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Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven (Cover by Larry Elmore, best known, at least to me, for doing a bunch of Dragonlance art, just in case any of it looked familiar) Welcome to my next idiot project. What Is Might and Magic VI? Right, so, it might have occurred to some that there's a venerable series of RPG's called Might and Magic, perhaps because they've read Thuryl's extremely excellent LP's of the first five games. For those unfamiliar, the M&M series has always been a unique mix of sci-fi and fantasy. For instance, M&M 1 and 2 were set on colony pod spaceships, travelling through space for long enough to develop their own fantasy civilizations and backgrounds, that were in trouble, M&M3 was set on a world-to-be-colonized and M&M4+5 were set on another artificial world. The connecting plot for all five was that these worlds were projects of the Ancients, but one of their agents, an android known as Sheltem, had gone rogue and set off to destroy some of their projects and become overlord of others. He was countered by a loyal agent, Corak, whom the players assisted and were assisted by, culminating in M&M5 where Corak and Sheltem finally came to blows and destroyed each other. Then the series took a nap. In the meantime, it became a turn-based strategy series, the Heroes of Might and Magic series, which has relatively little connection to the RPG's except for sharing some named characters. The Heroes series is almost purely fantasy, with the sci-fi elements extremely toned down(compared to the RPG's where end-game enemies are almost always robots and droids and laser rifles and phasers are equippable gear). The first one seemed almost purely a stand-alone project, but then the second one started to, gasp, actually have some plot, being set on the civil war riven continent of Enroth, as Roland and Archibald Ironfist fought for the throne(the good and evil brother repsectively). Canonically, Roland won and turned Archibald into a statue to decorate his library. Then M&M6 happened. Now, the old M&M's were turn-based, square-based, kind of like old Wizardry games except there wasn't a sub-screen for combat, it all happened in the world. M&M6...   Oh poo poo, it's 3D! Oh poo poo, it's free movement, no squares! Oh poo poo, we've got actual rag-dolls to slap a bunch of gear on so they look like clowns! Oh poo poo it's... real... time? Now anyone who followed my W&W LP might start frothing a little bit at the thought of a turn-based series going real-time, having flashbacks to the jank-rear end implementation there, but in M&M6 it's, thankfully, different. It's full real-time, no weird-rear end combination, but you can flip it over to turn-based at any time. Generally in the overworld and open areas you want real-time(since it lets you dodge projectiles and move faster), and in enclosed dungeon squabbles you want turn-based so you can actually think about what to do, and you can't really do much dodging in a corridor anyway.  It's worth noting that this was a 1998 release, so two years earlier than Wizards & Warriors and three years earlier than Wizardry 8. They seem to have made some smart technological choices about it, though, going for better draw distance by not going for HYPER GRAPHICS. It's probably easily noticeable that everyone moving around is a sprite rather than a 3D model, with 3D models used only for structures and terrain. It takes a bit of getting used to, but it works, and I'd rather have an ugly game that works than a pretty game that's... whatever W&W was. Speaking of the technology of this game, I'd like to share a short tale about getting this LP up and running. Running the game itself, no probalo, GOG has it, runs smooth. BUT, it only accepts full display capture from OBS, which gives me a loving postage stamp of a recording area. So, google google google, turns out it should have a windowed mode if I just press F4! Ah-hah! Except it refuses to run the windowed mode if I'm not in loving, uh, 32-bit colour mode, and I don't exactly have a Windows 98SE PC lying around. Google "M&M 6 windowed mode halp" and it turns out that one Russian comes to my rescue. https://grayface.github.io/mm/ This guy, a loving mad lad, has patched M&M6, 7 and 8 to have... functioning quicksaves. Functioning mouselook and strafing(loving hallelujah!). And functioning windowed mode on modern machines. In addition to fixing a number of bugs that the official patches missed including one where you could corrupt your saves by trying to recharge the wrong wand. As far as I'm aware, outside of bug fixes and QoL stuff, these patches don't gently caress with the gameplay at all, so I intend to use them. And yes, I said them, I'm doing all three of these games, fuckerrrrrrs, get in for the ride. Also, since I've mentioned GOG, I would like everyone to have a laugh at their expense. Now, quite reasonably, they scanned a bunch of the things that followed with the original game, like the manual and such, as .PDF's. And the original map.  gently caress me, I have never seen a loving scan this bad in anything resembling a commercial release. What the gently caress is this deep-fried crusty poo poo? For comparison, here's a scan from some rando on Steam:  In any case, the scene is set, so how about we get some plot up in this? The Setup https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5Nav1ZMdxg The Cliff's Notes are that Enroth is nice and chill after Roland dunks on Archibald, but then The writing for M&M6 is certainly better than Wizards & Warriors but the intro really is not a strong part of it.  The Party Alright, so for this game, we need four well-meaning morons. M&M6 is somewhat bare-bones in this regard compared to the following games(everyone is human, for instance), but we still have some choices to make! First, we gotta pick a name, a gender and a profile image:  Yeah, that's it, those are the loving options. Hope you like white people half of which thought they were auditioning for a low-budget gimmick porno.Then, the other choice is a class:  Knights can use all armor/weapons and are the beefiest potential party memebers. They're also the only class without magic, though this frees them up to focus on non-magical skills like disarming traps. Unlike later games, any class that can learn a skill can learn it as well as any other class, so Knights are also likely to end up as sort-of, kind-of rogues and jack-of-all-trades.  Sorcerers are fragile, weedy glass cannons that have access, initially, to the four elemental types of magic. Four kinds of blasting as well as vital utility spells like Lloyd's Beacon and Town Portal. Obviously, they cannot fight for poo poo and will fall over in a stiff breeze. They also later get access to Dark and Light magic which are muy bueno as they have both some of the strongest combat spells and pack many of the other elements' buff spells into two handy packages called Day of Sorcery and Day of Protection.  Clerics are there to patch everyone up once they're half dead and to prevent them from getting half-dead with buffs. They've got Body, Spirit and Mind magic in addition to later being able to unlock Dark and Light magic like Sorcerers, having access to much the same spells. They're less blasty than Sorcerers, but make up for it by actually being able to wear armor and stave in heads with a stick.  Archers are an odd naming for what's a Knight/Sorcerer Hybrid(though they get no Light/Dark access, that's for Clerics and Sorcerers only). Despite the name they aren't, in VI, better actual archers than anyone else(in fact, everyone can use a Bow and become a Bow Master). Like Knights, they can use all weapons, but they're limited in terms of armor.  Paladins are Knight/Cleric hybrids, obviously, getting Body, Spirit and Mind magic but no Light/Dark casting. Like a Knight, they can use literally all weapons and armor. Ultimately they're probably a smarter choice than Knights, since the game has no front/back row options or other ways to really make your Knight "tank" hits for the rest, and if your Knight is the last survivor, sure, he can drag everyone back to a temple, but if a Paladin is your last survivor he might well be able to just resurrect everyone and keep on going instead.  Druids actually aren't poo poo now. In the earlier M&M games they appeared in they were Sorcerer/Cleric hybrids that sucked poo poo since they couldn't use their higher spell tiers and had no unique things of their own. In 6 they still have no spells of their own, but have full access to Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Body, Spirit and Mind magic. Everything but Light and Dark. They have marginally better Armor and Weapon selections than Sorcerers, but only barely. Submit Some Heroic Idiots Please and thank you. Also please do not leave me without any Mind/Body/Spirit casters or casters that have eventual access to Light/Dark magic. But I promise, I'll only use submitted characters, so if you guys gently caress me, you guys gently caress me. Spoiler Policy M&M6 doesn't have a lot to spoil, but I'd like to keep some surprises, so try to keep it under control, also please no spoilers for the following games because they do actually have a few surprises. Post Index Update 001: Proper Hydration Update 002: Wildlife Conservation Update 003: It's A Perfectly Legal Thrill Update 004: Clowning Around Update 005: Incidental Heroics Update 006: A Circu(s)tuitous Route Update 007: Promotions Update 008: Promotions 2, Promote Harder Update 009: Promotions 3: Promote With A Vengeance Update 010: Promotions 4: No More Subtitles Update 011: Promotions 5: The Edgy 90's remake Update 012: Promotions 6: Top Tier Update 013: Back On Track Update 014: The Eyes Have It Update 015: Gharik's Mod Update 016: Baahd Vibes Update 017: Yes, They're Trekkies Update 018: Pyramid Scheme Update 019: Kriegspire and Beyond Update 020: The Trekkies of VARN Update 021: Blastin' Makes Me Feel Good Update 022: Fully Automated Space Luxury Gunnunism PurpleXVI fucked around with this message at 18:46 on May 24, 2023 |
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Dec 19, 2020 11:06
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I don't care so much about names, but I do want the guy with an eyepatch as an Archer, because ranged units with no depth perception is always funny to me.
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Dec 19, 2020 11:45
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The bottom left portrait (woman with blue headband) should be a Druid named Agnes because (a) I refuse to believe you that Druids don't totally suck and (b) that face just reminds me of a stern elderly woman who's just over this poo poo. Also what happened to Robbers/Ninjas and Barbarians?
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Dec 19, 2020 11:57
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You're a mad man and I love this.
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Dec 19, 2020 12:12
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Well, we have to take Eyepatch, 70s Pornstache and Nosering. I don't even care what classes they are. As for the fourth, MagusofStars posted:The bottom left portrait (woman with blue headband) should be a Druid named Agnes because (a) I refuse to believe you that Druids don't totally suck and (b) that face just reminds me of a stern elderly woman who's just over this poo poo. this works as well as any.
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Dec 19, 2020 12:42
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I'm getting total fortune-teller vibes from the lady on the bottom right. She shall be a Sorcerer called Lady Boudisha.
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Dec 19, 2020 12:50
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The red hair guy in the top right should be a Paladin named Seamus
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Dec 19, 2020 13:52
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Awesome, I can never bring myself to finish mm6 and up so thanks for volunteering!
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Dec 19, 2020 16:59
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Man this game isn't even that terrible, I feel cheated.
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Dec 19, 2020 17:38
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BisbyWorl posted:I don't care so much about names, but I do want the guy with an eyepatch as an Archer, because ranged units with no depth perception is always funny to me. This but call him Deadeye.
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Dec 19, 2020 17:42
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I gotta go with Headband Jesus the Cleric, if I were about to go kick the poo poo out of some moneylenders in the temple (PS5 scalpers in the modern translation) and I needed something to keep the sweat out of my eyes while doing it, I would definitely rock that headband. Although I also do like the redhead, Pippi Longstache.
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Dec 19, 2020 18:32
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TitanG posted:Man this game isn't even that terrible, I feel cheated. You funny man you. You will see. You will all see. I'm not even going to spoil it, but gently caress me, there are dungeons in this game that were created to make a happy person slit their wrists on a fine spring morning.
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Dec 19, 2020 20:22
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And the interface felt ill considered even back when the game came out. I was really disappointed at the time.
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Dec 19, 2020 20:41
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By popular demand posted:And the interface felt ill considered even back when the game came out. I was really disappointed at the time. It's also a game where outdoors combat is best done by strafing and dodging but it has no inherent strafe function until this fanpatch.
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Dec 19, 2020 21:14
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Yup, it never stopped feeling awkward to me and I tried getting into these games for the better part of 22 years. I can still have fun with classic turn based rpgs or more modern action rpg games, but this stepping stone hybrid engine just kills it for me.
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Dec 19, 2020 21:20
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If you ever feel like it after finishing this LP, I'd love to see someone do an LP of the Heroes III Chronicles campaigns (or Horn of the Abyss, if you prefer mods). I burned so many hours on Heroes of Might & Magic as a kid... Also:
TravelLog fucked around with this message at 22:30 on Dec 19, 2020 |
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Dec 19, 2020 22:23
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TravelLog posted:If you ever feel like it after finishing this LP, I'd love to see someone do an LP of the Heroes III Chronicles campaigns (or Horn of the Abyss, if you prefer mods). I burned so many hours on Heroes of Might & Magic as a kid... I confess that I never really cared that much for the Heroes games, they just felt... something was really lacking from them, to my mind. Which is extremely strange because I love turn-based strategy and RPG's, I think it was the pacing of them that just felt like they contained so much empty space.
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Dec 19, 2020 22:28
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PurpleXVI posted:I confess that I never really cared that much for the Heroes games, they just felt... something was really lacking from them, to my mind. That is fair enough. I think the game shined most on Small / Medium maps. I don't disagree that on the really huge maps you get in some of the later campaigns things devolve to feeling like busy-work as you shuttle heroes and creatures around for weeks at a time. I also edited my post above with a proposed party.
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Dec 19, 2020 22:32
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Clearly we need this guy: Named Obelix as some kind of fight man. Maybe Bobelix, the B being for bargain 
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Dec 20, 2020 00:39
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Eyepatch Guy, a Paladin named Buff Drinklots
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Dec 20, 2020 05:42
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A sorceress named Glinda, the lady with the blonde hair and gold headband Headband Jesus the Cleric the guy with an eyepatch as an Archer Male Paladin named Carrot (Male Portrait #3) That should be a good lineup.
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Dec 20, 2020 06:05
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PurpleXVI posted:You funny man you. Oh I know, I've played it. It's huge, it's stupid, it more than occasionally hates you but it's not terrible. Also I'm in agreement for Deadeye the archer. Also HOMM2 more or less heavily depended on spell RNG, as a good roll would make you kick way above your power, and in 3 expert magic Town Portal and/or dimension door were more or less required for any map bigger than M and not blitzable. The main problem of the series is that it's the most fun at the start, when you start throwing around massive armies it's often a question of logistics (=do you have town portal or unlimited time to make hero chains) and spell RNG. That and 30 minutes of hero ferrying per turn.
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Dec 20, 2020 11:55
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 Dark magic is clearly mandatory for Richmond the Sorcerer.
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Dec 20, 2020 14:09
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Oh sick, I've had these games forever and can't bring myself to dedicate time to playing them. Might finally get me to play along as I read this.
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Dec 20, 2020 14:45
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Classes: I vote for Ooops, All Casters-Paladin, Cleric, Archer, Sorcerer. Archer will be Deadeye and Sorcerer will be Richmond, as voted before, as for the other two... Black Haired Lady, Second From Left On Bottom Row will be the Paladin, named Tara, and Cleric will be Blonde Woman With Headband, Third From Right On Bottom Row, named... Estelle. Also if we get to choose what magics get focused on, I vote that Tara be Body and Spirit, Estelle be Mind and Light, Deadeye be Air and Water, and Richmond be Fire/Earth/Dark. I'm new though, so if those magic combinations are bad or magic doesn't work like that disregard me
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Dec 20, 2020 16:25
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Junpei posted:Black Haired Lady, Second From Left On Bottom Row will be the Paladin,
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Dec 20, 2020 17:55
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MagusofStars posted:The bottom left portrait (woman with blue headband) should be a Druid named Agnes because (a) I refuse to believe you that Druids don't totally suck and (b) that face just reminds me of a stern elderly woman who's just over this poo poo. I'd like this to be a thing and thus am voting accordingly, to sate my curiosity about druids in this game.
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Dec 20, 2020 20:48
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Oh hey, this game. I loved Might & Magic 4 and 5 as a kid, and also got this game when it was out. My favorite way of fighting in the outdoors was casting fly, going to turn based mode, and then either plinking away with bows or later nuking everything with meteor. Why fly? because you can still change your flying height in pause mode, and the enemy projectiles don't track... Fun times. Also did they ever fix the cheat/bug where IIRC you keep klicking on the skill trainer message and at some point it gives you skills you are not eligible for, like shield on a wizard etc. ?
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Dec 20, 2020 21:17
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SOLarian posted:My favorite way of fighting in the outdoors was casting fly, going to turn based mode, and then either plinking away with bows or later nuking everything with meteor. Why fly? because you can still change your flying height in pause mode, and the enemy projectiles don't track... How the hell did I play this game so much and never know that? It might've been patched out by the time I got it.SOLarian posted:Also did they ever fix the cheat/bug where IIRC you keep klicking on the skill trainer message and at some point it gives you skills you are not eligible for, like shield on a wizard etc. ? Also wasn't aware of this one, but, I'll note, I'm GENERALLY going to avoid abusing any bugs or errors in the game unless it's really funny.
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Dec 20, 2020 21:21
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PurpleXVI posted:How the hell did I play this game so much and never know that? It's been a while since I last played. And yeah, for the most part MM6 isn't a hard game (especially once you get some levels under your belt), so that trick is absolutely not necessary.
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Dec 20, 2020 21:36
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I just flew around strafing people with arrows and spells in realtime, like my party was a fighter jet. As God intended.
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Dec 20, 2020 22:00
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PurpleXVI posted:How the hell did I play this game so much and never know that? I don't think the "adjust height in turn-based mode" exploit was ever patched out. It is possible to kill dragons outdoors far too early in the game if you take advantage of it. Also, it looks like the GOG version involves some poor intern trying to scan the original cloth map that came with the game, instead of the later paper map.
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Dec 21, 2020 00:18
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Wow, a MM6 LP, that's awesome. Not gonna lie, MM7 is one of my favorite RPGs of all time (and I quite like the two Xeen games as well). That you're playing MM6 , MM7 and MM8 is seriously great. I don't have anything to say about party selection, except that it would be nice if you got at least one cleric or sorceror, to show off Light/Dark magic. I always felt classes were a bit too similar in MM6, class selection matters so much more in the two later games.
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Dec 21, 2020 00:47
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Torrannor posted:Wow, a MM6 LP, that's awesome. Not gonna lie, MM7 is one of my favorite RPGs of all time (and I quite like the two Xeen games as well). That you're playing MM6 , MM7 and MM8 is seriously great. I don't have anything to say about party selection, except that it would be nice if you got at least one cleric or sorceror, to show off Light/Dark magic. I always felt classes were a bit too similar in MM6, class selection matters so much more in the two later games. Yeah, MM7 is a much stronger game story-wise, world-wise and mechanically but I feel like something would have been missing if I dropped right into it without 6. I don't remember 8 as well as 7, but I remember enough to have a fondness for some of the stranger choices it made. And also no, before anyone asks, I refuse to LP MM9 and MM10, some things are too cursed even for my broken head. And 6 has its potential for goofery, too, though as the party members have no inherent personalities and there are comparatively few chatty NPC's... I'll be doing a good bit more original writing for character personalities and such. Speaking of, the party has been chosen and the first video recorded, and I'll be getting to work on an update! Thank you to everyone who contributed a character suggestion even if they didn't get picked. I also realize that I completely forgot to reserve an index post, so I guess I'll be editing in an index at the bottom of the OP. Whoops.
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Dec 21, 2020 00:53
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Oh yeah, there's no reason not to start with this game, events in the other two will make much more sense if we got the backstory here. And it will be nice to see how much they improved things in 7 in so many ways. I'm still fond of MM6, even though I never replayed it. I probably have forgotten half the things that happened, so I'm really looking forward to the LP jogging my memory 
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Dec 21, 2020 01:01
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Oh, I'll be watching this. The first and only time I tried playing M&M VI I was so weirded out by having Margaret Houlihan teleporting in from M.A.S.H. I eventually stopped a couple hours in. My suggestion, take that Loretta Swit looking portrait with the blue headband and make her a Paladin called Margaret.
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Dec 21, 2020 01:22
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Xerophyte posted:
That's hilarious, I was going to go with Vince Noir but I didn't think anyone would get it.
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Dec 21, 2020 06:51
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Hm, now I'm thinking that I could do a very stupid mini LP following this one, though it will probably fall into a very inopportune time: HOMM IV M&M VI custom map.
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Dec 21, 2020 09:59
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 these aren't the 'well considered smarty forums'! don't let inopportune stupidity stand in your way.
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Dec 21, 2020 11:33
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PurpleXVI posted:Also, since I've mentioned GOG, I would like everyone to have a laugh at their expense. Now, quite reasonably, they scanned a bunch of the things that followed with the original game, like the manual and such, as .PDF's. And the original map. Meant to mention this earlier but FWIW the scans are different because they're not of the same object. The original box came with a cheap but still quite nice cloth map, which GOG have dutifully scanned in for true verisimilitude. They could undoubtedly do a better job with less compression and more resolution but it's actually close to what the real map looks like, garish colors and all. The steam one is a grab from some poster, the source of which I do not know but it's not part of the original retail box. I actually tried finding my copy of the map to take a better picture, I know I still have it in a box somewhere in the house but couldn't track it down. I did find my original Ultima Online cloth map while looking, which is not useful but still made me nostalgic from the long gone days of games having cloth maps.
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Dec 21, 2020 13:16
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