Arcanum New Arcanum Mod: Professor Bowtie's Arcanum Complete

[Spanky McGuire]

If someone makes TB combat feel smooth and relaxing like Fallout I'll give them money

Hah, yes. God, those games had good turn-based combat. I would love to say my mod accomplishes that, but I'm not sure

Y'all are an elite and insular bunch, aren't you?

Bantz come with the territory.

But if I were you I'd take the criticism people here are giving to heart because:

1. People here have been obsessing over cRPGs more than it is reasonably healthy;
2. They're actually going to be honest with you, instead of sucking your dick like the faggots from reddit.

While I likely won't have time to actually test out the mod and share my shit opinions on the matter, kudos to you for the effort put into this - hopefully you can stop being a sexpat long enough to give some more attention to the turn-based option too.

Hah. Thanks. I'm fine with receiving feedback. That's why I posted the mod here--so I could continue making changes to improve the game. Most of the criticism so far, though, has been kneejerk pissing and moaning rather than thoughtful engagement with the changes. I'm not bothered. I'm really just happy to see there are still active communities of angry neckbeards on the internet in 2021. Look--if the mod sucks, that's life. But try testing it out for a few minutes before shitting on it.

In terms of what someone else mentioned about Virgil not attacking in turn-based: thank you for telling me. There is a minimum speed threshold under which NPCs won't do anything in turn-based, so reducing speed seems to have come with an early consequence. It's one of the game's many dumbass eccentricities. Virgil should behave normally in turn based after the first few levels, as he raises Dex. I suggest playing the mod in real-time until then. Turn-based should be used for careful planning in this mod, not as the game's default.

Regarding raising damage and HP as being a retarded decision, that's not really what this mod does. Some spells and weapons (guns) had significant damage increases, but others stayed the same or went down. You need more HP in the game to allow for more freedom in deciding how that HP can be knocked down and for real-time to function smoothly. You all can say what you want about how "okay" Arcanum's combat is (and I love the game), but real-time fucking sucked because you'd die quickly against many sorts of monsters. Unless you were doubling up on your ritalin, that mode wasn't very comfortable. I hope my mod fixes that.

 

[jungl]

Im one of those people that like arcanum for what it is. A unbalanced mess. I would like to see more stuff added to the game or a potential sequel. Less useless stuff like some spells and maybe more flexible character progression would be nice. Don't really care about balance. Crpgs can get away with being unbalanced if they have ton of content that is fun.

 

[LibertyRansom]

First, appreciate the work you put into modding this old gem. Might check this out next weekend. Sounds like you made some interesting changes and it would make a replay more interesting. I do generally play real time, so I'm interested to see how the combat changes. Hoping somebody can report on it before I dive in.

 

[visions]

Thanks, but it seems to be aimed solely at people who want to play in real-time, and I'd never do that. In general, I think Arcanum is good only with turn-based combat and it was clearly developed for such.

I haven't played Arcanum in a long time but I remember that real time seemed easier for gunslingers and archers. I remember that in real time it was easier to stay out of melee combat with a ranged character. Do I remember wrong?

I haven't played Arcanum in around 15 years so maybe I do remember wrong.

 

[flabbyjack]

"New" and "Arcanum" are two words I didn't expect to see in the same sentence this year.

 

[Red Hexapus]

The fact that not a single arcanum modder modded out of the game this abominable system blows my mind.

this is real? and is it really working properly?

Can confirm that it works, played recently as a diplomat character with both options switched on. It's a godsend.

 

[jackofshadows]

That's all late game stuff which is why guns suck.

You might wanna try this gimmick to have fun with guns. Or just steal hand cannon from master of thievery IIRC via fate point.

Guns fare quite well in TB mode, i rarely use RT, of course

real-time fucking sucked because you'd die quickly against many sorts of monsters. Unless you were doubling up on your ritalin, that mode wasn't very comfortable. I hope my mod fixes that.

I strongly disagree. You just have to kite, that's all. Idk, ever played Diablo? :D Or to have a very good AC/DR but that's not easy thing to gain quickly. For reference you can also check thouse screenshots above, here is the second part - afterwards. I was playing in RT the whole game maybe with few exceptions at best.

Instead you lower overall lethality which isn't a good thing imo. But I can't say for sure since I haven't actually tested your mod and I'm not going to since I'm pretty sure it's not for me, sorry.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Since I'm replaying Arcanum right now, and with a heavy heart I must say that combat isn't as good as I remembered it. Enemies are either a pushovers which you kill in a RT or a complete beasts which kill you in three hits. Late game and proper char building reduces ALL enemies into the first category, so you simply play in RT since no one can kill you before you kill them. Arcanum clearly needs a combat improvement unless you are a dirty storyfag.

Spanky McGuire it's weird to accent RT combat in your mod. RT in Arcanum exist mostly for ROFLstomping weak enemies through the game. What should be done instead is improving encounter design (since it's one of the weakest parts of the game) to make most of the fights interesting in TB. I see that you are doing something like this already: enemies should have more spells or gear and various special effects (like poison or stun) to make them distinct and give incentive to use different tactics.

Also, I feel that you have some Underrail influence in your mod, true?

 

[Ol' Willy]

You just have to kite, that's all

Kite and Harm spamming is the ultimate cheese, but is it fun?

 

[Spanky McGuire]

Since I'm replaying Arcanum right now, and with a heavy heart I must say that combat isn't as good as I remembered it. Enemies are either a pushovers which you kill in a RT or a complete beasts which kill you in three hits. Late game and proper char building reduces ALL enemies into the first category, so you simply play in RT since no one can kill you before you kill them. Arcanum clearly needs a combat improvement unless you are a dirty storyfag.

Spanky McGuire it's weird to accent RT combat in your mod. RT in Arcanum exist mostly for ROFLstomping weak enemies through the game. What should be done instead is improving encounter design (since it's one of the weakest parts of the game) to make most of the fights interesting in TB. I see that you are doing something like this already: enemies should have more spells or gear and various special effects (like poison or stun) to make them distinct and give incentive to use different tactics.

Also, I feel that you have some Underrail influence in your mod, true?

Hi, Willy. Thanks for asking. I haven't played Underrail. I don't play many new games. I just geek out on really old ones in my spare time. Yeah, I've tried to make random encounters more interesting, with improved spells and equipment. I appreciate your frankness about Arcanum's combat. It was not... good... but was held up by the fantastic worldbuilding, art, and sound design.

 

[Sykar]

Hopefully this means they went from mostly useless to good and stay good enough late game.

I mostly played Arcanum with guns, rarely with a focus on magic (like MC + 2 wizard followers) and sometimes with melee char.
Guns fare quite well in TB mode, i rarely use RT, of course, you need high crafting skills, barter and make a shit ton of money + hunt down schematics.

Melee builds are extremely painful against golems and there's a lot of them.
Magic requires a lot of fatigue so the easier and most enjoyable runs were always with gunners parties, i also did a Dalton (4 Gunners) run which i stopped before crossing the mountains but i don't like it very much there.

Aside from Teleport, Magic got nothing on guns.

Of course, if you decide to cheese the game by going harm + stockpiling fatigue potions, be my guest, is it that fun though?

The fact that not a single arcanum modder modded out of the game this abominable system blows my mind.
Either all arcanum modders are retarded or you can't mod this abomination out without access to source code.
There is no 3 option here.

I believe it was one of the features planned for the next UAP release before Drog went awol...

Except magic has the coolest power in the game, Time in conjunction with Persuasion Mastery. Use Tempus Fugit and Haste on your best fighter and watch him rip through hordes of enemies per turn while they crawl at a snails pace barely able to do anything. Worthless Mutt is especially effective with those two on him but even Virgil, Magnus and Raven become serious threats.

 

[Spanky McGuire]

First, appreciate the work you put into modding this old gem. Might check this out next weekend. Sounds like you made some interesting changes and it would make a replay more interesting. I do generally play real time, so I'm interested to see how the combat changes. Hoping somebody can report on it before I dive in.

Thanks, dude. I've received some positive reviews on other sites, with people saying the game is more difficult and requires planning, but combat is more fun. I think so, too. Please let me know what you think if you try it.

 

[JarlFrank]

Thanks, but it seems to be aimed solely at people who want to play in real-time, and I'd never do that. In general, I think Arcanum is good only with turn-based combat and it was clearly developed for such.

I haven't played Arcanum in a long time but I remember that real time seemed easier for gunslingers and archers. I remember that in real time it was easier to stay out of melee combat with a ranged character. Do I remember wrong?

I haven't played Arcanum in around 15 years so maybe I do remember wrong.

Bows are completely op in real time because of how ridiculously fast they are.

 

[jackofshadows]

You just have to kite, that's all

Kite and Harm spamming is the ultimate cheese, but is it fun?

It is, for a while (then you move on to some other spells, right?). But chugging on mana potions is not fun since you have to click on yourself every time. Anyway, what I meant was that if you're playing with guns and got killed that's probably because you're standing still waiting to be slaughtered since the game doesn't have that many ranged mobs. As an exception there's non-coincidentally tough encounter for firearms mastery and some bow mobs in the Vendigroth area. Well, also elves if you've decided to slaughter them. Otherwise you just shoot stuff and kite if needed. Somewhat retarded but legit gameplay.

 

[Ol' Willy]

then you move on to some other spells, right?

Nope. If you go full mage with Magic aptitude of 100, Harm becomes even more potent. Pump WP (for more spells and fatigue), CON (more fatigue and quicker regen), set blue potion on a speed dial... Harm is simply viable from the start till the end.

Harm is like a Neural Overload in Underrail, but Underrail does it better: some enemies are immune to it, and overall damage is also affected by the target's INT so you can't spam it everywhere.

 

[jackofshadows]

Nope. If you go full mage with Magic aptitude of 100, Harm becomes even more potent. Pump WP (for more spells and fatigue), CON (more fatigue and quicker regen), set blue potion on a speed dial... Harm is simply viable from the start till the end.

It's viable sure but far from the best. You can pump magical aptitude to the max pretty fast and by doing that harm will reach its maximum damage, relatively low (was it 40 or even lower?). You can master dark magic and therefore make harm the most efficient spell in terms of damage per mana spent but that would be retarded, much better is to master force or even fire. And like I said, you have to click on yourself every time after pressing potion hotkey - that's tiresome while when kiting with firearms you just have to keep an eye on yours and enemie's animations.

Neural Overload in comparison can reach max base damage only much, much later and there're of course supporting perks including possible specialisation not to mention gear which increasing its damage. In Arcanum you can only give yourself "mana buffer" with gear... I wish Arcanum's system was more complicated.

 

[Goral]

I've never had problems playing Arcanum in RT, in fact I really appreciated how fast and dynamic it was if I wanted to quickly speed up the game. Fatigue is great as it is, from what I can see you're just making spellcasters more powerful while nerfing melee/kiters depriving us of interesting builds and making us invest in magic. In general I can see that magic is your favourite way to play this and this mod is a manifest of it.

Anyway, there is never enough of Arcanum mods and hopefully someday next Drog will appear (or old Drog will finish what he started) but as of now I'm not interested. Kudos for the effort though.

 

[Spanky McGuire]

I've never had problems playing Arcanum in RT, in fact I really appreciated how fast and dynamic it was if I wanted to quickly speed up the game. Fatigue is great as it is, from what I can see you're just making spellcasters more powerful while nerfing melee/kiters depriving us of interesting builds and making us invest in magic. In general I can see that magic is your favourite way to play this and this mod is a manifest of it.

Anyway, there is never enough of Arcanum mods and hopefully someday next Drog will appear (or old Drog will finish what he started) but as of now I'm not interested. Kudos for the effort though.

Did you read the description of the mod? Apparently not. The biggest damage increases have been applied to guns, with magick being nerfed considerably. Several of the cheesy damage spells have been neutered through increased costs and saves or simply replaced by more tactical type spells.

 

[Goral]

I've never had problems playing Arcanum in RT, in fact I really appreciated how fast and dynamic it was if I wanted to quickly speed up the game. Fatigue is great as it is, from what I can see you're just making spellcasters more powerful while nerfing melee/kiters depriving us of interesting builds and making us invest in magic. In general I can see that magic is your favourite way to play this and this mod is a manifest of it.

Anyway, there is never enough of Arcanum mods and hopefully someday next Drog will appear (or old Drog will finish what he started) but as of now I'm not interested. Kudos for the effort though.

Did you read the description of the mod? Apparently not. The biggest damage increases have been applied to guns, with magick being nerfed considerably. Several of the cheesy damage spells have been neutered through increased costs and saves or simply replaced by more tactical type spells.

STR is capped at 19 to eliminate the crazy STR damage bonus that broke melee.

Bows no longer fire like machine guns.

Magick is much weaker at first but dominates later

Melee weapons are still good but should not(?) dominate without aid from spells or schematics.

You've literally said that magic dominates and that you've made bows and melee weaker. Also, your YT presentation of the mod shows that you're a magic-fag through and through.

I rest my case.

 

[A horse of course]

Spanky McGuire

I'm fat!

 

[Bester]

or a complete beasts which kill you in three hits

Use the potion of slowing fatigue, potion of speed, run around and bombard your enemies with grenades or anything else. There's probably no unbeatable encounters even at level 5-ish.

 

[Spanky McGuire]

You've literally said that magic dominates and that you've made bows and melee weaker. Also, your YT presentation of the mod shows that you're a magic-fag through and through.

I rest my case.

You should think about what the word literally means in the context in which you're trying to use it.

I literally said that magick dominates later, which is a change to how the game played before, when it dominated from start to finish.

I literally said that I slowed bows, which does not mean I weakened them. Damage has been adjusted.

I literally said that melee weapons are still fine but not overpowered unless aided by tech or magick enhancement. You don't know how the damage value changes might affect the efficacy of melee to compensate for the absurd STR dmg bonus.

 

[Spanky McGuire]

Spanky McGuire

I'm fat!

how dare you

 

[Ol' Willy]

Use the potion of slowing fatigue, potion of speed, run around and bombard your enemies with grenades or anything else. There's probably no unbeatable encounters even at level 5-ish.

I don't mean that they are unbeatable. I usually switch to ranged (Harm for mages, bow for melee users, guns for gunslingers), kite and cut them down.

The thing is, if any of my stupid companions comes close he gets obliterated in a couple of hits. And knowing Arcanum AI, they usually rush forward and refuse to retreat even if almost dead.

Also, the difficulty curve is fucked up. Black Mountain Mines: it is near impossible to die to kites or rats, but then you meat brute fangs or elementals who kill you in turn or two and its pure cheese with kiting.

 

[Bester]

And knowing Arcanum AI, they usually rush forward and refuse to retreat even if almost dead.

You can right click their portrait to issue commands, you know.
Also, how about playing without savescumming? If he dies, he dies.