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.
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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