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Arcanum and TOEE
Drez
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So, it seems like everyone's on a "install old stuff" kick nowadays, so I wanted to get in on it too, but with something different.
I have ToEE and Arcanum. I never installed ToEE and I only got past the initial whirlybird area in Arcanum (i.e. five minutes into the game). I think the music that plays in the character creation menu is why; I end up just listening to that and I never actually make it into the game. By the time I do, I'm too tired to actually play.
Anyway, from what I understand, both games are buggy to high heaven. I know there are fan patches.
I'm kind of a purist, so I'd like to remain as close to the original designer's intent, but also as bugless as possible. Can anyone suggest which patches I should get for both games, and where I might get them?
I have ToEE and Arcanum. I never installed ToEE and I only got past the initial whirlybird area in Arcanum (i.e. five minutes into the game). I think the music that plays in the character creation menu is why; I end up just listening to that and I never actually make it into the game. By the time I do, I'm too tired to actually play.
Anyway, from what I understand, both games are buggy to high heaven. I know there are fan patches.
I'm kind of a purist, so I'd like to remain as close to the original designer's intent, but also as bugless as possible. Can anyone suggest which patches I should get for both games, and where I might get them?
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Arcanum, however, was amazing. I got quite far but never finished.. one day I will. Such a superb game. I never ran into any big bugs either, juts using the official patch.
You're missing out, then. The music in the rest of the game is every bit as good.
The entire Ben Houge soundtrack (and the official patch), used to be available on the official Arcanum site, but Sierra took that down.
Arcanum has by far my favorite soundtrack in any game, period.
And it's pretty fun to play, too.
I guess you could say, the most experience I have with Arcanum is its soundtrack.
Anyways, I really got into Arcanum because I really like the isometric RPGs of its day Baldurs Gate I&II, Fallout I&II. And it had an awesome victorian steampunk motif. I love steampunk rpgs. ( I guess, I've only played Arcanum)
On a side note, what are some more steampunk games?
As for Arcanum...well, without mods you'll find that magic (mostly the harm spell) is ridiculously overpowered and most technology stuff sucks. If you really don't want to fix the balance (or you aren't playing a tech character), then just grab the official patches. Terra Arcanum is where I always got my mods & patches from. They should have what you need there, or at least links to people who still have the files. I think it was Krupp who released a few of the better balancing mods.
TOEE is a blast from beginning to end if you like d&d even a tiny bit (personally I had never even played it before TOEE) and I found myself replaying it multiple times just to try new parties. It's more of a d&d combat simulator than an RPG really, the scenario and quets are kinda cheesy.
Arcanum is the complete opposite. The combat is pretty dumb and unbalanced (balanced sword anyone?) but the story, the mood, the soundtrack, the npc interaction and the game world are absolutely fantastic. It's a very memorable game.
Both are a little slow to get going, I would suggest forcing yourself to play 4-5 hours of each before deciding wether to go on or not. At least in TOEE you really have to get your party to lvl 2 to start enjoying the game (if you have a hard time doing it in combat you can get there simply by doing side quests in the city, but it's very tedious).
Just my 2c.
Essential reading, for those who enjoy watching other people play games, or those who haven't played Arcanum and enjoy a jolly good story.
Holy crap, there's a Let's Play for Arcanum? How did I not know about this? I love the Let's Plays (RE4's is great, though it drags towards the end) and I've never seen this in the archive. Was it recent?
I just wish they'd release a proper game using that engine some day... and I don't care about fan patches, there's no amount of patches which can fix it, unless a map editor is released so you can construct an actual fantasy epic instead of the completely barren, or completely cramped few levels the game has today.
World Travel?
Just a thought.
How gimped would I be if I did decide to focus on tech? I'm usually a magic kind of guy, but I think I'd like to try something different.
I've found the patches by Krupp, just curious if they're enough.
I still have them both. ToEE can stay uninstalled for all I care. Arcanum can come back every few months. I liked it quite a lot.
It really depends on what tech tree(s) you focus on. I went blacksmithing to electric sword, and explosives to pyrotechnic axe and tore the hell out of everything, to the point that until I started talking to people online I thought the balance was out of whack in techs favor.
Blacksmithing gives you intense melee, and I THINK the gunsmithing/shooting trees are definitely doable. If you wanted to be a grenade thrower or sometihng more exotic, then you might have trouble.
Though it depends on the type of character you are (a diplomat is going to have a brutal time, and really plays differently) I wouldn't recommend trying to ninja through the starting canyon, simply because that'll leave you with a really hard time in the first town.
In general, completely scour the starting area. Kill all the little things in the area (and there's a cave to the north that you should clear). Take your time with the wolves, draw them one at a time, and if you have to run back to the starting area and let Virgil rest until he can heal you and himself. Save often, and if you get steam rolled reload and try again.
It's a bit of a slog, but it really makes the first real chunk (the town) flow a lot more smoothly and gets you into the main game on the right foot.
While making them all you needed where trashcans & the second hand merchant (also made lots of cash because the ready made grenades sold for tons more than the basic materials needed).
I played a dwarf Techer and it was amazing. When I finally got to the pyrotechnic axe I felt like it really was an accomplishment. I think I quit when I was raiding the dwarf caves up north, though, for reasons I can't remember.
My only problem I had wasn't even a bug, more of a stupid design oversight. In one of the earlier dungeons I used turn undead and sent some low level undead running. He found some dark corner to hide in and I had to do the rest of the dungeon in turn based mode until I tracked down and killed him. Never used turn undead again.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
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This thread is awesome.
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I found my copy of Arcanum and it's installing now. Can you (or anyone else) recommend some specific patches from that website you linked to? There really aren't any descriptions of the files and there are quite a few.
Playing a technology character sounds interesting, I don't want to do it if it's utterly gimped though.
No. A thousand times no. If you are playing with only the official patches, STAY THE FUCK AWAY from firearms characters. If you are playing with an unpatched game, then the Looking Glass Rifle is an extremely powerful weapon in a sea of mediocrity but otherwise stay away.
Tech characters that do melee fighting are fine since melee in general is extremely powerful. High strength bonuses lead to lots of damage. Heck, a character that doesn't put points in magic OR technology and just focuses on melee stats/skills is powerful. Runaway circus ogres were popular characters for a reason (20 strength double damage bonus at level 1 and can take strength even higher).
Electricity yields good items for a variety of purposes as well. The tesla rod is possibly the best tech weapon and destroys enemies in platemail. The charged rings are the only technology rings in the game but provide a good benefit.
Finally, I feel compelled to mention that Arcanum allows thief characters with high pickpocketing skills to literally steal the pants off of people. I'll probably reinstall the game soon for the sole purpose of creating the depanters of Tarant.
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I'm entirely sure why...
I've done fine with firearms characters.
It's no walk in the park, but I liked it fine.
Yeah, a 20 STR Melee guy will have an easier time, but using guns is totally possible, just keep in mind that most of them really suck. The first revolver you can make is good, and the elephant gun is too. Make sure you take some Chemistry (I think it's Chem) points so you can make your own bullets though, you'll go through a ton of ammo. The best Firearm is the Tesla Cannon, or whatever it's called, and requires the Tesla Rod, which is made in the Electrical skill tree, so some points there would be well spent.
Sure it's easier to hack people apart with a Fire Axe, but it's WAY cooler to shoot people while wearing plate armor. Shooting an elf with a revolver just has a certain something that I love.
RE Hurt Spell: If your Magic rating on the Tech/Magic bar is high, Hurt will kill everything as fast as you can drink blue potions. The higher your Magic rating the more powerful your spells. When I play mages I usually go with the Sell Your Soul background, since it gives you +20 to your magic rating (and being an evil wizard is more fun than being a namby pamby Gandalfoid).
Electricity is the ultimate support tree for tech characters. My first character was a marksman and the tesla weapons were critical for all the enemies resistant to normal guns after the looking glass rifle nerf. Too bad the electric weapons come after the golem filled mine area, I broke many melee weapons trying to get through that area simply because guns did nothing.
The only problem with being an evil wizard is that you can't get mastery bonuses because the relevant trainers won't deal with you. I was pissed when I found that out and it really felt like they didn't put as much thought into the evil options at times, though I also know that magic sphere mastery itself was a late addition to the game.
However, having a real necromancy spell to raise undead minions helped offset things. When my evil mage killed a unique monster, like the Bigfoot-style one, I made a habit of animating its corpse and using it as a minion. Ditto with npcs that pissed me off . . . like the trainers that wouldn't give me magic masteries 8-)
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