Arcanum Arcanum Unofficial patch 2.0 released! (UPDATE)

[Tacgnol]

Which part is the fake news ? The game have a lot less ending than quests and actions that matter. For example there is no ending slider for convincing the orks to riot in tarant,no end slides if you just everyone,no slides about the fall tarant if they go to two wars and lose,no slide for doing the treaty with cambria or what its name was,with all the lobbiest groups,there is plenty other actions that you could take but are missing from the ending. Also there should have been one where you kill all the jews gnomes.

Arcanum has a lot of distinct ending slides, but not a lot of ending slides overall. I.e. most of the major towns have 6 or so possible ending slides to acknowledge fairly miniscule differences in choices, but that seemingly came at the cost of not acknowledging a lot of the other significant content.

I'm guessing they'd have done more slides overall if they'd had the time/resources to do so.

 

[†††]

Every time I played the game, the ending slides were bugged and the game would jump to the title screen after 2 or 3 slides, so I could never see what my actions resulted into

 

[fantadomat]

Which part is the fake news ? The game have a lot less ending than quests and actions that matter. For example there is no ending slider for convincing the orks to riot in tarant,no end slides if you just everyone,no slides about the fall tarant if they go to two wars and lose,no slide for doing the treaty with cambria or what its name was,with all the lobbiest groups,there is plenty other actions that you could take but are missing from the ending. Also there should have been one where you kill all the jews gnomes.

Arcanum has a lot of distinct ending slides, but not a lot of ending slides overall. I.e. most of the major towns have 6 or so possible ending slides to acknowledge fairly miniscule differences in choices, but that seemingly came at the cost of not acknowledging a lot of the other significant content.

I'm guessing they'd have done more slides overall if they'd had the time/resources to do so.

Well you could do it in like a day lol. They were not very complex,most of them had a paragraph of text. Don't remember if it had voice acting,that could have made it expensive or something.

 

[Tacgnol]

Which part is the fake news ? The game have a lot less ending than quests and actions that matter. For example there is no ending slider for convincing the orks to riot in tarant,no end slides if you just everyone,no slides about the fall tarant if they go to two wars and lose,no slide for doing the treaty with cambria or what its name was,with all the lobbiest groups,there is plenty other actions that you could take but are missing from the ending. Also there should have been one where you kill all the jews gnomes.

Arcanum has a lot of distinct ending slides, but not a lot of ending slides overall. I.e. most of the major towns have 6 or so possible ending slides to acknowledge fairly miniscule differences in choices, but that seemingly came at the cost of not acknowledging a lot of the other significant content.

I'm guessing they'd have done more slides overall if they'd had the time/resources to do so.

Well you could do it in like a day lol. They were not very complex,most of them had a paragraph of text. Don't remember if it had voice acting,that could have made it expensive or something.

I thought they were voice acted, but I might be misremembering. Been a few years since I replayed Arcanum to completion.

 

[Ismaul]

Every time I played the game, the ending slides were bugged and the game would jump to the title screen after 2 or 3 slides, so I could never see what my actions resulted into

I had this bug in Fallout 2. Not even one slide.

I'm pissed about it to this day.

 

[Black]

1. Educator as background or Educator as default thanks to the mod do not work properly if your companions didn't get the training with you. For example, to get Loghaire to master melee you'd need to postpone your apprentice training til you've recruited him.
2. Anyway to improve companion caster AI? I don't think I ever saw Geoffrey cast Harm.
3. Please for the love of god make the Staff of Khan-something bugged again so non-magick characters can use it for teleporting, or ar the very least significantly cut the random encounter rate. I don't care about kites or ailing wolves.

 

[Delterius]

so non-magick characters can use it for teleporting

look at this nerd

don't you have a train to catch

and not explode it because you're a NORMIE

 

[Black]

Trains are racist and don't allow dogs.

 

[lukaszek]

cant find proper arcanum thread?
anyway: what are the ways to boost persuasion high enough to tell lukan to leave, without putting single point into persuasion?
I want a techie thief character and would prefer to learn of underground existence early.

According to wikis he requires 4/20. Persuasion elixir is mere 2/20. Is it boosted by technical aptitude? How high would it need to be to reach 4/20?

side question, how is backstab calculated exactly? Does it take into account weapon dmg or you would rather have high speed to deliver many of those?

 

[lukaszek]

also, I was tester of this in past and it was fine. However now I have trouble(new machine). GOG version runs fine, patched crashes/wont start. Its probably win11 thing, anyone with such experiences?

 

[Brancaleone]

also, I was tester of this in past and it was fine. However now I have trouble(new machine). GOG version runs fine, patched crashes/wont start. Its probably win11 thing, anyone with such experiences?

I last booted up Arcanum GOG version + last version of the UAP under Windows 10 about 4-5 months ago , and it was fine. I guess it's a Windows 11 thing indeed.

 

[NecroLord]

cant find proper arcanum thread?
anyway: what are the ways to boost persuasion high enough to tell lukan to leave, without putting single point into persuasion?
I want a techie thief character and would prefer to learn of underground existence early.

According to wikis he requires 4/20. Persuasion elixir is mere 2/20. Is it boosted by technical aptitude? How high would it need to be to reach 4/20?

side question, how is backstab calculated exactly? Does it take into account weapon dmg or you would rather have high speed to deliver many of those?

You need only one point in Persuasion (aka 4/20) and the right dialogue choices in order to persuade Lukan to leave. Persuasion Elixir has the same effect regardless of your aptitude (Magickal or Technological).
Not completely sure about backstab though. Yes, I believe it does take into account your weapon damage and then multiplies it. With good speed, it would be absolutely devastating.

 

[lukaszek]

got to shelve my eternal struggle between tech thief backstab vs guns anyway, since at this point I need drog to make his big cumback.
Or anyone who might have found solution. Perhaps Goral might know right people, once he descends from wykop

 

[NecroLord]

got to shelve my eternal struggle between tech thief backstab vs guns anyway, since at this point I need drog to make his big cumback.
Or anyone who might have found solution. Perhaps Goral might know right people, once he descends from wykop

Do you have the Arcanum High Resolution Patch installed?
I remember it absolutely wouldn't work, but it did after I installed it.

 

[lukaszek]

got to shelve my eternal struggle between tech thief backstab vs guns anyway, since at this point I need drog to make his big cumback.
Or anyone who might have found solution. Perhaps Goral might know right people, once he descends from wykop

Do you have the Arcanum High Resolution Patch installed?
I remember it absolutely wouldn't work, but it did after I installed it.

you did actually help me find workaround.
high res is part of 2.0, used that one.
I started by checking if its indeed the one causing issues. Drog provided easy uninstall script so it went fast - indeed game starts without highres.
Then I started fiddling with available options. Turns out it crashes only in full screen mode.
As such I can run it fine in windowed, too bad there is no borderless option.

Goral or Infinitron can you edit op to include workaround for win11 users?

Now I can go back to planning my thief play through.
Anyone knows whether there exists sweet spot aptitude for using both tech and magical items?
For example dexterity rings(tech crafted) + dexterity gloves(magic). I know that various items have various aptitude requirements but I cant find a place where those values would be listed

 

[NecroLord]

got to shelve my eternal struggle between tech thief backstab vs guns anyway, since at this point I need drog to make his big cumback.
Or anyone who might have found solution. Perhaps Goral might know right people, once he descends from wykop

Do you have the Arcanum High Resolution Patch installed?
I remember it absolutely wouldn't work, but it did after I installed it.

you did actually help me find workaround.
high res is part of 2.0, used that one.
I started by checking if its indeed the one causing issues. Drog provided easy uninstall script so it went fast - indeed game starts without highres.
Then I started fiddling with available options. Turns out it crashes only in full screen mode.
As such I can run it fine in windowed, too bad there is no borderless option.

Goral or Infinitron can you edit op to include workaround for win11 users?

Now I can go back to planning my thief play through.
Anyone knows whether there exists sweet spot aptitude for using both tech and magical items?
For example dexterity rings(tech crafted) + dexterity gloves(magic). I know that various items have various aptitude requirements but I cant find a place where those values would be listed

Cool! So you got it working after all.
If you want to make the most of magickal or technological items, you have to max either aptitude. There are some magickal schools (Temporal as an example) that work even if you are a tech character.
Honestly, stick to one and master it.

 

[lukaszek]

If you want to make the most of magickal or technological items, you have to max either aptitude. There are some magickal schools (Temporal as an example) that work even if you are a tech character.

didnt know you can be temporal mage with guns. How would obtaining mastery look like? You need to get it before raising your tech aptitude high? Sounds hard

 

[NecroLord]

If you want to make the most of magickal or technological items, you have to max either aptitude. There are some magickal schools (Temporal as an example) that work even if you are a tech character.

didnt know you can be temporal mage with guns. How would obtaining mastery look like? You need to get it before raising your tech aptitude high? Sounds hard

You also need Willpower (at least 18 to Master an entire Magickal school).
Yeah, you should get it first, then go full Tech.

 

[lukaszek]

If you want to make the most of magickal or technological items, you have to max either aptitude. There are some magickal schools (Temporal as an example) that work even if you are a tech character.

didnt know you can be temporal mage with guns. How would obtaining mastery look like? You need to get it before raising your tech aptitude high? Sounds hard

You also need Willpower (at least 18 to Master an entire Magickal school).
Yeah, you should get it first, then go full Tech.

whole thing isnt easy. Red somewhere that you need 50% magick aptitude and full tree. Full temporal tree is 30. Elf is 15. You need to use dark helm and dont put anything into tech skills like lockpicking.

So to sum up:
- start as only child background for 6will so you can get max temporal faster
- dont put points into ANY tech stuff, unless you start as elf/helf
- obtain dark helmet
- use exploit to enter tulla early
- survive mastery quest
- now you can slowly start being techie...

 

[NecroLord]

If you want to make the most of magickal or technological items, you have to max either aptitude. There are some magickal schools (Temporal as an example) that work even if you are a tech character.

didnt know you can be temporal mage with guns. How would obtaining mastery look like? You need to get it before raising your tech aptitude high? Sounds hard

You also need Willpower (at least 18 to Master an entire Magickal school).
Yeah, you should get it first, then go full Tech.

whole thing isnt easy. Red somewhere that you need 50% magick aptitude and full tree. Full temporal tree is 30. Elf is 15. You need to use dark helm and dont put anything into tech skills like lockpicking.

So to sum up:
- start as only child background for 6will so you can get max temporal faster
- dont put points into ANY tech stuff, unless you start as elf/helf
- obtain dark helmet
- use exploit to enter tulla early
- survive mastery quest
- now you can slowly start being techie...

If you want to make the most out of Backstab, you should invest in Throwing and the Explosives Tech discipline. You can make Stun grenades and, later on, even paralysis grenades. They are incredibly effective. Just throw them and backstab your enemies to death.

 

[lukaszek]

thinking about going snu snu horc techie. This makes Lukan persuasion even harder. Can I use fate point to brute force that conversation? Idea is to steal his key, obtain fate point(probably in tarant GB tunel) and come back to talk to him.
Probably will go night vision background as other good ones involve low money and I wont be able to start with elegant dress otherwise
EDIT: wait, dark sight is good only for ranged characters right?

 

[NecroLord]

thinking about going snu snu horc techie. This makes Lukan persuasion even harder. Can I use fate point to brute force that conversation? Idea is to steal his key, obtain fate point(probably in tarant GB tunel) and come back to talk to him.
Probably will go night vision background as other good ones involve low money and I wont be able to start with elegant dress otherwise
EDIT: wait, dark sight is good only for ranged characters right?

Night time penalties are negligible. Melee Expert training completely negates the penalty. Even with Firearms, you will hardly notice the difference.
Go for a background that offers good attribute bonuses with penalties to those attributes you will probably never want to invest in (and can be overcome with gear).

 

[lukaszek]

my techie rogue cleared tarant and now I feel sad, after acquiring pyro axe its just too easy.
In hindsight getting dog made early game too easy.

As such Im eyeing this gunslinger temporal thief idea. Although I might shelve it for later since I dont want to go through tarant again, someone might find this useful:

- thief gunslinger mage needs high dex, per, will, int and constitution for stasis uptime.
You can take care of int with single potion. You can acquire all schematics this way, will need to reapply to craft
You can take care of dex requirement with fire spell, although its probably just for early game since you want that speed.
- lets talk fatigue. tempus faggit needs 5/10s. You want 17 con to hit 6/10s regen.

- it gets interesting if you go for temporal mastery. It requires magical aptitude, although I cant find confirmation how much. Either you go through most of the game without guns(so why bother?) or you glitch yourself into university.
If you go with glitching, you probably want to start with expert throwing to carry you until you are ready.
Dark elf race should be ideal, along with only child background. You can still obtain 1st persuasion rank with boosts in game. Downside is that dark elf portraits are quite ugly.
If you already do glitching, why stop there? Cross mountains early and go through god circles to Lessen the burden on your character being spread thin.

Its easier if you dont go over the top with glitches. Still only child should be the way to go, although you are more open to other races and can use guns sooner. Immediately even while maintaining aptitude neutrality. Id probably go with human/horc/halfling.


Undead and magical creatures will be your weakness until your tech aptitude gets really high

 

[NecroLord]

my techie rogue cleared tarant and now I feel sad, after acquiring pyro axe its just too easy.
In hindsight getting dog made early game too easy.

As such Im eyeing this gunslinger temporal thief idea. Although I might shelve it for later since I dont want to go through tarant again, someone might find this useful:

- thief gunslinger mage needs high dex, per, will, int and constitution for stasis uptime.
You can take care of int with single potion. You can acquire all schematics this way, will need to reapply to craft
You can take care of dex requirement with fire spell, although its probably just for early game since you want that speed.
- lets talk fatigue. tempus faggit needs 5/10s. You want 17 con to hit 6/10s regen.

- it gets interesting if you go for temporal mastery. It requires magical aptitude, although I cant find confirmation how much. Either you go through most of the game without guns(so why bother?) or you glitch yourself into university.
If you go with glitching, you probably want to start with expert throwing to carry you until you are ready.
Dark elf race should be ideal, along with only child background. You can still obtain 1st persuasion rank with boosts in game. Downside is that dark elf portraits are quite ugly.
If you already do glitching, why stop there? Cross mountains early and go through god circles to Lessen the burden on your character being spread thin.

Its easier if you dont go over the top with glitches. Still only child should be the way to go, although you are more open to other races and can use guns sooner. Immediately even while maintaining aptitude neutrality. Id probably go with human/horc/halfling.


Undead and magical creatures will be your weakness until your tech aptitude gets really high

The pyrotechnic axe is insane.
Arguably the strongest weapon in the game for pure damage. Doesn't have good speed though (5 normal and 10 with Melee Apprentice training).

 

[lukaszek]

settled on my ideal starting point and cleared 1st town: female horc, only child. Female horc start with perfect 8str for gunnery needs, while boosting con that will be needed fur upkeep.
No extra penalties to beauty allow me not to get attacked on sight, 2 starting cha along with tech aptitude meaning that any persuasion is highly unlikely, unless one goes for therapeutics but im so spread thin that ill sooner find a way to get lady drusella on my team without going through mastery quests