Might and Magic IX
Auxiliary FAQ (Version 2.5 - Incomplete Struggle)
Current Update: Friday, 17 May 2002
Previous Update: Friday, 10 May 2002
Created: Sunday, 14 April 2002
By Don "Gamera" Chan (crs1219@hotmail.com)
Note: I read Tim Hollebeek's MM9 FAQs as I play
MM9. This FAQ is "auxiliary" because this FAQ
may skip the details that his FAQ already
explained. OTOH, this FAQ reports details that
aren't or weren't in his FAQ, and clarifies
details that are ambiguous in his FAQ.
0. Wanted
1. Acknowledgements
2. 1st Impression
2.1 2nd Impression
2.2 3rd Impression
3. Character Creation
3.1 Character Development
3.2 Skill Ranks
4. Solution
4.1 Ravensford
4.2 Isle of Ashes
4.3 Sturmford
4.4 Sturmford City
4.5 Beet Hoven
4.6 Drangheim
4.7 Drangheim City
4.8 Drangheim Prison
4.9 Kluso's House
4.10 Chasm of the Dead
4.11 Guberland
4.12 Guberland City
4.13 Dook's Castle
4.14 Temple of Honk
4.15 Thjorgard
4.16 Thjorgard City
4.17 Arena
4.18 Thjorad Mine
4.19 Lindisfarne
4.20 Ta'Sar Academy
4.21 Mountain Pass
5. Promoters and Trainers
6. Civilians
7. Monsters
8. Links
"Setsunasa!" (*1)
0. WANTED
I'm looking for:
- A list of the details of the promotion quests of
each class.
- A list of the promoter and trainer NPCs,
including their skills, exact locations, names, and
appearances.
- Any Easter Egg or weirdness that the overworked,
underpaid, and now jobless MM9 programmers planted, or
any undocumented feature that the debuggers missed.
- A table of which class can achieve which skill
rank in which skill.
- How to adapt and overcome the various bugs.
- A Greek translation of the Disclaimer (see below).
Disclaimer: I send the newest version of this file
to only six Websites:
- http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/game/12292.html
- http://vgstrategies.about.com/
- http://DLH.Net/
- http://www.gamesover.com/
- http://www.cheathappens.com/
- http://gameguru.box.sk/cheat.php3?cheat=4788
If you downloaded or read this file at other
Websites, the SysOps of the other Websites probably
leeched it from one of the above Websites.
Dementi: J'ai envoye la plus recente version de ce
fichier a seulement six sites webs.
- http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/game/12292.html
- http://vgstrategies.about.com/
- http://DLH.Net/
- http://www.gamesover.com/
- http://www.cheathappens.com/
- http://gameguru.box.sk/cheat.php3?cheat=4788
Si vous avez telecharge ou lu ce fichier a partir
d'autres sites, les responsables de ces sites l'auront
probablement pompe a partir de l'un des sites ci-dessus.
1. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to these sierra hotel persons/organisations:
- Allan Mills, for feedback.
- Carg85, for his MM9 fan page, reviewing this file,
and Q&A.
- Chickenator, colonelessssss, Doomgiver, Gamin
Granny, I Need Game Rehab, Livejazz, nifboy, peepsbucket,
Sharkman8, ullteppe, Xenogias, and other MM9 fans and
players in the MM9 message board in GameFAQs.com, for
Q&A.
- Jean-Luc Barbera of France, for the French
translation of the Disclaimer, and the English
translation of the NOIR foreword. (After all, English
and French are the two official languages up here in
Canada, the True North Strong and Free.)
- T08145, for the MM9 Boat Schedules FAQ.
- The now jobless MM9 programmers.
- Tim Hollebeek (beek), for his MM9 FAQ.
(Social democracy in action.)
No thanks to these lima delta persons/organisations:
- M27Power.Com, for computer virus.
- The fratricidal pilot of the F-16 of the 183rd
Fighter Wing, Illinois Air National Guard (based at
Springfield, Illinois, USA), that attacked, with a
500-pound laser-guided bomb, members of Alpha Company,
3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light
Infantry (3 PPCLI, based at Edmonton Garrison, Alberta,
Canada), Canadian Armed Forces, about 14 klicks out of
Kandahar, Afghanistan, at or about 01:55 on Thursday, 18
April 2002 (local time). (X_X) Four Canadian soldiers
were KIA, and eight were WIA. (;_;)
(Don't worry. I'll remove the above note in a future
version of this file.)
- The now jobless MM9 programmers' employers at 3DO.
In memory of:
- The victims of the terrorist attacks in the USA
in the morning on 11 September 2001. God bless America.
"Le noir, ce mot designe depuis une epoque
lointaine le nom du destin.
"Les deux vierges regnent sur la mort.
"Les mains noires protegent la paix des
nouveaux-nes."
- NOIR (TV: 2001)
2. 1ST IMPRESSION
MM9 (Might and Magic IX) is on two CDs. The game doesn't allow the
player to choose the
install size, and it occupies about 1.01 GB. The install programme
automatically checks if
the player's hardware passes the system requirements defined by the
programmers. BTW, MM9 is
rated Teen for blood and violence.
(IIRC, the last Might and Magic that I played was MM1. (@_@;) And the
last two
first-person-view, real-time, action RPG that I played were System Shock I
and Ultima
Underworld I: Stygian Abyss.)
On Disc 2, the MM9 manual is a 6.11 MB PDF file. RTFM!
When the player begins a new game, the player creates a party of four
PCs. Later, the
party can reportedly recruit up to three more NPCs.
Character creation is IMO relatively simple, and reminds me of the old
TRPG called TFT
(The Fantasy Trip), which evolved into GURPS (Generic Universal Role Playing
System). The MM9
player chooses each PC's race, sex, class, voice, and skills, as well as
allocating extra
points to the PC's six statistics.
Four races are available: Human, Dwarf, Elf, and Half-Orc. (No Gnome,
Half-Elf, or
Hobbit.) Each race has two female and two male, head-only portraits, which
look IMO less
comical than those in WIZ8 (Wizardry 8), and less attractive than those in
IWD1 (Icewind Dale
I) and HOW (Heart of Winter).
Two classes are initially available: Fighter (warrior) and Initiate
(priest/wizard).
Each class is actually a career path, like in the Langrisser series and
Warhammer TRPG.
Later, according to the quests the party completes, a Fighter can advance
into a Crusader or
Mercenary. Later^2, a Crusader can advance into a Paladin or Ranger. Or, a
Mercenary can
advance into an Assassin or Gladiator.
Each class begins with two occupational (default) skills, and chooses
two more skills
from a list of optional skills. A Fighter always begins with Blade and
Armour, and an
Initiate always begins with Elemental and Spirit. Elemental and Spirit are
two schools of
magic spells. Other schools include Dark and Light.
Some of the Fighter's optional skills aren't available to the Initiate,
and vice versa.
Each skill has four ranks: Normal (N), Expert (E), Master (M), and
Grandmaster (G). Each
class can achieve different maximum ranks in different skills. For example,
any non-Fighter
apparently can't have Blade or Bow at Grandmaster.
The statistics are: Might, Magic, Endurance, Accuracy, Speed, and Luck.
The initial
In addition, the player can allocate 10 extra points to the statistics.
The non-Human races have advantageous (+) and disadvantageous (-)
statistics. For
instance, an Elf spends one extra point to increase her Accuracy by two, but
has to spend two
extra points to increase her Endurance by one. The player can also decrease
a statistic to
below its initial value for more extra points.
In the game, the party will find items (barrels, wells, &c) that
permanently or
temporarily increases the party's statistics and resistances.
Each PC's name can't contain a hyphen. The name can have a blank space,
but the letter
after the blank space can't be in upper case.
When the party begins a new adventure, each PC has minimal equipment.
Every PC should
immediately equip the (poor) armour, weapon, and accessories she has, learn
spells from the
spellbooks she may have, and choose her quick spell.
PCs with the Bow skill get free bows, but aren't given arrows. (?_?)
Any PC, Fighter or Initiate, who doesn't have the Armour and Shield
skills can't use
armours and shields. A Fighter needs a higher skill level in Armour to wear
better armours,
such as chain-mail and plate-mail.
An Initiate always get an Elemental Bolt spellbook.
In the inventory screen, I think the clothed, full-body, heroic
portrait depends on the
PC's sex and class, and doesn't depend on the PC's race?
(I got used to the anatomical incorrect, frontal, full-body nudity in
WIZ8.)
The game has a finite number of save game slots. Each save game slot
has a screen shot
of where the player saved that slot.
Based on the other MM9 players' comments in the MM9 message board in
GameFAQs.com at
http://cgi.gamefaqs.com/boards/gentopic.asp?board=12292
I (plan to) create two Fighters and two Initiates. Initiate 1 will become a
Mage, Initiate 2
will become a Lich, Fighter 1 will become an Assassin (melee offense) or
Gladiator (melee
defense), and Fighter 2 will beomce an Assassin, Gladiator, or Ranger
(ranged offense).
The Mage and Lich reportedly have adequate healing spells to compensate
for no Druid,
Paladin, or Priest...
BTW, Icewind Dale II is scheduled for 2002.05.28. Cool, no, cold.
Later (2002.05.16): OTOH, a high-level Druid with Grandmaster Dodge and
Unarmed Combat
is reportedly an excellent martial artist with high number of attacks, high
damage per
attack, and high base armour class. Also, this Druid's healing spells
reportedly heal more HP
than a high-level Lich or Mage's.
(Thanks to Sharkman8.)
