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

[eilacomeva]

A couple of things for which I couldn't find an answer (partially because I'm trying, and sometimes failing, to stay away from spoilers, but anyway)

1. The warlock familiar from mm7
I've read the suggestion on how to actually give him a name and it worked, then I fed him, I waited, and now whenever I try to get him to join
he says he's too young - I tried waiting a couple of months, leveling up, nothing happened.
Yet sometimes when I'm fighting the dragon does something - either shoots an enemy, or uses its wings - is that what it's supposed to do,
or is there something I can do to make it join my party?

2. (spoilerish)
I started in mm6, Verdant appeared and told me to do you-know-what.
Trouble is, I wasn't paying that much attention, so when I tried to use the connector stone and it didn't do anything, I assumed she would later give me some quest to make it work, while it seems that I had to wait 24h since her visit... in the meantime I completed all three continents and I'm at level seventysomething and can level above 100 - did I screw up? ie, when I find the gems she's looking for, will her assignment (whatever it is) be too easy at that level?

To put it in a different way: as a long time mm6/7/8 player, should I finish one/two/three continents before embarking in Verdant's quests at a reasonable level (not TOO easy, not TOO difficult)? I THINK she said that I should finish my starting world first, and as I didn't know how I could communicate with her she DID appear whenever I finished the main quest on a given continent, but I'm not 100% sure I remember correctly.

Well, personally, I performed her quests in parallel with the main plot. It was fun, though.
It seems to me that there is no difference when to start completing her quests. I started as early as possible because I was afraid to upset her =З
Just try and say how it is, it shouldn't be easy, if Bolstering is active.

Mumble... all the other missions were easy even with Bolstering, other than the hive in sweet water and the wine cellar in tatalia... I'll roll a coin or something, thank you

[eilacomeva]

...
With the Unlocker on the Tracker you can make combinations such as a Minotaur Archer, Goblin Necromancer,...

Don't give me strange ideas, I always end up wasting too much time on things like that

Btw, about the name generator, I can only suggest you take as many existing implementations as you can, compare the results, and steal^Wget inspiration from the ones you like; eg my favorite (because it's the first non-stupid one I've seen) is totro - the perl version seems unavailabe atm, but the original javascript is there embedded in the page.

Would you believe it? it seems there is one on the microsoft store...

[eilacomeva]

Hello.
Sorry for not being active for so long, i had a lot of RL stuff suddenly dropping on me: from work projects to brother asking to watch his children.
Thank you very much for keeping tracker alive. I have not read new forum pages yet, but i checked new section of bug tracker.

...

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6. Andrey: Lost expert leather, and got level 5 instead of 4.

I could not reproduce it yet.

Since I wasn't in this forum when you took a break, I can finally give you my thanks.
I had the leather armor bug happen to me, somewhere late in the game (starting in mm6, I can't remember if it was towards the end of Enroth or when I started travelling between worlds); I believe it also effected my thief who was a GM in leather, but I'm no longer sure.
If I stumble onto it again I'll definitely keep the save; in the meantime, I'd recommend using a copy on write filesystem with snapshots enabled to anyone who can, they are priceless for this kind of things (until the right snapshot gets deleted, like in my case).

Thank you again for the merge!

[Templayer]

@Templay
I was not talking about replacing sprites. I was talking about replacing MM7 women's belts because they look bad. Read it again carefully. If your talking about the ghost dragon that was meant for the CCR not the merge.
David

I knew what you were talking about. But "sprites" doesn't automatically mean paperdoll or monster. I meant MM7 women belt SPRITES.

Definition: "A sprite is a bitmap graphic that is designed to be part of a larger scene. It can either be a static image or an animated graphic. Examples of sprites include objects in 2D video games, icons that are part of an application user interface, and small images published on websites."

Now please read it again, and more carefully.

[Templayer]

...
With the Unlocker on the Tracker you can make combinations such as a Minotaur Archer, Goblin Necromancer,...

Don't give me strange ideas, I always end up wasting too much time on things like that

Btw, about the name generator, I can only suggest you take as many existing implementations as you can, compare the results, and steal^Wget inspiration from the ones you like; eg my favorite (because it's the first non-stupid one I've seen) is totro - the perl version seems unavailabe atm, but the original javascript is there embedded in the page.

Would you believe it? it seems there is one on the microsoft store...

Nah, I will make my own from scratch.

[Maslyonok]

@Rodril
Yay, the King is back!
I have a request: put my translation in main post, please.
And I want to improve weapon's names (as soon as we finally decide with their names in the MMMerge tracker)
The Verdant's text problem is solved by adding spaces (kinda 6-8 times).
Again, thank you for being alive

[DaveHer]

@Templay
I was not talking about replacing sprites. I was talking about replacing MM7 women's belts because they look bad. Read it again carefully. If your talking about the ghost dragon that was meant for the CCR not the merge.
David

I knew what you were talking about. But "sprites" doesn't automatically mean paperdoll or monster. I meant MM7 women belt SPRITES.

Definition: "A sprite is a bitmap graphic that is designed to be part of a larger scene. It can either be a static image or an animated graphic. Examples of sprites include objects in 2D video games, icons that are part of an application user interface, and small images published on websites."

Now please read it again, and more carefully.

Sorry I did not know the definition of sprites. Then every thing in Icons.lod are sprites? Right? I learned something new today.
David

[GrayFace]

Sorry for not being active for so long, i had a lot of RL stuff suddenly dropping on me: from work projects to brother asking to watch his children.
Thank you very much for keeping tracker alive. I have not read new forum pages yet, but i checked new section of bug tracker.

Great to see you back! Templayer's tracker seems to contain all that's been reported and created in your absence.

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2. Invisible blockers.

This is known issue since day one, though i still have not found straight solution. If any map becomes broken because of it, let me know.

Now the Editor should produce less of such problems. It still needs work in regards to preserving some aspects of indoor maps like outlines and BSP.
A list of map names and coordinates of invisible blockers would be very useful.

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8. The bug from very old times. Especially annoying in solo play, but can cause problems for any party too.
Monsters fight 2 vs 1.
Two dealing a killing blow simultaneously.
One hit goes to kill a monster, another goes to you, including bad effects.

It's a vanilla bug. It's noticeable with Berserk spell and some other spells as well. Not easy to fix though, it's buried in AI logic.

3. It is broken. Didn't work at all for quite a few people. And the instructions lead to a broken version for everyone (two steps have to be changed for it to actually work). I talked about GrayFace and this project needs an installer ASAP. Or at least a SINGLE PACKAGE DOWNLOAD. No more base and update packages! Just ONE package (as an option, at least) that is always upkept to the newest version. So people can just download -> extract -> run, nothing more. As you can see, this has been quite frustrating, since I had to write what feels like hundreds of posts replying to people telling us that the download is broken (and we didn't have the rights to edit the first post and replace it with a working version!).

What's bad about base+update?

As for wrong steps order, my patch must be installed after the Merge, not before.

[GrayFace]

Sorry I did not know the definition of sprites. Then every thing in Icons.lod are sprites? Right? I learned something new today.

To avoid confusion, they shouldn't be called sprites.

[raekuul]

Yeah most of the "the download is broken" complaints are because we can't edit the OP to reflect installing Merge first, the Merge Update second, and then the updated MMExtension last

[DaveHer]

Sorry I did not know the definition of sprites. Then every thing in Icons.lod are sprites? Right? I learned something new today.

To avoid confusion, they shouldn't be called sprites.

I Agree.
David

[Xfing]

Told the impatient lot of you that Rodril would be back, lol

Now he sure does have a lot of stuff to catch up on, hope it doesn't take forever to do that! But just to briefly summarize:
- Templayer has been doing a reliable job at keeping the tracker all this time. However he's also been acting bossy and condescending as always, and rather childish at being challenged - for example using a custom script to completely hide all of my and another user named Roticet's posts (and possibly more) just because we called him out on some of this behavior or challenged his authoritatively phrased opinions.
- Efforts have been ongoing in implementing expanded graphical assets, mostly thanks to SpectralDragon and Jamesx - paperdolls for liches and zombies of other races such as minotaurs and trolls, also a whole new black dragon model and a ghost dragon meant to be the zombie version of dragons. There have also been some more far-reaching character portraits/paperdolls made, meant specifically for Unlocker play, such as the Dracolich.
- More recently the guys have also started working on apparel, I've seen that MM6 and 7 belts are in ongoing implementation
- It seems lots of bugs have piled up since June the 10th - not sure if they'd been there all along or were caused by all those multiple independently compiled versions meant for testing the new paperdolls/portraits
- GrayFace has been busy helping with all sorts of stuff for all that time, as always
- I had a concept of having different races affect the skill level caps of certain skills, so that they produce different playing experiences. The idea didn't seem to quite catch, though it's mostly Templayer who was opposed to it, seeing it as a needless limitation on character customization freedom. You'll see the entire discussion some pages back, make of it what you will

Overall there seems to be quite a bit of exciting content to look over and potentially integrate. I haven't been playing recently so there have not been any new bug reports from me for a while, but there should be plenty enough from others to keep you busy anyway

[SpectralDragon]

Even though GDSpectra refuses to paint vampiric versions of all the paperdolls.

That's because 1, it's a bloody Mount Everest of work even after I'm done with other ones, since making/editing just one takes me almost 2 weeks when I'm at my fastest pace (why do you think Zombie Troll still doesn't have any facial expressions, just paperdoll full-body? Yep, due to edits and suggestions you lot give me in order to improve it! ) and 2, with Jamesx missing who's gonna port these things into the game now?
I won't even mention the cold reception for the bony Blood Dragon and the fact that I cannot get another paperdoll version for it (because I REFUSE in using the same paperdoll full-body image for the Blood Dragon I used for both Dracolich and Ghost Dragon, as I don't wish it to look like an unoriginal copycat. Undead are supposed to be different in their own ways after all!) while editing living Dragon paperdolls and character expressions would take me even more work than the rest already do. I dare you to try edit almost 16 +/- character paperdolls + facial expressions and make them look good enough for the game itself!

Looks like Obiwan and Luke won't have to take over the Force, because Anakin has returned to the Light! The new leadership is the old leadership.

I'd still keep those plans in my mind if cases like this would happen again ... which might as well happen right now.

Told the impatient lot of you that Rodril would be back, lol

Only to vanish again? Anyways, I won't be cluttering this bit more than it already did due to him being back, so yeah. #lurk

[Xfing]

Told the impatient lot of you that Rodril would be back, lol

Only to vanish again?

Oh come oooon, it's been literally one day! You gotta chill yourself before you kill yourself

[Thonkerton]

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5. There are some stairs in the Breach that aren't working, thus breaking the progress for parties that cannot fly and do not go there with a scroll of flight.

I've tried to design these maps to be passable without fly at all. What problems do you hit? Here are videos of how i expected to pass jump puzzles:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/85pt914dk6cil ... e.mp4?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/36rv4j8qhj1yk ... e.mp4?dl=0

I was the bug reporter for this one and wasn't aware of the Jump scrolls being available, the entry can be removed as it only pertained to the apparent lack of jump/fly, which is untrue. Welcome back Rodril, I have enjoyed your work a lot

[Templayer]

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2. Invisible blockers.

This is known issue since day one, though i still have not found straight solution. If any map becomes broken because of it, let me know.

Now the Editor should produce less of such problems. It still needs work in regards to preserving some aspects of indoor maps like outlines and BSP.
A list of map names and coordinates of invisible blockers would be very useful.

I have the RIGHT MAN FOR THE JOB!

*into invisible walls*

I dare you to try edit almost 16 +/- character paperdolls + facial expressions

I can do that!

and make them look good enough for the game itself!

OK, I cannot do that part.

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5. There are some stairs in the Breach that aren't working, thus breaking the progress for parties that cannot fly and do not go there with a scroll of flight.

I've tried to design these maps to be passable without fly at all. What problems do you hit? Here are videos of how i expected to pass jump puzzles:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/85pt914dk6cil ... e.mp4?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/36rv4j8qhj1yk ... e.mp4?dl=0

I was the bug reporter for this one and wasn't aware of the Jump scrolls being available, the entry can be removed as it only pertained to the apparent lack of jump/fly, which is untrue.

I'll remove that then. EDIT: Removed from both sections.

[Jezebeth Noir]

By the way if you use the optional modification for Racial Skills (which replace Racial Classes, even though those are not removed), other races have racial skills too to compensate and balance things a bit.

Nope. Elves are just weaker dark elves, there's no one reason to choose them. Humans are far from impressive too.

[SpectralDragon]

I dare you to try edit almost 16 +/- character paperdolls + facial expressions

I can do that!

and make them look good enough for the game itself!

OK, I cannot do that part.

Then don't complain I don't wish to do other Vampires, that thing is just too much for me to do on my own, especially in the wake of a Zombie Troll, Troll Lich and like 2 other dragon colors at least!

[Templayer]

I dare you to try edit almost 16 +/- character paperdolls + facial expressions

I can do that!

and make them look good enough for the game itself!

OK, I cannot do that part.

Then don't complain I don't wish to do other Vampires, that thing is just too much for me to do on my own, especially in the wake of a Zombie Troll, Troll Lich and like 2 other dragon colors at least!

I'm not really complaining, I was just explaining why a Vampire transformation quest isn't viable at the moment.
I know not to complain before a girl!

By the way if you use the optional modification for Racial Skills (which replace Racial Classes, even though those are not removed), other races have racial skills too to compensate and balance things a bit.

Nope. Elves are just weaker dark elves, there's no one reason to choose them. Humans are far from impressive too.

Then tell me how to balance it better, racial skills-wise. Please remember that the Racial Skills are a first version. I can make a V2, if the idea is sound.

[raekuul]

Then tell me how to balance it better, racial skills-wise. Please remember that the Racial Skills are a first version. I can make a V2, if the idea is sound.

One thing I'm playing around with is reducing the greatest effect of the Racial Skills sheet (since anything on the RS sheet gets added to the character at generation). For example, the Dragon race has a 3 for their Dragon Ability, meaning they (1) start with the Dragon Ability Skill if I create them at chargen, and (2) may, in the absence of being the Dragon class, Master their Dragon Abilities.

I am also modifying the class skills chart to adjust for this. As an example, the promoted Dragon class (I believe it's called Great Wyrm?) gets Basic Dragon Ability - this ends up giving the same net effect that the original game did, which is "you have to be a promoted Dragon to use Wing Buffet".

Unfortunately, as it works right now there is no way to retain this lockout if the plan is to remove the classes in favor of using the races. Either the system would need to be rewritten to use the greater of the two-to-six potential race and class and promotion class tables, or else just have each grandmaster teacher explicitly check to see if the character in question is fully promoted before offering to train grandmastery.