Arcanum 2

It sure looks a bit weird having him that avatar, and posts at the same time.

Now that we all came to this conclusion, we really should do some thinking about what for kind of people, creatures, new spells and weapons, technological marvels there would be at that time now.

 

:laughs like silly:
I'm sorry, I just saw Zanza posting with that avatar of his. It's incredible, I didn't know we have the means to receive posts which were submitted in the Void. This place is amazing.

The highly advanced technology may have been located in just one city, but don't forget that the said city was as big as the present Vendigroth Wastes. It was like a whole country full of advanced tech.

Also, the technology might not have been disseminated all over Arcanum, but the dwarves were most probably always playing with technology more or less. The Age of Legends might be the time when the Iron Clan was in the top if its possibilities, too.

Things like that would be the most fun of all. Destroying the Elven Council in the name of Vendigroth, banishing Nasrudin to the Void with Kerghan's help (being his apprentice, after all), killing Loghaire Thunderstone as a soldier of Lorek's army, promoting to general, then second in command and eventually killing him in his sleep and becoming the new king of the dwarves, capturing the inhabitants of all the halfling villages out there and feeding your new dwarven army with them, making Gorgoth starve to death as a side effect... Oh, the possibilities! Damn. For a second there I even wanted to have that kind of Arcanum 2.

 

How about a WW1 setting? I think that could work. You still have the big, bulky machines like you do in the 19th century and the time is one with a lot of things going on, thus new problems to solve. It wouldn't be totally dominated by technology as it would be 100 years later, and not totally ruled by magick like The Age of Legends.

You could even have the Arcanum equivalent of The Great War take place IN Arcanum for more problems. Maybe a couple of rival commanders would offer missions like in the Boil.

 

This kind of age has some possibilities, because:

* Perhaps Blackroot wants have independence, and don’t want to be under the thumb of Tarant anymore. Now Tarant don’t takes this anymore, and offers an ultimatum to Blackroot. Feeling protected by a powerful allied country, (I cannot remember the name.) Blackroot says “no.” Suddenly the king of Tarant (Or a king of an ally.) was murdered by a separatist. Now Tarant and his allies declare war to Blackroot and their allies.
Plot ideas: The PC has to find out who ordered the seperatist to commit the political murder. He/she can ally with one of the country, and fight their enemy country, by sabotage, killing commanders, free hostages, and destroy enemies troops.

 

This idea is not half bad. But the plot should take place just before the war, with obligatory conscription going on both in Tarant and Caladon. Perhaps there are still a few people who still thinks diplomacy is a good thing, and want the player to aid them in their struggle for peace. Others want war for their own reasons.

The WW1 setting should just be a setting though; the plot needn't revolve around the war. It should be an important factor in quests and travel (and in social life, of course), but not the central part of the game.

 

Caladon, that's the name that I was looking for. If it is playing just before the Great War, the PC can even try to stop the seperatist before he kills the king or duke of Tarant (or any ally of Tarant.). Perhaps the PC will try to discover who ordered this. (someone in the government?)
Idea: When a bomb exploded in the trenches where the PC is stationed, it uncovered a secret passage to a hidden evil temple.

 

Yes, I agree. Just like the invention of the steam engine was in the game. Though I do think that if the war took place in the land of Arcanum you could do some missions in a war-torn area.

I also agree about your idea of having it take place (or at least start) just before the war and then something would happen (such as an assassination like Arthgon mentions, and such as the one that started the real one).

How about your character is on the streets where the assassination takes place and you're hit or something, and that way gets caught up in the story by some political figure? The war wouldn't have started yet, and might still be avoided (you could even have a direct impact here!). Then your character is also an unknown thrown into big events.

 

Wrong. If you were thinking about a country, it was the Kingdom of Arland. Caladon is the name of its capital city.

 

Oops...you are absolutely right. I mixed up Caladon and the Kingdom of Arland.

Why not? What about we are using this kind of starting position?

The PC will wake up in a military hospital after he/she got hit by a strayed bullet from the gun of the separatist. After some pleasant talk with a friendly nurse, a high-rank officer comes in, and will ask the PC to investigate this political assassination. That's because he/she is an outsider, and not allied with one of those quarreling countries. Now that the tensions are getting higher, the PC will get caught in a web of war, treason, murder, and an ancient evil.*

Quests Ideas:

1) At some point, the PC is stationed in (at) the dirty, blood soaked trenches, to discover the identity of the traitorous culprit among the battle-tired men of the 103 battalion. Suddenly, some heavy artillery blows up some part of the trenches, and the PC discovers a hidden passage to a hidden temple.

2) The PC must lead a battalion, who has the top secret mission to destroy enemy camps, killing or capturing commanders of the enemy troops, blow up artillery, rescue hostages, and political prisoners, and finding top secret documents, and maps.

3) The PC is accused to be one of the separatists, and has to clear his/her name, by finding the real culprit, and those who are behind all this.

4) Captain Darling, asked the PC to find and capture the cruel colonel Ernst Von Drachen. He/she will discover that the troops of the colonel are mutated or turned into undead.

5) He/she has to save the diplomat Harold McLain, who is kidnapped by an enemy convoy.

6) There are rumors that the 120 battalion of the enemy, who were killed in battle are haunting the trenches.

7) Someone or something is killing of the villagers and troops of a besieged keep.

8) Some of the important NPC's are cameos of HoL members.

BTW: I am all in, to help with making some of the dialogs, helping with the plot, and ideas.

*Plot Idea: An ancient dark and evil cult wants to revive some really ancient Evil Gods (something in trend of The Great Old Ones of Call of Cthulhu) by sacrificing millions of people through the First World War.

PS: I accidently remove the earlier post, but that's what you get when you has something else on your mind. (someone who I knew for many years, died some days ago.)

 

Yeah, those ideas could be used in the war parts of the land. But I'm thinking the war used as a distraction for their plan, and that "they" are the Dark Elves who feel the world is becoming too technology-minded. They could, again, use The Molochean Hand to things such as the assassination that sparked the war.

 

...and then, in Arcanum 3 the main antagonists would be, oh my, the Dark Elves (with the help of the Molochean Hand) and in Arcanum 4, in order to refreshen the whole series and surprise everyone, Dark Elves and their Molochean Henchmen would serve as the big meanie. Not repetitive at all.

Also, it's very unlikely for the Molochean Hand to ever work for the Dark Elves again. The Hand was already manipulated by them and is far from willing to repeat its disgraceful mistake.

 

What if the Molochean Hand are the bad guys and the Dark Elves work for them, however you find out that the Dark Elves were really the bad guys and the Molochean Hand were working for them the whole time!

 

the idea I just had is just for a beginning and random encounters you get because of it with a posability of a end boss worthy fight at or nere the end of Arcanum 2:

beginning movie 1) a robed person is in front of you and hands you a light weight item like a necklace or ring. he explains that it is a very powerfull item and if the wrong people get their hands on it that it could meen the end of the universe. he says you should travle to a diffrent planet to a place called? (I forget what the planet Arcanum is on is called but it is the name of the planet he says) to make it harder for those looking for it to find you and tells you the item can take you there. someone else comes into view in the distance that you notice behind the robed figure but enough to the side you can see them. your hand comes into view pointing at the new person and the robed figure turns around gasps then truns back to you and in a hurry says you need to go now, he tuches the item in your hand and as you are teleported away he say's good luck and says a name that is not the players while the movie fades.

beginning movie 2 or a move you see after meeting someone very late game as he explains more to you) the robed person turns to the person comeing up to him but this time the person is clear enough to see that they are decked out in extreamly good if not the best gear. the new person neels and says master sorry for the delay I'm (say's name the robed figure called you at the end of first move) I've trained all my life to be worthy of protecting the sacred item and am at your disposal. movie fades.

ok durring the game the char gets scaled encounters of people trying to get the item from the player (kinda like the Malcom hand encounters) and posably a ongoing encounter of the real guy that supposed to have been the one to protect the item in the first place.

this sudgested theem can take place at anytime in the Arcanum timeline but the player would probably pop up at a popular place even if at the time it is not realy popular anymore,as long as it used to be popular. like ring of Borger or Vandorgroth probably a high magick place if inArcanums future and a high tech place if in arcanums past (explained that where the player came from it was mostly the other of what Arcanum is now wich will still allow him to go magick or tech even if it's Arcanums past with the NPCs not knowing any more than 2 ranks max in a tech or it's Arcanums future where most magicks have been forgoten. this way the char would still have a full choice between magick or tech alltho what you learn would be diffrent because of magick and tech being stronger one on Arcanum and the other from your home world.) this being said the encounters you get of people from your world would be equiped ether magick or tech based on the opisite of what Arcanum is based on where the opisite of nutral is nutral if the time is set where Vandagroth is still a funtioning city or it is set at the time of Arcanum 1 or it is set so far in the future that the ebb and flow of tech and magick started bringing magick back.

well of course the player finds a major quest in Arcanum that seems more important than what he is doing and that is the real game but nere the end the main guy after the item finds the player or he joins forces with the antaganist of the new more important quest the player found and the player has to defeat both of them at the end.

like I said it is not a compleat story itself but it does add some plot twists to just about any story that others sudgest, if combined with what could by itself be a compleat story.

 

You forgot, as in you once possessed that knowledge? Wow, I envy you. I always though that "Arcanum" was the name of the largest known object in the Arcanum universe.

...I was going to shout at you but that was actually quite funny.

You're on fire.

 

ok I was 1/2 asleep and was trying to make that post before sleeping so I wouldn't forget the idea so there may be allot of misspellings in it that are WAY off but hopefully the post can be pieced together to make some sort of sense.

looking back to it I have to laugh at the Malcom Hand thing allso but agian I'm heading to bed. it seems to be a pattern of mine to visit the house of Lords and brouse posts right before going to bed.

 

i wouldnt mind if arcanum 2 is using the same story as or paralel to the first one, with some more side quests and more branching decisive quests, heck, i would enjoy relive arcanum 1 1/2 not to mention arcanum 2, overhaul the graphics, repair some issues, dev newer engine etc etc... just keep to the unique arcanum, that's all

 

im playing Arcanum again after all these years, nice to be back.

for Arcanum 2, it would be great to have a story about vendigroth. But maybe something else..

My plot is like that; There are rumors of a huge destruction caused by an unknown source. Black Root is in Ruins. No survivers at all. Tarant Industrial Council is blaming the Mages of Tulla for summoning a magical being for causing mayhem in the lands and preparing for a war against existance of all magick. All magicians and anyone who has his ways with magic at all, is exiled from the city with force. Any resistance was harshly repelled with deadly force. In streets those who carry elven blood are attacked by angry mobs (while city guard is unfortunately can not make it in time to *save* these individuals) Newspapers of Tarant is making harsh propaganda against magick and how wicked it is.

While Mages of Tulla are blaming Tarant for trying to build a technological abomination for mass destruction, which is now out of control and is blaming the wrong ways of the so called science. In a league with the Dark-Elves now they are making their preparations to erase any blasthemy (science) from the face of Arcanum.

Caladon and Cumbria trying to stay neutral (mostly focusing on protecting themselves from this mayhem).

The only clue is from a dying dwarf from clans who met his peril in the wild by that mayhem we happen to meet on our journey. His last words indicates that neither Tarant nor Tulla is right about the source of this mayhem. While he also says in his dying breath that, they are both right about the nature of this monstrosity.

As Spoiler : There is an hidden society who managed to unite Technology and Magick, and now their biggest creation is causing chaos in the face of Arcanum.

Who are they? Where are they? Why did they create such a weapon? How did they manage to unite magick and technology? And can it be stopped? OR should it be stopped at all? All these questions are to be answered in our journey.

There will be much more possible endings and crossroads in the storyline than the first one, such as;
*Siding with Tarant Politics erasing this threat AND the existance of Magick.
*Siding with views of Tulla Mages and Dark-Elves to bring back the glory of Magick, cleansing the land from the plague called science along with this new threat
*Helping for uniting the Tarant and Tulla against the arisen threat and reasoning them to collaborate putting aside their differences.
*Finding the civilization managed to unite Magick and Technology and ?????

and goes on, hope it will be multi-path storyline which has crossroads within the story many times.

Hope you like it all.

 

Seems to be two schools of thought here.

1. Great war between magic and tech. adds wartorn areas of arcanum. Also adds political intrigue ala espionage etc... Harkens back to the negotiation quest about the treaty in the "league of nations" type deal.

My thoughts: the nations are under one banner, theoretically. So rather than a war betwixt two of the resident nations, I think a better idea would be the continent vs a third party. Since the continent is on its way toward a technological singularity. I suggest something supernatural. An army of ghosts? An army from a neighboring country that never knew about tech, and since they have no belief in it, the resident tech is less effect against, and more susceptible to, magic. I would suggest that there are several ways to accomplish this as a plot. I would think that perhaps with the entire continent at stake. The Melochean hand would become an official intelligence/counter intelligence agency. Dark elves if they still feel the way they do after learning the truth about Arronax, given that he is back, would either join the magickers out of spite, or join the nation as a uniquely skilled group. As I recall, Arronax buried his father at the end of the last game, so perhaps his last wish would be for a national government to make sure those mistakes are not repeated. IE, elven council, but with humans, dwarves, halflings, orc settlement representatives, and half orc labor reps. Half-elves get no say, the halfies. Even the bedokken probably should be involved.

2. A group of mages reaking havoc in the Vendigroth.

My thoughts. Do both ideas. No i'm not kidding. How you say? The Tullan Temporal Magic Grandmaster. In this way, you can, late game likely, go back in time to prevent some changing of history that suddenly happens mid story. Only the PC and followers probably notice this, but it is likely that some action by the PC is the cause of the temporal distortion. After thinking to himself that the PC has finished his mission, all is fixxed. He remembers the big bad guy, whatever his name is, saying "This isnt finished Ram Hardchest! You'll see... ERK..." Then the council chamber wavers out of existance followed by the PC falling out of a tree where Qintarra should have been, and falling onto an ancient battlefield, long since abandoned. He stumbles across a settlement by savage half-elves (humans and elves gave up racial stuff and needed to interbreed on a regular occasion) who tell him all about the war that happened between the vendigroth and ancient invaders. The PC travels to Vendigroth and finds it a Wasteland.. again.. and then travels to Tulla to seek out the Time mage. Time mage sends him back to a year before the ancient war, stocks up on UBER stuff in vendigroth, as a late game player should do, and goes to attempt to prevent an unfortunate affair. How it ends I dunno. But the more I think about it, the PCs followers should probably also be gone, as only the PC is from outside Arcanum. (and thus should not be affected by the historical shit. Also, another time mage should somehow be the culprit. I dunno, criticism required, your thoughts?


EDIT: Also, gross overuse of old newspapers should be in effect when the PC experiences the time change. How Tulla survives? Maybe Pelojians ghost tells the Temporal College master to send the city forward in time to when the PC does his stuff? And then... We find out the the real culprit.... IS PELOJIAN! Oh shit! nah... but maybe. Your thoughts?

DOUBLE EDIT!: The scenario i just mentioned has one more bonus. There are literally _3_ Arcanums to explore in this case. 1. Normal partially war torn. With a partially rezzed Vendigroth 2. Fallout 2-esque post apocalyptic arcanum, with a few towns that survive, and likely a lot of abandoned citys for looting. including the vendigrothan wastes. 3. Ancient Arcanum, with the full vendigroth, and an alive Nasrudin. Maybe your goal is to change things while still making sure you are alive.

GASP! random thought! maybe YOU came up with the prophecies! Whilst in the past. Maybe you helped come up with the Panarii religion, and you are the one who put that monument at the blimp crash site that totally doesnt make sense unless someone knew you were going to be there. Also, you are your own grandfather. thats right, Im just saying what everyone is thinking at this point.

Bonus thought: as a juxtaposition to how awesome you are, you have to choose to not save vendigroth from Arronax, the timeline HAS to be preserved. Which makes you both party to genocide, and kind of a dick. But the bonus is that it gives the PC some depth in that he is not completely awesome. Bonus thought 2: maybe you are pelojian as well? Wow, i think i just wrote the game....

 

The sequel can't take place after 1920, because it would no longer be Steampunk, and become Dieselpunk (pre WW-2 to early post-war era).

My idea is to make the new arcanum with that separatist assasination idea(something like 6 years later the events occured in arcanum), and the events of the game leading to different endings.

IDEAS:

~1st Ending: The events occurred in the main plot leads to The Great War, unlocking a bonus/extra feature in the Extras menu.

~2nd Ending: The events occurred in the main plot leads to an agreement between the two major factions, leading to a long peaceful era, and possibly making an Arcanum 3, taking place in a Dieselpunk era, with an imminent war danger.

~3rd Ending: The events occurred in the main plot leads to a non-agression pact that leads to a cold-war, unlocking the feature to play with a spy during this cold war in the Extras menu.

~4th Ending: ??? need more feedback ???

Give feedback, the ideas may not stop coming![/b][/i]