Adventurer's Guild 𝙲𝙻𝙰𝚂𝚂𝙸𝙲 Issue #11 — Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge

[rusty_shackleford]

Adventurer's Guild 𝙲𝙻𝙰𝚂𝚂𝙸𝙲 Issue #11

Game: Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge
Platforms: DOS, Amiga, Macintosh, SNES
How Long To Beat: https://howlongtobeat.com/game/11235 Completionist 56 Hours

Manual: https://www.crimsontear.com/gaming/wiza ... Manual.pdf
Cluebook: https://wizardryarchives.com/downloads/w6cluebook.pdf
Magic Word list(DRM): https://f.rpghq.org/7cxDkf7WDpyI.pdf?n= ... n List.pdf

The SNES version is Japanese only, with a fan translation: https://www.romhacking.net/translations/939/

Do note that Wizardry VII has save import, and therefore you may want to consider this when picking what platform to play on. I do not know how this works for non-DOS platforms.

Wizardry VI does not have an automapper, and was not designed with it in mind. If you wish to use a third-party one, there are some options available.
The paid tool Grid Cartographer supports Wizardry VII: https://gridcartographer.com/
There is also an automap "mod": https://www.moddb.com/mods/wizardry-6-automap-mod

[Tweed]

Last time I played I tried to use the automapper, which works fine, but my level up screens kept going by way too ******* quick and Wiz 6 suffers from the same gay ******** that all of them do where you need to spend at least 10 hours checking to make sure you got exactly the stats you wanted for each character.

[rusty_shackleford]

and Wiz 6 suffers from the same gay ******** that all of them do where you need to spend at least 10 hours checking to make sure you got exactly the stats you wanted for each character.

Just don't?

[J1M]

I thought these were slowing to once a quarter.

[rusty_shackleford]

I thought these were slowing to once a quarter.

Check your calendar, old man.

[rusty_shackleford]

Need to read the manual to pick my classes. I want a psionic because psionics are cool.

For anyone worried about the story, VI is the start of a new story trilogy. I can't be certain there's no callbacks to prior titles, but it doesn't require any prior knowledge.

[rusty_shackleford]

Huh, never knew Wizardry games had gender differences beyond the two gender-locked classes.

Selection_023.webp

[J1M]

[DagothGeas5]

Wanted to ask, there is no timer to the game's quest right? In Arborea it was a race against time and I am still of that mind so I am unsure if I can just walk around and force enemy ambushes to fight or if I should progress faster.

[DagothGeas5]

@Kalarion

[Kalarion]

Wanted to ask, there is no timer to the game's quest right? In Arborea it was a race against time and I am still of that mind so I am unsure if I can just walk around and force enemy ambushes to fight or if I should progress faster.

I think I was wrong on this. I got W6 confused with another game where wandering parties of NPCs can find key items ahead of you, at which point you have to track them down and kill them for the items. Apparently there is no time limit in W6.

Sorry about that.

[rusty_shackleford]

Wanted to ask, there is no timer to the game's quest right? In Arborea it was a race against time and I am still of that mind so I am unsure if I can just walk around and force enemy ambushes to fight or if I should progress faster.

I think I was wrong on this. I got W6 confused with another game where wandering parties of NPCs can find key items ahead of you, at which point you have to track them down and kill them for the items. Apparently there is no time limit in W6.

Sorry about that.

That sounds like Wizardry 7.

[DagothGeas5]

Wanted to ask, there is no timer to the game's quest right? In Arborea it was a race against time and I am still of that mind so I am unsure if I can just walk around and force enemy ambushes to fight or if I should progress faster.

I think I was wrong on this. I got W6 confused with another game where wandering parties of NPCs can find key items ahead of you, at which point you have to track them down and kill them for the items. Apparently there is no time limit in W6.

Sorry about that.

Nothing to apologize for I understood the Disagree as to say I could go ahead and enjoy myself with no time limit, will keep things in mind for Wizardry 7 though! Thank you both

[DagothGeas5]

Wanted to ask, the writing is beautiful (one I found said an old kitchen now became the food and "time" was now the chef for example, love these things) but I got a message that said Orc rumble Friday night at 8 , is this some Easter Egg of sorts or the likes or is there more to it? Was quite unexpected, and for a moment, reading the first line alone, I thought there was a rumble as in the sound of many orc steps rushing our way XD

[Tangerine]

It's very charming how the manual describes the game as the game master.

[DagothGeas5]

Not sure if I can finish this game for this month as I am having too much fun mapping the levels and triggering random encounters XD Time will tell though, I would honestly be sad if it ends too soon.
I even dusted off an old book I own to use the patterned paper to count the steps better using the square pattern it has. My maps are quite messy (had to re-do this one so it is messier than usual), but wanted to share as I myself love seeing these sorts of thing.

► Show Spoiler

[rusty_shackleford]

Not sure if I can finish this game for this month

AG classic runs quarterly

[rusty_shackleford]

Magic Word list(DRM)

Added this, I needed it for the Steam version.

[DagothGeas5]

Magic Word list(DRM)

Added this, I needed it for the Steam version.

Could I ask what is this Magic Word mechanic about? I do not recall seeing it in the manual and the above pdf doesn't say, is it a sort of separate handbook for flavor things or can the passwords be learned in-game in some way?

[rusty_shackleford]

Magic Word list(DRM)

Added this, I needed it for the Steam version.

Could I ask what is this Magic Word mechanic about? I do not recall seeing it in the manual and the above pdf doesn't say, is it a sort of separate handbook for flavor things or can the passwords be learned in-game in some way?

It's just the game's DRM. A lot of older games had DRM that required you to go look up certain things in the manual. A handful of games had really ****** DRM like code wheels or even RGB lookup(color printing was expensive)

---

I'm not sure if it's actually needed in the Steam/GOG versions after checking, however. It seems like you may be able to just hit enter and it bypasses the check, strange they kept the prompt itself in however.

[DagothGeas5]

Added this, I needed it for the Steam version.

Could I ask what is this Magic Word mechanic about? I do not recall seeing it in the manual and the above pdf doesn't say, is it a sort of separate handbook for flavor things or can the passwords be learned in-game in some way?

It's just the game's DRM. A lot of older games had DRM that required you to go look up certain things in the manual. A handful of games had really ****** DRM like code wheels or even RGB lookup(color printing was expensive)

---

I'm not sure if it's actually needed in the Steam/GOG versions after checking, however. It seems like you may be able to just hit enter and it bypasses the check, strange they kept the prompt itself in however.

I typed in "Fire" for my (GoG for now) copy and I had no issue thus far, didn't even say if the "password" was correct or not, it just opened, so I am guessing any word works.
I always type in "Fire" since though, as I thought it was how the game, as it asked me to do this when I started, was identifying which save file to load XD

[Tangerine]

I'm not sure if it's actually needed in the Steam/GOG versions after checking, however. It seems like you may be able to just hit enter and it bypasses the check, strange they kept the prompt itself in however.

This is what I did on Steam. It works.

[Tangerine]

The random encounter rate is surprisingly low. It's nice to be able to walk around without getting jumped every 20 feet.

[DagothGeas5]

Wanted to ask, is there some way to open the jammed doors or the gates (keys or things of the sort) or should I continue to level up my mage until Knock-Knock works on them (or my fighter becomes strong enough to somehow force them) or anything of the sort? Or am I missing something? I have some iron and copper keys but they do not work on none of the remaining jammed doors, and none of the gates I tried. I have also explored the whole maps (mapping everything besides the four towers as they are somewhat of a repeat with just different things, besides the bloated corpse and the frenchman ones), but find myself unable to go forward as I do not have any gems for the door with the skull nor do I have a spade key, and my only options (aside from finding the captain's chest and see if returning snoopcheri might unlock me something) are three doors that are jammed on what I call "the second level" and the belfry door beyond the pit with the bell. I previously looted two chests (at the very beginning of the game) that had text like "open me first" and then "open me second", but I fumbled with how looting worked so I lost every item as I clicked on None thinking it would somehow change to "collect all" both times. The manual says there are some key items that will be forced into the inventory, so I wasn't worried about the lost loot (however sad it made me to realize my error) but now I am wondering if I locked myself in some way. There are also no more chests, that I can find at least, and the only non jammed door (besides the skull and spade ones) is the one for the Captain's Den, but no entry without the password. (I tried saying "open sesame" for fun, it did not work XD Just as asking nicely to be let in did not).

[Tangerine]

Wanted to ask, is there some way to open the jammed doors or the gates (keys or things of the sort) or should I continue to level up my mage until Knock-Knock works on them (or my fighter becomes strong enough to somehow force them) or anything of the sort? Or am I missing something? I have some iron and copper keys but they do not work on none of the remaining jammed doors, and none of the gates I tried. I have also explored the whole maps (mapping everything besides the four towers as they are somewhat of a repeat with just different things, besides the bloated corpse and the frenchman ones), but find myself unable to go forward as I do not have any gems for the door with the skull nor do I have a spade key, and my only options (aside from finding the captain's chest and see if returning snoopcheri might unlock me something) are three doors that are jammed on what I call "the second level" and the belfry door beyond the pit with the bell. I previously looted two chests (at the very beginning of the game) that had text like "open me first" and then "open me second", but I fumbled with how looting worked so I lost every item as I clicked on None thinking it would somehow change to "collect all" both times. The manual says there are some key items that will be forced into the inventory, so I wasn't worried about the lost loot (however sad it made me to realize my error) but now I am wondering if I locked myself in some way. There are also no more chests, that I can find at least, and the only non jammed door (besides the skull and spade ones) is the one for the Captain's Den, but no entry without the password. (I tried saying "open sesame" for fun, it did not work XD Just as asking nicely to be let in did not).

Make sure you check all the stairwells on the first floor. I've found new areas by accident by using a different set of stairs.

[DagothGeas5]

Wanted to ask, is there some way to open the jammed doors or the gates (keys or things of the sort) or should I continue to level up my mage until Knock-Knock works on them (or my fighter becomes strong enough to somehow force them) or anything of the sort? Or am I missing something? I have some iron and copper keys but they do not work on none of the remaining jammed doors, and none of the gates I tried. I have also explored the whole maps (mapping everything besides the four towers as they are somewhat of a repeat with just different things, besides the bloated corpse and the frenchman ones), but find myself unable to go forward as I do not have any gems for the door with the skull nor do I have a spade key, and my only options (aside from finding the captain's chest and see if returning snoopcheri might unlock me something) are three doors that are jammed on what I call "the second level" and the belfry door beyond the pit with the bell. I previously looted two chests (at the very beginning of the game) that had text like "open me first" and then "open me second", but I fumbled with how looting worked so I lost every item as I clicked on None thinking it would somehow change to "collect all" both times. The manual says there are some key items that will be forced into the inventory, so I wasn't worried about the lost loot (however sad it made me to realize my error) but now I am wondering if I locked myself in some way. There are also no more chests, that I can find at least, and the only non jammed door (besides the skull and spade ones) is the one for the Captain's Den, but no entry without the password. (I tried saying "open sesame" for fun, it did not work XD Just as asking nicely to be let in did not).

Make sure you check all the stairwells on the first floor. I've found new areas by accident by using a different set of stairs.

They have all been mapped according to my maps, but I can revisit them all for sure
For my maps, I add, for example, 6A to a stairwell and still call it 6A in the map it connects to, as you can see in the map I posted above though it may be a bit of a spoiler (the lower stairs were not yet mapped in the one above, for example, but I have since filled the whole of the map).

[Tangerine]

@DagothGeas5

Have you used the Rotten Cheese?

[rusty_shackleford]

I'm not a fan of mapping by hand so I'm using an automapper

[DagothGeas5]

@DagothGeas5

Have you used the Rotten Cheese?

I have not found any cheese If it's to be found using the Search feature I have something where to start, will revisit every room, thank you

[DagothGeas5]

@Tangerine
Wanted to thank you again as searching every room revealed to me just how much more interactive this game is. I was led to believe that much was just flavor text due to my searches finding nothing the times I tried barring a few rare instances and I stopped using the feature (using it only once at room entrance after the text), finding out the items described are truly there in-game is a beautiful discovery I also found the cheese, and much, much more, by going back to every room, so thank you once more