Arcanum New to CRPGs, starting Arcanum

[Athelas]

Fuck off, retard.

Always a sure sign of integrity when you have to edit the post you're replying to to suit your argument.

 

[Lilura]

Morrowind, Torment and Arcanum.

6.5/10 for putting the doddle sim Morrowind first and alongside greats such as Torment and Arcanum..

 

[cfisher2833]

Start with Planescape Torment, not Arcanum. Arcanum is...well, not good for first timers. I would recommend it over games like BG2, as the combat system in torment pretty simplistic. Most battles can be won simply by telling your guys to attack, and quite a lot of the battles can simply be ignored altogether.

 

[Lilura]

just remember, the older the game is, the more crude interface etc. gets, while many mechanical aspects of RPG's declined over years, interface was the one that clearly improved a lot.

FALSE.

Fallout 1 UI > Fallout 3 UI, Morrowind UI > Skyrim UI, Command line > GUI.

 

[Athelas]

Fallout 1's UI is still horrible though, it being better than those isn't saying much.

 

[Lilura]

What was horrible about Fallout 1's UI? No mousewheel support when selling stuff, and uhm..?

 

[Athelas]

Inability to see more than a handful of your items at a time. Lack of a pause-button can make trying to pickpocket or talk to a moving target a nightmare. The finnicky drop-down menu. Probably lots of another annoyances I could think of if I had been playing it recently.

 

[Xeon]

I don't know if the inventory system is part of the UI but if it is then Fallout 1 and 2 has one of the worst.

For grid inventory or whatever its name is, I think Morrowind and Arcanum were pretty good, decent space and you could differentiate items from what I remember. List inventory Fallout 3's and Skyrim were kinda bad vanilla, Skyrim's get pretty good with SkyUI IIRC.

Anyway regular UI elements like health and whatever, Vanilla in new Fallouts and Skyrim were kinda bad for a first person since you could not have direct control over them and not being to customize them to your liking, gets fixed with mods.

Fallout had a pretty good UI, you could tell what things do at a glance, Arcanum's was bad, they had no tooltips or whatever its called or any indicator or whatever without reading a manual or via first hand experience, like the globe to travel to parts for example.

 

[Tigranes]

Arcanum is love/hate, but I don't really believe in 'optimal starts'. Try it, have fun. If you really aren't, then shelve it and try something else. It's not a course menu.

 

[Anthedon]

I got the patches but how do I change the resolution, am I blind or it's not there?

Did you run the widescreen setup? It asks what resolution you want to use when installing.

 

[Modron]

I don't know if the inventory system is part of the UI but if it is then Fallout 1 and 2 has one of the worst.

For grid inventory or whatever its name is, I think Morrowind and Arcanum were pretty good, decent space and you could differentiate items from what I remember.

While I did like Arcanum's inventory it was not without issue. Namely you were far more likely to run out of inventory space then you were to hit your weight limits especially as you got stronger (of course you could cheese this by putting your largest items into one of your 9 quick inventory slots or by having a lot of npc mules). While the encumberance and weight limit system were reasonable it was kind of weird to combine it with a limited number of slots but at least the auto sort worked somewhat such that you really only had to play tetris to top off your inventory use.

Didn't fallout let you use page down/up and arrow keys to scroll the inventory or was it 2 that added that in? I never had that much issue with ui/inventory in the fallouts. Well besides the lack of a push command in the first game was a glaring flaw but npcs were pretty much hacked together at the last minute before the game was released so i suppose i can overlook that.

 

[Xeon]

I think its been 1-2 years since I last played the games so I can't remember the game very well. For Fallout 1 or 2, I mostly only used mouse, since its an isometric turn based game, I could just relax and play with a mouse so I have no idea if there is a keyboard shortcut, sorry.

 

[Turjan]

Uhm, you might wanna start your foray into cRPG's with something...less shit lighter. Like Fallout or Baldur's Gate.

While in principle correct, you can somewhat circumvent that problem by taking the magic route in Arcanum. Just learn the "Harm" spell, and you are at least halfway set. For someone playing the game as first RPG, it isn't a problem of this being the "boring choice", either.

 

[Photokoi]

Oblivion

In all seriousness, if you can handle it, Ultima VII with exult is pretty cool intro.

 

[groke]

Don't listen to these killjoy faggots, Arcanum is an amazing game and there's no reason you shouldn't start with it. Combat is shitty, game is unfinished/buggy, etc. but this is true of almost every cRPG ever made.

 

[Photokoi]

I too am currently in the beginnings of Arcanum and it truly is a very unique game.
Other than annoying combat, the game is fantastic.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Don't forget the suicide inducing music and generally melancholy everything.

 

[Photokoi]

Without a doubt best music for RPG for me. Competes valiantly with Morrowind for top spot. I don't mind that the whole game is string quartet.

Anyways, OP, why are you asking "should I play this, should I play that?"? Try out the games you want and then decide if you want to keep playing. Also, don't ask for character builds, you don't need help, trust me. The devs made a manual for something, and God gave you a brain for something; figure it out. Playing RPGs is not like learning the piano: just find a game you want to play and play. Want to play one of the best RPGs? Go ahead. Do you think that maybe starting a "beginner RPG" might increase your gaming skills to tackle other games? Then be my guest, go right the fuck ahead. I like to play games, not develop and hone a skill to better appreciate RPGs. I mean, do you do that for books? Or movies? "I'm going to start watching muveez by starting with some basick cartoons so I can appreciate Citizen Cane later on in life.

By golly, just get a game and play. Jeez

 

[Lilura]

Competes valiantly with Morrowind for top spot.

 

[Ellef]

He's only saying for best music in an RPG, which is slightly less controversial.

 

[Cadmus]

Did you run the widescreen setup? It asks what resolution you want to use when installing.

I got it now, thanks. I thought it was a part of the patch but it wasn't.

Another thing - I started a fight and got stuck indefinitely waiting for the enemy to end his turn, how do I resolve this without loading or how can I prevent it from happening?
EDIT: shit it seems to happen every time I end my turn in the bank, somebody just doesn't act and the fight can't go on. What's wrong?

 

[grudgebringer]

I think OP is Avellone.

 

[tuluse]

I mean, do you do that for books? Or movies?

Yes people do this all the time.

 

[SausageInYourFace]

I think Arcanum is a tremendously overrated piece of crap and I honestly think if OP will play it as his first ever 'real' CRPG it might also be his last ever CRPG.

That being said, I have to admit that the music of the game is absolutely beautiful. Maybe you should just listen to the OST on youtube instead of actually playing, OP.

Edit: Here is a good thread about the pros and cons of Arcanum, OP.

BTW, I know that FSM is kill but if an account is nuked, will only be the acc's posts be deleted or all the post quoting it too? Because I seem to remember FSM was posting in that thread.

 

[Xeon]

FMS changed his name I think, MasterSmithFandango is probably him.