Might and Magic 6, 7, 8 merge based on mm8 engine. [upd. 05.11.2023]

[Templayer]

Checked some of your statements now and here's the result.
Maybe you should reinstall the game or try to install my updated localization?

I use the localization from the first post link. Is there better one? Where i can find it?

Tracker. The link is in my signature.

What we are discussing now - it is a basis of a big project ... But the idea itself is cool, what can I say
I think I understand what kind of “verticality” you are talking about, there are cities built on mountainous or hilly terrain. But to create such cities in the game will be much more difficult, isn't it?
You used to play a lot in Wizardry, I see

Well, Heroeses were made out of MM 1-5 and MM6-7 were made out of Heroeses.
And Heroeses tend to have non-flat towns (except for the "bases", from which the town eventually extends into hills, cliffs, mountain ranges and such).
You are quite limited as far as height goes in-game. I do not know how arbitrary that is. To make such cities, we would need to enlarge the map size quite a bit, and for it to be 1:1 (x axis and Z axis).

And I modified Wizardry games extensively. No more "NPC won't go to a location" in Wizardry 8! (also I modified most of the classes because I didn't like the weapon specialization for them)

[Jezebeth Noir]

MMMerge Tracker, find "Corrected Russian Localization Update", which I update occasionally.

I tried it (started the new game, of course), but nothing has changed. I'm assuming that the bugs are present in Jadame and Erathia, but not in Enroth.

[Maslyonok]

MMMerge Tracker, find "Corrected Russian Localization Update", which I update occasionally.

I tried it (started the new game, of course), but nothing has changed. I'm assuming that the bugs are present in Jadame and Erathia, but not in Enroth

What's about chronicle - there's only MM8 chronicle, any other history text file just don't exist.
Have you tried to play without localization? Maybe the problem in Merge itself.

[Templayer]

MMMerge Tracker, find "Corrected Russian Localization Update", which I update occasionally.

I tried it (started the new game, of course), but nothing has changed. I'm assuming that the bugs are present in Jadame and Erathia, but not in Enroth.

How did you install the merge? I hope you didn't try some localization meant for the vanilla version first.
Try the English GOG version, and then the Merge, and then put the localization on top of that.

[Jezebeth Noir]

How did you install the merge? I hope you didn't try some localization meant for the vanilla version first.
Try the English GOG version, and then the Merge, and then put the localization on top of that.

So I did. Btw, should Grayface's patch be installed before, or after localization?

[GrayFace]

* When the judge or oracle returns or refuses to return lost items, he says that he agrees or disagrees to join our group;

Sounds like a bug.

There's some bugs in russian localization:
* Characters don't receive awards in the character award list (with a few exceptions);
* The chronicle tells us about the adventures of heroes from MM8, even if I started in Enroth or Erathia;
* The judges or oracles tips are not recorded at the journal.

All of these are probably present in all versions and can't be easily fixed. Tricky extending of corresponding arrays would be required, which isn't worth bothering with until everything else is done.

You are quite limited as far as height goes in-game. I do not know how arbitrary that is. To make such cities, we would need to enlarge the map size quite a bit, and for it to be 1:1 (x axis and Z axis).

Z axis can go pretty far. Not far enough for every town one may want, but enough to make some. I don't think there is a technical barrier. Something very important to think about with such towns is accessibility. Navigation inside the town must be convenient and not confusing.

Btw, should Grayface's patch be installed before, or after localization?

I'd say after (you can never go wrong with it), although I don't expect it to matter.

[eilacomeva]

In case anyone else has trouble with the italian version or whatever, it's solved.
The problem was data\new.lod in the installation directory with all permissions set for the administrators group and read,read+execute for everyone else;
getting rid of it made everything work.

A big, big thank you to everyone who spent their time on this - and sorry for the long break, I was busy in real life for a few days and then it slipped my mind.

Still no idea why it only happened to me, but now it's just a curiosity which I plan to forget in 3... 2... 1... well, soon.

[Templayer]

How did you install the merge? I hope you didn't try some localization meant for the vanilla version first.
Try the English GOG version, and then the Merge, and then put the localization on top of that.

So I did. Btw, should Grayface's patch be installed before, or after localization?

The newest version of the Merge should already have GrayFace's patch in it by default. Won't be the newest version though.

[Templayer]

In case anyone else has trouble with the italian version or whatever, it's solved.
The problem was data\new.lod in the installation directory with all permissions set for the administrators group and read,read+execute for everyone else;
getting rid of it made everything work.

A big, big thank you to everyone who spent their time on this - and sorry for the long break, I was busy in real life for a few days and then it slipped my mind.

Still no idea why it only happened to me, but now it's just a curiosity which I plan to forget in 3... 2... 1... well, soon.

You were the one with the saving problem on Win10?

If you were, then I'm glad that it was a permission problem, so I can continue bashing Win10.

[eilacomeva]

@templayer yes, it was me.

In case you missed it, enjoy https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20421677 - what are you using btw?

[Jezebeth Noir]

I really like your idea about starting the game as a peasant, but for now it makes little sense: the normal classes obtains too quickly and easily. Don't you think that the knight or mage education should not be free to peasants? It should costs money, or completing some quest, or both. The applicant should also meet the requirements for level and base stats, and finally the class teachers shouldn't be easy to find. In addition, the education should take some time, a bit more time than a regular training in a training center. What do you think?

[SpectralDragon]

If you were, then I'm glad that it was a permission problem, so I can continue bashing Win10.

Ya still know I use it for my side of the work, yaknow?

That aside, well ... you asked for it, you get it!


Even as a prototype (any suggestions?) this thing scares me to no avail because it˙s obvious it shouldn´t be like this. Revenant Troll!

Just so you know, the NPC image for the Black Dragon is missing from your game-ported Black Dragon .zip!

[Templayer]

@templayer yes, it was me.

In case you missed it, enjoy https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20421677 - what are you using btw?

I know about MS antivirus / antispyware garbage program and other stuff being extremely bad.

I'm using a dual-boot Win7 64bit Ultimate with WinXP Ultra 32-bit.

For old games (i.e. about 90% of what I play... a have a few thousand of them installed since my WinXP installation is like 16 years old now ; Win10 would probably explode if you did that), I'm using XP. For newer games (about 10%, Merge included, pretty much anything from ~2006+), I'm using Win7.

PC Specs:

AMD FX 8350 (4 GHz per core, 8 cores, 1 thread = 1 core),

GTX Titan X 12 GB GPU (got it fully working on XP (you need to get the Maxwell architecture Titans to be able to do that! ), it is insanely hilarious to see hardware accelerations for ancient games that are made to work with like 5 MB GPUs to work with a 12 GB one without a hitch! (note that the following are not meant to be examples of the 5 MB thing...) Dungeon Siege 1+2, Kotor1+2, Dungeon Keeper 2, Neverwinter Nights 1, Gooka 2, and so on...)

24 GB RAM

Both systems on an SSD drive. (Some guy on the internet said that you cannot put XP on an SSD drive. I guess he was wrong. But these people tend to be wrong a lot of times. )

Didn't get USB3.1A working on XP, but eventually I did manage to get USB3.0 to work on XP flawlessly (with an USB3.0 HUB and USB3.0 external drive put into that hub... in USB3 mode. Those are THREE things that could've gotten wrong in XP, but didn't )

Quadruple-layer Bluray burner (Pioneer... they even had an article on why they still support WinXP! )

Two Shure SM58 13k CZK studio microphones (the audio from them is a little bit better on XP than on 7 and I do not know why (probably the new audio system that WinVista got))

Harddrives:



Games on Win7 example (none of which are Steam, Epic, Origin, Galaxy or Uplay based. I hate those things with passion! ):


Also what they started doing with Win8 as a marketing ploy was to simply name all subsequent systems with a raised number, so that people would think that those are just newer versions of the same operating system. And that is true only partially... the differences between 8 and 7 are such that I wouldn't consider one to be the newer version of another, opting to call them different operating systems all-together.

I believe this will suffice as an answer to your question!

I really like your idea about starting the game as a peasant, but for now it makes little sense: the normal classes obtains too quickly and easily. Don't you think that the knight or mage education should not be free to peasants? It should costs money, or completing some quest, or both. The applicant should also meet the requirements for level and base stats, and finally the class teachers shouldn't be easy to find. In addition, the education should take some time, a bit more time than a regular training in a training center. What do you think?

Well, depends on who are you talking to. Rodril is the mod's creator, and the one who (presumably) came up with the idea. However he hasn't been here for months. Probably considers the mod finished, he worked on it for years and the bugs that are there now are rather minimalistic. It did take Falagar like 3 years to promote four peasants to their base classes. 3/4 years per character. I'm going to put this into the suggestion tracker.

We are talking about someone taking the mod over by autumn. I'm coding 9-12 hours a day, so I really don't want to, but I will if it means that otherwise the project is dead. Expect like 0-2 bugfixes a month if I do make my own fork of the project. (adding new content like new character looks should be trivial though, as long as their races and classes already exist)

The first thing I would do was to fix the update on the first page (and find what is wrong with it... because there IS something wrong with it... the last time I found an error, it was due there being an ancient script that collided).

Then make a proper all-in-one installer. With optional stuff. Also making a configuration file for the Merge for optional stuff and settings.

Then fix at least two harder to fix bugs.

And then make a new website (a dynamic one... I payed a good buck for an offline program that can do just that) with a forum.

Any thoughts?

If you were, then I'm glad that it was a permission problem, so I can continue bashing Win10.

Ya still know I use it for my side of the work, yaknow?

That aside, well ... you asked for it, you get it!


Even as a prototype (any suggestions?) this thing scares me to no avail because it˙s obvious it shouldn´t be like this. Revenant Troll!

This is like the first time that I have no artistic criticism against it. It is just too awesome!

[SpectralDragon]

[


/.../
We are talking about someone taking the mod over by autumn. I'm coding 9-12 hours a day, so I really don't want to, but I will if it means that otherwise the project is dead. Expect like 0-2 bugfixes a month if I do make my own fork of the project. (adding new content like new character looks should be trivial though, as long as their races and classes already exist)

The first thing I would do was to fix the update on the first page (and find what is wrong with it... because there IS something wrong with it... the last time I found an error, it was due there being an ancient script that collided).

Then make a proper all-in-one installer. With optional stuff. Also making a configuration file for the Merge for optional stuff and settings.

Then fix at least two harder to fix bugs.

And then make a new website (a dynamic one... I payed a good buck for an offline program that can do just that) with a forum.

If you were, then I'm glad that it was a permission problem, so I can continue bashing Win10.

Ya still know I use it for my side of the work, yaknow?

That aside, well ... you asked for it, you get it!


Even as a prototype (any suggestions?) this thing scares me to no avail because it˙s obvious it shouldn´t be like this. Revenant Troll!

This is like the first time that I have no artistic criticism against it. It is just too awesome!

Talk about a mosaic you have there. I guess this is what average coder's computer looks like, eh?

I already suggested you as a heir to the leader of this mod, so yaknow what are my thoughts about it. (shrug) Aka I approve of this and in case you're confused about me leaving "NPC" images without a designated number like I did for the Mino Zombie and Lich (Black Dragon one is missing, mind you! I already included it in the Source files for it, so I dunno what went wrong on Jamesx's side) and will with other characters, I did this in order for coders like you to designate correct numbers for them, so that they don't collide with other NPC icons and whatnot ... and I have no idea what do numbers mean, thus I leave the NPC icons for characters without those strange numbers.

Thanks, even though for now he looks more like a statue to me. And then you say I cannot make Overdune into a Revenant because he's already green, ha ha ha ha ha!

[Templayer]

Talk about a mosaic you have there. I guess this is what average coder's computer looks like, eh?

I already suggested you as a heir to the leader of this mod, so yaknow what are my thoughts about it. (shrug) Aka I approve of this and in case you're confused about me leaving "NPC" images without a designated number like I did for the Mino Zombie and Lich (Black Dragon one is missing, mind you! I already included it in the Source files for it, so I dunno what went wrong on Jamesx's side) and will with other characters, I did this in order for coders like you to designate correct numbers for them, so that they don't collide with other NPC icons and whatnot ... and I have no idea what do numbers mean, thus I leave the NPC icons for characters without those strange numbers.

Thanks, even though for now he looks more like a statue to me. And then you say I cannot make Overdune into a Revenant because he's already green, ha ha ha ha ha!

I would like to think that I am unique in that regard. I probably still have savegames from when I was 4 years old!

If by numbers you mean file names, then the only thing to think about is for them not to exist already. There is a table that references file names into indexes. The indexes are then used as a reference for paperdoll parts (i.e. "a hand is this index, which references this file"), portrait states, etc. I have a mass renaming batch utility that can generate such stuff easily, so I shouldn't have any problem giving them proper numbers.

I have yet to look on how NPC icons work. There is probably some other nomenclature to it. Shouldn't be that difficult to figure out. Or even needed, maybe.

I do love the cracked statue-like look of a Zombie Troll. In some literature, trolls were known to turn to stone on death (or sunrise). So a Troll Zombie being half-turned to stone sounds absolutely awesome to me! (and painful. Let's not forget painful. )

[SpectralDragon]

I would like to think that I am unique in that regard. I probably still have savegames from when I was 4 years old!

If by numbers you mean file names, then the only thing to think about is for them not to exist already. There is a table that references file names into indexes. The indexes are then used as a reference for paperdoll parts (i.e. "a hand is this index, which references this file"), portrait states, etc. I have a mass renaming batch utility that can generate such stuff easily, so I shouldn't have any problem giving them proper numbers.

I have yet to look on how NPC icons work. There is probably some other nomenclature to it. Shouldn't be that difficult to figure out. Or even needed, maybe.

I do love the cracked statue-like look of a Zombie Troll. In some literature, trolls were known to turn to stone on death (or sunrise). So a Troll Zombie being half-turned to stone sounds absolutely awesome to me! (and painful. Let's not forget painful. )

Well, in that, you definitely are. Only my bro keeps savegames that are that old, I'm a bit too young for that!

Yus, I meant filenames (on paperdolls and portraits, I've left same file names that their original versions have just so that the program has the easier time identifying and properly "rendering" them together even if they're completely new characters and not swaps of original ones. I trust you and Jamesx as well as Rodril on properly indexing them all as "new characters" on that) specifically on NPC icons because their filename is always "npc(random number string)" and I have no idea what do these numbers mean, thus in my creations, I name the NPC icons just "npc". I can imagine there's some nomenclature to NPC icons and the PC ones though.

Oh good Ancients, you're right and since I wished to reference yet another thing that is connected to that, then that's literally a double-reference and I cannot be any more happier than that (I think that in Tolkienverse trolls turn to stone on sunrise and the general look I was going for was the look of both Orc and Olog revenants - basically undead Orcs and Ologs - from Shadow of War, who have blackened armor, are pale as FUUUUUU with only faint tinges/tones of their previous skin colors and have that necrotic green light coming from their eyes in a way they look absolutely lifeless. Even without knowing that that state is considered "worse than death" it still freaks me out and as xfing once said, Zombies need to look as unpleasant as possible, so yeah. ^^; ).

[alekssandros]

Guys! Just got a bug with the reputation counter T_T dunno if is the keep (south of Frozen Highlands) or just it happens T_T

I save the game with 73 of reputation, and when I load I get 0 T_T

Someone has happened it this before? Is solved?

Again this bug Is there some way to solve this? For the moment I solved it going back with saves. But I am afraid because I some time forget to save often

HEY! Just discovered the cause.

Using Lloy's Beacon when you are in turn based mode generate this bug. I hope this help to solve it

[justl]

Well, depends on who are you talking to. Rodril is the mod's creator, and the one who (presumably) came up with the idea. However he hasn't been here for months. Probably considers the mod finished, he worked on it for years and the bugs that are there now are rather minimalistic. It did take Falagar like 3 years to promote four peasants to their base classes. 3/4 years per character. I'm going to put this into the suggestion tracker.

well, lets not jump to any premature assumptions, of the causes rodril not being here.
last update was from last month, so it could be anything from holiday to moving to another location (very timeconsuming), maybe he even had an accident and is in hospital.

i would say lets wait for his next appearing and what happens after that.

justl

[Templayer]

Guys! Just got a bug with the reputation counter T_T dunno if is the keep (south of Frozen Highlands) or just it happens T_T

I save the game with 73 of reputation, and when I load I get 0 T_T

Someone has happened it this before? Is solved?

Again this bug Is there some way to solve this? For the moment I solved it going back with saves. But I am afraid because I some time forget to save often

HEY! Just discovered the cause.

Using Lloy's Beacon when you are in turn based mode generate this bug. I hope this help to solve it

Added to the Bug Tracker. Good job on narrowing that down.

Well, depends on who are you talking to. Rodril is the mod's creator, and the one who (presumably) came up with the idea. However he hasn't been here for months. Probably considers the mod finished, he worked on it for years and the bugs that are there now are rather minimalistic. It did take Falagar like 3 years to promote four peasants to their base classes. 3/4 years per character. I'm going to put this into the suggestion tracker.

well, lets not jump to any premature assumptions, of the causes rodril not being here.
last update was from last month, so it could be anything from holiday to moving to another location (very timeconsuming), maybe he even had an accident and is in hospital.

i would say lets wait for his next appearing and what happens after that.

justl

"i would say lets wait for his next appearing and what happens after that." what if that is infinity? Anyway, by autumn, I'm making my own fork of the project if he doesn't appear. But I sure hope he does, though. I'm doing way too much stuff (not for the Merge but globally) as it is.

[SpectralDragon]

"i would say lets wait for his next appearing and what happens after that." what if that is infinity? Anyway, by autumn, I'm making my own fork of the project if he doesn't appear. But I sure hope he does, though. I'm doing way too much stuff (not for the Merge but globally) as it is.

Ditto and imagine if he does show up and sees your fork. Yikes ... I only hope that he'd incorporate your fork into this mod as well if he'd see it. ^^;