World of Xeen - Advice for first time player

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Aether_Wind
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World of Xeen - Advice for first time player

Unread postby Aether_Wind » 29 Oct 2012, 23:51

So, I've been a fan of the games for some time. I first got into it through Heroes 2, and the first MM I played was 8. I've played 6-9, and I just bought all of them on GoG recently (1-9 and Heroes 2 & 3 for less than $20!). I've started playing World of Xeen, and, after getting used to the interface (mostly), I have a pretty good grasp on the game. However, there are a few things that I still am hazy on.

First and foremost, age. I've read in several places that (natural) aging is not an issue unless you really really try to make it one. I've been playing for about a week (real-time) now, and my characters are 21, and I'm level 11-12. On the other hand, I've read (in a general tips section of an FAQ, unfortunately I can't remember which) that it is good to use Esc or a mouse click to exit the notification when drinking from a well instead of space bar, since that does not advance time (even though it only advances by a minute when you drink). Essentially, I would like to know roughly how long an average game takes, and if it should be a concern. Unnatural aging, on the other hand, is proving a pain. I'm in Winterkill right now, and my cleric just got blasted to 102 years, so I'm searching for a cure to that.

Secondly, I have mainly been playing on Cloudside. Is this advisable, desired, or should I explore Darkside as well? Is there any advantage to playing through all of one area?

Lastly, money and gems. I'm hesitant about using gems for spell casting, as I typically do not like to use a (currently) finite resource frivolously. I know that banking gems/gold generates interest, and I am trying to find enough gems that I can easily live off of the interest. I know there are some ways to get arbitrarily high amounts of gold and such via the mirror and working, but I'm trying to play more of a traditional game. Also, do monsters generally respawn? If so, what's the time per respawning?

Anyway, I am really enjoying the game so far (other than the frustrating weapon/armor interface), and any general advice on playing would be appreciated!

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Unread postby Tress » 30 Oct 2012, 07:22

First and foremost, age. I've read in several places that (natural) aging is not an issue unless you really really try to make it one.
That is not that much of an issue. Natural aging even while much more noticeable than in mm6-8, is no much of a concern. Unnatural aging on other hand is reversable by qurst on both sides of xeen. Dont want to give out spoilers but IRRC cloud side you had to visit few places for full cycle to reset age, and on darkside there was single quest that allowed to reset age every time you visit place.
Secondly, I have mainly been playing on Cloudside. Is this advisable, desired, or should I explore Darkside as well? Is there any advantage to playing through all of one area?
If you start with lvl 1 party then it is advisable t do clouds first. Normally you cant get past lvl 20 in clouds(there is couple extra levels but in training halls 20 is max). So do clouds first, but you may visit darkside along the way as well.
Lastly, money and gems.
Gems aren't really issue, besides I think there was intended way to get infinite amounts of them. Money on other hand will be sucked dry on higher levels for training.

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Unread postby Flodarien » 31 Oct 2012, 01:02

First and foremost, age. I've read in several places that (natural) aging is not an issue unless you really really try to make it one.
Well, if you do not want to make Natural aging a problem, I can suggest that you do not rest at every step to regain your health. Resting takes 8 hours, and each steps takes either 5 min on the overworld, or 1 min inside (Castle, town, dungeon). Try using your magic, fountains or the temple to heal before using rest.

As for your problem with Magical aging, you should try to find all the druids in the druids circles. one will offer you an item, and then you have to go around in order. At your levels, it might be rough. And 102 years old is quite much, so you should make that a priority.
Secondly, I have mainly been playing on Cloudside. Is this advisable, desired, or should I explore Darkside as well? Is there any advantage to playing through all of one area?
You can easily do all of Cloudside with only the things it offers. There are some High level areas that might be harder, and might want to be more than level 20 for it.
Lastly, money and gems.
Well, as said earlier, gems are rather easy to find later on, especially on Darkside. But for gold, I suggest to bank some. Each week, you get 10% more gold and gems at the bank, so the earlier you save, the more you get. Sadly, it doesn't work like that in MM6/7/8

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Unread postby tolich » 31 Oct 2012, 05:49

Flodarien wrote:Sadly, it doesn't work like that in MM6/7/8
Luckily, there's a mod that makes banks to pay interest. It requires MMExtension though.

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Unread postby Asmodis » 31 Oct 2012, 21:44

The main thing to watch out for concerning natural aging are the job offers in some of the cities that give you a small amount of gold via wasting a week or two of game time. They can add up age very quickly for a rather mediocre amount of gold so it's best to avoid them unless you're planning on abusing the bank system I guess.

Concerning aging itself, your chars will get a penalty in some of their stats after certain intervals (mainly the physical ones like strength) and a bonus to others (like INT). The penalties themselves aren't that noticeble unless a stat drops to/below 0, in which case the char (most likely a pure spellcaster) will die.

"Clearing" Cloudside would be a good idea on your first playthrough. You won't be able to access everything outright since some of the dungeons are intertwined with the Darkside/WoX plot and some areas can be quite tough (Dragon Lair) but it's a nice way to start off your chars easy before hitting the Darkside, which has a rather steep advancement in difficulty sometimes (Armadillos, aargh!).

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Unread postby Flodarien » 01 Nov 2012, 03:46

Oh! I remember the Armadillos when I was younger. I didn't have MM4, so I had to rely on the Beast sleep spell (Can't remember the name). But that was the worst step in the leveling. With a starting party at Level 20 with decent gear, MM5 will seem like cakewalk, especially when doing Castleview.

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Unread postby Talin_Trollbane » 01 Nov 2012, 21:12

well, if you are in need of cash you can always ask Count Du Money for more ;)
Ultima, Elder Scrolls and Might and Magic Veteran.

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Unread postby Aether_Wind » 01 Nov 2012, 23:49

I found the quest in Cloudside to reverse magical aging. I'm not really sure how my cleric got to 102, but I'm glad she's not anymore.

I've been consistently banking all of my gold each time I go to a town, so hopefully I won't have *too* much of an issue, since it seems that the consensus is that gold is the real problem late game.

Also, more of a technical thing, but how is spell duration determined? Several times I've gone through the process of using wells and casting my buffs only to find that I get the "The Party needs rest!" message, and all of the buffs are dispelled! It's quite frustrating

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Unread postby Arret » 02 Nov 2012, 02:27

There is no "duration" effect the way you are thinking of it in MM6 and later. Most spells last until 5 am, which is the start of a new "magic day". Well effects also wear off at this time. The best way to avoid this is to cast spells right after 5:00, preferably in a city. If you aren't using Lloyd's beacon, start using it. Especially on Cloudside defeat Count Draco in Nightshadow the well gives a temporary +10 levels!. If you hit a new magic day twice without resting you get the weakness debuff.

Also, outside steps are 10 minutes (not 5) so doing even minor exploring can take several days. That 10 minutes is also activated when you cast a spell or drink from a fountain. If you are planning on visiting 3+ wells, there goes a lot of your day.

Other things that could take absurd amounts of time are training and temple healing if you aren't using them right. Each person that gets healed in a temple takes 1 full day. Any time you enter a shop (such as the blacksmith), there goes 1 full day. Training is 1 day per person for as many levels as you can until you leave (press esc) from the training hall. This means that if you go in every time you plan to train you will end up losing years. If you go in to a temple every time a character needs healing the time flies through as well.

Also as mentioned above, don't use the weekly job tasks until you are sitting on a ton of cash in the bank and are planning to train a whole bunch (suggested when you plan to train to above level 100).
Last edited by Arret on 02 Nov 2012, 02:53, edited 1 time in total.

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Unread postby Arret » 02 Nov 2012, 02:44

Splitting my post up to avoid TL;DR.

Armadillos are easy, cast hypnotize. Beast master doesn't work nearly as well.

Much of Cloudside is about getting good enough weapons to make most of your Darkside game easy (well until you get to minotaurs). If you haven't looked up a stats sheet, you should. Obsidian, not diamond is the top level gear. It is not a huge deal on armor, but makes a HUGE difference on weapons Well unless you decide to cheese the weapons in the game with the mirror cheat.

If your cleric got really aged, it was probably from the Tomb of 1000 Terrors, where there are plenty of monsters that cast a +5 magical aging and preferred target is Cleric. This isn't particularly strange for undead monsters.

There is only one place in the game that really requires being able to handle advanced aging, and that is on Darkside. Related to this, you will eventually need (well not need but it's really really helpful) everyone able to reach 100 intellect at some point in Darkside, so consider saving some intellect accessories.

There is at least one way to get infinite gold, but it is incredibly tedious and requires massive save abuse. I would advise against it unless you are planning to train to max level which is completely unnecessary.
We warn you about gold because each level as you may have noticed has the cost going up each level. In a normal game, you should be able to reach about the point where each level costs 100k. Yes, 100k per person per level.

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Unread postby tolich » 02 Nov 2012, 05:51

Not healing/buying/selling itself takes a day. Every visit to temple/blacksmith/bank/inn/tavern takes a whole day.

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Unread postby Mn » 07 Nov 2012, 11:25

Little hint - dont't play WoX with standard party - You can improve your party at the start. For example, one of "easy" parties can consists from Robber-Pal-Pal-Archer-Archer-Archer. (Don't forget to change armor/weapons)
A'm not agree that it is simpliest way to complete Clouds and only after begin Dark Side. All quests and level bonuses from Clouds are avaliable at any time you want, but by jumping from one side to other will increase speed of your travel.
In money or gems you will not any troubles - there are several places to obtain them without bank percents. Don't forget to become Trade Master as soon as it possible. At approx 75 level (It is enough to complete not whole the game, but all Cloud and Dark Quests) I have 20Mln gold and near 150K gems in bank deposit.
Forget about unnatural aging - several beacons (not only by archers) are ready to decide this problem at any time.

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Unread postby skinothetis1 » 28 Nov 2012, 01:35

I think i may have found something about aging. There is place that you get 5 levels but age 80 years or so.I did that to every character and decided to do the druid cycle visit to un-age.I noticed that after taking 10 steps on the area, a whole day passed.So this is either a bug or if you age on an amount close to 100 your become less able for traveling at normal speeds, aka time passes faster because you are old and travel slower.
You have nowhere to run Sheltem. Nore do you!You motherf$#(*@ device!!

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Unread postby tolich » 28 Nov 2012, 06:30

skinothetis1 wrote:I think i may have found something about aging. There is place that you get 5 levels but age 80 years or so.
Bad news for you: The Book of Great Power do not age, but remove all skills instead, including Thievery. It is why
skinothetis1 wrote:I noticed that after taking 10 steps on the area, a whole day passed.
It's because none of your characters has Navigator skill. The Fountain of Life is safer, it ages, but grants only one free level.
skinothetis1 wrote:I did that to every character and decided to do the druid cycle visit to un-age.
Restore the Fountain of Youth, it's much faster.

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Unread postby Arret » 02 Dec 2012, 18:12

tolich wrote:
skinothetis1 wrote:I think i may have found something about aging. There is place that you get 5 levels but age 80 years or so.
Bad news for you: The Book of Great Power do not age, but remove all skills instead, including Thievery. It is why
skinothetis1 wrote:I noticed that after taking 10 steps on the area, a whole day passed.
It's because none of your characters has Navigator skill. The Fountain of Life is safer, it ages, but grants only one free level.
skinothetis1 wrote:I did that to every character and decided to do the druid cycle visit to un-age.
Restore the Fountain of Youth, it's much faster.
After reading the book of great power from the eastern tower you are supposed to go to Shangri-la on Cloudside and drop 600000 gold to relearn everything. It is much faster than tracking down all the teachers, but is expensive.

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tolich
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Unread postby tolich » 03 Dec 2012, 08:45

Arret wrote:... drop 600000 gold to relearn everything. It is much faster than tracking down all the teachers, ...
As far as I remember, term 'all skills' includes Tracker, but excludes Thievery, so think twice before doing so with your thief/ninja. As for Thief, being Prince(ss) plays better. BTW, I usually hate learning unnecessary skills, like Astrologist for Knights or more than one Cartographer in group. It breaks the fragile illusion of the roleplaying.

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Unread postby skinothetis1 » 22 Dec 2012, 07:50

I got the skills and i have thievery on my thieffy thief.
You have nowhere to run Sheltem. Nore do you!You motherf$#(*@ device!!

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Unread postby koval321 » 30 Dec 2012, 16:18

Am completed this game and may have few advices:

Hybrid professions seem to be designed for super minimal team of 2 peoples, because with small team they get more experience and make normal progression, their wide range of skills is enough to avoid stuck somewhere. Am played four standard class like priest thief mage knight

Remember where are wells and beacon there, they give very useful bonus, before each fight am boost team twice stronger thanx to wells.

Knight is something different from later M&M he is useful trough entire game, after leveling gain multi hit in one round so is even stronger than experienced mage sometime. In later games it seem like its actualy Magic&Magic game.

Casting magic require gems, probably as one of balance between might and magic style. Later in game you will have so much them that its no bog concern about

Am explored bright side and then full dark side, probably good option its like start new game with previously team. Less boring this way probably, because if jump from one world to other in could be bit confusing anyway.

Its bit pen and paper game because puzzles (no you cant remember all things, so be prepared) This game have more tactic and puzzle than later almost hack&slash games.

And must say that nevertheless old gfx it may easy pretend to best M&M so its worth play.

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Unread postby skinothetis1 » 29 Jan 2013, 04:18

Mage is not very useful here.
You probably need teleport,jump and beacon but after level 20 you probably don't bother to cast an aggressive spell.Also mage is useful for creatures that resist normal weapons.
You don't really need wells after level 40.Probably only for Mega Dragon.
Yes graphics sucks and game play is average and story is badly written...Not.
This is my top RPG game of all times!
You have nowhere to run Sheltem. Nore do you!You motherf$#(*@ device!!

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Arret
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Unread postby Arret » 29 Jan 2013, 04:26

Sorcerer class is much weaker in WoX than in MM3 because there aren't fights where you are expected to keep casting implosion. The extra spell points don't really add anything late game. The lack of spell points for archers is a major problem but gets fixed early enough, in Rivercity and later at the 1k fountain, that you can work around it.


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