Arcanum (Blind) Playthrough!

Hello!

First time playing Arcanum (ever!), and thought I'd post it to YouTube as a Let's Play series. Follow along and join me on my adventures as I discover this magical Steampunk world for the first time!

First episode - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdsXG…re=c4-overview

New episodes every Wednesday.

Thanks for your time!

Episode 2 is now live!

#2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRjlJ…aMB89TtM_lEh-Q

In this episode I explore the Shrouded Hills area and get a little more acquainted with the mechanics of the game.

Definitely seems like an interesting game so far.

I will definitely check it out and see your take on it, Arcanum is one of my all time favorites.

I tried watching the video, but some annoying guy keeps talking during the gameplay.

Just a suggestion to create separate playlists for all the different playthroughs, and when giving a link somewhere, it should link to that particular playlist. It makes it much easier to navigate imo.

BTW : Arcanum is on sale on GOG

Originally Posted by JDR13
I tried watching the video, but some annoying guy keeps talking during the gameplay.

I really like Fluent's video of Morrowind BUT if that may help him to better his work, I too would suggest to slow down on the readings. Reading each and every pop up and dialog window isn't a good way to attract the audience. I too find it quite boring having to listen to the same kind of response from NPCs all over the Morrowind province. Those integral readings can have justification from time to time but when it's done systematically in each game, that's exhausting for the watcher. I found it particularly exasperating when I tried to watch the MoM playthrough, so I quit before the end. I hope my testimony will be received as a useful critic for I find fluent's effort and choice of subject especially interesting, so keep it up and enhance your already good work !

Originally Posted by Gloo

I really like Fluent's video of Morrowind BUT if that may help him to better his work, I too would suggest to slow down on the readings. Reading each and every pop up and dialog window isn't a good way to attract the audience. I too find it quite boring having to listen to the same kind of response from NPCs all over the Morrowind province. Those integral readings can have justification from time to time but when it's done systematically in each game, that's exhausting for the watcher. I found it particularly exasperating when I tried to watch the MoM playthrough, so I quit before the end. I hope my testimony will be received as a useful critic for I find fluent's effort and choice of subject especially interesting, so keep it up and enhance your already good work !

In Morrowind, I try to only read things I haven't read in the playthrough yet, and I'm careful not to repeat myself. I actually do spend that much time reading text in games like Morrowind, even when I'm off-camera, so I'm just doing what I would naturally do when playing the game.

For the Master of Magic video, it was a Quick Look video, not a playthrough, so I wanted to be as thorough as possible in explaining the game for people who were interested in it or might be interested in it in the future. Those types of videos are meant to be more educational.

But yeah, I will definitely keep that in mind. Thanks for the critique!

And thanks to those who checked out the videos!

I thought it was interesting that you chose "Raised by Elves" as your background and then chose to go with firearms as a primary weapon. You would have been better off going with a sword or a bow as your main weapon due to the -1 in Tech from that trait.

Originally Posted by JDR13
I thought it was interesting that you chose "Raised by Elves" as your background and then chose to go with firearms as a primary weapon. You would have been better off going with a sword or a bow as your main weapon due to the -1 in Tech from that trait.

Yeah, you're right. I really like Elves, so that was more of a roleplay decision. I really like the idea of using tech in this game, too, though. I didn't realize that magic and tech are directly opposed, though. Oh well. At least I got a shiny suit of chainmail out of the deal

Just make sure you specialize one way or the other. You can't be neutral in Arcanum or you'll end up being weak in both disciplines.

It's currently 2.39 on Gog, kinda hard to beat that deal. You'll certainly get your moneys' worth.

@JDR, Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. I actually intended to be a gun-slinging magic user, but it seems that that's not really possible. I know it's not recommended, but will the game essentially "break" if I choose to go that route? Can you even go that route?

As I recall, the way it works is that the higher your affinity in one the weaker you are in the other. A character with a strong affinity for magic will have a greater chance of tech items failing or even breaking and vice versa.

I'm sure it's possible to finish the game without being strong at either discipline, but probably a lot more difficult, and I doubt it would be as fun. You would have to rely on melee during combat because guns are useless if you don't have a good tech rating.

Or you could just try to be the smooth-talking type who relies heavily on companions during combat. Better have a lot of charisma though…

Arcanum is one of the few games I can think of where it's impossible to be a jack of all trades.

Thanks for the breakdown. I'll probably just forget about magic, then.

I've tried balanced and quite frankly it works better than 100% tech. The reason is that healing spells and so on will still work. Not a lot is gained by going 100% tech IIRC.

Overall, magic is rather unbalanced, and much, much more powerful than tech.

Healing spells can fail for tech characters. 100% tech is much more interesting to play from a tone/gameplay perspective for me and it does indeed make the tech game more fluid (less misses and failures overall).

I've done 2 tech runs. The second 100% one was much more smooth and enjoyable. The only magic run (the 1st one iirc) I dropped quite early. Too generic fantasy samey in comparison with the actual steampunk flavor of the tech ones.

Besides, if you want a really easy game, up charisma to max and get as many followers as you like. In the end of my last replay (a few months ago) I had Virgil, the dwarves, Raven and a bot (or a certain mage ). Pretty much makes the endgame trivial but its fun

Arcanum isn't really hard game so there is no need to make use of every trick just play what you think is fun.

Originally Posted by Nameless one
Arcanum isn't really hard game so there is no need to make use of every trick just play what you think is fun.

A good point actually. Don't let us detract from fooling around and discovering the game and mechanics indeed!

Just saying that balancing tech with magic will produce some failures and may make a few battles more protracted in Fast TB (only mode I play). But even then it needs to be noted that the conflict of magic and Technology and their antithesis is the main theme here and it can be some fun exploring the implementation on the Mechanics (but not everyone is as masochistic as me. Some people just want an easy carefree leisurely gaming session )

Originally Posted by JonNik
Just saying that balancing tech with magic will produce some failures and may make a few battles more protracted in Fast TB (only mode I play).

No, it won't. If you keep it balanced, magic doesn't fail. It starts failing when you get % into tech.

Also, doing tech as a first run is bound to produce a lot of frustrating situations. Virgil is the default companion, and he's without a doubt the most interesting one. He's also completely useless to a tech character as he'll empty his entire mana bar trying to heal the main character (but every heal fails).

Originally Posted by Maylander
No, it won't. If you keep it balanced, magic doesn't fail. It starts failing when you get % into tech.

Oh, did you mean completely in the middle? (I thought you meant it more broadly as in not too much either way).

Yeah I guess that is possible. I probably have tried it on my first run too… But doesn't it become boring and keep you from the really cool tech stuff?. iirc that is Why I went more tech in the end. Which starts to produce failures…

A bit metagamey way to play the game but it does play on the mechanic.

Yes, after a point Virgil will start produce quite a few failures while trying to heal you. (He will succeed once in a while and will do quite a bit too). He will heal the rest of your companions and can be very usefull in combat too with the right equipment. I found the last run very very easy. My first tech one just mildly challenging