Wizardry 8 Expanded file

This is an outdated version of the mod. Please, download version 1.1 for better experience.

“Wizardry 8 Expanded” mod 1.0

What’s new?

• 17 new locations + additions to the existent locations
• More than 600 new monsters/NPCs
• More than 500 new items
• Re-balancing of classes, magic tree, spells, items, monsters
• New textures
• New monster models and skins
• Every item in the game has a unique icon
• Several new spells. Some are only usable by enemies, but some can be used by player via items
• Several new side-quests
• New NPCs and traders, and they even have voice lines J
• Some new sounds (mostly for monsters and new spells)
• New loading screens for all locations

How to Install?

Just put the content from Wizardry 8 folder in this archive to your Wizardry 8 folder. J If there are conflicts, replace files.

How to Play?

You need to use the injector (W8LaunchWithAgent.bat in Launcher folder), because this mod uses a lot of Cosmic Forge’s Advanced Capabilities.

How to do it? A quote from Cosmic Forge manual:

To be able to enjoy the Advanced Capabilities in the Game you need to launch the Game with the help of CFInjector.exe. To assist you in that there is a batch file W8LaunchWithAgent.bat which you should execute in order to launch the Game with the help of CFInjector.exe.

You need to edit this batch file in order to make it work. In this batch file you need to specify the path to your W8 exe file two times ("C:\Wizardries\W8\Wiz8_v124_nocd.exe" "C:\Wizardries\W8\Wiz8_v124_nocd.exe" is there by default, just replaces it by your full path to the W8 executable).

To sum it up, edit W8LaunchWithAgent.bat with, for example, the notepad, and specify the correct path to your .exe two times.

What is the story of this mod?

I’ve been playing Wizardry 8 since very young age (in single digits, pretty much), and it has always been one of my favorite games. However, we all know that this game has flaws, and was, ultimately, unfinished. Even as a kid, I thought that some locations were too empty, and late game was a bit too easy once you leveled up enough. I always wanted to add something to the game. So, when I first learned about Cosmic Forge back in 2007, I’ve started to add a lot of random stuff to the game. It was mostly just for me, to have some fun, and most of that stuff was really bad. No real balance, just adding stuff to have more stuff.

Over the years, surprisingly, I’ve been editing these old mods from time to time, and in the end I just had more and more unfinished stuff, but didn’t want to make a complete mod, because I thought it will take too much time and nobody will play it anyway.

The result was… interesting: I had a lot of different ideas, a lot of new stuff, including imported textures, models, some scripts, quests, etc., but everything was unfinished. Why would I finish it, if it’s just for me? But, in the end, it didn’t feel right. I didn’t know what to do with all of that material.

Especially considering that, for example, I had an insane amount of monster models imported from different games, a lot of new textures, scripts, ideas, etc. I wanted to share. But just didn’t have time…

I didn’t really use any message boards for years, so I didn’t know if there are any active Wizardry 8 communities. However, I’ve been watching Biogoo’s youtube channel since 2018, because I’m a (casual) fan of speedrunning, and I found him because I wanted to see if someone tried to speedrun this game. Through his channel (later DFortae helped as well) I’ve learned that there are still people who love this game, community is still there and active, new mods are being developed, so I thought… why not to finish it? J

But my material was very chaotic and unfinished. I’ve deleted and benched a lot of ideas, and still it has this amount of new stuff. I was “polishing” this mod for about 5 months, deleting some old stuff, replacing poorly done old ideas with less poorly done new ideas, etc. It was hard! But it’s finally done.

I don’t know if this mod ends up being good, but I’ve tried to make it at least interesting.

Content of the mod – important points

Main story is the same. You don’t have to go into new locations (except for very few and briefly – but not gonna say more, that would be a spoiler), and you don’t have to do new quests. But if you like exploration, there’s a lot of new stuff to do. A lot of new options for different classes. Harder fights. New random loot. I’ve tried to add something for every type of player.

New textures could be not for everyone. I’ve decided to change them, so new locations wouldn’t look too different from the rest. Some of the new monsters would look weird with vanilla textures as well. Also, I’ve started doing that years ago, so I kept some of the new textures from past years and added even more. Anyway, I don’t know, if you will like them, but new textures are there.

I’ve tried to make new enemies, mostly, not very annoying and more or less balanced. Not too many attacks and swings, not too much HP (not a big fan of these kind of enemies), but they’re still dangerous. J All missiles are sped up, most of the new animations are fast, but there might be some slow fights – that’s Wizardry for you. Magic seems more effective in late game. Some previously useless or weak spells are buffed.

New NPCs are there mostly for the quests, but also some new traders. Usually traders have some unique items. Some new gimmicky ideas like new kinds of ranged weapons for certain classes and new summoning mechanics.

Voice lines were done by AI based on voices of movie actors and VG voice actors. They’re not perfect, but better than no voice lines, I think.

Stealth can only be gained through the items. Also, fighters should be not as OP as they’ve been before.

Also, please do not open Cosmic Forge before playing the mod. It will ruin some surprises for you.

Potential bugs. How to report bugs?

I’ve made and tested this mod (ver. 1.0) by myself only. I have fixed all of the bugs that I’ve managed to find, but if you find something else, please, contact me at wizardry8expanded@gmail.com with subject “Wizardry 8 Expanded Bug Report”. I’ll try to check other places where this mod is going to be discussed, but it’s better if you send your report on that e-mail so I wouldn’t miss it. It’s only for this mod, as you can tell by the name.

Can I use stuff from this mod for my own mod?

Yes, sure. I would actually love if this mod inspires someone to do something new with Wizardry 8. And I’m ready to help you with your mod, if you’re making one. So, if you need something, you can take it. I just don’t recommend using stuff from this mod for any commercial purpose, because there’s a lot of stuff imported from other games. I’m also planning to make some tutorials about Cosmic Forge on youtube (and other videos related to this game).

Credits

Some of the stuff was made / imported many years ago, so I might miss something.

If you have found your contribution and it’s not credited, or you want an extra credit, or maybe even a removal of your content, contact me at wizardry8expanded@gmail.com

This mod is distributed for free, I’m not making any money from this content. You need to have a copy of Wizardry 8 to play this mod.

Most of the content from resources below was modified and transformed in order to fit Wizardry 8. Some of the textures were changed to completely original ones.

Games:

• Morrowind
• World of Warcraft
• Warcraft 3
• Diablo 2 and 3
• Final Fantasy X
• Chrono Cross
• Heroes of the Storm
• Starcraft 2
• Might and Magic 6-8
• Dota 2
• League of Legends

Other mods:

There is some old stuff influenced by Dodd the Slayer’s mod, old versions of mods by Orachin and Deathstalker’s mod. Also, some influence from Biogoo’s mod (not the nightmare one).

Other resources:

• Pinterest
• graphicriver
• DeviantArt
• Tumblr
• Hiveworkshop
• wc3-maps
• turbosquid
• sketchfab
• uberduck