Unofficial Arcanum Patch: Bug Reporting

Hi, Drog:

First of all, thanks for the excellent patch for Arcanum and for continuing improving it. I think that a lot of people thank you for this.

I’m playing Arcanum for the first time, with your unofficial patch (version 080708), the last version of your Extra pack, the Original Bedokaan model and the Arcanum 1024x768 Edition. While playing, I had found some bugs which I mention down. I was following the thread about your patch in RPGCodex from the beginning, so I hope that I’m not repeating any bug that has already been listed. If I repeat any bug, I apologize.

My character is a half-elf with good charisma and good intelligence, who follows the way of magic and goodness. Well, the bugs that I have found until now (I’m in Tulla):

1. This is the only really annoying bug that I found (well, the Magnus bug posted in RPGCodex is another that really annoys me): in Tulla, when I pass one of the trials that the Master Magicians give in order to become a Master myself in that School of Magic, it doesn’t happen that I can cast spells in that School of Magic using only half the points of mana. Instead, the spells continue to cost the same as before I passed the trial. The first time I passed the trial of the School of Time and the second time I tried with the School of Power. The outcome was still the same. I have uploaded the saved game before the trial here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/139342800/Save_1.zip

2. When I come back to Quintarra after taking Swyft to Tarant, she appears again and, when I talk to her, she says: “Thanks again for bringing me to Tarant”. Obviously there’s a problem because she would have to be still in Tarant and not in Quintarra to say that line. Also in Quintarra (but I’m not sure if it’s a bug) after I discover and reveal that Ivory and her husband (I don’t remember his name) are responsible for the death of one of the elves, she is still there as if nothing had happened. Maybe this happens because her husband is the only responsible, but I’m not sure. The uploaded saved game:

http://rapidshare.com/files/139342801/Save_2.zip

3. In the Isle of Despair, when I talked to Ogdin Big Fist, he let me in to talk with Thorvald, but in my quest log appeared an entry that says that I have to find him the book “The Hand”. However, Ogdin never told me anything about this particular book and, like I said, he let me in without any problem. A saved game before I talked to him.

http://rapidshare.com/files/139342802/Save_3.zip

4. For this, I don’t have a saved game, but, in Tarant, when I talked to Dolores Beston, she asked me to find her a crystal ball. I told her I would do it and she asked me to give her a lock of my hair. I didn’t want to give it to her so she didn’t tell me where I could find the crystal ball. However, in the quest log, it appears that she asked me to steal the crystal ball of Madamme Toussade.

5. When I left Tseng Ang after finding out that the Black Mountain Clan was dismissed to the Void, I set the half-ogres free. With their help, I killed all the dark-elves that were in the city. So, when I left the tree and came to the ground, I was attacked by many dark-elves guards (I think that this could be the cause of the bug). After I killed them, I left the city, but Virgil didn’t leave the party. The upload after I killed the guards.

http://rapidshare.com/files/139342803/Save_4.zip

6. And three things about items. The first is that, when I equipped Loghaire (or any other character) with Harrow, in the “attack screen” it appears like this weapon does no damage at all. Also, it is not shown how much mana (50 points) or which spells the Mage’s staff has (I don’t know whether the last one is a bug or not, because in no case it is shown which spells a particular weapon has).

Well, I think that this is all. Good luck with the patch.

 

I wasn't a high enough level for Magnus to join my party when I was doing the P. Schuyler & Sons quest, so I did it without him and I agreed to keep their secret when I talked to them.

When I came back out from their shop, I told Magnus the story and he explained that he didn't believe it was his clan after all, and I can't remember exactly, but either I was a high enough level then and he joined my party, or, I gained another level, and then came back and asked him to join my party.

Recently, I was doing the Liam's workshop quest, and I ordered Magnus to "wait" (but not to leave party). When I came back for Magnus, he asked me where I had been, and he explained that he knew I was talking to those P. Schuyler & Sons behind his back, and he refused to join my party again.

I reckon that this is a bug, and he shouldn't have accepted the invite to join after I talked with P. Schuyler & Sons and agreed to keep their secret, because I supposedly told Magnus the whole story. I believe that Magnus's choice to not re-join was because players might leave him in the dungeon while they advance on to talk with P. Schuyler & Sons, and Mangus would then, lore-wise, ease drop or whatever to know what is going on.

But since the quest was completed when he joined, maybe the player should get two dialogue options if they make the deal with P. Schuyler & Sons, one being to tell Magnus the whole story, and the other one to lie and say that P. Schuyler & Sons are dead, with if the latter being chosen, then Magnus would never not accept to re-join because he never got a chance to ease drop. However, maybe if the player asks Magnus to leave the party, then he may go back to P. Schuyler & Sons to find them alive or whatever and then wont rejoin, but regardless, it's annoying to not be able to leave Magnus anywhere. :/

 

1. I may be wrong, but I think I'm right, in saying that you have to wear the medallion you get when you complete the quest to benefit from the spells at half the cost.

2. I assume Swyft made her way back to Quintarra, now knowing the way.

3. This is nothing but an optional quest, the book is in a barrel at the docks before you take the ship to the island.

4. The game just assumed you would give her a lock of your hair, though you are right, this should be corrected.

5. This one I'm not so sure about, Virgil leaving, or not leaving the party, seems to work intermittently. Freeing the Half-Ogres and being attacked may, and sounds likely to be, the cause, but I'm just not certain.

6. I'll leave this one out, because I have no idea!

 

Drog, you're the best!

 

Just to clarify some things:

1. This problem happens even if I wear the medallion (I´ve tried it this way two or three times). The only reason that I can think why this happens is because I don’t know the five spells of the school at which I’m specializing (I know only four). I didn’t have the time to try the quest knowing all the spells of the school. But even if the last is true, it is still a bug, because the Masters let me take the quest and didn’t warn me about that.

2. Yeah, one can assume that, but the problem lies in the line of dialog: “Thanks again for bringing me to Tarant”. I’m not an English native speaker but I think that if she had returned to Quintarra she would have to say something like this: “Thanks again for taking me to Tarant”.

3. I know that the search for “The Hand” is an optional quest, but, as I said, Ogdin didn’t tell me anything about the book and I could convince him to let me in to talk to Thorvald, so the quest shouldn´t appear in my quest log. I know that this is a minor bug, but I think that is still one.

 

1. That does sound like a genuine bug.

2. "Thanks again for bringing me to Tarant" does not necessarily mean that she is still there, I do not consider that a bug.

3. Ah, now I understand what you mean, now that you've mentioned it, I recall that happening to myself as well. This is almost assuredly a genuine bug.

 

Regarding point 2, I will have to go with wayne on this one.

She was brought to Tarant by the player, and it matters not where she goes to in her existence; she was still brought to Terant by the player. From the point that quest was completed, the player has brought her to Terant, and that has been marked in time, and this fact will never change no matter where she goes, be that from Terant or not.

 

This might be trivial but what about being unable to turn off the "Always Run" option? Would this be a fixable bug? Or am I just doing something wrong? I've already started a separate thread about this on Hints and Tips and I have not tried what wayne has suggested yet but I just wanted to bring this up here as well.. :-?

 

To Manny:

1. There's a mess with conditions in Master Mages' dialogs. They don't check for all 5 spells. And you can't master a college with a lesser number of spells. This will be fixed.

2. Not a bug.

3&4. The quest entries are written this way in the quest log. But in the actual game, Ogdin just tells you that he likes to read and would like a book (with no specifics), and Delores Beston just asks you to find her a crystal ball (the question about the location of the ball is optional). I'm not sure if it would be a good idea to alter the quest log entries, so let them be. This is a bad quest design on Troika's side.

5. Yes, this was reported once at the Codex. If you have to fight the guards once you exit T'sen-Ang, then the dialog won't fire (since you're in combat). The workaround is simple though, just click on Virgil after the combat, and he will start the necessary dialog. Maybe I should write a heartbeat script for Virgil, that would constantly try to start the dialog, though, since a player may get confused and if the dialog is run in another location, Virgil won't get teleported to Caladon.

6. The Harrow does damage by script. It's especially powerful in hands of a dwarf with alignment of 60+. Although, since the actual weapon does 0 damage, you don't get any XP if you fight with it. And yes, perhaps it would be a good idea to add mana bonus to descriptions.

To GarmGarf

Original Magnus' dialog was checking for a wrong global flag if you talk to him only after you've dealt with Schuylers. I fixed many problems with the dialog, actually:

-Fixed wrong conditions in Magnus' dialog. Now he won't join you in all cases if you've negotiated with Schuylers.
-Fixed a problem in Magnus' dialog when you were getting duplicated lines if you've negotiated with Schuylers and had Torian Kel in your party.
-It's possible to have Magnus in your party if you've negotiated with Schuylers, AND also killed them. Now all rejoining lines make a check for this.

 

Oh right. And did you fix this in your released unofficial patch, or have you it fixed for the one under development? Because to my knowlege, I have your unofficial patch downloaded for my present game where I encountered this bug.

 

Yes.

 

I saw that you left Pete's goons alone. Don't you concider the stats switching of the skeletions critter a bug? I think it's very clear that they made a mistake..

 

I don't think so. In fact, there's no evidence of the mistake, thus my change would become subjective.

The skeleton in question has more HPs, less powerful resistances, a different description and the full Bow skill. Perhaps, they wanted to make him a bowman, but changed their mind later, at any rate, it doesn't matter since he longer has a bow.

I may change the description from 'Greater Skeleton' to 'Pirate Skeleton', though.

 

You're the boss..

 

Some bugs I've found:
* Larrs (the guy Muggs wants you to collect cash from on behalf of Clan Maug) appears to have Alignment awards reversed in his dialogue - you get a +10 alignment boost if you take the cash he has and promise to pay the remainder for him, and a +5 if you promise to pay everything for him.

* During the Stillwater Giant quest, Tristan Fenwick, depending on which responses you give him when you bring him the caged rabbit, won't always set gf 1054 ("Tristan Fenwick has told PC giant in cage is a rabbit"). In particular, lines 159 and 96 both have him referring to it as a rabbit, but don't set the flag.

* Lines 55 and 57 of Erick Obsidian's dialogue (the PC's responses to his mentioning the schematic) skip his description of what the schematic is, along with a good chunk of the conversation immediately following same. They both send you to line 94, and they should send you to line 60.

* Line 360 in Praetor's dialogue (which is actually "spoken" (floated over) Dante, oddly enough) has a space or two missing and a broken female line.

* The voiceover for line 510 in Gilbert Bates' dialogue doesn't seem to work properly, although the mp3 is there. (I'm not sure if this is only for female characters; I've never actually tested it with a male character.) I can't remember how I "fixed" this, or else I'd share.

Hope this helps!

 

Thanks, that's an excellent report!

That seems to be an engine issue. There's some lines in several dialogs that don't play a VO even if an mp3 is there. However, if you reload the game and try again - it plays correctly. Seems like a memory issue.

 

-In Black Root, when you talk to Garret Almstead, he will greet you with:
"What can I help you with <PCname>."
Should be:
"What can I help you with, <PCName>?"

-Rumour page: Rumor has it that there's something strange at the coordinates 6 17W, 528S (should be 617W)

-Concussion Grenade schematic: [...] The combination of the Explosive Grenade and Sheet Metal, the Frag Grenade was created for the technologist [...]
Should be Concussion Grenade. Not sure about this, but I think there should be a comma before "was created".

Sorry if any of these have already been fixed in a newer version (I played with 080708)

 

Fixed. Thanks for reporting.

 

-The junk dealer in Tarant greets you with: "You are one of those technologist fella's I hear... - Shouldn't it be "fellas"?

-The blacksmith in Stillwater is called Richard Leeks even before you have spoken to him.

 

Not if your playing a tech fella-ette.