Unofficial Arcanum Patch (Original Thread)

[Circuitous]

So you could use Nasrudin in the Shrine text (thus explaining Virgil's dialog) but leave the Archaeon unchanged - the book would have no logical reason to repeat His name, but the Shrine would probably do so just for clarity's sake..

That doesn't make sense, since it's pretty obvious that the shrine uses a quote from Archaeon. Also, Archaeon seems to be using an earlier variant of the said quote, that perhaps contains a logical mistake: "His spirit shall be reborn on wings of fire in hills shrouded in fog, and there he shall fight the final battle with the evil one." Why would the Living One fight the final battle with the evil one at the crash site?

Well, a quote taken out of its context may sometimes be edited for the sake of clarity, but with there already being other errors, maybe you've got it right to go ahead and edit them all. What's the full entry in the Archaeon look like, without editing? I'm still not sure it makes sense for Nasrudin's name to be mentioned at that point.

You know what would probably be the easiest way to go? Just assume Nasrudin is written somewhere on the shrine, maybe above all the other text. Like:

Nasrudin

"And he shall be reborn on wings of fire, in hills shrouded in fog, blah blah blah"

and Virgil just takes the liberty of filling in the gap.

As such, all that would be changed would be the Shrine's description (like "the shrine has the name 'Nasrudin' printed in large text at the top, and ..."), and the one error in the Archaeon.

I dunno, this seems like a lot of thought put into a not-that-important error now. Whatever you think works best, I'm in favor of.

 

[Kogorn]

I'm in favor of putting Nasrudin's name on the shrine, makes the greatest amount of sense to me and makes things more consistent.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

What's the full entry in the Archaeon look like, without editing? I'm still not sure it makes sense for Nasrudin's name to be mentioned at that point.

Yes, that's the problem. Here's the full entry, perhaps somebody will come up with a better solution.

<snip>
So came Arronax, who wanted the world for himself, and all of its races as his slaves. And he brought war against Nasrudin and the Council.

And they faced Arronax at the Black Spire, and there was a clashing of armies and much life was lost. And there was a great battle between Arronax and Nasrudin, a battle to end all battles.

And great Nasrudin banished Arronax to the Void, and saved the world from darkness and pain.

But so great was this battle, that Nasrudin himself was mortally wounded. And so great Nasrudin traveled to the southernmost tip of the land, and there laid himself to rest.

But he watches over us still, awaiting the time when the evil shall return. And he shall come again, and he shall be strange to us, and some will not know his face. And His spirit shall be reborn on wings of fire in hills shrouded in fog, and there he shall fight the final battle with the evil one.

May your spirit walk always in the peace of Nasrudin.

 

[Whispering Darkness]

As an imbecile there seems to be no VO for Bates once you return from the BMC and tell him what you found. Line 841 I believe.

EDIT: Damnit! Right after I posted this, I loaded my game and it VOed the line I said had no VO... <maybe doesn't VO all the time?>

On another note... Noticed that sometimes when you are wearing tech items and do not have high tech aptitude, it shows % of critical failure. I would put something on and it would show 1% or 4% and when I take it off and re-equip it, it'll show 0%. From things like the Power Axe and the War Gauntlets.

As an imbecile <again> there seems to be broken or looping dialog with Whysper in Qintarra. Lines: 8, 88, 42, 88, 42, etc... The responses to the dialog do not make much sense.

EDIT: It seems as an imbecile when you speak with Alexander concerning finding Nasruidin... What Alexander says to you seems to point to the fact that you are welcome to look at the bones and the guards will let you through. Yet when you talk to the guards, no such luck.

As an imbecile, after talking with M'in Gorad, killing her/taking the good path, Virgil doesn't seem to leave the group. I do not know if this is intentional or not though. As well when talking with the first blade of the Hand, nothing is said about Vollinger staying with you. Is this because the first blade [forget his name] of the Hand does not believe you so maybe that why nothing is said of Vollinger? It seems you never become a "Friend of the Molochean Hand".

EDIT: Yes, yes, I'd rather edit one thing several times than post them individually. Anyway... You can open Mannox's chamber [that has his sword and journal] without being told the secret word. Being an imbecile you are not told much of anything. Even after talking about the picture written in blood. You are told "opposite" but not the word. Was this intentional?

EDIT: Minor typo me thinks. When Doctor Edmund Craig teaches you Master Backstab, there are [ ] missing where he is talking and doing an action. I don't have the line number but it is where he goes on to show you autonomy and such.

EDIT: Correct me if I am wrong but someone takes Mannox's journal from you, yes? Maybe Alexander or someone else when you complete the quest? Anyway, I still have it and no one took it.

Talking to Bates and when he tells you "I'll pay you this coin if you leave and never come back" should be in all caps. It is very caps-worthy according to the actual VO.

PS: No more editing this post.

 

[Whispering Darkness]

Pardon my postings-

A few things I have noticed... Blackroot Mayor. While playing as an imbecile there seems to be no real method of getting the taxes from him. No quest or anything. You can tell him "i take taxis" but all that does is close dialog and his reaction lowers, no immediate combat or more dialog. Not sure if this is a bug or not.

Franklin Payne... When you first meet him some minor VOs without the proper text. Nothing major but happens several times with him. I could link all the lines but it is several. Not a big deal though. An odd thing though, when you ask him to tell you stories as an imbecile, you of course don't choose the story, you just ask for 'a' story and he spouts it out. The odd part is when he goes on about knowing Captain Teach and the Gypsy Shadow, your only response to that exits dialog.

EDIT: When speaking with Captain Wheeler while afflicted with mental retardation... He gives you two options of defusing the orc uprising. Kill him or offer to convince him to give up. When you get to Throgg your only option when talking to him is "byebye" and exits dialog.

 

[Vortexx]

I am not sure if this is a bug or not...I am playing as an evil mage, and I took the quest from Min 'Gorad to kill all the inhabitants of Stillwater. But after I have killed everyone the quest is not marked as complete and I am told not to come back until everyone is dead...I noticed that after I released Cyrus the wizard, he never went back to his house...could he be the missing person that I need to kill?

 

[Koshachiy Barin]

When you ask Virgil about the crash site, he says: "Shrouded Hills, a small village, is just a ways down to the mountain..." - shouldn't it be "a ways down the mountain"? Seems to match the context, and the voiceover too... Nevertheless, I'm not a native English speaker, so I may be mistaken.

Also, there is a minor bug in Dante's dialogue. If you choose a line #4 ("I need healing"), then change your mind ("never mind" or whatever), then a line #303, you get the answer to a line #302 instead of exiting the conversation.

Also, when you speak with Z'an Al'urin, she will eventually call you by name, even if you didn't ever tell it to her. I don't really believe that it's a bug, more like demonstration of her deep insight into things, but still, just in case...

 

[Kavax]

Raven's age is also wrong. Her character sheet says she's 1000 years old, but in dialog she says she was 150 when Flenwick went to Quintarra. (According to the book, that was in the 1760's, I don't recall the exact year) so Raven should be somewhere around 275 years old in 1885. (I'll try to look up the book where it says the exact year of Flenwick's journey)

 

[Circuitous]

When you ask Virgil about the crash site, he says: "Shrouded Hills, a small village, is just a ways down to the mountain..." - shouldn't it be "a ways down the mountain"? Seems to match the context, and the voiceover too... Nevertheless, I'm not a native English speaker, so I may be mistaken..

You're correct, the "to" shouldn't be there.

 

[Vortexx]

Disregard my last post...I forgot the shopkeeper in the general store.

 

[Azael]

I'm getting a lot of crashes with the game, something which I can't recall having troubles with before. Bear in mind though that I have edited my characters stats with Arcanum Edit after I screwed up during a level up and the overwrote my only save (first mistake right there), I gave my retard an Intelligence of 5 which made him lose his status as an imbecile. Am I to assume that Arcanum Edit is incompatible with this patch?

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Spent the last few days doing some more research on the engine, found lots of interesting stuff and fixed some engine related bugs. There are many things hidden in the engine, some of them are pretty interesting.

As an imbecile there seems to be no VO for Bates once you return from the BMC and tell him what you found. Line 841 I believe.

EDIT: Damnit! Right after I posted this, I loaded my game and it VOed the line I said had no VO... <maybe doesn't VO all the time?>

It's a known problem. There's a few lines like that, they don't play VO the first time, there seems to be a memory related problem with sound playback.

On another note... Noticed that sometimes when you are wearing tech items and do not have high tech aptitude, it shows % of critical failure. I would put something on and it would show 1% or 4% and when I take it off and re-equip it, it'll show 0%. From things like the Power Axe and the War Gauntlets.

Perhaps you just equipped items at MA boosting place, and then reequipped them in a neutral area.

EDIT: It seems as an imbecile when you speak with Alexander concerning finding Nasruidin... What Alexander says to you seems to point to the fact that you are welcome to look at the bones and the guards will let you through. Yet when you talk to the guards, no such luck.

The guards let you in only if you're wearing Pilgrim's Robes.

As an imbecile, after talking with M'in Gorad, killing her/taking the good path, Virgil doesn't seem to leave the group.

The script doesn't fire if you have to fight the guards when you exit T'sen-Ang. In this case you have to initiate dialog with Virgil manually after killing the guards.

I do not know if this is intentional or not though. As well when talking with the first blade of the Hand, nothing is said about Vollinger staying with you. Is this because the first blade [forget his name] of the Hand does not believe you so maybe that why nothing is said of Vollinger? It seems you never become a "Friend of the Molochean Hand".

Such options are unavailable to dummies.

EDIT: Yes, yes, I'd rather edit one thing several times than post them individually. Anyway... You can open Mannox's chamber [that has his sword and journal] without being told the secret word. Being an imbecile you are not told much of anything. Even after talking about the picture written in blood. You are told "opposite" but not the word. Was this intentional?

You're mistaken.

"I saw pik-chure in blood! [Tell him about it.]"
"A message from Mannox, perhaps? What does it mean? Those two words are in old Panarum--a dead language once used by church elders. The first means 'mirror' or 'opposite', and the second means 'truth'. I have no idea what the broken ring represents. Very, very odd..."

EDIT: Correct me if I am wrong but someone takes Mannox's journal from you, yes? Maybe Alexander or someone else when you complete the quest? Anyway, I still have it and no one took it.

No, nobody takes it.

Raven's age is also wrong. Her character sheet says she's 1000 years old, but in dialog she says she was 150 when Flenwick went to Quintarra. (According to the book, that was in the 1760's, I don't recall the exact year) so Raven should be somewhere around 275 years old in 1885. (I'll try to look up the book where it says the exact year of Flenwick's journey)

Yes, her age doesn't make much sense. Anyway:

As I said, he was a researcher...a strange little man, a bit overdressed, but kind-hearted and very intelligent...I was young then, a mere 160 years old...he was the first human I'd ever seen...[She smiles, slightly.]

Renford A. Terwilliger was born in 1750. His fabled trip to the Glimmering Forest was made in 1768, his eighteenth year.

The game starts in 1885. This way Raven is 277 years old. Should I put it in like this? Or maybe round it off to 280?

Blackroot Mayor. While playing as an imbecile there seems to be no real method of getting the taxes from him. No quest or anything. You can tell him "i take taxis" but all that does is close dialog and his reaction lowers, no immediate combat or more dialog. Not sure if this is a bug or not.

Yes, that's a bug, a response ("Yes, I am sure you will. Move along, imbecile.") was missing. Anyway, you can take the taxes from the mayor if you kill all guards in the town.

When speaking with Captain Wheeler while afflicted with mental retardation... He gives you two options of defusing the orc uprising. Kill him or offer to convince him to give up. When you get to Throgg your only option when talking to him is "byebye" and exits dialog.

You have to choose "I smart. I talk him give up!" line in Wheeler's dialog.

 

[Lain_13]

This way Raven is 277 years old. Should I put it in like this? Or maybe round it off to 280?

277

 

[Whispering Darkness]

I've tried taking the robes from the room by the back door to the chambers. But they always accuse me of lying. Perhaps I was getting the wrong robes? They were called priest robes.

About Virgil leaving, I've manually spoken with him several times and there are no changes in his dialog. Could this be a one-time bug?

With Captain Wheeler, I did chose the line that is "I smart, I talk him give up". I also realized that I received 2 quests. One about killing him, one with Killing Throgg. Maybe when the 'killing him' quest was activated it negated the option of that chance of having him surrender?

PS: Thanks for addressing my long slew of dribble.

277 sounds good to me.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

I've tried taking the robes from the room by the back door to the chambers. But they always accuse me of lying. Perhaps I was getting the wrong robes? They were called priest robes.

Pilgrim's Robes can be found in Shrouded Hills' Panarii temple.

About Virgil leaving, I've manually spoken with him several times and there are no changes in his dialog. Could this be a one-time bug?

Was your Virgil evil? He doesn't leave the group if he's evil, he becomes Surly Virgil instead.

With Captain Wheeler, I did chose the line that is "I smart, I talk him give up". I also realized that I received 2 quests. One about killing him, one with Killing Throgg. Maybe when the 'killing him' quest was activated it negated the option of that chance of having him surrender?

Indeed. Wheeler was automatically giving you the assassination quest, thus disabling the option of persuading Throgg to surrender. This is now fixed, so you can talk to Donn Throgg as a dummy. Another restored dialog, it is.

And one more thing on the matter of ages. Z'an Al'urin is 980 years old, although it's quite obvious that she's young, and Arronax in particular says so, as well. However, her age isn't specified anywhere. Should I just reset her age to default 200 years for elves?

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

IIRC, 980 years is still quite young for elves.

I heard the manual was a good read. Anyway:

Average Life Span:
Humans 80
Dwarves 600
Gnomes 500
Halflings 400
Elves 1000
Half-Elves 400
Half-Orcs 60
Half-Ogres 90
Ogres 200
Orcs 40

 

[Whispering Darkness]

Pilgrim's Robes can be found in Shrouded Hills' Panarii temple.

Don't think Alexander mentions anything about only pilgrims can see the burial chamber when you an imbecile. But it's been awhile since I was there.

Was your Virgil evil? He doesn't leave the group if he's evil, he becomes Surly Virgil instead.

C'mon now, you should know I know the difference! But I will return to T'sen Ang and try talking to him manually again.
EDIT: I returned to T'seng Ang and right when I got close to the entrance Virgil and Vollinger did their scripted scenes. Seems it auto triggers when you are standing in a certain spot maybe? Also, it seems Virgil's dialog when you save him is a little different if he does not die in the basement. He makes no mention of meeting his brother and his death experience. Nice touch.

Should I just reset her age to default 200 years for elves?

Sure, sounds good but 200 does sound a little generic.

EDIT: It seems as an imbecile your ability to travel via boats is very limited. From Caladon, your only option is Tarant. And Tarant to Caladon, he refuses to take you to Blackroot but gives a reason why so that's fine. I have not checked Ashbury or Blackroot to see if they suffer from the same problem.

 

[Koshachiy Barin]

I was young then, a mere 160 years old

This way Raven is 277 years old. Should I put it in like this? Or maybe round it off to 280?

Seems improbable that she would state her age at the time accurate to within a year... Still, 277 is probably better than 280.

Should I just reset her age to default 200 years for elves?

If there aren't any clues to her real age in her dialogues or elsewhere, then go for it.

- - -
By the way, one question that always puzzled me was... what's with this skeleton?



It's the only one of its kind inside the Ashbury Castle - all the other "inhabitants" are walking around, waiting for player to show up. It's not marked as an undead either, neither descripted as a skeleton - it's just... a human guard.

If you resurrect him, the result is quite humorous...



Seriously, I suspect it was meant to be just another undead, but somehow was left unfinished. Maybe it should just be removed?
If not, shouldn't it be at least made "un-resurrectible", probably "un-reanimatible" (like those bodies lying around the crash site)? Bodies at such stage of decomposition need Dragon Blood to be resurrected, anyway (Torian Kel, for example). Shouldn't it be given some other description than "human guard" as well?

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

By the way, one question that always puzzled me was... what's with this skeleton?
<...>
Seriously, I suspect it was meant to be just another undead, but somehow was left unfinished. Maybe it should just be removed?
If not, shouldn't it be at least made "un-resurrectible", probably "un-reanimatible" (like those bodies lying around the crash site)? Bodies at such stage of decomposition need Dragon Blood to be resurrected, anyway (Torian Kel, for example). Shouldn't it be given some other description than "human guard" as well?

There was the same problem with a skeleton in the Wolf Cave, it was resurrectable as well. Actually, there's nothing more to the matter, there are random corpses lying around in some dungeons, it's pretty common. The skeleton art was just used to show the stage of decomposition.

 

[Koshachiy Barin]

There was the same problem with a skeleton in the Wolf Cave, it was resurrectable as well. Actually, there's nothing more to the matter, there are random corpses lying around in some dungeons, it's pretty common. The skeleton art was just used to show the stage of decomposition.

Oh yes, I remember resurrecting other "random" corpses and getting pretty much the same... they didn't bother me so much though - maybe they were some generic travellers, I thought, so it's normal to hear some generic responses from them. Resurrecting a skeleton, on the other hand...
As always, thanks for your work, Drog!

 

[Vortexx]

There is a minor problem with the dialogue when using the train. If you have a high magic aptitude, the conductor will say something about not letting you on, then when your character says "Isn't there some way you can let me on? I really need to get to Ashbury."...You always say Ashbury. no matter where you are actually going. You still go to the correct town, but saying Ashbury every time is kind of wierd.

 

[Whispering Darkness]

Drog Black Tooth, congratulations on your most fitting title. Master of Arcanum, you've earned it.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

It was a nice surprise. Thank you everyone for your support.

 

[zhab]

All hail the Master Of Arcanum

I second that motion..! The true Master of Arcanum indeed! Drog, you are far more exciting than the banal elections going on in history's most recent installment of fascism! Congratulations on the badass job you have been doing on this gaming masterpiece. Or should I say, would-have-been-masterpiece. I have spread the news of your incredible rehashing of this title to everyone I know that has even caught wind of Arcanum. You have made it worthwhile to play for even the true cynics.

Wish I could find some bugs for you to correct like some of our contemporaries here, but so far my experiences have been flawless...

Keep up the great work!

 

[Kz3r0]

Re: All hail the Master Of Arcanum

Honour where honour is due.