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

[Daedros]

It's not the effects of the enchantment that should matter, so no idea where you took the Spirit Lash think from and why do you think it's relevant. The description of the spear says that people "saw the existence of his spear Spiritslayer as proof of the existence of evil". You say it's "only" that? I don't know what possible description could drive the point home harder than this one that the spear is evil. If that's not enough for you, take a gander at what it looks like. And if even that's not enough, the effect its enchantment has is in fact quite malevolent, drinking a target's essence/vampirism is already considered a dark power. So yeah, this is probably the single item that'd be best justified in being restricted to evil characters. Keep in mind that the good/evil restriction was never about physical incapability of wielding some item - it's only about refusal to do so. Artifacts with evil histories disgust kind-hearted characters, and artifacts associated with good make evil characters sick. It's 100% a role-playing thing.

Regarding roleplaying, it's actually not that uncommon for Good chars in fiction to wield an Evil weapon for a time due to it's power, while attempting to resist the temptation and corruption from the weapon. For instance Drizzt Do'Urden wielded Khazid'hea "the Cutter" for a time. Khazid'hea was a sentient, evil Adamantine Longsword that was so supernaturally sharp that it could cut through virtually anything, including solid rock, but it would compel (or outright dominate weaker-willed individuals) it's wielder to bloodlust and battle frenzy as it searched for a more skilled wielder. Drizzt wielded Khazid'hea against the Orc King Obould Many-Arrows, because Khazid'hea was the only thing capable of slicing through Obould's Adamantine armor.
Another famous example, would be Frodo Baggins and the One Ring. Frodo used the ring in times of great need, even though it continuously tempted and corrupted him each time.

Wonder if it would be possible to add a script to these "Good/Evil" items that would cause them to periodically inflict status ailments (such as Insanity or Curse) upon a user that did not match their alignment type?

On that note, the Status effects themselves could be revamped. Currently, an effect like "Insanity" is actually a buff for a Knight or Troll due to how it increases Might and Endurance. Maybe make it to where when an Insane char attacks, they have a chance of hitting their own party members instead? Or have Diseased block regeneration, and Poisoned can block healing?

[Maslyonok]

Wonder if it would be possible to add a script to these "Good/Evil" items that would cause them to periodically inflict status ailments (such as Insanity or Curse) upon a user that did not match their alignment type?

On that note, the Status effects themselves could be revamped. Currently, an effect like "Insanity" is actually a buff for a Knight or Troll due to how it increases Might and Endurance. Maybe make it to where when an Insane char attacks, they have a chance of hitting their own party members instead? Or have Diseased block regeneration, and Poisoned can block healing?

The idea of changing status effects sounds really cool actually

[Macros the Black]

But that'd require sitting down and thinking what enemies would fit where, don't know what implementation would look like.

If I have some time I will see if I can make a preliminary list for what could be added where. I already have some random notes I took while playing.

[Alia]

Hi!

1. THANK YOU so much for this merge mod! This is by far my favorite RPG series and I have been enjoying this mod for over a year. You are absolutely wonderful for doing this, I have been having a blast playing!

2. I am amazed that there are so few bugs! Awesome support and follow-up, thank you for that also! Nothing I've encountered have been even close to game-breaking or something I haven't found a fix for; e.g. by disabling advanced pathfinding in the new Controls screen you've provided.

3. One bug I would appreciate knowing more about so I can work around it, this was also reported by user candida » 23 Nov 2019, 11:41 :

Potions of Pure Speed do not work properly.

I have started 6 games, all in Antagarich, all with all 5 characters pre-created by myself, killed Morcorack the Emerald Island dragon in 5 of those games. If I get potions of Pure Speed while massively looting Morcorack, they always work fine. However, later in the same playthru Pure Speed does not work anymore for ANY of my characters. Of course they shouldn't work on those who've already had one, but they don't work on those who haven't. Even chars with very low speed stat and nothing equipped fail when trying to consume Pure Speed potion later in the playthru.
I have tried taking absolutely NO other stat- or resistance-boosting potions of any kind and unequipping all gear. I never use permanent stat- or resistance-boosting shrines, wells, barrels, etc until every character has taken all the black potions first (aside from the Luck well on Emerald Island, which seems to have no effect on black potions at least while I'm still on EI, and later pure Speed potions don't work even on those chars who didn't get Luck from the well). I also don't take any of the new Essence of X boosting potions (white) until taking all the original black potions.
In every one of my 6 games thus far, I still cannot use Potions of Pure Speed, starting at some point later than Emerald Island. I have been unable to extrapolate exactly what is being tested in the code instead of <took a previous Pure Speed potion>. Makes no difference if I crafted the Pure Speed potions myself, bought them, looted them, or found them in chests etc.
Does anyone know what causes this fail, so I can adjust my play to accommodate?


4. One question for the community (and this may be going back to the vanilla version) regarding availability of special items during dragon looting:
I kill Morcorack on Emerald Island then loot him repeatedly. At first, he offers a huge array of artifact/relic/unique items (and thank you for including all the special items from all 3 games, plus those that never even made it into the actual releases!)
For the first X loots of Morcorack, until I've amassed maybe 50,000 - 100,000 gold from the carcass, I seem to get the full range of special items offered. After that, it's a very restricted range, the exact same 15 or so items - and I never again get offered the other items, even though I haven't already acquired them.
I have tried:
a. rejecting all special items I know I won't use, e.g. artifact/relic spears, swords, most armors, etc, thinking perhaps there's a limit on how many special items I can get. Made no difference whether I filled Emerald Island chests with special items (in 1 game), or reject = reload on every special item I do not immediately equip (in 4 games).
b. continuing looting for a loooong time just to ensure this phenomenon is statistically significant. In all 5 Morcorack-killed games I have gone on until I have well over 1,500,000 gold, which is probably a few thousand tries to loot without the carcass disappearing. In one game, I went over 2,800,000 gold, same result.
I've noticed when I kill other dragons later, I still don't seem to get offered the full array of special items, only the same ~15 ones as on later loots of Morcorack.
What causes this sudden narrowing of special items offered? I didn't notice it in vanilla MM, although I seldom managed to kill Morcorack in those. (I REALLY don't like trying to combat RT, killing him in TB with 5 chars is MUCH easier than with 4)

Thank you again for creating this fantastic mod, and thanks to any who have a response for me!

[Terelyn]

3. There is a secret room in Gharik's Forge that's inaccessible because it doesn't open when you pull the right the lever.

There's no door with id 53. Someone should create it and assign corresponding facet to it. Editor doesn't seem to let you make it easy way. (Requires map recompile. Both Base and Revamp.)

Haven't thought about Ctrl. So part about Editor isn't true. Should be fixed.

It doesn't work work for me. I'm talking about the lever right after the bridge puzzle. It should lower the wall of a secret room.

[cthscr]

There's no door with id 53. Someone should create it and assign corresponding facet to it. Editor doesn't seem to let you make it easy way. (Requires map recompile. Both Base and Revamp.)

Haven't thought about Ctrl. So part about Editor isn't true. Should be fixed.

It doesn't work work for me. I'm talking about the lever right after the bridge puzzle. It should lower the wall of a secret room.

It does on two installations for me. Note that changes are in revamp_mm6.games.lod and revamp.T.lod, not in Scripts. My rule of thumb is to start mm8.exe and close it twice to get everything updated properly these days. Perhaps you might need to re-enter map as well (honestly, my saves didn't include 6d18 beforehand - might be an issue as well).

[Terelyn]

It does on two installations for me. Note that changes are in revamp_mm6.games.lod and revamp.T.lod, not in Scripts. My rule of thumb is to start mm8.exe and close it twice to get everything updated properly these days. Perhaps you might need to re-enter map as well (honestly, my saves didn't include 6d18 beforehand - might be an issue as well).

I have started a new game and it works there. Looks like it doesn't work with already existing save files. Or the issue is that the lever was already pulled down in my save. Anyway, it still works when starting a new game. Thanks for the fix.

[antipaladin]

i would like everyone to know just how aesome this mmmerged thing is, and how much respect i have for the people here,
it drove me to think on my own, and bug people to assisst me with doing this https://discord.gg/mnync75t (discord invite - don't forget to check out pinned msgs).

[Terelyn]

You get an error message relating to the Bolster monsters function when you enter the Temple of the Snake in Blackshire.

Spoiler

...ht and Magic 8\Scripts\General\AdaptiveMonstersStats.lua:721: attempt to index a nil value

stack traceback:
...ht and Magic 8\Scripts\General\AdaptiveMonstersStats.lua: in function 'PrepareMapMon'
...ht and Magic 8\Scripts\General\AdaptiveMonstersStats.lua in function 'BolsterMonsters'
...ht and Magic 8\Scripts\General\AdaptiveMonstersStats.lua in function 'OnLoadMap'
...ht and Magic 8\Scripts\General\AdaptiveMonstersStats.lua in function 'v'
...laxy\Games\Might and Magic 8\Scripts/Core/EventsList.lua:101: in function <...laxy\Games\Might and Magic 8\Scripts/Core/EventsList.lua:96>

arguments of 'PrepareMapMon':
(*temporary) = (table: 0x213b8f00)
(*temporary) = (table: 0x15821ea8)
(*temporary) = 0

local variables of 'PrepareMapMon':
(*temporary) = (table: 0x15708308)
(*temporary) = nil
(*temporary) = 179
(*temporary) = (table: 0x15708308)
(*temporary) = 5.7333079698381e-313
(*temporary) = "BeforeMonsterBolster"
(*temporary) = nil
(*temporary) = nil
(*temporary) = (table: 0x049f7308)
(*temporary) = 51
(*temporary) = "attempt to index a nil value"

upvalues of 'PrepareMapMon':
MV = (table: 0x05bb1a90)
MonBolStep = (table: 0x21ff4b78)
max = (function: builtin#63)
floor = (function: builtin#41)
SpellReplace = (table: 0x04f5b538)
GenMonSpell = (function: 0x04d32808)

[Xfing]

There's one bug (or should I say missing feature) I've noticed. While shields or other apparel enchanted with "of Shielding" will provide a permanent individual Shield effect on a character, unenchanted grandmaster shields will not. The GM perk of shield mastery is supposed to be "protection as per Shield spell". That has never worked in any of the vanilla games, and seems like the Merge is actually the first to bring it back (or it could be Grayface's patch) for apparel with the enchantment, but it would be nice if there was a way for this effect to also extend to characters wielding any shield while having GM in it, as intended.

The idea of changing status effects sounds really cool actually

The first thing that comes to mind is curse - equipping an item that doesn't match one's alignment could curse the wielder, and it would be a cursed state that either can't be cured or resumes periodically, so curing it doesn't do much good. Still, curses are very debilitating since they give you 50% chance of spells failing. But from a suspension of disbelief/immersion perspective it works best, since stuff like disease or poison is way too situational. Any adverse status condition severely punishes use, but I suppose some people would still prefer it to not being able to use the item altogether.

[Variol]

So, is this actually working? I'm a huge fan of the series. If I need to do what is posted on PG1, I don't think I could do it. I think it needs to be explained better.

[Daedros]

-- Catalyst potions will sum up their powers, when mixed together. I think, it makes alchemy viable in late game: blue and red potions with 200+ power are worth using.
-- Applying Enchant Item spell on catalyst potion with power 70+ will transform it into philosopher's stone. This change is supposed to make less painfull "obtain 10 philosopher stones" quest from telelocator arc.
-- Message scroll with description of new mechanics (ingame hint) was preplaced in Clanker's laborathory map (mm7).

Now this is interesting. At higher levels, it's not hard to recruit a Warlock/Arch Druid, pump most of their skillpoints into Alchemy (can also get +30 Alchemy from Ring of Fusion+25 Accessory), and use them as a Potion Factory that otherwise sits in the Adventurer's Inn. I used that for making Power 61 Red/Blue/Yellow potions with 1 Power ingredients, then mixing them together into a Divine Cure/Power potion, and mix that with a Power 135 Catalyst Potion from a Philosopher's Stone, to make Power 135 Divine Cure/Power potions that restored 675 HP/SP.
With this change, that char could use Wasp Wings (which can easily be farmed infinitely by reanimating Wasps and killing them again) to make Power 70+ Catalyst Potions, and manufacture tons of Philosopher's Stones from it to then turn into Power 135+ Catalysts. Lol.

So, since we're now getting more interactions between spells and item targeting, it'd be pretty damn cool if we could use Reanimate or Resurrection on the Remains of Korbu to resurrect him, and gain him as a high Lvl party member. If Reanimate is used, he returns as a vampire Black Knight (his physical abilities are restored, but not his magical abilities, asides from the Vampire racials), and if Resurrection is used, he returns as a vampire Villain.
When i first started playing M&M8, i thought for sure that Korbu would've been one of those top Lvl 50 party NPCs that you unlock through a quest, like Cauri Blackthorne or Blazen Stormlance. Especially with how involved his quest is, where you find notes all over Jadame detailing Ciatlen's search for Korbu, then you have to acquire both his Sarcophagus and his Remains in two entirely separate locations, then return them to Lathean who says they'll bring back Korbu and consult him. I expected Korbu's image to pop up in that house, and for you to be able to converse with him and recruit him. Perhaps he could atone for his sins, by helping to save the world from the Cataclysm (the way Korbu was described reminds me of Vincent Valentine). But nope, there was absolutely no resolution with that quest line.

Btw, how do i tell what current version of the Merge i'm using? I'm using a really old version (from before the spell Hotkey version), and wondering if i'd have to restart my playthroughs if i update it.

[Tomsod]

There's one bug (or should I say missing feature) I've noticed. While shields or other apparel enchanted with "of Shielding" will provide a permanent individual Shield effect on a character, unenchanted grandmaster shields will not. The GM perk of shield mastery is supposed to be "protection as per Shield spell". That has never worked in any of the vanilla games, and seems like the Merge is actually the first to bring it back (or it could be Grayface's patch) for apparel with the enchantment, but it would be nice if there was a way for this effect to also extend to characters wielding any shield while having GM in it, as intended.

Are you sure? At least in MM7 there's code for the GM Shield perk that halves projectile damage, stackable with any other Shielding effects, and I'm 99% sure it works properly. Maybe MM8 broke it, IDK.

[antipaladin]

Is there a way to make the engine play instead of LOD file an entirely diffrent archieve file?

[cthscr]

You get an error message relating to the Bolster monsters function when you enter the Temple of the Snake in Blackshire.

Doesn't happen to me. Please provide savegame if possible.

[Prince_of_Thieves]

I am playing MMmerged with 2 characters now (a couple, hehe ), and even there difficulty isn't nightmarish-enough.
I have some ideas on gameplay to fix problem. I guess, it can be made as an optional "nightmare difficulty" setting – for those who knows the game better than his closest relatives.

1. make level up much more difficult
I was thinking, maybe it's more logical not to boost monsters (although that works pretty well too, if you don't set 200%, when even a goblin turns into a fat guy that you have to slash with a sword at point-blank range for 5 minutes), but to significantly increase the experience requirements per level up? For example, for the first five levels you can not change the requirements, but further increase the requirements exponentially or at least by a factor of 3, then the heroes will have to fly to other continents to somehow collect levels and develop. Tell me, can I adjust this by hand in the system files?

2. rise prices even more. make it more difficult / rare to get expensive items
It would be cool to raise prices some more (although I think spells are already pretty well overpriced, but still easy to buy).

3. Fix imbalanced spells
I guess, something should be done with imbalanced spells like berserk and others. Maybe ban them at all on high difficulty level? Or cut the expiration times by a factor of ten. Watched the multiplayer letsplay, the guys also complain that things get extremely easy with some spells.

4. Fix imbalanced wells/fountains/shrines
Maybe some walls / fountains also need to be fixed, because after drinking from Kriegspire LVL-UP well, you don't care much about dragons appearing behind the mountains, so the price is really low for such a pleasure. And with that artificial lvl-up you certainly TANK.

I also thought that during snow and rain Accuracy should drop for all participants of the battle. Because, gosh!, how to fight when you cannot even walk (snow is really BAD weather and I like it)!!

p.s.
Tell me, pls, if something is possible to fix in config files already right now, so I kinda try it myself and check my hypothesis =)
p.p.s.
I am really hoping you'll be adding more quests and locations from other modders like this amazing guy who create new dungeons from skratch: https://www.youtube.com/@mightandmagicmod
p.p.p.s.
And some quest to prevent the 3DO bankruptcy based Ragnarek named Reckoning would be SOOOOO LOGICAL in the MM-Merged lore, where you can travel in time and change the consequences.

thank you for keeping my fav. game alive. you are awesome!

upd: installed new patch, it gives more variability to bolstering, that can be more challenging. will see)

upd2: crushes (freezes) 100% on entering locations: Harmondale (new game), Erathia (old version saved game). Running on Win11, GOG version. Full reinstall didn't help. Everything worked stable on previous build which was, I think, some Summer edition. No MM-Merged for me anymore

[cthscr]

There's one bug (or should I say missing feature) I've noticed. While shields or other apparel enchanted with "of Shielding" will provide a permanent individual Shield effect on a character, unenchanted grandmaster shields will not. The GM perk of shield mastery is supposed to be "protection as per Shield spell". That has never worked in any of the vanilla games, and seems like the Merge is actually the first to bring it back (or it could be Grayface's patch) for apparel with the enchantment, but it would be nice if there was a way for this effect to also extend to characters wielding any shield while having GM in it, as intended.

Are you sure? At least in MM7 there's code for the GM Shield perk that halves projectile damage, stackable with any other Shielding effects, and I'm 99% sure it works properly. Maybe MM8 broke it, IDK.

It works in MM8 and it works in MMMerge. What doesn't work (outside of Revamp) is Shield spell (or party Shield spellbuff specifically). Grayface didn't want to fix that because he considered it overpowered.
What Xfing saw is items like Kelebrim or Valeria provide player Shield spellbuff constantly. That's how it was implemented in MMMerge.

[Tomsod]

Oh, I actually noticed the lack of party buff check when I checked that code the other day. So the Shield spell doesn't work at all? Typically when Grayface refuses to fix bugs, it's because the fix would make the game harder, not easier, so this is unusual! Although it IS a strong buff, it only becomes broken if you stack many sources of shielding which stack multiplicatively. MM6 kept it reasonable, with only one spell, one item enchantment, and two artifact shields, but in MM7 I think you can get up to 63/64 damage reduction, or 127/128 if the spell is ever fixed. If shielding stacked as, say, 1/2 -> 1/3 -> 1/4 -> 1/5... instead of 1/2 -> 1/4 -> 1/8 -> 1/16... it would probably be more balanced.

[Terelyn]

Doesn't happen to me. Please provide savegame if possible.

I get the same error message even with a new save. Try turning the Bolster monsters option off, save over it and restart the game, then load the save file and try to enter the Temple of the Snake dungeon.

[Rodril]

upd2: crushes (freezes) 100% on entering locations[/b]: Harmondale (new game), Erathia (old version saved game). Running on Win11, GOG version. Full reinstall didn't help. Everything worked stable on previous build which was, I think, some Summer edition. No MM-Merged for me anymore

Hello.
Ensure you have selected Windows XP SP2 compatibility mode in properties of mm8.exe and mm8.setup.exe. Apply latest patch, if necessary. Install Microsoft VCRedist 2015+ x86 (just in case). If error persist, check your game folder for file named "ErrorLog.txt", and send it to me, please.

I get the same error message even with a new save. Try turning the Bolster monsters option off, save over it and restart the game, then load the save file and try to enter the Temple of the Snake dungeon.

I could not reproduce error yet. Are you using base version of the merge? I'm asking because line 721 is empty in base version of the script, under none circumstances error could be raised there.

Is there a way to make the engine play instead of LOD file an entirely diffrent archieve file?

You can edit LOD archives with Grayface's MMArchive. If you want to replace the type of used archive (i.e. from .lod to .zip etc), no, not in my power.

So, is this actually working? I'm a huge fan of the series. If I need to do what is posted on PG1, I don't think I could do it. I think it needs to be explained better.

How to install:
1. Install GOG version of Might and Magic VIII (it is not recommended to install the game into "Program Files" folder).
2. Copy mod files into MM8 folder, replacing existing.
3. Apply 16.01.2024 patch - extract into your game folder, replacing existing files.
4. Set compatibility mode of MM8.exe and MM8Setup.exe to win XP SP2. First launch might take extra time.
[Optional] - download localization files, links below.

This is what first post says, basically, you install GOG MM8 and unpack mod archive there. If you have simplier explanation, please note, i'll put it there.