Has anyone run into the problem with Arcanum (and this goes for some other RPGs), where there's simply too much loot and you end up with money far in excess to what you need to complete the game? Do you make any special efforts to avoid dungeon backtracking, or to avoid excessive "dump runs" to the in-game merchants?

Or to put it another way, has anyone thought about the "cost to carry" aspects of Arcanum? Take for example how far you can journey before having to stop and unload at either a storage receptacle or a merchant (or sometimes multiple merchants). From this point of view, wouldn't a focus on gathering smalls-- such as gems, scrolls, and loose change-- be vastly superior to filling that same inventory space with bulky armor pieces?

Many open-ended games share a similar feature. It's the benefit (or cost) of wandering, depending on your perspective.

Yes, it's possible to become richer than Gil Bates long before the end of the game, And after you have a fully-equipped party and (MINOR SPOILER) your own boat, money itself ceases to have much meaning.

That being said, getting to that point does take a fair amount of time. This is when Haggle expertise and Teleportation really come into their own: you can load up on the good stuff, pop over to Tarant, sell anything and everything to all the better (i.e. more generous) merchants in one go, and if you still have stuff left over you can head to Ashbury. Or Caladon. Or even Stillwater and/or Shrouded Hills.

As far as cost to carry goes, somewhere I have an old list I made up of item bulk vs. item value, so as to know which items to dump first when my inventory started to run a bit low. The short version of it should be no surprise: for the most part, magic > non-magic; fully crafted items > components; and jewelry > clothing and weaponry.

(Why yes, I am an obsessive maximizer who tends to micromanage every aspect of my roleplaying experience; what makes you ask?)

Ooo, haggle is something that has always interested me, even though I've never used it or played a pure thief-build (with the low carry weight). Due to the better per item return, you could make less trips to the merchants for the same amount of gold. Allows for a different playing style, really. The identify spell nearly falls into the same category, a bad way to spend character points if you wish to create a powerful combat build, but a useful option for time-saving.

I know what you mean about teleportation, and we're likely afflicted by the same condition when it comes to item values. I've got a grenadier build that was all about trading in the eye gear, explosive grenades, fatigue restorers; stopped with that one about 75% through the game when I realized my party was fully equipped as part of a gigantic economic experiment. Plus there was that feeling of being weirdly happy because the game has trains, boats, and haste potions (Finally, a cash sink! Take some of this pile o' gold off my hands)

I didn't want to confuse things further by bringing up Identify, but since you did: it doesn't just save you time, it saves you money! Without it, to judge whether an item was worth selling unidentified, you had to:

* Visit a gypsy, and save or quicksave in case the math indicated that it wasn't worth it.

* See what she'd buy a magic item for, have her identify it, then check again.

* Do some mental calculation based on the sale price difference, the cost of her casting the spell (100 gold per item) and the fact that she only pays about as well as the junk dealers (about 80% of what some of the other merchants give).

Plus, for a magic user build, it's not that hard to justify Divine Magick (the actual name of the Identify spell), since the spell college also contains Sense Hidden, which is the magical equivalent of instant Spot Traps mastery. Since I need to invest in around 20 spells to reach 100% MA anyway, why not put some points into those?

As far as Haggle goes, I pretty much can't play without it anymore, especially when soloing. I make sure my PC is an expert before ever leaving Shrouded Hills; it's what finances the otherwise too-pricey (for the early game) serrated chakram I'm so fond of using. And being able to sell to any and every shopkeeper in town is a tremendous time-saver... as is using Teleportation to only hit up the best-paying merchants across multiple cities (which include magick shops, magickal armorers and [surprisingly] herbalists).

Heheh, that reminds me of my first game where I hauled around 2000 bullets to feed a Mechanized Gun. Always craft bullets instead of buying them straight out whenever possible, and let those followers get in hits now and then. The bullet consumption thing is probably a strong argument for Hand Cannon or Long Range Pistol too, those are much more efficient from a bullets used / damage caused stand-point than the big guns.

Hand Cannon or Elephant Gun is the way to go if you're using bullets.

The best firearm in the game is the Tesla Gun. Charges are more weight- and cost-effective than bullets to begin with, and electrical damage is better than bullet damage, especially in the late game.

The range on the Tesla Gun is amazing too; I'm sure the designers had fond memories of Gauss Rifle sniping back from Fallout. One drawback though is that you can't use a shield-- another reason the 1-handed guns are great is that they allow you to use a tempered shield and less heavy armor if you wish. I like using either the Oiled Thieves Leather or Featherweight in this case because it means that I can carry more grenades and don't have to chug haste potions all the time. It's neat how everything gets interconnected like that when considering Arcanum character builds.

Solid argument here; I guess it boils down to whether you want the free identify and less of a spread in the way of your other magical abilities. For a pure magic user, I like: Teleportation, Succor Beast, Harm, Fireflash, and Lightning / Shield of Protection at the minimum.

It's interesting what you say about Haggle, usually what I'll do is forgo it and just hone in on picking up select items to make running the merchant circuit a little easier. For a tech build, you could in theory completely avoid picking up unidentified items; instead opting to craft eyegear, grenades, or fatigue / healing salves. Being the herbist is a pretty fun option actually, since you can pick up the plants from wilderness encounters that would ordinarily have no loot. It's lightweight too, so it's like finding little gems-- green, yellow, and red!

So many different ways to play this game, it boggles the mind sometimes.