Arcanum Arcanum Rebalance Mod

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

Saw this puppy yesterday, decided to try it:


http://www.terra-arcanum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=18503

(compatible with Drog's patches, no worries there)

Arcanum Equilibrium Rebalance Mod by Leonidusx v1.12

now available here on Terra-Arcanum (downloads->arcanum->main module expansions)

http://www.terra-arcanum.com/downloads/ ... xV1.12.zip

Easy to install! Just overwrite Arcanum data folder.

READ THE README! Because I changed almost everything

What my mod changed:

-Stats on over 500 weapons/armors/items (almost every single one)
-Stats on almost every spell
-15 spells replaced with new ones
-170 extra portraits
-Stats on almost every monster
-Important schematic changes so that good items require a special rare component, typically only found at certain parts in the game
-Follower level schemes so that they are more useful and effective
-Much, much more of course!

What my mod does:

-Makes combat actually challenging to your character at times. Some enemies are now powerful boss monsters.
-Balances combat by making as many styles viable and equal as possible (particularly magic, guns, fighter, bows, thrower, tech)
-Balances follower favoritism by making even useless followers decent. I've won games with Jayna, Weldo, Jormund, etc.
-Removes overpowered abilities or features, such as most stun/paralyze effects
-Adds purpose to previously useless things. Fancy clothes give a charisma bonus, for example.

-Overall it makes people's character build decisions actually matter. In regular Arcanum, it's all easy as hell no matter what you do. With this mod, how you develop your character determines what is harder and what is easier as you complete the game.


What my mod doesn't do:

-Absolutely everything I wanted it to. Arcanum has almost no modding information generally available, so some things could not be changed, like many cursed items or backstab damage.

500+ items changed though, not too shabby.

Enjoy!

AND READ THE README!





(or just suffer, whatever) (LOL)

Some notes:
- Still on crash site, playing a gunslinger/grenadier Half-Orc, guns are boosted, finally! Damage seems a bit higher than should be, I'm killing wolves with two-three shots of a home-made flintlock pistol. Then again, I just went outta bullets so perhaps not.
- No stun grenades, Napalm with lowers Fire Resistance instead. Will test with Molotovs.
- Meta Magic Colleage pretty much disabled for balance reasons, it was a pretty cheesy college.
- Nature College seems boosted to me.
- Harm severely weakened for balance
- No more balanced sword 18 speed cheese
- Identify spell on first level, cool

 

[Morkar Left]

Interesting! Maybe I can finally enjoy Arcanum? Please keep posting your impressions about the balance and difficulty, especially how viable a gunslinger is.

 

[Daemongar]

I'll try it, even though I like vanilla Arcanum how it is. The only gripe is this:

-Important schematic changes so that good items require a special rare component, typically only found at certain parts in the game

That artificially giving you the secret component at a specific time doesn't sit well. While I know what the author is trying to accomplish, but he might as well mod it to give you the item at that time instead.

 

[potatojohn]

I can't download anything from TA because I don't have flash to play the unskippable ads.

 

[~RAGING BONER~]

I've grown to like Arcanum despite it's disgusting appearance, horrendous combat, terrible glitches, boring companions and empty feeling world.

I may give this a shot. I've always wanted to swing my fat gunslinging dick in the face of some mages without getting murdered like a cellar rat.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Are technologists still dumpster diving hobos? If so, I'll just try a mage again

disgusting appearance

C'mon, that bit isn't true.

The widescreen patch probably makes it look nicer than vanilla, though.

 

[A user named cat]

I was disappointed that Drog was so easy to dispatch. He went down with 2-3 punches. What a pussy.

 

[Shadenuat]

Like with all fan mods, it seem to fix some stuff just to break other. Get shot by bandits in bank once and die, see Roberts run in and kill everybody with three shots.
First water spells gives +35 crit, meaning crit on every third strike. Grab that and you can kill anything.
Summoned one lvl 18 beast with 3d level summoning spell, it killed witch with dagger, Lukan, his gang and probably would have eaten whole city if I'd wanted to.

 

[Shadenuat]

Yeah although I played an elf to praise holy MCA, so my HP is shit.
Yes, Tidal Force, will get Virgil shout at how amazing you are ten times a fight.
The summoning spell is Summon Beast or whatever, third spell in Summon school. It summons one of those lizards from Thulla, it's level is flat 18. Trick is, it has some sort of petrifying attack. With luck, it petrifies enemy and he can be killed easily. Two of those dispatched both welcoming parties in the Boil.
Direct damage spells suck in this mod, but then you can get Acid Rain, cast it on yourself with Stone Skin - better than Harm.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

Harm was never anything more than a 1 point wonder spell for diplomat characters who wanted a minimal investment in combat skills. Of all the things to nerf, why that?

Has Temporal been changed at all?

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Harm is a first level spell that does like 50 damage a pop at high magic affinity, for a piddly 5 stamina cost (values might not be exactly right). If any spell needs to be nerfed, it's Harm. (Agility of Fire is pretty OP as well, though)

edit: Heh, no saving against it as well. Check dis out

http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/914155-arcanum-of-steamworks-and-magick-obscura/faqs/14033

Spoiler

C. RECITATION: A Listing of Damage-Dealing Spells

Name and College of Spell
Maximum Damage: Damage under optimum conditions (failed save and no resistance to the type of damage caused by the spell).
Save: Saving throw.
Cost: The amount of fatigue one must expend to cast the spell.
Average Damage: Damage under typical conditions.

Poison Vapors (Air 2)
Maximum Damage: 15-50 poison plus 2-8 electrical fatigue
Save: CN (halves both)
Cost: 10
Average Damage: 8-26 plus 1-5 fatigue

Stone Throw (Earth 2)
Maximum Damage: 1-50 physical
Save: CN-5 (halves)
Cost: 10
Average Damage: 1-29

Fireflash (Fire 3)
Maximum Damage: 15-45 fire
Save: CN-5 (halves)
Cost: 15
Average Damage: 10-30

Squall of Ice (Water 3)
Maximum Damage: 3-12 physical plus five subsequent 2-10 physical
Save: CN-5 (halves initial damage and eliminates subsequent damage, but
five separate saves against subsequent damage are required each round)
Cost: 15
Average Damage: 5-24

Jolt (Force 2)
Maximum Damage: 2-25 electrical
Save: CN-10 (halves)
Cost: 10
Average Damage: 2-20

Bolt of Lightning (Force 4)
Maximum Damage: 20-70 electrical
Save: CN-5 (halves)
Cost: 25
Average Damage: 14-49

Disintegrate (Force 5)
Maximum Damage: 30000 electrical
Save: CN-5 (halves)
Cost: 50
Average Damage: 21038

Harm (Necromantic Black 1)
Maximum Damage: 3-40 physical
Save: None
Cost: 6
Average Damage: 2-28

Quench Life (Necromantic Black 5)
Damage: 50-100 physical
Save: CN-5 (halves)
Cost: 50
Average Damage: 29-58

 

[Shadenuat]

Here's what dude did with magic if anyone's interested:
Travel: As useful as it has been.
Divination: Identify at 1st level, neat, but that means there is no reason placing any points in the school. I would make it See Contents > Identify > Others.
Meta: Disabled for some reason. Is there something I don't know, are there that many magical enemies in Arcanum?
Morph: Sorta interesting for a spellsword, but mostly shit. There's spell which gives you more unarmed damage, and another one which makes enemies take more damage. Trasfigurment is crap.
Air: Seems as crap as it has been. New spell adds +20% health to the party, yeah, right. Poison vapors doesn't seem to do anything.
Nature: Whole school is broken and requires you to be level ~50 to even try using it. Unusable in real time, because shapeshifting takes hundreds of fatigue. No calm animals spell - the only spell which made playing Arcanum as "pacifist" passable. Idea of transforming into animals is interesting but doesn't pay off, requires level ~50 or is broken.
Earth: Stoneskin is a good idea for a spell. Throw Rock is useless. Golem is broken - you can summon as many as you want, they don't take attunement slots. Stone form makes you indestructible. Petrify is a weak paralyze spell.
Necromancy Black: Finally kinda balanced, I guess? Has the only good save-or-die spell. New spell cuts everyone's health by 20%. Pfft.
Fire: Sorta same as it have been. First buff gives +4 speed, no stacking. Fireball can kill rats or sprites. Final spell is a powerful AoE.
Necromancy white: now has a mass heal spell, and first spell heals poisons. Which makes poisons completely harmless in game.
Water: Aka new Necromancy Black. First spell makes you crit all the time. Second is AoE which gets whole screen, but damage is shit. Acid Rain can kill most of the beginning enemies. Send someone forward, wait when enemies group on him, cast Acid Rain. Gain level up. Fourth spell gives whole party +speed, last spell is very powerful AoE.
Phantasm: Thief's dream. Sorta balanced. Has flash grenade equivalent, +armor class spell, damaging spell (!), invisibility.
Force: Kinda damaging school. Lightning bolt is very cheap. Shield does not protect against physical damage now. Disintegrate now is crap.
Summoning: Aka The School. Get a level 8 creature at level 1. Get a level 18 at level 5. Get a demon who rapes everyone. Get a dragon at level ~50 who stays permanently and has HP of a tank.
Mental: First spell stuns party but regenerates fatigue. Meaning unlimited fatigue. Meaning no dungeon is challenging at all now. New spell doesn't work. Dominate costs arm and leg.
Temporal: Sorta as it has been.

So as final conclusion, magic in mod still breaks game. Now you just use schools which were crap once, but now are good. Oh, you also have unlimited mana outside of combat.
It's less straightforward though. A lot of spells are made with spellsword in mind. Sometimes I want to cast Tidal Force+Stoneskin and kill rats with sword. Sometimes I will summon rapelizards. Sometimes I will throw fireballs around. But all dungeons are a joke because of new Meditation spell.

I also checked on some of the techie recipes, and there's a lot of broken stuff. Wooden ring in arachnid recipe wtf

Mod is amateurish work at best. Only good for slight change of experience.

 

[FuelBlooded]

should I use this on my first playthrough, wait for a better version or use other mods?

 

[Shadenuat]

Play game as it is, with fan patch. Tell us about wolves after.

 

[Johannes]

Make a new acc then?

 

[Coriolanus]

should I use this on my first playthrough, wait for a better version or use other mods?

I'm generally very wary of "rebalance" mods. I don't think guns are too weak in vanilla+fanpatch Arcanum, playing a techie/gunslinger feels balanced actually - that was my last playthrough, it's also the most rich path content-wise: you'll find some secret fun technologies on the way, while magic is just static from the start. Some fights are easy, some are hard.

Playing with melee and magic just feels like roflstomping after first 1/5 of the game tbh.

A must-play mod would have to fix the biggest issue with Arcanum - the last 1/4 of the game, where you just run through very big, very boring areas full of trash mobs until the very end boss (and other areas like that, e.g. after that bunny village).

 

[RK47]

*Sees no rape and does not reinstall*

 

[Coriolanus]

should I use this on my first playthrough, wait for a better version or use other mods?

I'm generally very wary of "rebalance" mods. I don't think guns are too weak in vanilla+fanpatch Arcanum, playing a techie/gunslinger feels balanced actually - that was my last playthrough, it's also the most rich path content-wise: you'll find some secret fun technologies on the way, while magic is just static from the start. Some fights are easy, some are hard.

Playing with melee and magic just feels like roflstomping after first 1/5 of the game tbh.

A must-play mod would have to fix the biggest issue with Arcanum - the last 1/4 of the game, where you just run through very big, very boring areas full of trash mobs until the very end boss (and other areas like that, e.g. after that bunny village).

Are you kidding? Bro, vanilla Arcanum guns are PATHETIC until the Hand-Cannon and the Looking-Glass Rifle appear. Playing with guns until Quintarra or Ashbury is more or less riddling everything with ridiculous ammounts of bullets until they fall down, even puny bums take a lot of bullets to fall down.

Yeah, Arcanum is too content empty after T'sen Ang or so, towards the end you're just going into thousands of shitty dungeons fighting lots of shitty trashmobs.

I had a pretty balanced experience with a dwarf gunslinger, using guns only (I was very greedy for consumables, so never really used grenades). Early game (before Tarant) was a bit hard resource-wise and I had to use companions, but Tarant already had a massive selection of good guns/ammo to buy and craft. I can't remember what and where I did, exactly, but it never felt like I was just "stuffing things with bullets". It certainly felt superior to my previous magic and melee playthroughs - there were new fun schematics appearing up until the end-game area.

 

[Morkar Left]

Some short impressions after reading the readme, looking at the weapon stats and running around at the starting area trying guns. Guns feel great now. The first time they are actually useful right from the start and not some inferior peashooters. Makes a lot more sense now from a lore perspective and from gameplay, too.
Another great change is the annoying fatigue drain is gone which was a nice idea in vanilla but badly executed.

The problem with the mod is it doesn't feel well integrated in the game by still having fatigue potions, magic schools and spells which aren't needed anymore as well as weapons which still have the original stats.

It looks like the author used the arcanum factory editor to alter the stats which would explain why he couldn't change some weapon stats.

I think to appreciate Arcanum I would have to use the editor and tweaking the guns with better damage (similar to this mod), get rid of the fatigue damage from all weapons and alter some overpowered spells like harm. This might do it for me. Unfortunately I doubt I will spend hours of hours tweaking the stats just to be able to play the game with my few spare time left.
EDIT: Forgot that weapon durability would need tweaking, too

 

[Shadenuat]

I checked on guns, they are now more broken than pre-patch LGR. Enjoy "Drotch's" Fine Revolver with 25 damage and hunting rifle with 20-40 damage per shot I bought one for 800 gold pieces and destroyed everything before Tarant and in it. I'm afraid to grab other guns, they must be Harm-level weapons now. Also, you can get Expert in Persuasion by wearing 2 silver rings

 

[Whisky]

I was disappointed that Drog was so easy to dispatch. He went down with 2-3 punches. What a pussy.

Wrong. You just killed one of his accounts.

He is EVERYONE in Arcanum.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Also, you can get Expert in Persuasion by wearing 2 silver rings

Bling, bling.
That's how it should work?

 

[gunman]

Are you kidding? Bro, vanilla Arcanum guns are PATHETIC until the Hand-Cannon and the Looking-Glass Rifle appear. Playing with guns until Quintarra or Ashbury is more or less riddling everything with ridiculous ammounts of bullets until they fall down, even puny bums take a lot of bullets to fall down.

You can have Hand Cannon 30 minutes into gameplay, once you reach Tarant and pickpocket that idiot gnome with a fate point from tricking the thieves at the bridge, or pickpocket the gun shopkeeper for another very nice revolver (better than the one given by Doc Roberts).

And as a technologist you will be swimming in money by selling what you make, once in Tarant I was quickly in 5000-6000 range. A Tesla rod alone sells for 800-900 a piece to a junk dealer.

So I don't think the game is unbalanced for a technologist.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Uh, you're just supposed to know some random gnome is carrying a decent weapon?

 

[gunman]

You can use pickpocket skill on any characters just to see what he is equipped with, even if you don't intend to pickpocket him. Many shopkeepers carry unique items, so it's worth checking every one of them.