The GWJ CRPG Club - Game 6: Arcanum (In Progress)

Is there a character named Virgil in the opening area?

Well damn. I was going to name my guy Virgil. I was thinking, "what sounds like a good old-timey name?" Virgil. Apparently the devs thought so too.

Yes, you would be Virgil traveling with Virgil.

I think I've got everyone playing listed in the first post. If I've missed you, let me know.

steinkrug wrote:

Yeah, pleased with seeing my points in persuasion actually making a difference already.

I didn’t even realize until seeing otherwise here that it played a factor in recruiting

Spoiler:

Sogg

I believe it's actually Charisma that makes the difference with this one.

tboon wrote:

I am trying to be in. I jacked up my install, I think I had a mod installed from before that messed up the High Res patch (who knows, it has been a long while since my last dalliance with Arcanum). So, starting over tonight when I get home.

Trying to think up a character I want to roleplay. Leaning toward elven con man.

Most excellent, welcome! Your old GWJ avatar is actually one of the avatar options for half-ogre I believe, so you're destined to complete this game.

It is. This was one of my favorite games of all time at one point.

And, let's be real, probably not.

Hm, tried installing Arcanum and the Multiverse mod. That was a mess. It kept trying to run, fail, and try again, 10 times a second, making my monitor blink like crazy, and unable to stop it again.

I had similar issues launching from Steam.

Try launching directly from the config.exe file in the Arcanum/Arcanum folder?

EDIT: More specifically...

...\steamapps\common\Arcanum\Arcanum\config.exe

Depending on how you installed the multiverse edition, your path might be...

...\steamapps\common\Arcanum\Arcanum Multiverse Edition\config.exe

I suspect my problems with launching from Steam are from some setting in the SierraLauncher.ini. I haven't bothered to troubleshoot it yet, other than trying a few quick things that didn't work.

Launching directly from the config file bypasses that.

My game is from GoG.
Currently trying to reinstall the Multiverse mod. It is a bit unclear how the file structure should be.
Is 'Arcanum Multiverse Edition' folder meant to be inside the Arcanum folder (wherre the original .exe is), or overwrite it?

Ah, I see. It still might work though. You could still try launching from the config.exe file in the Multiverse Edition folder.

Yes, I felt like that part was a bit unclear as well. My Arcanum Multiverse Edition folder is inside the Arcanum folder, not overwriting it. (There was an original Arcanum folder in the Arcanum folder that you should have removed/deleted/renamed)

Yeah, got no original Arcanum folder within at the start for me. I assumed that was a Steam thing.
Anyway, first time around I did install to a subfolder, so that should be the correct one. Weird.

Unmodded game seems to start (though it seems like Windows struggles a bit with the resolution change), so I guess the issue is the mod, and likely the highres mod.

Shadout wrote:

Yeah, got no original Arcanum folder within at the start for me. I assumed that was a Steam thing.
Anyway, first time around I did install to a subfolder, so that should be the correct one. Weird.

Unmodded game seems to start (though it seems like Windows struggles a bit with the resolution change), so I guess the issue is the mod, and likely the highres mod.

Launching directly from the config.exe file doesn't work either?

The troubles I had getting it to run seemed all graphics related, yes.

Maybe you could backtrack and try the unofficial patch route that pyxistyx posted? Most people seemed to have gone that route and had no problems.

I got mine to run following this. A problem is the links to www.terra-arcanum.com don't work, but the page they take you to has links in the left-side menu that did work for me.

I did have some crashes loading in dialog, specifically crit miss exclamations. I just turned off voices in the the sound menu. Which sucks because the voice acting is fun but better than random crashes.

Also, the greatest quick save innovation is to not have it right next to quick load. That already got me once; luckily I am olde skoole and save every 2 seconds.

Just got to Shrouded Hills and hit level 5.

tboon wrote:

I got mine to run following this. A problem is the links to www.terra-arcanum.com don't work, but the page they take you to has links in the left-side menu that did work for me.

Nice guide. I noticed that it mentions the issue I had with Steam/Sierra Launcher, and the same workaround I stumbled onto.

tboon wrote:

Just got to Shrouded Hills and hit level 5.

That was quick. I think you're going to surprise yourself with this one and make it to the end. You got this.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:
tboon wrote:

I got mine to run following this. A problem is the links to www.terra-arcanum.com don't work, but the page they take you to has links in the left-side menu that did work for me.

Nice guide. I noticed that it mentions the issue I had with Steam/Sierra Launcher, and the same workaround I stumbled onto.

I should have noted that I am playing the GoG version.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:
tboon wrote:

Just got to Shrouded Hills and hit level 5.

That was quick. I think you're going to surprise yourself with this one and make it to the end. You got this.

I've played the start a bunch of times, maybe 20 times or more, I know where most of the experience is. I've played through Shrouded Hills probably 10 times. Usually don't make it much beyond there before my taste for nostalgia is satisfied.

So we'll see.

In which I learn two ways that I was being stupid.

Okay, so I was dying. A lot. Against pretty much everything. I was like, this can't be right. I'm not THAT bad at RPGs. But no matter what quest I took on I'd run into combat that was just wiping out my party. Unless I had a 3 to 1 advantage, I was pretty much dead meat.

Then I realized that upgraded weapons weren't really as expensive as I thought they were and were significantly more powerful and quicker than what I was using, so I upgraded all my party members weapons. And while I was pondering that whole weapon quickness thing, I noticed the whole encumbrance thing, and that the more weight people are carrying the slower they get in combat. Aha! Turns out pretty much everyone was exhausted all the time from lugging around tons of junk.

I sold off pretty much everything : slabs of metal, springs, pieces of revolvers, cans of fuel, railroad spikes, cleaning fluid, pretty much all of it except stuff I could immediately use. I got everyone down to "none" or "light" for encumbrance.

Then I tried combat again...

Wow! With faster weapons and light encumbrance I was now getting off four attacks on enemies per turn instead of one or two. And the attacks were doing a lot more damage. We could actually win against fights that were just demolishing us earlier.

Game on!

Ok I'm in.

Still working to finish DA:O

I patched Arcanum tonight and seems to be working (ive only got to the character creation screen so far and was a touch overwhelmed and couldn't decide what race / background. I also want to be technological, I didnt do enough of that in shadowrun, as I didnt run a decker.

Will check it out again tomorrow

I patched up the game last night - UAP, HD towns mod, HiRes 1.5 mod and mananged to get it working OK. The HiRes mod took a while as it added an additional layer of folders, and I had to extract it properly to my arcanum main folder before it would install. Got there in the end though. I think you have to apply the patches in the specified sequence to get them to work properly as well.

As for starting the game, It's pretty dense isn't it? I went with a half elven mage type (No specific background) but then didn't really do a lot after creating a character. I'll try and get on with this tonight & over the weekend.

I installed the GoG version and followed up by adding the Unofficial Patch, HQ Townmaps, HQ Music, and the High Resolution Patch.

I am unsure about how to implement the following step, though.

"Installation Guide wrote:

Windows 8/10 users should either enable the DirectDraw wrapper in the High Resolution Patch's configuration file by setting DDrawWrapper to 1, or download the standalone wrapper (simply put the ddraw.dll into the same folder as Arcanum.exe, overwriting an existing copy if necessary).

Where would I find this configuration file so to set DDrawWrapper to 1?

RnRClown wrote:

I installed the GoG version and followed up by adding the Unofficial Patch, HQ Townmaps, HQ Music, and the High Resolution Patch.

I am unsure about how to implement the following step, though.

"Installation Guide wrote:

Windows 8/10 users should either enable the DirectDraw wrapper in the High Resolution Patch's configuration file by setting DDrawWrapper to 1, or download the standalone wrapper (simply put the ddraw.dll into the same folder as Arcanum.exe, overwriting an existing copy if necessary).

Where would I find this configuration file so to set DDrawWrapper to 1? :oops:

So, what I found was, it depends on what version of the High Res Patch you got and installed. If, the version you installed has a HighRes folder and in there, if there is an ini file (can't remember the name, sorry, but it is the only one in there if it is there), that is where you would change it.

I believe this is for an older version of High Res Patch.

If there is no ini file in HighRes folder, then this is automatically taken care of (i.e. DDrawWrapper = 1 already).

Caveat: this is all guesses. But it works fine, no slowdowns, on my Windows 10 box so far (knocks wood) from GoG with the "latter" (again, guessing) version of the patch (i.e. no ini in HighRes folder).

In my jacked up patch attempt, I had a different version of High Res Patch is how I saw this. when I blew away my install, I also inadvertently blew away my patch downloads. When I re-fetched the patches I got a different version of High Res Path I guess because it did not have the ini file (the contents of HighRes folder were quite different after the patch).

TL;DR - you are most likely OK if it starts.

Other than a visual quirk with the main menu (horizontal areas top and bottom displaying sections of the in-game user interface) everything seems to be fine from a test run through character creation and the opening scene.

RnRClown wrote:

Where would I find this configuration file so to set DDrawWrapper to 1? :oops:

In the HiRes extraction folder is a file called config.ini

Open that with a text editor (notepad will do) and it’s in there. You’ll also need to alter your screen’s resolution (width = 1920 height = 1080) or whatever else it might be.

Save it, then run the install.bat file. Should be fine. You need to extract the HiRes folder to your arcanum install folder though.

Sounds like progress with the technical issues, good stuff!

Hardek wrote:

Ok I'm in.

I patched Arcanum tonight and seems to be working (ive only got to the character creation screen so far and was a touch overwhelmed and couldn't decide what race / background. I also want to be technological, I didnt do enough of that in shadowrun, as I didnt run a decker.

The item creation element of Arcanum, all the stuff to make stuff with, and the way technology plays against magic has been fun to explore. It feels like something I'm really going to enjoy as my character develops.

I made and sold a couple of pistols from broken parts and a piece of pipe last night, and it has me excited to go deeper down that line. Apparently some of the best stuff in the game can be created from crafting. So far I can make bullets, cheap pistols, and molotov cocktails.

---

I've updated the first post again with everyone playing. Let me know if I've missed you.

Ok, I skipped DA:O to give myself a chance to reset after failing to finish both Pillars and Divinity, so it would seem I'm in for Arcanum. Not sure what to think about it yet, but at least it's something I can fish out of the pile!

Still unable to get the Multiverse mod to work - or rather the highres patch. Installing the mods individually does seem to make the game able to run. But the game crashed like 30 seconds after I got through the character creation screen - at least it was not before, since character creation as usual is one of the hardest bosses for me.

benign1 wrote:

Ok, I skipped DA:O to give myself a chance to reset after failing to finish both Pillars and Divinity, so it would seem I'm in for Arcanum. Not sure what to think about it yet, but at least it's something I can fish out of the pile!

Yeah, I'm going to probably do a reset with the JRPG Club games. When both clubs end up with 80- to 100-hour games, it's kinda tough. Arcanum is a good bit shorter than three of our last four games, it seems, so that'll help.

I've had good luck with short segments of play, just 30 minutes a day at times. Often I haven't felt like playing some of the games before I start playing on a given day, but by the time I'm 5 minutes into it I'm having fun again. The urge to play something new is always there, but if I can just get myself to load my save up, things go great from there and I enjoy it.

Shadout wrote:

Still unable to get the Multiverse mod to work - or rather the highres patch. Installing the mods individually does seem to make the game able to run. But the game crashed like 30 seconds after I got through the character creation screen - at least it was not before, since character creation as usual is one of the hardest bosses for me.

I hope you can work it out! I did have a handful of crashes at the highest resolution setting and had to drop down to some other 16:9 setting to get the game stable.

I ran fullscreen first at max resolution, but couldn't even get through character creation then, so switched to a lower resolution in windowed mode.

Is there a button to highlight items or things you can click on the screen?

Shadout wrote:

I ran fullscreen first at max resolution, but couldn't even get through character creation then, so switched to a lower resolution in windowed mode.

Is there a button to highlight items or things you can click on the screen?

Windowed mode was a mess for me. The cursor wouldn't work at all.

I don't know of a key to highlight things you can interact with, but there is a color change if you hover over something clickable. #oldschool

Okay, after being frustrated with things last night because I kept dying to everything, I played a bit more now, with my new and improved weaponry and low encumbrance. This is much more fun. I've moved the main quest along, hit Level 10, and have an idea where to go next. Everything has picked up speed, and I'm having fun again.

The only thing is that I have so many places where I want to spend my character points. I'm really liking the super fast sword I bought, which allows me four attacks per turn. Because of that I was tempted to just go hog wild on melee and drop my points there. I also would like to raise charisma to 12 so I can add a third follower. And a point in healing technology would probably help too, because Virgil's magic healing no longer does anything for me. And a point in persuasion would probably be a good idea, and I'd like to keep learning more gunsmithing and what not.

In the end though, I'm sticking to my gunslinger core. I added a point to perception, which gets it to 12 and allowed me to add a third point to the Firearms skill. I'm hoping this will bring my gun damage closer to my sword damage.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:
benign1 wrote:

Ok, I skipped DA:O to give myself a chance to reset after failing to finish both Pillars and Divinity, so it would seem I'm in for Arcanum. Not sure what to think about it yet, but at least it's something I can fish out of the pile!

Yeah, I'm going to probably do a reset with the JRPG Club games. When both clubs end up with 80- to 100-hour games, it's kinda tough. Arcanum is a good bit shorter than three of our last four games, it seems, so that'll help :)

I hear that. I’d really like to see both clubs choose games more in the 30-40 hour window (though I realize I’m part of the problem, too).

LastSurprise wrote:
Godzilla Blitz wrote:
benign1 wrote:

Ok, I skipped DA:O to give myself a chance to reset after failing to finish both Pillars and Divinity, so it would seem I'm in for Arcanum. Not sure what to think about it yet, but at least it's something I can fish out of the pile!

Yeah, I'm going to probably do a reset with the JRPG Club games. When both clubs end up with 80- to 100-hour games, it's kinda tough. Arcanum is a good bit shorter than three of our last four games, it seems, so that'll help :)

I hear that. I’d really like to see both clubs choose games more in the 30-40 hour window (though I realize I’m part of the problem, too).

I haven't thought too much about ideal RPG length, but somewhere in the 30-60 range seems ideal to me, but maybe it matters a bit on the execution?

If there is enough depth to support it, 60 hours feels almost perfect to me. I really enjoyed Divinity Original Sin, and it wasn't until 80 hours or so where I started hoping the end was near. But I was looking forward to be done with Pillars of Eternity at about 50-60 hours. I'm at 66 hours now in Dragon Age, and I'm getting to the point where I'm ready to be done. It's remarkable, though, that games can hold someone's attention for 100 hours. That's a huge amount of time to create fresh content and keep things interesting.

But yeah, both RPG Clubs have taken on some monster games in the past year. 3 of the last 4 CRPG games have been 80-100 hours, and the JRPG Club has gone a similar route.

I'm hopeful that Arcanum, which looks to be 30-60 hours, might be a really good length for me, and be able to support that much play without getting stale.

I tooled around with different resolutions and ultimately settled on an originally recommended 1024 x 768 which is quite pleasant. Now, well a little later on, begins character creation.

Thanks for the aid in getting Arcanum up and running. This has been one of those somewhat intriguing games I've always wondered about.