Incognito : mpnorman10 - who wrote these words down below is %100 right & absolutely telling true.., no one has a right to kill the game's... My answer is also down... and my last video... from now on no more incognito videos...


mpnorman10 : "Incognito, your exploits and efforts to maximun/minimum the game are impressive, no doubt. Thank you for sharing your experiences.

Please remember that most new players, or those coming back to this after having played it years ago will not be interested in breaking any records or achieving the maximum possible level or minimum time to finish the main quest.

The purpose of the game is fun, and for that it is excellent. Completing quests, advancing to new levels and achieving Expert, Master and Grandmaster at various skills and observing how much they open up new ways to fight and interact with foes is fun."


Incognito : I never intent to break the magic of playing..., i just wanted to show that after countless endings you may still put some level's to reach by diffrent type of playing.., and enjoy playing solo.., max level.., max score.., naked.., etc... What i did is to show how deep the games can go, how far you may think... If i have been misunderstood by exprienced ones.., apologize is mine...

Personally, I would say to ignore those users who say that most players will not be interested; those who are interested will certainly enjoy your posts, and those who don't can simply ignore them. In any case, this subforum gets so little activity that there isn't really a risk of there being too many posts, anyway.

I have found this subforum to be one of the better ones on GOG; it's reasonably active, and we even got a bit of game mechanics discussion in one post (where a ScummVM developer even chimed in). Many of the other subforums are dead or mostly dead, and there are some (the Baldur's Gate series one) that seem to be actively hostile toward advanced discussion of the game (case in point, I asked a question about the baldur.lua file, and the two responses I got were "why would you want to do that" and "kill your own cats").

I just found that thread, and you have either entirely missed the point of the cats comment or you are hilariously misrepresenting the context; I'm not entirely sure which. The "why would you want to do that" comment was completely on point, since you were asking whether you were able to intentionally misuse the file.

It seems like you are missing the point. If the file can be misused in that way, then there may be interesting uses of the file that take advantage of the fact that you can do that kind of thing.

Heh. I understood all three points.

Back on topic: I agree with this. I do get the sense that this subforum is frequented by players who enjoy powergaming, finding ways to build extremely efficient parties or finish the game with high scores / low times, so I think I know what mpnorman10 was trying to get at. New players who visit this forum may get the (mistaken) impression that this is the only way to approach the Might and Magic series. For example, sometimes in threads where new players ask for advice, very experienced players may start recommending advanced strategies to defeat tough enemies very early, which are not really needed in order to progress in the game (although they can be fun). My guess is that mpnorman10 reacted similarly to posts about speedruns, i.e. that they may have confused new players into thinking that Might and Magic games can only be completed with such strategies.

But that doesn't mean that people should stop posting about these advanced strategies and techniques. There's clearly an audience here for them, and as incognito111 said, they highlight how even after winning the game many times there are still ways to find new enjoyment and challenge. Personally, even though I do not wish to try them myself, I find the discussion surrounding them fascinating, and enjoy reading about the specifics and limitations of the game design that give rise to them.

It's always good to keep in mind, however, that new players will be unlikely to use these strategies for their first time through. I think that advice for someone playing the game for the first time is different than advice for a veteran looking for a challenge. With the right context, all of that should be clear, and I see no problems with having both types of discussions in this subforum.

Exactly!
In general I enjoy powergaming, reading about fringe strategies and trying to achieve highest scores or lowest times, but... not on my first runthrough. When I play for the first time, I'd rather enjoy the story, setting and atmosphere without worrying about maximizing efficiency.
Don't get me wrong, I do want my party to be as powerful as possible, and try to make it so, but I'm not going to lose sleep over not using a spell with best damage/cost ratio or "wasting" skill points on a "useless" skill.

I love reading about a strategy on how to defeat Ultra Dragon on day 3 with level 1 characters by buying a Teleport Ring, quickly teleporting through Orc Keep Walls right into the Orc King's chamber, stealing the Infinite Missile Wand, teleporting out before he hits you, then using the wand on the Ultra Dragon while teleporting in and out. There is a huge audience for them here, and no need to apologize, incognito111.

However, if a user is asking for help on defeating the Ultra Dragon, he probably is looking for more orthodox methods.

The funny thing is that I am sort of the other way around. I can enjoy a game's plot, but only after I've gotten into the game's gameplay; at first, I will generally focus on creating what I think is the best party, then only later will I pay attention to the plot and setting.

This is one reason I prefer games that don't have cutscenes; it allows me to delay learning about the plot and setting until I'm ready.

Incidentally, I don't like it when games are designed in such a way that it is possible to do things like wasting skill points; that's one reason I actually dislike the skill point system that's so prevalent in modern RPGs (and why Dragon Quest 8 is one of my 2 least favorite games in that series).

Note that I have yet to play a Might and Magic game that actually uses skill points; I have only played 2 through 5.

(Side note: I will sometimes try to avoid game mechanics that I find to be poorly designed; for example, in MM5, I generally avoid using a certain late game stat boost that only works for low stat characters; the game is more fun when I don't need to keep avoiding stat increases for the entire game.)