Might and Magic 6, 7, 8 merge based on mm8 engine. [upd. 12.07.2020]

[J. M. Sower]

Hmm... about gloves, maybe only we need is a big piece of time and patient work.

The goal is just to show gloves on paper doll, right? I think that would be way too much work for such a small gimmick.

Maybe yes, but at least I will try to make just MM8 gloves for my mod. It will be smaller amount of work.

[alexseevdenis]

Yandex translator:

Is it possible not to add files in patches that have not been changed? And then it complicates localization, because some files of tables and scripts also have a translation. Thanks. All of the holidays !

[Templayer]

Hmm... about gloves, maybe only we need is a big piece of time and patient work.

The goal is just to show gloves on paper doll, right? I think that would be way too much work for such a small gimmick.

On the other hand, you think the same thing about non-artifact armours.

And there are like five armours per armour type per game (except for plate ones, where it is even less)...

[Templayer]

Yandex translator:

Is it possible not to add files in patches that have not been changed? And then it complicates localization, because some files of tables and scripts also have a translation. Thanks. All of the holidays !

Happy Big Spaghetti Monster Birth Day to you too!

[panjaster]

I found a bug in "Shadow guild" dungeon in Frozen highlands - there should be trap where you should fall down the floor to the room with spikes, however once you walk over it and nothing happens and return there, you actually can't fall or even go there, like it was an invisible wall blocking you to go to the trap. Because of this, you are just done as you can open escape route only from the hole with spikes I guess.

Another one, I'm not sure if this was done on purpose, but when you ask about bounty hunt, the monster that should be actually hunted will spawn somewhere in / near the town, tested in New Sorpigal and Silver Cove.

Also, there are 3(?) Apprentice mages in Mire of the damned, near the Dragon lair. I'm not sure if those should be there, as there was not such enemy there in vanilla MM6.

[Daedros]

Anyone at all?? I can't figure out the console at all...

Why do you need to change age of your characters? There's ingame way to do it - drink rejuvenation potions, age will be decreased (bonus age will go to negative values), though actual age will stay same. If there's reason to only do it via console, there's script:

Code: Select all

for i,v in Party do
   v.BirthYear = Game.Year - 18
end

When was that function added to Rejuvenation potions? Recently? I just loaded up my save (which hasn't been updated to the very latest), and drinking a Rejuvenation Potion did not cause Bonus Age to go into the negatives. I think that was a feature i had requested a long time ago.

[GrayFace]

Yandex translator:

Is it possible not to add files in patches that have not been changed? And then it complicates localization, because some files of tables and scripts also have a translation. Thanks. All of the holidays !

Keep original wording in Russian next to autotranslation. What patches?

[Templayer]

I found a bug in "Shadow guild" dungeon in Frozen highlands - there should be trap where you should fall down the floor to the room with spikes, however once you walk over it and nothing happens and return there, you actually can't fall or even go there, like it was an invisible wall blocking you to go to the trap. Because of this, you are just done as you can open escape route only from the hole with spikes I guess.

Another one, I'm not sure if this was done on purpose, but when you ask about bounty hunt, the monster that should be actually hunted will spawn somewhere in / near the town, tested in New Sorpigal and Silver Cove.

Also, there are 3(?) Apprentice mages in Mire of the damned, near the Dragon lair. I'm not sure if those should be there, as there was not such enemy there in vanilla MM6.

1. A bug
2. Not a bug, a feature. Also should be possible for them to appear inside dungeons on the said map.
3. I don't know.

I will add those two points into the bug tracker. Maybe even the second one - I don't personally think the bounty hunted monsters should appear right INSIDE the town, because that makes no sense.
But them appearing on the map or inside the dungeons on the map makes a lot of sense, even from a gameplay standpoint - if you are just starting the game, you won't be able to go to for example Castle Alamos to kill a monster...
... but maybe some upper limit should be in place based on your combined party level so that your progress in the game doesn't get blocked by a high level monster that you have no chance of killing. In the same way the Arena handles that.

[Rodril]

Hello.

I found a bug in "Shadow guild" dungeon in Frozen highlands - there should be trap where you should fall down the floor to the room with spikes, however once you walk over it and nothing happens and return there, you actually can't fall or even go there, like it was an invisible wall blocking you to go to the trap. Because of this, you are just done as you can open escape route only from the hole with spikes I guess.

I've made quickfix for it, reapply "6d08.lua" from "...Scripts\Maps" from latest update. Thank you. Though you don't need to jump down to escape trap, there's secret button in the passage, that opens way out.

Is it possible not to add files in patches that have not been changed? And then it complicates localization, because some files of tables and scripts also have a translation. Thanks. All of the holidays !

What scripts and tables do you need to localize? Scripts should not contain ingame strings, only references to tables, unless i've missed something. "Localize tables.txt" and localization EnglishT.lod, should be enough, please use them. I would not publicate only changed files, because patches happens quiet often for now, i'll post list of changed files in "Notes.txt" following patch for next updates.

The goal is just to show gloves on paper doll, right? I think that would be way too much work for such a small gimmick.

I love the possibility itself to add graphic representation for any item this way. I would modify script to show only items which have special graphics (no "pending" icon for rest), and correctly work, when loupe is on, so gloves wont disappear.

[Templayer]

I love the possibility itself to add graphic representation for any item this way. I would modify script to show only items which have special graphics (no "pending" icon for rest), and correctly work, when loupe is on, so gloves wont disappear.

YES! EXACTLY! FINALLY SOMEONE WITH THE SAME OPINION!

Would this pave the way for rings and amulets to be shown?
What we are going for is essentially the same thing like in the original 2D Ultima Online. In it there would be boxes with small items on the side of the paperdoll (necklaces, earrings, bracelets, rings...), but they would be visible on the paperdoll character as well. Except the rings had the size of about 1 pixel. You could actually grab those the same manner as using the boxes. After some pixelhunting with a zoom tool.

Actually rings and amulets might be much easier to paint into the paperdoll than gloves, now that I think of it.

[Templayer]

I hope nobody will mind, but...

... during Rodril's development of MMMerge and my management of the tracker for MMMerge, my closest family member and best friend has died.
I made a video about him. The video is not monetized by me. (I have literally zero gain from views and such)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbQG2wRVzOo
or a version without added music - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yA3d2Klxsg

The first video is monetized by the company that issued a copyright claim on the background music, the second one should have ads turned off completely.

[Milky1988]

I'm sorry for your loss... =(

I have a question that may have been answered previously, but, would you be able to create it so that when you choose either light or dark paths, the interface changes accordingly? Either the bright one for light or the darker, red one for dark?

Thanks so much for your tremendous work anyway! =)

[Templayer]

I'm sorry for your loss... =(

I have a question that may have been answered previously, but, would you be able to create it so that when you choose either light or dark paths, the interface changes accordingly? Either the bright one for light or the darker, red one for dark?

Thanks so much for your tremendous work anyway! =)

The game runs on MM8's engine, so it is using the MM8's interface, which has only one version as far as I know.

Others are implementable, but someone would have to repaint them to fit them into MM8 (which has a different interface than MM6 and MM7).

I've advocated for that several times in this thread (having a choice in menu of MM6, MM7 Neutral, MM7 Good, MM7 Evil and MM8 interface graphics), but unfortunately we are missing a semi-skilled artist to do that.

[Milky1988]

That choice of menu would be amazing!

My thoughts are with you...

[Templayer]

That choice of menu would be amazing!

My thoughts are with you...

Yeah, Rodril and GrayFace and god knows who else have reverse engineered the engine to the point that they can add custom buttons and elements wherever they want to do whatever they want.
At this point adding a list element that let's you choose the interface graphics (menus, inventory screen interface graphic,...) of the older games would be almost trivial for some people around here (Sower I'm looking at you).

Repainting them to fit the MM8 interface is another story. We have people that can do it, but it would take time and people seem to be unwilling at the moment.

I wonder what is GrayFace's stance on that matter.

Also having an "automatic" option that would simply change in accordance with the continent (and path chosen in Antagarich) would be AWESOME. And perhaps a new custom interface (which the automatic option would set in new locations like the Breach and such) would be great. We would have white-grey (MM6), yellow-brown (MM7 Neutral), red and black (MM7 Evil), blue and white (MM7 Good), and green (MM8). And then perhaps purple-orange? Or just purple? For Breach?

[Templayer]

Since I'm alone at New Year, except for my puppy, and I really wondered what an interface for the "fourth continent" (locations added by the merge) should be if Automatic was to be selected, as I've suggested in my previous post, so I have opened GIMP, and...



And yes, I stole Sawer's picture.

[Rodril]

Also having an "automatic" option that would simply change in accordance with the continent (and path chosen in Antagarich) would be AWESOME.

I thought about it, the main problem about repainting interface is character portraits... These heads do not have transparent background, it is green in tone of original MM8. Even removing straight black background from MM7 portraits was not easy, working with noisy green should be nightmare.

[Templayer]

Also having an "automatic" option that would simply change in accordance with the continent (and path chosen in Antagarich) would be AWESOME.

I thought about it, the main problem about repainting interface is character portraits... These heads do not have transparent background, it is green in tone of original MM8. Even removing straight black background from MM7 portraits was not easy, working with noisy green should be nightmare.

I have thought about that and I believe that I do have a solution for that.
Look at the pictures I've posted. For me it looks fine when the golden ring is around the portrait.
Instead of removing the background, make it a feature.

The only thing needed is making an ornamental circle around the space with the portraits. And make sure that the selection circle will be above that and looks good above it to preserve its function.

Try it out and decide for yourself.

EDIT: For some more flavour the ornamental circle could be different depending on the paperdoll origin. Probably with an option to turn this feature off. So a MM8 character would have an ornamental circle that would help visually combine the background of the portraits with the interface. Same for MM6 and MM7 characters with their individual ornaments. Some ornamental shapes could probably be extrapolated from the original interfaces for the circle.
I would kill for a pillar-esque ornamental circle around MM6 characters!

[Templayer]

I would also like to apologize for spamming the thread with pictures, I didn't realize how it looks in the default skin of this forum, where it is in one column

The skin I have selected for the forum has it in TWO columns, which looks much less spammy.

[J. M. Sower]

Also having an "automatic" option that would simply change in accordance with the continent (and path chosen in Antagarich) would be AWESOME.

I thought about it, the main problem about repainting interface is character portraits... These heads do not have transparent background, it is green in tone of original MM8. Even removing straight black background from MM7 portraits was not easy, working with noisy green should be nightmare.

I have thought about that and I believe that I do have a solution for that.
Look at the pictures I've posted. For me it looks fine when the golden ring is around the portrait.
Instead of removing the background, make it a feature.

The only thing needed is making an ornamental circle around the space with the portraits. And make sure that the selection circle will be above that and looks good above it to preserve its function.

Try it out and decide for yourself.

EDIT: For some more flavour the ornamental circle could be different depending on the paperdoll origin. Probably with an option to turn this feature off. So a MM8 character would have an ornamental circle that would help visually combine the background of the portraits with the interface. Same for MM6 and MM7 characters with their individual ornaments. Some ornamental shapes could probably be extrapolated from the original interfaces for the circle.
I would kill for a pillar-esque ornamental circle around MM6 characters!

As you can see I untroduced silver circles on potraits to make them more compatible with new colour of interface. Coloring of them all will be too much work.