Arcanum On tech manual effect and ingame conflict between magick/tech

[Zerth]

I debuted on the patched Arcanum campaign with a human, about 10 hours IG and currently exploring tarant. So far, I've been alloting points mostly on throwing/lockpicking/haggle and electric/explosive disciplines, and my goal is to end up maxing mechanical in order to build me an army of spiders and/or any other kind of automaton unit schematics available.

I have my char equipped with charged rings gizmo, already giving the full dex bonus, yet still Virgil is able to heal me with the lesser magickal spell, worse than before but not entirely worthless. Potions became crap tho, so I mostly rely on Jayna for crafting salves.

Anyways, I'm concerned how well mechanized units fare against spellcasters. According to the manual's lab demostration results, the presence of magick disrupts all forms of mechanical contraptions and other technologies by messing up the application of natural law and make it behave all unstable and unreliable. This applies gameplay wise too? In practice, I've only seen this in shape of critical failures.

In regards of the university manuals. The graduation schematics can be unlocked temporarily too? Or just to meet the requirements for crafting found/bought schematics?. These manuals cost and weight a lot, so I haven't tested much yet.

 

[Snufkin]

Yeah, use those manuals and potion of intelligence to craft found/looted recipes. You can store those manuals for later if you want . You might want tesla gun, to craft It you need to steal looking glass rifle in Ashbury from guy who teaches mastery in firearms.

Albo sadly there are no mages in this game that are dangerous so don't worry.

 

[Zerth]

Right now my char is level 38, and finally able to even craft automatons, being a full mech/smith techie is really demanding when it comes of money and points (those steam engines). However, you can get filthy rich by selling crafted gadgets. Thus investing point in haggling wasn't that necessary at the end.

Now,assuming I pickpocket the glass rifle from that guy with a fate point, with a the current level cap of 50, I have fewer points to spend on electric schematics, PER and firearms skill in order to handle that gun. I supposed I might end up installing the mod that increases the lvl cap to 100, this one comes bundled with the unofficial patch btw.

Also I realised that automatons or arachnoids level up as a regular companion,however, deactivating them, and therefore withdrawing them to the party, resets all of their stats and current level to their starting figures. I can't tell whether this is a feature or a bug.

Attempting to keep them permanently in your party can be practically impossible if you want to enter the pit in the Isle of Despair, or can be such a drag when crawling through long dungeons, because these fuckers only regain HP by either camping/sleeping at Inns or removing them from ur party, pick them up and use repair on them within your inventory. The latter translates into often backtracking all the way to the exit and camp one day outside to heal up all their HP.

Arachnoids move slowly, so navigating a dungeon layout is a pain in the ass at their pace.