What would you CHANGE about Wiz8?

[Skrewloose]

I love the game, and spend nearly every waking moment I can get away with playing it, but there are a couple of things I would change about it. Sir-Tech can use this as advice for Wizardry 9 which I KNOW they are working on... right guys?!?! RIGHT, GUYS?!?!? [img]smile.gif[/img]

1. Shopping: A little bit of order in the sales menu would be nice. And add a few things that are always for sale, like ammunition. I should be able to buy decent amounts of the most current ammo for my party (i.e. have the ammo level up somewhat with my chars... regular stuff available for newbies, and medusa stones and mystic arrows available for a level 24 death squad). Also, Shurikens and various Throwing Knives should be available every time. I know I can browse and reload, or rest 24 hours, but that's a bit tedious just to make sure my ninja is well armed!

2. A touch of revamp on the Portal spells. Take a slight hint from Might and Magic 6-8 and give each caster a bit more variability. My level 20 guys shouldn't have to take an extra 10 minutes out of their harried schedule to kill a pack of 12 Higardi Bandits, and another pack of 10 Iron Weeds as they're walking to Arnika. These battles are just a formality at this point, and just serve to litter the road with leather hauberks and iron weed thorns. Keep Arnika Beautiful!!


Anyways, if those are the worst things I can find to whine about, then you KNOW you've done a tremendous job!

[Virgil]

My one complaint about the game is the variability of the combat system. Monsters are able to move twice during a round, and often times still attack. My guys, on the other hand, can only move once, and if we move more than half the bar, we most likely will not be able to attack.

Also, I'm at the stage now where many of my melee types have two attacks per round. If I'm fighting a lot of yard trash (rats and bats), that we can kill in two or three swings, my big guys (and gals) miss out on a lot of swings. For example, we're fighting five bats and six rats. My monk and rogue are fast, so they go first. Nothing is in range, so they sacrifice their attack. This also sacrifices their second attack. Next the bats go. Most are too far away, but one gets in range. My ranger shoots it twice for 25 points. RFS-81 whacks it twice and its dead. My fighter is next, but nothing is in range, so his turn is sacrificed. Now the rats go, and three get in range. Vi whacks one, my priest and mage both go. And that's it for the round. I've sacrificed 6 attacks: fighter, monk and rogue have lost two each. I know I can go into walk mode at the start of the turn and then cancel it, but I still end up losing one of each of their attacks.

What I'd like to see happen is if nothing is in range, my character goes into guard mode. As soon as something comes into range, they attack it. The original Pools of Radiance did this and it was cool. Or, if no guard mode, at least let them take their second attack even if they skipped their first one.

In spite of this gripe, I love the game and play it whenever I can.

[Vaprakgruumsh]

Let's see... what would I change...

Well... there's... no. That's good. Um. How about... er, no. Well then maybe... no, that's fine too.

Well, hell I love the game as it is!

My only thing I can think of, has to do with Portals. A way to remind yourself where you set the current portal. (Nothing like portalling back and not being where ya expected) [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Aeolian]

fewer crashes, lockups and stuff like that.

[Throg]

My only suggestions so far are pure cosmetic:

o Color: I'd like to see a bit more color in the character inventory screens. All those dull brown robes and armor and boots get me down. I yearn for the bright purple robes my wizards had in Wizards & Warriors!

o Dressing Up: I'd like to see my characters in the character inventory screens wearing their armor. My all female team occasionally likes to show off their new clothes.

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Throg
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[Merkin]

In several other rpg's you have the ability to delay your character's action until the end of the combat round. I would like to be able to do this with my ranger and my mage. I hate it when my ranger goes before my fighter, and kills the only available close-combat creature.

[Dan Speziale]

I agree about the movement. It would be nice not to sacrifice an attack, especially when the monsters move into range and I've just lost the chance to hit them.

I also agree about the Portals. What I've tried to do is to label the maps with a note about who's Portal goes where. However this really only works if you're in that area because you can't see the map for, say, Arnika when you're in Trynton. It would be nice to have a "Portal Page" that shows the working portals and where they exist, too.

I would love a spell that you cast and it gives you a map to pick a place to teleport to. But I suppose that I'm asking for a miracle there (unless there's a spell like this that I don't know of)!

I think the true miracle is that this game is just so flawless. I really can't think of a game I've played that didn't need a patch to work... and a patch that wasn't 25 to 50M in size! The minor "hologram" patch is so tiny that I could even download it from dial-up. Another miracle.

Dan

[madmarcos]

purely my opinion but...

1. move away from turn-based, player-reliant combat. go AI scripting, etc. human should get involved only to change figting parameters, cast specific spells, etc.

2. no more 1st person perspective for entire party. of course suddenly graphics processing becomes more burdened, but i would REALLY love to be able to see my party kick ass

3. more NPCs. bigger meatier towns

4. more drama.

hate to say it but the era of the classic CRPG is gone. wizardry has other RPGs beat when it comes to character classes, races, skills, and spells. but it needs to evolve.

[judee]

Sorry, madmarcos, but I completely disagree with your number two comment.

Get rid of first person? If that's what you want, there's plenty of other games out there, Baldurs Gate, Arcanum, etc. For me, First person is what makes this game. I've been waiting for this since I finished the Might and Magic series.

If it had been another BG clone, I wouldn't be sitting here playing it till all hours of the night, that's for sure!

[img]smile.gif[/img] To each his/her own.

judee

[Dajjer]

quote:

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Originally posted by madmarcos:
purely my opinion but...

1. move away from turn-based, player-reliant combat. go AI scripting, etc. human should get involved only to change figting parameters, cast specific spells, etc.

2. no more 1st person perspective for entire party. of course suddenly graphics processing becomes more burdened, but i would REALLY love to be able to see my party kick ass

3. more NPCs. bigger meatier towns

4. more drama.

hate to say it but the era of the classic CRPG is gone. wizardry has other RPGs beat when it comes to character classes, races, skills, and spells. but it needs to evolve.

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Yes, it is your opinion, but thank God, the Wiz 8 game designers were not listening to someone like you during the design process.

The vast bulk of the RPG's on the market are iso or overhead perspective, so clearly there is room for first person. And the same goes for turn based games. Ultimately, a games designer's obligation is to make the game fun, there is no mandate to evolve the genre. And thank goodness the good game designers only care about good game play and not evolution (Sid Meir and Will Wright come to mind.)