This game has incredible cult following.

....or the sequel just be a dating sim...

 

You're not the first one to suggest Sims: Arcanum.
*shudders*

 

AIIIIEEEEEEEEE! That's a scary thought!

...Although if it was explicit and involved certain male characters from the game I'd play it...

 

No, no.
Not SIMS.
A Japanese style dating sim.
Like Bible Black only steampunky.

 

Dating sims is just as bad, if not worse, Papa_Dog.

*Despondently shakes empty bottle of brain bleach*

I need to go to the store....

 

Here, borrow some of mine. I have an entire bar's worth of the stuff.

 

How dare you mention Bible Black, its just so... wrong!

 

Well, if Kerghan couldn't hold onto the old spells, then I think he wouldn't be able to stand against the full might of Tarant's army and tech. influence with 5 levels of dark necromancy and groups of undead who'd fall into pieces with heavy tech influence, right? If Kerghan retains his powers (as an old Elven Council member), and Nasrudin can still "banish", so too can Arronax hold onto hşs spells.

Also, yes, a steampunk nuke =)

 

.....or perhaps a sequel with a lot of tentacles

 

They are alive enough to accept offerings and bless/curse mortals, so I don't think they are in the need to be resurrected.

Banishment may a spell which is still possible to be casted by anyone, yet is merely not known to anyone except the members of the former Elven Council and possible apprentices of them, while it has been stated in a book in Tulla that the 6th, 7th and 8th level spells can't be casted anymore. It's not like the two issues have to have anything in common.

But hey, it was just a theory, I'm not even sure if I support it yet. That was just an additional argument I thought of on the spot, while I was more concerned with the "magic destroys tech and vice verse" thingy when I posted about Arronax and Vendigroth.

"Arcanum: Of arrayas raping hot'n'innocent dwarven hermaphrodites."

 

That would be the version that achieves RPG success..... :/

 

I think the next Arcanum game ought to be like 600-700 years down the line. You start out in Roseborough, and the mayor sends you on a quest to find the Steam-Powered City Builder, or SPCB.


I wouldn't mind a steampunk Sims. I'd probably hate myself for it, but I'd play it.

 

Bible Black is pretty hot, to be honest. I fap to it every once in a while. I think I might even do it tonight. Just thought you'd all like to know.

I think an Arcanum set 20-30 years later, in a World War I era world would be interesting, but awful to play in. There is a reason the Great War is considered one of the most horrific wars of all time. It's not like WWII, where it's awful because they're in those battlefields where they could die at any second through no fault of their own and they had to run everywhere just for one more village. In World War I, the soldiers were being blown to bits, but they had to suffer through extreme tedium, sitting in a hole in the ground so long their shoes molded with their feet, covered in mud, and when they finally charged across the battlefield they walked at a leisurely pace, dropping like flies and hoping they'd make it. The reason there are so many more World War II games than World War I games is not because World War I was less interesting. It was just less adrenaline packed. World War II lacks the monotony of World War I. At least you could maybe pretend you had a point of fighting World War II, as well. World War I was just blatant imperialism and everybody knew it.

So yeah, World War I gameplay would be terrible. Admittedly, the 'walking slowly while bullets hit you' style of play has already been tested to perfection in other games, but I don't know if it would work for Arcanum. Maybe it would. You could be the Red Dragon.

 

What about a sequel with a plot that is inspired by the books of Lovecraft? So that means a real cool mixture of Steampunk and the cosmic horrors of Call of Cthulhu.

 

I like the idea of a sequel that is slightly more Steamworks and slightly less Magick Obscura. Magick should still be playable, but it should be harder and it should be clear that it's power is dying.

But the big problem is, who's going to make such a sequel? Arcanum remaining dead forever would be better than Zenimax and Bethesda getting their filthy, raping hands on it.

 

It'll most likely be an indie developer, the game is far too much cult and far too little classic to be picked up by a larger publisher.

And dare I say it, but I've been kicking this around for a while. I did write a fully-functional isometric engine a year or so back for another project. I was half thinking of modifying it for Arcanum although not having much spare time might hinder that. Of course it could be much more rapidly developed in a language such as python or even using an existing engine such as FIFE. Heck, if they stuck to 2D it might even be playable.

You are right, though. The sheer amount of effort that would need to go into making a decent sequel is probably beyond the average indie developer. That's not to say it shouldn't be done, I'm sure almost all members of T-A would love such a thing if they had a say in the development.

 

This would be an interesting project to watch/partake in. I think someone comes in (less, now, actually), ever few years, and announces an intent to make a sequel to Arcanum/some massive mod, and then realizes how mindfuckingly difficult that would be to do with the Arcanum engine. If someone ever does actually try this, and seems that they're going to have decent success at it, then let me know, and I'll drag Xiao up here to the U.S, and the two of us will load up on caffeine, sugar, and proceed to write the most amazing of scripts possible before having rough, angry sex, and dying to utter system failure after everything we forced it to endure.


...I suddenly feel more motivated to help someone launch a program like this. Funny how that works.

 

Actually, that doesn't sound like a bad idea. *muses* I can bring my DS, right?

 

Sure. Free room and board.

 

See, when I use the 'Can I bring my DS' line, it never does anything for me.