My One and Possibly Only Rant...

VahnXIII

...Detect Traps.

I understand this is an older game, in fact, this was something I loathed when I first played back in 1998. My thief is constantly looking for traps. I set up her AI to do so. However, what's the point if I have to stand for a long period of time before I see a red box pop up on the screen? It's easier to just run all of my characters through the stony halls of a dungeon, and if they happen to set off a trap, I simply reload and send my thief in to stand in one spot for a bit of time and disable the trap.

It costs less time to do it that way than it does to play through and find traps organically.

Okay. Rant is done. I love this game and it will always have a place in my heart, but damn those traps infuriate me!

SionIV

I mostly use detect traps if i know they are there from previous playthroughs, or before opening a chest/container. There are certain traps that will kill you outright, so it's a useful skill. And let's not forget the massive amount of experience you get for removing traps.

YupImMadBro

I only disable them for the experience...

semiticgoddess

You can also use CTRL-4 with the cheat console enabled to show all traps as blue highlights, which lets you check for traps more easily. You still need to detect them, but with CTRL-4, you know exactly where to put your thief, which saves some time. CTRL-4 also highlights various other activators.

Or you could use CTRL-J to teleport over the traps, if the traps are nothing more than an inconvenience for you. Consider the traps optional, if it makes the game more fun.

DreadKhan

Trapfinding in DnD is by nature pretty tedious, which usually makes sense, since traps are probably pretty well hidden if anyone is to fall for them!

JLee

It would be a nice mod if you could incentivize further investment in FT skill by removing the once per round detection cycle.

E.g. a skill of 150 in FT gives 3 detect traps/R, 200 gives 6/R, etc.

That way you could pretty much have instant trap detection with a high enough skill.

Or of course just provide it gratis and keep the skill requirement the same...

deltago

The spell Find Traps, speeds things up.

SionIV

JLee said:

It would be a nice mod if you could incentivize further investment in FT skill by removing the once per round detection cycle.

E.g. a skill of 150 in FT gives 3 detect traps/R, 200 gives 6/R, etc.

That way you could pretty much have instant trap detection with a high enough skill.

Or of course just provide it gratis and keep the skill requirement the same...

I like the idea that the more you have in detect trap over 100, the better it'll be. I would prefer if when you have 100+you'll be get a notice when there are traps close by, you won't know where they are, but you'll know they are close by.

Could be something like

140 = detect traps up to a level 40 skill requirement on the traps.
160 = detect traps up to a level 60 skill requirement on the traps.

To get this bonus you would have to spend quite a bit of skills into detect trap, but it would create more options with spending thieving skills when you get to a higher level.

In the same way lock pick over 100 could let you gain more experience.

110 lock pick = 10% more experience from lock picking.
150 lock pick = 50% more experience from lock picking.

Set trap over 100% could decrease the time between when you can place the traps, or even give you more traps a day. For every 20 over 100 you'll gain 1 more traps to place every day. Bounty hunters would gain a special trap at 150 and 200.

DreadKhan

SionIV said:

JLee said:

It would be a nice mod if you could incentivize further investment in FT skill by removing the once per round detection cycle.

E.g. a skill of 150 in FT gives 3 detect traps/R, 200 gives 6/R, etc.

That way you could pretty much have instant trap detection with a high enough skill.

Or of course just provide it gratis and keep the skill requirement the same...

I like the idea that the more you have in detect trap over 100, the better it'll be. I would prefer if when you have 100+you'll be get a notice when there are traps close by, you won't know where they are, but you'll know they are close by.

Could be something like

140 = detect traps up to a level 40 skill requirement on the traps.
160 = detect traps up to a level 60 skill requirement on the traps.

To get this bonus you would have to spend quite a bit of skills into detect trap, but it would create more options with spending thieving skills when you get to a higher level.

In the same way lock pick over 100 could let you gain more experience.

110 lock pick = 10% more experience from lock picking.
150 lock pick = 50% more experience from lock picking.

Set trap over 100% could decrease the time between when you can place the traps, or even give you more traps a day. For every 20 over 100 you'll gain 1 more traps to place every day. Bounty hunters would gain a special trap at 150 and 200.

Well, it might give Swashbucklers something beyond Pick Pocketing to invest in? Full progression gets absurd quickly in SoA as it is, this might make points worth investing.

Alternate Idea: Maybe a HLA that just straight up auto-detects traps? requiring extra ranks in Detect Traps to take it? Maybe a 2nd that also gives a perpetual True Sight? Not like a high level thief can't detect illusions reliably Anyways, so its not a HUGE buff.

semiticgoddess

Set Traps past 100 should give stronger traps. Detect Illusions should require higher scores to dispel higher level illusion spells, or to dispel multiple illusions (Mirror Image plus invisibility). Extra-high pickpocket should permit pickpocketing of hostile critters.

Don't know if any of this could be implemented in the Infinity Engine, though.

DreadKhan

Maybe require +100% for HLA traps? 125 for Exploding, 150 for Spike, 175 for Time? Plain old better traps would be good too though, maybe less ridiculous.

semiticgoddess

A buff for Exploding Traps would be nice. The unconsciousness effect is quite strong, but the duration is poor.

JuliusBorisov

VahnXIII said:

However, what's the point if I have to stand for a long period of time before I see a red box pop up on the screen? It's easier to just run all of my characters through the stony halls of a dungeon, and if they happen to set off a trap, I simply reload and send my thief in to stand in one spot for a bit of time and disable the trap.

Hmmm... maybe if a player plays a no-reload or a minimum-reload game and thoroughly plans his every step?

Actually, I'm one of those players. I would stop and stay for 10 seconds detecting traps, then move several steps and stay again instead of forcing through the dungeon and reloading.