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Text File | 1994-05-18 | 31.2 KB | 606 lines

Wiznotes A brief playing guide to Wizard! WIZARD <RETURN> to get started. Just select your sound preference. With SoundBlaster the game requires about 580K of conventional memory. With other sound cards, only 500K is required and with just Beeper sound, only 470K of conventional memory is required. Wizard requires 800K of EMS memory and a Microsoft-compatible mouse driver with mouse. Character Select Here you choose your party of four. Top line has the four warriors and the four mages. Bottom line has the four rangers and the four assassins. Click on a face to select/dismiss a character. Having selected a character you may click on the large image of the charater with the left mouse to display that character's inventory and stats or with the right mouse to dismiss the character. With the left mouse button you may rearrange your party using the face icons which appear in the bottom left corner of the screen. The character will be highlighted in red to indicate preparedness to swap position. Right mouse selects the character for display of stats and inventory. Click on one of the Exit tapestries to finalise your party selection and proceed to the main game. Main Game The game has three main modes of console which I shall hereafter refer to as "Normal Mode", "Inventory Mode" and "Big-View Mode". The game commences in Normal Mode. Movement is via keyboard or by holding down the left mouse while the cursor is in the view window. Normal Mode Icons Icon Left Action Right Action Keyboard Equivalent Face icons give carried select char's F1-F4 item to char inventory and enter/leave Inventory Mode Hand Icons Take/Give/Swap Shoot bow, drink (above or below item carried potion, cast scroll a character's with item in cast wand/staff/ring, face icon) hand. eat food,take gold Name Boxes select char's book and spell (below faces) ready for casting or selection F5-F8 of another spell via the book Spell Name Box cast currently named spell of (above book) current spell character Spell Book Select/Deselect Turn page a spell Crossed Swords Enter combat Enter combat and cast all Space Bar selected spells Compass Enter Mapdisplay Enter Big-View Mode F9/F10 Continuous Area Interrogate a Cancel a (darkened box continuous continuous just beneath the effect spell effect spell view window) Inventory Mode Selecting a character's face with the right mouse button or pressing F1-F4 will enter or leave Inventory Mode. Inventory Mode is very similar to Normal Mode. The main difference is that you have access to more of your party's inventories than just the hands. There are sixteen inventory slots assigned to each of the four characters. The first six of these are reserved for armour types; helmets, armour, gloves, shields, boots, amulets. An item in one of these special slots is deemed to be equipped/worn etc. Amulets tend to enhance a character in some way. The other two slots on the top line of the inventory are duplicates of the character's hands. An item in the hand will also be accessible here and vice versa. Clicking on item slots in the inventory will take/give/swap the item if the left mouse button is used. The right mouse button is for shooting a bow, drinking a potion, casting a scroll, casting a ring/wand/staff, eating food, stashing a bag of gold. Bows, rings, wands, staves may only be used (right mouse) when in a character's hands (or hand slots) Common keys and arrows behave a little differently. They can be pooled into clumps of upto ninety-nine. Typically, the left mouse button will take a whole pile while the right mouse button will take only one or will take one more. To shoot a bow, the bow and the arrows to be used must be in the character's hands. The bow is used automatically in combat along with all other normal weapons. There are further icons available in Inventory Mode. The compass behaves as in Normal Mode to access either the map or Big-View Mode. The crossed swords is as before to launch either normal combat or normal plus magical combat. The continuous effect area has been obscured and a new one now exists just beneath the character's faces. Further available icons are Options, Stats Display, Exit Inventory, Pool/Share Gold, Change Current Inventory. The icon beneath the crossed swords will display the current character's stats. This comes in two pages. Use the left mouse button to toggle between the pages and the right mouse to regain the bank of icons. Here you are able to see a character's experience and how hungry/fed a character is. The levels of food satiation are Starving, Ravenous, Famished, Hungry, Peckish, Fed, Full, Replete, Glutted, Stuffed. There is no point feeding a stuffed character. A character who is starving will not heal normally. The better fed a character is the faster the character will recover any vitality lost during play. The characters begin the game full. Experience is gained during play. All characters receive equal experience unless dead. A dead character will not receive experience. Experience enables a character to "make a level break". This will make a character more powerful and grant extra spells. Mages gain extra spells at every level break; Rangers gain spells at every even level; Assassins gain spells on every level divisible by three, Warriors gain spells at every level divisible by four. Level breaks are gained when a character has attained the following totals and will only be granted during sleep. Level 2 2000 Level 3 6000 Level 4 12000 Level 5 25000 Level 6 40000 Level 7 60000 Level 8 80000 Level 9 110000 Level 10 140000 Level 11 170000 Level 12 200000 Level 13 230000 Level 14 270000 Level 15 310000 Big-View Mode You can enter Big-View Mode either by clicking with the right mouse on the compass icon (either from Normal Mode or from Inventory Mode) or by pressing F10 on the Keyboard. Fewer icons are available in Big-View Mode but those remaining are adequate for most of the time. Big-View Mode is really only recommended for faster machines although speed may be adequate on mid-range machines if the detail is turned down (by pressing the Tab key to select one of three settings or see Options below). The icons available in Big-View Mode are (as above) the face icons, the hand icons, crossed-swords icon, spell name icon, name boxes. It is recommended that any required spells are selected prior to entering Big-View Mode as the book is not available. You may leave Big-View Mode by pressing F10 or by clicking on a face icon with the right mouse which will enter Inventory Mode with the selected character's inventory. As with Normal Mode and Inventory Mode, dropping items onto a character's face with the left button will deposit the item into the character's inventory. The character will equip armour/amulets if the relevant slot is currently not in use, eg. if a character is currently wearing leathers and you drop chain mail into his inventory he will not remove the leathers, if the character was not currently wearing the leathers, however, then the chain mail would be worn. The continuous effect area is now on the bottom line just beneath the right-most face and hand icons. Miscellany Next to the face icons are two bars, the yellow one indicates current hit- points as a measure of current maximum and the purple bar is spell points. The horizontal blue bar is the current vitality of the character whose book and spell are currently selected. The more blue the better. A character has more difficulty casting a spell when low on vitality. The character's food level determines the rate of vitality recovery. Holding an item called Angrath's Heart will also boost vitality recovery. Game detail is selectable from the Tab key or from Options (see below). Gameplay is in no way compromised by reducing detail but the speed gain may be significant. Slower machines may require the lowest detail setting and not find Big-View Mode at all comfortable. A gamesave to RAM may be effected from the R key. Beds During dungeon exploration, you will find beds. Click on a bed with the right mouse to send your party to sleep. The party will always wake up hungrier than they were before sleeping unless they are already starving. Sleep allows much increased recovery rates of spell points and hit-points and only during sleep may a character gain levels or learn new spells. Note that a starving character will not heal hit-points. If a character is due to learn a spell then the gods of magick will visit the character during sleep. Click on a god to select its class of spells. Follow any prompts. Any gold required will be taken first from the character gaining the spell and then from the rest of the party if that character is too poor. Shops There are several shops selling items and consumables. They are invariably tucked away in alcoves behind wooden doors with signs scribbled on the wall outside. Opening the door will enter the shop. The shop has two pages of shelves which may each be accessed by clicking on the arrows above the shelves. Clicking on exit shop will leave the shop. Clicking on an item on a shelf with the left mouse will ask the shopkeeper for a price. Clicking with the right mouse will purchase the item if the character whose inventory is active has sufficient funds. The Pool/Share gold icon will be of help during shopping. Clicking on the shopkeeper while carrying an item with the left mouse will ask the shopkeeper for a price; using the right mouse will sell the item. The shopkeeper almost always makes a profit and is not prepared to haggle. Any rings/wands/magical-staves bought from the shopkeeper will be fully charged so you may wish to sell an item and then buy it back in order to recharge it. The shopkeeper will add any non-consumable item to the shop's inventory if there is free shelf-space so that you may buy the item back at a later time. If the shelves are full, the item will be discarded. Note that the item may go to the other page of the shop's shelf-space. Regen-Chambers You will find regeneration chambers from time to time. Their location may well be worth noting. Entering a regen chamber will bring any dead party members back to life. Action Cursor While the mouse cursor is not within the view window, the cursor will be a pointing hand. Use the very tip of the graphic to access any icons. In the view window, the cursor can take two forms; the pointing hand or the grabbing/action hand. While the cursor is a pointing hand a click in the view window with the right mouse will aim and cast any spell currently selected. While it is the grabbing/action cursor you may: pick up items from the floor; open doors; use levers or buttons; remove some special items from walls. You may also carry items in the hand. While you are carrying an item, the cursor will change to show what is carried. Clicking with the right mouse in the view window while carrying an item will: drop the item; throw the item; attempt to use the item (key) to unlock a door. Spell Casting Spells may be cast in one of four ways: right mouse on the crossed swords icon, which will also initiate combat (space bar is a duplicate of this function); clicking on the spell name icon; clicking with the right mouse on an item in a character's hand or inventory (scrolls only); by clicking with the right mouse in the view window (this will also aim the spell where applicable). If a spell is not aimed, the character will do the aiming. Characters are often more accurate than you are. Spells Green Spells - Earth Magic Armour Continous spell, boosts armour class (AC). Healing Heals some damage from whole party. Tires caster greatly. Paralyze Freezes a monster temporarily. Levitate Prevents falling down pits and protects from firepaths. Warpower Continuous spell, boosts combat ability. Arc Bolt Damage spell. An arc bolt will bounce from walls Renew Restore all lost hit points. Exhausts the caster. Formwall Creates a wall. Cancelled by casting another in same place. Yellow Spells - Chaos Magic Deflect Continuous spell, protects from missile fire. Short lived. Terror Causes monsters to flee in panic. Antimage Continuous spell, protects from magical attack. Regen Continuous spell, heals and returns from the dead Ethblade Creates a weapon in a free hand. Allows double attacks. Spelltap Will reduce a monsters magic ability. If the party is hit with spelltap then all continuous effect icons will be cancelled and the party will lose spell points. Vivify Returns dead characters to life. Disrupt Damage spell. Red Spells - Dragon Magic Missile Damage spell. The party can defend with Deflect Torch Creates light Fireward Creates a ward. Dispell Removes firepath and illusory walls Fireball Damage spell. Firepath Creates firepath locations. Recharge Will recharge items. Exhausts the caster. Inferno Damage spell with knock-on fireballs. Purple Spells - Night Magic Confuse Will cause a monster to fumble around. Phaze Limited teleport. Will leap over monsters often spinning you to turn and face the monsters' backs. Suspend Will float the party away from danger. Cancelled by any right mouse click in the view window or by any attempt to cast an aggressive spell. Trueview Continuous spell, sees through illusory walls and gives the effect of great light. Wizeye Exploration spell. Mindrock Creates illusory walls Wychwind Damage spell to fore, aft and sides. Mindrage Damage any monster in clear view. Exhausts the caster. The cost in spell points to cast a spell depends on a character's ability as a magic user and how tired the character is (vitality bar). A spell will always cost at least one point and will have greatest effect if cast when the character is fully rested (vitality var on full). If the cost of a spell is greater than one point then waiting for the character to recover will not increase the effectiveness of the spell but will reduce the cost of the spell. Being fed speeds a character's recovery rate. Casting a spell tires the character as reflected by the vitality bar. The Amber Amulet greatly reduces the tiredness due to casting many of the spells. At later levels characters can effectively machine-gun their damage spells at the hapless foe. Potions/Items Hedjog Venom Restores full hit points Moon Elixir Restore full spell points Phoenix Broth Restore full hit points and spell points Chymera Blood Boosts hit points even to above maximum Power Potion Boosts spell points even to above maximum Dragon Ale Permanent intelligence plus one and SP plus 2 Orc's Vomit Permanent strength plus one and HP plus 10 Snake Staff Arc Bolt spell Firestaff Inferno spell Grim Reaper Disrupt spell Power Staff Wychwind spell Sun Staff Casts all continuous effect spells Cloud Staff Mindrock spell Serpent Wand Renew spell Dragon Wand Fireball spell Night Wand Confuse spell Chaos Wand Antimage spell Amber Wand Missile spell Cloud Wand Suspend spell Serpent Ring Warpower spell Chaos Ring Deflect spell Dragon Ring Fireward spell Night Ring Phaze spell Cloud Ring Trueview spell Moon Ring Regen spell Amber Ring Armour spell Scrolls and rings/wands/staves will have greatest effect if cast by the highest level character with the highest intelligence. Options You may enter the Options menu by hitting the Esc key during play or by clicking on the options icon in Inventory Mode. You may have upto five active gamesaves; each represented by a small image of the view window at the time of making the gamesave. Save and Load are pretty obvious. A save description must be terminated with Enter/Return. Esc will clear the name or abort the save without modifying the disk. RamRestore will restore the last position from RAM. This is done automatically after party death. Save to RAM is done during play by pressing the "R" key and is done automatically on loading a previous gamesave. Note that making a gamesave does not affect your RAMsave position. Note that your RAMsave is lost when you quit the game; switch off your machine; have a power cut etc. Quit to Dos will return you to Dos. Please ensure that you have made a gamesave should you wish later to resume from your current position. Mouse speed is selectable at three settings. The default setting is the middle one. Game detail is selectable at three settings. Note that a reduction in detail does not compromise gameplay. The default setting is maximum. The middle setting will disable the display of the ceiling during play. The lowest setting will disable both floor and ceiling. The TAB key allows detail selection during play. The larger view in the bottom left corner is your current position. This is updated after a LOAD from disk or after a RamRestore. Return to game will return you to play. Map The game map can be accessed by pressing F9 on the keyboard or by clicking with left mouse on the compass (not available in Big-View Mode). Your current position and direction are indicated by a small blue arrow. Note that while viewing the map, the game is effectively paused. Clicking on the map icon in the top right corner of the screen will allow you to view maps from other towers throughout the game. Up/Down icons will allow you to view other levels of the currently selected tower/dungeon and the purple exit icon will return you to play. Combat Combat in Wizard! is partially automated to leave you free to manipulate your party, its inventory and select and cast spells. Archers will get on with aiming and firing arrows and the characters will keep hitting at anything in range. Combat will be cancelled if the characters find that the monsters are out of range. Monsters will hit at the closest character so you can often provide yourself with a short respite by turning your party to present the best-healed or best-armoured character to the attacking monster. Note that it is not possible to rearrange your party order once into the game. This can only be done during character select. Movement Keys Movement is via mouse holding the left button with the cursor in the view window or via keyboard. Left Keys Right Keys Cursor Keys Normal Forward S Keypad 5 None Turn Left A Keypad 4 Cursor Left Turn Right D Keypad 6 Cursor Right Fast Forward W Keypad 8 Cursor Up Fast Turn Left Q Keypad 7 None Fast Turn Right E Keypad 9 None Move Left Z Keypad 1 None Move Right C Keypad 3 None Move Backwards X Keypad 2 Cursor Down Characters in Wizard! Each of the characters available in Wizard! is to one degree or another magic-using, although some are a lot better at it that others. There are four classes available: Warriors Although weak in the use of magic, this class are first-rate fighters who belong in the front rank of your party. They have high strength and can therefore do great damage to monsters in close combat. Warriors may learn a new spell at every fourth level. Wizards The most powerful spellcasters available, Wizards are an invaluable asset to any adventure. They learn spells rapidly, at the rate of one per level break and can inflict enormous harm on monsters with their magic. They do not make very good fighters however, and should be placed at the rear of the group for protection. Rangers Second only to Wizards at magic and to Warriors at combat, Rangers fulfil a very useful role. They are tough enough to be placed at the front for melee combat whilst at the same time blast at their foes with barrages of deadly spells. Rangers may learn a new spell at every second level. Assassins When placed in the second rank this unique character class are potentially the most lethal fighter/mages of all. They have a special back-attack which can inflict triple damage to a monster when they hit one from behind, providing they use one of the special thief weapons such as a Dagger or Stealth Blade. They also make the best archers and can detect illusionary walls. Magically they are fairly adept and may learn a new spell at every third level. One character from each of the four classes available is aligned to one of the four schools of magic, dictated by the lost Gods, which affect the spells they are best able to cast. E.G.: Zastaph Mantric, the Earth Wizard, is better at casting Earth magic than Karnak Necretius, who is a Chaos Wizard. The Characters available: Blodwyn Earthmother, Earth Warrior Golems, as a rule, tend not to be too gregarious and usually shun the civilised areas of the land. However, they are very loyal and have long memories, so when Blodwyn was rescued from imprisonment in a glacier with a fiery blast from the then young Zothen Runecaster, she vowed to help the cause of humans whenever she could and so became an adventurer. She starts the game with the spell of ARMOUR. Astroth Slaemwort, Chaos Warrior Being an Orc, it would be far more natural to find Astroth fighting in favour of the forces of darkness, as he once did during the Chaos wars of the year 1200. But Astroth was betrayed and sold to the Ghast slavemasters by a particularly evil clan chieftain known as Knucklebane. He later escaped and now searches in all the dark places and monster infested dungeons for his adversary, the role of adventurer suiting his purpose, for now. He starts the game knowing the spell of DEFLECT. G'Narr Helmcleaver, Dragon Warrior Legends tell of an order of Dragon-Knights who came from the far North bringing death to all creatures of evil intent. Although G'Narr is not of that order, for they died out a thousand years ago, he is devout in his pursuit of their beliefs and is a mighty adversary to all who fight for the Evil One. He starts the game knowing the spell of MISSILE. Tarnak Wythenbane, Night Warrior Hailing from the Great Northern rift, where the winters can last for nine months and the days seldom last longer than a few hours, it is not surprising that Tarnak's people were blessed by Shaspuok, the Shade of Night. What is more unusual is that one of them should travel to the warmer Southern lands apparently seeking fame and fortune. But Tarnak's village was destroyed by a band of marauding Ratmen and now, due to some obscure sense of honour, he must hunt and destroy all manifests of evil, no matter where the quest takes him. He starts the game knowing the spell of CONFUSE. Zastaph Mantric, Earth Wizard Earth Wizards are traditionally wanderers, travelling from village to village, healing the sick and generally protecting the goodfolk from evil attacks. But Zastaph is a descendant of the legendary Berserker, Slyzaar Mantric, and although his vocation is different, Zastaph has inherited the motivations of his illustrious ancestor. He still travels the land like any other Earth Wizard, but usually as a monster-hunting adventurer instead of a local village shamen. He starts the game knowing the spells ARMOUR and HEALING. Karnak Necretius, Chaos Wizard Many have misunderstood the followers of the Chaos God and they are generally feared and shunned by normal folk. This distrust is reasonable as most of the followers of Chaos also misunderstand the doctrine of their God and usually become evil-doers. Karnak suffers from none of these illusions, he understands the true nature of Chaos is the natural force of the universe and has thus vowed to fight evil, even when he must kill his own kind, as this too is true to Chaos. He starts the game knowing the spells DEFLECT and TERROR. Zothen Runecaster, Dragon Wizard As a young man Zothen would travel the land in search of monsters to toast with his newly acquired skills. During one such adventure he fought a band of Ice Trolls who had captured a female Golem and imprisoned her in a glacier. He defeated the trolls at great cost to himself and managed to free the Golem, Blodwyn Earthmother. Since that day they have been firm friends and often fight together. He starts the game knowing the spells MISSILE and TORCH. Mad Meg Nightwych, Night Wizard As a follower of the shadow God, Shaspuok, Mad Meg has a contradictory nature. On the one hand she is gentle, helpful and protects the weak whilst on the other she has a rage incomparable in it's ferocity. As a young woman she would often fall foul of people she met due to this and so earned her name. She soon found that adventuring was an occupation in which all of her talents could be appreciated without prejudice. She starts the game knowing the spells CONFUSE and PHAZE. Sethra Boaghail, Earth Ranger Banished from the his lush jungle home by his race for some wrong-doing that he never speaks of, Sethra is a quiet but purposeful character. Lizard- folk are normally regarded by humans as another form of mutation left over from the Chaos wars, but in fact they were the first race to be favoured by Grisslem, Lord of the Earth. Humans were still in the trees when Sethra's people ruled in their great cities of gold. He starts the game knowing the spell of ARMOUR. Borgath Axeldeth, Chaos Ranger Although not exactly evil, Borgath's interpretation of Chaos is that of random action based upon his often dark moods. He gained his second name due to his disturbing habit of chaining his enemies to cartwheels and rolling them down steep hills. He does, however, have a strong sense of personal honour and will protect his comrades with his life if needs be. He starts the game knowing the spell of DEFLECT. Mistral Merrywater, Dragon Ranger Had they met earlier in life, Mistral would have made an excellent apprentice to the Wizard Zothen. Banished from her village for refusing to marry a local squire, she has carved a reputation for herself as a strong fighter and talented mage but she is ever seeking more dangerous enemies and hazardous quests. Mistral is still young but ambitious and feels her destiny is to set an example to all women showing that they can easily beat men at their own game. She starts the game knowing the spell of TORCH. Banath Dreamslayer, Night Ranger The great cities of the land offer havens to all kinds of lowlifes, thieves and cuthroats, so having your own personal bodyguard is an aspiration almost all nobles possess. Banath used to work for a minor guild-lord until his master's entire estate was burned down in an unfortunate accident, leaving him without work. Using his aptitude for night work he began to travel the cities of the land searching out troublemakers and evil-doers, in return for recompense from the local merchants. Upon learning of the Evil Wizard's plans he realised that here was a real quest with probably a real reward too! He starts the game knowing the spell PHAZE. Elfric Falaendor, Earth Assassin The lives of humans and elves have rarely followed a common path, but occasionally the elders from the Eternal forest will send one of their kind out into the world on a scouting expedition, to determine just how depraved the "civilised" world has become. When Elfric was chosen he went forth eager to complete his mission and to return his to people, but he was so moved by the suffering he encountered he vowed to remain in the outside world and fight for the common good. He starts the game knowing the spell of HEALING. Narleth Ratslugg, Chaos Assassin Whenever there is an insane necromancer, there is usually an insane necromancer's assistant. Gnarleth was once a mindslave to the powerful sorcerer Blakth-Roth and learned his assassin's skills doing his master's dark bidding. But when Blakth-Roth was slain by a rampaging mob, the spell he held over Gnarleth was broken, freeing him from his bonds and enabling him to choose his own destiny. In an attempt to make amends for the evil he perpetrated under his master's thrall, Gnarleth chose the role of adventurer and now seeks to destroy evil. He starts the game knowing the spell of TERROR. Arundel Lorkunath, Dragon Assassin There is rumoured to be a secret guild of Assassins beneath the great plains city of Sengrosiah, who are unmatched in skill and efficiency. As a boy, Arundel's considerable talents were spotted and he was recruited, destined to spend his life as a hired killer. One day he was commissioned to murder a young princess from a minor barony, but when he laid eyes on her beauty he found himself unable to carry out his task. Knowing that failure meant death at the hands of his former masters, he now wanders the land using his skills for good instead of evil. He starts the game knowing the spell of MISSILE. Karena Karinova, Night Assassin To the East there was once a small kingdom, never very powerful and of no real threat to anyone. Then one day a larger and more aggressive neighbour decided to invade and crushed the small kingdom with one blow. Karena was the only surviving member of the royal family. Exiled from her home, she has vowed never to reveal her face until the crown of Korvak rests once more on her brow. She starts the game knowing the spell of CONFUSE.