This is great! I haven't been to Gamebanshee since I retired from playing Baldur's Gate and went on to play Arcanum but I see that there's support for this game here as well!
Hmm... I have yet to really finish the game since I keep restarting (Restart Syndrome, same problem I had with BG) but here are a few tips for people just starting to play this great game:
Gameplay:
- Stores replenish their stock every day. If you're looking for a certain item and you don't find it in any store, go back the next day and check again.
- Followers level up as you level up and will stop leveling up when you do (when you hit lvl 50) so it's a good idea to get followers while you're level is low. (you have to be at least 1 lvl lower than the follower to get him/her to join you though so it's all a balancing act).
- If you're ugly, try to talk to everyone multiple times to get their reaction to increase. This is most useful for trainers since you get to pay less for training if you have good relations with the trainer (like the guards from whom you get dodge and melee apprentice training).
- If you killed a person in a city, it's not enough to drag the body where no one could see it, the blood stain will still get guards angry at you. advance the time 2 days ahead to make the blood disappear and you won't be bothered by guards (well, first you have to kill the person without anyone in the vicinity [I find that walls are not enough, there shouldn't be anyone on the screen at all])
On Combat:
- Turn-based combat is usually best suited for melee while real-time is for ranged.
- When faced with lots of enemies, try to gang up one enemy at a time to lessen their numbers faster.
- If you want maximum experience points, have your followers back off (F5) when faced with enemies. Alternatively, you could give your followers fatigue damaging weapons (i.e. quarterstaves, maces, hammers) so you still get most of the hits while they weaken the enemy to the point of unconsciouness.
- AFAIK, enemies are incapable of climbing through windows (non-humanoid opponents... guards may be able to climb through windows)... use these to your advantage. When faced with a melee type enemy (under turn-based combat), lure the enemy near a window... hit it until you nearly use up your APs... climb through the window and use up the rest of your APs (usually by walking around) until the next round starts (new set of APs)... if you do this correctly, the enemy won't get to act at all.
- related to the above tip, you can use ranged weapons through windows and melee enemies won't get to act as well.
- try to use natural boundaries to limit the amount of enemies that will get to hit you... try to stay near walls and such...
- try to use available light... when in dark places (like dungeons or during the night), lure enemies to well lighted spots to get better hit percentages (of course if you have the Dark Sight background, you should do the reverse... extinguish as much light sources as you can... kill off lamps and fires, etc.)
- Except for guns, using ranged weapons can hurt your followers (and your followers can hurt you with them as well)... try to stay clear of the line of fire.
On Lockpicking (maybe my most favorite skill):
- You'll need at least 3 points on the lockpicking skill to make it worthwhile.
- You need lockpicks to utilize the lockpicking skill. Place the lockpicks on your quick-item slot, click on it and click on the locked item you wish to lockpick.
- When lockpicking in the dark, carry a lantern (the lighting penalty is taken away by Expert training)
- I find that I lockpick better naked (dunno if gloves and the noise penalty of armor really affect successes but they seem to do so with my games)
- Lockpick or pickpocket people behind their backs. Try to talk to people to turn them away from the direction of the chest you're trying to lockpick. (there are some NPCs that this trick won't work on though)
- To break into stores, it's usually easier to lockpick windows rather than doors.
Miscellaneous Skills:
- Don't gamble if you're ugly. Gambling lowers the reaction of people you gamble with . you'll usually end up fighting your 'mark' after winning since he won't have a good reaction to you to start with. (had to learn this the hard way with my Ugly Half-Orc Technologist)
- Persuasion unlocks a whole lot of possible ways to accomplish quests, cheapens prices in stores, enables you to raise reward values, and gives you a bonus follower (at expert training)... great skill to develop if you have extra points.
Technology:
- Try to be mindful of weight and space when carrying around your doodads. When making something, find out how much the ingredients weigh and how much the resulting item will weigh and try to keep the lighter version in your inventory. There is no such thing as "conservation of Mass" in Arcanum, this is most noticeable with Healing Salve (Herbology lvl 1), the ingredients weigh 1 stone each and occupy a total of 4 squares while the resulting healing salves weigh 5 stones each (AFAIR), and occupy 5 squares, hence it's better to just lug around the ingredients until you need to make up a batch for combat.
I'll just keep updating this message as I think up of some other tips and tricks.
[ 10-16-2001: Message edited by: Amphibius ]
[ 10-16-2001: Message edited by: Amphibius ]
Good novice hints 
Linear Mode
