Talk:Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

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Firstly i must say that this article is very well made. Good work to the creator. A couple of things though- I know the game was made by some people who previously made fallout but i think there a few too many references to fallout in the normal text. The references to fallout should be put in the trivia section with the other fallout references.

For example -

"While firearms are plentiful in the game, the situation is reversed from Fallout: the system seems to favor fast, light attacks from melee weapons over any other mode of attack. This has led to user-created patches to enhance the other weapons in the game.

The combat can become very violent as more powerful weapons are employed, resulting in graphic wounds, but it's a far cry from Fallout's melting skeletons, decapitated torsos and flaming corpses."

Obviously the creator of the article has a good knowledge of fallout, but the article should be for people who havnt played fallout aswell.

One thing i must comment about the combat system is that it is so fast. Although its been a while since I have played arcanum (i only visited this article because i recently bought it for old times sake) i remember that classes that involve melee combat with high armour seem to fare comabt better as the combat is so quick. Especally when you have characters attacking 3 times a second or other fast rates. This is just my opinion and probably has no place in the article unless several other players or critics have noticed this aswell.

What you say is true about melee being overpowered, but it has nothing to do really with how "combat is so quick"-- melee is still just as overpowered on the other slower (read: less crazy, easier to see) options (turnbased and fast turnbased). The problem is that Arcanum is an excellent game but because of all the interacting divisions (eg magic v.s. tech pointers, bow v.s. thrown weapon v.s. guns v.s. etc, magic armor v.s. tech armor, etc), there are a huge number of imbalances, the chief being melee-related, though there are others...

Good coverage of the history and places of arcanum. Got me in the mood to play it again (except im annoyed because i stopped at the city or magic or someone pretty near the end of the game and starting a new character again will mean doing the same old quests but starting the old one will be bad because i have forgotten the story, pointless story...)

If anyone is up for a multiplayer game of this email me! Jesus On Wheels 15:54, 3 September 2005 (UTC)

Tech specialists get weapons like the tranquilizer gun, Tesla gun and concussion grenade. They get a few handy utility and healing items, too, like the Miracle Cure and, my personal favorite, the "Anesthetizer". They also get automatons. If you've got enough money, you can go camp outside the smith at the Wheel Clan tunnels buying dwarven steel and create an army of automatons - they don't take up party slots. A big ogre in a tin can with a gigantic two-handed sword might be able to deal and take a lot of damage, but he's nothing against a machined-plated dwarf toting a tranquilizer gun, a bandolier of concussion grenades and a platoon of automatons.

Charisma characters are also a lot of fun, and very viable.. Who needs muscles or pretty light shows when I have two very large men with huge swords and thick armor, two immensely powerful mages and a machine gun-wielding big game hunter at my beck and call? My elven persuasion specialist had a hard time starting out, but once I started adding party members, I found his niche. He rarely ever directly engaged the enemy - he'd just stay back and cast the few offensive and utility spells he knew while his many allies pummeled the baddies to the ground.

There are a lot of options - half-ogres with long-swords and full plate will take you through the game, but so will a pistoleer-chemist or a silver-tongued gambler. Troika did a good job. It's too bad there is unlikely to be a sequel. TaintedMustard 16:02, 10 September 2005 (UTC)

It suffered from Troika's trademark "LOTS OF BUGS" feature. CABAL 10:55, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

To which bugs are you referring? ToEE and Bloodlines were MUCH worse. Arcanum is by far their cleanest game. The automaton army is really the worst game balance bug I've seen. TaintedMustard 19:05, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

The bug which prevents the medical arachnid from deploying correctly; the bug which prevents the Explosive Decoy from working properly; the bug that causes the machined platemail to not give you a STR bonus; the bug that prevents Nasrudin from explanining that his son destroyed Vendigroth; among other things. But yes, it is by far their cleanest game. CABAL 19:18, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

• Does Arcanum support direct IP connections? CABAL 15:26, 4 September 2005 (UTC)

Contents 1 The conspiracy 2 Good article 3 Missing Locations 4 Monty Python? 5 Copy Right 6 More trivia... 7 Possible rewrite 8 Sceencap requests

[edit] The conspiracy

This is a nice looking article, it's almost shame that I went and tacked that section on on the end.

Unfortunately, it's been a while since I played, so the conspiracy details aren't complete.

The conspiracy section could probably be cleaned-up/merged into another section, I just wanted to provide those base details.

Adding such a great deal of information on one sub-plot is excessive for an article of this type. I'm not going to remove it (yet), but it should be trimmed down if it's included at all, and it shouldn't be given its own section. For now, I'm going to add a spoiler warning, which should have been included in the first place. TaintedMustard 09:28, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Any way of including it as part of some kind of section on "notable quests"? It is one of the more well-known quests in the game and I think it'd be a pity to lose it. I suppose one could create another page listing all the quests in the game and include it there but I'm not sure if that's an appropriate article to have in wikipedia. 203.166.27.228 23:25, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

No, it should stay there. It's one of Arcanum's most distinguishing(and controversial) features from other RPG games, a disturbing quest that ends unresolvable.

[edit] Good article

I remember playing this brilliant game a number of times some years ago, the article is quite detailed unlike alot of other game entries. Like alot of critically acclaimed games it would have to have sold more to make a sequel realistic.

[edit] Missing Locations

I have looked at the list of the different towns and cities and have noticed that Shrowded Hills and Still Water is missing. Please sort this out. Kensai Feon, 10:12, 26 April 2006

[edit] Monty Python?

"You can encounter the white rabbit that can only be killed by "The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch" from Monty Python and the Holy Grail when you travel outside cities."

I don't remember meeting this creature, nor has it been mentioned. Same goes to the grenade.

I do remember the "Vorpal Bunny" which was super-powerful, and the Stillwater Giant which was a purple bunny that changed into a giant monster.

I've not deleted it (yet), but methinks someone should explain this entry.Crimson Shadow 17:21, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

I've encountered one or to bunnys but nothing like the white rabbit or the grenade either. Kensai Feon 10:30 12 May 2006

I've removed the point then. Crimson Shadow 23:25, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Copy Right

I have noticed that this article has been copied from a licensed website, which does technicaly mean that it is in breach of the 'Copy Right Act' since I see no owners consent on this page. Kensai Feon 15:52 12 May 2006

Which licensed website is this article a copy from? Given the content and the number of edits, I also highly doubt it's a complete copy. In that case, can you point out which parts of the article you feel violate copyright? Yay unto the Chicken 09:56, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] More trivia...

The story of Gilbert Bates's "inventing" the 1st steam engine is similar to the story of Bill Gate's "inventing" the MS-DOS operation system, which was actually reworked from CP/M operation system for 8-bit computers (Digital Research company product).

[edit] Possible rewrite

I might have a go at rejigging some of this. It needs major revision. I dislike most of the Trivia section, and the game world/plot summary/politics stuff needs to be better ordered. On top of all that, there's the g/p brush-up.

I'll see what I can do in the next few weeks. I owe it to this ripper of a game to help get its page to GA/FA. Hide&Reason 13:49, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

Good luck! I personally recommend cutting the half-ogre conspiracy way down. Rarr 19:44, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, I'll see if I can knock a third or more outta that. Hide&Reason 04:10, 29 September 2006 (UTC) Hope everyone likes what I've done so far. I'm still looking for references to verify the Races info, among other stuff. Hide&Reason 12:52, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sceencap requests

I was wondering: would anyone be able to get me a cap of the breeding ward interior, on Half-orge Island? I'd do it myself but the hard drive I had Arcanum installed on crashed a week back. Thanks in advance! Hide&Reason 08:37, 29 September 2006 (UTC)