Arcanum Arcanum Multiverse Edition

[Drog Black Tooth]

The windowed mode he's talking of is already included in the Unofficial Arcanum Patch as a "-window" command line switch. Yes, it is using the already existing and somewhat rough Troika's code. For starters, it isn't compatible with -doublebuffer, there's no gamma support and the game window seems to be offset by a few pixels. But eh, you can check it out and it mostly works.

Temple of Elemental Evil, the other one of Troika's isometric games is essentially running on an engine build on top of Arcanum's and the windowed mode is finished there and is working mostly bug free. I've tried to port the window mode related functions from ToEE back to Arcanum, but haven't had much success, the codebase is p different.

 

[SymbolicFrank]

Yes, that's exactly what I was talking about. That's the easiest way to do all that stuff.

Btw, did you ask Tim Cain about it?

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Since full blooded Orcs and Ogres are now playable via the new Race Mod optional component of the patch, I'm thinking about adding some backgrounds unique to them. Here are my current ideas:

Ogre backgrounds:

Mountain ogre

You lived in mountains as solitary ogre. You weren't even on the blimp, it just happened to crash near the cave you lived in. Your Beauty, Intelligence and Charisma can never go above 1, but you receive +4 to Strength, Constitution, Dexterity and one full rank in every combat skill. You start with absolutely no money and rags for clothes.

Cultured ogre

You're one of those few full blooded ogres employed by some of the prosperous gnomish elite. You grew up in the city with access to certain levels of education and grooming way above ogrish standards. You spend your free time reading books and mimicking the etiquette of your master and his peers. Unfortunately for you (or not so much), your master dies on the blimp but you manage to survive. You receive +4 to Intelligence and Beauty, but lose 2 points of Constitution and Dexterity.

Gentle giant

While strong as an oaf and dumb as a rock, you're also very kindhearted and people see that in your eyes. You receive +50 reaction bonus, enough to offset your low Beauty score and people's prejudice against ogres and then some. However, any bad deed you do will be judged 5 times as harsh (any negative reaction penalty is multiplied x5).

Orc backgrounds:

Orc sociopath

You're scum, there's no other word to describe your nature. You exemplify everyone's stereotypes about orcs being savages. Murder and plunder is how you see your life, or to be more precise, your survival. You receive an extra -10 reaction penalty, your alingment score can never go above -40 and you cannot invest into any of the social skills. However, the irony of the situation is that you're devilishly smart and capable, you receive +3 to Intelligence and Perception and a full rank in each of thieving skills.

Orc humanist

You always were the black sheep of your tribe. You actually read books instead of using them as kindling for bonfires. You always hoped and dreamed that orcs could be something more than what they are. And this is precisely the reason you got exiled from your own tribe. You receive +2 to Intelligence and Charisma, but -2 to Strength and Constitution and receive no combat skill bonuses like other orcs.

Orc shaman

You were your tribe's shaman before it got wiped out and you barely managed to survive with the help of your arcane arts. You receive +20% to magickal aptitude, but -2 to Strength and no combat skill bonuses like other orcs.

What do you guys think?

 

[thesheeep]

Since full blooded Orcs and Ogres are now playable via the new Race Mod optional component of the patch, I'm thinking about adding some backgrounds unique to them. Here are my current ideas:

Ogre backgrounds:

Cultured ogre

You're one of those few full blooded ogres employed by some of the prosperous gnomish elite. You grew up in the city with access to certain levels of education and grooming way above ogrish standards. You spend your free time reading books and mimicking the etiquette of your master and his peers. Unfortunately for you (or not so much), your master dies on the blimp but you manage to survive. You receive +4 to Intelligence and Beauty, but lose 2 points of Constitution and Dexterity.

Orc backgrounds:

Orc shaman

You were your tribe's shaman before it got wiped out and you barely managed to survive with the help of your arcane arts. You receive +20% to magickal aptitude, but -2 to Strength and no combat skill bonuses like other orcs.

What do you guys think?

Cultured Ogre:
Should Ogres really receive a bonus to Beauty? I'm not sure about that one...

Orc shaman:
No combat skill bonuses? I don't think there's too much lore about it, but wouldn't an Orc shaman also be an above average fighter in addition to his magical skills?

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Cultured Ogre:
Should Ogres really receive a bonus to Beauty? I'm not sure about that one...

Their default race stats are +6 ST and -6 IN and BE, I'm trying to offset the latter with this background. I mean city dweller level grooming and hygiene are definitely gonna help with Beauty.

Orc shaman:
No combat skill bonuses? I don't think there's too much lore about it, but wouldn't an Orc shaman also be an above average fighter in addition to his magical skills?

IMO an Orc shaman is kind of a superstitious sorcerer who is close to nature and its mysterious ways but isn't much of a fighter, hence the penalties to ST and combat skills.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Just for posterity's sake, here's the defaults stats for these extra races:

Ogres: +6 ST, +20% DR, -6 IN, -6 BE (this is the only race in the game that can reach ST 26 and thus can deal the absolutely highest melee damage, for comparison Half-Ogres only get +4 ST (but -4 IN and no BE penalty) and their DR bonus is only +10%)
Orcs: +2 ST, +2 CN, -1 IN, -4 BE, -4 CN, +2 points (i.e. half rank) to each of combat skills (basically the same bonuses and penalties as Half-Orcs except doubled plus -1 to IN)
Dark Elves: all the same bonuses as Elves, except no penalties at all (wtf Troika??)

Also each race gets hidden race based reaction modifiers depending on which race they interact with. E.g. Orcs are going to be loved by other Orcs but absolutely hated by Elves (and mostly disliked by other races). I can post the actual numbers if you guys want to get real autistic about this.

I'm kinda torn on whether I should include Dark Elves as playable characters, they don't make much sense story wise and their stats are too overpowered. Maybe make some Sith like backgrounds for them, hmm.

 

[Goral]

S+4 to Intelligence and Beauty

Isn't it too much for beauty? And I don't see how being cultured can increase your beauty. IMO it should be "charisma +2", e.g. he washes himself and since he's read books he can participate in a conversation without making a fool of himself.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

S+4 to Intelligence and Beauty

Isn't it too much for beauty? And I don't see how being cultured can increase your beauty. IMO it should be "charisma +2", e.g. he washes himself and since he's read books he can participate in a conversation without making a fool of himself.

Well, Ogres get harsher race based reaction modifiers than Half-Ogres and then their BE score is only 2, so... they get really shite reactions from p much everyone. I mean okay, this is by design and is a reasonable trade off for their tremendous strength and massive innate DR, however I believe there should be at least one background that offsets this a bit. But then again, maybe the "Gentle Giant" background is enough.

And yeah, grooming and personal hygiene can improve your overall look, more news at 11.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Some screenshots of these races in the character create menu. Ogres will have two portraits, both taken from pre-release builds of the game, while Orcs will just use Gar's portrait. The race descriptions are mostly taken from a certain unpublished design document.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Played a bit with the coding for those backgrounds. Yeah, locking a stat at 1 or a skill at 0 does work just fine. P cool.

Anyway, I think I'll go with this for the Gentle Giant background, seems more balanced.

Gentle Giant

While strong as an oaf and dumb as a rock, you're also very kindhearted and people see that in your eyes. People look past your outer ugliness (Beauty based reaction modifier will never be negative) and on top of that you get +10 reaction from everyone. However, everyone will have very high expectations for you, so any reaction penalty (e.g. bad reputation) will be multiplied five times, essentially ruining your social standing.
{beautyreaction min 0, reaction +10, badreactionadj *5}

Any other cool ideas for orc/ogre backgrounds?

 

[Daemongar]

I'd like to see something like the following, taking advantage of how the game treats ogres. Just thinking out loud here. I tend to get Half-Orcs and Half-Ogres confused, so take these with a grain of salt.

Sent to Destroy
Through years of hatred directed at you for no other reason than your lineage, you have grown to accept that society will never accept half-orcs as a race or as equals. There is only one solution...
Class can never be good. +2 Con, elee, -1 WP, -10 reactions from any class other than Orcs. (Eh, something like this.)

Prophet of a new Age
You believe that it is within you to change the perception of half-orcs. You will bear the slurs to make a better future for half-orcs everywhere.
Class can never be evil or starts with bonus to karma and takes bigger knocks on karma from evil acts. +1 int, +1 Cha, -Melee, +Persuade (or something.)

Takes after his mother
You are half-ogre but you barely show your lineage. You are proud of who you are, but could pass for a human in the dark.
-1 ST, +2 Beauty

Takes after his father
You are half-ogre and seem to be an exceptional example of their worst features.
+1 ST, -1 beauty, -1 cha

Doomed to Fail
You are a determined to be the greatest half-ogre mage the world has ever seen... which will not be hard, since there have only been 3 before you.
+2 WP, +1 Int, -1 ST, -1 CON

Building a better monster
Technology seems to be your thing, but you have a problem with the nuances. While you like to build things, sometimes you just want to put down the hammer and the tinkerers apron and smash things.
+1 Repair, +1 Int, -1 WP

 

[Modron]

Escaped Half-Ogre Island
The spirit is willing but the flesh is spongy and bruised.
+1 WP, -1 CON

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Remember we're adding backgrounds for full blooded orcs and ogres. Ogres are a super mutant like lesser giant race and orcs are those green skinned dudes with pig snouts.

Would like more input on these two. The first one seems too simple and somewhat overpowered, since the only real downside is that your max CN and DX caps get reduced by 2, while you get 4 extra character points. And the second one is on the contrary too complicated maybe? It works in-game, I've tried it, but it's... I dunno, feels hamfisted somewhat.

Cultured Ogre

You're one of those few full blooded ogres employed by some of the gnomish elite. You grew up in the city with access to certain levels of education and grooming way beyond the standards of an average wild ogre. You spent your free time reading books and trying to mimic the etiquette of your master and his peers. As are the circumstances, your master dies on the blimp but you manage to survive. You receive +4 to Intelligence and Beauty, but lose 2 points of Constitution and Dexterity.
{in +4, be +4, cn -2, dx -2}

Orc Sociopath

You're scum, there's no other word to describe your nature. You exemplify everyone's stereotypes about orcs being savages. Murder and plunder is how you see your life, or to be more precise, your survival. You receive an extra -20 reaction penalty, your alignment score can never go above -40 and you cannot invest into any of the social skills. However, the irony is that you're devilishly smart and capable, you receive +3 to Intelligence and Perception and +4 ranks in all thieving skills.
{in +3, pe +3, backstab +4, pickpocket +4, prowling +4, spottrap +4, reaction -20, alignment max -400, gambling max 0, haggle max 0, heal max 0, persuasion max 0)

 

[Urbanolo]

Ignoring Drog's hijacking, what's up with the Multiverse mod? It's pretty good, are updates still coming? Macbeth

 

[PrettyDeadman]

Need to work on pathfinding & faster run speed. Maps are quite big you know and many people don't have time to wait for your toons to run from one side of the map to another.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Need to work on pathfinding & faster run speed. Maps are quite big you know and many people don't have time to wait for your toons to run from one side of the map to another.

You can always just switch to Fast TB and teleport all over the map you know.

But I've been thinking about adding an option to center the camera on the player character at all times, like it's possible to do in the Infinity Engine games and also Diablo 2 to give a couple examples, so that you don't have to constantly scroll the screen as you're running around a town.

 

[RavenWolf]

About racial stats
Orcs should have harsher IN penalty (i know -1 is default but seems inconsistent with lore)
According to WIKI (http://arcanum.wikia.com/wiki/Orc) orcs aren't much intelligent but they are extreme resistant to disease and have improved regeneration capacities. So maybe a bonus to healing rate and additional resistance to poison can compensate a harsher IN penalty.

For Ogres Maybe a penalty on Magic and Tech aptitude increase, like every increase to any aptitude is reduced by 25% (if possible). And an additional bonus to CN (+2) to compensate

Dark elves might have dark vision, and penalties like normal elves but also penalty for reaction (with any other race)

I know you dont want to make balance changes to U.A.P but those changes can be made as extra content

About the backgrounds
Cultured Ogre: make only +2 beauty, etiquette and cleanse can improve looks but not that much, and maybe reduce racial DR to 15% to compensate the bonus (so {in +4, be +2, cn -2, dx -2 dr -5})

Mountain Ogre: Maybe a tech penalty (heavily increased crit miss chance?) or inability to use tech items in exchange for attributes? (as you say limiting attrbutes isnt working)

Orc sociopath: seems interesting. maybe the IN bonus should be lowered

And Speaking of backgrounds
I always feel that the feral kid background is underpowered (raised in the pits is generally better). So as additional content could you consider changing that background?
To balance It could simply also increase PE+2. But if possible i would like a unique bonus related with animals to bring a different gameplay experience: Like not being attacked by animals and even helped with animals in combat... maybe chance to gain temporary animal followers

 

[vortex]

Drog Black Tooth , please make a topic about it on Steam forums.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Drog Black Tooth , please make a topic about it on Steam forums.

Even the thought of it makes me shudder.

Fuck no.

 

[vortex]

Even the thought of it makes me shudder.

Fuck no.

Why not? Explain.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

RavenWolf,
These are already existing races, so no, I'm not interested in changing their stats, as that will affect all existing NPCs of those races in the game. We can use the backgrounds approach to make these races a bit more fun to play, no need to go nuclear.

Cultured Ogre: make only +2 beauty, etiquette and cleanse can improve looks but not that much, and maybe reduce racial DR to 15% to compensate the bonus (so {in +4, be +2, cn -2, dx -2 dr -5})

I've currently set Cultured Ogre to {in +4, be +2, ch +2, cn -4, dx -4}, this way you don't get any extra character points out of this background, yet you get a higher IN cap, which allows you to learn more tech degrees, etc.

Mountain Ogre: Maybe a tech penalty (heavily increased crit miss chance?) or inability to use tech items in exchange for attributes? (as you say limiting attrbutes isnt working)

It IS working, you misread my post. IN 1 pretty much prevents you from learning any tech and magick, so while that character is incredibly capable in melee, he can't do much else. Which is the point.

And Speaking of backgrounds
I always feel that the feral kid background is underpowered (raised in the pits is generally better). So as additional content could you consider changing that background?
To balance It could simply also increase PE+2. But if possible i would like a unique bonus related with animals to bring a different gameplay experience: Like not being attacked by animals and even helped with animals in combat... maybe chance to gain temporary animal followers

Yeah, there's a special flag in the game that makes animal critters not attack you on sight. It's used in one spell and one tech concoction, IIRC.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Why not? Explain.

lol are you serious

you might as well ask me if I also engage in very stimulating and productive debate in youtube comments

i'm getting too old to deal with the idiots and be polite about it on my free time

 

[Poseidon]

Why not? Explain.

Forums that are not full-blown forums (i.e. phpBB, SMF, Invision, or in the case of the Codex - XenForo, etc.) are simply garbage. While things like 4Chan and Reddit can have helpful communities, the organizational style is fuck all confusing and ugly. This, this right here is where all forums should be at. Anything else is like a Mac to a PC - a pretentious, inferior, blows-your-mind-why-it-exists piece of crap.

 

[Torian Kel]

Good work Drog can't wait for new update. Gray Legions salute you !

 

[Old One]

Is it impossible to make turn-based combat begin when a party member first sights a red-circle hostile instead of waiting until the hostile closes to melee range? That simple change would improve the game immeasurably.