So, I'm entirely new to this series and am about to start playing III Isles of Terra soon. Since it's an old game, and I'm running Windows 10:

- are there any compatibility issues I should know about? If so, any way to fix them?
- is the GOG version patched? Any unofficial patches I should use?
- and on another note, any tips for a first timer? :)

Thanks!

Thanks for your reply! Appreciate the hints, and I'm also reading through some pointers on RPGclassics.com and they're in line with your comments (especially on a versatile party).

On compatibility with newer systems, there shouldn't be any issues then? I can see from the main forum page that there are lots of issues with the "newer" MMs (6 and 7) on getting them to run on Windows 10.

MM1-5 are all DOS games running on DOSBox, so no issues whatsover. MM1 had some text appearing too fast unless you lower cycles (or use a fan-made patch), but 2-5 have no problems.

3 is my favourite of the old series (1-5) and arguably my favourite overall (tied with 6). Enjoy the game.


Oh yes, and if you haven't already read this:

http://shrines.rpgclassics.com/pc/mm3/general.shtml

It's stuff which should be in the manual. Has some useful info.

Thanks for link - I've read it in fact and the character creation section as well. Looking forward to starting the game!

A hint for character creation:
Unlike stated in the manual the barbarian is a better fighter than the knight (except at the very beginning).

Ah, thanks! I chose both though (I'm experimenting in the starting town) but I'll keep it in mind when I start a proper run. The frame by frame movement needs getting used to however as I easily lose my bearing (I'm just coming back from playing Wizardry 8).

I've got a few other questions if you don't mind:

- when I dismissed and removed the starting party I lost all their items - I guess I need to transfer the items before removing them right?

- I couldn't find a way to see item statistics e.g. should I buy this armour piece and it's it better than the current armour in AC terms? I learnt that I can identify an item at the weapons seller, but the information is lost once I exit the screen. So there's no way to keep the information other than literally writing it down on a piece of paper?

- there's no way to leave notes on the map right?

- is there a list of keyboard shortcuts? It's not in the manual, and neither in game.[solved - there's the Reference Card]

- when in combat, can you tell when the enemy attacks? I'm sometimes not sure what kind of attack the enemy makes as well, I just notice that the green bar turns into yellow so I guess I must have been hit.

- My ranger has both a bow and a dagger, and they're both equipped. Does she use the dagger when in close combat automatically?

- Do unconscious characters take XP?

Thanks so much!

right Correct. You can also get information by equipping and unequipping armor and checking how the statistics change. Right. But since every map square has its coordinates it's easy to note the exact location. Melee attack order depends on speed stat. Monsters not in melee get their ranged attacks between the combat rounds, that's usually where the surprise damage comes from. Yes.

Thanks so much for taking your time to reply - it's much appreciated :)

Have you noticed that blood splatter that appears when one of your characters gets hit? That means you were just hit for Physical damage, which can be dodged if your AC is good enough but has no applicable resistance (though Power Shield will still reduce the damage received). If you see something other than the blood splatter, then you were hit for a different type of damage.

One tip that will come in handy: If you can reduce the damage you take to 0 (for example, with Protection from Elements and/or Power Shield), you will also prevent any status effects the attack could have dealt. (There is one enemy, in particular, against which you will be glad to have this piece of advice.)

The bar that's normally green is an indication of your health; green is full, yellow is not full, red is low, blue is 0 or less (such characters won't be able to act except in unusual glitch circumstances), and gray/silver is higher than maximum (possible if you use a fountain or something made your max HP go down). Unfortunately, the game doesn't show your precise HP or precise damage amounts on the main screen (one issue I have with this game and Xeen, which uses a similar engine).

Edit: One other thing I should mention explicitly: AC only protects against Physical attacks, and since each enemy has only one type of attack, you may find that it's useless in some areas. That's assuming you can find a good weapon that the barbarian can actually equip. Barbarians are far more limited in their weapon selection than knights, and are more limited than in World of Xeen. There is one difference that I am aware of: Every time you would start the original floppy version, the game would ask you to enter a word from a certain page and paragraph of the manual; this served as the game's copy protection. In the GOG version, the screen pops up and immediately disappears so you no longer have to do so.

World of Xeen (floppy version) has this same prompt, and the GOG version unfortunately does not get rid of it, but it isn't nearly as annoying: You are only prompted to enter a word from the manual 3 times per playthrough (2 on Clouds, 1 on Darkside) instead of every single time you boot up the game.

Do note that, in MM3, there are a few exceptions in some of the castle dungeons. It might be a good idea to save before going down into one and try to save as soon as you are in just to make sure you aren't in a place that disallows saving.

Of course, you can't save during combat.

One annoyance is that you can't load during combat either; to get around this, you can use Mr. Wizard (which warps you back to the start of the game, but will cost one level from each of your characters) and then load afterwords.

Thanks for the tips and pointers!

When looking at melee characters, are their any hidden bonuses one can't obviously see? For example, a hammer deals 2-10 damage, whilst the glass dagger deals 2 to 4 damage. However, because the dagger is a smaller weapon, there's a bonus to the damage my ninja would do whilst using the dagger vs. using the hammer.

Or maybe it's just simply looking at the highest damage and that's it?

No, nothing's hidden; it's just damage, to hit bonus, and any special magical properties the item may have.

Cheers! Just finished exploring Baywatch and the caverns now. The game doesn't really tell you where to go or what to do, but I seem to doing fine for now.

That's typical for this series; you're meant to explore, and if one area is too hard, find another area that isn't; you can come back later when you're more equipped to deal with the challenge.

This also means that someone familiar with the game may be able to find ways to get extremely powerful quite quickly.