Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord News

Hello and happy Friday! We are releasing a small update to the current 0.4 version of the game to address some player feedback and introduce a new experimental feature!

(As noted below, please back up your saves before you attempt it!)

• Automatically fully identify Level 7 Fighter if you resume a game with the ribbon
  
• Uncursing and Identifying items now properly contribute to "Boltac's Summer Home" achievement
  
• Fixed a lock-up from teleporter on floor 7 (Classic version)
  
• Experimental feature to switch level set with command line argument ("-modernlevels" or "-classiclevels" - back up your saves before you try this!)
  

Friends and adventurers, we sincerely hope you find this massive March of the Mad Overlord update to have been worth the wait. We've spent the first quarter of 2024 bringing many planned features and upgrades into the game; here's what you can look for when you return to the Maze…

Improved Graphics
All 10 levels of the Maze now have received a significant visual upgrade. Please take notice of the cleaner textures and improved visuals as you run for your life, desperately searching for the gorgeously rendered exit. And Levels 6-10 now use a secondary tileset!

New Music
Winifred Phillips has composed several new tracks for Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, including a refreshed version of the original theme that console players remember and love. You'll also hear pieces specific to locations in town and special cues on certain in-game activities.

Enemy Animations
Creating detailed, fluid animations for all 101 enemies has taken quite a bit of time, but after hundreds of hours of work by our artists, this feature is finally complete. All foes in the Maze are now fully animated!

Console Levels
Many console players missed the alternate layouts for levels 6, 7, and 8, so we have added these as user-selectable options.

Hide & Ambush
In the Japanese 16-bit console compilation of Wizardry, thieves and ninja could hide and ambush during combat, even when situated in the back row. This feature is now on by default, but can be toggled off in the Old-School Options menu.

Treasure Details
The Bestiary, which offers a reference guide to all the creatures your party encounters in the Maze, now also includes a guide to what types of treasure you can expect any given enemy to drop.

Achievements
Steam players will find 28 achievements, representing a wide array of activities throughout your adventure. From character leveling to spellcasting to money management, you'll find plenty of satisfying milestones!

Save Icon
It's a small detail, but you'll now get a visual indicator of when the game is saving your progress. Keep a watchful eye for the parchment inscription icon in the upper right corner of the screen.

And More
As always, various tweaks have been applied and bug have been squashed, including fixing the issue with the Gold Key.

We've come a very long way since we launched this project in early access just six months ago. Your continued feedback remains valuable as we continue working toward version 1.0, so please do keep posting your reactions and suggestions in the forums. We appreciate it. See you next update!

The Wizardry Team at Digital Eclipse

A work-in-progress version of Japanese localized text was erroneously enabled in Update 0.3. We are still working on this feature and it is not yet ready to be played. We have disabled it in this patch. Our apologies for the inconvenience.

Well met, adventurers — it's time for another update to our reimagined version of Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord. This time we've tried to focus on player feedback as much as possible, and we're expanding some of the core systems of the game to make the experience more forgiving — but only if you want it to be! Let's dive into what's new.

Expanded Inn & Temple Functions
Two key buildings in town have been enhanced. All the features of camp can now be accessed in town at the Inn, and you can now rest your whole party with one button press. At the Temple of Cant, you'll find resurrection prices are a little more generous based on the experience of the character you're trying to bring back to the land of the living. What's more, The Temple priests can now restore experience to characters who have been affected by Level Drain.

Old School Menu
The Old School Menu has become increasingly important as we try to respect the Wizardry experience as each individual player might remember it — a computer game, a console game, or just an RPG that they're experiencing for the first time. These options have expanded, and are important enough that we've split them into their own menu. There are many, from how your starting attributes are distributed to how you prefer to see your characters increase in level — but they are all explained in-game, so hover over each one and see which options best suit your style of play. Don't forget you can also use presets for Original and Classic Console, which is an easy way for experienced players to make the game match what you remember!

Character Recruiting
You'll need all the help you can get in Werdna's dungeon. Stop by Gilgamesh's Tavern and you'll find adventurers waiting to be hired to join your party. Some of them are bargains, while some of them will charge more gold for their expertise – but they're worth every penny.

New Combat Arena
In addition to more animations and final textures added to the game, you'll quickly spot a new combat arena. Enjoy fighting for your life in this colossal cave!

Save Slot Improvements
The previous update brought save slots into existence; this time we're giving players more control over them, including the crucial ability to copy them into other slots. We know backing up your party is important!

Updated Combat Logic
In the original version of Wizardry, it was not uncommon for your mage to lock in a spell, only to see your target enemy perish before the mage had a chance to act — and by the time the rotation reaches the mage, the precious spell slot is wasted on nobody and nothing. To address this, our team has added new logic to automatically redirect attacks that would otherwise be squandered. Here's how it works in various situations:

• If you would have attacked an enemy that's already dead, you will instead attack a different enemy in the same group.
  
• If you would have attacked an enemy group with no living members, you will instead attack a different enemy group.
  
• If your spell would have targeted an enemy that's already dead, you will instead target a different enemy in the same group.
  
• If your spell would have targeted an enemy group with no living members, you will instead target a different enemy group.
  
• If no enemies are alive, no spells will be cast (and no spell slots are consumed).
  

All this and the usual bug fixes should make this update a significant one, with smoother gameplay and more personalized options for players who are veterans to the franchise as well as new adventurers. We appreciate your continued feedback in the Steam forums; we may not always be able to respond directly, but we are reading everything, and we hope we're proving that we are acting on your comments, criticisms, suggestions, and bug reports.

Due to the big December holidays, we expect our next update to take a little longer than our usual two-month cadence. Currently, we're planning to release the next update in March. We'll post a Roadmap before too long, but in the meantime, enjoy the latest content, keep sending in your feedback, and enjoy your holidays!

The Wizardry Team at Digital Eclipse

We have received the following scroll, with a message scrawled in what we hope is merely maroon ink:

Woe to you adventurers who dare trespass upon my labyrinth! I, Werdna, devised my dungeon to punish any mortals foolish enough to challenge my supreme will. Let this be your final warning: Seek not your riches or Trebor's amulet -- I will keep what I've earned and take your life as many times as necessary to fulfill my destiny!