Arena - Who's still playing?

[Kerr]

I used the link on UESP to download the ready to play version so I didn't have to mess around with DOSBOX. For some reason a steel helm makes my Redguard's face white.

Edit: Just finished the game on the 24th of June.

[skullclutter]

After a few false starts, I've finally gotten the hang of this game and left the tutorial dungeon. Rolled a nightblade I'm pretty happy with.

[NyarlathotepJr]

My dark elf knight has finally made it into Labyrinthian after getting to L13. With eight pieces of the item to retrieve, this main quest could take a while.

Using a knight character has been a good choice, since Sappho does not need to worry about annoying things like fixing weapons and armor, casting spells, and other trivia. This allows me to focus on the game and less on the mechanics, important when you are very old and none to bright. For example, I still have to remember to switch from TESV WASD to TESI arrow keys. :^)

One odd quest failed because on the way back from a dungeon with the captive, Sappho was interrupted by the King's men who took him before I could even get to the city with the correct palace. She continued on to the palace, to find the King had been replaced with a Queen, who was upset because the deadline had passed. No bounty. So that was odd.

Also, the Amulet of the Necromancer gives -9 AR, and with my characters kit means around -20 AR. Pretty good, but even with that she is still smacked around hard.

[Linkuya]

I really need to try this game again.

[hollywoodb1]

I really need to try this game again.

Ha ha, that you do. I'm really enjoying it again and had to share this... anyone else ever break into a Palace to fight the guards for the XP, then find a corpse with 10000 gold in a torture room, across from an Iron Maiden torture device? This game was so ahead of it's time, in my humble opinion lol. (Btw, if you want to try that, I did it in Wind Keep in High Rock...)

But yeah. Rollin' with a battlemage. Not too difficult yet, bought a lot of equipment to increase luck (Ebony katana of luck, Ebony Roundshield of Luck, and Amulet of Luck) and have that maxed out.... Not sure what luck does, but I haven't died in a while since I've attained 100 lol so I can dig it.

Finally, Anyone know if you can get the *Oghma Infinium* twice..?

[lostlast]

Sorry for delay in reply... you may have discovered already for yourself by now.. you can get the OI multiple times... just keep asking for rumours until it appears... over and over.

[Irishpotato]

I just found out i can get this and daggerfall... on my smartphone! I am sooooo downloading

[deathm00n]

I just found out i can get this and daggerfall... on my smartphone! I am sooooo downloading

Cool... WAIT... WHAT? How to do this?

[Irishpotato]

Im still trying to figure it out lol. I will add u to my friend list and message u when i find out

Edit:
The only way to play arena and daggerfall on a smartphone is to use the dosbox app.

[sammoniac]

I started playing a couple of weeks ago with some self-imposed rules to follow. I'm about 20-25 hours in I guess. Before I start the main quest, I decided to explore every city and continents! I did High Rock, Hammerfell, and I've almost finished the Summerset Isle now. I of course also visit every palace and do every quest involving a dungeon added on the map (like the capture, slay a monster and free someone quests) so the maps of the continents are full of dungeons now, its pretty cool. When I travel to a different city, I always walk a few minutes in the wilderness in the general direction of the next city (for the role playing aspect of it). When I see dungeons and interesting locations, I visit them a little as well. I've seen pretty cool panoramas, that's for sure. Arena CAN have pretty amazing graphics for its time.

I'm taking epic screenshots of the battles/ennemis and sceneries I stumble upon. I'm playing a Breton Nightblade and I'm almost level 14 now. Also, I've got really powerful custom spells and equipement since I went to hundreds of stores and dozens of Mages' Guilds (I have like 110 000 gold ^L^ ). I'll eventually upload the screenshots!

[OblivionDuruza]

I just found out i can get this and daggerfall... on my smartphone! I am sooooo downloading

Cool... WAIT... WHAT? How to do this?

I assume Potato has already clued you in, but if not and for posterity (and future readers)'s sake, see this thread for a little more detail.

[BelatedGamer]

I'm still playing, it's a wonderful game, very cool to see that some people are also having fun! Right now my Argonian Acrobat, Stays-Her-Blade, is searching for a good bottle of wine in Hammerfell, after she downs some of that maybe she'll find a nice pond in the wilderness or maybe she'll rob the whole town blind.

[Daggerfall2014]

Daggerfall was my first Elder Scrolls game in 1996. I never played Arena back in the 90s and do not recall even seeing it in the stores where I lived. I started casually playing it a couple nights ago and just made it out of the starter dungeon. I've read people saying that the Arena starter dungeon is hard, but I did not experience any problems. I don't think that it's any worse than the Daggerfall starter dungeon for a beginner, possibly easier. I like what I've seen so far.

[Pilaf The Defiler]

There might be a couple of reasons people struggle in the starter dungeon.

Ria's directions are correct, but kind of vague. They leave a couple of twists and turns out. It's easy to fall into water by accident or end up in a nest of goblins. Also, the damned shift gate. Ain't nobody go time fo' dat.

Enemies spawn semi-randomly, and loot is based on a random table, so depending on your class and your luck you might face only rats and goblins and emerge fully equipped and ready to kick ass, or you may run into Nord assassins who kill you in two hits as you wear your prison rags and flail your fists or rusty dagger around.

[ernthorn]

hurray! I've finally beaten this game. I played a level 20 Redguard Spellsword. Finding some random buckler with 1300 spell reflect charges in a shop REALLY helped (:

[Dragazhar]

Raises hand.. I am playing it in between Daggerfall and Morrowind. and ... I have Win 7 64 bit using DosBox.. it does work... aaa the memories... are flooding back.. from my college days and my 486... still have my win 3.1 3.5 floppies lol

[Snake]

Me

[Gandoril Spellbinder]

I just recently started playing Arena after getting a laptop and the TES Anthology. I must say, it is very fun to play! Only a couple of things bug me:

• Sorcerers are too difficult for me to play since they can't regenerate spell-points via rest, and it's not until higher levels that spell-casting enemies appear frequently as levelled creatures. Granted, enemy mages, spell-swords, and night-blades can appear at any level, but the game is more likely to generate a levelled creature than a non-levelled human. Plus, the chance to absorb spell energy isn't a given, only a percentage-chance (mercifully, it increases along with the player's level, albeit Sorcerers level-up the slowest). Believe me, the cost of buying Potions of Restore Power can really add up over time . . .
• You can't steal specific items; what you steal is random. Also, I can't understand why Mages Guilds are easier to steal from than equipment stores, but that is a saving grace for most stealthy/shady characters, given the fact that only Warriors, Knights, and Rangers may wear heavy/plate armour, and Thieves and their sub-classes need those Ebony Amulets, Torcs, Bracelets, and Belts the second-most in the game (Mages and Monks needing them the most, since they're the only classes that can't wear armour of any kind).
• You can't haggle for custom spells (i.e. those made in the Mages Guild's Spell-Maker). Not that serious of a problem, just a general nuisance.

I plan to play every race of both genders, and would love to try out each class, as well. I just won't play Sorcerer, though (see above). Thieves and their sub-classes will be a little difficult, but not impossible, for me to play, but only because I'll be saving and re-loading frequently.

[Flinchel]

Dungeon crawling in this game is SO fun. Kinda burned out, though. Might continue Urgkhl's quest later.

[deathislife]

Well, it depends on what you mean by still playing, as I only first played this early this year, but I'm enjoying it, and am almost done with the game (currently on the first floor of Dagoth-Ur). Having never played a 90's computer game like this, I found there to be a steep learning curve, and certain things I had to learn for myself (I'm playing as a Sorcerer, and a way to absorb magic is to use a Crystal of Shocking, etc. on your character; risky, but worht the risk to me in early levels), but I'm really loving it now, and can't wait to finish the game.

For the record, I'm a male Breton Sorcerer on Level 19.

[Waylander Dakeyras]

I am! 8 years after last answer.

My first character was a nord warrior, easy beginning, but difficult end (lots of monsters who can cast spells = need resist elements potions)
I did Ogma Infi-thing twice, got Ebony Blade, and full ebony armor (very expensive). I also did some side quests (one gave me 18 000 gold)

Spoiler:

I couldn't hit the final boss with my blade so I did punch him et took the key on him when he was in his cocoon. I don't know if there is a way to hit him with weapon.

I am now playing a breton mage, hard beginning but now I just walk into dungeons and monsters die with spell reflection. Looking for the 6th fragment of the staff.
I'll play a thief after that I guess.

More details in the topic : what did you do in Arena today?

[adegron]

I started what will hopefully be my first serious playthrough of Arena. Arena's first dungeon is indeed easier than Daggerfalls Privateer's Hold, so no problems there. Really liked that you can get out of the city and find dungeons on foot, gave a good first impression of the game.

[SeaGtGruff]

I started what will hopefully be my first serious playthrough of Arena. Arena's first dungeon is indeed easier than Daggerfalls Privateer's Hold, so no problems there. Really liked that you can get out of the city and find dungeons on foot, gave a good first impression of the game.

Yes, I find Arena's wilderness to be more enjoyable than Daggerfall's, since you can run around and easily find crypts, keeps, and dungeons to explore (since their entrances show up as red dots), as well as houses you can loot or sleep in, plus taverns and temples. The wilderness map isn't the best, but in Daggerfall you can't even view the local map outside of cities, and you could easily run around for hours before you found anything to explore.

On the other hand, in Arena you can't travel between cities via the wilderness, since each city exists at the center of its own separate wilderness that doesn't connect to the others, so the only way to go from city to city or from a city to a quest dungeon is by fast travel with the world map.

And even though each city's wilderness is different than that of other cities, after a while they all start to look the same as each other once you stray away from the city.

Also, the wilderness around port cities isn't realistic, since you can be inside the city and see docks, with water stretching off into the distance, but once you get outside in the wilderness you see that the city is surrounded by land with no ocean, sea, or bay in sight anywhere, just lakes.

Still, I think the devs did a fantastic job considering how much has been packed into the game despite the obvious limitations of its engine. The sheer size of the game world is pretty mind-blowing.

[limekilnlake]

Necro, but I’m finally committing to the grind to beat it. Made the bold choice of knoght, and regretting the lack of magic every day. Iron golems in labyrinthian are [&@%!] me up.

[SeaGtGruff]

Necro, but I’m finally committing to the grind to beat it. Made the bold choice of knoght, and regretting the lack of magic every day. Iron golems in labyrinthian are [&@%!] me up.

If you're playing a non-spellcaster class, you can still use magic:
- Potions
- Marks, crystals, bracers, and rings
- Bracelets, belts, torcs, and amulets
- Artifacts
- Magic armor
- Magic weapons

A lot of classes won't be able to use magic armor, since only plate armor can be magical in Arena, and many classes cannot wear plate armor-- but Knights can!