Arcanum: Work in Progress now available

Couldn't you just fake it by building an area consisting of several narrow corridors in a row, with windows, and plains outside, and rows of seats along the walls? If the major point is to chat with other passengers it doesn't have to look perfect, does it? And instead of teleporting immediately to the destination, the PC would be teleported to the train first. And then they'll arrive at the destination after solving the murder or stopping the train robbery, or...

Not worth the trouble, eh? I kind of agree with that. But it still seems possible.

 

Spoiler

what's the story with the table in the Shrouded Hills library that teleports ya near the Vendigroth Wastes?

 

Spoiler

Why, exactly, are you touching a table in an unknown church in a hostile world ?

 

... it lit up...

 

Well, one more reason not to touch it. Y'know; do not drink glowing water, do not touch glowing tables

 

.. words of the wise Frigo

 

I ran into something interesting when I started:

No Virgil.

Also, no G.B. ring, or any corpses to loot at the crash site. And, when I go to get the key from Lukan (to open the gate), he doesn't have it. To make things worse, even if I have the 1000 gold I need to pay him to open the gate, HE can't open it. I ended up fudging my savegame to learn Teleport and get to tarant :lol:.
There are several other NPC's missing, and none of the shopkeepers I visit ever have items to sell...Could I have missed something?

 

Reinstall your copy. (With patch, of course).

 

Wayne: See page 2 - the next to last post.

Gillsing: That's not a bad idea. If I ever get good at scripting...

Wayne: It's a teleport cheat I neglected to disable.

Frigo: Good advice!

Gross: Reinstall. Sorry.

Frigo: More good advice!

 

oh! didn't see that before! thanks!

how did you start moddin rroyo? like for the very first time?

 

Long story short, I found a piece of software included in the game called Arcanum World Editor. I started it up, then about went bat-shit because there was no instruction book and none of the arrow keys would allow for scrolling. On top of that, no matter what I created, I couldn't seem to get back to it after a shutdown. Eventually I gave up on it.

Found the Dimensions of Arcanum website a week or so later and became a lurking regular trying to learn anything I could about how to tweak the game.

Then one day I heard about something called Car-Arcanum, and imaging my party all piling into a Stanley Steamer to head out, I downloaded the thing. Didn't get the Steamer I'd imagined, but I did notice a very modified game. Bingo! An old fantasy about adding new adventures to a video game roared back to life. I needed to learn how to do this.

About this time, the Dimensions of Arcanum website started acting up so I looked around a bit more and stumbled across this place.

After a couple months of being a lurker reading all the old posts, I made about 6 - maybe 7 attempts at a small mod. Those turned out soooo baaadd.... I just deleted them as a matter of course.

I realized I'd probably do better by modifying any shortcomings I saw in the stock game but was still unclear as to how to get into it. Between needing that info and getting at the download section here, I joined.

After getting the answers I needed for how to unpack and (eventually) what a patch file really was, I unpacked Car-Arcanum completely, began studying it, and working my way through AMTUT at the same time. Eventually, it started making sense and I felt ready to try.

The ground floor of the Shrouded Hills temple was my first effort. Other than the bookcases and the door for downstairs, what you see is what I built. After TONGSyaBASS was good enough to enlighten me as to what a patch file really was, and I was finally able to see my creation in an existing video game, and there was no turning back.

I know I said long story short - this is the short form.

 

I did that, but I never bothered to check that everything from the old install was gone...
Found my problem! Thanks, guys.

 

cool! that kinda sounds like what i did up until the point were ya got everythin workin an found out what a patch file was an how to undat the Arcanum maps!

an i have to say, you're a pure legend for figurin all that stuff out an for moddin Arcanum!

 

If you say so.

 

i do.

an if i wanted to learn to mod, would you advise me to start AMTUT or would ya say it's more trouble than it's worth?

 

Most assuredly start with AMTUT, do all the exercises, then study the World Ed manual to fill in any gaps.

The next step would be to find a mod of similar complexity to what you have in mind, unpack it and see how it was put together. There's just something about actually seeing the structure as opposed to reading about how.

And when you feel you're ready to begin your mod - make sure you have a clear idea of what you want to do and no distractions to break your concentration.

More than anything else though, don't let it become a chore. If you're going to do something this complicated, do so because you enjoy it.

 

i'll do that! thanks!

would ya advise beginnin from scratch or creatin a (short) alternate story usein the Arcanum maps (If I ever manage to find out how that is)?

 

What are you wanting to do? Customize Arcanum or create something new?

 

well, i know WorldEd is REALLY for makin somethin new, but it just don't seem right unless you're on the Arcanum continent!

 

In that case, the maps are in the Arcanum.dat.

Packed: WorldEd 1.0.7.4 will access that. It does take a while though.
Unpacked: Use WorldEd 1.0.7.0. It's available in the download section.