Arcanum

[Walsingham]

I offically despise crates and locked chests after NWN. And this was not because they were locked, but because treasure was spread all over the place. Even this I could have got over if there was never any logic governing what was in the goram things, nor whether they contained plot critical items. I spent literally hours in total smashing the fething things open. Combine that with the tedious enemies and you had amajor grind-fest. Pah. Makes me ill just thinking about it.

 

 

By contrast, something I really like about Arcanum is that I just know that if I were a thief I'd be checking out all kinds of cool locked buildings and grabbing more loot. But I don't/can't. This means I can replay later.

 

As for not being a tech, I have to ask...

you claimed to a be tech-head and you never wondered about using that dynamite? I can't recall where I got it, but believe me anyone else gets stuck, that's the way.

 

 

The other cracking thing about being a tech is collecting all the blueprints. I am absolutely loving the way I have a list of about twenty gadgets I am looking forward to making. And I can tell it is going to get a lot longer because of all the components they mention. I expect they won't be all that powerful when they are built, but that's not the point.

 

And as for having slow points accrual, that rather depends on how many guys you whack. There are random encounters in the wilderness that allow you to level up pretty easy, and various godly favours that can be invoked.

 

Oh, and a hint on dynamite. Do NOT return to the dynamite once lit. I just about laughed my ass off the first time I attached some to the bank vault, thought it hadn't worked and was in teh process of retrieving it when BOOOM! I was thrown across the room, my eyebrows and armour singed off! I liked this so much i kept the save rather than going back to a previous save. I was a much chastened dwarf, I can tell you.

 

EDIT: Oh dammit I completely forgot my original point. The scots dwarf is fun for the interactions with my disciplines, but he has a serious bug up his patookie. He objects when I kill pigs and even undead! He's like some insane pacifist. I need an alternative NPC in the Tarant/Blackroot/Ashbury/dernholm area. Preferably a non-smoker.

[Gabrielle]

I loved FO and BG. Should I get Arcanum?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Of course. A great game that is probably nice and cheap in the stores.

[GhostofAnakin]

Of course. A great game that is probably nice and cheap in the stores.

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If you can still find it. I went out looking today. EB Games didn't have it, and neither did places like Future Shop or Best Buy. And Amazon didn't seem to have it online either.

[EnderAndrew]

On the balance issues, people who played tech screamed about magic, while the magic players screamed about tech. I've never seen a pure consensus that agrees one side is more powerful than the other. Both sides were screaming. Was balance as bad as everyone makes it? Perhaps not.

[alanschu]

I agree Ender

 

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.

 

This I think is actually a latent bonus to the game......I find Arcanum to be a whole lot easier as a Tech Specialist.

[LoneWolf16]

I'm going to have to re-install Arcanum now. This topic reminded me i even had the thing.

 

I couldn't really get into it though, but I liked the setting, and story.

[EnderAndrew]

There are mods and fan-patches.

[Humodour]

I don't remember how they treated crates though.

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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.

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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?)

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CRATES! YAY!!!!

 

LiquidDamage. I think he has an account at the Lair but I don't think he floated over to these boards when that idiot at IPLY closed the forums. And I've lost the bucket avatar again. Bah!

 

Oh and thanks for all the comments guys. I'm not too fussy with games, so Arcanum should be some good fun. I think Morrowind was the only game I truly regretted playing (and I'll still give Oblivion a go, since DS 2 has taught me that developers CAN learn from mistakes).

[Walsingham]

It turned out the dwarf was getting riled because of his snuff addiction. I needed some dwarven snuff. I mention this because if you don't have some ON YOUR PERSON when you find this out, he sods off. So now I always carry some. Crazy junkie fool that he is. I'm accumulating every blueprint I can find, sensible or not, so if anyone wants low spolier advice on tech designs, I'll be happy to help out.

[SteveThaiBinh]

The scots dwarf is fun for the interactions with my disciplines, but he has a serious bug up his patookie. He objects when I kill pigs and even undead!  He's like some insane pacifist. I need an alternative NPC in the Tarant/Blackroot/Ashbury/dernholm area. Preferably a non-smoker.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Did you kill the Sacred Pigs of Ashbury?

 

I always liked to keep Magnus with me - he makes a particular kind of axe (featherweight, or something like that) which is one of my favourite weapons in the game. He has more interesting interjections to offer than most.

 

As for the balance thing, I always found the big imbalance was between melee and non-melee characters. The party gets XP for damage caused and for kills, but hugely more for damage and kills by your character than by NPCs. I like to play a ranger/mage character who hangs in the back and casts protection/fortification/healing spells on the melee fighters in front, but this game penalises that style heavily.

[Walsingham]

I can understand why that would bug you, Steve, but there's little chance of that happening with my characters so no tears on my part. And yes, I was killing pigs. I also noticed that if you absolutely have to kill a good guy Magnus gets upset every time you hit him. The solution is (so far as I can tell) to plant dynamite in in an object near them and retire to a safe distance. This kills them in one go, and is coincidentally highly amusing, albeit rather expensive.

 

As you may have gathered I'm really enjoying the explosives tech. Molotov ****tails have to the most useful weapon in the game so far. They hurt absolutely anything, and once you learn the skill you just buy cheap fuel and pick up rags from rubbish bins.

 

One other thing I really like is the permanent injuries thing. my character is now crisscrossed with scars from getting chewed on by zombies, and one where he dropped a molotov on himself. This really helps you remember the character history and picture them in your head.

 

And yes, having Magnus around definitely adds to the Christmas air when you up levels, since he starts to make you presents!

[Diogo Ribeiro]

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.

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While Arcanum's skill points penalizes players for spreading their points too thinly I consider it a plus as it incentivates replayability, though its not without fault for being perhaps too penalizing. It could be argued that the penalty is necessary to maintain some balance while simultaneously enforcing the dicothomy between magic and technology. With more skill points available to the player I suspect the system would eventually allow for characters to become equally proficient in both technology and magic, and any penalties between using both might have been sufficiently mitigated to put to waste the whole idea of opposing forces.

 

I think a total of 64 skill points seems like a well rounded number but it depends on what a player is after. I'd be lying if I said I never felt like one or other character of mine felt incomplete and just a couple of points away from being what I had planned; but most of the time the amount of points fit like a glove.

 

However I don't think Fallout was necessarily better because I found one of the problems with both Fallout games, particularly with the sequel because of the higher level range possible to attain, was that character diversity was skewed because there were too many chances to make a jack of all trades that wasn't harmed because of spreading points too thinly. This was mostly due to being able to level up more intensively than in the prequel as the time limit wasn't as severe, and because of a handfull of elements that could permanently bolster character stats (skill books, operations, special chips, trainers).

[Walsingham]

Role player has a point. Isn't that the rule, to leave you wanting more?

[Walsingham]

I'm getting nervous now. I don't like the idea of getting stuck without being able to build my grand schemes. Is it really capped at level 64? And if so, where can I get a mod to unlock it? In fact what are the good mods for Arcanum?

[Diogo Ribeiro]

The game caps at level 50; however you get a total of 64 character points to spend.

 

There's also a quest that involves the gods of Arcanum and a major blessing to the main character, but I think you should try it out some time later.

 

If you feel like cheating there is a hack made for the game which bumps the level cap to level 127. If you're interested, click me.

[Walsingham]

Thanks for the link to the level upgrader. I suppose I wil have to make do with lvl 127.

 

Oh, btw, I got thoroughly sick of the dwarf's constant whining, I left him naked in a temple of ultimate evil.

[Walsingham]

Well, finished Arcanum. Loved it. Only reached level 50 just before the end, and definitely did not visit all the places. Am playing it again once I clear a work backlog. This time I have opted for a swashbuckling young lady human. Who I intend to play uncharacteristically as a creeper talker, to see how good things get.

 

BTW, for you gun heads out there, don't bother building anything other than

the looking glass rifle.

Everything else is utterly inferior, except perhaps the

blade launcher

. Also note that gunsmithy doesn't combine very well with other disciplines.

 

Explosives is a fantastically useful skillset because not only are explosives powerful, and capable of blasting open doors and locked items, but you can sell them for huge profits.

 

 

Now then, are there any mods you chaps recommend?

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Good to know someone else likes the game. It's unfortunate the game does not get more love.

 

I was a fan of the

Looking Glass Rifle

when I played gun-oriented characters, though I must also speak of the merits of the following guns:

The Hand Cannon (a single handed pistol with a good damage and speed ratio; my explorers would hold an Electrical Light in one hand and a Hand Cannon in the other, switching the light for a shield during some battle situations - o'course, the Mining Helmet took away the need to use the Electrical Light), the Droch's Warbringer (assembled from a schematic, ancient technological weapon that uses fuel), and the Pyrotechnic Gun (a flame-based weapon which shoots firebolts capable of damaging armor; it's like a lesser Fire Elemental packed into a gun).

 

 

I haven't played many Arcanum mods, but I suggest visiting the Terra Arcanum boards and ask for suggestions (the same forums which hosted the level upgrader).

[Walsingham]

Hmmm.. I had not considered the benefits you mention of the other weapons. I just realised in addition that the weapon we were discussing get some kind of negative penalty when attacking certain foes. I think undead in particular. Speaking of which, I was annoyed that the humble shotgun wasn't cooler. Have these people never watched Bruce Campbell?

 

Speaking of mods I have rarely had such an itch to mod anything myself. The game practically screams out for new combinations and items on the tech side. I would also dearly love to construct something along the lines of the Great Game, with stuffy tarantian officers and hordes of spear weilding kites (a kind of goblin). Double dealing, ancient lizard gold, fat landowners.... *drools*

[Guest Fishboot]

Highly recommend throwing mastery and molotovs (preferably with a high technological value as well). It's fun to run around in circles to herd large numbers of enemies into a small space and then blast them all to bits with a few hand grenades.

 

I wish there were more variety in the NPCs - I wanted to make a guns guy with the Educator background (allows you to train NPC companions to your level of mastery minus one) and have a team of expert marksmen to machine-gun down all those hoity toity elves but I could only ever find one NPC that would deign to use a gun (although there are lots of melee specialists).. Of course, the game isn't all that hard to solo so pushing a herd of NPC companions around can get tiresome anyway.

[Walsingham]

Soloing could be fun, now you mention it. Especially with the various mechanical manservants you can construct. My one complaint is indeed that there is precious little variety.

 

Ditto on the elves. I wanted a group of marksmen handing out good 'ole Kipling style thrashings with Martini Henrys. I eventually wound up having to do most of this myself. With the right weapons some bits of the game are little more than a glorious safari! :D

 

Also: whether technologist or not, make sure to pick equipment chaches at strategic places in the gameworld. This frees up equipment space and makes for a homelike atmosphere when you are at certain destinations. Note, however, that rubbish bins get emptied every day. :">

[Diogo Ribeiro]

I think one of the things Arcanum lacked was the ability to create a handful of characters to accompany the PC trough the game, much like Baldur's Gate allowed for with its multiplayer workaround or like party-based dungeon crawlers allow. It would be a trade-off, of course: unique but premade NPCs vs empty but customizable ones, but it could be worth it.

 

Then again the game was already unbalanced in some situations, I suspect adding something like this would worsen it.

[SteveThaiBinh]

Now then, are there any mods you chaps recommend?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

There's a car mod, which I believe is quite popular, though I've never used it, and I did play the 'Virgil the Pervert' mod, but I honestly can't remember if it was any good.

...but I could only ever find one NPC that would deign to use a gun...

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I remember three, I think:

Vollinger, Sebastian and Franklin Payne, though the last comes very late.

 

 

I always store my stuff in the rat warehouse in Tarant - it's perfectly safe there, and I've never lost anything.

[EnderAndrew]

I think one of the things Arcanum lacked was the ability to create a handful of characters to accompany the PC trough the game, much like Baldur's Gate allowed for with its multiplayer workaround or like party-based dungeon crawlers allow. It would be a trade-off, of course: unique but premade NPCs vs empty but customizable ones, but it could be worth it.

 

Then again the game was already unbalanced in some situations, I suspect adding something like this would worsen it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Arcanum also featured a toolset and online play like NWN, but I never played it online. You could play online with a party. I also liked that you could link your server to another and hop from one game to another with the same character if you liked.

[Diogo Ribeiro]

True, Ender; and that was no doubt an interesting aspect of it. I suspect that, had the toolset and the online play been thoroughly polished and made just slightly more accessible they could have bolstered Arcanum's appeal.