New Wizardry 8 Mod

I've just finished Dodd the Slayer an hour ago, so it's probably the right time for me to give some feedback.
I was in the mood for some smooth Wiz8 playthrough and since I didn't know level of mod's expert version difficulty, I installed the normal one. My party was lizardman fighter, hobbit rogue, female hobbit bard, mook ranger, elf bishop (divinity/alchemy), faerie bishop (wizardry/psionics) with addition of Vi and RFS later. As you can see, I've played it rather safe.
I have to say that I had a great time playing with the mod. New additions are generally very well though out and some of them quite significantly change the way the game is played in an interesting manner.
I enjoyed almost everything added by the mod, most notably:

Difficulty rebalancing: while vanilla encounters are easier for most of the game because of the galore of new items, mod's own encounters still remain challenging and in the end combat feels more varied, which gives the game overall better flow. Set encounters were always pretty tough for the party level I got to them, but never tedious. Possibly mod's most enjoyable consequence regarding the difficulty was the fact that my party gained more levels than usual, which also unlocked some of the original game's higher level spawns which I've never encountered before. I ended the game at levels 25-27, while normally it's 19-22.

Added npcs: I really like mod's utilization of Monastery and Arnika in this regard. Both areas feel more lively and Arnika finally feels a bit more like a real city. Npcs are written in mod's own distinctive manner and rather significantly change game's feeling in places, in a good way. Newly introduced vendor system is another significant change which I enjoyed. I had to accomodate my characters' developement and some of the travelling plan to it, which added to a different experience.

New items: There's really a lot of them which, again, adds to diversity and makes the character customization more interesting. They're priced accordingly as well. Each class has a lot of new gear avaiable and I enjoyed either completing some of the sets, or mix and matching mod's items with those powerful vanilla ones. I think that for the normal version, some of them are still quite overpowered but I guess they're fine for the expert one. Addition of Flame's items is just one of the cherries of the top.

New enemies: I enjoyed most of the new encounters, they're usually reasonably challenging, different from the vanilla ones, often tastefully retextured and those unused from the original game are interesting. My only criticism is that I encountered those breeders too often for my liking, but maybe it was just bad luck.

New quests: Generally, I liked all of them, they add a lot of new and sometimes surprising content to the game and make for the overall richer experience. I like the fact that the main quest unveils right from the start and that mod utilizes those secret dungeons. The ending battle was really hilarious. My favourite of those "side ones" is probably the traderoutes one because while it is straightforward, it also significantly affects the first third of the game in a fresh manner. Myles' quest was an enjoyable surprise and Sally Anne's nice little diversion.
If I may, I'd like to mention some suggestions for the next release of the mod regarding the quests. Even though everyone may know about those secret dungeons by now, I think it still would help the quest's flow to add some clues for them, such as some dead mystic's/adventurer's diary, for example. As it is, it's simply too obscure in principle:). Also, Nathan's quest is rather confusing, there should be some clue to let the player know when to start asking around. Also since it ends quite late, it renders poor Madras unusable, so it may be for the good to change him into, say 22 level gadgeteer for those who hadn't gadgeteer in their party but want to try one for a while, so that all those gadgets finally would come to fruition. Also, the "guardian" seems to be always incorrectly misspelled as "gardian" which is a really minor nitpick.

I understand that I probably missed some of new content and even moreso given the fact that I played the normal version but was satisfied with the amount of additions nevertheless.

In conclusion, every fan of Wizardry 8 should try Dodd's mod at least once. Right now, it's my favourite of the three major ones. Flame's mod has a lot of cool items and some great nostalgic encounters, but the second part of the game is way too easy, Deathstalker is pretty impressive technicially, but some of its encounters are too long for my liking and it also renders the second half too easy.
Dodd's mod, on the other hand, keeps the level of challenges constant and it adds lots of other new and well implemented content as well.
Thank you very much Dodd for making the mod, it was a pleasant experience and I'm looking forward to play version 2, this time on expert. Sorry for grammar and latitude.

Some notes:
I cheesed that second treasure hunter by luring his crew from him:).
I also got universal helmet as a part of the loot in the monastery, I think it might have been from the first treasure hunter encounter.
On the third attempt, my 24 level rogue managed to instakill mod's main villain.

I wonder if some of the following is influenced by mod:
On the Peak, some of the original game's encounters seemed to be more memorable, for example Souleater/Djinni of the Clouds/2 Imps of Chaos/10Hellspawns was an interesting combination and also I got Inferno, Avalanche, Tempest and Torrent together one encounter which was pretty cool.
I got Serpent's Tooth from Plummed Serpent which I thought was a loot of that superduper unused monster.
Generally, I was really lucky regarding the loot. I got both Light Sword and Light Shield on second reload and rapax queen chest contained Muramasa Blade and Excaliber which significantly raised my cash-flow.
 
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Wraith Dust

Picked some up on my travels,anyone hint me on what to do with it please?
 
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Picked some up on my travels,anyone hint me on what to do with it please?

Wait until your party will be of higher levels, say 17-19, and then ask around in Arnika.
 
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Thanks,Deepo,will do.

BTW just got massacred in cemetary retro dungeon.

What level were you to win that battle in there if you can remember?
 
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Don't know what Dodd's mod may have changed, but my target levels used to be 11, 14, and 17 (cemetery, N Wilds, Mountain Wilds, respectively).
 
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BTW just got massacred in cemetary retro dungeon.

I did all of them in quick sucession after completing Bayjin and Sea Caves so i was somewhere around 17-19 and it was a breeze in the normal version. If I'm not mistaken, the expert version has the final fights far more difficult so it's probably quite reasonable to the dungeons at around level 20, I guess. Level 17 for the normal version ones should be just fine.
 
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Deepo. Thanks for taking so much time to give all the feed back.
about toughness of battles. There is a big difference between the monster battles in the normal version and the Expert. Most noticably certain guardian battles.
If you are ever stuck for something to do then give that one a try.

I noticed you mentioned that you finished between level 22-25. This may not have been enough to encounter my highest level monsters.
Did you encounter the Grand Reaper Wraiths with their Obsidian Gargoyles.
They are level 40, and the Spirit Anomaly along with the Rapax Champions ? They are level 45.

You should know that version 2.0 will only have one version which is being built on top of the Expert version, so it is best if you can play that one at some point to know something of what to expect in reguard to battle and monster strength.
 
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How large will the new locations be? I didn't know MadGod's editor could do that. I've used some of sofware specialties tools back when I used to play Wiz7 but haven't looked lately.

Could you possibly have like a portal in the original Wiz8 world that could take you to a new world and in a way have a whole new game?
 
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Well, I finished at 25-27 which felt quite natural for the normal version. I assume that expert version yields more experience which unlocks your higher level encounters so I'm really looking forward to play the version 2.0. I'd give the recent expert version a try as well but currently I don't have much spare time left.
During my normal version run some of the harder spawned groups were:
fire sorceress with those new (pretty funny) bandits, rattkin boss with his lackys (spawned in Trynton Upper Branches), power lich and co. and fire anomaly with rapax knights. In the last parts of the game I usually encountered the deranged version of breeders.
 
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The Spoiler shows me that you have at least 3 levels of the groups you mentiond to encounter yet.

btw how do have "spoiler" which you can hide? I need to do that.
 
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Quote DeepO's post and you'll see the spoiler tag. Works just like any other tag the board has.

I made it to Arnika after *grumble grumble* skipping the second treasure hunter. With the hockey playoffs started, I won't get much gaming in over the next 2 months (barring an unfortunate early exit by my Wings), but I'll keep working thru the mod as time allows.
 
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How large will the new locations be? I didn't know MadGod's editor could do that. I've used some of sofware specialties tools back when I used to play Wiz7 but haven't looked lately.

Could you possibly have like a portal in the original Wiz8 world that could take you to a new world and in a way have a whole new game?

The way the editor works is that new locations can only have the original ones as a template so you can only have any one location as big as the template that you base it on.
This limitation requires a great deal of work in order to make the locations look unique which is why my new locations will all be small to medium size.

Here is the order in which the most Radical changes to the editor have been made.

1: The ability to make Dynamic objects from terrain
2: The addition of triggers and camera routes
3: The addition of way points which is one of two bits of data that dtermine monster paths, the other being in a format that MG has not been able to decipher yet.
4: The ability to add and delete physical wall faces, because terrain alone does not block passage.
5: The ability to delete terrain faces
6: The ability to create terrain from dynamic objects and other bits of terrain.
You can now add faces to a face buffer and transpot them to any location to be used as either terrain or dynamic object.

The terrain editor is still not perfected but will be by the next two versions with the final addition of making possible to create base meshes.

Unfortunately for me i started my mod just as all this kicked off and so most of what i have done has been one big test of all the new funtionality.
For the most part the original changes have held, but to begin with most of my new locations were made from dynamic objects which i now have to convert to terrain with physical wall.
It will set me back for about a month overall, but at least i know that the process is safe.

I forgot to mention that there is a limit of 13 new locations that can be added.
I will only be using 5 of those slots.
 
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I like the new mod immensely and am playing it now.

Question, i cannot find the wheel key to open up the room in the monastery. It is not in the ususal place in the temple in Anrika. thanks for any help.

Was there anything critical in that room, anyway?
 
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Did you read the note that was outside the door?

The only thing in that room now is agonizing death.
Am I right in guessing that I need to find some silver weapons somewhere to actually do any damage on that bony bastard? Everything I've got does no damage.

Side note for Dodd- the casting animation for rabid breeders is pooched. Don't know whether it's intentional or not, but when the critter casts a spell, you're using the elemental banishment animation.
 
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It is actually a generic teleportation and the only way to give a monster with no casting ability the way to cast spells.
I copied the idea from deathstalker. You have to use a mon animation that is not connected to any monster otherwise the breeder will turn into that monster when casting and then back to a breeder the rest of the time.
generic teleportation is the only mon file that does this.

I don't need to give a spoiler for the whereabouts of the wheel key because you will find it.
 
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You know, it's been a long time since I've avoided many monsters outside of the hogar on the way to Mt Gigas (and that's only until I've gained a few more levels). These damn treasure hunters are a pain in my butt, but I think I like having to run away screaming like a schoolgirl.
 
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Thank you for the mod!
I am using the expert version and now in Arnika with a level8 party.
 
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Couple Queries (Poss spoilers inside)

1. Killed all three bandit groups,no update in journal and Thomas does not acknowledge quest completed.

2. Dimissed Vi to rescue Timothy,returned to Heli's and Vi's there.
Return Tim to sister and back to Heli's and Vi's gone.
Is that supposed to happen?

Figured out the first one now.

Anyone help with second?
 
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Anyone help with second?

I may be wrong, but AFAIK there is a bug in original game which occasionally causes dismissed RPC to disappear. Your problem seems to be a slight variation of it. If that happens, unfortunately the only way I know how to solve this is reload to a state before.
 
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