I started MM7 and I notice that all the NPCs on Emerald Island stop moving.
They still have the walking animation, but are rooted in the same spot.

Anyone else has this problem , since it looks quite weird?

It occurs both with and without the Grayface patch and MM6 doesn't
seem to have this issue.

Do they not move if you approach them and yell at them? (Press the Y button) It should cause the NPC's to move foward. I know sometimes they will walk in the same position for me to, but they do eventually move.

They do move out of the way when I use the Y button, so it is not a big problem

It just looks weird to see them otherwise walking without moving from their spot

I've got the same problem...
It is not a big problem, NPC's move if they are threatened, and guards move to engage nearby enemies.
But when 'Idle' they are stuck in the same position.

Sorry that I dug up this old thread, but I just started playing Might and Magic 7 and I also have the mentioned problem, it slightly worsens the overall atmosphere when the people are stuck, I wonder if anyone has found a solution for it?
I have the cd version and an inofficial patch to get it running on xp. Can this be the cause?

Don't know if either of these will help?

1) First run MM7 configuration utility and change to software 3d. Go to your MM7 directory and right click MM7.exe and choose properties. Click the Compatibility tab. Go to compatibility mode area and click run this program in compatibility mode. Then choose Windows 98/ME and click okay. Then goto the start menu, then run, and type dxdiag. Click the sound tab. Then under directx features move the slider all the way down to no acceleration Hardware sound Acceleration level. Now run the game. You will need the cd

2) Is this the patch you've got?
http://www.chlala.dk/mightandmagic/Mok/mm7_eng_xp.exe

(This seems to be the one that makes it work for most people)

3) You could try http://telp.org/mm7/tavern/mm7tavern.html and see if there is anything there that can help.

Thank you for your response :)

1) didn't help so far.

2) I got the inofficial German patch http://www.mightandmagicworld.de/filebase/inoffizieller_deutscher_mm7_patch_v121-f195/index.html because I thought I can't use the Englisch patch with the German version, or does that matter at all?
The description of the inofficial patch in the link above mentions that it relates to the Mok Patch you have posted there, so I have to install it first?

Apologies my german isn't that good but I think that is saying you don't need the English patch as well.

There is this as well on http://www.celestialheavens.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=10078

[i]Patch for other localized versions of the game: http://sites.google.com/site/sergroj/mm/MM7patchLoc.rar

In this case it's recommended that you install official patch 1.1 first due to changes it makes in TXT files.

There is an English and Russian specific patch, and then this for "other regions".[/i]

Patch 1.1. might be available from http://www.moddb.com/games/might-and-magic-7/downloads/might-and-magic-7-patch-v11. Not sure if that is German though or maybe it doesn't matter for that patch. Some of the patches affect the dialogue so you would need a german patch, but others just seem to change the .exe files in which case probably doesn't matter!

I expect you've found http://www.mightandmagicworld.de/phpbb/viewtopic.php?p=273443 (not sure what it says but seems to talk about MM7, XP and Patches).

Other problems people have mentioned elsewhere is having bit torrent software running during the install. Is that an issue for you?

Or you could try https://sites.google.com/site/sergroj/mm

Does this help?
http://www.mightandmagicworld.de/filebase/mm7_inoffizieller_patch-f32/index.html

Or this

http://www.jeffludwig.com/mm7/download.php

And replying to my own post ....

If you are feeling brave, and this might not work anyway, you could back up the DATA folder (or even the whole game), install an English patch, then copy the DATA folder back (assuming the patch only changes the .exe files).

Wow that's really detailed. Thank you again for your effort :)
Haha you don't have to worry about your German, I could just play it in English and avoid some problems but I'm often too lazy to look up words I don't understand (and there are still a lot of them) :D
No I had no bit torrent software running during the install^^
Read the forum discussion above, there don't seem to be so much people having that problem (one calling it people are doing the moonwalk *g*) and they didn't mentioned a solution for it neither.
I played till Harmondale, now they are moving sometimes. I don't know whether it's the patch or just coincidence but it's okay I think.
Maybe one should be happy with that before it wholly stops working again like it did once before. So I won't try the English patches although it could help with the bug and even other bugs, and the mouselook sounds handy, too, but it's better the game is imperfect instead of not running.
Well, I'm really surprised that Might and Magic 7 is much more unstable than the 6th part of the series.
I had no problems with that at all.^^

Try this:
_As a workaround: see if they move properly in Windowed mode (you have to set your display colors to 16-bit).
_Disable CrossfireX in the AMD Catalyst Control (if you're using it)
_Try this:
http://www.gog.com/forum/might_and_magic_series/might_and_magic_vii_videos_not_playing_in_hardware_accelerated_mode/post5
It's a solution to a different problem, but it fixed other video problems so might solve this too.

Best try is just to buy GOG version. There are many versions of patches and some MMs even had many releases and localizations (some of which brought their own bugs). GOG has fixed versions with all necessary compatibility fixes. And price isn't that big for such a brilliant game.

I am also surprised that MM 6, being released earlier, works right from original CD, while MM 7/8 refuse to do so.

Even then I remember patching original MM 6, and it was constantly breaking random things (like combat feedback line showing damage done in glitchy way). Not a single such problem with pre-patched versions on GOG