Want to try Arcanum again

Hello Everybody,

I am thinking of trying Arcanum again (just loaded it up on the 'puter) since everyone on this site sings seems to sing its praises.

I tried it when it came out but I never got too far into it.

My question is - besides the game - should I download any mods or patches before starting the game?

What is the latest patch?
Any mods to allow me to up the resolution?
Any mods that fill out gameplay, conversations or generally polish up the game?

What should I load up to have the best Arcanum experience?

Thanks for any advice you can give,

Baksheesh

 

You may get a better response in the General Game Help forum here

Personally, I had a blast with Arcanum just using the official patches provided. The main thing you'll struggle with is the iffy combat system. It's pretty unbalanced, especially at the start of the game. It's very easy to wander into the first big dungeon (Black Mountain Mines) and think it's the hardest game ever.

If you can't be bothered with the combat, and just want to get stuck into the world, like I did, then go to Ashbury on the east coast and recruit the Dog. It's the most powerful thing in the game by the time it's lv. 40 (I'm not exaggerating) and breaks the combat completely.

 

Yeah, and don't pick Sogg in Shrouded Hills (him and the Dog and you can forget about fun combat).

Damn, I'm was thinking about Arcanum for a long time.

 

There are several characters that are completely badass in combat: Gar and Dog. Gar is my favorite because of the snooty upper class ideals and beliefs he brings to the table. He's fun as hell, and somewhat comical in his descriptions and such.

 

also take the bow skill max and play rt

say goodbye anything you see, its like an mg

 

Yeah but if you get Raven you'll already have an archer so it's probably not worth going down that route.

 

Why'd you want a girl in your party?

 

Ooops, didn't realize we strayed off topic.

What is the latest patch?-- 1074 is the latest. There weren't a lot of official patches.

Any mods to allow me to up the resolution?-- No, as far as I know. The resolution was not a problem for most people though I think.

Any mods that fill out gameplay, conversations or generally polish up the game? -- There are no worthwhile "content" modifications for the main module, but there are a couple of decent modifications that polish things in terms of game balance or bug fixes. Dimensions of arcanum has some of them.

I haven't tried any of them but these look useful in that they restore what the game intended, without adding any extra rubbish:

http://arcanum.rpgplanet.gamespy.com/ti ... er.php#aio
http://arcanum.rpgplanet.gamespy.com/ti ... hp#machine
http://arcanum.rpgplanet.gamespy.com/ti ... #dialogfix

This also seems useful:
http://arcanum.rpgplanet.gamespy.com/ti ... shopkeeper

Again, most of these are relatively minor and so I haven't tried them, so I can't guarantee that they work or anything.

If you can find some mods that (within reason) increase the power of the tech side (strengthen the effects of the Therapeutic discipline, increase the effectiveness of guns, etc) or fix the remaining known bugs (Disintegrate should have a save, it does not; the meta-magic college has a bug that allows you to permanently summon creatures; etc), then I'd apply that too.

In terms of modules, I think someone said Doomsday was pretty good but I haven't heard much more than that. The Troika team made several modules besides the main one but they didn't really put that much effort into them. You can see the results here.

Seriously though the official patch is probably good enough. Arcanum hasn't seen much in the way of modding or other useful stuff from the community.

 

The only useful mod I know of is the level cap remover.

 

Is there anything that helps the game run on Windows Vista?

 

On the topic of unbalanced cheap tricks, my first character was an average fighter type, and got his ass handed to him in the mines.

I decided to restart, and went with a magic user. The first-level death (I think) spell is a damage spell, so I took it to start with... and never really needed any other spells. It could kill just about anything in 1-2 hits all the way through the game.

I eventually quit, probably due to boredom with the combat, so I never did finish it... and now I'm itchin' for a replay.

 

Fo realz. I can't get it to run on my laptop, which is doing fine with Torment, Fallout 1 and 2 and BGII.

 

Same here. I reached level 50 in no time, and seeing I couldn't progress any further I lost interest rather quickly. Also, the leap from 19 to 20 in some stats is abysmal; makes playing some race and class combinations way too counterproductive.

Vista boys: try this thread.

 

Thanks. Messing around with the resolution and color settings fixed it for me. Annoying but what do you do? :wink:

 

http://www.terra-arcanum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=14180 here is nice modification. It contains many bugfixes, and it expands Arcanum (it adds several new areas, and stuff). It is still in development, but you can downolad beta version. It has some drawbacks (eg. game is loading longer) but this add-on is worth installing.

 

Have you tried the no3d mode (Arcanum.exe -no3d)? It solved the problems for me.

 

(shameless thread hijacking) any race/class combos particularly interesting for gameplay?

 

Cool I will try that ty

 

Low charisma half-orcs with high intelligence I find interesting. Everyone hates you, but through hard work you can earn respect. Or through use of a bewitching spell, or a certain technology. Ah, I love this game so much.

Gentlemen high int half-ogre gamblers with dialogue skills are also a favourite of mine. And being a dwarf gives you... a very interesting possibility, though I am not sure if you actually have to be a dwarf for that.

 

Arcanum redefined "unbalanced". I once created the following character just for fun: half-elf girl focused on throwing skill. In every other RPG that would be a challenge game. In Arcanum.. Once I got a good chakram (spelling?), which you get quite early in the game (in that big city), combat was "over". No really, I am not talking about "one hit, one kill" - I killed multiple enemies per turn! When a battle started (I used turn-based combat) I usually just Xena'ed everyone away with my chakram before they even had a chance to move!

 

I have a hard time believing Jasede can pull himself away from the sheep in Tarant long enough to accomplish much in Arcanum.

 

With Car Arcanum 2 he can carry a sheep with him always. He'll never be lonely that way. I hear Chris should have it finished soon. The ultimate mod.

 

hah

 

I always thought it was a shame that KC and Chris never got to meet. A legendary romance that never was.

Arcanum never got as much attention on the mod front as expected. Partly due to its horrible interface and instability. There are a few fixes and modifications that were worth while. Some of them sort out problems with broken items and effects that the patches never fixed. I made a bunch of them ages ago for my own uses.

I seem to remember some of these being popular a while back: http://arcanum.rpgplanet.gamespy.com/ti ... nkerer.php

Have a look on Terra Arcanum too. They'd be your best bet.

 

Since no one seems to think there is a "must-have mod" I am playing with only the latest patch and taking 1eyedking's advice and using the no level cap mod.

Early days yet, I am trying a half-orc gunman/technologist character and have just hit level 8 and done 1-2 quests in Tarant.

I am having to kiss alot of ass as a half-orc since everyone is quite prejudiced at first and my other choices seem to be walk away or fight. I will probably start getting a little meaner once I get a few more levels under my belt.

Thanks for all your advice.