I played wizardry 7 ages ago... on a 486!!!
to find my old savegame i had to hunt far and wide for an
ancient burnt cd, in an archive within an archive. *whew*

so the questions...
ive found that importing a 8th level party was better than
importing an 18th as the 8th kept more equipment...
not great stuff u understand, but good to give me a legup
i.e. all front row chars have 2 weapons + bows, everyone has
at least a minimal amount of armour etc.

Q1: does anyone know what items get imported and what doesn't?

Q2: has anyone played the game with less than 6 members?
i.e. my classic imported party is 4. a tad strange but its
served me well
dracon lord, human samurai, human ninja and mook monk.

Q3: the the lord is my default communicator, the ninja my
identifier. so is there a way to increase my ID skill faster
than normal in w8?
i know in wizardry 7 there was a trick where the ninja tries
to use sparkle sticks in combat (instead of throwing them)
half of the time a use would fail, but the ID item skill went
up fast... very useful.

Q3: in the beginning, whats best? 2 light damage fast weapons, or
1 2handed slow but very damaging weapon? i.e. flamberge vs
broadsword + handaxe or Ninjato vs katana + wakashi.

Q4: should i shut up now?
[img]smile.gif[/img]
thanx in advance... been toooo long since i wizardried myself.

There's lots of threads you can find under 'importing' using the search function. Some have links to lists of what can import, etc. What was import-ant to me was stats. For every skill except magic, you get 20% of what you ended W-7 with. Magic skills are based on what char class you finish as, as applies to the attributes. My fave was importing casters, because you can import a lot of spellbooks. I also know that the level of what you can bring 3 each of is around Crusader helm, Bec de Corbin, Staff of Blessing, etc. Fill the rest of your slots with books, scrolls, etc, which import with 3 to a slot, and stix (9 to a slot)

ok cool
but u didnt answer question 4!!! ;)

that depends on what your char's are good at. If they can dual wield and have points in each weapon, then that'll be better. Shields are more interesting now; Shield skill increases their AC value. I dual wielded my tanks in W7, it works even better for me in W8. Some like big 2-handers, though...