Abstract
Problem: If Tim Cain could remake Arcanum today, what would he change — and what would he leave alone?
Approach: Tim walks through his personal wishlist: bug fixes, balance passes, removed systems, new features he never got to ship, and even seeds for the cancelled Arcanum 2.
Findings: The remake would be turn-based only (no real-time, no multiplayer), run at higher resolutions with modernized UI, include procedurally generated ruins and caves, add road networks between cities, remove the level cap, and plant narrative hooks for Journey to the Center of Arcanum. The core story, quests, and dialogues would remain untouched.
Key insight: Most of the changes aren't redesigns — they're unfinished ideas that ran out of time and money, plus removal of multiplayer, which was never a natural fit and constrained the entire combat system.
1. Bug Fixes and Balance
The first priority would be fixing shipped bugs and rebalancing skills, spells, and attribute effects. Tim specifically calls out Beauty (too weak) and the Harm spell (too fast to cast, too much damage, scales too aggressively). He'd look at existing fan patches and community reactions to guide his own balance decisions — if a fan patch tried something and players hated it, he'd reconsider doing the same thing.
2. Higher Resolution and Modern UI
The remake would run at higher resolutions with two UI options: the original UI shrunk to center-screen, or a modern minimal UI that pushes elements to screen corners and hides them when unnecessary (e.g., health bar only visible when injured or in combat). Ideally he'd recover the original art source files to re-render at high resolution; failing that, modern AI upscalers would handle it well enough.
3. Removing Multiplayer
Tim would remove multiplayer entirely. It was only included because it was required, and he doesn't believe anyone is pining for multiplayer Arcanum. Removing it means gutting all the server-finding code, the World Opponent Network (WON) integration, and a large amount of code that existed only because calculations couldn't be assumed to run locally. The codebase would be dramatically cleaner.
4. Turn-Based Only
With multiplayer gone, real-time combat goes too — it only existed to support multiplayer. A turn-based-only game opens up major improvements:
- No cooldown hacks — in real-time you needed cooldowns to prevent players from acting too fast; in turn-based, your turn simply ends
- Faster enemy turns — enemies can skip movement animations or move at high speed; sequential-initiative enemies can be clumped together
- Group initiative — e.g., a necromancer on one initiative roll, his two hired bandits on a second, his five summoned zombies on a third — only three "not your turn" phases instead of eight
Tim draws on his experience with Temple of Elemental Evil for these turn-based improvements.
5. Procedurally Generated Ruins and Caves
One of Tim's most ambitious unfinished features. Any sector not hand-crafted by a designer would be eligible for procedural content: ruins, caves, dungeons, old castles. This wouldn't touch any main story quest or side quest — hand-made content stays exactly as-is. But wandering into an untouched forest or mountain could reveal a procedurally generated dungeon, adding hours of replayable exploration that changes every playthrough.
6. Road Networks
Tim attempted and abandoned a road system connecting cities, villages, and major landmarks. Roads would make world map travel faster, with separate encounter tables — guards patrolling them, bandits concentrated along caravan routes, smarter monsters drawn to roads while others avoid them. The technical challenges were significant: roads needed to look correct at the sector level, handle terrain (not cutting through mountains, generating bridges over rivers), manage intersections, and the generation problem itself may be NP-complete depending on framing.
7. Restoring Multi-Point and Removing the Level Cap
Tim would restore the original multi-point character advancement as an option (the code still exists), while keeping single-point as the default shipped experience. He'd also remove the level cap, which only existed to force players into making new characters rather than maxing everything out.
8. Arcanum 2 Hooks: Journey to the Center of Arcanum
As a personal indulgence, Tim would plant narrative seeds for the cancelled Arcanum 2: Journey to the Center of Arcanum. A few new locations, NPCs, and dialogue lines hinting at what's to come — perhaps Franklin Payne the explorer disappears before the end of the game, or you visit his house where he's building a subterranean boring machine that doesn't work yet. No giant hole in the ground, just enough to make players curious and provide a satisfying "oh, that's why that was there" moment if a sequel ever materialized.
9. What Stays Untouched
Tim is emphatic: the storyline, dialogues, and all quests (main and side) would remain exactly as shipped, except for bug fixes. The remake is about polish, unrealized features, and technical modernization — not redesign.
10. References
- Tim Cain. YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgn2sQ4vAkU