Chapter 2: Interface
There are no in-game maps in Might and Magic. Sorcerors learn a spell that can tell them their current coordinates in X,Y format and which direction they are facing, but that's it. Each 'area' can be mapped out on a 16x16 grid. I do enjoy making my own maps for these sorts of games but I find I am too lazy to do so this time and will be using ones that I filched from another website.
My sense of direction is poor. I usually rely on my brother Faulkner to guide us in our travels around Varn. He tells me that the Inn of Sorpigal is the room that has been marked with the '1'. The areas marked with the 'M' are trouble spots where malicious locals have been known to frequent and likely cause danger for us. We can steer clear of those areas if we're looking to avoid a fight--however, there's no telling when we might randomly find trouble elsewhere in our travel.
The main window is a first person representation of where we are in the game world. From here, we can see the door leading to the Inn of Sorpigal. In addition to the movement arrows there are also a couple other commands of note:(O)rder for swapping the positions of your party members.
(P)rotect shows a brief summary of the current buffs on your party.
(R)est consumes one unit of food from each party member and restores everyone to full health and spell points. There is a small chance of being ambushed by enemies while resting.
(S)earch is obvious.
(B)ash is for forcing open locked doors. When bashing, there is an extremely high chance of setting off a trap.
(U)nlock is a Robber skill, used on doors and treasure to attempt to open them without setting off traps.
(Q)uick reference displays a brief summary of all characters HP/SP and status.
Numbers one through six bring up the profile for that character as seen in the first update. From there a few other commands are available.
Each character has their own inventory of gold, food, and gems. The (G)ather command can be used to gather them all up onto the currently selected character, while (S)hare can be used to dole them out again.
It's one thing to declare the start of a grandiose quest. It's another to actually go about doing it. Especially when we have no gold, no armor, and no weapons other than the sticks we'd fished out of the local garbage. Before we could do anything, we needed some coin. I knew just the way to scrounge up a little, too. There was plenty of danger right here in Sorpigal and we'd find some local trouble to rough up and take their valuables.
I found Samuel surprisingly amenable to this plan of action. Since it avoided targeting the innocent I presume he had no compunction about inviting combat to the more unsavory town elements. Sam and I took point and we made our way through the dark alleys of Sorpigal to an abandoned shack we knew was frequented by local thugs and monsters. It was no surprise that we found the door locked. Ordinarily, I would be in favor of just bashing the damn thing down, but Finn was eager to step in and declare his intent to open the lock with his tools.
He turned his head this way and that, Examining the lock with the measured hands of someone who seemed wholly confident in what they were doing. And then, finally selecting a tool from his belt, the dwarf began to turn the mechanism...
When we all picked ourselves up from the ground after being stunned by the charging electric bolt that founted from the door, we all shot him a nasty look. I wanted to pound his face in but Faulkner insisted that just bashing the door in would have fared no less better.
(There are lots of traps in Might and Magic. Lots and lots of traps.)
We took a moment to rest and recover our strength before gathering around the door carefully and then bursting in, waiting to see what beasts lied on the other side. A torrent of spiteful squeaking greeted us along with the shambling of scarred fur and clanking metal.
Battle Rats. Five of them. Foul demihumans barely even semi-sentient. Popular sentiment was that some mad wizard had created them and exerted a control over them to achieve his own ends, but this has never been substantiated. No mage would be mad enough to claim credit for them.
(A)ttack and (R)etreat are obvious. Retreating in Might and Magic generally involves being relocated to a relatively safe square. Said square is usually a specific one in each area. In Sorpigal for instance, retreating always seems to end up landing you in front of the Inn.
(B)ribing is dumb and involves handing over either all your gold or gems to the enemy in exchange for retreating. (S)urrender, when it succeeds, allows you to avoid combat and relocates your group to a -more- dangerous part of the map with all your gold, gems, and food gone. There are one or two spots in the game where this can be used to get to parts of the map that are otherwise hard to reach but even so is not recommended.
With no real weapons or armor to bolster us, a match against five mangy, bloodthirsty battle rats was a perfect match! With Sam and I at the front with our sticks ready, we charged into the squeaking mass and let bloody combat be joined!
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