Arcanum - worth a punt?

[bloodlover]

Double posting so the thread gets bumped.

Spoiler

Almost level 33, finished with the dark elves and took Raven in party. It feels like she has a damn machine-gun by the way she fires her arrows. Virgil left me for some story purpose I assume but np I am still rolling around with Ravem Dante, Sogg and the puppy. Sogg dislikes me but he is still in the party and obeys me so whatever. Still need another companion though I feel that this game was made with tech followers in mind.

It seems very weird the way followers are leveled and not really worth taking if you are much higher than them...

Now I took my MA to 100, WIL to 18 so I'm doing quite well. I wanna bump CHA a bit for persuasion but that's only for some roleplaying. I was thinking of dumping my points into DEX in order to pew pew more harm/fight. CON seems good for some extra fatigue but I don't really mind carrying around potions.

Wheel Clan area was not so bad. I kind of panicked at BMC and took the fire elemental summon but it's a good meatshield and damage dealer so at the end of the day it's not a big loss. Traps were annoying as fuck. They gave me more troubles than the actual monsters along the way and this was even tougher since I can't directly control my followers and they always rush ahead.

 

[Kalin]

Arcanum is the only game where I have enjoyed using Pistols.

Craft them, craft bullets, then go nuts in real-time combat. They are so fun to kill Supermutants with.

Don't know. Never played as anyone other than dual wielding gunslinger..

 

[Murk]

Spoiler

I found some stupid gloves that have a strong poison DOT on Isle of Despair and I got some necklace as reward for killing the beast. I tried them both on Sogg but the constant poisoning and healing is annoying and his HP is not reliable in a fight. Are those things worth keeping or I can just vendor them?

edit: I assume there is no way of peacefully saving that chick from the island right? I am not really fond of fighting everyone and she gets killed if she's left by herself.

Avoid hexed items, they're nearly never worth it (save for those that only mess with alignment)

As for the 2nd part (EDIT: Didn't realize others answered this already, but oh well, I'll just leave it in.)

Spoiler

Yes you can, by either bluffing the guards into thinking you bought her (persuasion) or by breaking a window and crawling out of that (just avoid the front entrance after).

traps

Spoiler

If you're magic or neutral, just use on of the 'sense trap scrolls' the corpses in BMC have on them, makes it a cakewalk (tho they do sellf or a lot of money if you're the greedy kind.)

if you're technologically oriented, make a flow spectrometer -- it eats 1 charge to auto find traps for you which you then auto-ignore. better than investing in 'spot trap IMO'

magical friends

Spoiler

Depending on alignment, there's Torian Kel (melee) and Geoffrey (mage) but both are evil. Later, some elves (both of the dark and light variety) will join you, and you can always get a particularly worthless mutt or a rather bright orc to join you. There's also the option to make your own warriors via the summoning tree. Later in the game (when Caladon is an option) a particular mage appears in Tarant who will also join you.

 

[HotSnack]

The cursed items that deal damage to the wearer are pretty good if you need to discreetly kill someone. Drop them in front of your victim, and watch as they pick it up and equip their doom.

 

[supervoid]

Spoiler

Virgil left me for some story purpose I assume

Spoiler

He's not coming back, you need to find him (you can get his exact location if you investigate his past or you can just deduce it from his dialogues). He has some nice conversations with PC and NPC's later in game so I recommend finding him.

 

[dextermorgan]

Ok bros, I have a weird problem: Running Arcanum GOG on linux with wine, installed unofficial patch, installed high quality town maps, widescreen patch and Krupps gun mod. The game works fine in all respects except one - loading times are positively abysmal. HDD activity is low during loading but CPU goes way up. Google is no help in this, any ideas?

 

[bloodlover]

I have finished the game recently and oooooh boy what a ride it was.

The setting and story are great and I will surely be playing this again at some point. However, looking back, I could have done things different (and probably better) but it seems that there's no point in min/maxing in this game. I found magic to be useful and strong but very very boring. After having WIL and DEX at 18 I decided to make CHA my dump stat and Pers my dump skill and it felt really like a waste at the end. Pumping STR for some gear and more pots would have been more useful than having an extra follower and more dialogue options, though the storyfag in me decided otherwise. I will definitely make a melee techie next run, even though the combat is even shittier that way than using spells. Followers were nice and I had a where to choose from, though I am still inclined to think that there are more/better ones for tech characters. Plus I did not hit the level cap since my followers murdered everything in sight before I even managed to cast a spell so missed xp for killing.

I kind of panicked for no reason at BMC and it's not really as bad/hard as people claim. It's kind of like Wiz 8's Arnika Road. Rape-fest if you are an idiot, easy/doable if you are not. I got some random crashes even with the patched game and they became more and more often as I reached the ending for some reason so if anyone who has not played is reading this, save OFTEN and in DIFFERENT SLOTS.

edit: Is there a legit way of getting 50k gold for a ship? I never had more than 15k gold and I hardly spent it on anything besides fatigue pots.

 

[MWaser]

edit: Is there a legit way of getting 50k gold for a ship? I never had more than 15k gold and I hardly spent it on anything besides fatigue pots.

I've been known to grind cash as a technologist by crafting items. It was almost necessary, though I never grinded for the ship. Maybe it's possible if you're a Master Jew.
You'd figure Bates could spare you the 50k for a ship considering how you did all kinds of stuff for him that nobody else ever even came close to managing.

Also the Master Persuasion quest can earn you 11k gold if I remember correctly, so that's something.

 

[Murk]

Combat oriented way -- wander around killing molochean hand guards, eventually ones with enchanted robes and leather armor attack you.

Easy 500gold from the trivia game, just save before you talk to anyone in a pub.

Gambling for expensive items that you then turn around and sell.

Selling expensive scrolls, like the ones for 'find traps' after buffing your beauty with items/gear to a particularly favored merchant.

Clean out Kree, the barbarians have good stuff there that can sell for a high price -- and there's lots of them.

Explore the Bengallian depths and the interesting chest full of loot.

Etc.

bloodlover You said you took charisma as a dumpstat, but then made it seem as if you were raising it. I'll tell you now that high int + persuasion opens up some very interesting quests and dialog in various situations -- notably the quest line for master of persuasion and also a particularly philosophical debate between you and the king and heir to the Wheel Clan.

 

[Old One]

I will definitely make a melee techie next run...I did not hit the level cap since my followers murdered everything in sight before I even managed to cast a spell so missed xp for killing.

edit: Is there a legit way of getting 50k gold for a ship?

Tech is, in general, more difficult than Magick, but it's also more fun.

An explosives expert can easily finish the game with more money than Gilbert Bates by selling crafted items. With the exception of some firearms builds, tech is far more profitable than magick because you don't have to buy fatigue potions all the time.

If you want to get all the XP from monsters, pick up all the firearms companions and give them tranquilizer guns.

 

[ortucis]

I found magic to be useful and strong but very very boring.

And this is why I always play as a dual-wielding gunslinger. Pistols in both hands, mow the damn Supermutants down. So much fun.

Magic can go fuck itself. Never played a game where it was fun, never will. Fuck magic and fuck whoever came up with the idea of it.

The only magic spell I ever enjoyed using was chain lighting in Wc3, but even that has a Tesla replacement in a sci-fi, which is better.

 

[bloodlover]

Murk Sry I don't think I made myself clear. I made CHA a dump stat after reaching WIL and DEX at 18 but I still had it around 16 for followers and maxed persuasion. Since it was my first time playing the game, I really have no idea what quests are related to persuasion but I guess that explains why a lot of NPCs were very chatty. One possible example that comes to mind was the guy outside Tulla that had a gem on him. I was able to persuade him into giving it to me instead of killing him and maybe the bandits guarding the bridge right at the start of the game.

Magic was kind of boring and I facerolled the game maybe with one or two exceptions like the cursed paladin. It killed the fun out of winning any encounter but can't you say the same about a melee character once it has the pyro axe?

 

[Murk]

Ah ok, that more or less works out then. My point was that if you don't have cha/pers (and int) then you'd often find yourself hitting dead ends in dialog trees... but it looks like you were able to get them, and perhaps didn't even know your stats were working out for you.

Pyro axe definitely makes melee a joke... but honestly, so does arcane axe and heavy barbarian blade. Combat's gonna be easy no matter what, and even with firearms the real 'difficulty' is in making sure you have enough ammo and the time it takes to get to an elephant or tranquilizer gun.

 

[Neanderthal]

And this is why I always play as a dual-wielding gunslinger. Pistols in both hands, mow the damn Supermutants down.

How the fuck do you dual wield, is this a mod, and do you mean Orcs or Ogres when you say Supermutants?

Am I just not picking up on trolling? If so sorry, bit tired, long day today.

 

[ortucis]

And this is why I always play as a dual-wielding gunslinger. Pistols in both hands, mow the damn Supermutants down.

How the fuck do you dual wield, is this a mod, and do you mean Orcs or Ogres when you say Supermutants?

You can dual-wield revolvers and Orcs, Ogres, Supermutants are same unoriginal shit in all the games who have them.



EDIT: Though I haven't played the game in years, so dual-wielding could be in my imagination.

 

[Neanderthal]

Thought this were one o few games that made the usual suspects interesting, because o that supernatural selection stuff you read about in manual and the place they simulate in Tarant society, still just me. Think you're misremembering about guns mate, I couldn't dual wield owt, and I fucking tried. Anyway cheers.

 

[Old One]

No duel-wielding in Arcanum (another point in its favor, IMO). Ogres can only use two-handed firearms like rifles and shotguns, no pistols at all.

Firearms in Arcanum are quite bad, for the most part. Two significant reasons are because enemies with Dodge can dodge your bullets, and because bullets do less and less damage against more and more magickal creatures. As the game proceeds, you encounter lots of high-level magickal enemies.

 

[Tigranes]

Pfft. Firearms pack plenty of power and are more than enough to smash through every challenge in the game.

Magic is easier and quicker - not only because of Teleport but because spells like Tempus Fugit are simply God mode. Firearms are less efficient, but they are more fun IMO, and in any case, you start getting so many different high-power guns after a while that you're spoiled for choice. When you can craft the hand cannon and the like you can blow lots of enemies away in just 2-3 shots.

 

[Old One]

There are a couple of dozen different firearms in the game, and about four of them are practically usable.

Spoiler

My favorite has always been the High Velocity Pistol because it requires two different found schematics and ends up worse than what you started with.

There's one firearm that is significantly better than any other in the game.

Spoiler

The Tesla Gun because it uses Charges (cheaper and lighter than Bullets) and does electrical damage. You can easily finish the game with that one.

Explosives is a far more effective and profitable focus than Firearms though.

 

[ortucis]

No duel-wielding in Arcanum (another point in its favor, IMO). Ogres can only use two-handed firearms like rifles and shotguns, no pistols at all.

Firearms in Arcanum are quite bad, for the most part. Two significant reasons are because enemies with Dodge can dodge your bullets, and because bullets do less and less damage against more and more magickal creatures. As the game proceeds, you encounter lots of high-level magickal enemies.

In real-time, you can't notice enemies dodging, you can mow through them pretty fast even if they dodge. On higher skill levels I didn't even see most dodging much.

I played Arcanum mostly in RTM so that's why I enjoyed the combat with pistols in it a lot. Never touching magic..

 

[Old One]

On higher skill levels I didn't even see most dodging much.

I can't speak for RT combat mode, since I never use that.

If you want to see bullet dodging at its finest, try shooting orc bandits. The ones lurking in the back streets of Tarant will do just fine.

 

[ortucis]

On higher skill levels I didn't even see most dodging much.

I can't speak for RT combat mode, since I never use that.

If you want to see bullet dodging at its finest, try shooting orc bandits. The ones lurking in the back streets of Tarant will do just fine.

Yeah they do the dodging at lower levels but at mid-tier pistol skills and some blue-print upgrades takes care of them.

Well that and I was always carrying like 2000 bullets which meant I would fire at everything not giving a shit about them dodging since most of my bullets would end up killing them anyway.

Damn, I am re-installing the game now. 'Tis a fine game which allowed players to go gun-crazy with RT combat.

 

[†††]

Some days ago I was bored and tried that glitch where you can make permanent magical effects on NPCs (doesn't work on drog's patch). Tried to make an army with dominate will, got like 40/50 NPCs until the framerate got choppy as hell (old ass computer here). I was hoping to get hundreds of them but alas, it wasn't possible. How can I combat evil with such a small number of soldiers?

 

[Kontra]

I might as well post this here

Where the hell does Volinger go when you release him from party? I cant find him anywhere. Hes not in Dornholm inn where you find him the first time, so knowing him i figured hed be in some other inn... But no such luck old buddy. So far ive been to every damn inn in Arcanum and no sign of him. The only place i havent been is Caladon where i cant go yet, but I doubt he went all the way there... Or did he?

So if anyone knows, help ...

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

I've only played several hours of Arcanum, but here are a few things I immediately noticed.

Very unique setting. It's sort of a magic-meets-steam powered world, with everything from explosives, primitive guns and all sorts of magic.

The character creation is awesome to me. Many different possibilities, schools of magic, old-school stat design as well as "quirks" in the sense that you can select special traits for your character that can change the character make-up a bit.

Multiple ways to play the game. This was a great feature and gave you a lot of leeway on how you approached the game. The few quests I did also had alternate routes to take to get to the end goal, which was nice. So C&C in the narrative as well as the gameplay.

Just beware. The first big city you get to is IMMENSE and pretty tough to navigate at first. It makes Baldur's Gate (the city) look easy to navigate in comparison. Just be ready to be patient with it and thoroughly explore, and probably end up getting lost until you get a good feel for it.

Other than that, the several hours I played I would highly recommend it. I want to play more soon and the reason I dropped it was complex, but yeah. It showed a lot of promise.

Oh, and turn the combat system to turn-based. The combat isn't really that bad at all (to me) and it's based on % chance to hit and stuff. I enjoyed it and it was quite simplistic.

Enjoy!

Edit - Just released this thread was from 2015. Oops! Well, I'll just leave my post as it is.