SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I'm searching around for something to do, and eveywhere I go I'm getting killed. Sometimes I'm getting instantly killed (E4) but more often it's a lot of boring fights and then in the same area instant death. Always the progress is lost.

This is getting tiresome and I'm asking for help. Though I'd prefer suggestions that don't give away too much.

My party is level 8. My best weapons are a halberd +2 for my knight, and a cold glave[sic] and great bow +2 for my archer. I have few magic items: a defense ring, boots of speed, and a wand of fire.

Things to do:
* Kilburn asked me to map the desert and then talk to the Lords. I assume the Lords are in the castles. I visited a lot of the desert but some seems impossible to access until I get new spells. Meanwhile, the castles call me a peasant and kick me out, so I'm not sure how I could see the lords anyway.
* I have a lot of keys. The ice Princess's puzzle I guessed without clues. I got a bronze one from the crazed wizard. In the Raven Lair, I got a crystal one.
* I put together the clues of ZAM & ZOM and got a ruby whistle. I know where to use it but haven't tried it yet.
* Attempting to explore under Portsmith (using the bronze key) I keep dying. Am i supposed to just dodge the hard fights or what?
* I've almost fully explored B2 (the forest is annoying me right now), and C3 save wyvern peak I have fully explored C1, C2, D1, D2, E1 (save an inaccessible part -- so far), E2, the towns, & the cavern under sorpigol. I'm not sure but suspect I can't continue exploring the cave under Erliquin yet. I mapped out the areas of Castle Blackridge North & South I can reach, and the first level of Castle Dragadune.
* I've yet to even stick my nose into A1, A3, A4, B4. A2 killed me in two squares.
* I have a merchant's pass and no idea what it's for.

Obviously, more SPOILERS!!!!!
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-- That's what your merchant pass is for! It will let you into the castles to see the lords. If you have it and they're still calling you a peasant and kicking you out, try giving the merchant pass to your party leader (character in slot 1). The game may only check this slot.

Seeing the lords is super important because they have quests for you to do. This is absolutely what you should do next. To some extent, yes. There are some really tough ones down there, but some of them are obvious and easy to avoid. If the others are still giving you trouble, then come back later when you've gained some levels.

In my experience, gaining levels always helps a lot. If there's anywhere you haven't tried exploring yet, go there and see how you fare. Sometimes it's hard to predict which places will be tough and which will be easier.

But the first thing you should do is use that merchant's pass to get into the castles. It will help a lot.

Huh, I put down the pass in order to trade for the pirate maps. Given limited inventory, I didn't pick up everything again until I found a use for it.

The interaction with the guards is.. not the best. It really should be written so that you can imaging the pass would help there.

Oh well! Thanks much, I'm unstuck and moving along

I thought it was? Don't they say "No merchant's pas! Begone peasants!" or something like that?

Anyway, glad you're unstuck and on your way. I had a surprisingly good time with this game, given how old it is.

Yes, they say that. Except without "No merchant's pass!" At least in Blackridge North and South. I forget what they said at White Wolf.

Weird, I could have sworn that they specifically mentioned the merchant's pass. Is the game text going past too quickly? Are you using the text speed patch?

Info here:

http://www.gog.com/forum/might_and_magic_series/mm1_read_this_if_you_think_the_text_appears_too_fast/post38

Not sure how that patch is intended to be used. It's a win32 executable so doesn't work in dosbox.

The only problem I'm noticing with text speed is if I'm trying to move around it takes my movement keys as a cue to hide the text. Sometimes I have to leave the dungeon and come back to get a chance to read it.

I'm trying out the patch from http://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?p=183149#183149, hexediting it into place using vim.

Just put it in the game directory and run it in Windows. All the .exe does is automatically hex edit the game's executable for you, so you don't have to do it manually.

I found it helped a lot; when I first started playing, the text was so fast that I had to lower the DOSBox cycles to be able to read it, and then the whole game was sluggish. With the patch, the game ran nice and fast, but text was slow enough to read. There are some very few exceptions, like when an emey skips its turn in combat, that text still goes by really fast. Also a very few overworld messages, like getting caught in an avalanche, still go by really fast. But everything else is much slower, so I could, for example, actually read the text on the statues in Sorpigal.

Sounds like I didn't really have the message speed problem badly then. I could read the statues in Sorpigal without too much trouble, though it was a little annoying. Luckily I already had the text from a Mac Classic play attempt.

Still, it's a little more convenient, and I don't have to set the delay to 6 or 7 every time to make combat more reasonable.

Given the thread on vogons, and where the discussion went, I suspect that my boxer build has some of their tricks at detecting and inserting a little time-drag into the bios calls.

As for running a windows program on a mac, that's a hassle.

I would probably have packaged the patch as a python script, though I suppose that would be more hassle for most windows users. A dos executable seems ideal.4

Didn't realize you were on Mac. The Windows executable actually does exactly what's in that Vogons thread, it's just automated for players who are not comfortable doing hex editing themselves. If you don't mind making the edits yourself you can do exactly the same thing.

I've also heard that newer versions of DOSBox do not have as much of a speed issue. I played back on v0.72, but the latest v0.74 is apparently not nearly so bad. And it sounds like your Boxer build isn't either.

Anyway, got off on a tangent. The point is that you've found your way into the castles now. Enjoy!

Huh, I've now completed every Lord quest. Inspectron, Hacker (what a jerk), and Ironfist twice, without any clear followup goals, save perhaps to keep collecting silver & gold messages. Lord Alamar seems to need a King's Pass, or else perhaps an etheralize in from the back, which I don't quite have yet.

I sort of hoped I could repeat the Lord Hacker chain, as I already had all the items. No such luck.

Things left to explore: the 3rd and 4th level of Dragadune; the western and southern edges of the world; the fabled city of gold; apparently Castle Doom, which I haven't located yet; the lower half of the wizard's lair.

I think I'm a little underlevelled for some of this at 11/12. I might kill wyverns for a while first.

I was able to repeat it. What happens when you try?

The Lords' quests actually aren't related to the "main" quest, so they don't give you much in the way of hints. You just need to keep exploring.

The south and southwest areas aren't too bad, you can try exploring there at that level I think.

He thanks me for providing all the ingredients for his "brew" and throws me in the "pit of peril", along with taking all my items and gold. Perhaps if I go back after *that*? But I'm doubting it. Yeah, but they were pretty useful for providing some goals that led to more exploration. Mostly they'd convince me try killing off some boss I'd written off as too hard. I'll give it a try. I'm intrigued by the volcano.

Ye of little faith! You can indeed go back after that and repeat the quest chain.

The volcano is cool, but I don't remember what level I was when I explored it. I think it's one of the tougher places in the south. It's worth just checking out all the other overworld sectors you haven't been to. There's some cool stuff in the southwest that's useful for powering up your party.

Huh.

For now this goes farther down the disbelief hole than I feel like going, but I'm getting close.

I failed at trivia for making a typo and the backspace refusing to work. Instant reload. The surprise native fights that are in anti-magic squares so you can't run away.. save-state reload.

I wonder if I will finish the game before I end up just editing my save file ;-)