Cain on Games - Tim Cain's new YouTube channel

[StrongBelwas]

By Remake, he means it still plays like Arcanum, just changing some things it shipped with if he had more time and money.
Obviously, bug fixing, and balance skills/spells.
Wish Beauty did more, wish Harm wasn't a goto.
Understands they have been fixed in fan patches, would probably use fan patches and people's reaction to them as a guideline for balance goals. If something was done in a fan patch and people hated it, probably avoid it.
Run the game in higher resolution, make the UI fit more nicely, might make the UI more 'sleek and modern', pushing it to the corners. Maybe even hide elements of the UI when you don't need it, such as health bars when you out of combat.
Try and recover original art files (He doesn't have them) and rerender them at a higher res. Failing that, they can upscale them, which is still pretty decent nowadays. Doesn't want it to be pixelated at higher resolutions.
Remove multiplayer, only implemented because they had to, not really part of Arcanum. Allows them to remove a lot of code that would no longer be needed, code that operated under the assumption it couldn't be calculated locally can be cleaned up or removed.
Almost certainly would make the game turn based only. Now that's its turn based only, everything can be on the assumption of turn based instead of accounting for both real time and turn based.
Would implement some of the turn-based features of Temple of Elemental Evil, such as sequential movement for enemies and/or rapid movement.
Would implement procedurally generated ruins and caves on the world map. Would expand playtime without touching main quest or side quest.
Wanted roads to connect all the cities and villages, could not figure out how to get it working. Would be faster to travel along the roads, with separate encounter tables. You could meet more guards, but also more bandits because they target the caravan roads. Some exclusive monster encounters on road and off road. The roads were hard to generate on the world map and never quite looked right on the sector level. Would be cool to put in a remake.
Would restore option for single point per level, but multiple point would still be there.
Remove the level cap, was only there so you could be forced to make a new character and couldn't get everything on one playthrough. Knows people who like to play without a cap, would be trivial to remove it.
Put in a story hook for the idea of Arcanum 2 about Journey to the Center of Arcanum. Would add some NPCs and locations plus new dialogues that would just hint at what could be happening. Franklin Payne the explorer disappears before the end of the game, or you could go to his house and see him building his machine.
Would not touch storyline and dialogue outside of fixing bugs.

 

[NecroLord]

By Remake, he means it still plays like Arcanum, just changing some things it shipped with if he had more time and money.
Obviously, bug fixing, and balance skills/spells.
Wish Beauty did more, wish Harm wasn't a goto.
Understands they have been fixed in fan patches, would probably use fan patches and people's reaction to them as a guideline for balance goals. If something was done in a fan patch and people hated it, probably avoid it.
Run the game in higher resolution, make the UI fit more nicely, might make the UI more 'sleek and modern', pushing it to the corners. Maybe even hide elements of the UI when you don't need it, such as health bars when you out of combat.
Try and recover original art files (He doesn't have them) and rerender them at a higher res. Failing that, they can upscale them, which is still pretty decent nowadays. Doesn't want it to be pixelated at higher resolutions.
Remove multiplayer, only implemented because they had to, not really part of Arcanum. Allows them to remove a lot of code that would no longer be needed, code that operated under the assumption it couldn't be calculated locally can be cleaned up or removed.
Almost certainly would make the game turn based only. Now that's its turn based only, everything can be on the assumption of turn based instead of accounting for both real time and turn based.
Would implement some of the turn-based features of Temple of Elemental Evil, such as sequential movement for enemies and/or rapid movement.
Would implement procedurally generated ruins and caves on the world map. Would expand playtime without touching main quest or side quest.
Wanted roads to connect all the cities and villages, could not figure out how to get it working. Would be faster to travel along the roads, with separate encounter tables. You could meet more guards, but also more bandits because they target the caravan roads. Some exclusive monster encounters on road and off road. The roads were hard to generate on the world map and never quite looked right on the sector level. Would be cool to put in a remake.
Would restore option for single point per level, but multiple point would still be there.
Remove the level cap, was only there so you could be forced to make a new character and couldn't get everything on one playthrough. Knows people who like to play without a cap, would be trivial to remove it.
Put in a story hook for the idea of Arcanum 2 about Journey to the Center of Arcanum. Would add some NPCs and locations plus new dialogues that would just hint at what could be happening. Franklin Payne the explorer disappears before the end of the game, or you could go to his house and see him building his machine.
Would not touch storyline and dialogue outside of fixing bugs.

Expand playtime? I think the game already has just the right amount of content.
Harm is OP, scales with Magickal Aptitude. Beauty spell was pretty decent, as it increased Reaction and interactions with NPCs.
I'm wondering what he considers to be "the center of Arcanum"...

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Run the game in higher resolution

This is a terrible idea. Running older games in higher resolution gives you a helicopter view, or sometimes a view from Earth's orbit. What it needs is an integer scaling from 640*480 with a CRT shader, that's all.

Let me give it a try, 10 mins...

 

[Roguey]

Run the game in higher resolution

This is a terrible idea. Running older games in higher resolution gives you a helicopter view, or sometimes a view from Earth's orbit. What it needs is an integer scaling from 640*480 with a CRT shader, that's all.

Let me give it a try, 10 mins...

This is why he said he'd pair it with re-rendering the graphics at a higher resolution or upscaling them if the original assets are no longer available.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

I can't believe it..! I mean, you... A 800*600 game...
And the 4k resolution...! And the CRT-crispness...!
And Tim Cain says...! Do you have any
idea how great it plays?

 

[agris]

ugh, the arcanum models always looked so ugly to me. like claymation or playdough was used as the target material representation

 

[Roguey]

ugh, the arcanum models always looked so ugly to me. like claymation or playdough was used as the target material representation

The same is also true for Fallout, but there it just works whereas Arcanum does not for reasons I can't quite articulate. I guess Arcanum looks too clean whereas Fallout's grittiness makes it more palatable.

 

[agris]

ugh, the arcanum models always looked so ugly to me. like claymation or playdough was used as the target material representation

The same is also true for Fallout, but there it just works whereas Arcanum does not for reasons I can't quite articulate. I guess Arcanum looks too clean whereas Fallout's grittiness makes it more palatable.

That’s Fallout 2’s models, yeah. Fallout 1’s have no such issue and look great.

 

[agris]

Roguey maybe it's been too long since you played, but all(?) the new models added in Fallout 2 have this doughy, plasticky look that none of the Fallout 1 models have.

pure speculation: the art pipeline changed for F2, spearheaded by Leonard, so that when he left for Troika the F2 team continued it. It's why the Arcanum models look the way they do as well, since he was effectively Troika's AD.

edit: while you'll have to zoom the page 2-3x to really see (much like how you should play the fallouts in low resolution), this sprite sheet really highlights it. especially starting with Fallout 2 sprites NFNICE and below. The gangsters, shi, Vic, Myron (i know), all those models look inferior when you're playing in something approaching the original resolution (960x540 for today's screens).

 

[NecroLord]

Roguey maybe it's been too long since you played, but all(?) the new models added in Fallout 2 have this doughy, plasticky look that none of the Fallout 1 models have.

pure speculation: the art pipeline changed for F2, spearheaded by Leonard, so that when he left for Troika the F2 team continued it. It's why the Arcanum models look the way they do as well, since he was effectively Troika's AD.

edit: while you'll have to zoom the page 2-3x to really see (much like how you should play the fallouts in low resolution), this sprite sheet really highlights it. especially starting with Fallout 2 sprites NFNICE and below. The gangsters, shi, Vic, Myron (i know), all those models look inferior when you're playing in something approaching the original resolution (960x540 for today's screens).

What are you talking about, my man?
They look just like the ones in Fallout.
If anything, Fallout 2 looks and plays a lot better.
Though it is not better as a game than Fallout.

 

[caffeine]

I can't believe it..! I mean, you... A 800*600 game...
And the 4k resolution...! And the CRT-crispness...!
And Tim Cain says...! Do you have any
idea how great it plays?

Text doesn't look good there. What shader do you use? It shouldn't display scanlines at that resolution. Also, it looks like there's some interlacing going on.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

What shader do you use? It shouldn't display scanlines at that resolution.

Hyllian. Why no scanlines?

 

[caffeine]

Hyllian. Why no scanlines?

Scanlines are more of a TV thing when displaying low-res content, I don't remember the technical explanation exactly but it had to do with filling out low-res 240p content on the screen. As far as I remember, PC CRTs didn't display scanlines, they work differently from TVs. Hyllian and most well known shaders are based on TVs. There are some shaders that change the way scanlines work past a certain resolution, others display them all the time.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Hyllian. Why no scanlines?

Scanlines are more of a TV thing when displaying low-res content, I don't remember the technical explanation exactly but it had to do with filling out low-res 240p content on the screen. As far as I remember, PC CRTs didn't display scanlines, they work differently from TVs. Hyllian and most well known shaders are based on TVs. There are some shaders that change the way scanlines work past a certain resolution, others display them all the time.

I may tune them down a little for higher res games.

 

[Roguey]

Yeah I used console emulators in the 90s and they had options for enabling scanlines and interpolation because playing one of these games on your monitor did not look the same as playing one on your tv, even if you were setting it to the original resolution.

 

[__scribbles__]

I talk about what I would add and change if I were to remake The Temple of Elemental Evil today.

 

[Jigby]

2:10 - not as many people were a fan of the radial menu, because you couldn't hotkey things. I'd add hotkeys

b-but... there were hotkeys. Or is this a temple+ thing? Sitra Achara

 

[Roguey]

"I don't think it'd change the fundamental nature of Temple if I completely rewrote it, redesigned the encounters, and added a lot more content."

It'd still be a 3.5 D&D game, sure.

 

[NecroLord]

2:10 - not as many people were a fan of the radial menu, because you couldn't hotkey things. I'd add hotkeys

b-but... there were hotkeys. Or is this a temple+ thing? Sitra Achara

Yeah, there are hotkeys.

 

[NecroLord]

"I don't think it'd change the fundamental nature of Temple if I completely rewrote it, redesigned the encounters, and added a lot more content."

It'd still be a 3.5 D&D game, sure.

Also, yeah, the game could've used more content.
Get rid of Hommlet or make it so there are a lot more quests that don't involve talking with the locals too much.
Hommlet's a real chore until you get to the Moathouse and the game begins proper.

 

[Roguey]

Yeah, hotkeys are mentioned in the manual. Either he forgot or what he actually meant was a having a hotbar where you can actually see and click on what you want to use instead of memorizing what you've hotkeyed or digging through several submenus each time.

 

[__scribbles__]

I talk about the questions I am skipping in my channel’s comment section, either because I cannot answer them or because I simply do not want to.

 

[StrongBelwas]

Don't ask Cain about releasing code, the indie scene (Just a consumer of them like anyone else, can't comment on the internal workings), Bloodline's design (You can thank him for the Sheriff throwing cars and hookers though), working at 'pure' tech companies, his opinions on methodologies like SCRUM, Outer Worlds 2 stuff (And don't try to trick him), streaming coding/playing games, or current events like Unity and BG3 bear sex.

 

[Alienman]

Another passive-aggressive Tim video?

 

[Roguey]

People have been seething about the bear since July, I don't think it's going away in a few months, the bear is eternal.