Reasons I sorta dislike Arcanum

[MetalCraze]

the problem is not only with them damaging weapons in melee. and considering that companions somehow like to attack those gholems in melee repairing becomes a must and quite tedious (I also remember it had some penalties if you were less than a master)
But then I simply built tesla rod. wicked shit. everything that is lower than lvl 40 went down in 2-3 shots.

 

[Jasede]

I don't get it. Why not just bring, say, three axes? You'll be set. What kind of adventurer doesn't have a spare weapon?

 

[spacemoose]

I never finished arcanum. the biggest turnoff for me was the 'unfinished' feeling I got from most enemies and locations. not quite enough pesonality/exposition/story, not quite enough customized equipment. felt quite barebones in places

and the combat of course

but the art was awesome. if it was a bit more fleshed out, with ToEE's combat system, that would be p sweet

 

[MetalCraze]

I can. I just don't want to switch to anything else from this cool shiny sword from the lost clan's dungeon.
and then there are stupid followers who rush the gholems making them damage their weapons, armor etc.
you even can't tell them what weapon and armour to wear.
I have nothing against item damaging. it's just that I would've wished it to be toned down a bit

now you may say "why would you need followers? play a game with your character solely". oh no - I need loot mules.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Most people seem to forget that you can give orders to your followers. Anyway, considering the golems:

1. Take the Dog just for this dungeon. He's a free follower, so it shouldn't be a problem. Then, just press F5 so all your party members won't attack, and command the Dog to attack a golem. As a variation, you may turn on the RT, act as a decoy yourself, and then run in circles, so the Dog bites golem's stony ass with out taking much damage.

2. If you're a strong melee fighter, or have strong melee fighters in your group, then just equip everybody with War Gauntlets. They do good damage and can't be broken easily. There's also Machined Gauntlets in the BMC, which do very good damage.

3. Ranged weapons. Bows, guns and throwing weapons. Especially awesome in the RT, since golems have a very slow walking animation.

4. Magick. Ranged attacks or summoning.

5. You may as well just run away from them, there's only a few golems in your path.

P.S. Personally, I think that the balance in Arcanum isn't THAT broken as many people say.

 

[Gnidrologist]

Drog summed it up nicely.
Now that you mention. I actually punched few golems to death with my bear hands. Serves right to have master in both melee and dodge.
And if you don't like followers to damage their weapons, just unequip them for a time being. Also, acting yourself as a decoy works really well. For some screwed up reason enemy will try to get you first even when some party memebers are mutch closer to them.

 

[Kz3r0]

Instead of bothering you with repair skill just spend 2 points in smithy discipline, so you can make tons of balanced swords, very convenient and cheap somehow.
I think Arcanum is a very forgiving game, probably troika tried to make the game affordable for everyone and most of his flaws results by this.
You have a vast choice of gamestyles but there isn't any specific quest or environment to emphasize that, so you are not compelled to act strictly on your skill with so many workarounds, and there aren't so much difference from play to play.
But even so the necromancer, the persuasor, the thief and the tech are so well crafted that I enjoyed several different characters.
I think the real difference is the player attitude, stick to your character background and skill and it's very challenging and satisfactory.
Last thing, Arcanum can be finished without any combat or kill, completing most of the quests in the meantime, so I don't think it's so combat heavy.

 

[Kingston]

I haven't played Arcanum in a long time either, but I don't recall having huge problems with the infamous golems. Bullets are easy to get too, the first schematic I bought was the bullet one and didn't need to buy any new bullets afterwards.

 

[Texas Red]

Wut are you talking about Lumpy? It's sounds as if though you haven't finished Arcanum. The whole point of the story is that you start out in a very cliche manner which ends up with fantastical twists. You can debate whether you are the chosen one or just some guy who got crashed in a wrong time in a wrong place. Personally I think the prophecy was a metaphor and that you're indeed the chosen one, though not the real incarnation but rather fighting on his behalf.

 

[HanoverF]

Doesn't your tribe call you "chosen" in FO2? And you're chosen to get the water chip in FO.

Reasons Lumpy didn't like Arcanum: It wasn't a TES game.

 

[Thrasher]

I don't understand the hatred for Arcanum combat from those who liked Fallout/2 combat. Turned-based is almost the same, except in Arcanum you can actually give your companions orders rather than having to try out a bunch of AI settings that don't always do what you'd want them to do (FO2), or have no control over their behavior at all (FO1).

 

[Xor]

Fallout's combat is actually quite a bit different.


The main differences come from the rule system. There are no instant death or armor-bypassing criticals in Arcanum AFAIK, which means there's less reason to use called shots. In Arcanum, you can have as few as 1(?) action point or as many as 50+ (dex 20 with dex-boosting items and haste); with the SPECIAL system you're given between 5 and 10. It makes the feel of combat quite a bit different: in Fallout, you aim for the eyes or the head, and hope your opponent doesn't get a lucky crit and kill you. In Arcanum, you just bash until your foe is dead.

Also, there's no magic in Fallout and throwing weapons suck ass.

 

[Thrasher]

Really? Are you sure there's no bypass or insta-death criticals?

Also, I think you can get more than 10 APs in Fallout/2.

Someone else said that throwing wepons are the best weapons in Arcanum.

 

[dragonfk]

You can get more than 10 APs(by feats) in Fallout but those above 10 points(which come from having DEX=10) can be only spend on moving your character.

EDIT: by DEX I meant AGIlity...

 

[Jasede]

What if you take 10 AGI and Action Boy (2)?

 

[Xor]

I think the most I ever had without cheating was 14:

10 from AGI
2 from jet
1 from Action Boy
1 from a cookie


That's still only 1 or 2 more shots, maybe.

 

[Thrasher]

Well I never got the huge number of APs in Arcanum that you are referring too, so there was effectively no difference compared to Fallout for me... And my charcter had about 10 dexterity, and used haste a lot, so I really don't see it.

Is there an exploit that you used in Arcanum for high APs?

 

[Murk]

isn't haste that exploit? a potion of haste would like double my ap easily, it was definitely a broken item - especially since a person in full techno-gear with 100 tech aptitude still got the full effect

anyway - i never had any real problems with golems, worst came to worst i'd just punch 'em to death or fall back on a different weapon type

my guess is skyway was playing a melee-ist and didn't bring any ranged weapons, warriors need to remain versatile and have a backup even if they suck with it - gunman brings a knife, swordsman brings a bow, etc. - forcing you to not use your sword on everything isn't a fault of the game at all, quite the opposite, i look forward to such features in games

 

[Shota Shernokavich]

i liked the combat in arcanum because it was really fast-paced like fights in real life.

also, any reason you gave for disliking arcanum is wrong.

 

[OSK]

Arcanum is the greatest RPG EVA

 

[Thrasher]

I do agree however, that some of the arcanum dungeons were too long AND repetitive = boring.

There were a couple of places where I think someone of less patience would have dumped it.

 

[Thrasher]

isn't haste that exploit? a potion of haste would like double my ap easily, it was definitely a broken item

OK I can see 20 APs, but not 40-50!

 

[Xor]

You get one AP per point of dexterity, and another 5 for a dexterity of 20.

Haste doubles your AP.

So, 25 AP * 2 is 50 AP.

I did this on an archer character. Arrows would fly, shit would die. I killed Khergan in 2 rounds. First character I beat the game with, by the way.

I would take a screenshot of the character sheet but this was like 2 computers and 3 hard drives ago, and I don't have the save any more.

 

[Thrasher]

I did something similar, and didn't get 10 castings of harm.... hmmm something's missing...

Maybe my dex wasn't that high....

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

The exploit is the Temporal college. Hasten (doubles speed) + Tempus Fugit (140% speed for all party members, also slowdowns the world) easily give 70 APs for a character with DX20. However, the maximum possible speed is 80 IIRC, for that you must be a halfling (DX22), wear the Enchanted Boots and have the Hyperactive background (in addition to these two spells).