Just a newbies question.?

I buy arrows : /. Anyways, Tech is cool, really, but it's waaaay harder to play that game with a technologist... magic is quicker, easier... you know!. Plus, being unable to teleport sucks.

 

Not really...I get a sense of accomplishment whenever I break through to the 20th century in the game.
The first time I hit 1901 was a good day.

 

I have never enough patience to wait for second decade of 20 century. By the way, have anyone waited for 21 century?
Oh, the disbalance causes more preferences to magic (and it's stronger, surely), but Technology is much more interesting to play.

 

I'm a scientific man myself and so naturally I prefer technology. Completing the game with a complicated and diverse technological character gives me more of a sense of accomplishment. I find that the game is more interesting and engaging when you find ways to utalize all of the technogolical schematics too. Nothing like decking out your half-ogre followers in Elite Platemale and giving your sharp-shooter gunslinger friends tranquilzer guns. It's also great fun to spend time building up a weak character at the begining (as opposed to a harm spamming mage) who later can drop entire armies to the ground by tossing a single knock-out-gas grenade.

 

I also enjoy the satisfaction of having a completely inept weakling who can eventually fashion incredible devices to destroy his foes. Also, being tech makes you more part of your group. You can make items for others to use and it has a noticeable effect on your party. As a mage you are powerful on your own and your skills don't really affect your fellow adventurers as much.

 

You guys have hit the nail on the head, at least for me. My tech characters are always filled up with followers, and my magic characters are always loners because I tend to not *need* anyone.

Hrm, now I want to ditch my half-ogre smith melee dude and make a magic character whose sole purpose is to be a loner (With Virgil only, at least).

It's a damn shame too, because my Ogre had gotten to freaking 35 and I had just met Loghaire. That's the furthest I've gotten with my 10+ characters.

DAMN THIS GAME

 

Tech is just so much more...I don't know, attainable? Appealing? One of those words. It's incredible, some of the stuff a character can make with skill points spent in the right areas.
As for waiting till the 21st century, I'm going to see how long it takes to kill a character from old age...

 

? 21 century?

 

The century we're in right now. I want to make an Arcanum playthrough last until at least 2001.

 

Watch the game engine have a Y2K glitch........

 

So, what do you do, just sleep all day(s)?

 

No, doing that would take forever. The quickest way is to set random locations on the world map, so you keep walking until the desired date is reached. It's easiest with a Techie, considering you need to hoof it everywhere anyway.

 

It's just as easy with a Magie (eh?) since there's nothing forcing you to go Teleporting around. And I did waste about two years in one game, wandering around in the woodlands surrounding Qintarra looking for that Will O' Wisp thingie that isn't there anyway...

(Yeah, well, it can be there, but I never found until down Roseborough way.)

 

I always found one or two halfway between Qintarra and the river. Just head due south to the mid-point between the two and do a spiral in that area.

I know the encounters are supposed to be random, but that area seemed to be loaded with the creatures - in both games. Perhaps there's an overlap of the random encounter areas at that location.

 

Tech is much more fun to play than magick. At some point in the game of a magickal character, I've noticed you go straight from weakling to god in the matter of one level or one item. There doesn't seem to be any gradual climb or accomplishment. I played a half-elf specializing in a mix of black necromancy and melee (trying to be a "Dark Knight" type character) and for the first 7 - 8 levels, Harm was doing me squat in combat so I had to mostly (but not completely) rely on melee, but I still had a gratifying balance of use between the two. However once I bought a Dark Helm, it was the completely opposite. Now I was mowing everything down, from gnomes to ogres to npcs 10 levels higher than me with like 2 shots of Harm. It kind of sucked because I also bought this really cool sword with the helm which was pretty much pointless to use anymore since my magick was doing about 3x more damage than any melee weapon I had could do.

But Technology seems to be a little more balanced, which is why I like to play it. Being a gunslinger/gunsmith or mad scientist is hella fun and really lets you roleplay the game more than hacking and slashing and blasting everything with spells. Another plus to Tech is that it gives you something extra to do with all that excess money later on in the game like buying parts for schematics or stocking up on ammunition. I think the whole technology angle just seems more fresh to me since I'm so burned out on the whole Magic/Fantasy craze in our pop culture these days (ex: Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Narnia, etc). But lately I've really gotten into the old 1800's/Old West/Steam Engine settings. On top of that, I'm a huge Fallout fan and I think the game engine just works and feels better from a Tech point. Sometimes I tease myself by thinking that this game should've been the real Fallout 3 we were all waiting for.

 

I think magick forces you to roleplay more. As in imagining that you actually are the character, and playing it like another dimension rather than a game.

 

I don't see how playing the tech side would keep you from roleplaying. Then again, I become somewhat attached to characters I create.

 

It's just as easy to roleplay with techies, it's just that the game offers you other things to keep you busy. As in, you might get distracted from the roleplaying. I know I'm more likely to think of a history and psyche and stay true to that with a mage than with a techie. But maybe that's just me.

 

Well, when I'm playing with tech, the game is just... absorbing, especially when you're real tech with all those tricks, mechanoids and grenades, and not just a gunslinger.

 

It's obvious it's just a matter of opinion. Since I haven't gotten very far in the game, all I've come across are towns/cities where Technology is the majority. Everyone's walking around in civil war-ish guard uniforms and suits and dresses, most of the shops only sell items useful to Techs. Therefore, I tend to think it's easier to roleplay this point of the game with a Tech since he/she already fits well into the setting than a Mage in robes would. However, I've played a few modules with Mage characters that took place mostly fantasy settings and found it easier to roleplay with these characters in this setting than with Techs. So for me, it seems a matter of the setting of the game than the aptitude of the character that helps me roleplay better. I'm a little disappointed I feel this way because I believe that one of the true aspects of this game that makes it so appealing is the cross-over of these two settings and styles of play. It really was a fresh idea and still is today despite being a 5-year-old game in a culture and market dominated by fancy graphics and Hollywood talent. I wouldn't trade it for anything, though.