Unofficial Arcanum Patch (Original Thread)

[OSK]

What about this sentence (from Garret's dialogue)?
"It's in the trunk, over near my bedroom door."
Should it be "It's in the trunk, over there near my bedroom door."?

It's fine the way it is.

 

[Earth Nuggets]

What about this sentence (from Garret's dialogue)?
"It's in the trunk, over near my bedroom door."
Should it be "It's in the trunk, over there near my bedroom door."?

Yeah, it's fine.

Also, I'm in agreement with Donovan on the Half-Elf issue, but do what you feel is best.

 

[Lurkar]

Not sure if this is a bug or what, as I haven't played this game in AGES, but Gar refuses to wear my fucking electro-armor that I made for him. He wore the goddamn plate armor, now wear the modified version. It fits my half orc just fine.

 

[Crichton]

Since Gar uses an orc model, he may be limited in terms of what armor he can equip.

As far as the half-elf models, not only do I think they're fine the way they are, there's certainly no clear evidence of a bug with them, so I say leave them be.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Not sure if this is a bug or what, as I haven't played this game in AGES, but Gar refuses to wear my fucking electro-armor that I made for him. He wore the goddamn plate armor, now wear the modified version. It fits my half orc just fine.

Characters with orcish art can wear only barbarian and classic plate armor, they can't wear tech plate mail. Also, the developers forgot to render the orcish model with a staff (it's the last weapon in the animations list, maybe that's why), so they can't use staffs as well.

 

[Lurkar]

Not sure if this is a bug or what, as I haven't played this game in AGES, but Gar refuses to wear my fucking electro-armor that I made for him. He wore the goddamn plate armor, now wear the modified version. It fits my half orc just fine.

Characters with orcish art can wear only barbarian and classic plate armor, they can't wear tech plate mail. Also, the developers forgot to render the orcish model with a staff (it's the last weapon in the animations list, maybe that's why), so they can't use staffs as well.

Damn. There goes a load of money and my plate mail, then. Thanks for the heads up, though, now I know not to give that slacker any more nice things.

 

[Faceless]

Forgive my poor memory, but what does the Long Pipe look like in the hands of an Orc?

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Forgive my poor memory, but what does the Long Pipe look like in the hands of an Orc?

The Long Pipe, as any other mace type weapon, doesn't have its own art and looks like a hammer. On everybody.

 

[carlstar]

harping back the the "mum" thing. In some parts of china it is used to call people mum and little mum (chinese equivalent) but im thinking that being it is deigned by americans they probably just thought everyone in the world uses mom and that mum must be ma'am.
Is it really an issue. maybe it is just how people talk in this world anyway.

Drog Black Tooth wrote:
What about this sentence (from Garret's dialogue)?
"It's in the trunk, over near my bedroom door."
Should it be "It's in the trunk, over there near my bedroom door."?

He could be pointing. The english doesnt need to be proper for a half orc. they are barabarian types, maybe everything should be changed to "Me bash and smash"

 

[Lurkar]

Hmmm. I know it's most likely hardwired into the game, but it's a bit unsettling that Gar's skin changes color entirely whenever he equips a different type of armor.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Hmmm. I know it's most likely hardwired into the game, but it's a bit unsettling that Gar's skin changes color entirely whenever he equips a different type of armor.

That's one of the things I wanted to change for quite some time.

It's actually really easy to do, since Arcanum's .art file format is based off 8 bit bmp format, and it uses exactly the same palettes. .art format supports up to 4 palettes for each animation. I tried making my own palettes, but it's hard to do, since you can't use RGB (8 bit palette will be lost, and a new one won't fit all other frames), so you have some limitations.

Here's how orcs look now:

And here's how humans look in the same armor:

First palette (with green skin) shouldn't be changed, but 3 others should reflect armor's color, not change skin's color.

If somebody experienced enough in 8 bit palettes is up to the job (or if some hero has enough patience to edit 256 color palettes by hand), I'll upload the 8 bit bitmaps.

 

[Faceless]

I'll have a go, but I make no guarantees.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Well, I might as well upload the files.

I extracted the first frames of the standing animation, frames with different palettes are saved to separate files. You may first toy with the files by extracting the palette from one frame and applying it to another, to see how it matches.

Basically, I want these things. The barbarian armor model should be based on the first palette, but 3 other palettes should have differently colored arm covers and shoulder guards. Red, yellow and dark gray, of course. The plate armor model should have the metal part colored like the actual armor color and the belt thing like that extra color in human models. E.g. the palette #3 should have golden metal and a purple belt.

After editing a specific image be sure to extract its palette and try applying it to other frames.

One more thing. The first color in a palette is used for transparency.

 

[Faceless]

Could you also upload the front versions only of the human sprites wearing barbarian armour?

 

[Sodomy]

I don't know if this one is intentional or not, but your followers yell at you if you attack the (real) Stillwater Giant while he's still in his blue bunny form. They stop caring once he's transformed into the Giant form.

I can see this one being intentional- after all, what kind of sadist attacks an innocent bunny? However, at this point, it's obvious to the player (and the PC) that it's the Stillwater Giant, and you even get a fate point for doing it.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Could you also upload the front versions only of the human sprites wearing barbarian armour?

Here are all the same frames, but with humans.

I don't know if this one is intentional or not, but your followers yell at you if you attack the (real) Stillwater Giant while he's still in his blue bunny form. They stop caring once he's transformed into the Giant form.

I can see this one being intentional- after all, what kind of sadist attacks an innocent bunny? However, at this point, it's obvious to the player (and the PC) that it's the Stillwater Giant, and you even get a fate point for doing it.

The Stillwater Giant is actually a good creature, the game lore doesn't portray him as a violent monster, he's more of a mascot of the town. And yet you plan on killing and skinning him? And yes, the game gives you fate points for any important deeds, be they good or bad. E.g. you get a fate point for killing Gilbert Bates, or for slaughtering every citizen in Stillwater.

The real blue bunny is set to +10 alignment, while the giant form is neutral (0 alignment).

 

[MaskedMan]

Hey Drog, awesome patch! I'm playing as Clarisse Vorak, one of the predefined characters, and I think I might have some bugs for you:

- If you look at her background in the journal the formatting is slightly off; right after the part about how she was kicked out of her housing on "social grounds" you see the \n line-breaker. I checked out the other premade characters and they seem okay.

- There is a typo in the book "The Pagan Gods of Arcanum" by professor Buxington, describing Kai'tan "Kai'tan is a trickster...forever playoing tricks" should be "playing", Buxington doesn't strike me as a typo guy.

- When you first meet Magnus he shows you his bracelet, and when you examine it closer you get the option to ask: "Symbols? Those could pass for a childs random scratchings..." Magnus replies, in voice over: "Scratchings? Are you blind?", and in text: "Handled roughly? Are you blind?" - I know there are some some small differences between the VO and the text of characters in this game, but this doesn't really make sense. Also, my web spell-check tells me that "childs scratchings" should be "child's scratchings", I'm not too sure about that...

- Further into the conversation you talk about P. Schuyler and Sons, and how strange they are, and that no one has seen them for fifteen years, and you get the option to ask him "What else is said about them?" His reply, in voice over :"Have you heard about the eyeless five..." and how someone who bought jewelry from the shop were killed, in text: "People swear they hear strange noises...". From context it seems like the VO is correct; you get the option to ask Magnus why they would kill their own customers, and if you ask "What else have you heard about them" he replies almost exactly his previous text-reply, only this time with matching VO & text. (Am I the only one experiencing this? you'd think someone would have spotted it already. I have a save here)

- In the Garringsburg painting quest, I accepted it, questioned the lady, then went to the gentlemen's club, questioned the doorman, got the visitation list, and asked him where I could find "Rorry Limes". Instead of going to the hall of records I completed the madam Tossaud quest to get the location, stole the painting, and went to the hall of records afterwards. When trying to deliver the painting to Mrs Garringsburg she acts like I have never talked to her before, which I am pretty sure I did, otherwise the quest wouldn't be confirmed in my journal, and I wouldn't be able to follow the "Rorry Limes" line of inquiry.
I have a save of this too.

- When the left of the double doors of the gentlemen's club is open you can see two distinct red dots, I'd give you a screen, but they don't seem to show up on jpegs. I'm not sure what could be done about this though.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

- If you look at her background in the journal the formatting is slightly off; right after the part about how she was kicked out of her housing on "social grounds" you see the \n line-breaker. I checked out the other premade characters and they seem okay.

- There is a typo in the book "The Pagan Gods of Arcanum" by professor Buxington, describing Kai'tan "Kai'tan is a trickster...forever playoing tricks" should be "playing", Buxington doesn't strike me as a typo guy.

Easily fixed, thanks for reporting!

- In the Garringsburg painting quest, I accepted it, questioned the lady, then went to the gentlemen's club, questioned the doorman, got the visitation list, and asked him where I could find "Rorry Limes". Instead of going to the hall of records I completed the madam Tossaud quest to get the location, stole the painting, and went to the hall of records afterwards. When trying to deliver the painting to Mrs Garringsburg she acts like I have never talked to her before, which I am pretty sure I did, otherwise the quest wouldn't be confirmed in my journal, and I wouldn't be able to follow the "Rorry Limes" line of inquiry.
I have a save of this too.

This one is interesting. Mrs. Garringsburg acts like this only if you haven't introduced yourself to her before but possess the painting. It's surprising that you got the quest from her.

There was such a possibility in the unpatched version though. If she responded to you with a low reaction the first time you met her, there was a bug (one line was missing a local flag check) that let you skip the introduction part and get the quest right away. I assume with a half orc character it could go this way. Although, this was fixed in the official patch and it's impossible to encounter this bug anymore.

 

[MaskedMan]

was such a possibility in the unpatched version though.

I'm pretty sure I'm playing the patched version, I remember patching it, and I have the "PatchReadme.txt" in the arcanum folder with the changelog for version 1.0.7.4.
I probably goofed up and forgot to talk to her...

Are the Magnus bugs I reported fixed in the official patches too? Maybe there is something wrong with my install.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

was such a possibility in the unpatched version though.

I'm pretty sure I'm playing the patched version, I remember patching it, and I have the "PatchReadme.txt" in the arcanum folder with the changelog for version 1.0.7.4.
I probably goofed up and forgot to talk to her...

Are the Magnus bugs I reported fixed in the official patches too? Maybe there is something wrong with my install.

Magnus's VO and text match exactly in the male responses, although the female ones are indeed wrong. There's no typo in "child's scratchings" though.

 

[Grump]

If you get thrown into the Dernholm pits as a good character. You can still act like K'an Hua or whatever his name is sent you when you talk to Tollo Underhill.

 

[Icarian]

Hi,

I have a possibly bug. You cannot ask about Void from Franklin Payne. According to dialog file, you should be able to ask. Is this a bug?

 

[theorel]

Hi, there's a bug in Theodore's dialog. File:01033TheodoreMineQuest, line 270, the response 281 takes you into a loop. I think it should link to 130 (since it comes of him being frightened of you.)
Mage Staff gives 50 mana, not in description.
There are some missing voice-overs in Gilbert Bates' dialogue, I think because other sounds interfere(example when you complete the black mountain mines quest).
That's all I can think of at the moment I'm sure I've hit some others, but I can't think of them now.

 

[theorel]

typo in teach's dialog, line 197, of should be off.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

I have a possibly bug. You cannot ask about Void from Franklin Payne. According to dialog file, you should be able to ask. Is this a bug?

You can say that line only if the story state is #21. that is "Having been banished to the Void, you need to discover exactly what is going on.". You can get this story state only by killing Nasrudin/K'an Hua.

there's a bug in Theodore's dialog. File:01033TheodoreMineQuest, line 270, the response 281 takes you into a loop. I think it should link to 130 (since it comes of him being frightened of you.)

Yes, there are several broken lines in that dialogue, I need to test it all properly.

There are some missing voice-overs in Gilbert Bates' dialogue, I think because other sounds interfere(example when you complete the black mountain mines quest).

Line 510 doesn't play the VO (#50), although the file is there. I'm not exactly sure what causes that.