|
Heavy neutrino posted:If anything it's a plot point that technology, with its ability to grant great benefits to people without the years of study required for magic, is slowly winning over the world, and that technology's ability to stabilize the laws of physics is making it harder and harder to use magic at all. A great wizard is much more powerful than a dude with a gun, but you can train hundreds of thousands of dudes with guns in the time it takes to train one great wizard, and concentrating so much technology and so many technology adepts in one place would make it nigh-impossible to cast magic. Except from what I can remember is that people with guns found they stopped working in my magical presence and would charge at me with their fists instead.
|
#
?
Aug 16, 2016 20:59
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 10, 2024 13:51 |
|
|
Soonmot posted:I should give Arcanum another chance. I remember buying it when it launched way back in the day but kept getting killed by wolves in the opening on normal mode and just noped out or something. the game is really rough starting out, it's one of the handful of games where i honestly don't fault people for cheating because the system supporting it is so obtuse and weird
|
|
#
?
Aug 16, 2016 21:03
|
|
|
Aleth posted:Except from what I can remember is that people with guns found they stopped working in my magical presence and would charge at me with their fists instead. Yeah very few enemies actually have high technology aptitude so what usually happens when you play a wizard is that your much higher magical aptitude wins out.
|
|
#
?
Aug 16, 2016 21:06
|
|
|
I know the subtitle is, "Of Steamworks and Magic Obscura" but are there other paths? An in-between or maybe just a swordist or bard?
|
|
#
?
Aug 16, 2016 21:13
|
|
|
i always went a gun man even though they were super weak compared to any other weapon type.
|
|
#
?
Aug 16, 2016 21:15
|
|
|
Yeah you can play a non-magic, non-tech sword/bow/throwing weapons guy or (less viable for dumb mechanical reasons) a charismatic sweet-talker with a ton of follower NPCs.
|
|
#
?
Aug 16, 2016 21:17
|
|
|
Did Chris Avellone ever get past the intro wolves in his Arcanum LP?
|
|
#
?
Aug 16, 2016 21:25
|
|
|
it gets pretty difficult to remain neutral on the tech<->magic scale past about the mid game, because outfitting yourself with a decent amount of gear gets progressively harder if you're not able to furnish a lot of it yourself. you also end up kind of looking like a dork because half of your enemies are shooting you with massive shotguns, the other half are slinging fireballs and lightning bolts, and you're running around with a sharp piece of metal shouting incoherently actually now that i type that out that seems less dorky and more insanely metal
|
|
#
?
Aug 16, 2016 21:42
|
|
|
I ain't got time to bleed, burn, or give a poo poo about anything other than killing you!
|
|
#
?
Aug 16, 2016 21:51
|
|
|
The Dark One posted:Did Chris Avellone ever get past the intro wolves in his Arcanum LP? Kind of...? He got to shrouded hills and iirc he got rid of the bridge guardians with their cunning intellect, then the lp ends. TBH I don't know that we missed out on much. The commentary wasn't exactly riveting.
|
|
#
?
Aug 16, 2016 22:10
|
|
|
Heavy neutrino posted:Yeah you can play a non-magic, non-tech sword/bow/throwing weapons guy or (less viable for dumb mechanical reasons) a charismatic sweet-talker with a ton of follower NPCs. You could also go for a roguish character with stealth and backstabs. Or pick support spells which don't care much about your aptitude and mix in some technological disciplines to create a hybrid character. Arcanum's character system is incredibly obtuse when you first start out, but there's a lot of flexibility to it once you understand the underlying mechanics. Though by far the best way of playing the game is as a molotov-throwing Half-Orc anarchist. 
|
|
#
?
Aug 16, 2016 22:36
|
|
|
Soonmot posted:I should give Arcanum another chance. I remember buying it when it launched way back in the day but kept getting killed by wolves in the opening on normal mode and just noped out or something. I bought Arcanum about 6 years ago on GOG, and I had the same experience. I spent a hour or so making a character, only to die somewhere in the beginning. I really would like to give the game another chance (once I finish VtM:B and BG2), but I feel like I need a 'Complete Idiot's Guide' for the game to get a handle on all of the game's quirks. I know there are patches and mods that help out a lot, but I still feel like you need a step--by-step guide to figure things out. For example, I read that the Perception skills only factors into how far you can scroll the screen.
|
|
#
?
Aug 16, 2016 23:14
|
|
|
It's actually not very hard to play the game in easy mode. Make an elf with the "Sold Your Soul" trait and spend your five starting points on these spells: Harm, Heal, Shield of Protection, Purity of Water, and whichever is the first spell of the tree that leads to unlock and teleportation. Your magical aptitude linearly scales your magic damage, so work on raising it by grabbing spells while you raise your willpower to unlock higher tier spells. Just watch your stamina (buy out every stamina potion vendor you come across) and spam Harm to effortlessly kill anything. Stack Purity of Water to get better prices from merchants, and use Shield of Protection to massively raise your resistances.
|
|
#
?
Aug 16, 2016 23:23
|
|
|
Max Wilco posted:I bought Arcanum about 6 years ago on GOG, and I had the same experience. I spent a hour or so making a character, only to die somewhere in the beginning. honestly these sorts of games benefit a lot from the action tutorial that fallout 3 and 4 have done, but they need even more input that just blithely tells you the general answers in the first 3-5 hours of the game. you should never have been allowed to walk out out of chargen in Arcanum without some minimum amount of HP/defense/offensive capability that would work out of the box and be reliable for those 3-5 hours, at least not without some big scary messages that let you know what you're getting into. like if you make a techno gunslinger or something and then try to leave chargen with fewer than 150 bullets, you should get a popup that says "hey yo you're gonna need a lot of them bullets and they're more expensive out there than in here. you should probably pack like 150 of them. you sure you know what you're doing?" there's no reason why they couldn't have told you "you probably don't want to rock 1 beauty, but don't take more than 5 unless you know what you're doing." there was plenty of room for candid comments about skills like "NEWBIE ADVICE: don't even loving bother taking crafting skills out of the gate, you'll have a lot of help developing it later and they take a lot of resources to make useful." Spiderweb Software did it with the Exile games (especially Exile 3) and it's way, way easier to get hooked on those games than something like Arcanum just because you spend way less time loving around in chargen and you have a much lower chance of getting your poo poo kicked in an hour out of it. Coolguye fucked around with this message at 23:26 on Aug 16, 2016 |
|
#
?
Aug 16, 2016 23:23
|
|
|
Max Wilco posted:For example, I read that the Perception skills only factors into how far you can scroll the screen. Sort of. Perception is theoretically important for ranged weapons because it affects your accuracy when targetting enemies at a distance, but the Master level perk for most ranged skills completely negates the range penalty. So in practice, raising Perception is only useful if you want to invest in one of the skills tied to it (Firearms, Sneak, and, IIRC, Spotting Traps). As Heavy neutrino points out, it's pretty easy to make a character that can win any combat encounter (you don't even need to invest in combat skills for that; one of the most powerful builds in the game is going for 20 Charisma and letting your army of followers destroy everything), but acquiring an in-depth understanding of all available tools requires a lot of time. There's a reason the game came with a 200 page manual.
|
|
#
?
Aug 16, 2016 23:58
|
|
|
Arcanum is much better with the mod/patch that makes firearms actually good. Also, no other game allows you to craft an electromagnetic top hat that repels arrows.
|
|
#
?
Aug 17, 2016 00:25
|
|
|
Tippis posted:For reference: Have to agree with Sawyer RE: Full Throttle
|
|
#
?
Aug 17, 2016 01:38
|
|
|
SplitSoul posted:Also, no other game allows you to craft an electromagnetic top hat that repels arrows. If only it worked as advertised. 
|
|
#
?
Aug 17, 2016 02:17
|
|
|
Yes, yes everyone I know Alpha Protocol is master at reactive and storyline branches. I guess its a matter of opinion, but this being a Bloodlines thread...I did not feel the writing or atmosphere or interest in the plot was even close to matching Bloodlines. AP felt like a airport paperback (I'm aware I'm comparing it to vampires). I played through it once, and didn't feel the urge to play again. And for all those complaining about the long combat levels in Bloodlines, Alpha Protocol is 90% combat. I guess my point is AP had its high points, but it did not fill the Bloodlines-shaped hole in my heart like everyone claimed it would.
|
|
#
?
Aug 17, 2016 03:12
|
|
|
Unless your Arcanum dude is going to be so magical that even low level tech will fail, the first level of I think it's therapeutics is "combine two extremely common herbs into a technological healing potion" and most everybody should take it at chargen.
|
|
#
?
Aug 17, 2016 03:26
|
|
|
CatchrNdRy posted:Yes, yes everyone I know Alpha Protocol is master at reactive and storyline branches. I guess its a matter of opinion, but this being a Bloodlines thread...I did not feel the writing or atmosphere or interest in the plot was even close to matching Bloodlines. AP felt like a airport paperback (I'm aware I'm comparing it to vampires). I played through it once, and didn't feel the urge to play again. You're not at all wrong.
|
|
#
?
Aug 17, 2016 03:59
|
|
|
For you Arcanum types, if you have NWN2 still and actually like (good) PWs with non-poo poo staff that run them, there's a crazy Steampunk world that's launching in like a week with a whole custom system. No magic, though, at least not that players can use, it's all tech and modified weapons and fancily engineered stuff.
|
|
#
?
Aug 17, 2016 04:10
|
|
|
Fuzz posted:For you Arcanum types, if you have NWN2 still and actually like (good) PWs with non-poo poo staff that run them, there's a crazy Steampunk world that's launching in like a week with a whole custom system. No magic, though, at least not that players can use, it's all tech and modified weapons and fancily engineered stuff. You got a website or link where I can read more?
|
|
#
?
Aug 17, 2016 05:29
|
|
|
Upmarket Mango posted:You got a website or link where I can read more? I can make a thread and do you one better, just not tonight... or tomorrow. Doesn't launch until next week, anyway.
|
|
#
?
Aug 17, 2016 06:21
|
|
|
Samuel Clemens posted:There's a reason the game came with a 200 page manual. CatchrNdRy posted:I guess its a matter of opinion, but this being a Bloodlines thread...I did not feel the writing or atmosphere or interest in the plot was even close to matching Bloodlines.
|
|
#
?
Aug 17, 2016 06:34
|
|
|
honestly one of the easiest ways to get into Arcanum is making some variation of ogre or orc and taking i think its 3 points in blacksmithing? and making an early quality sword and just dicing everything up. you don't actually need to mess with magic or tech if the game seems imposing, a 5 melee/dodge build with some regular smithed gear can tear stuff up for the actual entire game.
|
|
#
?
Aug 17, 2016 06:56
|
|
|
Dangit, Arcanum is a steampunk fantasy game! That means that i am going to shoot that magic elf in the face with a elephant gun!! If i just go hacky man then i might as well just play some other crpg.
|
|
#
?
Aug 17, 2016 09:57
|
|
|
Huh, DoubleBear has a new game coming out today. Presumably Brain Mitsoda worked on it in some capacity since DoubleBear is so small. If you want to know more, PC Gamer has an article.
|
|
#
?
Aug 17, 2016 18:44
|
|
|
I have a question about how to get past the stripper assassin quest; I've scoured google and haven't found any way to solve my issue. No matter how I defeat chastity, I get the "you made too much noise" result of the quest. I've tried melee, tremere's drain health attack, and guns, none work. I've made sure to have everyone leave too, both dudes are gone and the other stripper paid to leave the room. I'm pretty sure I'm using the unofficial patch. Is this quest just bugged? is there a console command to just say "quest completed properly" I can input or some file I can edit? I just want to continue playing the game and can't let go doing this quest the bad way unless I absolutely have to.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2016 07:32
|
|
|
Rebel Blob posted:
Ha I'd rather side with LaCroix than Halbech Ledgem posted:I have a question about how to get past the stripper assassin quest; I've scoured google and haven't found any way to solve my issue. Sounds bugged to me, I've chopped and shot the hell out of her and didn't fail.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2016 07:53
|
|
|
Did a gun go off at any point?
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2016 19:09
|
|
|
CatchrNdRy posted:Well I answered the survey like the Bloodlines shill I am. Alpha Protocol is the only RPG I've ever played where I got a different ending my second time through but didn't know what specific choices I had made to get it. I also discovered a secret about a major NPC that revealed them in a new light on like my fourth playthrough. It wasn't super hidden exactly, I'd just never gone down that specific path. E: Also, the gameplay is not very good but there is fun to be mined. All points in stealth and pistols is hilarious while my friend had an absolute blast going all in on martial arts and just beating every single mook into unconsciousness. UrbicaMortis fucked around with this message at 19:36 on Aug 18, 2016 |
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2016 19:30
|
|
|
Basic Chunnel posted:Did a gun go off at any point? No. I can go in with nobody anywhere nearby, cast blood theft from out of her aggro range and kill her before she even notices I exist and that still counts as too loud. She does attack me on sight though, as if she recognizes me. Maybe that's part of the bug? I've seen a video where she didn't auto-aggro before.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2016 23:33
|
|
|
UrbicaMortis posted:Alpha Protocol is the only RPG I've ever played where I got a different ending my second time through but didn't know what specific choices I had made to get it. I also discovered a secret about a major NPC that revealed them in a new light on like my fourth playthrough. It wasn't super hidden exactly, I'd just never gone down that specific path. Accordion Man fucked around with this message at 00:24 on Aug 19, 2016 |
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2016 23:46
|
|
|
I'm all but certain it served no practical purpose, but I made sure every time Mike did something newsworthy he'd go to the mirror and change his look. So I had super serious briefings with Mike disguised as Fidel Castro. You'll never find this master of deception!
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2016 23:58
|
|
|
Accordion Man posted:Running up and knocking a goon down with a flying knee and then stomping them while they're done never got old. Also more games need the door kick/investigate noise combo. Smashing a door into a mook's nose never gets old
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2016 00:22
|
|
|
Judging by the last 5 pages we can finally get a new thread title! 
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2016 01:46
|
|
|
Now they're talking about this game, are we hallucinating?
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2016 02:00
|
|
|
I'm sure that everyone here already has a copy, possibly a physical copy even, but Bloodlines is on sale on GOG for $6.79 this week in case you'd like to gift it. I believe that Wesp basic 9.5 is included with the game.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2016 19:06
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 10, 2024 13:51 |
|
|
JustJeff88 posted:I'm sure that everyone here already has a copy, possibly a physical copy even, but Bloodlines is on sale on GOG for $6.79 this week in case you'd like to gift it. I believe that Wesp basic 9.5 is included with the game. Aw gently caress, the one with the hairbrush to the right of the sink!? You gotta be loving kidding me.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2016 19:40
|
|