Arcanum:WIP 6.0 now available

.............^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I'm stealing that!

 

Wow, thank you so much for this addon. It sure has made things even more interesting. I recall having played Arcanum quite a few times but gave up 'cos I kinda got bored with just wandering around and killing things. Especially, after meeting Nasrudin.

Btw, hope things get better for you, Arroyo.

And also, anyone knows if this mod is compatible with the Dungeon of Lost Souls?

Thanks!

 

The Lost Dungeon of Souls is a separate module.

 

Papa_Dog, Dark Elf: Thank you.

I've got to find a way to use this!

Update: Although C drive is still in good shape, D drive made some faint scritching sounds when I went to start it up. Of course, I shut down the computer immediately and disconnected the drive.
I don't know for sure what's the cause of the sound , but as soon as I find/buy a new drive, I'll have D drive cloned and see if anything was damaged.

kashin: Welcome to the forum! And thank you too.

LDoS is a separate module and should play without any problems.

BTW: I caught your comment about the walking. This is something I kept running into with the stock game. It's just an annoying bug I don't know how to fix.

 

Ah, I have not used modules before so thanks for the info.

Thanks and no problem.

Ahhh ... right. Upon looking at the Terra ARcanum's download page, there are so many modules. ;D

Oh well, it doesn't matter. I'll just live with it.

 

I'm glad to hear that you've managed to recover some of your things. I'll bet finding that map would have been an incredible moment! Now, like I said, you just focus on getting back on your feet and we'll keep a nice comfortable chair and some brandy waiting for your return.

 

Careful - I just might hold you to that.

And yeah, learning the map was still intact just stunned me. The frame was pretty much charcoal and the glass was jet black and cracked, but on a whim I took it apart and there was the map, still attached to the (soggy) matting - and not a scorch mark anywhere.
I'm convinced the extra money I paid for a museum-quality mount was well-spent.

Here's a crappy pic of what it looked like before:
FYI: The frame was circa 1900 and the matting was a perfect match for the paint on the map.


I'll probably never find a hundred-year-old frame that's so absolutely perfect for this map again, but someday I will get the map cleaned, remounted, and hanging above my workstation once more.

I just wish my notes had fared so well. Ballpoint ink bleeds like a son of a bitch when the paper gets wet.....
I've got a lot of writing to do again.

 

A small update: Thanks to the IT tech for the company I work for, about 80 or so percent of what was on the build drive has been salvaged.

A minor victory, but it gets me that much closer to building again.
(I am really, really, really sick of playing Free Cell......)

 

80% > 0%
Anything that gets you closer to AWIP production is a good thing.
Especially if it includes a Dog for Xiao.

 

It's good to hear about any ups in your situation, rroyo.

 

Agreed!

Which reminds me - "Puppy" will be a wolf instead of a lycantrope, and here's why: I'm going to attempt a bit of slap-stick with that scene and a staggering wolf is far funnier than a plodding lycan could ever be.

Here's what I was working on:
When the PC accepts the job of retrieving Xiao's grimoire, he'll have to get past Puppy (without killing him of course*), who's less than thrilled about anyone trespassing on his little corner of the world. The observant player will spot an odd bush along the way and collect three marijuana leaves from it.
Using the leaves on Puppy - at the proper time - will get him stoned, changing his attitude from hostile to amiable and give him a case of the munchies. Puppy gets sicced on a sheep, which he promptly kills and eats - completely. **
Now that he's almost too full to move, the PC can scurry around and dig up the mounds without getting bit.

I had gotten as far as getting the second leaf to work properly before I went off on that last trip but the only real problem I could forsee with getting such a complicated sequence to work would be a constant series of checks to keep the followers from automatically attacking Puppy during the run-around.

Also - The initial build of this scene is/was being done on a throw-away module and will be added to the hack when I'm sure it's working properly. So if you don't see it with the next release or two, be patient.

* Any attack besides the pot leaves will have Xiao and Bunny coming around back to explain why that wasn't such a good idea.

** A little something to get your day started off right: Imagine the hair-balls that wolf will be trying to pass.....

 

*sniffle*
*wipes a tear from his eye*
That's just beautiful.
You get two koala bodies and my favorite bouncy ball!
…
*nuzzles up to Xiao*
I’m gonna need a new bouncy ball.

 

Hey, first off I want to say I'm sorry about your house and your dog. I really hope you get things back together soon. I feel pretty trite asking this in the face of your loss, but could you help me getting this to run correctly? I've followed the steps exactly as you listed them in the opening post and I don't have a warzed or no-CD version of the game (I don't even know what those are). You said that the first thing you should notice is a small chest next to your character in the crash site, and I don't see one. I can also ask Virgil to mark the new locations, but nothing happens when he does. I see a few changes, like the inventory of the Molochean Hand and some new backgrounds (I downloaded the background patch on one of the recent pages) but I don't see any new content. What am I doing wrong?

 

Oh Rroyo, just when I think you can't get any more awesome, you go and prove me wrong. *wipes a tear of joy from her face*

Puppy, did you lose your toy again? *grabs another one from the drawer*

 

Welcome to the forum, Chef Boyardee!

Thank you for your concern. One step at a time I am getting closer.

OK - It sounds to me like you have a really glitched install. Only a fraction of the new content is being read by the game engine.

Try double-clicking the Drog'sCleanCache.bat and start a new game.
If you still don't see the chest at the Crash Site, you'll have to uninstall, then reinstall. Sorry.

--------------

*Offers Xiao his hankerchief*

Thank you.

 

That did the trick. I reinstalled Arcanum and reapplied the expansion. Thanks a lot for your help.

One question though, is the experience required to level up supposed to be four or fives times the normal amount once you hit 20?

 

You're welcome.

About the experience points: 4 or 5 times stock - no - for which a lot of people are grateful.
The values did get bumped up to this however: 1x stock for 1 - 10, 1.5x for 11 - 20, 2x for 21 - 30, 2.5x for 31 - 40, and 3x for 41 - 50.
This has helped to minimize the impact the new adventures were having on the leveling schemes.

 

I don't feel like there's enough added content to warrant that change yet. I've done quite a bit of the new content so far and at most I've gained two levels. Do you think you could send me a version that has the original experience levels or tell me how to change them myself?

 

Well, you can use a program like DATBuilder* to extract the original file from the Arcanum3.dat. The address is Arcanum3.dat/rules/xp_level.mes.
Once you have it, create a folder named rules, move the mes file into it, and place that into your Data folder. Finish up by double-clicking the Arcanum/Drog'sCleanCache.bat.
This should do the trick.

Now what I can't promise is that it won't corrupt your saved game.
That, I'm afraid, is a crap-shoot.

*Available in the Downloads section of the forum.

 

Quick question, rroyo - I'm gonna do an Arcanum run for my first LP, and while I'm only using the core game, I'd like to include the custom backgrounds you fixed up for us after the infamous thread. Can they be used without AWIP?

(I would use AWIP except that, well, it's unfinished and also because the LP is gonna take ages anyways.)