Larian Studios Forums General Chat RPG Chat ARCANUM

@Lucretia...I am, can't put it down at the momment. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />

Right then....Printed out a huge part of the manual for assistance and have played thru the guide in the manual, around the crash scene, sad to say i'm not overalled at this time!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/suspicion.gif" alt="" />
I will start a proper game tonight and try and make up my own Character which looks very complex to say the least!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />
I can see a lot of Fallout 2 in the game,which i loved,so hopefully this will turn me around into liking and hopefully loving the game. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/think.gif" alt="" />

Arcanum is made by the key members of the Fallout team. ANd I don't mean only the 3 founders of Troika.

Spick- Here's the advice I can give you.

Dwarves for Technology
Elves for Magic
Half-Elves for Warrior Mages
Humans for anything.
Gnomes for social people (gambling, high charisma, persuation etc)
Halfligs for thieves
Half Ogres for Fighter-technologists or Fighter-Mages
Half Ogres for big dumb fighters.

Beauty is not neccessary at all.
Strenght isn't very important. Leave it at 8 or advance to 9 if you really want to.
[color:"red"] Dexterity is VERY important. [/color]
Charisma isn't important unless you play a social character. Leave it at 8.
Leave constitution for now.
Willower is only required for mages.
Intelligence is important.
Perception is only important for thieves and marksmen.

[color:"red"]Choose either Magic or Technology. They cancel each other so don't mix unless you are an advanced player.[/color]
TECH:
Mechanics, Electricity and Explosives are the best tech. Gunsmithy is needed if you want to be a marksman. Smithy is great if you intend to become a fighter. You need 1 or 2 levels of Herbology.

MAGIC:
White necromancery's healing is useful as well as black necromancery's harm. Watch out for high-level necromancery as it tends to lower your alignement towards evil.
Water magic is useless. Fire magic is alright. Force magic is excellent.
Temporal is useful.

GENERAL:
Use only turn-based combat. Spacebar toggles between realtime and turnbased.
The Heal skill is useless. Gambling and Haggle are best for social characters.
Persuasion is good but not right away.
You can set an auto leveling option. Press the button on the high right of the character screen to choose a profession. The computer will automatically distribute the skillpoints once you reach the next level and tell you what he did.

TIPS FOR STARTING UP:
(For some fun, take a Half-Ogre with the "Run away from circus" background).

If you want a technologist, take a Half-Orc.
Background: Child of A Hero.
Give him one point of dodge, one of melee. One Herbology [color:"red"]or[/color] one point of necromancery white.

If Tech:
One point of throwing and one point of Explosives

If Magic: Force and Harm.

Gee thanks a lot Death <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />
I'm sure this will be a lot of help in the setting up of my Character, who by the way i want to be Magical for a change, i nearly always go down the Fighter/Warrior path in most games.

The easiest way would be:

Level 1 Necromancery (black)
Level 1 Force
Wisdom +1
Level 2 Force

You might try to be an elementalist but do not take Water first.
Nature magic is good too but forget about clervoyance. Summoning is fun too.

If you want to go solo (no party), you'll need Heal. Soloing mage is possible.
There are several mages in the game and Virgil can grow strong.

Now a cryptic hint:
The best weapon for a mage is a bladed weapon you can buy in a place of cold mountains and home of a mythical creature.

All taken on board mate, but i do like to have a party if possible, i tend to collect an awful lot of junk, always worried i'm leaving something vitaly important behind, like when i played the "Demo" from the manual, i became Encumbered very quickly, but how am i to know whats worth keeping and whats not?
Especially around the crash site, i had broken guns, bottles of wine and other gunk!!

Ok, lets sort them out. You can give Virgil some items to wear, he collect himself items from the ground (especially wine and steel). So you could wear some more.

General warning: never in your life do items in a dust bin for storage! The bins are cleant every morning...

Ok, lets sort them out. You can give Virgil some items to wear, he collect himself items from the ground (especially wine and steel). So you could wear some more.

All the party NPCs (with the exception of Dog) will pick up items lying near them, on the ground. This becomes an annoyance when you purposefully want to drop stuff, which is why the developers added those bins. As you point out, they're cleaned regularly.

I'd suggest creating a few easy-to-access bases with chests in 'em, where you can leave items only to recover them as needed. There's one city fairly early on--the name escapes me--to the southeast of your starting point, where there are a pair of locked but unused guardposts. You can break them open and use the many chests they have for sorting and storing goods. Then, if you get the 5th level Conveynce spell, Teleportation (which is one of the best in the game, in my opinion), you can almost always spell your way back to this town. And since the guardposts are almost at the point where you enter, there's no tedious walking involved.

Actually they were added to get some ingredients for you tech gadgets. I used to run arround Tarant every morning collectiong rags for my cocktails...

Spick: You are playing as mage and the junk is for technologists.

Really? Where did you read that? I'm just curious. I interviewed Leonard Boyarsky for a preview before Arcanum was released, and he told me during a discussion of party behavior that the trash cans were included to counteract party NPCs grabbing stuff. I can see where it would serve both purposes. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Spick: You are playing as mage and the junk is for technologists.

But if he has useful technologists in his party, that stuff can still come in very handy. It all depends on how you want to play.

For which site, fable?


a) Technologists in a magic party do not work well. You can't heal them and they never use health/poison/mana potions anyway.

b) You can always check the dumpsters.

fable: ever met a forum member named DAD here?

"Oh Gawd!!! ...Hope i'm taking all this in.I know,i'll keep coming back here and print these conversations." <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />

For which site, fable?

A magazine rather than a site, and with respect, I'm not going to say. I prefer to remain anonymous. I'm not anybody famous <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" /> but you'd be surprised at the kinds of grudges some people will carry a decade after you wrote a review or article they didn't like.

Technologists in a magic party do not work well. You can't heal them and they never use health/poison/mana potions anyway.

I've been able to heal 'em the potions they make. Many can also be healed with spells, but admittedly the spells are less and less effective as they shift through the game further over to the techno side.

As to technologists in a magic party (or for that matter, a magicuser in a techno party), I would agree: that doesn't work well. In fact, there's something to be said for an all-magic party, where you can forego all that parts-scavenging to make items which becomes pretty annoying after a while. With an all-techno or all-magic party, you have a mutually reinforcing party gestalt (not to get tooooo pretentious <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" /> ), in which any positive skill possessed by a party member can affect all. In mixed parties, that's simply not possible.

On the other hand, I think a large, well-balanced party has a better chance of reacting successfully to any threat. There's also a greater chance that any loot you find will be useful to somebody in your group. And frankly, it's just plain fun, from my perspective. But I admit, that's just that last point is just personal prejudice.

fable: ever met a forum member named DAD here?

Can't say I have.

Yes, I understand, but could you PM me and tell me at least the country the magazine is from?


Yes, I forgot that after you take a potion you can click on whom you want to use it.


Personally I think the best party in Arcanum is the lack of it but that's because currently I am playing a technological assassin. I had Virgil when I was playing the very first time but just for the sake of the story <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />.
But if you are a social character, for example, it's good to have a balanced bunch of people arround you.

PM's sent. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I agree, parties are of ambivalent value in Arcanum. Frankly, if the developers had only allowed you to direct your party members a la BG2 or PS:T, I think parties would be a lot more fun to play. As it is, combat's a disaster, unless--as you suggest--you're pretty much running only yourself.

Yay, i'm up and running now <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />
I am going down the magic method and getting on fairly well now, i have chosen the Earth Magic scheme(Is that correct?)I am an Elve i think and a "bookworm " is my Background.
I have solved a couple quests and am now sauntering around Shrouded Hills trying to gather some cash, and have accepted another couple of quests.
I have Virgil with me but by using the F5 button i am doing most of the fights solo so as i can get the XP.F1 thru F6 all tell him to do certain things, i like this option very much. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />
Unfortunately i'm on me summer hols from Saturday so i will have to leave it alone for 2 weeks. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />
Death, thanks for the advice. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />

Well, the combat isn't that bad in Arcanum. At the beginning of the game, I mean. At the end all I have to do is approach someone and poke him with something so he dies. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />
Thanks for the PM.

Spick:
If you can do the fights by yourself, it's fine. Virgil isn't the best fighter but it's good if he stays away from the fights and heals you <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />.
Earth magic is a good decision again <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />. Body of Earth, for instance, can kick... donkey <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />.
Cheers. Enjoy one of my 5 favorite RPGs.
(The rest is: Fallout 1, Fallout 2, Vampire: Redemption and BG2. I feel that Beyond Divinity will be added too <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />).

Spick, consider also Temporal Magic (Tempus Fugit) and Conveyance (Teleportation) for longterm investment, while the first level Necromantic spell, Harm, is simply the best thing around for a magicuser when you're starting out. Of course, there are many ways to success. I'm only pointing out the ones I really came to like while playing.

I take it I can and should change my "Scheme" sometime thru the game then?
Or should i come out of the scheme and apoint my own points from now on?
Another one for you 2(DATD,Fable),during battle when i hit somebody or thing all the battle messages are gone before you can blink!! and apart from the XP bar and bubbles is there anything i can do to see what Xp i have just earned?
And and and...the message panel isn't brill either, i always have to scroll backwards to see anything that was on there!!!!
@Fable, i have HARM thanks to Deaths advice and like you say...it kicks a r s e . <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

You can go to Options > Message > Verbose. It would at least give you an idea how hard you hit.
I think you can see the Xp on your character sheet.