Unofficial Arcanum Patch (Original Thread)

[Ander Vinz]

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


Have you considered making a fix for Prelude to Darkness?

I haven't read anything as funny on codex for more than half a year.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

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?

Considering this patch I don't want to add anything custom. Troika made it this way - let it be. I'm just fixing bugs.

Besides, I don't think that proper rebalancing is possible. There are too many engine issues. For example, backstab skill is overpowered. Normally, it just adds bonus damage to a hit, but if you backstab an unaware creature, then all creature's armor and resistances get completely ignored, you hit its HPs directly in this case. And you can spend just 2 cps on the Stun Spell. Stunned creatures are considered unaware as well as when you attack while prowling. My character had full melee and dodge skills (with apprentice training) and full backstab skill with no training, and I was using an arcane dagger (max 18 dmg, even with 20 strength). I went to Stringy Pete, stunned him and backstabbed him in 18 hits, he didn't even recover from stun (it always takes two turns). He had 300HPs and 82% DR, as you can see his resistances were completely ignored. Stun spell works on all creatures except mechanical ones, and what's more if you get an expert training in backstab, it allows you to backstab with swords and axes, you can imagine damage to an unaware creature. A master of prowling can conceal oneself even during combat and backstab ignoring resistances too, but you get the training a bit late in the game.

 

[Ander Vinz]

Weight of Reanimator and Restore life is 300 stone when should be 20.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Weight of Reanimator and Restore life is 300 stone when should be 20.

Why it should be so? I always thought the weight was a penalty.

 

[Ander Vinz]

Weight of Reanimator and Restore life is 300 stone when should be 20.

Why it should be so? I always thought the weight was a penalty.

Penalty for what? It's a potion but weights as ten bricks of pure ore.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Weight of Reanimator and Restore life is 300 stone when should be 20.

Why it should be so? I always thought the weight was a penalty.

Penalty for what? It's a potion but weights as ten bricks of pure ore.

Well, it's a pretty powerful potion, and the weight penalty restricts a player from stocking it.

I'm not sure on this one though. Any other opinions?

 

[Shambelle]

Awesome work! Keep up the good work...

Well, I always thought that it was some device (ala Frankenstein) and not a potion.

Oh, and some more bugs:

-Throwing dagger is not working correctly (considered melee weapon, not throwing and don't use AP in turn-based).
-Grenades and Molotov don't use AP when in turn-based.
-The filament Sword is missing its critical penality.
-Flesh to Stone never fails ?(I'm not sure of this one, perhaps the same problem as Desintegrate)

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

OK, I spent a few hours scripting today. You see, for whatever reason Troika decided that monsters should have only melee skill. But there are bowman monsters as well! Also, the prototype system (used to generate standard objects) doesn't allow for any skills (only stats and spells, and monsters get melee skills automatically because of their monster flag). So, npcs in random encounters (Molochean Hand, Orcs and Bate's Bounty Hunters) didn't have any skills at all (because random encounters are always standard creatures), so they had a really small chance to hit you (<25%). Since, this is the engine limitation, there was no solution to this. But I fixed it with smart scripting that does essentially the same thing as monster's auto-melee skill, but now for bow, dodge and firearms!

Anyway, from now on, Kite Bowmans, Tattered Bowmans and Incectress Hunters will be automatically getting bow skill based on their dexterity level. Molochean Hand assassins and Orc Bandits will be getting both melee and dodge skills based on their dexterity level. And Bate's bounty hunters will be getting melee, dodge, bow and firearms skills based on their perception and dexterity levels. Now you'll see Dwarven Bounty Hunter actually shooting you and not his foot with his fancy Clarington rifle!

P.S. This change will be included in a separate file. If for whatever reason you don't like it, you will be able to get rid of it easily.

 

[callehe]

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


Have you considered making a fix for Prelude to Darkness?

I haven't read anything as funny on codex for more than half a year.

Despite all the bugs, I didn't know it was so buggy that it would be considered a joke to even suggest a patch.


But hey, glad you like it! :D

 

[afewhours]

Just out of interest, how does the game calculate the Dog's damage? I've always wondered that, seeing as it does damage above and beyond that of other NPCs with the same stats.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Just out of interest, how does the game calculate the Dog's damage? I've always wondered that, seeing as it does damage above and beyond that of other NPCs with the same stats.

It hits 30-40 +ST modifier, thus making 50-60 damage when it gets ST20.

 

[afewhours]

It hits 30-40 +ST modifier, thus making 50-60 damage when it gets ST20.

Wow. Thanks for digging that out, chief... and Stringy Pete has 300hp? So that means 5-6 whacks to nail the fucker. The Dog is not to be messed with.

Good luck with the patch. Arcanum's probably my favourite RPG from its era, so it's always good to see it get some love.

EDIT: wanton illiteracy.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

I remember Arcanum. I wrote a thing for that once.

 

[afewhours]

I remember Arcanum. I wrote a thing for that once.

What? Fanfiction? Which two characters did it involve?

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

It hits 30-40 +ST modifier, thus making 50-60 damage when it gets ST20.

Wow. Thanks for digging that out, chief... and Stringy Pete has 300hp? So that means 5-6 whacks to nail the fucker. The Dog is not to be messed with.

Actually, no. Stringy Pete has 82% damage resistance, so the Dog would hit him 10 points max.

 

[afewhours]

Actually, no. Stringy Pete has 82% damage resistance, so the Dog would hit him 10 points max.

Ack. Fair enough. I guess Arcanum's one of those games where I never gave huge thought to the combat mechanics. I'd normally just bolster Charimsa and let my party do the dirty work.

 

[DoppelG]

Off-topic: Planescape ever fixed in ways?
Reason that i ask is that Planescape seems to be really solid in the things that would be hard to fix anyways (you know the drill, story/choices&consequences/etc,....) and might be "easely" (relatively ofcourse, wouldn't know anyways, lack any skill in fixing games) "bettered" in areas that weren't that great, like certain parts of combat (although, don't ask me specifically, been awhile since playing PT)?
Just a thought.

 

[damaged_drone]

I downloaded this and ran the installer but the changes didnt seem to take effect? I'm pretty certain I didnt have any mods installed. Am I supposed to delete anything or move something or what?

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

I downloaded this and ran the installer but the changes didnt seem to take effect? I'm pretty certain I didnt have any mods installed. Am I supposed to delete anything or move something or what?

Did you choose a correct folder? Also, try running CleanCache.bat again. It's included with my patch and should be in your Arcanum folder.

 

[Ander Vinz]

Small Dread Armour and Dread Armour as well as Bronze Barbarians Clothes and Small Bronze Barbarians Clothes are indistinguishable in inventory.
There seems to be total clutter with barbaric armor.

Water near Bates' gates is walkable.

 

[damaged_drone]

I downloaded this and ran the installer but the changes didnt seem to take effect? I'm pretty certain I didnt have any mods installed. Am I supposed to delete anything or move something or what?

Did you choose a correct folder? Also, try running CleanCache.bat again. It's included with my patch and should be in your Arcanum folder.

Correct folder being c/sierra/arcanum?

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

I downloaded this and ran the installer but the changes didnt seem to take effect? I'm pretty certain I didnt have any mods installed. Am I supposed to delete anything or move something or what?

Did you choose a correct folder? Also, try running CleanCache.bat again. It's included with my patch and should be in your Arcanum folder.

Correct folder being c/sierra/arcanum?

I've no idea where you have your game installed, but C:\Sierra\Arcanum is a default one.

Small Dread Armour and Dread Armour as well as Bronze Barbarians Clothes and Small Bronze Barbarians Clothes are indistinguishable in inventory.
There seems to be total clutter with barbaric armor.

There's no inventory art for small barbarian armor. And considering names, I'll rename Bronze Armor to Red Armor, Dark to Bronze, and Red to just Barbarian Clothes.

Water near Bates' gates is walkable.

This is hilarious. Other parts of the canal are walkable as well. The one in front of Vermillion station is especially amusing.

 

[Ander Vinz]

There's no inventory art for small barbarian armor. And considering names, I'll rename Bronze Armor to Red Armor, Dark to Bronze, and Red to just Barbarian Clothes.

As you wish.

This is hilarious. Other parts of the canal are walkable as well. The one in front of Vermillion station is especially amusing.

Right.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

There's no inventory art for small barbarian armor. And considering names, I'll rename Bronze Armor to Red Armor, Dark to Bronze, and Red to just Barbarian Clothes.

As you wish.

Originally there were supposed to be Barbarian Clothes, Red Barbarian Clothes, Bronze Barbarian Clothes and Dark Barbarian Clothes. The internal names used for barbarian armor graphics suggest this. But Dread Armor uses dark barbarian armor graphics, so there's no point in Dark Barbarian Clothes now. I think, since barbarian armor is rarely used in the game, they somehow mixed up the names.

 

[Grump]

Maybe if you post the list on other forums like Terra Arcanum they can mention other bugs...

Oh yeah...not sure if this is fixable but rarely the game will be stuck permanently on the enemy's turn in combat. Not sure what causes it though...