Arcanum Arcanum Multiverse Edition

[Drog Black Tooth]

the proper way would be of course to draw a custom background before any of the main menu/options/char create UI elements are being drawn, but I'm not yet sure on how to completely control that draw_art function, you have to push at least x position, y position, width, height, art# and maybe something more, and it also fucks with the stack obviously, so you have to subtract X bytes from the stack to prevent any crashes, and do you have to create another tig_window first? fuck me in the ass, why did I agree to continue doing this patch

 

[thesheeep]

To wash away your sins through suffering?

 

[Poseidon]

why did I agree to continue doing this patch

It is your destiny! Your legacy!
Why don't you start a Patreon? I'm sure there's quite a few of us around here that would gladly support your work, should you decide to keep going. It might even be motivational in a way.
You never know, maybe it grows to a point where Activision finally notices and decides to resurrect Arcanum... Maybe we make them notice... The Codex certainly has the power...
Sure, it sounds crazy, but hey, crazier things have happened. And I mean this in the best way possible - it sounds like you need something like that, you know, a project, a dream to battle with your anxiety (depression?).

 

[HeatEXTEND]

Activision finally notices and decides to resurrect Arcanum...

 

[Poseidon]

Condescension/patronization can be fun, but not when I don't have the slightest idea what you mean...
Is that begging Activision? Is it what's left of you waiting for them to do something? Is it some weird Necro way of flipping me off?

 

[Modron]

Condescension/patronization can be fun, but not when I don't have the slightest idea what you mean...
Is that begging Activision? Is it what's left of you waiting for them to do something? Is it some weird Necro way of flipping me off?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monkey's_Paw basically be careful what you wish for as much as new arcanum would be cool it would probably be as retarded as any modern resurrections.

 

[Poseidon]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monkey's_Paw basically be careful what you wish for as much as new arcanum would be cool it would probably be as retarded as any modern resurrections.

Well, aren't I an uneducated pleb... I should know of this. How is it that I don't...
Anyway...

Not to go on a tangent here but,
Activision are a publishing company. They can't do squat with the Arcanum IP without a developer. Now if something does hit R. Kotick on the head and he goes "Hey, ARCANUM!" the most likely people to get the job would be Blizzard (since they're a subsidiary).
Now, I wouldn't trust Blizzard to write my 3rd grade cousin's homework, BUT what they might be able to do at least somewhat successfully is do a Remastered/HD Release. Basically, what THQ did with Titan Quest - revive support and continue development in a way.
Now for all their flaws in game design ever since Diablo II, Blizzard can do one thing right - and that's optimization. Call it code writing or engine building I guess.

I mean, who would you rather take a shot inXile? Obsidian? Bethesda?

Humour me...

 

[thesheeep]

Whoa, had an interesting bug - in all of my save games!
No matter which of the last three ones I load, the relations of everyone to me are kinda... bad?

Spoiler

I mean, this is a half-orc thief character, but that does seem a bit extreme

Oh, well, what's an Arcanum playthrough without being stopped by weird save game corruptions?
I don't think I'll ever be able to actually finish this game.

Something like this always happens and even if there was an unaffected save game, it is so old that I just don't want to play from that point again.

PS: What the heck, restarted the game (using Config.exe) a couple of times and the last one had sensible relation values again...

 

[Iznaliu]

where Activision finally notices and decides to resurrect Arcanum...

I fear for people's sanity here if they do that.

 

[thesheeep]

Quick, someone make a fake announcement of Arcanum: EE to be released in November 2017 by Beamdog.

 

[T. Reich]

I can do a better one: C&D letter sent to Drog and the ME devs.

 

[Tigranes]

Don't worry, Beamdog will get a written endorsement from Chris Avellone's automatic email reply

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Spent some time today coding some other stuff in the engine. Of particular interest:

-- Added a schematics option to the context menu when you right-click on a follower's portrait, so that they can craft stuff for you even if they don't have the dialog option. Why is this important?

-- Because now the followers in the UAP can be manually leveled, a la Dragon Age. This is completely optional, the only difference is the buttons in their character sheet are now active so you can disable their auto-level scheme if you wish and distribute the points yourself. Of note, this is coded differently than the Follower Editor trainer I've mentioned earlier in this thread. It's more seamless and bug free, e.g. you can not Read Aura and edit random NPC's stats.

-- Swapped R and Space keys around, so that Space starts combat and R switches between RT and TB modes. This was often requested. Was a bit of a bitch to find, since turns out these particular keys are pushes as... ASCII codes instead of normal keyboard scancodes. While on the topic, do you want me to change any other of Arcanum's key mappings? I'm thinking about moving quick load to F9, since F8 is right next to F7 which is quick save, and F9 is unoccupied anyways. Also, maybe move center view from Home to Tab. Or always run from Num Lock to Caps Lock.

Poseidon, if you want to show your appreciation, you can gift me games on Steam, anything in my top 50. I'm too lazy to set up anything else, and wouldn't want to look like a beggar anyway.

 

[Modron]

...you can gift me games on Steam, anything in my top 50...

God damn Drog the length of your wishlist would make Bruticus blush.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

...you can gift me games on Steam, anything in my top 50...

God damn Drog the length of your wishlist would make Bruticus blush.

Just tracking everything that I might have a passing interest in at some point in time. I sync this with various sites that track deals and sales, so that I see only not shit games.

 

[hell bovine]

...you can gift me games on Steam, anything in my top 50...

God damn Drog the length of your wishlist would make Bruticus blush.

Just tracking everything that I might have a passing interest in at some point in time. I sync this with various sites that track deals and sales, so that I see only not shit games.

Do you have a gog account? Some of the games on your list you can get cheaper there and you can gift too.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

As a small teaser, here's the new version of Virgil's Debug Menu which will be an optional component in the UAP 2.0.

For all newcomers, this is an extensive debug/cheat menu that I initially made just for testing various things in the game and easy access to pretty much any location and quest. But it eventually gained a certain amount of popularity, so I feel the need to polish it up and make a new version. Of course, you can use it to give yourself unlimited amounts of gold, XP, fate points, mastery in skills and magic and so on.

What's new:
-- No longer affects Virgil's normal dialog, you need to equip the 'GB' ring (that you get when you start the game) and talk to Virgil to trigger the debug menu.
-- Now works with all three versions of Virgil: normal, surly and zen.
-- Includes an option to level up all party members to the PC's current level.
-- Allows you to easily teleport to otherwise hard to reach secret locations, such as Fan Graveyard, Old Blind Master and the Cattan island.

DOWNLOAD (put the file in the same folder as Arcanum.exe)

I kinda like the idea of using the ring as the trigger. Doesn't affect normal gameplay and gives the ring some purpose. I'm considering adding an option to skip the ending slides and go back to Arcanum if the player is wielding the ring when final boss dies. This was often requested and many NPCs have special dialog (even voiced) if you manage to keep on playing.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

This is how the new features work in action. See how I changed Virgil's auto-level scheme to none, then we together leveled up and I spent his character point on Healing Salve. Then he crafted a bunch for me.

I think this is way more engaging than the followers just being mercs a la Diablo 2. I want to eventually try to do full party control eventually, shouldn't be too difficult to at least make you walk and attack as an NPC party member, while the dialog checks would all go back to the player. It's just there are no fitting UI elements for this idea.

I'm also trying to improve the turn-based combat mode in this game. I already have two engine modules, one adds animated stances to TB (will be in the UAP 2.0), and the other one tries to completely cut the RT combat out of the game. I still need to make it so that TB is forced when anyone at all is fighting or aggro'd, a la Fallout. Also maybe add timers to make NPCs skip turn if their AI hangs up.

All this work is modular, I have a yuuuge series of scripts that patch the vanilla Arcanum.exe with different bug fixes and features. This helps me to not fuck up, and to compile different versions of the engine with different features. Like the extra races being fully playable. Or dwarves having normal spell cost.

Finally, what are your ideas on including level cap in game options? E.g. there would be 4 choices: 50, 75, 100, 125. Or would it be too tempting to always keep it on 125? I think once it's already in-game and all you have to do is just one simple click, then yeah, could be too tempting.

 

[OracleX]

Awesome work man going to install this when back from work!

 

[Major_Blackhart]

This is awesome overall. But 125 level cap is waaay too tempting.
Experimental: I wonder if you could lower the level cap even for PC and Characters but increase the points per level they get.

Also, what sort of additional bonuses have you considered for mastering a particular skill?
And is the Teacher Background package still bugged and not working? Or did you fix it in an earlier patch? I can't remember.

Make Gar's strength and Constitution max cap to 22, same as an Orc. Simply because he's got an Orc's body, and while he might be a human, he should be as strong as an orc at least.

Also, could you give movement and action penalties to the golems and other creatures who have melee but should be big and slow?
I still want ammunition types for bullets, fuel, arrows, etc. I know I won't get it but dammit a man can dream. Maybe not elephant gun ammo, but maybe explosive ammo that does AOE damage, armor piercing rounds that ignore DR, fragmenting rounds that can cripple, etc.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

This is awesome overall. But 125 level cap is waaay too tempting.
Experimental: I wonder if you could lower the level cap even for PC and Characters but increase the points per level they get.

Yeah, this is totally possible, but why? Seems like the end result is just aesthetics.

Also, what sort of additional bonuses have you considered for mastering a particular skill?

Haven't really considered any. Do you have anything in mind?

And is the Teacher Background package still bugged and not working? Or did you fix it in an earlier patch? I can't remember.

Do you mean the educator background? I think it's working fine, it's supposed to automatically give your followers the same training that you get, but a tier lower. E.g. if you're a Melee Master, then they can be Melee Experts, if their Melee skill is high enough, of course.

Speaking of which, I have another engine module that lets NPCs automatically train any skill they put points into, all the way up to Master. But that kinda makes the educator background obsolete and maybe also makes party members too powerful. But I have this done, just in case.

Make Gar's strength and Constitution max cap to 22, same as an Orc. Simply because he's got an Orc's body, and while he might be a human, he should be as strong as an orc at least.

Not possible without changing his race to Orc, or doing annoying special case checks in the engine which is just bad coding.

Or how about this, we mark him as a monster. Monsters/animal/undead/robots don't show their race stat, both in the character sheet and on the icon. It always kinda irked me that you immediately know he's just a deformed human just by hovering your mouse cursor over him and seeing his race icon.

Also, could you give movement and action penalties to the golems and other creatures who have melee but should be big and slow?

Yes, the golems are a bit weird, since their animations are slow, but they have pretty high DX which allows them to do plenty of attacks in TB. Same goes for mech spiders.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Well, there's a special case check I think in the engine, some sort of coding. If you look at him originally, before talking to him, scripts make him an Orc. But once you find out, he's human.
Maybe make him an Orc then. But increase his intelligence and charisma to that of a normal human.

Master Ability examples: I haven't come up with some yet. I love the idea however. The skill levels act like perks in some way.

Melee: Apprentice improves speed, Expert ignores lighting effects, and master means you can't critically fail. Now, depending on difficulty level and enemy dodge skill and skill rank, those come in handy or they don't.
Dodge: They affect critical successes. How reliable is that? I'm somewhat meh on the subject. It seems like luck and environmental modifiers that, unless you really plan for it, you wont' have much impact on.
Throwing: All are useful, but at the same time, I'd like to see something additional for master besides the increased range.
Bow: Could be awesome with explosive arrows, shooting two arrows at once at expert ranking. Overall, that's the most colorful I think. Totally unique to one class.
Firearms: Expert could be useful if called shots mattered in the same way they did in Fallout. Beyond that pretty generic.
It goes on.
Maybe make called shots more useful if possible. A pop up screen to show where you're aiming ala fallout.​

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Also, I'd like some technological melee weapons in each group: Hammer - Some sort of impact hammer that increases critical chance and knocks down enemies, Axe - Mechanized Axe ignores a portion of the enemy Damage Threshold and gain a bonus to cripple, Sword - Kind of a high speed version of the axe but causes bleeding damage instead of crippling damage, elemental weapons for each in full (hammer, sword, axe), etc.

 

[Anomander Rake]

Do you mean the educator background? I think it's working fine, it's supposed to automatically give your followers the same training that you get, but a tier lower. E.g. if you're a Melee Master, then they can be Melee Experts, if their Melee skill is high enough, of course.
.

I've never understood that background, simply put because every character seems to get that training automatically. And if they are not proficient enough to reach mastery, at least they will reach expert ez pz. Just look at dog or waromon, they both become melee with mastery; I don't remember if they are able to reach mastery also in dodge...


And if they can reach expert, that is still what you could teach them if taken the educator background and mastery on the colleges.

Am I missing something?

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Major_Blackhart
No, Gar does not have any special checks, you can immediately see that he's human. And no, I'm not adding a special check to the max race stats subroutine in the engine just for one NPC. We can try:

-- Marking him as a monster, so that his race is hidden. But then again, monsters are always 'aloof' (no reaction modifiers) and have other implications, e.g. they won't pick up items from the ground and don't have any footsteps.
-- Simply add a script, so that his race would be shown as orc before the reveal, and then it would change to human once you expose him. This is actually pretty clever, I might do that. It won't give him the ST/CN 22 bonuses after the reveal though.

As for your other suggestions, well that's just throwing stuff at the wall. Adding new weapons, complete with new graphics and new status effects is simply not the goal of the unofficial patch. Maybe the Russian modders will like some of those ideas. E.g. just a while back I told them how to make a pistol dagger, a weapon that could be used as both a firearm and a stabbing melee weapon, it would switch modes when you "use" it (like a potion) or when you run out of bullets. There are unused graphics in the game for a weapon that looks kinda like this, so it fits, I guess. They liked it and it's already in one of their mods.

As for the targeted attacks, they're working just fine and their effects are quite extensive, just a while back Tim Cain posted some bits from the code on how they work right here on this forum. Arcanum supports blinding and limb crippling, as well as finishing animations where you cut off the victim's targeted part. It's just the implementation is kinda shitty, I agree, those 3 buttons are quite a ways off, and it's just not very user friendly. I'm thinking about just mapping them on the mouse wheel, so that scrolling the mouse wheel would scroll between [normal attack], [head], [arms], [legs], and it would fucking stay on, until you scroll again or exit the combat mode. This is realistic and I can implement this.