Neat things you found in Arcanum

I found something neat and (I think new) in Arcanum, so I thought I'd share. I guess if anyone else finds something new and neat, post it here for all our shared delight.

Anyway, I'm playing a social dwarf, for reasons that'll become clear when I post a build up of it. To get access to Gilbert Bates, rather than help out Cedric or get rid of the saboteurs at Bates' factory, I decided to go with the social option and convince the guard I was an "old friend". Upon going up to see Bates, he had some rather interesting things to say...





After selecting, "How dare you accuse me..."



Maybe this is what happens when you play a dwarf and go to Bates even without convincing the gate guard, but I don't remember that being the case (EDIT: Just did a quick test, and it seems unique to social dwarves). I thought it was pretty cool regardless, and a testament to Arcanum's great writing.

 

I mentioned elsewhere that I read there is apparently a legit way to keep Vollinger loyal without making him wait outside of T'sen-Ang, and here it is! All you need to do is the usual method of getting the Molochean Hand off your back while Vollinger is in your company (read both Jochaim's book in Stillwater and Kerghan's journal from the Stonecutter Clan)...













I've heard that if your party is too big, sometimes Vollinger's conversation won't trigger - so possibly tell one or two followers to wait somewhere in T'sen-Ang and save beforehand if you're worried about this. Vollinger is noteworthy in that he's one of only three followers who levels the Firearms skill (the other two being Sebastian and Franklin Payne), which is precisely why I was interested in him.

 

I've turned up something else in my never-ending search for weird things to do in Arcanum - turns out you can bump uglies with Lillian Misk. I did her quest to uncover who sold the info to Kendrick Wales, and with a charisma of 20 plus being a Persuasion master my character "turned on the charm"...





No more need to visit Madam Lil's for me!

 

Here's another quirky little one. Whenever you first visit Caladon with Magnus and ask him about the city, he'll tell you:



Typically later, returning with Loghaire, he'll confirm that the Royal Castle was designed by dwarves:



While Magnus might know much about dwarven names, or anything really, he does have an eye for their architecture. A small in-reference to be found in the game.

 

You should try taking Loghaire to Bates.

Note that this only works in the UAP, this quite big fully voiced exchange between them was never properly implemented in the release version. I'm quite proud of restoring the triggers for that bit.

 

I've tried it before and did it on my current playthrough too - I didn't think to mention it as through your patch I would say it's reasonably well known by Arcanum standards.

It was great work that you managed to get it restored (and other things I think like the Virgil-Maug dialogue IIRC). It's crazy that they didn't take the time to properly incorporate little touches like that, as it's those moments that really make the game memorable and noteworthy in terms of level of detail in the writing.

 

by the Drog will we not be seeing ur Arcanum UAP 2.0 anytime soon?

 

Playing female and trying to get into the Wellington Gentlemen's Club was quite surprising for me. I've run across the Vollinger dialog before in a couple play throughs and was shocked too he didn't betray me like everyone said. I also just created an account to say i smashed uglies with Mrs. Misk then saw you mention it as well. haha always surprising to get a lay outta no where. Also I think one that gets missed is convincing Laura in Tarant for Cassie's necklace that she could work for Maddam Lil's. Giving Ogdin on isle of despair a book instead of pit fighting is a nice touch too for the social character. I like how it gives a lil truth to the Ogre breeding program probably everyone gave up on after finding the crow is in danger.

This should be proof enough that every character that isn't <5 int or idiot savant should max persuasion and charisma. This also makes me mildly curious at the different options a "dumb" character can either bypass or get around because they are dumb.

Edit: How crazy would it be if there were different idiot savant speech options that still sounded dumb but weren't because you have a high intellect.

 

The only thing the Idiot Savant background does is report your Intelligence as 1 in dialogs and scripts. That's why e.g. the tech manuals become worthless and it's impossible to persuade Randver to give up the shortcut to Loghaire or pass any other scripted Intelligence check for that matter. Pretty much the only thing it's useful for is being able to cast spells and craft items while still having the low Intelligence dialog.

 

Welcome aboard! And yeah these are all good encounters, little nods and winks here and there that make the writing for Arcanum so enjoyable. Persuasive characters do seem to have a lot more dialogue, one of the weird persuasive options I came across recently (which I think also has something to do with aptitude... maybe) is that you can convince the Dark Elves at the Elven Ruins that you're an archeologist - and if you tell them that when you go away from there you will tell people to avoid the place they respect your honesty and let you pass.

I did have a look at Idiot Savant and some of the skill mastery dialogue as I thought it would be interesting. Disappointingly for some skills you can't get the mastery (Repair I think) and I think for a few others it reverts to regular mastery quest dialogue. It would be interesting to see what they say in some of the other persuasive options (though as Drog says, some like the Wheel Clan are barred).