1) On the main site it says about party creation: "It is desirable to chose characters of different Races. So as to give away as little as possible, suffice it to say that there are several circumstances in the game in which having a diverse Party is beneficial. This goes for genders as well."Genders isn't the problem, but do I lose out on anything if my party doesn't have a particular race in it, rewards- or story-wise? In my first game I had two dwarfs and two elfs, didn't seem to make a difference so far that I lacked goblins and humans.
Some artifacts and relics are gender or race specific. I don't recall which ones, but some research will let you find the ones you'd really hate to not use.
2) Seems there are several unofficial patches floating around? I got the official 1.1 and some unofficial mm7_eng_xp.exe (Might & Magic VII English Patch v1.21 Setup). Still had wands with 1 and no charges in my game. Which patches should I use, and where to get them?
I use the official and fan developed patches(1.2 for MM6, 1.1 for MM7, and 1.3 for MM9). I have all of the patches for MM6, MM7, and TELP's 1.3a MM9 on my Web page at: http://members.cox.net/dave.caspermeyer
3) Do boni from different types of hirelings to the same stat stack? I only just found out that I got only one +15% from the two instructors I had with me all this time, would an instructor and a teacher give me +25%?
Yes, that's how most play the game with hirelings. Given how important Identify Item is here, I prefer a Scholar and Instructor instead.
4) The Perception skill reduces trap damage and shows secret doors in dungeons, what else does it do, especially on the main maps (i.e. not dungeons)?
Perception helps to obtain minor treasure on the maps. There was some confusion about whether it had any effect on uniques from monster looting. I've done detailed research on that question a long time ago, and did notice that a lower Luck and Perception had a minor influence on looting. There's detailed research on my silly site.
