Cheats Seldom Prosper? The confession thread. [Spoilers a-plenty]

BaldursCat

So, you told yourself you were only enabling that clua console so you could check on your romance variables, oh and maybe so you could use ctrl+j and cut down on all that walking... but well, you know, all of a sudden you find yourself faced with a foe that needs a +2 blunt weapon to dispatch it and well, you know, you just happen to Google the cheat codes and though you resisted the temptation to spawn that mace of disruption you've now got a nice shiny +2 in your grubby cheating mitts...

Go on, get it off yer chest, what low level or downright flagrant cheating do you use the console for? Oh, alright, I'll go first.

1. See above
2. Ctrl+r Though in my defense I only use it like I'd use healing spells and potions - it just means I don't have to fill up spell slots and quick item slots & backpack slots with stuff - and quite often my Charname & NPCs wander about with minor injuries and they don't go into the next battle fully healed.
3. Against Mind Flayers. Okay, I swear, I tried. I read up on all the tactics, cast all the spells but after literally hours of running the same battle over and over I gave up, spawned about 50 potions of genius, gave Keldorn the boots of speed, gauntlets of ogre power and Lilacor and cast a whole raft of protective spells on him and sent him in alone. He didn't blast through them like Minsc is supposed to do and still died several times but luring one at a time out and shutting the door on the rest was the only way I could successfully defeat them.
4. Spawning the Flail of Ages when I somehow didn't get one part of it.

Your turn.

Lord_Tansheron

Well, fixing things like in 4. doesn't really constitute cheating does it... there's the occasional bug here and there, nothing wrong with fixing them (I keep having to CLUA in the dying Lavok, for example, he keeps despawning on me for some reason).

As for outright cheating... I sometimes give myself a gazillion gold, simply because I can't be bothered picking up every little piece of equipment and selling it. To be fair, I often play in tight batches and run multiple consecutive playthroughs in various setups - at some point, details like looting become a tedious chore.

I also routinely use the console to advance the game's real-time-counter and trigger banters/romance; I simply don't take long enough for them to occur if I play the game normally.

panchocobro

Recently had to "fix" a situation in Ducal palace. got caught stealing on the ground floor before the fight... and somehow managed to lose my saves before going in. I ctrl-y'd the arresting guard, to avoid 15 mercenaries going hostile on me. I feel dirty =(

setsunaluvr

I can recall really abusing the debug console when I first played the game, but in my defense I was like 12 at the time. I did so many things with it I can't even remember any of them specifically. I have only enabled it once since, and that was so I could keep track of the Neera romance.

lunar

Ctrl+q is very useful when you are testing mods and mod creatures and stuff. Movetoarea command is used by me too. I generaly don't cheat on my legit playthroughs, though.

I've been playing Bg:EE strictly on Ipad lately, so cheats are not accesible to me. However I confess when I start a new game I edit my character via EEkeeper on pc, to set different colors on armor/metal etc. And give myself a few starter items. Nothing too much, just what a low level random treasure generator gives off. Mostly a dagger+1, a potion of agility, or a lvl 1-2 scroll. For kicks.

blackchimes

Aside from Ctrl+8 when I'm going solo as F/M/T, nothing.

Unless you want to count savescumming... who needs more than 15 Pickpocket, amirite?

doggy

Ctrl j comes in handy I admit.

I also have to console the areas after walking through them.

And I admit to the romance cluas as well as ctrl i just to get all the romance and banters when ever I am rushing through the game.

And off course when the game is bugged but I tell myself that isn't really cheating as it would have happened anyway.

Thrasymachus

Unless I'm missing something (very possible), CLUA is not available on the mac version. So no cheats for me, which is probably a good thing, given how prone I am to weakness of will.

Night_Watch

created the Varscona 1 hit kill longswords. a dozen of them.

SCARY_WIZARD

Night_Watch said:

created the Varscona 1 hit kill longswords. a dozen of them.

... :'D I like that.

I have CLUAConsole:ExploreArea(); memorized. I have since I was seventeen. :S
Variables, yep. I need to see how much Neera loves me.
If something is really jacked up, I'll sort it out in-game, with the console, but I otherwise just use it to explore an area upon entry, and check variables.

Shin

I usually tend to refrain from console usage. Using ctrl+J to bypass long and poorly pathed distances (like heading out of Firewine/Ulcaster or going from the start of the docks in Athkatla into Cromwell's house and back out again) is probably the most tempting one, but I try to avoid it as it's a slippery slope. Once I start doing it I get the urge to ctrl+J almost everywhere.

Cerevant

Thrasymachus said:

Unless I'm missing something (very possible), CLUA is not available on the mac version. So no cheats for me, which is probably a good thing, given how prone I am to weakness of will.

CLUA works just fine on Mac. Baldur.ini is found in the folder above the save games - on OSX 10.7 it is found by:
Finder, Go menu, hold down option, Library
then Containers/com.beamdog.baldursgateenhancededition/Data/Documents/Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition
(Thank you Apple sandboxing for that convenient location)

alnair

Cerevant said:

Library then Containers/com.beamdog.baldursgateenhancededition/Data/Documents/Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition
(Thank you Apple sandboxing for that convenient location)

That's what the shortcut/link/alias in the Documents folder is for, isn't it?

mjs

ctrl+j halves my playing time. I also use it to skip bits, main offenders being the labyrinth under the shadow thieves HQ in BG1, jumping to High Hedge from the edge of the map and jumping to places of interest on maps to avoid mob spawns of gnolls or kobolds

i also use ctrl + r after a battle revive killed NPCs only to avoid leaving the dungeon and buying a resurrection from a temple. I'll then donate 1000 for x times per death

dwilliams1966

I've used cheat code in some games, but never in Baldur's Gate. The only "cheating" I ever did was my first playthrough of BG2 I couldn't figure out how to beat the Demi Lich, so I Googled for the solution (mace of disruption), which I then went and got and came back to the Demi Lich later when I had it.

Now, if you count reloading save games, then yes, I do that all the time.

I wonder if anyone has ever beaten BG1 and 2 without ever reloading a save game upon party death?

XerxesV

I have a long-winded philosophy about cheating in BG. Care to read it?

. First, there is no substitute for a pure game experience. The balance in BG and BG2 is nearly perfect. In fact, the most fun you can have is to deliberately make a bad character and challenge yourself.

With that said, I love cheating in BG. Either summoning extra enemies to fight, creating items, or shadow keeping my character to some godly stats; I think it adds a new dimension to the gameplay.

For example, summon 100 drizzt defends in nashkel then wake up the Phoenix guards. It's a lovely sight. Or, make a party of six god-like mages and trample your way through the game like you always dreamed of (flesh to stone everyone). Or summon five dragons in wakeen's promenade. The sky is the limit.

And what counts as cheating anyway? When was the last time you read mullehey's notes to know where to find tranzig? Experience itself makes the game easier because you know what to expect. Did you save that anti-magic scroll for kangaxx? That's cheating. Do you go straight to bassilus to get the 5k reward and cheat by memorizing the dialogue to kill his skeletons? I know summoning items is more blatant, but it can be fun as long as you set boundaries. Dont ruin a vanilla game by cheating, but don't be afraid to go wild either.

Moderation is the key. I've ruined my fun with Starcraft diablo Caesar and total war games because cheating for money is way too easy. I can't grind when a million gold is just a click away. Strangely I've never felt that way about BG though. I can play a straight game without cheating or wanting to cheat.

Also, isn't reloading the worst kind of cheating? It's worse than having 100 time stop scrolls, because you're literally going back in time.

KidCarnival

I guess it's no big surprise that I always EEkeep the appearance, often also for NPCs. It's not always as extreme as making charname a beholder (or back in BG2, I played a run as a djinn), but I find the color palette very lacking. I change dual or multi class to the sprites I prefer (i.e. Xzar back to mage after dualing to cleric), adjust colors and so on. If using very slow sprites - either create Paws of Cheetah or edit walking speed.

Creating items:
- Obviously fixing bugs, i.e. console Identify scroll in Candlekeep.
- Elven Chain if I can't be assed to do Dorn's quest but have a bard, either charname or NPC (Elven Chain is my reward for Firewine - I think the goddamn kobold maze is more trouble than it is worth, and it's a reasonable point in the game to get access to Elven Chain.)

Not the norm:
- Once I found myself in Durlag's relatively early and Montaron with 95 in traps, unable to cross the trap before the trophy room (needs 100) and no potions. So I consoled a potion for him.
- Frequently forgot there are no helms on the carnival, so I sometimes consoled a normal helm for Branwen after freeing her. Nowadays I remember and bring a helm, or buy her one in Nashkel.

Advance time: If I have NPC combinations just for their special banter and it takes too long to trigger, i.e. I want the Harpers/Zhent fight to escalate, but charname has too high charisma to make it happen early on.

Teleport around: All the time, in already explored areas where nothing will happen anyway, i.e. Friendly Arm Inn to edge of map.

Nic_Mercy

I ctrl 8 sometimes when making characters... especially when I am recreating a character from P&P. But I don't ever give all 18's or stuff like that. I do more stuff like give the fighter 16 str, 17 dex, 17 con, 13 int, 12 wis, 14 cha cause it fits the character concept.

I have consoled a master thievery potion in for a particularly difficult early game lock or protection from petrification scrolls for the basilisk infested areas.

I have used the console to level a character immediately after dual classing to one level above their old class so they have their skills active again and then used the console to reset their xp to zero after doing the leveling. In this way I can continue the story without stopping to gain extra xp to bring the dual classer up to speed but I also avoid giving them or the rest of the party any extra xp too since the dual classer's xp was set to 0 they just don't level for a really long time but earn xp exactly as they would have if I had leveled the 2nd class normally.

In BG2 I have consoled some particularly loved items in, especially those that do not drop in BG2 like the Cloak of the Wolf or the Cloak of Balduran. I'd console Evermemory into BG2 if I could but its reference file (RING08) gets REPLACED with the Ring of Wizardry ("Reaching Ring") that gives one extra fifth level spell, one extra sixth level spell and one extra seventh level spell. While some might automatically consider that better I'd prefer to have the lower level ring as an option. Maybe some day I'll figure out how to export Evermemory from BG1 and add it to BG2 without replacing the Ring of Wizardry so I can have both.

Lord_Tansheron

Nic_Mercy said:

I ctrl 8 sometimes when making characters... especially when I am recreating a character from P&P. But I don't ever give all 18's or stuff like that. I do more stuff like give the fighter 16 str, 17 dex, 17 con, 13 int, 12 wis, 14 cha cause it fits the character concept.

Yeah, I forgot to mention that, too. It's how I usually make chars, just CTRL+8 and then subtract until I get the overall value I want to play with. For powergaming, usually 95 total for CHARNAME and 90 for everyone else.

As for SK/EEK editing of NPCs, I routinely do that. It's essentially the same as creating a multiplayer party, except you retain banter and romance and don't have to deal with longer loading times and MP confirmation screens all the time. In BG2 especially that can drive you nuts...

alnair

Lord_Tansheron said:

It's essentially the same as creating a multiplayer party, except you retain banter and romance and don't have to deal with longer loading times and MP confirmation screens all the time. In BG2 especially that can drive you nuts...

You can move a savegame from multiplayer to normal save folder, and play in single player mode with a full-customised party. As you said, you'd loose banters and romances, though.

Southpaw

@XerxesV - lots of the things you describe is not outright cheating, but meta-gaming (knowing what to expect and saving scrolls/equipment for those occasions). Yes, it is questionable.

I don't use CLUA, but I use and have always used Shadowkeeper/EEKeeper to edit minor (mostly cosmetic) stuff.
Like @KidCarnival - changing sprites or colors. Changing race on my last Fighter/Mage multiclass to human. Changing my Swashbuckler to a MindFlayer. Occasionally, changing proficiencies for NPCs that I picked up later and the engine picked something I don't want them to wield.

Few times, I spawned for me some starting items (mostly spell scrolls, when playing with a mage) in Candlekeep to give me an early edge, or overcome some nasty disadvantages for a kit. (In old BGtutu, I gave my Assassin the Thief rings from BG2 to make his open locks/find traps at least a bit useful)


My worst cheat was, when I faced Karoug the first time and found out I can't hit him with the usual weapons, but need the "special" anti-lycantrophic weapons...which I don't have. (Except the silver dagger).
And since you are trapped on the island, there is no way to get them and return.
I spawned those 2 swords for my best 3 fighters so I can kill the furry bastard.
I am still ashamed...

ajwz

Sometimes I save the game before a difficult fight, and then If I die, I reload the game.

Lord_Tansheron

ajwz said:

Sometimes I save the game before a difficult fight, and then If I die, I reload the game.

GTFO cheater, we don't want your kind here.

ElectricMonk

ajwz said:

Sometimes I save the game before a difficult fight, and then If I die, I reload the game.

*gasps*
@ajwz Cheater!!

LT ninja'd me. But still, ajwz, you need to go, we don't like your kind here.

Awong124

I generally only use cheating for convenience or time saving purposes. Such as:

- CTRL+J
- CTRL+4 in dungeons to see all the traps so I don't have to have my thief slowly move around.
- Create Identify scrolls
- Give gold
- Create potions of mirrored eyes when fighting basilisks (too lazy to memorize protection from pet.)
- Using certain cheats to counteract bugs occasionally
- CTRL+R to get rid of status effects, though I only do this after a battle so the only effect is that I don't have to waste time waiting for the effect to wear off. I still use potions and spells to heal HP.
- Use EEKeeper to alter my reputation for certain quests that require a certain reputation
- Use EEKeeper to alter my stats so I don't have to sit there rolling for hours (I guess it's the same as CTRL+8? I've never been able to get CTRL+8 to work), but I still give them realistic stats
- Use EEKeeper to alter quest timers to make them happen immediately without having to wait
- Use EEKeeper to alter character's appearance (like making my Fighter/Thief look like a Thief instead of Fighter)
- Use EEKeeper to alter character's race if the class I want to use isn't available with the race I want to use


I think that's pretty much all the cheating I do. If someone dies during a battle, I don't CTRL+R, I just reload.


@BaldursCat You can also use CTRL+R on the enemy to dispel their buffs. I don't usually do it though.

doggy

I do use ctrl + t whenever I have used ctrl + 8 too much just because it will take just a little time to walk through those areas

demented

I have sinned, sinned against Baldur's Gate and against myself. It began one faithful night in the Thief's maze. I wandered around desperate for an exit. I was set upon by Jellies and skeleton warriors, killed over and over by traps. I was getting more and more frustrated until eventually I found the exit.

I was so relieved and hastened to the battle against Saverok. I traversed the Hidden City but could find no peace. Ghasts and zombies overwhelmed me and my anger grew. I was tired and didn't want to deal with more petty minions, but deal with them I did. Then I found myself against an imposing looking party, Rahvin of the Iron Throne.

I fought him and died. I fought him again and again, changed tactics, did everything I could think of to no avail. I...I broke. Filled with fury I pressed Cntrl + Y and cut him down, I wiped out his whole party in the most shameful way possible. But I was not filled with grief, my anger knew no mercy and so the battle against Saverok, a battle that should have been glorious was over with the press of two buttons.

It was only then that I realised my sin. The horror of what I had done burned me and I felt such shame. I have tried to atone for my crime. I have soloed the game in an attempt to know humility, but what I've done can never be undone. My sin can never be cleansed.

Linkamus

The only thing I've ever done with the console is bring some custom chars to max level to figure out optimum builds. I never actually played the game with them of course! Purely for testing purposes. I think the biggest thing I'm guilty of when it comes to cheating is re-loading my game to roll Max HP, haha. Though I only do that with custom parties.. When I'm playing with regular NPCs I play legit.

Padenton

In addition to Ctrl-J, I give myself a crapton of gold so I can buy all the named magic items at any store without having to go back.

ogreb

Never cheated. Never had a reason. Nor wanted to.
If I have to cheat to play a game...I won't play it.
What's the point ?
It's not like the game is hard or anything.

I never understood the desire to smurf.

Lord_Tansheron

@ogreb: it depends on the way you play. After 10th playthrough there's just some fairly irrelevant bits that have no bearing at all. You've proven you can do it, why go through the motions again and again? Often the things that are "cheated" are repetitive, boring chores that require no skill whatsoever, only time. I doubt people play the game so they can fill their inventories with Lynx Eyes and Leather Armor and spend 5 minutes walking to the shop to sell them for 500g.

That's not general advice, of course, but it's a justifiable personal preference, slippery slope not withstanding.