Hi recently downloaded this, and installed the unofficial patch as recommended in another thread. However the screen display is slightly bigger than my monitor and I can't find a way to change the game resolution. The resolution problem existed before installing the patch. Would appreciate any help offered with this issue.
Thanks, Zag

Find the game directory, there is a file MM7Setup.exe. Run it and either try to change video from SW accelerated to HW accelerated, or run it in window. This might help.

Set your graphic card driver: Enable image scaling with maintaining aspect ratio.

I find this game really hard.
The UI is terrible, even after 2 weeks. The Mouselook in the Greyface patch is poorly documented and I found it difficult to make it less irritating because the interface is designed around a mouse pointer and moving with the keyboard.
Mobs always appear in huge swarms, overwhelming my party by sheer number. They do not respawn, so you cannot grind the weaker ones to power up and face the harder ones.
Turned off autorun, as it reduces combat effectiveness. Just hold Shift to run temporarily or reposition the party between combat encounters.
I chose KTCS, but best party is KKCS (2 knights, cleric and sorcerer). Disarm trap skill seems to be useless even at Expert level + Hireling with disarm bonus.
Equip all party members with Bow skill and a bow (if possible, otherwise long range spell like fireball) so you can hammer the quick spell key from a distance. Most important spells are Town Portal and Fly. I have no idea where to get those.
Use Greyface quick save function a LOT, they are a lot of instakills in this game.
Despite its many flaws, there is something that keeps me playing. I suspect it's my autism.

I suspect my strategy is poor in some way, as I tried to increase my survivability by fighting mobs and not dying. I have heard that gold and experience gained from fighting is neglible, and that quests are more effective. I'm trying to get to the Red Dwarf Mines but there are huge numbers of griffons in my way.

I'm not used to games where your ignorance when first creating your party makes it unplayably hard.

I suggest opening a new thread next time. This one is over 6 years old and is about a very specific problem. Lots of mobs may to be near each other on the map, but they "activate" individually when you get close enough. So walk slowly forward until a few of them start acting, then back up and deal with the one's that are now active. Once those are dead, walk slowly forward to pull a few more, back up, deal with them. Rinse and repeat.

Keep Wizard Eye active at all times, and watch for the red dots to start moving around with purpose. Depends on who you talk to. The Thief's ability to Grandmaster Disarm Trap is one of his biggest draws. Chests in a given area tend to be similar in how difficult they are to disarm. If they keep blowing up in your face, then increase Disarm Trap more and/or come back later when you've Mastered/GM it. GM Disarm Trap will never fail to disarm the trap, so you never need to advance Disarm Trap's skill level beyond 10 for a Thief.

Also, only the Disarm Trap skill level of the currently active character is checked when you first open a chest, so make sure the character that has increased Disarm Trap is selected when you try to open the chest. If your sorcerer is active when you click the chest, then it doesn't matter how high your thief's DT skill is, the game will use the sorcerer's value. Bow is very, very useful in the early game.

You can buy a copy of Town Portal in either a Master Guild of Water (Bracada Desert) or a Paramount Guild of Water (Evenmorn Island). You can buy a copy of Fly in a Master Guild of Air (Tularean Forest) or a Paramount Guild of Air (Celeste, not available until later in the game). Shop contents are selected randomly when you first enter the shop, so they might not show up in a given "rotation" of goods; after about a week of game time, the contents of the shop will reset, again being randomly determined the next time you walk in.

You also might be able to find a spell book for Fly or Town Portal as random treasure, or in a shop that sells miscellaneous magical goods. However, the area/chest/shop will have to be of high enough "level" to spawn such a valuable treasure. You won't find them anywhere in Harmondale, but you might find one in the Mount Nighon area. Pull small groups of monsters at a time. Use cover to dodge shots. Don't pull more than you can handle. Don't go straight for the main quest line; do some other quests too for awhile. If monsters are simply too powerful, then consider coming back later. If a horde of monsters are chasing you, then go somewhere that changes the map (like walk into a dungeon or a castle); when you change maps, all surviving monsters are reset to their original positions. You can't just walk into a house, because that doesn't load a new map.

Some other tactics:
Mobs can't walk on water but you can if you have "water walk" or "water breathing."
Similar to flying, you can stand off shore and hit large groups without being surrounded.
But you do this earlier than flying.
Better in MMVI and MMVIII, but still sometimes useful.

Stay ahead of the mob.
If you are in turn-based mode, hitting the down arrow will "walk back" the group.;
But if you turn you group around (facing away) and hit the arrow then you group will "run away".
The former will allow the monster to catch up; the latter keeps you ahead of the crowd.
But you then have to approach the monster group from a direction that doesn't back you into another group of monsters or off a cliff. Not that I have done either of those. And if they are Fire Archers, well then just RUN.

Thanks for all the replies.

That's some good advice!

I have played more since, I am now in Nighon with Level 22 characters, skills Expert - Master level.

I have encountered a bug with the Learning Master, but that is a seperate topic.

One thing I can say about this game is that it is *very* complicated. MM7 imposes a considerable cognitive load on the player:

- There are so many NPCs in the world, each required for levelling a particular skill to a particular level;

- Each class can only use certain items or rank up skills to a certain level; (A D&D staple)

- On more than one occasion, I spent skill points on something and then found the character could not become proficient in that skill and I had wasted precious skill points; the game tries to help you in this with the right-click help: It is color-coding Normal, Expert, Master and GM levels and explaining what bonuses they have.

I wish spells also displayed explanations on right-click, they are described in the manual but i find that rather inconvenient.

It takes a long time to learn how to play this game, but that what makes it so interesting.

Check your journal. There is a tab for Instructors, and it will list the (rough) location of every skill instructor that you've heard about. You can get new entries by talking to each instructor you find; each instructor will tell you where to find the higher level instructors. So the person teaching Expert Perception will tell you where to find the Master Perception and GM Perception instructors.

I seem to recall there are a few entries in the journal that are not right, but only a very few.

Also check your map. The map records the location of skill instructors that you have found. To help deal with this, take an hour or so and plan out the skill growth for each of your characters.

Look in the manual for charts listing weapon/armor, magic, and misc. skills (a quick google search for MM7 skill charts should also turn them up). Decide which characters are going to advance which skills, and how far they are going to advance them.

For example:
Cleric will get:
-GM Body, Mind, Spirit, and Light/Dark.
-Master in mace, Expert in Chain, and Master in Shield, spending only enough skill points on each of those skills to achieve the relevant level of mastery.
-GM Merchant (this is a party skill, so no one else will spend any points on this skill), and Master Meditation (useful to the character). No points will be spent on any other Misc skill (except Learning, if you choose to go that route); if the skill is a useful party level skill, then another member of the party is better suited toward training for it.
-Once the above skill masteries have been obtained, then all further skill points will be devoted toward Light/Dark magic.

You can make your own chart, indicating which skills each party member will be advancing. Some skills, like Disarm Trap and Alchemy, should only be advanced by one character. Each character should pick their own weapon and armor skills; if the character could do well with several different kinds of equipment, then pick something that no other character is using (or that the fewest number of other characters are using).

Example:
-A knight should always be using plate armor, regardless of who else is in the party. He'll do significantly better with Plate armor than with any other type of equipment.
-A ranger can master both Leather and Chain. If several other party members are using Leather, then have the Ranger use Chain. If you have several people using Chain, then have the Ranger use Leather armor instead. Basically, try to reduce overlapping equipment, so you don't have multiple characters competing for the same pieces of gear. Your best suit of Leather might be better than your 3rd best suit of Chain.

I can give you a suggested skill breakdown if you indicate your party composition.

So I LOVE this game, I played it a lot as a kid, my dad showed me how. And maybe now I built my team wrong? I'm fairly far but I seem to have an issue with Accuracy. Most of my hits miss and it's SUPER irritating. Any tips for this?

Landing a hit is based on your attack stat, so any way to increase that will increase your chances. Cast the bless spell (with high level magic), pump points into armsmaster skill, into weapon skills, increase the accuracy stat (diminishing returns though).

I always rush expert spirit magic asap with my cleric for that sweet bless, then continue pumping points into it (eventually replaced with light magic if I go that route), it helps so much throughout the entire game.

One of the reason Magic has it over Might is that Magic rarely misses in MMVI-VIII, but Might often does. And having a high accuracy Knight whiffing is very frustrating.