Junior Adventurer's Guild - May: Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

[1998]

Need to finish that froggie game first, but now way I am failing with Arcanum month.

[Vergil]

Oh I forgot to install the unofficial patch before starting. Do I need to restart?

[Tadeusz]

Oh I forgot to install the unofficial patch before starting. Do I need to restart?

Looks like it (from the patch page https://terra-arcanum.com/drog/uap.html):

Old saves are generally incompatible and will cause crashes and lockups in many locations, please make sure to start a new game.

[Tadeusz]

Got to the Black Mountain Mines and it's brutal. Those ore golems are a menace. At what level did you go there? And what are some good locations to level up beforehand?

[Tangerine]

Got to the Black Mountain Mines and it's brutal. Those ore golems are a menace. At what level did you go there? And what are some good locations to level up beforehand?

Don't remember what level I was, but I did quests in Dernholm, Blackroot, and Ashbury to get quest XP before tackling the BMC mines.

[Acrux]

Got to the Black Mountain Mines and it's brutal. Those ore golems are a menace. At what level did you go there? And what are some good locations to level up beforehand?

Level doesn't really mean that much in Arcanum, but somewhere around 16-20 is about right. That is definitely the most annoying part of the game (with the Wheel Clan as a near second). What is your build (tech/magic, melee/ranged) and what companions do you have?

[Tadeusz]

What is your build (tech/magic, melee/ranged) and what companions do you have?

I'm going for the magic build (harm spell acquired) but I also got some melee weapons. I have Virgil, Sogg and Magnus as companions though their weapons are mostly useless against ore golems.

[Element]

I think unarmed (wearing gauntlets) and pyro axe worked out in the mines, but I haven't played it in a long time. iirc I would bait the enemies with the protag and have Sogg punch them to death whilst they tried to chase me down.

Edit: there was also a trick to getting past the traps, if that's the place I'm thinking of. You have to find the scrolls and use them in turn based combat mode. It's janky, but the scrolls last a lot longer and you can get through the tunnels in one piece, for the most part.

[Acrux]

What is your build (tech/magic, melee/ranged) and what companions do you have?

I'm going for the magic build (harm spell acquired) but I also got some melee weapons. I have Virgil, Sogg and Magnus as companions though their weapons are mostly useless against ore golems.

These are the weapons that won't break when fighting ore golems:

Undamaged when used against fire/rock/mechanical creatures and metal containers/doors: all Arcane weapons, Mystic Axe, Pyrotechnic Axe, Charged Axe, Iron Clan Hammer, some hexed weapons with very high magickal complexity. Weapons that are either 100% magical or 100% tech are considered legendary and will never degrade.

So, get Sogg some arcane weapons and armor.

[rusty_shackleford]

When I played the game at release I never found Dernholm, it was a pretty big surprise to me that an entire town existed that I had no idea of years later when I found out upon replaying.

[TheEmptyRoad]

Any suggestions for a Tech build? I’m looking at Dwarf with the Magic Allergy Background and using Jayna, Sogg, and Magnus. I’ve read that if you’re tech-y enough that magick won’t affect you as much.

[Acrux]

Tech can be a lot of fun, and there aren't too many limits on what you can do. Learning and buying schematics is one of my favorite parts of the game. If you have a concept for a character, it can very likely be done through tech. Tech allows you to build the best armor and weapons. You can also eventually have nearly unlimited mechanical followers. With Magnus, Jayna, and Vollinger as followers you'll have several of the tech disciplines covered.

You'll hear advice that firearms are weak in Arcanum, but that's not precisely true; they are not great for someone who hasn't played before, though, since they require an understanding of how to build for that character to make them effective.

Magic Allergy background is pretty pointless, though. You'll get tech aptitude naturally just by putting points into tech stuff, and reach 100% well before the end of the game.

[Element]

You can 'cheat' somewhat with the firearms by pickpocketing the Hand Cannon in Tarant with a fate point.

[Tangerine]

Just finished the half-ogre breeding facility quest. Whoever wrote this had to have known what they were doing, because the parallel is very on the nose.

[Vergil]

I need to actually start but by the time I get home from work my brain is fried zoomercchini

[Element]

Just finished the half-ogre breeding facility quest. Whoever wrote this had to have known what they were doing, because the parallel is very on the nose.

Boyarsky, which makes it all the more ironic

[Tadeusz]

After visiting Ashbury and getting the dog (an awesome fighter actually), doing some quests, clearing two dungeons and buying a lot of mana potions I finally got through the mines! Well, that certainly was a trial of endurance but it felt satisfying to finish it. Fortunately, the stun spell is working on ore golems so it was not that hard fighting against them this time, especially with the dog.

[1998]

Just arrived in Dernholm. Really has been a while since I last played it.

[Tangerine]

Completed.

► Show Spoiler

I talked this stupid idiot to super death.

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Tangerine's stats.

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Thoughts
I'd played this before, but only got to the first dwarven cavern before my save got corrupted. It was much how I remembered, however. This time I went through the game as a charisma gunslinger.

Good stuff:
-The world building and high concepts are excellent
-I thought the ruins of Vendigroth was thematically the best dungeon of the game.
-You can walk to just about anywhere to find places that normally aren't marked on the map until you get a quest. It's neat not because you should, but because you can.
-There's a lot of ways to handle any quest

Bad stuff:
-A lot of the mechanics are clumsy--especially companion management and the combat.
-The companions are a bit on the dry side; I probably missed some trigger events, but I expected something to happen with Virgil and Magnus.
-Tulla as a mostly uninteresting desert town was a bit of a let down compared to how arcane institutions were portrayed in other games that came out at the time.
-I know I'm spoiled by modern games, but I hate how the journal works and I don't see the fun in digging through pages of completed quests to find active ones. Also, quest details are on the sparse side.

Also, I killed all the women at the Women's Camp in Steampunk Australia.


Doesn't that describe all of them? Seems redundant.

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[rusty_shackleford]

Do we have a badge?

[Tadeusz]

► Show Spoiler

I probably missed some trigger events, but I expected something to happen with Virgil and Magnus.

I think Virgil's story trigger is a graveyard in Caladon. Then I think after dark elves he will leave the party and go to Caladon where his story ark comes to a conclusion. I myself recently finished Virgil's ark but didn't find Magnus' story ark (perhaps it's something to do with the Iron clan but I can't pursue this path as I can't create a key).

Do we have a badge?

[Acrux]

If you meant "something to happen with Virgil and Magnus" interactions between them, then there's not much other than their occasional arguments.

If you meant it as broader story things for them individually then Virgil has the most. Like Tadeusz mentioned, he can be resurrected in Caladon and he'll become either Zen Virgil or Surly Virgil depending on your alignment. These play out very differently.

Magnus has some complicated story paths regarding the dwarves and Iron Clan specifically. The triggers are easy to miss. Recruiting Loghaine and having them both in the party for wrapping up the Iron Clan quests is the most important. Having Zan in the party too also adds some dialogue, but I'm not sure if it actually changes the ending.

Vollinger has a couple of different directions his story quest can go.

Other companions will add dialogue here and there but they don't have major quests from what I recall.

[Tangerine]

If you meant it as broader story things for them individually then Virgil has the most. Like Tadeusz mentioned, he can be resurrected in Caladon and he'll become either Zen Virgil or Surly Virgil depending on your alignment. These play out very differently.

Magnus has some complicated story paths regarding the dwarves and Iron Clan specifically. The triggers are easy to miss. Recruiting Loghaine and having them both in the party for wrapping up the Iron Clan quests is the most important. Having Zan in the party too also adds some dialogue, but I'm not sure if it actually changes the ending.

Vollinger has a couple of different directions his story quest can go.

Yeah, I meant these two separately. I saw the event at the graveyard and got the newspaper article about his brother's death from the archives, but that's where events stopped for me. As for Magnus, I think my charisma wasn't high enough at the time to recruit Loghaine, so that explains him.

[Tadeusz]

I guess I know from where Pillars of Eternity got its adra statue.

► Show Spoiler

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[Tadeusz]

Done.

► Ending screenshots

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► Review

Well, this game is a mixed bag. Combat and encounter design are certainly weak points with overall exploitability of enemies' AI, overpowered spells, weird real time and turn-based modes and sudden difficulty spikes (my gripe is mainly with dispersed difficult mobs like ore golems or those **** lord's slaves which can kill you in 2 hits) after which nothing is really threatening until the final boss. Final plot twist is also weird because nothing really leads to this dilemma, I think the final choice should've been about conflict between magick and technology. And about that conflict, can I do something to favor mages in the end? As a mage the overall technological proliferation is a threat to me and I would've liked to turn the tide somehow and I didn't see that game allows to do something about it globally.
On the good side there is a lot to discover in the game and one playthrough won't show you everything there is. I could see that technological route plays differently even as a mage. Player's race, aptitude and alignment matter and NPCs react to them.

[DagothGeas5]

I started playing this one

► Show Spoiler

though I am quite liking Mars War Logs, I was also playing Bloodlines on the side, and going from ATOM to it made me truly feel how playing Bloodlines when fighting is like sliding on butter, which sapped my enjoyment enough to put it on pause (Mars being an on and off as I now dread my exploration will always be punished for having been too thorough ), as for Wizardry VI, I am at a point where I want to level up more but it will take time, so I decided to go ahead with Arcanum instead

and wished to ask: I am in Shrouded Hills and wanted to explore the map before doing anything else, as I usually do, but I have been following the perimeter set by the river for quite a long time, and did see the map just tells me to fast travel now (blue globe), so, though I do believe I am moving on the world map, will this map ever end or am I just endlessly running South by this point?

[Tangerine]

I started playing this one

► Show Spoiler

though I am quite liking Mars War Logs, I was also playing Bloodlines on the side, and going from ATOM to it made me truly feel how playing Bloodlines when fighting is like sliding on butter, which sapped my enjoyment enough to put it on pause (Mars being an on and off as I now dread my exploration will always be punished for having been too thorough ), as for Wizardry VI, I am at a point where I want to level up more but it will take time, so I decided to go ahead with Arcanum instead

and wished to ask: I am in Shrouded Hills and wanted to explore the map before doing anything else, as I usually do, but I have been following the perimeter set by the river for quite a long time, and did see the map just tells me to fast travel now (blue globe), so, though I do believe I am moving on the world map, will this map ever end or am I just endlessly running South by this point?

No, you're making actual progress on the world map, so it's entirely possible for you to go from Shrouded Hills to any other point of interest without ever using fast travel. It'd take you forever, so you don't want to do that, but I think it's neat that you can.

[DagothGeas5]

I started playing this one

► Show Spoiler

though I am quite liking Mars War Logs, I was also playing Bloodlines on the side, and going from ATOM to it made me truly feel how playing Bloodlines when fighting is like sliding on butter, which sapped my enjoyment enough to put it on pause (Mars being an on and off as I now dread my exploration will always be punished for having been too thorough ), as for Wizardry VI, I am at a point where I want to level up more but it will take time, so I decided to go ahead with Arcanum instead

and wished to ask: I am in Shrouded Hills and wanted to explore the map before doing anything else, as I usually do, but I have been following the perimeter set by the river for quite a long time, and did see the map just tells me to fast travel now (blue globe), so, though I do believe I am moving on the world map, will this map ever end or am I just endlessly running South by this point?

No, you're making actual progress on the world map, so it's entirely possible for you to go from Shrouded Hills to any other point of interest without ever using fast travel. It'd take you forever, so you don't want to do that, but I think it's neat that you can.

That is beautiful, thank you for letting me know! I will continue then

[Tadeusz]

I started playing this one

What build are you going for?

[rusty_shackleford]

When I first played Arcanum I did not know you could use the world map and I ran all the way to Shrouded Hills on foot.