If there had to be a level cap, what is the highest level you think should be possible ?
ARKdeEREH
Member Posts: 531
Assuming there is going to be a level cap, what is the highest possible level that you think there SHOULD be? This is NOT how high you think the level cap WILL be, but how high you think it SHOULD be, as in if it were up to you, but you were definitly picking one.
Also, this is poll is intended to be for the entire Baldur's Gate series, so not any one game in particular. It is highly unlikely that someone would attain the highest levels mentioned in this poll if they exclusively played BG1, so the intent is that those would be for BG2, as well as any potential sequels that may be added.
The poll options are listed in descending order, from highest to lowest level, so if you want a low option look near the bottom and if you want a high option look near the top.
Also, this is poll is intended to be for the entire Baldur's Gate series, so not any one game in particular. It is highly unlikely that someone would attain the highest levels mentioned in this poll if they exclusively played BG1, so the intent is that those would be for BG2, as well as any potential sequels that may be added.
The poll options are listed in descending order, from highest to lowest level, so if you want a low option look near the bottom and if you want a high option look near the top.
- If there had to be a level cap, what is the highest level you think should be possible ?78 votes
- Level 10007.69%
- Between levels 500-9991.28%
- Between levels 200-4990.00%
- Between levels 40-1993.85%
- Level 40 (the current standard for BG2)53.85%
- Between levels 31-393.85%
- Level 30 (the current standard for IWD1)8.97%
- Between levels 10-2912.82%
- Between levels 1-95.13%
- Some other level (please elaborate, and remember that in this poll, infinite is not intended to be an option)2.56%
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Comments
As for me, I can't comprehend AD&D levels with more than two digits.
I've never gotten the level cap remover mod to work on my computer, but I use Shadowkeeper in a complex and time-consuming manner to circumvent the level cap. The highest level I've ever reached is 195.
In Heroes of Might and Magic III, for example, the highest level possible is 99. I've played that game since it came out in 1999 and I've never come even close to hitting the level cap. This makes it fun because I always have something that I can aspire to and try to work towards.
Right now it just doesn't feel natural/right to me in Baldur's Gate because in contrast to Heroes 3, I've never completed a game in Baldur's Gate without hitting the level cap and some times reach it only half-way through the game. If I reach the level cap early like that I just quit the game because there's really no incentive to keep playing.
You made this poll very hard to take seriously by putting in options like this.
The way I see it, the best cap would be around the maximum possible experience gain provided you kill every enemy, pick every lock, disable every trap, learn every spell and optimally complete every quest, mods included.
What satisfaction can you gain from continually reimporting and rerunning the same characters over and over?
For my first solo game ever I played a F/M/T and removed the XP cap. I think I finished BG1 as a Fighter 9 / Wizard 11 / Thief 12 and at that point could steamroll the entire game. This includes soloing Sarevok's entire party at once without breaking a sweat.
In BG2 I think this character is something like a Fighter 20+ / Wizard 25+ / Thief 30+ (can't quite remember) and whilst some of Watchers Keep has proven interesting the game has been a breeze so far. I'm also horribly underutilising the wizard side of the build preferring to play as a Fighter/Thief and occasionally pulling out the magical big guns only for tougher battles. I'm yet to finish SoA so plenty more XP and levels to get, however it's already lost its fun. I can't imagine doing this over and over.
My point was I didn't even need any tactics other than buff up and charge in all berserker-like, hacking at each of his party until they were dead and then rinsing and repeating until I stood victorious.
There is really no need to go over lvl 40-50.
ToB was already made ridiculous (everyone running with +3 equipment), because CHARNAME had too high level.
PS
Stop doing these weird polls.
I mean it.
Stop.
4 possibilities above lvl 40, up to lvl 1000, and only one between 10 and 29...
Ive beaten the games a ton of times, Ive even replayed with a higher level character just to pwn stuff, but five times with the same character is excessive. But still, beating the game five times for level 1000 may seem like an accomplishment to some, it seems more like a chore to me.
Really, it kind of reminds me of something else. Anyone remember the end of that South Park episode where Stan and Kyle are trying to get one million points in Guitar Hero?
On SCS tactics on the insane difficulty level there are several places in BG2 that are extremely difficult even with characters greatly in excess of the current level cap. Fighting and actually completely killing the drow army in Ust Natha, for example, is probably impossible without characters from higher levels. I was able to do it, barely, but only because I had circumvented the level cap with Shadowkeeper and my 5th playthrough characters were the rough equivalent of level 200s. I haven't played with a character under level 40 in 4 playthroughs (with the exception of NPCs I temporarily bring along for inventory space) and the game has still been difficult. Certainly there are some parts that are easy, but there are enough difficult places for it to be fun, many of which I would not even attempt with weak characters.
Edit: I was also curious how high other people might think the level cap should go. I have read many posts on different threads in which people say how much they hate the level cap, but the people who said that didn't indicate how far they think they should be able to go. I thought it would be interesting to find out.
Sometimes I also play what I call 'Caravan games," which is when I bring around three weak characters through the game that I don't give weapons or armor and protect with the three characters that I've kept from earlier playthroughs. I call them Caravan games because I roleplay that they're a caravan of weak civilians that need protecting. I have a game in Tutu right now where a 3rd playthrough BG2 NPC is protecting a BG1 PC that I intentionally designed to be weak and didn't give a weapon or armor so that she needs to protect him.
Another thing too, is that I almost never play with thieves in my party, so I can't disable traps. There are several places in BG1 and many in BG2 where characters can take more than 100 damage from individual traps. If you can't disable the traps and have to either take the damage or evade it after it goes off, it makes the game much more difficult than if you just had a thief.
One of the reasons that I don't like starting over from scratch is that I prefer using the higher level spells for both mages and clerics. Not being able to even start using my favorite spells until late in the game is a major turn off for me, especially since using spells is one of my favorite parts of the BG series.
A couple years ago I tried to get the mod that raised the level cap to 50 to work on my computer. It did not, so I came up with my own system of cycling my characters through levels 1-40 since it was the best that I could do. Whenever a character reaches level 40 I use Shadowkeeper to reset their XP to zero and their level to one, but they keep whatever proficiencies, spells, saving throws, and HP they already had. They can then start gaining XP again and increasing their power.
This system is far from perfect and is very time consuming because every time I get a level-up the game wrecks my characters' spells and saving throws and I have to add them all back in again, but it is the only functional way that I've been able to keep going. My two 5th playthrough characters are currently in their 7th cycle, which means that they have reached level 40, been reduced back to level 1, and then reached level 40 again 6 times, and are currently mid-way through their next cycle. If I were to add all those levels up, this would make Viconia a level 195 cleric right now. My PC is a bit more complicated to calculate because he is multi-class, so he's probably a bit lower, but is still in excess of level 100.
Playing on the insane difficulty with SCS tactics and fighting all opponents directly (without stealth) is still very difficult, even with characters that far along. It's taken me five playthroughs to almost reach level 200, so it will probably take many more before I am anywhere near level 1000. It definitely wouldn't be a joke to aspire to reaching a distant level that genuinely would be able to beat everything, but 40 or 50 certainly isn't that.
I included all the options I could think of between my ideal level cap and level 1 in the hope that everyone's opinion could be included. There were only 10 slots possible so I had to merge some that I had originally intended to be more than one category.
It might be worth you figuring out how to edit the appropriate 2DA files to allow yourself to mod this for yourself. The XPCap.2DA and XPLevel.2DA would be the first places to expand ranges I guess. Maybe there are others which deal with spells, saving throws and THAC0.
It *should* just be a case of adding extra lines to allow for the extra levels, I'm not too sure though. I also don't know if however Infinity Engine will parse additional lines if you did for example expand your level range up to 100 by adding another 50 levels into the 2DAs.