Arcanum Arcanum Multiverse Edition

[hell bovine]

Out of what's here, I'd honestly go for passerby's suggestions. The idea of Victorian frames are cool but without an actual artist doing work on it specifically it's currently way too jarring.

Well fuck it, I just decided to add a 2px accent to the wood background and about 10 px of faint-ish shading to the original main menu background to achieve a wood cut out effect and here's the result. Look at the skull and the bottom border, I think it looks p good and not too jarring/overly creative.

The problem with all those "patterned" backgrounds is that they kind of... dimnish (for a lack of better word) the effect of the original design.

In the original, the wooden background makes the menu stand out, because it contrasts with the black surrounding it. When you add a similar wooden effect all around, this contrast isn't as strong and the menu looks lost in all this "woodennes". On the other hand, in the 'fade to black' picture the darkness is just too much.

- Which is why I liked the mage & dwarf version the best. It didn't tinker with the contrast, but did away with the darkness monotony. If you can't find any high-res art, maybe a steampunk-styled photo would work?

 

[passerby]

I like both, fade to black and this wooden cutout. If you'll keep fade to black too, you can make fade shading thinner.

But honestly what this game needs the most at this point, is some serious combat mod:
Cut most of the filler trash mobs from dungeons like for example Tarant severs, make remaining encounters harder.
Maybe some rebalance, I recall tech being seriously underpowered compared to magic, etc.

I understand you're probably not interested in doing it - a lot of time consuming, boring iteration and testing required.
It's more of an open call, but if you'd be in charge of it, I could trust it though.
There are too many "rebalance" mods for various games made by idiots.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

But honestly what this game needs the most at this point, is some serious combat mod

It's coming, but only after UAP 2.0, High Res and the Race Mod I'm currently working on. The combat mod will be centered around TB, as in real-time combat will be disabled completely and then the whole system will be balanced/tweaked around this fact. As I've mentioned I already have several engine modules ready for this purpose.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

What are your opinions on the icon?

Retail (yes, they shipped the game with this, be thankful you don't get to see it):

UAP (this is my vectorizing attempt from 2009 and what the current public build of the UAP is using):

NEW SHIT:

Yay/Nay/Fuck you?

 

[FeelTheRads]

The problem with all those "patterned" backgrounds is that they kind of... dimnish (for a lack of better word) the effect of the original design.

Yep, I think borders of any kind just make it look like the menu is squeezed... I also prefer just black in this case.

Yay/Nay/Fuck you?

Vector one, or else something more grimy.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

something more grimy.

As in?

Don't forget, it has to look good/adequate at 32x32 as well.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

MAX grim dark version for most metal fans of the game:

Only need to add dripping blood.

 

[passerby]

Some orange rust texture for the wheel. Particle-like effect for the symbol, more contrast - inside some bright pixels, intense dark blue edge.
All with stylish pixelation, think flash Binding of Isaac -> pixelart reboot Binding of Isaac. Sorry, no mockup. I'm one of these "idea man" kind of people.

Just kidding, oldshit vector one is perfectly fine, maybe sample darker orange shade from the original icon.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

New Shit with oldest shit's colors + less bling:

 

[FeelTheRads]

Luzur can you identify whether the pistol in the main menu is based on any real gun or can you point me to something with a similar mechanism?

Unless anyone else knows?

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

The room also appears in the last ending slide from a different POV, BTW.

Here's your pistol, Piggy, but I don't think flintlock revolvers ever existed.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Fuck, that's useful! Thanks!

And yeah, was just looking and didn't find anything.
But at least that image has a better view of the mechanism.
And of that gear box thing next to it!

Oh, and funny how they made they properly mapped the lamp shade texture only to the front, but you can see in the reflection how it's just messed up in the back.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Kind of based off Droch's Warbinger in game.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Decisions as I go, to anywhere I flow, sometimes I believe, at times where I should know...

Fuckin' vote your poison you grognards. If no one gives a shit then it will be "style 02".

 

[T. Reich]

Decisions as I go, to anywhere I flow, sometimes I believe, at times where I should know...

Fuckin' vote your poison you grognards. If no one gives a shit then it will be "style 02".

I'd rather prefer the idon to retain the "oldscool" flat 2d feel. It's a early 2000s game, it's supposed to look this way.
It's enough to look at Beamdog's "modernising" of PS:T's graphics to see that faux-3d shit just doesn't mesh with the old 2d graphics.

So, style 02 or style 00.

 

[Luzur]

Luzur can you identify whether the pistol in the main menu is based on any real gun or can you point me to something with a similar mechanism?

Unless anyone else knows?

Looks like a... revolver percussion navy pistol, or maybe like it have a Wender mechanism.

Also, it can never by fired since the trigger is part of the trigger guard.

Steampunk version of a percussion gun, simply.

 

[Tigranes]

Icon - eh, whatever. 02 looks good.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Any oldfags here still remember the "High Resolution Enabler" aka Arcanum "1024x768 Edition"? Fuck, I almost forgot about it myself. Basically it was the precursor to the High Resolution Patch, it didn't fix much of the UI and was limited to just one resolution, as per moniker. When the HR patch was finally finished I purged this 1024x768 "edition" from every thread and download site, and seems like my own memory as well.

But, turns out the T-A archives still have it. And the cool thing about that crude patch is that it had a p cool implementation of fullscreen map interface, like this:

This map is so huge and bloody convenient! Well,, I thought about this and I can do the same in the high resolution patch, but obviously it won't be dynamic, since the UI graphics need to be tailored for a specific resolution. I guess I could at very least make a 720p and 1080p versions, though. What would you say? The other menus (like inventory and char sheet) will stay the same size.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Kind of based off Droch's Warbinger in game.

Hah, it is indeed, I'm sure it's the same model except with the barrel added at the top:

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Kind of based off Droch's Warbinger in game.

Hah, it is indeed, I'm sure it's the same model except with the barrel added at the top:

That's actually just your normal flintlock pistol. Droch's schematic art was never made, this is a placeholder. Droch's invenotry art is nothing alike.

Let me dig up some pistol graphics for you...

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

FeelTheRads

 

[agris]

Any oldfags here still remember the "High Resolution Enabler" aka Arcanum "1024x768 Edition"? Fuck, I almost forgot about it myself. Basically it was the precursor to the High Resolution Patch, it didn't fix much of the UI and was limited to just one resolution, as per moniker. When the HR patch was finally finished I purged this 1024x768 "edition" from every thread and download site, and seems like my own memory as well.

But, turns out the T-A archives still have it. And the cool thing about that crude patch is that it had a p cool implementation of fullscreen map interface, like this:

This map is so huge and bloody convenient! Well,, I thought about this and I can do the same in the high resolution patch, but obviously it won't be dynamic, since the UI graphics need to be tailored for a specific resolution. I guess I could at very least make a 720p and 1080p versions, though. What would you say? The other menus (like inventory and char sheet) will stay the same size.

Please make a 16:10 version of the 720p. So 1280x800. These old games look better at reduced resolutions anyways.

 

[Jojobobo]

I thought I'd pop in from TA as I'm not sure how much active the patch thread will be there.

Good work on the patch as I mentioned over at TA Drog. Something that came up recently on the Arcanum reddit is re-skinning the machine plate half ogre sprite, might this be possible by scaling up the human sprite for machined plate (in the same vein as the work your looking at doing to make female halflings/gnomes playable)? I know the bulk might not be quite right for how broad half ogres are, however it's still better than the current situation where the sprite is just the same as any kind of plate. A minor detail, but an annoying one. Thoughts?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Say, any of these new patches include the critically acclaimed Modesty mod?

 

[Brancaleone]

The combat mod

Bloody hell!