Might and Magic The Might and Magic Discussion Thread

[octavius]

So what now?
My guys are level 53-56 and have nowhere to train, since I don't have a pass to Olympus and no idea where to look for it.
Dungeon of Death?
Dragon Cave?
Isle of Illusions? Not tempting, since I hate those Minotaurs.
Explore more of outdoor Darkside? I've done all the towers.
Alamar's basement?
And how do I access that small area in the south west part of the sewers under Necropolis? Neither Etherialize nor Teleport works.

the pass? you get that from the Dragon Paraoh, after you investigate the second crash site and report back.

You won't be able to train again before you manage to handle those lovely minotaurs and their gorgon friends. They have to be defeated even in a MM5 only game so you should be able to do so with all the benefits you gained from MM4.

I explored the Dragon Cave, part of the dungeon of Castle Alamar, and the remaining part of the Darkside outdoors, and then did the Isle of the Lost (not Illusions, as I wrote). After gaining some levels and better equipment the Minotaurs weren't so scary anymore, but the Gorgons managed to get in a few stoning attacks.
Now my guys are level 61 and are ready to free Queen Kalindra from Castle Blackfang.
I haven't found keys to Dragon Tower, Darkstone Tower or the Southern Sphinx yet, so unless I've missed something (AFAIK the only thing I skipped were the Drawkcab monks since I really didn't know the word "palindrome") the end game is larger than I thought.

 

[ohWOW]

M&M6 is fucking awesome.

 

[Wolfus]

Yeah. It is first M&M game I finished (I played MM3 on my Amiga prior to MM6 on PC, but I didn't finish it) and I like it very much.

 

[Sceptic]

I haven't found keys to Dragon Tower, Darkstone Tower or the Southern Sphinx yet, so unless I've missed something (AFAIK the only thing I skipped were the Drawkcab monks since I really didn't know the word "palindrome") the end game is larger than I thought.

It is. All these are part of the combined WOX ending.

As for Shangri-La connecting to Castle Alamar - remember how the world looks. CloudSIDE and DarkSIDE. The deeper you go through one end...

I never do use that connection though. Going there the first time, into Castle Alamar, at lvl 20 was quite fun though :D

 

[ohWOW]

These hordes of enemies. It becomes annoying.

 

[Mastermind]

These hordes of enemies. It becomes annoying.

Play 7. Mowing down hordes of titans and dragons with a 2 cleric 2 mage party spamming dragon's breath is quite entertaining. Second best FPS I ever played.

 

[ohWOW]

I mean, wtf, i fight more trash mobs in the exterior than fighting in dungeons.

 

[octavius]

Heh, I feel I know JVC too well.
When the layout of the second level of the Pyramid in Xeen started to become numbers and I saw the numbers 14.., 17.. and 19.., I knew it was going to be 1492 and 1776. I was unsure about the last one though.

What an all American geek!
And to release Corak from statis you have to type:"Where No Man Has Gone Before".

 

[7hm]

Oh BTW the bundle for the first six games is on sale in Gog...for as meassly $4

I bought it literally the day before (my HD crashed with my entire dos collection and I didn't want to deal with the hassle of "demo"ing it in order to get it onto my phone). Ah well. Gonna get MM7 and 8 so that the entire package comes out to 15$ and I can feel ok about that.

 

[octavius]

I haven't found keys to Dragon Tower, Darkstone Tower or the Southern Sphinx yet, so unless I've missed something (AFAIK the only thing I skipped were the Drawkcab monks since I really didn't know the word "palindrome") the end game is larger than I thought.

It is. All these are part of the combined WOX ending.

How does it work out in the separate version of Darkside of Xeen, with no access to these Clouds of Xeen?

Lack of gold is starting to be a real problem in the end game of World of Xeen. Not only for training, but also for buying quest related stuff. So I decided to give Alamar's Castle another go. No gold, but I found the Key to the Dragon Tower. There better be some gold there...

Hmm...saying "Dragon Tower" to one of the teleporters on Cloudside drops the party off northwest of the Northern Sphinx.

EDIT: I can't remember this being mentioned in the manual, but it looks like no armour makes it easier to dodge spells. I took off all armour before opening the the chests that normally do 2500 to 10,000 points of damage in Dragon Tower, and this time all of my characters avoided the trap. The third chest killed two of my characters, but the last two took no damage.

 

[octavius]

I haven't found keys to Dragon Tower, Darkstone Tower or the Southern Sphinx yet, so unless I've missed something (AFAIK the only thing I skipped were the Drawkcab monks since I really didn't know the word "palindrome") the end game is larger than I thought.

It is. All these are part of the combined WOX ending.

Heh, you successfully trolled me.
EDIT: I need to read more carefully.

The end [of Darkside of Xeen] came sooner than I thought:

I didn't do the Barkman stuff, and I didn't complete the Dragon Clouds or even visit the Dungeon of Death, Southern Spinx or Darkstone Tower, so the score might have been higher.

My guys were nearly level 90 at the end; slightly lower than my MM3 party.
I won on day 19 of year 616.

 

[octavius]

And the final score after completing World of Xeen:

It was a great end to the first part of the Might&Magic saga, and World of Xeen is definitely better than playing Clouds and Darkside separately.

Having now played all the M&M games except 8, I think I'll rank them in this order:

1. MM2, MM6 and MM7.
Can't really decide between 6 and 7. Both have excellent skill systems and character development. 6 has better dungeons and is more epic, while 7 has Acromage, item upgrades and slightly better combat.
MM2 has the best (as in most tactical) combat of all the M&M games, and with hirelings you can have 8 characters. The only real downsides is that you can't save everywhere, and fixed encounter are reset after exiting the area they are in.
I think MM6 and 7 do everything (except maybe the art style) better than MM3-5. Their only weakness is the combat, but at least you again can face hordes of enemies, and not the pitiful groups of enemies of MM3-5.

2. MM1
More primitive than MM2, but still has a much better combat system than MM3-5.

3. MM3

4. World of Xeen.

5. MM5

6. MM4

7. MM9

IMO MM3-5 really suffers from the vastly simplified and easier combat compared to MM1 and 2, and there is very little tactics left. About the only combat spells I ever used was Mass Distortion and Implosion, and the occasional Fireball, Lighting Bolt, Holy Word and Dancing Sword.
Also, I missed hirelings in MM4-5. With such an insane amount of loot it would be nice to have more characters to share with.

So I guess I'm one of the few who think both MM1-2 and MM6-7 are better than the "holy trinity" of MM3-5.

 

[ohWOW]

Shit is rad. That skeleton spawn in the temple of Baa after you reach the altar

 

[Luzur]

Shit is rad. That skeleton spawn in the temple of Baa after you reach the altar

first time it happened to me after i bought the game i nearly shat my pants, but somehow i made it up on that altar in a panic scramble and stood perfectly still in the middle and let those bowstrings go warm.

 

[ohWOW]

I've cleared the Temple of Baa out of shit and found the treasure room, at last.I think it took me more than two hours to fight all these skeletons spawning with an every opened chest.

Will my 10lvl knight/knight/cleric/sorcerer team clrear Dragoon's cavern without bigger problems? Had shitton of those in the Temple.

 

[kmonster]

And the final score after completing World of Xeen ...

After completing World of Xeen play a Darkside only game (just walk to the Darkside Inn right at the start while avoiding combat, create a fresh party there and never return to Clouds again) to test your skill. Starting at level 5 with only basic equipment, spells and stats will yield a different game. Don't forget to fight and defeat the Megadragon.

 

[Stabwound]

After completing World of Xeen play a Darkside only game (just walk to the Darkside Inn right at the start while avoiding combat, create a fresh party there and never return to Clouds again) to test your skill. Starting at level 5 with only basic equipment, spells and stats will yield a different game. Don't forget to fight and defeat the Megadragon.

I've never tried that myself, but is it really that much more difficult? When I was a kid we had only MM5 (darkside) and I remember family members playing it all the time. I mean, it is designed to be playable as a standalone game.

 

[octavius]

After completing World of Xeen play a Darkside only game (just walk to the Darkside Inn right at the start while avoiding combat, create a fresh party there and never return to Clouds again) to test your skill. Starting at level 5 with only basic equipment, spells and stats will yield a different game. Don't forget to fight and defeat the Megadragon.

I've never tried that myself, but is it really that much more difficult? When I was a kid we had only MM5 (darkside) and I remember family members playing it all the time. I mean, it is designed to be playable as a standalone game.

You get so much XP thrown at you on the Darkside that I don't think the initial difference in 15 levels will mean much.

 

[kmonster]

Might and Magic 5 is designed to play as standalone game and therefore not impossibly hard, not harder than MM3. But with a party which has finished Clouds of Xeen before it gets too easy allowing you to overrun most enemies instead of thinking about proper tactics like using ranged combat to your advantage.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Oh BTW the bundle for the first six games is on sale in Gog...for as meassly $4

Just a reminder that the GOG.com Ubisoft sale ends in 14 hours.

You can pick up the first six games for $4 as Dumah pointed out, and Might and Magic 7, 8 and 9 for $2.39 each. The Heroes of Might and Magic series are also on sale. Right now I have Might and Magic 1-8 in my cart for $8.77. I have Might and Magic 1-5 on my computer as abandoneware, but still needed 6, 7, and 8 so I can play each of the good games of the series. I just started M&M 2 last month, so this deal works well for me.

 

[Luzur]

I've cleared the Temple of Baa out of shit and found the treasure room, at last.I think it took me more than two hours to fight all these skeletons spawning with an every opened chest.

Will my 10lvl knight/knight/cleric/sorcerer team clrear Dragoon's cavern without bigger problems? Had shitton of those in the Temple.

those Brigands are hard hitters on low-level parties, and come in numbers inside, so i would recommend levels 15 to 20 for that one.

 

[DarKPenguiN]

-Best M&M for me was the mandate of heaven. The one that goes along with it (7?) was a real let down although a decent game in its own right.

Mandate was one of those games I spent YEARS playing- Good dungeons, exploration and really fun ways to build your characters/party. The real time/turned based system was flawless IMO and I wish games today utilized this more.

-My 2 cents on a fantastic series all around. Would love games like this (party based/first person/turn based ) to be made for PC and not with anime japenese type "art" on handheld nintendo bullshit.

But...

 

[ohWOW]

The real time/turned based system was flawless IMO and I wish games today utilized this more.

B-b-b-b-but what about awesome button and quick time events, then?!

 

[DraQ]

Fuck the haters, the sci-fi elements in M&M and Wiz are fucking awesome. Campy fantasy + campy scifi makes for the ultimate awesome setting.

Non-campy combinations are even better, though.

 

[ohWOW]

Gotta admit, that s-f thing in Wizardry 8 was pretty neat.