I see. For some reason even though I had the brightness slider all the way up, it didn’t take effect until I slid it down a bit and back up. Also, 1024X760 is a totally different game experience. Thanks for the tips.
I also think those old games changed more as you changed characters and classes. In the past few months I’ve replayed Icewind Dale and Mass Effect.
Putting together a new party in IWD really altered tactics and made the game feel fresher. Changing my class in ME, and being a meanie instead of a doormat didn’t feel dissimilar from my first play through.
Found the Arcanum disc today. Was looking for something else, but saw my old pile of PC games and started looking for it. I might just reinstall and try this game again.
Thinking of trying out a diplomat type character (max charm/speech, no combat skills)…
So I created a male, human with high char, chose the protegé of a charlatan and put points into persuade. Kept all my money because I planend not to focus on combat, but try to talk my way out of things. That, and I knew Virgil would be waiting for me.
Next I find myself at the crash site, loot… er, checking for survivors and picking up bottles of wine. Then we get attacked by a wolf. I run behind Virgil an let him do all the fighting. When the wolf goes after me, I run behind Virgil again. This works out just fine for a couple of rounds, but then Virgil fails critically, loses all his stamina (the blue stuff) and falls unconcious to the ground. I take up the fight, but have soon expended what little stamina I had left and we both meet our fate, sleeping next to each other on the ground.
Brutal.
I guess the tip is to save VERY often.
Playing a character with no combat ability in Arcanum would be very challenging in a few areas. That being said, it’s a cool idea. Good luck, and I might reinstall the game too.
You’ve got the unofficial patch and resolution hack installed, right?
Yeah. Got the links from this thread and installed them all. So I could probably have avoided the Wolves. But Virgil can handle them, it was just that when he passed out from a critical miss, my tactic failed completely.
My post was just a comment on how brutal this game can be. It does not warn you at all on some builds, but rather suggests them based on the character backgrounds you can select. Getting a critical miss and subsequently getting killed while passed out is not a fun way to start your adventure :)
I will continue my adventures despite this. I’m having it on one of my laptops as something to do when my wife is watching Greys Anatomy
So, I did this recently. I decided that I would start a gnome with high Cha, and was getting my rear end handed to me. However, with even moderate persuasion, you can pick up Sog in Shrouded Hills and things get a little bit better. Just blitz through the Crash Site section, go to the bar in Shrouded Hills, and you should be fine.
I couldn’t handle staying non-combat though, I ended up specializing in Throwing and pumping Dex after I had maxxed Persuasion. The game just wasn’t fun until I had a combat skill. It just wasn’t fun dying to the Hand agents every time I walked away from Tarant.
Ah well. We’ll see how long I can hold out.
There are so many combat heavy NPCs that playing a non-combat character is definitely possible. In hard fights my Dark Elf sorceress character stood back in her Sunday Best dress buffing the party while Virgil, an undead legionnaire and a psychotic hobbit killed everything for me.
My fun adventures in Arcanum continues!
Played for about an hour yesterday. Got to Shrouded Hills and got Sogg in my party. Bought him a big hammer at the blacksmith. Great! That should make combat a bit easier. But wait! Virgil is casting at Sogg… casting heal… Soggs health is dropping fast!
While I’m chatting with the blacksmith Sogg has planted himself at the fireplace next to us. Clever Ogre…! Despite Virgils efforts, Sogg dies before I can quit out of the conversation tree and get him to move out of the burning flames.
Time to reload again!
And I believe you’re right, Mehrunes. But damn is this game brutal. I’ve been playing Mass Effect recently, and when Virgil died in a fight and continued to stay dead even after combat had ended it took a while before I got it. He is DEAD. For good. Reload or move on. Pretty brutal approach for such an important NPC as Virgil.
Next up is the bank robbery. Lots of combat! Time to see if Sogg is of any use…
Haha yeah. Not only doesn’t he come back to life after a little bit of calm, I don’t know of any way to revive like in D&D. (Err… maybe there is and I’ve totally forgotten after playing King’s Bounty for a month.)
I can’t imagine many people saying, “Virgil didn’t make it, but at least I finally beat that wolf, so I’ll carry on without him!”
Just ordered this from Amazon having never played it, figured it was time I gave it a shot based on everything that I’ve heard. It sounds like I need some unofficial patching and a resolution patch to go with the turn based combat. Anything else I might need to jump in?
A lot of patience. The hivemind says it takes a few hours to get interesting but it actually took me 10-15 until I really got hooked and the interface clicked and I started zooming through it.
I really miss this sort of thing in games, frankly. Developers used to be less prissy about letting there be consequences for stuff. These days, that’s considered “punishing the player.” The greater punishment, IMHO, is the way in which so many modern games have turned into amusement park rides that unfold in pretty much the same way no matter what you do.
Dawn of War II is the most recent example, for me. They go to all these efforts to make the game look like it is offering you all sorts of important choices, but most of them don’t matter much. The story unfolds in pretty much the same way no matter what you do, and none of your characters can really die–not even within a mission. They just get incapacitated.
By the same token, this is why I really want to play Demon’s Souls. Alas, I don’t have a PS3.
Playing through Arcanum again has me thinking about the power differential. It isn’t enough for me to win a big fight taking only a 1-2 casualties, I’m trying to win without taking any casualties. This is why my level-8 party is having trouble against groups of level-4 enemies.
- Alan
I’d caution anyone not to get too strong, either. I am at the point where I have a big party and have cleared most of the areas and quests, and the fights are child’s play. Hoping the difficulty ramps back up soon as the enemies catch up.
I remember running through this game so quickly as a magic character. I maxed out the Force branch of magic to get Disintegrate, did the Tulla half-mp quest for it, and then spammed it to victory. Sure I didn’t get any items, but i didn’t need any. I solo’d the game no problem.
Arcanum is a really easy game to break.
I’m not certain about magic, but I know that if you’re using a tech build there’s a resurrection item you can make.
White Necros gain the Resurrect spell as a master