Some of the benefits with firearms seem somewhat pointless to me considering one thing: fights spawn at close range, a number of fights take place in close spaces, even the random encounters are very in your face.
Could the master training of firearms instead grant you bonuses to critical depending on how close the enemy is?
If within certain range, bonus to critical chance, if within another range, bonus to critical chance and ignore some dr, and then if toe to toe, bonus to critical chance, ignore some dr, and great chance to do some additional effect (cripple, stun, etc.) Depending on what you target and where
I agree, the bonuses for Firearms just aren't that useful. Part of it though is that most of the firearms in the game are just weak and always leave you running away and then turning to fire a shot or two and then running some more. Considering the Firearms mastery quest also forces you to commit an "evil" act you'd think it would give a more noticeable bonus.
On the topic of technology, I think one or two of the technology disciplines ought to have their degrees changed a bit. It seems silly to me that the first rank of the Smithy discipline gives you nothing. All it does is give you the capacity to make a component for other items... that you can't make yet. That's ridiculous. Pure ore could just as easily be redistributed in a game a bit more and then the first Smithy Degree could be a dagger or maybe the bladed boomerang. Flavor being something like,
"The novice smith needs to begin by pounding metal to make it light and strong, but fear not for all that waste! Pick up the scraps and fashion a cheap but deadly boomerang! Watch your opponents duck or bleed!"
Charges make sense being under chemistry, but should be a found schematic rather than learned. Otherwise about each technological discipline works by itself, though they might be dependent on certain skills. However there is no point in spending a character point to learn how to make charges when chemistry doesn't use any weapons or armor that consumes them. I'd probably just move all the chemistry schematics down and make the final chemistry degree something that transforms you into an Ogre temporarily... a play on Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde sort of thing.
The hand-crafted flintlock and electric light have always bothered me. The flintlock is only ever useful right at the start of the game, and even then only moderately so. It gets out-classed pretty quickly in Shrouded Hills even and the next degree, the fine revolver, totally blows it out of the water. The fine revolver should just be the first schematic, then something else. The shotgun maybe (moderate TH but a short range weapon that requires 10 STR). That way the first four gunsmithy degrees would give you a reliable pistol, a specialized silenced version, then a fast rifle for long range, or a more STR dependent two-handed shot-gun for close range. Then after that you get your super-sniper rifle, then a one-handed shot gun, then the ultimate high-power rifle in the elephant gun. (shot-gun + hunting rifle rather than large pipe)
I've read that the electic light makes it easier to see in the dark but the effect seems to be negligible. I wonder if it is possible to modify it to give a bigger TH bonus in darkness and/or have it give enemies a TH penalty (since the bulb is so bright).
Oh, and the Elixir of Persuasion is next to useless too. I guess in some circumstances you can use it to get training in persuasion, but why bother? It should give a full (+4) rank in Persuasion and maybe a bonus to Haggling as well.
The Auto-Skeleton Key could also use a boost.
Anyway, I'm surprised and delighted to see that Arcanum is still going strong. I was thinking about it recently and the urge to go back and play it growing. Will the Multiverse work with the old CD-based version I bought from Walmart way back when the game was in stores? I don't mind re-buying it from GoG or Steam, but... the old version I've always had still seems to run fine.
