Is this considered cheesy?

ZaknafeinBaenre

K so I decided to solo F/M/T for first time ever. I pretty much immediately went and cleared the basilisks with korax the ghoul and then a bunch of sirens on the sword coast and now i'm rediculously strong. On core rules but nothing's killing me. Is what I did lame, or what? I'm having a difficult time continuing without feeling guilty! If it is lame, when is the appropriate time to go get a bunch of free xp with korax?

deltago

Is the game still fun to play?

Heindrich

Yes :P

I wouldn't do it personally, but then I also wouldn't play solo. It is a singleplayer game, so you should play it however you like to maximise your own enjoyment. No need to feel guilty about a bit of powergaming if that's what you enjoy.

For example I play really slowly with almost constant pausing, it would bore some people mindless, but I'm not gonna speed up for their benefit.

bbear

You shouldnt worry about other opinions about you or how you play your game. Play whatever style suits you.

ZaknafeinBaenre

well it's my first solo run and I did it in the hopes of finding a challenge. So far it isn't much of a challenge in part b/c i did it that way. My thinking at the time was that I'd need it to keep from getting squashed, I guess my fears were unfounded. We'll see. My guess is that it'll become much harder once i get into the later stages and hit the xp cap.

I guess i was hoping someone would come and say "no, not cheesy at all, don't feel guilty, you've done as anybody would."

element

not if youve played the game a bunch of times, it probably is if its a first run through. I must admit I don't see the appeal of soloing if your gunna just level up in this way for me atleast soloing is made fun by the challenge not to mention solo characters level quickly anyway

Anduin

Cheddar goes well either before or after the main with wine, grapes or a bitta chutney with crackers.

If your enjoying the cheese then continue.

If not... Spit it out.

Personally, Korax is made from the smelliest green cheese known to man. Now start clearing out Durlags!

ZaknafeinBaenre

Hahaha, okay then. Onward! (not going anywhere near Durlag)

the_spyder

As @deltago and @bbear indicated, if you are having fun with the game than who cares if it's cheesy? It's a game and intended to be fun to play. If, on the other hand, you hadn't done that, you might be slogging through Nashkal mines and getting killed every time you encounter a Kobold group. That wouldn't be very much fun, now would it.

You say it's pretty easy now. Have you finished the Mines? Did the party to the north of the mine exit give you trouble? What about the assassin in Nashkal afterwards? These are the battles that will challenge you unless you have some advantage (such as doing what you did).

but yeah, if you are having fun with the game, have at it. Who cares if it's cheesy. If you aren't having fun? Reload at a point prior to that and try again. but have fun with it.

ZaknafeinBaenre

Well i exited the mine the way I came in, but smashed Nimbul with ease (though an amnian soldier got the killing shot, drat). I just need a bag of holding reeeeeall badly

CrevsDaak

ZaknafeinBaenre said:

Well i exited the mine the way I came in, but smashed Nimbul with ease (though an amnian soldier got the killing shot, drat). I just need a bag of holding reeeeeall badly

C:CreateItem("BAG31")

jackjack

It's a common misconception that solo play is more difficult than using a 6-person party. That said, I agree with @bbear - play however you want & have fun.

ZaknafeinBaenre

Sorry Crevs, the temptation to abuse CLUAConsole is simply too much for me therefore I haven't edited the ole baldur.ini file in about 10 years

deltago

ZaknafeinBaenre said:

Sorry Crevs, the temptation to abuse CLUAConsole is simply too much for me therefore I haven't edited the ole baldur.ini file in about 10 years

What do you need a bag of holding for?
Get the three little bags for potions, scrolls and gems and attempt not to hoard.

KidCarnival

I had to solo the beginning of BG2 a bit with my cheesy F/Assassin/Illusionist, a 98 roll with all tomes. Sure it's cheesy as hell, but I wanted to start with my prefered party and some are not available without doing quests, so whatever. It's still fun, since it's a rp run with a charname I just got lucky with. I don't have more or less fun than with a 81 roll bard and a full party from the start.

jackjack

@deltago, keyword being "attempt".

KidCarnival

In my current run, I hoard everything BUT potions and scrolls. I kept all the worthless items from the imp's chests by the spectator beholder, a mithril disc, various other worth/useless items, including the body of the guard captain (tanner killed him, oops). It's all hoarded in my sphere, for "experiments". Ultimately, I hope to revive the guard captain as a mithril golem that smokes Elminster's pipe.

CrevsDaak

ZaknafeinBaenre said:

Sorry Crevs, the temptation to abuse CLUAConsole is simply too much for me therefore I haven't edited the ole baldur.ini file in about 10 years

I've never enabled the console until BG:EE.
Right now I can't walk a complete area without using CRTL+J.
I can't let Maze wear off unless I'm pressing CRTL+T.

KidCarnival said:

I had to solo the beginning of BG2 a bit with my cheesy F/Assassin/Illusionist, a 98 roll with all tomes. Sure it's cheesy as hell, but I wanted to start with my prefered party and some are not available without doing quests, so whatever. It's still fun, since it's a rp run with a charname I just got lucky with. I don't have more or less fun than with a 81 roll bard and a full party from the start.

Well, this run I'm playing with a Fighter and soloed BG:EE and ended lvl10, after being captured by Irenicus she thought that maybe this wizard is too difficult to beat for her alone so she took a bunch of tools with her, I've done lots of RP, I even refused to go to the Planar Prison, I've searched the Mirror for the wizard, grabbed the Gem, gave it to Haer'Dalis and told them to bugger off and die.

elminster

KidCarnival said:

Ultimately, I hope to revive the guard captain as a mithril golem that smokes Elminster's pipe.

He can't have it...its mine. My precioussss

ZaknafeinBaenre

Crevs, it's not too late. Help is available. Please call 1-88C-LUA-HELP now. Trained professional CLUA Addict counselors are standing by. They'll help you back onto the right path...before it's too late.

Blucher

Play ironman/no-reload mode. You'll appreciate every little advantage you can get. Nothing like having 20+ hours into a game on the line, with all of it going down the crapper in one little moment of carelessness.

ZaknafeinBaenre

I already play with no quicksave so that i have more invested in each battle. Auto-save feels more natural anyway, brings me back to the old nintendo games where you die and you have to restart at the beginning of the level. I think there's more satisfaction to winning when you play that way

mumumomo

Frankly i prefer to start with the basilisk than spending my time relaoding before i die from a kobold critting me.
Reloading is very cheesy. Play no reload!

That being said, i now enjoy avoiding the basilisks. I did a solo sorc without the basilisks the other day. It was not that hard really (sleep and dart go a long way). By doing a few quests i was level 4 which is enough to get the ball rolling.

abbadaba

I say if you don't use the console, EE keeper, or abuse a known bug it isn't cheesy. Metagaming and planning out a strategy with known content is what makes games like BG so replayable.

ZaknafeinBaenre

Finally! Abbadaba, that's what I'm talkin about! thank you.

the_spyder

ZaknafeinBaenre said:

I already play with no quicksave so that i have more invested in each battle. Auto-save feels more natural anyway, brings me back to the old nintendo games where you die and you have to restart at the beginning of the level. I think there's more satisfaction to winning when you play that way

I'm kind of old school in that I remember games like that fondly. What i don't enjoy is when developers make games like that intentionally "For the difficulty". Playing the same battle 16 thousand times just to get past Deathstroke, as for instance, is just poor planning.

I do however remember playing Xcom: Apocalypse and saving EVERY SINGLE TURN. Nothing like having 2.5 hours of map searching ended unceremoniously because some #@$ Popper jumps out of nowhere and wipes out half of your squad.

Aigleborgne

It is not cheese, it's meta-gaming. You use your knowledge to gain massive experience very fast. I did this in the past when I was playing no reload challenge.
Any normal adventurer wouldn't have this knowledge: knowing where to go, what to avoid and how to kill easily some "strong" monsters like basilisks, sirens, and battle horror. In fact, most would die in the process or reload many times to get it.

Now I try to forget what I know and try to role-play my character. For example, you are exploring an area and you know that at this exact location, you will encounter something you really can't deal right now. You will avoid it. Now, I don't, I just keep my direction and then, try to properly flee the battle when my party realize it can't win it.
This is difficult to do, especially if you are trying to play with no reload. But I like it a lot

ZaknafeinBaenre said:

K so I decided to solo F/M/T for first time ever. I pretty much immediately went and cleared the basilisks with korax the ghoul and then a bunch of sirens on the sword coast and now i'm rediculously strong. On core rules but nothing's killing me. Is what I did lame, or what? I'm having a difficult time continuing without feeling guilty! If it is lame, when is the appropriate time to go get a bunch of free xp with korax?

ZaknafeinBaenre

the_spyder said:

ZaknafeinBaenre said:

I already play with no quicksave so that i have more invested in each battle. Auto-save feels more natural anyway, brings me back to the old nintendo games where you die and you have to restart at the beginning of the level. I think there's more satisfaction to winning when you play that way

I'm kind of old school in that I remember games like that fondly. What i don't enjoy is when developers make games like that intentionally "For the difficulty". Playing the same battle 16 thousand times just to get past Deathstroke, as for instance, is just poor planning.

I do however remember playing Xcom: Apocalypse and saving EVERY SINGLE TURN. Nothing like having 2.5 hours of map searching ended unceremoniously because some #@$ Popper jumps out of nowhere and wipes out half of your squad.

What comes to my mind is Contra and Super C. You've reached the boss...who killed you. Now have fun reaching the boss again from scratch.

golingarf

Honestly, I think using Korax at all is incredibly cheesy. If a ghoul shambles towards me saying "Korax hungry... very hungry..." I whip out the longbow. And yeah, doing the basilisks and sirens is basically a shortcut through the game. It's like using the whistle in Super Mario to get to Bowser in five minutes - which is fine if that's what you want to do. But if you're a "see all the sights" type, don't do it. It will just make the game tedious, and BG is annoyingly easy as it is.

On the other hand, I tried a no-reload with a lousy character and the basilisks and sirens banned, and that was pretty tedious too. It took forever before I was even comfortable going into the Nashkel mines. So, it really depends what you want. If you've been through the game before, I'd say do it (but without Korax, please, that just smells) and get on to Baldur's Gate and Durlag's Tower. If not, I'd say you should probably steer clear until you are a high enough level to beat those things legitimately. Or just skip it entirely - it's not like your solo character needs to farm XP! If you're not soloing, it's reasonable to save it for dual-classing, which is a mind-numbing experience without it, and as a matter of fact Imoen might well be the reason why the designers put those basilisks there.

the_spyder

ZaknafeinBaenre said:

What comes to my mind is Contra and Super C. You've reached the boss...who killed you. Now have fun reaching the boss again from scratch.

Oh, agreed it can be done right. I'm a huge fan of the Metroid series and Mario Bros and the like. Even the tomb raider series has its points. Just saying that "Be careful what you wish for. You may get it."

I recently picked up Batman: Arkham Origins and after fighting Deathstroke (7% into the game) like a gillion times, I couldn't defeat him. I'd get very close.... and then die. After a while, it ceased to be fun doing the same thing over and over and over and OVER again. I finally beat him, but it was not a happy day getting there. Dark Souls was another one where the amount of game play between save points far unmanagable and painful.

The days of "Needing" limited saves are long past. doing it now is merely for effect. Used with precision, it can be fun and challenging, but if it's done wrong it can seriously ruin the game for a lot of players.

meagloth

I find solo runs Easier than party runs, Because just the one character, he doesn't ever die while your looking the other way, and you can focus all your resources, including XP. And with the boots of speed walking around is much faster:)
On the subject of ridiculously difficult battles, I just recently spent an entire day reloading and trying to kill kangaxx with a lvl 11-13ish party. There was some ultimate cheese, but it was he'll satisfying when I got him.(the secret is to get arie to distract the imprisonments with spell immunity: abjuration, (she comes with it) and if you have a sun soul monk than the sun soul ray does the damage. If you don't have a sun soul monk than your pretty much screwed.)