Welcome to The Arena

[jackofallgeeks]

I just installed and started a game on Arena, the very first of the Elder Scrolls series by Bethesda Softworks -- the most recent game being Oblivion. I had this game, Arena, ages and ages ago. I'd nearly beaten it once, but Life happened. Now it's up for free download at Bethesda's site (and has been for quite some time) using the DOSBox emulator. I'm not sure I'll keep up with the game, I've been feeling fitful and restless in my entertainment lately, but having it and playing it again makes me very happy.

Comments

[uhlrik.livejournal.com]

I did that one a few months back. Good fun to run through it again. however, if you're sufficiently cunning, running a Spellsword and like inventing your own optimized spells the latter part of the game's a cakewalk.

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

Amusingly, my very first character back when I was 12 or whatever, back when I go through to the last three Staff Pieces or so, was a Dark Elf Spellsword.

If you want a challenge, as ever, Thief is a good choice. Thieves always get the short end of the adventurer stick.

[uhlrik.livejournal.com]

Funnily, way back when I played it the first time (I don't recall ever getting more a staff piece back then since I didn't actually own the game) my character was a Dark Elf spellsword too, so I did it again this time.

Yeah, Rogues get the shaft in Arena. For that matter, any non-spellcaster gets the shaft. Imagine running a pure knight.

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah, it's true that Magic gives all spellcasters an edge -- they can open locks, shoot fireballs, even remove whole sections of the dungeon without so much as breaking a sweat. (I remember coming to a door I couldn't open with a key I couldn't get and just, well, destroying the walls around it and walking on by...)

But Warriors have a foot up on Thieves in that Warriors can at least stand and fight. They generally have more health, better armor, and stronger weapons, which all means that they can kill stuff to get what they want. Thieves don't have that.

And this is almost always true across the board. I think Arcanum (a great, steam-punkish type game) came close to sorting things out and evening the playing field, but even at that I think Mages had the lion's share of power (though I may be biased, my Sorceress rocked).

[naughtjennifer.livejournal.com]

Actually, especially following the patch which balanced(read: nerfed) guns, thieves were by far the most insanely powerful class in Arcanum. Set play to turn-based, max out agility, train in backstabbing, steal a mechanical dagger from one of the merchants... Nothing can stand up to you. As an added bonus, if you so choose, you can stay centerline on the tech/magic scale rather easily, allowing you to use charged rings(+agi) and magic scrolls. Trouble stealing an equipped item? Read a scroll of transformation or whatever to make them an air elemental, all items are unequipped and they have pathetic attack. Stealing unequipped stuff's a cakewalk, then dispel the transformation spell. Plus, since the transformation spell is a buff, not an aggressive spell, you can use it on townsfolk without getting anyone mad at you. And if they're already mad, they're completely unarmed, so pretty helpless anyway. And of course there's the lil' bug where you can steal from transformed people, even if there's a script preventing you from stealing from that character.

Yeah, I tore that game to pieces, and took advantage of every single bug. Why do you ask? :P

[bsgnome.livejournal.com]

What speed do you have DOSBox set to, to run Arena decently well? It's always either painfully slow or insanely fast for me. Besides that, I can't get sound (though, that's no different from when we first played anyhow).

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

Oh, I have sound. And it's pretty good sound, considering the time period we're looking at. I didn't change any options at all on Install. I just ran Install, exited without touching a thing, then ran Arena. Then the tinny midi music began.

When I say 'I started a game,' that's a little misleading. I created my character, Reindel the Spellsword from Morrowind. I haven't even picked up the ruby key yet. It was moving painfully slow, but the Arena Readme said to expect that, and to use ctrl-F12 to speed up the cycles. I'm going to play around with that until I find a good speed, and I can let you know when I do. At the same time, I imagine you could do likewise; I can't imagine it goes: painfully slow, painfully slow, painfully slow, really freaking fast!

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

In the Dosbox.conf file, I've found that setting cycles=8000 is pretty spot-on. I might drop it to 7800 or something, but it seems to run Arena fairly smoothly at a jaunty pace at that setting. Let me know what you find.