Arcanum - Evaluation of the technical side.

on easy the fight is just silly *g*

ah, well try a good background for it, and one problem is that you can't use shields.

my gunner that was able to take down the peeps in the bridge fight was a miracle operation kid, with 3 in firearms, and a expert level in it(the doc lets train up to it, if i remember it right). the rest of the points was put into dexterity and dodge. i then left virgil in town, and went over there and started gunning them down, and then i ran back to town, and had there virgil as a backup, and he kicked their butts with some back up fire from the tired character i had.

virgil almost died, but as they where fatigued the hammer virgil used worked wonders on them, i also made virgil a bit drunk before it, wich gives him a higher strenght and CON.

the reason is mostly that virgil(and sogg) would step into the line of fire instead of waiting them to make it over to us, before attacking, so i'm finding it better to have them wait.

i find no problems in doing this in arcanum either.

true, and you get no funny storys either about how the last weilder/user died some horrible death :/

i'll drop this subject as i'm very unused to found schematics, never tried them in the demo, and in the beta there was non...

well you can use too heavy arms as well, and not to forget that you can use them two handed or one handed... its pretty fine, i had no problems with this persoanlly, a big sword can generall only be used big a strong character, so i would only buy it if i suspected someone could use it.

and as i wrote, you can use too heavy arms, but just not as good as a stronger character.


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<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: monkeypunch on 2001-08-05 11:48 ]</font>

 

Hey Dragoon.

I haven't played the demo in a while. Been playing Anacronox. (yeah I know, but I needed something to tie me over til the end of aug)

One approach I did was throwing the grenades at them. First I quicksave then throw, i only had one chance since they would run me down if succesful. I had Virgil with me and I had given him one of the swords I made. I myself carried one and so did Sogg. They didn't know what hit them. Four to five slashes a round. (I did the fighting in turnbased).

What I did was walking around in the wilderness and gathered some levels. As you might no, there are ways to reach the rest of the map, without crossing the bridge.

Anyway. That was one approach. Another was to steal the key from the bandit leader, or working for him.

I did his quest and was granted free passage across. I didn't do it, rather I thought I would talk to the constable and get the quest from him, but the bastard attacked me, accusing me of destroying the bridge material. I guess it was my own fault since I was kinda rude in my conversation with him.

And the connection is working. Moving acros the net in speeds never before attempted....by me that is.

/PeeCee

 

perhaps i should add that the tech character lacks an edge in the demo, due to missing art.

for example a pistoleri can use a shield with great results(in the full game).

or a rifle two handed.

etc.

the ganadier Pee Cee talks about is a real upper, and can kill most things with a few lucky throws.

but it should be said that you need more points to get to a decent fighting level for a tech character then a pure melee character, if ever*. pretty much the same goes for mages in most RPGs.

all in all i'd vote for the generallist as the best character over all in Arcanum, and the extrems to be good, but never ûber in all.






*depending on background and race etc, a simple "pistoleri-with-a-bonus-to-Intelligence" vs the "half-ogre-bash-em-up-fighter-with-1-in-Intelligence- but-20-in-Strenght" at the same level(more so the lower level it is, should be a one way battle, one chop and the weak but smart kid is toast imo

 

But in Arcanum I'd like a little more complex character like genius technician/elite marksma/vary good diplomat type.

So how's A? It's from the guys that did Deus Ex right?

Yep but I wanted to beat them with only the levels you can get in SH.

Didn't want to work for him and my stealing is even worse than my fighting. Practically never tried to go thru RPG as a thief. Is it interesting?

You do realise that I hate you, right Especially when my proxy server still doesn't work and instead of incredible 3KB/s I'm happy when I get some 500b/s. The pics in signatures don't help either (not a problem here but in vault13 forum it's a real plague)

Anyway was anyone else 'lucky' enough to encounter custom schems? Perhaps there is some way to get their requirements.

 

Item descriptions

I think you are exaggerating the scarcity of descriptions. Unlike certain other games, Arcanum isn't ankle-deep in arcane weaponry. With the advance of technology, much magic lore is lost, so the player doesn't automatically know what they've got.

I don't have any evidence for this, but my guess is that when really impressive items are obtained you probably learn their histories through dialogue rather than descriptions.

On the whole, inventory items don't need heaps of background, Arcanum's excellent inventory artwork gives items a lot of character and in most cases it is very clear what they are. It is easy to distinguish the Old Revolver from the Fine Revolver just by looking at them for example.

Personally, I don't really need to learn the history of every packet of Earl Grey Tea I find in Arcanum.

With major technological items we have the very amusing schematics for background info, and on the magick side, I like the feeling of mystery and risk using an arcane weapon I don't know all that much about! Call me crazy

 

Dragoon.

Anacronox is fun and challenging.
There is a lot of humor and a nice story. Ion storm and eidos released it and in the latest PCGamer it got 90%.

Quote

Yep but I wanted to beat them with only the levels you can get in SH.

End Quote

I believe that if you only do the quests for the main story, you will miss out on a lot. I have heard that there are hidden locations. places you only find by doing a little walkabout. I know they don't exist in the demo, but some locations have really tough monsters and I wanted to make the demo last a little longer.

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Didn't want to work for him and my stealing is even worse than my fighting. Practically never tried to go thru RPG as a thief. Is it interesting?

End Quote.

I have only been trying it once. In BG I always plays as a swordsman or archer. Not to keen on magic. But then again. With the usual NPC's in your BG party you had access to magic as well. But I did go for the thieving side a little in the demo. It was nice, stealing all the stuff from the merchants and then sell it back to them. It didn't take me long before I had 20000 + in gold. I do hope they have fixed this 'bug' for the full release.

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You do realise that I hate you, right Especially when my proxy server still doesn't work and instead of incredible 3KB/s I'm happy when I get some 500b/s. The pics in signatures don't help either (not a problem here but in vault13 forum it's a real plague)

End Quote.

I know what you mean. I was frustrated with my modem connection. I had to jumpstart the search and page loadings by checking for emails all the time. And if I was sitting and reading the inof on one page the modem would hang up on me. There are still a few times when the connection locks and refuses to load, but that has to do with the provider.But what to do. Either use them or go back to the modem.

Thats all I guess. Only a few more days and then the "Net is alive...with the sound of arcanumplayers". Ok, i know, so sue me.. I am no Julie Andrews.

Ta-ta

/PeeCee

 

PeeCee

What are the min requirements for Anahronox?

Perhaps we'll design a little curse for internet providers? Like they'll lose 1$ each time some internet user is unhappy with their servise. Wonder how quickly they would go bankrupt.


Skorpios

Well I meant not item's history that much (that's rather for the sheer fun of reading it) but essential info like min points in certain characteristic required to use an item or to be able to assemble a schematic. Without it it'll be a little like going blindfolded in a dark room.

 

Item Descriptions

Dragoon,

OK - much of this will be in the manual, so bear with me.

Minimum requirements. Again, you can judge the minimum strength requirements from the weight in the item description. An dagger that weighs 10 stone is going to be easier to wield than an axe that weighs 120 stone.

The MSR - minimum strength required - is displayed when you actually equip the weapon. You CAN use a weapon that is too heavy for you - it is just slower and less accurate. Also, wielding some weapons two-handed will reduce the MSR. So, if an axe is too heavy for you, try dropping your shield and swinging it two-handed. Cool or what??

As for the schematics, you may have noticed the number and technological symbol in the boxes that contain the components? That number refers to your Expertise in that particular technology which is required to use that item to build the new techno item.

Say the symbol is an anvil and the number is 50. This means you need at least 50 expertise in Smithy to use that component. Depending on the number/symbol in the other component box you may need expertise in other technologies to actually build the schematic.

Your expertise in each technology is shown in your character sheet. As you buy ranks in each technology you will see your expertise in that tech in blue numbers at the top of the tech-tree box.

Hmmm, I think maybe a 'Guide to the Character Sheet' would be a good idea here at T-A - what do you guys think?

 

Min specs.

PII 266Mhz (Or similar)
Windows 95/98/2000/ME
64 Mb ram
8 Mb 3D accelerator card with open GL support
4X CD-Rom drive

I wish we could make the providers pay, but what to do. Last night I was in for a shoret time after I got home for work, then I logged of. A few hours later I had some info I wanted to check and there were no way in hell the provider let me in. I go online, but did it let me roam the net? No way.

Bummer to the tenth level P'au.

Reach the eleventh and we get a TV-Evangelist.

/PeeCee

 

Peecee
Those min reqs don't look so bad. Maybe I'll buy the game (not now of course right now I know on which game I'll spend my cash). I'm also wondering, perhaps new Dune instead of Anahronox. Played it maybe?

As for connection with internet. I'd never thought there are such problems in Sweden too. I thought that it's like that only in countries like Poland where the internet provider has a monopoly.

 

Dragoon. Nice to see you.
I haven't played Dune. I've tried the first version and the second, way back. Didn't really like them. I've seen a vidoesequence of this new Dune, but it look sto much like Command & Conquer. Don't get me wrong. i enjoyed both C&C as well as Red Alert, but my main focus is on RPG's or adventure games. With this new connection I might even try a few online games.

The connection sucks bigtime. We have a few DLS providers here in Sweden, and I have singed up for two of them. This one I got connected to first, but they only allow you to go at 512 kb. The other companies gives you 2 Mbit. Also this company I am using charges me 30% more for a connection that is a quarter of the speed, compared to others.

I just got a tax refund so I am off tomorrow hunting down a new game. I was hoping for Neverwinter Nights or Pool of Radiance. But if you check my opther post you'll know that they will be long time coming.

/PeeCee

 

Skorpios,

It was actually really interesting (and no I'm not writing it cause you're moderator). I was wondering what those numbers were. I thought they had something to do with the fact that you can produce multiple items having just one copy of one of the required items (like in case of spike traps one spring is sufficient for three traps I think).

Maybe not that much a guide to char sheet but rather a set o requirements for schematics, spells and weapons that can be found in the game. This would give people a better idea of how they want to develop their character. And if you decide to do that please keep in mind that some people have rather slow connection. Hence there could be 2 versions of the document. One for on-line use with pics and stuff and the other a text version to be downloaded.

PeeCee,

Well at least you have few providers to choose from. Anyway connection speeds seem to be the third thing that sucks about Sweden (just don't get offended please). The other two are prices of alcohol and cigarettes (well I don't smoke anymore so this one doesn't bother me really). But last year I was still smoking and I went to Sweden as one of many Poles to get rich gathering blueberries. Unfortunately stupid fruit didn't want to cooperate ie it didn't grow. Oh, now that I think of it one more thing sucks about Sweden. Huge amounts of mosquitoes and those little flies in forests. On the other hand you have those great clean cold lakes (up north at least) and people are generally pleasant and trusting. For example they don't horn only cause you dare to cross the street walking instead of running. And when one of the cars I was traveling in with friends fell into a trench next to road one guy who accidentally was passing by spent some 5 hours to get the proper car and help us out. He even finally charged us 400 Crowns instead of 2000 (though we gave him 500 and a bottle of vodka for the favor). And while he was gone some other Swedish passing by stopped to ask whether help is needed even though this was deep night in the middle of nowhere, 15 of us standing on the street and in addition they were driving a shiny new BMW. BTW when we wanted to stop Poles traveling the same way they just laughed at us.

 

Hi Dragoon.

Don't worry about offending me. I know about the alcohol and cigarette tax. YOu did leave out the gas tax. As for picking blueberries, we do get a lot of polish and german people here during the season. But at least you don't run home with a Moose warning sign. (most Germans find these signs interesting and take them as suveniers <sp>. They don't have Mooses in Germany. They don't care that the signs are there as a warning. I am not trashing every german. Only those that steal the signs.)

The mosquitoes are a pest. They are worse further north. I live in the south part (Malmoe) so I don't get nothered that much, but I can understand the terror they inflict on those in the woods. I feel for you, man.

Most people think that Swedes are reserved and hard to deal with. (This is evident if you ever get stuck in traffic during rush hour). But when it comes to help out in traffic, there are a few that are helpful. I bet that a lot of people just drove by, not even giving you and your friends a second thought. I guess the Swedish helpfulness shines tru better in the dark :wink:

Let me know if you are planning anothe visit to Sweden, maybe we can hook up or something. Go for a beer or two. You know where to find me.

PeeCee

 

Dragoon,

What do u mean with the connection speed? If ur talking about internet i dont understand u.. i myself have a 10mbits broadband. Now i didnt get offended, just confused :smile:

PeeCee,

Yeah the germans stealing moose signs are really funny. I saw one the other day at some place in Småland (littleland :smile: ) And about the mosquitoes they mostly live by lakes and by the sea.. so travel inlands and avoid rivers and lakes if u want to avoid them.
And hey! I live in Malmö to!! :grin:

[EDIT: Small typo]

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Diemon on 2001-08-10 15:19 ]</font>

 

Diemon. How about that. So I take it you have signed up for a copu of Arcanum at Tradition then

/PeeCee

 

Nah.. havent signed up for a copy but i know the storekeeper (Uffe) so ill get one anyway :grin:

 

What I wrote about connection to internet in Sweden is based completely on what PeeCee wrote in this thread. I can't say I have any idea besides what he wrote about the topic. BTW you could've just written that your connection is OK. Writing about this speed you have is just plain cruelty

Well I was in Sorcele, Blatnicksele and Storeman surround. And the biggest city in Sweden I was in was Karlskronna. (I probably got the names a little wrong)

Definitely no sooner than next year but in two years time is more probable a date. Oh and I'll bring my own Polish=real beer (some 5,5-5,8% on average. And these are ordinary not strong ones). Those 2,8% (if I remember the % correctly) are practically tasteless. I remember there were stronger ones in liquor stores but prices of those were completely outrageous.

To be honest I must say that a few Polish present on the camp were stealing. They called it promotion. And as for Moose I heard that it's really dangerous to run into one. Car is a total mess afterwards from what I heard not to mention the poor Moose.

Now that's a surprise Germans are coming too. I thought that there are only Poles and further east nations coming.

 

it might actually kill you, the problem is the hight of the moose. when you hit it, you mostly hits its legs, and then the moose fold over the car and crashes into the windshield, and that can be pretty bad.

to sweden? most of them to my knowlage are norwegian, and then german. the people from norway comes here to buy cheap booze, and furniture, and to live cheap during the semster.

 

Dragoon,

Allmost all my friends have 10mbits broadband and those that dont have 2mbits adsl so i cant understand what PeeCee ment.
And ive never heard of any of those cities exept Karlskrona.

Monkeypunch,

I think its mostly Polish people that come to Sweden and then Germans, but they mostly come to work, the norweigans only come to make a complete pest of themself. And now when the Bridge is done ALOT of Danish people come here to. I hate Danish people. :grin:

 

well on the news this week, i watched a news part about the record summer sweden have had in the number of turists, and mostly it was about campers... anyway, there they said that it was mostly people from norway from away countries, but the number one was swedes just having a sedcond home during the summer semster.

so we are talking about turists.

and you might want to remember that load of norwegians that crosses the swedish border eahc week just to buy booze and food.