Unofficial Arcanum Patch (Original Thread)

[Earth Nuggets]

I'm pretty sure Troika themselves fixed that bug. I remember exploiting it in the unpatched game only.

Also, I encountered a dialogue bug yesterday in the side-quest V’ed Eckes gives you (retrieve the gem of water purification from the student who left Tulla). You can do the dialogue over and over until you get it right, and even if you convince him to give you the gem, you can repeat the same lines.

 

[Quilty]

I too remember exploiting the Madam Lil bug to get infinite money in the vanilla version, but I can't say whether the patch fixes it, I never played it with the patch, I'm afraid.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

K'AN HUA PWNS NASRUDDIN

[real in-game situation - i have a savegame]

This and more bugs in my next report. Look forward to it!

It came known to me that this in fact is intentional, and moreover Nasrudin should kill K'an Hua when you get there. Here are the lines from Nasrudin's dialogue:
PC: "Wait, what happened here? [Point to the corpse of K'an Hua.]"
Nasrudin: "Oh, that. Quite strange, really...he began screaming "you can't still be alive" and attacked me. I had to kill him, damned fool. I believe he was here to stop you from being banished, though I have no idea how he knew what was to take place here. But we have more important things to attend to...are you ready?"

Does this actually happen in the game? I'll have to check this later.

 

[Arrath]

I too remember exploiting the Madam Lil bug to get infinite money in the vanilla version, but I can't say whether the patch fixes it, I never played it with the patch, I'm afraid.

Maybe they did fix it then, I too only played unpatched back in the day. (Was on dialup, patching was a hassle unless the game was broken.)

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

PC: "Wait, what happened here? [Point to the corpse of K'an Hua.]"
Nasrudin: "Oh, that. Quite strange, really...he began screaming "you can't still be alive" and attacked me. I had to kill him, damned fool. I believe he was here to stop you from being banished, though I have no idea how he knew what was to take place here. But we have more important things to attend to...are you ready?"

And indeed, this is possible.

Although, the catch is that you must take Nasrudin's quest BEFORE you get the device. Because otherwise K'an Hua will appear at the Ring of Brodgar and his script will be terminated, thus it won't check if you have Nasrudin's quest or not. But this can be fixed, of course.

Damn, I've played through this game dozens and dozens of times and I still find something new. That's what's called a true RPG.

 

[Earth Nuggets]

Is Kerghan supposed to attack you if he agrees to let you use the device to sever his ties to the world? I suppose it makes sense, since the victim must be in a regenerative shell for it to work... but then what's the point of persuading him if you still must fight in the end?

Also, what other variables are needed to get K'an Hua to appear at the Ring of Brogdar? Do you have to meet him prior to starting Nasrudin's quest?

Bugs: After entering the Void, you can ask Z'an A'lurin how to find Arronax, and she says that the logical next step would be to find a way into the Void.

Secondly, what is with the dialogue with Gorgoth? You tell him you need help defeating Arronax, even after finding out Kerghan is the real threat and with Arronax in your party!

Oh yeah. I also brought Gorgoth food, but it didn't leave my inventory and he didn't join my party after saying he would.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Is Kerghan supposed to attack you if he agrees to let you use the device to sever his ties to the world? I suppose it makes sense, since the victim must be in a regenerative shell for it to work... but then what's the point of persuading him if you still must fight in the end?

This is a known bug. He's not supposed to attack you, that's just your followers attacking him. EDIT: Fixed.

Also, what other variables are needed to get K'an Hua to appear at the Ring of Brogdar? Do you have to meet him prior to starting Nasrudin's quest?

Yes, you have to join the Dark Elves and meet him in Caladon. This is a good joke actually, since Nasrudin doesn't know that you were actually working for K'an Hua. And one more thing, in case some people don't know it and might find it interesting. When you find the Mannox's journal and tell everything about the Panarii to Alexander while you're following the evil path, K'an Hua will appear right beside Alexander and attack you saying "Forfeit is your life, your betrayal won't leave this temple". You get teleported to the Void if you kill him, of course.

 

[Ander Vinz]

Nasruddin bugfest:
Evil Virgil still talks to Nasruddin in a servile tone. (discuss!)
After killing Bogaroth and asking what needs to be done to defeat Arronax (retrived the device already, but didn't tell him about it), Nasruddin has two lines: 536 and 537.
If you ask Nasruddin ONLY about one of the banished (line 370) and then take line 413, 423, 443, 432 or 452 (one of these), next time you address him you'll have initial dialogue again. I think these lines (or line 370) shouldn't appear until you've talked to him about Vendigroth.
Taking lines 314-371 (or 154) allows you to choose 164 AGAIN.

Well, it seems if you've already retrieved the device you can have a whole fucking holiday here. Disabling line 223 if you did can help a lot.

I'm sick of Nasruddin, his dialogue is very buggy.
Here's a save, test remaining lines yourself if you care.

- A minor graphical issue in Ancient Maze. [cursor!]


- Lines 106 and 107 in dialogue with Arronax and Z'an Al'urin are identical and both available.

- Torian Kel's lines don't have VA when he asks you to give him his sword back.

- If you take line 182 with Bane of Kree, Torian Kel doesn't mind his company.

- If Torian Kel attacks Bane of Kree without your support, all your followers attack Torian. When he fails to kill Bane you can no longer ask Bane to join you (he doesn't join when you take line 552 in his dialogue and line 4 with Kel).

- Loghaire's responce for line 13 in Iron Clan (with Magnus) is "... My grandfather told me the same stories... " while VA says "As did my own".

- There's no mentioning of Kryggirds Falchion in Bane's dialogue. (Maybe high CHA).

- Tarant's (killed Bates and Aplleby) and Blackroot's (rejoined Cumbria, Praetor is the king, no wars) endings don't trigger.

Well, evil path is finished. Farewell.

 

[Ratatosk]

People are rejoicing all over the world because of Arcarum´s restoration project.

Finnish Pelit ( Games ) Magazine made newspost about DBT´s patching effort:
http://www.pelit.fi/index.php?id=66&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=1084&tx_ttnews[backPid]=59&cHash=43472fd888

Carry on.

 

[Arrath]

Is it possible that turning off Sprite Mirroring may have impacted performance somewhat? I notice the game chugging much more often than before.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

People are rejoicing all over the world because of Arcarum´s restoration project.

Finnish Pelit ( Games ) Magazine made newspost about DBT´s patching effort:
http://www.pelit.fi/index.php?id=66&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=1084&tx_ttnews[backPid]=59&cHash=43472fd888

Carry on.

That's awesome, I'm glad that people like what I'm doing.

There's one thing I need some suggestions on. I'm sure that many of you don't know about the so called thief reputations. There are ones for Shrouded Hills, Black Root, Tarant, Ashbury and Caladon.

Thief of "town's name". Because of your repeated attempts to steal from the merchants of "town's name", the merchants and the guards there take a dim view of you and your activities.

You get one if you fail pick pocket on shopkeepers a specified number of times. Such a reputation then gives you -20 reaction to all shopkeepers and -10 to all guards of the place. There are scripts attached to every shopkeeper for this purpose. Anyway, the reason many of you most likely have never heard of it because people attack you if fail pickpocket, and if you kill a few shopkeepers in a town then the game's already messed up badly, so you have to load an earlier save, logically. Moreover, the specified number of fails is close to a number of all shopkeepers in a town, e.g. you have to fail pickpocket 10 times in Tarant to get the reputation. Thus you have to kill almost all shopkeepers in Tarant. Does it make sense, especially for a weak thief? I don't think so. Anyway, it's possible to change these scripts, so shopkeepers won't attack when you fail pickpocket, and you'll be able to get a thief reputation without slaughtering a whole town. So, should I make shopkeepers not attack a player when he fails pickpocket, in order for this reputation to work without any extra kills? Or was it intended to be so and should not be touched?

Is it possible that turning off Sprite Mirroring may have impacted performance somewhat? I notice the game chugging much more often than before.

It may be so, if you have a really old pc. Also, Arcanum acts somewhat funny on some videocards (such as mine, for example), thus it may have monsterous memory leaks if you play for a long time. Running the game in the safe mode solves these problems.

 

[puppyonastik]

You get one if you fail pick pocket on shopkeepers a specified number of times. Such a reputation then gives you -20 reaction to all shopkeepers and -10 to all guards of the place. There are scripts attached to every shopkeeper for this purpose. Anyway, the reason many of you most likely have never heard of it because people attack you if fail pickpocket, and if you kill a few shopkeepers in a town then the game's already messed up badly, so you have to load an earlier save, logically. Moreover, the specified number of fails is close to a number of all shopkeepers in a town, e.g. you have to fail pickpocket 10 times in Tarant to get the reputation. Thus you have to kill almost all shopkeepers in Tarant. Does it make sense, especially for a weak thief? I don't think so. Anyway, it's possible to change these scripts, so shopkeepers won't attack when you fail pickpocket, and you'll be able to get a thief reputation without slaughtering a whole town. So, should I make shopkeepers not attack a player when he fails pickpocket, in order for this reputation to work without any extra kills? Or was it intended to be so and should not be touched?

I think it might be wise to see what Tim Cain or Leo have to say about this first, other wise leave it for a "controversial fix" or "balance" patch.

 

[Kavax]

I agree with making shopkeepers not attack, after all, in real life, people don't try to kill thieves that don't directly attack them. Maybe make them have a lower reaction, in addition to the thief reputation.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

I think it might be wise to see what Tim Cain or Leo have to say about this first, other wise leave it for a "controversial fix" or "balance" patch.

Yes, of course, it will change the gameplay, so I'll leave it for a controversial fixes patch, I think. Moreover, shopkeepers not reacting to a failed pickpocket at all doesn't look right as well, so I guess, I'll make them give -10 reaction to a player and shout lines like "I'm going to report you", "You'll pay for this!" randomly. Anyway, we'll have enough time to think this over when the project starts. It's actually a good idea to enhance thieving roleplay experience, but it was poorly implemented by Troika. The possibilities are endless.

 

[Faceless]

Thief of "town's name". Because of your repeated attempts to steal from the merchants of "town's name", the merchants and the guards there take a dim view of you and your activities.

You get one if you fail pick pocket on shopkeepers a specified number of times. Such a reputation then gives you -20 reaction to all shopkeepers and -10 to all guards of the place. There are scripts attached to every shopkeeper for this purpose. Anyway, the reason many of you most likely have never heard of it because people attack you if fail pickpocket, and if you kill a few shopkeepers in a town then the game's already messed up badly, so you have to load an earlier save, logically. Moreover, the specified number of fails is close to a number of all shopkeepers in a town, e.g. you have to fail pickpocket 10 times in Tarant to get the reputation. Thus you have to kill almost all shopkeepers in Tarant. Does it make sense, especially for a weak thief? I don't think so. Anyway, it's possible to change these scripts, so shopkeepers won't attack when you fail pickpocket, and you'll be able to get a thief reputation without slaughtering a whole town. So, should I make shopkeepers not attack a player when he fails pickpocket, in order for this reputation to work without any extra kills? Or was it intended to be so and should not be touched?

Is it possible to add a script that counts how many times you've tried and failed to pickpocket a specific shopkeeper? You could then trigger hostility after the player has been caught trying to pickpocket a particular shopkeeper x (3?) number of times.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Is it possible to add a script that counts how many times you've tried and failed to pickpocket a specific shopkeeper? You could then trigger hostility after the player has been caught trying to pickpocket a particular shopkeeper x (3?) number of times.

Yes, it's possible, and it's a good idea as well. Anyway, now that I think more about it, this is indeed a balance tweak, and I won't be changing it in this patch. I'll probably include it in the controversial fixes patch.

Also, I fixed Kerghan's scripts today. The problem was that his KOS script wasn't taking in consideration the diplomacy reputation ("The Most Honored Dialectician in the Known Universe", you get it when you manage to persuade him), only the "Kerghan's Apprentice" reputation, thus he was still hostile to party members (both reputations give a player his faction, so he doesn't attack a player), the script checks if npcs are followers of a player with this reputation, and doesn't go hostile if they are.

 

[Marco]

- There's a Dark Elf in the Pits that casts a shield on himself but never attacks (iirc it's the first one when you enter from the castle side).

- The Gambling Master has like 40 unused points and doesn't know any skills (hence he's not even Gambling Master).

 

[Earth Nuggets]

Also, I fixed Kerghan's scripts today.

[EDIT: Oops, nevermind.]

Anyway, thanks for the Safe Mode tip. After playing Arcanum for a few hours, I often get a blue screen because of a memory leak. I hope this fixes my problem.

Time to play again.

 

[TheHorseman]

While it has been a long while since I've played Arcanum, I must say its great seeing people still willing to fix things to make the game better!

So first off...major props to you Drog...you're a top man!


Just out of curiosity, would there be any way to make the generic (as in no-named) shopkeepers be replaced by another, after a a given amount of time to add a sense of temporal continuity to the game...I mean...at least in a major town like Tarant, wouldn't it be forseeable that a new shop owner would come in after an extended period of time?

As for bugs...there are a few quirks that I think could be tweaked:

- IIRC, with high enouigh charisma, you can "get intimate" with the Widow Minsk...surely something like that would not do wonders for one's reputation, especially in a Victorian-esque period....perhaps a minor rep hit, just for the sake of symbolic and for something humourous to be put into the reputation log, something like : "Sleezebag of....."

- Also, the Orgy in Stillwater: There was an issue where after the Orgy and all those bodies lay around, if you had sufficient fatigue restorers on your and applied them to one ofteh "sleepers", they would get up but have no significant dialogue and stay that way through the game as far as I recall.

- Also....while I can appreciate the fact that some things are junk in the game...like the metal shavings...surely there should be some use for the Charcoal lumps found in the game? At least something that should let you turn them into a diamond....

Anyway....props again for the great work...i'm gonna have to re-install Arcanum and use your patch and have a run it and relive this great game....

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Hey, puppyonastik, I was wondering how your dumb gnome character is doing. Any more bugs?

Also, is anybody else playing a dumb character? We need more testing with dumb characters.

 

[puppyonastik]

I've been meaning to start a new dumb gnome or other dumb character with the most recent version. However, I haven't gotten the time to do so yet, but I'll try to put in an hour or two tonight.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

I've been meaning to start a new dumb gnome or other dumb character with the most recent version. However, I haven't gotten the time to do so yet, but I'll try to put in an hour or two tonight.

Oh, thanks, I appreciate your efforts.

BTW, it seems I need suggestions again. Have you ever wondered why the wall spells (walls of stone, fire and force) don't have any special effects? The object just appears and disappears and that's it. Well, I did. It turns out, there are sfx (both graphics and sound effects) for them in the game, but the developers disabled them. I've no idea why they did so, but perhaps they found the sfx annoying and inappropriate. Anyway, I'd appreciate if you would take a look and tell me if this needs to be included in the patch or not. Here's the file, put it into your Arcanum folder, and after testing you can simply delete it if you don't want the sfx anymore. I also restored a missing dissipating effect for the invisibility spell, so take a look at that as well. Thanks in advance.

 

[Faceless]

It's probably a case of them removing content to ease the load on your system.
If they enabled sprite mirroring, they definitely would not have any compunctions about taking out something like this.

I say put it in.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Strangely enough, the wall spells' sfx are actually used in the demo version, I've just checked it, although there are no sound effects, since most sound files weren't included in the demo version. So they cut it out really late in the development.

Anyway, personally I like these sfx and would include them. But what do other people think? Are they appropriate?

 

[Earth Nuggets]

The wall spells are kind of ugly, but the added effects and sounds don't detract from them at all. I vote to restore as well.

Also, for other's convenience, I made and uploaded a video of my character using the modified spells:
Veoh Link
Direct Download

I hope that'll help us get more votes on this matter.