Dark Helm

Discussion in 'Arcanum Hints & Tips' started by Gillsing, Jul 28, 2007.

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  1. Gillsing

    Gillsing New Member

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    I've read posts by Vorak saying that only the Dark Helm from Ashbury is bugged and will give permanent effects on alignment and aptitude. But I just bought such a bugged helm from the wise woman outside of Tarant, so is Vorak referring to an unofficial patch or something? I've got my game patched to 1074, and I'm using the fixed EXE in case that matters.

    And for a non-bugged Dark Helm, should they be playing that hex-animation, like the hexed weapons I have? The Dark Helm I bought didn't play such an animation. Do all the wise women get their stock from the same container? If not, perhaps some of them have bugged helms in theirs? Or perhaps that isn't how stores work at all.
     
  2. Xz

    Xz Monkey Admin Staff Member

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    If all the Dark Helms in your game is bugged, the fix may be in one of Otto Krupps unofficial patches.
     
  3. Frigo

    Frigo Active Member

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    All Dark Helms in the game are bugged :) the wise women can give you some

    And do NOT install the patch. Instead, embrace the gift the Dark Gods gave to you.

    Pay them back for the magic by killing everyone in the game :D
     
  4. Vorak

    Vorak Administrator Staff Member

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    I play with the 1074 patch and no other modifications (usually) and the Ashbury helm is the only one that has ever given me a permanent to evil allignment and magical apptitude.

    All others stop having an effect as soon as I remove the helmet.
     
  5. Gillsing

    Gillsing New Member

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    Well, that's strange then. Did you ever buy one from the wise woman outside of Tarant though? I think I remember once buying a Dark Helm that wasn't bugged, but I'm not sure about that.

    I think not. Stasis worked just fine when I needed the skulls back from Benjamin Gershwin, though when I read about his new fingerprinting I thought that I had killed him, and wondered what was up. That's when I remembered that no, I didn't kill him, I just made him quite hostile. I'll have to remember that if I ever return to that building. Can't run around and just kill everyone. What am I, an orc?

    Had to kill Sammy though (the Pick Pocket Master, in case I got his name wrong). Apparently my usage of Purity of Water confuses and enrages people. Or rather, some NPCs seem to have an override that turns them suspicious even when my boosted Beauty should make them love me. Thus, when I leave them and return, perhaps without my boosted Beauty, they are quite hostile. Two guards joined him, and my eager followers put them all down on the ground before I knew what was happening (real time, you know). Not wanting to waste anything, I stripped all three bodies of their weapons and uniforms, and then proceeded to drag them away to the canal. Quite unnecessary, as those two guards were the only ones stationed in Kensington Park. But leaving bodies in the street is not... wise.

    I don't really mind the Dark Helm though. It just happens to feel a bit too easy, you know? Not that a half ogre mage couldn't use a bit of "easy" in his life. It's hard to keep stupid people like Geoffrey alive. He can't fight worth a damn, and yet he insists and attacking with his mage dagger until it is almost broken in half. It's like a damned kindergarten. Why can't they just remember to... :x
     
  6. Vorak

    Vorak Administrator Staff Member

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    The reason I stopped buying them was the lack of a permanent change. However when I did buy them I always bought them in Tarant since thats the Wise Woman I pretty much always use.
     
  7. Frigo

    Frigo Active Member

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    Try to put it on several times and sometimes look at your character sheet.

    There were some cases when it simply stopped at a karma level. No idea why, but it seems like they're more bugged than we previously thought.

    But it's really cool to use Harm at max magic and have access to the stuff of the mages in Tarant from the start :D
     
  8. Gillsing

    Gillsing New Member

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    And to give Virgil some much needed aptitude. After cursing my way through the Ashbury castle I now have two bugged Dark Helms, though one is still unidentified. I considered using it on Torian Kel to make him able to take full advantage of magical items, but quickly realised that I want him at neutral aptitude so that he can keep wearing his basic machined plate. Meanwhile it's Virgil and Geoffrey who wear Dread Armor. So much for civilization. :roll:

    So you're saying that what stuff you get to buy from the mages depends on your magical aptitude and not your level or how far you've come in the main quest?
     
  9. Vorak

    Vorak Administrator Staff Member

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    The stuff you buy is simply randomly generated, it has nothing to do with apptitude or experience so far as I know.

    Go to the wise woman in Tarant and ask to see her stock. Exit if you don't see anything you like and look in one of your followers inventories before advancing time one day and check the wise woman again and see what she has now.

    Keep it up long enough and you can buy any item the wise woman stocks since sooner or later it'll show up. The Arcane Ring seems to be the rarest item for them to stock.
     
  10. The_Bob

    The_Bob Administrator Staff Member

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    Just imagine a bunch of powerful evil mages setting up a camp around one of these gypsies, staying for about a month until she finally has the arcane ring. Then the same wierd tents popping up in front of the inventor's shop in tarant, waiting for him to have a minature steam engine.
     
  11. rroyo

    rroyo Active Member

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    Imagine the fun the Tarant guards would have trying to enforce the loitering laws. :)
     
  12. Vorak

    Vorak Administrator Staff Member

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    It took 437 days to get enough rings for my whole party.

    It would seem the whole Kerghan destroying the world thing was slightly less imminent than I was led to believe.
     
  13. The_Bob

    The_Bob Administrator Staff Member

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    Such practices blur the line between 'enforcing luck' in getting the good stuff as it comes and editing the adequate .mes files to make sure every chest in the game contains a life-long supply of arcane artifacts burried in a mountain of gold.

    But then again, taking weapons away from Virgil and making him bash down doors with his bare hands does too. It's just that one of these is way more fun to watch.
     
  14. Gillsing

    Gillsing New Member

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    Ooooh! Does that mean that the Wheel Clan isn't the only source?
     
  15. Grossenschwamm

    Grossenschwamm Well-Known Member

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    That is true. Almost every technological vendor has a chance to carry the small steam engine. It's just a matter of patience and waiting.
     
  16. Gillsing

    Gillsing New Member

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    But a small steam engine is not miniature steamworks, is it? The former is needed for a mechanized arachnid, while the latter is needed for a machined plate, right?

    Perhaps the Wheel Clan is the only source for dwarven steel? I seem to remember that when I arrived there with my first character, I came to believe that it wasn't until then that a technologist would be able to create an elite plate or a machined plate. Not sure which one though.

    A bit unfair if a human technologist need the dwarves to create something learned through a degree. It's not as if human mages need the elves to cast spells. Or does dwarven steel find its way into human stores? I don't think I ever looked hard enough.
     
  17. Frigo

    Frigo Active Member

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    Tech is harder, get used to it.

    (And you can't cheat your ass off from the very start if you want to be a techie :roll:)
     
  18. The_Bob

    The_Bob Administrator Staff Member

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    There's the dwarven smith in caladon who sometimes has dwarven steel and stuff.

    As for steam engines and minute steamworks, while a rarity, they can be bought from the inventor in tarant. But stay at the inn instead of just waiting around in fronf of the store for months. If you hurry, after you've slept until morning, you can sleep until morning again, getting two days of sleep for the price of one.

    As for tech vs. magick - consider this - once you've made a machined plate, you don't have to spend fatigue points for its upkeep. Also you can make an army of automatons and spiders, not restricted to five upkeep slots. And you don't have to take off eye gear when you deploy an automaton.
     
  19. Gillsing

    Gillsing New Member

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    True enough, but automatons have to be repaired, and I'm not even sure if it's possible to repair one after it's been killed while active. A mage could just summon a new demon, and fatigue potions are cheap enough to come by. Meanwhile tech costs a bundle. So I think that it might be balanced enough. My point about the need for dwarves being unfair is that I think that tech people shouldn't be 'forced' to ally themselves with anyone in particular, just like mages aren't.

    I also find it a bit strange that the dwarves would be willing to sell minute steamworks or dwarven steel to non-dwarves. Is it no longer a grave offense to share dwarven technology with non-dwarves? Or is it too late when it comes to steam and steel, so those particular technologies don't matter any longer? Perhaps a discussion more suitable for its own thread.
     
  20. jfkoski

    jfkoski New Member

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    I took a look at this the other night. I seem to recall a post or thread that said the problem was in the take-off script, which it was. Dark Helm OFF has a three-line script which gives you back your PE, jumps to the wrong line (6) of the Dark Helm ON script, then does a return and RUN default. The bad line should jump you to line 7, which undoes your M.A. and alignment changes. I didn't see this fix in any of the patches or fixes I downloaded.

    Of course, there is an advantage to upping your M.A. repeatedly by putting on and off the Dark Helm - you don't have to spend points in spells to get your magical equipment to work better. Obviously, it should work as other cursed equipment - on-effect on; off-effect off.

    A third possibility would make it a one-shot permanent affair, so that it would flag not to add the M.A. & alignment effect the second time you wear it.

    A fourth possibility would change it completely, like the background that says you can't increase your alignment to the good.

    ====
    Somehow the topic got changed:
    I looked at some of the shop lists the other day, too. The Arcane stuff at the Gypsy is listed as 1, which is supposed to mean 1% chance of being there per day. Although you could get more than one thing at the same time.

    I used to think that I was being teased by shopkeepers offering really good stuff that I couldn't afford. Or good stuff only showed up late in the game. I haven't checked yet whether their first inventory is random or set.

    The dwarf smith in Caladon is different from the dwarf smith in Wheel Clan, but you should be able to get dwarven steel from both, but only mithril ore from the Wheel Clan. Also, the elven trader in Ashbury does not have the same inventory set as the one in Qintarra, meaning no DX gloves or Li'tani in the latter. Likewise there are at least three mage sets that sell different scrolls: light, dark and general. Two should be in Tarant and the third is in Ashbury. But not all learnable spells are sold as scrolls in these shops (unless for first-time visitors?).

    There's a shop list for someone called "gnomish merchant" who sells light healing/poison scrolls plus fuel and small armors, but I don't know if or where any NPC is using this.

    Yeah, I thought it was pretty silly to play a waiting game. One alternative is to set up the non-pickpocketing Gypsy with "turned off" items in her personal inventory until you get to the story state or flag.

    I was thinking to make the Importers offer to sell you rare goods if you buy the deed from them.

    I like the idea of having a shopkeeper in Tulla who sells rare magic goods.
     
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