Arcanum Longevity, Arcanum II?

Greetings, fellow Arcanumites! First off, isn't it amazing that so many people are still playing this game? It just proves what a great game it is. Of course, Starcraft (which came out in what, 98?) is still being played obsessively in Korea. They have corporately sponsered national tournaments and parades in honor of the game.

Does anyone know if Troika is ever going to make an Arcanum II? They made a sequel to Fallout (I know, they weren't actually Troika back then), so why not Arcanum? It will probably be 3D, and I don't know if that's good or bad. The new Vampire: The Masquerade game looks like it's gonna rule, so maybe they can use the same engine for Arcanum II.

 

Hope as much as you want..... i just wouldn't want to hold your breath while your waiting, everytime this has come up, a definate "not likely" has been the answer. Oh, welcome Sigurd.

 

I will make Arcanum 2: The Mod for Unreal Tournament 2004 if people help me create the extensive number of 3D models needed for items, characters, buildings, etc.

I mean, it would be in 3D with graphics better than Dungeon Siege. There arent really any 3D RPGs that really get you up close to an immersive 3D world with cities except maybe Morrowind... other games tend to pull out a little bit, details would be maybe a broken cart on the road or something. But it would be cool for a 3D RPG to have the same level of detail and immersion as some FPS games

Think about the level of detail present in those games that are missing in RPGs. Except maybe first person RPGs like Deus Ex and its sequel (which it comes out this year!!) But anyway with unreal engine or game engines traditionally used for FPSs, the change would be oustonding. Most houses and streets in RPGs are tiles cookie-cuttered into place.. everything is prefabbed... but constructing with a different level of detail like with unreal engine you could have curved caves that twist under vendigroth.... houses and ladders you can climb carved into the trees of quinterra... plus if ur in combat with melee there would be clings and sparks flying or medical arachnized scurrying about... then dog comes and eats them... then the flame thrower encompasses an area and rushes through windows in street alleys using the most advanced 3d shading volumetric lighting fogging shadowing pixelling stuff yeah im done rambling

Also I don't know if you guys heard, but Ultima X and Lineage II are going to be massively multiplayer AND they use the Unreal engine... which I thought as weird because with unreal and quake engine stuff you usually see individually hosted servers with like 32 people but I guess Unreal Engine is flexible enough they rewrite more advanced net code.

 

Unreal Arcanum :-o

Who would of thought of that ? But come to think of it, its actually quite an "ambitious" proposal... :roll:

As Dark Elf said, it would take tonnes of work and man-power. Although, if you did actually come about making it, many Arcanum fans around the globe would be astonished. I myself if I had the tech. knowledge ( ) would gladly help you ...

I know, why don't you post an advertisment ? Telling people of your idea, asking for their help ... Many people on this forum would happilly help you out, but it would take time though.

Welcome aboard ColdPenguin :wavey:

 

Although a fantastic idea, making an RPG off of the UT2K3 would require too dramatic changes to be done by a mod group. Sorry.

Advertisment is not a word. Advertisement is.
"Who would of thought". Horrible. Try "Who would have thought" or skipping that sentence altogether.

 

I'm not a fan of making classic style RPGs into an FPS game.

I played a couple of wonderful CRpgs in FPS though. System Shock 2 as nr. 1 comes to mind. But when you are trying to force a game into going FPS, you better damn know how to do it. There are so many things that can go astray(in respect to the original) that I wouldn't ask anyone to try. Doing the same thing when dealing with a fresh game can be fun. I'm assuming Troika will pull off a great RPG experience.

 

Icairus,

I'm a fast typer, its not a crime to make a couple of typing mistakes is it ?

 

"Its" means belonging to it.
"It's" means it is.

I did not mean that a very nice RPG cannot use a FPS engine; I mean that major changes need to be made to the engine to handle RPG requirements. Therefore, a simple mod team is unlikely to be able to turn a FPS engine into a RPG.

 

The coding wouldnt be as hard as many people think, the unreal engine is extremely versatile. I mentioned that both Ultima X and Lineage II are RPGs that are using it... and they're even massively multiplayer. I doubt I will actually make the mod but heh its possible. The hard part would be that arcanum is such a massive world it would take years to create all the content for it. If the mod was made in the future (I probably won't ever get around to it because im working on other game stuff) and if I was making it, it would probably be more of a small module not set in arcanum and made for multiplayer like vormantown, probably designed for four player cooperative.

On game design though (let's keep entertaining the idea for a while) I was almost thinking of the player having direct control of the PC, you use the keys to walk around, perform actions and attack with mouse, etc. Kind of like in Morrowind where you actually swing a sword etc. Or it could be like regular Arcanum but with 3D camera controls like Dungeon Siege where you click the ground to move and click enemies to attack.
I'm kind of for the first idea... you have direct control of a character and even use the mouse to aim attacks. If you have followers though, whould you be able to switch to them or should they be completely computer controlled?
If you're able to control them like your primary character by switching to them, then youll also probably want to choose their skills and stats... this is unlike arcanum, where followers automatically chose their own stats\skills. This would become like other RPGs where you develop your own party... this does not have the same spirit of arcanum. In arcanum you devloped and focused on your primary character. If you wanted to be a theif you grabbed a lot of dexterity and learned every skill you wanted to use... in a gameplay system where you customize a whole party you would just divide the skills you want to use among 4 characters instead of developing your player... in my opinion this is not good and strays away from the Arcanum feel too much. However I suppose you could directly control every character in your party, and simply only be allowed to customize your primary character, but then you might have people who like to hack things up simply grabbing a Sogg Mead Mudd type follower and ignoring your primary guy
If you can't develop your followers, and you dont have direct control (by direct control im saying you are that charcter, and can aim attacks all that stuff) i suppose the view would be locked to your main character and you would be able to give orders via an interface menu to followers. Go Here... Follow Me... Wait... this would be closest to the original game and probably the best. But I still want you to directly control your main character simply to be unique and I think it would be great fun and immersive. In case no one noticed I was just makign everything up as I went along and I am rambling so Ill stop now. I will make this game eventually... even if I don't start until 5 years from now! Or will I? I don't know, I probably have the best shot at it out of most people however because I have worked with unreal engine mods, 3D modelling, and play Arcanum. There's lots of good games being released now, so I might be too busy playing them to create one of my own :/

 

Oh yeah...

Starcraft actually came out in 1996... I think
and they have a starcraft television network there...
and space marines on bags of doritos...

 

Ever hear of Gothic?? It was first released in Germany and it did not do so well in the States but it did come up with a cult following, much like Arcanum. The game has quite a few graphics settings that my system wasn't able to handle and it's an RPG with a unique skill development system and FPS controls. You should check into it before starting in on your mod creation, Cold.

 

I myself have played Gothic a good bit, and if you see it in stores it's worth the $30-50 they want for it (BestBuy). Cold, your Arcanum 2 idea is about as Unreal as my KoL mod that I'm building for Arcanum, which will be bigger than Arcanum it's self. Though I don't expect to get KoL out until next Christmas, we've got the plot and what not layed out, but we *shudders* need to start building maps... any volunteers for assisstance?

 

As much as I visibly shudder from the thought of working with you, what the fuck, might as well take one for the team. As long as I don't have to script. It took me 2 hours today just to figure out how to make a halfling die, and I think a break from ScriptEd is in order.

 

A cult following really doesn't mean that much.
A few people really loving a game doesn't cause a sequel.
Or there would be a Giants: Citizen Kabuto sequel on the way, but instead there is merely Armed and Dangerous.
Giants is one of the 5 best games ever made, which are, in no particular order:
Arcanum, Giants: Citizen Kabuto, Deus Ex, Fallout 2, Homeworld

 

Ok, it's a nice idea, but i think it can't be done. It took me ages to complete a UT mod, which only featured some extra weapons and models. There's no way you could ever make a complete Rpg from UT2k3(or 4 for that matter). You could always try, because it think it would be fun to play, but you almost need a complete developer team for that. If you think about, you want to copy Troika :they convert HL2 into V:tM and you convert UT 2k3 into Arcanum...And you won't get help from Epic games if you have a problem

 

This is an interesting string. It actually touches on some serious game development issues. Can an RPG successfully morph into a FPS and retain the same impact? Do you want to end up time and again blasting through archeological ruins only to be left standing in front of a time/space portal with a .45 in your hand? Do you go for the cinematic thing and blow 'em away with the graphics that only runs on a P4 3.0Ghz system and 1 GB ram?

I still play Arcanum and Deus Ex on my old machine. Turn out the lights, crank up the 200w surround sound (floor shaking) subwoofer system and yeah, I jump when security bots appear out of no where and I'm fresh out of heavy munitions. No where to run to, and no where to hide. At the same time, if I come across some puzzle in Arcanum, I might go to work and THINK about it.

I guess I'd like to see Arcanum 2 basically along the same lines, with maybe FPS combat scenes. Recently Japanese game designers have gone seriously into anime, which might look "real cool", but hurts playability. Sony shares are not a good investment at the moment. Ditto for Nintendo.

 

I feel the whole console industry has gone stupid recently. The only game for any console I actually would want to buy is the GCN harvestmoon...but I'd rather have a PC harvest moon.

You could go indepth on economics and marcket trends...but when it's all said and done, only one thing makes a great game...developers making the game for themselves (because they like the idea, and want to play it) and selling it as a second thought.

Of course this tends to advertising and such stranded....so it doesn't make as much money. Thats why a good 90% or more games nowadays are crap, it'd made for profit, not enjoyability.

And btw, I'm a webmaster for a warlords battlcry website. WBC has nothing but a cult following and working on the 3rd sequel. I talk to the developers , and it's hard for them to find publishers...but they get it done. This time they had to go to enlight....not exactly a major company...

When trokia gets well founded, and have the luxery of doing a game with little support...we might see arcanum 2

sorry for my ramblings