Wizardry Catacombs of Vlad v3.1 - Database Changes
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Author: Eric Labelle (email:snafaru@zimlab.com)
Release date of this document: 29 May 2024


Note: These are the database fixes, several to fix game-breaking issues.

Note: Code fixes, game play enhancements, and quality of life improvements are also included in this release as it is using the Proving Grounds v3.1 game engine. Reference: https://www.zimlab.com/wizardry/proving-grounds-v3

Download Site: https://www.zimlab.com/wizardry

Warning: The following may contain spoilers.


Scenario side fixes - details
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Maze fixes
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Maze level 2 fixes:

- At E11 N5 and E11 N15, removed spinners, they were slowing down the game needlessly and were annoyingly not fun.
- At E9, N9, E12 N3, E19 N1, set to Corridor instead of Room. This clears the way to the elevators, having a high-level party go through endless and meaningless low-level encounters was counterproductive and tedious, you want the player to go on their quest, not have them drop the game.


Maze level 3 fixes:

- Several single enclosed squares set to rock. If you were to teleport there for whatever reason you are stuck. The original author ran out of specials to assign. To fix this, changed special #8 from Pit to Rock and assign squares accordingly. We can do without the Pits and solve a game-breaking issue at the same time.
- At E9, N0, E8 N2, E6, N2, E4 N4, set to Corridor instead of Room. This clears the way to the elevators, having a high-level party go through endless and meaningless low-level encounters was counterproductive and tedious, you want the player to go on with their quest, not have them drop the game.
- At E14 N6, set right side to one-way Door. To fix a game-breaker, this is the only way to get out of an enclosed area.
- At E14 N15, set doors on West and North sides. To fix a game-breaker, this is the only way to get out of enclosed areas.


Maze level 4 fixes:

- At E18 N15, set to Room for the Special Encounter to trigger. Otherwise, nothing happens.
- At E3 N10, E6 N9, E6 N3, set to Corridor instead of Room. This clears the way to the elevators, having a high-level party go through endless and meaningless low-level encounters was counterproductive and tedious, you want the player to go on with their quest, not have them drop the game.


Maze level 5 fixes:

- Special #3 4 67 1040 is a coding error, it does nothing, changed it to 4 67 40 (Search and get Giant Rat encounter)
- Special #4 shows same message as Special #3 but no encounter, more coding confusion, replaced all its instances by Special #3
- Special #5 is the same Rats as #4 and #3 but no message, coding confusion abound, replaced all its instances with Special #3
- Special #7 4 67 -1000 gives item #00 (Broken Item) but was meant to give item #100 (Skull Pendant) was supposed to be set at -10100 but since value -10100 here crashes the game, left it at -1000 but replaced all its instances with Special #3. Item #100 (Skull Pendant) is given by an encounter on level 4. Indeed, that was the continuation of total coding confusion but now all is fixed and well with Specials 3, 4, 5, and 7.
- At E18 N16, Special #9 4 105 0 is a miscoding. Hard to see what the original author intended to do here, so changed it to 1 105 -1 to simply display message line #105.


Maze level 7 fixes:

- Changed Special #9 Pit damage from 2d12 to 1d1 throughout the entire north-west quadrant. No party can survive this minefield on its way to a major encounter on this level. The bonus, if there's one, is the Pits reset the Fizzle effect, so that gives your party a chance to heal itself.
- At E11 N8, set area to Corridor instead of Room, at this point the party can be quite depleted and needs a break in order to push forward for the boss encounter on this level.


Maze level 8 fixes:

- At E5 N11, made a one-say door on the South wall to provide a way out in case the party is depleted before the last stretch to the boss monster on this level.
- Changed Special #6 Pit damage from 2d16 to 1d1. No party could survive the minefield on the way to the boss encounter on this level.
- At E11 N10, removed spinner, this was slowing down the game needlessly.


Maze level 9 fixes:

- At E9 N0 and E11 N0, provided a means to go back to the castle in case the party is depleted and cannot handle the boss encounter on this level.


Maze level 10 fixes:

- At E11 N19, added Special #10 for a way out to the Castle in case the party is depleted.
- Changed Special #5 Pit damage from 2d16 to 1d1. No party could survive the minefield on the way to the boss encounter on this level, there are enough encounters anyway before the big boss.



Items fixes
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- Several items had characters instead of numbers in their gold value thus throwing of their value by a lot. Corrected items #17, 18, 19, 22, 30, 31, 32, 33, 35, 36, 42, 43, 53, 56, 57, 71.
- #0 Broken Item, reset Boltac's inventory to base (zero).
- #41, 68, 71. Wizardry does not take in account the number of swings of 1 on a weapon, or other items, since that is the minimum anyway. For the sake of consistency, changed the number of swings from 1 to 0.



Monster fixes - toned down since some monsters were way overboard with difficulty. Monster names not displayed intentionally, this is not a spoiler list, this is just to keep track of changes, increased experience points of most powerful monsters, otherwise you would have a hard time progressing enough to finish the game. 
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#68 Partner odds 10 > 0
#74 Partner odds 20 > 0
#82 Regen 12 > 8
#83 Partner odds 15 > 0
#84 Lair treasure 18 > 14
#86 Partner odds 15 > 0
#88 Partner odds 25 > 0
#95 Hit points 1d1+75 > 8d1+68
#98 Hit points 1d1+154 > 9d1+146
#99 Hit points 1d1+201 > 10d1+192
#100 Hit points 1d1+1372 > 13d1+1360




Conclusion
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This scenario includes all the fixes above as well as code fixes and the game enhancements of the Wizardry Proving Grounds v3.1 game engine.

It can be downloaded here: https://www.zimlab.com/wizardry

If you have more fixes for Wizardry, please let me know.

Thank you.

Eric Labelle (Snafaru)
Email: snafaru@zimlab.com
Web Site: https://www.zimlab.com/wizardry
GitHub:	https://github.com/snafaru
