Let's Play Arcanum!

[Avery.Rook]

I can't even begin to tell you how freakin' excited I am for Project Eternity, and it made me once again nostalgic of the old CRPGs, so I decided to do an LP of Arcanum as an Evil Wizard. Please watch and give feedback.

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/DiagonalRooks/videos?view=0

 

So come join me in this classic CRPG, made by Tim Cain, who is making Project Eternity!

 

Expect one part a day, but this may be subject to change however.

[Osvir]

Cool :D this makes me intrigued .. Arcanum got a Multiplayer feature right? I've never gotten around to play Arcanum very far... I did recently update it with some mods (Before I heard about P:E) though.

 

EDIT: I've actually been thinking about asking the people here for a Multiplayer session on one of the IE games, so this thread felt almost coincidental.

Edited October 10, 2012 by Osvir

[Avery.Rook]

Uh yeah it does have a multiplayer feature, however I don't think it ever worked though.

[Gorth]

Is this where we get to confess having had GoG's version of Arcanum for a geological time period yet never got around to play it?

 

I hope you don't mind a lurker watching from the wayside.

[Avery.Rook]

Well if you haven't played it you should be ashamed of yourself, I've played through the game twice before.

[Tigranes]

Argh, I love LPs but I hate video LPs. Can't read at my own pace. Hope you keep it up though in whatever format, and let us know on the posts.

 

Recently had a techie character that made it nearly to the end before I petered out, I think I've worn out tech builds now after 3-4 times, but I've done the same with magic and melee / dumb / etc are too one-dimensional.

[Avery.Rook]

My first playthrough was as a Fighter/Thief and my second playthrough was as a straight up gunslinger beaten with an ugly stick, so this Evil Wizard is different for me. I guess I could read what they are saying, but I dont know. Oh and, how is Icewind Dale? Among the IE games, I never payed it much attention because it just seemed like a big dungeon crawling fest with less focus on story, but how good is it really?

 

Part 3 is up! Stay tuned for part 4 tomorrow.

Edited October 11, 2012 by Avery.Rook

[Osvir]

My first playthrough was as a Fighter/Thief and my second playthrough was as a straight up gunslinger beaten with an ugly stick, so this Evil Wizard is different for me. I guess I could read what they are saying, but I dont know. Oh and, how is Icewind Dale? Among the IE games, I never payed it much attention because it just seemed like a big dungeon crawling fest with less focus on story, but how good is it really?

 

Part 3 is up! Stay tuned for part 4 tomorrow.

 

Icewind Dale is great <3 best played with others in my opinion though. I'm on a second playthrough, want to do a LP. Also found multiplayer for Arcanum, but you can only play in the real time combat mode.. you're also inspiring me to go about and play the damn game xD thank you and kudos.

http://www.gog.com/en/forum/arcanum_of_steamworks_and_magick_obscura/getting_multiplayer_to_work

[Avery.Rook]

How is Icewind Dale multiplayer? We could possibly do an LP of it together.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

Uh yeah it does have a multiplayer feature, however I don't think it ever worked though.

 

It's buggy but can work.

For those interested in trying it out, take a look at this thread at GoG for ideas on how to make it work (plus there's, in theory, a mod that brings the single-player game to multiplayer).

[AwesomeOcelot]

I've been listening to the Arcanum soundtrack today, it's one of the best, available on GoG in lossless format (PCM, .wav). Don't think I'll be able to do another play through this year, it took me 10's of hours last time.

[Tigranes]

Icewind Dale is highly recommended. Check out my LP (below on sig), or other LPs around the web if you want a feel for it, but hey, Arcanum's a surprisingly combat-heavy game and so you shouldn't have a big problem with IWD.

[Avery.Rook]

No offense Tigranes, but what you are doing isn't really a Let's Play but more of an AAR (After Action Report). Over at the Total War Center, people do stuff like that all the time taking screenshots of their campaigns and telling a story, and that's what they are called there. I usually think of LPs as a video.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

No offense Tigranes, but what you are doing isn't really a Let's Play but more of an AAR (After Action Report). Over at the Total War Center, people do stuff like that all the time taking screenshots of their campaigns and telling a story, and that's what they are called there. I usually think of LPs as a video.

 

I've seen plenty of Let's Plays that are written in that style, in fact some of my favorites are done in this manner. Sure, you can do a video but just because you don't doesn't make it not a Let's Play.

[sorophx]

why not a screenshot LP? video LPs... meh

[Tigranes]

No offense Tigranes, but what you are doing isn't really a Let's Play but more of an AAR (After Action Report). Over at the Total War Center, people do stuff like that all the time taking screenshots of their campaigns and telling a story, and that's what they are called there. I usually think of LPs as a video.

 

You can call it what you like, it isn't a problem with me. I'm aware of AARs at TWC and other places too, though that terminology is also genre/community-specific. I find video LPs boring so this is what I prefer, though obviously mine tend towards the more simplistic.

 

So how is the evil wizard going? I always found it tough to be evil in Arcanum because when the time comes to make the big decision in the main plot, the idea of massacring an entire village for no real reason puts me off.

[melkathi]

 

 

So how is the evil wizard going? I always found it tough to be evil in Arcanum because when the time comes to make the big decision in the main plot, the idea of massacring an entire village for no real reason puts me off.

 

I played an evil elf in one playthrough with "sold your soul" as a background which prevented alignment from improving.

Yeah, doing that quest was a bit... let's put it this way. That was the first and only time I ever did an evil playthrough of any game.

 

The evil playthrough does have a nice bonus though: you can kill all the gnomes you want and not worry about alignment hits.

 

Though an evil playthrough is well worth it when it comes to companions. I found the evil companions to be some of the best around. Sarcastic Geoffrey is great and so is Torian Kel.

And the evil party makes the last part of the game more personal and interesting.

 

Plus you can skip part of the game by teleporting to a certain location, attacking a certain npc you probably shouldn't even meet during the evil campaign and going straight to the last part of the game

[Avery.Rook]

For me, the Evil Wizard is going okay. I mean its not much of a departure besides being a jerk in dialogue. I destroyed the steam engine in Shrouded Hills, and I plan to help Cedric Appleby in Tarant rather than speak to Gilbert Bates in Tarant.

[Tigranes]

I do like the Appleby path, because in the end, Bates is an opportunistic hack and a jerk to boot - though of course Appleby isn't any better.

[melkathi]

For me, the Evil Wizard is going okay. I mean its not much of a departure besides being a jerk in dialogue. I destroyed the steam engine in Shrouded Hills, and I plan to help Cedric Appleby in Tarant rather than speak to Gilbert Bates in Tarant.

 

The evil playthrough only really becomes different from the good once you meet the elves.

But there are little things. The companions have a nice chemistry and Virgil's reactivity to which path you choose is good as well.

[Avery.Rook]

Doesn't Virgil leave you after a while if you are evil? And as an evil character, what companions should i be looking out for?

[melkathi]

Doesn't Virgil leave you after a while if you are evil? And as an evil character, what companions should i be looking out for?

 

Virgil always leaves you after a while I think. There is a quest line to get him back and at the end, depending on your path he'll have a respective alignment. Evil Virgil is rather different than Good Virgil. Though I felt guilty about turning him evil.

 

Geoffrey in Ashbury is a nice necromancer for an evil party though some people have found his AI annoying. I had no such problem.

Torian Kel is a "hidden" npc you have to do a quest for. It's well worth having Geoffrey in your party when you get him.

 

My party was Virgil, Geoffrey, Torian Kel and Z’an Al’urin. Though Z'an isn't really evil.

 

Volinger made for some great irony in that party.

Tech affinity though made him and Tollo Underhill hard to use.

 

Both Geoffrey and Z'an are people who have some sort of comment about any location you go. The former of the snarky kind, the later more prophetic. I got a few giggles out of asking them what they know about the places we were.

[Tigranes]

Virgil will never leave you, he's the Loyal Dog type companion. He'll just become evil, too, after his brief sojourn.

 

I don't find Geoffrey useful really, he summons the zombie every other step then just whacks at people, his fire elemental form isn't great either and so he does nothing until he gets disintegrate. Torian Kel is worthwhile.

[Avery.Rook]

Yeah, Virgil leaves you but you can get him back, I believe you have to go to the basement of the Ashbury Inn and youll find him there.

[melkathi]

I don't find Geoffrey useful really, he summons the zombie every other step then just whacks at people, his fire elemental form isn't great either and so he does nothing until he gets disintegrate. Torian Kel is worthwhile.

 

Going to reply in spolier

 

 

The real benefit of the party comes from the story.

 

 

Torian Kel is the last member of the Gray Legions, the undying army the Derian-Ka send to put down the rebellion of the Molochean Hand. When you talk to him with Geoffrey in the party and ask about the Derian-Ka he'll tell you that Geoffrey is a member of that order.

As a result you can have a party with a necromancer from Kerghan's order, an undead legionair this order used to slaughter its opponents and Volinger, a member of the order of assassins that brough the downfall of those two groups. That's pure gold

And they make the encounters in the Void a lot more fun, seeing how Torian Kel, when he was alive, lived in a place called Kree ...

 

Edited October 14, 2012 by melkathi