Each Wizardry 8 Monster has four levels in the database. For example, a Savant Trooper might have levels 4, 7, 8 and 9.Does anyone know what these level values mean?
The third one is usually the level listed for the monster in game. At least that is what I see on Expert difficulty. However, I am equally sure that this is not true 100% of the time.
One theory I read elsewhere is that the first three are the level of the creature on Easy, Normal and Expert difficulty setting. But I do not see differences in level when I change difficulty setting in game (even allowing time to go by, changing zones etc.) and, besides, some monsters have a higher value in the second slot than in the third, which means they would be tougher on Normal than on Expert, which makes no sense.
I thought that perhaps the numbers had something to do with when the monsters were encountered in game. So, for example, the first number was the minimum level and the second was the maximum. But I do not see that in game either.
The only other 'clue' I have is that unique monsters and monsters that are actually NPCs (e.g. Sgt Kunar) have the same number of all four level slots. This suggests that the numbers provide some form or variety between monsters in a group, since it is suggesting that the values make no difference when there is only one monster. But, as far as have observed, monsters of a certain type are always the same level.
Has anyone figured it out?
LAST EDITED ON Aug-10-06 AT 09:53 AM (Pacific)I would still only consider myself an amateur with this game but if I recall correctly the monsters do level-up while you do. So while your levels are very-low there is probably a good chance you'll only run into enemies with the lower notch in the level ladder. And as your level goes up so does that level ladder, although there will still be random lower and higher levels here and there. And if I have read other peoples posts correctly, the monsters in a particular map area will be seeded in/out of the map based on how your level is. I think Ascension Peak is an example with earlier on there are slightly weaker monsters there and later on some of the most challenging guys are present. Again I haven't really done a whole lot of testing of this myself. Hope this somewhat helped.
You are correct, but that is not the answer.For some monsters the game actually has more than one entry in the monster database. For example, Higardi Highwaymen have both level 7 and level 9 entries (IIRC). As the part levels up you are more likely to meet the higher level type.
Unfortunately, this has nothing to do with the four level numbers attached to each monster. Higardi Highwaymen can be either level 7 or level 9, but in the editor there are other level values that are not used. For example, the level 7 Higardi Highwaymen have levels 4, 6, 7 and 8 in the editor. The third value is their displayed level, but what the others are is a mystery.
I read elsewhere that the first value might be the effective level used by the game when calculating resistance to spells. This is possible, but it still leave two unknown values to figure out.