Cruor
Barely Literate
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2022
- Messages
- 2
I first played Arcanum in 2001. While I loved the base ideas behind the game, the world and the atmosphere, the gameplay fell short in comparison to Fallout 2 IMO. Fast forward 21 years and the game popped back into my head, I have modded a lot of games (mostly for myself but I have published mods too) and thought I'd give modding Arcanum a try.
First off, this game is a beast to mod vs other things I have tried. I did a mod for Fallout Tactics which is just as old and it was cake vs this. Anyway, though a lot of reading and trial an error, I have managed to do a lot, but one thing fully eludes me and I can not let it go because it bothers the hell out of me: Random Encounters. I loved the encounters in Fallout 2, I liked killing the endless swarms of mercenaries, bandits, raiders, press gangs, super mutants, death claws, floaters, wanamingos etc etc. I liked getting encounters where I was like "oh man, this might be rough...." Arcanum was a HUGE let down in that regard. Ailing wolves, little spiders, 2 orc bandits, 1-2 Molochean Hand... YAWN. Awful. I was able to make powerful enemies to fight but I can not figure out how to put them in encounters. I have looked over the WMap_Rnd.mes file (in rules, after you undat Arcanum.dat, also found elsewhere) Since it is in rules, it should have an effect, but it doesn't. I change Ailing wolves proto number to a tougher npc, no dice, still flooded by Ailing wolves. I changed Orc bandits from 2 - 5, still get 2 all the time. etc. I have concluded (perhaps wrongly) This file does nothing and the encounters are handled elsewhere. I have undated Arcanum.dat, and Arcanum 1,2,3,4,5 I have examined all the files. I have googled. I have downloaded CArcanum which claims to have buffed encounters and looked its files over, I can't tell how he did it. I have asked in Arcanum discord. This one has me beaten. Can anyone here help me with this? Thanks if so. In a nutshell, I'm looking to make random encounters MUCH more dangerous, more rewarding, and more interesting.
First off, this game is a beast to mod vs other things I have tried. I did a mod for Fallout Tactics which is just as old and it was cake vs this. Anyway, though a lot of reading and trial an error, I have managed to do a lot, but one thing fully eludes me and I can not let it go because it bothers the hell out of me: Random Encounters. I loved the encounters in Fallout 2, I liked killing the endless swarms of mercenaries, bandits, raiders, press gangs, super mutants, death claws, floaters, wanamingos etc etc. I liked getting encounters where I was like "oh man, this might be rough...." Arcanum was a HUGE let down in that regard. Ailing wolves, little spiders, 2 orc bandits, 1-2 Molochean Hand... YAWN. Awful. I was able to make powerful enemies to fight but I can not figure out how to put them in encounters. I have looked over the WMap_Rnd.mes file (in rules, after you undat Arcanum.dat, also found elsewhere) Since it is in rules, it should have an effect, but it doesn't. I change Ailing wolves proto number to a tougher npc, no dice, still flooded by Ailing wolves. I changed Orc bandits from 2 - 5, still get 2 all the time. etc. I have concluded (perhaps wrongly) This file does nothing and the encounters are handled elsewhere. I have undated Arcanum.dat, and Arcanum 1,2,3,4,5 I have examined all the files. I have googled. I have downloaded CArcanum which claims to have buffed encounters and looked its files over, I can't tell how he did it. I have asked in Arcanum discord. This one has me beaten. Can anyone here help me with this? Thanks if so. In a nutshell, I'm looking to make random encounters MUCH more dangerous, more rewarding, and more interesting.