How do YOU play Baldur's Gate

epicrakshasas

JuliusBorisov

I don't like the insane difficulty approach, I find it a bit strange and wrong. But in the same time I like a challenge. The SCS mod is a necessity for me. The no-reload rule adds so much adrenaline to the run but I perfectly see myself playing with minimal reloads as well.

This is why I vote for this, and not the last, option.

johntyl

Like bengoshi, I find the insane difficulty incompatible with the gameplay logic, but I would like some challenge thats why I opt for both SCS and Hard difficulty, and of course minimal reloads but with Neera in the party I have to make occasional concessions.

meagloth

If I'm honest. I play on an iPad so it's usually pretty casual. I just finished beat iwd final boss on story:/

dunbar

I would have voted for "badly", but that wasn't an option.

OneAngryMushroom

I would like to play at harder difficulties but honestly I'm so bad at these games it's just sad to see me desperately flail at enemies that are far beyond my abilities

Jarrakul

Core with a ton of self-imposed restrictions. I've played SCS, and I've played on higher difficulties, but personally they feel more annoying than interesting. I'd much rather just limit the amount of abuse I'll allow myself and play the game on core.

lunar

I am pretty much like @bengoshi and @johntyl in this regard, they said everything I wanted to say.

artificial_sunlight

I play core rules if i play. I have so little time that it will be a challange to finish bgee before advY Is released.

Elrandir

I usually play with some additional set of self-imposed rules that make the game slightly harder, but I never go above easy difficulty. I'm neither good at the game nor am I that interested in the mechanics. I play for the role-play, and while sometimes the role-play lends itself to a more challenging game (solo, bad stats, poor build, etc.) I don't aim for a challenge. Video games are for relaxation and enjoyment, and when I have to challenge myself in life AND leisure? No thanks.

Musigny

If you remove the no-reload requirement, your "masochist" category is often easier than the "true" challenge.

What would be interesting is the optional removal of the extra xp you gain at higher difficulty levels

Blackraven

Elrandir said:

I usually play with some additional set of self-imposed rules that make the game slightly harder, but I never go above easy difficulty. I'm neither good at the game nor am I that interested in the mechanics. I play for the role-play, and while sometimes the role-play lends itself to a more challenging game (solo, bad stats, poor build, etc.) I don't aim for a challenge. Video games are for relaxation and enjoyment, and when I have to challenge myself in life AND leisure? No thanks.

Hey @Elrandir, nice to see you here! So how's your latest story coming along??

procco

I'm a mediocre (at best) player, so core rules is quite enough of a challenge. I managed to beat BGI playing minimal reload and no resurrection of killed NPC's, but it was rough going! Just started BGII with the same rules, but we'll see how that goes.

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jjstraka34

SCS is far more palatable to BG1 than it is to BG2, after a few times through it's really the only way to make the challenge interesting. You can get through vanilla BG1 simply with liberal use of Sleep, Web, Haste, normal buffs and debuffs and the occasional use of Wands and Potions on tough fights. Outside of the fights in the Undercity, there aren't many world-beaters in the original game.

Elrandir

@Blackraven Well I'm working on two new ones and I'm also doing a new chapter of Treyve, so there's that. Hopefully that'll be out tonight, as well as something else. =p And I'm always here! I'm just quiet. Lurking. Like an ashirukuru. (Treyve's in Durlag's tower right now, so those punks are on the brain)

Nonnahswriter

And of course @God would pick Masochist.

EmptyPepsiCan

I confess, I don't have BGEE. I went with BG 1 & 2 Complete from GOG - you can't beat $9.99 for both games and all the expansions. I post here because it's the only half-way active BG forum I could find. Thanks for tolerating me.

Anyway...

I've been playing BG Trilogy, trying run a solo F/M/T with core rules and this mod set-up:

http://tamrielfoundry.com/topic/the-ultimate-baldurs-gate-experience/

I'm finding it sufficiently challenging without quite being a grind. It's definitely not vanilla BG. Everything is dangerous. Spiders spam ranged webs, ghouls spam hold, every group has 3-4 casters, and everybody has extra healing pots. If I get careless or miss a backstab or whatever I get killed. Case in point, a few minutes ago I lost stealth and blundered into a group of kobolds. Four of them were casters and the rest had fire arrows. Before I could react I got stunned, webbed, held, feared, and shot to death. By kobolds.

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lroumen

Depends on what play through I am doing.

I roleplay on core. This is every other game.
I challenge myself with self imposed rules. This is 1 In 4 games.
I masochist myself with scs, tactics or improved anvil (yes I know the latter cheats like hell). this is the other 1 in 4 games.

I just own so many copies that I just have 4-5 different installs at the same time

JuliusBorisov

EmptyPepsiCan said:

I post here because it's the only half-way active BG forum I could find.

Hey, you know, this forum is not "half-way active", it's actually alive and lively.

And you can post about your playthroughs right here, on this forum. We even have a thread for people who like difficult runs: http://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/40393/maybe-this-time-ee-scs-trilogy-no-reload-runs-featuring-butch-baylen-the-bounty-hunter#latest. Some of us like difficulty-enhancing mods, and the things you mention come from them:)

O_Bruce

I don't always play Baldur's Gate, but when I do, they are long sessions once per few weeks. Also, I focus mainly on role-playing my character. I don't need any particulat ways of playing, like no-reload challenges or anything like that. I've stopped attaching my ego to my gaming skills some time ago.

Nimran

I voted! I don't go out of my way to make things harder or easier than what is considered to be 'the norm' within a game. It feels less authentic whenever I try to do that.

Fandraxx

I've played on Insane and with things like SCS... but i always get pulled back to just basic core rules.

SmilingSword

Nimran said:

I voted! I don't go out of my way to make things harder or easier than what is considered to be 'the norm' within a game. It feels less authentic whenever I try to do that.

Yeah I can understand that, though in case of the BG series I can't agree, because the vanilla enemy AI is trash.
Having smarter enemies makes the game feel far more authentic to me, because well a stupid mage should be a oxymoron.
SCS doesn't even make the game that much harder, just more interesting.

lroumen

If you choose the no prebuff settings then scs is actually very enjoyable in a role playing session (i.e. not too difficult)

SharGuidesMyHand

Core - the way it was meant to be played.

johntyl

I think SCS is really the more logical approach to playing. My mage just got killed by a bandit who knew realistically enough to target his arrows at magic casters first instead of blindly barraging my tank. The one thing that takes the fun away for me is stupid AI.

Calmar

To me, the game is a story and exploration thing. Levels and game-mechanics are just a means to that end and don't intrigue me very deeply.

Jenzafar

I sometimes play on core rules, and I once played BG1 with the SCS mod, which was different and a good challenge. The harder settings don't interest me much because enemies are technically harder to kill, but not smarter.

If I really want to make it tough, I do no-reload (or at least, low-reload.)

Tuth

From the first time I played Baldur's Gate I always choose the core difficulty. I like how the game is balanced in that way. After several completed playthroughs it never occurred to me to change the difficulty. I simply never thought about it, so I created self-imposed rules, to make the game a bit more challenging and enjoyable for my weird mind.

I really like randomness and doing things in order, it's just the way my silly brain works. So, I introduced to my game:
- random character rolling and I mean rolling with dice every aspect: race, class, alignment, abilities, skills.
- random party members. I list every available NPC in the game and roll 5 times to determine, who will join me, no matter what class, or alignment they have. Pairs would be seperated, by leaving one of the them inside the building, if needed.
- accepting waylaid by enemies, no running away, or reloading. I would reload when I'm trying to sleep though, it annoys me most of the time.
- reloading only when someone dies.
- no reloading when mage is trying to memorise the spell.

The above seem a bit normal, but now the things that make me think that maybe I have some mental problems . I like doing things in order and well, it means doing everything, literally, in order:
- taking party members from the first encountered, only change them when someone dies. Picking up the next ones as the game goes on. I like switching between rolling for the party and this. I include the party from Candlekeep as well.
- using potions/ammunition/spells/wands as I find them, skip for the next time those that wouldn't be useful at all in the certain scenario, e.g. enemies being immune to them. I let my mage, or cleric remember spells in order. So, the mage would be using those that were found first.
- when giving orders in a fight versus enemy party I even select each party member to attack different enemies, yes in order, from the nearest to the furthest. The exception would be AoE spells.

I have a bit twisted mind I know, watching my gameplay would cause many people to scream at me probably. I just enjoy playing like that, it makes each playthrough different and I discovered that nearly all spells/potions/wands in the game have their use. Similarly, I have played with all the available party members and I like all of them. That's why I don't like games that force you to min-max and power-game. Yes, I play Pillars of Eternity in a similar way, as some other games as well. BG2 and IWD series feel much more power-gamey to me, but I'll do some weird stuff in those as well.

I'm not forcing myself to play that way, it's just how I enjoy playing and doing things, so I don't have a list of things that I must obey. I had to ponder a longer while to make this list, it's a natural way of playing for me.