Community Question: Maxing a char in Black Pits before exporting to BG2, cheating or legit?
Noloir
Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 380
Hey community,
I've come to notice that Baldur's Gate Black Pits have a higher XP cap than the main story arc. My question by majority consensus is it legit to max a story or new character in BP before exporting to SoA or is it unfair?
I've come to notice that Baldur's Gate Black Pits have a higher XP cap than the main story arc. My question by majority consensus is it legit to max a story or new character in BP before exporting to SoA or is it unfair?
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in that case, isn't nine levels a bit much?
i'm just interested about the mechanism
...but yeah, it's cheating
I sometimes up my EXP to 161' if I start a new char without going through BG1 first, since I always hit the cap in BG1 on a normal playthrough. I would call this cheesing but not cheating. Cheating is, in my humble opinion, to start at a much better position than was originally intended. If you keeper that EXP in or playthrough BP1 doesn't really matter since the end result is the same; you start at a much higher power curve than intended, making the start of the game very easy.
With this said though, it's your game, do whatever you want.
Regarding the starting exp-boost you get I can't understand why you recieve so much exp. I know too little about the game mechanics to even speculate as to why, but it seems weird.
I call it a wash.
Wand of Lightning spell duplication: glitch, since that's definitely not how the Wand of Lightning is supposed to work, due to coding. I call it a "trick" most of the time, though. The potion swap glitch is another example.
Talk-blocking: exploit, since it probably isn't what the developers intended, but isn't exactly a coding issue per se. Mislead song stacking is another gray area.
Scorcher loop: trick, since single-target spells are supposed to bounce off of spell turning effects.
Stat drain on plot-relevant characters: bug, since it's not supposed to happen and it can break the game
CTRL-Y: cheat, since you have to exit the game to make it work.
Of course, it's not a cheat if it's a mod, for whatever reason.
I guess you could add a provision, if we wanted to get precise, that stuff officially labeled a "cheat code" can constitute a cheat even if it requires no external modification. Or that "codes" in general are cheats. But then, what differentiates a cheat code from one of those old passwords you could put in a game to skip ahead? These things always get fuzzy when you go down into the details. Most would agree a code for infinite health is a cheat, but an equally obscure code to activate a 2nd quest mode is just a password.
I wouldn't say it's cheating to take advantage of the exploit. I would say that playing through the Black Pits is cheating, though, since you're taking a shortcut around BG to start BGII at a higher level. But you knew what you were doing, so I wouldn't fault you as a player for doing it.
Incidentally, the dual-classing exploit appears to work with normal BG->BG2 transfers. If a character has less than 89k XP in their active class when imported to SoA, they get bumped up to 89k.
Of course, it's also entirely up to you what you choose to do in the privacy of your own home. Maybe you also cheat at solitaire. The latter doesn't harm anyone else either, and in either case you're only cheating yourself out of the satisfaction of having won fairly, and no-one else need ever know that you're a cheat.
On the other hand, if anyone finds out that you even cheat yourself and even when you gain nothing by it, then you can't blame them for wondering whether you might also be a cheat in more important matters when there might be something real at stake, so it reflects rather badly on your character.
Are the extra levels making the beginning of SoA so easy you're getting bored? Then it's cheating.
Did you used get frustrated at how hard early SoA is? And now, with the extra levels, do you find it more enjoyable? Then it's not cheating.
Noloir: "Will you marry me?"
Skatan: "No...no. I can't."
Noloir: "But why?"
Skatan: "Because you imported a character into baldur's gate that had too much experience and equipment. If you are willing to cheat in Baldur's Gate, then how can I trust you not to cheat on me? I'm sorry Noloir, but how can I trust you?"
Noloir: "But Skatan!"
Skatan: "Don't! Just don't. How can I even know if Noloir is your real name?"
[Noloir runs away crying. He goes home and rolls up a wizard slayer to make up for his misdeeds.]
But a computer game? I'm not worried about hurting its feelings by cheating.
Look at it from the other person's point of view: they can't know for sure what feelings are going on inside your head, they have only the evidence they can see. If all they can initially see is that you cheat at trivial things, then of course it's a common reaction to wonder whether you might also cheat at serious things. That gets trust off to a poor start, even though (of course) you might eventually be able to overcome that bad initial impression.
This is the very essence of honour: integrity at all times and in all matters, no matter how trivial and regardless of whether anyone else is watching.