Might and Magic The Might and Magic Discussion Thread

[Unkillable Cat]

I had a look at the mod. It shows telltale signs of "modder drama queen"-syndrome as I came across undocumented changes. Like new equipment being added and old equipment being renamed. A huge oversight I'd reckon.

So I'll be uninstalling that.

EDIT: Installing just his patch, however, proved to be a little hassle, but here are the instructions for anyone else that comes across this:

Step 1: Acquire the following downloads:

MM3.EXE IPS patch

MM3.CC IPS patch

The IPS program needed to apply the patch

Step 2: Install the IPS program. Ludmeister recommended IPS XP, which worked for me and came as a Setup file. This program associates itself with files with the .ips extension, so keep that in mind.

Step 3: Use the program to apply the mm3-ludmeister.ips file to MM3.EXE, AND the MM3-CC.ips file to MM3.CC (you'll have to enter the name of this file manually into the IPS program). Once this is done, you can uninstall the IPS program (unless you intend to hack ROMs, which is what this program was originally intended for).

Step 4: Enjoy!

 

[octavius]

Even character classes are renamed.
And there's lots more monsters, which would have been fine it the combat was not so sinplistic.
Still, to Ludmeister for the patch.

 

[TigerKnee]

Now that this topic is revived, I will say that playing Dragon Wars makes me want to go back to M&M 2 instead - much better looting

 

[octavius]

Best looting ever.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

So I'm in the swing of things in M&M3, have a Lvl 9 party and am hopping around in the sewers beneath Baywatch. Human Knight, Half-Orc Barbarian, Dwarven Ranger, and then a Robber, Cleric and Sorcerer...all Gnomes. So far, so good.

I took a moment to read the M&M3 manual, where the first page has these words on it:

From the corners of the misty Void
Rang loud the battle cry
The Elemental lords of four
Had sworn to fight and die

Fire, Water, Air and Earth
Did meet their might and force
And in their battles bloody mire
Found our land its source

I didn't give them much thought until I saw a passage on the next page over where it says:

While talking to a town elder he told me of an ancient rhyme once read before the festivals that contained the legend of the mysterious conception of the isles.

The word "rhyme" made me turn back a page. Now, poetry standards vary throughout the world, but that *barely* constitutes as a rhyme. Or poetry, for that matter. I'm fairly certain that anyone mulling over this during their lunch break could have improved it.

More verses appear later in the manual, and fortunately they're of a much better quality, but what makes me stop and pause is the quality of the manual itself. Page 28, for example, just ends abruptly and does not continue on the next page over, while a line at the end of Page 27 is repeated at the top of Page 28. Is this an error due to the digital version of the manual, or has it always been like this?

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

am hopping around in the sewers beneath Baywatch.

 

[thesheeep]

I don't know if a low-level party can handle orc bards.

 

[Dedup]

More verses appear later in the manual, and fortunately they're of a much better quality, but what makes me stop and pause is the quality of the manual itself. Page 28, for example, just ends abruptly and does not continue on the next page over, while a line at the end of Page 27 is repeated at the top of Page 28. Is this an error due to the digital version of the manual, or has it always been like this?

I checked my paper manual and it has the same errors you describe but I looked at the M&M3 manual on Abandonia and it was fine. I'm guessing there was a printing error in the manuals for some of the releases of the game and that the digital manual was taken from one of those.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Dedup Thanks for the info! A perfectionist would scoff at the horrible scan of the manual front cover on the link you provided, but I've always been more about the taste of the dish than the look of it, so I'm not complaining. Maybe there's a perfectionist out there somewhere that'll combine the two.

As for my party - they're Lvl 14 now, I haven't hopped over to Swamp Town yet, but instead chose to try to clean up as much as I could over on this side before getting on the ferry. That means clearing out the locked dungeons as well. The Cathredal of Carnage looks to be a tough (but doable) challenge, but the Fortress of Fears is giving me a headache because of the 16 levers that should be pulled? (MUST be pulled?) Anyway, they affect the layout of the central room and I'm supposed to get it in a certain configuration, but I really can't be arsed to discover it on my own (I'm too old for convoluted "trial-and-error" puzzles) and the cluebook isn't telling me anything.

At least I managed to figure out Lord Might's puzzle on my own - THAT was a refreshing test of my brain. (Realizing that I didn't have enough gems for his 'reset' of the gems - not so refreshing.)

 

[octavius]

Anyone know a way to use the pregens (lvl 1) from MM2 in MM1?
I've played through both games using the MM1 pregens, but now I was contemplating using the MM2 pregens for a possible new playthrough.
The party in MM1 is stored in a file called ROSTER.DTA while the MM2 party is ROSTER.DAT (note the slight difference). I tried copying the ROSTER.DAT to the MM1 folder, and renaming it ro ROSTER.DTA, but MM1 can't read it.
I guess the extra classes introduced in MM2 is one of the reasons why it fails. Opening the file in Notepad I see all the NPCs are already in the ROSTER.DAT file, so I guess it's no dice.

 

[CptMace]

Anyone know a way to use the pregens (lvl 1) from MM2 in MM1?

I know it doesn't answer your question (something I can't do) but you may as well simply build the characters yourself in MM1.
I take it your plan is to play through both games with the MM2 party ? Have fun then, it gonna takes some time.

 

[octavius]

Yeah, I seem to recall there is a MM1 editor, so I'll probably have to go that route if I decide to go through with it (my play list is long enough as it is).

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

So from the poll, seems like most people think M&M VI and World of Xeen are the best entries in the series. I kind of want to try them (and the series in general), but never been a fan of blobbers in general. Do those games hold up well today for people who haven't played them when they originally came out?

 

[SausageInYourFace]

Yes. I started with M&MIII and since then have played several more blobbers. M&MIII is really beginner friendly and easily accessible. The system is self-explanatory, you can just take the custom party and roll with it, it even offers auto-mapping. Besides the obvious exploration aspects you get wonderful colorful graphics, beautiful music, a nice sense of humor, just an all in all enjoyable experience.. and if you like it, you have two (or three) more games to go with the same engine.

 

[octavius]

Visually I guess WoX is the one who has held up best. It's also the easiest and most newbie friendly of all the M&M games.
MM3 is also a good start.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Having never played it when it first came out, I considered MMVI very fun with a satisfying loot system, just a perfect mix of exploration, combat and none-too complicated puzzles. However, it's far too easy to become utterly overpowered by endgame with a final boss battle that can last literally fractions of a second because you're now so beyond God-like that you are to Gods what wanton boys are to flies. MMVII corrected these balance issues but I never completed it because I got burnt out on playing these two back to back. But the loot system is just a blast - the most fun of any RPG, evah, even if the trade-off is that that loot eventually makes you so powerful that God himself might just as well be kept inside a wooden box at night and brought out during daytime as your pleasure-slave and called The Gimp. Speaking of which, definitely worth playing, but you might want to gimp yourself to make it a challenge for the end game. I never played World of Xeen but it certainly is a colorful blobber. I always hated how sluggish the mouse was in Dosbox emulation for that game, even if you had a system that was as God-like as your end-character in MMVI.

 

[octavius]

MM6-7 had excellent loot system, but no party based game beats the loot in MM2 IMO.
MM2 also had the best tactical combat amongst blobbers. OTOH in MM6-7 you could carpet bomb enemies while flying.

 

[Jaesun]

You had to get, and be able to cast the flying spell first though...

 

[Efe]

can't you just hire a companion to cast fly for you. it would work as long as you don't mind constant sleeping.

 

[Fowyr]

I tried copying the ROSTER.DAT to the MM1 folder, and renaming it ro ROSTER.DTA, but MM1 can't read it.

Of course not, duh
Quick glance - first character in M&M1 is 0 - 7Eh, first character in M&M2 - 0 - 81h. It's three bytes of length difference.
You can easily copy names and stats using hex editor, though. If you really want, I can make it. Just names, classes and stats?

Notepad

Who the fuck uses notepad for working with non-text files! FFS! Use NC's or FAR's viewer or, better, hiew!

 

[octavius]

I tried copying the ROSTER.DAT to the MM1 folder, and renaming it ro ROSTER.DTA, but MM1 can't read it.

Of course not, duh
Quick glance - first character in M&M1 is 0 - 7Eh, first character in M&M2 - 0 - 81h. It's three bytes of length difference.
You can easily copy names and stats using hex editor, though. If you really want, I can make it. Just names, classes and stats?

Thanks, if it's no bother.

 

[Fowyr]

octavius
Grab it while it lasts:
http://www.filedropper.com/roster_1

That I have done.
1) Deleted all MM1 character in the game.
2) Created new characters with MM2 names/races/classes/gender/alignment using game itself.
3) hex edited stats, HP and spell points (both temporary and real).
AC should be re-calculated after rest.

The reason for all this still eludes me, though. This party is dear to your heart?

 

[octavius]

Thanks; it seems to be working swimmingly.
Will definitely use it when I replay MM1-2.

 

[CptMace]

Thread made me want to replay Book I.
Got time this past week-end so I threw Crag the Hack and his friends in the action.
Discovered a gem I didn't know until then : Grid Cartographer Pro, best software ever.

Spoiler

ps: book I was damn good for its time. I remember I really liked book II but the first one is actually not that far from it.
nota bene : yeah i know i fucked up the mapping of D1. Like always.

 

[Nekot-The-Brave]

That's pretty cool, I'll have to use that whenever I go back and play book II.