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Zombra
Eager Tradesman
Joined: 23 Jan 2002
Posts: 41
Location: Green Snake Fortress |
| Mini-Dungeons? *possible spoiler* |
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I haven't played W8 in quite a while. I stopped playing it some time last year when a bug made all my RPCs disappear, one by one.
I have now restarted with a fresh party. I remember wayyyy back when when I used to post on the Looking Glass (?) boards all the time and there was a lot of talk about 'mini-dungeons', these three weird secret easter egg dungeons.
I missed them completely the first time through and want to check them out on this go-round.
Where are they and what do I need to do?
Thanks in advance
Zombra |
Tue Sep 10, 2002 4:18 pm |
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dteowner
Shoegazer
Joined: 21 Mar 2002
Posts: 7570
Location: Third Hero of Erathia |
http://www.tk421.net/wizardry/
Look for "rune puzzle" under Wiz8.
_________________
=Proud Member of the Non-Flamers Guild=
=Benevolent Dictator, X2/X3 and Morrowind/Oblivion Forums=
Sorry. No pearls of wisdom in this oyster.
RIP Red Wings How 'Bout Dem Cowboys! |
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Tue Sep 10, 2002 5:00 pm |
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Zombra
Eager Tradesman
Joined: 23 Jan 2002
Posts: 41
Location: Green Snake Fortress |
Thanks. Found the first one, anyway, just fine.
Incidentally, for anyone just browsing the thread, I have a comment regarding these mini-dungeons. If you ever want to see them, I would follow dteowner's link above. Generally, I don't like spoilers in games, and my usual attitude is, "If I'm lucky and observant I'll find or figure it out myself." Regarding the three easter egg dungeons, there is no way in a million years that anybody is going to just happen to stumble across these. At least, the first one.
Okay. Now for my next question: is there any particular point to these dungeons? I've been through most of the first one, I believe. I've picked a bunch of locks and fought a bunch of tough monsters (how can I be afraid of Crimson Poppies any more after facing down three Moraxes?), stepped through a bunch of mushroom teleporters and picked up a few (very few) pieces of fairly expensive but boring treasure. I did find a cursed sword that isn't any too great. A renewal potion and a resurrection scroll are nice. But is there anything really wacky or valuable in these places or are they basically just extra xp farms?
Thanks again
Zombra[/i] |
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Thu Sep 12, 2002 4:59 pm |
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dteowner
Shoegazer
Joined: 21 Mar 2002
Posts: 7570
Location: Third Hero of Erathia |
First, a little history for you- when the game was released, most of the design team was active on another board (they're not there anymore, nor an I because that board pretty well blows now, particularly compared to ours here  ). Anyway, shortly after the game was released, questions started popping up about the rune puzzles. The design team completely and totally refused to say anything beyond the runes being part of an easter egg. After about two weeks, two dedicated gamers with a trainer manually equipped every item in the game to determine which ones they needed for each puzzle. Once that info got out, it was another couple weeks before maps started showing up.
The point of the dungeons is a gift to long-time fans of the Wizardry series. Back in the day, RPGs were grid based, and you didn't play one without a pad of graph paper next to your keyboard. Every step had to be meticulously mapped out. The "retro" dungeons would have been state-of-the-art back around the time of Wizardry1. For Wiz8 gamers, beyond the walk down memory lane, the dungeons are pretty much XP farms (to borrow your phrase). In round numbers, the graveyard is suitable for a level 10 party, the northern wilderness for level 12, and the mountain wilderness for level 15. The boss battle in the mountain wilderness dungeon will challenge the most skilled gamer...
_________________
=Proud Member of the Non-Flamers Guild=
=Benevolent Dictator, X2/X3 and Morrowind/Oblivion Forums=
Sorry. No pearls of wisdom in this oyster.
RIP Red Wings How 'Bout Dem Cowboys! |
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Thu Sep 12, 2002 5:57 pm |
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Bilbo
High Emperor
Joined: 12 Mar 2002
Posts: 1620
Location: New York |
I thoroughly agree with everything Dteowner says except for 1 thing: The graphics in the easter egg dungeons go beyond what was state of the art at the time Wiz1 was originally released. Sir-Tech didn't want to go too primitive on players who weren't even born when Wiz1 was released.
_________________
The world itself shifts and changes and fades to mist like the strings of a minstrel's harp, and mayhap the dreams we forge are more enduring than the works of kings and gods.-Robert E. Howard
=Member of the RPGDot Shadows, The Nonflamers' Guild, and The Alliance of Middle Earth= |
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Sat Sep 14, 2002 4:14 pm |
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Zombra
Eager Tradesman
Joined: 23 Jan 2002
Posts: 41
Location: Green Snake Fortress |
In a way, that's kinda too bad ... I would have loved to see incredibly primitive looking monsters wandering around, teleporting from square to square, while the party (still in 3D, of course) freaked out about the alienness of the place.
Then again, if I remember right there weren't actually monster graphics at all in W1, were there? Just text ... |
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Sat Sep 14, 2002 11:14 pm |
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otter
One of Us
Joined: 28 Jun 2002
Posts: 1337
Location: Portland, OR |
I got into the one in the Northern Wilds my first game, without any help. I had no idea what i was doing. I usually play new games at least twice before looking for tips or spoilers. I didn't even connect the Runes with the dungeon--i thought i didn't find them all, so nothing happened. When i noticed my cursor turning into a hand, i thought that's all it took to activate the thing (and i still had my Psi's Short Staff), so my second game i didn't get in there at all. My first game, i went North straight out of the Monastery and even went up to meet Bela, the only time i didn't keep the wall to my right was where the path splits; i saw a green dot, so i went up there.
Anyway, the auto-leveler made the Dungeon lots more dangerous than my L10 at the time, but it was quite amusing so i went painstakingly through anyway... |
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Sat Sep 14, 2002 11:27 pm |
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Bilbo
High Emperor
Joined: 12 Mar 2002
Posts: 1620
Location: New York |
quote:
Originally posted by Zombra
In a way, that's kinda too bad ... I would have loved to see incredibly primitive looking monsters wandering around, teleporting from square to square, while the party (still in 3D, of course) freaked out about the alienness of the place.
Then again, if I remember right there weren't actually monster graphics at all in W1, were there? Just text ...
No, there were always pictures. Depending on what platform you played it, you did get graphics. A short history lesson for you:
In the original Apple ][ Version (which was the original platform), the maze was in a tiny box in the upper left corner. When you had an encounter, the maze disappeared and a picture of one of the monsters from the first monster group appeared. At the end of combat, if there was a chest, a picture of a chest would appear there. After you disarmed the chest or if there was no chest, then there would be a pile of loot.
Wiz3 shifted it to a full screen maze format (dubbed Window Wizardry), with windows that were superimposed that could be turned on/off to show things like your party status, the command keys, etc. I don't believe for the Apple ][ platform that they ever re-released 1 and 2 in the new format. Wiz 3-5 were all in the same windows format. Other differences include: all monster groups were shown (i.e. if you were fighting 3 groups, you saw 3 pictures, one for each group), and monster group pictures would disappear once you killed them.
By the time the Macintosh came out, they were already up to Wiz3. Same format for all 3 games, which were available right from the start of the Mac. Everything was in separate windows, that you could resize and place whereever you wanted. I believe that Wiz 4 & 5 were released for the Mac using the same style, but I never saw them.
I never played the older Wizardrys on a PC until a few years ago (thanks to Interplay for the Ultimate Wizardry Archives). Wiz 1-5 on this disk used the same graphics I described in Wiz3 for the Apple ][ line. I don't know what the original PC games for Wiz 1 & Wiz 3 looked like, but I doubt they were in this format. These were the days pre-Windows and pre-Mac, and Xerox was the only company making stuff using windows.
Wiz6 changed the landscape completely, into a modern full screen format. For the first time, you were "stuck" with the party you started with (no substituting characters at will). Wiz7 continued the trend with improved graphics and a huger scope. All turns were still 90%, and monsters and NPCs appeared out of thin air.
In the 20 years since 1981 when Wiz1 first appeared, to 2001 when Wiz8 was released, it was a time of great change in graphics and computer's capabilities. But it was a fun ride all the way through.
_________________
The world itself shifts and changes and fades to mist like the strings of a minstrel's harp, and mayhap the dreams we forge are more enduring than the works of kings and gods.-Robert E. Howard
=Member of the RPGDot Shadows, The Nonflamers' Guild, and The Alliance of Middle Earth= |
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Mon Sep 16, 2002 5:30 pm |
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