Arcanum:WIP 6.0 now available

Regarding the map marker...I unlocked EVERY location on the map somehow. How do I make the map only show the locations I've actually discovered? Kinda takes the fun out of the game when I can see everything.

 

You've either had Virgil or the Atlas mark everything in which case you're screwed.
The only two ways to go back now is to bring up an earlier save (pre-marking) or start over.

 

Hey Rroyo...glad to see you're back and healing up ok!

 

first i want to say: this mod looks great, thank you for your work rroyo.
I encountered an error - game crashes to desktop every time i point the mouse over one specific item - it's called "oak axe handle" in unmodded version i think, component for a schematic. I tried to reinstall the mod using the drog...something.bat file to clear the cache - no effect. Im not expert but it looks to me like the prototype file for this item has some values outside accepted range but you will know better than i. Everything else work flawlessly except this.

 

When is there going to be an alpha release on this? I understand you want to add more and more, and that's commendable, but you've already added quite a lot and I'd love if you could just finish off what's been done so far, so that the game is playable without bugs. Just a thought.

 

Merge it with the UAP already.

 

Serus: Sorry it took so long for me to get back to you on this.
I tried both my packed and unpacked versions of 6.0 but did not get your problem. However - There was a fellow a while back who had a similar problem and was able to solve it by running the Arcanum install on repair mode, then using the CleanCache.bat.
If you have a save made prior to finding the oak handle bug, start a new game just long enough to get through Virgil's crash site speech, then switch to the save and try the handle again.

Let me know if this works for you.

Giant Ant: I'm leaning towards cutting this build off at the 300 mb size as the hack is rapidly getting too big for slower connections to handle.
One of the things I'm doing this year is finishing the scenes I have started so I'll have a better idea of how much more I can add.
This'll no doubt mean that areas such as Monaco, Dwarrowdelf, and the Eloi valley, plus the dozen or so smaller adventures that would have filled the map a bit more will have to be left out, but I can always start with them on the next project.

Edit: Read the message for Yuki concerning bug-fixes, or the changelog, or the ReadMe.txt.

Yuki: All but the last release of the UAP has been added to A:WIP. I'm currently waiting for Drog's next release so I can make one final bug-fix install session and be done with it.
Adding bug-fixes to a customized hack can be a pain where a pill won't reach.....

 

Started a discussion thread:

http://www.terra-arcanum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=205604#205604

 

As I stated on the Arcanum II discussion thread, I've read this thread completely in the last few days after recently picking arcanum up again. There is a lot of things to take in, and since I haven't actually installed the mod for true testing yet, there are a lot of things I'm not ready to comment on yet. One thing I do feel solid about is backgrounds, as I've made a number of them, and feel pretty secure in looking at balance.

First, I question why the starting money ammounts were all raised on the standard backgrounds. Backgrounds usually have 50% more than normal, and ones that should start with 0 have %150 (meaning they have 25% instead of 0%, severely reducing the downside of those backgrounds.)

Second some of the newest ones seem off balance. I'm assuming +2 bonuses or -2 penalties in each of these skills which would count as a +1 net effect or -1 net effect. (Backgrounds count +2 in a skill as balancing out -1 in an attribute for example.)

Cursed adventurer gives +10 to attributes, another +4 in skills, at a cost of 13 points in attributes. So this has a net effect of +1, where stnadard backgrounds are made net 0.

Lonesome Traveller is the one that has the most potential to be broken. It gives 8 points in attributes in return for a limit of 1 maximum companion. Since many builds (thieves, summoners, animatronic experts) are designed to not use companions, this isn't a disadvantage at all for many characters. If you aren't going to build up charisma, it isn't really a disadvantage anyway. The one upside I can say is that at least the given attributes aren't dexterity and willpower. I think the balance is pretty far off though. (+3 PE, +1 ST, +1 CN is a step in the right direction, but still might be high.) Hard to measure the follower thing, but I'd say that this has a net effect about +5 or +6.

Jack of All Trades gives +5 in skills and +3 in attributes in return for -4 in attributes. Net effect +4.

Entrenpreneur looks like it has +2 skills, and +2 attributes, in exchange for -3 attributes, and then doubles money (+1) giving a +2 net effect.

Dwarven Activists have +2 skills and +1 attribute for -1 attribute. I'll give -1 for half gold, but in standard backgrounds 25% gold was worth the -1. Even giving the -1, this has a +1 net effect.

Cosmopolitian has +3 to skills, and -2 to attributes for +1 net effect.

Earthborn have +8 attributes vs -4 attributes. It also has -4 skills, but with the magic aptitude bonus, this basically changes them to dwarf mages, making it so the negative skills is almost an advantage not a disadvantage.

Having positive net effects makes a character "better" with the background than without. Backgrounds should make characters different, not really "better".

 

OK - I've only got a couple minutes left before I have to head out again but I'll get in a couple answers.

1) I started with the backgrounds from Car-Arcanum - which is what I was originally tinkering with. That's where the extra gold came from.

2) I fired up the unpacked version of 6.0 and double-checked the No-Gold backgrounds. You do indeed start with no money. If you're basing your conclusion on math, then it's let you down this time.

3) For the 6.0 release, there was about 30 fan-made backgrounds added. I didn't create any of them. Other than the odd spelling or punctuation correction, these were added as-is with all the advantages or disadvantages intact.

I'm out of time now and have to run. Feel free to reply but it may be a while before I can answer.
The company want me to manage a complex in the middle of nowhere until a replacement manager team can be found. That can take a while....

 

That explains that. My question I'd bring up is, whether or not this is desireable?

I'll admit, I didn't unpack the latest version. I was looking at a gameback.mes file that was posted about 12 pages back or so in the thread, which was the last mention of backgrounds.
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I understand where they came from. I was just looking through them and seeing potential for some better balancing on something that is easy. I haven't touched worldedit or scripting in about 5 to 6 years at least, so I haven't dived into that stuff yet. Really looking forward to some of the other content.

Good luck with that.

And now to my next contraversial suggestion from someone who hasn't even opened the mod yet... how much value does voormantown add? Perhaps it should be scrapped as something that bloats the module unnecessarily. I'm one of those people who always believes that just because you can add something, doesn't mean you always should. Since size of the module is one of the big constraints, one of the things I think that should be looked at for extra content is what value each addition really brings to the module when compared to the additional space it takes.

 

Acanum 2 vs Arcanum continued

I debated whether to post this in the arcanum 2 discussion or here, but I'm wondering if the better approach would be to build on to WIP with post void stories vs making an actual second module for a second character.

I think the extension still might be the easier way to go, and by focusing on things more political and choice driven (lots of choosing A or B as exclusive paths) then it can still be made challenging for a powerful character.

I know a whole new project has its appeal as something slightly different than expanding this project, but I personally think the expansion project would be the more viable to get completed, and could have just as much impact. I'm also a fan of the expansion because it allows you to leverage early decisions including some that might not have seemed important early on.

 

Hello Robert St. Clair,

All of the above standing backgrounds are of my hand. As such I will answer some of your questions.

First of all I would have you note that your statement that all vanilla backgrounds are at net +0 (using your method of calculation) is false, i.e.:
* Sheltered Childhood, Miracle operation and Knife tosser have a net '-'
* Army training, Charlantan's protege and Escaped Lunatic have a '+'
* Bride of Frankenstein comes in at around +3, seeing the dumb dialogue options are not much of a problem for the game

Hence a minor bonus (or penalty, as some of my backgrounds also have) is not all that bad IMO. You may differ from this in opinion which is your right, but I just wanted to state so.

Also, you said honestly that you went out from a +2 bonus or -2 penalty. Some of those backgrounds mentioned do not have this, and many have different types of bonuses. Thus, you may wish to revisit them.

On that last note, I was away from this board, revising some of them after play testing some more thoroughly. Hence I am breaking my lurking to post a new version again. I tweaked quiet a few a bit down, as indeed they were outshining many of the vanilla backgrounds.

I thank you for taking a look at them, and hope the revisions as well as the answers in this topic and in the custom backgrounds topics will help you.


@ rroyo: As always you have my permission to add them, least I be mentioned with the credits due in A:WIP.
You know how to reach me.

 

I posted in your topic as well. I like the background revisions you did, and like the new ones at first glance. The ones that I thought were most out of balance (which made me start nitpicking on some others) were the ones you modified most drastically, and I think this puts them in much better balance.

 

Is it possible to get at the readme without installing the module? Not sure whether or not I'm ready to install the module, but I'd like to start reading up in more detail what the actual changes are.

 

Enjoy.

http://terra-arcanum.com/awip/forgottenplace.htm

 

I just wanted to say "hi", so... hi.
I found this site trying to locate... um... a Virgil romance mod ^^ And I am sooo glad that there actually are some other people finding him... alluring... guess a shrink won't be necessary now
I hope it will see the light of day... someday.
Special kisses to his other fans!

I'm downloading the WIP now. A shame I have to start all over again since I've done it already a few days ago, but still... I guess it's worth it.

 

Thanks, I'll pass. Dolly must do at the moment

 

Been playing with the Mod a little bit this weekend. (Didn't do as much as what I'd hoped due to needing to do real work.)

Although I'm not all that far (just in Durnholm now), I have a few of questions.

First, about content:
1) When adding content/areas, were they generally worked into dialogue/quests so that you would be pointed to them? Or are they just kind of sitting there, and if you don't know about the locations through cheats/forums, you only find out if you hit things randomly? I'm just wondering how off the track things are from the main quest.
(I haven't had Virgil mark my map, since I wanted to see how much the changed content integrated naturally.)

2) Are the books, starting chest, and Virgil map marking tool going to be removed? I understand it makes testing easier and gives readme info, but these are very OOC elements.

Outside of the mod:
1) How much is rroyo actively developing this module at this point? It seems releases are farther apart over time, and I know he's interested in another project.

2) I know a lot of content is from other modders. How does rroyo decide what to include, and have others developed work specifically for WIP? If others would like to put some time into something for WIP, how is that usually organized? (I'm working on some additional content all based on Shrouded Hills while I'm relearning the tools on arcanum, and am deciding whether WIP or standard arcanum is the better platform to work from. Been working from the standard game so far.)