I talk about Arcanum's tech skills, which started out very differently from what ended up shipping, and I discuss my love of the tech schematics artwork.
The artwork for all the schematics was just wonderful, never mind how fun they were to use. I would buy that schematic book in a heartbeat, and I'm sure a lot of others would too!
@@HerkNewz69 part of it is probably because of Mandalore's audience overlapping with SsethTzeentach's and how, for better or worse, a good chunk of their audience comes from 4chan (/v/ specifically)
I love those Arcanum talks ! What I loved on those schematics was the description. I enjoyed the way it was presented, like an advertisement, trying to get your attention, presenting what wonders it would do. Even the shitty first gun had something that made it look cool because it allowed you to craft a gun from bin parts
I've been watching these for a couple months now, once I discovered them. And up to now, my favorite parts were the intro, "Hi everyone, it's me, Tim." Except now, I think my new favorite is Tim's pure emotion and pride in the last few seconds of this video.
I did very much enjoy Arcanum. It was my introduction to CRPGs (I didn't play Fallout until much later in life) and it remains one of my favorite "do anything" games, alongside Deus Ex. I almost always went tech-aligned, and now I have a rationalization for that! Thank you so much for talking about all these design considerations, both past and current!
Tim, I just found your channel with this video. I want you to know that I love the game Arcanum. I played it from shortly after release and still play it today on and off (playing now), and despite hundreds (thousands?) of hours, I've not seen all of the game yet. I wanted to thank you (and others) for the masterpiece. I sincerely hope there is a remake or sequel to this game at some point. PS. I would love to buy one of these schematic books! Larger if possible.
That book is so cool, and i loved the schematic system. Its still one of the most streamlimed and immersive crafting systems ive ever seen, even if it was a bit inflexible. I remember struggling a lot with them in my Arcanum modding days, too, because no one had figured out the files yet. Using just hex editing, i was able to make a sort of jewelry crafting system, for turning rough gems into cut ones, and making jewelry out of them. I never got the schematics to show in the proper category though, they always showed up in Herbology, along with all the other mod schematics. Last i checked, nobody has figured out how to fix that.
I actually really like that format for the tech schematics, it's like a pocket reference an engineer type, a gnome or dwarf would use in world. Like you brought it back with you during a visit to Arcanum, "like wow was that a dream?" As you emerge from the wardrobe. The you reached into your pocket and pull out the booklet and then surprised Pikachu face. 🙀
Even if it's a bit tougher to know how to feel about the angle of him (physically) looking down on us, you're 100% right that it's cooler how it shows more of the bookshelf.
amazing how only 5200 people recieve this type of knowledge in the world , i get the same excitement from learning it as you do talking about it and teaching it, we must all be james bond big relative
Arcanum's tech schematics artwork is incredible, in fact its entire inventory art set is probably my favorite in all of gaming. Even the steel dagger, such a basic item, has such a unique presentation that I can immediately picture it in my mind. I've always found the tech system in Arcanum interesting, but that the source of it's imbalance vs magick was that it required point investment (INT) to access new inventory items without granting any ability to use them; whereas, magick point investment (WILL + INT) both increases your raw damage output since they grant you access to spells and also makes you better at casting spells. I did a homebrew tabletop Arcanum game, and even having this thought in mind ran into the exact same issue. I'm not sure if there is a good way to make an "Inventor" character class balanced in a combat focused game - it seems like a challenge the gaming world is yet to solve.
Yeah the art is great! You can drink potion of intellect and not spend points on intelligence. Also willpower didnt increase dmg of spells (magick apt does) and int just adds more active slots for maintaned spells
@@fredrik3880 I see your point but more Willpower does directly increase your fatigue (and HP), and having multiple summons (or magical shields) maintained by INT is a direct bump to DPR.
My daily dose of Tim! Nice! You are building a community here, maybe you should consider casual streams from time to time, like maybe, playing Starfield and commenting on the development of your similar themed game Outer Worlds.
This is amazing. Hopefully inXile will finish things up on Clockwork Revolution in time for you guys (Anderson, Cain, Boyarsky) to get together for Arcanum 2!
I still remember that gun schematic in one of the locked cabinets in Bates' warehouse. Multi-barrelled pistol I think it was, but you couldn't learn it. I guess it was cut but the item was forgotten and left in the gameworld. Child me thought this must've been some uber special OP gun :))
Man, that book is cool as hell. Not trying to give you more things to do, but if you had a webstore where you sold books and posters and charts based on the content of this series, I'd buy everything. Pens shaped like Arcanum weapons? Tim Cain plushies????
I loved the tech schematics too. The flavour for it as a player, the artwork and the design was all great. I do feel like it was underpowered as a character build option compared to going full combat (magic/tech neutral) or full magic. The part I hated the most was that the further down the tech tree you went, the less you could benefit from Virgil's healing abilities. And since you couldn't tell him to stop *trying* to heal you, that made him less useful to have as a follower, which in turn encouraged you to get rid of him. And that was a shame because Virgil was by far the most interesting NPC follower to have. I also feel like there weren't enough level ups across the entire game to give enough ability points to spend in tech as strong an option as combat or magic.
You need to make me one of those books, Tim. That's awesome! Anderson and I just watched this - brought back lots of memories. Our youngest watched with us, and Jason was explaining to her how the basic system for how the schematics worked was easy. But the hard part was coming up with all of the progressive things you could create as you leveled up, in all of the different categories and trying to make them equally cool/fun/balanced as all the other categories. In his opinion, that was the hard part.
I’m glad you watched the video, and if you look at the comments in my chats with Leon, there’re a lot of requests for Jason. 😉 I’ll look to see if I still have the digital proof for that book!
Oh cool, thanks! :) As for Jason and interviews - he likes doing them the same amount he always has - not at all - he avoids them if at all possible. lol That's Chad's job on Clockwork Revolution! And now that the Fallout/StarCraft baby, Arcanum baby and Vampire baby are all grown up, I'm learning to work in Unreal so I can start creating again! I miss making games. Time to get back to it after a 21 year mommy break. Woohoo!
Arcanum! Love the tech schematics. Great job Jason. And the atmosphere in Arcanum is just like in Fallout. Of the chart good. Think i might get bloodlines on steam, havent played it in over a decade.
I'd love to buy a copy of that little book haha. I know that Arcanum is in a wierd spot for sequels and such but I would love to see a re imagining of this game with all the intended designs that couldn't get through the final cut.
Did anyone ever present the idea of having a spell book which functioned similarly to schematics I.e. spell disciplines, in game discovery of spells, purchasable spells ? I feel like that might have added a lot to the spell system in Arcanum
This just got me thinking. There isn't really anything similar to found/purchased schematics for mages. Was there ever an idea to create additional spells that one could learn by exploring the world (learn them from unique scrolls or maybe from some characters)?
@@CainOnGamesArcanum is so huge that it's a miracle that you managed to make it at all in a small studio... I wonder what else you planned, but never did add to the game.
The best character creation system in the RPG genre hands down. Not everything is fully balanced, yes, but does it have to be? We all should be thankful that Troika happened
You've done a lot of videos now about a lot of the different system mechanics in arcanum. HYPOTHETICALLY (hypothetically), if you had the chance and go back to arcanum, do you know specifically what you'd want to change?
The artwork for the interface in Arcanum in general was excellent. Even the inventory screen fit into the pseudo-Victorian vibe and world items like newspapers that you could read all added to the immersion in the game. By comparison I was disappointed with the interface in Skyrim because it had a generic design that could just as easily have been for a Call of Duty game.
Putting everything that you have learned together Tim. How do you feel about Bethesdas New IP. about starfield? The Pros and the cons? -Alan from New Zealand
Does anyone here know why the outer worlds remaster increased the level cap? I thought the level 30 cap was fine when i was playing the original version at launch
Arcanum is such a great game, I usually prefer magic builds because Harm at full power is really something, but I dabbled in tech before and I was amazed.
Harm was powerful at a high enough magic affinity but the Molotov Cocktails? Between the damage and the knockback those were insane even at modest tech levels. Especially as you could throw them for no action cost in turn based.
I coded the editor, along with a couple of other programmers, but I didn't make the mapped areas in Arcanum, so I am not the person to do a tutorial on it. My videos on how tiling, structure building, and procedural maps work is the most I can do on that.
Assuming this isn't an ironic troll, it is a single player game, how does someone else playing the game differently from you affect your enjoyment of it?
The artwork for all the schematics was just wonderful, never mind how fun they were to use. I would buy that schematic book in a heartbeat, and I'm sure a lot of others would too!
Thanks for your Arcanum's review mr. Mandalore. You and many more are keeping the game somewhat alive.
@@HerkNewz69 You mean the Mandalore's Arcanum video?
I didn't know that. I rarely look at comments tbh.
@@HerkNewz69 part of it is probably because of Mandalore's audience overlapping with SsethTzeentach's and how, for better or worse, a good chunk of their audience comes from 4chan (/v/ specifically)
I would most def buy a book like that!
Hey hey people...
I love those Arcanum talks !
What I loved on those schematics was the description. I enjoyed the way it was presented, like an advertisement, trying to get your attention, presenting what wonders it would do.
Even the shitty first gun had something that made it look cool because it allowed you to craft a gun from bin parts
You should interview Jason Anderson
Those schematic blurbs are one of my favorite parts of the game... Stupendous!
The art and design on the schematics are fantastic. I cant put into words how it captures my imagination. Just like the rest of Arcanum.
I've been watching these for a couple months now, once I discovered them. And up to now, my favorite parts were the intro, "Hi everyone, it's me, Tim." Except now, I think my new favorite is Tim's pure emotion and pride in the last few seconds of this video.
I did very much enjoy Arcanum. It was my introduction to CRPGs (I didn't play Fallout until much later in life) and it remains one of my favorite "do anything" games, alongside Deus Ex. I almost always went tech-aligned, and now I have a rationalization for that! Thank you so much for talking about all these design considerations, both past and current!
Tim, I just found your channel with this video. I want you to know that I love the game Arcanum. I played it from shortly after release and still play it today on and off (playing now), and despite hundreds (thousands?) of hours, I've not seen all of the game yet. I wanted to thank you (and others) for the masterpiece. I sincerely hope there is a remake or sequel to this game at some point. PS. I would love to buy one of these schematic books! Larger if possible.
That book is so cool, and i loved the schematic system. Its still one of the most streamlimed and immersive crafting systems ive ever seen, even if it was a bit inflexible.
I remember struggling a lot with them in my Arcanum modding days, too, because no one had figured out the files yet. Using just hex editing, i was able to make a sort of jewelry crafting system, for turning rough gems into cut ones, and making jewelry out of them. I never got the schematics to show in the proper category though, they always showed up in Herbology, along with all the other mod schematics. Last i checked, nobody has figured out how to fix that.
I actually really like that format for the tech schematics, it's like a pocket reference an engineer type, a gnome or dwarf would use in world. Like you brought it back with you during a visit to Arcanum, "like wow was that a dream?" As you emerge from the wardrobe. The you reached into your pocket and pull out the booklet and then surprised Pikachu face. 🙀
This is your best-looking video to date. I like the angle showing more of your bookshelf.
Even if it's a bit tougher to know how to feel about the angle of him (physically) looking down on us, you're 100% right that it's cooler how it shows more of the bookshelf.
amazing how only 5200 people recieve this type of knowledge in the world , i get the same excitement from learning it as you do talking about it and teaching it, we must all be james bond big relative
Arcanum's tech schematics artwork is incredible, in fact its entire inventory art set is probably my favorite in all of gaming. Even the steel dagger, such a basic item, has such a unique presentation that I can immediately picture it in my mind.
I've always found the tech system in Arcanum interesting, but that the source of it's imbalance vs magick was that it required point investment (INT) to access new inventory items without granting any ability to use them; whereas, magick point investment (WILL + INT) both increases your raw damage output since they grant you access to spells and also makes you better at casting spells.
I did a homebrew tabletop Arcanum game, and even having this thought in mind ran into the exact same issue. I'm not sure if there is a good way to make an "Inventor" character class balanced in a combat focused game - it seems like a challenge the gaming world is yet to solve.
Yeah the art is great!
You can drink potion of intellect and not spend points on intelligence. Also willpower didnt increase dmg of spells (magick apt does) and int just adds more active slots for maintaned spells
@@fredrik3880 I see your point but more Willpower does directly increase your fatigue (and HP), and having multiple summons (or magical shields) maintained by INT is a direct bump to DPR.
I love the schematics from Arcanum, love saying the word schematic, and I can't tell you how much I want that book
Arcanum had such awesome art direction. Really wish it got a second chance
My daily dose of Tim! Nice! You are building a community here, maybe you should consider casual streams from time to time, like maybe, playing Starfield and commenting on the development of your similar themed game Outer Worlds.
This is amazing. Hopefully inXile will finish things up on Clockwork Revolution in time for you guys (Anderson, Cain, Boyarsky) to get together for Arcanum 2!
I still remember that gun schematic in one of the locked cabinets in Bates' warehouse. Multi-barrelled pistol I think it was, but you couldn't learn it. I guess it was cut but the item was forgotten and left in the gameworld. Child me thought this must've been some uber special OP gun :))
This is so awesome to hear! Arcanum is still one of my favorite games. :D
A good leader recognizes when someone else has a better idea!
Man, that book is cool as hell. Not trying to give you more things to do, but if you had a webstore where you sold books and posters and charts based on the content of this series, I'd buy everything. Pens shaped like Arcanum weapons? Tim Cain plushies????
I loved the tech schematics too. The flavour for it as a player, the artwork and the design was all great. I do feel like it was underpowered as a character build option compared to going full combat (magic/tech neutral) or full magic. The part I hated the most was that the further down the tech tree you went, the less you could benefit from Virgil's healing abilities. And since you couldn't tell him to stop *trying* to heal you, that made him less useful to have as a follower, which in turn encouraged you to get rid of him. And that was a shame because Virgil was by far the most interesting NPC follower to have.
I also feel like there weren't enough level ups across the entire game to give enough ability points to spend in tech as strong an option as combat or magic.
I love all the books and other fun stuff you used to get from physical copies. It brings a whole other dimension along.
You need to make me one of those books, Tim. That's awesome! Anderson and I just watched this - brought back lots of memories. Our youngest watched with us, and Jason was explaining to her how the basic system for how the schematics worked was easy. But the hard part was coming up with all of the progressive things you could create as you leveled up, in all of the different categories and trying to make them equally cool/fun/balanced as all the other categories. In his opinion, that was the hard part.
I’m glad you watched the video, and if you look at the comments in my chats with Leon, there’re a lot of requests for Jason. 😉
I’ll look to see if I still have the digital proof for that book!
Oh cool, thanks! :) As for Jason and interviews - he likes doing them the same amount he always has - not at all - he avoids them if at all possible. lol That's Chad's job on Clockwork Revolution! And now that the Fallout/StarCraft baby, Arcanum baby and Vampire baby are all grown up, I'm learning to work in Unreal so I can start creating again! I miss making games. Time to get back to it after a 21 year mommy break. Woohoo!
Arcanum! Love the tech schematics. Great job Jason. And the atmosphere in Arcanum is just like in Fallout. Of the chart good. Think i might get bloodlines on steam, havent played it in over a decade.
I'd love to buy a copy of that little book haha. I know that Arcanum is in a wierd spot for sequels and such but I would love to see a re imagining of this game with all the intended designs that couldn't get through the final cut.
that book is badass
New camera! you look great!
This makes me hype for Clockwork Revolution now. 😄
that little booklet would be neat 20+ years ago when I first tried arcanum
Ooh new camera setup
Feelies like this would be great in a book about developing these games, for example...
We love the game, Tim
Nice new camera angle :D
That book is cool/cute! 🤩
I made my own Arcanum style schematics as a kid for fun once.
❤ Arcanum ⚙️⚙️⚙️⚙️⚙️⚙️⚙️⚙️⚙️
I want a book on Arcanum tech schematics!
Did anyone ever present the idea of having a spell book which functioned similarly to schematics I.e. spell disciplines, in game discovery of spells, purchasable spells ? I feel like that might have added a lot to the spell system in Arcanum
This just got me thinking. There isn't really anything similar to found/purchased schematics for mages. Was there ever an idea to create additional spells that one could learn by exploring the world (learn them from unique scrolls or maybe from some characters)?
There was an idea for that...but there was no time to make it happen.
@@CainOnGamesArcanum is so huge that it's a miracle that you managed to make it at all in a small studio... I wonder what else you planned, but never did add to the game.
The best character creation system in the RPG genre hands down. Not everything is fully balanced, yes, but does it have to be? We all should be thankful that Troika happened
Thank you for another amazing video! Jason did an excellent job with the system!
The book is absolutely amazing! How can we get it? 😅
Oh my goodness, I want a pdf of that book so bad it hurts.
the fact mandalore gaming commented on here awesome
All I want is a decent pair of tech boots! 😝
Hey! It's Tim!
NEW ANGLE!
You've done a lot of videos now about a lot of the different system mechanics in arcanum. HYPOTHETICALLY (hypothetically), if you had the chance and go back to arcanum, do you know specifically what you'd want to change?
Watch his one point fiasco video
Why no one talkbout new cam angle.
4K Tim Cain
The artwork for the interface in Arcanum in general was excellent. Even the inventory screen fit into the pseudo-Victorian vibe and world items like newspapers that you could read all added to the immersion in the game.
By comparison I was disappointed with the interface in Skyrim because it had a generic design that could just as easily have been for a Call of Duty game.
Putting everything that you have learned together Tim.
How do you feel about Bethesdas New IP. about starfield?
The Pros and the cons?
-Alan from New Zealand
Where can I buy that book?! I would LOVE to have one! ❤
Art style of schematics was great! But where can i get such book?
I’d pay for DLC with schematics - mostly lighter reanimator and world map teleport pop into mind :)
PS. I love that book! Do you have PDF of it?
Just one word.
Mods.
Does anyone here know why the outer worlds remaster increased the level cap? I thought the level 30 cap was fine when i was playing the original version at launch
liked the game? i still have my old arcanum box with the game and manual from when i bought it in 2002 :D and i still play it from time to time
Loved the schematics so much i couldn't even find the time to make a mage character, that would be time spent not using schematics.
Arcanum is such a great game, I usually prefer magic builds because Harm at full power is really something, but I dabbled in tech before and I was amazed.
Every harm abuser lamer has a special place on an unexisting frying pan in hell.
Harm was powerful at a high enough magic affinity but the Molotov Cocktails? Between the damage and the knockback those were insane even at modest tech levels. Especially as you could throw them for no action cost in turn based.
Schematic art book? I'll take 20!
Dat file doe
ill consider myself a success if kids look at my product the way Tim Cook looks at that schematics book.
No, it _was_ on a DAT tape somewhere long bit-rotted away.
Hey tim it's my regularly scheduled asking for an arcanum world editor tutorial......go on...please 🥺.
I coded the editor, along with a couple of other programmers, but I didn't make the mapped areas in Arcanum, so I am not the person to do a tutorial on it. My videos on how tiling, structure building, and procedural maps work is the most I can do on that.
Ngl i wanna talk about the new angle instead
Every harm abuser lamer has a special place on an unexisting frying pan in hell.
This is they they have banished Ker- khe-khem!- Arronax to the void in the first place.
Assuming this isn't an ironic troll, it is a single player game, how does someone else playing the game differently from you affect your enjoyment of it?
@@silverjohn6037 Because niche RPG's tend to attract weirdo insular teenagers that think their opinions are axiomatic.
@@silverjohn6037 Impressive how narrow minded and foolish you are. Good luck in your struggles.
Some harm abusers detected. It's a great litmus paper. All of them have very low cognitive abilities, as you can see.
Talk about mainstream's influence on game design.