Might and Magic The Might and Magic Discussion Thread

[Admiral jimbob]

So, after accidentally stumbling across the Magic Cavern after falling down a well, and a few days of hopping back and forth with fountain blessings to clear it out, I start getting rid of the liches. Very slow and painful process. But hey, my still-puny mage has spells like star burst, I'm not complaining. I discover one gated area that I'd managed to miss, with a free-roaming lich and a ton of sorcerers inside. Takes a while of scummy, devious behaviour to overcome this lot.

As a result, my level 13 mage now has implosion, inferno, star burst and mega volts.

feels good man

One last question (probably), does it have any impact on my interactions with the kings etc if I loot their castles? I know the guard are called, but the king doesn't seem too bothered. Just wondering if I'm missing something.

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

does it have any impact on my interactions with the kings etc if I loot their castles?

No.

 

[DaveO]

There's no effect for robbing the king's castles in MM3. You can have a hefty amount in the bank by using the various boosts to make those encounters fairly simple.

 

[Sceptic]

does it have any impact on my interactions with the kings etc if I loot their castles?

Nope. Rob to your heart's content.

The 2 special chests, as you may have gathered, need a bit more work (and the castle dungeons are... rather higher level), but even robbing them won't affect the kings at all.

I'm not sure I should tell you this... so I'll put spoiler tags for the second one. There are a couple of ways to get lots of XP from castles. First, you may notice the guards are re-summonned every time you open a chest. Open one, kill them all, open just one other, repeat. The other, more important thing...

Spoiler

Each king asks you to deliver him 11 power orbs. There is a total of 31 power orbs in the game. When you talk to a king, all power orbs you have are given at once, for 1M XP each. If you're savvy, you can make it so that each king receives exactly 10 power orbs, then you get the last one and decide which king should get it.

And, obviously, make sure you have turned in all the artifacts of good/evil/neutrality before you finish the king's quest.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

Yeah, my friend told me that about the Power Orbs. Anyway, I seem to have thoroughly broken the game, I'm loaded down with obsidian equipment, all the best spells and sitting at around 90 AC at level 20. This is pretty much entirely based on stuff I've stumbled across/looted from castle dungeons. Not that I'm complaining, people who whine that single-player games ought to balanced upset and worry me. Now to hit those plot dungeons.

Any way to stash the plot-critical items somewhere? I'm not going to need them for a while yet (as far as I can tell) and they're taking up precious inventory space that could be used for more absurdly AC-enhancing bling.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Any way to stash the plot-critical items somewhere? I'm not going to need them for a while yet (as far as I can tell) and they're taking up precious inventory space that could be used for more absurdly AC-enhancing bling.

Nope. This is one of MM3's biggest flaws when compared to MM4-5. In Xeen, all quest-related items are stocked in a relevant section of your journal instead of clogging up your inventory (bonus points when you still have shitloads of orbs of power and you've already sided with one of the kings, since you can't drop quest items).

 

[Sceptic]

I seem to have thoroughly broken the game, I'm loaded down with obsidian equipment, all the best spells and sitting at around 90 AC at level 20.

Hah, yeah you've thoroughly broken it. I'm surprised, I don't remember there being so much obsidian stuff in the castles. But yeah, the complete lack of scaling is nice. If you're tough enough to get your hands on the good stuff, then the game becomes easier. Makes sense.

Any way to stash the plot-critical items somewhere?

On hirelings that you leave in the inns. Or better yet, I think you can create a dummy character, load him with the items and leave him in the inn.

 

[kmonster]

Yeah, my friend told me that about the Power Orbs. Anyway, I seem to have thoroughly broken the game, I'm loaded down with obsidian equipment, all the best spells and sitting at around 90 AC at level 20. This is pretty much entirely based on stuff I've stumbled across/looted from castle dungeons. Not that I'm complaining, people who whine that single-player games ought to balanced upset and worry me. Now to hit those plot dungeons.

There are lots of locations where your party will get slaughtered if you go there now.

Any way to stash the plot-critical items somewhere? I'm not going to need them for a while yet (as far as I can tell) and they're taking up precious inventory space that could be used for more absurdly AC-enhancing bling.

You can create new characters at the inns and transfer the items to them. Be aware that a day passes each time you enter an inn.
I'd just equip far less stuff to make the game more comfortable.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Equipment hardly even matters beyond a certain level, aside from having obsidian weapons for the damage bonus. All you need is a high level arcane and divine caster for your power word shield/blessing/heroism/holy bonus/resist elements buffs. When you lower damage from every hit by 45 points whether or not you have armor becomes trivial. Only exception are some of the uber enemies that cause instant death or do crazy amounts of damage. Then you just need to spam implosion and cast the full party rez spell afterwards. Pretty much anything you can melee will be defeated just by having a high enough leveled power word shield.

I do enjoy seeing all the lovely numbers going into triple digits when you pile the phat loots on a character though.

 

[DaveO]

Raise dead and resurrection do have a character constitution penalty for using in MM3 IIRC, so you should avoid using those spells when possible. Some dungeons will require having resurrection, raise dead, or other status removal spells.

 

[Sceptic]

Resurrection is horrible, IIRC it reduces endurance to ONE. And one of the dungeons (Cathedral of Carnage IIRC) has an obligatory "eradicate member of the party". I hated that. Then again that's what hirelings and temp characters are for.

I don't remember if Divine Intervention (or whatever it was called) restores eradication too. Probably not. Also, abusing it early on is bad due to ageing.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Unless you have an item (Or 3) with charges of it.

Besides, this is why every party should have 2-3-4-5 arcane casters in it so you can abuse the hell out of lloyd's beacons.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

Finished 3

Good game bros

The backstory seems to be pretty cool, though I'm amused by the amount of thought put into it while the main story of the actual game is basically "well, uh... you guys follow Corak around for some reason, becoming the most powerful warriors in history while doing so, then ultimately distract him and let Sheltem get away. Follow them! Also you crash somewhere else."

 

[DaveO]

The default party in MM3 shows up again in MM7. That's one of the few things #7 does well.

 

[Sceptic]

Good game bros

Of course it is.

Did you manage to finish the unicorn quest?

The backstory seems to be pretty cool, though I'm amused by the amount of thought put into it while the main story of the actual game is basically "well, uh...

All MM games have this to a certain extent. 7 and 8 have slightly more involved stories, but they're still just one small piece of the puzzle. I always loved this about the series - you get to put the pieces of the big picture together, one at a time, with each game. Once the Heroes games start adding their own pieces as well the fun goes exponential.

That's one of the few things #7 does well.

And the skill system!

 

[Calem Ravenna]

Played them all except the first and second one. Really liked III and V, IV was rather mediocre (although I've played it the most of the three). Swords was also good, but bugs prevented me from continuing. VI was pretty nice but tedious, VII was better but too small. VIII was meh. IX sucked, but I found it nowhere near as bad as most people.

I'd say the best one is Terra, just because I had the most fun with it, despite not having played it as much as Clouds or VI/VII.


Also a question: How are the new dungeons in World of Xeen? I've finished both Clouds and Darkside, but I never managed to merge them into a single game (the installer said the install was successful but I still ended up with vanilla M&M IV). Did I miss much?

 

[Sceptic]

How are the new dungeons in World of Xeen?

Except for the optional one (Dungeon of Death), they're good. There aren't that many - IIRC Dragon Tower, Darkstone Tower and the other Sphinx. That's about it. The clouds above Dragon Tower are very tough, and trying to read the dragon orbs is good fun.

 

[Darth Roxor]

MOTHERFUCKING FLYING/TERRIFYING/MADDENING EYES, GODDAMMIT WHY DOES THIS GAME HATE ME SO MUCH

 

[Luzur]

ah, yes, the necromancer castle in Shadowmire.

 

[Sceptic]

Welcome to Castle Darkmoor. Enjoy your stay

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

MOTHERFUCKING FLYING/TERRIFYING/MADDENING EYES, GODDAMMIT WHY DOES THIS GAME HATE ME SO MUCH

don't despair. Some dungeons may look like they will never end but eventually they do. Even the eyes of castle Darkmoor come to an end after days of patient and methodic cleansing.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

Good game bros

Of course it is.

Did you manage to finish the unicorn quest?

Yeah, though I'll admit I consulted the cluebook for the location of that damn mermaid - I have to say, that quest and the one with the sea shell had disproportionately small rewards for the effort involved.

I even managed to implosion-spam my way through the big group of terminators in the endgame, but it just made me sad that I was blissfully, ignorantly playing Mario 64 back in the days when developers would give you special treats and personal feedback for doing well in their games

Anyway, played ten minutes of 6 since I don't feel like jumping straight into a game that seems to be basically more of the same (in a good way, though). It's a bit of a shock to the system. I feel like the weird, Uncanny Valley character portraits are staring into my soul. Also what the hell was that intro movie?

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

Also what the hell was that intro movie?

Demons invade the world. A brave band of adventurers barely escape their evil claws. Falagar trains them. [End of intro movie]
Later they come back to kick some ass and chew some phirna root. [Beginning of game]

 

[Darth Roxor]

Welcome to Castle Darkmoor. Enjoy your stay

Actually, I already left it by the point of writing that post.

Back then, I had hoped I would never see those fucking things ever again...

... and then I arrived at Agar's lab, goddammit to hell. At least that thing was short and the amount of beholders was not AS MUCH OVERKILL AS CASTLE FUCKING DARKMOOR.

Anyway, played ten minutes of 6 since I don't feel like jumping straight into a game that seems to be basically more of the same (in a good way, though). It's a bit of a shock to the system. I feel like the weird, Uncanny Valley character portraits are staring into my soul. Also what the hell was that intro movie?

To be perfectly honest, MM6 is kinda ehhhh when compared to 3-5, but it has two absolutely excellent qualities:

1. Dungeon design.
2. Exploits. This game is like one giant exploit, and finding out new exploits to exploit old exploits even more is hilarious as hell. That's how broken this game is


My biggest complaint about MM6, though, is that it decided to drop the nerdy atmosphere and go (semi) serious business.

 

[Sceptic]

Yeah, though I'll admit I consulted the cluebook for the location of that damn mermaid - I have to say, that quest and the one with the sea shell had disproportionately small rewards for the effort involved.

Personal satisfaction baby! I admit I completely missed the mermaid on my first run, and only found it on the 2nd when I was religiously exploring every single square (I did my first run without water walk... don't ask me how).

I even managed to implosion-spam my way through the big group of terminators in the endgame, but it just made me sad that I was blissfully, ignorantly playing Mario 64 back in the days when developers would give you special treats and personal feedback for doing well in their games

MM3 was really good at this. WOX had a fucking awful "reward" for having the password at the bottom level of Dungeon of Death. I don't remember that many games with such hidden things. Wolf 3D had a message at the end of a maze of secret passages, but since the files were hacked with weeks and editors were made they had to scrap this early on.

Anyway, played ten minutes of 6 since I don't feel like jumping straight into a game that seems to be basically more of the same (in a good way, though). It's a bit of a shock to the system. I feel like the weird, Uncanny Valley character portraits are staring into my soul.

I recommend you take a break before 6 actually, it is a pretty tough game. Glad to see you've gone from "one game only" to playing both . But for 6, be very, very, extra careful when you pick portraits. Portrait and voice are linked (they became separately selectable in 7), and you REALLY don't want to have to listento 4 very annoying PC's throughout the whole game.

Demons invade the world. A brave band of adventurers barely escape their evil claws. Falagar trains them. [End of intro movie]
Later they come back to kick some ass and chew some phirna root. [Beginning of game]

Yeah the intro movie was pretty shit, compared to 3's and 5's (4's was also hilariously bad, 1 had a "preview" of the game, 2 had absolutely nothing). 7 and 8 had pretty good intros too.

... and then I arrived at Agar's lab, goddammit to hell. At least that thing was short and the amount of beholders was not AS MUCH OVERKILL AS CASTLE FUCKING DARKMOOR.

Am I the only one who actually likes Castle Darkmoor?

1. Dungeon design.

Fuck yes.

2. Exploits.

Eh, I tried to avoid most of them. The game's much more fun without them. It's very much like Morrowind in this particular area.

My biggest complaint about MM6, though, is that it decided to drop the nerdy atmosphere and go (semi) serious business.

What? did you miss the mounds of pop culture references? Zelazny, Einstein/Newton, Feist, Tolkien, Dune, New Age, and of course a FUCKTON of Star Trek references. It's much less serius bizness than Darkside or MM7 IMO.