Troika Games - Arcanum / ToEE discussion

I have fond memories of Arcanum. It's in my Top 20 of All Time. 

Back in those days, Troika games was to me like Activision and Ubisoft: a Seal of Quality.
The last two released quality stuff back then, how times have changed. /o\

Troika only released 3 games, all of them memorable and…super buggy.

Vampire Bloodlines and Arcanum were unfinishable on their day 1 versions:

- in Bloodlines you couldn’t leave the Society of Leopold with the boat. Fatal Bug,
- in Arcanum you couldn’t take the boat near Stringy Pete to leave for the Isle of Thanatos,

Did you notice? Both of these showstoppers involved problems with a boat. ^^

Just like Bloodlines, I played Arcanum to death. I’ve tried every build imaginable and quickly noticed how magic and melee were so easy compared to a technologist.

You see, Technologists need a ton of items to create their stuff. Even with the companions carrying all your doodads, you might find yourself short on space. So you need decent Strength and good Charisma to recruits a few companions.

After a while, I actually found technologists very rewarding to play:

I finally understood that with a technologist I had to study my environment to find ingredients. Imagine my joy when I noticed that I could create batteries by mixing potatoes and lemons. ^^

Later in the game you can abuse the gameplay mechanics by buying books in Tarant to fullfil the requirements for the "Vivifier": a schematics increasing your primary Stats by +1. A must have which could benefit everybody even if you're not a technologist.

About the French version of Arcanum

Great dub. Some voices in the French dub of Arcanum are beyond beautiful. I still remember the voice of Raven (named Orfraie in French): she had the voice of a Siren. I really fell in love with that adorable voice.

I’m glad I still have my physical French copy because the digital versions of Arcanum (Steam/GOG) only provide the English dub.

If you wanna play Arcanum I recommend these essential patches/fixes:

Arcanum Essential Patches

1- UAP: the Unofficial Patch^^ made by Drog Black Tooth,

2- Arcanum High Resolution Patch: for the Widescreen and stuff,

3- Arcanum Universal Level Cap Remover: a patch which removes the Level 50 Cap. You’ll reach that cap way before you finish the game if you do a few sidequests. So it’s a must too.

I don't know how to quote multiple people so I'll reply like this:

CrocMagnum, I had the exact same experience with playing a technologist. My first run was an uncharismatic, short-tempered gunslinger halfling. Needless to say it was a poor first impression of the game and I was rather miserable, especially in the Black Mountain mines. The game got substantially better after that. Sort of the opposite of Bloodlines, most of the best content comes later in the game! My recent playthrough was so much more fun overall because I was playing a charismatic wisecracking wizard. I did end up using that level cap remover because I did pretty much everything in the game that wasn't mutually exclusive content.
When you say playing a technologist is highly rewarding with game knowledge, I believe you, but personally I'll never play Arcanum like that again - magic (and charisma) all the way, for me. I'd like to experiment with different magical colleges next time. And you get more interesting interactions/conflicts with characters when you play as a mage too.

Wesp, it is my understanding that Microsoft is the current owner of the Arcanum IP. I'm not sure who owns what in terms of the game assets/code itself however.

My YouTube tells me that I have watched these videos already, I must have forgotten...

In the game files you can find a texture called "slide", very probably they were planned as a feature but not implemented....

Thanks for the info. To be honest, I don't care much for the World of Darkness explanations - Bloodlines sort of exists in a "bubble" for me personally.
I appreciate how it introduced me to this greater universe but I'm only really interested in what Troika would have done with these characters if there HAD been ending slides.
Who knows though, perhaps what you sent would satisfy me anyway...

I want to do another Arcanum playthrough from the beginning - is the "Multiverse Edition" any good?