Shcrodinger's Chest of magic items.

This is a little semi-cheat I've discovered to help with new characters.
Background: The contents of the first magic chest you open (the one guarded by the kite shaman) are not completely randomly generated - rather, they're generated via some algorithm using all your initial character choices (background, points, initial purchases, race, sex and name). This means that if you restart and build exactly the same character, the contents of the chest will be the same. Now, what's the use of this? Well, if you're patient, you can get some really nifty items by just altering the name of your character.
Method: Build your new character. Since all decisions you make here will affect the contents of the chest, decide now what you want your character to be. One thing you should do is make your chrs name as long as possible - to give you more flexibility. Now, when you get to the item purchase screen, decide what you're trying to get from the chest. Personally, I've been going for both armour and weapons, so here I usually only buy the boots and the fine dagger - to get me thru' the first three kills.
Now, start the game. Listen to Virgil, head SW, and cap the kite scout, the wolf, and the kite shaman (using F5 to tell Virgil to back off - more XP for you). Stand nice and close to the chest, but don't click on it. Save the game. Now, here's where the "patience" bit comes in.
First, see what's in the chest for your current character. If you're stunningly lucky and it's something incredible, note down what name your PC's got.
Alt-Tab out of Arcanum, fire up your favourite hex editor, and open the tfaf file of the game you just saved. Find your PC's name (near the end of the file). Now, alter the name as you see fit. Altering just one character will make a large difference, so that's usually the best way to go - one at a time.
Save the edited file, Alt-Tab back into Arcanum, and load up the new file. Open the chest, and see what goodies you've got this time. If they're good, note the name you're using...
Repeat as often as you've patience for, then pop in the name that gets you the best results, and away you go!
Caveats: The chest will not generate tech items, afaik. Sorry. Also, you might want to use Arcanum Edit to (temporarily) give your character the identify spell, in case you're not familiar with the look of various magic items.
The best I've done out of this so far is a chest containing Magick Plate Mail, a Magick mace, a Ring of Protection, and several gems.

Good luck, and happy adventuring.

Thornae.

 

No offense, but I think that most people would call that cheating.

But, to each his (or her) own. I've noticed that little quirk as well - although I thought it was more background/race based than your characters name.

I got a nice little spawn with my latest character - magick robes (white ones), magick sword and magick shield, and a few other goodies. I have gotten magickal plate mail as well, right from the beginning. Poor Virgil, he got heavily encumbered right from the start :smile:.

Why not either take what you first generated, or just keep on creating new characters until you get what you like - otherwise you could end up with a really screwed up name. Also, on the naming business, anyone noticed that in the latest patch the only way to get spaces in your name is to make it the last thing you modify with your character, then click next while the name field still has the focus? Hitting enter or modifying another field will get rid of the spaces in your name, which really sucks now.

 

Well, I did say *semi* cheat... d=

As an addendum, this does apply to any chest with "randomly" generated items.
So, choose your name/stats/etc with care! In this world, your fate really is linked with your name...
It's an interesting insight into the game's engine too - wonder if wandering monsters are generated this way?

 

Here's another little quirk - in the Bessie Toone mine in Shrouded Hills, there's a chest being guarded by a regular wolf (can be pretty hard to kill at this stage of the game). Whatever's in that chest is also in the first chest under P Schuyler and Sons - item for item, mod for mod, guaranteed.

 

Re: Schrodinger's Chest

Is there something inside or not??

Heh ...

 

Well...

Does this work the other way around?

Can I place things in the P. Schuyler and Sons chest, and then retrieve duplicates in the the Bessie Toone Mine later? This would mean that you can go through the whole game earning tons of money, place all of it in one of the chests, and THEN open the other for the first time...Just wondering...

 

No, it's whatever spawns in there that gets duplicated. It doesn't matter what you put in there, but whatever is generated to appear in that chest will also appear in P Schuyler & Sons.