/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.5608460]

I recently finished Arcanum and really loved it. Can /vr/ recommend me some other old RPGs that I might enjoy and which will run on my shitty laptop?

[Anonymous No.5608524]

>arcanum
NOT RETROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[Anonymous No.5608594]

>>5608524
it's from 2001 that's totally retro there were still N64 games coming out in 2001

[Anonymous No.5608712]

Might as well try to help the anon before the janny comes and deletes the thread due to Nintendo babies being affraid of Halo being considered retro.
Here's a list from the top of my head:
Fallout 1 -- same dev as Arcanum
Fallout 2 -- not the same dev but just a bigger and grander Fallout 1.
Vampire the Masquarade Bloodlines -- same dev as Arcanum
Fallout 1.5 -- total conversion mod for Fallout 2. Good and has some Allo Allo references.
Fallout of Nevada -- another total conversion. Translation is sketchy but its VERY GOOD.
Planescape Torment -- the ultimate storyfag game. Combat is shit but if you enjoyed/could bear Arcanum's combat you'll be fine. One of the absolute best and greatest rpgs ever made in this regard.
Geneforge seried, Avernum series, Nethergate -- if you can look past the trashy graphics these are good. Most are not retro but they all look worse than Fallout, so...
Underrail -- not retro but can run on your potato.

[Anonymous No.5608856]

>>5608712
>bigger and grander
>grander
>mfw


>>5608460
IE games, way more combat oriented than Troika's fare but still okay. RTwP combat is pretty awful though and you'll either love it or hate it.
Dark Sun Shattered Lands is top tier fun and you can't go wrong with any of SSI's GoldBox games, they're probably my favorite crpgs

[Anonymous No.5608930]

>>5608460
Unironically Albion
I still don't understand why I've skipped over it as a kid.

[Anonymous No.5608947]

>>5608460
Infinity Engine games (Baldur's Gate 1 & 2, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale 1 & 2) are a must play if you haven't played them yet.

Just grab the Beamdog remasters off Steam and you're good to go.

[Anonymous No.5608959]

>muh Planescape
The only way to endure that game is to consider it a western VN. Otherwise it's undigestible

[Anonymous No.5609109]

>>5608460
>these are the most likely that you'll enjoy
Baldur's Gate (THE ORIGINAL ONLY! DO NOT PLAY THE "ENHANCED EDITION"!)
Baldur's Gate II (THE ORIGINAL ONLY! DO NOT PLAY THE "ENHANCED EDITION"!)
Icewind Dale
Icewind Dale II
Planescape: Torment
Fallout
Fallout II
Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines

>here are some others that you might like as well
Ultima VI (with Nuvie source port)
The Complete Ultima VII (with Exult source port and music pack)
Diablo
Diablo II
Neverwinter Nights
Neverwinter Nights II

>some others that I'm not as sure if you'll enjoy or not, but they offer assloads of depth and I think you might like them depending on what it was about Arcanum that you liked
Ultima Underworld
Ultima Underworld II
Arx Fatalis
Gothic
Gothic II Gold Edition
Deus Ex
System Shock
System Shock 2

[Anonymous No.5609146]

>>5608460
Don't listen to >>5608947 shill, "enhanced" editions are trash, pirate original gog versions.

[Anonymous No.5609158]

>>5609146
>pirate old releases from the 90's and spend hours modding them instead of just getting the remasters for the price of coffee on Steam
way to be a contrarian

[Anonymous No.5609182]

>>5608856
Note how I did not say better. And nice additions, I forgot Dark Sun, the only macropilled crpg I know of.

>>5608930
Thats probably for the best since you could have ended up as a furry.

>>5608959
Uou are kind of right but still a nigger.

[Anonymous No.5609208]

>>5609158
Go shill your garbage somewhere else, tranny.
Beamdog is a guilty of a number of different crimes.txt

[Anonymous No.5609236]

>>5609109
>depending on what it was about Arcanum that you liked
What drew me most to Arcanum was the world and ambience, the whole steampunk theme and all the technology elements. I also liked the story for being intriguing and not so extremely emo as some others which seem to be just death and despair to me, and I liked that the world felt alive, full of NPCs, not just barren wildernes with monsters.
I didn't dislike the combat, but maybe I just got used to it and don't know better.
Before this the only pc RPG I ever played was Gothic 2 which is one of my fav games ever, although given the choice I do prefer turn-based combat. I would replay G2 it but my good PC isn't here right now so I have to make due.
I'm especially interested in immersive worlds, and RPGs based a lot on quests and not just on combat.

In any case I'll look over your suggestions, so thanks a bunch kind anon.

[Anonymous No.5609248]

>>5609236
>not so extremely emo as some others which seem to be just death and despair
But the antagonist was literally "fuck this cruel world let's just kill everyone because death is at least peaceful"?

[Anonymous No.5609252]

>>5609248
yah i kno, but that was just the deepest lore, generally all through the game it's just an adventure to even find out wtf is going on

[Anonymous No.5609331]

>>5609236
>I'm especially interested in immersive worlds, and RPGs based a lot on quests and not just on combat.
Sounds like PST will be right up your alley

[Anonymous No.5609339]

>>5609236
Yeah, then I think my list is probably going to be right up your alley.

[Anonymous No.5609352]

>>5609331
>>5609339
rightupyouralleymind

[Anonymous No.5609447]

>>5608712
>Might as well try to help the anon before the...
hey everyone, look at this mad little retard, being all mad and shit

ahahahahaha

[Anonymous No.5609458]

>>5608460
S E P T E R R A

C O R E
O
Right up your alley
E

[Anonymous ~ No.5609806]

>>5608460
Download the The Lost Dungeon of Souls module from the fansite?
https://terra-arcanum.com/forums/index.php?threads/the-lost-dungeon-of-souls.14736/

Not sure if link still works.

[Anonymous ~ No.5609809]

>>5609158
Older nonshit GOG versions of all those games can be torrented. They don't required tweaking, but fan mods are still available AFAIK. And they don't take hours to install, unless you're so retarded for beamdoge you forgot how to click on an EXE or uncompress a 7zip file.

[Anonymous No.5610834]

>>5608712
Fallout 1.5 is terrible, no way around that. it's as long if not shorter than Fallout 1, has a shit tier story (that ending LMAO) and terrible fucking dialog.
don't even bother.
Fallout: Nevada is a good one

[Anonymous No.5610939]

>>5609806
Its a diablo like thing. And since the combat in Arcanum is what it is I cannot see why would someone subject themselves to it.

[Anonymous No.5610992]

>>5608712
>Fallout 1.5 -- total conversion mod for Fallout 2. Good and has some Allo Allo references.
I thought it was terrible. The beginning was promising, but it fell apart rather quickly
>Fallout of Nevada -- another total conversion. Translation is sketchy but its VERY GOOD.
At times Nevada is actually better than the original fallouts. At times it's fucking atrocious, but I'd still recommend that mod.

Anons already recommended you plenty of isometric cRPGs, but I guess I could add Inquisitor and Temple of Elemental Evil to the lists.

[Anonymous No.5611002]

>>5608712
>Geneforge seried, Avernum series, Nethergate -- if you can look past the trashy graphics these are good. Most are not retro but they all look worse than Fallout, so...
I only played the Geneforge games, never any other games by Jef. How are they? Are the settings equally as interesting? Does he reuse assets from geneforge in other games as well? Will I be looking at the same assets as I have during the 1000 hours it took me to finish the whole Geneforge saga?

[Anonymous No.5611939]

>>5610939
What's supposedly so bad about Arcanum combat anyway?

[Anonymous No.5611990]

>>5609158
>hours modding
There's no modding required, at most a patch that takes like 5 minutes.

[Anonymous No.5612295]

>>5611939
Different anon, but you want to know how I know you never went past Quintarra with the game?

[Anonymous No.5612324]

>>5609109

>do not play enhanced edition

Memes aside, the changes between the originals and the enhanced edition are literally minimal, besides the fact that enhanced edition adds kits to BG1 and fixes scaling and models (something I did myself anyway when I played through the game with BGtutu).

[Anonymous No.5612697]

>>5612324
They disfigured the games in every way. There is literally no reason to play the EE over spending half an hour modding the original games with tutu/BGT, fixpack, unfinished business, 1pp, widescreen mod and generalized biffing.

[Anonymous No.5612703]

>>5611002
>I only played the Geneforge games, never any other games by Jef. How are they?

Depends on which remake you play. Ive played quite a bit of Avernum but its all just furries and scalies and ayylmaos on a rather EVIL MEDIEVAL EMPYRR WHO IS TOTALITAREAN thing. If you can tolerate or even like such adventurefagging then its okay I guess.

>Are the settings equally as interesting?
Ehhh...
Not really. Nethergate can be equally as if not more interesting than Geneforge if you are a history buff. It is my favourite game by him, its not too long and does some interesting stuff.

>Does he reuse assets from geneforge in other games as well? Will I be looking at the same assets as I have during the 1000 hours it took me to finish the whole Geneforge saga?

Yes yes and yes. The man loves to recycle so much to the point that I wonder if he bakes his own shit into cookies and ferments his own piss into beer.

[Anonymous No.5612732]

>>5612703
Id like to add
Avernum 5 and 6 are the only ones that have some major genforgelike politicking going around.
1 is just you in the caves doing shit.
2 is fighting evil empire.
3 is going to surface.
4 is killing some ayylmao wraiths or some shit.
5 is about finding the assasin of the librul empress and kicing his ass or having an epic gamer moment together.
6 is about wrapping the series up and takes place in the middle of a large famine in the whole underground land.

[Anonymous No.5612801]

>>5612697
Fuck off. The camera zoom and item/hotspot highlighting features are worth it alone.

[Anonymous No.5613216]

>>5612801
>item/hotspot highlighting
Was added in ToB, stupid shill.

[Anonymous No.5613512]

>>5611002
I really enjoyed the latest Avernum remasters, particularly the first one, Escape from the Pit.

[Anonymous No.5613632]

Wanted to say Siege of Avalon but I realized it's more Diablo-like. Not even sure if you can run it on modern machines.

[Anonymous No.5613691]

The first Divinity game is really good, too.

[Anonymous No.5613692]

I've been playing Baldur's Gate since 1998 and I've found the Enhanced Editions to be pretty good, but you have to know what options of theirs to turn off.

[Anonymous No.5613725]

>>5612801
Kill yourself you dumb nigger.

[Anonymous No.5613756]

>>5608460
Bold suggestion, play Arcanum again with a different type of character.
I did and it felt like a new game.

[Anonymous No.5613764]

>>5613725
???

You're delusional if you think there's anything at all wrong with the enhanced editions. They run on updated engines with many useful features which are obviously not available through bandaid mods.

There's only so far you can get with being contrarian and not looking like a complete moron.

[Anonymous No.5613773]

>>5612295
I said I finished it you fucking idiot
drink bleach and go back to whatever pisshole you crawled out of

[Anonymous No.5613779]

>>5613756
I've played through it twice so far and always end up going more or less the same way, technologist with high charisma and max persuasion, good with guns, and advanced smithy and tech.
This second playthrough I used the equilibrium rebalance mod, which was good on some things, but a bit dumb on others (mechanical arachnid requires wooden ring, automaton requires vendigroth newspaper).
I did end up with two automatons, one mechanical arachnid and the medical arachnid given by Hieronymus Maxim.
Then the save file got corrupted right as I was getting to the final battle with Kerghan and I couldn't try to end the game without fighting using my 20 charisma and level 5 persuasion master ;____;

[Anonymous ~ No.5613782]

>>5613773
>>5612295

Yeah. What;s wrong with it, besides magic > tech ? It's otherwise quite similar to FO: Tactics. And that ranged attacks have a slight advantage in realtime mode, since some enemies move stupidly slow in realtime and have no ranged attacks.

[Anonymous No.5613785]

>>5613782
Maybe that idiot anon played it in real time mode and got frustrated idk

[Anonymous No.5613790]

>>5613764
>updated engines
lol
>with many useful features which are obviously not available through bandaid mod
Yeah the zoom, disgusting outlines and what else? Nothing. Oh yeah, fanfic storylines and characters. But you can get those from plenty of mods.
It's not contrarianism, it's just not being a gullible moron. Fucking dumb shill.

[Anonymous No.5613792]

>>5613764
>You're delusional if you think there's anything at all wrong with the enhanced editions.
I'd say you're delusional if you shill the EE. It's a shitty product made hastily and lazily by a company who didn't work on the originals yet now claims all sales from it. It adds no features, it doesn't run any better, it looks worse and it disfigure the story.
How in hell do you have to be a contrarian to be pissed off by this?
I fucking hate this endless shitty debate, you're just a lazy faggot, admit it, move on and stop defending this absolute trash for fuck's sake.

[Anonymous No.5613841]

Should I just grab albion from gog and play it, or are there some mods/etc that I should be aware of?

[Anonymous No.5613850]

>>5613782
>>5613785
Its horribly balanced, everything moves too fast making ranged far less viable (in turn based its one turn and the enmy is on your ass).
Companions are stupid. Especially the mage ones.
Very little to do i combat other than click at it until it dies and chug consumables for non mages.
Enemy variety and encounter design is shit.

I love Arcanum but combat is its weakest aspect by far.

[Anonymous No.5613909]

>>5613850
agree, if someone could balance the combat (if that's actually possible) the game would improve significantly

[Anonymous No.5613930]

>>5613850
>Its horribly balanced, everything moves too fast making ranged far less viable (in turn based its one turn and the enmy is on your ass).
maybe you just had low speed? Many enemies I would get a few paces away and shoot at them, and they would get at most one hit at me or not even that when they catched up.
>Companions are stupid. Especially the mage ones.
Agreed
>Very little to do i combat other than click at it until it dies and chug consumables for non mages.
This was one of the better things in the equilibrium rebalance, you get 500 bullets out of one saltpeter and one charcoal. So bullets were essentially a non-issue.

>Enemy variety and encounter design is shit.
I thought it was ok, then again I don't really know any better.

>I love Arcanum but combat is its weakest aspect by far.
fair enough

[Anonymous No.5614215]

>>5613909
have you tried equilibrium rebalance?

[Anonymous No.5615197]

>>5613909
Drog (maker of UAP) wanted to try a rebalance for UAP 2.0 but it didnt end up materializing yet due to a belief that Arcanum is wholly dead.

>maybe you just had low speed? Many enemies I would get a few paces away and shoot at them, and they would get at most one hit at me or not even that when they catched up.

Its not an speed issue. What both of us are refering to leads to positioning in combat barely mattering at all because its so easy for both the player and the monsters to bum rush or run around willy nilly and still have ample AP to land some shots or attacks. Compare that to Fallout which didnt have that stellar combat to begin with.

>I thought it was ok, then again I don't really know any better.

There were far too few tech enemies as well as enemies who were dedicated wizards. Its pretty absurd when there are antimagic schools and gear and then literarly nobody to use it on. Not even the final boss since he doenst function like that.
Also Thanatos was hilarious. "THE ISLAND OF BEASTS!", mostly populated by angry chimps.

>>5614215
Never heared of it till now desu. I only play(ed) with UAP.

[Anonymous No.5615205]

>>5615197
Forgot to link to >>5613930
Oops

[Anonymous No.5616360]

>>5615197
the pic looks like an oily bird with a long beak flying over some snow

[Anonymous No.5616553]

>>5613782
>besides magic > tech
It's the exact reverse by mid-game, thou. And as far as point value is concerned, NOTHING beats LGR-totting gunslinger, very closely followed by throw-centric explosive techie. Unless you plan to spam Disintegrate, magic is shit by mid and ridiculously underpowered by late game

>>5613850
Devil's advocate for followers:
Melee-centric party can wipe out large swarms of enemies as if nothing and you don't even have to kill anything yourself. And it works both in turn and real-time mode.

>>5613930
Bullets are non-issue in normal, unmodded game. It's arrows that tend to get problematic, especially if you have any of the "death by million scratches" bows equipped. Or just have Raven in your team

[Anonymous No.5616564]

>>5613850
>>5615197
The general problem with Arcanum's combat is how it favours high Speed weapons, regardless of damage they actually deal. So Balanced Sword is one of the best weapon in the game and rapier you can buy in the shop before the game starts is a "nuke" when compared with anything else you can get before BS.
Then there is the fact that your own raw Speed comes from Dexterity and Dexterity ties with almost all combat skills sans Firearms. Meaning if you plan to make even semi-competent fighter, you are going to end up with high raw Speed, a fuckload of AP in turn-based and really nifty probabilities for your hits. So who cares if your attack deals 3-12 damage, if it has Speed of 18 (and with Apprentice training 23), so you can easily kill 2-5 targets in single turn with it, as long as you don't have to walk close and have melee-centric build.
Compare with bows, which just blow and guns that require from you to rank-up otherwise utterly useless Perception and without MacGyvering better ones, provide shit weapons too. Magic doesn't scale all that well and sans few obvious exploits, it ends up being lackluster by late-game.
And don't get me started on how unbalanced Throwing weapons are, because they take everything that makes fast melee broken on another level thanks to being ranged attacks and weapons don't wear down, while explosives deal absurd damage and provide powerful dabuffs.

tl;dr speed is such a king and weapons are so all over the place with stats and capacity there is no way to fix this mess without remaking half of the game. This is not something that can be fixed by just switching few numbers around, the entire thing is deeply flawed.

[Anonymous No.5616568]

>>5616553
>Unless you plan to spam Disintegrate, magic is shit by mid and ridiculously underpowered by late game

Certain spells scale by magic aptitude. Harm's damage scales all the way to 100.
Summon orc, summon ogre and the nature summon spell (whatever its name was) are also very good because they shit out level 40-50 melee ogres and orcs, which is great since
>melee followers are very strong

>Bullets are an non issue in a normal unmodded game.
True unless you are using the levered MG, but that is restored UAP content anyway.

[Anonymous No.5616578]

>>5616564
Agreed.
About throwing, iirc ive read somewhere that throwing damage scales off dexterity. Which is why even though there are relatively few throwing weapons that are good barring the easter egg one they still rape once your build starts to go places.
Speaking of speed, backstab damage does not matter based on your weapon. It entierly depends on your skill, which makes me wonder why did they bother to code the mastery so you could backstab with any melee weapon since its more useful to just get the fastest dagger. Maybe to backstab the final boss with the Falchion?
>Bows blow
They are the most fun thing to use in real time though. I recommend everyone to do a bow build in real time mode, equip the elven bow you get from Qintarra and then reach bow mastery. Its a literal fucking machinegun and its hilarious.

[Anonymous No.5616583]

What's the best powergaming race? I spend more time in the character creation screen than actually playing some of my builds because the first few hours are legitimately less entertaining than fidgeting around with stats and possibilities.

[Anonymous No.5616585]

>>5616564
The problem with Speed is how the game doesn't differente between general Speed and movement. So enemies that are super-slow in real time don't have this issue in turn-based mode, because they can just pour all their Action Points to get close. And they have a lot of those thanks to being (usually) quite good at combat. And to be good at combat, they need high Dex, which menas high Speed. So their real-time animation for movement is meaningless if you play turn-based and eventually the sheer retardation of combat as such will force you to stick to turn based for the most of the game.

[Anonymous No.5616586]

>>5616578
>I recommend everyone to do a bow build in real time mode
>Real time mode
>Ever
Thanks, I'll skip.

[Anonymous No.5616590]

>>5616583
Human male in general.
Half-orc if you plan to go melee, followed by half-elves if you plan to use bows and thrown weapons.
Everyone else is fucked by caps on stats.

[Anonymous No.5616594]

>>5616568
>Harm's damage scales all the way to 100.
... and late game enemies are damage sponges with 200+ HP. Which means it is underpowered to "Harm" them.
Summons are fun, but tedious and you might as well just invest your points into Charisma and assembly a good party with even better equipment.

[Anonymous No.5616603]

>>5616583
Depends on what you want to do. If you want to go solo either melee or ranged half orcs are your best bet.
Half ogres are the best melee fighters because you can reach 20 speed early. Reaching 20 in a stat gives you major bonuses. 20 str gives you a massive bump in melee damage since it shifts the way it is calculated or something. 20 dex gives you a huge jump in speed. 20 con gives you poison immunity, which is only relevant if you wanna cheese with cursed gear.
Ogres can easily also go over 20 str cap with the right background and their large bump in damage keeps scaling until whatever their cap is.
Halflings are the same thing as ogres but with dex instead of str.

>>5616586
Its hilarious in its retardation.

[Anonymous No.5616616]

>>5616568
Let's check magic schools
>Conveyance
Unironically one of the most handy schools, thanks to teleportation, along with unlock and disarm.
>Divination
Shit, like "what the fuck they were thinking" shit
>Air
Shit
>Earth
Shit, but Body of Stone has some fun results
>Fire
Agility of Fire is fucking broken, get it ASAP, but other than that, shit.
>Water
Shit
>Force
The only truly combat-oriented school and yet still lackluster
>Mental
Stun is good, but rest of spells require tedious planning and turn based combat for rather finnicky results.
>Meta
There are like 5 dedicated casters in the entire game, making this school officially the most useless of them all. Unless you plan to glitch the game with reflective shield, stay the fuck out
>Morph
Shit
>Nature
Lackluster, but can be handy if done right
>Necromancy, Black
Fine, I guess. Early-to-mid game best thing you can get from magic and for roleplaying value absolutely fantastic. The final spell is a fucking joke.
>Necromantic, White
Healing magic, yay!
>Phantasm
Shit
>Summoning
Super-handy, if unreliable early on. Familiar with full Aptitude is great
>Temporal
In turn-based, a complete game-breaker. In real time, an useless gimmick that does shit.

So we have.... 6 outright shit schools, 3 on the fence (with two of them having only single good spell) and handful of useful spells here and there.

[Anonymous No.5616620]

>>5616603
I know how it looks like in action, I just don't find it feasible to play by that point of the game in real time. The game is simply not designed for being a real time hack&slash.

[Anonymous No.5616626]

>>5609158
>Buying retro games
>From steam
>And yet somehow having smug sense of superiority over others
Anon, you are a fucking moron

[Anonymous No.5616993]

>>5616594
>Summons are fun, but tedious and you might as well just invest your points into Charisma and assembly a good party with even better equipment.
Alternatively, use necromancy to raise any of the powerful enemies you slain as your thrall

[Anonymous No.5617009]

>>5616616
>Agility of Fire
This spell is just fucking silly, even if you don't cheese it up. You start with 2 spell slots and it's tier 1 spell. +8 Dexterity the moment the game starts, dump your points into Melee/Throw/Bow (depends on your weapon of choice) and you suddenly have at least 3 of given skill. At level 1. And it works even if you have 100% technology aptitude.
The only thing that comes even remotely close to AoF is Essence of Intellect for techies learning new blueprints. It also works regardless of your aptitude (but duration is affected), so for a short moment you gain 10 Intelligence and can easily get tier 5 schematics, assemble what you need and never bother with wasting points on Intelligence

[Anonymous No.5617048]

>>5616616
I know this is exploit (?), but Fire has another great spell. Fireflash. You know, the fireball spell. Not due to the spell itself being good (it's not), but the combination of it and Shocking Staff.
If you use Harm, Fireflash or any other direct damage spell on any given target while holding Shocking Staff, it will cause a continous discharge from the staff, despite not even being in melee. And Fireflash is AoE spell, so you will fry 7 different targets with it.
But like I've said, that's pure cheese

[Anonymous No.5617059]

>>5616616
Earth isnt completely shit since it does have AoF but for STR. Sure, its far less potent than AoF but its still there.

Other than that you are more or less right.

[Anonymous No.5617074]

>>5616564
I think the thing is that since I always went for guns I never noticed many of those things you mention. And in the Equilibrium Rebalance mod gun damage is improved especially in the early games, and explosion damage reduced so despite everything it worked for me. But I see where you're coming from.

[Anonymous No.5617162]

>>5617059
Str is useless, unless permament and 20+. It's not used for any skill, it doesn't play any role and there is literally 1 (one) quest where you need any specific value of it (12) to finish. So that spell is pretty much "meh"

[Anonymous No.5617181]

>>5617074
Believe me, I'm a dedicated LGR gunslinger when it comes to replaying Arcanum. But I can still easily spot all the problems with the combat system. There are two vectors that "win" combat - how fast your weapon is and how narrow the damage margain is. If the weapon is both fast enough and with tight damage output, it will thrump everything else, even if it might not look like anything special.
And why buffing early game guns? They are perfectly fine. I actually do enjoy them as they are, at least as far as unique and techie guns are concerned (shop guns are trash)

[Anonymous No.5617250]

>>5616993
>>5617048
Want to hear real exploit? Dante, Thorvald, Cynthia, Murgo and Jormund don't count as party members and can be kept indefinitely in your party. Jormund might be fucking useless, but the remaining four make some of the best followers in the entire game. Dante is what Virgil could be if he didn't suck, Murgo is stat-wise Sogg 2.0, Thorvald gets Melee mastery and Cynthia is Magikarp of Arcanum.
And on top of that, you can have your regular party of 6 and the fucking dog, because why fucking not

[Anonymous No.5617330]

>>5617181
What's LGR?

[Anonymous No.5617342]

>>5617330
Looking Glass Rifle. Tier 5 Gunsmith schematics (or what Master of Firearms carries), a 40-40 damage and longest range of all attacks in-game, along with +20 to-hit (essentially 1 rank of Firearms) bonus. Even if nerfed in some versions of the game to 10-30, still an extremely potent game, since that's actually 25-30 (thanks to the TH bonus). Oh, and it ignores range penalties, too.
Basically, the ultimate weapon for gunslingers and accessible as soon as you hit Tarant/rush to Ashbury for dog. The only downside is Speed rating of 1 and 6 if you have Apprentice in Firearms (which you fucking should have ASAP), so it takes whole 4 action points to fire this gun. Still worth it, since lion share of common enemies in game have HP range of 35-40 and this gun is perfect for called shots, since it ignores penalties, something that only Master of Firearms allows with other guns

[Anonymous No.5617351]

>>5617342
And aside of that, there is also Sharp-shooter's Pistol, which is LGR, but fast and in revolver size. Damage is 3-12, but it has 20 range (so aside LGR and Marksmen rifle, longest range in-game) and +15 to-hit bonus and most importantly, Speed of 12. Basically a Fine Revolver on steroids that make it powerful. Unfortunatelly, doesn't have the perk item of LGR, so called shots are penalised. But still one of the best guns.

[Anonymous No.5617352]

>>5617342
>Looking Glass Rifle, 40-40 damage
You must be a real boomer (like me lmao) because 40-40 is what it did on release, prior to any patches

They changed it to 10-30 in one of the first patches because apparently somebody thought guns were too powerful lol

Hand Cannon was rebalanced too, from 20-40 to 5-35 IIRC

[Anonymous No.5617369]

>>5617352
You see, the funny thing is, in official Polish release patch, the gun is restored to 40-40.
And I'm Polish.
Whoever was responsible for patching things up, apparently realised Troika's patching is fucked, so they set the values back to release ones (but not for all things).

[Anonymous No.5617384]

Okay, redpill time.

By far the most broken cheese build is the backstabbing halfling.

Max Dexterity, Max Melee, Max Backstab, full Temporal, 2 points in Mental (for Stun), use Dagger of Speed for your weapon. Strength, Dodge and other gear are all irrelevant. You have to play in Turn-Based for Backstab and Speed bonuses to work however.

Stunned/unaware targets will incur sneak attack damage which is 5x backstab damage (flat 100 points) and as Backstab apprentice you also ignore their AC/DR. Dagger of Speed takes only 1 action point per attack and with max Dexterity and all the Temporal spells stacked you'll be getting like 40 attacks per turn, easily doing 4000-5000 points of damage ignoring all armor and resistances easily destroying any possible opposition in the game.

Later on (once you reach Caladon because the master trainer is there) you can also max out Prowling, it will let you stealth while in combat letting you sneak attack without Stun.

[Anonymous No.5617407]

>>5617384
>A tedious build that requires more than 5 points into it
>m-most broken cheese, I swear!
Nigger, the time spend on making this work (and getting it work) renders it as "broken" as Disintegration spell.

[Anonymous No.5617409]

>>5617384
Oh yeah, halfling is the best because they have the highest DX cap in the game (22). I'd also recommend picking the Hyperactive background (+1 Speed, -1 CH).

[Anonymous No.5617413]

>>5617407
Early game you only need some points in Melee and Backstab, the Stun spell (2 points) and Haste (3 points). Not that big of an investment compared to other builds, but okay. Nice tardraging btw.

[Anonymous No.5617443]

>>5617413
I'm not sure you can even grasp the problem. Your build isn't broken nor isn't cheese. It's average backstabbing build. There is literally nothing special about it. Hence it's Disintegration-tier "broken".
Want actual broken build? Try what >>5617009 suggested. Suddenly early game is piss-easy, because you have 4 points in any given combat skill by level 2. That's what broken build is.

[Anonymous No.5617474]

>>5617443
The backstabbing halfling can kill both Stringy Pete and the final boss in one turn. IIRC that's the only build that can do so.

But I'm not really interested in arguing the definition of "broken", so feel free to disregard my post. I was only interested in providing this info to new players, not starting a screeching contest over some non-issue. Seriously, the fuck's wrong with you people picking a fight with everyone? Who hurt you?

[Anonymous No.5617546]

>>5617474
You can also throw a stun grenade you didn't even make yourself and let your party rush Pete with Balanced Swords. Or even Dog do that, by himself. Zero points invested into anything.
The fuck's wrong? You slamming in, talking shit and then getting surprised you get pushed back for it.

[Anonymous No.5617653]

>>5617546
Okay autismo now you triggered me.

You're obviously just shitposting without being too familiar with the game. The thing about why Stringy Pete is the toughest encounter in the game is that he has crazy high damage resistances (75 base + whatever extra his Arcane gear gives him) IN ADDITION to his 700 hp. So unless you're playing a backstabber that can outright ignore the resistances it's gonna take quite a while to bring him down, even if you sic your whole party and the dog on him. And his crew members have similar stats so that's even crazier. 90% of builds will just bite it. You're not supposed to win that fight after all, normally.

So fucking shut it and sit tight when the big boys are talking.

[Anonymous No.5617784]

>>5617653
>All this crap
>Still doesn't understand his build is nothing special
But hey, at least you got angry

[Anonymous No.5617828]

>>5616616
>>Air
>Shit
Oh? did the damage-immunity get patched out?

[Anonymous No.5617840]

>>5617828
You mean Body of Air? It's too gimmicky and requires a strict build to pull off, while there aren't exactly any other useful spells in that school, while you still need to waste points on them to get to BoA. You might just carry a Screaming Shield and good armour, not spending a single point on anything.

[Anonymous No.5617873]

>>5617840
I guess. I still think it has it's place on a dedicated spellcaster, and I at least wouldn't rate it shit and lump it in with the genuinely useless schools.

[Anonymous No.5617934]

>>5617873
No, for dedicated caster it's great, don't get me wrong. But genrally speaking, the whole school is very much shit. It's like Fire - first spell is great, Fireflash is fantastic AOE spell for cleaning clusters of weak enemies at once, but that's it, the rest of that school is shit. And Air doesn't even have two good spells, it has one, as 4th one at that.

[Anonymous No.5619182]

Is there any way to change your habits with this game? Each time I want to replay, I promise myself trying a new build... and ultimately I make the exact same gunslinger I always do and if not, then it's the exact same bumerang thrower. Each and every time. I played as a caster grand total of once and it was a teeth-clenching exercise, because I was itched to ditch it and just re-spec for guns. Melee combat? Never tried, beyond the Crash Site.

[Anonymous No.5619191]

>>5619182
Also, adding to this:
What's even the point of the part-ranks? You know, like how certain races and backgrounds give you a quarter or a half-rank in a skill. You obviously gain a miniscule bonus to said skill, equal with 5 or 10% (a point invested into it gives 20), but you still need to spend all 5 points to qualify for mastery. So why even bother with those bonuses? Am I missing something?

[Anonymous No.5619223]

>>5608460
You should be playing newer indie games if you have a shit computer. Without a decent PC and 4K display, you won't be simulating a dot mask cancer ray tube, so old PC games will always look wrong.

[CreepyThinMan No.5619224]

>>5619182
same

>>5619191
I always get the raised by monks background, 1 free perception point and the only drawback is starting out with less money.

[Anonymous No.5619227]

>>5619223

[Anonymous No.5619235]

>>5619224
ignore the namefagging, I was just shitting on an actual namefag on another board

[Anonymous No.5619269]

>>5619224
As far as backgrounds go, there are few universally good
>Barbarian
The penalties are meaningless
>Beat with an Ugly Stick
The penalties are there, but you can just throw 2 points into Beauty to ignore the reaction penalty and still be 2 points "ahead" from the bonuses. Or ignore it entirely and just roll with the fact everyone is disgusted
>Bully
Penalty is irrevelant for fighters
>Charlatan's Protégé (for non-melee characters)
Great bonus and you can still make a good character out of it
>Child of a Hero
Free, decent gear and no real penalties? Yes please
>Clanless Dwarf
Great gear for virtually no penalty
>Educator
One of the most broken backgrounds, basically a cheat mode
>Escaped Lunatic
Fucking broken, the reaction penalty is meaningless when compared with all the resists you gain
>Factory Escapee
Making half-ogres even stronger
>Idiot Savant
Fun and great for technologists
>Only Child
Mages galore
>Professional Knife Tosser
If it was +4 to Throw, it would be officially one of the best backgrounds possible, penalty is meaningless
>Raised by Elves
Free gear for virtually no penalty? Yes please
>Raised by Monks
Only good for gunslingers and only to a very small degree, but still, a free +1 PE
>Raised by Orcs
Harsh penalty, but nice bonus to becoming gunslinger and melee
>Raised by Snake Handlers
Not much of a penalty, so go figure
>Ran Away with the Circus
One of the better backgrounds for melee fighters, just don't try magic
>Sheltered Childhood
Nice gunslinger
>Sickly
Nice technologist
>Tomboy
Depends on a race, but can provide you ability to both have competent fighter and still have roleplay value of running as female PC
>Tough Hide
Meaningless penalty for -10% of all damage. Yes please!
>Troll Offspring
Great melee, passable penalty

Rest is shit or for races that can't really benefit from the changes.

[Anonymous No.5619276]

>>5619191
They allow you to "cheat" on your stats early on.
Say you pick a Professional Knife Tosser. You have 3 point (the actual scale is 0-20, with each char point spend adding +4) into Throwing. Spending 1 point into Throwing allows you to rise it to 7, so almost equal with having Dex 9 and 2 points into Throwing.
If you then actually rise your Dex to 9 and spend a point on Throwing, it will be 11 rather than 8. So you bypass the requirement of having higher Dex to raise your skill early on.
By mid game it loses the potential, but early on, when your skills are crap, every single bonus counts and this allows to reach higher skill both cheaper and earlier.

[Anonymous No.5619327]

>>5619269
So let me get this straight: A Human Tomboy will be pretty much a backgroundless Male Human in terms of everything, including stat caps?

[Anonymous No.5619349]

>>5619327
Yes.
But you still have the "Female" box checked for quest purposes.

[Anonymous No.5619363]

>>5619276
This background, combined with Agility of Fire, allows to get 4 (or 3.75) in Throwing when the game starts. Just another reason why Trowing is so god-damn powerful. Just ignore the master's quest and keep the Star for yourself. It might deal less damage than Decapicator, but has much higher Speed and 2.5 times longer range. The speed is very important in this case, since it allows Azram's Star to out-damage the Decapicator

[Anonymous No.5619371]

I've noticed some serious mistake you all make. Namely
>Rising Perception
What fucking for? Jayna Stiles has Therapeutics. Level 3 of it gives you Liquid of Awareness. It gives +2 PE for few hours and you make 3 at once. That's +6 PE. So you make two batches and you have 20 PE. Just throw points into Firearms then. Unlike what the manual claims, your PE isn't accounted when shooting, but your skill is.
Btw, Tonic of Increased Reflexes is basically tech-version of Agility of Fire
>inb4 Jayna is useless
Her job is to be a party's healer when you are on a tech-side of things and she's great at that. Just arm her with some fast weapon and she's fine in combat, too.
And think about it: you can just pump her few levels easily early on, then simply dump her once you get what you want from her. No need to waste points on PE nor to keep her around forever.

And even if you ignore her, there is always Eye Gear and Blessing of Halycon, along with further tech gear that adds to PE and few magic items, too (they will grant the bonus if you aren't a fucking idiot and know how to use aptitude for your advantage)

[Anonymous No.5619372]

Is Sogg worth the 9 Charisma?

[Anonymous No.5619375]

>>5619372
Yes.
If you absolutely have to pick the one follower you want to have around beyond Virgil (dog doesn't count), then Sogg is your best bet. And really, the game is most fun with a party of 3 and a dog.
Sogg also has a clone (stat-wise) in form of Murgo, who you get as a literal mule in one of quests and can keep him forever by not talking with the quest giver after you are done fixing their altar.

[Anonymous No.5619378]

>>5619372
Definitely. One of the better melee fighters out there and a fantastic carrier of your shit. Even if you don't plan to go full Charisma/Persuasion build (you should, this is Arcanum, game made by Fallout crew), that 1 point into CH is still well worth it to get Sogg. There are hardly any better followers than him aside very late joiners who will be under-levelled by the point you reach them anyway.

[Anonymous No.5619390]

>>5619372
To fully enjoy the game you need at least 3 Persuasion. That means 12 Charisma, while Pesuasion lvl 2 takes 9 Charisma.
Do the math.

[Anonymous No.5619405]

>>5619375
Murgo is a lot of fun, because you can potentially gain him somewhere around level 5-10 range, while he's 30 and packs some serious stats (24 ST, 18 DX) right off the bat

[Anonymous No.5619406]

>>5619378
>Even if you don't plan to go full Charisma/Persuasion build (you should, this is Arcanum, game made by Fallout crew)
Well, except in Fallout Charisma doesn't do anything and successful Persuasion (or rather, Speech) isn't gated by Charisma in almost any way, but I get your drift. Thanks.

[Anonymous No.5619407]

>>5619406
To rise Persuasion, you need Charisma and a lot of it. This can be achieved only three ways: you start with a proper background, you spend points into it or you drink a bucketful of contotions from Therapeutics

[Anonymous No.5619414]

>>5619371
>>5619407
This rise a question:
Can you potentially drink 12 Persuasion Tonics to get 3 full ranks of Pesuasion, learn from Expert and benefit from its effect (+1 follower, regardless of Charisma) or the effect will be turned off once the tonic wears out?

[Anonymous No.5619480]

>>5619269
>Tough Hide
Fub fact. An half ogre with tough hide can reah maximum physical DR (95% reduction) by the time he gets to BMC.
1. Go to Blackroot as soon as you are done with SH.
2. Either use the fate point to steal the Chapeu from the mother of the portal closer guy or do her quest legit.
3. Equip the Chapeu and go to Tarrant.
4. Aquire money
5. Force the armorers to repeatedly restock by waiting for one ingame day outside of their FOV until they have an large plate armour.
6. Buy it and equip it, grabbing any boots and gloves you can as well.
7. Be able to run through BMC and the rest of the game almost unscathed.
The large races get better stats for their armour than the smaller ones.

[Anonymous No.5619492]

>>5619480
Screaming Shield is your friend. 30 AC, 10 DR, costs pocket change. Works even if you have Tech aptitude of 100

[Anonymous No.5619501]

>>5619371
If you put levels in a skill and the temporary stat buff from a consumable goes away the skill will bounce back to the max it had before. Lets say your normal dex allows you to have two full bars of melee. Then you AoF yourself and level it to the max. As long as you have the AoFs active they'll keep your melee maxed, but if they expire you'll bounce back to two bars until you either get dex to an apropriate level or buff yourself again.
I imagine its the same with tech consumables. And Jayna def isnt useless.

[Anonymous No.5619514]

>>5619501
Not him, but this still leaves my question about Expert title. And general effect of training, really.
Currently I'm already downloading Arcanum to check for myself if it's going to work

[Anonymous No.5619517]

>>5619501
Depends on patch you are running, anon.

[Anonymous No.5619587]

>>5619414
>>5619501
>>5619514
I guess I found another bug, using GOG release.
I speed-run to Ashbury with 1 rank in Persuasion, 1 in Therapeutics and bunch of Persuasion Tonics. I was able to learn Apprenticeship in Persuasion (I had one point spend on it), but Persuasion Tonics flat-out refuse to work on me.
Another day, another bug.
Not feeling up to trying to get it once again with that single rank in Persuasion, but apparently something is up

[Anonymous No.5619615]

>>5619587
*without that single

[Anonymous No.5620007]

>>5619371
>>inb4 Jayna is useless
>Her job is to be a party's healer when you are on a tech-side of things and she's great at that. Just arm her with some fast weapon and she's fine in combat, too.
>And think about it: you can just pump her few levels easily early on, then simply dump her once you get what you want from her. No need to waste points on PE nor to keep her around forever.
Jayna gets up to level 5 of firearms, she's an amazing gunslinger. I kept her around even when I had the medical arachnid and didn't even need her as healer.

[Anonymous No.5620026]

>>5619372
I like having some persuasion capacity. Makes for more varied gameplay than just having to slash your way through. I tried going full persuasion once, with 20 charisma to get the absolute best reaction in the Caladon negotiations and become a master in persuasion. I wanted to finish kerghan without fighting. But then my save file got corrupted right before the meeting with kerghan AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH

However in retrospect, I wouldn't play again with so much emphasis on charisma and persuasion. Like the other anon said, level 3 persuasion and 12 charisma is fine, so you get the extra follower for persuasion expert, and can handle most quests/dialogues fine.

[Anonymous No.5620338]

>>5620007
It takes her a while to be a competent gunslinger, hence why a lot of people dismiss her as "useless".
Similar story with Waromon - he's by far one of the best followers, period. If not the best, given all ins and outs. But most people see a Melee guy with some shitty Bow skills and who can't wear any sort of armour, so they instantly assume he's shit. Never mind he gets Expert Melee and Apprentice Bow (so he's lighting fast with those and damn effective), while his natural armour is better than 99% of all armours in the game. Since it's not heavily telegraphed, he gets dismissed, too.
Really, Arcanum has the inverse issue that Fallout 2 had with followers. In FO2, you have your "mandatory" followers that are really great and you meet them early on, as the story progress (Sulik, Vic, Cassidy). And they are so damn solid, you won't even look for anyone else. And there isn't anyone else out there anyway to be this good.
Arcanum has it the other way around - followers start out as crap and need to seriously level up to show their potential, so people dismiss anyone that doesn't show instant gratification for hiring them. Or take some extra effort to hire. Case the point - anon asking if Sogg is worth that 1 point into Charisma, because hey, he's just some half-ogre, what good he could possibly be, right? And Jayna is just some crazy half-elf special snowflake that can provide crappy healing, why bother carrying her around, right? And so on and forth.

[Anonymous No.5620382]

>>5620007
>>5620338
Speaking of which, favourite party composition(s)? No exploit edition first, because normally you can't haul 11 people and a dog around. And does anyone ditch Virgil before he goes away on his own and/or doesn't retrive him?
>Virgil, Sogg, Jayna, Magnus, Dog, Sebastian or Gar techie
>Sogg, Dog, Gar, Loghaire melee smash-up, Virgil if having enough CHA
>Sogg, Dog, Geoffrey, Torian, Z'an evulz team

[Anonymous No.5620390]

>>5608460
Sorry man. But there are no games like Arcanum. The normies didnt like the graphics so it was a commercial failure, and we have never seen this setting again.

[Anonymous No.5620459]

>>5620390
Who even owns the rights to the setting at this point?

[Anonymous No.5620581]

>>5620459
Either some shell company or original creators.
And he probably meant "fantasy steampunk game setting" rather than Arcanum's universe specifically.

[Anonymous No.5620607]

>>5620581
Word. There are a couple aspects that are setting specific, I suppose, but nothing that you'd have to work too hard to avoid if making a "spiritual successor."

I just love isometric rpgs, yo

[Anonymous No.5620658]

playing as a solo thief is the most kino way to play arcanum

[Anonymous No.5620680]

>>5620658
Bonus points for doing it with a Half-ogre

[Anonymous No.5620685]

>>5620459
Activision

[Anonymous No.5620945]

>>5620581
>>5620390
OP here. On one hand, I really liked the graphics and universe and setting and all that. I don't get how people disliked the graphics, they seem really good for the time. Except the characters maybe, those are a bit lackluster, especially because they don't change much depending on your accessories, like putting on hats/helmets and so on. The steampunk element makes me literally diamonds. And the whole setting is very immersive, and it adds a nice twist on the classic tolkienesque high fantasy concept. Where else have we ever seen a high-fantasy setting in an industrial revolution? The idea is just genius. Then the story with all the lore, it just feels really fleshed out. The half-orc breeding lab quest is my absolute favourite, story-wise. The whole story has an omnipresent theme of deception, and the story of high technology being destroyed and then forgotten is just a stroke of genius, it's literally the only iteration I've ever seen of a proper steampunk story that does something smart with this alt-history type theme.
>btw TIL the name Arronax comes from Prof. Arronax in 20.000 leagues below the sea, because I just watched the classic Disney film which is pretty steampunk-y and generally kino af
in general I found all the cultural references in Arcanum really cute
>"you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villany"
>killer bunny lmfao

[Anonymous No.5620957]

>>5620945
cont'd


But I'm also strangely ok with the gameplay, even though I can perfectly understand the complaints. It's the only isometric pc RPG I'd ever played so like I'd already said, I don't have much to compare it with. At first it took some getting used to, but I found it to be comfortable enough to be enjoyable. Apart from the fighting I like the dialogue system with the different options depending on your charisma/persuasion, and being able to resolve some conflicts in different ways (I know it's not a feature exclusive to Arcanum, but I enjoyed that).
I won't deny there are obvious flaws, and I think the Equilibrium rebalance mod did improve some aspects (like all those useless things like fancy rings and amulets giving you various bonuses), although it made some worse (like mechanical arachnid requiring wooden ring, and automaton requiring Vendigroth newspaper). I don't know how the combat adjustments measure up as I don't understand much of this issue.
I also would have loved for the game to have full on voice acting, but at least we got some of the more important characters voiced.

Arcanum is def my second favourite RPG ever after Gothic II. But Gothic II is on a whole other level, at least if you speak german and get the original voice acting (I've listened in to the english voice acting and it's rather bad in comparison).

An improved 3D remake of Arcanum with present day graphics and all the issues fixed would be legendary. But I think it's extremely unlikely we'd ever see that.

Arcanum would also lend itself to an absolutely rad movie adaptation. It could be the first truly steampunk film that isn't shite.

[Anonymous No.5621048]

>>5619514
Each skill's level of training does something different for it. Either google it or look it up in the manual

[Anonymous No.5622005]

>>5621048
I know what Expert training does. The question was: can you get it, while not investing all those points into Persuasion and thus gain a follower slot by cheesing up the game. So I played to find out.
And the answer turned out to be "Either 1 point into Persuasion or Apprentice title render Persuasion Tonic useless". Can't tell which, which is annoying, but at least I know it's not possible.

[Anonymous No.5622054]

FUUUUUUUU
I just realised I don't have the release version of the game stored anyway on any of my discs and the torrents to it are dead. Anyone by any chance has the release version of Arcanum around?

[Anonymous No.5622583]

>>5622054
There's a discount right now on gog

[Anonymous No.5622948]

>>5622583
GOG has pre-installed patch 1.0.7.4.
Take three guesses what I don't want in my Arcanum. I will give you a hint - I like my firearms useful.

[Anonymous No.5622949]

>>5622583
>>5622948
But anyway, I managed to find a working Polish release, so even better.

[Anonymous No.5623132]

can someone explain to me what I might be missing from this game?
I played for a few minutes before I gave up
intro video was stupid
first NPC (or two, cant remember) was annoying babbling horse shit about how im the fucking chosen one
and the combat made no sense, I just clicked on the wolves til they disappeared

[Anonymous No.5623156]

>>5623132
There is simple solution to all your problems
Taking Adderall and sticking to >>>/v/

[Anonymous No.5623167]

Recently I tried playing Avernum: Escape the Pit again, and instead of quitting an hour or two into it like the last three times, I've already put 18 hours in it the last few days.
It's a remake of Exile, but not in any sort of flashy way. def recommend.

[Anonymous No.5623182]

>>5623156
pretty unoriginal response
also adderall is hard to get in the uk afaik

[Anonymous No.5623323]

>>5623182
Neither of those are my problems. But hey, I just gave you 2nd (You). Cherish it.

[Anonymous No.5623331]

>>5623323
another useless response

[Anonymous No.5623349]

>>5623132
Judging by your weak-ass bait, you might be missing the entire game

[Anonymous No.5623367]

>>5623349
not bait but I am missing most of the game
which is why I asked the simple question
the story seems stupid to me - a dying man asks, no, demands that a stranger "find the boy". Then some irritating dick-wad drags on a conversation explaining how youre some type of god-like hero reincarnate or whatever the fuck he said
then, and maybe I was just oblivious/stupid, but the combat didnt make any fucking sense
its hard to stick to a game with this many immediate cons when I have such a massive backlog

[Anonymous No.5623407]

>>5623367
Maybe you should play the game instead?
Oh, right, I forgot - you find it stupid without playing.
Problem solved then, regardless of your action.

[Anonymous No.5623414]

>>5623407
I did play it you fuck
are you not reading?
I reached the second NPC, cant remember who he was or what he said though

[Anonymous No.5623423]

>>5623414
If you're stumbling lost through the game, you're getting the authentic experience.

You have a journal in-game. Read that. Also, your save file will have a small blurb letting you know where you're at on the main quest.

[Anonymous No.5623429]

>>5623414
>I've played the game for few minutes
>Therefore, I am qualified to take a dump on it
>While pointing out how I dropped it few minutes in
I mean, surely, Fallout 1 must be shit. All you do is hitting rats in some boring-ass mine and missing most of the time. And don't get me even started on the sequel, where you are having even harder time hitting fucking ants in some dark temple of bullshit.
Surely, everyone praising those games must be a moron and can't see they are playing shit.... what do you mean there is more to it than the first location? How so? I played the game, shut up, I know better

[Anonymous No.5623439]

>>5623414
>Can't comprehend a simple dialogue setting up a scene for entire game
Arcanum is genuinely not for you. And I don't mean it as snide remark, but as a matter of fact. Simply because it's a game where you have to read a lot, interact a lot with characters and pay relatively high amount of attention to what have been just said. Meaning you should just skip the game. Probably the entire genre, too, while we are at it.

[Anonymous No.5623452]

>>5623429
the very first thing I said dipshit was this
>can someone explain to me what I might be missing from this game?
because I know a lot of people enjoy the game, and I want to enjoy it too
I told you all why I didnt like it and cba to continue and all I ask for is some FUCKING REASON TO PLAY THE GAME BUT ALL I GET IS /V/IRGINS IRONICALLY TELLING ME TO GO BACK TO /V/
I havent played Fallout 2 but 1 was boring
I went to the village to get the rope, was fuck all going on there but I think I remember stealing something so that was call
then I went to wherever I was supposed to go, clicked on everything, climbed down the rope and really couldnt figure out where this great story was so I quit that sucka

this was a helpful start though >>5623423

>>5623439
Im more than happy to read
but that first conversation with that loon was dogshit
he tells you youre some type of legend hero
then no matter what you choose to say to him, he babbles on and on without saying anything interesting
it felt like fallout 4 all over again

[Anonymous No.5623464]

>>5623452
Instead of asking stupid questions, you could, for example, play the game and find out. Instead you are just shitposting. So why are you surprised people give you shit in return? Oh, right, you aren't.

[Anonymous No.5623484]

>>5623464
yet another useless response but Ill carry on in case I finally get to you and you help me out
I have already explained that I gave the game a very brief go and that my backlog is too large to fuck around in a game that doesnt seem to be going anywhere
so please just tell me what you enjoy about the game
am I wrong about the story? is there really more to it than "find the boy" and "be a hero who saves the world like every other generic rpg Ive ever played"?
am I wrong about the combat? is there more to it than click til dead?

[Anonymous No.5623486]

>>5623452
You fucking moron, the game literally just opens and you expect from it to throw a lenghty exposition at you, instead following a HIGHLY telegraphed trail of crumbles to figure out what the fuck is happening. Let's do a short recap:
>In the opening cutscene, a gnome asks you to find someone and gives you a ring; you have said ring in your inventory and need to figure out what next
>The gnome also carries a passport for specific name and a pack of matches from specific place
So you have three different clues. Followed by:
>A friendly stranger explains to you the whole situation fits a religious narrative of a religion he converted to recently and wants you to see his master
So you have 4th clue to follow, the master who apparently knows more than his student. Ok, I guess. So your options end up being about rummaging through the entire area, maybe even clear it out from all the wildlife or straigh-out following what the religious stranger told you, so heading for the shrine standing nearby.
The religious stranger suggest you now head toward his master even more so. Oh look, another stranger shows up and attacks you! And he wears the same medallion the ogre that shot down your blimp had! What it could possibly mean... could it be a 5th clue?!

Gee, this game is sooooo hard to figure out what to do next. Especially when it literally marks you your next target on the map and make it almost impossible to go anywhere else but said location, while keep telegraphing how you must go there.

[Anonymous No.5623495]

>>5623484
Different anon, but why do you keep posting, aside being an attention whore?
There is nothing to enjoy in this game, it sucks, the combat sucks, it requires attention span longer than you possess and you shouldn't be playing it. It's that simple. Just don't bother. You clearly aren't interested in playing it anyway.

[Anonymous No.5623512]

>>5608460
>download high res mod
>game keeps crashing every 15-25 minutes
I can't do it bros.

[Anonymous No.5623516]

>>5623486
youve missed the point, bud
I never had trouble with knowing what to do
>>5623495
it was a simple request to find out what you guys enjoy about it so I could decide whether or not Ill give it a good go
if I knew you would all be so sensitive about it, then I would have asked nicer

[Anonymous No.5623518]

>>5623512
... then don't install a shitty mod and just play the game?

[Anonymous No.5623564]

>>5623518
>pan the camera 8 times to walk a city block

[Anonymous No.5623615]

>>5623564
>Open location's map
>Plot the route
>Execute the route

[Anonymous No.5623672]

>>5608460
You might like the Temple of Elemental Evil. I think it's the same devs.

[Anonymous No.5624252]

>>5623512
Did you follow the instructions on drogs site?

>>5623518
If you play Arcanum without the fanpatch I feel sorry for you

[Anonymous No.5624271]

>>5623484
The plot has some good twists but dont expect Planescape Torment. There is more to it than meets the eye though.
Combat is subpar but the build variety is nearly unsurpassed.

[Anonymous No.5624286]

>>5623484
>I don't like this game
>tell me how to like this game
Holy shit the autism

[Anonymous No.5624293]

>>5623516
>post two walls of text explaining what I like about this game
>"durr I just want to know what it is you guys liek about this game durrr even though I didn't even give it a chance past the first 5 minutes durrrrrr"
LEAVE

[Anonymous No.5624302]

>>5623512
Does it crash when you open the city map? It crashed all the time when I used way points inside towns, I just stopped using them.
Also if it runs slow and takes ages to load there's a fix for that, look it up.

[Anonymous No.5624321]

I want to advise everyone against using that Arcanum Multiverse Edition mod. It's a broken piece of shit made by russian meth heads.

[Anonymous No.5624971]

>>5624252
If you need "high res" mod for a 2001 game, I despise you for creating demand on "HD REMAKE" bullshit

[Anonymous No.5624987]

>>5624293
Not him, but his shitposting made me realise something:
For all people I knew and weren't interested with Arcanum by themselves, I had to tell each of them to just clench their teeth and endure the very start of the game, because it gets really good really fast. And most of them dropped the game anyway right at the start, requiring further encouragement that it's worth it.

[Anonymous No.5625068]

>>5624987
that's pretty much me with all rpgs. i've concluded that they're gay storybooks with grind filler

[Anonymous No.5625072]

>>5623167
i'm gonna try playing these in order next

[Anonymous No.5625102]

>>5624286
>>5624293
and I wake up to more horseshit

>>5624271
this is what I was after
I have also just realised that a manual is provided on GOG so Ill probably give it another shot

[Anonymous No.5625117]

Anyone made it till the end with a retarded character?
I remember the final boss reacting with shock about how a literal retard was screwing his plans or something like that.
Sadly last third of the game was unbereable.

I don't understand why they made a game with the shittiest combat ever then proceed to fill everything with unskipable encounters.
I mean, you have Torment, maybe the combat isn't the best (still better than Arcanum) but you can skip it easily, or you have ToEE, were there's barely anything else but combat but it's so good that it doesn't matter.
They couldn't see the combat wasn't the game strongest point?

[Anonymous No.5625453]

>>5624971
Its not necessary but it helps to have bigger resolution support. Also you can actually alt tab with the high res patch without the game going berzerk which can be handy.

>>5625117
Troika had an awful run at actual managment of the company and didnt do nearly enough QA testing.
For the sake of ACKSHUALLY and obligatory defence of the game, you dont need to actually go through all of the shitmobs at the end. If you have master prowling you can quite literarly just run past them. You only need to kill that one undead guard at the gates of the void castle.
Also the evil path of the story skips the whole Thanathos segment, so there is less time wasted killing fucking monkies there. You miss out on what happens on the island though.

[Anonymous No.5625480]

>>5625453
I guess Troika was bankrupt since pretty much the beginning, we are lucky we can experience their games in a more or less polished way today because they were released unfinished with a million bugs. It's still weird how they did one of the best combat ever with ToEE and one of the worse with Arcanum. They don't seem games made by the same company.


Also I don't know why you posted Hetza but you're a cool guy.

[Anonymous No.5625618]

>>5625102
yes indeed you are horseshit
this thread owes you NOTHING you autistic piece of shit
fucking kys

[Anonymous No.5625638]

>>5625618
lol great comeback kid

[Anonymous No.5626115]

>>5623564
>>5624302
Let me get this straight - people install a HD mod to... not be able to use waypoints? And then bitch about having to pan out without said mod?
You people are beyond fucking help

[Anonymous No.5626129]

>>5625638
>says the guy who has spent two days already crying like a bitch that his shitpost didn't get a proper reply

[Anonymous No.5626134]

>>5626115
no, people with the HD mod don't really need the waypoints precisely because they don't need to pan that much, and panning is only a bother WITHOUT the HD patch in which case the waypoints also don't tend to be an issue.
Illiterate tard.

[Anonymous No.5626147]

>>5626134
>You don't need to pan out to cross anything bigger than Shrouded Hills
>I swear!
You were saying something about tards, weren't you?

[Anonymous No.5626218]

>>5626134
You do realise the waypoints exists so you don't have to pan... right?

[Anonymous No.5626227]

>>5625480
Y-you too...
And I agree. Many thanks to all the modders who did Troika's patching after they croaked. It was well worth it in the end.

[Anonymous No.5626891]

>>5626147
>tards
Takes one to know one I guess, as you're obviously incapable to decipher even a rather simple post, where I clearly wrote "don't need to pan THAT MUCH", not "don't need to pan".
Absolute fucking brainlet.

[Anonymous No.5626926]

>>5626891
Still doesn't change the fact you take a non-problem, install bugged mod to "fix it" and in the process not only you make your navigation more complicated, you also make it impossible to solve your original "problem".
Hence why you are a prime example of why modding old games for "HD" and "High Res" is for complete morons. Especially for a game that has no issues whatsoever running on modern rig, so it's not like you have to update it to 4k support to ever play it again.

[Anonymous No.5626959]

>>5626926
>2001-tier resolution
>non-problem
lmaoing@u

>install bugged mod to "fix it"
ah I see you keep making up shit. The mod isn't bugged, it usually works, it was my system in this case which caused problems. I've used it on another pc without any issues.

>in the process not only you make your navigation more complicated
nice talking out your ass there, with the HD patch the menu parts are the same size, so you don't need to move the mouse away to keep clicking, so it makes walking around much easier. nothing is made more complicated. I rarely used the waypoints in the first place, if you do, fine, but to me it's not a complication.

> you also make it impossible to solve your original "problem".
my original problem was a reduced resolution and having to pan a lot, and I solved that with the HD patch.

your whole post is literally
>stop liking what I don't like
you're pathetic.

[Anonymous No.5628146]

sorry to go off topic but
is it just me or is there more shit talking on /vr/ recently?
im tired of reading peoples arguments

[Anonymous No.5628173]

>>5628146
I think it has been happening since one or two years ago. Before that /vr/ was some sort of comfy board with really civil threads.
I guess it's just the natural rule of shittification of things doing it's work.

[Anonymous No.5628178]

>>5626959
>2001-tier solution
>problem
>>>/v/

[Anonymous No.5628743]

>>5613764
>delusional if you think there's anything at all wrong with the enhanced editions
IWD EE objectively brakes original's balance
so you are at least wrong on that

[Anonymous No.5629120]

>>5613756
Played through entire game 19 times (I count those). Started to play... countless times.
I still tend to end up with same or very similar character. This being Arcanum and Troika, making a non-CH build with at least expert Persuasion cuts you out of third of quests. Then comes the fact I can't be assed to use spells in combat (other than Summon), because the combat system is broken and casting is only feasible in turn-based combat. Then there is the fact the game has hard time providing you enough heal items if you won't make your own/drag along a follower that can do so, so you end up with healing salves each and every time...
All in all, I finished the game as mage twice, once as archer, once as classic "warrior" in melee and everything else was various degrees of technologist, with or without guns.

[Anonymous ~ No.5630049]

>>5623518
>>5624252
>>5624971
pretty sure arcanum will fail to work, lag, and/or die from bug on most modern machines if you didn't use the fanpatch. you could try installing vanilla arcanum on a real retro rig with Win98, but that won't fix the bugs that the fanpatch helped with.


>muh remake
the people who used fanpatches ain't the one complaining about installing mods being "hard". only idiots bought shitty remakes like HOMM3 :muh HD!!! edition.

[Anonymous No.5630119]

>>5630049
>the people who used fanpatches ain't the one complaining about installing mods being "hard". only idiots bought shitty remakes like HOMM3 :muh HD!!! edition.
>Implying those two target groups don't overlap by more than 90%
Also, Arcanum works fine in the release state (so not even 0.74 official patch, just plain, old 0.70) on Win10 and displays on 4k display. Want to add anything else?

[Anonymous No.5630367]

>>5630119
UAP fixes an absolute fuckton of game breaking bugs you dimwit. Thats the whole point of the fucking fanpatch.
Sure the game technicaly works without it but if you knew anything about Troika you'd know they were shit at bug fixing and QA. So why would you not use a bugfix patch that rectifies most of those issues?

[Anonymous No.5631232]

>>5630367
Explain me how a genuine patch work relates with retarded "muh HD" bullshit or the fact Arcanum can easily run on anything.
Oh, right, there is no relation.

[Anonymous No.5632994]

>>5631232
Same author. And the "HD" patch fixes some other bugs, like allowing the player to alt tab.
This whole discussion is fucking stupid.

[Anonymous No.5633002]

>>5630119
>Arcanum works fine in the release state

[Anonymous No.5633013]

>>5633002
>He likes his guns nerfed to the ground
>He also hates proper item randomiser
>Meanwhile smoke grenade bug never fixed, not even in UAP

[Anonymous No.5633015]

>>5633002
Besides, I suggest working on your reading comprehension. Because the context was "Arcanum doesn't need any shitty fanpatch to run on Win10", not "Arcanum straigh out of '01 box is fine".

[Anonymous No.5633041]

>>5633013
>>5633015
>C O P E

[Anonymous No.5634996]

>>5633041
>Be wrong
>Get pointed out why
>N-no, you just coping

[Anonymous No.5635434]

>>5633015
You unironically inspired me to play as Summoner/Nature mage.
Any good/interesting background that goes with mages?

[Anonymous No.5635594]

>>5635434
Only Child is best background for mages bar none. Sure, you are 1 follower off and can't get Mastery in Persuasion (still can qualify for Expert training), but the sheer fact it gives +6 Willpower for just -4 Charisma should tell you how broken it is. That's 6 points for free, since you are cut off from the ONE quest requiring 20 CH and everything else is just fine.

[Anonymous No.5635681]

>>5635434
Elven Only Child, female for non-Melee bu.
Half-elf Only Child, male if you also plan to go Melee.

That background is just too valuable for mages, it's essentially 6 character points saved, which you can spend on 6 other spells. Or anything else, really.

[Anonymous No.5636886]

>>5635434
Aisde obvious Only Child... Nature Mage? It's surprisingly potent, since you can still stand in a middle of a Tarant, but as long as you have lawn under your feet, you gain that +20 aptitude.

[Anonymous No.5637873]

>>5613691
I second this anon, Divine Divinity is a surprising find. I was surprised when I got out of the dungeon and found that the world was so much larger than I had thought. Then I was surprised again when there were two other maps that were that size, including a city (I'm not counting the endgame map). I found the endgame really disappointing but there was such a surfeit of great stuff before that that I still look back on that game fondly.

[Anonymous No.5638035]

>>5636886
The "X Mage" can be utterly broken if you play things right, especially early game. Elf with it gains 35 Aptitude and then spells come into play, so you can end up with having Harm dealing 20-22 dm when facing Lukan.

[Anonymous No.5638278]

>>5638035
The real broken part of it is when you steal the Stillwater Blade in Shrouded Hills. Nothing like spamming lvl 25 "animals" and watching them tear shit apart, while at this point of the game, regular wolf should be your top summon

[Anonymous No.5639490]

>>5608930
Totally agree. Great and comfy game.