Technology VS Magick, who suffers most in the feud?

Wolfsbane, you are forgetting a few things. Mages like Arronax and Nasrudin were possible thousands of years ago. They're no longer possible in 'current' Arcanum. Kerghan only retained his power by banishment. And even that is surprisingly ineffective in the end. You should also have noticed that a lot of magic isn't that effective against highly tech oriented characters.

Fact of the matter is that one of the strongest magic locations in the game is the village of the Dark Elves. A party of techies can blow their way through the entire place without really working up a sweat. I know, I've done it twice just for fun. By contrast, with a magic only party, coming up against the big gunfighter gang in the master gun quest is not a lot of fun. Even when they go down, they dish out a lot of punishment.

Muro, I've twice had Perriman all the way to the end. Made sure I got him when I was as low a level as possible both times to ensure that he would be maxed out at the end. He was utterly useless. Never even seems to cast healing spells, let alone anything particularly useful in combat. If Arcanum had a major failing as a game it was principally in the inability of the player to control the actions and direct the development of the NPCs.

 

But technology was equally fantastic at the time of Arronax and Nasrudin, what with both Vendigroth and the Iron Clan about. And who got wiped in the feud? Technology. And that kind of technology only surfaces once or twice a millenia in Arcanum, too. In a one-on-one fight, magic always wins. Dominate will, invisibility, disintegrate, teleportation... these are spells that technology can't compete with.

I've conquered Tarant and the Wheel Clan caves single handedly with a magic character. I fireflashed the gunslinger team to charcoal in the firearms master quest. The home of the dark elves is equally easy to conquer for both mages and technologists.

I still believe magic rules supreme over technology in question of power over the other, but I do think that technological characters are more fun to play.

 

I found that hard to believe so I did some quick testing. Created a character, used Virgil's debug menu to push the main plot towards the moment when Perriman appears, teleported to Tarant, dumped Virgil, hired Perriman and went to some location when my ass could get properly kicked. Perriman was healing my character like a charm.

My guess is your characters were way too much on the technological side for Perriman to even bother.

 

But the Vendigroth technology actually gotten to the point where Magical types were all "Holy Crap of a crap sandwich!" (Or they would, had the Earl of Sandwich invented the novel ad bizzare concept of putting something ON bread! then putting MORE BREAD! on top! GASP!) that the Magick of Arcanum was seriously in danger of completely disappearing. Had they not destroyed the place Magick would've eventually failed completely and died as some types say happened in another less steampunk, and more boring universe.

 

What?

Arronax and some of his fellow arrogant elven councillors thought that the technology in Vendigroth was a travesty, and so Arronax decided to make them bow to his will or kill them trying. And when they built the Vendigroth Device, they doomed themselves by not taking Arronax seriously. So he killed them. Every. Single. One.

That's what happened.

 

I do not recall anyone thinking like that at that time, not even Arronax.

What happens in another universe stays in another universe. Each universe has a different set of laws of physics and so on and universes differ from one another in those aspects. Saying that something will happen in universe A only because it happened in universe B is completely incorrect. This applies to both science and fiction.

As for Arcanum, as far as we know both magick and technology were always present in it. When one was strong, the other one was weak, but there was never a situation in which one would force out the other one altogether. Saying that something like that would eventually happen even though it never happened before is drawing conclusions a bit too far.

As far as the lore goes, there is no certainty, only speculations. Some say it can never happen, others say that it can, but when it does, Arcanum will seize to exist. One thing is sure, though - nothing at all is sure.

 

Not so. It was a purely magical party both times.

 

Something must have been wrong with your game, I guess. From my observation, any follower knowing white necromancy spells - including those mind controlled and ones raised as undead - cast them whenever any non-tech member of the party gets injured.

 

i just wanted to note, that while mages like arronax and nasrudin ceased to exist, still they used magicks that could destroy an entire civilizations!
while therte is no known technological force possesing such power .

 

Atom bomb.

 

The fatigue problem weighs in heavily. The cost in physical energy is trivial only for very advanced mages (is that what discourages lots of potential wizardry pupils, apart from lack of talent?).

I think the power granted by magic to the individual may turn against the wizards; technological inventions are hard to keep secret, increasing mastery of the arcane is not (probably). Secrecy, rivalry and jealousy might be the mages' downfall. Also, I guess wizards are given even more to dangerous/ fatal/ catastrophic experimentation ("let's just summon this demon and see if he likes cookies").

OTOH, mages should be awe-inspiring at guerilla warfare.