being a dwarf ain't easy, aye?

Many thanks Dark Elf for your help (and all others too of course). I think I'll be good now and can go on by myself You all were just great guys - thanks a lot once again.

 

Then I suggest you to do quests in Tarant to gain levels. You can also get 10+ levels just from sewers alone.
Join Pollocks in Boil, they have very nice thing for gunslingers.
Magnus can make balanced swords, which are one of the best tech weapons in game, and can be even upgraded further!

You say it like it is something bad.
I don't want to upset you but Tarant is only town which has new side quests throughout the game. All other towns are pretty much "complete quests, forget about them forever"-type locations.

In general, it's not hard. Tech characters can have slight problems with them at the start of the game, but thats all.

Protip: check tech traders, smiths and gunsmiths every time you visit the town which has them.

 

Thank you Pyotr for all your tips. As a matter of fact, I've arrived to Tarant today and managed to complete a couple of simple quests. And as you mentioned Boil, I don't know, if it's worth it? I mean, I don't want to be on the dark side. I'm not even sure, whether I should join that Thieves Underground?
I don't know how to tell in advance, whether a quest is evil or good? And in general, I just can't figure out who is bad in this game (apart from those who shot down IFS Zephyr of course) and on which side I am? Everything seems to be vague to me.


Fuck, I thought I'd be good on my own now, but there's yet another thing I'd like to know. I wanted to buy a better armor for Lugard but noticed that they are very heavy and wearing them gives some sort of speed penalty. Could you tell me please, how it affects my character (especially during fighting)? Do I need to increase my strength maybe?

 

Nice joke, bro.
I recommend you to reread your posts after you complete the game 2-3 more times with different characters.

And that's why this game is so good.

It isn't armor penalty, but rather encumbrance penalty, so, for the start, it's better to wear leather armor and give items you don't use in battle to followers.
Speed penalty directly affect your combat effectiveness by reducing number of attacks per round.

 

I don't know, I think the alignment some quests give is a bit screwy. There are a couple of examples of fetch quests where a reward is promised, yet you still get good alignment for doing those quests. This bothers me as when I play an evil character and do the quest because I want the money I then gain alignment I don't want. There are a lot of examples of these quests, and honestly I think the alignment should be stripped to neutral for completing them - it doesn't take a good person to do a quest they'll profit from.

 

But I don't want to wait for another game. What's that Boil all about? BTW, I went there but those bandits attack me as soon as I enter the area:/

I must say, that it's a very good game indeed. Actually, I'm really surprised how good it is. Never thought that would play a game as interesting as Fallout.

Thank you for explanation on this. I was afraid it's gonna screw my combat effectiveness. But the truth is, I got leather armor and still can't carry nothing but some things light as a feather I guess I'll have to increase my strength anyway.

Yes, that would be my guess too as I don't recall making anything evil and yet had -15 at some point


Again I'd need your help guys. Could you please tell me what skills exactly Thaddeus Mynor is talking about? I wanted him to give me another job but that is what he told me:

 

Though Thaddeus Mynor says "skills" I'm pretty sure getting his final quest is level dependant, so try him again when you're level 20 (maybe 25?) and he'll set you up with something else. The main stuff you do with the Thieves' Underground is find a fence (there's one in the train station) and they'll give you items to steal under the notes section of your journal. When you get them give them to Mr. Black (he's also in one of the warehouse buildings - one up from the fortune teller's building to be precise) and you'll get money and experience for each.

 

But so far I've done only one quest for him - getting sewers' plans. So the next job will be the last one? Damn it, I was hoping for at least 3 or 4 quests for Thieves' Underground:/

 

The stealing missions that I mentioned where you get a target to steal are quite fun. Also don't forget Tarant isn't the only city with a Thieves' Underground presence.

 

I tried one of these thief's quests but having no pick pocket skills I was failing to steal anything. So I decided to give that portal quest another go as I moved a few levels up and this time I succeeded And my yet another question is related to this mission. For completing this quest I received Chapeau of Magnetic Inversion which has DR+20. And that is much more that my Pig Face Basset that has DR 12. But after putting that hat on, my total DR dropped from 52 to 50:/ And without any head cover my DR is 40. Could you please explain it to me? BTW, helmet has AC 10 while this hat none but still I don't get it how it is calculated?

 

I'm guessing you mean total defense. I wouldn't worry about that factor too much, the calculations behind it are highly dubious. I was never bothered enough to properly test them, but I think they attribute equal values and significances to different types of resistances, which is preposterous.

 

Yes, total defense, I'm sorry. You're saying, it's not that important but I beg to differ. For example, when buying new armor I'd like to know which one will give me better protection. But it seems that checking all those characteristics is a bit tricky and can be misleading:/ I even don't know whether I should look at AC or DR? Or maybe that total defense is most important after all? But it would also mean, that it's impossible to choose the best buy in advance

EDIT:
One more thing that really is starting to worry me. As I said earlier, I decided to go for guns as my main weapon and a bit of melee as a support. But the problem is that my shooting sucks. I'm expert in both firearms and melee, my gun and sword have exactly the same stats (damage 2-9) but when it comes to fighting I'm much better with sword. It just makes more damage and I got less misses. I got no idea why it is like that and I'm not sure what to do now? Will guns give me some kind of advantage over swords at some point?

BTW, here are my current stats:

I'm also expert in melee and dodge. And as you can see, I got 2 CP's unspent because I just don't want to "waste" them on guns.

 

You get less misses with swords because you don't have to worry about distance & obstacles and expert melee status makes you ignore bad lighting penalties with them. You may encounter/create better guns as the game progresses, but there will always be a sword around that strikes harded, especially if you have high strength. It is a fact that melee in Arcanum is overpowered while guns are underpowered.

The main advantage of guns is that you can attack from a distance and with a good enough gun & skill kill enemies before they even reach you. This is good, because some enemies are best dealt with from a safe distance. Also, attacking some enemies with non-uber melee weapon gradually destroys the said weapon and sometimes your armor as well because of the stone/metal/fire nature of the enemy. Dealing with such enemies from a distance with a gun allows you to bypass that problem.

Looking at total defense will not give you the answer, though. For example, I just gave it a quick test and it values +20% poison resistance higher than +10% damage resistance. As said, preposterous. Damage resistance is important in 95% of fights in the game, while poison resistance is pretty much negligible. Not only are poisoning foes fairly rare, the amount of poison point they deal is of little significance because the player usually ends up nullifying it all with a single poison healing spell/potion/concotion.

Armor class makes your character more difficult to hit. Damage resistance lowers the damage you receive once the enemy does succesfully hit. That being said, you should look at both. It's up to you to decide which stat is more important for you when you have to choose between one or another, like in your pigface vs chapeau dilemma.

With headgear for a gunslinger there's even a further dilemma - perhaps I should wear nothing at all to avoid the -1 perception penalty? The answer to that varies from person to person because there isn't really a single right way to play the game.

 

Thanks Muro for clarification on this guns vs swords issue. It's a bit of pitty that melee is favoured over firearms but I guess the balance is somehow saved since guns are ranged weapons.

Yes, you're right but it seems to me that, this can only happen after mastering firearms skill. Am I correct?

Once again thank you Muro for your explanations. I didn't know about that difference between AC and DR. And you're perfectly right about that total defense calculation - it's pretty pointless to look at it.

No cover for head isn't the best solution I think, since there is that Chapeau of Magnetic Inversion and it doesn't give you -1 to PE.

 

Thank you Dark Elf - I'll be keeping my eye on those too

I'm still in Tarant and been searching everywhere for somebody that would give me those quests in sewers. But there was only one guy that lost his ring and that's it. I thought that maybe that guy at Water and Power Plant would need my help but he didn't mention any jobs at all

And also I'd like to ask about all those stealing missions for Thieves' Underground. Will I become evil by doing them? Or they are kind of neutral maybe? And is there a way to steal things but without killing anyone?* I have no prowling and pick pocket skills and would rather keep it that way.

* - apart from using stun grenades (I just would like to know, if it's possible to steal things so that nobody could recognize me?)

 

There's no quests in the sewers (some of the quests in the Boil might take you into the old sewers by that's down to personal choice and not necessary), what Pyotr was referring to was going through the sewers and clearing out the critters and looking for loot. There is both the old sewers and the new sewers (the one with the ring quest in it), you can find entrances around or if you're really stuck ask and we'll tell you.

Also you don't need mastery to kill people at range, I've pretty much completed the game with the same firearms skill you have currently (as there's a blessing you can get that gives you 3 levels of firearms and I'm a nut on saving character points, but it's at the penultimate location before the final location where you finished the game). All you need is a good gun, the Sharp Shooter's Pistol on the owner of Tarant's gun shop is a nice choice. To get this what you can do is wait till night time, and when the shop owner enters his bedroom run in after him otherwise the door will be locked and you won't be able to get in. Save the game beforehand in case he catches you, and steal all his bullets which will make him unequip the pistol making it much easier to take. Once you have it, wait till morning and leave as he leaves so you don't get stuck in a locked room. He doesn't seem to care that you were in his room all night, he'll just be pissed if you get caught stealing. The gun can be taken without pickpocketing skill with a bit of patience.

Obviously this is slightly exploitative (only slightly - I hate exploits and I still do it), you can also become a master haggler and then you could just buy it from it but that probably isn't worth it. The gun has 5 greater range than a regular fine revolver (even though it's called a pistol, it's actually a revolver), +15% chance to hit (making your maximum to hit currently with optimum conditions about 65% I'd imagine from looking at your firearms skill) and it has a better speed than a fine revolver too.

About the Thieves' Underground quests, you'll probably have to kill people if you don't have pickpocketing skill. It's pretty tough to get items from peoples' inventories without it.

 

The thing is that part of sewers doesn't have any quests, but it is very dungeon-like in structure and there are alot of enemies. The difference from typical dungeon is that you can easily backtrack to city for replenishment. And no, I won't say where it is located, just explore city more carefully.

I'd recommend you to not bother with stealings if you doesn't have appropriate skills. Save this for next playthrough.
Though steal skill by itself is very useful because you can see equipment and, with fatepoint, steal something like gloves directly from hands, or even armor.

 

One Eye Gear can be found as loot.

Actually, the speed is the same.

Personally I'd recommend the Looking Glass Rifle (unmatched range and accuracy bonus) to take down enemies from afar and either the Hand Cannon or Elephant Gun when they get too close (smaller range but greater kick). All three have top class ammo efficiency. Each can be either created with gunsmithy or stolen from particular NPCs (fate point or murder, depending on your style).