/vr/ - Retro Games

first for cyberzombie

Since it's October, I couldn't help but post the spookiest halloween ride in Heroes

FIRST WEEK BONE DRAGONS

LET'S FUCKING GO

>>3554712
So that's where HoTA got the building for their vampire mansion creature bank.

>>3554719
Ruuun fooor theee hiiills
RIP in piece Kastore and his plans

>>3554727
>He hasn't played Heroes 2
You should fix that

>>3554389
>Play MM8 for the first time
>immediately get a black potion of speed literally 15 min after the start of the game

I see what you guys mean about balance.

>>3554735
I really should, want to know why Roland and Archibald hate each other so much.

time for spooks

>>3554737
Not like it's gonna turn you into Sir Mullich

>>3554743

>>3554737
Just wait until you get Dragons. You can pick one up as soon as you get off Dagger Wound.

>Walk west to Garate Gorge
>Enter Dragon Cave
>Hire Dragon
You can even get master Fly, just pick up the Dragonbane Flowers and then train. Level 7 Dragon skill and you are set for at least the first half of the game.

>>3554737
4 dragons, my fellow dude.

>>3554743
>>3554753
It's like you're in a cartoon version of the british countryside.

This Archangle17 (sic) dude is the gift that keeps on giving. Here's another of his drawing, and you can actually buy a print of it on his DeviantArt.

And no, his bio says he's from US.

>>3554760

>>3554762
Another one

>>3554762
>>3554767
Despite his drawing ability its good to see the younger kids god I hope this is a kid and not someone like chris-chan show an interest in this series.

>>3554757
>>3554756
So what you're saying is, I SHOULDN'T do that?

>>3554757
I actually really don't like the last dragon. You can't get his dragon skill to any reasonable level, and of course you have to be so far into the game that the poor scaling catches up.

Knights and even trolls are way better than dragons the last third of the game because of recovery time.

>>3554743
>>3554753

>>3554782
No. You should download the save editor and make your main character a dragon so you could have FIVE.

>>3554782
unless you want to make the game your bitch, then no

Since we're on the subject of MM8, am I the only one who thinks that Knights, Trolls and Minotaurs are redundant classes? Sure Minotaurs have limited spell ability but these 3 classes are more or less the same shit, hit it very hard melee damage dealers.

>>3554782
If you want to enjoy the game as it was intended avoid the following 4 hirelings:

1) The first 2 dragons One is in Garrote Gorge and the other is in Ironsand Desert
2) Cauri Blackthorne You rescue her for the Dark Elf Promotion
3) Blazen Stormlance You rescue him as part of the Knight Promotion

>>3554795
Minotaurs are awful. They are the hunters of MM8.

Knights are offensive specialists. Trolls are defensive specialists with GM Body Building, Regeneration, and even GM leather adds elemental resistances.

>>3554802
So Trolls are supposed to be the new and improved version of Monks from MM7?

>>3554807
Yes. It didn't work well as they kind of got thrown in as a combination of Paladins and Monks without magic.

GM regeneration just isn't strong enough by itself.

>>3554762
>>3554767
This one's called "nature scene"

>>3554815
cant tell if that behemoth has poop on his head or wearing a cowboy hat

>>3554762
>>3554767
>>3554815
Last one's spooky

>>3554818
I see a pompadour

>>3554815

>>3554821
>>3554762
>>3554767
>>3554815
One from the previous thread, this one is an epic battle of strategy and honor

>>3554826
From unreleased Heroes IV Kart Racers. The game allowed you to race all across Axeoth with your favorite heroes. Crag Hack was good at bumping other karts with brute force. Sandro relied on magic and raised dead racers as his minions. Sir Mullich simply went very fast.

>>3554838
I would totally play that. Especially if they added characters from the previous games

Is it me or do all the built-up towns in HoMM look stupid as all hell and full of shit that just clashes horribly?

>>3554862
The nature town wasn't bad, but most of the others just looked like they were trying to fill up space on the map.

Part of it of course is that the top 3 structures weren't constant as you had to choose 1 per creature tier in each city. That gives 8 different town combinations right from the start.

>>3554862
We've had this discussion once. I'd say this applies to Heroes II more. It was a great game, but the cities sure looked like barely related buildings just thrown together. Necropolis looked like a bunch of horror movie decorations.

In III cities have unified style and logic. They still suffer a little from being crammed so close together; but better use of 3rd dimension helped create distance between things. Also, there are just ordinary houses in towns which help create the feel of a living settlement.

>>3554875
I still really like the over the top grail building in inferno though.

Overall Might&Magc is good at the whole over-the-top thing.

>>3554875
To be fair though, 3 had a higher resolution to work with than 2.

>>3554902
>Week of the Imp
>Week of the Imp
>Week of the Imp
Fuck. Someone got the grail and worse, they wasted it on a fucking Inferno city. At least that means I don't have to worry about Month of the Plague.

>>3554909
It's always funny how the inferno grail really advantages necromancers more. Month of the Imp basically turns the whole map into Skeleton City.

>>3554908
Yeah, I'm not saying it was a fair comparison… The caliber of the games was noticeably different. It's just nice they've worked on things that needed improvement in III.

> fight angels/priests of light
> they cast Dispel
> it dispels Wizard Eye and Torchlight

>>3555078
That's what you get for being a bad boy.

>>3555090

Oh yeah, it's October, don't forget your pilgrimage to Kriegspire, everyone.

>>3555313
>implying it takes that long to finish the game

>>3554712
>tfw finally discovered from where the fuck HotA got their sprite for Vampire lair

I-i should've played HoMM 1-2, right?

>>3554918
>tfw once amassed 60k skeltals
>tfw once moved that stack to other field because tactics
>tfw suddenly negative skeltals
I need to replicate this bug, and find ways to exploit it.

>>3554902
>yfw you read up the lore on the HoMM3 inferno faction

>>3556017
kek

>>3556017
Play MM6 my dude

>>3556017
You think that's bad? You know the Angels? They're actually metahuman cyborgs

>>3556083
That's not bad, that's badass.

Whatever happened to Krewlod in MM7? Did all the goblins just mass emigrate to Deyja?

>>3556110
Don't try to make sense of the Heroes maps. Here's Tatalia and Krewlod in HoMM3. As you can see, they should both be to the west from Steadwick.

>>3556124
Dude, they DO make sense, much more than you think. Have you played MM7? I gave no fuck about maps in HoMMIII until I've played it.

Krewlod is south to Tatalia, they're close but don't share a border. Both are patches of earth close to Erathia. Krewlod also borders on Bracada, which might be how Yog was able to get there.

As for Tatalia:
> Tatalia was formed when the Immortal Hero Tarnum, feeling guilty about enslaving the Mudlanders dwelling in the area, was sent to free them, and aid them in setting up their own nation. The name Tatalia comes from the local word for community. Circa 1145 Tatalia had some border skirmishes with Erathia. After the death of Erathian king Nicolas Gryphonheart in 1164, Tatalian king Tralossk took advantage of disorder in Erathian army and started to conquer borderlands, which led to clash with barbarian nation of Krewlod.

So, both Krewlod and Tatalia decided to get advantage from Erathia's struggle with warlock/Kreegan alliance and take some clay from them.

>>3556110
I guess there was simply nothing to do there, like with Regna? They're a more or less independent nation.

>>3556110
>>3556124
>>3556196
I just want to know why certain creatures/factions started living/working together like Mages/Angels/Rocs or Warlocks/Hydras/Rocs, and why is the Necromancer and Tower factions homebase now a patch of desert?

>>3556326
From all I read… I have no idea.

MM7 and HoMM3 already have huge inconsistencies. Take Inferno in Heroes and take Devils/Colony Zod in MM7. Plot-wise, it all fits: it says, "something something, Kreegans were based in Colony Zod but it was destroyed by heroes"; but when you compare how they look in MM and HoMM, it's like two people read the same book and drew 2 different pictures. I think that's enough proof that the games can contradict each other when it comes to enemy looks and their faction alignments.

My guess is simple. MM7 came out slightly earlier than Heroes 3. The latter has a type of terrain assigned to every faction. Technically, I guess Nighon should have been assigned to snow. But they got dungeon terrain instead. So, they had to put someone else on snow. Other ones simply didn't fit, so they chose Tower.

>>3554727
>>3555973
At least know the creatures, see picrelated.

>>3556326
Also, it reminds me of HoMM2 factions a lot, see pic. Before Heroes 3, hydras always hanged with warlocks, and rocs were with mages.

>>3556380
They are by castle order?
Hooly damn, things changed

>>3556394
> They are by castle order?
Yep. Indeed they've changed quite a lot. I advice trying HoMM2 just to understand where some things in Heroes series come from, it will make more sense this way

In the last thread, someone posted picrelated ( >>3554675 ).

See those weird purple parts? This is what I still can't get rid off.

I messaged the author of the sprite rip. He said they came out like this and he has no idea how to restore them. Well, shit.

>>3556680
Pink parts are specifically for monster hue. Each monster has blue/green/red color that corresponds to their strength. Sprites ripped from the game have pink hue to accomodate that palette change. Let me see what I can do for you, my boy.

>>3556680
from the same site
the mm6 cannibals sprites have purple parts to them too my guess is that the engine recolors them.

So, I'm downloading the M&M archives. I can rip and upload all the images you want. You can make gifs like that with them too using web interfaces.

>>3556710
I compiled a few of them once but GIMP crashed on export so I got lazy and never remade them.

>>3556714
I can use batch command in PS to recolor them to their default green/red/blue hues too. Gonna take some time though, and I really don't want to do that to all monster sprites. Gonna probably make a MEGA folder for them.

>>3556710
>>3556717
Cool! That would be great, but there's one caveat. Some enemies came out darker/lighter than I expected.

>>3556720
That can be corrected by tweaking hue/saturation options. Just need to compare them to their in-game looks.

>>3556723
That's the hardest part… I tried converting them to indexed color. But the colors in colormaps are sorted in different orders. There's no way I can compare each one of 128 colors by hand.

>>3556691
Nice. Weird why it's scaled though

>>3556689
Yes, I know. Good thing some of them don't have color variations

Aight, unpacked sprite and icon archives. Around 1.6Gb if you count all 3 games. Though icon folders (with character portraits and interface and shit) are only 50Mb each.

>>3556889
Wow, thanks.

Can I get Master of the Sword sprites?

>>3556893
https://mega.nz/#F!BgEBFZ7L!zs2oGZwqZn8MUC_s56wLPA

Here are the folders. Upload is still ongoing, so some files might be missing. Wait for around 30-60 minutes and download whatever you want.

>>3556914
Woohoo, thanks! Gonna save it, finally I have items and character portraits.

So what's your favorite class when doing an "everyone is the same class" run in MM6? I mean, besides sorcerer.

>>3557480
Clerics can still use shrapmetal

>>3556914
Thanks now I can make MM steam avatars to shitpost with

>>3557485
But they don't get town portal, fly, jump, or lloyd's beacon

>>3557503
scrolls and NPCs

oh god the emerald island dragon savescumming

I can't stop

>>3557603
I get that from that one teleportation chest in Barrow Downs. It has some of the best items you'll find in a very long time readily accessible from the start of the game, easily worth having to run from a bunch of angry gogs.

Who do I main for MM8? I've been recommended to main a dark elf because you won't be able to recruit one until late into the game but from what I understand it's basically this game's version of archers, Which I never used in MM7 because hybrid classes suck.

>>3557702
Play whoever you want

>>3557603
>>3557693
>discover you can get black potions out of ores
>spend hours savescumming so I can buff my party to ridiculous proportions

And that is how I ruined my game.

>>3556083
I've seen this statement multiple times, but is it actually stated in a might and magic game? I can't remember any explanation.

>>3558707
I think it was only alluded to by one of the HoMM developers

>>3558719
It's also said that Might & Magic is a post-regression sci-fi/fantasy setting.

>>3558729
Well it was one before Ashan.

>>3557702
Read the OP pastebin.

Dark Elf, Necromancer, Knight, and Cleric are all good choices. You just replace what you don't have. Most teams will be KECN and either a dragon if you want easy mode or another knight or troll.

Most fun team is KKKCN for more OFFENSE.

>>3557702
Elves are the equivalent of archers in MM7, but also have GM merchant and GM disarm. Gold is much harder to get in MM8.

The trading triangles are actually useful in MM8 and can give infinite gold, but take forever.

MM8 Class rankings:
1) Dragon
2) Necromancer

3) Cleric
4) Knight
5) Dark Elf

6) Troll

7) Vampire

9001) Minotaur

Vampires suffer heavily from their promotion is probably the hardest. Until then they only get expert self. Daggers and leather don't come close to making up the difference. Levitation is nice, but as long as you aren't retarded you can avoid most lava damage when necessary and power cure through anything else. Mistform while sounding nice, is basically useless for a class that doesn't have dark or elemental spells to use on offense.

Minotaurs on the other hand are just awful. Their offense is bad, their defense is ok at best, and they don't have any mandatory miscellaneous skills.

>>3557702
lvl50 dark elf is one of the easiest lvl50 characters to get, all you need to know is where to find her in Murmurwoods, you don't have to fight anything and can go there as soon as you get to mainland.

Succession wars still coming along

>>3557702
If you don't want to go for piss-easy strats like people ITT tell you, then Dark Elf is a great character. You can basically cast all master elemental spells, get some utility from your racial spells, get grandmaster bow, and have a great variety of skills. It makes sense thematically too, and as an added bonus, naked Dark Elf ladies look hot.

>>3559250
ETA? Is it possible to make it compatible with HDMod?

>>3559253
no eta yet, thought it looks very close to be fully playable. I think the work on retouching/adding sprites is still ongoing.

>The compatibility with the HD Mod by baratorch has always been one of the hot topics on our info sources. Here is the result of the work towards this direction: the additional interface elements complement to the overall graphic style, which saves the atmosphere and allows the player to get full pleasure from the gaming process. Yet, the HD+ functionality will most probably be inaccessible because of technical reasons.

>>3559263
>that deal with it archibald
baller

>>3559263
I wonder if JVC or anyone who used to work at NWC ever looks at the old HoMM3 community, I wonder what they would think of this.

So, I've nearly finished my Paladin-Thief-Shrapmetal-Shrapmetal run in MM7. Just have to beat the rest of Lincoln.

I must say, thief and paladin weren't so bad—for the first part of the game; better than rangers for sure. Paladin's Heroism+Bless got me very far early, while he was actually good in combat (I'm looking at you, clerics). That said, he was basically useless for healing: too little SP and only expert Body. But for my setup it wasn't crucial.

Thief was a bit disappointing, but still alright, and added a lot of convenience with early Disarm Trap Master and Perception (see: Barrows, Haunted Mansion). Frankly speaking, for the first part of the game, he was alright in combat: same health as monk, decent damage with enchanted daggers. I wish I learned using stealing earlier though, I've missed this opportunity.

But as others have warned me, this lasted only until the Choice. I went the dark path, and that was when both classes plateaued, while sorcerers completely took over with Shrapmetal. Unfortunate as it is, both thieves and paladins have very little potential in the late game—especially on the dark path. This is where knights, monks and archers outrun them and get far ahead of them.

That said, I really see potential in paladins for light path, I'd take them over clerics any day. The only caveat is the Merchant skill, but with Barrow Downs shop and GM Fire Aura the difference is not that big.

So, I guess this was my final run in MM7 for the time being. I think I've seen everything in the game. What's left is solo runs and other self-imposed challenges.

Now I want to get back to MM8 for the first time in over 10 years.

>>3559383
The Paladin has two major shortcomings that screw it late game:
1) Expert Armsmaster
2) Master Plate

GM mace is a fun skill for sure, but when you combine that with the Paralyze spell is when they really get strong.

I've always felt that the best teams throughout the whole game are:
Light: KPCS
Dark: KCSS

And teams that are optimized for late game are:
Light: AAAC
Dark: CSSS

>>3559405
>I've always felt that the best teams throughout the whole game are:
>Light: KPCS
>Dark: KCSS

>And teams that are optimized for late game are:
>Light: AAAC
>Dark: CSSS
I agree that these teams are probably the strongest. With dark teams, I agree 100%. It's been too obvious to me that Shrapmetal + Souldrinker + Sacrifice makes anything else obsolete. Here's where cleric makes a whole lot of sense, while paladin doesn't.

That said, I have some doubts about light teams. What's below is strictly my opinion, but after 4 runs I can't help but feel apparent doubts about the necessity of clerics.

I have been disappointed in GM light magic. I've already posted my thoughts, I think its buffs offer no substantial advantages to just having high Spirit Magic skill + Haste (which is an expert fire magic spell). That is partly because light magic damage spells from expert and up are severely limited (they feel almost like a joke), while basic Paralyze is obviously already an overkill. Moreover, for AAAC specifically, Heroism and might bonus only affect melee combat, so the only buffs archers really need are Haste (which they already have) and Bless.

If you pick paladin over cleric, you will have better melee but lose Divine Intervention. However with Sorcerer you won't lose anything, and won't have much need for self magic (as GM Light pretty much duplicates it).

Frankly, when I played RAAC, I had thought 2 things over and over again:
1) Of all these buffs, I only really need Bless, and not that much
2) Sorcerer would do mostly the same job as my cleric, plus I'd have GM Fire Aura and Lloyd's Beacon.

I also see little point in GM self. And GM Light feels pretty much the same as having master self magic for sorcerers, IMO. So I see very little point for clerics on Light path. The only substantial advantage they have is give you expert Spirit when paladins have it on basic, and master Spirit when paladins only have expert.

You know why I fucking hate the name "Ashan"? Because it sounds exactly like the name of Russia's biggest mall chain, which is basically like Russian Walmart. That's despite Heroes V was developed by Russians. What an irony, too: it's owned by Auchan group, French company.

Couldn't they at least try to avoid this coincidence?

>>3559585
What's the deal with Ubisoft?

>>3557702
>archers, Which I never used in MM7 because hybrid classes suck.
Uh huh
> GM Bow with double shot and damage bonus, to kill anything that moves from afar
> Master elemental magic, so they have TP, Fly and Invisibility
> Can learn basic Light Magic for Paralyze
This is considered bad now? 1 archer can alone do far more damage with bows than a whole party of other classes.

>>3559594
If you take everything Ubisoft has accomplished with Heroes in 13 years and condense it down to one day, it looks decent

>>3559585
Fucking this.

That bugged me so much the whole time. And I didn't like the lore for V+ at all. Only Sandro bits were interesting, but they had only two missions featuring him. TWO. MISSIONS. 10/10 DLC, Ubisoft. Was still worth it. In his story he was basically right about everything that was wrong with the setting. What an irony.

What should the bubble say

Which MM7 elemental school should I max first? Air or Water?

>>3559671
Define "max out".
Master Air has Fly and Invisibility.
Master Water has Town portal.
GM Air has GM Invisibility (hour per skill, so it lasts much longer)
GM Water has Lloyd's Beacon.

Depends on your party and path. You pretty much need Invisibility on light path, but if you git gud then master air is enough.

>>3559674
I meant getting master in. I remember flight was much better than Town Portal early game, especially for clearing shit, but I might've remembered MM6 and not 7.

>>3559585
>>>/biz/

>>3559681
Both are very desirable. But you can get a hireling for Town Portal/Fly (Gate/Wind Master, respectively), if you have 2000 gold to spare. For Invisibility, there's no hireling though.

I'd say Invisibility is very desirable for passing Walls of Mist, Perfect Bow, 3 portraits and several other quests, so I'd probably go for Air first. I can always hire Gate Master.

>it's the "I forgot 1 stoned dwarf in the mines" episode

>>3559585
hey, we've got it in Poland too and I never thought of that

but I never played HommV campaign, I can't get over the Warcrafty style to play anything but skirmish

>Play Homm3 random map
>random faction and random hero
>roll Conflux
>quit and reroll because I wont be playing this half assed OP shit where half of the units were summons in RoE
>roll Castle
>quit and reroll because I won't be playing OP as shit Grffon Conservatory snowball
>roll Necro
>quit and reroll because it's HotA and necromancy is cut in half and all is left are fucking abysmal units that cant take cities reliably
>roll Cove
>quit and reroll because I won't be playing mary sue faction that can kill lvl7s reliably with lvl3s

at least HotA makes Inferno and Tower playable, I guess

>>3559880
This sounds like shit taste, anon

Obligatory attempt to summon queen Alex.

Shameful confession followed by a question: I've never actually played through the HoMM2 campaign. I have 100s of hours on scenarios, but not the campaign. Is it worth playing through even if it's a cakewalk?

>>3559784
Should've saved before you left

> it's one of those enemies immune to Shrapmetal

>>3560196
Fuck, I did this the other day. I remembered only needed 6 dwarves. Forgot 7 dwarves was the right number due to Snow White humor.

>>3560246
I learned the hard way to save

> Walls of Mist
> Griffin genocide quest (dark path)

When I think of all the time wasted on Walls of Mist, I remember why I wanted to kill everyone there for this run

>>3556017
>Bought MM7 as a kid
>didn't know the series but looked cool on the box
>wtf game looks like shit
>its fun though, lots of things to do
>alright fantasy setting, elves, dwarves, dragons and all that cool shit
>skill system is fun, and the preset party works well
>English my third language, but I'm following the story alright
>Suddenly get a blaster pistol
>what the fuck
>fish monsters in the unrelated (up till then) intro end up being guys in scuba suits
>devils are actually alien kreegans
>fucking SPACESHIP on the bottom of ocean
>intergalactic gateway system in place that was shut down by a galaxy wide war
>12 year old mind blown

After I finished my friend borrowed the game and its still one of our favorite games ever.

The MM lore is weird man.

>>3560263
People say it's weird, but it's basically what Ultima did back with Ultima II.

> …The most wondrous discovery of the age, the shimmering Moongates through which a man may travel through space and time, had both created a new renaissance era of learning and opened the door for evil to again enter the world. The enchantress Minax … had built up her power by conquering the Time of Legends, and from the Moongates poured her minions to bring annihilation to the world. In the year 2111, civilization ended in a firey apocalypse; you only avoided it by being in transit in the past at the time. Now it falls to you to marshal your forces, gather resources, travel history, and defeat Minax!

People complained about this, too.

>>3560281
It was weird at the time, because most fantasy games I played were straight up fantasy. Mixing genres, especially ones so contrasting (at least for me at the time) as sci-fi and fantasy was pretty weird but awesome.

I still like how it's just casually brought up in MM7.

>Here's a gun that shoots lasers, why are you still using that sword, fucker?

I've yet to play MM6 but I will after my replay of MM7. Last run was a decade ago.

>>3560261
How do you even do the light path walls of mist without invisibility, let alone healing magic? Just take it like a bitch?


>>3560221
Use sparks, scrapmetals mentally challenged little brother. If that doesn't work then run.

>>3559784
>it's the "I forgot 1 stoned dwarf in the mines" episode

Post a trigger warning next time jesus fucking christ. If there's one thing that's burned into my memory, then it's that there are 7 (SEVEN) dwarves in the mines. And also to do that elevator quest while I'm down there so I don't have to ever go back.

>>3560304
>How do you even do the light path walls of mist without invisibility, let alone healing magic? Just take it like a bitch?
I actually don't know. I think I got the spell scroll along the way. I guess you run very fast and cross you fingers so that nothing blocks your way.

> Use sparks, scrapmetals mentally challenged little brother. If that doesn't work then run.
I was thinking about medusas in particular. Was unpleasantly surprised when I realized I forgot about their immunity to all spells.

Also, are you implying that Sparks, which does 2+1*skill damage, compares to Shrapmetal, which does 6+(1_6)*damage? Especially when I have Dark Magic for both liches at 30 skill level?

>>3560323

In the beginning of the game, sparks ruins nearly everything it touches. But it gets greatly outclassed once you get scrap metal. Hence the mentally retarded little brother part. Also I was thinking something with 100% immunity to dark magic.

Fuck medusas with a rake though.

Okay so I have played a lot of Heroes of Might and Magic yet I never really got into the Might and Magic RPG's. How do I get into them?

>>3560462
Read the Pastebin http://pastebin.com/6G9B1cMA

Line 56 has all the info you need

Didn't even set the new high score. Wew

But I cheated last time with the Emerald Isle dragon, so that's to be expected. My lvl 56 RAAC run scored 18,930 points, lasted 1 year 9 months 15 days

>>3560470
>http://pastebin.com/6G9B1cMA
Thanks. Should be interesting.

>>3560470
I need to add MM9 to the mega link.

>>3559508
Even if you ignore GM Protection from Magic and Regeneration, having Power Cure makes things so easy it's hard to fuck up.

Also the Paladin quest requires you to kill a fucking dragon, and you only have basic self until then. Once you know what you are doing and strafe or reload abuse then you can take it out relatively early.

>>3559784
[screams internally]

>>3560480
It's in the OP as well

Like the good old days after Day of the Destroyer!

>>3560805
Didn't know what version GOG was on, but it looks like it's patched to 1.3 which is the correct one.

>>3561041
why is mm8 so comfy?

>>3561260
those 3d loops were actually pretty nice for the time, if a little wacky

>>3561260
I only wish their games after MM6 ran in 800x600 resolution.

[gulping sounds]

>>3561260
MM8 has a very different tone throughout the whole game compared to the previous couple games, it's much softer and even eerie at times.

>>3561276
A quiet room you say

It all comes back to me now… 10-year-old me, forever stuck on Dagger Wound Island because I didn't know how to power up the teleports. Feels almost like a sacrilege to run through it so fast now.

I really expected some nostalgia overload, but I guess I've had enough of it with MM7. Or maybe it's the pain of fighting pirates over and over while they respawned that is coming back to me

>>3561520
All you have to do is go to the town hall then have the Cleric join. There is also a chest just south of the western teleporter on the main island if you don't want to take the stone from Fredrick Talimere.

>>3561532
I should add that neither of the teleporters in the main city are relevant to getting out until you have already cleared out the Temple of the Snake. To get started you need to head to the teleporter way in the west, south of the guy that gives you the Potion of Pure Speed. From there just follow the teleporters and you will make it to the Temple.

spooky

>>3561560
>Instant Unconscious Procs
I always felt you almost had to have 2 Self Casters in MM6.

>>3561571
Who needs self when you have shrapmetal

>>3561574
CCSS fixes that problem AND has 2 self casters.

Does M&M evoke a feeling of nostalgia for anyone else despite not having played it back in the day?

>>3554815
>>3554821
>>3554828
>tfw drew shit like this when I was a kid and designed entire stacks of HoMM maps and new castles on paper
I'm glad deviantart didn't exist back then

>>3561532
>>3561541
Yeah, thanks for the advice, but really I didn't have much trouble now. Anyway, I wouldn't really ask for help here to not clutter the thread: that was 2001 and this is now, today we have dozens of let's plays for every game, not to mention FAQs and walkthroughs. Nearly everything regarding gameplay has been chewed over on message boards.

Back then I didn't have internet, or even know there was a manual on the game's CD (it came on a $5 jewel case, so obviously no printed materials inside). My friend got stuck on the island too, until some local 1337 h4x0r told us about the portals and the temple.

I also had absolutely no clue about the game's system, again because I had no manual. But now that I've beaten MMVII a few times, VIII feels like the same game with slight changes and new levels.

>>3562283
That's because it basically is. It was designed as an expansion. There are even leftover items from what would have been a druid class.

>>3562283
VI-VIII all feel like the same game with slight changes and new levels

VCMI forge should add a shrapmetal spell

Are there any spells to protect from Insanity? I'm getting sick of debuffs in Gharik's Forge.

>>3563165
The only spell that protects you from anything is Enchant Item. Get some good kit, reload if you don't get an immunity on it, then you're set.

>>3563165
No. You can rarely buy/find items "of Sanity" which make the wearer immune, but that's all. The good news is that insanity is just an annoyance, rather than an actual dangerous condition. Just ignore it until you get out of combat and then either cure insanity or drink a restoration potion.

>>3563169
>>3563190
fug
shrapmetal doesn't work when they're on the opposite side of the room

>>3563212
Toxic Cloud or Dragon Breath should work as long as you have LoS.

How do duel wielding special effects work again? Do you get both weapon's special effects? I want to use this baby on some Kreegans.

>>3563424
The enchant affects the weapon that it is on. This means that sword will do double damage, but your other weapon will not unless it also has a demon slaying enchant.

>>3563427
>When using dual weapons only skill of the weapon in your second (left) hand is used in calculation of attack and damage.
>In MM6 the first (right) hand weapon skill is used for damage and the second (left) hand weapon skill is used for attack.
I didn't even know it mattered which side the weapon was on.

>tfw want to get negative rep for super shrapmetal but don't want to be a bad guy

>>3563478
Just cast Armageddon and then go to a Temple and donate back up to Respectable.

You can get to Notorious without killing, but it is more complicated:
1) Donate at Temple of Baa to get back down to average
2) Go the Superior Temple of Baa quest to run the spiral and activate the statues
3) Hire 2 NPCs that lower reputation categories (Gypsy, Pirate, Burglar, etc).

If you turn in the bones from Bootleg Bay and Longfang those also lower reputation.

>>3563490
What's wrong with killing when you just have to kill all of new sorpigal on june 28th to face no repercussions from doing it?

>>3562874
How would sharpmetal work in HoMM?

>>3564067
Probably a nonelemental version of magic arrow

>>3564067
10 times spell power for ranged
50 or 100 times spell power if in melee

>>3563672
I prefer to cast Armageddon in Bootleg Bay because it also kills off all the annoying Cannibals and Lizard Archers.

is it allowed to talk about King's Bounty here? I'm wondering where to go to get news on the series

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmb3mZuoyMo

>>3564258
impressive

>>3564258
Ubisoft is going to make the game like this, screenshot this post.

reminds me of constantine's mansion

>>3564375
>"this is fine"

>>3564384
pictures really don't show how many spark traps there are and they come at you from both sides

>>3564142
> ranged
> melee
That doesn't apply to HoMM3, doesn't it? Unless you'd make some kind of unit that would shoot it (and make Cove seem like a fair, balanced faction).

>>3564067
Well I'm not sure it would work at all. I mean, it's not like Heroes can copy 100% of M&M spells. There's stuff like Torchlight, Sparks, Poison Spray, Wizard Eye, Enchant Item and so on that works in an RPG but makes no sense in a strategy game.

If you REALLY want to add it, maybe make it an area spell or something like Frost Ring, I don't know. But it's just a different thing. I can see Sparks could work like that, I'm not sure Shrapmetal can be truly put into Heroes.

Is that a bug in MMVIII I'm encountering?

I just started and got what seemed like a shitton of quests, but for some reason only 4 showed up. Particularly, "get the prophecy book" didn't show at all. Was it supposed to be that way?

Quality cutscene. Too bad there's no audio on /vr/

>>3564631
good ol' NWC

>>3564631
Mullich approved

>>3564631
>>3564638
Where did they even get all those character portraits and shit? Did they just google them on the internet?

>>3564631
>>>/wsg/1351099
audio version for added edge

>>3564642
I guess they used the best actors available, i.e. NWC staff. Maybe hired some random actors too for a couple free pizza coupons

David Mullich is a real dude who's worked on HoMM3 and is still in the vidya industry. He even has a boring Twitter feed

>>3564447
If it's a unit ability then it's easy to code. If it's a hero spell just do a check if there is anything engaged on the target the same way an archer can't shoot when engaged.

Dragon class logic
> GM Learning
> GM ID Item (?)
> Master Alchemy (??)

>>3564953
And GM Perception

I wondered way more why dragons have master mediation. The visual of a dragon meditating is hilarious.

Has anyone tried the new version of Grid Cartographer yet? Thought about upgrading and getting M&M 1 and 2 automapping support.

I think they're also working on M&M3 support.

>>3564972
M&M 2 onwards comes with an automapper and automapping MM1 trivializes the game

>>3565049

I don't see how, you still have to write in details. It's just paper mapping, but without the time sink.

>>3565059
The soul maze. Nothing wrong with grid cartographer but you'll miss the appeal of mapping and one of the most unique aspects of MM1 if you use an automapper.

any advice on an elemental-only run of MM6? i just started a party of AADD. Druids will be basically clerics + air for one and water for the other, plus fire magic. lots of points in spirit and body for buffs. one archer will specialize in earth for huge mass distortions and protection from magic. the other archer, i don't really know, probably fire magic.

any suggestions?

>>3565360
With that team your main goal should be to get everyone master bow early if possible. Remember that takes the first Archer promotion.

Your top priority is to get master water ASAP as always. After that I would focus on bow, sword, and miscellaneous skills.

In terms of what to start with:
1) Druid up in water (give this one all horseshoes)
2) Druid up in body
3) Archer up in air
4) Archer up in water or disarm/identify

Fire is normally pretty weak, but without getting Shrapmetal on that team you should consider getting it up eventually for Fire Blast. Since you won't have Light you will need to raise spirit for Heroism, Lucky Day, and Bless.

>>3565360
I'm pretty sure everything that can't be damaged with elemental magic can be damaged with cleric magic. Fire is good for haste, fireball, and fire blast and water is really good in general but slightly worse at AoE damage than fire magic from my experience. Electricity is the most expensive in terms of spell points with lightning bolt costing 10SP a shot while fireball is 8SP.

>>3565380
>Using Lightning Bolt

The main damage spell for each of the schools is:

Fire: Fire Blast
Air: Sparks
Water: Poison Spray
Earth: Rock Blast

Ice/Lightning/Fire Bolt are all ok situationally but there are usually better choices.

>>3565385
I usually resort to lightning bolt on enemies like fire elementals where sparks dont work.

>>3565390
I prefer Ice Bolt against Fire Elementals, it's very situational when you can't run up and unload on something (which is one of the reasons Shrapmetal is so powerful). The Maddening Eyes in Castle Alamos are also annoying that way.

>>3565373
well i've beaten MM6 a couple times through, but normally with sorcs and clerics as my magic users. but i know the drill: get water mastered asap, get to free haven, get beacons, etc.

i'm more thinking about how to deal with the mid-end game for the elemental party. i though fire was the best of the elemental magics for direct damage? wouldn't it make sense to max out fire for everyone, as well as lots in spirit/body for physical damage buffs?

is there any reason to stack tons of points in water or air beyond mastery? except maybe for implosion?

>>3565406
Water will continue being useful all game. Ice Bolt and Poison Spray give you two different damage types that scale reasonably well. Air really only has sparks. The others should probably consider dumping a lot into fire, but remember that Archers have almost no mana which is why I suggest an Archer going up in Air.

Like I said, I think the key for that team will be bows, especially if you can manage to get a hold of a Carnage Bow.

>>3565406
also are magic damage spells really worth it (e.g. psychic shock, flying fist)?

>>3565404
I cast ice bolt with my sorc and lightning bolt with my archer.

>>3565416
Flying fist can be really good against elemental resistant sorcerers and stuff from a distance

>>3565416
Mass Distortion is situationally useful.

Flying Fist is ok, but only because you already have a ton of points in Body. The damage itself is pretty underwhelming.

Why is he so smug?

Is it me, or the colors in my version of MM8 seem weirdly dim? I set the gamma to normal, setting it to anything different didn't change much. Changing between software 3D/DirectDraw HAL didn't help either.

This was slightly present in MM7 too, but to a much smaller extent.

>>3565864
Another example, just watched this vid on YouTube. You can see how poorly lit the land looks

>>3565864
>>3565892
I think these games have always been slightly dim.

>>3565864
looks fine to me, if you are playing in a window changing gamma in game might not work

>>3565864
gross play in software mode

>>3565892
M&M8 just looks very drab compared to 6 and 7.

What's the best class to solo MM7 with? Something like a druid would give you access to pretty much all spells except for light and dark, but a more melee focused class might actually survive the beginning of the game without having to resort to desperation tactics.

Also I feel MM7 stops being fun and more of a chore the moment you get your gear lined up, have fly, have town portal and pretty much only have to do the adviser quests and onwards. Especially once you get scrapmetal and can pretty much ruin 10 red dragons in 20 seconds tops. I'm at the point where I got the scuba suits to enter the Lincoln But I can't really get motivated to finish the game.

Besides all that ,which game should I play next? I'm figuring 6 would be fun. Are 3 - 5 any good?

>>3566604
Play World of Xeen. It's the best of the old ones.

>>3566620
Any place where I can buy it? Or is it abandonware by now?

>>3566634
Legally? No goddamn idea. I can look up the magnet link though.

>>3566634
see
>>3554712

>>3566640
>>3566642

I'll just use the magnet link then. Probably no way to support the guys that made it anyways. Not anti-pirate but I usually just buy games because I have the money for them anyways.

>>3566651
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:821e5c904c44d4e7c5cf874ebccc493b28236bb9&dn=Might%20and%20Magic%20World%20of%20Xeen&tr=http%3a%2f%2fbt2.t-ru.org%2fann&tr=http%3a%2f%2fretracker.local%2fannounce
Here are the original CD images. You can use pastebin mega link for M&M 1-6 archives.

>>3566656
Cheers for the link, I got it from the pastebin.

It works, exited to play.

>>3566604
3-5 are all good and you'll get some plot points from 7 if you play 3. 1-2 are good but different from the rest of the series and is like a mixture of bard's tale and wizardry.

Shadow of Death campaigns are kicking my fucking ass, even on easy difficulty. I know I'm not the best player, but I'm certainly not so bad that I can't beat a game like this on the easy difficulty. What is up with those campaigns?

>>3566804
You just suck.

>>3566804
start with restoration of erathia

>>3566807
I can beat pretty much any regular scenarios on hard at least. Campaigns just seem incredibly stacked in the opponent's favor.

>>3566808
I beat those long ago.

>>3566813
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe0K-GUDQkNIym3TpZwstM4KxmCVCr397
All on impossible.

>tfw watching an interview with one of the M&M devs
>"I've always considered Might and Magic 9 my biggest triumph and greatest disappointment"
>"the game in my head was a lot more like Morrowind than what we ended up with"

>>3566604
You should absolutely play 3-5. The pattern even says most people on /vr/ should start at 3.

Rangers, Sorcerers, Monks, and Paladins can all work solo in 7.

>>3567045
>Pattern
Pastebin

>Auto-correct

>>3566804
RoE -> AB -> SoD

Read the guide
>>3544649

Darkmoor or Kriegspire first?

>>3566604
>Also I feel MM7 stops being fun and more of a chore the moment you get your gear lined up, have fly, have town portal and pretty much only have to do the adviser quests and onwards.
Pretty much agree. But, on the other hand, it means you can aim for a higher score earlier (if you care about it).

>>3566145
>>3566556
Probably, I wish there was a patch to fix that

>>3566490
I already do

>>3566241
It does work

>>3566804
Yep, SoD campaigns are unfair. Gem's campaign has one mission where the enemy has one-way teleports to your main town. Every way out of your town is guarded by insanely OP garrisons.

So, abuse your advantages—namely, ability to carry over your heroes from mission to mission. Level up your heroes to max levels. Try not to miss any +Defense/Attack/Power/Knowledge map structures (don't forget some towns can build these too). If you want to take this further, you can max out mage guilds in all of your towns to teach the heroes all of the best spells before finishing missions.

>use lloyd's beacon
>spam shrapmetal
>town portal to temple to recover mana for 20GP
>recall beacon
>repeat
is this cheating

>>3567730
https://my.mixtape.moe/sfqbuk.mp4
my magnum opus

>>3567769
Use the spell when standing immediately next to the opponent, he will take all 9 shots at the same time

>>3567773
i don't have time to aim

So I know that HoMM4 and M&M9 both had "accelerated" development times and that M&M9 had a year or less to make a new RPG in a new engine but how long of dev time did they have for HoMM4?

>>3568690
not enough

>>3568690
From what I know it was less buggy, after all it even had an expansion.

However, the real problem was different. Heroes I–III were more like incremental upgrades (great ones, but pretty much having the same formula). But with Heroes IV, NWC set out to bring the game much closer to Might and Magic RPGs than pure strategy, changing it from the very core.

The timing for this change couldn't have been worse, as 3DO was a sinking ship and they were desperately clinging to sell the company. They allocated resources however they wished too.

So really, Heroes IV could've been great… But with such a short development time for such a grandiose change, it's no wonder it turned out so imperfect.

>>3568749
H4 had 2 expansions. It was rushed for sure, but not to the extent MM9 was. The biggest problem is high level heroes are stupidly overpowered. Since campaigns have carryovers, this ends up being a major issue.

>>3568960
Well that, the lack of upgradable units, the 1 of 2 creature per tier gimmick, the requirements to learn any decent levels of magic, merging of factions from HoMM3, the world fucking exploding), the overall break of story and the entire tone of the lore changing.

Why would you build on Chronicles instead of Armageddon's Blade or even MM8?

>>3568960
After MM9 came out most of NWC except for 20 employees were laid off.

>>3567775
That's what turn based mode is for.

http://www.celestialheavens.com/viewpage.php?id=118

I still can't comprehend the difference between light and dark spell schools in MMVII. While they do have some similar spells, when comparing those dark always comes out better.

Prismatic Light: only works indoors, damage is 25+1*skill
Souldrinker: works everywhere, heals the whole party, deals 25+[1_8]*skill

Sunray: only works outdoors (which means it's barely useful anywhere), 20+[1_20]*skill, damages one unit
Dragon Breath: works everywhere, deals [1_25]*skill damage, explosive effect

Divine Intervention: heal all damage and mana, but ages the caster 10 years and can be cast 3 times a day
Sacrifice: same except no side effects/restrictions, albeit it costs a hireling and reduces reputation (which doesn't matter in dungeons). The fact that dark school has pretty much the same spell is alone surprising.

I understand that light was supposed to be "defensive" school while dark was an "offensive" one, but still the difference is just huge.

>>3569720
> I kept in contact with a lot of the ex-NWC people. A lot of them found work here at EA, and a few others at Liquid Entertainment. The rest are scattered throughout the industry, at least those who chose to stay in the games-making industry. For the rest, well I can't blame them for finding a new line of work.
Interesting. Too bad both EA and Liquid weren't the best places to wind up at.

> Secondly, I'm pretty sure JVC was burned out, disillusioned and just plain didn't like coming to work anymore.
That's sad

> Are [Ubisoft] going to deliver more games like Crusaders and Warriors that just cashed in on the recognizable name?
He knew it all already even back then

>>3554826
I've been looking for that image for ages, thanks anon

>>3566651
You can buy Might and Magic 1-6 in a package together from GoG.

>>3568690
Like the other posters, I can't tell you how long they actually had, but I will say that Heroes 4 is far more playable and enjoyable of a game than M&M 9.

Heroes 4 is a good game with some neat ideas that nonetheless appears deeply flawed compared to its predecessors. It's enjoyable in its own right despite introducing a lot of problems that don't exist in Heroes 3.

M&M 9, on the other hand, is simply buggy and boring.

day of the gods, day of protection and hour of power are the best spells in either school, all light.
Light is for might parties.

>>3570534
>day of protection
>light
Not in BEST GAME it isn't

>>3564668
>David Mullich is a real dude
Holy shit that's like finding out Santa is actually real

>>3567045
I'll give it a shot again later this week. Honestly I should read the menu and get used to the controls, the screen ratio is also making me nauseous. I'm kind of lost and confused, just got dropped in the world without any explanation as to whats going on.

>>3569751
Light side came out very underwhelming yeah, the damage spells are a joke and the buff spells, while nice, aren't all that exiting unless you're a straight up melee party. If you had the default party then at that point in the game you'd be blasting everything to death with magic anyways.

They could have done more to balance it, making light based spells situational, but very destructive and giving dark spells some less desirable side effects like weakness after casting or whatever else you can think of.

>>3570534
Unless I missed some sort of hard mode, which I guess an all melee party kind of is, you're not really going to need any of those spells in my expirience. The game is simply too easy, even though these spells might statistically be "the best" if you could somehow calculate that.

>>3570303
Where does the GoG money go to? I bought MM7 from them but are the original devs getting anything out of it or is the money going straight to EA or some other horrible company?

>>3571037
Read the manual for MM3. It should've been in the install folder.

>>3571037
Money goes to GoG and they pay a commission to Ubisoft, who are the official rights holders. No, none of it goes to the original devs.

>>3571037
Do what >>3571058 said. MM4 and 5 come with an autojournal though that makes it easier to track quests.
>>3571064
This is why there's a mega link in the pastebin in the first place.

>>3571058
>>3571075
Yeah I'll do that tomorrow or Saturday. Thanks.

>>3571064
I don't like what ubisoft is doing with games, so I'm going to pass on that then. Shadows of Mordor was one of the most boring, safe and pointless games I've played in a long time, yet it got awards out the ass and sold like hotcakes.

>>3564953
The ID item thing kinda makes sense. Dragons in westerm mythology spend their entire lives gathering treasure to sleep on it, so naturally they'd be able to tell some rare artifact from another. The rest is just balance stuff I guess.

>>3568690
You ever tried to play the HoMM4 expansion packs? All the maps look hopelessly rushed and empty compared to the vanilla campaigns - not to mention that there's barely anything new of course. I still wonder if some poor bastard out there was still dumb enough to buy them.

>>3571084
Shadow of Mordor was a WB published game and made by Monolith Productions. How the mighty have fallen...

>>3569751
Light has Paralyze. That and Day of Protection are the major spells.

It's not intended to be nearly as strong as dark. If nothing else, the differences in the proving grounds make it much harder to get dark.

>>3570534
> day of the gods
See: base stat scaling

> day of protection
No protection against dark makes it situationally useful

> hour of power
No improvements over original spells except for duration. The buff comes too late in game to be useful, unless you have a weakling party that still needs buffing to be effective.

All these spells don't come close to having Shrapmetal, let alone 4x Shrapmetal, which at 30 skill deals 30–180 damage with each of its 9 pieces.

The true power of light is in Paralyze. But at least their GM has Divine Intervention.

>>3571295
Yes, Paralyze is their best spell. The fact that it's basic level means you can do wonders with parties like AAAC.

Day of Protection is good when you face elemental attackers. The problem is that you fight against dark/physical attackers just as often.

>>3571326
Devils, Titans, Dragons, Sharks, and Droids all use damage that DoP covers. It doesn't do anything in The Pit for sure, but for the endgame content it is pretty nice (with the exception of Behemoths).

>>3571341
Wait wait wait

> Droids
No. They have energy type attack, meaning. absolutely nothing protects from it.

> Sharks
But you can't cast spells underwater, right? And anyway, that portion of the game is a joke.

> Devils
Yes, but that won't protect you from mana drain. Anyway, they aren't that strong to begin with.

> Titans, Dragons
What really makes them dangerous is instakill. But otherwise, it does help, yes. You don't have to fight neither of them though, and it's 10 times easier on dark path anyway.

The thing is, there are lots of other elemental attackers, like in Nighon for example. But, you either don't need to fight them (like with Hydras), or they aren't strong at all (like warlocks).

Otherwise, the spell is not half as useful as it might appear.

>>3571398
>No. They have energy type attack, meaning. absolutely nothing protects from it.
It's actually Earth damage in MM7.

>>3571410
Hm, thanks for correcting me, indeed GM ID Monster shows it's earth type. The guide I was using stated it wrong

>>3571424
It's really annoying Dark path because I never have anyone go up in Earth for anything else. What is their best spell, Telekinesis?

Dark path is easier for certain because Dark magic is so much better than Light magic, but there are still plenty of uses for Light Magic.

>>3571452
Since it's the last dungeon, and they all use earth attacks, I'd just make or buy 4x Earth Resistance potions with philosophers' stones, which are scattered through Eofol anyway. +300 resistance to every party member.

But it's not necessary as you can cast Lloyd's Beacon at Lincoln. Also, I never kill every droid, I simply go turn on the energy and search for the cockpit.

Might or Magic?

>>3571843
http://www.celestialheavens.com/viewpage.php?id=118
> Ask anyone I used to work with at NWC, and they'll tell you: Might.

As for the actual answer—depends on the game. Heroes 3—might for sure. MM series—depends.

Over the years I've been trying to beat MM VIII with only a solo character. Necro was super easy, knight was hard early but got unstoppable half way through the game, cleric was really hard but I beat it, and my vampire got stuck at the castle of air. Trying minotaur now.

Anyone know how resists work exactly in this game? I'm fairly sure you get diminishing returns.

>>3571935
You mean elemental resistances? See: https://sites.google.com/site/sergroj/mm/mechanics#TOC-Chance-To-Hit-and-Resistances

> To put it simple, I've calculated average damage for some values of resistance (with LuckEffect added to it):
> 0 100%
> 20 75%
> 40 60%
> 60 50%
> 100 39%
> 150 31%
> 200 26%
> 300 20%

>>3571950
This is helpful, I've always known resistances are basically required but I've always assumed resistances higher than around 100-150 didn't do much.

>>3566818
I started watching this, heard a Russian, and assumed I was in for some top tier play, but he isn't even that good.

>>3571963
Well I was thinking of it, and I made this analogy in my mind. Imagine that instead of decreasing damage, resistance increased your "relative" health instead. So…

0 resistance = 100% health
60 resistance = 200% health (half damage)
140 resistance = 400% health (quarter damage)
300 resistance = 500% health

It's easy to see that past 150 it doesn't scale very well. But before it, it's actually alright.

>>3571971
I really wonder how people have so much time to just watch the game. It's around 50 hours long ffs.

>>3571980
Those numbers don't seem to correlate with what >>3571950 wrote. Wouldn't 200 resistance mean roughly 400%hp as it averages 26% reduction.

>>3571987
I have 3 screens, I can just put something on my 3rd one while I'm doing other things.

>>3571096
Here's how I imagine dragons' abilities should work

> ID Item GM
"Is food?"
> ID Monster M
"Is food"
> Merchant E
"Gib"
> Learning GM
"I know this. This human letters"
> Perception GM
"Back itch. Sword stuck?"
> Meditation M
Vague suspicions that there's something more to life than hoarding gold
> Bodybuilding M
DeviantArt.com
> Alchemy M
I assume even dragon shit has magical properties so I guess this could work

Found Billy Corgan in M&MVIII

>>3571124
Fuck me I thought ubisoft made it, go figure.

It played and felt exactly like a ubisoft game would though.

>tfw enjoy HoMM 5
>tfw love Ledroit's artwork

>>3572825
ledroit is shit and overdesigns everything

>>3572831

I like it though.

>>3571296
>> hour of power
>No improvements over original spells except for duration. The buff comes too late in game to be useful, unless you have a weakling party that still needs buffing to be effective.


like i'm going to sit there and cast more than 3 buffs every fight yeah right. I picked a might party so I could hold forward and A at the same time and nothing else

>>3573008
>not holding down shift too so you can press A more often

>>3573112
>Holding down shift when you can just tap caps lock to toggle walk/run

>>3573117
caps lock key is haram
i never touch it in any game

>>3573008
Did you see how long the recovery is after Hour of Power? It's much quicker to just cast Bless and Heroism (and maybe an optional Haste), they have less than a second of recovery. Less mana spent, too. Shield is situational, and Stone Skin is garbage.

>>3573112
>>3573124
> Using "Always Run" option, ever
Just turn it off and never use it again, see Pastebin

> DON'T RUN ALL THE TIME. This is important. Turn "always run" button off in MM6-8. When it's turned on (EVEN when you're standing), you attack/cast spells much slower (your recovery rate doubles).

I'm struggling with this battle, any advice?

Those Rust Dragons are 16, my hero has Expert Earth Magic but not many high level spells (only Resurrection, Clone, Teleport, Mirth, Hypnotize (lol) and Water Elemental). The enemy hero has slightly slower stats than me.

>>3573550
What makes you think this is a good idea?

If you have the orb of vulnerability and a ton of spell points you can probably figure out a way to mass slow and then blind abuse, but just the Black Dragons are stronger than your whole army.

>>3573550
Doesn't look like the odds are in your favor. Those 104 Blacks are going to be a pain in the ass. If not utterly destroyed, your forced will at least get decimated.

However, you have a huge stack of Mighty Gorgons. You have 188 of them, meaning they will have guaranteed 18 dragons killed with Death Stare. But, they will get decimated if they get attacked.

Also, you can try and abuse BDs breath attack. Try to get the enemy in their line of fire.

Otherwise, if you don't have some superb artifact setup, you're probably fucked.

>>3573550
Also, I'm pretty sure your Lizard Warriors will get destroyed before they even get to shoot. You can't cover them with your troops either because of the breath attack. Very disadvantageous position for them, should've just left the stack with some other hero.

Jump spell in dungeons is the shit.

MM7 plot
> "Here's a contest made as easy as possible"
> "Gotta repair the castle, go rescue 7 dwarves"
> Eventually get promoted to a honorary pawn in someone else's plan
> "Heh-heh, welcome to the good/evil side, dear adventurers!!!" *rubs hands*
> Break your back for someone else until the end
> "I'm A corack, not THE corack lel"

MM8 plot
> Michael Bay catastrophe destroying the world
> Ticking clock of doom in the form of enigmatic impenetrable crystal wrecking havoc across the continent
> Urgent need to form alliances
> Interact with factions from dragons and minotaurs to elementals
> "Save our flooded city"
> "Find new home for our nation"
> Epic proportions with everyone needing a hero
> Visit the very elemental planes in the end
> Everything assplodes

I really like it the dungeons are pretty dull though

http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=8379
Good interview. Talks about Crag Hack, Sheltem, a cancelled MMO, and a bit about HoMM.

>>3574328
my man. I love the plot/setting of 8. its such an underrated entry in the series.

I would put the dungeons on the same level as 7, maybe slightly better.

>>3574328
>dungeons are dull

Not only dungeons. Even regional maps are mostly empty compared to 6 and 7.

Once VCMI 1.0 comes out do you think people will move to it?

>>3573295
>. This is important. Turn "always run" button off in MM6-8. When it's turned on (EVEN when you're standing), you attack/cast spells much slower

pretty sure grayface nixed that.

>>3575002
Doesn't look like it

>>3575002
Just tried it. The bug is still present in MM7 for me, but not MM8. I mean, double recovery when standing with "always run" on.

In any case, I can't tell you how many times I've turned on "always run" and forgot about it, then ran into some monsters. I just got used to holding Shift+W after some time, it's easier this way.

>>3575547
I'd rather hold shift in combat.

>>3575558
It's fine either way. It's just what I am personally used to and find more convenient for my fingers. Just either turn off "always run" completely, or keep it on but hold Shift while fighting.

>>3575620
>Shift+W
Just noticed this. I play with keyboard.

>>3574559
>>3574673
I'd say in MM8 the first dungeon (that snake temple) is simply amazing. I have always got that Zelda vibe from it, there actually cool challenges in it. Actual advancement into action/adventure genre for MM8.

Otherwise, it's not that consistent so far. Balthazar Lair was pretty interesting albeit linear, but that troll tomb was kinda ridiculous (blowing up gogs in a crammed dungeon, what a great idea). Smuggler cove and dire wolf den was pretty much garbage. But then again, MM7 had White Cliff Caves and other pretty dull dungeons.

Also, I noticed that the overworld in MM8 is often flatter… But at the same time, there's something I like so much more about it. Diverse landscapes, fauna, terrain, waterfalls, different races. The fort in Garrote Gorge, scattered islands, the lava lake in Ironsand. They give a sense of living continent, cohesive world which feels real. Almost every new location has a different type of terrain, different houses and architecture. This makes the game feel so much more modern than previous ones, despite it came out only a year after MM7. Despite there are loading screens, it often takes a candle from, say, Morrowind in terms of immersion.

In MM7, cities still suffered from looking like detached piles of houses. There wasn't much in terms of architecture too—same small houses for everyone. There were mountains which was cool, but then again—most locations were actually flatter. MM8 was when they truly started using third dimension more, with areas with varying altitude and such. Also, MM7 didn't account that much for action-adventure part of the game: not much platform jumping and 3rd dimension.

Do all dragons have the same chance to drop rare items? Wromthrax is the first one I killed and his drops are so good I can't decide which one I want the most.

>>3575697
Yes, they are all 1 random Tier 6 piece of loot (which can include relics/artifacts). I believe the gold they drop changes between red/green/blue variants, but that's not really important.

>>3575704
Didn't even know the game had artifacts until now. Guess I'm gonna keep this just because of how appropriate it is.

>>3573295
>> DON'T RUN ALL THE TIME. This is important. Turn "always run" button off in MM6-8. When it's turned on (EVEN when you're standing), you attack/cast spells much slower (your recovery rate doubles).


I just tested it in my MM7 and my recovery time doesn't whether I have always run on or off.

... in fact it doesn't change whether I run or not in the first place. Am I doing something wrong?

Anyone tried to make a dwarf lich? Do they stay the same height or were the developers too lazy to make pocket-sized liches?

>>3573550
wut map

>>3576031
I think they stay the same size. I've only seen 2 lich variants for male and female.

>>3576031
Good question.

If they use the same skeleton transformer as in Heroes 3, you can bet they will all be human-size.

>>3575836
Weird. I assume you have GrayFace patch installed, right? Are you sure you turn Always Run on and off? Try attacking while walking.

>>3575697
>>3575725
I think most relics/artifacts a waste of time. Slightly higher stats, slightly better enchantments—but often at ridiculous price (like speed -50 or worse). Some of them are basically jokes (like that axe of carnage).

Few ones which are truly useful are Hands of the Master (but only for monks), that Meditation +15 evil staff, and that ring of dark magic (for when you have 2+ dark casters).

Plus you should probably know there's a limit of how many of them you can get, I think around 15. After that you won't get them from drop.

>>3576395
Best artifacts are:

1) Yourba: Plate, immunity to conditions
2) Ulysses: Bow, shoots ice bolts and +accuracy
3) Seven League Boots: 40 Speed and of Water Magic
4) Hands of the Master: +10 unarmed/dodging, wonderful for monks, useless for anyone else
5) Ethric's Staff: Of Dark Magic, +15 meditation skill, Negative Regeneration, Dark only
Justice (mace light only) is also kind of nice.

>>3576423
Charele should be on there and higher (trident with great +hit and +damage).

Wallace (sword of armsmaster) and Puck (sword of swiftness) are pretty useful too.

>CRT arrived today
>can play HoMM3 and M&M in glorious 800x600 and 640x480

>>3576879
slightly better photo

>>3576882
Why does everyone in this game look like a porn star?

>>3576892
it's part of the appeal
now i need to calibrate this monitor

>>3576926
>That feel when haste runs out

>>3576926
As someone who's only ever played MM7 and got used to the CG portraits MM6 looks very unappealing because of that

>>3577038
I find the digitized actors much less awkward. MM9 has the nicest 3D portraits in the series.

>>3577048
Yeah, but then you see the NPC's.

>>3577068
>what kind of textures u want senpai?
>just mirror my shit up

>>3577068
They are even worse from the sides. Some of them have their faces detached.

>>3577038
You get used to the MM6 portraits, playing it for the first time now after at least half a dozen of MM7 play troughs.

The portraits are much more expressive in MM6.

>>3577084
Are you working your way backwards through the series?

>>3577068
Gentlemen, how do we fix MM9?

>>3577182
Make it on an engine that can actually support large landmasses and texture streaming for starters.

>>3577190
I think the problems with MM9 won't be fixed with just a graphics upgrade.

Can we all admit the Reckoning was a colossal mistake?

>>3577290
They would be fixed with an engine upgrade. Lithtech isn't any good for RPGs.

>>3577290
But is it as bad as the rebooting?

>>3577637
No. At least back then the lore was still intact.

Man HoMM2 looks REALLY good on a CRT. In fact I would argue it looks way better than HoMM3 with how colorful and vibrant it is.

>>3577152
Yeah. For the love of me I can't get into MM3 - 5. Got rekt the moment I set foot outside the gate in the first MM3 town. The controls are hard to get used to as well. Broke down a secret wall a few screens from the starting screen and got my shit stomped by 2 moose rats, there was one death and only 2 characters made it trough without going unconscious.

Prolly going to play MM8 after 6.

>>3577873
The controls are no different for MM6 for me. Just learn to use keyboard only and f1-f6 for selecting party members. The moose heads are kinda tough at first so make sure your party has high stats from creation and take the equipment from the starting party members.

>>3578259
Also I can't remember if this feature is in MM3 or only MM4 and 5 but clicking on the "might and magic" at the top right of the screen should show minimap

>>3577873
The controls are designed so you never need to use a mouse. It's easier to walk outside and kill goblins. If you walk outside their hut is pretty easy to find and it gives you enough experience to train a couple levels hen you destroy it.

Also, did you create a new party? You definitely want to have characters with decent stats, especially endurance.

>>3578264
And another thing I was too moronic to figure out when I first played was that the number keys in combat will cycle you between targets.

>>3578264
In 3 you have to cast Wizard Eye. In WoX you can just click and it will show a minimap as long as you have cartography for someone.

Also if you really want to make MM3 easier for the first few levels you can do the following:


1) Go to the mirror and say "doe meister"
2) Collect the 2 piles of 1M gold.
3) Use Mr. Wizard
4) Go to the mirror and say "redhot"
5) Enter the inn and hire the two hirelings
6) Clear out all of Blistering Heights, ranged attacks don't hit you until you have seen the target. If you back into a lot of the areas you can avoid most of the damage. The chests will be too hard to disarm for now though.
7) Transfer all the items from the hirelings to your party aside from the dungeon keys
8) Train

Once you clear out the Temple of Moo and get Crusader you can also get a power orb by saying "orb meister" to a mirror and turn it in for 1M experience.

>>3578442
>that spoiler
i bet you type i lost it in the mirror of 4 too fag

>>3578446
Of course not, but if he's getting stuck on basic things like loading when something goes wrong it's an option.

>>3578450
I should expand on this. In MM6-8 you have to fuckup a lot in order to justify more than a couple reloads. In MM3-5 expect to save a lot (just press tab and then s). There are a lot more really nasty effects and a wipe requires you to go back to your last save. Not just losing your gold, but the game ends and forces a reload.

Some questions I've had for some time about MM7.

—Is Fate spell useful at all?

—Are clerics the most garbage melee fighters? Sorcerers can dual wield daggers which is far better.

—Also, more shit talking about mace: does Mace GM paralyze work more than once in a blue moon?

—Is there any point at all in leveling weapon skills if they don't open dual wielding opportunities? (Aside for bow/unarmed)

—What's the best weapon combo for knights?

>>3578471
>—What's the best weapon combo for knights?
I think that's either spear + sword, dagger + dagger, or axe + dagger. Don't remember.

>tfw you love HoMM3 but you have a hard time playing it because you always feel like you're doing something wrong and you suck at the combat
It hurts :(
Fun as hell and beautiful artstyle but every game against AI inevitably ends with a sad loss

Which MM game is the best for exploring and world interaction? I have every one through 6 but I have yet to get into any of them besides starting the first few minutes of World of Xeen and 3.

>>3578594
3-6 all have good exploration in different ways.

>>3578597
To elaborate on this, 3 has lots of areas only accessible through skills like mountaneering and swimming with hidden goodies and the game just drops of off on one of the islands and lets you go wild. 4 and 5 are connected through World of Xeen and have a very unique and awesome setting and 6 has the largest map and the most "world interactions" since it uses a 3D engine and has NPCs with more dialogue and different quests.

>>3575704
>know the game had artifacts until now. Guess I'm gonna keep this just because of how appropr

wallace and charele for that 250 damage knight

>>3578471
>—Is Fate spell useful at all?
No, it only lasts for one attack anyway.

>—Are clerics the most garbage melee fighters? Sorcerers can dual wield daggers which is far better.
Yes, dual wield daggers won't really overtake the power of a supreme flail until you get some enchants though. The main advantage is the recovery time.

>—Also, more shit talking about mace: does Mace GM paralyze work more than once in a blue moon?
Once you start cranking the skill up it's great. Paladins don't really have anything else to dump points into. Get mace to 30 and every other attack will have either a Paralyze or a stun.

>
—Is there any point at all in leveling weapon skills if they don't open dual wielding opportunities? (Aside for bow/unarmed)
No

>—What's the best weapon combo for knights?
Spear/Sword, Axe/Sword works ok too once you get really high GM armsmaster. Nothing can compare to Charele though.

>>3578969
>—Is there any point at all in leveling weapon skills if they don't open dual wielding opportunities? (Aside for bow/unarmed)
>No
With the exception of GM mace and GM dagger because of the procs.

Which elemental magic is the least useful at GM level? I'm trying to spread them out bbetween my archer and sorcerer and I already know GM water is essential for Lloyd's.

>>3579008
Earth is awful for almost anything and can be ignored completely. I rarely even get level 2.

Water>Air>Fire>>Earth

>>3579008
Air is probably the best choice for your archer. Starburst isn't particularly useful in MM7.

>>3579016
I was thinking about that, but looking at the spells invisibility is probably much more useful at GM level so I don't know anymore

>>3579021
There aren't many places where invisibility is relevant. The only problem is you won't get Fly until your 2nd promotion.

>get to Castle Darkmoor
>"This isn't so bad I don't get the hype"
>get to the second part full of dispelling liches and maddening eyes

>>3579379
Just wait until you get to the VARN.

It's enemies who have a lot of health but explode when they die again

Just started a M&M6 run with a Paladin, a Cleric, a Druid and Sorcerer. I tried to cover every magic school at the beginning, i gave the druid learning (cause he can learn it right away, so why not) and the sorc and cleric meditation. I didnt give anyone armor skills for now but made my paladin learn perception and disarm.
I am kinda alright with the setup for now, just a few questions..

- i was unsure about attribute distribution, particularly how important endurance is for every class.
also should I give everyone accuracy? cause for now nobody can hit for shit.
also, is luck important for the paladin (wrt trap disarm) ?
where the hell can I find bows in new sorpigal?
should I give the druid meditation?

bonus points if you manage to answer the questions without advising me to change my classes (I wont)

>>3579928
Accuracy increases hit chance and bow damage, increase it. Give everyone potions of accuracy and endurance, whether you give them any other potions or not give them these.
Luck affects magic/etc resistance, the disarm skill's level is more important than luck.
Go to Castle Ironfist for bows.
You can but meditation for the druid later, but generally everyone except a knight will eventually have at least one level in it.

>>3579928
Any reason you went with a druid rather than an archer? Elemental Magic spam?

>>3578259
>>3578280

Yeah I think I goofed with not creating my own party. I'll give it a go later, after I beat 6.

Just got blindsided by an orc and half a dozen goblins the moment I set foot outside the first town. The tab+s t hing will greatly improve my expirience though, quicksaving is a very needed feature if you're expected to save and load often.

>>3578442
I'm okay with playing legit. Its just going to take some time getting used to how the game works.

>>3580153
If you create your own party, make sure to loot everything off the original party, hirelings also have loot you can take from them and they have keys to dungeons in MM3 iirc. What you could do is hire the hirelings from the tavern, strip them of everything they own, then fire them for some extra starting equipment.

>>3580162
Also everything can be done through the keyboard so try to learn all the hotkeys instead of dealing with the wonky flickering cursor through DOSbox. You can increase your cycles to make it flicker less but I still had some issues so it's better to stick with the keyboard.

>>3580128
I just liked the versatility and being able to cast additional healing spells

>>3579928
Read the pastebin in the OP.

>>3579928
>also should I give everyone accuracy? cause for now nobody can hit for shit.
This is covered in the OP. It's mildly useful early but isn't mandatory. Make sure you are at least 11 for your melee though.

>also, is luck important for the paladin (wrt trap disarm) ?
No, luck is trash. In fact the fountain next to the training hall gives +2 luck permanent luck (up to 16) 8 times. It recharges every week or so. I always take away luck from my characters on creation.

>where the hell can I find bows in new sorpigal?
This is covered in the OP. Bows are in Castle Ironfist, and if you turn the letter in you get 5000 gold so you can actually buy them,

>should I give the druid meditation?
For now you should focus on getting spell skills up. Top priority is water magic. Use all your horseshoes on one guy and crank water until you hit 12. Master allows portals to any town at any time and the ability to return to anywhere you set a beacon for months. Get someone else up in air for Fly.

>>3579928
Paladin: Disarm to 4, then Body and Spirit
Cleric: Body
Druid: Air, Body or ID item are optional
Sorcerer: Water

Should I play a necro campaign for all hallow's eve?

that guy is a badass

>get pic related from the emerald island dragon
>15 hours later my archer stil ldoes more damage in melee than the rest of my party combined

Endgame loot in the tutorial area was a mistake.

>>3581565
The dragon loot is a shortcut for those who want to skip through the game. You want normal difficulty curve—don't loot the dragon.

I really like MM8 so far. It just clicks somehow. The differences from MM7 seem minor on paper, but together they just work. I wrote about this already, but the game continues to surprise me.

Like, in MM7, it's not often that you bump into something really interesting in the overworld. But MM8 maps are polar opposite of this, they are tightly packed with interesting stuff and are a joy to explore (the whole plot is based on this, after all). E.g., just now I bumped into a Barbarian fortress and found a hidden treasury just flying around Ravage Roaming. It really feels rewarding.

Then there are just much needed fixes/improvements. There's a shitton of reagents scattered around the maps now, especially yellow ones (my biggest pet peeve with 7). No need for money grinding too, as you have much more profitable trade triangles. Minor tweaks are there too: staves got better, and plate armor offers so much more protection; Spirit Lash hits multiple enemies which is nice. Even Arcomage is better balanced.

Same with the game system. On paper, fixed character system seems like a downgrade; but I prefer it so much more. Not only races mean something (and a lot) in MM8; but also you're not stuck in vain if you want to switch out members. No need to replay the game several times just to try out more classes. And you're not tied to light/dark spell schools, with no pointless alignments too which is great. Overall, I feel there's so much more freedom and room for experiments in it.

Graphics alone are a big step up: much brighter and more colorful, with a consistent art direction. Best cutout doll in MM, with equipment perfectly lined up with your characters—you barely notice they are just sprites! And wider screen area finally makes the game look like something from this millennium.

It's impressive how in just 2 years, NWC had advanced the game so far. While the skill system was more or less retained from MM6–7, everything else took a huge leap forward, IMO.

>>3582117
The biggest problem with 8 comes down to balance. It's not nearly as bad as people often treat it as long as you stay away from >>3554796.

I really love the sheer size of dungeons in MM6 and all the vericality and room over room it has. Keeps the game from feeling like just a grid based crawler where you can move within grids.

>>3577190
What is this game even? Where can I read something about this?

>>3564972
http://www.eskimo.com/~edv/lockscroll/WhereAreWe/

>trying to get to Nighon for the first time
>everything good in thye tunnels, gogs are annoying but I have help
>reach Thunderfist mountain
>mfw

So how do you deal with minotaur lords? From what I've seen they have an instagib melee attack and are immune to mind control spells. Am I supposed to just run from them in circles?

>>3583504
Some guy making a M&M clone in UE4. He said he'd release a demo of it at the end of this month.

>>3583826
I use invisibility like a giant pussy. I'll come back to clear that junk later after I've done all of my Nighon business.

>>3583826
Did you save before you entered the mountain? You should have. Try to get no minotaur lords to spawn. The real goal is to find the closest exit. As soon as Nighon loads for the first time, you can TP to it from then on

> mind control spells
Mind spell school is widely considered dispensable, much like Earth. You'll encounter quite a lot of stuff immune to mind and body spells, too (undeads, Titans—same as in Heroes 3).

>>3581565
You're not really supposed to murder the dragon unless you know what you're doing. In that case you might as well abuse the multi-loot glitch to get things kickstarted and skip to mid-game.

>>3583826
Never bothered with thunderfist mountain. I just went through that invisible and never cleared it out. If you're quick you can just haul ass to the nearest exit.

>>3584107
First fan-made Boktai and now this. I'm so happy. Thanks for this info man.

>>3583826
Invisibility or just run past him. You are trying together toNight and it's really quick. Take a left at the starting the the first right. Once you get master water you can ignore the tunnel other than a quick trip back to Stone City.

>>3584628
>To Nighon

>>3583826
Forget Minotaur Kings until you have GM body.

You can either kill them with sparks/poison spray and reloads or just ignore them and run past them. Invisibility is designed for this situation though.

>>3584301
Try this as well. You should be able take down a couple minotaurs or a headsman without too much trouble. Getting stuck against a Minotaur King is pretty harsh that early.

C-can I have an autograph?…

hope he doesn't jew me like he did with Crag and Gem

It's a relief to know I'm not the biggest autist in Jadame