MM3 - some questions, just started playing

[Xfing]

Ok, so I got into MM3. I already know most of the game mechanics, what to do and when etc, but there's this one thing: is there any way to examine your items? Or do you have to pay those tens of thousands gold at a shop to "identify" the item and do it every time you wanted to remember how much damage it even does?

Also, is there a way to see how much damage a character does in melee, with the bow or what the effect of spells is (other than at a guild)?

thanks!

[GreatEmerald]

You have to pay every time, yes. You can write it down if you want to play it without anything else. Or you can just find the game's official cluebook, which is what the manual ought to have been. All the item and spell effects are explained there.

[Bloax]

If you don't mind spoilers then there's also this.

Just don't look at the more spoilery sections like "puzzle spoilers" and "walkthrough" if you want to figure it out yourself and you should be just fine. :p

[Xfing]

Ooookaaay then, are there unique items in the game, though? It doesn't seem like there are. What a shame.

EDIT: Scratch that... I don't need no relics when there's the Obsidian enchantment! Hehehe.

[GreatEmerald]

Or things like the Lapis Protection Broad Sword of Sleeping!

[Xfing]

Well, I like the game so far, a lot. Sure there are some solutions it lacks, but it's great for what it is.

I only fear that going back to MM1 will be too much for me, graphically

[Arret]

Well, I like the game so far, a lot. Sure there are some solutions it lacks, but it's great for what it is.

I only fear that going back to MM1 will be too much for me, graphically

1 and 2 are a real drop in graphics quality. I only played MM1 all the way through once and never went back (not having automap was too frustrating), but MM2 is still playable if you can get past the graphics.

The idea in the older games was to get you to buy the cluebook which would have everything you need. Now of course we have the internet and you can look anything up.

In MM3, you are primarily looking for Obsidian weapons and items of Implosion. Also it's worth remembering that you can recharge items of recharging. They fixed this for MM4.

[GreatEmerald]

Graphically? For me it's the gameplay that is most different between the two generations. Random and other encounters that you can't see ahead of time. And in MM2:GtAW it's worse because there are armies. Which is a colossal waste of time. The automap doesn't help in GtAW, because cluebooks already have the maps anyway. If anything, the location spell in MM1:SotIS was better because it actually gave numerical coordinates.

That said, they're still pretty enjoyable games, if you do take your time to study all the guide materials. Thankfully that was no longer required starting from the second generation games and completely optional by third.

[Xfing]

Sounds kinda scary... well, I'll worry about that once I'm done with 3. 3 is perfectly playable and quite a bit of fun, but I'd like to complete 1 and 2 too, just so I can say I've done them all. That's prestige that not many can afford to boast

[GreatEmerald]

Should have started from the beginning, then, as the games progressively get better and better, so going the other way round can be a bit tough I beat the first two games already, and the next ones will probably be more or less a breeze.

[Xfing]

I think I'll just watch Let's Plays, then. It's the second best thing to actually beating the game. I'll do MM3 and World of Xeen though, of course. These are too much fun.

Which reminds me: is it possible to keep playing after you've beaten the game, like it is in 6-8?

[Arret]

In 3, no. In 4 and 5 you can, and actually have to, until you get the third ending (the actual World of Xeen ending) at which point you can't. Since you can save at anytime though, you can save on the last square before you trigger the ending.

2 is still worth playing in my opinion (at minimum I highly recommend reading the MM2 manual as it has a fair amount of lore if I remember right), and that ending is the most I've ever had to panic in any of the series. You can even find/kill the elemental lords. The automap does have coordinates without any special spells and even shows terrain type (you do need to learn Cartography in the first city to use it though). The graphics are a major drop though, so you should look at them first.

In terms of gameplay, saving only occurs at inns, and all zones respawn with their loot/monsters once you leave. There is a great chain where you have to do class specific quests which are only marked complete if accomplished by members of that class (robbers are allowed to tag along on all in order to open chests). I consider the sorcerer part one of the best quests in the entire series.

Also turn the difficulty to easy because all it affects are the likelihood of random encounters (set spots with fights trigger regardless).

There are lots of fights mid/late game with armies, but you get a flaming sword+10 to cast fireball pretty early which can be cloned and hit/kill 6 targets each for 36 kills a round. Duplication (which is garbage in the later games) actually copies stats. A +25 weapon duplicated creates a second +25 weapon. Many of the higher end items are only available to certain alignments though (which one can use an item is random), but as long as you are carrying it you can use the spell from it (just not equip it for stats).

[GreatEmerald]

2 is still worth playing in my opinion (at minimum I highly recommend reading the MM2 manual as it has a fair amount of lore if I remember right), and that ending is the most I've ever had to panic in any of the series. You can even find/kill the elemental lords. The automap does have coordinates without any special spells and even shows terrain type (you do need to learn Cartography in the first city to use it though). The graphics are a major drop though, so you should look at them first.

Yes, the manual is worth a read. Hence why I had a video about reading it in my playthrough

The ending is extremely annoying. The final dungeon is pretty much "Dick Move: The Dungeon", and it's also extremely boring before you get to the final encounter. And the final puzzle is outright unfair.

Oh yea, sorry, I meant location name, not coordinates. It tends to be hard to tell where you really are in the overworld without the location name.

In terms of gameplay, saving only occurs at inns, and all zones respawn with their loot/monsters once you leave. There is a great chain where you have to do class specific quests which are only marked complete if accomplished by members of that class (robbers are allowed to tag along on all in order to open chests). I consider the sorcerer part one of the best quests in the entire series.

The sorcerer quest is fairly original, yes, but also rather unfair because sometimes the puzzle simply doesn't make sense unless you employ some real twisted logic to it.

Also turn the difficulty to easy because all it affects are the likelihood of random encounters (set spots with fights trigger regardless).

No it's not. The difficulty also determines what kind of enemies you get in encounters, whether random or dynamic. And since you get stronger enemies, you get more treasure and experience from them. The difficulty setting affects the gameplay quite a bit. I played on Aggressive and it was significantly difficult to go through dynamic encounters (and since the final dungeon is made of nothing but them... :\ )

There are lots of fights mid/late game with armies, but you get a flaming sword+10 to cast fireball pretty early which can be cloned and hit/kill 6 targets each for 36 kills a round. Duplication (which is garbage in the later games) actually copies stats. A +25 weapon duplicated creates a second +25 weapon. Many of the higher end items are only available to certain alignments though (which one can use an item is random), but as long as you are carrying it you can use the spell from it (just not equip it for stats).

Oh yes, there are many, many ways to break the game. None of which you should use because it's pretty much cheating. And the game is also incredibly unbalanced when it comes to rewards for the effort spent. This is all much better in the first game.

[Xfing]

http://lparchive.org/Might-and-Magic/Update%208/

I'm reading this guy's LP for MM1 right now. He's really great.

[Arret]

Duplication is not breaking the game, and with 1 run through you can have flaming swords for all party members. Going over and over into the Volcano Cave and farming gems 500 at a time without any encounters, to duplicate everything you ever find, would be breaking the game.

That being said, yes, there are plenty of ways to abuse mechanics (especially Cuisinarts).

[Xfing]

Ok, I've beaten the game. Good side, all 31 orbs recovered, highest level char 130. I didn't use the thrones meant for Ulitmate Adventurers, as having every statistic reduced to 2 is not a price I would like to pay.

That said, keeping Fineous and Allan Bow around costs around 200k a day each once their level grows to over 100. Not to mention, training at such high levels starts costing aroun 200k per level! I trained all of my money off and wasn't even able to finish my last training batch, like 3 of my party members didn't get their elevation to one-hundred-teens, as I simply ran out of money.
Is there a way to make more money for heavy spending like this? I know the bank gives interest every day, but you would need to have like 30 million for it to be noticeable, not to mention that all of it would simply go tp pay off Allan and Fineous - I insisted on keeping them all the time for story reasons - I played MM7 first, so I've always believed them to be an integral part of the team.

So, is there a way to quickly and efficiently farm cash? And one to get all your chars to level 200 and afford it? The Arena, perhaps?

[Talin_Trollbane]

Ok, I've beaten the game. Good side, all 31 orbs recovered, highest level char 130. I didn't use the thrones meant for Ulitmate Adventurers, as having every statistic reduced to 2 is not a price I would like to pay.

That said, keeping Fineous and Allan Bow around costs around 200k a day each once their level grows to over 100. Not to mention, training at such high levels starts costing aroun 200k per level! I trained all of my money off and wasn't even able to finish my last training batch, like 3 of my party members didn't get their elevation to one-hundred-teens, as I simply ran out of money.
Is there a way to make more money for heavy spending like this? I know the bank gives interest every day, but you would need to have like 30 million for it to be noticeable, not to mention that all of it would simply go tp pay off Allan and Fineous - I insisted on keeping them all the time for story reasons - I played MM7 first, so I've always believed them to be an integral part of the team.

So, is there a way to quickly and efficiently farm cash? And one to get all your chars to level 200 and afford it? The Arena, perhaps?

Doe Meister is a good code to know for extra cash...

[Xfing]

Doe Meister is a good code to know for extra cash...

Yeah, I believe I've actually used this code - in fact I did it right off the bat to give the team a head start. But towards the endgame 2 million gold is not an impressive sum by any means

[Arret]

Orb Meister is slightly more useful because training doesn't cost much early, but that 1M experience is very useful, but just 1 level once you get past level 10 or so.

[Xfing]

Yeah, that's true.

So, basically once I've cleaned out all dungeons and destroyed all breeding huts there's nothing else I can really do to get more cash... getting the entire team to level 200 is impossible, unless you exclude the hirelings and wait off years upon years to gain enough interest on your cash... not too fun