Arcanum:WIP 6.0 now available

I agree.

 

Thats actually a very good point....a lot of the NPC guards have armament that leaves somewhat to be desired.

As far as the boil guards go...I certainly think they should be a lot better equipped than they currently are...perhaps give them repeater rifles or hand cannons...and at least make them experts in firearms so they stand a chance if you can manage to provoke the boil guys to come out to the street for a laugh.

Some of the "bodyguards" seen in the came could also use a "gear" overahaul...I'm not saying they should have grade A equipmentall of them, but just something coherent with their masters social status.

 

Given the technological inclination of Tarant, I think all the guards should carry revolvers, or a similar handgun, with the Boil Guards possessing either hand cannons or machine guns of some form.

 

The guards in general should be tougher...I mean they are guards and should give you a run for your money even if you have a couple of followers on you.

In terms who should get what, perhaps a difficulty gradient that is in synch with the storyline.

Lightweight guards
----------------------
Shrouded Hills
Stillwater

Middleweight guards
-----------------------
Blackroot
Dernholm (save for the nights in the castle)
Ashbury
Isle of Despair

Heavyweight Guards
-----------------------
Tarant
Caladon
Wheel Clan
Tulla

Dunno where your halfling villlages could be slotted in though...

Basiclaly the higher the guard difficulty, means they have more points on their skills, maybe some resistance and equipment.

Basically, if you have totangle with a guard its cos you're doing something naughty and should have a tough time dealing with it.

 

Those are good recommendations. Thanks, I'll use them.

As for the Brandybuck guards, adding them to the lightweight list sounds reasonable. After all, they rarely have anything worse than a stray wolf come to town.

 

Oh wait...I forgot Roseborough as welll...probably lightweight...maybe middle

Also...regardless of the type of twon, certain areas like the Boil, Prisons, Castles, should have stronger guards than the restof the town...so it sorta "makes sense".

Oh and with that suggestion I made about the other animal followers, here are a few suggestion on types and abilities:

- Wolf (Sense Traps)

- Brute Fang (Sense Traps, critical hit bonus)

- Cougar/Tiger (Haste, as spell)

- Bear (Stone Skin)

- Rat (not sure)

- Cow (haha)

- Chicken (hahaha)

You know....if you wanted you could do a small farm based on "Animal Farm" where the citters have taken over and run the business...justa thought

 

Personally, given the state that Dernholm is in, I would say that the guards should be heavy-weight Melee. Full plate, and a long sword and shield, or bastard sword, or axe... maybe something that gives them a bonus to speed, just to make butchering everyone all the more difficult...

 

I'm down with that...it would also be cool if one or two guards in each town were "grenadiers" equipped with Paralysis or knock out gas grenadas and be experts at throwing just for the laugh....

 

I have seen at least 1 NPC with Grenades but it never threw them. I think you have to do some scripting to even get a NPC to throw a grenade and even then most NPCs run up to melee distance from target before they use ranged weapons makeing the grenade harm the thrower also. (NPC I'm thinking about is part of the gang you kill for the Firearms Master. it always went strait to melee on me and never thew a grenade even tho I was far enough away to throw a few at me.)

I think Virgil would pull the pin on one and drop it on his own foot before a NPC with maxed throwing skill + Mastery would throw one in combat.

 

Reason #2 Lasou Vlafa is tending the fire.
The little twerp would rather climb on top of a Vortahm than throw a Molotov.

 

then its certainly a flaw in the game engine the designers should have looked into....

Perhaps \ hacked boomerang with "explosive" or acidic qualities might be a workaround....

 

Enemie Grenadiers could seriously mess you up...if they hit your party with a paralysis or knockout gas grenade you're pretty much "phucked out".

Coming up with an effective battle strategy could make the game interesting.

 

Are you kidding? Everytime I put anything even remotely tossable into Virgil's inventory, he'd lob it at a target in the next battle we got into! Even if the target was right in front of him (and still occasionally miss and hit something/one else.

 

I was figureing he would do something stupid with one after I had him hold a gun for me and some ammo once and he shot himself in the foot, so I never gave him one. I would think he could figure out that he has 2 skills in Melee 0 in Firearms is holding a axe that does 12 max damage and a rusty gun that does 6 that he would use the axe instead of running up to the target pulling out the gun and shooting himself with it.

 

NObody ever said virgil was smart

Are the AI scripts for NPC combat tactics difficult to work with?

 

I haven't really studied the AI scripts but since I'm part-way through resetting the guards, I can tell you this - I have yet to find one with skills.

They may be set for level 35 and have 20 in melee - but they're untrained. In other words, borderline useless.

Here's what's been done so far - Lightweight, medium, and heavy:

In Shrouded Hills, I've left their stats and inventory alone but set them for beginner status in Melee and Dodge.

The generic Black Root guards got bumped into the level 30s with expert Melee and Dodge and given Quality Iron shields. The gun-wielding ones are now at expert status in Dodge and Guns.

Caladon Elite Bowmen are level 50 with Master status in Bow and Dodge. The rest are at level 40 to 50 with expert to master status in Melee and Dodge and were given Kite shields.
The lower ranking ones are at the police station. Numbers will make up for the lesser skill levels.

Before I go any further - does this sound about right?

 

How far does the female gunner from Vormantown level up. Is she worth bringing back from Vormantown as a regular follower?

I plan on having an all female squad, PC will be firearms, Faith of course, Priscilla(from vormantown),Janya for healing/melee(dump Virgil at this point) and Raven when I reach Quintarra, If I make it that far.

 

18

I assume you tried it out with an Half-Ogre ?

 

It seems as if you have too many masters. I thought mastery was supposed to be a very rare ability, given to maybe two or three people in the entire game.