Firstly, Elder Joachim = Drog Blacktooth. Second, from the sound of it, the beta that those ten received was different than the one Drog/EJ received.

The Drog Black Tooth (aka Drog Alt and Elder Joachim).

I'll do it. Working on a PM right now.


Good finds ZeroBot. I'm impressed at what you managed to dig up.


Does anyone know Drog Tooth well enough to get a reply from him about Beta Arcanum?

Oh yes, I believe rroyo had dealings with Drog. Perhaps he'd be willing to provide some insights for us.

The "press" demo and the beta will contain the same first 3 areas of the game. This will be the actual game, in its current form, minus multi-player and the editor.

The demo that (I think) is currently scheduled for release around christmas will be smaller in scope than the beta/press demo. I believe it will have the first 2 areas (not 3) so as not to give too much of the story away.

So those of you that get in on the beta will see a lot more of the game than those who have to wait for the demo.

5) What can you tell us about what the beta includes?

Sharon Shellman 9/7/2000

- You will actually be able to wander "anywhere", we've actually removed the other areas, so you will not be able to find them, even if you go to where they should be. (sneaky, huh?)
-Your characters will probably be able to obtain level 20 by the end of the beta.
-The beta encompasses bout 20% of the game. The first 2 areas are small, but the third area you will be exploring is Tarant. The hugest city in the game. Tarant has a very large number of side quests that the main story arc does not rely on, so you will only be seeing 1/13th of the main plot. So it shouldn't spoil anything for you guys, just make you want more. )
- You will probably not be able to bring any save games from the beta into the final game. Because we are using the beta for balancing, we will probably be moving/adding/deleting people and items from the beta to the final, and this would corrupt your save game.
- We are very much hoping that the beta testers will play through the beta many times over, with different types of characters. That way we will get plenty of feedback on gameplay and balance issues. (and of course, bugs too)
- If you wanted to spend a bunch of time wandering the world map getting random encounters... you'd
ultimately hit level 50 (if you tried hard enough). Ya know... if that's really what you want to do...

9) Can you fight bigger monsters in the areas of the world where they would be in the regular game?

Sharon Shellman 9/21/00

For the beta, all areas (except for the 3 included) have been completely deleted and filled in with generated empty terrain. All high level monsters that were specific to a particular deleted area are also missing. The only way you will find creatures (outside of the 3 areas) is through random encounters. Not all of the monsters are in for the beta, so you will only have random encounters with a few different monster types.

Haven't received a reply on my end. I sent Drog a message a long time ago and he never saw it or replied. I guess Drog is away from the forums.

Racist, sexist, pessimist, chauvinist, misogynist... heck, I'm just ist.

And I say you sound like an idiot, not because you disagree, but because your arguments are stupid.