Combining and steam punk - who did it first?

I've always thought of Arcanum whenever I think of combining items, crazy gear and hilarious old-over-the-top descriptions but I'm not sure who did it first.

Was it relatively new when Arcanum was released or had it been around for decades?

 

I never really thought about it until my friend started playing Arcanum recently. Although he prefers magick to technology, he is compelled to take advantage of the "crafting" of Arcanum. He says that the crafting aspect is something he hasn't experienced in similar games and if he wants to play a magickal character, he can just play any D&D-based RPG. As a World of Warcraft veteran, he has referred to the combining in Arcanum as "crafting" although as crafting systems go, the Arcanum crafting is very shallow.

From my experience, I can tell you that Arcanum did not pioneer combining items into different, more powerful items. For example, Home Alone for the Sega Genesis had a fun combining aspect wherein the player could create weapons such as a snowball bazooka from common household items. From my friend's comment on crafting versus magick in Arcanum, I think it is reasonable to conclude that combining items wasn't common at the time Arcanum was released.

 

Well I would imagine crafting in Arcanum is less deep than WoW being much older, but it's still tonnes of fun. I like having me a squad of automatons

Pitty the AI ain't so great. Maybe someone should make an AI patch that makes minions form a protective screen around you, not BEHIND you as you run. Or even put in all the "formations" you see in RTS games. Hehe, formations of automatons...

 

3 years difference, really; Arcanum is dated to 2001, WoW was launched in 2004.
Also, given that you're playing an online game, they need more variety than a world essentially populated by you.
Apples and oranges, as far as I can tell. Not too much similar in other single player RPGs before it, though in resident evil one could craft more potent healing items by combining the available herbs...but that's not exactly an RPG so much as a puzzle with zombies.

 

3 years is more than enough time to make major changes. Considering an entire computer game can be made from the ground up in 3-5 years, changing aspect of it is not time consuming by comparison.

 

That's not what I said, I said Arcanum isn't much older than WoW, while you conversely did, and I just happened to say the size of the game world was many orders of magnitude larger. Not because of land-space, but because of other people playing the game. It's an MMO with millions of subscribers being compared to a single player CRPG with broken multiplayer.
Now, if "much older" literally means the time it takes to develop a single game, I might agree. Then again, some pretty crappy games can be developed in less than a year. Duke Nukem Forever stands out.

Now, down to brass tacks;
Anything before Arcanum - Other games did it occasionally, but Arcanum ripped the door off. 7 colleges, 7 schematics per college, plus dozens of learned schematics. You can also make your own schematics and add them to the game to create anything either already available in the game world, or something you yourself have added. That's near-limitless item-creation, provided you know how to make protos and edit text files.

Anything after Arcanum - WoW does it pretty well, but a lot of games are doing it these days (none of which I've played), and unfortunately, the only way to mod WoW is to release your own server, which means despite a larger base volume of possible choices (and indeed more choices within your jobs than if you were simply playing Arcanum), you're still capped by Blizzard.

 

7?

College?

 

All seems reasonable.

@Muro
I presume he means "disciplines", rather than "colleges".

 

Indeed, I'm just nitpicking about the used term and the fact that there are actually eight tech disciplines rather than seven. Dreadfully sorry, Mr Grossenschwamm, but you will have to give me 500 coins now.

Just joking with you, old chap, just joking.

Actually, no. 500 coins.

Oh and by the way, you wouldn't happen to know anything about the recent blimp crash, would you now, sir?

 

I'm pretty sure I bid you a good day in another thread already.

I BID YOU GOOD DAY

<3

 

You were the first to greet me on this forum, Philes. That being said, you were always like a mother to me in all aspects (except maybe for the fact that I didn't get to suck any nipples). How could I not love you?

<3



I do believe the nipple business is still rectifiable, by the way.

 

There are 8 tech disciplines? Ah, I erm um.. only remember the ones which teaches you how to make swords, healing items and mechanical arachnids

 

Do not forgot you had/have Steam Earth (I am not sure the exact name of it at this moment), OGL Steampunk, Space: 1889 and Deadlands as well.

 

Had a quick look at OGL Steampunk, Space: 1889 and Deadlands. Except for Space 1889's character art I think I prefer Arcanum's look. No idea on the actual game settings though. Might check Space 1889 and Deadlands again in more detail

 

You showed two important things on the day you corrected me, Muro;
Balls.
Actually, one thing;
Superior working knowledge of the game.
But seriously? Must've had a brain fart. 7 levels of expertise per discipline, and that's where I got my number. Definitely flubbed on the correct term for the different technologies, however, because I confused that with magick. Why would you go to college for magick?

Wait, do you guys remember Secret of Evermore? It's not exactly steampunk, but it goes from low-tech to high tech over the course of the game, and combining ingredients for alchemy is a pretty big play mechanic. It came out in '95, I think. There's a steam-powered vehicle you fly around in toward the end of the game that has clock-work wings.

 

Hmm combining items for alchemy is combining, but I suppose I was thinking more of the wide variety of technological gadgets. Strange that I never considered alchemy, Might and Magic 6,7 and 8 have alchemy, although admittedly they aren't steam punk.

 

Granted there are a variety of items that can be created, but they are created by taking A with B and clicking a button. This is such so shallow that I cannot even bring myself to call it a mechanic. As a thematic device it fits perfectly with the steampunk setting of Arcanum, but it would be improved if the actual crafting process were more involved.

 

That's actually something I wondered about myself while playing. Why was I able to create a balanced sword from a handle and a lump of pure ore with no blacksmith's hammer, forge or anvil? How is it that an entire bullet is made from saltpeter and charcoal, when clearly the finished product has a lead slug and a casing?
Why was it that steel, a product made of refined iron ore in our world, was something to be combined with iron ore again to make pure ore? Doesn't that defeat the process of smelting out impurities?
How could I make any technological device present in the game with no apparent tools in my inventory? Perhaps it was to save on space as a gameplay mechanic, but personally I saw it as a plot hole. How the hell was I making all of that stuff?
I personally wouldn't go to the same depth as world of war craft where you have to grind on recipes before you can graduate to the next best thing, but I'd have definitely made making things a tad more realistic than "a and b go together. Your tools are always with you, but invisible and take up no space. Press this button and..."

 

Tech is more magick than magick is magick.

 

At least if there was a recipe system for magickal items in Arcanum it would've made more sense.