1: I tried to use an auto level scheme just to try it out and it never spent my initial 5 points, does it only spend the rest of them after the first 5?

2: The map is confusing to me. If I am not using the world map but just the area if I click the scroll map button it only scrolls down and not any other directions, the manual did not help me with this either. Is it possible to use the map to scroll the area you are in?

3: How to get Virgil to attack first, I see that F2 is supposed to have them attack but it does not seem to function correctly.

4: Is there a way to have the screen scroll with your character? Or at least speed it up or allow it to scroll further? I know in BG1 it would not follow but at least I could scroll around quickly.

5: Does strength determine damage with ranged weapons? I searched and I keep reading conflicting answers.

6: Is loot random?

1. That's a good question. My guess is it doesn't use any points from before you turned on Auto-leveling, so yes: you have to place those points manually.

2. You should be able to move the map around with your keyboard's arrow keys, or by clicking and dragging with the mouse. If either of these don't work, you may have a hardware issue.

3. If you're playing in turn-based, you automatically go first. To skip yourself, tap the space button twice (to quickly enter and exit real-time mode). Note that this lets everyone else take their turn, including enemies.

4. There are two ways to increase scrolling: either invest points in Perception, or "cheat" by running the game with the flag -scrolldist:0 enabled. (You access the command line by right-clicking on the icon you use to run the game, opening Properties and typing the extra code in the Target box. The whole thing should look something like "C:\GOG Games\Arcanum\Arcanum.exe" -scrolldist:0 -scrollfps:70

5. No, strength has no damage effect on ranged weapons (whether thrown, fired, or shot from a bow). It gives a damage bonus to melee weapons only.

6. Loot is semi-random. The seed is a combination of your name, race, gender and chosen background; so if you start over with an identical character, you'll find identical loot. Also, some chests (especially in dungeons) will contain the same treasure.

Thank you

So, I read Dex and Perception help with ranged weapons but is that true for guns and bow? I was thinking Dex for bow Perception for guns. am I wrong? I was thinking of playing a halfling bow wielding magic user. I was going to therefor pump dex and willpower, or what would you recommend I pump for that kind of play style? Also do you get any type of critical hit bonus if prowling and then using a ranged weapon? I think I need to re read the manual.

Also, love the manual. Seriously what happened to a well written informative manual. Now everyone wants a in game tutorial. I miss a good manual. This one, even if it is a .pdf is very well written. Feels like I am being instructed by someone in the game. They do not do that anymore, another thing lost to cut expenses. Sorry I will get off my old gamer soap box.

You are correct: DX helps with bows, while PE is for guns. The faster you are, the more attacks you'll get. (Unless you're building a skill that requires it, like Firearms or Spot Traps, as far as I'm concerned PE is a dump stat.) Also, take apprenticeship and expertise ASAP, and mastery as soon as it's viable.

I'm honestly unsure whether Prowling helps with bow accuracy or damage; I've never bothered with it, as it always seemed to be purely a "sneak past the guard" tactic. What I do know is that you can target body parts using a bow, the same as you can with a gun: it lowers your overall chances to hit, but increases the chance of a critical hit if you do connect.

Magic advice? Hasten, from the Temporal college, doubles your attacks in turn-based mode; Tempus Fugit speeds up your whole party, while also slowing your enemies. Minor Healing is essential, and Shield of Protection is pretty handy (though IIRC its spell effect interferes with Prowling).

Either boost your CN to increase your Fatigue recovery rate, or stock up on plenty of Fatigue slowers and restorers. You'll also need WP to be able to learn the better spells. (Teleport is extremely handy, from the mid-game on.) In any case, the more MA you have, the better any magic weapons and items will work for you; your MA has to match or exceed the item's MA to get the full bonus.

I agree with you about the manual, btw; not only is it informative, it's a blast to read. Though from one "old gamer" to another, an in-game tutorial would also have been nice. (Though I suppose, in a sense, that's what the Crash Site was all about.)

Also, a minor spoiler protip: I won't tell you what (or where) the best magic bow in the game is, but I will tell you that it is NOT the Arcane bow. Have fun, and good luck.

Awesome thank you kind sir. One more question/concern. I left the crash site and Virgil ask me to use the map to fast travel. I was like no way we explore! The little canyon was fun, the wolves were hard though. The issue is once I got into this open forest I spent 2 hours wondering around only to find nothing! No, animals, no broken down houses, plants to pick, absolutely nothing! I feel like the game kicked me in my exploration balls. I did get to a house and then a shack but those I could have fast traveled to cause they were part of a quest. Is there no reason to explore!?

Unfortunately, in general there really isn't. The wolves at the gate were designed/intended to encourage you to switch to the world map; the only way to generate random encounters overland appears to be to sleep or fast-travel.

There are exceptions; but even they require you to travel to a specific set of coordinates and then look around: if, for instance, you're trying to force your way over the mountains before the main quest takes you there. There are Easter eggs hidden throughout your travels, but in general fast-traveling near them will trigger a map location you can then snap to.

Even the fast-travel gets annoying (and don't get me started on those paranoid train station ticket sellers!) which is one of the reasons I recommended eventually investing in Teleportation.

And it's my pleasure. I absolutely love this game, and I love helping others see why I enjoy it so much.

That's a shame but alsa I shant let it discourage me off to dissappoint a ghost.

Oh ya, I notice my beauty went down by one sometime while exploring or it happened when the guy ho the ghost wanted me to ill gave me a blessing. I have no idea and now I wonder why I am a 7 now and not an 8 /tear. the numbers in red. I assume something occured I shall read up on this one. Thank you sir again for your assistance.

Not a problem. It's not the blessing that did it; you've been scarred, most likely due to a critical miss (or enemy critical hit) during a fight. You can fix it by paying for the services of a healer or herbalist (or later on, by possibly becoming a master Healer yourself). Look in your logbook, under Kills & Injuries (the crossed swords).

That blessing is worth it, btw; it gives others a better reaction toward you, almost like adding +1 to beauty on its own.

Thanks again TwoHandedSword, where are you located. Should you not be asleep? Says, the person in Arizona still up at 2:30AM

"Yes; yes I should," says the person from New York at 5:45 a.m. :p

You can do this with a melee attack too, not just ranged attacks. Unfortunately it's not particularly useful. In theory you could target someone's head, take off your gauntlets, and punch them to try and get bonus fatigue damage and knock them unconscious instead of killing them. Or aim for the head to try and take out a magick-user's fatigue so they can't cast. But I've never really seen much benefit to targeting body parts; it seems like a feature the developers liked from Fallout so they wanted it in Arcanum, but the way the rest of the combat system was designed meant it wasn't really useful.

Maybe it's more useful in ranged combat? I haven't tried a gunner / archer yet.

As another old gamer I'll also say how well written the Arcanum manual is. I wish that the art of the manual were still being practiced today. Also as a newcomer to Arcanum myself I'm glad I'm not the only one confused by some parts of the game. I was coming in here to ask about the fast travel system as well.

New question has arisen, I keep reading about a grid like you can move so many spaces on the grid and blowing people back X amounts of grid spaces. So I assume there is some sort of grid on the landscape. Any way yo bring it forth? I tend to play turn based and seeing what everything is measured by would be very helpful..

Not that I know of. It's not inherent to the game to show the "hexes" (or squares, in this case) but for all I know, somebody somewhere could've created a mod to do just that.