The Older Gamers Forums - View Single Post - Wizardry 8

Isthiriel · 18th May 2008, 02:24 PM

So you're looking for a party RPG where you get to choose the party at the start of the game? Wasn't Icewind Dale/Heart of Winter/2 like that?

Also, IIRC, if you play Baldur's Gate/2 as a multiplayer game (host a listen server and then have no one else join it) you can start the game with a full party of six characters that you create and you can ignore the NPCs that want to join you.

Spiderweb Software made the Exile rpgs and remade them into the Avernum series and it looks like they are making a new series called Geneforge. I played some of the Exile games and you started them with a party of your own choosing. I would expect the other spiderweb titles to be similar (and they all have demo versions).

I haven't played either Troika's The Temple of Elemental Evil or Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor but I believe you get to roll up the starting party in both of those titles.

As far as 'point-and-click fighting' goes, are you objecting to the mouse controls (since Wiz7/8 can both be played purely with the keyboard) or the lack of the "What should this character do in this round?" menu?

BG/2 actually has more tactical options than Wiz7/8 did but they tried to cut out the micromanagement of telling every single character to attack every round. Instead the characters will keep trying the same action on the same target until they no longer can. And though BG/2 seem to have real-time combat it is actually turn-based and there are options in the menu to turn on pause-at-end-of-round and pause-when-character-is-idle so you can give new instructions to your characters without feeling rushed.

If you aren't so worried about 'modern' games, in the lead up to the release of Destination Dominus I think SirTech also released Wizardry 6: Bane of the Cosmic Forge for free (I got a copy on the front cover of a gaming magazine around that time) it is very similar to Wiz7 and if you have hardware that will run Wiz7 (and I mean Wiz7 not Wiz7:Gold ie. a DOS 486) you should still be able to play that. There's also the SSI Gold Box Games that are even older (Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Secret of the Silver Blades, Pools of Darkness).

18th May 2008, 02:24 PM	#5 (permalink)
Isthiriel Average Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Adelaide, South Australia Posts: 145	So you're looking for a party RPG where you get to choose the party at the start of the game? Wasn't Icewind Dale/Heart of Winter/2 like that? Also, IIRC, if you play Baldur's Gate/2 as a multiplayer game (host a listen server and then have no one else join it) you can start the game with a full party of six characters that you create and you can ignore the NPCs that want to join you. Spiderweb Software made the Exile rpgs and remade them into the Avernum series and it looks like they are making a new series called Geneforge. I played some of the Exile games and you started them with a party of your own choosing. I would expect the other spiderweb titles to be similar (and they all have demo versions). I haven't played either Troika's The Temple of Elemental Evil or Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor but I believe you get to roll up the starting party in both of those titles. As far as 'point-and-click fighting' goes, are you objecting to the mouse controls (since Wiz7/8 can both be played purely with the keyboard) or the lack of the "What should this character do in this round?" menu? BG/2 actually has more tactical options than Wiz7/8 did but they tried to cut out the micromanagement of telling every single character to attack every round. Instead the characters will keep trying the same action on the same target until they no longer can. And though BG/2 seem to have real-time combat it is actually turn-based and there are options in the menu to turn on pause-at-end-of-round and pause-when-character-is-idle so you can give new instructions to your characters without feeling rushed. If you aren't so worried about 'modern' games, in the lead up to the release of Destination Dominus I think SirTech also released Wizardry 6: Bane of the Cosmic Forge for free (I got a copy on the front cover of a gaming magazine around that time) it is very similar to Wiz7 and if you have hardware that will run Wiz7 (and I mean Wiz7 not Wiz7:Gold ie. a DOS 486) you should still be able to play that. There's also the SSI Gold Box Games that are even older (Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Secret of the Silver Blades, Pools of Darkness).