Adjusting difficulty?

Well I kinda installed Arcanum again... and remembered how easy this game is

Long ago I started with pure mage (never used harm tho - too gay) and after getting my ass handed to me at begin rocked everything till the end...

Lately I started some other char and again had no problem whatsoever...

At the moment I got some questions on customizing my game. So far I've figured that I can edit what i need following these steps:

1. Undat relevant ,mes file with DJ's marvelous tool
2. Tamper with it till I do what i need
3. Put the modified file in the folder it needs to be (for example gamelevel.mes should be in folder D:/Games/Arcanum/Data/Rules)
It now overrides the original .mes file that is in the .dat file

Is that correct?

If I got something wrong pleas ehelp me :S

Also how can i change the game difficulty? What file do i need and is it hard to acomplish?

 

I can answer this part. That is indeed a workable sequence. Enjoy the results!

I cannot help you with the second question though as I haven't tried adjusting any of the difficulty levels beyond opening the necessary map and manually resetting the creatures.

Sorry.

 

Thanks for the quick reply

I still need help on Q2 so if anyone else can help feel free to speak up

On that train of thought is there a mod that insreases difficulty? I've tried CarArcanum on highest difficulty but it was like 2x times easier then the basic game. Before I even made it to Shrouded Hills I had a full set of imba gear, including stuff I remember finding in the black M clan mines. The trap mass didn't help either... what's the use of having one million traps around when you have starting gear with 50% resistance to all...

 

does the built-in difficulty not do anything?

 

It's not enough.

The only thing it does (or so it seems to me) is give you -bonus to all skills. Well certainly this makes lockpicking/pickpocketing impossible, but fights are still no fun. I suppose I could try thief char but that will just slow the battle down, not make it harder.

 

Looks like this will be my question thread

Is there a way to make bonus dmg affect thrown weapons? Bows?

 

Yes, by changing the effects of the item in Item Effects.*

*mmm, is this the right name?

 

Haron, don't double post.

 

I have a few ideas about how to make the game more difficult.

1. Change xp_level.mes (found in Arcanum4.dat). If you take all the values in the second bracket and multiply them by 2, you make it so the PC needs twice the xp to level up. So, you'll be half the level you usually would be, have less character points to spend, and have a much more difficult time in the game. This would be a real challenge.

For example:
{1}{0}
{2}{2100}
{3}{4600}
{4}{7700}
etc...

Becomes:
{1}{0}
{2}{4200}
{3}{9200}
{4}{15400}
etc...

2. You can also change moster.txt (in Arcanum4.dat) by adding to each NPC's basic attributes, but this would take a very long time and wouldn't affect regular NPCs. I advise against this, though.

3. Another option is to put in an NPC at the beginning of the game to let the player choose a difficulty, and if the PC chooses hard, add effects (from effect.mes) that make the player critically hit less and for less damage, and criticially miss more and for more self-inflicted damage, etc.

 

Now I remember, you can change the effects of your items with gamesitemeffect.mes.