Arcanum

[Walsingham]

Hey kids. i'm still playing arcanum so I thought I'd try to get your views on managing the NPCs who join your party.

 

1) randomly picking stuff up.

 

I quite like them doing this, as it stops me having to act like a spanish hotel maid. I kill people, they pick up any dropped stuff. If I really want rid of things then I dump it on dead people. this amuses me, when I wonder what te local coroner will make of the curious assorted telegrams and cogwheels the deceased carry.

 

2) Combat.

 

How the blue whatsits do I get them to behave sensibly in combat? I can run efective firearms based sniping and so forth without them haring into battle. Do i have to travel without them or something?

 

3) Are there any particularly good NPCs to watch out for? no spoilers, please.

[Noceur]

3) Are there any particularly good NPCs to watch out for? no spoilers, please.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The drunk half-ogre in the first town you get to is a good melee fighter. He bashes things and keep it plain.

There's also a dog somewhere

that you can save from a mean man. If he's dead you can ressurect him

. I guess that's a half spoiler...

 

Believe me, you'll know who the REALLY good NPCs are, and they won't join you until you're high enough level.

I was really surprised that they wanted to join me, that's all I'll say.

 

 

You know, just save and kick a member if you have to, then have a NPC join you and look if he's any good. But that drunk guy I kept with me the whole game, every time I've played it I believe.

 

A hot tip... keep some blunt weapons in store as many enemies will break your poiny and sharp weapons rather quickly.

 

Don't fear my "spoilers" they don't give away any story or stuff... it's just that they're tips and I'm not sure how much of a tip you want. Actually, they're both safe. Bah, just read them.

[Humodour]

I loved FO and BG. Should I get Arcanum?

[EnderAndrew]

I loved FO and BG. Should I get Arcanum?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'd say so. Arcanum is largely inspired by FO and there aren't enough games like it. It's not a perfect game, but it is pretty good.

[SteveThaiBinh]

1) randomly picking stuff up.

 

I quite like them doing this, as it stops me having to act like a spanish hotel maid.

Agreed. A couple of times it got a bit annoying. There's one point in the game (no real spoilers, don't worry) where you have to find an item in order to further the main quest. I ran round and round, back to the quest giver, back to the place, hunting high and low for this item, only to discover that Virgil had picked it up.

2) Combat.

How the blue whatsits do I get them to behave sensibly in combat? I can run efective firearms based sniping and so forth without them haring into battle. Do i have to travel without them or something?

You don't - or at least, I never could. Whatever style you choose to play, they will fight in their own way. You could try giving them all ranged weapons, but they'd likely shoot themselves or each other if they don't have the skills. There are two or three fellow gunslinger NPCs, if you want to make a gang.

3) Are there any particularly good NPCs to watch out for? no spoilers, please.

I'll try to limit the spoilers for this:

 

You're playing fairly tech, I take it. Virgil's healing spells will stop working after a while, and fortunately he has the sense to stop trying - an alternative tech healer can be found in: (town's name only)

Dernholm

 

 

When you first arrive at Ashbury, don't start talking to people until you've had a good look round the city. Something's going on, and if you arrive in time, you'll get a bonus NPC. You do have quite a lot of time, though, it's not a huge race.

 

In terms of story, Virgil has the best story and the most to say, so I always keep him. Vollinger and Torian Kel are also interesting, though the latter is tricky to find at first.

[Walsingham]

Thanks for all the pointers. :D

 

- Am now on lookout for drunk half-ogre.

 

- Am also on lookout for other gunslingers.

 

- When I recruited that tech-healer she never healed me in combat. Nor could I ask her to. Maybe I need the game patching?

 

- If any of you recall, I can't seem to get those manuals from the university to work. I dragged them into the use slot, and it turns red. What gives?

 

~

 

Krezack. I'd say get Arcanum, but expect some grit in the sandwich.

[SteveThaiBinh]

- When I recruited that tech-healer she never healed me in combat. Nor could I ask her to. Maybe I need the game patching?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

She has the skills to make tech healing items (looks a bit like a mortar and pestle). If she has them in her inventory during combat, she'll run around healing people. Any NPC who carries them will do the same, but she has extra healing skill and will get the most healing from each item used.

- If any of you recall, I can't seem to get those manuals from the university to work. I dragged them into the use slot, and it turns red. What gives?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You get the benefit just from having them in your inventory - you don't use them actively.

[GhostofAnakin]

I'd say so.  Arcanum is largely inspired by FO and there aren't enough games like it.  It's not a perfect game, but it is pretty good.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

That seemed to be the consensus on Mistress' Lair when I posted about this.

[Walsingham]

Steve, you are indeed shiny. Thanks a tonne for the hints on the books. And I see what you mean about the lady healer. I assumed that since I could make those healing goodies it made no sense having her along as well. But if she gets a bonus for having healing skill that's a different matter. My only worry would be that she would use them at inappropriate moments, like when we could ust as easily go to sleep after a fight and so on.

 

Dammit, even the NPCs in fallout had better controls than these numbskulls. I can accept and even appreciate the notion of poor control to begin with, given my experience leading teams in reality, but after a while even the most determined fool either shapes up or gets shipped out. It migt even mke a cool added dimension, like you can have a really really powerful companion, who won't ever do what you tell them, or you can go with a more modest professional soldier, who can be issued complex tactics. A complete greenhorn academic or artists might similarly fail to grasp complex tactics.

[Lancer]

I loved FO and BG. Should I get Arcanum?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Arcanum is nowhere near as good as either of the above games as it suffers many faults... Besides the setting (which is a matter of taste), the game suffers from severe balance issues like tech characters being severely disadvantaged with respect to mage characters. The game basically forces you to be a mage, an archetype I am not very fond of. Tactics are nearly irrelevant in Arcanum since you are either too powerful for your foes or too weak... There didn't seem to be an in-between. The graphics are also pretty poor for a game that came out in 2001, although, this is the least of its problems. Despite the above faults the one main positive about Arcaum is its compelling storyline. The other good thing about this game is its character creation system capable of creating many, many types of characters (like in FO) although in practice this is not quite true as the game really does push for a mage character thereby rendering the character creation system's flexibility redundant.

 

EDIT: The way you can get trained by experts to improve your skills was a pretty fun addition.

 

That said, if you don't mind *very* slow-paced (and bad) violin music, and having elves/dwarves/magic mixed in an Industrial Revolution setting then you'd probably like it more than I did.

[Musopticon?]

Then again; you liking(or not) the music is a taste issue. I think, for example, that it's quite good.

[Lancer]

Then again; you liking(or not) the music is a taste issue. I think, for example, that it's quite good.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

You are right. It is not my place to tell you how bad your tastes are.

 

But seriously speaking, I admit to not being an artsy type.

[Musopticon?]

I'm not saying(writing?) that your taste is bad. Just different.

[Walsingham]

I think I'm starting to see lancer's point regarding either being too strong or too weak. I may be forced soon to get rid of some people. The only exception to this is that Virgil can be told to stay put, and you can go back to get him later, with no repercussions. one approach that does seem to work is to leave the pooor fools round a corner, conduct your battle cleverly just out of sight, then when you start getting beat, come running back round the corner, and 'tag' your mates into the fight. But altogether pretty lame.

 

 

Another missed opportunity was, in my opinion, collaborative tech projects. In my group I am a gunsmith and explosives chappie, and the other dwarf is metalwork and machines. It would be great if we could collaborate to build wild devices. Ditto for mages in some ways.

 

I am not so very far through the game yet, so have not noticed how far it skews in favour of mages. I hate mages anyway, so i doubt I would have realised if you hadn't told me. In fact, the only serious mage I have encountered thus far was an elf mage in a bar. He got shot three times, ate a molotov ****tail, then my henchmen bludgeoned him into unconsciousness. I only worked out how powerful he should have been when I looted his corpse. :D

[Lancer]

I am not so very far through the game yet, so have not noticed how far it skews in favour of mages. I hate mages anyway, so i doubt I would have realised if you hadn't told me. In fact, the only serious mage I have encountered thus far was an elf mage in  a bar. He got shot three times, ate a molotov ****tail, then my henchmen bludgeoned him into unconsciousness. I only worked out how powerful he should have been when I looted his corpse.  :D

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Agreed... mages suck. They are wimps that have to stay in the back line and need the protection of their stronger party members in order to live long enough to cast their spells.

 

EDIT: A fighter/mage type or some spellslinger that also has combat prowess would be cool just not a pure mage.

 

Oh and I had to restart early on. I changed character class when I realized that my tech character just couldn't beat those thugs blocking the bridge after the first village (IIRC).

[Magena]

I loved FO and BG. Should I get Arcanum?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I enjoyed Arcanum. It was fun to have magic and tech intertwined. And even the opening shows that magic and "the old ways" doesn't cut it against a good gun.

[Lancer]

Another problem with Arcanum is that it only gives you enough skill points to be good only in one or two things. Unlike Fallout, the game doesn't give enough points for you to be good in a variety of skills. That is another blow against it.

 

In general you can only pick one or two things at the most and stick to them because if you spread out your points too thin you won't excel at anything. Having trade-offs is one thing but Arcanum takes it a bit too far.

[Magena]

well, yeah, the points were skimpy I guess.

 

I did like the fact that you could climb in and out of some of the windows instead of just going though the front door. - unfortunatley, the police could also do this. But it was fun to see the graphics of people actually moving to get through a window as opposed to just the typical click on the door, it's open, walk through.

 

 

I don't remember how they treated crates though.

[Lancer]

I don't remember how they treated crates though.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

LOL. Why do so many posters on this forum have a beef with crates? LOL. They are just crates! I feel compelled to hug one for receiving so much bad rep.

[SteveThaiBinh]

In general you can only pick one or two things at the most and stick to them because if you spread out your points too thin you won't excel at anything. Having trade-offs is one thing but Arcanum takes it a bit too far.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This was always something I really liked. It forced you to think and plan your characters, and to choose NPCs which genuinely complemented your own. Good role-playing fun.

[Musopticon?]

NWN is a good enough reason to hate crates.

[Lancer]

NWN is a good enough reason to hate crates.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

NWN just sucks for its own sake.. not because of the crates.

[Magena]

I don't remember how they treated crates though.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

LOL. Why do so many posters on this forum have a beef with crates? LOL. They are just crates! I feel compelled to hug one for receiving so much bad rep.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Well in this case, I added it because I know Krez has a thing for crates... and buckets. I think he keeps hoping of for a family reunion.

 

 

(I was thinking of this the other day, well, I was thinking of Krez, and can't remember who the other bucket boy was/is. Anyone have any idea what happened to him?)

[Darque]

My thoughts on NPCs, I only like them when I have about 20 of them protecting me.

[Musopticon?]

NWN is a good enough reason to hate crates.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

NWN just sucks for its own sake.. not because of the crates.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yep, the OC I mean. Although the crates help it in that.