Unofficial Arcanum Patch (Original Thread)

[Zyrxil]

Can somebody check if Zan Alurin talks with Loghaire in the game? There are files and sound clips for it, but it's been so long as I last played with her in my party, I just don't remember.

What are the conditions? To be evil to make her join you, what else? When the dialog triggers?

It seems, they should have a conversation when you return from T'sen-Ang with the news and telll about it to Loghaire (he must be persuaded to return to the throne as well). Loghaire even asks Magnus' opinion on Zan Alurin if he's in a party as well.

<several days late> Zan being the Dark Elf? She has an excellent conversation with the dwarf king, giving him a verbal beat-down, pointing out he's a racist coward, etc. One of the best dialogues in the game.

 

[Kavax]

Hey Drog, when you release the new version, will savegames from the current version work?

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

I've undatted your files and taken a look, and it looks like you're doing what I hoped. I'm going to spend some time doing extensive testing, but I have a few comments:

<questions>

1. Smart people use compare function in a hex editor or some other program. Developers didn't comment most files as well.
2. It's limiting, directly editing mobile objects allows for much more freedom. And some times, patching on fly doesn't even work. It surely doesn't work for fixing automatons for example. Anyway, editing mobile objects directly is *THE* proper way to do it.
3. Well, not really, I make some cheats on occasion. For example, I often change teleport scripts, e.g. entering the cave at the crash site transports you to Caladon. Or change Dog's dialogue, so he makes me a master of persuasion or sets certain global flags.
4. Schreck's Multi-Barreled pistol didn't make it as well. I won't be implementing these.

Wait wait wait. Zhirzzh, you just reminded me that I heard a lot of talk about beta being quickly pirated in my country. This can be it. All I need is to find those rare cd's.

Drog, how can I recognize beta-version?

The beta test version was basically the same as demo, but included Tarant as well.

I just realized you must have found beta already since you included some portraits from it. Care to upload somewhere?

The demo version is based on the beta. It contains lots of stuff that's not in the final. The set of portraits in the demo is a bit different. E.g. my userpic is the original portrait for Chukka, it was included in the demo.

Hey Drog, when you release the new version, will savegames from the current version work?

Yes, they will.There's an exception though, Magick Beans won't work if you have already visited Caladon on your current save.

There's an infinite money loop in the dialog with H.T. Parnell in Tarant when you sell him the real pelt of the Stillwater monster.

Hmm, didn't find this bug. Can somebody reproduce it?

 

[Ander Vinz]

There's an infinite money loop in the dialog with H.T. Parnell in Tarant when you sell him the real pelt of the Stillwater monster.

Hmm, didn't find this bug. Can somebody reproduce it?

I tried but since I'm playing an elf I talked Myrth into showing me the way to Quintarra and now I can't take Stillwater Giand pelt quest from him. Is it supposed to be this way?

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

There's an infinite money loop in the dialog with H.T. Parnell in Tarant when you sell him the real pelt of the Stillwater monster.

Hmm, didn't find this bug. Can somebody reproduce it?

I tried but since I'm playing an elf I talked Myrth into showing me the way to Quintarra and now I can't take Stillwater Giand pelt quest from him. Is it supposed to be this way?

It seems so. Well, he gives you the pelt quest mostly for mocking you, so yeah.

And high persuasion and charisma may be the problem as well, he might not give you the quest in this case. I'll have to check the dialogue.

 

[Ander Vinz]

I tried but since I'm playing an elf I talked Myrth into showing me the way to Quintarra and now I can't take Stillwater Giand pelt quest from him. Is it supposed to be this way?

It seems so. Well, he gives you the pelt quest mostly for mocking you, so yeah.

And high persuasion and charisma may be the problem as well, he might not give you the quest in this case. I'll have to check the dialogue.

Well then I'll check the money bug a bit later as I'm just arrived at Tarant with my dwarven techi.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

I tried but since I'm playing an elf I talked Myrth into showing me the way to Quintarra and now I can't take Stillwater Giand pelt quest from him. Is it supposed to be this way?

It seems so. Well, he gives you the pelt quest mostly for mocking you, so yeah.

And high persuasion and charisma may be the problem as well, he might not give you the quest in this case. I'll have to check the dialogue.

Well then I'll check the money bug a bit later as I'm just arrived at Tarant with my dwarven techi.

Don't bother, I've already checked it. There WAS a money loop, that is if you pickpocket the pelt back, you get an option to sell it again. I added an extra local flag check to prevent this. Fixed.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

OK, here we go, time for a new version. This version will include:
-Revolver Parts now have proper art.
-Small Robe of the Chameleon now has proper art.
-Tarant Sewers now use a correct music track.
-Geoffrey and Perriman dialogues and scripts are fixed, now you can have them both in your group if you're a master of persuasion and have charisma of 20.
-Fixed Simeon Tor's dialogue, now he properly recognizes Perriman and Geoffrey.
-Maxim will now recognize parts for a Mechanized Gun and build one for you.
-Fixed description on a Wise Woman in Caladon (no longer says "Halfling Villager").
-Fixed Nicholas the Bartender at Madam Lil's. He was using a generic bartender dialogue, while he had a proper one. His dialogue is rather funny, he gives you free drinks when you pay for a girl, and when you get drunk enough you get an option to sexually harass him, his comments are priceless (and random!).
-Magick Beans are now fixed.
-You will no longer be able to pick up hostile automatons and make them your followers.
-You can no longer sell the real Stillwater Giant's pelt to H.T. Parnell more than once.

I thoroughly tested all my fixes and I'm satisfied with them. Also, this version finally fixes almost all major bugs in Arcanum I've heard of. So, from now on the project gains a "stable" status, it's no longer WIP. Now you may finally enjoy Arcanum in all its glory. My work is almost done, I have a few bugs on my pending list (the major ones being extra endings and Loghaire-Bates dialogue). If people won't report anything else, then the patch is almost finished. I recommend you play the game now, with this version, as the next one most likely won't be released soon.

Grab the update in the first post, now with a fancy installer!

 

[Ander Vinz]

If you have one of my previous saves check how Magnus disbands and rejoins. There's a bug there, as I wrote.
There's also a glich in new Nicholas dialoge: he gives you one drink and says you should buy a girl and whatever you do he keeps repeating the line.

 

[rroyo]

The original Nasrudin fix was for the addition of a forgotten movie clip - does your fix include that as well?

Before I forget, I've begun adding your fixes into my hack.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

The original Nasrudin fix was for the addition of a forgotten movie clip - does your fix include that as well?

My fix adds a lost/forgotten line (the one prior to the movie clip) and fixes dummy response when Virgil/Raven interrupts the dialogue. There's no forgotten movie clips in Arcanum though.

Before I forget, I've begun adding your fixes into my hack.

OK, but give me the credit and most certainly don't claim them as your own.

 

[rroyo]

The original Nasrudin fix was for the addition of a forgotten movie clip - does your fix include that as well?

My fix adds a lost/forgotten line (the one prior to the movie clip) and fixes dummy response when Virgil/Raven interrupts the dialogue. There's no forgotten movie clips in Arcanum though.

The Arcanum Late Game Dialog Fix

http://www.terra-arcanum.com/downloads/arcanum/doa/Arcanum_Late-Game_Dialogue_Fix.ZIP

One of the movie clips in Nasrudin's speech got bypassed. This hack restores it and I was wondering if yours did as well.

Before I forget, I've begun adding your fixes into my hack.

OK, but give me the credit and most certainly don't claim them as your own.

Agreed.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

The original Nasrudin fix was for the addition of a forgotten movie clip - does your fix include that as well?

My fix adds a lost/forgotten line (the one prior to the movie clip) and fixes dummy response when Virgil/Raven interrupts the dialogue. There's no forgotten movie clips in Arcanum though.

The Arcanum Late Game Dialog Fix

http://www.terra-arcanum.com/downloads/arcanum/doa/Arcanum_Late-Game_Dialogue_Fix.ZIP

One of the movie clips in Nasrudin's speech got bypassed. This hack restores it and I was wondering if yours did as well.

Maybe you could check the readme file before posting? My fix does the same and more.

Also, use some program to compare files. No need to ask me what the files do if you can perfectly check that yourself.

 

[Dementia Praecox]

I like your style Drog. :D

I'm wondering if you'd consider to make a mod for Arcanum too? Like in the sense of the fan patch for JA2, with a dash of KoTOR-restoration project in it. Where you'd rework balance adding/removing stuff as you seem fit (I'm beginning to have some serious faith in your judgement). Essentially everything you've refused to put in the patch. I've seen your race mod, but I'm thinking in a grander scale, like _the_ definitive Arcanum mod. Stuff I can imagine/wish for in such a mod would be making the realtime component in combat optional, reworking combat damage/balance, rebalancing character progress so that you don't become a demigod at level 30-40, restoring cut stuff and of course adding full nudity graphics/portraits and implementing explicit bestiality.

It's a huge undertaking, though I imagine this is pretty much in the scale of a team effort, but I also imagine you as an awesome team lead, Drog. And once again, let me add praise to the heap: thanks a bunch for the patch!

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

Also, this version finally fixes almost all major bugs in Arcanum I've heard of.

What about this?

There is a bug I want to report, Drog: sometimes Kerghan attacks your party even if you talk him out of his plan.

Another poster mentioned this bug a while ago as well, so it's definitely reproducable.

 

[Ander Vinz]

Wrong descriptions for paperboy near Geoffrey's Gears and Gadgetry in Tarant and train ticket agent in Ashbury.

I hope you will continue working on this patch, Drog, since there are more minor bugs that can be easily corrected with your amazing skills.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

There is a bug I want to report, Drog: sometimes Kerghan attacks your party even if you talk him out of his plan.

Another poster mentioned this bug a while ago as well, so it's definitely reproducable.

Yes, I remember that, and I know how to fix it. There's also another problem with Kerghan, the Lord's Slaves that they added to the battle in 1.0.7.4. patch attack everybody, including Kerghan himself. I still consider these minor bugs, I'll fix them a bit later.

Wrong descriptions for paperboy near Geoffrey's Gears and Gadgetry in Tarant and train ticket agent in Ashbury.

I'll fix these, thanks (and actually all paperboys in Tarant seem to have the same problem).

 

[Krancor]

Bugfixes are nice, but without a rebalance of the tech trees I really can't imagine bothering with another run through, though this would have been nice to have 5 years ago.

Maybe a rebalance that's separate from the restoration?

I played with some of the mods that were available before, but they were just awful.

Hopefully future developers will take note - release halfassed, buggy, incomplete games and you'll go out of business. No matter how good they otherwise are.

 

[DoppelG]

Wow, thats amesome. Always wanted to replay Arcanum again, and now is the perfect time. Thanks.

 

[Quilty]

I'm just gonna go ahead and thank you once again for your efforts, Drog, I haven't been this excited about replaying Arcanum for quite a while.

 

[crakkie]

All I found so far was a little piddling one:
Lianna in Dernholm: if she refuses to train you and you say "Let me ask you something else", the dialog ends.

Just in general, a lot of the merchant's dialogs are disorganized and inconsistent. The options for barter, train, and 'do you know anything about CURRENT_MAIN_QUEST_ITEM' are all over the place and switch around a lot when talking to someone. I've seen a [more] dialog option in the middle of a list of other dialog options that just shows a single additional option (they could have all just listed them all in one pass, and regardless, [more] should always be at the bottom of the choices, if it even needs to be there). I don't have any specific examples right now, but if you want one I might be able to find one tonight.

I'm guessing these kind of annoyances could be re-organized without changing any content, but I'm sure it would be a lot of tedious work. It's something to consider if you're looking for more problems to fix.

And thanks again for doing this!

Also, I just want to reiterate my desire for a sister patch that handles balancing issues in a sane and not-too-controversial way. From someone. At some point.

 

[team a]

I've seen a [more] dialog option in the middle of a list of other dialog options

This is generally because there are other options available that your character can't choose, but the dialog isn't organized to know in advance how many pages are needed in displaying the options you can actually use. Examples are the blacksmith in Black Root (Garret Almstead, I think) and the Tarant Hall of Records Clerk.

I made a script in the mod I'm making to organize dialogs so the game will know your actual options, but this isn't an issue of just moving and renaming a line or two. Maybe this is something that can be fixed once more of the little stuff has been worked out.

 

[Claw]

And yes, I'm not going to redo the balance.

Are you not going to redo the balance as part of this patch or aren't you interested in the idea in principle?

 

[Dementia Praecox]

Third time's the charm.

 

[callehe]

It's impressive what you have done Drog, thanks a lot!


Have you considered making a fix for Prelude to Darkness?