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So I conquered SCS Ust Natha on a whim and with some cheese [PICTURES]

johntyljohntyl Member Posts: 400
edited October 2016 in Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition
Inspired by an earlier post https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/61918/spoilers-is-it-possible-at-all-to-conquer-ust-natha-with-scs/p1

I wondered if it's possible for my party which is currently in Ust Natha. Mind you, my party is quite low level for such an insane feat as they only recently got their HLAs. And I happened upon a strategy which most of you would probably call it cheese. Nevertheless, I had to reload several times as the amount of spells I'm being spammed once I'm visible actually makes my computer lag and I died from god-knows-what.

For this strat, you will need the Staff of Magi(SOM) as you will be continuously revealed so you need to quickly click on your SOM to be invisible again. If you are slow, you will be VERY QUICKLY slaughtered - it's no joke.

As the demons(BALORS, NEBASSU and GLABREZU) are able to see through invisibility, they will spam you with spells such as Dispel/Remove Magic and Silence and all kinds of debuff spells. I had on my Cloak of Mirroring, Staff of Magi, and cast Spell Trap on myself just to counter against spells that managed to bypass the cloak of mirroring.

So basically you have this guy as bait for the demons and spell casters so that your own spell casters can safely cast their high level spells from behind. Crucial spells are: Firestorm(best), Death Fog, Storm of Vengeance, etc. I also had Jaheira cast Creeping Doom which was incredibly effective.

I also had to fight off a few rounds of skirmishes that manage to find me on the top level: a few Devas easily stopped them. I would recommend focusing on these skirmishes first and let the mob below accumulate. I wasted a few fire storms on earlier mobs which were pretty mild as compared to the later ones.

Now, without further ado, here are the pictures. Hope they are self-explanatory. Took me around 2 hours(with reloads) to finally clear the whole base!

IT'S LIKE THE GREAT WAR


FINALLY: AFTER AN HOUR OR SO


SO SO SO MUCH LOOT.

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Comments

  • RelSundanRelSundan Member Posts: 918
    I can see that Crow is the talkative party member! Nice work on that slaughter, I think SCS called it "Slightly improve ust natha's defences", I am not sure though.
  • KuronaKurona Member Posts: 881
    RelSundan said:

    I can see that Crow is the talkative party member! Nice work on that slaughter, I think SCS called it "Slightly improve ust natha's defences", I am not sure though.

    "Upgrade Ust Natha's defences" specifically, and the battle was designed to be impossible. There are two different "lite" versions that can be enabled with the console. They make a good training course for the real deal.
  • johntyljohntyl Member Posts: 400
    @RelSundan @Kurona Yes, I also installed "Upgrade Ust Natha's defences". I think if you are able to kill the mobs quick enough instead of letting them accumulate like what I did, it might be possible to do it. But that means having enough debuff magics to counter the spell casters that come each subsequent rounds and what's worse is that there's no hiding from them. They will appear no matter where you hide. The spot that I chose happened to trigger the spawns below me (bottom level) and I only found this out by accident :wink:

  • johntyljohntyl Member Posts: 400
    RelSundan said:

    I can see that Crow is the talkative party member! Nice work on that slaughter, I think SCS called it "Slightly improve ust natha's defences", I am not sure though.

    Thanks! ;)

    Yes, Crow is a babbler, and he can blabber all he wants as long as he gets the work done :)
  • JuliusBorisovJuliusBorisov Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,760
    lolien said:

    Well done @johntyl !

    JuliusBorisov said:

    I'm going to try that without reloads ;)

    You should livestream that :D
    I would gladly do so, but everytime I try using FRAPS for recording BG, my PC becomes as slow as a turtle. Maybe related to https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/5720/anyone-know-a-good-program-to-record-gameplay-sessions-with
  • johntyljohntyl Member Posts: 400
    lolien said:

    Well done @johntyl !

    JuliusBorisov said:

    I'm going to try that without reloads ;)

    You should livestream that :D
    AGREED.
  • RelSundanRelSundan Member Posts: 918
    edited October 2016
    JuliusBorisov said:

    lolien said:

    Well done @johntyl !

    JuliusBorisov said:

    I'm going to try that without reloads ;)

    You should livestream that :D
    I would gladly do so, but everytime I try using FRAPS for recording BG, my PC becomes as slow as a turtle. Maybe related to https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/5720/anyone-know-a-good-program-to-record-gameplay-sessions-with
    Actually, this is probably related to your CPU as the 2nd post suggests. Frap is also a program that leaves a huge impact on your framerates per seconds. Live streaming is even heavier, and also requires a decent upload speed to produce any viewable image. If you do have a nvidia graphics card you could use shadowplay. There is a certain minimum series required to use it, maybe if you posted the specs (If this really bothers you and you want it to work) of your computer it could help.
  • AasimAasim Member Posts: 591
    JuliusBorisov said:

    lolien said:

    Well done @johntyl !

    JuliusBorisov said:

    I'm going to try that without reloads ;)

    You should livestream that :D
    I would gladly do so, but everytime I try using FRAPS for recording BG, my PC becomes as slow as a turtle. Maybe related to https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/5720/anyone-know-a-good-program-to-record-gameplay-sessions-with
    I used Fraps for this, and it did work fine (kind of). My laptop would turn off when using Fraps and BG at the same time due to overheating, but I fixed that by breaking the plastic materials around the fan, allowing for more cooling. :D
  • RelSundanRelSundan Member Posts: 918
    Aasim said:

    JuliusBorisov said:

    lolien said:

    Well done @johntyl !

    JuliusBorisov said:

    I'm going to try that without reloads ;)

    You should livestream that :D
    I would gladly do so, but everytime I try using FRAPS for recording BG, my PC becomes as slow as a turtle. Maybe related to https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/5720/anyone-know-a-good-program-to-record-gameplay-sessions-with
    I used Fraps for this, and it did work fine (kind of). My laptop would turn off when using Fraps and BG at the same time due to overheating, but I fixed that by breaking the plastic materials around the fan, allowing for more cooling. :D
    I'm not suprised, FRAPS is pretty good at stressing components. That is why I do not recommend using FRAPS at all.
  • KuronaKurona Member Posts: 881
    On my laptop CamStudio seems to work better than FRAPS.
  • johntyljohntyl Member Posts: 400
    Aasim said:

    but I fixed that by breaking the plastic materials around the fan, allowing for more cooling. :D

    That sounds like a draconian measure :open_mouth:
  • NightmareWraithNightmareWraith Member Posts: 77
    I don't know anything about SCS but wouldn't it be simple to clear it by just having clerics and druids spam fire storm? Or are the drow highly resistant to fire? (Their magic resist should count against fire storm right?)
  • johntyljohntyl Member Posts: 400
    edited October 2016
    NightmareWraith said:

    I don't know anything about SCS but wouldn't it be simple to clear it by just having clerics and druids spam fire storm? Or are the drow highly resistant to fire? (Their magic resist should count against fire storm right?)

    As @JuliusBorisov mentioned, it's not that simple. Firestorm works especially well for this method yes as firestorm bypasses MR, but the spell casters in SCS are highly intelligent. When they see your spellcasters casting a spell, they (the demons especially) will spam you with silence, miscast magic, power word silence/stun. Sometimes, they might even cast 'Teleport without error' and appear right next to you. The drows will also quaff potions of superior healing, their priestesses will cast mass heal, etc. Not only that, they will also walk away from the firestorms if they don't see an enemy in sight so I have to continually reveal myself to gain their attention. Thank god, they are not intelligent enough to take the stairs up to find me on the top level ;)
    Post edited by johntyl on
  • NimranNimran Member Posts: 4,875
    I like how Aerie is the only one whose portrait hasn't been drowified. :smiley:
  • NightmareWraithNightmareWraith Member Posts: 77
    @JuliusBorisov I probably wouldn't make it past Irenicus dungeon from what I've read.

    @johntyl ah ok fair enough
  • johntyljohntyl Member Posts: 400
    Nimran said:

    I like how Aerie is the only one whose portrait hasn't been drowified. :smiley:

    Yah, its strange though, considering she is still physically drowified. My main CHA's portrait is not drowified as well but he is dark-skinned originally so it doesnt really make a difference ;)
  • Mush_MushMush_Mush Member Posts: 476
    JuliusBorisov said:

    In five words: it's not that simple.

    That kinda looks like four words. :p
  • NightmareWraithNightmareWraith Member Posts: 77
    Mush_Mush said:

    JuliusBorisov said:

    In five words: it's not that simple.

    That kinda looks like four words. :p
    It depends on how you view compound words, whether as an actual word or lazy slang, some people view compound words as single words others view them as 2 words. That's why I didn't point that out because he may view it as lazy slang.
  • bleusteelbleusteel Member Posts: 523
    edited October 2016
    "It's" is an example of a contraction. "Baseball" is an example of a compound word. Both count as one word, unless you get paid by the word ;-)

    Back on topic, I will someday get around to trying SCS when the unmodded game becomes unfun. Ain't happened yet!
  • RelSundanRelSundan Member Posts: 918
    edited October 2016
    bleusteel said:

    "It's" is an example of a contraction. "Baseball" is an example of a compound word. Both count as one word, unless you get paid by the word ;-)

    Back on topic, I will someday get around to trying SCS when the unmodded game becomes unfun. Ain't happened yet!

    Sorry
    Microsoft Word says it is one word, and Microsoft word is ALWAYS right.


    Yeah, you will get there someday. Without SCS, the game is a cakewalk for me now. You will probably feel the same after you have played the game uncountable amount of times.
  • xzar_montyxzar_monty Member Posts: 631
    The OP mentions SO SO MUCH LOOT, which is true, in a sense, but I believe in real terms you get nothing that you'd really need and nothing that you didn't already have. Am I correct?

    I agree that it's better to have more than less potions of superior healing, for instance, but at that point in the game, it doesn't qualify as proper loot.
  • KuronaKurona Member Posts: 881
    The appeal of phat lewt is unrelated to its actual usefulness. I'm the kind of player who can throw away stuff just to pick up more useless stuff.

    Basically, this.
  • johntyljohntyl Member Posts: 400
    xzar_monty said:

    The OP mentions SO SO MUCH LOOT, which is true, in a sense, but I believe in real terms you get nothing that you'd really need and nothing that you didn't already have. Am I correct?

    Yes you are right. In real terms, they are mostly trash that you can't bring out of the Underworld. But roleplaying-wise, it doesn't make sense that the drows wouldnt have made their equipment disintegration-proof since they are about to go to the surface to wage war with their surface elves cousins. Even while my party was battling some drows near the exit to the surface, they were still wearing their adamantine gear. So I'm wondering if they're planning to go out naked in the open :smiley:
  • xzar_montyxzar_monty Member Posts: 631
    Maybe it's a part of their psychological strategy. "Look, buddies, if we go out naked, nobody's going to think we're dangerous. They'll just go WTF. Make sure you've memorized both Stoneskin and Mage Armor. And remember, *blunt* weapons only, for obvious reasons, you know where."
  • GodGod Member Posts: 1,150
    All's cool but...

    aee.jpg 38.2K
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