Why is there no Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura Remake?

Seeing how modern continuations of old games are looking (TES, Fallout), do you really want Arcanum 2? I remember Dragon Age Origins being promoted as the next Baldur's Gate but if that's really the case, then I'd rather not have Baldur's Gate 3. Human Revolution was a good enough game but still not as good as the original. Do I even need to mention Thief?

I don't understand this obsession with remakes and continuations. Stop fucking up what is already good and maybe, just maybe do something new.

 

As I said in another thread just now, problem isn't sequels, it's that the ones we got were shit.
I want a good sequel, that's all.

Remakes are a different story.

New stuff should happen anyway... But a lot of new games we got were shit too, so...

 

The only plausible way an arcanum would see a remake is with the creation engine.

 

I honestly don't think there'd be any way they could remake a game like Arcanum nowadays. You're going to end up getting an isometric RPG with lots of dialogue and not as much interaction and gameplay, IMO.

 

Sadly true. It would be some sort of BetheFallout-esque monstrosity. Players would be confused why they couldn't climb that eastern mountain range, and would swim past the initial bridge encounter (while fighting slaughterfish).

 

I always thought Arcanum's problem is that they tried to do a Fallout 2-sized game when they should have tried to make something tighter.
Say, instead of featuring a entire continent, just have three to five cities:
- Shroudded Hills
- Dernholm
- Tarant
- Blackroot
- Caladon

Also a lot less trash combat and a far smaller map, just focusing on the south area. A few carefully made dungeons instead of all those shitty linear Tunnels of Trash Fighting.

This would be just part, of course.

 

I agree... kinda.

One of the charming things about Arcanum though is that the world is big enough that you can just sort of lose yourself in it. The most fun I had with it was playing a technomancer/gunslinger, hunting for schematics and components to build guns and then shooting things with them. I didn't really give a shit about the story arc. If they had made it as tight as Fallout, it would've been pretty different.

 

Realms of Arkania HD

 

The entire western side of the mountain range is unneeded. THe world is big enough with the eastern side.

 

I'm sure I've said this before:

Remake Arcanum in Shadowrun combat engine. Arcanum character creation, rule set, setting (fuck the Matrix) and interface, Shadowrun combat and inventory system (fuck encumberance), new story.

 

If you're going to do that, why not take a really good combat engine

 

Resident Evil

 

I think a 2AP party combat system, with cover and flanking mechanics, that has implemented melee, magic, firearms and grenades, would fit Arcanum's mechanics well. If anything, the system strikes a good balance between streamline simplicity and tactical variety. Shadowrun's magic system is even drain based like Arcanum.

Could you be more specific about the flaws you find with Shadowrun's combat engine?

 

Even the best combat engine in the world wouldn't turn the combat good on its own, as the encounter design is shit and consists of trash mobs after trash mobs on flat maps with no sense of pacing or opportunities for interesting maneuvers aside from kiting and other innumerable ways of abusing the completely broken AI.

Yes, let's remove two things that were actually good in Arcanum and put in some cooldowns instead.

 

You're thinking of an engine conversion. I'm thinking of a remake with redesigned encounters. And a new story.

And yes what an awesome story Arcanum had like I gave a fuck about Virgil, Bates, and dwarf clans.

And yes what an awesome inventory system Arcanum had I love micromanaging large springs and small springs and metal bars and lemons and a dozen different herbs and carrying around 50 lbs of bullets and charges.

And yes, Arcanum's combat was so fun let's not have cooldowns so we can continue spam Harm because button mashing to win is why Arcanum is the best rpg ever.

 

Arcanum is the proverbial diamond in the rough, and it deserves a remake precisely to remedy to its numerous and crippling systemic problems.

 

In other words, a completely new game inspired by and building on the strengths of Arcanum, while doing its best to avoid fucking it up.

Where do I sign up?

 

Modern Shadowrun was simplistic shit though. May be fine on tabletop or tablet, but for a pc game that's mostly about combat? 2AP gameplay means too little variation in what characters can do in a round for example, similar problem to modern X-com. Attack/defence way too simple. Not enough character customization in terms of gear, spells rather simple... Fucking cooldowns. JA2 and old Xcom had their flaws but were imo superior. JA2's system with some upgrades would have fit a computer shadowrun better (xcom more for larger squads and less individual attention) imo.

For Arcanum, none of that seems right to me with the heavy melee focus and magic. MShadowrun games did not do either well or in a particularly interesting way. Well, not the shooting either.

You are also at times vastly outnumbered in arcanum, so a 2 AP (mostly) system would be totally inappropriate and cause you to have to cheese even more. Or rely a lot on silly MMO skills (you shot your gun in 5 directions at once while spinning like a ballerina, cooldown: 4 rounds) rather than training your characters up to have enough time units or action points and use actual actions yourself or interesting tactics.


Edit: Just saw you mentioned different encounter design. That could work to fix the obvious gameplay incompatability between the shadowrun system vs. Arcanum's gameplay situations but I still don't care for these overly simplified systems in a game like this tbh.

 

PC's can do a lot of "dice rolls"/calculations vs. table top players in the same time-frame with little hassle, take advantage of that in computer games rather than emulating table-top or whatever rules imo.
Simple rulesets may be fine for short little "play during break" games, but less so for proper pc rpg's.

 

Yeah. IMO one of the problems of PC RPGs is that either they're popamole simulationist action shit, or they're slavishly imitating PnP rules. It would be really cool if someone attempted a game that plays like the classics where the mechanics are straightforward enough that you can understand and apply them easily, but took advantage of the computer's strengths to do stuff you can't do in a PnP campaign without obnoxious numbers of table lookups and die rolls.

 

The game ia perfect - no need.

 

Off the top of my head... weather and lighting, and how that affects combat -- the way rain affects archery, fog or poor light makes it harder to hit things. Fatigue. Injuries and healing. A stealth system that simulates line of sight, lighting, noise, and alertness. Pair this up with a stat and skill based system which lets you modify the odds on each of these things and a UI that reflects what's going on so you can see it happening. Do it well and it could be highly engaging to play.

 

So let's do this.

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/arcanum-to-shadowrun-conversion.112688/

 

Why don't you just make a new game (or module for Shadowrun) in the spirit of Arcanum that way.