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

[tm317]

Also the snow is messed up in the newest version when playing MM8(didn't check the other ones). The screen just looks like someone turned the brightness up to 10, but no snow.

[Templayer]

Fleetfinger give +8 to armsmaster, bow, disarm trap. I dont get +8 damage on my GM bow Dark Elf.

Also would like to make a suggestion, to add item mod from MM6 "of the Gods" +5lvl.

Added to the Bug and Suggestion trackers respectively.

[Anubis]

@qtish "of the Gods" gives +10 bonus to all 7 statistics. "of Power" is what gives +5 level bonus

[Templayer]

@qtish "of the Gods" gives +10 bonus to all 7 statistics. "of Power" is what gives +5 level bonus

Added to the Bug Tracker.
Wait, crud, I got confused and added that automatically. Moved to the suggestion tracker as an addition to the original post.

[kristal]

How do I add a loading screen? I want to add a loading screen from Heroes 3.

You need MMArchive to drag and drop the pic. into the icons.lod. Also it must be in the pcx extension. With the MMArchive, look at the pcx pics in the icons.lod file. 7load1 is for MM7 of the merge. You should be able to figure out the rest by studying the icons.lod . At the top center of the MMArchive program, there is a drop down list of item in the file. Select pcx and it will show all the pcx pics. I do not know if it can except more that 5.
David

Thank you! I found the right file - Continent settings.txt.

[GrayFace]

*sigh* I JUST CLOSED GIMP! Fine, I'm opening it again!
Added to the bug tracker, pictures included, I have "wash" it through GIMP because adding pictures to the tracker directly doesn't work (probably fails at some retarded copyright check, knowing google...)

Try IrfanView, it's the best for quick edits as well as for viewing pics.

Adding support for animated loading screens that were only in MM6 would be great!

That's for Rodril. I'm sure he already has it among his plans though. I can only tell the address of drawing procedure that needs to be modified.

[Templayer]

*sigh* I JUST CLOSED GIMP! Fine, I'm opening it again!
Added to the bug tracker, pictures included, I have "wash" it through GIMP because adding pictures to the tracker directly doesn't work (probably fails at some retarded copyright check, knowing google...)

Try IrfanView, it's the best for quick edits as well as for viewing pics.

Adding support for animated loading screens that were only in MM6 would be great!

That's for Rodril. I'm sure he already has it among his plans though. I can only tell the address of drawing procedure that needs to be modified.

1. Thanks, but nah, GIMP starts relatively quickly on my PC (it's way worse on the PC in my work, since my employer forces me to use Windows 10... on an rather old computer. Takes like two minutes to start there!). The main problem is the fact that Google Docs screws up me copying the image from a webpage into the document. MS Office Word did the same thing with a message "contacting server for information", but recently I came across a program called Internet Lock, that can extremely easily just deny program Internet access. And MS Office programs are on the list now. No more "contacting server to check if you didn't break the copyright by copying a picture or some kind of crap like that and then screwing up everything for no apparent reason".

2. Ah, I thought that procedure was removed from the newer games and only was available in MM6, not in MM7 and MM8. If I understood it correctly, that is. That MM8 engine with the extension and editor are actually able to make use of animated loading screens, that there is / are method(s), I mean.

Hmm, what would I ask you instead then?
NIGHT SKIES.

[Templayer]

Also the snow is messed up in the newest version when playing MM8(didn't check the other ones). The screen just looks like someone turned the brightness up to 10, but no snow.

Added to the Bug Tracker.

[forbidden_bread]

Is it possible to learn grandmaster light magic in MM6 without editing the game files in this merge mod? Appearently Master wizard can only learn master light, and not grandmaster. I get that the original MM6 does not have a "grandmaster" skill.

[Jezebeth Noir]

Russian: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/pqnrlq4h6gso ... MXo6a?dl=0
- Texts and mm6/mm7/mm8 audio.
Or https://yadi.sk/d/Rx4KoP3zfT76nQ - texts, mm6/mm7/mm8 audio and video + localized cross continent quests.

The second link doesn't work any more. Please, fix it.

[DaveHer]

Is it possible to learn grandmaster light magic in MM6 without editing the game files in this merge mod? Appearently Master wizard can only learn master light, and not grandmaster. I get that the original MM6 does not have a "grandmaster" skill.

Go to the tables folder in the merge. Look for the file "Skill.txt". Open it with the text editor that Garyface his at the site. Put a capital "G" on wizard/light. E=expert M=Master G=Grandmaster At the bottom of all Garyface posts is a link for tools. Try this link: https://grayface.github.io/wog/
David

[justl]

Is it possible to learn grandmaster light magic in MM6 without editing the game files in this merge mod? Appearently Master wizard can only learn master light, and not grandmaster. I get that the original MM6 does not have a "grandmaster" skill.

Go to the tables folder in the merge. Look for the file "Skill.txt". Open it with the text editor that Garyface his at the site. Put a capital "G" on wizard/light. E=expert M=Master G=Grandmaster At the bottom of all Garyface posts is a link for tools.
David

B= Beginner and "-" (without "") is unlearnable - so yeah, you can pretty make changes normally not possible
i primary edit in excel, cause it is displayed best there.

[DaveHer]

Is it possible to learn grandmaster light magic in MM6 without editing the game files in this merge mod? Appearently Master wizard can only learn master light, and not grandmaster. I get that the original MM6 does not have a "grandmaster" skill.

Go to the tables folder in the merge. Look for the file "Skill.txt". Open it with the text editor that Garyface his at the site. Put a capital "G" on wizard/light. E=expert M=Master G=Grandmaster At the bottom of all Garyface posts is a link for tools.
David

B= Beginner and "-" (without "") is unlearnable - so yeah, you can pretty make changes normally not possible
i primary edit in excel, cause it is displayed best there.

I redid the forbidden_bread post and added the direct link to Grayface tools. In that site he has a text editor that puts every thing in the right place also. Its a pretty nice tool.
David

[Templayer]

Go to the tables folder in the merge. Look for the file "Skill.txt". Open it with the text editor that Garyface his at the site. Put a capital "G" on wizard/light. E=expert M=Master G=Grandmaster At the bottom of all Garyface posts is a link for tools.
David

B= Beginner and "-" (without "") is unlearnable - so yeah, you can pretty make changes normally not possible
i primary edit in excel, cause it is displayed best there.

I redid the forbidden_bread post and added the direct link to Grayface tools. In that site he has a text editor that puts every thing in the right place also. Its a pretty nice tool.
David

Yeah, GrayFace's txtEdit is the best one for Rodril's tables. Hands down.

With Excel, you have no control on how much it can screw the file, insert invisible symbols, etc. Believe me, I know Word and Excel so much that I can edit any of their files (that includes generating and setting those crappy Word tables, etc.) without using any application (just using my code). Microsoft purposefully obfuscates their XML innards of their formats so much so that doing what I do is nearly impossible. (well, just hard. It doesn't put branches in your path, it straight throws rocks at you!). My point is - I wouldn't trust Excel (well, it also depends on your version, I guess).

Also - @DaveHer - you spelled GrayFace as Garyface in your post. Which I found hilarious. "You had one job, Gary, ONE JOB!"

[justl]

B= Beginner and "-" (without "") is unlearnable - so yeah, you can pretty make changes normally not possible
i primary edit in excel, cause it is displayed best there.

I redid the forbidden_bread post and added the direct link to Grayface tools. In that site he has a text editor that puts every thing in the right place also. Its a pretty nice tool.
David

Yeah, GrayFace's txtEdit is the best one for Rodril's tables. Hands down.

With Excel, you have no control on how much it can screw the file, insert invisible symbols, etc. Believe me, I know Word and Excel so much that I can edit any of their files (that includes generating and setting those crappy Word tables, etc.) without using any application (just using my code). Microsoft purposefully obfuscates their XML innards of their formats so much so that doing what I do is nearly impossible. (well, just hard. It doesn't put branches in your path, it straight throws rocks at you!). My point is - I wouldn't trust Excel (well, it also depends on your version, I guess).

Also - @DaveHer - you spelled GrayFace as Garyface in your post. Which I found hilarious. "You had one job, Gary, ONE JOB!"

i use office 2002 there ... so no worries with xml or such - dont need any new office for the things i do at home

[DaveHer]

B= Beginner and "-" (without "") is unlearnable - so yeah, you can pretty make changes normally not possible
i primary edit in excel, cause it is displayed best there.

I redid the forbidden_bread post and added the direct link to Grayface tools. In that site he has a text editor that puts every thing in the right place also. Its a pretty nice tool.
David

Yeah, GrayFace's txtEdit is the best one for Rodril's tables. Hands down.

With Excel, you have no control on how much it can screw the file, insert invisible symbols, etc. Believe me, I know Word and Excel so much that I can edit any of their files (that includes generating and setting those crappy Word tables, etc.) without using any application (just using my code). Microsoft purposefully obfuscates their XML innards of their formats so much so that doing what I do is nearly impossible. (well, just hard. It doesn't put branches in your path, it straight throws rocks at you!). My point is - I wouldn't trust Excel (well, it also depends on your version, I guess).

Also - @DaveHer - you spelled GrayFace as Garyface in your post. Which I found hilarious. "You had one job, Gary, ONE JOB!"

It was an honest mistake. Sorry GrayFace.

[GrayFace]

MS Office Word did the same thing with a message "contacting server for information", but recently I came across a program called Internet Lock, that can extremely easily just deny program Internet access. And MS Office programs are on the list now. No more "contacting server to check if you didn't break the copyright by copying a picture or some kind of crap like that and then screwing up everything for no apparent reason".

Ugh, MS does wonders! Always manages to make their stuff even worse. Truly the Masters of Sluggishness.

2. Ah, I thought that procedure was removed from the newer games and only was available in MM6, not in MM7 and MM8. If I understood it correctly, that is. That MM8 engine with the extension and editor are actually able to make use of animated loading screens, that there is / are method(s), I mean.

No, the drawing procedure is different in MM7&8.

Hmm, what would I ask you instead then?
NIGHT SKIES.

Yes, that's a good one. Added to the list.

[Daedros]

Finally the Mist Form gained at Grandmaster Vampire Ability is cool but not universally useful, not even close to the overall usefullness of other Grandmaster abilities. But somehow I like Mist Form the way it is... I think Grandmaster Vampire (along with Master and Expert) could become balanced with the rest of the skills if the basic Vampire ability, that is Life Drain, would restore the exact same amount of HP that is stolen from the victim, not a measly 1/3. This would imbue Expert, Master and Grandmaster Vampire Ability skills with a lot more sense since they boost the recovery time and the damage of that basic ability.

Also there's the free and complete Mind immunity that the Vampires receive. Somehow it's not balanced by a drawback. Maybe Vampires should lose their ability to Regenerate or be Healed by any spells while in daylight? So it's gonna be like 'subsist on potions and Life Drain or don't go out at noon and stick to dungeons instead'

If you play with Templayer's Character Creation Unlocker and Racial Skills, Mist Form would be ridiculously good for caster classes. No other race/class ability offers anything close to what Mist Form does, becoming completely immune to Physical Damage, which is the most common attack type in the game. The inability to dish out Physical Damage, wouldn't hinder a Priest, Necromancer, or Druid really, since they can just blast away with spells while being completely immune to Physical.

Vampires in M&M8 wear Nightshade Amulets, which protect them from the sun. You can see it on their paperdoll.

7. Dark Path vs. Light Path for MM8 races. This has to be in the game, with the two alternate second tier promotions and all. Vampires turned to Light should change their class to 'Goody-Two-Fangs' after the 2nd promotion, with lots of hilarious dialogue options and tongue-in-cheek humour. Since Vampires don't deal with Dark or Light Magic at all, and have no real alignment affinity, this kind of character seems possible to me in the Might & Magic universe. I mean, vampirism appears to be something purely physiological (if 'physiology' is a proper word for an undead creature) and being evil is merely a popular choice among Vampires, but in no way an absolute imperative. We could have evil Paladins in MM7, remember?

Actually, lorewise, Vampires can dabble in Necromancy. Thant, who is one of the leaders of the Necromancer's Guild in M&M8, is a Vampire. He was a Vampire Necromancer hero in HoMM 3. https://mightandmagic.fandom.com/wiki/Thant
Aislinn is yet another Vampire Necromancer from HoMM 3. http://heroes.thelazy.net/wiki/Aislinn
Korbu had also used a now lost Necromantic art to transform Calden Fain into the dagger, Foulfang. Korbu was likely a Death Knight, the closest thing in game to that is a Villain.
There is no known examples of "good" Vampires in Might and Magic, certainly none that used Light magic (which is anathema to their undead nature). Korbu comes the closest, with his remorse for having to kill to survive.

[Daedros]

@Templayer
Is the Character Creation Unlocker and Racial Skills able to be used mid-playthrough to enable some new available race/class combos for random training hall hirelings, or must it be used at the very start of a game? Will activating the Character Creation Unlocker and Racial Skills make saves made before it unable to be loaded?
Would taking a Vampire Necromancer to Lich, remove the Vampire racial abilities?

[Templayer]

@Templayer
Is the Character Creation Unlocker and Racial Skills able to be used mid-playthrough to enable some new available race/class combos for random training hall hirelings, or must it be used at the very start of a game? Will activating the Character Creation Unlocker and Racial Skills make saves made before it unable to be loaded?
Would taking a Vampire Necromancer to Lich, remove the Vampire racial abilities?

The Character Creation Unlocker works ONLY at Character Creation. It doesn't affect random hirelings. Wait, it might, I think it actually takes the Character Creation limits into account! Crud. Hard week! So it will work if it does. I didn't test it. Not enough time.

The Racial Skills will work only partially, since there are no ways to learn the "Abilities" (you don't have a place to learn Vampire Abilities for example, but Meditation can be learned, so Meditation would work, but Vampire Abilities you would have no way of learning) - the Racial Skills are added during Character Creation.

Saves should be pretty much fine to load, unless you are using some really old version of the Merge.

Taking a Vampire Necromancer to Lich WOULD (I'm quite sure, but I could be wrong, I don't have the time to play the game unfortunately. ) change both the CLASS and the RACE to Lich, thus you would get Lich's racial abilities instead (yeah, there are some!). Rodril declined my suggestion to make it possible to make zombie and vampire liches instead of skeleton liches, unfortunately. As seen by your example, I am not the only one who would do something like that... anyway, you won't loose those skills, only be unable to raise their expertise, so if you get to the highest expertise (GM, Mastery, expert,..) with your Vampire Necromancer BEFORE being promoted to Lich, you won't loose those! (again, I am pretty sure that is how that works, but I haven't tested it). So get as far as possible (i.e. GM in Vampire Ability skill, etc.) with a Necromancer and then get the promotion. Points should be able to be given to those skills as well. Only the ability to raise the expertise (master, GM,...) isn't retained. I think.

SOLUTION TO YOUR PROBLEMS:

1. Apply both the unlocker and the racial skills.

2. Use the necro tip above this paragraph if you wish.

3. Use the Cheat Engine. A Cheat Engine was made SPECIFICALLY for the Merge, that can be used basically as a character editor. While the game is running, that is. There you can switch the RACE of your Lich Vampire (turning a Lich Lich (race+class...) into a Vampire Lich). Then you can actually set the visual paperdoll and portrait to anything, and disconnect that from the RACE, if you wish. Same with the voice.
SO for example you could make a Vampire (=race) Lich (=class), that looks like a Minotaur, essentially making a Minotaur Vampire Lich. (Minotaur paperdoll+portrait+voice, vampire race, lich class). So use a Cheat Engine after the promotion.

3. b. Another thing you can do with the Cheat Engine - teach your character the racial skills that cannot be learned otherwise (after applying the Racial Skills Pack). So for example use it to learn basic Vampire Abilities skill.

Check the tracker for the heading of Cheat Engine / Character Editor (replacement for MM8CHE)

And remember - thanks to GrayFace and Rodril (and me, to a much lesser degree) you can do ANYTHING with the game. Anything is now possible. If I was in YOUR place, instead of using the Cheat Engine (which I do not know how to use but it is probably simpler that my method...), I would open up the console and write a code block that would get the data for the n-th party member, change the race variable to a Vampire, and add skills that are in the racial skills table at the basic expertise with 1 point. I actually did that once already - I have added every skill in the game to every party member at GM, so that I could test stuff like armours repaints on different racial paperdolls. My point is: With some effort, you can now do pretty much ANYTHING in this trilogy of MM games! Which is awesome as heck! So don't ask "if it is possible"; ask "how to do it."