M&M and HoMM

HoMM/Might and Magic General
Last updated 04/23/2017
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SUMMARY:

>Download links for all (retro) HoMM/M&M games
>HoMM3 Starter Guide
>HoMM3 Mods
>Might and Magic Starter Guide
>Party Creation Tips and Tricks

>Download link for all games(Might and Magic 1-8, Heroes 1-4)

https://mega.nz/#F!5cpwADZY!YqxywKr6QdKjzNo-HUmBCA


>HoMM3 Starter Guide

Want to get into Heroes of Might and Magic 3? Avoid the Ubisoft HD version at all costs. They do not come with the expansions and look worse than the originals because they no longer have access to the original 3D assets and just painted over the original sprites in photoshop. Instead, get the HoMM3 complete pack on GOG or in the Mega link listed at the top and download the HD mod at (https://sites.google.com/site/heroes3hd/)

General advice:
Skill list: (http://i.imgur.com/Ozon7g8.jpg)
Tech tree: (http://imgur.com/a/Ku3rT)
—Always get several heroes for scouting to grab resources, mark mines and explore. Give them fast units.

—Don't sit at your castle while you wait lvl 7s. Every faction has good units for early expansion:
* Castle—Marksmen
* Rampart—Grand Elves
* Tower—Master Gremlins
* Necropolis—Vampire Lords
Google the rest if you're interested.

—Use 1 or more as your main and bring him all the experience. Pick the one with the best specialty.

—Plan your build-up. Mark sawmills and ore mines ASAP (and I mean it). Build as many dwellings as you can afford on week 1 and preferably end it with building Castle to maximize your number of units.

—Forget about war machines, for beginner and intermediate players they're not worth it.

—Try to get lvl 6 and 7s units ASAP for most factions. Grab all of them and go fighting.

—Level up your main hero whenever you can and always grab better artifacts to maximize damage. See picrelated on quick cheat sheet for best skills.

—Damage spells are ok in the beginning, late in the game they are usually not worth it (except for Armageddon and less so Implosion).

—Get yourself some Earth/Air magic skill for speed spells (Slow/Haste). They are some of the most important spells in the game on mass level

—For best results, always try and get the following spells:
Lvl 2: Blind
Lvl 3: Teleport
Lvl 4: Resurrection, Town Portal (they need Advanced Earth skill to be most useful), Armageddon, Clone, Berserk
Lvl 5: Implosion, Fly, Dimension Door.


>HoMM3 Mods

If you're looking for HoMM3 mods, check out Horn of the Abyss (http://www.hota.acidcave.net/download.html) for a new faction based off the Regnan Empire and rebalancing or ERA2 (http://heroescommunity.com/viewthread.php3?TID=39062) which is a mod platform (allows management of multiple mods), includes WoG (optional), and is the current standard for modders. Also check out VCMI (http://forum.vcmi.eu/portal.php) which is an open source remake of HoMM3.


>Might and Magic Starter Guide

There are 5 generations of Might and Magic games:
MM1-2
These are your classics. There are no in game maps in MM1 and the idea was to use graph paper to map it out yourself and ultimately solve the game. If you would like to map the game digitally without any graph paper, check out the free version of Grid Cartographer (http://www.davidwaltersdevelopment.com/tools/gridcart/download.php#legacy). MM2 adds an automapper and some background with the elementals and sets up the Corak versus Sheltem story that is finished in MM5 (I strongly advise you to read the manual for MM2 even if you don't play the game).
If you want to start from the very beginning, you can play the mac versions of MM1 and MM2 which have better graphics and interface.
(https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B01-YeD38fqUSUpNSXJpeFROTzQ/view?usp=sharing)
MM1 has to be played through vMac while the rest can be played on BasiliskII. Just remember to go to the control panel and turn off outSPOKEN8 if you get bombarded with text-to-speech when you open up BasiliskII. More info can be found in this post: (http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/marathoning-might-and-magic-games.109852/page-2#post-4639284)

MM3-5
Most people in /vr/ should probably start here. They are DOS, but still pretty easy to get into. MM4&5 have a very unique setting in comparison to the rest of the series and were originally released separately and combined to create one huge game with World of Xeen.

If you want to play Might and Magic 3-5 with higher quality audio, download MUNT (https://sourceforge.net/projects/munt/) and these roms (https://mega.nz/#!pA5HzDyJ!THTL9MSIs_WN5XBEexIkMNBo7nfNWAMT6QmRDHvbhtk)

To get mt-32 sound working you have to open up dosbox and type in "mixer /listmidi", find out which number correlates with the mt-32 sound emulator, and then you have to go to "dosboxMM4-5.conf", find the midi section, then set midiconfig = whatever number your sound emulator is set as. Note that MM4-5 is prone to crashing with music enabled when using MT-32 sound but you still get higher quality effects.

MM6-8
These are the most popular and largely considered the best games. If you are just looking for background on HoMM, just play 6 and 7. 8 was a step down because it was designed as an expansion to 7, but was forced due to finances to release a full game.
Just get Grayface patches for MM6-8 at (https://sites.google.com/site/sergroj/mm), check out the optional files like the mouselook mod or tool to rebind controls, and copy all .mp3 files from your "Sounds" folder into a new "Music" folder.
Link to Might&Magic 6-8 mods (http://www.celestialheavens.com/forum/10/10622)
MM9
First fully 3D Might and Magic game on the lithtech engine. Unfortunately the game is very rushed and unfinished due to 3DO's financial problems. Unofficial patch to make the game playable (http://telp.org/mm9/)

MMX
New grid-based Might and Magic game taking place on Ubisoft's new setting Ashan. Has very little to do with the original series or backstory but worth checking out if you want to play more grid-based dungeon crawlers. Just don't expect anything like Might and Magic.


>Party Creation Tips and Tricks

A=Archer, B=Barbarian, C=Cleric, K=Knight, P=Paladin, R=Robber, S=Sorcerer

MM1-2: KPARCS
MM3-5: PAARCS or BPARCS
MM6: PACS or PCSS
MM7: KKCS
MM8: Start with a Dark Elf and add Knight, Dragon, Cleric, and Necromancer as you explore.
MM9: Start with 2 Fighters and 2 Initiates. Promote the Fighters to Mercenaries to Gladiators. Promote 1 of the initiates to healer to Cleric. Promote the other initiate to scholar to Lich.

Other notes:
1) Stats scale poorly throughout the series. Anything beyond 21, and especially past 50, is largely wasted. In MM4 there is an essential quest to reach 100 in speed, accuracy, endurance, and might (but there are fountains will temporarily raise those stats by 50).

2) In MM3-5 if you do not have Walk on Water you can cast Etherialize to get into deep water.

3) Default party members in MM1-5 have very high rolls and are actually good unlike most RPGs

4) There are 2 different degrees of "KO", so to say, in the series:
—Unconscious—not really dead, just knocked out. You can still heal the character with potions/spells and he'll be alright.
—Dead—now this is when healing will do no good. You will see a tombstone in place of a character's portrait. Early in the game, you can only go back to healer to return a dead character back to life.

5) When you get enough experience for the next level, you don't level up automatically. You need to go to the training facility and pay to advance to the next level.

6) Most of the time, you don't need to grind or kill everyone everywhere. It provides little exp. Complete quests instead, they give much more.

MM6-8 Specific Tips:

1) In MM6-8 anyone can learn the bow (aside from MM8 dragons). It is advised to learn it immediately as it gives everyone ranged attacks. In MM7-8 it can be learned in the first city.
In MM6 it is advised to do the following at the very beginning of the game:
a) Turn "The Letter" into the tavern in New Sorpigal
b) Take the Stables to Castle Ironfist
c) Turn "The Letter" into Wilbur Humphrey in the Castle.
d) Go back to the stables. Right next to it are the membership to Berserkers' Fury, Berserkers' Fury (where you can learn bow) and a bow shop.
e) Take the stables back to New Sorpigal

2) Base stats do NOT matter very much after about the beginning stages of the game. The reason being, their effect scales very hard once they reach about 21. Moreover: they don't rise with you lvl up.

3) Here's what you get every time you train up a level:
—more SP and HP;
—more skill points.
Everything else is advanced through skills/better equipment.

4) A lot of your and enemies' attacks in the game will whiff. This is normal. Raise "Attack" to increase your hit chance. Raise "Armor Class" to lower the chance to get hit.

5) The spells to look for in MM6-8 are Town Portal and Fly. The first one lets you teleport between towns. The second one lets you fly in the air, traveling much faster than when running.

6) Most chests in the game are trapped (usually the ones with the best items). There are 2 ways you can deal with this: just let them blow up and heal the damage, if you survive; or disarm them/use Telekinesis spell.

7) 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). So run only when you aren't fighting. You can make caps lock toggle walk and run for MM6 in the settings of the Grayface patch.

8)A merchant/duper can be very useful on the initial buying of bows and skills and will leave money over for other skills or body magic spells.

9) Water Magic Mastery is one of the if not THE most useful skills in the game to have and should be reached ASAP for Lloyd's Beacon and Town Portal.