Commanding followers

Okay, I do like Arcanum, but does anyone get pissed off that you cannot fully control your companions?

You will be going through a dungeon cautiously, when suddenly Virgil decides to run off and face three wererats and die.

So you reload.

Now Sogg decides to run and fight a Gore Guard in a doorway. Can I heal him? No! He ran through the doorway and is now blocked off.

Seriously fucking annoying.

 

F1-F5 (also F6 with the UAP).

 

But that does nothing once engaged in battle. You cannot fall back or withdraw.

 

Once you press F5 your followers won't fight until another battle even if their life depends on it. So if you see them running away for something, just press F5.

 

Nah.

You're correct, some stupid things happen as a result of your followers making decisions for themselves, but the game does not suffer for it in my opinion. The F* keys that Drogg mentioned are sufficient for the degree of micromanaging that I find necessary. I mostly spam the F5 key so I can maximize the experience I earn and will F1 to have my followers pull enemies. That much works well enough.

 

Dammit, I am developing a love-hate relationship with this game.

I like it, I really do, but the combat is just so goddamned un-user-friendly.

Despite the commands I have Virigl still running off and getting killed.

I have Sogg, Virgil and Magnus.

I try the Black mountain mines and the Ore Golems throw rocks at me for instadeath.

I try wandering to different cities and I meet a Mysterious Stranger who stuns me then summons an undead and kills me.

Despite being expert in firearms, I always seem to fumble and get stunned. Last time this happened I was killed by three zombies. I was level 15.

I encounter Wererats that tear me to shreds.

WTF am I meant to do with all this?

 

Take the train to ashbury to get the dog. He's a really powerful fighter and can tear the wererats and assassins to shreds. If you can use scrolls I'd stock up on stun spell scrolls,otherwise you may want to stock up on haste potions sold by gypsies,those help alot when it comes to tough opponents.

 

Tnaks, I will.

Although having Dog just feels like a big cheat.

I also have a personal challenge where I do not save during dungeons. If I or a follower die I reload to the start of the dungeon.

This seems to be less than useful for BMC though.

 

Why induce meta-gaming when there are normal ways to deal with the problem?

Swamthing, first of all, if I recall correctly, you are playing turn based combat, but unless you aren't, do so. Turn-based in general is easier than real life.
Second. What is your difficulty level? Lower it, if possible, it should help.
Third:

That... That is not a good idea. I mean it may be OK for more experienced players, but in a game where out of a sudden you can encounter an enemy that will tear you and your party apart just at the end of a map, that isn't good. I don't know if that's some kind of hack'n'slash habit you got there, but if you would ask me, quicksave should be your best friend.

Since you are/were playing in turn based, you know each action during combat takes action points. If the last action in your turn which requires more AP that you have, it will chew some of your fatigue when performed and when that is for an attack it can appear to eat out your fatigue quite quickly, especially in long battles.
You can also carry some fatigue restorers since losing fatigue is such a problem for your character.
I really like fire arms, but lets face it, guns are seriously underpowered in Arcanum. You wouldn't propably have that much problem with a mage, but still everything is to be managed.

It may seem obvious, but equip your followers nicely and wisely. Sogg and Magnus were more powerful in my games that I would want them to, eating MY experience points, damnit.

Also, don't give up when having problems with the Black Mountain Mines. That may very well be the most problematic place in the game, especially sinse your character isn't too powerful at this point, while the ore golems are. There's no time limit, Gilbert Bates was waiting for someone to go to the BMC mines for decades, so he can wait some more and it will not harm him. Wander around, go to various locations, do side quests, level up, buy/make better quipment and return to the mines when you and your party feel visibly stronger.

 

Yeah, I know. It's kind of a challenge thing. If I do that I find I have to plan and play carefully. I am used to full party control from the BG series or Jagged Alliance, so the Arcanum system makes it difficult

Since you are/were playing in turn based, you know each action during combat takes action points. If the last action in your turn which requires more AP that you have, it will chew some of your fatigue when performed and when that is for an attack it can appear to eat out your fatigue quite quickly, especially in long battles.
You can also carry some fatigue restorers since losing fatigue is such a problem for your character.
I really like fire arms, but lets face it, guns are seriously underpowered in Arcanum. You wouldn't propably have that much problem with a mage, but still everything is to be managed..[/quote]

I play real-time against certain kinds of enemy. For slow moving enemies like Swamp-mass(?) I use the standard hit and run tactic. This, of course, is useless against Ore Golem.....

I know how the turn-based system works. The critical failures have fucked up my experienced character more than once though.

It may seem obvious, but equip your followers nicely and wisely. Sogg and Magnus were more powerful in my games that I would want them to, eating MY experience points, damnit.

Also, don't give up when having problems with the Black Mountain Mines. That may very well be the most problematic place in the game, especially sinse your character isn't too powerful at this point, while the ore golems are. There's no time limit, Gilbert Bates was waiting for someone to go to the BMC mines for decades, so he can wait some more and it will not harm him. Wander around, go to various locations, do side quests, level up, buy/make better quipment and return to the mines when you and your party feel visibly stronger.[/quote]

Wandering is annoying when you encounter overpowered enemy who kill you in two seconds.

"Oh, Hello were-rats* *Hit* *Hit *Gib*

I do agree that BMC seems the most badly designed area I have EVER encountered. They basically make an area where a party would automatically go at a low level if playing the plot, and then punish you for it.

 

Preview your posts for quote mistakes next time, reading your post will be less problematic.

My first game was a force mage and I had absolutely no idea why do people complain that much about the BMC. My second game was a gunslinger. Then it hit me.
Most of the problems coming from the BMC is that you are propably weak yourself, while your party can't help you too much - I would require to F5 when a ore golem is close, since all the followers will do is ruing their weapons on him.
Still it should be possible and easy to hit-and-run with a gunslinger when fighting an ore golem in real time after telling your followers to keep away from him. I mean those things are SLOW. Hit-and-run surely worked for my throwing character.

Random encounters shouldn't be that bad with followers (and wererats are experience pont gold mines!), but when you just save before leaving town (and after every successful random encounter) and/or use trains and ships, you should do fine.
There is a way to turn off random encounters, but unless you have really BIG problems I wouldn't recommend it, it's pretty much cheating and kills a part of the game where you are expected to fear the radioactive wast- thaaaat is the outside world. Yup, that's what I meant.

 

Yeah, my forum skillz suck.

The problem with Ore Golems is that you have no chance to hit them with guns. Bows are neutral, but because guns are technological the accuracy is greatly reduced.

 

Just make sure that a quotation starts with

[/quote]
Well huh. I'm curious if the magic/tech penalty existed in pre-UAP Arcanum but just didn't have an icon, or did Drog's UAP introduce the whole thing. Since Drog didn't want to give any custom material to the patch, it either was there but I didn't notice it (because it surely did not have an icon), or it was a feature unused bacause of a bug or it not being complete. It thing it's the latter, since the penalty does make a visible difference.

OK, I have a technique for you, which you may find as helpful or overly time consuming and lame (in both cases you would propably be right), but anyhow it's useful in extreme situations:
1. Switch to real time combat.
2. Attract an ore golem (and hit F5 so the followers won't have any stupid ideas).
3. Make him follow you to the entrance to the tunnel from which you came (you can shoot at it while it follows you).
4. When you reach the entrance, stand right next to it, allow the ore golem to come really close to you and when he is almost there, click the exit (you can even get him close enough for him to nearly attack you, it's worth it even if he deals damage).
5. When you're on the other side of the entrance, turn combat mode to turn based (hit space).
6. Initiate combat.
7. As a first move in your turn, click on the entrance, you will appear next to the ore golem.
8. Use the rest action points on shooting to the golem, but leave enough AP to get to the entrance (possibly you will stand close enough to it to use it from where you stand) and use it as the last action of your turn.
9. There ore golem doesn't have a cahnce to attack since you will appear on the other side of the entrance, and it will be the beginning of your turn again.
10. Use steps 7 to 9 until the ore golem becomes as dead as a rock (hahah...HAHA! Akhem, sorry).
11. Use steps 1 to 10 for every ore golem.

This technique kills the challenge and isn't too brave, not to mention how you have to drag the ore golems all the way into the entrance, but it's worth a try if nothing other works. It's a good idea to choose the nearest entrance type object to save your time.

 

[/quote]

I am actually using Drog Blacktooth's patch.

Could that be a bug?

Also, how much do your characters die during an average playthrough? is the constant mortality rate just me?

 

Ah, my eyes, the quotations, ah!

It's not a bug, it's a feature. I actually really like it, it brings quite a lot of in-Arcanum reality. The ore golems are big and slow so it seems illogical that you can't hit them, but it's dark in the mines and they have a powerful magic aura deflecting most of your bullets.

I never bother to count. But in the beginning it's nothing unusual to see your corpse being shred to pieces forcing you to hit quickload before the game loads up your grave. That's why saving often is recommended. Optimistic as it sounds, the further into the game, the less often you die, because the better equipment, level, health and so (And the greatest change is propably in "before BMC - after BMC"). Near the end game it's common to think that while now you have enough health and protection to fight a whole army, no one seems to get even close enough to scratch you.

Anyway, gunslingers die quite often at the beginning, and quite often through the whole game when compared to mages, melee fighters and so.

Important question - Virgil is able to heal you, right?

 

Yeah, but I prefer to do the healing. I am there with a crap load of healing meals.

 

Magick-tech penalty used a copy of the blocked shot icon in the vanilla game.

 

So YOU are the bastard who made the Golems hard to hit!

 

Huh? The mechanics were there, just the icon was an obvious placeholder, since it was just a copy of another icon.

 

Sorry, I thought you made the Golems hard to hit in your patch!