Flash & Smoke Grenades

What do they do? Thanks

 

I know that flash grenades stun. Not quite sure what smoke grenades do.

 

Uh... No, they blind. Stun grenades stun.

Smoke grenades functions more or less like a wall to the line-of-sight for ranged weapons, I think (not sure). Good way to cover your retreat (but since when do you retreat in Arcanum?)

 

Oh crap, got them mixed up.

 

In this game, does blinding have to do with enemies' chance-to-hit? Because i see no difference when fighting with blinded enemies.

Can smoke grenade affect chance-to-hit of enemies in melee as well?

 

It probably does affect, but not enough to make a substantial difference in combat. Here's how I classify the grenades in this game:

Class 1: The Best (one can usually get the job done)

- Paralysis: Your enemy can't hurt you if he can't move.

- Knock-Out Gas: Your enemy can't hurt you if he's knocked out

Class 2: Very Nice (You'll usually have to use more than one)

- Molotov: Cheap to make and does nice damage.

- Explosive: Not so cheap, but nicer damage.

- Concussion: Not exactly cheap, but real nice damage.

- Electrocution: A bit tricky to make, but good damage.

Class 3: Can be usefull, but you need to plan what you wanna do

- Fire Obstruction: if you can get your enemy caught in a trap, entangled or something...you can watch them burn. Still, you could always go up to them and kill them instead.

- Stun: Useful if your enemy is stronger than you and you need a some precious time to sort your team out during combat.

- Hallucination: Now I almost put thisone at Class 4 cos its a pain in the ass. Why would you want your enemies to run away scared? I mean I can see this being useful if you're very overwhelmed...but if any followers close to your target are likely to get hit by its effects and will be rather pissed at you.

Class 4: Rather useless IMHO

- Flash: While I'm not sue on the actual effects on enemies...(does it reduce DEX and PE to a significant level?)...usually it doesn't make much of a difference for me.

- Smoke: As above...not really that useful.

- Mustard Gas: Still haven't found a way to get much out of this one as it would only seem to be useful if you can get the enemy to stand still...in which case why would you want to sit there and wait if you can walk over and end his misery?

-------------------
I don't qualify the Time Bomb, Dynamite and Plastique as grenades per se...but if I had to , I'd put them at class 2.....

 

ok thanks for the info, looks like you have much experience with explosives

How far in the explosives tree should i go? Im at Flash Grenades now (dwarf technologist using guns and molotovs mostly, and followers).

It seems Smoke & Flash grenades are broken

oh btw do i need chemistry for paralysis & knock-out gas grenades? If so, do i need much chemistry expertise?

 

For any grenades outside the what you can learn the Explosive's discipline, you'll have to mix in another school...usually Chemistry...and I think you need Electricity for the Electrocution Grenade.

As to how far you should go...I'd say Explosive Grenade is the minimum as most Gunsmith shops or general stores sell gunpowder and metalcans are relatively easy to find.

You don't really "need" Dynamite unless you plan on using it as a trap on a few tough enemies (which works like a charm BTW)...but you might run into problems makingthe cross-discpline greandes if your tech level isn'thigh enough.

If your grenad are broken it probably means they are damaged after a bad throw. Check your throwing level.....level 3 and expert is usually enough to prevent this...although it has happened tome before ith a level 5 master...rarely though.

 

Tnx, that helps.

But is there no one who figured out what do flash & smoke grenades do?

Wolfsbane, does blindness reduce PE or what?

 

I believe blindness reduces chance to hit, not perse a stat. Thus there is always a chance they still hit, and might hit constantly if they have a high percentage of hit like some monsters.

 

Smoke Grenades also dial fatigue down a little bit, but not enough to be useful that way.

If combat in arcanum was in any way harder, and your followers had any brains, the smoke grenades could make be used as a "sight barrier" against long ranged attacks, as Wolfsbane described above.

 

Flash grenade should affect either PE (range of sight) or chance-to-hit in some way. Or both. I think im gonna do some testing

You mean Smoke Grenades drain enemies' fatigue a little bit?

 

Yep...but nothing significant!

 

When I did some testing of the Electric Light I had my half-orc technologist attract the attention of a rat, which turned out to be a Rock Rat. I thought it'd be a quick fight, to my detriment, because even though I had boosted the Dodge and Melee skills of my half-orc, I was going to be too busy switching lanterns and checking hit chances to do any real fighting. But he seemed to dodge and avoid serious damage with an amazing grace. Until I had him equip a lantern, at which point he got seriously hurt real fast. I hadn't checked at the time, but as it turned out, he had the Darksight background, so the lantern must've practically blinded him. Thus one could conclude that blinding opponents who are really good at dodging could be quite effective.

Likewise, smoke grenades could be quite beneficial to someone who's got all their lighting penalties reversed, though I wonder if the game calculates the penalties based on the target or the attacker being in the smoke. Perhaps either one would suffice, given that the smoke would interfere by being in the way?

 

Very interesting... maybe then Flash grenades reduce DEX (and thus dodge)

It seems logical, i hope it works that way

 

I'd like to add that all rats and kites (and only these types of creatures) have the dark sight. Melee Expert ignores all lighting penalties though, and some creatures have it.

 

Ah, I was wondering if any monsters could see in the dark, and also if that particular Rock Rat only missed so much because it couldn't see in the dark. Good to know that wasn't the case.