Might and Magic IX
Supplementary FAQ (Version 3.7 - Incomplete Struggle)
Current Update: Sunday, 23 June 2002
Previous Update: Sunday, 16 June 2002
Created: Sunday, 14 April 2002
By Don "Gamera" Chan (crs1219@hotmail.com)
Note: If you haven't installed the MM9 patches,
install them! Get the official v1.2 (or above) patch
from the MM9 official sites, and the unofficial
patch from Carg85's MM9 fan page. The patches fix
the serious bugs, don't fix the cheap bugs that MM9
players can exploit, don't disrupt the save games,
and prevent a lot of confusion and frustration.
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
4.22 Frosgard
4.23 Dungeon of Secrets
4.24 Thronheim
4.25 Thronheim City
4.26 Inventa Storca
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 hosting the unofficial patch in his MM9
fan page, feedback, reviewing this file, and Q&A.
- Chickenator, colonelessssss, Doomgiver, Gamin
Granny, han clan solo, I Need Game Rehab, Livejazz, nifboy,
peepsbucket, ullteppe, Xenogias, and other MM9 fans and
players in the MM9 message board in GameFAQs.com, for Q&A.
- Elf, Nobody, Peter2, Sir William S. Titan, and other
MM9 fans and players in the TELP's MM9 Tavern message board,
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.)
- Mass Confusion, for the Arena trick and some
weirdness.
- Sharkman8, for the Dungeon of Secrets trick and Q&A.
- 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 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 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) by SJG (Steve Jackson Games). 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 are 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 values of the
statistics depend on the PC's race:
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 2002.08.05. 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, the
Druid's healing spells reportedly heal more HP than a
high-level Lich or Mage's. (Thanks to Sharkman8.)
