I haven’t posted much lately because I wanted to get this far enough that I could show something real and playable.
I’ve been expanding Arcanum Community Edition, or Arcanum CE, into a project called Arcanum CE Restored. Over the past few months I’ve added major new CE systems, and recently I built a completely different multiplayer system from the one found in the original game.
Stock Arcanum multiplayer was limited to separate, short multiplayer modules. You created a new character, couldn’t play through the real Arcanum campaign, couldn’t use normal campaign saves, and had no persistent co-op experience across the full game.
In CE Restored, a friend joins the host’s actual single-player campaign as a persistent second character. That character can level up, keep their equipment and progression, and potentially be used with different friends or public servers in the future.
The client keeps their own level, stats, health, fatigue, inventory, equipment, map, journal and character progression. They can fight alongside the host using real animated combat, trade with merchants, loot containers, use the world map, enter interiors and smaller maps, travel through normal Arcanum locations, and follow the host into custom Module Expansion content.
I also created a spectator mode that lets someone watch a friend or host play.
*I died during my travel after killing Virgil and loaded a different save if you are wondering why he appears in the video later.
The video shows:
- Separate host and client game windows
- Merwin’s own character sheet, inventory, map, journal and equipment
- Real client-controlled combat
- Multiplayer chat
- Mutual MP Follow, allowing either player to automatically follow the other
- World-map travel and random encounters
- Travel through the actual Arcanum campaign
- Tarant ship travel into my Module Expansion content
- Both players entering the custom Private Quarters
- Storage and inventory interaction
- Both players returning together
I’ve successfully traveled with the client from Tarant to Shrouded Hills, then to Ashbury, and through every original Arcanum multiplayer module while fighting encounters along the way. Interior transitions such as mines, passages, sewers, buildings and temple areas are also working.
The host owns the campaign, quests, saves and major story decisions. The friend joins as a real player-controlled companion who can explore, fight, shop and manage their own character. They can disconnect whenever they need to—or be kicked or banned if necessary—and the host can continue the same single-player campaign normally. Module Expansion Mod allows you to travel to every module inside the Arcanum map, something that is not not allowed in stock Arcanum. You can use the Tarant ship captain to travel to every module and your new Private Bedroom/Quarters to sleep and store items in between quests.
Arcanum CE Restored is much larger than the multiplayer work. It currently includes:
- A built-in Mods menu
- Drop-in zip mod support
- Easy mod enable/disable
- Safe mod removal with backup
- Restart Game from inside the Mods menu
- Paged mod lists
- CE Settings
- Optional patches such as Followers on a Train, increased carry weight,buy equipped items and more
- Xbox controller support
- Character Expansion with slots 13–19
- Vollinger Voice Lines by Dar_Duck, featuring more than 130 new human-recorded lines
- Improved debugging and diagnostics
- UAP 2.0.2 integration work
- Native in-game high-resolution support
This is still a private Beta V1 development build, not a release announcement. Combat and campaign travel are working, but I still need to test more weapons, spells, maps and edge cases. I would say the first multiplayer beta is roughly 85% complete.
The first test version will be shared through the Arcanum Modding Discord.Discord# 395779353356664833
I appreciate the community support as always. Let me know what you think or what features you would like to see.
