MM VI - Problems

[MessyMage]

Hi.

I used to play MM6 years ago, when I was younger. Recently I felt like playing it. I tried to install it, but it didn't work, because I use Windows XP. then I found this site, followed the instructions here, and managed to install and play the game.
But there's one thing that's bothering me: the AI is ridiculous. When I'm in a dungeon corridor and open a door at my left or right side, the enemies come right in my direction. Then, I go back some steps, so I can get far from the door and shoot the enemies all their way to me. That way, when they reach me, they're already very hurt, so I can just finish them off with my melee attack, saving me many hit points since most foes don't have ranged attacks.
But, when I do this tactic, the enemies, instead of going through the door and coming to me try just to come straight in my direction, getting stuck in the corner between the door and the wall of the room they are in. It's just plein dumb. I have to go to the door, hit them hand-to-hand and wait for them to come out of the room before I can use my strategy, otherwise they wouldn't find the way out of the room.
that makes all a lot less real and ruins a bit of the fun. Not only I can't use my strategy, I don't have as much a treat when in a dungeon as I should. I can simply run to the end of a corridor and any monsters in any rooms in my way will become active, but won't be able to reach me unless I lead them myself.
I don't remember the foes being so stupid when I first played this game. Is this a normal aspect of the game, or is it some problem caused by my operating system or whatsoever?

[MessyMage]

Oh, and BTW, sometimes when I hit the monsters, instead of getting the "X hits Y for Z damage" message, I get a message written "MT", which makes no sense at all. Doesn't cause me any trouble, but it's quite strange.

[GrayFace]

Yes, they are so stupid. MT is the shooting message. For unknown reason the shooting message was stored in .exe in the first version of the game and the line in Global.txt was "MT". I guess some patch haven't installed completely. You can change the Global.txt with MM6View or mm8leveleditor. It's in icons.lod.

[MessyMage]

Thanks, GrayFace.
I don't think I'll even bother solving that. It's a problem so little it isn't worth the trouble.
But, about the AI... is there any way I can increase the enemies' inteligence? Perhaps some patch, mod or whatever?

[DaveO]

Unfortunately, there is no way to update the AI that I know of. It may be fixed if any of those modders do anything for MM6.

[MessyMage]

Is the AI better in MM7 and 8? Never played those.


BTW, I've found another problem, and this one is making me mad. The shrines are not working. I went to the Accuracy shrine (in Free Haven) in the right month, and it worked. But then I waited for the right months to go to the luck and the speed shrine, and had to go through a lot of trouble to get to them (I wasn't yet in a good level to visit the Mire of the Damned, so I had to use all my protection spells and avoid fighting whenever possible, specially avoiding those spectres. My paladin got one year older, ffs). I checked the Mandate Mania site and according to it I was in the right places and i nthe right month. But they didin't work anyway.
Can anyone explain that? Is it because of my system?

[DaveO]

The AI is a little better in MM7 in my opinion, but MM8 is so unbalanced that it's too easy to get powerful characters early in the game. And don't even get me started on Dragons in MM8...

What patch are you running in MM6? If you have version 1.2, it is the only one I can seriously recommend. Mok's patch is risky, and I've heard various reports about problems with it. Now due to the wierdness of the other things you've reported I'd recommend backing up your savegame directory and do a complete reinstall. Let me know if you're using a special version of MM6 since there were Platinum, Limited, Millenium, and probably some other editions I'm forgetting about.

[Avonu]

But then I waited for the right months to go to the luck and the speed shrine, and had to go through a lot of trouble to get to them (I wasn't yet in a good level to visit the Mire of the Damned, so I had to use all my protection spells and avoid fighting whenever possible, specially avoiding those spectres. My paladin got one year older, ffs). I checked the Mandate Mania site and according to it I was in the right places and i nthe right month. But they didin't work anyway.
Can anyone explain that? Is it because of my system?

IIRC you can't just go to visit right shrine in right month. You have to ask seer what shrine is working in this month and them this shrine should work.
Correct me someone if I am wrong.

[DaveO]

Nope, that's correct. The Seer is the trigger to activate all the shrines. Still, he has some strange stuff going on so I think he's going to be stuck with the uninstall/reinstall option.