Arcanum Arcanum Multiverse Edition

[Junmarko]

Hello everyone,
So if you have any questions about Multiverse Edition you may ask here. But please don't expect too friquent answers, ok? But I'll try my best.

Thanks again for this mod

Are there any massive changes to the gameplay/systems, not yet implemented, that you're planning?

 

[biggestboss]

I think I hit a part of Arcanum that is definitely a low point: Black Mountain Mines. Are you supposed to run around this area with all your equipment breaking?

 

[Lyre Mors]

Yeah, Black Mountain Mines is definitely a low point of the game. I usually just ended up scavenging around cities in trash bins for material to make Molotov cocktails, stocked up, and got as far as I possibly could just tossing fire at those fucking elementals. I'm sure there is a better way, but I've never found one besides using magic.

 

[jungl]

Most fun thing about arcanum is exploring the world talking to npcs, collecting loots and dabbling in the magic/technology systems. Combat is arguably the worst thing about the game. It is incredibly unbalanced and retarded in many ways but fun seeing the extent of it. Josh saywer would get cancer if he was part of the arcanum team as the coffee boy and watcing the game ship with said combat system.

 

[YES!]

I think I hit a part of Arcanum that is definitely a low point: Black Mountain Mines. Are you supposed to run around this area with all your equipment breaking?

1) There is the repair skill
2) Low point? By low point do you mean not super easy? How is that a low point? If anything it is a very high point.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Why is it always Russians who write the best guides and make the best mods

BECAUSE ITS FREAKING COLD OUTSIDE

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

I think I hit a part of Arcanum that is definitely a low point: Black Mountain Mines. Are you supposed to run around this area with all your equipment breaking?

1) There is the repair skill
2) Low point? By low point do you mean not super easy? How is that a low point? If anything it is a very high point.

it was boring and a slog. all combat (or stealth) for one long stretch after endless hours of dialog trees and kewl quests with choices and consequences.

trash mobs areas in a game that is otherwise free of trash mobs are always going to cause buttpain.

 

[Tigranes]

I love Arcanum to death but there's no defending Black Mountain. It's way, way too long - and unless you knew to bring magic characters with 50 mana pots, the endless golems just become a slog.

 

[T. Reich]

I think I hit a part of Arcanum that is definitely a low point: Black Mountain Mines. Are you supposed to run around this area with all your equipment breaking?

No. Mages get loads of free scrolls of detect trap.
Techies can (and should!) get the gadget that detects traps.

Golems are easily discpatched with ranged weapons or spells, or if you're melee - use cheaper shit to attack them with.

BMC are definitely too long for their own good, though.

 

[YES!]

I didn't think BMC was too long. It was the perfect length at a point in the game where I wanted my build to be tested and wasn't given a non-cheatish way to do this. I think it is one of the major highlights of the game. I hate long dungeons and this wasn't that long really.

 

[Macbeth]

Thanks again for this mod

Thank YOU for the presentation.

Can you guys start working on adding content like more backgrounds and portraits to start off with? Just the vanilla selection is no good. We need more.

Not included original items were added. A lot of items were given to NPC (check weapons of the Tarant guards, for example).

Here are some test portraits:
https://vk.com/another_arcanum?z=album-72911622_225557264
They are not implemented yet, we still work on them. Unfortunately we're not artists, so quality is not so perfect as we want to. Maybe here somone have art experience and ready for work for free ?

New backgrounds:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3wa-nhLJbsIYnBlUWRjdG8xZEU

Are there any massive changes to the gameplay/systems, not yet implemented, that you're planning?

How to say... not a new quests, but update of the old one.
Example: duel with Sir Garrik for Melee Mastership. We want to make a real duel 1:1. With cheating by Garrik. So place of the duel will be another, new scripts will be added.

Here is our public, but it's in Russian. Anyway, you can watch the galery:
https://vk.com/another_arcanum

 

[biggestboss]

The reason why I hated it was not because of its difficulty, which was comparable to the rest of the game in that it wasn't hard. It was just annoying to have to use a scroll of trap detection every couple of minutes and tip toe around every square that pops up and reload if any of my vital equipment broke either from traps or from attacking the golems. Also, even when the traps got detected, my moron followers would sometimes still walk on top of them and break their equipment which resulted in yet another reload.

It took everything that I hate in games (durability, bad pacing) and made it the forefront of the experience of that one dungeon when the rest of the game played and flowed very well in my opinion. It's like that one dungeon in Throne of Bhaal where you have to use nonmagical weapons to kill the enemies, but instead of the punishment being that you can't hurt them, you just break all of your weapons and armor instead.

Thankfully, I'm already past it and back to the rest of the game which so far I have enjoyed a lot.

 

[Starwars]

Any and all areas in this game which feature more fighting than... other stuff fucking sucks. This includes the BMC and that snowy pass you cross at one point in the game (to get to the areas with the elven city). There is no excuse for that shitty design, no excuse at all.

I love Arcanum dearly but my god it is disappointing in so many ways as well.

 

[Tigranes]

BMC is long, and annoying - that's been the widespread experience of many Arcanum players over the years. If you thought it wasn't very long, fine, but as an Arcanum whore I would never pick BMC as my hill to die on.

Much better to point out the clever series of thieving and roguey missions throughout Arcanum's major cities, the unique brilliance of the Siamese Twins mystery / conspiracy, the fucking quest where you are the primary diplomat negotiating a major trade deal between two nations while blowing off (or being blown by) lobbyists while possibly also assassinating the King, etc.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

I love Arcanum, and Fallout 1 and 2, and Bloodlines with all my heart and soul - but none of those games have good combat objectively.

Aw not this again. FO1 has decent and fun combat - for a 20h game not centered around combat.

I would say most people of average intelligence realize they can take out the whole army by save spamming. And then they do.

wow

bullshit

 

[biggestboss]

I like how the NPCs refer to the Isle of Despair as the Black Isle.

Man, there's just so much about this game to like. I can't believe I put off playing this game for so long because it was tied to the steampunk genre which I generally loathe.

 

[Junmarko]

Why is it always Russians who write the best guides and make the best mods

BECAUSE ITS FREAKING COLD OUTSIDE

:russiastronk:

 

[YES!]

I love Arcanum, and Fallout 1 and 2, and Bloodlines with all my heart and soul - but none of those games have good combat objectively.

Aw not this again. FO1 has decent and fun combat - for a 20h game not centered around combat.

I would say most people of average intelligence realize they can take out the whole army by save spamming. And then they do.

wow

bullshit

What exactly are you saying?

 

[YES!]

I like how the NPCs refer to the Isle of Despair as the Black Isle.

Man, there's just so much about this game to like. I can't believe I put off playing this game for so long because it was tied to the steampunk genre which I generally loathe.

How long have you put off playing it?

 

[Junmarko]

Here is our public, but it's in Russian. Anyway, you can watch the galery:
https://vk.com/another_arcanum

 

[biggestboss]

How long have you put off playing it?

Since its release. I remember seeing it in PC Gamer magazines when I was young but never playing it.

This game is so good though. It is definitely comparable quality wise to Planescape: Torment. There were some simple moments that just really stood out to me like talking to the Lizardman Chief and to the humans at Falchon's Ache. Right now, I'm talking to Willoughby to get my Mastery in Persuasion and he offhandedly mentioned a crappy sidequest I did earlier that I thought was put in the game as a joke which was awesome.

There are just so many little immersive details like that which make me start to understand why these games generally had to cut content and get rushed out the door, bugs and all. The Willoughby also gave me a book to read about the negotiations I will need to do and I'm literally sitting here reading each page. The stuff they managed to program into games like this is really inspirational to me.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

I love Arcanum, and Fallout 1 and 2, and Bloodlines with all my heart and soul - but none of those games have good combat objectively.

Aw not this again. FO1 has decent and fun combat - for a 20h game not centered around combat.

I would say most people of average intelligence realize they can take out the whole army by save spamming. And then they do.

wow

bullshit

What exactly are you saying?

That FO's combat is at the very least decent if only for the animations/sounds/texts/powerfist-to-the-groin, and in fact only dummies save-scum in FO, there is no need for it if you have half a brain. Also I was drunk

 

[HeatEXTEND]

Here is our public, but it's in Russian. Anyway, you can watch the galery:
https://vk.com/another_arcanum

 

[DavidBVal]

How long have you put off playing it?

Since its release. I remember seeing it in PC Gamer magazines when I was young but never playing it.

This game is so good though. It is definitely comparable quality wise to Planescape: Torment. There were some simple moments that just really stood out to me like talking to the Lizardman Chief and to the humans at Falchon's Ache. Right now, I'm talking to Willoughby to get my Mastery in Persuasion and he offhandedly mentioned a crappy sidequest I did earlier that I thought was put in the game as a joke which was awesome.

There are just so many little immersive details like that which make me start to understand why these games generally had to cut content and get rushed out the door, bugs and all. The Willoughby also gave me a book to read about the negotiations I will need to do and I'm literally sitting here reading each page. The stuff they managed to program into games like this is really inspirational to me.

The setting, concept, quest design and pacing are simply masterful. Writing is very good for the most part. If only they had added TOEEish combat to it, this would have been the best RPG ever hands down. Funny how Troika offered us either good combat or everything else in their games, but never both.

 

[biggestboss]

I can't stop thinking about the little things this game does to create more immersion than any next gen graphics game with Hollywood sound design. Literally tiny things like all NPCs being labelled as "Human Noble", etc. and you don't find out their name until you talk to them and ask them what their name is and they don't know your name unless you give it to them or they were told by another NPC. This is making me want to give Serpent in the Staglands another try, although the main reason I put that game down was because I couldn't figure out how to make a spell actually hit an enemy that moves.