Arcanum Chris Avellone Arcanum LP

[Rpgsaurus Rex]

AP cost for movement is way different from Fallout and you can't see the grid.

How does that make the actual combat any different

The lower AP costs for movement means that ranged weapons lose almost all of their advantage.

So... if that's particularly imbalancing, just make movements cost more AP. It's not the TB system itself (which would be described as "take actions based on AP, end turn, wait until your next turn") - it's the variables involved (here: AP costs of movement). It's a complaint on the same level as "Harm is OP" - it doesn't actually say anything about how Arcanum TB system works - which my original post was about.

 

[tuluse]

Ok, whatever, I'm not getting into an argument over the semantics of the word system.

 

[Rpgsaurus Rex]

Ok, whatever, I'm not getting into an argument over the semantics of the word system.

It's not really about semantics but about the sad fact that no one bothered with making any balance changes to OC (weapon, magic, movement variables etc.) using Arcanum's existing TB system. Of all games, surely this one deserves an army of modders? Why anyone would bother talking about Arcanum combat being crap in its current state (which has been done a million times before), is beyond me.

 

[TheRabbitsGeorge]

Ok, whatever, I'm not getting into an argument over the semantics of the word system.

It's not really about semantics but about the sad fact that no one bothered with making any balance changes to OC (weapon, magic, movement variables etc.) using Arcanum's existing TB system. Of all games, surely this one deserves an army of modders?

this is a fine man. i agree, it blows my mind that Arcanum hasn't been given a proper balance mod. Cloaked Figure made one, but the project is beyond dead AFAIK and didn't get very far with actually balancing the game (all he did was like...nerf harm and balanced sword and made golems / worthless mutt weaker IIRC)

that being said, boo on MCA for not installing DROG's patch. No Chris, we don't want to watch in frustration while you stumble through one of the buggiest messes to ever hit shelves. So fix the damn bugs man! Hell I bet Tim Cain plays with the Drog patch. Drog's like...an honorary arcanum developer at this point.

 

[Xor]

Fixing the balance issues in Arcanum would be a pretty massive project. I mean, just rebalancing the weapons and armor would only be the beginning. The enemies would need to be redone so they're actually dangerous and have more abilities than just running up and hitting you, the stat system is broken and would need to be reworked (that's probably impossible), several spells are crap and would need replacements, while other spells are way too powerful and need to be nerfed, and AP stacking would probably still be massively unfair even with all those fixes.

Then there's the real-time side of combat, and I don't even know where to begin there.

 

[Jaesun]

It would require that Acivision release the source code to it, and monkeys will fly out of my ass before that will ever happen.

 

[Rpgsaurus Rex]

There's WorldED with good tutorials on how to change/add stuff http://terra-arcanum.com/amtut/amtut.htm - there's just no one willing to bother.

 

[Xor]

There's WorldED with good tutorials on how to change/add stuff http://terra-arcanum.com/amtut/amtut.htm - there's just no one willing to bother.

I'm pretty sure there are a lot of changes that could only be made by editing the executable, and I'm sure as fuck not willing to spend hours days pouring over it with a disassembler trying to find the right functions to change.

 

[imweasel]

The music in Arcanum is still the worst part of the game. It's the same fucking shitty tune over and over and over again.

 

[Darth Roxor]

The music in Arcanum is still the worst part of the game.

o___________________________________________________________________o

 

[Papa Môlé]

They both have shit combat, but PST is RTwP which is pretty much expected to be shit. With Arcanum they managed to fuck up TB combat which is a much greater crime.

Arcanum had Real-time foisted on them by the publishers last minute as well as multiplayer. Planescape devs *chose* to go with shitty RTwP and did not have to program multiplayer. Planescape also is based on an existing ruleset and setting and uses only three generic classes, one of which is pretty useless. Everything about it, compared to Arcanum, is also much more simplistic, like the inventory and levelling systems, or much smaller like the size of the world itself. Indeed Planescape uses a very Biowarean hub-based system for its world.

Given how much less work Planescape had to do and how easier it was to do all it of it's completely ridiculous that Codex is constantly harping about how bad Arcanum's combat supposedly is yet this game with it's emo story is constantly given a pass despite being weak to mediorce or just failing in every aspect of being a game besides aesthetic things like art direction and dialogue. It would have been better as a visual novel. Only having played PS first, that is nostalgia, or some pretentious BS about deconstructing video game cliches is the reason I can see for it being rated higher here.

 

[BobtheTree]

The music in Arcanum is still the worst part of the game. It's the same fucking shitty tune over and over and over again.

 

[Kaldurenik]

No patch O.o?

Anyway do anyone know where he will upload it? Is it 15min youtube parts?

 

[Black]

The music in Arcanum is still the worst part of the game. It's the same fucking shitty tune over and over and over again.

Wow, 2013 is on a whole new level compared to 2012 and earlier

 

[Rpgsaurus Rex]

Oldfags: so easily trolled.

 

[RedScum]

It's gonna be on youtube if i remember correctly.

 

[Xor]

The music in Arcanum is still the worst part of the game. It's the same fucking shitty tune over and over and over again.

You'd best be trolling.

No patch O.o?

Anyway do anyone know where he will upload it? Is it 15min youtube parts?

If I had to guess, it'll probably be on Obsidian's youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/ObsidianEnt

On a semi-related note, when I was searching for an answer to your question, I came across this:

Eurogamer: The RPGCodex would be pretty cross with you, Chris.

Chris Avellone: I think they're going to be cross with me no matter what I do, and I've learned to live with it as long as they provide me with detailed critiques, because past all the profanity they'll spit out, they've actually got some good information on why certain systems are broken, and which ones aren't. Those are actually worth paying attention to, so I value those guys.

 

[Kaldurenik]

The music in Arcanum is still the worst part of the game. It's the same fucking shitty tune over and over and over again.

You'd best be trolling.

No patch o_O?

Anyway do anyone know where he will upload it? Is it 15min youtube parts?

If I had to guess, it'll probably be on Obsidian's youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/ObsidianEnt

On a semi-related note, when I was searching for an answer to your question, I came across this:

Eurogamer: The RPGCodex would be pretty cross with you, Chris.

Chris Avellone: I think they're going to be cross with me no matter what I do, and I've learned to live with it as long as they provide me with detailed critiques, because past all the profanity they'll spit out, they've actually got some good information on why certain systems are broken, and which ones aren't. Those are actually worth paying attention to, so I value those guys.

Thanks

 

[felipepepe]

We all know that in no fuckign way MCA will LP Arcanum from start to end, so playing unpatched is just a very confortable way of him having lots of momments were he can just halt LPing "due gamebreaking bug"...

 

[Xor]

I don't really remember ever encountering any "game-breaking" bugs in Arcanum. Hell, the only bug I remember clearly is that the game would crash if you would try to loot the corpse of a certain enemy in the Boil.

 

[tuluse]

I've had the game freeze at the end of turns in combat many a time. The dots just keep lighting up forever.

 

[BobtheTree]

I've had the game freeze at the end of turns in combat many a time. The dots just keep lighting up forever.

I had that happen with the patch at least half a dozen times.

 

[Black]

Eurogamer: The RPGCodex would be pretty cross with you, Chris.

Chris Avellone: I think they're going to be cross with me no matter what I do, and I've learned to live with it as long as they provide me with detailed critiques, because past all the profanity they'll spit out, they've actually got some good information on why certain systems are broken, and which ones aren't. Those are actually worth paying attention to, so I value those guys.

It's funny because "why rtwp is shit" was often discussed on the Codex and the system destroyed, yet that didn't stop him

 

[Kz3r0]

I've had the game freeze at the end of turns in combat many a time. The dots just keep lighting up forever.

The game doesn't freeze, probably some off screen npc doing its thing, just switch to real time.
Seriously, there is no game breaking bug in Arcanum, even the crash in the Boil can be bypassed by simply letting time pass and recovering the key you need from the resulting junk pile, without mentioning that you can just bash the door.

 

[Black]

What Boil crash/bug?