Tell me how to get the most out of this game

[<Username>]

I got the box of Arx Fatalis (German, 2002 release by JoWood) sitting on my desk right now. I bought the game some years ago because it received good word-of-mouth here and on other websites.

Now, I know next to nothing about it other than that it is apparently a spiritual successor to Ultima: Underground and that the story is set in a large underground retreat below the frozen surfaces of a world called Arx.

My question right now is: How do I get the most out of the game? Do I have to install patches? Are there modifications I should install? Should I read any documents besides the manual? Are there any easily overlooked ingame settings I should be aware of?

System specs:
Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition, Service Pack 2
DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)
AMD Turion 64, 2000 MHz
896 MB (Registered DDR SDRAM)
ATI Radeon Xpress 1100 (128 MB)
ATI Radeon Xpress 200M (RS482M)

[furiousgeorge]

My question right now is: How do I get the most out of the game? Do I have to install patches? Are there modifications I should install? Should I read any documents besides the manual? Are there any easily overlooked ingame settings I should be aware of?

Username...all you need to worry about is patching to 1.17. There's also a hacked in patch to 1.19, which you can find on the subforum page. I haven't tried that, but apparently it has some nice fixes. It is certainly playable with 1.17 though and you will have more available data should you run into any issues with crashes/etc.

Other than that, you really don't need to do anything else. The biggest thing to anticipate is you may run into a bug or two. Usually they will show up soon after you start playing, so you may have to search forums/etc to find a fix. Once you get it running stable, you're ready to go.

Have fun!

EDIT: Oops! Forgot about mods/documents/settings.

Mods - There weren't modding tools released. I've seen some attempts at mods, but none are essential to the game. Play vanilla.
Docs - There's the RPGdot Arx guide (again, linked on subforum page). It explains a lot. You also may need some hints via Google. The first playthrough is usually confusing at times, so there's no shame in looking for some help.
Settings - Um...set to highest/smoothest res? Not really sure what you mean by ingame settings. Configure as you would any other title.

[<Username>]

Okay, I got the official patch 1.18 and the inofficial 1.18>1.19 as well as the RPGdot guide. I'll apply the patches before playing the game and I'll use the guide when I run into trouble. That was easy, thank you.

[furiousgeorge]

No problem. Enjoy the game. It's good enough that I am happy to assist those who want to play it. Just make sure you play through it more than once. I've played through it many times with a different experience each.

[Stingm]

I agree, this game is definitely worth your time.

[<Username>]

I can't get the game to run again. I still have the same German 2002 release by JoWood mentioned in my first post. I am now on Windows 10.

When I click to run ARX.exe after installation, nothing happens. I checked the task manager and no Arx-related processes seem to be running. I tried various compatibility modes. None of them seemed to make a difference. Nothing happens when I try to start the game.

Next, I tried installing patch 1.21 from the Bethesda website. It does not install. Every time I try, I get this error:

An error occurred while trying to replace the existing file: Arx.ttf. DeleteFile failed; code 5. Access denied.

Any ideas if there is anything left I could try?

[Stingm]

You could try Arx Libertatis. https://arx-libertatis.org/

I had to move that file out of directory and let the patch make a new one.

[Steve_12]

You could try Arx Libertatis.

I had to move that file out of directory and let the patch make a new one.

Thanks for the great advice!

[<Username>]

I had to move that file out of directory and let the patch make a new one.

Thanks for your advice! The patch installation did complete after I removed that font file from the directory.

When I try to start the game now, I get the following error message:

The code execution cannot proceed because Steam.dll was not found. Reinstalling the program may fix this problem.

I don't have Steam installed. This was an installation from CD-ROM. I got the same error message before when I tried to start the game after an aborted patch 1.21 installation. I don't know how to fix this.

I tried to download Arx Libertatis, but both Chrome and Firefox flag the download as malware.

[<Username>]

I did a little bit of research and found out the German language JoWood release of Arx Fatalis is censored. Blood effects were reduced and gore was removed. I don't want to play this version. I will buy one of the currently available uncut releases instead.