Cheats

ScotGaymer

I was just curious as to peoples thoughts on "cheating" in the games?

I ask because I tend to only play with cheats "on" but I don't really use them, except the healing cheat occasionally when I need to expidite a battle when I am feeling that the games are getting a little grindey, as a way to help me along and better experience the story. Which may sound a little pointless.
Also I tend to not use cheaty tactics (like cloudkill bombing firkraag from afar).

So what about everyone else?

Do you use cheats? If so, where does it become "cheating" instead of "helping"?

Or are cheats anathema to you? If so, why do you feel that way?

jackjack

I use Ctrl-J as much as I do left click to move, but not unless I've already explored the area. I've Keepered characters to have illegal multiclass kits. That's as far as it goes. I don't use the console except for bug workarounds.
All in all, I'd say I cheat, but not to the point of breaking the game. When I was a kid playing these games, I cheated relentlessly and found that it destroyed my enjoyment of the experience. Never again!

bbear

Ctrl+J is a must. I cant stand party members walking in a narrow hallway.

Necomancer

I try to cheat very little on my first playthrough. Second or third I let myself do a few things if need be (Like give myself elven mail for my chaotic good bard who would have it if it wasn't for Dorn being evil). The only cheating I've done recently was switching a few proficiencies around for my main. I make no excuses, beyond the fact that flail of ages is awesome and longswords get a bit meh in the second game.

I've never actually used Ctrl+J and don't think I will. It sounds like a horribly addictive cheat that once in use will never stop being used. I don't wanna be an addict man. My addiction to generic colas pretending to be coca cola is bad enough.

Heindrich

I confess, I used to be a cheater. T_T

When I was younger, I really struggled with the Avernum series, cos u know, 'too kool to read about game mechanics' (not implying that accusation on other cheaters, @bbear for example is a metagame god). So I activated the game editor and cheated my way to greatness... and then felt really guilty about it.

So when I returned to the Avernum series many years later, I specifically selected an option to permanently disable the game editor, which can only be undone by a tedious process involving sending an email to the devs, to totally remove the temptation.

I then completed the game 'as intended', without cheats and guides, and found that it wasn't as hard as I remembered, and it was immensely satisfying. In short, I don't cheat... The only places where pathfinding really annoys me in BG are the narrow dungeons in BG 1, which aren't too bad cos there's nothing too dangerous in them, and so I dealt with them with a 'bow team'.

Delvarian

This is one of the reasons I play the EEs on iPad, I can't cheat that way. Also it's great for playing on the go.

I have the vanilla games on my laptop, and it's very hard for me not to go crazy with cheating in items,XP and whatnot.

Necomancer

@Heindrich That reminds me of when I first played BG and didn't read game mechanics, or understand them. Then found BGKeeper. Not a good combo.

Enter Theris. The 20 THAC0 having fighter/mage with 20 armor who has 999999hp because for some reason I don't understand I can't hit anything and everything hits me.He also had 25 in every stat.

It didn't take me too long to realize something was wrong and that armor went down when I put armor on, still pretty embarrassing though.

CrevsDaak

I use CRTL+J a lot, and also I have the FPS set at 60, which doubles the game's speed (still it can broke cut scenes and that stuff but I haven't experienced any issue), which isn't cheating but it renders Boots of Speed useless, since the game is running already at x2, which gives me the possibility to enhance my fighters with boots that give resistances and much better bonuses than x2 speed (I have Haste for that).
Then, I use the Console for debugging purposes only, well, unless I miss an item (like the White Dragon Scales) that I could have picked up but forgot to. Then I don't cheat, well, using Chain Contingency with Nahal's Reckless Dweomer isn't cheating; it's power gaming, and I think that it's legal.
I don't use power gaming tricks unless I'm playing solo or a class that is able to really cheese (Mage/Thief, Fighter/Mage, Fighter(/Mage)/Thief, (Fighter/)Mage/Cleric, most are multi classes). I certainly know very well how to use Arcane spells, and I use that pretty much, using Sequencers/Spell Triggers with Sunfires in vanilla was the greatest trick ever, still it can't be compared to Sunfire+Delayed Fireball Blast+Delayed Fireball Blast in a Chain Congingency set to Hit and target Myself, cast Stoneskin, run near an enemy and see him die burned.
Another good trick with Chain Contingency is set it to 50% HP, Myself, loaded with 3 Incendiary Clouds, get your fire resistance over 120%, cast Improved Haste over yourself, get to 50% HP and you'll regenerate while your enemies take damage from the cloud. It's sort of useless if you are not a Fighter/Mage because it interrupts spellcasting (even if it shouldn't, TobEx fixes this) but it heals a lot, damages a lot more and you can still attack, it's a very good tactic to easily kill Abazigal and his flawed vanilla script.

atcDave

The only cheat I regularly use is EEKeeper to match my PC to PNP characters I've played. It's easier than rolling until I get the right score total! Well that and it's the only to get a precise 18/81 strength or something like that.
I have occasionally changed portraits of NPCs, I've run a half-elven paladin, and I've very rarely altered weapon proficiencies.
I think that all counts as small stuff. I prefer to run a pretty straight up game.

JLee

I love Ctrl-J and use it much like jackjack does. I only use it to remove the tedium of traveling across previously explored zones, not to gain advantage in battle. Although I had to use it in BG2EE due to a bug.

Hand of Dace did not work

If I am soloing, I will give myself a bag of holding.

I have used eekeeper to change NPC classes. I once changed Valygar to F/T. That was OK and didn't change the flow of the game overly. I once made Jaheira a Cleric/Ranger and that did unbalance the game, so I changed her back. I've changed Mazzy to an Undead Hunter (that made sense to me, illegal class notwithstanding). I've found that a tweak here and there gives the game flavor and keeps the NPCs fresh. However, it is easy to go too far. I am very careful to maintain the balance of the game.

Aristillius

What is CTRL+J?

Rewolf

The only cheat I used was rolling until I get a monster score or using Dudleyville's walkthrough to find all the right items and using the right conversation options

JLee

Aristillius said:

What is CTRL+J?

The best thing since sliced bread

It jumps the selected characters to the mouse location. It enables you to move your party quickly from one side of the screen to another.

CrevsDaak

JLee said:

Aristillius said:

What is CTRL+J?

The best thing since sliced bread

It jumps the selected characters to the mouse location. It enables you to move your party quickly from one side of the screen to another.

And if you have in mind how bad pathfinding is, basically you need this for every dungeon.