Which aspects fo you exploit in Arcanum?

Wanted to know what tricks do you use for easing gameplay when needed, here some of mine;

Dog the Worthless Mutt; well he is the biggest weapon in this game in my opinion. no follower req. only dex+str+dodge+melee(apprentice). I wonder what would happen if rest of my team engaged dog alone..(probably it would stand victorious). I take him along most games, but rarely let him attack anything unless I am desperate. also he is the best thief in the game (why lockpick doors/chests dog can destroy with ease? )

Liam's Workshop; the demongate summons enough monsters for allowing a lvl 10 char to reach lvl 35 (then it stops, apperantly still limited) used it the first time I played as I was exited about an exploit I discovered. ended up restarting after that and never again did it (now after first pack destroying it with magical traps)

Fate Point steals; well there are always some great moments you can abuse, like getting azhrams star back after master throwing mastery..but when to think of it, I am not supposed to manage it with 0 skills at all. now the most I am doing with fate points is "force reaction" or stealing a Hand Cannon in tarant (which is not an exploit in my opinion as you are given one by Ogre Gang leader if you side him pretty early and easily in game)

Backstab+turnbased; well what to say. 0 prowling and still you maim them with every attack

20 str+melee/throwing; some may argue that is not an exploit but... compared to bow/firearms (does bow gets bonus form STR btw? my bowyer was lacking due to gameplay)

Harm spell; after my first mage char I decided never to get that again.

what other aspect do you think can be considered as exploit I would love to know

 

Dominate Will on shopkeeper, then Unlocking Cantrip on the till, then #Back Off, then drop the Dominate Will spell. Then, every single day, teleport in and empty the till.

All of a sudden, money is no longer an issue. Take whatever you want from the puny muggles. I love the thought of what they think when they see me enter the shop: "Oh shit, there goes another day's profits."

Of course meta-abuse is the penultimate exploit, and super-mega-meta-abuse is the ultimate. Actually, now that I think about it, the whole magick system is an exploit.

 

Strength affects bonus damage from melee attacks. Thrown weapons, guns and bows do not deal melee attacks, therefore they do not receive bonus damage from Strength. Minimal Strength Required is the only Strength-related parameter that affects them.

Turn Based + Stun + Backstab with the Dagger of Speed = damn overpowered

Turn Based + Stun + Hasten + Tempus Fugit + Enchanted War Boots + Potion of Haste + max Strength + max Dexterity + Backstab with Torian Kel's Ancestral Sword = gods being cut in half

• Any form of metagaming (forcing locations which you know about but your in-game character doesn't, not investing in a stat because you know you will later get the required boots from an item or a blessing, etc).
  
• Using multiple Arcane Staves for having pretty much infinite mana.
  
• Gathering infinite fate points by stealing the Golden idol of Kree and leaving the ruins of the city without killing any barbarians and then walking back and forth into Kree (no longer possible in the UAP).
  
• Gathering infinite fate points by repeatedly killing and casting Resurrect/Create Undead on Gilbert Bates (no longer possible in the UAP).
  
• Using the Worldmap Trick (aka Tulla trick) to enter Tulla and gain magick mastery when you're following the evil path (or playing the good path but haven't advanced that far in the main plot yet).
  
• Using the Cattan trick to get to otherwise unavailable locations/locations not normally available at a given stage of the game/returning to the Isle of Despair or going there before the plot allows you to do so.
  
• Creating and using the Vivifier with a pure mage with enough tech manuals.
  
• Abusing the Ashbury Graveyard's unlimitedly respawning zombies to gain any desired amount of XPs (never worked for me, though, there always seemed to be a limited amount of respawns in my games).

 

The classic saving every little while and then reloading if anything bad happens!

 

For money I usually do the money stacking bug, or I Dark Helm myself to 100MA and rob the mage district in Tarant; it can be quite fun to guess the proper screen scroll position to cast unlocking cantrip without anyone going hostile.

Another fun way to trick shopkeepers into "handing over" their wares is Baneful Gauntlets. Ah, the days I spent at Wise Women robbing them and trying to get a complete Arcane set =)

I also love to play with the bugged Shadow Ring providing permanent invisibility, it gives access to infinite fate points, and a few hilarious responses from NPCs. But it's not that early in the game.

Liam's Workshop, Ashbury cemetery, Tarant sewers, these are all nice places to powerlevel, but I wouldn't really call them exploits. The others you listed are better described as imbalances as well.

That's all I can think of at the moment.

 

are you sure that throwing is not receiving damage bonus from STR ?
because I was almost sure it does so. when home gonna check it

 

Absolutely.

Just tested it with a Bladed Boomerang. It did the exact same 1 - 8 damage no matter if my character had a Strength of 1 or 26.

 

What's the money-stacking bug?

btw The Cattan trick is very cool.

 

http://www.neoseeker.com/Games/cheats/PC/arcanum.html

 

My favorite was the Liam's Workshop gate. I discovered it, but decided I would master the dodge skill before I returned to exploit it. I expected that the lizards would simply be falling over each other as I critically succeeded at dodging their attacks, and I could pummel their helpless forms as they regained their footing. That simply didn't happen.

After I exhausted the gate's supply of lizards, it spewed forth jellyfish. I would have gladly farmed them for experience as well, but they tended to damage my armor and the armor of my party, so I sealed the gate instead.

 

The staff you find in the mastery quest for Spot Traps for some reason never runs out of charges if you only use its Teleportation spell. I often just forced the location of the castle and abused the staff, especially when playing a non-magickal character.

I never bothered to find the cause of this bug. Could be engine related.

 

That's an excellent one, one of the few "exploits" I wouldn't mind taking advantage of, as the lack of teleportation on my non-casters has long been a reason I don't play them as much.

Thanks for the info!