Hello everyone. I thought i would make my entrance to this forum by offering a new mod that i made for Wizardry 8 TITLE: DoddTheSlayer_2.0 Rise of the Ancients First of all this version 2.3 is the latest installment in a mod i made that ran fom version 1.0 to version 2.0 I wont talk about the previous versions in here post though. The purpose of the mod was twofold. 1: To add additional storyline to the game using quest giving npcs ands new locations. 2: To make the battles challenging no matter what level the player will attain. In this reguard almost every monster generator on Dominus is changed. Overall this mod is one big overhaul compared to what anyone who has played the game will have experiences. Here is a list of the changes i made to the game using the cosmic forge editor: 1: New monsters (with new monster skins in most cases) 2: New items (with new inventory graphics in most cases) 3: New Quests and new npcs (both used to create additional storyline) 4: 5 new locations created by me to accomodate new storyline 5: 1 additional new dungeon created by a modder called Qusari. 6: New quest that makes the retro dungeons an integrel part of the game. 7: New ability to enchant weapons for specialist spellcasters. 8: New textures for the new locations and some retexturing of Arnika 9: New traders that make custom items like Antone and Ferro. 10: Bards and Gadgeteers can improve some of their Instruments and Gadgets Here are 2 links for version_2.3: DoddTheSlayer_2_30.rar - DivShare out until August 17th 2008 RapidShare: Easy Filehosting There is now also Patch_2.4 which is very important. You can download it here: Patch_2.4.rar This patch must be applied after you have installed the mod or you will have many bugs to contend with. There are merging spoiler lists for the Enchanters new items and for the the improvable bard and Gadgeteer items. Enchanters merging list are here: Enchanted Items Spoiler List.rar The Bard and Gadgeteer spoiler merging list are contained in the new Patch_2.4 For those who may get stuck playing the mod due to not having been familiar with it since it first started last year there are many threads about it here: VN Boards - Wizardry 8 Spoiler Board
It's more alive than ever since MadGod advanced the cosmic forge editor to the point have having a complete terrain editor where every entity in the game can be modified\deleted\added All new location are taken from existing game templates, but you can now strip them bare of all terrain and game entities are gone and you have a completely blank world box that you can build an new location from scratch. There is even a monster pathfinding generator to garantee that all you new monsters move around correctly and do not get stuck at new objects. There will be many more mods coming along in the future but it is a lot of work.
I hope you weren't as disappointed in this mod as I was Gawain. Whoever wrote it seems to assume that everyone plays in god mode, or enjoys having their party wiped out every five minutes. It's like playing on ultra-insane settings. The monestary was fine, Arnika Road was doable, assuming you like fighting rapidly respawning Rabid Breeders every couple of minutes, but at least they are beatable! Arnika is a joke though, it doesn't take long to come across some goons called Treasure Hunters who trach your group before you even ave a chance to do anything. I used the editor to reduce these uber monsters to a handleable level and got through Arnika. The Arnika-Trynton road was another non-stop Rabid Breeder zone, BORING. Got toTrynton, MORE Rabid Breeders, VERY BORING! Got into the upper branches, and run into some dudes called Capodimonte Bosses or somesuch daft name, 35th level+ monsters that trashed the party instantly. At that point I gave up on the stupid mod and uninstalled it. If the creator of this mod reads this, try balancing the game just a little, remember everyone doesn't cheat to make their characters uber powerful before playing the game!
To be honest, I haven't played much WizVIII lately. I always was a bit sceptical about the uber-difficulty mods, since WizVIII wasn't THAT easy to begin with. I'm glad you tested it out, galraen, and save me a lot of frustration.
I was using a party that I transferred from W7 by the way with some useful items and of course starting at level 5 with boosted attributes. I hate to think how long I would have lasted starting with a bunch of rookies!
Apologies for 'double posting', but it's been a while since the previous post. I never like just giving up on a game, or mod, so decided to have a look in Mad God's editor to see if anything could be done to make this mod playable. I'm glad I did, as it's not difficult, just time consuming to do so. The settings on nearly all the new monsters created by this mod are insane, if not down right idiotic; most of them are unhittable and vitually magic proof, but that can be altered. What I found ater doing that was that there's a darned good mod in there waiting to get out. Ironically if you weren't killed off, and turned off, there are some uber items available, too uber in soe cases, reeking of gorganzola in fact. So that had to be tuned down too. The items may enable you to cope with the overkill on monsters, but you have very little chance of surviving long enough to find out. It's a shame that the creator of this mod mde it so ujnplayable, he or she obviously spent a lot of time and effort on it, and in every other way nearlt has done a very good job. The only other criticism I'd level, is there's too much of a guessing game involved at times. A few more clues ould have helped. I guess balancing a mod is difficult, the same problem is evident in a lot of mods for Baldur's Gate 2. Bottom line is if you are prepared to spend the time editing the mod yourself, it's worth getting, otherwise leave it alone.
Galraen, if the original author is ok with it, maybe you can offer your version on the same sites? I don't know much about the technical side, but since you got all the files already, I think it's "only" a matter of just zipping them with the right directory included, and then making an auto-extracting .exe?
Unfortunately my current internet connection is rather restrictive, uploading something of that size is beyond my capabilities right now. I'm also still tweaking it, obviously in some instances I've gone too far the other way. If the author reads this, and he stopped by at least once since starting this thread, we could enter into a dialogue about it. However, I'm not going to be in a position to upload until after Easter in all probability, if then.
