Glad you like the mod, and appreciate the feedback.

Yeah the boss mobs are there as an optional challenge, so don't feel bad if you don't feel up to spending the time to mow them down. They are all purposely out of the way so that you can skip them.

Voltax is perhaps the least out of the way, but his placement starts in the corner of that room. You can run past him without triggring combat, though you may have to wait for him to wander back towards the corner if he has wandered out more. Making followers wait outside would also make it easier if your allies keep attracting him to combat. I recall skipping him with a party of 3 though.

I think the only other boss mob who is 'in the way' of sorts is the Grey King, werewolf boss because though his placement is really out of the way, he guards the schematic for the coveted machined plate. A clever character could still swindle it 10 different ways without killing him though. That's the beauty of Arcanum.

I'd say Kerghan should only have about half as much hp too. Fixed him already for the next version. Damn melee lameness is annoyingly dumb in the regular game.

If you could, I'm curious to hear more about what you did/didn't like, so feel free to add more here or email me (address is in the mod documentation).

Installed and played your mod as a gunslinger up until Stillwater, doing all the sidequests and dungeons.
I'm a level 51 Firearm master, Dodge expert with maxed out Dexterity and Perception.
Only skipped the Dragon Blood Pool boss because I was low on ammo and didn't care enough to come back with more.

I both liked your mod and found it annoying.
Since I guess you want feedback on what to improve, I'll start with what I didn't like... :p

I didn't like the fact that the Elephant Gun (you can craft one without Wooden Rings by pickpocketing the Pickpocket master - a fate point used, but I was so curious about the Elephant Gun's power that I used the debug menu to get one, tried it and then re-loaded my game) is only slightly more powerful than the rifle I pickpocketed from the Firearm master using a fate point extremely early on.
Really, why should I even bother with crafting weapons if I can easily get a longer range version of the most powerful firearm possible bar the ones from Vendigroth?
(I'm not including the Dagger thrower, which I didn't try for the lack of a component I know I won't have until after Quintarra)

I like the fact you made enemies more powerful, but in my opinion you went too far. You gave them everything, many monsters are now lightning bruisers... every fight ended up with me switching to real time, telling my party to Back Off and Move away (sort of a "sod off" combo XD ) and just kite those deadly bullet sponges around.
I found battles became just more annoying rather than more difficult.
On turn based, it depended mostly on whether there was a door or not: AIs can't open doors during combat if I'm on the other side, while I can freely open and close them.
Fights involving doors were long, LONG cakewalks, fights away from doors were incredibly annoying, but mostly because my party shared the enemies' ridiculous AI.
I know you can't do much about that, but it still was annoying.

What about making enemies suffer from crippling overspecialization?
For example: what about making Golems extremely tough and deadly but nearly immobile?
Making Arayas fast and hard hitting, but very frail?
Making Lizards fast and tough, but needing to zerg rush the party in order to deal noticeable damage?
Etc...

Also, another complaint about crafting: the recipes.
But I guess you already know about that... it's impossible that nobody complained yet about the omnipresent, rare even after Quintarra, Wooden Ring or Bessie Toon's Mine's property act XD

Now what I liked: I liked that you buffed up Tech weapons.
The Fine Revolver is actually even overpowered, in my opinion.
I like how you changed the spells (I admit I only read the descriptions, but I liked the idea behind your changes)(if only you could get the Crowd Control ones -the stuns- working...) but I'm scared about trying them: how am I supposed to whittle down those deadly lightspeed-moving behemoths using fatigue-based skills? oO

Also, I like how you forced me to actually sneak up on the portal near Liam's Laboratory and close it instead of just sitting there farming Void creatures until they're too scared of me and don't come out anymore... XD

One last thing: can you do something about the extra XP you get for hitting enemies yourself?
In both vanilla and modded Arcanum, I find myself often telling my party to back off just for that... it's better (my companions are usually left alone by the enemy AI, can heal me, and I can fight better -kiting and using items- if I don't have to care about my companions getting in the way or getting hurt) AND I get that bonus XP.

That's about it, I think.

Thanks for your mod!

Where can I download this?
Sounds absolutely excellent!

Try reading the original post.

Again thanks for all the feedback, really do appreciate it especially the criticism so don't be afraid at all.

255ff I sadly don't know of a method to change getting xp from doing damage to enemies, I would disable it entirely if I had the chance. It bugs me too, trust me.

Tech crafting requirements are going to be changed in 2.0 because I can add custom items specifically for that purpose right into the game now.

For the way your fights went, I really encourage people to be more ingenious rather than rely on boring cheap methods of winning.

For example, instead of kiting enemies, you can use entangle to keep them in place, blind spell or flash grenade to blind them, get a character tanky through items or spells and send him in first so they focus him, throw summons/creations at them as cannon fodder, and the list goes on and on. Stone/gaseous form, petrify, knockback grenades, etc.

That's really the best part about Arcanum, there are so many different things you can do that there is essentially always some brilliant way to get through things.

Personal goal is to have it by the end of the year, might be beyond depending on how play testing goes and exactly how much more i decide to do.

Previously I have spent time researching some technical stuff (trying to find ways to not make it a huge 300mb+ download, which appears unavoidable) and also waiting for the update to a wonderful modding program called Arcanum Factory.

That's all done with though, but I moved and got a new job, which starts soon, so now I have no idea how much free time I'm going to have and how long it will take me to get expert enough to have the serious spare time modding takes.

Regardless it just takes a long time because I am very careful about the changes and did 3 playthroughs to test it last time.

I look forward to installing this whenever I do a second playthrough. I didn't use it during my first because I wanted to play the original game in its best form. Your mod seems to make many necessary, to whatever degree, changes to the game.
I'm curious. Do you feel that Arcanum is still the same game with your mod installed, or is it a very different experience?

Thank you for your dedication.

Firstly, good move on playing through Arcanum first.

Everything in the mod is done to balance the game while keeping it as much the same as possible. Magic got changed around, but only as necessary to make the schools competitive with each other and not overpowering compared to other fighting styles. Tech item components for powerful weapons were changed to limit their availability (so you can only get them at certain parts of the game). Optional boss monsters got really big stat increases. A few items that could not ever balance the game are made unavailable. A few others have had their previously-imbalanced effects mitigated.

Some of the biggest changes:
-Magic dps is extreme because of the 4 action point cost, so mana is the limiting factor.
-This means mana potions & spell scrolls can't be bought, out of combat mana regen spell added (meditation).
-Tech item components for powerful weapons changed
-More magic schools have some form of damage capability, or some improved spells added in to help the school compete.
-A few famously imbalanced spells are unavailable (stun, some meta magic, one or two others)
-Ressurection items are expensive to deter rampant use
-Buff potions ineffective or reduced (no more speed/intel/etc potion shenanigans)
-Guns do more damage compared to weak melee character output. Guns are competitive with strong melee characters. Otherwise guns would be trash mid-game. Therefore, guns are strong early.

Everything else is changed in ways that keep it pretty much line with how it was before, just more challenging and more balanced. Almost all items had their stats changed, but two handed swords still do more damage per swing than regular swords and require more ST to wield, etc.

2.0 will definitely have custom tech item components, some additional custom items, maybe even scaling damage for guns based on TA (if my crazy ideas work). Cursed items will also be balance-able, among other things.

It's so freakin cool that someone is still putting in this much time on such an old classic. Godspeed, sir.

Is there any updated news with this mod? I recently downloaded it and I'm loving the changes to the gameplay, and would like to know if there is an ETA on version 2.0.

That sounds great! This still being worked on?

I moved and got a new job but have since settled in, so been beating some of the good new releases (wasteland 2, skyrim, etc). I do keep my mod in mind and definitely plan on hunkering back down on it for a quite awesome 2.0, which can do most everything I wished for the first release.

From the work towards it that I already have completed, cursed items are properly re-balanced and I went in and changed a few monsters I couldn't before. Also did more with the final boss.

One of the main thing that honestly stops me from getting back to it asap is I wonder how many people will play it, especially since most who were willing to try 1.0 at all you can bet won't bother installing it for a second try. But this game deserves the best, because let's face it, it is the best. It's the best pc rpg ever made, without contest, and I always thought it was such a crime that no one would fix its most glaring flaws. That's why I did before, and that's why I will again.

I actually still get email from people who enjoyed it so that definitely helps push me along.

I am definitely going to play the game with this mod! Looking forward to it!

If you didn't promote it aggressively last time. You can do it this time (on Reddit, here, Steam, youtube and so on). I am sure a lot of people will pick pick the game again when they see this mod.

Agree with the above, I discovered this mod in September (just after I finished a play though unfortunately) and I' ve been waiting for 2.0 to be finished before a new run.

Can I ask how far off it might be?