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Mad Mike
Village Dweller
Joined: 04 Feb 2004
Posts: 19
Location: Dublin |
| Anyone out there played PC Arx with 1.17 patch? |
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I'm a new ARX player on the PC (I got it recently on a 3 in 1 DVD with archangel and Gorasul). I patched the game almost immediately with V1.17 and I worried I may have interefered with the gameplay. I cannot find many references to 1.17 in forums so I wonder if anyone else has tried it? Here are the main funnies I have found:
1. Hunger: I have read in faqs about characters getting hungry all the time and the importance of food. My character almost never gets hungry and when he does it doesn't seem to do him much harm. I made a bunch of pies early in the game and I have only had to eat 2 of them so far and nothing else - I have already got the trolls to unblock the tunnel. Is this normal or should I be eating more often?
2. Level 7 spells with a low casting skill: I have a casting skill of only 29 and yet I can cast the level 3 spell fireball without difficulty and on one occassion I managed to cast a level 7 spell (wall of fire). The level 7 spell pretty much cleaned me out of mana and didn't seem to do much but something did happen. Surely I am not supposed to be able to cast level 7 spell until I have a casting ability of more than 70+?
Other funnies not affecting gameplay:
3. Before I patched the game a little picture of me appeared in the top left hand corner of the screen with some menus - this disappeared after 1.17.
4. I have just got a 2nd bag and right clicking on the inventory belt does not show all items in all at once as mentioned in manual / docs.
5. The savegame feature seems a bit hokey. When you view the list of savegames the top two are greyed out (reserved for quicksave). This worked at first. Now however one of my quick save slots has shifted down to one of the named savegames. When I quicksave it overwrites the topmost named savegame. I just avoid using that slot but it is bizarre.
6. The EAX button won't stay highlighted (I have an audigy sound card). The readme referes to a unified eax driver to solve EAX problems but this doesn't come on the DVD version. |
Wed Feb 04, 2004 11:24 pm |
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ziusudra
Village Dweller
Joined: 21 Jan 2004
Posts: 20
Location: Virginia |
I use the 1.17 patch and I think most people do. It fixes quite a few bugs.
1. This is normal with the 1.17 patch.
2. Duration spells can be cast at any level.
3. No idea. I don't remember anything like that.
4. After you get a bag some arrows appear on the right edge of your inventory that let you scroll through your bags. You can also use the next and previous keys. I forget what the default keys are, I have them set to my wheel.
5. Freaky.
6. You should be able to find the unified driver through google. |
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Thu Feb 05, 2004 12:31 am |
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Cm
Sentinel of Light
Joined: 26 Jan 2003
Posts: 5209
Location: Missouri USA |
You might want to go to Arx Fatalis hosted site and find the support files and check out the PDF. It is full of great details, maps and a walkthrough that you will probably end up needing at some point. You cann't finish the pc version without the 1.17 patch. Too many critical bugs until it came out. One changed the inventory and picture of you you talked about. On the inventory if you click F key on the symbol all your bags open and you can see all the inventory in both. The save game slot issue is also a bug. You may solve it by just closing and opening the game again, or install the patch again. I wouldn't worry about it, but watch which slots you use. I played the whole game with just two slots the first time and no problems. I didn't know any better at the time. I never did get EAX to stay on so I just game up and played. Wasn't worth fighting the system specs to find a cure. Hope this helps, and welcome to the boards. 
_________________
=Member of the Nonflamers Guild=
=Member of Worshippers of the Written Word=
A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.
Mark Twain
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Thu Feb 05, 2004 3:55 am |
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piln
High Emperor
Joined: 22 May 2003
Posts: 906
Location: Leeds, UK |
Just out of curiosity, did you start a new game after patching, or continue a game you'd saved in an older version? The latter is not reccommended, but I remember plenty of people on the official Arx forums did it anyway and didn't have any trouble. It's an unpredictable game for bugs... I played it through 3 or 4 times, using patches 1.15 to 1.17, and had no significant problems; others suffered crippling bugs regularly, but I think all the major problems were solved in v1.17. And the gameplay tweaks were all for the better, IMO... the frequency of hunger complaints was way OTT in the original version.
One problem I did encounter was an essential item dropping through the floor when I put it down (couldn't be recovered). Arx won't tell you which items you'll need later, so if you find something unusual make sure you keep it on you, or put it somewhere you can remember... and save often in case you get the bug I found. |
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Thu Feb 05, 2004 7:01 am |
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Mad Mike
Village Dweller
Joined: 04 Feb 2004
Posts: 19
Location: Dublin |
Thanks for responding people. Here's a summary of what I understand from your replies:
1, Food is not as important in v1.17 as in earlier versions. Fair enough. I had a bit of fun mixing and matching ingredients to see what I could cook up but I got tired of that when I realised that food wasn't very important any more.
2. You can cast high level duration spells at any level. What then does casting skill do for you - does it increase the power of the spell? I guess that's in the manual - will check when I get home.
3. The missing picture is probably normal - doesn't bother me because the graphic used to look nothing like my character.
4. Must try the "F" button on the inventory when I get home. I want to see all bags at once so I can move objects around. At the moment the only way I have found to move an object from one bag to another is to drop it on the ground and pick it up again.
5. The savegame bug: I'll try reapplying the patch to see if that solves it but its not a major difficulty. I save to a named save game before any major decision (eg just before levelling up) so I can go back later if I goof. I use the quick save regularly during play (eg after every battle). I was a bit miffed when quick save over wrote one of my named saves but its easy enough to work around. What is actually more annoying is that I sometimes get a crash to desktop when I try to save a game (It has happened about 3 times).
6. I'll Google around for the unified drivers - not a big issue really but may as well enjoy the game in its full surround sound ambience.
In response to Piln's questions - I did start the game over after applying the patch. I too have experienced the disappearing item phenomenon when you drop something - although generally the item is still there it has just become invisible. If you poke around you can still find it.
I haven't played very many RPGs: I did play Morrowind about a year ago and I spent most of Christmas playing the superb Knights of the Old Republic. I bought Arx because I was suffering serious withdrawal symptoms after finishing KOTOR and it seemed like a bargain:€12.50 (about $15) for the 3 in one DVD. I am enjoying Arx so far - the graphics and ambient sounds are very good and the storyline is entertaining. It does seem to be very buggy and this did put me off at first. The fact that it is patched up to version 1.17 (17 versions ?) and still suffers from crashes to desktop is worrying.
Quick Reality check - I have played 2 RPG's in a month and have just signed up to an RPG gaming forum. Is there no hope for me? Am I doomed to grow a beard and start conversing in Mddle Earth languages next?  |
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Thu Feb 05, 2004 10:49 am |
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piln
High Emperor
Joined: 22 May 2003
Posts: 906
Location: Leeds, UK |
I must admit, I never understood why I was allowed (as a low-skilled caster) to cast some high-level spells and not others. But it's a minor issue, as your casting skill does have a huge impact on your spells' effetiveness. This game generally does a really good job of making character skills noticeable - play as a tank, a mage and a sneaky type and you'll see a pretty big difference in the styles of play. I don't normally replay games (and when I do, it's usually years after the first time), but I found Arx sufficiently varied to play it through 3 times in rapid succession.
Just as an example of the effects of character skills: playing as a fighter/mage I made myself a paralysing magic weapon as soon as I had the skills and gear - it froze my opponents for less than a second, just enough for me to power up another swing, which was good for one-on-one battles but not much else. When my casting skill was later massively improved I made another similar weapon, and this time my enemies were frozen for about 4 seconds when struck. This led to some quite intricate battles against three or four tough opponents at once, striking one then moving on to the next, trying to repeat the order so as to keep them all frozen as much as possible... That character's melee skills were a distant second to his magic; I also tried a thief/archer and a meathead fighter, and it was almost like playing a different game for each.
Shame about the bugs, and also some poor game balance (quite rare, but some enemies are insanely tough for certain character types, and some skills like Ethereal Link aren't as useful as they should be), but I think the good outweighs the bad by quite a way (especially considering this is Arkane's first game, and they went for something a bit more dynamic than the traditional D&D-style game). IIRC, the first patch I saw was v1.13... it was released in Germany quite a while before other languages came out, and when they did I think they had v1.12 on the CD.
Can't wait for the sequel... rumour has it, it may be using the Half Life 2 engine.
quote:
Originally posted by Mad Mike
Quick Reality check - I have played 2 RPG's in a month and have just signed up to an RPG gaming forum. Is there no hope for me? Am I doomed to grow a beard and start conversing in Mddle Earth languages next?
lol... yup, doomed, no hope, beard, that sounds about right.  |
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Thu Feb 05, 2004 4:44 pm |
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