Suggestions for newbie to Arcanum

[Thrasher]

Yes, the smoking jacket and a blessing or two makes beauty pretty much a dump stat....

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Considering the called shots, here's what the manual says:

The player may also choose to perform a “Called Shot”, deliberately aiming for the head, arms or legs of his intended victim. Called Shots are more difficult to perform than ordinary attacks, as they are less opportunistic, and thus a certain penalty is incurred. Any Called Shot which does connect with the target, however, has a greater chance of being a critical success, and when such critical blows are delivered the Game makes use a special table to calculate damage, this damage based upon the location of the wound. Called Shots to the head have a greater chance of knocking the opponent unconscious, while Called Shots to the arms and legs have a better chance of causing crippled limbs. Armor worn in those areas will help protect against these blows, which is why it is always a good idea to wear helmets, gauntlets and boots.

The basic idea is that they're harder to pull off, but if succeeded they have a greater chance of being a critical hit. Called shots to limbs also cause injuries.

In general, criticals are calculated using several parameters. A creature's body type and a weapon's critical charts are taken into consideration. However, it's never explained how the engine handles this.

Also:
Firearms Expert – called shots are made with 2/3 the penalty

So, this is especially useful for gunslingers. And this is true, my gunslinger character, who was a master of firearms, was doing a lot of critical hits when he was aiming for the head using his Looking Glass Rifle.

About the Dog. There's no two weeks limit. The script sets in motion the first time you visit Ashbury. E.g. if you arrive to Ashbury and wait a day there, the Dog will be most likely beaten to death. So, feel free to go there at any time, but be sure to free it immediately (even if you don't plan on taking it to the party). Also, as a monster type creature (an animal in this case) the Dog gains automatic Melee skill (and only Melee), it doesn't need to put CPs in it, as it's gained automatically based on its DX. And the training is received based on its level, so the Dog becomes a Master in Melee around level 30 IIRC. The Dog is a slightly modified Brute Fang, so it hits 30-40 of normal damage + ST damage modifier, thus hitting 50-60 when it gets ST20. A bit overpowered.

 

[Thrasher]

Yes, but I think the hitpoints and AC were fairly low, so the dog died for me fairly quickly....

 

[Earth Nuggets]

About the Dog. There's no two weeks limit.

Oh really?

I guess I've been bamboozled! I'd honestly seriously always rush there just to get him.

 

[Thrasher]

Well he certainly would be an asset early on. That's as good a reason as any.

At higher levels he's not so useful...

 

[Murk]

the dog encounter only begins when you arrive in ashbury

gnome goes over and yells at him and starts kicking him to death, my first play through i accidently bumped into dog well after a month of in game time

 

[Earth Nuggets]

Oh well, I probably just read a walkthrough whose author was unsure about the time restraint or something.

I'm playing the game with the 126 level cap for the first time and I must say, it makes playing tech a lot more fun, since I can invest points into a lot of the colleges without having to worry about gimping my character with low skills and stats.

 

[Murk]

i did that my last play through (techno meleeist half-orc) and was having fun trying to make all the schematics i found

kinda wish there was more stuff to get into in the technology aspect

for instance has anyone ever had any major use out of chemistry or therapeutics/drugzzz?

 

[Fudus]

Someone's suggestion to make RT combat 10x slower would be a good idea, it goes way too fast. Infinity Enginepause would be good too. Is there a way of doing that in Arcanum? Reason I don't want to use TB is because people said that the enemies don't use spells and such in TB modes.

You don't get xp from NPCs killing things? Doesn't sound very good. Currently conflicted on whether to do a persuasion or melee now.

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[Jasede]

If you do melee you level up the fastest. Especially if you have no companions. You won't need them either, just max Dodge and Melee. Get a Balanced Sword, an Air Sword or something equivalent if you want to really level fast. Now to really break the game, also max DEX, STR and Backstab and Prowl, but these things are optional.

And the RT combat is really quite useful against lesser enemies. I find I am in RT combat mode 75% of the time with a melee character, or a caster (Harm). You won't get far in RT with a gunslinger or something even more exotic though.

 

[Earth Nuggets]

Holy God, molotovs are amazing! And they're extremely cheap too. All you need is a rag and fuel to make one, which will cost approximately 5 gold. I currently have 35 of them!

At P. Schuyler and Sons, I let Winston explain everything. We nearly reached an agreement as he asked for me to keep everything I saw a secret, but I called him a fool for thinking I'd betray Magnus and then unleashed fiery death. His brothers went flying diagonally across the room, hit the wall and promptly died. I then used the rest of my turn to finish Winston off with two revolver shots. It was amazing.

Definitely an essential item for low level tech characters.

 

[Murk]

it was the easiest way i could deal with the thieves holding the bridge, it uses very little ap and even if your throw skill is low you can afford to chuck like 10 of them, easily blasting them apart

 

[Jasede]

I hope you both realize that the no AP cost of them is a bug and using them is pretty much abuse!

 

[MetalCraze]

that tesla rod is a ridiculously overpowered piece of awesome too. of course if you will find enough batteries for it (or will use an "empty container bug" that lets you multiply all items that count as ammo).
I was raping everything with it. not even most powerful bosses could stop me.

 

[Thrasher]

You don't get xp from NPCs killing things? Doesn't sound very good. Currently conflicted on whether to do a persuasion or melee now.

Not quite. You do get XP from NPCs killing things. But you get more XP if the PC actually is doing the damage. There's more XP in doing damage than kills. Odd, eh?

 

[Woreczko]

Not all that newbie, but I thought I would ask:

Recently I started the game with an idiot savant character background. It gives a hefty bonus to intelligence but makes one`s character use dumb dialogue options. I wonder - is it possible to learn how to speak properly throughout the game (by reaching high enough int level?) or is my character cursed forever to act as retard during social interactions?

 

[Faceless]

Cursed forever.

 

[Murk]

I hope you both realize that the no AP cost of them is a bug and using them is pretty much abuse!

for this i deserve not but the slowest of all deaths

 

[Thrasher]

^not^naught^

 

[Murk]

^not^naught^

i think either works, but more importantly, how 'bout them bees dying?