Technological Disciplines Improved

didnt know that flow-capacitor and healing-jacket were requiring charges to have effect. can anyone tell the system they consume charges?

like time basis, or everytime flow c. repel a range attack(bullet/arrow), or everytime you receive healing from the jacket? and what is the amounts, thanks.

 

At the risk of being wrong, but confident of being corrected if I am:-
Flow Capacitors tick along at about 1charge per ten seconds as long as you've equipped it and have charges, thus allowing you to detect traps.
Healing Jackets, if I recall, use four charges every ten seconds as long as you're wearing it, have charges and are wounded. The healing rate is not great, but it's automatic so still handy.
The Magnetic Chapeau purportedly uses charges everytime you absorb damage while wearing it, BUT it is bugged in vanilla so you get damage resistance without using charges; this may have been fixed in the patches.

 

The Chapeau doesn't consume charges anymore with the UAP and I think it was bugged in Vanilla, it did read that it consumed charges but didn't.
As for the others, I think you're correct.

 

As for Nikola Tesla, everyone should read this!

http://www.badassoftheweek.com/tesla.html

Also the name of my character

 

My character's name too.

I gave him Force and Conveyence mastery as well as Electrical, and roleplay that he teleported in from Earth after fucking with the fabric of reality just a little too much.

The Badass of the century.

 

As a weapon - not really.
As a main weapon - indeed.

I don't think it's something wrong that some weapons are great for a few cases but not suitable as main weapons. It introduces some variety to the game instead of making you use one weapon for every single situation.

When used as a main weapon - indeed, but it shouldn't be that much of a problem when it's used only for the tougher foes.

Did you use it on the strongest enemies, like Disintegrate, or on all of them?

What is your definition of an useless teaser weapon?

If not that, technology provides Palalysis Grenades you mentioned yourself. While technology does not have an exact equivalent of Disintagrate, it does have a variety of equally devastating tools.

Indeed, yet you chose quite a financially crippled gunslinger there. Not all gunslingers will end up being filthy rich, of course, but most will.

Intriguing. Never happened to me so far. I'll keep an eye on it whenever I decide to create an archer in Arcanum or allow enemy bowmen to train on my character.

Healing Salves work the way they work because of the proportions of used ingredients and adjusted conditions during their creation rather than mystical incantations and magickal energy. It would be hypocrisy for a mage to rely on biology, chemistry and physics rather than his own willpower and imagination.

A mage has no possibility of doing that. She only joins technologists.

We're talking about Flow Spectrometers, right? The use 1 charge per 15 seconds.

They use 1 charge per 5 seconds healing 4 HP each time.

Both of the above points are for 1.0.7.4 + UAP v091225, mind you. Things might have worked differently in vanilla.

 

Spectrometer! Right. I feel dumb. As usual I was just answering off the top of my head while Muro actually found the answer. :hippy:

 

For electrical technologists, I think Electro-Armor would fit better - if you can put up with the encumbrance, that is.

 

Well I think I'll mostly leave it that. I don't agree with you on everything but you've brought up a lot of good points and I've had to alter my stance on plenty of things. I wouldn't have started this thread if I didn't want other player's opinions anyway.

Also in light of what I've learned about therapeutics in this thread I think a large part of my position has been rendered moot. I ran the numbers and with a sickly background I can get my strength, perception, and dexterity to 20 with only 4 points put into strength, 2 in perception, and doctorates in smithy and therapeutics. That's impressive and that's exactly what I was saying tech should do.

So I suppose I haven't much to complain about.

Really at this point the only changes I think should be made are the ones we agreed about above and maybe a few other tweaks to schematics...

The game isn't as imbalanced as I thought it was.

 

It was a nice discussion, Langolier. Gravedigs aside, it has been nearly a year since the last Arcanum-related thread of this level of development.

 

That requires time, money and talent.

Most people have only two of the three, sometimes even only one.

 

Sir you seem to have penalty of -1 followers, hope it worths it.

 

Dear God, man! The power of modding has gone to your head. You can't reprogram your own backgound!

 

He actually can - it will take effect even if he's already playing with it, too. Max followers seem to be capped at 7, though.

By the way, symban, I have to admit, that was a joke that kept me chuckling for at least half a minute.

 

That's the only reservation I have about the Tesla Gun. If you or your NPC party members are using Charges for other things at the same time you're using the Tesla Gun it's going to be harder to keep it supplied with ammo. It eats them at just about the exact rate needed to consume all your charges.

Not to mention he had a glamrock band named after him. :thumbup:

Hassle > Result.

I wouldn't call it a teaser weapon, just impractical to the point of not being worth the trouble.

Any weapon that looks cool and has higher requirements to make than your character's current weapon, but when you're finally able to make one you discover its actually less effective than what you already had -- in some cases far less effective. Acid Gun, Pyro Gun, Blade Launcher, Flamethrower, High-Velocity Pistol, Hushed Revolver...the components you destroy in the process of making some of these are better than the end result.

True, but Firearms doesn't. Firearms is the weakest attack form in the game by far. Bows, throwing, melee -- they're all better.

Explosives is indeed vastly overpowered because of the money it generates and because grenades only effect enemies, not friends. You can toss a grenade into the middle of a big melee and Magnus and Virgil will be unscathed. If the rules were changed so that both friends and foes were effected by grenade blasts, that would be a major check on their power and much more realistic. Even the Paralysis Grenade would be reasonable.

BTW, the Paralysis Grenade seems to affect everything...undead, machines, golems -- probably even Khergan, although I didn't test it. It's better than KOG, which only works on the same thing the Tranquilizer Gun works on.

I wonder how much money a character could generate if he mastered Haggle along with Explosives... 8)

He'd be hobnobbing at the yacht club with the Terrelonde-Ashes.


Interesting observation: Automatons level-up. As long as you don't turn them off, but keep them actively in the party the whole time, they will gain levels along with everyone else. Once you turn them off and on again, they reset to level 30.

Really not bad overall. Balance is overrated anyway. It's more important that every different option be fun in its own way. The Pyrotechnic Axe and Paralysis Grenades are overpowered just like lots of magick is overpowered.

Personally I would fix Firearms by bringing the power of everything else down closer to where Firearms are now.


I started a new game as an Idiot Savant mage with Conveyance and Divination. So far it has completely confirmed by stance that magick is easier than tech. He has free infallible lockpicking and trap detection, teleportation, easy item identification, and Virgil to heal him if anything goes wrong. And Disarm is a deceptively potent combat spell. He had some funny lines making fun of Logaire, so I saved and followed them through until Logaire attacked. After screaming "Taste the fury of Harrow!" the King of the Dwarves was instantly disarmed by a first-level spell, and my character quietly picked up Harrow.

 

Knock-Out Gas grenades seemed disappointing to me. I found Paralysis Grenades and even regular old Stun Grenades to be more useful. Maybe it was because I kept throwing KOG grenades at enemies who were resistant or something, but the stun effect didn't seem to last long enough to be worth the trouble.

The same goes for Hallucination Grenades. They look cool. They sound like they would be fun to try out in combat and... Basically, they're not good for much other than generating a lot of cash if you sell them.

Your new mage character sounds really fun.

You're totally right about magic. A lot of lower level spells are probably too good. Temporal Distortion makes turn-based combat totally unfair. Shield of Force can render you nearly indestructible if you already have a decent armor rating. And once you start getting one-hit kills with Harm, combat gets downright boring.

You can be a very effective fighter/mage with a MA somewhere around 60 and no spells above level three. An Elf with the right nine or ten spells will pwn pretty much any foe except maybe the Temporal Crusher on the Isle of Despair. You don't even need to get your Willpower above 12 unless you want to master Force or Conveyance.

Compare that to being a serious gun smith and it starts seeming unfair.

 

I asked that question because of the Blade Launcher you mentioned. I noticed it has very good AvD/AP and not-that-bad AvD/AmU and firstly wanted to point that out, but now I can see that weapon's damage compared to the Elephant Gun's, is hardly anything when we consider the 3x greater ammo usage.

The Launcher would be far more fair if it used 2 bullets per shot (just like the EG) and therefore be what it should be - an improved version of the EG, with higher requirements yet higher results in all categories.

Of course, ideally it would shoot Fine Steel Daggers. I recall a mod that actually was supposed to make that happen, but I don't remember whether it was actually finished and released or not.

 

I tend to think of the Fine Revolver as being like a .38 special. In real life sometimes, it can take three or more shots to kill somebody with a pistol. There was a case a few years back of an NBA player who got shot at least four times in the face with a .32 and lived. It's not unusual for somebody to get shot six or more times and manage to pull through somehow. So, it taking three shots to kill a Molochean Hand assassin or some enemies barely being affected by your shiny wheel gun makes sense to me.

I kind of like the Fine Revolver the way it is. On the other hand, you have a point about head shots. Called shots should at least make you feel like you're getting somewhere.

The Long-Range Pistol is kind of like what you're describing, but that thing isn't available soon enough to make it very useful. It would be nice to have at least one more pistol that fits those criteria (like upgrading from a .38 to a .44 Magnum). Call it the Elite Revolver or something. Maybe you could make it by combining a Fine Revolver with some Pure Ore.

I don't know what it's like in your game, but in vanilla Arcanum the LGR seems fine. The firing rate is a little slow, actually.

 

I forgot to list the Rifled Cannon as a teaser weapon too. There might be more worthless firearms than workable ones.

That would be hilarious. There are enough FSDs in the game and they're cheap enough that it could actually work.

I get your point, although I wouldn't use the .38 Special since it's wrong for the time period. Even though it's a fictional time period.

I would suggest a "fine revolver" ought to be something like a Webley .455:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webley_Revolver

The Fine Revolver in the game is okay. It's the weapon of choice in the early phase.

The LRP is a decent enough weapon, comparable to or maybe slightly inferior to the Hand Cannon. Like you said, it's stiff requirements make it obsolete by the time it becomes available.

In the context of how the game works currently, it's a very useful weapon. It just doesn't function the way a "sniper rifle" ought to function. The firing rate is way too fast considering you're talking about lining up long range targets through a scope.

I'd get rid of wasted items like the Acid Gun and replace them with firearms that might actually be useful. How about a silenced Looking Glass Rifle? A Mechanized Pistol?

I took Throwing for my mage, and discovered that Azram's Star is the only way play a stealthy sniper. It's silent operation and magickally augmented range mean you can pick off enemies at extreme range without alerting others, even though they're standing close to your target. Combined with Elven Boots (+25NP), the Enchanted Gown (+10NP) - my mage was female - and the Fleet Helm (+10NP), she wiped the floor with everything she encountered without ever getting near melee combat. She mastered Conveyance, Divination, and Force, but spells like Disintegrate were completely superfluous.

More notes:

Time Bombs are perfect for assassinations with no consequences. I used two to kill Garrick Stout, for example, with no reaction from the Dernholm population.

I started a solo halfling thief character with the Troll Offspring background, which has been a mixed bag. It was cool in the beginning when I had to wear a smoking jacket just to keep the Tarant guards from attacking me on sight. There are supposed to be crusaders and monster hunters after me, but I haven't seen any so far unfortunately. I find it's too easy to counter having extremely low Beauty and Charisma. With a Smoking Jacket, the Jewel of Hebe, and possibly the Haggle Master's Ring, you don't even notice.

Backstab, Prowling, and Hasten from the Temporal Collage is a wicked combination. Using the sword from the pit on the Isle of Despair, I can obliterate whole rooms full of extremely tough monsters in a single turn. I took enough Explosives to get Paralysis Grenades, but those skills have turned out to be unnecessary since my regular attacks are so devastating.

I had the Pervert of Tarant reputation, but later when I acquired the Outlaw of Shrouded Hills reputation, it erased Pervert of Tarant, which is a net gain.

P.S.
If you like the Mechanized Gun, don't miss the Levered Machine Gun - the same stats except 1-40 damage instead of the Mechanized Gun's 1-30 damage.

Spoiler

Hint: Captain Wheeler.

 

Ooh, yeah! Webleys are really cool. I probably should have said something like a .36 caliber Navy Colt since the Fine Revolver kind of looks like a Colt Peacemaker. A Webley would totally fit the setting and the .455 has enough stopping power to explain why it's better than the regular crappy revolver (which I tend to think of as a Civil War-era weapon).

It does 10-30 damage, which does make it inferior to the Hand Cannon, but it has better range and that can come in handy sometimes.

I like the way you think. A silenced LGR would be awesome. I was thinking last night that it would be cool to have something like a "broom handle" Mauser, so I would dig a steampunk equivalent of a MAC-10 that fires bursts. Maybe as a replacement for the disappointing High Velocity Pistol?

The Acid Gun seems like a fun enough idea to keep that one around for the curious. The Rifled Cannon, on the other hand, is totally not worth the high ammo requirements. It looks kind of neat, but the Charged Accelerator Gun is a better choice as an alternative to the LGR.

The new thing that bugs me is the Pyrotechnic Gun. I thought it required three bullets a shot like the Accelerator Gun, but it only uses one round per shot. So far, so good. Random fire damage comparable to Bronwyck's Gun? Groovy. Regular bullet damage (1-15) as well? You had me at hello. The problem is that the random damage means that sometimes you waste a bullet because you barely wound your target.

The Pyro Gun should be a great weapon, but as far as I can tell you're better off using the LGR instead. It's more boring, but it's also more consistent.

Also, having actually used the Vendigrothian Large Bore Rifle in combat for probably the first time ever a couple of days ago, I'd enjoy having more than two of the things. A Droch's Warbringer is a wonderful toy, but the rifle is nice too. It looks neat and it does 5-25 damage without eating up all your ammo, making it a better choice than several of the "teaser guns."

I don't necessarily need something like a Droch's Warbringer Rifle, but it would be cool to have two or three spares for distance shooting or giving to followers.