liked the game a lot dont get me wrong. But if I had to play it all again... a first time.. I would start out with four or fewer characters to try to give the game more challenge. Even set at hard your characters quickly whoop ass on everything.

You will find wizardry 8 is set much harder in the monster combats. It is different in a lot of ways.

[Rathswid]

For me, Wizardry 8 had about 40-50 hours of game time the first time through. I could have sworn I read on these forums that WW had about 120 hours of game play but I could easily be remembering wrong.

Anyway, I will take your word for it as I have still yet to even install the game. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[the mighty stamar]

No it is more in the 25 hour range.

Wizardry 7 might have been that long.

[So So]

All in all the game is very interesting to say the least. While there isn't a max level that a character can attain, it is pretty difficult to get through the game without reseting your character's role. Also it is difficult to get beyond a character level of 200 quickly without really exploiting some major bugs in the game and killing a few "good guys".

I also remember reading that it has over 120 hours of game play, but most of the time it would only take about 20-30 hours to completely beat the game...Although the current record I believe is under 2 hours to complete the game by just going through the major/"important" parts...