Posted November 28, 2013
First off, love this game; amazing, and shocked I don't hear it spoken of in the same breath as Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment.
Now, onto questions.
1. Magic items sometimes have abbreviations which are not found in the acronym section of the manual. What do they stand for? For example, "MR".
2. Is this a correct statement? All magic items have a "Magic Power Available XXX%" stat. The stat may go as high as 100%, but only if the character using it has Magical Affinity 100%, and only if the item in question has the potential to go that high. Not all items can reach 100%, even when equipped by a character with 100% Magical Affinity.
3. Unlike magic items, machined/technological items do not appear to have a corresponding "Technological Power Available XXX%". How are such items affected by a character's magical/technological aptitude?
4. Can summoned creatures and automatons gained levels?
5. Why does the community recommend Drag Black Tooth's Unofficial Arcanum Patch instead of Arcanum:WIP 6.0? My understanding is that the two are incompatible.
6. Having now played through the game once (mage-diplomat build), what mods/hacks/modules do you recommend for subsequent playthroughs? I considered Carcanum, but it sounds like it's execution does not equal its ambition. I have seen a bunch of Modules on the Terra Arcanum site, apparently made by Troika.
7. How do I teach schematics to my technological party members?
8. Very late in the game, all of my party members' Reactions toward my (good-aligned) character took a sharp negative turn. I do not know why this happened. I thought it might have something to do with having a Dark Helm in my inventory, but I dropped it and that didn't seem to fix the problem. I am wondering if their alignments somehow changed, or if it has something to do with starting on the Ancient Gods quest. Does anybody have some insight?
9. The game ostensibly allows only 6 followers, at max (20 Cha, Expert Persuasion). However, I was running around with 7 by end game, not including Dog (Worthless Mutt) who does not count toward the maximum. I am trying to figure out what glitch I exploited. You see, I could drop a party member, and they would not rejoin my party because "You have too many party members already". At one point I had
Chukka
Dog (Worthless Mutt)
Loghair
Magnus
Raven
Sogg Mead Mug
Virgil
Weldo Rubin
I had to drop Weldo when Raven temporarily leaves the party because she wouldn't rejoin.
10. Any advice on building and playing a technologist? I hear that I basically need a lot of inventory space.
11. What good is Conjure Spirit? I know it can be used to speak to a corpse at the Elven Ruins and find out what happened to him, but that's an extremely limited use.
12. Sometimes, when I created several nodes to follow on a map, my character wouldn't move at all, or would move only a little way. What is wrong with the game?
13. What determines whether a merchant will buy any specific good? I know they'll normally purchase only within a certain class of goods, but beyond that, is it random?
14. Am I correct in observing that junk dealers will buy practically anything, but normally at ridiculously low prices?
15. How often does Reaction really matter? I can think of only one quest where a low Reaction made any bit of difference. Mind you, I had the Extreme Personality background, and walked around with Purity of Water cast one to three times on myself, along with a Smoking Jacket. I'm just wondering how different the game would have been if I didn't have Purity of Water, Extreme Personality, or a Smoking Jacket.
16. Do any of the Backgrounds give you "special" dialogue options, in the same way a low intelligence does?
17. How low does your Intelligence need to be in order to get the "dumb" responses?
18. How high does your Intelligence need to be to get all of the game's quests that have an Intelligence prereq? I know it's 12, at most, but I wonder if I can get away with lower (I never sustained more than two spells, so I don't need it for being cast-y).
19. Is there a way to prevent my followers from picking up objects from the ground?
20. Is there a way to prevent my followers from automatically equipping what they believe to be the most optimal equipment?
21. Are the following statements correct?
A) If your character begins with a bonus to an Attribute (whether from a background or race), the highest they can raise that Attribute is (20 + Initial Bonus), B) If your character begins with a penalty to an Attribute, the highest they can raise that Attribute is 20.
C) If your character begins with a bonus to a Skill (whether from a background or race), the highest they can raise that Skill is 5.
D) If your character begins with a penalty to a Skill (whether from a background or race), the highest can they raise that Skill is [actually, I know it's capped, but I don't know the conversion formula].
Blessings can enable a character to raise a Skill (whether from a background or race), even if they have a cap, but Blessings do not count toward meeting prereqs for Apprentice/Expert/Master training.
22. If a character can get their Charisma over 20, can they acquire even more followers? Or does the # cap at 5 (6 with Expert Persuasion)?
23. Is there a prereq for making Torian Kel appear? Maybe I just missed him; but I want to say that I visited his room in the Ancient Temple, but didn't find him. Not that I could have recruited him at the time - I played good-aligned.
24. Is there a way to determine the hidden properties of magical items? I know that magical items, especially cursed ones, do have hidden properties.
25. I accepted Edward Willoughsby's quest in Tarant, but ran into a problem. When I tried visiting Pollock's place, I found the door locked, and I could not open it (although my magical affinity wasn't maxed out yet, and so Unlocking Cantrip might just not have been up to the job). Why is this? Is it because I accepted the quest? Mind you, I had sided with Pollock in the Boil conflict between the gangs.
Now, onto questions.
1. Magic items sometimes have abbreviations which are not found in the acronym section of the manual. What do they stand for? For example, "MR".
2. Is this a correct statement? All magic items have a "Magic Power Available XXX%" stat. The stat may go as high as 100%, but only if the character using it has Magical Affinity 100%, and only if the item in question has the potential to go that high. Not all items can reach 100%, even when equipped by a character with 100% Magical Affinity.
3. Unlike magic items, machined/technological items do not appear to have a corresponding "Technological Power Available XXX%". How are such items affected by a character's magical/technological aptitude?
4. Can summoned creatures and automatons gained levels?
5. Why does the community recommend Drag Black Tooth's Unofficial Arcanum Patch instead of Arcanum:WIP 6.0? My understanding is that the two are incompatible.
6. Having now played through the game once (mage-diplomat build), what mods/hacks/modules do you recommend for subsequent playthroughs? I considered Carcanum, but it sounds like it's execution does not equal its ambition. I have seen a bunch of Modules on the Terra Arcanum site, apparently made by Troika.
7. How do I teach schematics to my technological party members?
8. Very late in the game, all of my party members' Reactions toward my (good-aligned) character took a sharp negative turn. I do not know why this happened. I thought it might have something to do with having a Dark Helm in my inventory, but I dropped it and that didn't seem to fix the problem. I am wondering if their alignments somehow changed, or if it has something to do with starting on the Ancient Gods quest. Does anybody have some insight?
9. The game ostensibly allows only 6 followers, at max (20 Cha, Expert Persuasion). However, I was running around with 7 by end game, not including Dog (Worthless Mutt) who does not count toward the maximum. I am trying to figure out what glitch I exploited. You see, I could drop a party member, and they would not rejoin my party because "You have too many party members already". At one point I had
Chukka
Dog (Worthless Mutt)
Loghair
Magnus
Raven
Sogg Mead Mug
Virgil
Weldo Rubin
I had to drop Weldo when Raven temporarily leaves the party because she wouldn't rejoin.
10. Any advice on building and playing a technologist? I hear that I basically need a lot of inventory space.
11. What good is Conjure Spirit? I know it can be used to speak to a corpse at the Elven Ruins and find out what happened to him, but that's an extremely limited use.
12. Sometimes, when I created several nodes to follow on a map, my character wouldn't move at all, or would move only a little way. What is wrong with the game?
13. What determines whether a merchant will buy any specific good? I know they'll normally purchase only within a certain class of goods, but beyond that, is it random?
14. Am I correct in observing that junk dealers will buy practically anything, but normally at ridiculously low prices?
15. How often does Reaction really matter? I can think of only one quest where a low Reaction made any bit of difference. Mind you, I had the Extreme Personality background, and walked around with Purity of Water cast one to three times on myself, along with a Smoking Jacket. I'm just wondering how different the game would have been if I didn't have Purity of Water, Extreme Personality, or a Smoking Jacket.
16. Do any of the Backgrounds give you "special" dialogue options, in the same way a low intelligence does?
17. How low does your Intelligence need to be in order to get the "dumb" responses?
18. How high does your Intelligence need to be to get all of the game's quests that have an Intelligence prereq? I know it's 12, at most, but I wonder if I can get away with lower (I never sustained more than two spells, so I don't need it for being cast-y).
19. Is there a way to prevent my followers from picking up objects from the ground?
20. Is there a way to prevent my followers from automatically equipping what they believe to be the most optimal equipment?
21. Are the following statements correct?
A) If your character begins with a bonus to an Attribute (whether from a background or race), the highest they can raise that Attribute is (20 + Initial Bonus), B) If your character begins with a penalty to an Attribute, the highest they can raise that Attribute is 20.
C) If your character begins with a bonus to a Skill (whether from a background or race), the highest they can raise that Skill is 5.
D) If your character begins with a penalty to a Skill (whether from a background or race), the highest can they raise that Skill is [actually, I know it's capped, but I don't know the conversion formula].
Blessings can enable a character to raise a Skill (whether from a background or race), even if they have a cap, but Blessings do not count toward meeting prereqs for Apprentice/Expert/Master training.
22. If a character can get their Charisma over 20, can they acquire even more followers? Or does the # cap at 5 (6 with Expert Persuasion)?
23. Is there a prereq for making Torian Kel appear? Maybe I just missed him; but I want to say that I visited his room in the Ancient Temple, but didn't find him. Not that I could have recruited him at the time - I played good-aligned.
24. Is there a way to determine the hidden properties of magical items? I know that magical items, especially cursed ones, do have hidden properties.
25. I accepted Edward Willoughsby's quest in Tarant, but ran into a problem. When I tried visiting Pollock's place, I found the door locked, and I could not open it (although my magical affinity wasn't maxed out yet, and so Unlocking Cantrip might just not have been up to the job). Why is this? Is it because I accepted the quest? Mind you, I had sided with Pollock in the Boil conflict between the gangs.
This question / problem has been solved by TwoHandedSword