BE BACK IN TWO WEEKS

HexRei Retires: HexRei, creator of Whitesands and Deep15 has decided to leave the modding scene. Unfortunately, one too many problems with WorldEd caused him to retire. So, if you were waiting for Whitesands to be completed, or, you were one of those looking forward to Deep15, then I'm sorry to report that those two modules are no longer in production. Before you despair too much however, HexRei HAS uploaded his uncompleted mods to a web-site so that those of you who would like to see his work, or perhaps even carry it on, can go and download the two dat files as well as a big 65mb zip with a whole lot of notes and other module details. If you'd like to get your hands on this, the site is here: http://www.subtend.net/~peter

Deep15 DOES NOT WORK: Unless you do a bit of trickery before trying, WorldEd and Arcanum will just crash on you. Check this link here: Deep15 Mod Announced
Follow my instructions in the last post of that thread to get Deep15 to load in WorldEd. This is for PROFESSIONALS ONLY. IE: If that link doesn't make any sense, DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT ask me for help.

French Expert Leaves: Triblonto, one of the active modders in the French mod-making community has also decided to leave the modding scene. Working on mods since last September has taken its toll. Triblonto says he would now like to move onto other projects.

LORE Modulation Team: Also this week, the LORE Modulation team burst onto the scene over at the Terra-Arcanum Modding and Scripting Forums. They also burst off of the scene rather quickly after that. Basically, they tried to release a demo for their upcoming mod "Dungeons of Tactics" but gave up when it all became too hard. Now they've decided to forget Arcanum and, according to their web-site, they seem to have become a Neverwinter Nights Modulation Team. Be sure to check their web-site and try and figure out just what it is they're up to over here: Neverwinter LORE Modulation

RedViewer: Red (a programmer who hangs around the Duck and Cover Forums), has just released Redviewer (80 kb), a program that lets you view Arcanum ".art" files (as well as all sorts of other files for some other computer games, such as Fallout). If you don't know, then please, don't ask. Basically, if anyone has actually undatted all of the Official Arcanum ".dat" files, you'll find one of them is stacked full of ".art" files. They're all the pictures and animations for everything from monsters to chests and beyond. What Redviewer (80 kb) does is it lets you look at them... And that seems to be about it really. Although, you can be crafty and use "Print Screen" to take a screenshot, then do something like I've done below.

An example of RedViewer in action, looking at one of the many animated monster files.

So with this nifty program, you can open up ALL (and I do mean ALL) of the Arcanum Monster files and see them in animation. Then take screenshots and play around with them (maybe make an animated cow for your signature or web-site perhaps? :) ) It's a remarkably simple program to use (so before you ask, no, I won't be making a tutorial for it, sorry) so you should be able to get it up and running in no time.

Installation: By now, you probably want RedViewer. So, to get it, download the zipped version from my web-site (NOTE: The original version comes as a ".ace" file, which needs a program like WinRAR to open it. I made it a .zip, mainly because more people can open ".zip" files with no problems). Redviewer.zip (80 kb)

Once you've downloaded it, unzip it and run it. It's as easy as that (well, it was for me anyway). Then, if you have Arcanum Undatted and you've got the ".art" files lying about somewhere, use RedViewer to browse to them and open them up. Voila! If ANYONE has ANY problems with this program, DO NOT bug me about it. There is a readme.txt file included in the ".zip" file which will give you the e-mail address of Red, so you can bug him with all your questions (He is so going to kill me for that). Basically, the program is designed to do a few more things than look at Arcanum files and bugs MAY be in there somewhere, so be forewarned.

Contacting me with Problems: If you're having trouble with a section of the Amtut Tutorial or for some reason your mod just doesn't work. You can either e-mail me at darkunderlord@hotmail.com in which case you might be lucky enough to get through (I lose a few e-mails apparently, my inbox is clogged up with spam that I have to keep removing, don't worry, I'll find ways around that soon enough) OR, better yet, ask me your question in the Terra-Arcanum Modding and Scripting Forum (The second to last forum at the bottom there). That way, if anyone else has the same or similar problem, they can just check the forum and see if I've already answered it for someone else. I do prefer it if you use the forum, as otherwise I have to check my hotmail account every day, which is something I don't always get a chance to do.

Revamped Amtut Part 2: The revamped Amtut Part 2 is yet to be completed. I'm hoping all of you who have only just started reading Amtut aren't too confused by it all. You see, at the end of Part 1 version 1.2 I tell you that in Part 2, I'll tell you how to undat a .dat file. Only at the moment, I don't. That's because Part 2 is still the old version 1.1 Part 2, not the shiny new Part 2 yet. Anyway, I am working on it, and IT WILL BE UPDATED soon enough.

Terra-Arcanum: Yes, Terra-Arcanum has returned from its journey into the void. So if you're looking for a one stop shop of useful Arcanum info, hop on over to http://www.Terra-Arcanum.com and take a peek around. Special thanks to Calis for getting the site back up :)

Troika Games: I'm not sure if anyone's been over to Troika's web-site lately (if not, click the picture in the top left hand corner of this web-site), but you'll see that they now have 32 people working on 2 seperate games. Here's hoping they're both sweeeeet RPGs (or something even better... Either way, just as long as they're good and not as buggy as Arcanum :) I also hope they come with some sweet modding tools :D ).

Amtut Part 1 Updated: Now, onto the reason for this sites existence, namely Amtut. I have upgraded Amtut Part 1 into Version 1.2. A slightly re-written version of Amtut Part 1 so that it answers questions like "Where are my files and folders? I have the latest patch but all I have is a '.dat' file?". Yes, I have 50 e-mails asking me that question. Now, by putting it in part 1 of Amtut, I shouldn't get anymore :) It kinda defeats the purpose of a tutorial if everyone starts asking you the same questions over and over again, so I got off my butt and updated Amtut. I also added in a bit more and changed around a few more things in there, so be sure to give it a skim over just in case.

Complete Amtut Re-write: Due to the upgrade of Part 1, I am now in the process of re-writing the rest of the existing Parts of Amtut (Part 2, 3 and the bit of 4) so that it all makes more sense and has all the right things in the right places. I'm also fixing it up by adding in a lot of things that I didn't know about when I first wrote those chapters. This is going to take time but will make it a lot less of a headache when I explain things like World Maps later on. I didn't know how to make a World Map when I started Amtut and now that I know, I've realised I have to change some things. So this big re-write will not only finish Amtut off, so that there is a complete Tutorial to Arcanum Module Making, it will also update and fix a few bugs that are in the existing version.

List of Things to do: This is my list of things to do, so that you can all stop bugging me. :)
1) Re-Write & Update Part 2 of Amtut.
2) Re-Write & Update Part 3 of Amtut.
3) Complete & Update Part 4 of Amtut.
4) Complete Part 5 of Amtut.
5) All work on my Arcanum Module "Grayhills" has been suspended until Amtut is completed.
6) All work on "Arcanum Poker" has been suspended until Amtut is completed.

What this means: Essentially, this means a few things. 1, it's going to mightily piss off the French. Sorry Triblonto, I know you're translating Amtut into French for the French Modding communities benefit, but Amtut needs to be fixed and finished. Don't worry too much though, the changes I make shouldn't be too major. I'll only be slightly re-wording some parts while others will just be shipped into later parts and chapters while some important info will be finally added in to the right place. 2, my mod will not be finished this year. I seriously doubt my abilities to finish ANY of my Arcanum modules this year. So instead of working on them, then working on Amtut a bit, then working on my modules some more, I'll instead be focusing COMPLETELY on Amtut. I want to get it over and done with once and for all. Hopefully, some time before October, which will be the 1 year anniversary of Amtut.

GOAL: Complete ALL parts of Amtut before October 2002.

Now if you'll all excuse me, I have some writing to do.....

If you've been over to http://www.terra-arcanum.com lately, you'll notice that you can't actually get in. Well, there IS a reason for that. You see, the web-site host of Terra-Arcanum ,Sector31 Network have closed. Now, because of that, Calis (the guy who actually runs Terra-Arcanum, besides the fact that there are about 20 people on the staff...) is trying to get the site back up. Right now as we speak, he's probably desperately trying to get the site back up (or he could be jacking off. Either one). However, it has been about a week now and apparently Calis is having a few problems. Problems that *might* (I use the word cautiously) spell the END of Terra-Arcanum!!!!

Now, before you start running around like a cat with it's testicles cut off screaming "We're doomed! We're doomed!", please keep in mind that Calis is doing everything he can to get the site back online. In fact, I'm fairly confident that by the time I get off my lazy arse and post this news item up, the site will actually be back online (That's how slow I am with these things). However, if it's not, remember that there IS another Arcanum web-site out there that you can visit in the meantime, Dimensions of Arcanum. DoA is a great site run by some of the people who frequent the Sierra Arcanum Community Forums. Dimensions of Arcanum also have their own forums which you can visit as well. So, just in case you were wondering where Terra-Arcanum was, don't worry, it's down at the moment, but it should be back shortly. If you need an Arcanum fix though, or maybe some mods to download or some other files, be sure to check out Dimensions of Arcanum.

Oh... Calis, in case you're reading this.... I TOLD YOU SO. Next time the host goes down, try to pay attention. *BIG CHEESY GRIN* *DarkUnderlord grabs his things and quickly runs off into the forest singing "I was right and you were wrong, I'm gonna sing the I was right song" before Calis can get a hold of him*

Legal Disclaimer: DarkUnderlord means no harm by the above sentence and means it only in jest. If any offence is taken and those hurt wish to sue, please give DarkUnderlord ample notice so that he may flee to Mexico, or Spain. Apparently the weather is better in Spain. Particularly in Majorca....

Amtut: Yeah, yeah.... I know, I know... Everyone wants Amtut..... Well, I'm working on it! I'm working on it!! In actual fact, if you see me in IRC, or you read a post I make on a forum somewhere, tell me or post a reply saying: "Oi!!! YOU LAZY SON OF A HALF-ORC!!! GET BACK TO WORK ON AMTUT!!! NOW!!!". It'll be like an extra incentive.

I've uploaded two files to the resources section today. Namely, Prototype Editing Docs and Tile Set Information. The hex-editing files have some info in them about hex-editing the ".pro" files. If you don't know, those are the files that deal with the item prototypes. By hex-editing them, it is possible to alter the weapons and so on in Arcanum. The Tile Set info docs are some useful info for those of you who'd like to know a bit about the tilesets (placing Terrain) in WorldEd. Basically, they tell you what terrain can fit in with what without making a water barrier in-between as well as some info on putting docks together.

Apart from that.... I have been working a bit on Amtut. The chapter on quests *might* be done in another week or two (with any luck). So look out for that. Also, I've been making my own mod (as usual) except this time, what I'm making I'll be able to release as a stand-alone add-on/hack for Arcanum. It's a game of Poker that will replace the game of Gentleman's Dice that the Tarant Dock Workers play. Just give me some time to actually finish the damn thing first though and with the way I'm going, that could be another month. You see, it seems Arcanum's Script Editor isn't really that powerful.... It lacks array controls and all sorts of really nice powerful statements that I could really use for this mod. So instead, I have to string together a whole bunch of IF statements. So far, the thing includes 1 dialogue file of about 2000 lines of dialogue (for all the cards) and 5 script files that are about 80-100 lines each and still growing. Anyway, you'll hear more about it once it's done.

As a final note. It's been interesting to watch the page counters increase on the welcome page. It seems everyone who comes to this site just visits the welcome/default page. If you look at the web-counters at the bottom of every page, you can see that whilst the welcome page, amtut and the modules page have all increased fairly steadily, it seems the news page and the other pages don't go up all that often. So.... Hopefully someone out there is actually reading this news. :)

Guestbook: First of all... I'd like you to all take note of the new link on the left hand side of this page. That's right, there's now a Guestbook! No... I didn't do something fancy and go and code one myself in PHP. Instead, I borrowed it from Lycos HTMLGear (See the little picture link on the left there). Feel free to sign it as you wish. Hopefully, I'll get some nice heart warming thank you's like I've been getting in the e-mail recently. :) Anyway, feel free to sign away.

Commercially Released Mods: On a different subject, how many of you would be willing to pay for about 16 decent mods that have been compiled onto a CD? (I would make a web-poll to ask about this.. But I really can't be bothered...) Because making a decent Arcanum mod takes a considerable amount of time, I'm currently proposing the creation of a mod CD. Made up from mods by various modders, it would be available in your local computer store. As you all know, making an Arcanum Module can be a pretty long and difficult task. The only reward being that smile on your face when people tell you that "Your module r0xs!" :) We also know that a full Arcanum Module with End Game Slides, Movies and Town Maps can weigh in at well over 20 megabytes. A size that makes them quite formidable to download for those of us with slower internet connections. :( Well... Fear not, for there is now a small speck of hope at the end of the long dark tunnel. I, DarkUnderlord, "God of all things WorldEd" (I was given that title...), real name Martin D.C. Schahinger, contacted someone at Sierra with the following proposal:

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Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
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I hope you can help me. I'm a big fan of Arcanum and some other people and myself would be interested in using the Arcanum editing tools to make some of our own Arcanum modules for commercial release. Basically, we were kind of hoping that we could make the mods, and then Sierra would compile them onto a CD and commercially release them in local computer stores. We were kind of hoping to do it this way so that we could get a share of the profits made from the sale of the add-on CD. That way, we kind of get a small reward for all our spare time spent making the modules.

Do you know anyone at Sierra who could help us, or even if Sierra would be interested in doing something like this?

Martin Schahinger

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(Yes I know, I think I over did it with the "kind of" and "hoping" comments....)

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RE: Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura (Replied in UNDER a day... Pretty darned impressive I think...)
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Thanks for your interest in Arcanum! This is not an unheard of proposition, though it is very, very rare. It is certainly possible that Sierra would do such a thing, but again, it's not something we do very much. In general, MODs are released free as added value for our games, it's what drives the community and leads to a longer life for the game.

If, however, your MOD is of sufficient quality, it's something we would consider. You should create the MOD, then send it to us for evaluation. We would not, however, consider such proposals unless we are given a final MOD.

Okay, so that's pretty much it. Here's the big idea though, all of us mod makers make our mods. Basically, whatever mods are finished by say, near the end of this year (2002), we then make a list and I e-mail the contact again, asking what we should do with them, in terms of sending them to him, or if Sierra is even interested. I'd have to point out that the mods could weigh a fair bit... (If there are a total of about 20 mods, at about 20 meg each... That's a bit... 400 meg...) Now, the response could be:

1) No not interested. Just release them on the net.
2) Yes, interested, DON'T release them on the net at all, just send them to us.
3) Yes, interested and feel free to release them for free download on the net as well.

From there, things like payment etc... Would have to be worked out.. (Don't even ask me how much that'd be or how that'd work.. I've got NO idea...) But with any luck, everyone's mods are put onto a CD and released in local computer stores for about half the price of a new computer game. My favourite idea as the name for the mod-pack at this stage is "Arcanum Worlds"

So that's it. This is just something to keep in mind as you make your mods. Basically, there are no guarantees and the whole thing could fall in a heap. But, for now, just soldier on, make your mods and we'll see what happens.... If you feel the need to talk to me about this or if you have any questions you'd like me to ask Sierra, in terms of legal problems or copyright issues, then contact me on either darkunderlord@hotmail.com (I may lose your e-mail here, I get about 40 junk mails a day, and it's hard to sift through them all) or darkunderlord@email.com (A new address I've set up. It's spam free at the moment...)

So, basically, the idea is that the modders (us lot) would get a percentage of returns from the sale of the mod CD. Hopefully, it would make enough money that some of us could just stay home and make Arcanum mods all day.... (That's a joke by the way. That'll never happen...) Now.. Before you get too excited (or appalled) it is ONLY an idea so far. Sierra are yet to make any sort of final decision seeing as we have to send them our mods first. As such, they may say NO. In that case, the project is off.. If, on the other hand, they say yes, then.... WOOHOO!!!

Martin D. C. Schahinger (DarkUnderlord)
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Moo... Moo... I'm a Troika cow.

Yes! That's right I made a HUGE (14 kb) update to the site today!! Woohoo! Lot's of work there! Well, okay, so I've been working on my own mod a lot.... Anyway, the file that a lot of people have asked for is up in the resources section. Description.mes is really useful for 'creating' items in people's inventories. So, if perhaps, you'd like to add in a 'salesman' who sells items by request (without the need for barter) like in my Grayhills Mod (General Store salesman standing outside the Sleepy Hollow), then this is the file you need. It's broken up into handy section headings so you can (hopefully) find the prototype number you want. I hope someone will find it useful.... I mean, it WAS a big update.... :)

Here's a direct link for all you slackers that can't be bothered looking in the resources section: Description.mes

Amtut Has Moved: I've made the decision to end Amtut's association with Terra-Arcanum. As such, the site http://www.terra-arcanum.com/~amtut will be no more. Instead, this site http://users.senet.com.au/~dbschah (which is the site you're looking at now) will be the OFFICIAL (that's right, O-fficial) site for the Amtut Tutorial. I've decided to do this because of three things.

1: This site is free (I get 5 meg of free web-space provided with my dial-up internet account from my ISP). Provided I don't generate a certain amount of traffic (1000 hits per day) then they won't charge me for it. On average, I'm only getting about 100 hits per day, so I have no fear of that (yet)....
2: I don't NEED any ads on this site.
3: Because I don't NEED ads, I get to make up my own funny Arcanum-related ads :) As such, if you make up your own Arcanum-related ad (selling a product that is from the world of Arcanum), then I'll be quite happy to display it on this site free of charge (Eventually, I'll make up some PHP code [as soon as I figure out how] that randomizes the ads so that you don't see the same one each time. Then I can cycle through a list of ads that people have made). Feel free to make the ad using any program you know (Animated gif, Flash etc... The 'Mr Skull' ad above was made with 'Macromedia Flash 4.0').

For those of you who are regulars, you might have noticed something a little bit different about this site... Yes! That's right! I've added in this new text!! But... As well as that, I've put in a snazzy background (The Arcanum World Map cloth texture, which I just cut-out and 'borrowed' from the World Map itself) and I've added in a whole lot of other stuff as well.

I now have a welcome page that tells everyone who stumbles across this site about what's here, and where they can find anything that they might be looking for. I've also added in a new 'Arcanum Modules' section. Seeing as new mods are starting to be released, I thought it might be nice if there was a page dedicated solely to those mods and where you can download them. As well as a brief description/review of each mod (when I get around to it).

Now, why the whole site re-design? Well, Tonurics, the Head WebMaster from The Tarant Daily (which seems to be working fine now, by the way while Terra-Arcanum is the one that's down), sent me a bit of code about style sheets.... I kind of got carried away from there :) If you haven't noticed, I have 'borrowed' a bit of code from The Tarant Daily as well. The borders for the tables and the concept of tables embedded within tables within tables... Those are some things that I didn't know you could do, so I just copied some code, figured out the bits I want, and walla!

Facades List: Dgale has been working on a complete, descriptive list of ALL the facades. It's a big list (About 25 MB) because it also includes pictures of the Facades. Very useful if you want an easy way to look through the Facades and find the one you want. I have a link to it in the Resources section and at the moment, the list is up over here: http://audiopropaganda.com/arcanum/af_zips.html

Troika - Arcanum Mods: Troika, the creators of Arcanum, have created 6 new mods for Arcanum (Well, they say six, but I only found 5. Hellgate seems to be missing, or am I just blind?). Anyway, head on over to Dimensions of Arcanum and follow the links to the mods from there. Unfortunately, the mods are up on fileplanet which means you have to create a log in so you can get them. It's stupid, I know and I'm not the only one who hates fileplanet... Also, the mods are 32 Meg. I did have plans on putting the mods for download up on this site, but they're just too big. So you'll have to suffer the pain of fileplanet...

R.I.P. Gamestats: The Tarant Daily is no more :( Unfortunately, gamestats, The Tarant Daily host, has died. They're having major technical problems and as such, The Tarant Daily takes about 15 mins to load. If you do manage to wait that long, there's more info about the closure on their site. Incidentally, if some of the admin staff from The Tarant Daily would like to help a certain person by designing a really nice web page for the Amtut Tutorial.... I'd be most appreciative :) Actually, I wouldn't mind a specific modding forum on this site seeing as VN Boards have gone to the crapper (some merge with 'IGN') and The Tarant Daily has collapsed. The only forums left now are at Terra Arcanum and the Official Sierra Forums (plus I *think* there's a forum over at Dimensions of Arcanum).

Amtut Tutorial: By now, some of you may have noticed that the Amtut tutorial has stagnated. The reason for this is because I've been working on my own mod and learning a few more things about WorldEd in the process. As such, some of the things I say in the tutorial seem laughable at best (Particularly that bit about a 5 x 5 sector map. WAAAY too small...). Now, I AM continuing with the tutorial BUT it will take a considerable amount of time because I would like to finish my module first. My mod is still about 3 months away but I will be working on the tutorial at the same time and updating this page with new parts. BUT... The layout of the tutorial will change. So far, I've been writing it as a tutorial in the sense that you're following almost exactly what I'm doing. I think I'll redesign it so that instead of being a tutorial, it becomes more of a "How To". The idea is that the tutorial will be broken up into small parts under the headings of what that part deals with. Essentially, the tutorial will just become a series of things like "How to Build a Town", "How to make a Quest", "How to Make a Rumour" etc... So that you don't have to wade through chapters and chapters of other info to get to the bits you want.

Sounds and XP Lists: I've made some helpful lists for the resources section of this site. They are the FULL list of sounds that you can use in your module as well as some info about the experience points gained for doing certain things. These lists are for those of you who haven't undatted Arcanum (Actually, I suppose they're also helpful if you have undatted Arcanum as well because it is fairly easy to find a sound you want rather than opening all of the mes files seperately).

Grayhills Alpha: Seeing as my Grayhills mod is still about another 3 months away, I've decided to release an incomplete Alpha version. Download it from here: Grayhills Alpha. Now, you may well be asking why I've done this instead of waiting until it's finished. Well, for starters, TIME is becoming a BIG problem. I DO have a day job and as such, I only get about an average of 2 hours per day to work on all things Arcanum. BUT, the main reason for releasing an Alpha is for testing. If you find any bugs in the mod, e-mail me so I can fix them. Also, I have some artists making end game slides for me and they need an example of the mod to help them out. As well as that, there are some scripts used in my mod that may be useful to those of you who are making your own mods. Feel free to use the scripts that you can, just as long as you satisfy my ego and give a mention to me, DarkUnderlord, somewhere in your mod or in a related text file.

TIME: Currently, there are a few things that I want to do in regards to Arcanum. They are to complete the Amtut tutotial, make some more useful lists for the resources section, complete my Grayhills mod and work on The Killer Inside module with Lord Davidian and DjUnique (Just a note, I had NOTHING to do with the demo of TKI, that was all the work of Lord Davidian and DjUnique. I joined the team AFTER the release of the demo). Now, because of these things that I'm working on, I DO NOT have the time to help anybody else out with their mod. I will occasionally answer questions in some of the forums but I will not be able to devote any significant time to anybody elses module. As such, I have unfortunately had to pull out of a few projects. I'm sorry about this. If I was getting paid for making mods then you'd have my undivided attention (I reckon $US10 an hour is reasonable, considering it's my spare time I'm using :) ). BUT, unfortunately, I can only do so much, so I think it's best to focus on those things and get them done first, before taking on any other projects.

Now is your chance to try the 4 quest demo of a new Arcanum module being made by Lord_Davidian, DjUnique, Morbius, Flipz and myself, DarkUnderlord. There is a link to the download as well as installation instructions below.

Are you prepared to enter the very depths of hell itself in order to bring this elusive and maniacal madman to justice? Could there be more to the plot then meets the naked eye? Why prostitutes? Ok, because there is just so damn much room for seriously funny s**t when dealing with prostitutes! Be the hero (or even the villain) of the widely talked about and unique mod series: "The Killer Inside". Coming soon to a hard drive near you!

The Killer Inside is a unique single player Arcanum mod which can best be described as a Jack The Ripper spoof with a few surprise twists and turns here and there. The player is Yotland Scard's newest Detective in the large city of Nodnol. His/her appointment as Detective is probational and the player must prove himself in the field. What better way to do it then to hunt down the VERY elusive serial killer, Jack The Riddler? That is all I can tell you without spoiling it.

Here is the link: http://www.terra-arcanum.com/~amtut/mods/killerinside_demo.zip
If you have your own site, feel free to either link here to this site, or make a direct link to the module zip.

Installation: Once downloaded (It might take a while as everyone rushes to get it), unzip the .zip file onto your computer somewhere. Then, copy the "KillerInside_demo.dat" file into your 'Arcanum\modules' directory. All you have to do then is load Arcanum, click on the 'Options' menu and scroll through the 'Modules' until you find 'KillerInside_demo'. Then click OK and start a new game!

Keep a look out for the first of many chapters of "The Killer Inside" coming early-mid January!

The first two very poorly written chapters of AMTUT part 4 are now up in the usual place (click the 'Arcanum Mod Making Tutorial' link up the top of this page). Part 4 has some planning tips for a module and innkeeper scripts and expert and master training. So far it is all very badly written. The reason for that is I'm taking a month off from Amtut (maybe two months) and instead I'll be working on the editdocs (download them from the resources or the downloads section of this site). I'll make HTML versions of them and give examples for ALL of the dialog codes and how you can use them. With the advent of the 'Festive Season' etc... This will end up taking me a month or so to do. Once that's done, I'll put the files up on this site and then continue with AMTUT.

I'm going to do this because the editdocs explain ALL the dialog codes which is really all you need to know for MOST of what you'll want to do for your module. I figure, that by explaining them, you'll understand what you can and can't do with dialog. But, with Christmas and everything right around the corner, like I said, it will take me some time. You can e-mail me on: darkunderlord@hotmail.com

I really hate to do this because Part 4 as it stands is APPALLINGLY written. Hopefully however, once 'Relative Visiting Season' is over, I can re-write it (again) and make it better. As well as continuing with everything else that I intend on putting in it. Like I said, expect 1, maybe 2 months before this site is updated again. You can use the time to FULLY plan out your own module :) (Trust me, module making is MUCH easier when you have a plan).

Welcome to my new site! This new page http://www.terra-arcanum.com/~amtut/index.htm is now the OFFICIAL home of my AMTUT Tutorial. The old freeyellow site will still remain as my home page (in actual fact, the old freeyellow site is where all the downloads are kept, rather than overloading this site). However, Amtut will only be available here. So, update all your bookmarks and tell all your friends to point to this new page http://www.terra-arcanum.com/~amtut/index.htm for the Arcanum Mod making Tutorial.

I'm sure you're all anxiously waiting for Part 4 of my tutorial. Well, The first few chapters of Part 4 are written but I haven't put them up on my site. Part 4 may take me another week or more to complete. This is because of a few things. First of all, I had to get this site up, so that took some time. Secondly, part 4 involves a bit more work than the other parts and as such is taking me longer to complete. The biggest reason as to why it's taken me so long however, is the fact that I re-wrote Part 4. I did have Chapters 1, 2 and 3 ready last wednesday but re-wrote (and re-designed) them because they weren't very clear. So, wait patiently for another week and see what happens :)

IMPORTANT DISCOVERY: I've made a very nice discovery. Whenever you add something to 'gamedesc.mes' I always thought you had to quit and reload WorldEd to make the new option/description appear. You DON'T have to do this. Instead, just go 'File --> Open Module' and choose the same module again and it will load in any new changes to the '.mes' files. So, whenever you add a description to 'gamedesc.mes' or any other file, just re-open your MODULE only in WorldEd without quitting and it will work. This is much easier than closing and re-opening WorldEd and waiting for it to reload.

While you're here, be sure to check out the Arcanum Links page. I haven't bothered putting up EVERY Arcanum site I've found. I've only put up the ones that are really useful. There are links to the 4 BIG Mod Forums if you have any questions, as well as links to the other IMPORTANT Arcanum sites such as the official Sierra Arcanum one. Also, check out the Arcanum Resources page. You will find an HTML version of the WorldEd Manual there (for those of you who have trouble reading the Official .doc version) as well as a few downloads and info on other stuff for Arcanum. As usual, if there are any problems, questions, comments or suggestions you can e-mail me on: darkunderlord@hotmail.com

I'd like to thank Zed Blacksword for posting this up on his web-site http://arcanum.gamestats.com from Chris Beddoes. There is now an EASY way to solve the WorldEd crisis that was gripping everybody with terror! (Dramatic aren't I?) You don't have to re-install Arcanum or un-install it or muck around with anything else. What you can do now is install the latest patch and then re-name 'WorldEd.exe' in the 'Arcanum\' directory to something like 'WorldEd2.exe'. Then, copy the OLD version of WorldEd (Version 1070) into your 'Arcanum\' directory. Then, whenever you want to use WorldEd to edit your maps, use 'WorldEd.exe' and NOT 'WorldEd2.exe'. It's as simple as that. If you haven't got the old version of WorldEd, then download it from here: WorldEd (Version 1070)

What's Wrong with the New WorldEd? (Patch Version 1074)
Well, the new patch fixed quite a few bugs in Arcanum as well as updating WorldEd. The new WorldEd also had some bugs fixed (which was nice) but there is one major gripe. The new WorldEd (Version 1074) compresses your module whenever you quit to test your module in Arcanum. Why is this a problem? Well, compressing your module every time just takes far too long when you've only made a simple change and want to check it out. Particularly when your module starts to get quite big, compression starts taking longer to do. With the old version, you could just save the map (which took all of 2 seconds) and then fire up Arcanum, check to see that what you made is working correctly and then quit and get back into WorldEd. There was also the problem that some people had where there modules where completely destroyed because they were not compressed as '.dat' files. The new WorldEd ONLY reads '.dat' files and will not recognise any modules that aren't compressed as '.dat' files. As such, it inadvertently destroyed some peoples work. Also, the only way to edit '.mes' files using the new Version is through WorldEd itself which can be quite annoying to load up everytime you want to make a simple change to a book or note that you have written.

So what do I do to fix WorldEd Then?
If you HAVE installed the latest patch (Version 1074) then:
1. Download the old Version of WorldEd.exe (Version 1070) (772 kb)
2. Rename 'WorldEd.exe' in the 'Arcanum' directory to 'WorldEd2.exe'
3. Unzip the old version of WorldEd.exe (Version 1070) (772 kb) that you just downloaded, into the 'Arcanum' directory
4. Whenever you edit your mods, use 'WorldEd.exe' (the OLD version) and completely ignore 'WorldEd2.exe' (the NEW version)

If you don't have the NEW patch and would like it, download it from the official web-site here: www.arcanum1.com

If you have NOT installed the latest patch (Version 1074) then:
1. You can either download and install the latest patch (Version 1074) then follow the above steps
2. OR, you can keep using the old patch (Version 1070)

If you don't have the OLD patch and would like it, download it from here: Arcanum Patch 1070 (English Version) (2.2 mb)

AMTUT PART 3 : In the midst of all of this, I have completed Part 3 of AMTUT. As usual it is in the Arcanum - Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura section. Part 3 contains basic dialog (apprentice training, trading, drinking and repairing) as well as how to create teleports/passages, put in traps and create mountain ranges. I have decided personally, to keep using the OLD version of WorldEd. As such AMTUT will continue to be written with regards to the old version. There are only slight changes between the new version of WorldEd and the old version, so if you really wanted to, you could use AMTUT with the new version of WorldEd. Provided that you expect some slight differences of course.

As always, you can e-mail me at: darkunderlord@hotmail.com