Realism

It seems it's the only possible in-game explaination. A little far-fetched, but there doesn't seem to be any other option.

Sneak experts propably yes, yet I believe the master status is reserved only for Albert Leek and possibly the Living One. And with or without it, it would be damn difficult up to impissible to sneak past dozens of tightly placed kites in the narrow corridors of the Black Mountain Clan. It it would be open spaces than no problem, but it's hard to sneak in tunnels where there isn't that much space to turn around. Ore golems - sure, they are that slow that even after they spot you they will chase you with the speed of 5 meters per hour and finally give up, but the kites?
The sneaking is the only in-game explaination indeed, but I just don't find it enough satisfying.

Wow. You're missing a lot of fun there, yes you are.

 

If that's a typo, it's superb.

DF, you've never played a mage? WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU, MAN! *shakes him by the shoulders*

 

:takes him a moment to ease the laughter:
Thanks for pointing it out, it made my day.
It was a typo. But not anymore, oh no. I hereby announce it a great neologism.

 

*bows* Being a writer has its advantages. The ability to spot weird shit and make fun of it is one of the better ones.

 

I also recommend trying a mage -- playing the game with different builds can really change the experience. I distinctly remember the first time i played a technologist, having already completed the game several times with neutral and magick-using characters. I was suddenly sucked into a world in which my eye was caught by every piece of junk lying around -- and most of it had a purpose!

Blatantly off-topic aside: Muro Lightning, perhaps the neologism has a place in beverage advertising? 'So Good, It's Impissible'

 

House of Lords Ale - So Good, It's Impissible

Man, that would define Stout! :lol:

 

Huh, for a second there I thought I was back in New Zealand. (Now a NZ maths class, that's some funny shit.)

 

I knew that seemed familiar! I just got caught up on Schlock Mercenary. I have been using his writing software for awhile, and really liked it, and completely missed the fact he wrote a webcomic.

Rroyo: I may soon have a brewing set up of my own... perhaps we ought to start producing Terra Arcanum Ale,* and other fine drinks?

*I think that has a bit better ring, no offense. Maybe then we'd make a House of Lords Lager, or some such....

 

I'm not sure if it would be that good for advertising. I mean impissible sounds, a little, well... painful. Like a constipation in your ureters.

 

DarkFool: Sounds good to me!

 

Updating the Realism thread. Be warned, quite a lot of reading ahead.
Some of the ideas were intended to appear in the very first post, but I simply didn’t gather all of my thoughts at that time, and after that a mix of laziness and random lack of fortune postponed the appearance of this list quite for some time. In a few places it will look like I’m arguing with myself, since I’m both pointing out shortcomings and finding out rationalizations for them.
Since the thread was honored with the "sticky" status and all, I wanted to add the list to the first post, but sadly it would exceed the maximum-characters-per-post limit (therefore I just added the link to this update instead). That actually works for this update alone as well, therefore I was forced to post it in two following parts. Enough of the technical rumbling, let's get down to business, shall we?

• The magic of your average glasses (Dedicated to Yuki)
  It is a well known fact that eyeglasses boost one’s perception when his PE<8, and reduce it otherwise.
  We have this average gentleman, Mr Whyte. Average also in terms of perception, since his PE=8. He owns a pair of obviously inapt glasses, which means his sight is better when he does not wear them. He always carries them along, however, just out of sentiment. One evening he drinks a glass or two of some quality wine at the Wellington Gentleman’s Club. It fogs his sight as well as his mind, to the degree of listening to the instigation of his good friend, Mr Wellington himself, who so badly wants to see how Mr Whyte would look in his eyeglasses. Just for the kicks, Mr Whyte decides to put his glasses on while being under ethanol's influence and then, eureka, his sight improves! The glasses! They do something!
  
• Time is not an issue
  I am known by the name of Loghaire Thunderstone. I am king of the dwarves, strong, wise and old. One of the oldest of my kind, to be frank. In order to prevent a terrible war, I was forced to give the elves of Quintarra the permission of banishing the dwarves of the Black Mountain Clan. From the very beginning I knew that my allowance equaled treachery, that it was betraying my Stone, and believe me, as old as I am, I had more time than anyone else to think about the nature of my own Stone and Shape. After the banishment, I decided to exile myself, and so for the last 50 or so years, I am a hermit in the Dreadful Dredge of Dreadfullness™ located in the Wheel Clan Mines. Once again, for the last half of a century I had hardly anything else to do than contemplating my actions, my duties, my faults and my Stone and Shape, be it while being alone or during one of my conversations with my son, Randver, who visits my solitude from time to time. There’s no way I could not get to know every possible point of view concerning my situation, and yet I decide to continue my exile.
  But what’s that? A visitor? But you’re not even a dwarf, and yet you dare to teach me about the Shape and the Stone, even though a mere hour ago you didn’t even know about its existence!? But what, you say the most banal phrase existing, namely that “I am the king, and in order to be true with my Stone, I should return to being the leader of my people”? And what do I do? Yes, I don’t even wait a minute to think that over, I instantly accept it as the truth, it’s an enlightenment, and even thought it is the simplest summary of my situation possible, I was not able to think about it for over 50 friggin’ years! Am I stupid or what!? Maybe let's just call it dementia and move on.
  
• Time is not an issue even more
  The Panarii. This topic actually divides into a few subsections:
  I. The name.
  It took 2000 years before one of our historians finally discovered the meaning of our their name. What were those all of those historians doing all day during, what, twenty ages?
  Possible rationalization: The dark elves kill a historian when he is close to revealing that truth. That must be a lot of killing.
  II. The witnesses.
  This is something even the historians weren’t able to notice. The Living One, after hearing about Saint Mannox’s ascension and the finding of “Nasrudin’s” remains, notices that the same elf by the name of K’an Hua was a witness of the ascension and the finder of the sarcophagus, and what is Gunther Willhelm’s reaction? Allow me to quote: “Why yes, it’s at least the same name. Let me look at the years… The discovery of the remains happened within a few years of the ascension of Saint Mannox. I never realised that, but you’re correct. That very well might have been the same person…” Say what? You didn’t realise that? How the hell did you become the Panarii’s head historian if you lack a basic ability of putting two and two together, silly boy? Please do tell how often do you blow K’an Hua and where did you learn to do it so damn well.
  Possible rationalization: Ditto, the dark elves kill a historian when he is close to revealing that truth. However, would it be even worth it in this case? But either that’s the truth or all of the historians were retarded, which wouldn’t be all that strange after seeing Gunther’s deduction problems. Maybe that's the point, hiring such lousy historians from time immemorial so that they will never be good enough to actually do their job?
  III. Finding out the truth.
  The truth behind the Panarii was a secret for 2000 years because of how well kept it was. Now, could, any sentence be even less true? The entrance to the catacombs is constantly guarded, yes. By a striking force of merely two guards. That’s actually a detail when we compare it with the fact, that there are two paths allowing one to enter the catacombs from the Caladon sewers, one of which is completely unguarded. No matter how did those entrances come into being, when, by who and for what purpose, they are there and in this situation there’s no way the secret could be held for two long, and surely not for 2000 years. The Living One is not the first being in history which is powerful enough to kill some monsters in the sewers while being nosy enough to find himself in that place in the first place.
  Possible rationalization: The entrance to the catacombs may be a simple one, but the dark elves kill anyone who enters them without permission, so the secrets are save. But then again, if they do so, how come the Living One had no problem with going in and out and staying alive? No one has even attacked him for this. And if he menaged to do this thing, so could everyone else… My own rationalizations are convincing me less and less.
  IV. K’an Hua himself.
  So both his body and behavior are in such a way hideously twisted that the Living One can sense an actual aura of evil around him. He surely wasn’t like that for all of his life, but still, he was the head of the Panarii from the very beginning and surely both average followers and priests would become suspicious of this “evil aura”. "We are a religion of peace and the fact that our leader looks like evil incarnate doesn't really change anything."
  Possible rationalization: There aren't that much people who really get to see him or situations when it happens, and for those few occasions he uses magic to hide his twisted evil appearance. But if so, wouldn’t it be easier for K’an Hua to have an old but not evil-looking dark elf pawn as the head of the Panarii, while he would actually be ruling the whole church from the backstage?
  V. Conclusion:
  This opinion is subjective, yet I think that in the “shortcomings vs rationalizations” confrontation, the shortcomings win. Their very nature shows that even when combined with the rationalizations, the whole thing is being done wrong. If the Dark Elves insist on continuing the existence of the Panarii Church (exactly how would leaving it be nowadays postpone the weakening of the Magickal Seals, eh? It's not like they're actively weakening them, they're just trying to make sure no one strengthens them), why not put dark elves on the positions of head archeologists and historians instead of having to keep an eye on people/gnomes/whatevers on those stands and murder them over and over again when they are too close to figuring out the simplest puzzles? I admit, the whole “Hey, lets say that the Panarii faith = Christianity, Nasrudin = Jesus, Panarii Temple = Vatican, K’an Hua = the Pope and lets go Dan Brown all over it!” * concept was an engrossing one, but those incoherences, plot holes and far-fetched rationalizations kill a lot of the fun coming from it.
  
  * Yes, I am aware that "The Da Vinci Code" was published two years after Arcanum’s release, but you get the point.

:CONTINUED IN THE NEXT POST:

 

:CONTINUING FROM THE PREVIOUS POST:

• Time is not an issue even more, AGAIN
  We are the great mages of Tulla. Our city was founded by Pelojian about two thousand years ago, and from that day, we have been gathering the best mages - therefore some of the most powerful minds – from all over Arcanum. Yup, 2000 years – that’s a lot of time and a lot of brainpower. But despite that, we were not able to figure out what is the meaning of the Mural of Enlightenment, not to mention that we weren’t able to deduce how do the plates with magick runes on them work, have no idea how to open those four small buildings in Tulla’s courtyard, nor do we know why Pelojian’s ghost appears every midnight. Not a clue for two thousand years, while a stranger solved all of those mysteries just like that. Are we dumb or what!? We should make friends with Loghaire, we have so much in common that perhaps we will get along after all.
  Possible rationalization: We, the Tulla mages, precisely know how do the Runeplates work, what does the Mural of Enlightenment mean and we ourselves have placed Pelojian’s poetry in those four buildings. We just know the prophecy, the fact that its fulfillment is vital to continuing the existence of Arcanum and we are aware that we must play dumb when a lace Living One’s description here: person appears in order not to screw up the whole thing, or else Arcanum will be DOOOOMED. :thundercrash:
  
• The joy of tax money (oh boy, this is my favourite one)
  My name is Preator. That would be King Preator for you, you filthy worm, you. Yes, "Your Loyal Majesty" will do, just be sure to say it in caps. Anyhow, it seems that my kingdom is, how to phrase it, not in its best condition. It’s falling apart, frankly. What would be more desired in this harsh situation than tax money from one of my provinces? There’s pretty much no such thing. Yet I obviously did absolutely nothing for the past two years to not only receive the mentioned tax money, but even to make sure if Blackroot suddenly didn’t perish from the very face of the world for some odd reason. Like I had anything more important to care about in this nearly decayed city of Dernholm. No matter, let’s just say this is all because of me being a lousy king.
  
  But, what is this? A mysterious wanderer visits me and asks for a job? Why how splendid, I will ask him to bring me back my taxes! I could of course send an expedition leaded by Garrick Stout - the melee master himself, who is after all working for me – to do the job, but no! I choose a complete stranger, of whom I know nothing. He could be a noble gentleman, but then again, he could be a lunatic who has slaughtered every single man, woman and chicken (the chickens, by the gods, the chickens!) in Shrouded Hills, but why should I care about something as trivial as that? Nooo, I not only am not worried if he will be able to get to Blackroot (I put no effort in providing him with any armor, weaponry or escort so he could defend himself against the wild beasts), I’m not afraid of the fact that on his way back he can run into an ambush of any bandits that are out there or, yes, simply get killed by wild animals, knowing both of those cases will end in me losing my precious taxes forever. Not to mention how he could simply run away with the taxes, since I have absolutely not warranty of this individual’s honesty, nor do I show any interest in it. Nah, he is still a better candidate for the job than Garrick Stout, honestly. So eventually this stranger has gone to complete the quest I gave him. Naturally, I did not give him any letter sealed with my royal seal or anything like that, so that he could prove the Mayor of Blackroot that he indeed speaks in the name of King Preator the Retarded. However this appears to not be a problem because…
  
  …Howdy! I am the Mayor of Blackroot. I know nothing about you, oh mysterious stranger (you could have very well killed everyone in Shrouded Hills, etc), apart from the fact that you claim to speak in the name of King Preator. Actually, the only reason I give you the tax money is because you retrieved my dagger from a band of thieves (did you do it by stealing other objects for them and, perhaps, killing some innocent citizens in order to do so? See if I care!) and because you speak how the Tarantian guards are inefficient. I, of course, do not ask for any proof that you are indeed working for Preator, I simply believe what you say, because there is no chance that a stranger would lie to me in order to get a chest full of precious golden gold, right? Naturally, I won’t support you with any escort service or anything like that to make sure that the taxes will actually reach Dernholm, knowing how screwed would I be otherwise. Yup, once Blackroot becomes part of Cumbria once again, I’m gonna have to meet with Preator and Loghaire so we could play some intellectually demanding mind games together and praise our superior intellects, for Velorien's sake.

 

The Arcanum entry over at TVTropes has a few amusing ones.

 

Don't click that link, Caity, you need to pack... you have stuff to do... don't click the fucking link, it can wait! *click*

Sunnuva BITCH!

That page is hysterical.

 

I'm far from calling Christianity a religion of peace, equality and such, but damn, I can so see K'an Hua's voice speaking through him right now. I think that's how I'll be imagining him from now on.

Now, come to think of it, if Arcanum was a younger game, I'd say that K'an Hua is a parody of Christianity's Emperor Palpatine himself, but since it's as old (in this context) as it is, it's more than obvious that the Troika team had clairvoyants among them.