Hello friends

I am new to Wizardry series and have Wizardry 8 GOG version v1.2.4 currently installed.

Need forum guidance and help towards:

1. Is v1.2.4 patch sufficient enough to play the game without any bugs/glitches? Are there any unofficial patches that further improve the game?

2. What are the best mods to play the game? Also, the order of installing the mods, if any.
I am interested in Difficulty raising or AI improvement mods

3. Need some explanation about turn based or real time gameplay in Wizardry 8

thanks

1) There are still a few issues but they're fairly minor. You can play it just fine without the unofficial patches.

2) I would recommend leaving the difficulty as-is if this is your first time through. There are mods to make it harder, but the default Hard difficulty will give you enough grief when you're learning the game. ;)

3) Generally, movement when not in combat is real-time (although not very fast). In-combat, you assign actions to each character (and declare party movement for the turn), then start the turn resolution. It's actually much easier to understand by playing the game than hearing it described.

Thank you for the feedback Garran.
I will certainly finish the game first without mods but not new to RPG and difficulty esp. after playing BG2, TOEE, ID2 several times. This is the only game which was not easily available to me unless GOG made it possible to own.

I have come up with certain mods list and request some brief idea about which one is good, what changes they bring to the game and IMPORTANTLY in what order should i install them

1. The Christian Coder's Mod - This certainly looks a difficulty raising mod. How is this mod? Link

2. W4st's Transparent Compasses mod - Very cool stuff.

3. Wizardry 8 Combat Speed Enhancer

4. Is there any other mod worth playing? I can't find Hi-Res Texture, Graphics or Items mods.

1.24 still has issues,there is a wraparound for attributes
i.e. if your characters attributes exceed 127 they drop down,
which is rather easy for speed with haste and superman.

This has been fixed with the [url=]1.26 exe from russian wiz8 community[/url] (still not really sure about the author, its probably Pokoinik)
Also resistance overcaps have been removed and the max visible in charaters sheets went up to 200.
(RFS still has ssues with overcap of his mental resistance in certain item/spell combinations)
The 1.26 exe also skips the exit picture with the advertisement for Falcon computers,
btw i think it was integrated because without the support from Falcon, the game might never have been released

1.261 exe keeps the mentioned exit pic
respectively contains a template without ads so modders can place their own credits.

Setting highest ingame difficulty has the advantage that the skills will rise faster, especially if you dont train them.

Most wiz8 mods can be found at http://www.zimlab.com/wizardry/wiz8mods.htm

Regarding what mods/which sequence, i would recommend to play flamestrykes/disco stu and cristian coder first, ,
then Deathstalkers, Lunastralis, White Wolf mod, Reforged 1.1
and finally dodds mod with deagan tweaks as the probably most difficult w8 mod up to now
(i hope to change that with the reforged 1.2 update ;)

Transparent compasses and individual items should be compatible with all mods,
though they may overwrite some of the changes,
i recommend the following sequence:
Install wiz 8 and patch at least to 1.24, apply transparent compasses if desired,
individual items if desired or full wiz8 enhancements respectivel only the combat speed enhancer,
Finally one of the aforementioned mods so it overwrites all possible collisions with the previously installed "partial" mods.