Did anyone ever do a no-pause challenge run?

Drayen

I've been thinking about it, I've looked on youtube but there's no such run... I'd love to do it on insane difficulty, but I feel like it could be just too hard, even though I have great APM from games like Starcraft and Wc3. I thought it'd be nice to upload this to youtube too, since all playthroughs of the game involve so much pausing that it's literally boring to watch as 90% of the gameplay happens during pause.

Do you guys think I should try insane difficulty?
Should I run a 6 member party or lower it to 5 to make it easier to control? Or just make it a 6 member party with a lot of fighters for autoattack damage... I intend on using the NPCs and not a self-made party.
Wasn't there a way to change hotkeys, in particular for individual spells? I know the oldschool BG2 had something similar, but I can't find similar options for hotkeys for BG2EE

Arctodus

I'll summon @Grond0, who I know tried such a challenge.

Drayen

Either insane difficulty, or there's this mod I felt gave me a better feeling difficulty. Basically a mod that increases enemy health by a percentage. I can combine both but I did feel like my last playthrough made fights more interesting since you don't decimate enemies insanely fast.

I say that because I had a save before the last battle with melissan... I forgot how easy it was, I literally killed her without having to do much, surprised at how fast it ended. I know the 4th fight with her isn't the hardest fight in the game but still.

Tresset

My hand/mouse coordination isn't all that great so this kind of challenge, or most any real time strategy game, would not be up my alley.

Borek

Personally i just detest RTS games, so no chance i would inflict that on myself, lol.

Grond0

The challenge I tried was a no-reload with a solo berserker. My notes don't say what game installation or difficulty I was playing on, but I think it was unmodded EE on Core difficulty. I always play at 60 fps and never use AI. My rules on pausing were as follows:

1) Autopause of any sort not allowed.
2) Pausing using the space bar / clockwork button is not allowed at any time (game ending offence).
3) Pausing to look at inventory / record screen / options is allowed outside combat, but not if any enemies are active (including outside visual range).
4) Pausing for dialogue is allowed, but only for normal conversation.
5) Pausing for map screen is allowed outside combat, but not if any enemies are active (exception: travel can be initiated when running away from enemies, but once map screen is open then travel is required rather than going back to the same area).

Prior to trying that I expected it to be much more difficult than it actually was. I pause almost constantly in fights normally, so thought I would struggle to avoid doing that. In fact I managed it reasonably well, though not entirely free of problems - one run for instance was ended when I paused in the act of taking a screenshot of Slythe dying.

If you're interested the last update I did is at https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/864506/#Comment_864506 and you can trace back previous updates from links in that.

I suspect though that the intended nature of your run is very different from my attempt, so you'll probably get limited benefit from looking at what I did, though I'm happy to give further thoughts if you've got any questions.

I also suspect that this type of run wouldn't make that much difference to the watchability of an unedited video. I presume you won't be trying to avoid all types of pausing and I think it tends to be those that are a pain to watch (inventory management, dialogue, maps and travel, cutscenes etc) rather than pausing during fights.

Anyway - best of luck .

Edit: re your question about hotkeys, you can change these in the Assign Keys section of the Gameplay Options menu.

ifupauline

You could do that soloing the game. Customize and memorize hotkey and I don't think this will be a huge deal. Some fights will need to be carefully prepared though.

PaulaMigrate

I did my very first playthrough of the game according to the *rules* set up by @Grond0 above.
Only, it wasn't really intended. Just like always, I started to play without ever looking at a manual or whatever. So I had no idea about pausing the game or preparing for battles or even changing weapons prior battle etc.
I just thought that was the way it was intended. What I remember from that game (this was a decade++ ago) is that I didn't use much spells or potions but tried to solve almost all by sheer weapon power.
I found later, that *normal* gameplay was more fun.

UnderstandMouseMagic

Didn't the game "not pause" on inventory screen originally anyway?

Sure I remember having to be super fast if I wanted to change anything in battle. Perhaps I was just dumb but I'm definitely sure that rummaging through a bag of holding mid battle wasn't a viable option.

Grond0

UnderstandMouseMagic said:

Didn't the game "not pause" on inventory screen originally anyway?

That's right for BG1 - BG2 never worked like that.

PaulaMigrate

UnderstandMouseMagic said:

Didn't the game "not pause" on inventory screen originally anyway?

Sure I remember having to be super fast if I wanted to change anything in battle. Perhaps I was just dumb but I'm definitely sure that rummaging through a bag of holding mid battle wasn't a viable option.

If I remember correctly, the game did not pause on inventory. You were searching something and when you looked up again you were surrounded by enemies. Or maybe that was with map? Or both?
But bags of holding were not there yet? Not sure anymore, but I guess the first ones were mod-added.

UnderstandMouseMagic

Grond0 said:

UnderstandMouseMagic said:

Didn't the game "not pause" on inventory screen originally anyway?

That's right for BG1 - BG2 never worked like that.

Thanks, thought it was me.

I didn't play BG2 until some years later after it came out so BG is always my default for remembering gameplay.

@PaulaMigrate

See above. It was just an example of how play now compares to play then. There is something immersion breaking about being able to access the whole inventory mid battle. Of course I make full use of it, but just saying.

Drayen

Yea, I don't think you'd really need the pause button for a solo run, I kinda intended my run to be more micro intensive with an actual party... but if you beat it on core rules solo, I definitely have to do it on at least hard!

Thanks for pointing out where hotkey assignments were... I just didn't look at the top so it took me awhile to spot it even after looking the second time.