Spellcasting bug - can anyone help?

I've always played technologists, and now I'm trying to play my first mage (half-elf). After the fight at the bridge in Shrouded hills (which (the fight) always pisses me off) and the gnomish encounter on the other side of the bridge I found that I was unable to cast spells on Virgil. The cursor changes to the "icy arrow" type, but when I click on Virgil, nothing happens. Is it a bug anyone is familiar with, or is it a feature of those lame magical characters I'm not aware of? I have to admit that I'm playing CB Arcanum 2.01; same thing also happenes with Altheia, my female follower. I tried reloading my saves just after the Lukan_Witless fight, but it didn't change anything. As an idiot I saved my game on an other slot a few hours earlier.
Can anyone help me with that? I know the game quite well and realize that it will sometimes be tedious not to be able to heal my followers.
So do I have to reload my saves from way before the fight at the bridge and lose another hour trying to live through it?

 

I'm not overly familiar with that mod (I tend to avoid anything that messes with Virgil, bah), but as you seem to loathe fighting Lukan & Friends so very much, have you considered just not fighting them?

 

Why of course, but:

1. In this game I want to stay good & lawful
2. My stats are too low to talk my way through
3. I can't steal the key

So are there any other options?

 

Well, of course I DID find the new secret entrance to the city added by Chris Beddoes, so I can skip the bridge. But I just wanted to get the quest done.
The more annoying thing, and the reason for this topic, is the spellcasting bug. I don't want such things to happen to my mage in the future too often. As I said, I always played tekkies so far. So I thought maybe someone would say "Yeah, don't worry buddy, it's always the same wit' those wizzies, but the problem solves itself when you enter Tarant" or something like that. Or maybe "Yes, this happens to me every 15 minutes; just hit Ctrl-Alt-F5 and hold it for 5 seconds and everything will be allright". I'm just asking if anyone knows the way to deal with this bug.

 

Options

So you may want to stay lawful huh? Just blow up the bridge material for Lukan and he'll let you through. Just keep your mouth shut to sherrif about it. You wont lose many alignment points for that, as mattter of fact you can go to Tarant and make them all up in other quest. By the time you level up good and strong you can go back and kick his butt right proper and still stay on the good side. Once I had an elf and with the right words I intimidated him into letting me through. Just make sure you save before you start the conversation with him. Try it, you'll like it. And dig this, I didn't need any magic at all. Your preference though of course. You know what else? You can blow the bridge materials and still have a good reputation if you help Doc with the bank previoulsly. Check you journal and see. One time even I blew the bridge materials and the steam engine and still had a +100 alignment at the end. But, you have to be dedicated and work for it of course, as you'll see later in the game................

 

Well he said his stats are too low to talk his way through it, and it seems he doesn't want to start over with a new character that actually plans ahead for this contingency, regardless of how hard it it for him to kill them and how much he seems to hate doing it.... And if he's into roleplaying, his character might not WANT to blow up the bridge materials even though "it all balances out in the end, I mean who cares if some small person has to suffer if I end up 100% good in the end!" Bah. While we're at it, I'm not sure if killing Lukan & Friends is really the most good thing a person could do.... I mean, arrest them, sure, send them to a penal colony for a while, why not, but kill them? Dunno. That's why even the most minimal investment in Persuasion is so useful throughout the game.

I don't think we're actually helping him with his spellcasting problem though.

 

A great way to handle the bridge fight:

Drop Railroad Spikes or Rusty Daggers where each of the bad guys will pick one up. This may take a few F7s & F8s before they each have one. They will equip them & do LOTS less damage. Makes it a bit of a cakewalk.

 

Re: Options

I saved before the conversation and tried at least 10 times; I think the stats are too low because I'm playing the game for the nth time and I know what to say on which occasions. The sorry fact is that after the fight I saved the game in the same slot, not realising that I'm not able to cast spells on my followers.

Of course! All my dwarven technologists who finished the game never cast a single spell. But, as I said, I'm now trying to discover how it is to be mage for a difference.

I know, but, as Canis said, my character does not WANT to do that.

I already finished the game a few times...

So, folks, thanks for all your help, but I think that as I already finished the game a few times I can solve the bridge problem myself...
I was just curious about the bug - should I continue playing, because it doesn't happen very often? Or should I switch to normal Arcanum? Or is there a secret combination of keys/actions to be taken to ged rid of the bug?[/list]

 

That's a great idea! I tried to use my favourite Fallout plant-the-dynamite technique, but I can't do it. Is it so that in order to have this 'smoking' dynamite you have to use it on the ground and then pick it up? When i use the dynamite it always disappears form my inventory. And the manual says nothing about that...

 

Hey, to plant the dinamite you juat have to have in sight (I mean on screen, not in your character's sight) the objective. Then drag the dinamite from your inv to the hand icon, then click on the objetive and it'll dissappear from your inv and after a few seconds it'll blow... just try to stay far from the obj because they find out if you plant bombs in them!

PS: If you want a good bomb to plant in people, learn the schematic for the time bomb. It's like the dynamite, but it's in a present box, so nobody knows it's a bomb (yes, it looks like a cartoon when you do that), and even if you resurrect the victim, he won't know you killed him with the time bomb.

 

You can also quick-slot your dynamite for even more convenient destruction. It takes about ten seconds for it to blow, so you have to be patient. ("GAA!!!! I have to wait TEN BLOODY SECONDS???!!! That's it, I'm not playing anymore.")

Out of curiousity, what happens when you try to cast spells on characters other than your followers? As you might tell from the way this thread derailed, nobody seems to have had this trouble before, so I suspect it might be (*cough*another*cough*) quirk with that mod.

 

Are you running more than one mod? They can have unexpected results when run in combinations.

 

Well, I finally had some time to spare for Arcanum and fought Lukan for the second time. (After doing that I looked if there's something new on this thread and found the advice about dynamite) Now everything's perfect; I have no problems with casting any spell (not that I know many of them).
Yes, I couldn't cast spells on other characters, too. So let's make it EOT - it's just perhaps another one-in-a-million unreproducible bug which happened maybe because I hit some keys while the AI was doing his best to punch me in the nose (I've seen such things happen); Now it's OK.
I'm using only one MOD which is called "MOD", but I'm also using all the Krupp's FIXES and the Dialog Fix, which may also be called "Mods".

You say it's not the first problem with CB Arcanum? Well, the thing which really annoyed me was labeling the ring "Gilbert Bates Ring" right from the beginning of the game! Spoiled the whole surprise!

So let's forget about the casting bug. But I have to ask a question about dynamite handling.

So it does not depend on PickPocket skill? You mean a blind Dwarf hiding behind a rock can plant dynamite on an elvish spy hidden in the bushes 20 yards away just because the player is able to click in appropriate place? Does it never fail? I tried to do it Fallout-style; so now I understand why I wasn't succesful.

 

well go ahead then

I have news for someone. I did say your preference, and if you think you can go through this game without killing anyone, especially thieves holding a town ransom and be bad, you wont. Just think, good or evil, you must kill to get to the end, how you want to there is your choice. Pardon me, I had the impression that you were a beginner. By now, you have found many ways around the bridge, and as for myself, I am still experimenting. There are those who have helped me in the past, I was just pitching in. Happy Hunting

 

Yes, last time I played Arcanum was in February (or March) 2002. So I understand that I may have forgotten much and sound like a beginner. It's always nice to hear advice, thanks again all.
I like it when you play the game for the nth time and you still seem to discover new things and find that you've not really remembered everything correctly. E.G. I think I know Fallout by heart now, and last time (7th, I think) I played I discovered the possibily of using the radio to remotely controlling the force fields (and all my friends said "What? You didn't know that? That was obvious!").
And now I finally learned how to use dynamite... Thanks!

 

Well, in answer to that, yes. For example, you know Hervor? If so listen, I've selected the dynamite standing the farest I could from the steam engine, and activated it, I had even the wall in front of me! But for some reason it works... the same with the Stillwater Giant, don't you even need to get close to it, just "activate" the cage and click on it!

PS: Remember the Time Bomb! It's way better, you don't even need to hide!