Arcanum Tech Skills & Schematics

arcanum tim-cain game-design schematics crafting jason-anderson iteration troika

Abstract

Problem: How did Arcanum's technology crafting system evolve from initial design to the shipped version?

Approach: Tim Cain revisited original Troika design documents from 1998–99 and walked through the full evolution of the tech skill system, comparing his original design with the final version designed by Jason Anderson.

Findings: The original system had technology skills embedded as a separate skill grouping (Smithy, Mechanical, Chemical, Advanced Tech) governed by INT. Jason Anderson redesigned this into the cleaner schematic system that shipped — four tech skills moved into the regular skill tree, and a new eight-discipline schematic system replaced the rest. Every schematic used a uniform two-ingredients-in, one-result-out formula.

Key insight: The shipped schematic system succeeded because of its elegant uniformity — every schematic worked identically (two ingredients → one result), making it trivial to implement as data, build UI for, and extend with new content.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC7StCQZW7Y

Tim's Original Design (1998–99)

Tim's first pass divided skills into basic skills and tech skills. Tech skills were separate from the regular skill tree, all governed by INT, and broken into four categories:

  • Smithy — One skill: Repair (fixing swords, shields, armor)
  • Mechanical — Five skills: Shoot Guns, Pick Locks, Arm/Disarm Traps, Repair Mechanical, Combine Mechanical (adding scopes to guns, combining two guns into a different one — a proto-schematic concept)
  • Chemical — Create Heal Powder, Create Bullet, Create Dynamite, Create Fuel, Create Battery (each skill produced a specific item, closest to the final schematics)
  • Advanced Technology — Shoot Advanced Tech Weapon, Repair Advanced Tech Weapon, Combine Advanced Tech Weapon (for stun guns, flamethrowers, anything non-bullet-based)

This design was never implemented.

Jason Anderson's Redesign

Jason Anderson disliked the original tech skills and redesigned the entire system. His changes:

Four skills moved into the regular skill tree under a new "Technological" category alongside Combat, Thieving, and Social:

  • Repair
  • Firearms
  • Pick Lock
  • Arm/Disarm Trap

Eight Tech Disciplines replaced the crafting skills, each with seven degrees (Novice → Doctor):

  1. Smithy — Melee weapons, armor, shields
  2. Mechanical — Purely mechanical gadgets
  3. Gunsmithy — All firearms
  4. Electrical — Charges and magnetism
  5. Herbology — Natural substances affecting the body (originally called "Anatomical")
  6. Therapeutics — Man-made materials affecting the body
  7. Chemistry — Man-made deleterious substances
  8. Explosives — Unstable substances

The Three Schematic Sources

Every discipline point granted a Learned schematic automatically. Beyond those, two additional categories existed:

  • Found schematics — Dropped as loot throughout the world (chests, NPCs, ruins). Organized by location during development (Ashbury, Black Mountain Clan mines, Dernholm, Bendra Groth ruins)
  • Purchased schematics — Sold by shopkeepers matching the discipline (herbalist shops stocked herbology schematics, armories had smithy schematics, etc.)

Regardless of source, every schematic worked identically: two ingredients combine into one result. Tim loved this uniformity — it made the system trivial to implement as data, easy to build inventory and UI systems for, and simple to extend.

The Arcanum Schematics Book

In early 2017, while working on The Outer Worlds and thinking about crafting systems, Tim was reminded of how much he loved Arcanum's schematics. He dug through his Troika file archive, found much of the original 2D art (the 3D models were on a DAT tape he didn't have), and printed a personal book: Arcanum Technological Schematics.

The book organized schematics by how they appeared in-game:

  • Learned schematics grouped by discipline
  • Found schematics grouped by world location
  • Purchased schematics grouped by shop type

Tim noted the art style — everything looked like it was on old papyrus paper — was particularly good.

Credit Where It's Due

Tim emphasized that the shipped schematic system was Jason Anderson's design, not his. He stressed the importance of attribution: the dialogues in Arcanum were written by Leonard Boyarsky, Jason Anderson, Sharon Shellman, Chad Moore and others. Tim's recurring point — someone else often had the better idea, and the game was better for it.

References