Arcanum Questions
 

I've started playing Arcanum but there's a ton of answers I need that I can't find anywhere:

- if you put stuff in barrels, does it disappear after a while? Basically, can you drop your extra loot somewhere until you need it?

- is there a time limit for anything? I mean, can I spend as much time on the game as I want? Rest whenever I need to raise my Fatigue?

- I read that you either have to pick a mage or go for techno stuff. I picked a mage - does this mean I have to sell all techno stuff or is there a way to use the ingredients to create items anyway? Are there NPCs that will let you craft those things?

I was personally sad to discover that you couldn't be a mage AND be a herbalist. How is herbalism a tech skill???

Herbalism relys on science to a point i suppse ;)

I think you can store stuff in barrels, and have it not dissapear..i know i talked to someone (TC?) about it, but idont quite remember the answer i got


As far as i know theres no time limit, but im not that far into the game so far.

And usually if your a mage techno things dont work for you, so youd better just sell them, and vice versa if your a techno..or wait are those just your character backgrounds that affect that....no cant be, cause if it were you wouldnt nee dto worry about where you ride in the trains...:mhh:

But your party can use those techno things except none have skills to make anything. That's why I asked. It seems such a shame to have all this stuff lying around and not being able to do anything with it. I'm a sucker for crafting and I tend to go for herbalism in any game that has the option and usually combine it with a mage to have a proper healer/caster but Arcanum seems to not allow this.

AFAIK not.

Some quests are time limited, but you'll usually know when you get one.

Being a mage does not prevent you from learning schematics. You might require some books to boost your tech skills in the neccesary areas, though. IIRC they can be bought from the library in Tarant. (note that it doesn't work like in Fallout - books don't give you permament skill increases, but rather give you a boost to the corresponding tech skill for as long as you have them in your inventory)

There are NPCs who can craft certain items, IIRC. Don't remember how exactly it is done.

Can't? How come? My elf mage had two of the basic herbalism skills. Making healing salves en masse was very useful on the beginning of the game, and as the ingredients are either very cheap or just laying around almost everywhere, selling the surplus also produced a nice income (very useful at the beginning of the game!).

Ahah - the guides I read said not to try and combine tech skills with mage skills and indeed, I did what you said but the damage from my harm spell lessened quite a bit as a result. Still, it will balance itself out I guess.

Hiding stuff in barrels is OK, they won't disappear as far as I've seen.
And the "time" in the game doesn't matter, I'm already in 1887 and nothing in the game has changed.
Combining tech skills with mage skills is kinda lame, it feels like your weak in both of them. I suggest you learn the schematics for the Molotov Cocktail, Healing Salve and Fatigue Restorer, that's all you need if your playing with a mage.
A small tip: If you see ogres or skeletal Archers, switch to turn based combat ASAP. I think you know what I mean :p

And here's the walkthrough I'm using, it's the best I've found: http://www.neoseeker.com/resourcelin...1023&rid=38436

This is how I play now:

- I ditched my mage because, frankly, I ran out of Fatigue to quickly and opponents would always hit me instead of my stronger party members. I'm now a melee fighter and kicking ass

- I followed the advice of a guide and gave myself a complete repair skill. It irritated me and it's just a useless extra to annoy you with no real benefit

- I keep all my extra gear in an empty house

- I use turnbased combat - it's just WAY too fast in real time.

- I got a level 1 pickpocket skill which lets me have as much money as I want (pickpocket key, open storage, sell item, take out of storage, sell it again, repeat) - I discovered this myself

This makes the game more fun. Being a mage was no fun when all enemies would attack you first - the main weakness in this game, is that you got next to no control over your party members.

When I was playing a combat mage, there were two elixirs I found myself very dependant on - Fatigue Slower and Potion of Haste.

If I needed those, I'd need several for each fight. I stuck with a tech melee fighter and I kick ass. I increased my charisma and now I have 4 followers, all with swords of balance.

Red_Avatar, I can tell you that you can combine everything in this game and it can work if you use it in the right way. I mean, my caracter is a Bandit that is master in firearms and also is good in some magic like Black Magic and Nature, he can repair everything and is also good at pickpocket. My only companion is Virgil and no one can do shit to me(if someone does there is always "load game" :D). If you have several companions equip them real good and it will pay off.

One important tip, if you find one huge undead guy in one huge castle and you actually manage to kill him and he leave magical helmet as loot, DONT PUT IT ON YOU HEAD!!! It almost ruined my game, because my caracter become maximum evil and maximum magical and I couldn't buy at firearms shops and my shooting became awful. I noticed this after I saved the game and there was no turning back, I managed to fix this a little bit so I can play normaly but I forgot how. SO, DONT PUT THE FUCKING HELMET ON!!!