FAQ Combat Arcanum
Ver. 1.0, March 2000
- I. Introduction
- II. Contents
- III. Magic and Technology
- IV. Character Creation
- V. Non-Player Characters, Followers, and Dialog
- VI. Multiplayer
- VII. Combat
- Can you pick up arrows that miss?
Can anyone use any weapon?
How will turn-based and real-time combat work?
When the game is set to turn-based mode, will enemies trigger turn-based mode?
What types of attacks do weapons have?
Can you cut off body parts of enemies?
Can you chase down enemies that run away?
Will the death sequences be as gory as in Fallout? - VIII. General
- IX. World Editor
Q: Can you pick up arrows that miss?
A: Yes, arrows are simply items, and in fact they will stack, so if a group of them falls in the same tile you can pick up the whole stack at once.
Q: Can anyone use any weapon?
A: Since there are no "classes" in Arcanum, anyone can use any items, provided they have the stats to support the item. For instance, a weak character would have trouble wielding a weapon that is really heavy, and Mages would likely want to shy away from heavy armor that would cost them Fatigue to wear (though if they have put enough points into Strength, they could certainly wear it without penalties).
Items that are biased towards Magic or Tech will be more powerful when wielded by a character that is similarly biased. For instance, a powerful magic sword wouldn't be much more useful than a regular sword in the hands of someone that was heavily Tech-biased. However, in the hands of someone that was strongly Magic-biased the same sword may be more powerful than in the hands of someone of average bias (this depends upon the individual item).
Q: How will turn-based and real-time combat work?
A: Both real-time and turn-based combat are based on your character's Speed. Speed is determined by your dexterity, how encumbered you are (which depends on your Strength and your equipment weight) and how fast your attack (weapon, spell, etc.) is.
In real-time, your Speed determines your attack animation speed. Faster characters literally swing their swords faster than slower ones.
In turn-based, your Speed determines how many Action Points you have to spend on your turn. Actions such as attacking, moving, or spell-casting cost points to perform.
This system is nice because it is fairly balanced and neither mode has a distinct advantage over the other than personal preference. Some people will probably prefer one mode or the other, whereas others will switch modes based on the particular situation they are in. For instance, when fighting a group of weak monsters, such as rats in a sewer, you would probably switch to real-time and mow through them. When fighting a tougher battle, such as when stumbling into the lair of a vampire, you might want to switch to turn-based mode, in order to take time to plan your actions, though you certainly wouldn't have to.
Real-time has another option, which defines whether your character will continue attacking your current opponent until it dies or you switch targets (similar to Baldur's Gate), or whether you need to click again each time (similar to Diablo). The reason for the two settings is that some people like the responsiveness of having constant control over their characters, whereas some prefer the freedom of being able to think about what they want to do next while their characters finish their current action (and some like to save their wrists! :) ).
Q: When the game is set to turn-based mode, will enemies trigger turn-based mode?
A: Yes, when combat is triggered, whether by a hostile creature or by yourself, the game will activate turn-based mode if you have it turned on. When outside of combat, you will walk around in real-time, however.
Q: What types of attacks do weapons have?
A: Weapons can do Fatigue damage, physical damage (crushing/cutting/etc.), poison damage, electrical damage, and fire damage. Beating on someone with a weapon that does lots of Fatigue damage will wear them down, and can even knock them out instead of killing them. Weapons like this are nice against spell-casters, as they hamper their ability to cast spells (since spells cost Fatigue to cast).
There are also critical hit charts, which are based on several factors: weapon type (bladed, bludgeon, etc.), the target's armor, and which location on the target is being attacked (torso, head, etc.).
Aiming for specific body locations is accomplished through the use of hot-keys. While harder to hit certain locations, the benefit to hitting them is that any critical hits will be more effective. For instance, targeting a creature's head is likely to cause more Fatigue damage than normal, so you could knock someone out more easily this way.
Q: Can you cut off body parts of enemies?
A: You cannot lop off limbs and such, but you can target specific hit locations via called shots in order to get bonuses to criticals. You will see a visual confirmation that you hit (blood splotches, etc.), and if the creature dies then it will display one of its death animations (which one is based on how it died).
Q: Can you chase down enemies that run away?
A: Enemies may flee in combat, based on their AI settings (skeletons would never flee, but a wimpy orc would probably flee earlier than an average creature), and you can chase them down. However, during combat, running costs fatigue, and when you get too low on Fatigue you cannot run anymore, you will instead walk. What this means is, for example, if you wear yourself down fighting a group of orcs and one runs off, you may not be able to catch him (he may escape). If you have been beating on a creature and it turns to flee, however, it may not have the Fatigue left to outrun you, and it will quickly slow to a walk allowing you to catch up to it. This also means that Mages aren't likely to be running around a lot during combat, because they would run the risk of passing out due to spell casting.
Q: Will the death sequences be as gory as in Fallout?
A: There won't be as many gruesome variations as in Fallout, but there are still quite a few graphic deaths. While we would have liked to have even more, disk space and animation/modeling time would have been prohibitive. In Arcanum you can play any of the 8 different races, and on top of this most of them can be either male or female, wear a variety of different armors, wield various weapons, use shields, etc. We think you will be pleased with the death animations that we do have, though.
People that don't wish to see the gory deaths can turn on a violence-filter in the options menu.
