being a dwarf ain't easy, aye?

Only yesterday I started playing this game and chose Lugard Bloodstone as my character. I just didn't want to create my own as I found it way too complicated. But I wanted to be technology oriented guy so this little fellow seemed an obvious pick for me

Now, as it comes to shaping up Mr Bloodstone (I'm not using any auto-level schemes) during early stages of the game, I would need a word of advice from you ol' beggars who beat the game playing as dwarf. I remember from Fallout (that was like 10 years ago or even more) that spending CP's can be tricky especially at the beginning when not knowing how the game works.

For example, I'd like to know whether I should develop my gun skills straight off or maybe melee weapons would be a better choice?

 

Personally I'd suggest going for straight up melee for your first playthrough - you can always diversify if want to play the game through a second time and try something different. Of course DE's advice is perfectly good, but it is more of a challenge!

In that respect I'd go for melee, dodge and herbology (only the first level of the latter early on). Healing salves from the first level of herbology can be hot-keyed (drag them to the slot by holding left click) and then you can use them on yourself by holding shift and pressing the corresponfding numbered button mid battle so you don't die! Ingredients for healing salves can be found in many places, but you can get ingredients enough for over fifty at the Crash Site alone - keep your eyes peeled! Getting electricity 2 is always useful, charged rings get your dexterity up and save more character points then they cost (using 2 rings gives you 4 points of dexterity at the cost of only 2 points going into electricity). When you get to Tarant (if you haven't heard of it yet, you will do soon enough) hook up with Magnus - you'll come across him during the main story quest. His "Mysterious Dwarvern Gauntlets" give strength and dexterity bonues to the dwarvern race only - maybe constitution too I forget - so either kill him for them or get him as a follower and take them off him (he whines at first but if you take them off him a second time he doesn't care).

That's really all the basics covered, and from there you can specialise in whatever you like. You can find a schematic for the Pyrotechnic Axe in Tarant if you look around hard enough, if you're not patient then running a search on this forum will turn it up or use gamebanshee.com. By most accounts of "What's Your Favourite Weapon" threads on this forum it's a favourite. Persuasion is also enjoyable for extra options in quests, and for most quests you'll only require at most 3 points. Enjoy!

 

Thanks guys for your prompt replies and hints. As it comes to guns vs melee issue - I'd rather stick to guns as I picked dwarf. I'll re-play this game as a different character for sure and then go for melee. I just believe there are some more suitable characters for mastering swords, axes, hummers and clubs

But now I got another problem, looks like I got stuck in Shrouded Hills. I cannot find a way to get rid of those thieves blocking the bridge:/ My only option is killing them but that's quite impossible for me - I just don't stand a chance with them. I'm an expert in firearms, I got some nice rifle and armor but still it's not enough to beat those bastards Any clues what I should do now?

 

A cheap way of dealing with them is dropping some railroad spikes on the ground (can be bought from Ristezze, also there was a couple in the cave at the crash site). Because of how the game works NPCs pick up anything they find on the floor, and if they don't have a weapon they'll equip it. Any sort of crappy weapon will do if you can't find railroad spikes, rusty daggers for example, and this will greatly hamper their combat effectiveness as for whatever reason their fists are more brutal than a sharp implement.

If you don't feel like being so cheap, then if you have dynamite or explosive grenades left from the cave at the crash site (also there's another stick of dynamite at the Bessie Toone Mine) that can soften them up a bit. If you have a CH of 9 Sogg will join you as a follower, again making things easier. The tactic I most commonly use however is to run away from them. If you buy and use some fatigue restorers and run away they'll tire before you, and when they slow to a walk a shot or two should be enough to knock them out. Unconscious prone targets are pretty easy to kill! I would recommend saving before this however as it's easy to lose one of them whilst running away and then you can't complete Owens' quest (however if you kill Lukan and take his key you would still be able to cross, even if you don't kill his half-ogre chums).

As non-violent means you can pay him, steal his key (if you have the skill) or persuade him (again if you have the skill, the dialogue to work this is a bit fiddly too so you might want to save beforehand again if this option is open to you). Off the top of my head, those are all the best ways of dealing with the thieves. In the future, if you go to them before Owens then you can also do an evil quest for them which will allow you to cross the bridge if you felt so inclined.

 

Been playing this game for years and years (and that beginning part of Shrouded hills more than other places *cough*) and I never once thought of doing that.

This game can still surprise me after all these years.* Must be why we like it so much.

*Alternate explanation: I'm retarded for not realizing this tactic a long time ago.

 

I wouldn't say you're retarded, I only found out about it from reading it here first! I guess I have too much time on my hands to trawl through the old threads on this forum.

 

Another tip for an edge in this combat: Buy a potion of haste from the gypsy. Assuming your tech aptitude is not too high, they still work, and always good value for a gunslinger.

 

Once again many thanks for all your tips guys, you're great. Actually, I decided to re-play all Shrouded Hills map as I luckily had a clean save. And this time went to those thieves first, completed quest from them and already got a key to the bridge now

But there's one thing that bugs me, I mean, I'm pretty much disappointed about my firearms skills, aiming and damage I can make. I thought that after becoming an expert I'd had it much easier to deal with enemies with my rifle (which cost me a small fortune). Also I don't know why I got so many misses - no matter whether melee or guns? Is it because of my stats, PE too low maybe?

And one more thing, I cannot understand why I cannot become apprentice in healing? Here's my current stats:





ps.
Jojobobo, if you could explain it to me how to exactly hot-key healing with first level of herbology (which I have already), I'd be more than grateful.

 

Those potions are actually good for any character and temporarily add 20 to speed no matter the character's aptitude.

Perception affects the accuracy of bows, but it does not affect the accuracy of guns or melee weapons, though you need to invest in PE anyway to be able to add point to firearms.

The most important factor affecting accuracy of guns/melee weapons is their appropriate skill.

Some other possible situational factors: low lighting, not meeting the weapon's minimal strength requirement, distance, obstacles, magick vs tech penalty.

 

Things that affect to hit percentage with a gun are firearms skill, the distance the enemy is away and if they have magickal aptitude. EDIT: Also, what Muro said. The fine revolver (2nd level of gun smithy) is a good early game weapon and gives to hit bonuses to boot, so you could try using that and moving slightly closer to your enemy. You've got to remember you're using the high res patch so you can see enemies at a greater distance, on standard resolution you would be closer anyway before you started shooting at them.

You need to put either a character point into healing, or get a bonus to it to get apprentice training. EDIT: Which is the exact same thing as DE said.

Here I annotated your screenshot:



I don't know if you've actually managed to craft anything yet, which is why I highlighted the schematics button. Click that, navigate to herbology, and then if you have a karuda stem and a ginka root in your inventory click the obvious button on the page and you'll make five healing salves. Then bring up your inventory, left click and hold on one of them and drag it to one of the slots I've highlighted. If you put it in the first one as I've shown on the screenshot then holding shift + 1 will use it on yourself, and just pressing one will bring up a pointer that will allow you to use it on whoever you want (Virgil, yourself anyway, etc.). I think that's about the best I can explain it without taking some screenshots myself.

To save on weight, only craft healing salves when you need them - the herbs weigh only one stone each (I think) whereas 5 healing salves weigh 25 stone (again, this may not be correct). You can also use hot-keys to change weapons, use spells, go into sneak or use lockpicks - anything really. If it's a spell or skill and not an item you want to hot-key click and hold the right mouse button instead of the left. I like to dump large items like dread armour in there to free inventory space.

EDIT: By the time it took me to compose this there were already two responses, nevermind!

 

I got no idea why actually I didn't know about it? I thought that I just needed my main stats to be at required level and that's all. Anyway, many thanks for that info.

And as it comes to healing, since I can make those healing salves (btw, I owe you Jojobobo a pint of ale for your explanations - it works like a charm - thank you very much) and they seem to do their job quite good, do I need to spend CP's on healing at all?

Now as I know everything regarding guns/melee I'd like to ask you guys about non-combat skills and schematics. Which ones are really crucial for me and which ones I shouldn't even touch?

And one more thing, I'd like to play this game with as few NPC's as possible. No more than 3 would be great, but will I be able to do so?


EDIT:

And how much that would be? Something like 100pcs or rather more than 200?

 

And that's exactly what I'm gonna do

Thanks for this - it's always nice have better dialogues. I bet, it'll be very useful thing.

Ok, and what about skills like: pick lock, repair (IIRC, those two were must-haves in Fallout), and all those thieving skills - no need to invest in them?

Thank you for this tip. I was just about to spend some CP's on DX (as it's on 7th level only) but now I see I won't have to I'll get those Charged Rings as soon as possible.

I must say that I'm starting to have some serious doubts about that. I mean, I'm struggling to kill most of those strange creatures I come across.* But maybe it's only at this early stage of game? I just hope that there's gonna be many quests in Tarant that will give me tons of XP's and help to make a half-dwarf half-god out of Lugard

1000?! But I guess you're talking about some later gameplay... after Tarant maybe? BTW, I even haven't seen any dungeons yet.


EDIT:
* - for example, I can't complete that Portal quest because those void lizards are too powerful for me It's just beyond me how possibly I could deal with them at this stage?

 

You also could lie to bridge bandits that you are from thieves guild and they would give you keys and some gold without fighting.
So, it worth to increase persuasion to expert level because it will net you 5 followers and unlock alot of new dialogue lines.

Repair was useful skill?
Last time I played, only speech, pick lock and small guns were must-have skills.
Unlike Fallout though, you can play as full fledged thief in Arcanum.
It's worth to put points in prowling, you are pumping PE already.
Pick locks and pick pockets aren't very useful to max, you can play without stealing at all and everything that can be pick locked can also be destroyed (alt + click, just so you know).

Actually he isn't.
First quest from Bill Gates will be very long dungeon crawl, so it would be wise to amass ammunition and healing salves beforehand, to save your nerves, at least.

Use the trap on portal and they cease to spawn.
Pump your explosive discipline to make stun grenades, they are super effective throughout the game.

 

Everyone's being so nice in here I have the urge to shit all over somebody, but my mood is ruined since I laughed at Jojobobo's "Stylish red beard" joke.

Dammit.

 

No no no, it was Fallout (or Fallout 2). Of course repair wasn't as useful as lockpick but IIRC, there were some quests that required fixing some broken stuff. On the side note, there's no such thing as Fallout 3... at least for me.

I know I'll need to use that trap but first I need to get to this portal. And on my way to it there are some nasty lizards that I cannot kill. My both melee and firearms skills are only at apprentice level so my aiming just sucks. And also I got only some poor weapons (damage 2-9, both sword and gun) so the truth is I need to run for my life every time I encounter creature that is on level 10 or higher.

Regarding stun grenades and explosives - thanks for the tip but I'll save it for another game. I already decided to go for guns and a bit of melee so don't want to waste CP's on throwing.

That doesn't sound good to me at all I guess, I'll need to find a way to become master at firearms real quick or I'll stuck in Tarant for ever;/

A couple of things I'd like to ask if I may (before Philes changes his mood

1. As my character is technology oriented (60pts on Tech Meter) does it mean I cannot use some magical stuff like armors, helmets or swords? I just noticed that Wise Woman in Shrouded Hills has many nice things.

2. Should I care about that Good/Evil Alignment Meter? I got -9 now and don't know whether and how it's gonna affect my gameplay?

3. What is the main resource for getting useful stuff in Arcanum? I mean, I'll find all I need in shops or most likely in those dangeons for example? BTW, in general, is making lots of money hard or easy task in this game?

4. Whom should I replace Virgil with as his magic healing stopped working on me?

5. I haven't found any schematics so far (not a single one) - I'm not looking good enough or they're just not available at this stage?