Started a New game of MM8 after 10+ years

[TheCoolinator]

Hi all,

Don't know if you remember me from way back (2 years ago) but I finally forced myself to start another new game of MM8 and thank god I finally stuck to my guns and am getting some stuff done.

Anything I should know regarding the whole pick & discard party option? Like should I even waste the time and money leveling up party members I know I'm going to drop? Also, I saw some people having dragons in their party, is that a promotion? Or do I just hire dragons? lol

Anyway I'm a level 15 Necromancer with the Knight and the Cleric still in my party I'm about to bring the witness to the lake of fire back to Alvar's guildhouse and was wondering where I go next, I'm thinking Shadowspire.

Your thoughts? clues? hints?

Thanks

[Arret]

Dragons can be added as party members like any other race, and they are generally considered overpowered (fly, aoe fire breath, unresistable ranged autoattack that gets stronger with each point in dragon skill, oh and GM learning to top it all off). There are 4 total in the game and they are the only class you cannot start with. The first one is in the Garrate Gorge dragon cave by the entrance. The other three are in caves in Ironsand(level 15), Shadowspire (level 30), and Regna (level 50).

With hirelings you intend to dump, you should still go ahead and train them the same time as your starter hero (If starter can train 3 levels, train hirelings 3 levels as well since you already took the 8 days per level and gold is not a problem).

As for where you go next after bringing the survivor back to Alvar, the game is pretty wide open at that point. It isn't a bad time to pick up promotion quests or jump straight on the main line quest.

One thing you should be on the look out for is to make sure and cash in on bounties every month. The master bounty hunter (70000 gold worth of bounties) is well worth the effort 1,200,000 experience if I remember correctly.

[koval321]

Personally i cant imagine to play this game without mm8che Am use it to begin game with full customized party (and later for example change appearance from lich face back to humans) This is cool because you may actualy play professions which dont exist in this game, and classic four members. Last time am played four elemental mages (each master in one element) and am completed game this way and enjoyed it very much. Begin game as peasants, without money food and items, lowered stats etc. nice challenge. Uh and each character have master in skill like id monster, item, perception, alchemy. It wasnt so big advantage to break game fun, because balanced by other challenges (cant use any weapons only spells from his element etc)

Am dislike original game npc hiring mostly because they dont tell what level is required and am visit them again and again like stupid and beg to join me, eventually have in party anybody random meet around, and to be worst he may have the same face as your character (what if somebody pick short haired vampires and meet her twin in tavern?) Probably this is good only for who prefer to solo play and really dont care about other members, but I was habit to previously M&M and it bothered me.

[Bones_xa]

Yeah the game is pretty open, you have lots of choices at mostly any point in what you want to do.
After you bring that troll witness to Alvar your next mainline quest will be to form the alliances. The first one I always do is the minotaurs because then you can town-portal to their lair, which is also in ravage roaming, and you get access to the air master trainer (I think his name is Storm-eye) who is also in their lair after you drain it. Those sea-men in the lair (I think they are called tridents) can be a bit annoying if you are low level but if you get that wand of paralyze from the level 15 vampire that joins you in shadowspire that can help out a lot, especially and mainly against the red ones which are the strongest.
After that could be a good time to do some side quests and/or promotion quests to promote your chars and get extra exp. Or you can just continue the mainline and make the other alliances.
I always ally with the dragons because I hate the humans in garrote gorge and they are hypocrite assholes. They claim to be ridding the world of "evil" dragons but they are actually far worse; coming into their land and trying to exterminate them. And dragons are so much cooler than fucking humans.
And depending on my party will ally with either necros or clerics. If you go with the necros the clerics in murmurwoods will attack you, if go with clerics its easier and the necros in the castle will attack you if you go back in there but not the townspeople in shadowspire.


I also like using the character editor sometimes because you can further customize your party, change faces, names, classes. Playing without it makes the game too much the same. I've also played a game with elemental mages but with 5 members; one for each elemental school and another for dark (4 necros and 1 dark elf with air). And using the character editor I changed the necro faces and voices back to normal after the lich promotion so that I won't have duplicate faces.

[Bandobras Took]

Once you learn the game, getting Cauri Blackthorne as a companion early is a pretty standard opener.

NPCs don't join based on level, or don't just join based on that; they join based on how far you've progressed in the plot. Doing lots of side quests can mean that you outlevel the later joiners, unfortunately.

Dragons never miss and don't have to invest skill points in weapon/armor skills, allowing for more utility skills. That being said, I often have found it more beneficial to have to have another race/class in the dragon slot, with the possible exception of the Minotaur, which was one of the more poorly designed races of MM8. You hire dragons as you hire any other character, by finding out where they live and meeting their various plot requirements.

I would definitely suggest having a vampire as a character, as their Levitation spell becomes extremely useful later in the game and a backup Self Magic caster is never a bad thing.

[BoardGuest808888]

Well, some NPCs are quest-related, but some are not. The thing is, how to get into them as early as possible. The fact that some of them are quite powerful already is a bonus too.

I think about the only NPC u should get along from the early on is Fred Talimere as he is a good, solid cleric who already has Light Magic skill.

Just dump the knight once u get to Ravenshore, & start working on better things. The easiest & most useful NPCs to join as early as possible are :

1. Cauri Blackthorne. Lvl 50 !
2. Nathaniel Roberts. *
3. Flamdring. A dragon. *
4. Blazen Stormlance. Lvl 50 !
5. Ithilgore. A dragon. *
6. Getrhc Mercutura. Vampire. *
7. Volog Sandwind. Troll.

* = u don't even need a quest to get them. Just grab them where they stay as early as possible.

Note also that while dragons are incredibly powerful, they usually have very low accuracy since they don't use weapons. This means their damage roll would be lower than say, a knight / troll of the same level even if they won't miss the target. Dragons also can not target something that is too close to them and too low on ground, especially indoors as they can't fly. Most apparent is against all those rats in Smuggler's cave.

They also don't get all that nifty effects from using weapon /armor like physical protection, vampiric ability, elemental protection, etc etc.

[BoardGuest808888]

With hirelings you intend to dump, you should still go ahead and train them the same time as your starter hero (If starter can train 3 levels, train hirelings 3 levels as well since you already took the 8 days per level and gold is not a problem).

U still have to pay for their training. If u don't plan to use them for long, just don't bother to train them at all.

Gold is not problem only after u get u'self into that stage of the game where gold is not a problem. Early on, it is a problem.

[Bandobras Took]

Gold is not problem only after u get u'self into that stage of the game where gold is not a problem. Early on, it is a problem.

Which is why, once you've learned the game, early Cauri is a pretty standard opener; get her, and money really does cease to be a problem.

[Arret]

With hirelings you intend to dump, you should still go ahead and train them the same time as your starter hero (If starter can train 3 levels, train hirelings 3 levels as well since you already took the 8 days per level and gold is not a problem).

U still have to pay for their training. If u don't plan to use them for long, just don't bother to train them at all.

Gold is not problem only after u get u'self into that stage of the game where gold is not a problem. Early on, it is a problem.

I must be missing something. I haven't ever had a problem in this game with gold except maybe getting enough cash to get learning/bow on Dagger Wound and I almost never use Cauri. Make sure and load up on tobersk fruit from Dagger Wound to Ravenshore, and when ready to move onto Alvar, load up on Tobersk Pulp. At that point you walk over to Ironsand and get master town portal and the entire trading triangle is open and you now have infinite gold.

[Bandobras Took]

That does presuppose getting Town Portal for convenience's sake if nothing else.

[GreatEmerald]

I tend to use only hirelings that are close to the level of the main character. Otherwise arena battles become extremely difficult, as the enemies there seem chosen depending on the highest level character in the party...

[Bandobras Took]

I must be missing something. I haven't ever had a problem in this game with gold except maybe getting enough cash to get learning/bow on Dagger Wound and I almost never use Cauri. Make sure and load up on tobersk fruit from Dagger Wound to Ravenshore, and when ready to move onto Alvar, load up on Tobersk Pulp. At that point you walk over to Ironsand and get master town portal and the entire trading triangle is open and you now have infinite gold.

I gave it a try, and it is an infinite gold predicated on an even more infinite patience; about how much do you make for a complete circle?

[Gaidal Cain]

As far as I remember, I've never had real troubles with getting enough gold over the long run, without doing any trade rounds. Getting Merchant up to the highest possible level on all characters helps, since it affects academy fees.

[Bones_xa]

I tend to use only hirelings that are close to the level of the main character. Otherwise arena battles become extremely difficult, as the enemies there seem chosen depending on the highest level character in the party...

Me too, but not because of the arena but just more for balance. Like if you get Cauri too early you could have a bunch of chars level 5-15 then one that is level 50. To me thats just ridiculous. So I avoid her until later at least.
Also Cauri is old (I think she starts at like 48) so she will get over 50 rather soon if you train lots of your chars which takes lots of game time. I know it doesn't matter that much for her but I just like having my chars below 50.

[Bones_xa]

7. Volog Sandwind. Troll.

Whats so great about him? I don't recall that he have very great starting stats. Not much better than Overdune (the guy that joins you as the witness).
Also doesn't Volog join you after you find the troll home? So he's not that easy to get.

[Arret]

I gave it a try, and it is an infinite gold predicated on an even more infinite patience; about how much do you make for a complete circle?

When you have a full group and can load up, I think I average 30-40k profit a circle. By the time in the game you would ever need more than 2 full loops you should already have the mysterious triangle open.

The only issue is getting the startup gold, which shouldn't be too much of a problem if you looted everything in the smuggler's cove.

[Bandobras Took]

7. Volog Sandwind. Troll.

Whats so great about him? I don't recall that he have very great starting stats. Not much better than Overdune (the guy that joins you as the witness).
Also doesn't Volog join you after you find the troll home? So he's not that easy to get.

Run in, run out. Easier than Cauri, overall.