Finished Arcanum

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There is a pass trough the mountains ,Gorgoth Pass
1500 W, 1443 S you get the quest to find her in
Caladon and it allows you to travel to the part where Caladon is .

[ February 27, 2006, 02:34: Message edited by: Incarnate ]

 

If you get the cheat sheet that gives the locales you can, with a little time and effort, go anywhere. Including finding the Fan Graveyard. I had a hard time finding that one even with area numbers. If you have strong throwing skills there is an awesome device you can find and even maybe get but afaik the location can't be found without knowing the area numbers.

 

Thanks Incarnate, this worked wonderfully well! I think I've skipped one or two quests by doing that (some of the dialogs I've had seem out of order), but now I think the game is back on track.

I think I was rash in criticising the game so virulently. To be fair it does have a lot going for it: as I mentionned before, the setting is great, one of the best I've seen in a CRPG. Many games before that had magic and technology (as far back as Ultima 1), but this is the first one to have 1800s Earth with magic, complete with elves, orcs and dwarves. Some of the quests are truly excellent, particularly the long ones that take many "steps" to perform (the Siamese Twins one springs to mind, which has one of the most interesting conclusions I've seen for a quest). In terms of gameworld the closest comparison I can think of is Ultima 7 (that's a very flattering comparison in my opinion), and that's not because of size, but rather because of the complexity of social and political issues it addresses. In all these respects the game is absolutely brilliant. The character development system is interesting, and calls for many choices and sacrifices (no uber god character builds). Even though the story until now seems like the typical good guy/bad guy cliche, I'm starting to actually get doubts and suspect things are more complex than that (some of the "clues" as to how evil Arronax is are WAY too obvious). I hope I'm not disappointed in this respect. No spoilers please!

I do feel the game's biggest flaws are its interface, combat and movement, and unfortunately those are the three things you end up doing most. Simply switching weapons with one of your followers is a chore, and if you happen to have run out of inventory space it's an absolute nightmare. Inventory management itself is a nightmare, especially since you cannot drop items anywhere and really expect them to remain there. I've found out I botched yet another quest because I did not hold on to what seemed to be a perfectly useless item at the time, only to find some 40 hours of playing later that I needed it for a quest. It's all very irritating, more so because without these flaws this could easily have been one of the best CRPGs ever made.

Anyway, I'll post again if I change my mind by the time I finish the game.

 

You can store items in the chests and bureaus in the inns. You don't even need to rent a room. Mainly what I do now is store everything in the warehouse near the docks in Tarant. This should have been one of your early quests. And the dock-side merchants buys almost anything which is handy. I think of Arcanum as the place where rubbish bins are your friends. Just don't put anything you might want later there.

Arcanum is all about choices. The ending will depend on what you do during the game.

Imo it is a nice game and could have been a great game with more control of the NPC's and more banter.

 

Glad to help , hf

 

I just finished the game, and I have to say that after Tsen Ang the game keeps getting better and better, and really ends on a very high note. After the events in the Panarri temple in Caladon (an excellent segment by the way - I was playing at 1am, and it was creepy as hell) I kept expecting a twist for the very end, but I have to say the game still managed to take me by surprise. I particularly enjoyed the ending speeches, being informed of the consequences of many of my actions. I was particularly surprised since many of these related to quests that seemed quite minor at the time (such as the half-orc workers strike). The ability to resolve the final confrontation without resorting to violence is a nice touch, one that always earns points in my book.

I do agree with your assessment of the game Nakia. Unfortunately it means I will not be replaying the game. Even though I would love to do that, doing the evil quests and generally trying to find all the things I missed on the first play through, I don't have the patience to endure the game's tedious aspects.

Then again I may change my mind a couple of years down the line