Quick Question on Changing Magic/Item stats for Big Results

How do I make an example change to magic damage, let's say for the spell Harm?

Everyone knows Arcanum is completely imbalanced and there is no good replacement mod for it. The one thing I'm passionate about in life is rebalancing great games and there's one problem--I couldn't find any place that just says "here's how you make an example change". There has to be maybe 10 quick steps on how to change an Item/Spell's stats.

My goal is to make Arcanum balanced within one year, and that's really easy if there'd be a good place that helps people get up the first step. Thanks in advance.

 

I got my brother into this game and he posted this without asking me first. He doesn't know how many times random new people come in asking questions, nor does he know how xenophobic most of you are. So forgive him, I'm apologizing on his behalf.

We previously released an insane hardtype hack for final fantasy 6 (3 for non Japanese players) and so he wants to make combat actually worthwhile in this game too.

I already figured out how to edit monsters, spells, and items. I've done it so far for basically every one of them, so far on a basic multiplicative/division across the board basis.

There are some things that are causing some problems (because it just wouldn't be Arcanum if there weren't insane modding issues, would it?) but I'm going to keep hammering at it for a while before breaking down and asking for help.

Will release it for others to enjoy when it's close to done, and make some quick how-to info for anyone interested in adjusting their own Arcanum to their liking. It's really not so bad so far.

Most importantly, it's already incredibly enjoyable. I died over and over trying to use my melee party to plow through the ancient maze to get the great helmet in there, and I just couldn't do it. 2 Ogres with platemail etc and virgil backing us up, no hope. Mummies with 400 hp wear me down easily in combat. Just beautiful. It's already like it was almost meant to be.

As far as what I've done so far in just 2 days:

divided almost every melee weapon dmg by 2 (some more, some not)
tinkered with other overpowered weapons
increased some weapons which were dissappointing late game (vendigroth bore rifle??)
multiplied thrown ranged weapons dmg by 1.5
many of the bad guns damage multiplied by 2


rebalanced armors into AC/DR strata. # is same for AC and DR:

robes 2+2/4/6/8 charm/magic/mystic/arcane

clothing/jackets are 5

leather armors are 10 (+2/4/6/8)

chainmail are 20 (+2/4/6/8)

platemail are 30 (+3/6/9/12)

some crafted platemails are 35, elite is 40

helmets are 1 thru 5, magics are 5+1/2/3/4

gloves/gauntlets are 1 thru 5, magics are 4+1/2/3/4

shields are mostly the same, special magics moved up to 30ac to compete and regular magic shields are 30ac +3/6/9/12 AC&DR


monsters hp and damage multiplied by 2 except beginner creatures and mine monsters (hard enough as it is imo).

many monsters made even stronger than x2 (stillwater giant awww yeah)


Spell damage divided by 4 for most spells, last 3 meta magic spells made uncastable 999FT, casting costs reduced to allow for more casting (and thus more fun) early on. Haste/Slow spell effects also reduced, and tempus fugit costs a lot.


There are still some things left to do, but the vast majority of the game is already very changed and playing much much much infinitely better.

Basically it's now just down to figuring out some of the monsters/items/effects which aren't easily changable, and changing some of the more esoteric stuff (like grenade effects, schematic requirements for great items, balancing bows, spells that should get more use like summons and debuffs).


I have a big list of some other ideas too, major ones are:

Giving incredible weight to metal armors to prevent casters from wearing plate and penalize them for wearing gauntlets, helmets, and chainmail.

Notable differentiation between many weapon types, so that you actually use scimitars and short swords and so on.

Reduce scope of items which can backstab (change weapon type data values I imagine), because backstab is entirely rigged.

Notable differentiation between armor types, so that elven chainmail isn't basically the same as chainmail etc.

Speed bonuses to leather armors and small weapons, cha/be/pers bonuses to clothing and jewelry, and more.

High durability on armors and weapons, because it's annoying how it is now.

Swap Divine Magic into the level 1 of the school so you can identify things easy.

Make ammo stacks much higher in shops, because it's annoying.

Make certain monsters really epic (Kerghan, Void, Lichs, Bludgeoners, Paladins in Bangellian Scourge Cave, Voltax, Lethe Wyvern, Ancient Bears, etc.)

Reduce xp gain or increase requirements, because you can get basically max damage potential for heroes around 20 (mage, gunslinger, and melee can all finish maxing important stuff around there).