Krulon Winterclaw (Beserker) with Coran, Kaigan, Imoen, Xan, and Garrick made it to Chap 5: 31 days 23 hours - lost in Cloakwood retrieving a wyvern head (after completing the mines and exiting to FAI) - this was a classic run on Core with one auto pause option (on trap found).
BTW Thats the only auto-pause option I've ever used as I'm not a fan of the feature (mostly prefer to pause manually) TBH I don't recall when or why I turned that one on as I've oftened played without it but once it was on I never bothered to turn it off since it rarely comes into play anyway (especially if you die before Cloakwood mines LOL)
I wonder if we can define the No meta-gaming category a bit further? Perhaps some examples of how decisions might be made to stay within the spirit of the category?
For instance it seems to me that one of the biggest challenges the no meta gamer faces is whether or not there is reason enough to "discover" items that he is aware of the location of - one example might be the spiffy new Stupifier - others might be the wand of ice in the Nashkel mines map or the mage ring at the FAI map or RoP near Elminsters first appearance.
I wonder if in the spirit of randomness one might use cards or dice to determine whether or not he gains access to such items? If so - then how might we determine how often he might get the opportunity to attempt a chance of finding something? - every time he walks by? Another dice toss maybe - when you first approach an item you are aware of toss a die or draw a card to determine how many chances you will have to find it as you come by it over the course of the game?
One unrelated question - does anyone else wish there was some way to obtain Neeras gem bag when she is not a party member?
Is there a specific reason why playing with no auto-pause is ‘preferred’? I have the same question about scripts.
I always play with multiple auto-pauses on. Especially no-reload, I have pauses on Enemy Sighted, Trap Found, Character Death, and Round End. I added the Round End auto pause so that I don’t cripple my guys by trying to get them to do too much before the next round.
I also always set my fighters on general attack scripts and my mages on ranged scripts so they’ll run away. Otherwise, they tend to stand around and do nothing or try to get themselves into other types of trouble. Playing on iPad, this also helps me deal with iPad-specific UI difficulties.
Also, I feel like we should count significant efforts in a leaderboard (doesn’t have to be the main one). I did 19 days, 7 hours into Chapter 4 on Core Rules. Fighting_Ferret did 22 days 3 hours on Core Rules. FinneousPJ made it to Cloakwood in 13 days, 12 hours.
Maybe we can get a ‘reload challenge’ subforum?
Anyway, my new character is a female LE human fighter, Maglynn Fletcher. With 18/95 str, 18 dex, 18 con, she’s tanking, for sure, with the Stupefier and Darts to make sure she’s the one my enemies target. Joining her will be Dynaheir, Minsc, Shar-Teel, Kivan, and Quayle.
Yes, Shar-Teel will become my thief the moment I can get her specialized in daggers. Going to try to be a little smarter this time about how I go about getting people: picking up Kivan and head over to the basilisk map to Shar-Teel. Level up there, and then head down to pick up Minsc and Dynaheir (getting the Chelsey Crusher for Kivan). Run through the main quest (with a stop at flesh golem cave to get Kivan/Maglynn 5 more HP or so) until BG. Then do everything possible in BG to build my levels (probably in one day) and then on with the main quest. I’m shooting for 30 days.
5) 0015 | 387 24, 13, 1, 5, 29 pick gender, pick race, fighter -> wizard slayer, CG, 8 re-rolls, male 4 voice set Skie, Jaheira, Ajantis, Coran, Yeslick <- @Wanderon said this one could be re-rolled bellow is the new roll
OK based on Wanderon's info the group for the 5th party was re-rolled as: 12, 16, 14, 4, 8
which gives us: Imoen, Kivan, Kaigan, Branwen, and Edwin
I have updated the main post to reflect this.
That makes 5 look pretty good and probably the easiest to keep alive with a decent roll - tough call -
3) Jester is decent party by dualing Imoen to mage and shar to thief (taking time and resources) and could be fun but dangerous keeping PC alive since she has to be close enough to enemies to make her song work.
4) is decent but PC is only thief or scout and BH only gets 20 skill points so he's going to missing stuff thief wise - depends somewhat on playstyle you choose.
I'd probably take 5 as the best chance to finish keeping rep in the middle so Kivan stays.
Rolled up my totemic druid from the last 5 and started her today but discovered the kit is apparently broken - (spirit animal does not appear when called) - also can only use scimitar from the scimitar group but thats a feature I think - can also wear a helm which may be a bug. party rolled Imoen, Rasaad, Khalid, Sharteel, & Neera - I was looking forward to it...
Started the FMT from that group of 5 last night and they are in Beregost after picking up Khalid & Viconia at Day 4, 6 hours. I think I am going to stick with these 4 until Chap 4 or 5 to try to level the FMT some more without putting too much time on the clock. (last 2 Safana & Quayle)
@Wanderon, the Totemic druid kit works. You now pick your spirit animal from a list first .
From what list where? There is an icon (one) to summon the animal under the special abilities button and when you press it the druid goes through the spell casting process but nothing happens???
NM - I reloaded a save and fiddled with it a bit and for some reason it started working...
@Wanderon, it's on the left side of the bar after you hit the special abilities. Look closely.
I got it to work - don't know what I did - it wasn't showing those icons before - the bar closed after clicking the main icon ... the druid made spell gestures and nothing??
Is there a specific reason why playing with no auto-pause is ‘preferred’? I have the same question about scripts.
You're right, and it's totally open for discussion. I kind of made an assumption that most folks don't use auto-pause. I have nothing to actually base that on, though, lol. But regardless, we can decide what seems most reasonable and do that.
This challenge is tough enough at its core that auto-pause (which is a feature of the game) arguably is even needed. At any rate, it hardly makes the challenge too easy!
By "custom scripts" I mean any scripting routines modded outside the vanilla game. I was thinking any of the standard scripts included in the game are fine. Although I would expect that for this type of challenge folks micromanage every party members' actions in combat.
We want to make a big tent for everyone to participate and enjoy the challenge, and there are many different playstyles out there. "Preferred" is just my attempt to establish a sort of baseline for the rules. The definition is open for all of us to hammer out.
I wonder if we can define the No meta-gaming category a bit further? Perhaps some examples of how decisions might be made to stay within the spirit of the category?
For instance it seems to me that one of the biggest challenges the no meta gamer faces is whether or not there is reason enough to "discover" items that he is aware of the location of - one example might be the spiffy new Stupifier - others might be the wand of ice in the Nashkel mines map or the mage ring at the FAI map or RoP near Elminsters first appearance.
I wonder if in the spirit of randomness one might use cards or dice to determine whether or not he gains access to such items? If so - then how might we determine how often he might get the opportunity to attempt a chance of finding something? - every time he walks by? Another dice toss maybe - when you first approach an item you are aware of toss a die or draw a card to determine how many chances you will have to find it as you come by it over the course of the game?
One unrelated question - does anyone else wish there was some way to obtain Neeras gem bag when she is not a party member?
Personally, I love the idea of using dice and cards as an element of no-meta-gaming. Myself, I wouldn't want to play no-meta-game style any other way. Didn't want to foist that, though.
But yeah, we can certainly add that as an option for those that want to do it. I'll add a blurb to the No-Meta-gaming description for it.
As for the basic guidelines, that's open for discussion. Here are the rules of thumb for what I do with playing cards and dice:
First, the No-Meta-gaming approach does not have to be roleplayed. But it does flow from the basic premise that your characters do not know all the 'meta' things that you, the player do. So, for example, if your party is in the Crossroads map walking by the tree with the diamond hidden in a hollow in it, they don't know that it is there. But you can then turn a card for whether the sun hits the ring just right to make a flash that catches a character's eye.
Playing cards: Used for yes versus no situations. If I turn over a card that is a red suit that answer is yes. If I turn over a card that is a black suit the answer is no.
Eg, does someone in the party see a glint of the diamond in the tree? Turn over a card.
Dice: If a decision requires multiple options, I use the WotC dice roller.
Example: A thief has no idea that the lightning wand is in the manor home on the north side of Beregost. So if the thief goes on a burglary spree in Beregost. But they might well target the homes that seem the largest: Roll 1 d4 where 1 = easternmost two-story home, 2 = three-story home directly across from the “duplex” i.e., 3 = two-story manor with stable and mill , 4 = reroll.
As for when and how often advantageous circumstances present themselves... That's all sort of intuitively done in my games, according to what either feels right or 'believable'. I think I would just leave it up to the player to go with their gut for what sorts of things are possible to be discovered, and whether a given opportunity keeps presenting itself repeatedly.
I dunno, it's up for discussion! What do others think?
Both Khalid & Jahiera and Xzar & Monty disappear if you don't speak to them before completing Nashkel mines - this was true in Vanilla as well.... Xzar & Monty of course leave immediately if you speak to them but don't recruit them - but IIRC recruiting them and then dropping them somewhere while your rep doesn't make them unhappy will keep them there all game.
Jahs & Khalid stay if you turn them down and I'm pretty sure they will stay all game as long as you spoke to them but it's possible they will leave once the mines are done if you never took them into the party - they too will stay where you drop them forever if you take them on board and release them while your rep doesn't make them unhappy.
This was true in Vanilla as well.
I found that Xzar and Monty disappeared after the Nashkel Mines, Khalid and Jaheira disappeared after the Cloakwood Mines.
Edit: I've been delaying writing my next post since I have to upload 32 images to catch up to my game.
OOC: That's the pictures, will begin writeup in an hour or two. With 32, my character had just finished pickpocketing all the armed people in the FAI. I'm currently at 22 Days, 17 Hours. Getting ready to leave the friendly Arm Inn.
Here’s the continuation of the story of Jagen MoonShadow, also known as Jagen H’gar.
I use the classic rules of this tournament, playing at the insane difficulty. This is the very first rolled character and his companions after the previous attempt was ended by an ambush. Every rest takes 8 hours. Auto-pausing at “enemy sighted” and “target gone”.
The party of Jagen, Viconia, Edwin and Dorn came to the bandit camp location. As it becomes a good omen, it was late in the evening. It’s the most prolific time for a bounty hunter, isn’t it? Chill hobgoblins and some lonely bandits were an easy catch.
But then a scouting report brought the picture of a heavily armored captain of these bandits – Taugozh Khosann. For a tired party it would be an uneven game to compete with this strong enemy. So, the party decided to rest (rest #6 in this game).
Although it was early in the morning when everyone woke up, they embodied the tactics well. Viconia casted Doom at Khosann and Edwin tried to blind him. Success!
At bandit camp, Jagen reached the 5th level (10000) with 2 HP (26 HP overall) getting 3x backstab multiplier and putting 20 points into Disarm Traps (making it 55) and Dorn reached the 4th level (9000) with 7 HP again. The current progress can be seen from the following screenshot:
The rest bandits outdoors were taken one by one with Viconia tanking. For the main tent the single potion of invisibility was used. Edwin, being invisible (the spell was missing because the party didn’t attend the High Hedge), went in and stood next to Ender Sai. From there he laid 2 web spells targeting the centre of the room (being out of sight of the main enemy speaker). After that the rest of the party came in. Every enemy was held, Viconia calmly casted Silence, 15ft at the enemy mage while Edwin blinded the archer. Dorn and Jagen finished them with ranged attacks, though several casts of Command were also used to minimize the risks.
The main thing is 55 points in Disarm Traps are enough to find and disarm ANY trap in the spider area and the famous ambush area with ettercaps in Cloakwood. Although 45 points in Open Locks didn’t let Jagen open some containers in the bandit camp at first, it was enough to find a potion of perception in one of them. With the help of this potion, Jagen managed to open all the locked chests in the bandit camp. Great!
Even before coming to the first area in Cloakwood, the party was waylaid by ettercaps.
No one crossed the trap so this fight was a safe one. After all 4 ettercaps had been killed Jagen disarmed the trap and followed to the border of the map.
Well, it looks like even going just from my poorly designed poll for only a couple of days that those that use auto-pause in some form outnumber those that never use it by over 2:1.
I had no idea that people use it this much! It always felt a little cheat-ish to me to use auto-pause when I first tried it back in 1999. So I never used it after briefly experimenting with it ages ago.
The way I play BG is just hit the space bar a lot and have characters stealth/scout/detect traps, the way Nature intended. But recently with this no-reload challenge I figured I would see how auto-pause worked for that, just because this no-reload challenge is so unforgiving. And, sure enough, in a no-reload game it is without a doubt a literal lifesaver.
Oh, also, on the question of combat scripts--I myself micromanage every character in battle, so I set scripts to None for every character. For a no-reload game I definitely wouldn't want to rely on any of the games stock combat scripts! But that's just me. There used to be some custom (i.e., modded) scripts available out there at least for the original BG, that are considerably better than the stock ones. But for BG:EE the only thing I'm aware of along these lines is SCS's Ease-of-Use script (which is awesome). But that would fall under the SCS versions of the challenge. So I guess the use of scripts is a non-issue. (I would think using combat scripts would actually increase the risk of the PC dying; so if a player wants to use it, up to him or her--but I don't believe it actually provides any sort of advantage, or makes the game easier.)
Anyway, in seeking to define "prefered" I should not generalize what I do as 'normal' or 'standard' for how this game is played; or how it may seem the game is intended to be played by the developers.
I mean, that said, I also think it is fair to posit that the less the player relies on the game engine--or we might say, the more control is placed in the hands of the player--then the greater the test of skill it is to play the game. And that might be considered an ideal, even if it is not the standard form of playing.
In any case.... Please vote/discuss:
1) Should we remove any restriction from using any of the stock features provided by the game engine for the "preferred" form of the challenge? I.e., auto-pause and the stock combat scripts are fine.
2) Or do we want to define "preferred" as an ideal that places the most control (and therefore the greatest test of skill) in the hands of the player?
If this form of playing the game continues to have legs, then I can ask. On the other hand, if this proves to be a flash-in-the-pan fad that dies out after a couple months, then a sub-forum isn't warranted.
But actually, come to think of it, it might be better to consider a broader new forum category for various types of challenges, not just this one. The hallmark of this particular challenge is random generation of PC and party. (The no-reload angle just adds some spice.) But I see that there are also ordinary no-reload and minimal reload challenges that evidently are still running since their inception (i.e., it seems they've proven to 'have legs'). I would love to see also more players share a roleplay-intensive approach, where they journal their games by really getting into all the characters, as those games may be organized around various themes and concepts. And then there is also the RP-intensive/No-meta-gaming/Use Cards & Dice approach that I've been documenting in the "Let the Fates Decide" thread.
Anyway, such a forum category would be devoted more broadly to finding and supporting creative new approaches to replaying the game.
In my country the following 5 days will be holidays, so I have to leave this amazing thread for this period...
But for sure I promise to come back. Although it seems the reports on the adventure of Jagen H’gar became less attractive for others (the last 2 posts got only 1 like overall). I wonder what's wrong with it? Should the approach to posting about it be changed? In what way? Or is it only coincidence? I'll gladly try to follow your advices.
Anyway I'm going to thank everyone here for a very pleasant atmosphere and interesting tales of unsung heroes that continue their quests, not vain at all:)))
The special thanks must go to Lemernis - without him not only this random contest would be out of my sight but also all the Cards & Dice approach would never come to my mind in terms of how I can play this game.
"Wisdom is only possessed by the learned". Evidently, everyone here gives so much to the perception of the game I played many times in the past not even thinking about the things this thread has brought.
1) Should we remove any restriction from using any of the stock features provided by the game engine for the "preferred" form of the challenge? I.e., auto-pause and the stock combat scripts are fine.
2) Or do we want to define "preferred" as an ideal that places the most control (and therefore the greatest test of skill) in the hands of the player?
I don't think allowing the use of stock features diminishes the game/challenge in any real sense - personally I use basic scripts just to make sure characters are attacking enemies within sight and not standing idle if/when I am busy handling other characters or if I don't notice immediately when their last target has been killed. I suppose the auto-pause is just another manner of accomplishing the same thing (ie: pause on target gone).
I used to use a variety of the standard scripts like cleric defensive and some others but they seem to have gained some annoying quirks in BGEE so now I just choose the most basic attack script for everyone and micromanage everything else. Sometimes I have to remember to turn off the AI in order to stop characters from attacking per script when scouting or trying to get a character into position to backstab etc.
I do wish the NPCs "default" scripts were defined so one could have a sense of what they are set to do - I assume each one is different and set to something the devs thought would be suitable to their class/personality. Maybe someone who uses the mod tools could peek at this?
I mostly find the auto pause annoying so it doesn't really matter to me if it's allowed or not or some combination of the two (restricting the number of auto-pause options selected to X) - in some ways I too consider it a "mild" form of cheating but thats probably more about my own arrogance of not needing the damn computer to tell me when to stop and go than the gaining of any significant benefit that one should not have LOL!
As to having a sub-forum I'm not sure thats such a good idea - Having a sub forum might mean that only people who had enough current interest in any form of challenges might visit there and peruse the threads while having the threads in the general forum means every time they get updated to the top of the page everyone in the general forum sees them and may BECOME intrigued enough to peruse one and perhaps join in or even just remain a lurker who enjoys reading the game journals. I think thread traffic might actually diminish by putting them in a sub-forum.
@bengoshi Enjoy your holiday period! See you back at week's end or early next week.
I think it's actually a bit difficult to post about these games in a way that doesn't tend to make readers' eyes glaze over a bit. Not that yours tend to in particular--they don't! But generally speaking, the more material there is to digest, then more demanding it is to read, and then the more people will skim the post. And if nothing catches the eye, the skimming will be light indeed.
And I don't know if it's just me, but I actually think now that embedded screenshots tend almost to distract from the text...
Re: Likes: My guess is that much of the Liking in this thread is basically a pat on the back to encourage one another in taking on such a tough challenge, where so few games make it very far! So the Liking we do sort of feels like general moral support among this band of brothers and sisters who are undertaking the challenge. And so then you are due a few of those, my friend!
I guess I would say that in terms of sharing progress with a game... and this is just my guess... the posts that are most likely to be read fully are the pithiest ones that provide a general update without embedded screenshots. And/or that share something interesting that one encountered tactically, eg, a new tactic learned, or some new angle in which one has come to appreciate the game by virtue of this gaming method.
I agree about the screenshots - I personally prefer each one hidden seperately with spoiler tags so I can persue them or not as I wish - this also tends to break down the text into smaller more readable segments vs the wall of text which sometimes seems like a mountain that one might wish to skirt around rather than climb... LOL
Also, if someone is taking on one of the Roleplayed versions of the challenge, and they post their journaling of it in first person, that's a little different too. Then it's basically prose fiction, and long-ish posts can be more forgivable.
Comments
BTW Thats the only auto-pause option I've ever used as I'm not a fan of the feature (mostly prefer to pause manually) TBH I don't recall when or why I turned that one on as I've oftened played without it but once it was on I never bothered to turn it off since it rarely comes into play anyway (especially if you die before Cloakwood mines LOL)
For instance it seems to me that one of the biggest challenges the no meta gamer faces is whether or not there is reason enough to "discover" items that he is aware of the location of - one example might be the spiffy new Stupifier - others might be the wand of ice in the Nashkel mines map or the mage ring at the FAI map or RoP near Elminsters first appearance.
I wonder if in the spirit of randomness one might use cards or dice to determine whether or not he gains access to such items? If so - then how might we determine how often he might get the opportunity to attempt a chance of finding something? - every time he walks by? Another dice toss maybe - when you first approach an item you are aware of toss a die or draw a card to determine how many chances you will have to find it as you come by it over the course of the game?
One unrelated question - does anyone else wish there was some way to obtain Neeras gem bag when she is not a party member?
I always play with multiple auto-pauses on. Especially no-reload, I have pauses on Enemy Sighted, Trap Found, Character Death, and Round End. I added the Round End auto pause so that I don’t cripple my guys by trying to get them to do too much before the next round.
I also always set my fighters on general attack scripts and my mages on ranged scripts so they’ll run away. Otherwise, they tend to stand around and do nothing or try to get themselves into other types of trouble. Playing on iPad, this also helps me deal with iPad-specific UI difficulties.
Also, I feel like we should count significant efforts in a leaderboard (doesn’t have to be the main one). I did 19 days, 7 hours into Chapter 4 on Core Rules. Fighting_Ferret did 22 days 3 hours on Core Rules. FinneousPJ made it to Cloakwood in 13 days, 12 hours.
Maybe we can get a ‘reload challenge’ subforum?
Anyway, my new character is a female LE human fighter, Maglynn Fletcher. With 18/95 str, 18 dex, 18 con, she’s tanking, for sure, with the Stupefier and Darts to make sure she’s the one my enemies target.
Joining her will be Dynaheir, Minsc, Shar-Teel, Kivan, and Quayle.
Yes, Shar-Teel will become my thief the moment I can get her specialized in daggers. Going to try to be a little smarter this time about how I go about getting people: picking up Kivan and head over to the basilisk map to Shar-Teel. Level up there, and then head down to pick up Minsc and Dynaheir (getting the Chelsey Crusher for Kivan). Run through the main quest (with a stop at flesh golem cave to get Kivan/Maglynn 5 more HP or so) until BG. Then do everything possible in BG to build my levels (probably in one day) and then on with the main quest. I’m shooting for 30 days.
2 2 4 5 5 6 3 - 5 24->28 20 1 11
male
elf
cleric
pick
coran
skie -> xzar
quayle
ajantis
garrick
2 8 11 9 2 6 5 - 13 16 28 3 12
male
pick
barb
Jaheira
Kivan
Xzar
Mystery
Imoen
1 8 12 3 1 5 6 - 19 22 3 27 2
female
pick
multi
f/m
neera
safana
mystery
xan
alora
3 2 12 4 10 6 5 - 26 14 12 13 4
pick
elf
multi
m/t
vicy
kagain
imoen
jaheira
branwen
2 4 11 10 8 3 4 - 20 5 19 6 7
male
gnome
barb
quayle
coran
neera
dorn
dynaheir
I'm going to roll the M/T. I'll try to stay out of trouble this time!
3 2 12 4 10 6 5 - 26 14 12 13 4
Pick: Female
Elf
Multi
M/T
Pick: NG
6 re-rolls
Voice5
Vicy
Kagain
Imoen
Jaheira
Branwen
I'll start right away!
Good luck!
Here they are... I think I'll let you guys choose which selection I play, so please let me know who you want to read about next.
*Note any pick fields must be valid for the rest of the combination.*
1) 3060 | 192 15, 2, 12, 1, 7
Male, pick race, mage -> pick kit/specialty, LG, 9 re-rolls, male 1 voice set
Khalid, Alora, Imoen, Ajantis, Dynaheir
2) 2125 | 342 14, 23, 7, 17, 12
Male, Human, Ranger -> Archer, CG, 4 re-rolls, male 1 voice set
Kaigan, Shar-teel, Dynaheir, Minsc, Imoen
3) 7087 | 627 23, 15, 12, 16, 26
Female, pick race, bard -> jester, CN, 2 re-rolls, female 4 voice set
Shar-teel, Khalid, Imoen, Kivan, Viconia
4) 3275 | 214 15, 13, 1, 7, 6
Male, Human, Thief -> Bounty Hunter, LN, 1 re-roll, male 2 voice set
Khalid, Jaheira, Ajantis, Dynaheir, Dorn
5) 0015 | 387 24, 13, 1, 5, 29
pick gender, pick race, fighter -> wizard slayer, CG, 8 re-rolls, male 4 voice set
Skie, Jaheira, Ajantis, Coran, Yeslick <- @Wanderon said this one could be re-rolled bellow is the new roll
12, 16, 14, 4, 8
Imoen, Kivan, Kaigan, Branwen, and Edwin
I'd take 3 or 4 probably altho with only 2 rerolls your jester may be pretty wimpy but the party is very strong so it might not matter
4 looks good if you can keep them from fighting which I think is easier with BGEE than vanilla.
5s party could be rerolled (3 or more available Chap 4 or later) and with a better group WS might be fun
which gives us: Imoen, Kivan, Kaigan, Branwen, and Edwin
I have updated the main post to reflect this.
3) Jester is decent party by dualing Imoen to mage and shar to thief (taking time and resources) and could be fun but dangerous keeping PC alive since she has to be close enough to enemies to make her song work.
4) is decent but PC is only thief or scout and BH only gets 20 skill points so he's going to missing stuff thief wise - depends somewhat on playstyle you choose.
I'd probably take 5 as the best chance to finish keeping rep in the middle so Kivan stays.
Started the FMT from that group of 5 last night and they are in Beregost after picking up Khalid & Viconia at Day 4, 6 hours. I think I am going to stick with these 4 until Chap 4 or 5 to try to level the FMT some more without putting too much time on the clock. (last 2 Safana & Quayle)
Update FMT group:
Walrry Arroway Half-elf FMT (level 1) 17 - 18 - 16 - 14 - 6 - 8 Two handed Sword * Hammer * Longbow **
Imoen & Viccy level 2 , Khalid level 1
Arrived Nashkel Carnival Day 5 Hours 10 - I think we may go right to the mines (after Greywolf).
NM - I reloaded a save and fiddled with it a bit and for some reason it started working...
This challenge is tough enough at its core that auto-pause (which is a feature of the game) arguably is even needed. At any rate, it hardly makes the challenge too easy!
By "custom scripts" I mean any scripting routines modded outside the vanilla game. I was thinking any of the standard scripts included in the game are fine. Although I would expect that for this type of challenge folks micromanage every party members' actions in combat.
We want to make a big tent for everyone to participate and enjoy the challenge, and there are many different playstyles out there. "Preferred" is just my attempt to establish a sort of baseline for the rules. The definition is open for all of us to hammer out.
But yeah, we can certainly add that as an option for those that want to do it. I'll add a blurb to the No-Meta-gaming description for it.
As for the basic guidelines, that's open for discussion. Here are the rules of thumb for what I do with playing cards and dice:
First, the No-Meta-gaming approach does not have to be roleplayed. But it does flow from the basic premise that your characters do not know all the 'meta' things that you, the player do. So, for example, if your party is in the Crossroads map walking by the tree with the diamond hidden in a hollow in it, they don't know that it is there. But you can then turn a card for whether the sun hits the ring just right to make a flash that catches a character's eye.
Playing cards: Used for yes versus no situations. If I turn over a card that is a red suit that answer is yes. If I turn over a card that is a black suit the answer is no.
Eg, does someone in the party see a glint of the diamond in the tree? Turn over a card.
Dice: If a decision requires multiple options, I use the WotC dice roller.
Example: A thief has no idea that the lightning wand is in the manor home on the north side of Beregost. So if the thief goes on a burglary spree in Beregost. But they might well target the homes that seem the largest: Roll 1 d4 where 1 = easternmost two-story home, 2 = three-story home directly across from the “duplex” i.e., 3 = two-story manor with stable and mill , 4 = reroll.
As for when and how often advantageous circumstances present themselves... That's all sort of intuitively done in my games, according to what either feels right or 'believable'. I think I would just leave it up to the player to go with their gut for what sorts of things are possible to be discovered, and whether a given opportunity keeps presenting itself repeatedly.
I dunno, it's up for discussion! What do others think?
Edit: I've been delaying writing my next post since I have to upload 32 images to catch up to my game.
This merry mob of misfits consists...
Halfling Cleric
Elf Sorcerer
Dwarf Fighter/Cleric
Human Ranger
Human Thief
Human Fighter
OOC: That's the pictures, will begin writeup in an hour or two. With 32, my character had just finished pickpocketing all the armed people in the FAI. I'm currently at 22 Days, 17 Hours. Getting ready to leave the friendly Arm Inn.
I use the classic rules of this tournament, playing at the insane difficulty. This is the very first rolled character and his companions after the previous attempt was ended by an ambush. Every rest takes 8 hours. Auto-pausing at “enemy sighted” and “target gone”.
The party of Jagen, Viconia, Edwin and Dorn came to the bandit camp location. As it becomes a good omen, it was late in the evening. It’s the most prolific time for a bounty hunter, isn’t it? Chill hobgoblins and some lonely bandits were an easy catch.
But then a scouting report brought the picture of a heavily armored captain of these bandits – Taugozh Khosann. For a tired party it would be an uneven game to compete with this strong enemy. So, the party decided to rest (rest #6 in this game).
Although it was early in the morning when everyone woke up, they embodied the tactics well. Viconia casted Doom at Khosann and Edwin tried to blind him. Success!
At bandit camp, Jagen reached the 5th level (10000) with 2 HP (26 HP overall) getting 3x backstab multiplier and putting 20 points into Disarm Traps (making it 55) and Dorn reached the 4th level (9000) with 7 HP again. The current progress can be seen from the following screenshot:
The rest bandits outdoors were taken one by one with Viconia tanking. For the main tent the single potion of invisibility was used. Edwin, being invisible (the spell was missing because the party didn’t attend the High Hedge), went in and stood next to Ender Sai. From there he laid 2 web spells targeting the centre of the room (being out of sight of the main enemy speaker). After that the rest of the party came in. Every enemy was held, Viconia calmly casted Silence, 15ft at the enemy mage while Edwin blinded the archer. Dorn and Jagen finished them with ranged attacks, though several casts of Command were also used to minimize the risks.
The main thing is 55 points in Disarm Traps are enough to find and disarm ANY trap in the spider area and the famous ambush area with ettercaps in Cloakwood. Although 45 points in Open Locks didn’t let Jagen open some containers in the bandit camp at first, it was enough to find a potion of perception in one of them. With the help of this potion, Jagen managed to open all the locked chests in the bandit camp. Great!
Even before coming to the first area in Cloakwood, the party was waylaid by ettercaps.
No one crossed the trap so this fight was a safe one. After all 4 ettercaps had been killed Jagen disarmed the trap and followed to the border of the map.
Now we’re in Cloakwood. Finally!
I had no idea that people use it this much! It always felt a little cheat-ish to me to use auto-pause when I first tried it back in 1999. So I never used it after briefly experimenting with it ages ago.
The way I play BG is just hit the space bar a lot and have characters stealth/scout/detect traps, the way Nature intended. But recently with this no-reload challenge I figured I would see how auto-pause worked for that, just because this no-reload challenge is so unforgiving. And, sure enough, in a no-reload game it is without a doubt a literal lifesaver.
Oh, also, on the question of combat scripts--I myself micromanage every character in battle, so I set scripts to None for every character. For a no-reload game I definitely wouldn't want to rely on any of the games stock combat scripts! But that's just me. There used to be some custom (i.e., modded) scripts available out there at least for the original BG, that are considerably better than the stock ones. But for BG:EE the only thing I'm aware of along these lines is SCS's Ease-of-Use script (which is awesome). But that would fall under the SCS versions of the challenge. So I guess the use of scripts is a non-issue. (I would think using combat scripts would actually increase the risk of the PC dying; so if a player wants to use it, up to him or her--but I don't believe it actually provides any sort of advantage, or makes the game easier.)
Anyway, in seeking to define "prefered" I should not generalize what I do as 'normal' or 'standard' for how this game is played; or how it may seem the game is intended to be played by the developers.
I mean, that said, I also think it is fair to posit that the less the player relies on the game engine--or we might say, the more control is placed in the hands of the player--then the greater the test of skill it is to play the game. And that might be considered an ideal, even if it is not the standard form of playing.
In any case.... Please vote/discuss:
1) Should we remove any restriction from using any of the stock features provided by the game engine for the "preferred" form of the challenge? I.e., auto-pause and the stock combat scripts are fine.
2) Or do we want to define "preferred" as an ideal that places the most control (and therefore the greatest test of skill) in the hands of the player?
But actually, come to think of it, it might be better to consider a broader new forum category for various types of challenges, not just this one. The hallmark of this particular challenge is random generation of PC and party. (The no-reload angle just adds some spice.) But I see that there are also ordinary no-reload and minimal reload challenges that evidently are still running since their inception (i.e., it seems they've proven to 'have legs'). I would love to see also more players share a roleplay-intensive approach, where they journal their games by really getting into all the characters, as those games may be organized around various themes and concepts. And then there is also the RP-intensive/No-meta-gaming/Use Cards & Dice approach that I've been documenting in the "Let the Fates Decide" thread.
Anyway, such a forum category would be devoted more broadly to finding and supporting creative new approaches to replaying the game.
But for sure I promise to come back. Although it seems the reports on the adventure of Jagen H’gar became less attractive for others (the last 2 posts got only 1 like overall). I wonder what's wrong with it? Should the approach to posting about it be changed? In what way? Or is it only coincidence? I'll gladly try to follow your advices.
Anyway I'm going to thank everyone here for a very pleasant atmosphere and interesting tales of unsung heroes that continue their quests, not vain at all:)))
The special thanks must go to Lemernis - without him not only this random contest would be out of my sight but also all the Cards & Dice approach would never come to my mind in terms of how I can play this game.
"Wisdom is only possessed by the learned". Evidently, everyone here gives so much to the perception of the game I played many times in the past not even thinking about the things this thread has brought.
Cheers!
And good luck to everyone with their runs!
I used to use a variety of the standard scripts like cleric defensive and some others but they seem to have gained some annoying quirks in BGEE so now I just choose the most basic attack script for everyone and micromanage everything else. Sometimes I have to remember to turn off the AI in order to stop characters from attacking per script when scouting or trying to get a character into position to backstab etc.
I do wish the NPCs "default" scripts were defined so one could have a sense of what they are set to do - I assume each one is different and set to something the devs thought would be suitable to their class/personality. Maybe someone who uses the mod tools could peek at this?
I mostly find the auto pause annoying so it doesn't really matter to me if it's allowed or not or some combination of the two (restricting the number of auto-pause options selected to X) - in some ways I too consider it a "mild" form of cheating but thats probably more about my own arrogance of not needing the damn computer to tell me when to stop and go than the gaining of any significant benefit that one should not have LOL!
As to having a sub-forum I'm not sure thats such a good idea - Having a sub forum might mean that only people who had enough current interest in any form of challenges might visit there and peruse the threads while having the threads in the general forum means every time they get updated to the top of the page everyone in the general forum sees them and may BECOME intrigued enough to peruse one and perhaps join in or even just remain a lurker who enjoys reading the game journals. I think thread traffic might actually diminish by putting them in a sub-forum.
I think it's actually a bit difficult to post about these games in a way that doesn't tend to make readers' eyes glaze over a bit. Not that yours tend to in particular--they don't! But generally speaking, the more material there is to digest, then more demanding it is to read, and then the more people will skim the post. And if nothing catches the eye, the skimming will be light indeed.
And I don't know if it's just me, but I actually think now that embedded screenshots tend almost to distract from the text...
Re: Likes: My guess is that much of the Liking in this thread is basically a pat on the back to encourage one another in taking on such a tough challenge, where so few games make it very far! So the Liking we do sort of feels like general moral support among this band of brothers and sisters who are undertaking the challenge. And so then you are due a few of those, my friend!
I guess I would say that in terms of sharing progress with a game... and this is just my guess... the posts that are most likely to be read fully are the pithiest ones that provide a general update without embedded screenshots. And/or that share something interesting that one encountered tactically, eg, a new tactic learned, or some new angle in which one has come to appreciate the game by virtue of this gaming method.