Unofficial Arcanum Patch (Original Thread)

[Shambelle]

I made this little thing some time ago...
It can be considered as a sort of fix for an undocumented feature of the game.
You can use it if it interest you.
Here is the main part of the readme:

Here what you read in the game manual:

Examining Creatures in Combat.

If the Character is in Combat Mode, a player who hover the cursor over an enemy creature will receive useful information in the Message Window. This display will give an estimation of the Character’s likelihood of hitting the Creature with his primary weapon (see Figure 3-17). If some factor is reducing this likelihood and the player can affect this factor, then an icon may appear to indicate the presence of this reduction. Figure 3-18 shows all of the possible icons which might appear in such a message. These icons, in order from left to right are:
-the Weight (which tells us that a Character does not have sufficient Strength to wield the weapon he holds)
-the Target (which indicates that one’s target is beyond the range of one’s weapon)
-the Eye (which indicates that the target is beyond Character’s range of Perception), -the Wall (which informs us that the target is hiding behind partial cover)
-the Bulb (which indicates that the target is dimly illuminated)
-the Red Cross (which informs us that the Character is suffering an injury which affects his Combat Skills)

But, beside this, you have two other factor icons reducing the likelihood of hitting: the Magic-Tech penalty icon and the Blocked Shot icon.

-The Blocked Shot icon appears when the player is unable to directly attack a creature with his weapon due to total cover(i.e. when the creature is behind a wall and you use an arc). It is a wall with a prohibition sign and is quite fitting.
-The Magic-Tech penalty icon appears when you use a low magick (or technological) weapon against a creature with high technological (or magical) alignment.
In this case, the icon used is the same a Blocked Shot even if it makes no sense (you can still attack and harm your enemy).

Why?
Because the two art files (BlockedShot.art and Magic-Tech-Penalty.art) of these two factors use the same image when they would have needed two.
This situation could lead to some misdirection.

So, I took some Arcanum art and used Gimp and ArtView on it to make a new Magic-Tech-Penalty.art fitting its role in the interface.

 

[Ander Vinz]

- Edwin Wallows (Vooriden), lines 84 and 107 could be taken many times.

- Trelond-Ashe's line 177 leads to his thoughts about Arronax, not Dark Elves as supposed. If no proper lines are available I believe it has to be removed.

- Payne's line 293 is missing VA. And yes, I do remember what you said.

- And the beggar in Stillwater doesn't initiate dialogue (only once, when you first meet him). Others do.

 

[Thrasher]

Another bug is that you can only get an alignment increase once for giving money to beggar.

If you refuse once you can never get an alignment increase in the future.

 

[rroyo]

EDIT: One more thing. It seems that Delores Beston (a fake clairvoyant in Tarant) is resurrectable. She gives a blank dialogue if resurrected though. Should I make unresurrectable? Any suggestions?

Go with unresurrectable. It's more in keeping with the overall feel of that scene.

 

[TinyMage]

Magnus's stats seem wrong.

Check out this screenshot. I never noticed this before.

Ok, with 11 dex he should get 11 speed with no encumberence ( he has no encumberance )

Also with 11 strength he should get +2 to damage. Instead he gets +1.

He is wearing his dwarven gauntlets, but those aren't the problem. I unequipped them and he gets 7 speed at 9 dex and 0 damage bonus at 10 strength.

The rest of his gear is plain stuff, like the pigface helm, those boots with 10 dr and -10 np, an iron shield, balanced sword and leather armor.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

I made this little thing some time ago...
It can be considered as a sort of fix for an undocumented feature of the game.
You can use it if it interest you.

Yes, this is interesting and I might use it if you make a better icon:

There's lots of artefacts as you can see, also a black pixel in the center of the picture is caused by your icon.

Anybody else may feel free to have a go at this actually, here is the 8-bit BMP file.

EDIT: Another thing. Dragarons don't use any soundbank, and there's no soundbank for them in the game. How about giving them, let's say, hell beast's one? Any suggestions on this one?

 

[Grump]

Random encounters suck, the path of least resistance would be to alter the wisp encounters and anything that needs to have special circumstances to work. Maybe leave in a few for leveling. But minimize everything else. It's irritating when your lvl 45 ubermage has to stop to squash every spider that crosses his path.

Another bug...everybody is pissed when you attack Vincent and your alignment goes down...

 

[Earth Nuggets]

Anybody else may feel free to have a go at this actually, here is the 8-bit BMP file.

I hope GIF format with transparency isn't an issue. It's an 8-Bit filetype, so that shouldn't be a problem, correct? I removed the artefact on the left, as well as some around the edges of the object. I also brightened up the magick symbol: http://images1.filecloud.com/709052/Mag ... enalty.gif

 

[Grump]

Another bug, a loop when introducing yourself to Payne allows you to earn infinite or a ton of love and respect from him...

 

[Ander Vinz]

- Door in Panarii temple leading to K'an Hua cannot be opened even if it's state is "unlocked". The one leading to kitchen in Farad's castle too.

- You can ask Bates' spirit (line 944) about his story when you already know it (or no longer need it).

- Seems like "Enemy of Quintarra" and "Enemy of the Wheel Clan" reputations don't work with BE20.
edit: If you are going to fix it you should as well cover loopholes like Fawn's constant +10 reaction line.

- Payne's line 225 is available even if you choose evil path and not going to Thanatos.

- Chukka rejoins you if you killed Bates (if you gave him an order to wait somewhere). This results in well-known bug when he dissapears (but his portrait remains) if you buy Bates' estate and have him in party.

- You cannot receive Makaal's blessing if you betray Bedokaans but receive Alberich's even if kill the king of dwarves and Geshtianna's after killing her priestess. (It doesn't fit your patch but can be added to "controversial" pack.)

 

[Marco]

Chukka rejoins you if you killed Bates (if you gave him an order to wait somewhere). This results in well-known bug when he dissapears (but his portrait remains) if you buy Bates' estate and have him in party.

I had quite a similar bug once. I used a scroll of Control Beast on the Stillwater Rabbit. It disappeared, the Giant appeared and attacked me, but I had still the portrait of the rabbit in my party, and couldn't interact with it. It didn't even go away when I cancelled the spell.

 

[Ander Vinz]

- Line 553 in Magnus' dialogue gives you "E:" response from him. Line 540 happens more than once.

- A guy in Dark Elf Camp can be resurrected.

- If you teleport from the Pits Tollo doesn't initiate dialogue.

- K'an Hua's line 91 doesn't lead to battle as supposed.

- Kerghan attacks you even if you join him. (Old shit really)

- Bane of Kree/Torian Kel interaction is a whole mess. Sword is missing, Torian doesn't attack Bane, somehow gets his old lines, etc.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

I'm proud to say that even with all allegations and drama, the work on the patch has never stopped. And now, the new version is ready!

The following changes are included:
-Fixed a typo in Virgil's dialogue.
-Fixed a typo in Jongle Dunne's dialogue.
-Fixed alignment of two barbarians in Kree.
-Virgil, when asked what should be done next, won't say "We need to find Caladon" if you already have Caladon marked on your map.
-Rural smiths now sell and buy both Barbarian Clothes and Bronze Barbarian Clothes (any size). However, in multiplayer quality smiths sell and buy this armor.
-Fixed wrong PC responses in Tarant Guards' dialogue.
-Fixed a typo in Benjamin Gershwin's dialogue.
-Fixed another typo in Aldous Buxington's dialogue.
-Fixed wrong conditions in the dialogue of the Mayor of Blackroot.
-Charles Brehgo now properly attacks you if resurrected.
-A half ogre in Caladon sewers is no longer resurrectable.
-Fixed the Pervert of Tarant reputation, now it gives proper -25 reaction to everybody in Tarant.
-Stringy Pete will no longer appear until either you take a look at Salty Seadrick's map or Edward Teach tells you about him. (OFF flag was missing.)
-Fixed infinite fate points bug in Kree.
-Fixed Min Gorad's basic proto issues: a correct portrait now.
-Fixed Torian Kel's dialogue script. Now his dialogue lines won't float above every creature in vicinity when you resurrect him.
-Fixed conditions in Theo Brightstart's dialogue. Now when you make him angry by destroying the boulders, only one line will be available. Also, one line was leading to a wrong response.
-Fixed a typo in Perriman Smythe's dialogue.
-Fixed Whysper's dialogue, 3 lines were leading to wrong responses.
-Now it's impossible to access Wrath spirit's quest only dialogue if you kill him yourself.
-Thrayne Iron Heart now will no longer go to bed, also now he checks your disarm traps skill before training.
-The Wheel Clan smith now has repair skill (expert), so he doesn't break items anymore.
-Added missing origin to some dwarves in the Wheel Clan.
-Fixed basic proto issues with Chukka, now he uses a correct soundbank.
-Fixed basic proto issues with Drog Black Tooth, now he uses a correct soundbank.
-Fixed wrong faction for two citizens in Ashbury. (They will no longer attack you on sight if you are an enemy of Clan Maug).
-Fixed broken lines in King Praetor's dialogue.
-You can no longer sell Bessie Toone's boot to H.T. Parnell more than once.
-Fixed two typos in Loghaire Thunder Stone's dialogue.
-Delores Beston is no longer resurrectable.
-The Silent Robes use a correct inventory art now.
-Race fixes for K'an Hua and his door guards.
-Fixed two broken lines in Edwin Wallows' dialogue, which were leading to wrong responses.
-Removed a duplicated line in Gideon Laier's dialogue.
-Elementals and will-o-wisps now don't make blood splotches when struck.
-Fixed descriptions for Elven Hunter's Bow and Bow of Terror.
-Fixed inconsistencies with many descriptions. Words like "Damage", "Fatigue", etc are now replaced with corresponding acronyms, i.e. "D", "FT", etc.
-Fixed a broken line in K'an Hua at the Ring of Brodgar diaglogue.
-Fixed a line leading to a wrong response in Magnus' dialogue.
-K'an Hua's door guards now have negative alignment.
-A dark elf at Dark Elf Camp now has correct race and description and is no longer resurrectable.
-Teleportation from Dernholm Pits is disallowed.
-Fixed the "Magnus becomes the King of the Dwarves" ending.

As always, grab the update in the first post.

And I've updated Virgil's debug menu as well.

 

[Ander Vinz]

- Mr. Razzia's line 10 can be taken if you no longer have the passport and more than once.

- Myrth's quest does not get botched if you kill him.

- Human noble from Gorgoth's pass is resurrectable.

- Lines 261 and 341 of Chief Inspector Henderson are suggesting that you should be given a note but it doesn't happen. You can talk to Renee even if you haven't taken line 271 with Henderson. If you take line 339 with Henderson you can no longer accept the quest.
Btw, you can conjure for interrogation spirit of only one killed woman and only once (that's how most of dialogues should be scripted, I think). But when you get information from spirit only line 139 becomes available with Henderson ("I saw the name L'anamelach written in green blood, of all things."), I guess there's no special lines for this case.
I think the best solution will be disabling lines and stuff for first two victims and allowing to talk with only the last when you find out the name of the demon anyway.
Jiheirad and his party can be resurrected. This results in possibility to repeat dialogue.
You can take line 161 with Jiheirad many times until you find correct order to stop him from entering the cave.
Line 137 with Henderson is repeatable.
Vincent's dialogue shouldn't be acessible more than once and he shouldn't be resurrectable.

- Line 5 in dialogue with Mrs. Morgan is still available even if you give her son the tools. And line 6 can be taken more than once.

Here's a save with Magnus. Ask him to join you, then leave the party and then join again.

(The most important bug fixes are in bold text)

-K'an Hua's door guards now have negative alignment.

Right.

 

[Grump]

The Paladin Slaves in the Bagel Deeps give you negative alignment if you kill them. Fair enough, but in practice it becomes difficult to use AoE weapons around the Cursed Paladin without pissing off your party members even if they're hostile. They also continue to give negative alignment even after they turn hostile to you so your only choice if you want to spare them is to steal or drop the scourge into the furnace and hope they don't turn hostile until you can run away.

 

[Grump]

I've been having another problem which might be worth looking into. Since you can look forward to 100 random encounters everytime you want to drop by the local village I just usually leave combat on realtime. Sometimes for some reason it looks like my avatar will just start shooting party members or throwing grenades at them and turning them hostile without me not doing anything. It's so fast I can't tell for sure but I think its me attacking. I have autoattack off so I'm not sure what the problem is.

ps If anyone would be so kind I'd also like a simple way to dial random encounters down...thanks

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

If somebody prefers 1074 random encounters' system over 1064 one, then they may try this. Create a "Rules" folder inside your "Arcanum\modules\arcanum" folder and put the file there.

 

[Grump]

The equipping the ring of shadows on an NPC causes you to permanently lose contact with them short of maybe attacking or killing them. At least I haven't been able to find a way to talk to them. Not sure if its intentional but it doesn't seem so.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

The equipping the ring of shadows on an NPC causes you to permanently lose contact with them short of maybe attacking or killing them.

Well, that's the whole point of the invisibility spell.

 

[Grump]

The equipping the ring of shadows on an NPC causes you to permanently lose contact with them short of maybe attacking or killing them.

Well, that's the whole point of the invisibility spell.

Usually invisibility means you can't be seen, it doesn't mean that you can never communicate or move ever again. If you're unlucky enough to give it to a party member who autoequips it . You apparently get a permanently useless spot on your party roster

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

The equipping the ring of shadows on an NPC causes you to permanently lose contact with them short of maybe attacking or killing them.

Well, that's the whole point of the invisibility spell.

Usually invisibility means you can't be seen, it doesn't mean that you can never communicate or move ever again. If you're unlucky enough to give it to a party member who autoequips it . You apparently get a permanently useless spot on your party roster

I just checked it, you can still talk with your invisible party members.

And don't forget about the "Sense Hidden" spell and PE20 bonus, they're there for a reason.

 

[Texas Red]

How do you get the "Pervert of Tarant" reputation?

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

How do you get the "Pervert of Tarant" reputation?

It's a part of the master pickpocket quest. Talk to Sammie White (a halfling in Kensington Park in Tarant) when you have enough skill.

 

[Fez]

Can't you get that by running naked through the streets?

 

[Grump]

The equipping the ring of shadows on an NPC causes you to permanently lose contact with them short of maybe attacking or killing them.

Well, that's the whole point of the invisibility spell.

Usually invisibility means you can't be seen, it doesn't mean that you can never communicate or move ever again. If you're unlucky enough to give it to a party member who autoequips it . You apparently get a permanently useless spot on your party roster

I just checked it, you can still talk with your invisible party members.

And don't forget about the "Sense Hidden" spell and PE20 bonus, they're there for a reason.

I rechecked it and the apparent cause is the ring's health draining and Raven's heal rate or spells. If she autoequips it her fatigue goes to zero and you can never talk to her. If others equip it they just die. But I guess what you talked about would be a way out.