Arcanum, what the deal?

[vazquez595654]

Yo G's I be playin Arcanum wright wright. My caractar be lika a talka and sheit. He be havin mad careezma and sheit. I be solvin quests like a smooth operata you no wat I'm sayin? Like I aint haf to fight at all G and I be doin aight. But I den hit a part in da main quest where you gotta fight n shit. I be at da black mountain cavz and sheit. These mo fo rock men be kickin my ass G. I means I gots no fightin skillz. I beez like level 11 and sheit and dees rock men be like level 20's and sheit. No matta what level I have dough, I aint gonna be ablez to compete against dem.

I want to give a shot out to my former English teacher for assigning the "The Color Purple" as a reading assignment. I hope you burn.

But seriously, anyone knowz howz I supossed to beat dis sheit (I was having so much fun before this)?

 

[LlamaGod]

The Black Mountain Mines is the worst and lowest point of Arcanum and is the only segment of the game I really hate.

Arcanum usually gives you multiple ways to do everything, but this is the one big required exception. The only way to finish it is to smash and bash all the way through and find the altar to progress the main quest.

No side paths, no multiple ways, just 1 big annoying forced path.

My suggestion is to use your high charisma and get more followers and also maybe try to find devices to help you against the Ore Golems.


Now that I think about it, I should use Arcanum's mod tools sometime and make a good version of the BMM.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Yeah, and take out all the monsters.

 

[Slylandro]

Get either 'Dogmeat' in Ashbury or if you're a mage, a familiar Claw from the Summoning College (lower summons work too though). Also, if you remembered to get the camera from the wreckage, there's a tech guy who needs it who will gladly trade away a Medical Mechanized Arachnid for it. All three of these are melee masters and can take down golems in about 7 hits or so. If you're a mage, I recommend you learn some spells like Invisibility or Disintegrate or Lightning Bolt. Stasis also works fine. Tempus Fugit is even better. If you're a tech guy, some stuff in the smithy discipline work wonders, like Balanced Sword. If you're actually taking a pacifistic route, then there's nothing you can really do except gather disabling spells or tricks like Invisibility and Stasis. Just make a run for it as fast as you can. If your followers are dragging you down, you can also tell them to stay put while you use Prowl in the mines, and come back later. If you're stuck and combat is the only option, take note that the golem AI is really weak, they usually lumber only after the main character, so run circles around them while your followers lay the smack down. The biggest problem will be repairing damage to your weapons. Honestly I recommend you just run past the golems altogether if you're at a serious disadvantage (eg only melee weapons, no melee master followers, no spells for this situation, etc). They're not hard to outrun.

 

[sheek]

The Black Mountain Mines is the worst and lowest point of Arcanum and is the only segment of the game I really hate.

Arcanum usually gives you multiple ways to do everything, but this is the one big required exception. The only way to finish it is to smash and bash all the way through and find the altar to progress the main quest.

No side paths, no multiple ways, just 1 big annoying forced path.

My suggestion is to use your high charisma and get more followers and also maybe try to find devices to help you against the Ore Golems.


Now that I think about it, I should use Arcanum's mod tools sometime and make a good version of the BMM.

The Black Mountains are pretty easy and fun you just have to be the right level. I saw it was too difficult so I waited until I was level 17 or so. It was still a challenge but doable.

 

[Surlent]

The golems are vulnerable to lightning, if you have tech skills shocking staff might come handy. But like others said, as social character easiest way to get through combat really is just get many followers and let them whack enemies to death while you run circles.
Sometimes I just leave party members outside the black mountain mines (or take them as distraction), stack endurance potions/rations and just run through the whole place. The enemies rarely follow after the booby trapped path to the dwarf if your character can manage that far that is.

 

[Elwro]

I always fought in turn-based mode, but I found that for some strange reasons the best way of dealing with the Ore Golems was to use real-time. I had a technologist character - so I made a balanced sword and iirc Virgil & the dwarf were enough to take the golems out easily. (I gave the dwarf the UberAxe you can make, but I don't remember if I did it before entering the mines). You had to repair the items, though.

 

[Kraszu]

Stupid thing about the golems is that they are rather fast in tb mode, and very slow in real time.

 

[Jora]

Real-time is the easiest way to deal with most enemies in the game.

 

[bryce777]

If you have high charisma just get sogg mead mugg and that dwarven guy and have the dwarven guy make balanced swords and they will kill everythin instantaneously. The end.

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

Yo man, just show em who da man is!

 

[St. Toxic]

Yeah, rap them do death, playa'.

 

[vazquez595654]

Yo man, just show em who da man is!

Yeah, rap them do death, playa'.

Dare be mos peepole like me's here. You cats iz awwright.

Seriously though, I think I am just going to run through the mines. The thing is, I gained 4 levels fighting through the sewers with my group, but I hated it. In the process my character got slowed permantly and I spent the 4 points on dexterity to try to fix my speed even though my character is all charisma.

 

[St. Toxic]

What's a charismatic guy like you doing prancing around in the sewers?

 

[LCJr.]

The basic problem is that Troika wasn't that good of a design house. All of their games start off showing a great of deal promise only to be plagued by bugs and poor design decisions.

In the process my character got slowed permantly and I spent the 4 points on dexterity to try to fix my speed even though my character is all charisma.

I think you're gonna kick yourself. Check the injuries tab and see if you don't have a broken leg or what not. Next go see a doctor like the one in Shrouded Hills and get it fixed.

edit> Forgot to throw in a gratuitous "Read the fuckin' manual n00b." There fixed.

 

[Jora]

The basic problem is that Troika wasn't that good of a design house. All of their games start off showing a great of deal promise only to be plagued by bugs and poor design decisions.

What do bugs have to do with design?

 

[St. Toxic]

They obviously chose to implent bugs as a feature.

 

[LlamaGod]

The basic problem is that Troika wasn't that good of a design house. All of their games start off showing a great of deal promise only to be plagued by bugs and poor design decisions.

I dunno, Arcanum is still pretty well designed. The character system has some wonkiness that could've been fixed through testing, but it's not THAT bad.

I never ran into a single bothersome bug ever in Arcanum, either.

Combat yeah yeah, just get over it already and enjoy the game.

 

[LCJr.]

The basic problem is that Troika wasn't that good of a design house. All of their games start off showing a great of deal promise only to be plagued by bugs and poor design decisions.

What do bugs have to do with design?

Bugs keep things from working as designed.

 

[LCJr.]

The basic problem is that Troika wasn't that good of a design house. All of their games start off showing a great of deal promise only to be plagued by bugs and poor design decisions.

I dunno, Arcanum is still pretty well designed. The character system has some wonkiness that could've been fixed through testing, but it's not THAT bad.

I never ran into a single bothersome bug ever in Arcanum, either.

Combat yeah yeah, just get over it already and enjoy the game.

The game has a lot of things that could have been fixed if it had been tested.

Been awhile since I played it but the boomerang bug comes to mind as a gamekiller. The endless stopwatch bug some encountered. Bugginess with followers getting upset/hostile when a creature attacks you. Some minor annoyances in the dialogue and scripting. The massive lag outside the Vendigroth ruins. Broken/non-implemented tech items that weren't removed. No AP used for throwing things in TB combat. The only good follower with skill in lockpicking not having a character scheme.

I found playing a thief very unsatisfying. They give you the fence with the thieves guild but there no need for him. You can rob every shopkeeper and sell their stuff back to them in the morning. Also when robbing shopkeepers you can bypass the locked doors by simply advancing time in the store and walking into the shopkeepers bedroom when he goes to sleep.

Poorly balanced tech trees. Poor spellcasting AI. One thing that REALLY annoyed me was their decision to link every creatures combat abilities directly to its stats. Multiplayer was a trainwreck.

Movement rates in RT/TB. As already mentioned the Ore Golems are horribly slow in RT but in TB each creature moves 2 squares per AP. You would think at some point during testing someone would have noticed this. Seems all that would have been required would have been changing a value in the code.

Back on topic for a moment. Vasquez if you don't mind exploiting a bug try this. Fill your inventory with every piece of crap you can find that has some weight like the lumps of coal, etc... When you run into the enemy switch to turn base and throw everything in your inventory until you kill them or run out. If they're still alive use your full AP's to run out of reach and plan your next move.

Just remembered another exploit. Throwing weapons like the boomerang and Xena rings don't take damage. You can use them to break down doors or attack golems without breakage.

 

[LlamaGod]

Been awhile since I played it but the boomerang bug comes to mind as a gamekiller. The endless stopwatch bug some encountered. Bugginess with followers getting upset/hostile when a creature attacks you. Some minor annoyances in the dialogue and scripting. The massive lag outside the Vendigroth ruins. Broken/non-implemented tech items that weren't removed. No AP used for throwing things in TB combat. The only good follower with skill in lockpicking not having a character scheme.

hey cool, i've never run into any of those.


if you have the game patched, I don't think many issues remain. Multiplayer was never a primary thing of the game, also.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Also, the Pyrotechnic axe devastates GOlems. Give that to Magnus.

 

[Lord Chambers]

It's quite easy to just run through the mines. As I recall, verything in there is a melee creature, so if you just make sure your guy doesn't stop you'll be fine. Just have your crew wait at the entrance. Or they can come along, if you're a good clicker.

If you're going to have your followers fight, don't let them use valuable weapons. Balanced Swords are cheap enough, but everything is going to be trash after each fight with a golem, so bring 10+.