Suggestions for newbie to Arcanum

[Fudus]

From reading this forum, arcanum seems to be good. I've had the CD for a while, but never really started playing it.

Any suggestions for a completely new player to arcanum? All the options at creation confuse me.

 

[Xor]

Read the manual. It's well-written, and the information in it is (usually) accurate. At the very least, it'll tell you what everything does.

Install Drog's patch, it makes everything better.

Pure fighter builds are the easiest to do correctly, by level 20 you can win any fight in the game.

Don't use a strategy guide, half the fun of cRPGs is figuring out what to do on your own.

 

[Truth]

Below are just a few examples of the types of characters you may want to try out while playing Arcanum.

- magickal or technological thief
- pure thief with no magick or technological abilities
- assassin
- debutante or gentleman assassin/thief
- debutante or gentleman with no violent tendencies
- socially savvy, charismatic gambler
- super good or super evil (mage or technologist)
- warrior with no magick or technological skills
- balanced character using equal amounts of magick and tech
- gunfighter
- inventor
- a very dumb character
- a very ugly character
- a very persuasive character
- a very charismatic or uncharismatic character

You will find that the world reacts differently to these various character types and that alternate paths as well as quests are available to them throughout the game.

 

[Murk]

if you want an easy playthough, and if its your first time you might as well, put at least one point in melee at char creation, buy a 'fine steel dagger', and pump your dex right off the bat (hint, putting two points in 'electrics' technology tree lets you build charge rings which give +2 dex each, and yes you can equip two) then talk to a guard in shrouded hills and ask them to make you an apprentice in melee

then just pump dex/melee until you own god(s) with a sword

putting points in blacksmithing (two is enough) for the 'balanced sword' is also an idiotically clever idea as that weapon is crazy stupid broken - not only stronger than any other melee weapon you'll find for a while but it's got a stupid high speed rating

p.s - turn based = easy as hell combat

these are all pretty cheesy moves btw, so if you want to be legit then try to build a non power-gamey character (like going all out gunslinger)

 

[wjw]

Surely the advice given is good for power gaming, on the other hand, the game isn't that difficult, almost any character will get you going. You get the most fun out of this game, by creating the character you want, and than just start playing. My personal favorite is an intelligent and charismatic chap, just because i like solving things with my brains/talks instead of bashing my way to glory. On a first playthrough it might be handy to excel in one fighting skill (melee, bow, throwing or gun).

When creating a character, you might consider that you can level up 50 levels. That will net you +- 60 char. points, to invest in skills/attributes... You can't max every stat, so you'll have to make some choices.

 

[Earth Nuggets]

This might go without saying, but high Intelligence and Charisma (with Persuasion) are required to get all the best dialogues in the game. If you want to get the most out of the story and characters on your first play-through, I'd suggest you put some focus on those stats. Also, mastery in Persuasion allows you to have any character join your party despite their good/evil alignment. However, any required Tech/Magick alignment will not be ignored.

Going Magick is definitely the easiest route to go down. There's a helpful spell guide online to help you choose the best spells. Technology isn't utterly intuitive, but it's interesting. In my current game, I'm creating a charismatic technologist with the Miracle Operation background. I lose some Strength, Constitution and Dexterity, but get a lot of Perception (for Firearms), Intelligence (for inventing) and Charisma (for Persuasion) and will counteract my low Dexterity (max. 17) with charged rings.

Throwing is the best combat skill in the game. You'll get weapons with incredible range, decent speed and damage and which won't get destroyed when used against golems/elementals, doors or containers. Not only that, but the best weapons in the game are both throwing weapons: Azram's Star (found at K'na T'ha during the mastery quest) and the Aerial Decapitator (which is an easter egg you'll have to look up to find). Backstab and Prowling with training is also an incredible combination.

You might also want to get the Worthless Mutt, who is the best melee fighter in the game (partly because as a creature he gets master training to all skills automatically) and doesn't take up a character slot. You'll have to rush to the town of Ashbury to get him. I think after two weeks he dies, so just spend only a day or two in Shrouded Hills, walk to Tarant and then immediately take the train to Ashbury. You'll find him next to the local inn. The one consequence to having him in your party is you can't take any fast transportation, so you'll have to walk everywhere. To counteract this, he's best used with a magick character who with at least 18 Willpower and 5 character points invested into the magick school of Conveyance can teleport to any known location. If you go tech or want even more protection as a mage, just get Sogg (found at the inn in Shrouded Hills, 9 Charisma is needed).

As others have said, play in turn-based or fast turn-based. Real-time gets way too chaotic.

Getting your preferred stats to the maximum value of 20 is not required to master your skills, but is encouraged for unique benefits.

20 Strength = Double damage bonus
20 Dexterity = 25 speed (+1 point for every point over 20)
20 Constitution = Immunity to poison
20 Beauty = +100% reaction modifier
20 Intelligence = +10% success rate to all skills
20 Perception = Sense invisible
20 Willpower = Any spell resisted by Willpower gains you immunity
20 Charisma = 100% loyalty: followers never flee from your side and will not leave unless asked

Lastly, here's some control stuff a lot people miss:

Party commands - For use with a specific characters you can type their name prior to the command (i.e. "virgil attack"); for use with all party members type # before the command.

walk (order all with F1)
attack (order all with F2)
close (order all with F3)
spread (order all with F4)
back off (order all with F5)
leave
wait
come

Called shots - Hold the corresponding keys while attacking.

, = head
. = arms
/ = legs

 

[Fudus]

Is there any way of making the game have more contrast? Fallout was better looking, and it makes all the loot blend into the background and hard to find.

 

[Jasede]

This... called shot thing is a hoax, right? I -never- knew!

 

[Shota Shernokavich]

First of all, ignore what everyone else said, and listen to me.

Install Arcanum.
Install the latest official patch (version 1074).
Install the latest unofficial patch from Drog Black Tooth.

Choose what ever kind of character you want, and play.

 

[Gragt]

This... called shot thing is a hoax, right? I -never- knew!

No, it's serious, you need to press a certain key while in fight for the part you want to hit, your cursor should get some kind of target icon representing said part and then click the enemy. And to be honest I never used it as well even if I knew it existed.

 

[Xor]

The first dungeon stopped my first four characters before I finally managed it.

It's not that hard to make a broken character in Arcanum, but again, much of the fun is figuring out what works yourself.

 

[Earth Nuggets]

Oh shit, I forgot about one of the broadcast commands. You can also say "fuck you" to your followers and they immediately attack you.

I wish I knew more about called shots other than the fact that using them just maybe might perhaps gain you an awesome critical hit. The manual is very vague about actual in-game use, but assures the player that "when such critical blows are delivered the Game makes use of a special table to calculate damage" and that the damage is "based upon the location of the wound." It's extremely complicated and based on science! I haven't been able to locate anything relating to called shots in the DATA archive, so I'm assuming it's something handled by the engine. Maybe out of curiosity I'll private message Drog about it.

I actually just experimented with it a bit (I have mastery in Firearms). I managed to get one opponent to drop his weapon with a shot to the head and then got a critical hit (+200% damage) with a shot to the arms. It seems like it should be the other way around to me.

 

[Thrasher]

I recently finished my first playthrough as a mage with high intelligence and persuasion for maximum dialogue options, and high pickpocket skill.

About halfway through, I had wished I had created a technologist. Discovering schematics, and combining tech disciplines to make useful things is fun. It also makes character development more interesting.

Also, throwing explosives is quite entertaining.

Next time I'd try something along the lines of a thrower, explosives, electrical, gunsmith, gunslinger with high charisma, intelligence, dexterity, and persuasion (if that's not too much). It would be a balancing act.

 

[Murk]

i've never been a fan of playing mage characters, the spells i thought were a little too lobsided, that is, there's a couple of killer must haves and the rest is kind of 'eh'. for the most part i always stuck to playing technologists and going with firearms as my combat skill, i don't really like playing with a party much outside of individual quests since this game offered little in way of in-party character development.

 

[Thrasher]

Yeah, the mage got boring after a bit. But teleportation was great to remove the tedium.

NPCs leveled up when you did. Sadly you couldn't control their skill point distribution (unless you found a way to edit their autolevel scheme, somehow). Also, they couldn't learn found schematics. So you had to work with what you got (like Fallout 2).

I used them to make a few things, and to shoot guns against techies. Plus they added a little XP and some color in a few situations. Sogg was great as a swordsman.

 

[MaskedMan]

Well, mages get the spells, some of which are great (I really like the spirit-talking thing), and they can actually use all of the awesome magic gear you find scattered throughout the game properly, so I think it kind of balances out against technology, even though there are some places where you'll wish you played tech (like the *Ruins*).

My current playthrough is with a more or less full party and I'm really enjoying it so far; besides doing your fighting for you, your party-members can give you info on places if you ask them, and sometimes they will comment on their own accord or interject with opinions during conversations. Most of the time they stay silent though, they are nowhere near as active as the party members of Baldur's Gate and the like, but they don't rehash the same old lines ad nauseum either (unless you critical hit/miss ), which is a good thing.

 

[Thrasher]

The bad thing about party members is that they suck up your XP, that you would have gotten if you were making the hits.

Now, if they actually leveled up when they got XP, that would maybe have been OK. But they don't. They only level up when the PC does. So what's the point, except having them along makes you level slower? Was that weak attempt at balance?

The game should have just given you XP for kills like Fallout/2. Then you would use NPCs more.

 

[Murk]

yeah the xp per hit thing is kinda wack - i have no real confirmation on this but people reported equipping a fast but weak weapon was basically a fast track to like 20 levels if you go through the sewers (think fine steel dagger) with it

 

[Armacalypse]

I actually found this forum because I was searching for an unofficial patch for Arcanum to fix the bugs.

But I haven't really started yet because I don't know how to create my character.
I want to make a diplomat that can solve as much as possible with words, but I don't know where to put my points. It seems that you need both intelligence and charisma. But what about beauty? Can fights be avoided by having an initial reaction good enough to make hostiles friends?

 

[Thrasher]

Beauty can be skipped. Only affects initial reaction.

Once your reputation gets high enough beauty is pointless (I believe).

 

[Thrasher]

yeah the xp per hit thing is kinda wack - i have no real confirmation on this but people reported equipping a fast but weak weapon was basically a fast track to like 20 levels if you go through the sewers (think fine steel dagger) with it

ouch, that's a nasty effect.

 

[Xor]

Beauty can be skipped. Only affects initial reaction.

Once your reputation gets high enough beauty is pointless (I believe).

Since reputation basically doesn't do anything, beauty is completely worthless.

Making a purely social character in Arcanum is hard, because parts of the game pretty much require you to fight stuff. You can avoid it, but it's hard on your first playthrough when you have no idea what's coming next.

If you still insist on doing it anyway, put points in Charisma and Persuation first, and put a point into intelligence now and then.

You don't really need 20 charisma, unless you're planning to recruit opposite-alignment henchmen, but I usually get it anyway if I'm raising Charisma to 18.

 

[Murk]

beauty is a dump stat i'd say, it's easily compensated for

when i played my ugly but capable orc techno duder i would get a horrible rejection which was easily compensated for by my high int

also a smoking jacket gives +20 to reaction which should be enough to throw everyone to neutral/friendly unless your be is seriously like 2 or something

 

[Armacalypse]

Making a purely social character in Arcanum is hard, because parts of the game pretty much require you to fight stuff. You can avoid it, but it's hard on your first playthrough when you have no idea what's coming next.

People's opinion about the difficulty of this game really confuses me. I read long ago that making a diplomat and having lots of followers is too easy.

And if that's not the case and I get stuck then I guess I'll give my followers the stuff that I've read are overpowered, like Balanced Sword.

 

[Earth Nuggets]

Honestly, the game's pretty easy in general as long as you have a basic idea of what you're doing.

And I'm echoing that beauty is a waste.