>>3874757
>daring premise
Only thing daring was the rape eugenics program by the gnomes.

>>3874759
Arcanum exposed the elites before Deus Ex or MGS 2.

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>>3874759
By the virtue of that alone, it's more daring than 99.9% of RPGs.

Any new mods released in recent years? Or is it still only Drog's that matters?

>>3874757
Arcanum is the best CRPG for me. The reactivity (and dumb dialog) makes it the king for me. FO1 is second, then PST

>>3874764
The biggest Arcanum related news I heard this year is the release of some open source engine for Arcanum.

I remember playing Arcanum and having a Beauty stat of around 8 but high charisma or whatever. What would happen is that each character would shit on me in the very first sentence, just give this really negative opinion out of the blue. But then I'd get a positive outcome via dialogue. Really weird feeling. I am going to have pump Beauty up next time because it's been taking me out of the game.

https://github.com/alexbatalov/arcanum-ce

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>>3874759
>>3874761
you can say jews here

>>3874802
Nah, Beauty is the dump stat and 8 is the default value and should give you neutral reactions from NPC's. You most likely just played some snowflake race because each PC race x NPC race combo has a different reaction modifier. Humans, half-elves and halflings are the most universally loved IIRC.

Imagine the pain if Larian made Arcanum 2

I've always wondered how Arcanum never ended up getting some kind of port/mod project into a better or more up-to-date engine over the years. Is it just too niche to ever get that kind of fandom effort going?

>>3874920
Imagine the pain if Troika made Arcanum 2, more like. They wanted to turn it into an fps.

>>3875103
The target demographic is eastern euros with potato laptops, so it's most likely because the game runs well as is in their machines so they just don't bother.

>>3875144
>VtM Bloodlines: Arcanum edition
Would've been amazing.

>>3875103
If it runs, it runs.. and I don't think anyone wants the heat of the gnomes.

>>3875149
Bloodlines is one of the worst "big" games ever made and I'm tired of pretending otherwise

>>3874757
I can't play this game. The combat is too terrible. Cool world and I really do wish the combat didn't ruin it for me but it is mostly unavoidable and absolutely awful.

>>3875172
Considering this >>3875182 is the sentiment I see literally everywhere regarding Arcanum, that's the main reason I'm surprised nobody has tried porting the game to a better engine or trying a fan remake.

>>3875182
>>3875183
Not gonna lie, I played and enjoyed Arcanum when it came out, and tried to replay it maybe a year ago. I got to the first fight with the wolves at the crash site and immediately nope.exe and uninstalled.

>>3875190
I got to where I am in the mine and my weapons keep getting damaged and its really just not worth it.

>>3874780
> open source engine for Arcanum
Sauce?

>>3874757
If that's the best they could do, no wonder they failed and died. Arcanum was fucking awful, even for the design standards of those primitive times. Fucking awful. I'm trying to think of a single redeeming quality or feature of the game, I just cannot. Not even a single thing. The UI was infamously garbage, which by comparison to some true stinkers from those days, is saying a lot. The spells added absolutely nothing to the gameplay. The dialogue was drivel. The art was amateur slop. Fucking awful game, and that's before we talk about the actual game mechanics of the combat system or the bugs.

>>3875200
>>3874807

>>3874757
Music was the best thing about Arcanum, a fucking masterpiece of a game soundtrack.

>>3875249
>The spells added absolutely nothing to the gameplay. The dialogue was drivel. The art was amateur slop
Here's your (You).

>a paragon of reactivity
what reactivity? most of the companions are barely better than baldurs gate 1 NPCs in terms of having absolutely nothing to say.

>>3875190
I tried playing for the first time recently and quit at the wolves. They killed me and I just turned it off. I remember Tim and Leonard talking about how they spent so much time on walking for Fallout and then how Diablo had terrible walking. But then I played Arcanum and the walking was bizarrely bad. Not that you moved too fast but the animation was like 30% to fast. It felt very weird. The was the smallest issue though.

The UI was so bad I just felt like they didn’t even really try to make a good game. Like you can’t just be like “no trust me the dialogue trees are fun, keep playing!” No. If you put no effort into making the game itself then I don’t care. You can’t say it’s a product of its time either, when again Diablo had a very straight forward interface. Gear, magic, quests etc. Just trying to figure out what the fuck is going on the moment I started playing was too much. Again it’s not that I couldn’t. I just could sense this wasn’t a game for me. Every aspect of it was over thought, over engineered. Nobody in the development room must have ever said, can we smooth out some of these features, or figure out a better way to display them so any of this makes sense?

Also the turn based combat felt worse than Diablo’s real time and worse than a game like Final Fantasy Tactics. It was like the worst of all worlds.

>>3875352
Hello, Chris Avellone

>>3875365
Listen I wanted to like it. I freaking loved Diablo, Tactics, Elder Scrolls. In fairness I probably just hate the whole western rpg turn based genre, not just Arcanum. I also quit Divinity II basically right away because the combat was stupid. But Arcanum clearly needed a user experience specialist.

I played it like three times through a couple of years ago but I've forgotten everything again. Having a fakeout main plot into a completely non-cathartic ending is ok when you're actually playing it but it doesn't leave much impact

untouchable OST

>>3875348
The companions are actually pretty reactive, but you have to initiate talking to them and asking them questions. Sogg Mead Mug, for example, has a dialog about each of the cities/towns you go to, and he'll say if the drinks there are good.

Add to that all the NPCs that react to your:
>race
>state of invisibility
>state of clothing
>tech/magic inclination
>good/evil inclination

Plus you're able to kill off almost all NPCs and you'll still be given some ways to finish the main quest. Arcanum also offers a variety of ways to approach quests a la Fallout 1: stealth, charisma, or strength/magic.

>>3875348
>t. stopped 10 minutes into the game

>>3874757
Why does the hi res patch completely break the fucking game? I've had two quests the game wouldn't let me accept, then I disabled the patch and they worked fine. I'm not playing this buggy dogshit game in 800 x 600.

Tell me the version available at Steam works and works as intended

>>3874761
>before Deus Ex
Deus Ex was released in 1999

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>>3874802
>"Oi! Midget we dont loike yer kind 'ere."
>- Im a short king.
>- Me mistake melord.
I also love how you can pretty much do bar brawls and fight if they attacked you after a provocation or jsut stand your ground to insults and they usually back down if you are 7 foot tall high intellect and mighty Ogre.

>>3874818
tbf it's not just them, it pretty much works as a standin for their equivalent in lots of countries. In Europe in the industrial revolution it would be them yes, in America at the time their equivalent would be the robber barons.

>>3875103
Arcanum is a really big game, for one.

>>3875172
>If it runs, it runs
yeah, "runs"

>>3876315
>Deus Ex was released in 1999
Rekt.

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Arcanum should just be made into a book. Maybe even into one of those interactive ones.

>>3876427
>Maybe even into one of those interactive ones.
You mean like a video game?

>>3876429
That was the joke they were making.

>>3876442
Joke?

>>3876382
A big game, sure, but much larger games than it have been ported before. The content already exists, after all.

>>3876427
Just turn it into a VN and call it a day.

is not recruiting Magnus a mistake? I have Virgil and Sogg and talked my way through meeting the Schuylers

>>3876444
You're autistic.

>>3874757
>great premise
>great first 3 hours
>forgot to make the rest of the game, so it's just god awful "combat"
>uhh, deadlines and budget issues and whatnot
>c-cult classic
It's just Troikaslop

New Arc Line is shaping up to be a decent successor.

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Why is he so gay? Does anyone not feel like a fucking loser having him as your sidekick?

>>3876661
Arcade Gannon at home

>>3876590
You want Magnus because only Virgil has more things to say during your travels. That and he's extremely well-written, which can't be said of all companions.

>>3874759
>race sciences
>race and gender discrimination actually implemented
>eugenics
>phrenology
>labour unions
>being beautiful makes your life on easy mode
>actual discussion on the value of monarchy

This and many other things would never be touched with a 10 foot pole nowadays.

fuck gnomes
not literally

>>3876590
Yes, he's one of the better and more interesting companions and he's always useful since you can use him to craft stuff for your other party members or to sell. And you can use him to get a Fate point from the encounter with the Schuylers.

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>"Yeah bro dont do a gun run, that shit will be ass for the rest of the game."
>Bandit background
>Starting bandit pistol carries until Tarant (same stat as the fine revolver)
>Shrouded Hills has both an apprentice and expert level
>Can do aim shot
>Charged rings and bullet schematics early on
>Molotov in gank fights
>Mid game
>Be a master gunman
>Have a hand cannon + shield with a 1880 style Jinroh armor
>Keeping a looking glass rifle when I have to start fights from afar
>Got Torian Kel (coolest NPC ever), and Sogg
>Vergil died at some point against the local Tarant mob and Vollinger caught a stray against the Void monsters in the forest
Reminder to never listen to advice online when it comes to the "meta," play a character you identify it and stick with it.

Tim Cain decided to drop some new Arcanum lore today, 24 years later. Nothing too crazy, just some stuff regarding magic growing weaker, the ancient gods, as well as the gnomes lol. None of it is in the game, but the game was written as if it was all true, this is basically from their internal lore bible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vtwsdb7hasM

>>3876903
>the gnomes were involved in far far worse thing than THAT
is he getting us redpilled about the gnomes?

>>3874757
this game's worldbuilding is absolute ass. you can tell this game was made by americans because they use the victorian era as nothing but an aesthetic
>no real concrete info about religion/holywars in arcanum aside from milktoast main quest which still leaves answers
>no info on how the rest of the world reacts to arcanum's industrial development (or on it in general)
>no details on how industrialised the rest of arcanum is compared to Tarant
>Tarant is absolutely tiny yet still has a massive (unseen) army
>no info or quests about organised resistance to technology like the diggers aside from Dernholm
>trains are greatly underused
i can literally think of 600 actually interesting quests related to the setting.

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>>3877046
>>3876864
this game was made by american tech nerd who liked dnd, they didnt know shit about their own history, let alone british, labour or general political history
>barely brought up aside from 2 books in a small missable liberary
>gender is totally irrelvant aside from a INT/STR test to get into Gentlemen's club
>only appears in the quest Tim refuses to talk about
>doesnt matter
>only appears at the very end of 1 quest in mid game where you just talk to the leader
>Beauty literally just has characters insult which you can ALWAYS turn around by picking "thats not nice" or something. that.s. it.
>"this monarch is dumb, replace him with the brother who isnt" & "CHA check this diplomacy to make the monarch agree to be Taran vassle"
the main story is fine, but honestly the average YA novel has deeper and more structerally sound sideplots/quests and side themes than this game

>>3876903
>magic growing weaker
So I've always had a theory that's counter to that, that the thing we're told about magic waxing and waning is actually bullshit, magic comes from the Void and was merely leaking out into the world and now it's leaving, and that's why tech is important because once magic leaves technology will be all we have.

Any other media with the same general feeling as Arcanum?
I mean more specifically the fantasy post-bellum to Gilded Age United States side of Arcanum. Not so much the Victorian side.

>>3877046
>>no real concrete info about religion/holywars in arcanum aside from the main quest which explores the primary religion of the setting as well as that of the two major races (elves and dwarves)
Cool talking points, did you get them from your favourite youtuber?

>>3874762
I like how there are other gods like Progo and the world is larger than what we can explore in game.

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>>3877196
>Panarii are Pseudo-christians who's religion is [Spoilers]a psyop[Spoilers], that's it.
>Dwarfen philosophy is only brought up once to loghar to convince him to grow a pair and is never brought up again outside of that. It's the best writing on culture but it's just philosophy not religion or spiritual culture
>Elves are tree huggers or neo nazis, that's it
oooo what fascinating writing. you very clearly see the work of STEM yankees through it. I say it's mid because I played the game and know irl history and see it's mid, faggot. See>>3877047

>>3877331
>>no real concrete info
>lists multiple times each is explored by the game
>>t-they don't count
That's called "moving the goalposts". You also missed the sidequest about the goddess of love's cult, the fact that Dwarven philosophy comes up multiple times over the game because it's central to the character arcs of Loghaire and Magnus and the relationship between the Dwarves and the Elves, and the exploration of the Panarii and the different versions of their history. Maybe next time you should try playing the game for yourself instead of relying on a Youtube summary video you apparently skimmed quite badly.

Also, nice spoiler you colossal fucking retard

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>>3877337
>"This is mid vanilla fantasy shit"
>"OH YEAH?!, WHAT ABOUT [other mid fantasy shit and 1 interesting thing that is irrelevant]"
lol
>goddess of love is Pseudo-greek pagan shit you'd see in any ttrpg
Dwarfen philosophy is cool but is literally totally irrelevant to the discussion about religious world building but ill concede on this point though since it is related to culture. Tell me literally everything you remember/know about the Panarii. The world building is so vague that you don't even know if it's the main religion (or at least for humans) of Arcanum

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>>3877344
>can't dispute moving the goalposts
I accept your concession.
>The world building is so vague that you don't even know if it's the main religion (or at least for humans) of Arcanum
Wrong. Better luck next time.

>>3877331
>Elves are tree huggers or neo nazis, that's it
Except they're not. It's brought up time and time again that the elves and dwarves, technology aside, are effectively the same people in terms of culture, mindset, etc and yet because of the unforgiveable thing that happened in the past, both sides when asked will say "well of COURSE we can't get along, we're so different!" which they both say in the same cadence and tone.

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>>3877376
.
>>3877345
expand. the pagan gods are stated to only exist in small areas like still water with their love goddess but by inlarge have been wrecked by tech. stated in the book on the pagan gods which starts the quest in one of the tarant university libraries

>>3877047
>>3877331
You're ESL and brown.

>>3877421
>expand
It's in the game, retard. Maybe try playing it for yourself this time?
The best thing about games like this not having a detailed wiki is that there are no articles for retards like you to go and speedread when you want to pretend you've played the game.

>>3877421
>source
Have you talked to both factions enough?

>>3876889
Ok now do all that WITHOUT knowing beforehand how to play the game, instead of just spamming Harm.
That's the primary issue with builds in Arcanum. Since there's no respec, you have to know beforehand how to build your character.

>>3877431
Not to mention the wiki mostly takes from the game manual which is an in-universe manuscript purposely written from a hilariously biased perspective.

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>>3877504
>>3877426
>factions
>play this whole game with 8000 lines of text across multiple locations with missable quests to find the 5 times they mention religion or any other aspect of world building in the text
outstanding bait, perhaps you should actually try playing a crpg yourself instead of defending 6.5/10 games you haven't played. either way you did get me, so bravo

>>3876306
none of them work. wait for this
>>3874807

>>3877970
DAMNIT
GABE YOU FAT FUCK

>>3875647
Attacking Nasrudin to get sent to the void then creating the World of Stillness after killing Kerghan is peak KINO.

>>3876590
His personal storyline is probably the best of the companions as well, honestly.

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>>3877970
>>3874807
>>3877046
>>3877047
holy shit I'll be able to mod arcanum? Well fuck me I'll put my money where my mouth is. I AM ADDING FUTURIST CHADS TO ARCANUM AND THERES NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO STOP ME

>>3874757
KILL GNOMES

>>3879437
GNOME PRIDE WORLD WIDE

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>>3877505
Didnt knew anything more than my last playthrough beforehand when I was doing my gun tooting guy, the only stuff I looked up was where to find that gun master guy since he was hard to find but other than that, everything was layed out without having me to look up. Other than that, the progression from bandit revolver to my hand cannon was easy since it was as soon as I got to Tarant, all I have to do is kill a crime boss in a the Boil.

The only stuff I knew tech wise was from my first playthrough as a melee + dodge knight who went only in tech to be an even more efficient knight so I knew what to expect in the tech tree and not fell for trap stuff or herbology and to not invest in poison since only melee guys can have fun with it (you should do that btw, insanely fun). Even then I barely took the doctorate degrees for my gunslinger, I only had charged rings and some knowledge in explosives pratically all the stuff I have I either loot it or stole it. Im pretty sure I made some mistake or its not that efficient in some stuff like the whole blessing stuff I didnt even do but my character is cool and playing a gunslinger with his gang is fun. Literally didnt even planned on putting some points in throwing yet it fits my bandit to throw explosives around and gunning people in fights.

>>3880300
>Didnt knew anything more than my last playthrough beforehand
So you're saying you've actually played the game before that. You in fact know how the game works, you've done the general plot before, you know all the major locations, you knew to not fall for obvious build traps, etc.
Now do that having NEVER touched Arcanum.

>>3877505
>>3880567
Different anon, but I played through Arcanum for the first time as a gunslinger and had no issues - I mean, it let me make a genteel dwarven gunslinger wearing a smoking jacket and top-hat, how could I not? It's not hard to recognise, even for a new player, "this gun is bigger than my old gun, I should start using it instead" or "maybe getting training for my skills is a good idea". And like the other anon mentioned, firearms have some significant advantages - namely early access to both apprentice and expert training and they don't suffer from equipment damage from attacking certain enemies.
The biggest issue for a new player is probably going to be eviscerating yourself on every critical failure, but that's an issue for a few builds (particularly backstabbers). Sure, firearms are 'suboptimal' because you have to invest in Perception and you can't scale damage from Strength, but you don't need an optimal build to beat the game, you get more than enough character points to fill out your build - on my first playthrough I even ended up with max Perception because I was retarded and thought it might actually be useful. You only really need metagame knowledge to play a gunslinger if you're trying to play a hybrid like a techno-mage that relies on balancing aptitude.

>spamming Harm
Ironically this is something that isn't as good as it sounds like if you don't know what you're doing, since the damage done scales with magic aptitude. It's always good damage but it only becomes really broken at high aptitude and with the School Mastery. People gravitate towards it because it's a cheap skill to pick up and it's very straightforward to play, but building a pure beatstick with max Strength and Dexterity is also very simple.

>>3880300
>Didnt knew
Dumb ESL

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>>3877505
>>3880635
worldbuildingfag anon here, absolutely concur. first two characters were gunslingers but didn't understand character creation so I just split with 1-2 points in CHA, INT, PER & firearms. got bodied again and again and only until the phsylere mines where I just gave up cus my character(s) was so ass.

beat the game perfectly just going off of intelligence, charisma Strength build which was very boring, did little roleplaying. im currently playing a charismatic mage thief and it's absolute proof this game is scaled to shit for more fancy builds. I have enough autism to plan it out but it's fun INSPITE of the system not because of it. genuinely just get Droggs patch and cheat to max level as you'll basically be only mid strength for more unique builds

>>3881002
also perception is absolutely fucking useless, it barely EVER fucking works and I have trained to expert, 16-18 points in perception and it it's at best 50/50 (PER, lockpicking & repair are the only skills I allowed cheated points to be used to lower magic alignment for balance and rp and I didn't want to waste any actually earned levels on these bum ass skills

>>3874757
Replayed this again only a few months ago. Every single time I touch this game, I tell myself I'll try out a firearms build for once, and then I always end up restarting after 5 hours and spend the entire game spamming harm on everything.

>>3881002
>>3881005
>I'm retarded and shit at video games so you should just cheat
Good argument

>>3881002
>im currently playing a charismatic mage thief and it's absolute proof this game is scaled to shit for more fancy builds
A mage thief using Stun to backstab enemies is absurdly powerful, one of the strongest combat builds in the game.

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>>3880567
Sorry, I like my RPGs to have replayabilty. Even then, the few stuff I knew was just enough for me to not lose a ton of time. Like another anon said, investing in Perception is useless with gun mastery which was one of the traps I fell into but even then you get enough points to make up for it, I even invested in throwing when I didnt intended to. I didnt knew a single stuff on guns, I saw the bandit background and I rolled with it. You are making it so that this game seems impossible to play without pre-planning and all but really there isnt even for a gun build especially.

You have a novice and expert level trainer in the first town, I started with the Bandit background so I had a strong starting weapon and the rest of the gear is layed to you organically. I stepped on the Isles of despair with a large shield, a large gun and a power armor along with an undead prince warrior, a drunk ogre and a witty necromancer. It aint a hard game, you just have skill issues.

I play very differently in this game compared to my knight, Im constantly fighting in bar fights, pillaging remote locations, stealing and throwing explosives on merchant's doors and banks to steal money. Shit is fun, maybe you should try and not plan your game.

The most fun way to play is as an evil retarded non-tech, non-magic ogre who goes around genociding everything

>>3881334
It's fun to play as a gigaretard who just smashed through everything and everyone, but you can pull off some real devlish shit if you play 4D chess with everyone
>work with Nasrudin so he goes to the Ring of Brodgar
>then go work with the Dark Elves so their leader goes to the Ring and gets killed by Nasrudin
>attack Nasrudin so he sends you to the void
>side with Kerghan and betray him at the last moment

>>3881344
>>then go work with the Dark Elves so their leader goes to the Ring and gets killed by Nasrudin
You can do that???
I played an evil Elf and I was basically just destroying everything in sight, I never finished this game but I saw that you could side with the dark elves but still go to the jungle and meet with Nasrudin if you slay Stingy Pete.
I always assumed that I would've been softlock, this playthrough was insanely buggy anyway and I had to delete the save.

>>3881349
Yeah. It's a scene the vast majority of players will never see (or even think to try) because most people will side with one or the other, but if you complete their quests in the right order you can get both to go to the Ring and when you get there yourself you'll find Nasrudin standing over the dark elf leader's dead body. He's got some pretty funny dialogue about it, because from his perspective the dark elf guy showed up out of nowhere, started screaming about how Nasrudin, attacked him and got predictably owned.

>>3876427
About 95% of video games would be better as an adult VN. The only time the player should be bothered for input is when there is a consequential choice to be made. The rest of the time my hands should be free to play with my dick while looking at the tactless coombait they put in every game.

>>3874818
fucking retards saving downscaled images

>>3881456
>About 95% of video games would be better as an adult VN
95% games are trash, yes, but that doesn't mean they're valuable as works of literature and should be made into manchildren's books instead

it just means they shouldn't exist in the first place

>>3881324
It's amazing how you missed my point. It's not even about playing optimally since as the other guy said, even Harm spamming is only optimal later and it's more just an easy source of damage early on. No the issue is that Arcanum is very noob-unfriendly, and you're all talking from the experience of people that have played Arcanum before and using that as the basis of your mindset. There is only one way to breeze through this game with absolutely 0 knowledge of how to do anything and that's to go absoluitely full grug with a big weapon like >>3881334 says because it's genuinely impossible to lose then.
The problem with Arcanum is a lot of builds are "start shitty, get retardedly strong later", but for someone that has never touched Arcanum before and is just slamming their skull against a wall in every town, they're probably going to get stuck for an hour at the bridge fight in Shrouded Hills.A person with hindsight knowledge knows to toss raidroad spikes at the brutes because they will pick them up and actually decrease their own damage as fists are stronger, a newbie won't.

>>3881474
>It's amazing how you missed my point
The point in question is trying to paint the game harder than it seems when its not.
>No the issue is that Arcanum is very noob-unfriendly
Like any RPGs of its time, and Arcanum is very friendly when it comes to stat points.
>A person with hindsight knowledge knows to toss raidroad spikes at the brutes
Never knew about that, the only hindsight I had was not investing in herbology as a gunslinger and generally knowing where I have to go to go to advance the plot and even then I did things differently and was amazed by how the game still had some suprise if you actually killed NPCs or get items before you even started some quests which either put you in better or worse situation (thinking of the painting lady where she suspects you to be part of the thieves if you ask her for a reward without even interacting with her or how the gypsy lady got more stuff to say if you completed some tasks).
>The problem with Arcanum is a lot of builds are "start shitty, get retardedly strong later"
I havent got any problem for my gun guy or my knight, I kept playing them in the way I imagine them and they both turned out to be a very good experience from the start to the end game.

>people arguing about combat mechanics
It literally doesn't matter how you "build" your character, combat in Arcanum is always, always bad. This game has fucking terrible combat no matter how you slice it and if you play this game for combat then you're a masochist plain and simple. Arcanum is a talky game, the only correct way to play is to maximize social points in order to solve things without fighting.

>>3874759
Tim Cain in his youtube channel mentioned that the half ogre isle was just one of the lesser crimes of the gnomes.
What did he mean by that?

>>3881575
tbf while forced racemixing via rape to create supersoldiers is more awful on a moral scale, the fact that they killed the king and usurped the throne and thus are the ones responsible for the shitty state of the kingdom is objectively worse on any practical level.

>>3881474
You're significantly overstating the difficulty of the game, even for a new player.
>the issue is that Arcanum is very noob-unfriendly, and you're all talking from the experience of people that have played Arcanum before and using that as the basis of your mindset
Arcanum is actually very noob-friendly mechanically, unless you mean new to RPGs in general in which case you'll probably struggle with any game. It has an excellent manual with a lot of information; there are no hidden/semi-hidden mechanics like BAB in D&D-based games that might screw an unsuspecting player over, and there are no real ways to permanently gimp your build by making the wrong choices. Attributes describe exactly what they do so the player can immediately see what effect they have. You can see prerequisites for skills. You get stat points on level-up so even if you start with a terrible character you can always fix things. Every playstyle is viable, from pure melee to snooty mages to stealthy backstabbers to gigachad CHAmaxxers who talk their way through most situations and use their five buddies to kill anything that doesn't want to be persuaded. Every weapon class is viable to get you through the game, even something like Throwing which would be a supplemental combat skill in most other games. The game even includes Fate points that you can use to force guaranteed success every once in a while, like a character with no skills in stealth who needs to pickpocket this one item.

Sure, the game is harder than many similar games, but that's not the same thing as being unfriendly to noobs. Arcanum gives you so many tools to solve problems, it's just up to the player to learn to use them.
And while building an optimised-for-combat Grug is a simple way of playing through the game, ironically a new player playing one is probably going to struggle as much or more at the real difficulty spikes in the game (Black Mountain Mines, overlevelled enemies like the Tarantian sewers or portal quest)

>>3881474
>>3881812
Most builds being weaker at the start and getting significantly stronger later in the game is hardly unique to Arcanum, it's just a matter of how most RPGs are designed and structured, and I never felt you were too weak for anything in Arcanum. Starting off weak is just a way of reinforcing to the player that they should do as much as possible to get stronger - get better equipment, get more companions, get as much easy XP from quests as possible, etc.

>for someone that has never touched Arcanum before and is just slamming their skull against a wall in every town, they're probably going to get stuck for an hour at the bridge fight in Shrouded Hills
That fight is intended to be difficult because it's the game's way of telling you "go with the skills you focused on, and if that's combat make for damn sure you can fight". There's multiple ways of dealing with that situation without even getting into a fight, from persuading Lukan to leave, to stealing the key, to opening the gate with magick, to helping Lukan with his plan and having him let you pass. If you do get into combat the game gives you multiple opportunities to improve your chances in a fight - get a better weapon from completing Doc Roberts' quest or recruit Sogg at the inn. Every player is guaranteed to have at least a couple of grenades (explosive and stun) which can make a real difference in the fight. The trick with the railroad spikes is neat for a knowledgeable or repeat player, but it's more something to give you an edge than something that will let a PC who is terrible in combat breeze through the fight without other help.

I wish more modern RPGs would capture the mood as well as Arcanum does.
The score, writing and voice acting help a lot.

>>3876661
He can change personality a bit later when you allow it to happen. It´s hardened Virgil in the game files

>>3874757
I like how you still need to use your brain with the speech system.

>>3882089
I like that you can't bullshit your way in speech through shit that a character just objectively knows isn't true.

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>>3881154
.
>>3881191
didnt think to bother with backstab or stun, was mostly just planning on maxxing time and space magic (latter for teleports and easier home invasions). Will try out build. thanks a ton anon!

>>3882304
You're welcome, retardchama

What's a good beginner build for a n00b like me doing his first playthrough? I don't wanna ask plebbit.

>>3875173
It just coasts on vibe and titties. By the time you get to Boss Noss, you're sick to death of the 1.5D npcs with their character sketch dialogue, the bland combat against spongy mooks, and the charnel stench of the last three-odd missions you did. Bishop Vick is the most compelling character in the game and he's just a nihilistic Jimothy Learrison. I have other gripes but it's been a while.

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>>3884904
worldfag anon here, see>>3881817 >>3881324 >>3881812
but essentially here's a general guide
>I just want to experience the story and main quest
Strength build + companions will be THE ultimate newcomer option. Just click on the enemies and they'll die especially if you have 2 or more companions with you, and you'll scale well with the plot if you keep on putting point to strength. You'll have be able to specialise in 1 or 2 skills too but won't get far with magic or tech
>I want above but more interesting
Magic is much easier than magic as you just have to prioritise WIS for spell learning and INT if you want to use more spells, you'll probably be able to also learn 2-3 skills in the as a side. Recommended school is 1 dot in necromancy for "Harm" which is busted and 1 more for necromancy since it's fun, you can do basically anything else though.
>I want something hard!
You can try to do a tech wizard but most tech takes a while to actually get good in, and with the limited points you'll basically not be able to learn any side skills in the meantime.
Also play with drogs patch as mandalore vid says

>>3885155
other anons will probably be able to help with any other questions you have

>>3884904
You want a character that has at least decent combat ability (playing through the whole game with your companions doing all of your killing is entirely viable, but a bit boring for your first playthrough), decent Intelligence (10-12 is fine) and decent Charisma for a few companions (12 is fine, you can increase it later if you want - you can also get an extra companion slot through training Persuasion). You don't need to start with them that high, but they're good levels to aim for mid-game - Intelligence for dialogue options, 12 Charisma will get you 3 companion slots + optionally 1 from Persuasion. So decide how you're going to kill your enemies - melee, firearms, casting spells, even throwing is viable; archery is an option but I wouldn't recommend it for a first playthrough. Strength is important for melee, moreso if you want to use larger weapons; Dexterity gives action points so it's useful for every build. Mages get stronger depending on how magickal they are.
Starting with a character who has a couple points each in Melee/Dodge/STR/DEX and deciding how you want to build your character from there is completely viable. A close-combat character who maxes all those is extremely strong while being straightforward to build and play, and you will have enough points left over for some other stuff. A pure mage or tech gunslinger are also pretty simple and easy ways to play the game.

It's your first playthrough and talking is often useful so you probably want at least some Persuasion. Don't neglect skill training, it only costs you gold instead of character points and some of the effects are extremely valuable, pretty much every character can easily find and afford Apprentice training in their chosen skills very early in the game.

>>3884904
>>3885177
You don't necessarily need to decide whether you want to be tech- or magic-aligned before you start, a generalist melee character could go in either direction and it's entirely possible to go through the game playing an unaligned character, you just won't get the benefits of having a high alignment one way or the other. That said, you won't suffer penalties or miss out on gear either. In general magic equipment has better passive buffs (and mages can buff themselves with spells) while tech can craft its own gear, and some crafted gear is really strong. That said, you have to find the gear or schematics first.

Pretty much the only build I wouldn't recommend for a first playthrough is a magic/tech hybrid (a tech-wizard or magic gunslinger, for example), they're viable but you need to know what you're doing and if you don't you'll probably run out of character points long before you get a workable build.
I wouldn't recommend playing a half-ogre either but that's just for taste (they're annoying to keep equipped).
Don't forget to have fun.

>>3885155
>>3885177
>>3885182

Thank you anons!

They really fucked up by making magic the path to quick power while tech requires careful building and planning.
Inmershun ruined

>>3874757
Is this game actually good

>>3886136
It's a very good alpha release. The game is functional but it has some problems (both in balance and bugs) that could've been easily fixed with a beta phase.
At least the fan patch fixes some of those issues.

>>3886139
Other than the technical stuff is the game itself actually good

is the filament sword good for the black mountain clan run?
Or what gear should I load up on? I hear that's the big run killer part of the game

>>3886141
for me its a 7/10 game that feels like it got lots cut content and that was fucking unplayable on release, that score gets higher if you like and got bored of replaying Fallout 1 and 2, and it feels that for a long time it was the only other isometric with a similar kind of vibe out there

You can do some cool shit with the mechanics and history is great or at least different than most shit the first time around, but combat is bad to tolerable depending on your build, and thats the other problem really, I kinda feel its going to suck for anyone going in blind, like it was fucking shite for me back in the day

>>3886414
>7/10 game that feels like it got lots cut content and that was fucking unplayable on release
Many such cases