Arcanum

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Dumb AI? You get resurrected by party member if you die and that's dumb AI? You couldn't see this even in BG2, mister!

Let me see some arguments about "dumb" AI.
What spellcasters?

 

"Let me see some arguments about "dumb" AI.
What spellcasters? "

they resurect you, sure, but that's a thing that's easily planned, now, usefulness in COMBAT, spell casters praticaly just throw whatever they have in, once I fought some weak apes and jormound just casted summon fire elemental, wasting damn lots of fatigue, and so on, not to mention that many times they just FREEZE.

 

Right now, I've got everyone loaded up with blade launchers. Except Raven; she's using a bow/arrow 'cause she's good with them, I can't seem to turn up her firearms skillz, and I have a ton of arrows to get rid of.

It's hilarious. Every time combat starts, you see this HUGE number of arrows fly across the screen. She flips like 10 arrows in the time it takes everyone else to flip one shot.

But my god, no one is ever hurt. Either Raven or Virgil are popping off heal spells left and right; all I see is party memebers getting nail with spells after combat.

Arcanum is a very sweet game. It's not icewind dale; it's not baldur's gate. But it is definately a most excellent game. It takes a bit of getting into the swing of things, like when you move from using Windows98 to Linux.

As for things to say about this game: It ends up being a "clue" kinda game. You'll crisscross across the enitre map 30 or 40 times by the end of the game. Learning "Transportation" is like, majorly up there on the list of things to do. You want transportation, even if it means you have to spend time at an inn afterwards. In fact, that's about the only way I travel now.

Oh, and you'll be needing a place to store all the STUFF you get in the game. My god, there is a load of stuff. Rent a room at one of the inns, and keep everything there in the dresser. I haven't had anything stolen yet, so it's a fairly decent place to use. The first time I was playing the game, I played it BG2 style, where you could store anything, anywhere. It was gone the next morning.

Other than that, if you're not using a walkthrough, plan right now on keeping notes. The Journal is helpful, but you're going to need to draw a map at a couple of places where you can't pull up the area map; only the world map.

 

A bought manual is almost a must with Arcanum. Explaining what to do when certain NPCs get mad at you, what the clues for some of the quests are (like the puzzle of the mage city Tula - virtually impossible without some assistance), what the prerequisites of skills are, etc. Very, very helpful, not to mention the maps that come with a manual.

 

It sounds even better than BG2:ToB (best game 'till now). I like roleplaying
One thing bothers me though: My prefered class is a druid and seeing there are two things to specialize (magic and technology) and none of them seems suitable for a nature-guy.
Any suggestions???

 

There's a few "nature" spellz for the magick users. I can't remembe what they are. I think there's a shapeshift spell.

The first time through, playing with magick is a good idea. But be weary; when your 'alignment' gets too far into the magick area, you won't be able to buy technological stuff for your party members anymore. So if you just so happen to snag a tech dwarf, he'll be relying on the stuff you find in the dungeons or pickpocket/lockpick.

And I'll just throw this in there one more time; explosives are your friend. Put one skill point by the time you hit level 3 into "explosives". When you're knee deep in the dead, you will appreciate those explosives.

 

/me fetches the manual

College of Nature:

Charm beast, Entangle, Control beast, Succour beast and Regenerate.

And then lots of druid-ish spells are in the various Elemental colleges...

I found that puzzle in Tulla to be one of the coolest parts of the game. Difficult, yes, but I was able to slove it quite quickly without help.

Hmm, I should really replay this game sometime...

 

S to get a druid type of char i'm supposed to go into elemental magic department What else is in there??
I like to be Summoner so are there any good elemental summons?

 

I think so, yes. Haven't tried 'em though.

To be even more like a druid you can buy some degrees in Herbology as well. Only problem is that that counts as technology, and thus reduces your magickal aptitude...

 

Great RPG. the graphics and interface a bit on the mediocre side, but the system rocks, the setting really interesting, the freedom you can take, and the tech part, really nice.

 

Like I was saying

It's a different game.

It ain't BIS, so you have to adapt to it.

You only get a few "skill" points per level. And you have quite a few extra stats other than the 5 or 6 that BIS hands out.

There's about 20 different "tech" skills that you can put up to 5 points in, each. There's about 14 magic colleges, that each have 5 spells (1 spell per point).

Obviously, unless you are cheating as much as I am, you will have to specialize. You will have to specialize a lot! Like I was saying earlier, the transportation magick college is a good one to put 5 points into. You will want at least one point in explosives. Probably a couple of points into melee and dodge, each.

Other than that, it's open reign. Try not to be a "jack-of-all-trades" in this game, because you will have a very tough time (save/reload/save/reload/save/reload) getting past quite a few areas. If you are an expert/master in just a couple, there is always a path through using those skills. Be they magick, thievery, or technological.

 

trasportation magick college? well, depends, the only one that really worths it IMO is teleportation, but it takes 5 points, which isn't really worth it, mind as well get force.

"I like to be Summoner so are there any good elemental summons? "

elemental summons? there are fire, water, air and earth elementals that you can summon, but you need to spend 5 points on each to get them.

 

if anyone in the UK is planning to buy this WAIT, on the 27th it will drop from £25 to £7.99 on amazon (i pre-ordered mine today after all the hype here)

 

I think i'll buy this game right after I get IWD2. Or maybe i'll just ask for it at x-mas.

 

I really liked this game, except I never get very far. for some reason my computer places all these little black triangles on the screen. Imagine the screen with a grid over it. Each square in the grid has a triangle in the upper left corner. I can usually stand it for awhile, but then it gets annoying and I stop playing. It sucks, cuz I really like the game (from what I have seen so far).

 

"I really liked this game, except I never get very far. for some reason my computer places all these little black triangles on the screen. Imagine the screen with a grid over it. Each square in the grid has a triangle in the upper left corner. I can usually stand it for awhile, but then it gets annoying and I stop playing. It sucks, cuz I really like the game (from what I have seen so far). "

well, to fix this, jsut use the safe mode, if the game becomes too slow, go to the dixdiag, usually in the setup folder in the program files, if you'v installed direct x, and go to controls I think, and turn off directdraw, and then the game would be square free, but you won't be able to paly 3D games, when you want to, reactivate direct draw, if it says unavailable after you reactivated, restart and it will be ok.

 

Are you talking about safe mode of the game itself?

 

"Are you talking about safe mode of the game itself? "

yes.

 

Great game. I finished it couple of months ago, and loved every part of it. Except various bugs, mostly related to graphic.

For those who are currently playing it, I advise you to try and accomplish the quest of the gods (the shrines with offerings, spread across the whole map). Now that's cool.

I first played as a gun-spec dwarf. After about 70% of the game, everyone and everything was falling in front of me after 2 or 3 shots. How would you like, BG fans out there, to knock down a Greater Fire Elemental from 30 yards with the flick of your finger, at the cost of one bullet?

Second time, I chose an evil-mage character, and I found him even stronger than the gunner.

Anyway, if you enjoy a good fantasy tale, play this one. You won't regret it. The story makes for half of the beauty of the game.

 

I have to admit. The story isn't bad at all. At the very beginning, it's a little questionable. But once you meet the guy that you're actualy SUPPOSED to be, it irons out a bit.

I thought the graphics are very good. Actually, what I like best is not running in serpentine fashion like Fallout. They could have tweaked the "waypoint" job on the area maps a little better, but at least it's scrollable.

And yeah; magic totally rules in this game. There's been several battles where I was doing like 5% damage with each shot, so I just disintegrated him. I didn't want to play with the pirate guy, and after like 20 shots, there was no way I was doing the same with his 4 buddies.

And the NPC AI is very well done. Except with firearms. The whole point of a firearm is to shoot from range, and most of the time they run up to point blank range before unloading.