Arcanum - Multiverse Edition

I didn't think combat was bad at all. The problem was in the attempt to balance the system melee was overpowered and guns were nerfed. Then Troika called out the publisher publicly when everyone forgot to check if there was money stipulated for a patch. The RT combat was an attempt to placate modern gamers. You will recall how much everyone hated TB at the time; except us of course.

That said, the game is so moddable there were some good balance mods made to fix it IIRC.

There was also one mod where the guy was dedicated to fixing every bug in the game. Is that what this is? I remember he made no attempt whatsoever to fix the balancing issues or make his mod compatible to the existing ones so, to me, it was unplayable.

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Also, it was called it for its ugly graphics. I never minded it. It was meant to remind you of Fallout. Its too bad the demo wasn't representative of the depth of the game and especially that it was leaked so early by someone from one of their foreign localizers - that must have hurt sales pretty bad - also affected QA with the balance issues, etc. still in the game (and the lousy decision to require dx8 when it wasn't fully tested for it).

wish we had a *like* or *brofist* option. would stop the endless tides of
"yeah dood me too" posts. why clutter up threads when you can just like/dislike something.

aethervagrant said:

wish we had a *like* or *brofist* option. would stop the endless tides of
"yeah dood me too" posts. why clutter up threads when you can just like/dislike something.

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some of us hate the like button. We feel it is the devil.

i feel like it makes threads fill up with pointless "YEAH ME TOO" posts and makes it more difficult to see more thought-out posts. Im hoping that forums arent just a backslapping place to agree with each other. and id like to be able to read content without running through 4 pages of "yeah me too"

I never did finish Arcanum, always started over. And now I can't ever remember the last time I played it, must've been a least a decade ago. Still on my top 5 RPG's of all time list, maybe it's time to give it another visit to remind myself of why.

If anyone tries this mod, please give your impressions. If someonee has experience with other fan patches and/or mods I would very much appreciate to hear your opinions on what to run with.

And Aether, tantrum much? Welcome to the forum either way.

Lucky Day said:

some of us hate the like button. We feel it is the devil.

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Hey, I "liked" his post and made a brofist post of my own. I guess that should make him put me on ignore.

Damian said:

Hey, I "liked" his post and made a brofist post of my own. I guess that should make him put me on ignore.

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dunno im a queer-ass pussy bisexual cuck who likes brown girls.
the codex hates me.
but i still want meaningful discussion about games and not just shooting-the-shit.
im tenacious. I might come across as a dick but im never looking for a personal fight, just a good on-topic response. and these forums seem dead, why can't they be woken up just a little?

aethervagrant said:

but i still want meaningful discussion about games and not just shooting-the-shit.
im tenacious. I might come across as a dick but im never looking for a personal fight, just a good on-topic response. and these forums seem dead, why can't they be woken up just a little?

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If that is the case, you could possibly read threads and only look at posts with blocks of text. These forums arent as fast as Codex but the posts with blocks of text have far more value per paragraph than the codex guys it seems.

Its unfortunate but while this forum has a lot of registered users not many people like to post. It seems many people feel like they dont want to post here just in case they look foolish or dont add any value to the discussion, it is an issue i have not seen in any other board.

Lucky Day said:

I didn't think combat was bad at all.

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Me too. Bad was balance and HP-bloat.

luj1 said:

Me too. Bad was balance and HP-bloat.

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combat was awful but i never felt like it was actually hard, thats part of what made it shitty -- tactics mean little, its all about having enough ammo, spamming the best spells, or levelling up with a big melee character. feels like dying is more about making dumb mistakes than it is about making good tactical decisions.
but then Bloodlines was a dumbed-down Deus Ex with vampires and it's also one of my all-time faves, despite having little in the way of tactics.
i appreciate mechanics but my storyfag wins out sometimes.

tomasp3n said:

If anyone tries this mod, please give your impressions. If sunrise has experience with other fan patches and/or not I would very much appreciate to hear your opinions on what to run with.

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It's basically just a big collection of other mods integrated together. With the exception of additional portraits, I think I have all of those installed already. All of the things mentioned were already attainable through individual mods, but this certainly makes things a lot simpler assuming it's bug-free.

JDR13 said:

It's basically just a big collection of other mods integrated together. With the exception of additional portraits, I think I have all of those installed already. All of the things mentioned were already attainable through individual mods, but this certainly makes things a lot simpler assuming it's bug-free.

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Does it address any balance issues like tech being weak and summons pretty OP? If not, any mods you would recommend that does? Maybe not necessary, but why not if there are good ones.

tomasp3n said:

Does it address any balance issues like tech being weak and summons pretty OP? If not, any mods you would recommend that does? Maybe not necessary, but why not if there are good ones.

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I recall a patch that did address some of the balance issues, but I never tried it because it's not compatible with the Unofficial Patch. I don't recall the name of that patch, but it's possible that parts of it could be included in this. Just Google Arcanum balancing patch.

I personally don't find tech to be *that* weak, but then I've never played a magic user so I have nothing to compare it to. You definitely have to rely on Virgil and whoever else you pick up a lot in the early game, and you end up using the same guns for very long stretches.

I think the worst part of playing a tech character is the lack of fast travel. You can use the trains of course, but not every town has a train station, and you can't take Dog if he's in your group. A magic-user can just teleport everywhere if you choose to learn it.

I don't think it's particularly hard to figure out when to best use the "RT" option when in combat; most seasoned isometric/IE/Fallout players will adapt to that relatively quickly. In my experience with my crazy dwarven misanthrope (who ended up murdering quite a few of the companions) I only ever used it to hasten already won fights or quickly defeat larger yet weaker mobs. Obviously the majority of the planning/strategic side will be done in TB.

I really do need to get back to Arcanum one of these days to experiment with a tech build in more detail. There's bound to be dialogue I never experienced as well and given my first play-through is now more than 10 years ago, I'm overdue for a replay. Good to read that it's still getting some love out there.

aethervagrant said:

please do and please say something about it.
Troika was one of the greatest, short-lived studios ever, and any rpg fan should check out all their games. If you LOVE crafting and scavenging go with a Tech build. If you want a simpler experience and less combat go with a charismatic magic user. Combat sucks, you figure out how to get through it, but the storytelling, writing, and setting are unparalleled especially since attempted steampunk is 99% shit. This is the best steampunk game since Martian Dreams and Dishonored.

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You don't have to give me the lowdown on a game I have finished numerous times over the past decade or so. I went with a half-ogre brawler/fighter build to start off with, something simple to run through the mod with, i.e. basically grab one end of the string and unravel - see if any bugs pop out.