Forcing Doors and Chests?

I've just returned to playing Arcanum after an absence of about a year, and am already encountering difficulties. Namely, I cannot recall if it is possible to force open/blast open doors and chests and how. Entering combat mode and clicking on said door or chest will just result in "Locked" message, nothing more. I have no lockpicking skills, and Virgil is incompetent as ever (I am currently on the BMC Quest, and am located in Tarant, searching for components in trash bins).

 

I see. No, as far as I know, there are no ways of attacking doors/chests yourself. There is another solution, though: throw weapons at them. The used weapon will then cause as much damage as it would've if you used it in a melee. Your followers will then of course attack it, but you know how to stop them from doing so, right?

 

How do you throw an inventory item?

How do you order your allies to cease combat/combat stance?

 

Can't you just hold the Alt key while in combat?

[edit]: I mean: combat mode>hold Alt>click on door/chest

 

Sweet Jesus, I didn't know! Oh my god! I've spent so much time being angry with doors I've been unable to force, and the answer was Alt? AARGH!!!
*Borrows Vyennas bat and pounds my own head with it*
*Almost dies*

 

Force unlock/open is quite hard on weapons. If you get the lockpicks off the skeleton in the Wolf Cave @ 1230W 1530S it will make life easier. You can then eventually create a skeleton key with tech skill.

 

I don't quite plan on wacking the chest with my revolver now, do I?
Then again, some of those nice fellows in uniforms may not appreciate my antics...
I guess this is what the otherwise useless Hushed Revolver is for...

 

The hushed revolver is NOT useless, I tell you. When used with prowling, it can be quite effective.

 

*Dresses in a flame-proof bodysuit*

I've always meant that prowling is completely useless...

*Slowly sneaks away*

 

You know, you could just plant some dynamite on the door/window/chest to open it. But, the alt key was all I needed to shut up whiny do-gooders in my party? Geez! I wasted so much time trying to "accidentally" off them.

 

I believe it's in the manual, but I agree that it's one of those things that aren't really explained very well. Just like called shots. And the fact that one can drag corpses (move them around, that is).

Hehe.

By the way: is there any time or place or quest in the game where dragging corpses is actually useful?

 

The game is sorely lacking a shortcut menu. The first time I played through I used the throw an item and let the followers hit it method. It wasn't until I read something online that I discovered the force attack key.

So can you really move corpses?

 

Yes, you can. It's been a while since I've played the game, but I think you need to stand next to the corpse and press Alt or something. It could be Ctrl as well, I forget. It's not very practical, though: IIRC you can only move the corpse one 'square' at a time. I've never really used the feature, but maybe it's useful for stealthy characters or something (sneak, kill, drag corpse out of sight?)...
There was a menu of shortcuts on the back of the map that came with the game. Very useful, considering the fact that there was not a Table of Contents in the manual.

 

I can't imagine that dragging corpses would be effective. I've done it just to get kind of "in character", but it leaves the puddle of blood anyway, so...

 

Maybe someone will drop in and say that you can use water+Alt to erase the blood as well?

 

Sweet.

 

Let's just conclude that Alt is the ultimate button, shall we?

 

We should rename it to "the Chuck Norris button".