It looks like I'm not the only having problems with the Wizardry Archives wrecking my stats whenever I level up. For a while I was backing up my saves and restoring when I got a lousy level-up, but then I thought, why not write a program to avoid the problem entirely?

What I'm working on is an external program that "levels up" your characters by hex-editing the save file. It does so as legitly as possible- it's not a character editor or a cheat program (well, not exactly), it merely simulates gaining a level. My equations and formulas are based on observation, so they're not perfect, but it's better than having your 15-year-old samurai die of old age because he lost thirteen points of Vitality in a row. Yes, I actually had that happen; fortunately, it was just a test character I was leveling up to research how samurai learn spells, but the point is, it can happen.

I was writing this program for my own use, as I'm playing the Wizardry Archives and didn't want to go through the horrible tedium of gaining non-destructive levels any more, but I thought that some of the folks here that are using the Archives might get some use out of it. If anyone's interested, please respond and I'll post a link to the program once it's finished (I'm almost done).

Any takers?

• I'd be interested ...,Llevram, 11:56 AM, Mar-05-03
• RE: Getting Around The Level Bug,dschrier (Guest), 03:21 PM, Apr-17-03
  • RE: Getting Around The Level Bug,Snafaru, 09:45 PM, May-10-03
    • RE: Getting Around The Level Bug,Dragon2k, 11:04 PM, May-10-03
• RE: Getting Around The Level Bug,ming, 12:00 PM, Sep-03-03
• RE: Getting Around The Level Bug,James (Guest), 04:52 AM, Feb-09-04
  • RE: Getting Around The Level Bug,Snafaru (Guest), 08:56 PM, Feb-09-04
• RE: Getting Around The Level Bug,John (Guest), 11:26 AM, Apr-16-04
  • That doesn't require a program,Scary, 07:58 AM, Apr-19-04

.. in your algorithm, on how you decide to do a "correct" level up. Asided from that, I see no point in just bending one rule, when you can bend them all

Tools for Wizardry(r) 7

Does anyone know if the screwed up random numbers occurs in the dosbox emulator?

If you mean the "Apple" emulator, like AppleWin: no, there is no bug, the level ups in the Adventurer's Inn work perfectly just like the original.

Besides, IMHO, everyone should play the Apple version of Wizardry 1 through 5 because it has 16 colours instead of boring IBM CGA 4-colors !!! and there are no bugs.

Snafaru

if you want color, the SNES has more than that
Wizardry 1 2 3 (J) (NP)

I'd certainly like a look at your program, so please do post the link.

A possible alternative: there's a program called "Flopper" (do a web search; it's freeware) which lets you run disk images of "boot-up floppies". So you can run replicas of the original Sir-Tech Wizardry games for the IBM-PC, (actually they ran on something called the P-System rather than MS-DOS, but that's irrelevent).

The first three of the series are out there (along with another 100 or so PC games from the 1980s), I've just started playing around with it, but from brief exposure, the leveling up on a contemporary PC (1.13 Ghz Athlon) seems pretty much like it used to be when I was playing Wiz I on 6 MHz PC-AT clone.

Also the first level of the maze is about as deadly to level 1 characters as I remember it being!

Disadvantages: if you're using flopper, you've basically got a old PC or XT on your desktop, no matter what your horsepower: MS-DOS, EGA graphics at best, no access to high memory, no multi-tasking. And you have to reboot to get back to Windows. And the program could use a few bells and whistles-- you can save the game file you're playing, for example, but you can't change its name from inside Flopper.

Consider giving it a try. The price is right, after all...

You know, you could always do this program as a patch for Wizardry 1-5 instead of as a seperate program, which I think would be much more convenient than having to exit the game to run a seperate program.

Others talk about the superior graphics of other Wizardry versions. That brings to mind a question: Why haven't there been any fan-made Wizardry upgrades like Ultima has gotten?

(Though personally, I would just want the level-fix patch, since I play the games primarily on an old 286 laptop that can't handle any graphics higher than CGA).

3 fan-made Wizardry scenarios with the Wizardry 1 engine on the Apple II emulator are here, with install instructions, emulator and player's guide:

http://www.iosphere.net/~eric/wizardry/

Enjoy!

Snafaru

I would be interested. What I'm even more interested in though is a way where I can change my chareter's alignment back. Do you know how to do that?

Changing alignment is relatively easy:
Go to Murphy's Ghost (this is chosen because it's an automatic encounter, every time; other than that, there is nothing special about the Murphy encounter with regard to changing alignment). You are looking for encounters in which the ghosts are "friendly" and you are given the option to fight or leave them alone.
(1) To change from "Good" to "Evil" alignment, choose to fight; each time you do this, it has a chance of turning a good character evil;
(2) To change from "Evil" to "Good" alignment, do just the opposite: "leave" every time you are given the option; each time you do this, it has a chance of turning an evil character good.
Note: neutral characters do not change alignment.