Arcanum:WIP 6.0 now available

Thanks. I just thought I'd get to him before some of the more tenacious lords did.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I will try that as soon as i've got time again

 

Hello guys!

I just recently bought this game, being attracted by the fact it was developed by some of the guys (Tim Cain included) who made the magnificient first Fallout game, and the equally amazing Vampire: Masquerade Bloodlines, if my calculations are correct, it should be arriving at my mailbox this Friday, but I have some doubts...

First, there is something that bugged me when I played the demo... does this mod (or any other) allow you to move the camera freely? I didn't mind that restriction with the Fallout games, because the areas were closed, but this game is more like the TES games, with open and charge-free enviroments, so it feels very very awkward :???:

Second, does this one let you scroll through the map instead of using the little "sphere"? It also feels akward when compared to other games, I wouldn't mind it too much if the ingame camera wasn't like that but with that limitation I have to check the map a lot, and it's somewhat annoying.

And, do you recommend this mod for my first playthrough? Should I go with the UAP? I may sound like a noob, but I don't want to read the changelog from fear of getting some important plot detail spoiled, it happened to me with some other games and I wouldn't like it to happen again with this one >_< Oh, and also, does this one balance combat like the "Hard Arcanum" mod?

Oh, yes, finally, aside from the new content, does this one add cut content like the restoration projects from other games? And, is it compatible with the hq town maps mod?

Whew, I think that's all, thanks in advance! Sorry for asking too much, but I really want to enjoy this game as much as possible, and also, sorry if some of my phrases sound weird, english is not my mother language...

 

This kind of questions belongs to "Hints&Tips" section btw.

Definitely no.
I suggest you to play original+UAP 3-4 times first with drastically different builds then to try mods.

 

Welcome to the forum, Eltshan!

To answer your questions:

1) Sorry, but no.

2) I'm afriad you're stuck with the little sphere.
One way to increase the area you can check out is by adding this command to your desktop icon: [space]-scrolldist:[number] Set it to 0 to make it infinite. Default: 10.
Just in case you haven't done this before; right-click on the Arcanum icon and select properties. Where it says Target, add the command above to the end of the existing line and apply.

3) Go with the UAP for your first playthrough. Enjoy the game as it was meant to be.
More than anything else, my hack adds a bunch of new distractions.

4) Wellllll.... Yes and no. I used the more powerful weapons protos from Car-Arcanum, added combat skills to the various guards, and the UAP additions corrected some more shortcomings, but I cannot honestly claim this balances the combat.

5) Restored content - Yes it does. Lost dialogs, icons, and a previously unused building - just off the top of my head.

6) HQ maps - Not really. I've modified places like Tarant, Shrouded Hills, and the Iron Clan - to name three - and the HQ maps wouldn't show that.

Finally: Asking too much? Not at all!
Enjoy the game.

 

Sorry, I will be sure to post them there the next time, and thanks for the help, I will go with UAP like you say =P

First of all, thanks for the welcome and for the answers, I will go with the UAP as both of you recommended and then try your mod during future playthroughs, oh, and also, by telling me that "trick" with the properties you have pretty much improved my Arcanum experience, a lot, thank you! I can't really wait until tomorrow so I can play it >_<

Whew, anyway, thanks again to both of you, I will be sure to enjoy this masterpiece!

 

Hello rroyo.
It's my first post here, though I was stalking this forum for, well, years. Didn't try your mod earlier (duh, me and my "amazing" memory) and when I finally got computer that wouldn't shut itself after 20 minutes of playing and found some free time I wanted to play this game again. This time with your mod.

So first: I wasn't sure if my post should go here or somewhere else but since it's about your mod I thought I'd write it here. And sorry if my English is not too good.

Second: this mod is great! There're few things I'd change but you can't please everyone, right? ; ) I really hope I'll see next release someday.

Next thing is I had problem installing this. Since my laptop is pretty new it was first time I installed Arcanum here, so it was all "clean". Then patched it to 1074, then installed your mod. Everything went fine, new backgrounds and portraits were here, I could make new characters and start new game. I noticed brown chest which means mod was installed. When Virgil stopped his blabbing I was about to start to pick up all the crap from crash site. But game crashed everytime I hovered cursor over laying thing (not always, it seems that only wine and plants/roots were causing this). So I just thought I don't need these things (started playing as a mage) and just didn't really care. But (still at crash site) I wanted to put healing potion into quick use slot and game crashed. I tried to use different characters (my own and default ones), go to different locations to see if this was linked to the crash site only, reinstalled Arcanum and your mod but no luck. Crashes occurred in Shrouded Hills as well, didn't try other locations but I guess it'd be the same. After reinstalling this like 6 times I tried to run this on my old PC. It worked just fine, chest was here and no crashes at all.

Well, anyways, I'm stubborn enough not to give up and tried, on my laptop again, something I thought was totally stupid and useless: deleted your Arcanum.exe and put the patched one back. Imagine how surprised I was when it worked. Chest, new locations, map marking, everything worked and... no crashes!
I had some bugs I never had, even with clean 1074 version but I guess it's because I changed .exe file. Not sure if I should list them since I messed with files so it might be my own fault, not your mod's. Besides these bugs aren't that bad and game is playable so not a big deal.

The only thing that really bugs me is game ending. Don't know if it's your mod or, again, my fault. When I use Vendigroth device there's a movie and then game teleports me to crash site. But Virgil is still saying we have to defeat Kerghan, Nasrudin is waiting to send me to Void and when I look at journal "Defeat Kerghan" is still incomplete. I talked to Nasrudin once again and, once again, he sent me to Void. But when I entered Kerghan's castle game ended (just like in normal game).

I thought your mod didn't work like it should on my laptop but everything was fine on my old PC because my old one is XP, laptop is win7. Or am I wrong? If that's the case is there anything I could do to make it work properly on win7?


And, oh my God, sorry for that damn long post! I didn't want to bore you to death, really.

 

Welcome to the forum, Kari!

Glad to hear you figured out a work-around for your problem, but you did open the door for another one - The Arcanum.exe that comes with this hack was modified to allow for more backgrounds. Using Drog's patched one means you should avoid all the backgrounds from Earthborn on up the line. The game will probably crash.

The ending: Thanks for reminding me. I need to reset a few flags.

Getting this to work properly on Win 7 is something I know next to nothing about. I stuck with XP when I heard about the problems others were having. So - aside from running the game in compatability mode, I'm really not sure I can help you there.

Bore me?
Not at all! Enjoy the game!

 

I thought it would cause even more problems or wouldn't do anything at all but it was worth a try anyway. Though I was very surprised it fixed crashes, it's a good start.
Hm, I'll try to run this in compatibility mode (didn't even think about it since Arcanum alone worked perfectly) and whether it works or not or if I do find another solution to this problem I'll let you know, maybe it'll help other people as well.

As for win7, well, I like xp better, too. But I needed a laptop mostly for my studies, not for games, so as long as I can run Adobe stuff here system doesn't really matter to me.

Hah, I was sure my post was long and boring! But thank you. And thanks for response. I'll keep stalking so if I remember something I wanted to ask I'll bother you more.

EDIT: ok, so I had some free time and tried Arcanum again. Ran this in compatibility mode but nothing changed, still crashed. I'll just stay with the other .exe then, I'm not afraid of small glitches ; )

 

Hey rroyo,

First, i would like to thank you for this magnificent and amazing mod, that you have created.

So i have a couple of questions, that I would like to ask you:

1. When do you think you will update this mod?
2. Does this mod has so missing free-roam opportunity after completing the main quest?

Again, thank you for such a great mod!

 

Welcome to the forum, sm4sh3r!

Glad to hear you're enjoying the hack.

OK -

1) I wish I knew. I've got a couple large bills to get paid off, then I can save up for a computer with enough RAM to handle modding Arcanum's main map.

2)

I'm going to assume you're asking if you can keep playing after the original final battle. The answer is yes. You'll go back to the shrine at the crash-site.

 

2)

I'm going to assume you're asking if you can keep playing after the original final battle. The answer is yes. You'll go back to the shrine at the crash-site.[/quote]


But when i played it on my windows xp, it just ended at that's all. When i see the subtitles, i can keep playing. Or i have to load a game or something?
Currently i'm using windows 7.

 

Hmmm....
For some reason, the game refused to read the modified script. This is not too uncommon, I'm sorry to say, but if the lack of continuation is the only problem you've had, count yourself lucky.

One thing you might try while you've still got a running game is to double-click the CleanCache.bat, then load a save made prior to confronting Kergan.
No promises, but sometimes this does the trick.

 

Thank you for your answers rroyo. Mind to answer me these questions? :

1. What does arbalest do? (looks like oak axe handle).
2. There is a shop in Tarant with a diamond sign or something. Will the shopkeepers inventory be gone for good, after i bought something, or will it be the same(reset)?
3. There are shops in Vormatown (Ivory lake). Will the inventory of shopkeepers will reset to nothing too, after i bought something or no?

thank you!

 

OK - Your questions tell me that you are having multiple problems, because:

1) The arbalest is a crossbow and has appropriate art - not an ax handle.
2) The pawnshop is supposed to have a renewing inventory, with the exception of the Upsy-Daisium gems.
3) The Vormantown merchants are supposed to have renewing inventories.

Sorry to say, but the experience is being ruined for you.
When you feel like trying this again, do a fresh install and play using XP.

 

Well actualy everything on xp was bugged : all shops didn't reset(all items disappiered, after i've bought something), i've used to have some bugs sometimes, and now everything seems to work acutally without flaws. So Arbalest is an ingredient or a weapon? because on mine it has no weapon status. Only weight(50 stones, i think). Thank you again for your answers.

 

The Arbalest itself is a weapon. A mighty crossbow - it should only and always look/behave like a crossbow.

 

The "Arbalest looking and acting like a glitched Oak Axe Handle" A:WIP bug has been reported several times over the years. Short answer is that the mod's installation didn't go as it should. A user called killianql had this glitched and was able to fix the problem, perhaps this post of his will help.

 

Well arbalest isn't flagged as blocked for me. It looks like other .dat files in properties section.

OH btw, i've read somewhere (a long time ago), that if you check a shop like, where the tesla pistol is and don''t buy it, it will disappear. Is that true?

*EDIT*

I've just tried it. After returing(first i've bought some schematics), there was an item called arbalest schematic. It was a green dress. And tesla pistol was gone? What the hell?

 

Hey Rroyo....long time no see my friend...I had a sudden urge to re-install arcanum and give it a whirl again.

Did you ever get that Pyrotechnic sword done from the artwork I sent you?

If yous still need new ideas let me know