bouckj: First off, thank you Ewmarch! I'm going to try out this 1.0 patch soon. I'm also quite interested in 2.0.
I love the idea of re-balancing tech vs magic. I can't say I'm looking forward to being one-shotted more often though. I think of Arcanum as an already unforgiving quick combat system, especially when running in Network multiplayer. Every module starts with basic equipment and all combat is in real time. As it is, lag can be deadly in seconds.
I'm interested in doing a little modding myself. Do you have any recommendations for where I can find resources and documentation for modding? Some of the things I'm interested in adding/fixing are as follows:
-Create a mod for saving character inventory and/or progress in a multiplayer module
-Add a button to the in-game interface that brings up the Esc menu
-Add a configuration file to adjust % life of all living things (Increase/Decrease combat duration as you see fit)
-Add an auto-save feature
Terra-arcanum is the main source of real information for Arcanum. It's been down for a while and if it stays down, the only source will be the russian forum.
It seems some of the forum functionality can be seen by going directly to it.
Try:
http://www.terra-arcanum.com/forums/index.php?forums/modding-and-scripting-support.5/
Don't know about game interface modding personally, though someone did successfully make an interface change for higher resolutions so it can be done. He went by Crypton. He actually did much of the original work for most things Drog later stole and released under his own name, without credit of course. His defunct site is
http://arcanum.game-alive.com/.
I don't think there exists an easy across the board hp adjustment aside from game difficulty setting? In the game files you can change all NPCs quickly, because they reference races and classes (in a classless game, ironically) and so elves, orcs, humans, etc would be quick to change. All monsters takes about 3 hours to do a 'formulaic adjustment' on each one in the files, from my experience. With some monster data you have to add the HP line if it doesn't exist, if you want a changed value.
Wish I could tell you about auto-save, but I can't. Sorry, my friend. The russians might know.