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Wizardry, Wizardry Gold, Wizardry VII and Crusaders of the Dark Savant are registered trademarks of Sir-Tech software, Inc. Reg'd TM in Canada and other countries. Crusaders of the Dark Savant and Wizardry Gold application software are copyright by Sir-Tech software, Inc. and D.W. Bradley. |
Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Thanks
1.2 Disclaimer
1.3 System Requirements
1.4 Copyright notice
1.5 Gold vs. Crusaders
1.6 Intent
2. GETTING STARTED
2.1 About this Document
2.2 Install
2.3 Launch
3. SETTINGS
3.1 Quantity
3.2 Equipped/Not Equipped
3.3 Character Portraits
3.4 Items
3.5 Path
4. CHOOSING YOUR SAVEGAME
FILE
4.1 Exiting the Application
4.2 Saving your changes
5. CHARACTER SELECTION
5.1 Base Statistics
5.2 Skills
5.3 Spells
5.4 Items
7. HOW TO
7.1 Making a Backup
7.2 Creating a Shortcut
7.3 Giving Different
Quantities of Items
7.4 Changing Your Display
Settings
and especially
and a special thanks to
Users are encouraged to send submissions and error fixes to the author, but the author is in no way obligated to utilize these enhancements or implement fixes to the errors.
Note: It is STRONGLY suggested that you make a backup copy of
any file you intend to modify, before using this editor (or any other).
See Making a Backup in the How
To section later in this document for instructions on how to do
so.
This document can not be included in any publication, such as, but not limited to: magazines, books, newspapers or newsletters, or any magnetic media without the written permission of the author.
This software can not be included in any software compilation using magnetic media such as, but not limited to: CD-ROM, tape backup, optical disks, hard disks or floppy disks, without the written permission of the author.
This software can not be recompiled, modified or not, and distributed
without the written permission of the author.
There are very few things you cannot do with this utility. You can change just about every important statistic about your character, that cannot be easily changed in the game. So rather than list all the things you can do, I'll take the short route and tell you what you cannot do.
You cannot change the MKS (Monster Kill Statistic), sorry I won't lie for you. If you want higher MKS numbers, then go kill more monsters. I won't cure you or bring you back from the dead – you can do that in the game. And if you cannot, well, then I can be of help there – just go give someone the resurrect spell or cure poison or whatever you need to fix it, in the game. I'm not Scotty, so I won't beam you up (and put you back down somewhere else).
You can, however, heal and rest quickly with this utility. Simply pressing DONE on the Base Statistics and Spells screens will set the current character's health, stamina and spell points to 100%. I never intended this to be a feature, it kind of slipped through - you're welcome.
As for other "missing" features, I won't give your character a sex change, and no DNA-splitting or gene-splicing to switch races either. If you need changes that drastic, I suggest you start a new game, with the character types you really want.
So let's get started - with all of the things you can do!
Here are some "conventions" that I have tried to maintain throughout the program and this documentation, for consistency and ease-of-use:
In the documentation, you will notice HYPERLINKS (in the index and the body of this document) that will take you directly to a specific topic or area in the document, by clicking on them. After clicking on the underlined link, the page is repositioned with the referenced topic at the top of the page. To get back to where you were, RIGHT-CLICK and choose BACK.
SPECIAL NOTE ON LIMITATIONS: I have tried to be as accommodating
as possible, anywhere numeric entry is required, even to the point of letting
you enter values that are superfluous. By this I mean you can enter 255
for the Strength of one of your characters, but as far as I can tell it
behaves no differently than a Strength value of 20, the maximum amount
normally attainable in the game. Likewise, Skills values of 255 seem to
do no better than those of 100. So, anywhere you find you are limited to
a specific range of numbers (0 – 255 for instance) it is due to the physical
limitations within either Wizardry® or my application, not a logical
limit (i.e. 100).
If you desire, you can change the installation directory to any folder you choose. And just in case you want to know what files will be installed/updated on your machine, here is complete list of the files and the default locations (for Windows® '95/'98 users) that they will be installed to:
Application Files (installed in C:\Program Files\Software
Specialties folder)
WizEdit.exe
WizEdit.htm
WizLogo.jpg
Example1.sgm (and a few example saved
games for you to play around with)
Example2.sgm
Example3.sgm
Visual Basic®/Windows® Support Files
(installed C:\Windows\System folder)
VB40032.dll
MSVCRT20.dll
OLEPRO32.dll
COMCTL32.ocx
VEN2232.dll
CTL3D32.dll
MSVCRT40.dll
TABCTL32.ocx
MFC40.dll
MSJT3032.dll
MSJINT32.dll
VBAJET32.dll
VBDB32.dll
MSRD2X32.dll
MSWNG300.dll
ODBCJT32.dll
ODBCJI32.dll
VBAR2232.dll
MSLT3032.dll
MSPX3032.dll
MSTX3032.dll
MSXB3032.dll
True Type Fonts (installed in C:\Windows\Fonts
folder)
KELMSCOT.ttf
The install process will always overwrite the application files, but only overwrite older versions the Support Files and True Type Fonts files (if they already exist).
After launching the program and pressing CONTINUE, you may want
to change some of the default settings. To do
so, press SETTINGS.
| Quantity | 250 |
| Equipped/Not Equipped | Equipped |
| Character Portraits | By Profession |
| Items | Sorted by Like Group |
| Path | (empty) |
NOTE: In the registered/live version of WizEdit©, any changes
you make to the default settings are saved and used for subsequent sessions.
If you wish to give a character a quiver of 50 arrows and a potion with 3 uses, you can do so, but it will require two trips to this screen. Once to set the quantity to 50, then after getting the quiver (via the Items screen) once more to set the quantity to 3 (and one more trip to the Items screen to get the potion).
If this leaves you confused, don't worry – see Giving
Different Quantities of Items in the How
To section later in this document. There you will find a detailed
step by step walk through.
For instance, you can equip any character with the much lauded Cane of Corpus (or two of them if you want), but the damage inflicted and any special attacks (poison, critical, etc.) are still based on the previous item the character was using. So if you replace your Ninja’s Light Sword with an Amber Coin, don't be surprised to see him getting critical hits when he melees that "coin".
The same holds true for armor. Even though you may have given your Fairy Ninja some Plate Mail +3, until you actually go into the game and (try to) equip it, the full effects of that Plate Mail +3 are questionable.
So, if you find looks are more important than function, this option
may be for you.
To see more of Lee's work, visit his web site at:
http://www.eclipse.net/~gaskins/Index.html
NOTE: This setting does not affect your saved game file or your character's portrait in Wizardry®, it's just to add a little flair to WizEdit©.
To fix that little problem, select this option and provide the location
of your copy of Wizardry®. Then, when you return to the items
or character selection screens, you will see the correct graphics.
If you still have problems, you may want to refer to the Gold
vs. Crusaders section of this document.
When you return here after making changes, there is one important thing you need to know: all of the changes that you have made need to be written back to your saved game file. Up to this point, all of the changes that you have made are only temporary. To permanently save your changes, see Saving Your changes below.
NOTE: If there are any unusual "characters" in your characters name (anything other than letters or numbers) or you have less than 6 characters in your party, you will see a prompt asking you if you have a certain number of characters in your party. If the number is correct press ‘Yes’, otherwise press ‘No’.
You can tell which character, if any, is selected by noting if he or she is ‘depressed’. Not literally of course, but the border around the character will appear and their picture will appear to depress. Just try it, you'll see. Also, the character's name will appear in the window title (in the upper left-hand corner) on subsequent screens. So, when you select "Joe" and edit his items, the window title will say "Editing - Joe".
After you have made all the changes you wish to (to one or more characters), pressing DONE will take you back to the File Selection screen, where you can save your changes. Or you may want to take a trip back to the File Selection screen periodically to save your changes, perhaps after finishing up with each character. It's really up to you.
NOTE: Character portraits
are displayed based on the "Character Portraits" setting. By default, you
will see some awesome portraits based on the character's profession. If
you prefer, you may choose the standard portraits from Wizardryâ
. See Settings for more details.
From this screen, just select the attribute or number to modify and do it. When you are done, pressing DONE will save your changes or pressing CANCEL will discard them.
NOTE: See the special note on limitations
for more information.
Simply click on the skill you want to modify and change it. Or press
MAXIMIZE to set all skills to 100 (the highest useful value). When
you are done, pressing DONE will save your changes or pressing CANCEL
will discard them.
NOTE: See the special note on limitations
for more information
WARNING: Setting all skill values to 100, on some older
versions of Wizardry®, can cause the game to lock up the next time
you gain a level and try to distribute skill points. Not to worry,
there is a patch for this problem, in the form of a file named WGUP.exe.
You can download the file from Sir-Tech's web site at:
http://www.sir-tech.com/support/UPDATES.html#WGPC
On this screen you can select any or all spells (or take some away) and increase your spell points in all categories. To give your character a specific spell, CLICK into the appropriate window and highlight the desired spell (scroll down if necessary). Pressing the SPACE BAR or DOUBLE-CLICKING will select (or de-select) the highlighted spell. You can hold down the space bar to select all spells in the current window or press SELECT ALL to select all spells.
When you are done, pressing DONE will save your changes or pressing CANCEL will discard them.
NOTE: See the special note on limitations
for more information
You will see that your character's current items (1 through 20) are displayed on the right-hand side of the screen. The words "Empty Slot" will appear anywhere your character has room for spare items. On the left-hand side of the screen, you will see a listing of available items.
Giving your character an item is a two-step process:
LEFT-CLICKING on any item, in the list, will display the Item Information pop-up window containing a fairly thorough listing of the item's attributes and also show the item's icon. As soon as you move your mouse off of the item, the pop-up display will disappear.
If you click on an item in the list (and don't move your mouse), then use your arrow keys to scroll up and down, you will be able to scroll through the items, continuously displaying the pop-up information window. This is a great way to compare like item's attributes or just see what many of the items "do".
If you have any trouble finding a specific item, you can click on SETTINGS, then ITEMS, to change the sort order of the items to alphabetical. After doing so, the list will look somewhat different, but the functionality is basically the same.
The subtle differences are 1) CLICKING any node (the ‘+’ signs) will expand that node and show you all of its items. And 2) LEFT or RIGHT-CLICKING an item will pop-up the additional information window and the icon for that item.
I recommend that after you save your changes, go into Wizardry® and re-equip any weapons or armor. Although the pictures and words will look correct, for the items to take full effect, you should re-equip them from within Wizardry®. See the discussion on the default setting for Equipped Items, for more information.
NOTE: By default, all "quantified" items (i.e. Arrows, Potions, Ankhs,
etc.) have a quantity of 250. You can change this from the Settings
screen, using the Quantity option, to "unlimited"
(the quiver is always full, or never empty, depending on your point of
view) or any number (less than 250) that you want. So, if you want an Ankh
that doesn't (ever) vanish after it is invoked, you can give yourself and
unlimited Ankh.
You can imagine my disappointment when I realized that it was just CDS for Windowsâ , and my horror at finding that somewhere in the past 2 years, I had wiped out any previous trace of CDS.
I resigned myself to another 3-4 months of sleep deprivation (replaying
the game), knowing I would not want to start with "fresh" characters in
Wizardry® VIII. But then I decided to try something different – figure
out the saved game file layout, edit it and create "super-characters".
I figured it should take me less time than actually re-playing the whole
game.
Initially, I was right. Using two computers (one to play the game and one to edit the saved game files, byte by painstaking byte) after about 2 or 3 weeks I had a pretty good idea of the saved game layout and a crude interface for editing some of the basic stuff. After proving that my edited characters "worked", I moved on. VisualBasicâ 4.0 was calling me and this was a great way to for me to learn it. I had already learned about 10 programming languages, including VB 1.0, so what was one more? And porting an existing DOS-based application that I had already written (in Clipper, for those who care to know and/or laugh) would be a snap.
By the time I finished the Visual Basic® version, which was more much more robust than the Clipper version, I could have played and finished CDS again (at least once). About that time is when the idea to "take this to market" came about. But Wizardry® VIII was still a ways off, so I had time to wait. You see, my thinking was to market it for Wizardry® VIII – you know, "Give your Wizardry® VII characters the BOOST they need, before you import them into Wizardry® VIII". It never occurred to me that people would want it just to play Wizardry® VII or that people were even still playing it. I guess I should have got on the Internet sooner and started reading bulletin boards.
Then 1998 rolled in and whispers of a next Wizardry® release were heard. I dusted off the old code, got the 32-bit version of Visual Basic® and gave the old program another facelift. I also learned (again to my horror) that some people had already put out shareware versions of character editors for CDS! Well, my hat is off to them, I know it was no easy task. Really.
At this point, I had to ask myself, "With shareware versions out there, why would someone buy mine?" I figure there are 5 reasons:
Well, maybe I’ll include those in the next version J
As for other "missing" features, I won't give your character a sex change,
and no DNA-splitting or gene-splicing to switch races either. If you need
changes that drastic, I suggest you start a new game, with the character
types you really want.
As previously mentioned, in other parts of the documentation, you can choose to give your characters varying quantities or charges of quantified items (like a quiver of arrows) and charged items (like an Ankh).
To give a character 50 arrows and an Ankh with 3 charges, follow these steps: