PLOT for Arc 2.

May I put my two pennies in?
What if we change the board a little. Instead of civil war or what not what if it started like this...
Video Clip-
Old style boat approches a white beach. Strange ceatures step out of it.
There skin is made of dark greens focus in on heads, which now show that they are lizard like creatures.
End Video Clip-
The Lizalfos (if you willl) rampage the various cities of arcanum, Magick and Tech both try to defeat them alone. In vain. You are a guardsman, You must defend your people, the people of arcanum. So you venture out to uncover the mysteries of the other parts of your world; past the great seas. Your adventure takes you to many other cultures (and nice, pretty new spells and weapons) as you unfold the mystery of the Lizalfos.Very much like the way the first Arcanum worked except on new soil, new things to discover and a new mission. When you finally find the solution (whatever it may be) you return to your homeland, only to find it now controlled almost entirely by the lizard people. You flee into the mountains where you find the last peoples of Arcanum. Men, Orcs, Elves and Dwarves inhabit this place; forgetting all differences. You tell them how to defeat the lizards and inspire them to go to war, they go ahead of you while you tend to your wounds. On the way to the battle you pick off the Lizalfos that they missed (a way of keeping massive amounts of people from being in one scene) and meet a strange person. The person turns out to be the character form the first story, although he/she never really says it. He/She is clocked so no features or genders show, but the person tells you it's story, which is the story of the first Arcanum (which is how you tell). The person realizes danger is near so the person teaches you an ancient spell or gives you an ancient device (depending on wether your Magickally inclind or opposite). This Magick/device is the most ancient Megick/Device in all of Arcanum It gives you one wish at the cost of your life. You hurry to the battlefield only to find everyone dead. You face off against many of the creatures then are affronted by a giant Lizalfos which is there leader -------- (enter name here) you face of against him. After killing him you realize you are all alone on he entire continent of Arcanum. You take your life to bring every city of Arcanum and every citizen that died at the hands of these strange creatures back to life. End.

 

A bit too good. No room for evil players. But nice all the same.

 

Not that I think it's unsalvageable, but I have a few issues with that.

1. Sounds a whole lot like Warcraft.
2. Too linear. What happens if you don't want to gather the army?
3. The first Arcanum had a variety of endings. Which one soes the character relate?
4. Do the Lizard people get along with the lizard people already inhabiting Arcanum? The Bedokaan can't negotiate the cold blooded dreams with them?
5. What makes the Lizalfin so badass that they just roll over Arcanum? Arcanum has a pretty advanced culture with both and tech and a lot of tough armies.
6. If killing yourself is essentially inevitable, it doesn't seem like much of a sacrifice, and thus is lot less interesting from a role playing point of view. I'd be pretty apathetic as a player. Uh, let's see...Alone or dead...don't care...whatever...guess I'll die and end the game.
7. Your idea has nothing to do with the time and mythos of the Arcanum universe. There's nothing Victorian to it. Maybe just change it to demons and you get Diablo3 or Warcraft4, but not Arcanum.
8. Arcanum is funny. There seems little space for humor in your little tale.

All this essentially means not that I think you ridea is bad in general, but just bad for Arcanum.

 

Well, you all have interesting ideas and there is merit to them all, but how about something a bit different while maintaining a lot of the flavor of the original Arcanum world - with differences.

You enter Arcanum, but immediately after entering the world of Arcanum as we know it now, you step through a bubble into a parallel dimension. In this Arcanum, Arronax was stopped and held in flux by the people of Vendigroth when he attacked them while they consulted with Nasrudin to understand his reasons for attacking them. Vendigroth accepted the need for change and altered their technology to be more in tune with Nature. They even restored the Morbihan Plains to their former glory as an elven forest. Vendigroth continued to flourish, while Arronax was essentially spanked, sent home like the spoiled brat that he was and expelled from the Council in disgrace. However, no one trusts him because the Vendigrothians proved him wrong in his basic assumptians about humans, so he never gained any real power or backing. There were a few dissidants who formed the Dark Elves with Arronax and Min Gorad (his daughter in this world) as their leaders.

The gnomes are still bent on industrial domination and have the half-ogre breeding program. Kherghan is still trying to escape from the Void, but he has found a different way to get the Dwarves banished. The Dwarves blame the Elves for the BMC's disappearance, so you have to find them and prove that an Elf was not responsible. Bates' interest in it remains the same because of his ties to the BMC, but he will fell less guilty this way because he truly is not to blame for them being sent into the Void. There is a new race, but one which has had scouts and spies among the peoples of Arcanum all along, that is bent on world domination, too. Their scouts and spies are perceived as harmless, by most, but they are actually quite powerful when attacked.

Your goals are to:
1. Prove that an elf did not cause the BMC's disappearance and who did.
2. Stop the Dark Elves' plots to cause trouble for humans.
3. Stop Kherghan.
4. Stop the new race from taking over the world.
5. Find and expose the half-ogre breeding program.

In this world, technology would have continued to progress, but so would magic, so there would still be the basic magic-technology conflict, but the intensity could be much higher. The types of goodies available would be open to a much wider range of technology and it might be possible to include a few new types of magic, as well.

As I said early on, this is really just a twist on the original Arcanum plot, but it would result in a totally different playing environment, or it should.

 

I really like your idea about it all starting out the same, but the story proceeding in a different manner. :thumbup:

 

Alright, First of all!
You people are forgetting the real arcanum.
you have forgotten all but vendigroth. its always vendigroth this an that blah blah blah....
You do realize that there is a lot more to arcanum than a RECENTLY REVIVED WASTELAND!
And whats with this typical orc stereotypical orc bashing. Orcs have feeling too ya know. If you didn't realize that orcs are now just as equal as every other race. NOW!
So how about a new kind of RPG where you can choose what world you begin in accourding to the actions of your character in the old arcanum.
Y'know like the worlds all evil and corrupt and youv'e gotta save it or become the ruler of it. Or the world is peaceful and orderly and some new threat attacks it, or you got to help destroy it.
Maybe advance the multiplayer aspect of arcanum.

And you people trying to turn Arcanum into a strategy game? Yer pullin' all this make an army go kill vendigroth and all that crap. Get it clear and simple ARCANUM IS NOT A STRATEGY GAME NOR WILL IT EVER BE! :x

Some of you guys should actually replay arcanum and remember its key aspects. Some of your plots although good, need to work away from linearity. and we'll just end up with another DIABLO and who wants that NO ONE CEPT DIABLO FANs(ankwers).

Think of actual events based around a similar time and use those ideas.
How about the Dwarves and Elves are finnaly goin ta war. Magnus vs Raven. and if not war at least an arms race.

Also what about the developement of nuclear weapons and a spell that rates as a nuclear weapons y'know like a demonic rift.
How about ancestors of the old NPC's?
Also you should be able to swim let there be an underwater environment and a underwater race. New continent good idea very good. And humans must always be the cause of all the other races problems.

 

The world of Arcanum is too little to explore, in sequel they schould add some new continents or add islands and even than make the existing land more huge than before.

Sorry for my bad english but I think you will understand it.

 

Another thing i'd like ta' pick at is why not Add a bit of Cattan :-? in there? for some reason ye couldn't go for who the hell knows why.
Or if ya can go there will some one please tell me how ta get there?

 

It's just something extra on the map. Stop worrying about it. If they hadn't put it there, you wouldn't have even noticed. you can't go there. If you want, make yourself a mod where you can.

 

where on map is Vormantown placed ???

 

Ogatai, when my mod comes out, you'll be able to go to Cattan if you play it. You may find some other new places to explore, as well. I'm trying to get it ready for release this summer, but there's still a lot of work to be done on it.

 

I think having it to be set as a prequel is a bad idea. Would there be a point to playing a prequel when we already know how it is going to be? Everything we would do, in theory, would be pointless, because Arcanum already established the cannon of Arcanum's past in the gameworld (in regards to things like the Elven council, Arronax's banishment, Vendigroth's near-destruction, etc). Being given a gameworld that will risk undoing all the continuity of the original title seems silly.

In my opinion, a sequel which dealed better with technology and magick would be more interesting. No need to use a direct sequel, in fact; like in Fallout 2, just give players the basic premise of what happened in Arcanum (1), and a brief explanation of the world arounf you, and a reason to go out there and play.

 

Role player what about the idea of going back to the past and changing the past? It could still be held in the Age of legends.
However i still think it is a bad idea.