A real head-scratcher..

Ok folks, here's a question for you.

You get an item that has some sort of spell inherant within. How the bloody-hell do you use that spell. The item has so many 'uses'.

I've two of them. Ring of Poison REsistance, and a Shield of Force.

Now the manual says there's an item use button next to the batman utility belt section. It isn't there, although it has been. When I pushed it, it did nothing but brought up a mana screen thingee. There's also a button on the right-hand side, that's always there, but never seems to do anything.

Am I missing something? Are the uses automatic? Or is that some kind of bug?

And is there anyway to 'recharge' items that have so many uses? Or was that something of an oversight on Troika's part?

 

Shield of Force and Ring of PR have spells to go with them??? I never knew.
Anyway, you use the spells that go with the items by clicking on a small button to the left of your belt (it goes blue when you have one of those items equipped). Some items, however, give you additional mana instead of spells to use, which is why you might have gotten the mana screen (assuming you clicked onto the right button)

 

That's if the "use" feature of the item actually works. The Ring of Poison Resistance does not work in this way. Other items seem similarly neutered... like the Negotiator's Ring, I think....

 

So it's not just me who's had this problem? I know it's been driving me nutz.

I think I got the gist of the mana thing, but it never seemed to do much of anything. I know what it's supposed to do, but I've never had it do it. That may be just because I wound up getting rid of the item before I had the opportunity to use it as such, I don't quite remember..

Anybody know what the button on the right-hand side does? Or is supposed to do?

 

These items do work. There are three types of magickal item in Arcanum.

1. Those with mana bound within them, such as the mages staff or shaman's staff. These have charges that show up where the gold or bullets normally show. This mana is used every time you cast a spell, instead of using fatigue and recharges slowly over time. If you cast magick rarely, or have many of these that you can swap over then technically a mage never has to use fatigue again.

2. Those with inherant spells or abilities that are automatic, such as the ring of poison resistance, stillwater blade and shield of force. These often have a mana count on the left hand side, where the gold or bullets are shown. This is the number of charges that the item has, but like mana, they regenerate. The spell or ability is used automatically when needed (ie. ring of PR uses a charge when you get poisoned, stillwater blade casts spell upon a successful strike) and it uses a charge. The item will continue to function magickally until unequipped or the charges are depleted. Just wait until the charges build up again.

3. Those with spells or abilities bound to them that need using, such as the staff of K'uan'Hau or whatever it's called. In this case, the number of charges does not recharge. To use these spells, you need to press the, now active and blue, magick spell button on the left hand side of the quick slots. This brings up a list of the avialable spells. Simply click on them and shoot.

I hope this sheds some light on the nature of magickal items for you. With respect to your question on the ring of poison resistance and the shield of force, the blue button does light up but it is used automatically when needed.

 

When is the Ring of PR needed? I thought it just gave a constant bonus to PR? You mean when you're poisoned it uses itself to improve your poison recovery?

 

Ahh, ok. I was a little confused about that..and the manual didn't really make it too clear.

Still no one knows what the red button on the right-hand side does?

 

The ring of poison resistance does add an additional poison recover rate, but I believe it also serves an additional purpose. Whenever I've been attacked with a poison, the number of charges it contains goes down. This leads me to believe that it uses a charge to make some sort of saving throw every time you should be poisoned and thus it helps you to be poisoned less often, or at least less severely.

As for the red button, I always thought that it was part of the scenery of the UI. Mind you, I thought that about the blue button too until someone mentioned it on here. I have tried the red button since then though and it's never done anything so I think it's just to balance out the interface - like you have a blue magick button on one side so you should have an equivalent red 'tech-style' thing on the right side just to make it look good.

 

But it clicks and lights and everything! It's a conspiracy demmit!!

Ok, well if no one else can seem to figure it out, then I don't feel so bad..

 

Implemented a feature that didn't make the final cut?

 

Quite possible...maybe does something else in multiplay?