Started playing Wizardry 6. The beginning was tough! And I don't mean that only in a difficulty sense, but I also had a hard time getting into the game for interface reasons.
I had mouse support activated originally, but that felt awkward. Also, if you
do try to combine it with keyboard play, you can't because the visual feedback for those text buttons is disabled. Had to disable the mouse support completely for full keyboard support.
For my party I read tons of FAQs and walkthroughs before I even took the first step. I'm glad I did, because some things are set in stone at character creation while others aren't. Even so I had to adjust some stats later on with a savegame editor because of something I missed … Anyway, after the first few hours in the castle keyboard control and gameplay features settled in and I could concentrate on adventuring. I'm loosely following a walkthrough because I don't want to miss anything and make the best out of character imports into the two later games.
Invaluable tools for me:
- Wizardry 6 automap mod for DOSBox
- Cosmic Forge Utility to browse and easily compare items.
The latter is an integral part of my character planning. I made a list for each character in notepad that shows me what they are wearing and what their next item upgrades are. I'd go nuts if I had to assay and identify every item every time I wanted to compare them. I also deliberately refuse to switch classes, something that is a staple of the Wizardry games I guess.
Here's a screenshot of my party in the Mines:
A question: Erik the Dwarf uses a 1-handed Axe / War hammer and a shield. Is blocking used passively during combat or only when you select it as a "parry" option for a round?
(I suppose it's used "passively" in the sense that it improves your AC, at least)
