Arcanum Criticals

[@IRONthumbs1]

As someone who has just started out making video games (and who grew up playing yours) these videos have been so insightful and motivating. Thank you Tim

[@PapiNewGunie]

It would be cool to see Tim do a let's play of his games. It probably won't happen, but it would really be great to see.

[@EyefyourGf]

I agree,however i highly doubt it will happen,but i could listen Tim for days to just talk about anything,so i'm good either way.

[@classica1fungus]

Man what a treat that would be!

[@RemnantofValour]

Great explanation Tim! Now I know why I blew myself up in the first 2 seconds of combat after pickpocketing the Hand Cannon in Tarant.

[@GeomancerHT]

Thank for your videos Tim, even on the weekends, they uplift and motivate me to keep crunching through my game.

[@ExVersion83]

I really enjoy watching your videos, I used to play video games more when I was teenager, but nowadays I find the theme of game design itself more interesting. Very cool! Keep it up, never stop, I would love to see your touch on many games to come!

[@kardrasa]

Time to find out which sicko came up with critical misses. I bet it was bloody Anderson!

[@assassindelasaucisse.4039]

Self inflicted scars, my true enemy.

[@CainOnGames]

Critical misses in Arcanum were my idea. I thought they added richness to the combat system. They were in Fallout and many tabletop RPGs I played.

[@Asterling]

@@assassindelasaucisse.4039 Tbh the worst kind of critical failure was the drop weapon one. My companions lost a couple of weapons because i missed the info about them dropping it.

[@kardrasa]

​@@CainOnGames Thanks for taking accountability Tim! I promise not to make a voodoo doll of you and poke it every time I get a critical miss.

[@ssuuppeerrbbooyy]

Im playing fallout 2 with luck 10 and jinxed. Super fun. Next is luck 1 and jinxed. I dont think that will be fun 😂

[@kaptenteo]

I'm definitely going to give Arcanum another go. I had a problem fully understanding how the system worked, and the combat felt like it was way too fast. I've since learned quite a bit about the attributes and skills from your videos, and I've read that most people recommend turn-based combat in most situations, so I'll give that a go.

[@TheGreatCigma]

Arcanum has three modes, real-time, turn-based, and I think fast turn based. I would be curious to hear Tim do a breakdown on these. I only ever really played on real-time. The one thing I wish was that Troika had made it like elder scrolls where when you open inventory it pauses combat.

[@kaptenteo]

@@TheGreatCigma I've no idea how you managed real time combat throughout the entire game. The speed is crazy! 😅

[@TheGreatCigma]

@@kaptenteo play around with shift and alt, I forget which is which at the moment, but i believe if you shift click a consumable or an item that can target you, it will automatically do that, and this extends to hot keys. So if you drop healing potions in bank 2 and shift+2 you drink the potion. If I recall correctly I think right mouse changes your facing and keeps you in place (might be one of the aforementioned keys, apologies I just moved so I don't have a way to boot up the game). This extends to combat as well, so if you have a ranged weapon, you can run and then hold right mouse and left mouse to attack so you don't run back into combat. Also I think F2 function key is follower attack. So you can make your followers attack while you run and gun. Also you can drag spells into hotkey banks, and skills as well. My preference is, in order, combat spells/weapons, healing, then combat gear, then "milling about town" gear. So I can just easily gear up for combat and/or switch back to top hat and such. I don't know how much of the key combo stuff is in the manual.

[@TheGreatCigma]

@@kaptenteo another hot tip, the Forbidden Pit! Find the Forbidden Pit on the way to Ashbury. Get yourself some kind of ranged combat skill, either Magick, bow, throwing, or firearms. Kill the spiders in the pit and then wait in the pit. Enemies will show up at the pit, but they can't use the ladder. So you can level up fast by just grinding at the pit. On the off chance something spawns in the pit, just climb the ladder and kill it from above.

[@zerpblerd5966]

I always hit a wall at the mines - must have tried 5 times over the years. gave up because it just seemed impossible and I couldn't figure out what was wrong then I read the internet and realized that was common and to persist

[@GypsumGeneration]

I was wondering about this, so cool! Thanks for sharing Tim!

[@fredrik3880]

Arcanum is such a great game and world. Good to see another Arcanum video!

[@MotorbreathChannel]

Fascinating stuff. If only I knew all of that when I was just starting to play the game back in the days... But then again, this is the story of every single RPG. And - even more general - of every game. You learn the game as you play. Just has something to say about the complexity of this particular one I guess.

[@qpid8110]

Oh wow! I haven't been able to get into Arcanum myself, but all the respect for all the work you put into it. Amazing!

[@ronnylarock13]

I started playing some weeks ago, and it takes some hours before the game accelerates and you start leveling up a bit faster and getting more stuff and money

[@qpid8110]

@@ronnylarock13 My big issue was the stuttering ^^; It was making me a bit sick to the stomach with how jerky it ran on my pc. Gameplay seemed fine though :)

[@psychojetenjoyer4678]

Hi Tim, nice to see you today!

[@saraphys5555]

5:25 Advantage in Backstab? ...It sounds like the Art Director at Carbine had that... :D LOL

[@MotorbreathChannel]

kek

[@Kadwid]

Critical failures were so much fun I always laughed my head off as my character decapitated themselves, too. I had set points in game for using fate points for guaranteed rolls, I tended to get the master firearms quest waaaay to early, for example, and relied on stun grenade throw succeeding precisely lol

[@SCARaw]

I disagree I hated them and just because item increase chance it does not tell me how much

[@Kadwid]

Things could've been listed more transparently, sure. You didn't figure out the worse you are at the skill and the more damaged the weapon, the more likely you are to fail at it? Shooting in the dark with a broken pistol is usually a bad idea : ) Maybe some mods or lists could be found that'd remedy that, but hey - that's your taste I'm not gonna argue with an opinion, just hope this helps getting a feel for the mechanics, or inspires someone to make a detailed explanation ^_^ Oh wait, Tim just done that ;)

[@StavrosNikolaou]

Wow! I had not realized how intricate the criticals and skills systems are. Also I do not remember light playing a role in the success of a skill (except maybe sneaking)... And i have played this game a lot! Did you ever feel that the in-game info of what was happening in the game (rolls, effects of criticals etc) should have been communicated more verbosely e.g. how Baldur's Gate had the detailed log in its core UI?

[@CainOnGames]

Yes, which is why Temple of Elemental Evil had a very detailed log, including seeing your dice rolls and any bonuses or penalties applied to them. The lack of such a log was a common complaint about Arcanum.

[@KubinWielki]

@@CainOnGames I wonder... Since you are a programmer, and have access to Arcanum's code - have you ever thought about developing mods for the game, to change/fix things that you are unsatisfied with? (For example, a mod adding the log you are talking about).

[@ronnylarock13]

@@CainOnGames I wish there were more information when i put the mouse-pointer over items/surroundings like in Fallout and Fallout 2. "You see a...." -Because there are so many fascintating objects and devices in Arcanum

[@ivanivanovich9165]

Very like this game. Hope you guys will remaster Arcanum soon or later.

[@drithius4801]

Starting to wonder just how many boxes of brand new shirts Tim has lying around.

[@fredrik3880]

Lol

[@ILoveCiniminis]

I would definitely buy that shirt. That's cool

[@touchtablet3364]

Me too, or a shirt with the Fallout 2 shortcut icon with Tim's head! 😆

[@davidmuldowney]

Time for Tim to get in to channel Merch 🤑

[@Kadwid]

BTW @Timothy Cain could you explain more about the alignment in Arcanum? I found my favourite character was Sold Your Soul background - a few basic spells that become uber powerful with the aptitude bonus, and the rest of points invested in social skills I think unlocked me all dialogues possible? Was the alignment used for these or just reactivity and companion requirements? (Again, maxing CHA and Pers. makes it moot, but it takes some logistics to do get to) Alignment companion reactivity definitely could lock you out of evil companions (I don't think I've seen a good-aligned companion complain about my pact with the devil, but I do remember at least one mage, and possibly late game characters giving me "I'm not travelling with a Samaritan" kind of response when playing a good character), but it never stopped me going for the good-aligned quest resolutions. Might've not noticed TBF

[@nutherefurlong]

Probably wasn't acting in the spirit of things when I was trying to make a pistoleer who had utility spellcasting :) I like having a crit fail when the target crit dodges, implies that the attacker's desperation to hit leads them to make a grave mistake (What was your involvement in Tyranny by the way? Want to ask questions about that)

[@Kadwid]

I tried something similar, almost worked but definitely going for Melee or Throwing skills. It's actually one of the replies after the bank robbery quest in Shrouded Hills that you can say "I try to somewhat combine tech and magick" but realistically it meant not investing in either - a leader build for example. NOW if you just kept your aptitude at zero by buying out levels in tech and magic, you could at least never develop an immunity to effects (my interpretation, never tested in until late game), allowing you to use healing from magick and tech sources, but their effects would be miniscule in the late game. So it'd boil down to using a lot (a LOT) of items and still solving problems with a big sword, throwing stun grenades, etc. Hmmm never truly tested if the bandages + healing skill wouldn't be the actual solution to non-magical non-technical healing problem, it just might (the investment, though...)

[@alexpetrovich85]

Hey Tim,, I could listen to you read old Dungeon Master Guides and Adventure Modules giving your design inputs from then and now.

[@SCARaw]

Do you have single number for it? Any formula you can share?

[@plaidchuck]

Insanely detailed! Where do you start with working out a system like that? Did you start with an overall framework to work off of based on Fallout and other RPGs or did you guys tackle each part of the combat at a time?

[@CainOnGames]

Most of that framework was designed before a line of code was written, based on games we had made and ones we had played.

[@SCARaw]

Show me single formula for this detailed...

[@LDiCesare]

Were there any skill checks with critical success management in dialogues?

[@ssuuppeerrbbooyy]

I need to replay arcanum.

[@philippelegault3928]

Correct me if I'm wrong but if I remember well you can critically fail in Arcanum the moment the game starts. As opposed to Fallout where you mentioned disabling criticals until 1 day of game time. Am I misremembering?

[@fredrik3880]

This is correct.

[@punishedsnake492]

Hello Tim. I have very unusual but very interesting question(at least for me). How do you came up with your engine architecture? I'm not talking about algorithms or data stucts, but overall catalog structure, file formats, heavy usage of enums and so on.

[@savva6577]

Great video! I always had issues trying to understand Arcanum's combat, whereas Fallout 1 I got it from the getgo. I'm not sure if you already answered this, but I wonder what your insights are on the most popular videos right now on Arcanum (reviews by MandaloreGaming, Warlockcracy, etc.), of which all of them highlight the detailed and intricate worldbuilding, yet all point out one questionable aspect of the world, the Half-Orge Conspiracy quest. Do you think it was a success that this quest was so memorable, or do you feel in retrospect that the quest should've been changed/removed?

[@MotorbreathChannel]

SsethTzeentach and Indigo Gaming are my favourite ones. First one is more jokes and gafs and the second one is pretty serious. Warlockracy's one is basically just a glorified letsplay imho. It was the first of his videos that I have ever watched, and then I went to watch all oh his previous ones, but after he basically shat on 'Planet Alcatraz' based mostly on his political beliefs spinning some plot about Russian politics and presenting it as an insight into it (he is a native Russian speaker as far as I know - and so am I btw), so I just stopped watching the guy after that. I thought that 'Planet Alcatraz' was a pretty nice RPG actually. Lots of pretty obvious inspiration from Fallout but with some added Russian (counter-)cultural flavour.

[@janmayenese]

There was that quest item bow that had shit damage but almost guaranteed crit. You can disarm and make enemies fall down all the time.

[@assassindelasaucisse.4039]

My only pet peeve with Arcaum's system is that I wish handguns were high-damage/slow weapons, instead of low-damage/fast weapons. I spend half my playthroughs crafting bullets :)

[@SCARaw]

You said you vent on rabbit hole of arcanum code Why dont you share formulas used in the game and base values?

[@developerdeveloper67]

Talking in detail about Arcanum, there were somethings about the game design that technically I liked and other things that I disliked. One technical innovation that I liked and thought was pretty ambitious for the time was that the entire world *actually* existed. Maybe some people that play Arcanum doesn't know it, but you can walk the entire game, and not use fast travel, there would be not reason to do it, it would actually be very boring because the world is actually pretty big, but you can do that if you want. And as someone that is really into "systemic" games (and creating these games), and consistent game worlds I always thought that was a very interesting and an ambitious innovation which is truly potential was never really explored. One thing that in the same context (of consistent game worlds and systemic games) that I didn't like as much is that the actual game world is 2D! I mean the data of the world was organized as 2d tiles, there were houses and buildings with second floors but that was kind of hack. I think a more systemic and interesting way to do it would have been to make the game world and logic 3D and only the rendering of the game 2D. I think the world should exist in 3D space and only be rendered as 2D sprites. This could allow for a camera turn mechanic, where you just change the perspective of the player by 90 degrees and render the tiles from a new perspective. So the tiles then are just part of the rendering but not the world itself. Some buildings in the game were just large prerendered sprites, like the Bates Estate, these didn't felt good, if the world was 3D instead and allowed for camera rotation you could have made back doors, windows and all sort of content that would have made the game world more interesting in my opinion.

[@LDiCesare]

Do you think a 3D world could have been implemented at the time and with the constraints of the time and the budget available? Considering how terribly slow the engine was in certain areas (dark elf city - it took me minutes to be able to scroll and move the cursor to the next screen), I think a whole new engine would have had to be made and it would have been a tremendous endeavour.

[@developerdeveloper67]

@@LDiCesare Technically I think it could. But of course I can't know for sure, we would have to ask Tim. In terms of CPU I'm pretty sure the most demanding operation in 2D games at the time was to draw the pixels on the screen. My understanding is that Arcanum didn't use DirectX, so all the sprite rendering was done by the CPU, and Windows was at the time (and still is) notorious for not providing very performant (or very well known performant ways) to draw pixels on the screen. The way to do it was to fill the screen buffer array with the hexadecimal colors of the pixels. Of course, today we can do it hundreds times faster by using the GPU with DirectX or OpenGL. So the real heavy lifting for the CPU at the time was to draw the screen fast enough, some basic 3D calculations would be trivial to perform in terms of CPU. I don't know why in the example you mentioned there was a performance issue, maybe they were drawing too many sprites, maybe overlaying sprites and testing too much alpha (that is expensive) but that is just purely speculation from me. In terms of memory it could be a bit more challenging but if they find ways to "compress" the data of the tiles to the minimum needed, I think it was doable. It's obvious that the game had to constantly read data from disc, that is because the memory of the computers at the time was very limited. So each map was constantly being loaded from disc and then freed to load the next map. I think you could perhaps (optimally) use 2 bytes per tile. That would give us 256^2 different types of tile total. We can store only the tile type on the tile array and get the rest of it's data from other part of the code with all the different tile types data. So the total allocation of 1 level of a map would be tile size x * tile size y * 2, in a 100x100 tiles map that would be 20.000 bytes or ~20kb of memory. Then to make a multi level map (3D) in the most straight forward way we would just have to multiply these 20kb for the number of levels we wanted. So was it technically possible? I think so. In regards to making a new engine: from my understanding Tim made the whole Arcanum engine as a new engine from scratch with a library he made and calls TIG (meaning TIG is not GNOL?) He explained this to us in some of his previous videos. So he already made an entire new engine to make Arcanum. Would it be more work and take more time? Maybe a little bit, it is perhaps a bit more complicated and would put Tim outside of his comfort zone, by that I mean: after he did Fallout he already knew what he wanted to do technically with Arcanum. So they probably just choose to do something technically similar because it was familiar to them. In other worlds, Fallout was successful so I think they thought they would do more of the same.

[@SCARaw]

Please tim share formulas and numbers

[@ZootBeta-kl2xq]

Hello sir, I would like to ask you: if you were still in charge of Fallout development, how would you go about creating new mutants? Did you have any ideas on this topic that didn't make into Fallout 2 or other games? Pleaseeee don't ignore me :(

[@GRNKRBY]

bought this game on steam sale. 😮

[@lyylski]

You might have talked about this already but I'm very curious as to why Arcanum had both real-time and turn based combat. To me it feels like it has worst of both worlds and neither seems well balanced. Real-time seems far too hectic and you have hard time even processing what's going on while turn based is far too slow and frustrating.

[@ivanivanovich9165]

Same feelings. I would prefer the balanced turns based combats like in Fallout.

[@Hellseeker1]

I tried severals times, I just couldn't get into it.

[@EB-cz4te]

What in god's name?-Are you blind? I...eeehh mean.. better luck next time!

[@lrinfi]

How do you decide what's going to be chance-based and what's guaranteed to succeed or fail based on skill? Seems to me there are quite a few chance-based scenarios hanging on in RPGs today where chance shouldn't be a factor. I always use a mod that allows the player simply to turn off specific settings, e.g. AI dodge chance, if playing a stealth bowman or sniper, for example.I've played games in which, in real life, the target couldn't and wouldn't know an arrow or bullet was coming, much less where it was coming from, based on the stealth skill and, yet, the AI sometimes slid 10 feet to one or the other side regardless that the stealth skill level could and should be preventing that because that uninterrupted dice roll was still going on in the background. Urgh. Or a dialogue system that's specifically designed to present the player with information such as the need for 6 out 10 points in Charisma, for example, to pass a speech check and the pass is still not granted regardless that the player has the 6/10 because a dice roll is actually setting the condition. Urgh. Is it really so hard to put an if/then statement in something like AI dodge chance so that if the player's skill indicates it shouldn't be dodged it won't be? Do you think we're ever going to see some of the chance-based hangers-on from older games revised for the demands of newer titles?

[@jonny_codphilo7809]

BIG DADDY CAIN

[@SCARaw]

He abonden more games than a [redacted] children