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

[giant008]

Guys,

could you pls someone post a short script/command how to change the in-game description of an existing item or armor?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much.

[NotABroom]

Are Duke Osric Temper, Baron Anthony Stone, Lady Loretta Fleise, Eric Von Stromgard and Franklin the Armorsmith supposed to live in Dagger Wound (alongside various Inns from all across the world).

[NotABroom]

Are Duke Osric Temper, Baron Anthony Stone, Lady Loretta Fleise, Eric Von Stromgard and Franklin the Armorsmith supposed to live in Dagger Wound (alongside various Inns from all across the world)? If that is not the case, I think I might have some minor issues. I also can not take quests in MM6.

[Rodril]

Hello. Patch link have been updated, .evt scripts from new GrayFace's patches have been implemented, mega dragon - too. I've added eyelights for lich's spellcast animation. I will have more free time soon and going to review problems with stacking of item bonuses and changes in maps. Thanks.

For items I thought you wanna add MM6 and 7 armors and wait graphics design when they are equipped.

Yes. But no additional actions are required. They are already in game, but chance to find them have been set to 0 in rnditems.txt. I'll increase it and rescript artifact's effect if new graphics will be available. I would not change paperdolls. MM8 ones are not just diffrent, they are simplier: less variations of items needed. I'm not sure it is possible to make them mm6-alike without overhauling .exe file.

Verdant wont leave me alone. She talks to me almost every minute now. I get that she likes heroes, but geez.

Putting it in line with cactuses at arena and sneaky launchpad in castle Ironfist, ha ha. Should not happen again.

I read here of a "runaway chaos" and a basement with infinite monsters. Where is all this? How can I activate it?

These quests will be able after completing stories of all three continents.

Could you make to be able to move Blaster to left hand if it is on Master or Grandmaster?
also I have only 2 blasters... (one from assasination quest and one from entering to Giants Isle), should be it this way?

I would like them to work in original way for now. Engine does not support this behaivor for "blaster" kind of items, it would require .exe tweaking.

could you pls post a short script/command how to change the whole in-game description of an artifact? (or any other item)

Yes. If it obligatory to be script, then:

Code: Select all

-- Game.ItemsTxt[*Item index here*].Notes = "New text."
-- example: 
-- Longsword
Game.ItemsTxt[1].Notes = "Rusty sword."

Put example into lua script (any text file with ".lua" extension), put script into "...\Scripts\General" folder.
Otherwise you can just edit ITEMS.txt from EnglisT.lod archive (open it with MMArchive from GrayFace's site).

because 2.1 simply won't work with the present version of Rodril's Merge mod.

Why? Does it give any error? Have you unchecked flag "Don't make patch archives" during installation? Necessary to install only MM8 patch, i've installed it on merged version, works very well, i like flexibility of resolution (it actually changes resolution, not just scale of window).
My setup:

Code: Select all

[Settings]
MouseLookBorder=-1
CapsLockToggleRun=0
QuickSavesCount=2
QuickSavesKey=122
QuickLoadKey=0
NoDeathMovie=0
NoIntro=0
NoCD=1
InventoryKey=73
ToggleCharacterScreenKey=192
FreeTabInInventory=1
HardenArtifacts=1
PlayMP3=1
MusicLoopsCount=50
NoVideoDelays=1
ReputationNumber=1
DoubleSpeedKey=113
TurnSpeedNormal=100
TurnSpeedDouble=120
FixChests=1
DataFiles=1
NoD3DBitmapHwl=1
MouseLook=0
MouseSensitivityX=35
MouseSensitivityY=35
MouseSensitivityAltModeX=75
MouseSensitivityAltModeY=75
MouseLookChangeKey=4
MouseLookTempKey=0
CapsLockToggleMouseLook=1
MouseLookUseAltMode=0
MouseLookFly=1
MouseWheelFly=1
AlwaysStrafe=1
PaletteSMul=1
PaletteVMul=1.1
StartupCopyrightDelay=5000
AutorunKey=114
HDWTRCount=8
HDWTRDelay=20
SupportTrueColor=1
MouseLookWhileRightClick=0
TurnBasedSpeed=1
TurnBasedPartySpeed=1
WindowWidth=-1
WindowHeight=768
BorderlessFullscreen=1
RenderMaxWidth=0
RenderMaxHeight=0
MipmapsCount=3

Are Duke Osric Temper, Baron Anthony Stone, Lady Loretta Fleise, Eric Von Stromgard and Franklin the Armorsmith supposed to live in Dagger Wound (alongside various Inns from all across the world)? If that is not the case, I think I might have some minor issues. I also can not take quests in MM6.

No they're not. Seems like mistake during installation. Make sure you don't have any excess files in "Datafiles" or lod archives, that does not present in merged version.

[majaczek]

Code: Select all

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
...\Might and Magic 6+7+8\Scripts\Global\ExtraArtifacts.lua:269: attempt to index global 'Item' (a nil value)

stack traceback:
	...\Might and Magic 6+7+8\Scripts\Global\ExtraArtifacts.lua: in function 'v'
	Scripts/Core/EventsList.lua:68: in function <Scripts/Core/EventsList.lua:63>

arguments of 'v':
	(*temporary) = (table: 0x0da50f88)

local variables of 'v':
	(*temporary) = nil
	(*temporary) = nil
	(*temporary) = nil
	(*temporary) = "attempt to index global 'Item' (a nil value)"

upvalues of 'v':
	OnHitEffects = (table: 0x271b0c68)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
...\Might and Magic 6+7+8\Scripts\Global\ExtraArtifacts.lua:269: attempt to index global 'Item' (a nil value)

stack traceback:
	...\Might and Magic 6+7+8\Scripts\Global\ExtraArtifacts.lua: in function 'v'
	Scripts/Core/EventsList.lua:68: in function <Scripts/Core/EventsList.lua:63>

arguments of 'v':
	(*temporary) = (table: 0x11acba00)

local variables of 'v':
	(*temporary) = nil
	(*temporary) = nil
	(*temporary) = nil
	(*temporary) = "attempt to index global 'Item' (a nil value)"

upvalues of 'v':
	OnHitEffects = (table: 0x271b0c68)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
...\Might and Magic 6+7+8\Scripts\Global\ExtraArtifacts.lua:269: attempt to index global 'Item' (a nil value)

stack traceback:
	...\Might and Magic 6+7+8\Scripts\Global\ExtraArtifacts.lua: in function 'v'
	Scripts/Core/EventsList.lua:68: in function <Scripts/Core/EventsList.lua:63>

arguments of 'v':
	(*temporary) = (table: 0x2828aa90)

local variables of 'v':
	(*temporary) = nil
	(*temporary) = nil
	(*temporary) = nil
	(*temporary) = "attempt to index global 'Item' (a nil value)"

upvalues of 'v':
	OnHitEffects = (table: 0x271b0c68)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
...\Might and Magic 6+7+8\Scripts\Global\ExtraArtifacts.lua:269: attempt to index global 'Item' (a nil value)

stack traceback:
	...\Might and Magic 6+7+8\Scripts\Global\ExtraArtifacts.lua: in function 'v'
	Scripts/Core/EventsList.lua:68: in function <Scripts/Core/EventsList.lua:63>

arguments of 'v':
	(*temporary) = (table: 0x29bc81c0)

local variables of 'v':
	(*temporary) = nil
	(*temporary) = nil
	(*temporary) = nil
	(*temporary) = "attempt to index global 'Item' (a nil value)"

upvalues of 'v':
	OnHitEffects = (table: 0x271b0c68)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
...\Might and Magic 6+7+8\Scripts\Global\ExtraArtifacts.lua:269: attempt to index global 'Item' (a nil value)

stack traceback:
	...\Might and Magic 6+7+8\Scripts\Global\ExtraArtifacts.lua: in function 'v'
	Scripts/Core/EventsList.lua:68: in function <Scripts/Core/EventsList.lua:63>

arguments of 'v':
	(*temporary) = (table: 0x11b51978)

local variables of 'v':
	(*temporary) = nil
	(*temporary) = nil
	(*temporary) = nil
	(*temporary) = "attempt to index global 'Item' (a nil value)"

upvalues of 'v':
	OnHitEffects = (table: 0x271b0c68)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
...\Might and Magic 6+7+8\Scripts\Global\ExtraArtifacts.lua:269: attempt to index global 'Item' (a nil value)

stack traceback:
	...\Might and Magic 6+7+8\Scripts\Global\ExtraArtifacts.lua: in function 'v'
	Scripts/Core/EventsList.lua:68: in function <Scripts/Core/EventsList.lua:63>

arguments of 'v':
	(*temporary) = (table: 0x29c37cc0)

local variables of 'v':
	(*temporary) = nil
	(*temporary) = nil
	(*temporary) = nil
	(*temporary) = "attempt to index global 'Item' (a nil value)"

upvalues of 'v':
	OnHitEffects = (table: 0x271b0c68)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
...\Might and Magic 6+7+8\Scripts\Global\ExtraArtifacts.lua:269: attempt to index global 'Item' (a nil value)

stack traceback:
	...\Might and Magic 6+7+8\Scripts\Global\ExtraArtifacts.lua: in function 'v'
	Scripts/Core/EventsList.lua:68: in function <Scripts/Core/EventsList.lua:63>

arguments of 'v':
	(*temporary) = (table: 0x12c36ab0)

local variables of 'v':
	(*temporary) = nil
	(*temporary) = nil
	(*temporary) = nil
	(*temporary) = "attempt to index global 'Item' (a nil value)"

upvalues of 'v':
	OnHitEffects = (table: 0x271b0c68)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 

when using bow with effect on hit

[Rodril]

Sorry, missed thing. Reapply latest update or just ExtraArtifacts.lua from "Global" folder.

[majaczek]

sorry asking here but how to find philosopher stone? (I need 10 for Verdant)
I know they are grey ingredents from mm8 but IDK how to find them...

[justl]

Hello.

For items I thought you wanna add MM6 and 7 armors and wait graphics design when they are equipped.

Yes. But no additional actions are required. They are already in game, but chance to find them have been set to 0 in rnditems.txt. I'll increase it and rescript artifact's effect if new graphics will be available. I would not change paperdolls. MM8 ones are not just diffrent, they are simplier: less variations of items needed. I'm not sure it is possible to make them mm6-alike without overhauling .exe file.

why not take a standardmodell from mm8 as template for mm6/7:
for instance the graphix from:
mm8-"perfect plate" for mm6/7-plate uniques
mm8-glomenthal for mm6/7-versions
mm8-unique-helmets/boots for mm6/7 ones
.
.
.

would, imho, be the easiest way to achieve the "old" uniques - 'til another way is found (or not)

justl

[GrayFace]

A few bugs in the older version:
1) https://www.dropbox.com/s/80n7rwmusahq5 ... 9.png?dl=0
Happens randomly upon reloading.

2) https://www.dropbox.com/s/wnqt4w83ajv0t ... 0.png?dl=0
A hired character having a corrupted inventory.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z3hhp20g4gzm2 ... 1.png?dl=0
And here after picking a staff and giving back to her.

3) Party jumps very high. The first jump is normal, but if you hold the Jump key, it jumps much higher.

[GrayFace]

I was not happy with what I got at 3840x2160. Apparently, all that's happening under the Grayface 2.1 patch for MM8 presently is that it's scaling up the 2d imagery--without accelerating the graphics using D3d at all...and it looks it. DGVoodoo2 2.54 and the Merge mod @ 3840x2160 blows away the current 2.1 Grayface patch in the same game, same resolution, same hardware, same Windows version.

Out of curiosity, if someone has discovered how to use the 2.1 MM8 patch to actually accelerate D3d at high res just as DGVoodoo2.54 does it--please let me know and I will be happy to revise my opinion accordingly... Right now there is a quite evident difference in how much better the game looks @ 3840x2160 D3d accelerated through DGVoodoo2 2.54 and how it looks stand-alone @ 3840x2160 as displayed by the 2.1 stand-alone Grayface patch for MM8. I only wish the site here accepted attachments as I'd wouldn't at all mind uploading a couple of jpeg's so that you could see the difference...! Any and all suggestions appreciated!

Use any image hosting, e.g. http://www.imagebam.com/ I personally use Dropbox. There also are screenshot programs that auto-upload screenshots. Something's probably wrong with your install based on what you wrote. The only things lacking in my patch I can think of are anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering, because that requires using newer DirectX version. Also, I've no idea how my custom scaling would work on 4K resolution in terms of framerate impact.

[Xfing]

Hey Rodril! Thanks for your continued support of the merge, you really are the best!

What I've noticed now is that your characters don't refuse black potions when they've already had one of the type, and I believe GrayFace put it in as a function in his latest patch. Are you sure everything is integrated properly?

Also, I've noticed some weird miscalculation regarding my lich's meditation skill. The skill cap is supposed to be 60, but at level 50 Ethric's Staff no longer provides any bonus to meditation, while it should provide 10 at that point. It's as if it treated the cap to be 50. I of course can manually level the skill up further, but for example at 51 I've noticed the bonus from Ethric's Staff to be -1 (minus one), making it 50 anyway. If you could please check that!

Oh, and the recovery time for blasters still doesn't work properly. It still displays as 30 - Haste or not - but even without Haste, appears to functionally be at 5 (or somewhere around that - very fast in any case). In original MM7 (with Grayface's patch of course), the standby recovery rate for the blaster for any character would be around 20, getting smaller with more points in the Speed stat. It would settle at 5 only when Haste is in play.

[Xfing]

Also, I've got a question about graphical assets. I was thinking of taking a shot at making some armor sprites fit the MM8 paperdolls, thought I'd begin with Taledon's Helm. I'm terrible at that, but I'd still like to try. What format to save the finished file in so that you can import and integrate it? And where to export the asset from?

[Mortis]

Hello.

For items I thought you wanna add MM6 and 7 armors and wait graphics design when they are equipped.

Yes. But no additional actions are required. They are already in game, but chance to find them have been set to 0 in rnditems.txt. I'll increase it and rescript artifact's effect if new graphics will be available. I would not change paperdolls. MM8 ones are not just diffrent, they are simplier: less variations of items needed. I'm not sure it is possible to make them mm6-alike without overhauling .exe file.

why not take a standardmodell from mm8 as template for mm6/7:
for instance the graphix from:
mm8-"perfect plate" for mm6/7-plate uniques
mm8-glomenthal for mm6/7-versions
mm8-unique-helmets/boots for mm6/7 ones
.
.
.

would, imho, be the easiest way to achieve the "old" uniques - 'til another way is found (or not)

justl

In MM7 and MM6 as I remember artifacts and relics had the same models as common weapons and armors with only different colour(Yoruba for example). Only in MM8 devs started to design different models for at least some of unique stuff like glomenthal, supreme plate and others.
Someone could use the same method to do MM6/7 artifacts- for example changing colour of dragon plate or dark knight's plate to create yoruba.

[Xfing]

Mortis, you're quite wrong here.

- In MM6, all artifacts and relics looked exactly like the strongest weapon of the type.
- In MM7, unique helmets, weapons and boots had different sprites, while unique armors had the same "model", but were color swaps. Weapons like swords, spears etc had their unique sprites alright.
- In MM8 everything had unique sprites.

[Mortis]

The strongest of the type- doesn't change the fact that they look identically, so about MM6 i am 100% right.
In MM7 you are right, there are some differences, for example boots of seven league.
In MM8 correct me if I am wrong, but relic sword HAVOC looks like typical templar sword, Mace of the sun looks totally like typical temple mace and Staff of elements is common bone Staff, so not everything had unique sprites i guess.

[GrayFace]

Oh, and the recovery time for blasters still doesn't work properly. It still displays as 30 - Haste or not - but even without Haste, appears to functionally be at 5 (or somewhere around that - very fast in any case). In original MM7 (with Grayface's patch of course), the standby recovery rate for the blaster for any character would be around 20, getting smaller with more points in the Speed stat. It would settle at 5 only when Haste is in play.

That's because I didn't account for blasters in MM8 patch.

Also, I've got a question about graphical assets. I was thinking of taking a shot at making some armor sprites fit the MM8 paperdolls, thought I'd begin with Taledon's Helm. I'm terrible at that, but I'd still like to try. What format to save the finished file in so that you can import and integrate it? And where to export the asset from?

Save as 24 bit bitmap. Use MMArchive to export it from icons.lod of MM6 as well as export a reference helm from icons.lod of MM8. As for import, you can create a separate archive, e.g. test.icons.lod by e.g. copying editor.icons.lod to test.icons.lod and clearing it (alternatively, "Export Selection As Archive" is another advised way to achieve that).

- In MM7, unique helmets, weapons and boots had different sprites, while unique armors had the same "model", but were color swaps. Weapons like swords, spears etc had their unique sprites alright.

Speaking of which, making color swaps of MM8-friendly items would be the easiest way to quickly get MM6 items into the game.

[Xfing]

Speaking of which, making color swaps of MM8-friendly items would be the easiest way to quickly get MM6 items into the game.

Or even going the lazy route in the meantime and just using some tier 4 or 5 item graphics with no changes at all, like it was done in MM6. MM6 had no single unique item graphic I'm aware of. Temporarily assigning their MM8 equivalents as representations of the MM6 uniques could work before a more faithful (and time-consuming) solution is achieved.

BTW, I've now checked and it looks like GrayFace's latest patches indeed haven't been integrated into the mod as advertised. For example, the anvil on Emeral Island still says "button" etc.

[lightbringer23]

Speaking of which, making color swaps of MM8-friendly items would be the easiest way to quickly get MM6 items into the game.

For whatever it's worth, I'm a fan of this too. I'd love to have unique sprites eventually, but getting to have more than one artifact plate or chain available for my party is more important in the short run.

I can't say enough how much I'm enjoying this merge, and how much kudos is owed to Rodril. I'm about to take Dark Elves and Dragons into Harmondale, and the thought makes me giddy.

I also am thinking about taking an all-druid party through in the other direction. I remember finding 4 druids (5, for the merge) to be the most powerful party for MM6. With the skill changes in MM7 and 8 it was less viable, but now with the merge and a little skills.txt editing, it could be a fun experiment. There's nothing like spamming rock blast or fireball from all characters, then casting shared life and having everyone be equal, then spamming power cure with 4 (5) body masters. Not to mention 20 (25) Lloyd's Beacons ...

Ridiculously fun so far. Keep up the good work!

[lightbringer23]

@Echo -- I love (love) the map changes you made for your MM8 Monstrous Modling. I'm curious as to whether you think it's possible for your map changes to be added to the Merge -- for an individual user, of course, not for the Merge writ large.

I'll have to investigate it further, but I don't gather that Rodril's Merge makes a whole lot of map content changes to MM8. If the files are separated out, and I think they are, I might be able to simply swap in some of Echo's within the Merge. Please disabuse me of the notion as necessary, of course xD

[lightbringer23]

So I just downloaded MMArchive and I'm exploring pulling apart LOD files and putting them back together. I'm going to see if I can take some of the things I really liked from Echo's mod and splice them into what Rodril's merge.

@Rodril In your Tables folder, I see a lot of .txt files that would otherwise be inside LOD files, plus some new .txt files. I'm guessing this is something of an override folder. If, say, I were to place my own ITEMS.txt file inside your Tables folder, would that override the ITEMS.txt file that otherwise exists within your EnglishT.LOD? Or should I inject my modified ITEMS.txt file into your EnglishT.LOD? In either case, I would use yours as a baseline, but make my own changes to it.
Edit: It seems that the Tables folder doesn't really work as an override, at least as far as I could tell. Using MMArchive, however, I was able to extract ITEMS.txt, modify it, and inject it back in to EnglishT.LOD. Simple enough.

One of the things that makes this a little easier is that MM6 and MM7's EnglishT, Bitmaps, and Games LOD files are separate from MM8's. Since Echo's mod is MM8 only, that separation simplifies things a great deal.

@Echo
If I understand your Modling correctly, I think I can achieve your hand-placed map changes by extracting the appropriate .blv and .odm files in your games.lod and replacing their counterparts in the Merge's game.lod. I don't think there's really anything else in EnglishT.lod that would affect this. Heh, imagine Merge bolstered monsters with your map placement xD

Edit: Upon further review, there's more to games.lod than blv and odm files. Fortunately, both Echo's and the Merge's games.lod archives have the same files within them. Let's see if I can simply swap archives wholesale.

Edit2: I do see that the Merge has LUA scripts for several of the areas in MM8. No clue if your map placements and changes would affect those scripts. Well, I guess that's what playtesting is for.