Ancient M&M Player returns, and has two questions.

[Larec]

first off, hello. I don't normally register on boards (I registered on the Elder Scrolls board and posted about twice in 3 years, so...) but after searching for some info on Gamefaqs, I saw someone post a link to this site while lurking my way throguh the threads.

First, a little info: I was an elitist M&M snob that stopped following the series after M&M5. I DID buy M&M 6, but was very disappointed in it when it finally came out. At the time, I worked at a software store and was pushing the game on everyone who came in. I was shocked when my once tile based, step-movement game was reduced to what I THOUGHT, at the time, was something of an FPS. I shoved the game in a closet, never to return.

Over the past few years though, I've been playing M&M3, Xeen, and Swords of Xeen through DOSbox. (BTW: You guys should try them in DOSbox, they run PERFECTLY!) Partly due to this constant playing and replaying of these games, I felt the need to pick up the "modern" M&M games and really give them another chance.

I was able to buy 7,8, and 9 off of amazon for less then 40 dollars combined, which isn't that bad. I installed them all using the new patches, and now *every* M&M game is on my system. Now, I just need to finish 6-9. (I've gone through M&M3 roughly 15 times in my life)

So, here's the question part. I'm actually LIKING M&M6, though I have to admit it isn't exactly a walk in the park. I guess I'm playing it like M&M 3/wox, meaning that I balanced my party between melee and magic. Thoguh after reading some of the threads here I'm wondering if I'm screwed. My guys aren't having major problems...I mean, they get into tight spots with things that cause insanity and insta-death (Greater werewolves) but I wanted you guys to grade them.

Paladin/Knight/Cleric/Sorcerer
all level 43, except my knight who is 48 due to a level increasing axe.
All bow experts, working on master
All have performed their 2nd and final class change/promotion quest
AC: All have over 120. Paladin found a gold plate that got him up to 153

The Paladin is a master of swords, might of 73. Does roughly 60-70 damage per hit, +40 hit chance. Master bodybuilding and meditation

Knight is Master Axe. Also master at disarm, perception, repair, shield, plate

Cleric is a master at shield, chain, bodybuilding, body magic. working on mace and light magic (Need to find the master trainer for light)

Sorcerer is a pure magic powerhouse. Expert in dagger, bow, and leather, and meditation but master at ID item and has rank 9 in all spell schools. Does great with ring of fire/shrapmetal/sparks in large crowds.

So do you think I'll make it through the endgame with these guys? The way people talk, melee isn't worth anything. Though, my Paladin does pretty good with dual swords (His left hand sword raises might by 25 and does 20 fire damage)

Secondly, I've begun to play M&M7. I'm thinking of the following party:

Dwarf Knight
human monk
Elf Cleric
elf Sorcerer

Good? Bad? anything I should know?

EDIT: I posted my M&M6 save file in another thread, so any mm6 experts willing to dissect my party can do so by downloading this:

http://mysite.verizon.net/darkfact/rpgs/save000.zip

Thanks ahead of time!

[UndeadHalfOrc]

After reading your post and trying your savegame, here are my thoughts:

- Might is crap in MM6. No matter which way you slice it, nothing can beat a team of C-D-S-S or C-S-S-S. Any other team can beat the game, it's just harder. No creature in the entire MM6 universe can last more than a few seconds to 3-4 rounds of Shrapmetal cast at Poitn blank range.

- A sorcerer/druid with dagger can deal almost as much damage as a warrior with spear/axe/sword because they attack so fast. Their physical damage is enhanced by Heroism, and might boost items/effects.

- There's a bug that makes the armor skill NOT remove the speed penalty. That's why your knight and paladin attack WAY too slow. In my last MM6 savegame, my warriors wore no chest armor at all to attack faster.

- "Of recovery" items RULE. Get one for each character.

- MM7 balanced might & magic MUCH better than MM6. MM7's armor skills work perfectly, and better (chain and plate give physical damage reduction, as well as the AC bonus). And then there's the Armsmaster skill, available to the fighter classes. A knight can grandmaster this skill and becomes an absolute powerhouse. In theory an all knights team could plow through the game in MM7 were it not for instant death attacks.


PS: Where can I download MM3 - MM4 - MM5? I never played them and I'd like to give them a try, but obviously I'll never be able to find them in any store.

[UndeadHalfOrc]

Your MM7 party is fine, but I'd replace the monk with a thief (or knight with a thief) due to the thief's better secondary skill selection.

The thing that annoyed me the most in MM7 was that some monsters have target preferences in sex, race, and profession. Titans only target females .(As if this made sense). Plate armor guys only target males. Goblins only target Dwarves. Thieves only target Paladins. Many more. That annoyed me to no end, so I edited the "monsters.txt" file found in events.lod and changed all the target preferences to "0".
Get MM7View.

[Larec]

I've never seen M&M 1-5 on abandonware sites (and many consider it piracy, so I wouldn't give out an adress to such a site here) but I know that if you get the limited edition of the M&M 6 box (As I did) you get them all on one CD. Heck, by simply clicking a box during installation, it puts every single one on your hard drive. All that you do at that point is set up conf files for them in dosbox and you're off!!!

I also bought an interplay RPG archive back in 97 that had wizardry, M&M, and both ultima Underworld games...among others. The funny thing is, the M&M games have copy protection on those CDs, while the ones in the M&M6 collectors edition do not. (You see a question briefly come up, but the window auto-closes)

As for M&M7, the target preferences thing is something I can't stand. Ahhh well. I'll probably deal with it, at least the first trip. after I beat it "vanilla" I'll see about adding some new flavors to the mix by messing around with it.

[Talin_Trollbane]

well what ive seen on the net the MM series are abandonware (or at least up til MM5)

and i have seen them for download on a couple of sites, but i think they still ESA protected.

so my best tip would be either Ebay or other auctionsites.

[Larec]

I will admit that, on my youtube channel (where I do a lot of Daggerfall videos, among other dos classics) I get a lot of people asking for Daggerfall. I used to direct them to a place I set up on a public server (Not a torrent) that had the game, dosbox, and a conf file all ready to go...but people started begging me for it so badly that I just stopped altogether and told them to kiss-off.

Let me make it clear I'm no pirate, I am a game collector who still has boxes dating back to 1988. PC and Commodore 64 boxes. I still have all the goldbox games in floppy disks form sitting in their original boxes...so don't take me for a cheap downloader.

Still, I love to see others experience the games I grew up with, so I've always believed that either these games should be made public domain, or they should be sold somewhere so new gamers can buy them legally.

I'd love to see Gametap put them up. I've heard the rumor (on this page) but I don't believe it. their RPG selection on that service is a bit lacking, in my opinion.

Until then, I do support so-called "abandonware" sites. (and have contributed game files/boxshots to a few)

[Talin_Trollbane]

I will admit that, on my youtube channel (where I do a lot of Daggerfall videos, among other dos classics) I get a lot of people asking for Daggerfall. I used to direct them to a place I set up on a public server (Not a torrent) that had the game, dosbox, and a conf file all ready to go...but people started begging me for it so badly that I just stopped altogether and told them to kiss-off.

so you are the one that put up those movies? great, i love watching those movies.

and i never called you a cheap downloader, that post was a response to UndeadHalfOrc about downloading mm3-mm4-mm5

i owe a huge lot of games in original boxes (check out my "What games do you own" thread in Halls of Heretics for a list) and i still download, most of the time to check out games i never bought back then before i buy them on Ebay .

[UndeadHalfOrc]

But I'm anything but cheap! I WOULD GLADLY BUY the games if given the chance.

[Talin_Trollbane]

well, Ebay is you best bet, or if you can get either "The Ultimate Might and Magic Archives" from interplay (MM1-5 + Swords of Xeen) or that MM6 Millenium Collection (MM1-6).

should still be sold in shops, atleast the MM6 Millenium thingie.

[JMK]

in my opinion monks are one of the best charecters in M&M 7 espcially later in the game, so stick with him!!!!!!