Wizardry 8 - Dances with Rhinos
 

Jay Barnson continues his journey through Wizardry 8, reaching the Umpani:
…and Jay has also been interviewed at the Alley of Infinite Angles about indie game development.
More information.

I'm not sure how many people ever figured it out, but the "five monsters" area is supposed to be a "stealth" puzzle. You can switch to turn-based, run past monsters, and as long as you're out of eye-sight with the monsters when the turn ends, you can avoid combat. Kinda important when a 5th-level party runs into a djinn or a devourer.

Now you're rockin'. I normally do the Umpani pretty early (monestary-Arnika-monestary-Umpani-Trynton-Trang-(you'll see soon enough), so the caves are a good way to pick up a level or two without too much danger. Tackling them deeper in the game as you are, it could very well be more work than fun.

That rocket launcher training sucks every time. Doesn't matter when you do it, it ends up being a waste of good ammo. You just can't reliably do enough damage at that range. One of the very few things I really consider poor design in the game. I wonder if those target dummies (not the ones on the training course) are getting scaled by the autoleveller when the intent was for them to be 20hp patsies.

But… But… Don't you lose out on XP and skilltraining that way?

See! See! It's cause'a people like you that games never, ever end up being anything more than murder simulators. :brood:

I like murder. Big fan. Copious blunt force trauma. There's a Mr. Grim here about the reaping. :D

I´ve always thought it was intentional to make them "tough". After all, they´re there for long range training purposes. I never bother with them though and after obtaining the rocket launcher I head straight to the 5 monsters area.

Well, I got some good use out of the dummies for general ranged-combat training for my whole team.

And yeah - I forgot to mention that it was supposed to be stealth training. The thing is - and this IS a problem with the game - there's never any real explanation of HOW you are supposed to do that in the game itself. You'd think training would… uh… train you or something.

Still, I had fun with the battles. I totally lucked out on the Djinn. And got a Djinn Eye for my troubles, which is used by Anton for goodies!

That's a long-standing issue with RPGs. Even when they offer non-combat alternatives, they often forget to offset the standard reward systems: XP, skill improvement, loot, money, ammo. Plus the convenience of eliminating a potentially recurring threat. If you take the non-combat option, you don't get those rewards (or worse, you do take the alternative, get the alt-reward, then go back to kill-n-loot and get all of the other rewards as well).

confused.
 

the map for the t rang railroad…

The one the has the 7 circles that move 2 ways…


O O O
O O O
O

I NEED HELP ON THIS…
SORRY

I don't know the "correct" answer, but the way I've worked is to point the orange ends so that you get from the left side (entrance) to each other side, one ride at a time. Save exiting to the bottom for last.

Sorry I didn't notice your question sooner.

ok i was just wondering
hey if you find out can you tell me?
the correct one… (i believe i did it already.) its where you go to mountain's bluff the lower)
but i cant find it now i reloaded my game and forgot to save…

if you find out tell me please!

yea i found it and now i'm in…
i forget..
where u fight the flying snakes, elements, and the sthing
that is like a lizard that breaths fire…

Whats an easy way to defend against the breath fire?
(would elemental sheild protect u much? if so how much?)

Yes, depends on ability of the caster.

Mountain Wilderness

Yep, elemental shield is very useful with scorchers. By the time you get to the Mountain Wilderness, your caster is very likely to have the skill/power to reliably cast that spell at top power.

yea… idk about top power but yea…

both my mage and alchemist both have summon element so that helps me alot!!

i need help for what spells and the best way to go and less scorchers to fight!

This probably belongs in a Wiz8 thread in General RPG, but it's not a big deal. You should always have the following spells active if possible: light, enchanted blade, missle shield, magic screen, and armorplate. In combat, you might want soul shield or elemental shield depending on the opponent.

There's a lot of scorchers in the Mountain Wilderness. If you want to explore that map, you're going to see a lot of them. For that matter, you're going to see scorchers on most maps as you continue the game so you probably should get used to them. Without knowing your party makeup, the best advice I can give you at this point is to cast elemental shield in the first round and then charge to melee range in the second round. Scorchers generally do less damage and hit less often in melee than if you fight them at range.

so i should go and run up and fight?

the breath fire from them is only doing an adverage of 2-3 damage.
they hit for 13 and hit 2-3 times a round…

They will close to extended melee range (not close enough for you to melee back without a polearm) after a few breaths of fire, so it's best IMO to take that last couple steps toward them so you can bring your heavy hitters into the fray. It takes quite a few arrows to wipe out a 200-300hp critter…

what about my spell casters?
lol

fire spells does nothying…

but the acid bomb from my alchemist does good.

ok for the ant guys…
i found the umpani
gave the trang there flag

now i have to find and kill some rapax guy?

i looked the entire swamp and cant find him.
Any help here?

Use your clues, dude. Did you notice anything interesting at the entrance of Marten's Bluff? What might make that work a little better? Perhaps someone has a lure of some sort that would help?

k i'll try that

martens bluff?
i looked and theres nothing there.

i cant put the perfume down or anything
i'm really frustrated and i cant figure it out…

Remember the glass room with the elevator you took to visit Zant? On either side of that room are various controls. Perhaps that would make a good rapax trap?

Is this the reason why action games are so much popular and riddle-based games are not ?

Yes, people today seem to loathe using their brains; their fingers began by doing the walking, now they've taken over!! There's a reason it's called old SKULE gaming; most people hate school, cause it makes them think (which to many is a four letter word!!) :)

Yeah, you put it much better than I would've done it.

Or the marketings actually *believe* that riddle-based games are "boring" or so, so they just don't allow the development of some … No games, no training …

So, Puzzle Quest was maybe a sursprise to those who had thought that riddle-based games might be "out of time" … so to say.

Be nice, gentlemen. We all get brain farts from time to time. Let's go ahead and assume our new friend will be doing a lot of cussing and muttering, "Why didn't I think of that?" We want Wiz8 to be a pleasant RPG experience for first-timers, don't we?

Yes, okay, but you *need* to do some thinking, nevertheless …

Even if this requires to step back from the game and return 1-2 days later (as I did several times).

Actually, it's not supposed to be a 'pleasant' experience; it was designed to be challenging and frequently frustrating, like all Wiz games. Pleasant is for pansies!! :p :)

lol, Wiz 4 is the ultimate S&M rpg experience. Wiz 8 doesn't come even close to that but still can't hurt helping out some people who want to try playing a great game. Took me forever to understand Wiz 7 (I gave up on 4 it was just too hardcore for me :)) After I asked a few questions about Wiz 7 it became a lot more fun. Like why did my party keep dying all the time? After someone told me that class switching was actually encouraged, the game became really fun.