GENERAL GAME FAQ

If you want to learn a bit more about Arcanum, this is the section to read! We have tried to put together a FAQ to outline the general aspects of the game that people usually want to know about the most. Certain areas of the game, such as online gameplay and game editor information, are explained in greater detail in their own sections on this website. We will update the FAQ when more information is available to us about Arcanum.

Q: Let's say you find a schematic for gun X, can you build it right from the start or is gun X's value placed above a learned scematic? For example , would I need to know how to build a hand cannon before being allowed to build gun X?
A: Your character will have two sets of schematics - the 'learned' set that you advance through by spending CPs, and the 'found' set that you collect in your travels - whether you find them, steal them, or buy them. Taking your example of 'Gun X'. When you check out your schematics you will see two buttons - the 'mortarboard hat' (learned schems) and the scroll (found schems). Click on the found schems button and you can go through your list and find the Gun X schematic. Whether you can build it or not will depend on your expertise in whichever disciplines are required for Gun X and having the required components of course.

Q: Hows does using a schematic work?
A: You will find the schematic but will need to have all prerequsites in order to use them. If you found one for a rifle with a scope, you would need to have all parts needed to complete the rifle and scope first. Also, you would need to have the abilities of gunsmithing and the appropriate level to be able to even read and understand the scope. Once you have achieved the right level, you will then see a picture of it in the schematic.

Q: Can tools be made of two diff tech skills?
A: Cross disciplinary items are built using special found schematics. Each schematic looks like the basic ones, which list two components each with a 'tech rating' in a particular discipline.

Q: How will cross skill tech stuff work?
A: In a cross-disciplinary schematic one component might be electrical with a required electrical rating of 80 (for example) while the other component could be mechanical requiring a mechanical rating of 50. Once you meet the requirements and have the necessary components you can build the item! If you had an electrical rating of 50 and a mechanical rating of 50 then you would be able to see the mechanical component but not the electrical one until you bought more ranks in the Electrical discipline.

Q: Does increasing a tech skill increase tech aptitude?
A: Yes.

Q: How many Tech items are there?
A: There are more than 56 items that you will be able to create. Thats in addition to the 7 basic ones you can make from each discipline.

Q: How hard will it to find the materials needed to make items?
A: It will not be hard at all actually. The items will be found, bought, stolen, or even earned in the cities and factories and from merchants that specialize in that technology.

Q: Can any metal found in the game be used for the smithy skill? If I found a magickal sword and I'm a techie can I melt it and make a weapon I can use?
A: You won't be able to melt down weapons, remember you can always sell them and use the money to buy more tech components.

Q: Can a technoligist raise the dead?
A: There are 2 different cross-disciplinary schematics dealing with reanimation that can be found. One is the necromizer, which turns the dead into mindless zombies using skills from the eletrical and chemistry disciplines. The other is the reanimator, which actually completely resurrects the dead using skills from the herbal and electrical disciplines.

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Q: How much experience does it currently take to go up a level?
A: It takes 2,000 experience points to go from level 1 to level 2. 6,700 to go from level 10 to level 11 and 20,600 to go from level 30 to level 31. (these numbers may also be subject to balance changes)"

Q: Is there a chance of creating more than one player to play at a time?
A: Nope, just one Player Character.

Q: Are there classes in Arcanum?
A: No, Arcanum does not use a class-based system. You will be able to put points in any skill you feel is needed for your character, which makes every character unique.

Q: How many points will you have when creating your character to raise stats, buy skills and spells, etc...?
A: You get five points.

Q: What races can be played?
A: There are 8 races that can be played by a PC: Human, Elf, Half-Elf, Half-Orc, Gnome, Dwarf, Halfling, and Half-Ogre.

Q: Which characters can play as female?
A: You can play a male from any of the 8 races, but a female from only 4 of them: Human, Elf, Half-Elf, Half-Orc.

Q: Does the gender of your character affect your beginning stats in the game?
A: Yes, gender does affect starting stats, +1 Constitution (CN) , and -1 Strength (ST) for females.

Q: What races are by default more atuned to magick or tech? Like elves are more atuned to magick and gnomes to tech. What about ogres, orcs, halflings and such?
A: Basically, elves are magick, dwarves are tech. Every other race is neutral, except for halfelves who are slightly magick oriented. This is their 'starting' position. There is nothing stopping you developing your dwarf character into a mage (although dwarves have several penalties that make it difficult) and having a high magickal aptitude.

Q: Do Half-Elves recieve a magic aptitude bonus?
A: They get a 5% magick aptitude bonus (i.e. their magick aptitude starts at 5, magick biased).

Q: When you create a character you're starting stats are 8 right? You can raise them by using the 5 character points that you are given. But can you lower them to get an extra character point?
A: You can't lower a stat to get an extra point, however you can choose a background, which will lower some stats/skills and raise others.

Q: Can you customize the look of your character?
A: Yes, but it will depend on race, armor worn, and/or weapon being carried. The character portraits will be using a color palette for PC's that will be dependent on armor or clothing.

Q: Do some races have advantages over others?
A: There will be some pluses and minuses to various races for an example a Half-Elf will have a +1 to Dexterity but has a -1 (lose) to all Tech skills.

Q: Will different races start in different parts of the world?
A: No, all characters will start in the same location. It will depend on what race and background you chose to what happens next with the interaction of others.

Q: If a character is perfectly balanced between tech. and magick, is he penalized when using one or the other?
A: You get penalties to using an item if you are strong in the opposite field. (e.g. using a gun while being strong in magick). If you are neutral, then things will work as normal.

Q: Can you complete the game with a character who has no fighting skills?
A: Yes, the game will be balanced enough to allow this, but it may make things far more difficult.

Q: Does intelligence determines what level of spell a mage can use? What other stats aside from willpower will be useful to a mage?
A: Intelligence determines how many spells you can have active at once, Willpower determines the maximum level of spell you are eligible to purchase. Fatigue is the ammo for spells, and raising Constitution or Willpower will increase your fatigue stat by 2 and 1 respectively, in addition, constitution determines your fatigue 'recovery rate'. Although this is not a 'large' factor during combat, but you won't have to stand around as long after combat waiting to recharge.

Q: How long does it take to max out aptitude (either magic or tech), and around what level could this realistically be achieved?
A: Aptitude maxes at 100(%) 20 or 30 spells or cp spent in tech stuffs.

Q: Will Mages directly rely on more attributes than any other character style to be effective in combat (constitution, intelligence, willpower, dexterity)?
A: No. Mages seem to be the easiest to create. Willpower is your most important stat. If you want to be able to maintain alot of spells, then intelligence is probably your next important. Otherwise, Constitution will probably be your best friend. Dex will help out anyone, but is by no means necessary for a viable mage.

Q: Will Mages have to buy spells individually and don't get 200 extra spells to use with the magic skill they have (as technologist do in the form of found schematics)?
A: They do have to buy their spells, just as a tech has to buy their schematics. Now techs can find schematics to increase their abilities, but Arcanum is LOADED with magickal items and weapons for mages to find.(some newly created, some ancient, whose magicks have been forgotten). Some are cursed. You get to decide if you want to use them or not, because they give you a bonus AND a detriment.

Q: Will a generalist, a character skilled in numerous fields, but really good at nothing be able to survive or will I need to be much more specialized?
A: Yes, you should be able to complete the game with a "Jack of all trades".

Q: Is it right that you can only spend 12 CPs in any one stat over the life of the character? This means those that start at 8 can get to 20, and those with positive modifers can go above 20, and those with negitive modifers can never get to 20 with out some type external (Magical, Tech, Item) help?
A: Correct, you can only spend 12 CPs. So if you have a negative BG/race modifier, you can NOT reach a modified 20 by spending CPs. You would have to use an item/spell/potion/whatever to reach a modified 20.

Q: Can you split each CP into percentages, i.e. hand a .25 to lockpicking, a .25 to pick pockets, etc? Since the penalties and pluses are broken into percentages, it seems logical being able to distribute to skills in the same way.
A: No you can't split CPs.

Q: Do potions affect the magick/tech aptitude?
A: Magick "potions" (healing or whatever) are more effective on PCs with magick aptitude, less effective on techies. Tech "potions" (herbology, thereauputics) are more effective on techies, less effective on magick users.

Q: Does the magic/tech system affect the way that I travel through the world of Arcanum?
A: In most instances, no. However, as you gain magickal aptitude, the train conductors will begin to give you a hard time. They may even make you sit at the back of the train in the mage's caboose. And if you are getting near the top of your magical aptitude, and are a truly powerful mage, they won't let you on the train at all.

Q: Will there be orc-elves in Arcanum? The Races compendium says it is possible for the orcs and elves and humans reproduce together, because theyre the same species.
A: It's not part of the Arcanum 'logic' to allow 'orc-elves'. Nonetheless, despite the complete absence of any inherent and universal magickal quality in the human race, humans are always able to produce fertile hybrids with three other completely disparate species, none of which are able to reproduce with one another: these being the elves, orcs and ogres.

Q: Are there not going to be any female gnomes or female halflings in the world of Arcanum?
A: Gnome and Halfling women exist in the world as NPCs, however you will not be able to play one. This was a decision made early on due to art size limitations/time constraints.

Q: Is it right, that you can receive skill training from NPCs? Can you gain actual skill points and not just a higher level of skill mastery? If so, how many points do you gain per training session?
A: You don't get more points. Instead you use that skill better. For example, a certain level of training in the bow skill will make you fire 3 arrows at once. Just putting more Character Points into the skill can't do that.

Q: How are Fate Points awarded? Are they just given every few levels, or do you get awarded extra Fate Points for solving major quests?
A: Significatly good or evil quests give you Fate Points. If you complete a quest in accordance with your alignment, kill a certain creature, do something a certain way... you get a fate point.

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Q: Are there no two-hand weapons ?
A: There are some weapons that are strictly "2 handed" like the staff. Other weapons behave differently if you have a shield-like item. For example you normally need a strength of 12 to use some sword with no penalties, but the Strength require could bump up to 16 to use with shield with no penalties.

Q: Do different type of weapons do different type of damage (ie slashing, piercing, blunt trauma, etc)? Will some types of weapons be more effective against some types of adversaries (ie hammers smashing skeletons/automatons with ease, swords being more effective against fleshy enemies like .. uh, wolves and rats that aren't made of granite/sandpaper/whipped cream) ?
A: Weapons can do 6 types of damage; Fire, electrical, poison, magickal, fatigue and normal. Certain creatures may have lower or higher resistances to certain types of damage. Beyond that, there are particular, individual, weapons which are more effective at killing certain creatures, or creaturetypes. In addition, weapons like a mace will do more fatigue damage than a sword. Each weapon is further categorized for purposes of critical hits and misses. The critical hit categories are cutting, crushing, impaling, electrical,and fire. The critical miss categories are bladed, bludgeon, handled, guns, bows, hands, explosive, fire, and electrical. The types are used to determine the type of critical you receive. For example, cutting weapons are more likely to scar on a critical hit, whilecrushing are more likely to cause unconsciousness. Similarly on a critical miss, fire-based weapons can literally explode on a very very bad roll. Other factors in criticals: critter's body type (biped, quadruped, amorphous, insect, snake, and avian), attacker's skill and training, and weapon bonuses.

Q: Weapons and armour will be damaged and so forth. Is it a percentage that decreases as the items are used? If an item is so worn that its useless, can it be repaired to full working state again?
A: Weapons are now damaged whenever they are used to hit things made of of wood, fire, metal, stone and glass. This would include monsters made of such substances. Repair capabilities are given to blacksmiths, junk dealers and fine armorers, so you will be able to have your weapons repaired for a fee. The quality of the repair will depend upon the skill level of the person doing the work. The armor that someone is wearing will not damage your weapon. If your weapon would have gotten damaged every time you hit someone in armor, then you'd go through weapons like crazy (unless you were the diplomatic type, of course). Armor is relatively thin, so we thought it wouldn't damage your weapon much, while beating on an earth elemental or a door would.

Q: Why use a bow instead of a gun?
A: Two reasons. First arrows are cheaper than bullets. Second bow skill does not depend on your tech skill.

Q: How is ammo handled?
A: You can either buy it or a cheaper method would be to aquire the skill to make it yourself.

Q: Which races can wear armor?
A: All races will be able to have some armor although it will be harder to find armor for races such as Half-Ogres and Dwarves. If you are looking for armor to fit a dwarf, it may be best to find a dwarven city.

Q: Can Half-Ogres use any armor?
A: In Arcanum clothing and armour come in three sizes: Small, Medium and Large. These can only be worn by the relevant races: Small: Dwarf, Halfling, Gnome Medium: Human, Elf, Halfelf, Halforc Large: Halfogre. There are also gender and other restrictions as well.

Q: Will you need arrows for a bow, like bullets to guns? Are there magick arrows?
A: Yes. It's doable engine wise, but its dependent on the bow, all arrows are the same.

Q: Can't half-ogres use pistols?
A: Because of the size of half-ogres, they will not be able to use smaller guns.

Q: Will halflings be able to use larger weapons?
A: The larger weapons will have some sort of strength requirement. Since halflings start with a severe strength penalty it would take quite awhile for one to effectively wield, say, an elephant gun. But they can achieve it.

How many different types of bullets are there?
A: One size fits all... there is only one kind of "bullet" in Arcanum. There are 4 types of "ammunition": Bullets, Arrows, Batteries, and Fuel.

Q: Assuming we don't kill people by disintegration, will we be able to pick the armor off of dead bodies, or will we have to buy them from merchants and such?
A: If they were wearing armor, you will be able to take it. Then you can wear it, sell it, give it to your followers, whatever. The exception to this would be basic townspeople who are wearing either rural or city clothes (not armor).

Q: Will some types of weapons be more effective against some types of adversaries?
A: Weapons can do 6 types of damage: Fire, electrical, poison, magickal, fatigue and normal. Certain creatures may have lower or higher resistances to certain types of damage. Beyond that, there are particular, individual, weapons which are more effective at killing certain creatures, or creature types. In addition, weapons like a mace will do more fatigue damage than a sword.

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Q: Is it possible in combat, to do an action while moving? I'm referring to shooting a gun while running, or throwing a dagger? Obviously, this doesn't apply to spellcasting...
A: Nope and nope. No moving about while attacking, firing yer weapon or whatnot.

Q: Can you keep getting xp from enemies you already killed by resurrecting them?
A: Each enemy has a pool of xp. You are awarded the xp for defeating the enemy (hits award some of the xp, kills award the rest), but once the pool is used up, that's it

Q: Will the game have turn-based combat or real-time combat?
A: : Both. You as the player will decide.

Q: What is the difference between turn based and real time?
A: : In turn-based combat, everything is computed as to who is fastest according to stats and who goes first due to element of suprise. After all things are computed, the game will decide who gets a the first turn to strike and then who will go second turn to strike, and so forth. In real-time combat, whoever has the fastest fingers on his/her computer hits first and the most. No turns, so it is very possible to for you to hit an opponent at the same time the opponent is hitting you.

Q: Can you change from turn-based to real-time mode?
A: Yes, the space bar will allow this.

Q: Are there different types of attacks?
A: Yes, there are weapons that deal fatigue damage or crushing damage. You can even aim for specific parts of the body by using the hotkeys.

Q: Will a higher level character still have to fight those lower level monsters?
A: No. The A.I. (artificial intelligence) of the game will judge the strength of your party and decide if that low-level group of monsters were going to attack you and you are far superior, they would simply not even bother to attack you.

Q: How will any high level guys at the far ends of spectrum (lvl 50 mage vs. lvl 50 techy) fight each other?
A: The two level 50 characters aptitude (assuming their magick and tech aptitudes are equal) cancel each other out so there are NO penalties for either of them! The mage's spells will work as normal, as will the techie's gadgets.

Q: What happens if my character dies?
A: If your main character dies, the game continues for a few seconds giving any followers the chance to resurrect you if they have the necessary skills. They might be to busy fighting to survive to help you though, or might not make it it time - best to stay alive. Otherwise reload or start a new character. Your choice.

Q: If you sneak up behind somebody who isn't wearing armor and stab them in the back with a large knife or sword do they die automatically?
A: It depends on the weapon, how skilled you are with the backstab skill, how many hit-points they have and your strength bonus or penalty.

Q: How fast will real-time combat be?
A: There is an option to click once on an enemy and your character will just continually attack them. Also, in multiplayer, the characters will defend themselves if attacked with no good connection. They just start fighting back with their equipped weapon. They may not be as good as a planned strategy, but it should buy some time.

Q: Lets say a mage throws a lightning bolt at a techie, who at the same time fires a bullet. If the bolt and bullet where to hit eachother, which one would surpass?
A: They would pass and hit their targets. Now the chance of hitting the targets would depend on the whole magick/tech thing...

Q. When playing a generally peaceful character, will you you recieve experience points although you don't kill your enemies?
A: Experience points are awarded for completing quests in non-violent manners, a diplomat or thief is a fully viable character. Although perhaps not a complete pacifist. You still need to do something about those pesky monsters who come after you...

Q: How will dexterity work in turn based combat? Do you just receive more action points, or do you actually get more turns than people with lower dexterity? Once I enter combat do all the enemies go and then all my guys go (or vice versa), or do turns take place individually?
A: The more Dexterity you have the more action points you get. Each character has his own turn in combat. The order in which you go is determined by your perception, the higher the better.

Q: Can you use skills in combat?
A: Yes, there will be some that you are able to use in either real-time or turn-based.

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Q: Can we check against pc name ? ifpcname=(sleeper) then printf("HI")
A: No.

Q: Will people with child of a hero background that get a sword in singleplayer get one in multiplayer too ? Same for the backgrounds that give objects.
A: Starting equipment from skills/stats and background probably won't be changeable

Q: Can you guns or objects that gain levels with you ?
A: You can make weapons depend on scripts, and you can use scripts to determine a player's level. At the very least you can make a weapon that depends on the level of the player.

Q: Is it possible to check against people getting levels for example to give a message like hey mate you got a level up ?
A: Probably. The level up event can probably trigger a check against the level, and play an appropriate script. "Welcome to level 10!"

Q: Is it possible to temporalely take cp from a pc character or make him weaker if you believe that he is too high level for your mod ?
A: There are curses that can do something similar. If someone is too high a level, the easiest thing to do is just have the person running the modset the sever to not let people in above a certain level.

Q: Is it possible to temporalily give him cp ? the opposite.
A: Again, blessings should have the desired effect.

Q: Is it possible to put Virgil into a single player mod ?
A: No, but you can create someone exactly like him. Even though you can't cut and paste within the editor, you can build something very similar. It would probaly work better that way anyway. Virgil probably has a lot of stuff that is specific to the main game.

Q: Is it possible to make a bridge dissapear according to pc action ? or become totally imassable ?
A: Absolutely. It may be a matter of teleporting the PC to a location that doesn't have the bridge, but there should be ways to do it.

Q: Is it easy to make a vampire playable race ? Give bonus at night minus at day plus if his fatigue is under 40 his psionics image that makes him look like a human breaks and we see him like the monster he is ?
A: Nope. The race and background effects can not be changed in the editor, they are all hardcoded in the editor.

Q: Let me imagine a mod like 4 kingdoms. Each player gets a kingdom and controls it. He can say to a group of fighters to go and burn a house down. Can he see the battle from far 1000 screnns or he has to go with them ?
A: Nope. How far away you can scroll is controlled by your perception. You might want to script in advisor NPCs that tell you how the battle is going through dialog.

Q: When designing a mod, can I have a NPC guard, for example, wander around in a give area, rather than sticking to a specific patrol path?
A: Yes, you can do day/night wander settings, and they'll wander around within 6 or 8 tiles of their stand point.

Q: Will mods made from the version of world editor that was sent out with the full press demo be compatible with mods from the final version?
A: Yes.

Q: Can we lock our mods?
A: Yes, they can be compiled and locked.

Q: Can you script events based off real-world dates? Like have NPCs say "Merry Christmas" on Dec. 25th?
A: No. The game can have in-game events like that, but nothing based off of your computer's clock.

Q: How difficult will it be to program dialogue with the editor?
A: It takes about an hour to fully program a character, provided you have planned out the story, plot and events that will happen in it.

Q: If I create a MOD and start a multiplayer game with it, does a player who joins the game have the MOD downloaded to his/her computer in a fashion that he/she can save and later start a new game in, and even open in the editor and further tweak?
A: All players have to download and install the Mod before they can play it. Yes, you can open up and fiddle with any mod that you download. It will be zipped up with a special tool, but your game comes with the tool for compressing and decompressing mods.

Q: Can you modify what NPC's will trade, and what they will trade for?
A: Yes, to both. You can control their inventory, which refreshes approximately once per day, and you can control what they want to buy.

Q: Will a mod or two be included with the game?
A: At least one module that is not compressed into the big data file but instead is included in its own directory. It will serve as an example of how to make scripts, dialogs, quests, backgrounds, items, etc.