Some small things about Arcanum 2

Hello, I´m new here.

Here´s a small wish list for Arcanum 2. Hopefully it´s not unreasonable.

1. Races.

I´d like to see Female Gnomes and Female Halflings. In Arcanum you meet several females belonging to those species.

Female Dwarfs and Female Half-Ogres would be nice, but you never encounter any in Arcanum (they´re mentioned though).

Finally, I would like to see trolls. After all, there is the background called Trollish Offspring, so it´s not like a new race suddenly appears if they´re in Arcanum 2.

2. Magic.

I´d like more spells and less schools. You could merge some schools, like is there really necessary to have a shool for each element? You could have a Elemental School with lots of spells instead.

Likewise, you could merge Good and Evil necromancy.

I´d like to see that spells would work a little more like skills, so it would be harder to succeed in casting them at low levels.

I´d also like to see Magical Skills, that mirror the technological skills.

Identify mirrors Repair
Enchant mirrors Disarm Traps
Sense Magic/Tech mirrors Pick Locks
Ritual mirrors Firearms

Identify would identify items in your inventory.

Enchant would let you infuse a basic item with a spell you know.

Sense Magic/tech would let you know a character´s aptitude in general terms (Slightly magical, or Very technological or Neutral etc).

Ritual would increase the sucess rate when using magical items.

3. Tech.

I´d like to that with advanced degrees in your tech discipline and a decent Repair skill, you would be able to improve on weapons that weren´r created by yourself. But only "sub-par" weapons. (This is similar to an idea already posted.)

If you´re a gunsmith, you can upgrade the Old Flintlock to a Decent Flintlock, and later upgrade the Rusty Revolver to a Decent Revolver.

If you´re a smith, you can upgrade that Rusty Sword to a Good Sword etc.


Well, that´s everything for now. What do you think?

(Excuse my english, I´m from Sweden).

 

I couldn't agree more! You've readed my mind; I've been thinking on that idea a lot of time. Just that I want that for the repair skill. That using repair, if you're an expert (for example) you could fix rusty items. But you're idea is nice too, be able to turn an Old Flintlock Pistol into a normal one at least! Or a hand crafted.

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Now the spell thing is a bit unclear for me... besides I don't agree in what I understood. It's fine to have a college for each element; and I don't think it's necessary to take out any college. What I think would be good is to add spells to the existing colleges or to change some of those spells at least. I think that Poison Vapours or Squall of Ice really need help!

And think of the bad thing of your proposal of making spells work as skills, if you need ability to control them (besides mana) who would like to use them? The system is fine as it is, you cast a spell and it does a certain damage depending on your Magical Aptitude.

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About the races... I don't see necessary to have those females, there's no need. Gnome and Halfling females aren't necessary, they don't have anything special... but be able to see dwarven females may be good, you never see one in the whole game, even as a dwarf! As for the Half-Ogres, then I want Ogres and Orcs as well. The trolls would be a nice addition.

 

What the hell is l33t? Nevermind.

I don't get that of "the weapon grow with your character"... but I know I can't like that. The enchantment spell would be good, it'd make it more interactive between the mage and its weapons.

I got a nice one... there should be the possibilty to cast the regenerative shell! Of course someone will say it's unbalanced... but maybe making it difficult enough to get it'd be fair. The spell exists already and there's a way to activate it in the game, but I can't figure it out yet... It should be possible.
...
...And someone read the Arch-Mage book in Tulla? That certainly makes you think you can do it, but you can't! :x That should be enabled in Arcanum2, so if you learn the correct colleges you'll become like the book says... (if that's possible here, tell me how to do it! )

 

I very much aggree!

What I had in mind wasn´t that you would be able modify the same gun over and over again. That would take too much of the spotlight away from schematics. People would advance in a discipline only modify their favorite trinket instead of learning the new trinket.

I like this idea, it reminds me of Dakkon and his Zerth blade from Planescape Torment. Would this weapon increase when you go up in level at regular intervals? (every third level perhaps?). This would perhaps be hard to do if it´s a weapon you can make yourself.

What I meant about spells working like skills, I didn´t mean that you had to buy ranks in each spell. I just meant that spells shouldn´t automatically succeed, I´m tired of games were spells never fail, like in (A)DND games. Perhaps a random number between 1-100 (with modifiers like lighting, distance, AC etc) should be rolled and compared to Magic Aptitude?

About the magical skills:

I know Identify is a spell. But it is the last in it´s school, if I´m not mistaken? I would like you to be able identify things in the beginning of the game without paying for it. Of course, you would only get one try, and some items may be to advanced for you to identify if your skill is low.

Ritual (btw that is not a good name for it but I couldn´t come up with anything else) would be used mainly with magical weapons and scrolls. Actually, this skill really isn´t thought out well I realize as I type. I had the idea that it would be like Firearms, but finding magical weapons that shoots spells instead of arrows/bullets is not likely.

Enchant would let you put a spell you know into an item. Mainly used to produce those potions of minor healing. :grin: As to how exactly the skill wold work, I´m not sure. This skill should not turn into the magical equivalent of schematics.

Sense Magic/Tech isn´t really thought out either. I just wanted it to be four Magical skills. :smile: As I said it would inform you of the Magic/tech aptitude of persons, but perhaps also the aptitude of places and items (not inventory items cause they are pretty obviuos, but the items you interact with in the gameworld) or is there already a spell that does this?

About merging/removing magic schools:

Well, your points are all taken. But I´d like the elemental schools to be more different from themselves than they´re now (move summon elemental spells to summoning and move elemental form to morph).

Females not necessary? I am 100% sure that there are people out there that want to play females of those races. They don have anything special? Well, female humans, half-orcs, half-elves and elves doesn´t have anything special either, should we remove them?

And I do want to see fullblooded orcs and ogres, I just forgot to write it.

Dark Elf, hade bra du med!

 

Ah, please. The female gnomes and halflings are ugly and tiny, they couldn't get access to some... stuff in the game the normal females can.

Ah, there're already full-blooded ogres and orcs... unless you mean females.

 

Full blooded orges and orcs could added thru a patch if they were assigned the dialogue responses of their half-brothers. They'd ugly as sin, dumb as bricks, and snap trees like twigs. The beddokan could be an interesting addition (say +2 st, +1 con & dex, +10% dr & MA, +20% pr, small bonus to dodge, melee, and bow, -6 bea, -4 cha, -5 in, can't wear armor, -10 reaction maybe?) so long as there's a beddokan skinning perk.

I'd love to see some orignal races added, say 2 or 3, with a possible tie to the plot of the sequel. Catmen, kite/halflings, anything different (well different to the point of not being stupid nor uber).

If its set after arcanum 1, say by a couple hundred years, maybe even a user decided scheme of ancestry would work. You choose your character's grandparents and get a mix of attributes within limitations.

 

Hmmm, I dont think Female dwarves as choosable characters.. but there should be some quest where you find out about them.... I can see female Haflings and Gnomes... most may not like travel but individuals will be individauls. They should put in the Bedokaan. Say, +2 ST, +2 Cn as well as +15% poison resistance, +1 PE, can wear armor but not gloves, boots and helmets. I dont know that they should have an inherent magical apititude, whos to say they didnt evovle naturally, most may choose magic but they can learn technology as well. Oh and they suffer a -25 reaction from all races except elves (mostly) because many people are frightened of them. Goblins and Trolls would be interesting....... and ofcourse full blooded Orcs.... -3 BE, -4IN, +4 CN, bonus to Melee and Dodge, 25% MA, penalty to all tech skills, -15 reaction from all species except half-orcs. Automatic reaction of 0 from all elves regardless of BE.

 

I meant as playable characters.

Langolier, does elves really hate orcs?

I´d like to visit the island Cattan in next game.

 

Skills have to fail or they'll work all the time. I think you'll find that spells also fail. You cast them OK, but the failure rate is attributed to the target, not the caster.

 

In (A)DND you can "save" against certain spells and in Arcanum your tech aptitude can resist the spell. In both games there are magic resistance (and that´s another thing I don´t like, but that´s another discussion). They can cause the spell to fail. Then, however, the spell would have failed because of the target and not the caster. I don´t like the idea of a spellcaster that always cast his spells perfectly.

That´s like as if you would shoot somebody, you would automatically hit unless the person dodged the bullet.

 

It says in the manuel that Elves will take any opportunity to kill Orcs and dislike Ogres because the see them as big, clumsy, and violent; qualities they despise.

Another idea for races, Vendigrothians and Dark Elves..... Vendigrothians should be separate from Humans because of thier advanced culture... +3 to IN, -2 CN, double FT for spells, begins with 10% twards TA, bad reaction from dwarves because they dont like the idea of Humans developing technology first. Terrible Reaction from Dark Elves. Dark Elves them selves; +4 WP, Bad reaction from all races.

 

There's already a dark elf background. +2 to WP -2 to CH

 

yeah, but they could have their own race. You would then get many different dialouge options throughout the game and stuff like that.

 

But they aren't their own race, they're elves that have decided to go against all forms of technology and "lesser" races, ie non-elves

 

Yes, but they have an entirley different culture than other elves.... similar to having "Vendigrothians", just an idea.....

 

Then we'd have to divide the humans up into different races.
The Dwarves into clans...

Not really, I'm just being difficult.

 

No, just the Vendigrothians......... though....... doing that for dwarves could be interesting............

 

The thing is they're not different races, they're different cultures. If you could choose a culture to go with a race, and not in background, it could be a very good idea.