It seems like people always post ideas about how Arcanum 2 should play out, both in terms of story and what other random crap should be included, so I thought it would be good fun to make a thread about what would make the original Arcanum more awesome to help steer anyone's attempts at making a sequel. In doing this whenever someone feels somewhat serious about making a sequel they could look here and be like "Hey, that's a cool idea! I'll use that in my fantastic sequel that I'll say I'm making and then never actually do any work on". Anyway, I'll get the ball rolling:

Dinosaurs. Big. Fucking. Dinosaurs. What game isn't an improved by adding in dinosaurs? Ever played the original Tomb Raider and been like "Whoa man, you see those dinosaurs, that's awesome! T Rex made me damn near shit my pants". It is my opinion that the addition of dinosaurs would push Arcanum that little bit further into greatness. Don't get me wrong Arcanum is brilliant and all, but I can't help but sometimes feel where are all the dinosaurs? And no those little dragon creatures and Baleful Hounds that masquerade as dinosaurs are not, and never will be, half as cool as dinosaurs.

Also, lasers. And aliens. Aliens with lasers. Alien dinosaurs with lasers!

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Nothing can stop the Smooze.

Come now, there's no need to be silly! As an aside from dinosaurs, which would be awesome, as a more serious idea I would like to see more orcs and ogres. They barely even feature in the game apart from when they're mugging or assaulting you. I'm sure the manual states something about orcish and ogre tribes, I would have always liked to see some sort of tribal village (Fallout 2 style) with some unusual quests attached to it. In my opinion these two races need a little more love.

Dinosaurs are for seven-year-olds.
On a similar scale, actual dragons would be nice. Not many, mind you, but a dragon with his unique perspective would be fun to interact with. I'm not even retarded for dragons, but I think it would be amusing to see how a dragon fits in with the Industrial Revolution.

Aliens are for twelve-year-olds.
Perhaps space travel wouldn't be too outlandish.

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I was more thinking about:

1) Time travel

2) a World War

3) Steer your own ship/Steam ships

4) Toilets

5) Horses

6) Airplanes

7) Other continents

Eight) Making your own food

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Ash: [talking to mirror] I'm fine... I'm fine...
[Mirror Ash jumps out of the mirror and grabs Ash]
Mirror Ash: I don't think so. We just cut up our girlfriend with a chainsaw. Does that sound "fine"?

I thought this might be pretty cool too; maybe using a circuitous story where you start off in a technological world, get sent back in time to a more magical world, and then through your actions in the past end up founding the technological city you travel from in the future (Tarant perhaps). A bit cliché, but it would be enjoyable nevertheless.



Well if you can't understand the simple joy of hunting a velociraptor with a tesla gun then I can't help you!

This would be right up your alley then Muro.

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I'm sure the film's going to be a financial success, if only due to people going to the cinema because of the WTF factor.

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Nothing can stop the Smooze.

Well, certainly more balance. I want to play a technologist who can hold his own with a pure Melee-Dodge bastard.

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I don't know how would you excuse present of dinosaurs in Arcanum since they are extinct for more than 150 mil. years. Don't mingle magic with pre-history.

But I'd like to see a proper dragon in Arcanum. I mean REALLY BIG DRAGON, something of Bates' mansion size, a mean creature spitting fire. An ultimate challenge for Lvl 50 characters with mastery in their respective field. Sniping the beast from the distance with looking glass rifle, cutting it to pieces with Arcane Great Sword or burning it with fireballs. And all for the cost of tens of healing potions and fatigue restorers.

I also like the the idea of time travelling followed by forced gameplay change. Let's say you are a technologist who, as a part of some quest, agreed to test-run some new spectatular device meant to transport thing from one place to another (yes, a technological teleport). This would end in a terrible disaster which would throw you not in other place rather then other time - right back to the start of your whole journey. BUT... you are completely immune to any technology and must solve everything again with use of magic. And once you got to that fatal point that had changed your life you would have to make a choice - do nothing and continue as a magical character OR destroy the device, therefore turning time back to original and continue as your first technological character. What a sick twist

I'd like to see quests that are available only for technologists OR magic users. As a Techie you would search for ancient civilization that dissapeared in waters of time... yes, Atlantis. A place of wonders never seen by any man.
And if you were a Wizard you would look for some Shangri-La magic city built of mythril and gems.

Possibility to purchase your own zepellin - both vehicle and house in one.

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Damn...

I was only joking about dinosaurs, why so serious?

I think Trokia missed a trick not having sea travel on a waypoint system too, maybe with a few more port towns you could dock at and random attacks by cracken like monsters. Also weird sea only access locations, like small islands or an Atlantis like location like mufti said. Anyone ever played the gamebook Fabled Lands: Over the Blood-Dark Sea? That's how awesome it could have been.

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Every fresh corpse brought into that establishment meant a fulfilled promise of ungodly gladness, of irreverent gratification; a return to the rapturous tumult of the arteries which transformed my grisly task into one of beloved devotion - yet every carnal satiation exacted its toll.

I would like to see new techonological disciplines... Either if it was for next Fallout fan game or for Arcanum 2, I guess there could be some additional tech disciplines besides the disciplines in Arcanum
There could be:

Energetics: knowledge of lasers, plasma, pulse - how to create energy weapons (plus, the knowledge could give some bonus to energy weapons using)

Engineering: knowledge of vehicles and constructing them - either ground or air vehicle - first levels of this disciplines could allow player to create ground vehicles - from light to more heavy and more sophisticated - up to jets and other aircraft

Gunsmithy: the principle remains the same from Arcanum 1
Explosives: the principle remains the same from Arcanum 1
Mechanics: the principle remains the same from Arcanum 1, but could contain manufacturing turrets and robots (the ones like in Fallout Tactics)

Therapeutics: the principle remains the same from Arcanum 1, considering Fallout, manufacturing drugs - Mentats, Buffout, Psycho, Jet etc.


The interesting part would be when it comes to new schematics learning, whereas the new inventions are often hybrids of the tech disciplines with each other. For example, building a laser turret as in Fallout Tactics, the requirements would be: knowledge of energetics and mechanics + items: laser rifle (if not laser gatling) and some standard turret.

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Well, I'd like to see more politics, more fractions and powerful people struggling for their agendas. I know it's more like a story suggestion but I'd like to see the decline of magic and a boom of technology. I'd like it possible for a tech-character to truly be an inventor of things that would make impact on the society. Oh, and I support toilets suggestion.

I would love to see technology post boom actually - where technology has began to wane and magick is finally starting to wax again (holding that the cycle theory is true). It would be cool to see all the great leaps made in technology suddenly become faulty or completely cease to function and major cities (such as Tarant) descend chaos as a result (or maybe you could have them on the brink of chaos - some political leader is trying desperately to cover up the fact that technology is going to hell through the media so he can buy himself time to come up with a solution to the problem, making the majority of the public ignorant of the whole affair at least at the start of the game).

Obviously, to run with this hypothetical setting, magick users will be fairly bitter at being marginalised for so long - and now that their powers are getting stronger by the day they're bound to want to hit out at the major technological cities. It might be nice to even see some sort of role reversal between orcs and elves - eventually due to the rise of technology people became much more accepting of orcs in their cities, but elves whose presence could disrupt their latest household gadget began to feel society turn on them; you could have magickal ghettos in cities where elves were made to live to prevent their interference with technology. Of course elves are proud, and so as soon as magick began to make a come back the dark elves (or their ideology) would also be back in force. At the end of the game I would have it that you cause (plunging Arcanum into a new dark age) or prevent (creating a period of enlightenment - where magick or technology briefly coexist equally and everyone in Arcanum benefits) a war; it would be a fairly climactic ending and really it's the only way this story could end up if the central theme is mounting societal tension.

At least this would be my idea for a cool setting, I'm sure many people have many different takes on what they think would be great in Arcanum 2.

EDIT: How did I not realise this sounds just like the Witcher? Oh well, I guess the steampunk setting would make it feel quite different to the Witcher anyway.

FURTHER EDIT: Also Arcanum 2 would need penny farthings, if they aren't the epitome of Victorian coolness I don't know what is.

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Every fresh corpse brought into that establishment meant a fulfilled promise of ungodly gladness, of irreverent gratification; a return to the rapturous tumult of the arteries which transformed my grisly task into one of beloved devotion - yet every carnal satiation exacted its toll.

Yes. Political intrigues and backstabbing fractions would be very interesting. Perhaps you can climb up the social ladder (and drop down again.) and earn a place in the government and dabble in politics. You will have to deal with murder plots, treason, angry mobs, war, (Civil or world) taxes, etc.

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Ash: [talking to mirror] I'm fine... I'm fine...
[Mirror Ash jumps out of the mirror and grabs Ash]
Mirror Ash: I don't think so. We just cut up our girlfriend with a chainsaw. Does that sound "fine"?

The thing with the gnomes took over Tarant and killed the Royal Family - this should be brought to the mass.

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Somber lands without a single soul - that is my place. The wind - my only companion.