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Compatibility If you are currently playing MM9, you will want to know that any patch you are considering will not crash your game. That is the underlying consideration in our design of TELP's 1.3 patch. None of the changes it introduces will be incompatible with existing games. It is important for you to know, however, that not all of the bugs the patch corrects will be fixed in existing games. Some bugs are initiated when an area is entered; they can be avoided but not always repaired. We are fortunate that this applies to less than a third of our changes, and only one of those is a fix for a for game-killing bug. Incompatibility problems arose when the dev team corrected some serious problems with Anskram's Keep for the 1.2 patch. We learned about deleting minisaves at that time as a way of reconciling existing games with the new changes. You can do the same thing to invoke our 1.3 changes. Doing this will make the most sense when a bug has forced you to re-play an entire area. It will also make sense to do it to invoke the changes made to Thronheim City; the compass will be straightened out (although the blue map arrow is still off), the Town Portal will work correctly, and there won't be any revived monsters that you have to fight. So, if you are playing MM9 and you wish it were less buggy then you will want to install TELP's 1.3 patch. You'll also want to use this patch if you want to enjoy a new game. You won't need to plan ahead in order to avoid bugs, and you might also appreciate the improvements to gameplay brought on by some of the changes. On the other hand, if you have fully explored and are comfortable with version 1.2 then you probably shouldn't bother installing this patch. It will not help you enjoy the game any further and you will find that a few exploitable bugs have been corrected. In short, this patch is not for you. |
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(Note: This is a slightly edited version of the patch's readme file.) About the Patch What is TELP's 1.3 Patch for MM9? TELP's 1.3 patch is an unofficial, fan-supported update to 3DO's Might & Magic® IX. It was written and released so that gamers can enjoy MM9 without concern or pre-researching for various bugs. All changes to the game are compatible with existing savegames so that you will not need to start the game from the beginning in order to benefit from this patch. What changes will be made by TELP's 1.3 Patch? This patch corrects many, but not all, of MM9's known bugs. Most importantly, it will prevent all of the game-killing bugs -- ie, those that would force you to revert to a previous savegame -- with the possible exception of one. Occasionally players have found themselves unable to re-enter Frosgard City for part of the game. This bug is difficult to test for, so TELP can only state that it might have been fixed. We won't know for sure that it hasn't until someone reports it happening after applying this patch. Please let us know. Although all changes are compatible, about one third of the bug fixes will be expressed only if an affected area has not been entered before installing the patch. Most of these are minor, but two of bugs addressed this way are game-killers. Please feel free to ask for help if you get trapped inside of Kluso's House or can't complete the Tomb of a Thousand Terrors. Most highly annoying bugs also have been addressed, as have many of only mild annoyance. In cases where Spells and Items could not be made to behave as described, the in-game descriptions have been changed. Wherever observed, errors in grammar, syntax, spelling, clarity and continuity have been corrected. A list of specific fixes will not be given here in order to protect you from unwanted spoilers. A complete list can be read by clicking on the 'Details (Spoilers)' link to the left. The following are the types of game resources that were corrected: Dialog Autonotes Quest Notes Scripting Data (active and passive) Object Properties Graphics The bug with the Divine Intervention spell is hard-coded in the game engine and can not be corrected without access to the source code. Compensations for its abuse have not been made in this patch but will likely be made in our 1.4 line of patches. Some features that were introduced for debugging the game during development but were inadvertantly left in have been removed. In addition to these corrections, two game screens were annotated to make plain that this patch is being used. You will notice that a '1.3' designation has been placed on the main menu. Also, a small marking on your final score screen will document that you have been using TELP's 1.3 patch. Acknowledgements and Appreciation Although most of the work on this patch was done by one person, there were many others who helped out with effort, information and insights. They are: New World Computing's MM9 Development Team Although our primary contact has been though Tim Lang, Walter Johnson and Karl Drown, if they couldn't answer a question for us they would check with other team members. Everyone on the devlopment team wishes they'd been given the time to finish the game properly. This patch is dedicated to them. Klaravoyia Klar has been incredibly helpful in so many ways. For her information on game bugs, for testing this patch and providing applicable savegames, for her consistantly sound insights into all aspects of this and other M&M RPGs, for testing this patch's changes, and for her gracious presence on the M&M forums we are humbly in her debt. Visit her MM9 website at http://www.keytech.com/~klar/MM9/. kingkongcobra (aka kkc) This game would have been even more unplayable if not for both the early release of his collection of dialog fixes known as 'the unofficial patch' and his helpful advice in various MM9 forums. Thank you. Rustavius A thoughtful presence on our MM9 message board even before the game was released, Rustavius recognized that this game would have been quite good if the developers had been given more time. He has investigated and devised corrections to some complex relationships in the game mechanics and done so in spite of real-life difficulties. Thank you, my friend. MM-World The version of the game that was 'localized' for the German market was horribly translated. Our friends at MM-World have worked hard to make their version of MM9 playable, and TELP salutes them for their remarkable efforts. Their website can be found at http://mm-world.gamesurf.tiscali.de/mm9/. Ice3 A strong advocate of MM9 and the entire M&M series, Ice3 has offered his help in adapting this patch to the game's French version. With this kind of support worldwide, Might & Magic will never die. Visiter son site Internet sur MM9: http://www.portailsmm.com/mm9/index.html TELP and the regulars at our MM9 Tavern Our Tavern community is an example for everyone of what this world needs to be -- tolerant, respectful, helpful and joyous. You are the reason why making this patch was worth the effort. Hope to see you there. TELP's 1.3 patch for MM9 1.2 is free. This patch is being distributed as freeware. It may be freely used, copied and distributed as long as it is not sold and all original files are included. After installation, look for 'TELP13 License.txt' in the folder that contains 'mm9.exe', your main MM9 executable. The actual patching program was produced using Hanmen® PatchWise Free version 3. It is a very competant and easy-to-use patching utility and is, quite amazingly, free even for commercial use. We recommend it highly. Their website is http://www.patchwise.com. Although we are not encouraging you to do so, some people have expressed a desire to make monetary contributions to aid TELP's work in support of Might and Magic fans worldwide. If you would like to make a donation, please visit: http://telp.org/mm9/donations.html Contacting TELP For feedback, questions, comments, or help with localized language versions: E-mail: telphelp@yahoo.com Forum: http://telp.org/mm9/tavern/mm9tavern.html |
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User's Guide to TELP's 1.3 Patch for MM9 Please Note This guide will refer to your 'MM9 folder'. This is the location of the file 'mm9.exe', the game's executable file. Its default location is 'C:\Program Files\3DO\Might and Magic IX', but you might have chosen a different location upon installation. All sub-folders mentioned are contained within your MM9 folder. Please also note that this information is included in our distribution ZIP file and will (upon installation) be placed in your MM9 folder as 'TELP13 User Guide.txt' for later reference. Requirements You must be running 1) the English language version of 3DO's Might & Magic® IX, and 2) it must be patched to version 1.2. Preparation If you have not already installed the official 1.2 patch for MM9, you can download it from 3DO's Might & Magic IX Update page. It is also being hosted by TELP in our FTP section (click here, by Klaravoyia on her MM9 Patch page and by MM-World in their Download section. If you have already installed kingkongcobra's 'Unofficial Patch' or MM-World's 'Unofficial English Patch v.2.0' you will need to restore your original version 1.2 resource files. If you saved these files as suggested then you can simply re-copy them to the 'data' sub-folder of your MM9 folder. If you did not save these files, you will need to re-install MM9 from your original CDs and re-run the official 1.2 patch. Doing this should not affect the contents of your 'Save' or 'Minisaves' sub-folders, but you might want to make a backup copy of those if you want to be especially cautious. Installation The patch can be installed in two ways. You can always extract TELP13.exe from our distribution ZIP file and run it, but since most ZIP utility programs let you run programs directly from their shell you can probably just open the ZIP file and run it from there. The location of the setup file doesn't matter as long as it has enough disk space to run. The setup program will ask you for the location of your MM9 folder. It will offer to make backup copies of the files to be updated before proceeding. You will want these original files to make it easy to restore your game to version 1.2. You might need to do this to run future TELP updates for MM9. The backed up files will require 276M of storage space. If you don't have enough free space on the drive that holds your MM9 installation, you should backup these files manually to another drive. The updated files are: ART.REZ DATA.REZ LOCALART.REZ RUDE.REZ SRIPTS.REZ WORLD.REZ If you do not backup these files, you will still be able to re-install the game from your original CDs. Next, this program will update your files, which might take as long as two minutes on slower systems. A report of the updater's success will be saved as 'PatchWise.log' in your MM9 folder. Finally, you will be given a chance to read our ReadMe file (choose 'About The Patch' from the menu at the left) if you haven't done so already. Removal To remove TELP's 1.3 patch you will need to move the files stored in the 'PatchWise.bak\data' sub-folder to the 'data' sub-folder. You can delete the 'PatchWise.bak\data' sub-folder when you are finished. Revision History June 19, 2003 Rev. 13a: twenty-two overlooked files were added. June 14, 2003 Initial Release Feedback For feedback, questions, comments, or help with localized language versions: E-mail: telphelp@yahoo.com Forum: http://telp.org/mm9/tavern/mm9tavern.html |