Any official word on XP cap yet?

MinscandBoo

... Still waiting for this info before buying. Want to be able to do duo or solo runs without having to use a 3rd party program to remove xp cap.

moody_mage

XP cap remains at 161,000

It's very easy to remove yourself.

Tanthalas

For the main campaign the experience cap will remain the same, aka, 161k.

Shin

MinscandBoo said:

without having to use a 3rd party program to remove xp cap.

Not having to do that never seemed like much of an option for this purpose anyway. A full solo run through BG + TotSC will net you somewhere around 1.3M exp - external cap removal was always the only way to get the full benefit of that. Even if the original cap had been doubled that wouldn't have allowed more than one extra level.

Oxford_Guy

Tanthalas said:

For the main campaign the experience cap will remain the same, aka, 161k.

Great, I'd hate for this to change in the vanilla game, it's not like its going to be hard to remove this if you really want to

Oxford_Guy

Shin said:

MinscandBoo said:

without having to use a 3rd party program to remove xp cap.

Not having to do that never seemed like much of an option for this purpose anyway. A full solo run through BG + TotSC will net you somewhere around 1.3M exp

and in what way is the game still challenging and interesting then?

Shin

Oxford_Guy said:

Shin said:

MinscandBoo said:

without having to use a 3rd party program to remove xp cap.

Not having to do that never seemed like much of an option for this purpose anyway. A full solo run through BG + TotSC will net you somewhere around 1.3M exp

and in what way is the game still challenging and interesting then?

Up to everyone to decide for themselves. Some people import their ToB characters into BG1 and blast through it and enjoy it that way. My point was that if you want to play a solo run and have an interest in an altered level cap because of it, an extra 100k or 200k isn't going to get you very far - you'll still be capped before you're halfway through. So if that's the kind of stuff you want, as seems to be the case for the OP, external removal of the cap seems to be the only feasible solution.

bigdogchris

@Shin

I have to disagree with your comment "Up to everyone to decided for themselves".

Games are not designed that way. What's the point of having rules built into a game if people are just going to cheat and bypass them?

moody_mage

bigdogchris said:

@Shin

I have to disagree with your comment "Up to everyone to decided for themselves".

Games are not designed that way. What's the point of having rules built into a game if people are just going to cheat and bypass them?

I think after you've finished a game a few times you are entitled to play without rules if you wish.

MrSexton

Pity that the XP cap hasn't been fixed. I played BG1 & TSotC and manually added up the XP after reaching the cap (I know, I'm strange). After finishing ALL the quests with 6 players (no cheating, no cheesy XP-mining, etc.), I was at approx 191 000 XP. EE BG ought to have a XP-cap at around 200 000 XP. /J

Shin

bigdogchris said:

@Shin

I have to disagree with your comment "Up to everyone to decided for themselves".

Games are not designed that way. What's the point of having rules built into a game if people are just going to cheat and bypass them?

Obviously developers design games in ways they think will be rewarding to play, but when a player buys a game, it's his game. It's up to him to decide how he will get the most fun/reward/immersion out of it.

It's like McDonald's selling their Big Macs a certain way, and most people eat them as they are. But if you think the best possible taste sensation is to buy a BigMac, throw out the lettuce and add some banana slices, then that's obviously what you should do. Who cares if it didn't originally have a banana slice in it? It's your Big Mac now, and you love it with banana.

IntoTheDarkness

bigdogchris said:

@Shin

I have to disagree with your comment "Up to everyone to decided for themselves".

Games are not designed that way. What's the point of having rules built into a game if people are just going to cheat and bypass them?

It's not so much cheating as any other real cheats.

You get 3000 exp for disarming a simple trap in BG2, which is bloated beyond plausibility, if you ask me. If you gain 1.3m exp through BG1 solo playthrough for a hundred hours of gameplay though, that's hard-earned exp and some people just want to be rewarded for their efforts rather than gaining no exp from doing quests and killing monsters.

I wouldn't want to do any quests if I hit the exp cap.

Sed

The point of the exp cap is simply there to not ruin the game from a balance perspective. If you know how to meta-play, you can do this anyway. They reason why they kept it is that because after a certain level things simply got cheesy.

Mungri

Shin said:

MinscandBoo said:

without having to use a 3rd party program to remove xp cap.

Not having to do that never seemed like much of an option for this purpose anyway. A full solo run through BG + TotSC will net you somewhere around 1.3M exp - external cap removal was always the only way to get the full benefit of that. Even if the original cap had been doubled that wouldn't have allowed more than one extra level.

Im my full solo runs including lots of golem farming, I didnt even get half that much total XP.

elminster

Mungri said:

Shin said:

MinscandBoo said:

without having to use a 3rd party program to remove xp cap.

Not having to do that never seemed like much of an option for this purpose anyway. A full solo run through BG + TotSC will net you somewhere around 1.3M exp - external cap removal was always the only way to get the full benefit of that. Even if the original cap had been doubled that wouldn't have allowed more than one extra level.

Im my full solo runs including lots of golem farming, I didnt even get half that much total XP.

You must now go and more than double your previous farming efforts

Shin

Mungri said:

Shin said:

MinscandBoo said:

without having to use a 3rd party program to remove xp cap.

Not having to do that never seemed like much of an option for this purpose anyway. A full solo run through BG + TotSC will net you somewhere around 1.3M exp - external cap removal was always the only way to get the full benefit of that. Even if the original cap had been doubled that wouldn't have allowed more than one extra level.

Im my full solo runs including lots of golem farming, I didnt even get half that much total XP.

That's odd, sure you do everything? My party runs tend to end up at around 250k per character, even without any intentional farming.

ARKdeEREH

Tanthalas said:

For the main campaign the experience cap will remain the same, aka, 161k.

"For the main campaign?" Does that mean that there will be an additional campaign in BG1 that has a higher XP cap?

ARKdeEREH

MrSexton said:

Pity that the XP cap hasn't been fixed. I played BG1 & TSotC and manually added up the XP after reaching the cap (I know, I'm strange). After finishing ALL the quests with 6 players (no cheating, no cheesy XP-mining, etc.), I was at approx 191 000 XP. EE BG ought to have a XP-cap at around 200 000 XP. /J

If you use Shadowkeeper you can reset your characters' XP to zero and levels to one, while keeping the same proficiencies, spells, saving throws, etc. This will allow you to resume increasing in power because the game will no longer recognize you as being at the cap.

Tanthalas

@ARKdeEREH

I was talking about the Black Pits.

ARKdeEREH

@Tanthalas So what is the XP cap for the Black Pits?

Dee

It's not a hard XP cap, per se; it's a cap on your level. In the Black Pits, you can reach level 10 with any class--so the XP cap will be different for each class.

And removing the XP cap really couldn't be easier. It's just changing a text field in a file from 161000 to -1.

Dino

Tanthalas said:

For the main campaign the experience cap will remain the same, aka, 161k.

Interesting, you will have much untapped power.

TJ_Hooker

Shin said:

Mungri said:

Shin said:

MinscandBoo said:

without having to use a 3rd party program to remove xp cap.

Not having to do that never seemed like much of an option for this purpose anyway. A full solo run through BG + TotSC will net you somewhere around 1.3M exp - external cap removal was always the only way to get the full benefit of that. Even if the original cap had been doubled that wouldn't have allowed more than one extra level.

Im my full solo runs including lots of golem farming, I didnt even get half that much total XP.

That's odd, sure you do everything? My party runs tend to end up at around 250k per character, even without any intentional farming.

Do you tend to only pick up NPCs at later levels, or pick up NPCs only available later in the game? They would have a bunch of starting XP that might inflate your total. No idea if this is the case, just a theory as to why you may have got a higher total.

Shin

TJ_Hooker said:

Shin said:

Mungri said:

Shin said:

MinscandBoo said:

without having to use a 3rd party program to remove xp cap.

Not having to do that never seemed like much of an option for this purpose anyway. A full solo run through BG + TotSC will net you somewhere around 1.3M exp - external cap removal was always the only way to get the full benefit of that. Even if the original cap had been doubled that wouldn't have allowed more than one extra level.

Im my full solo runs including lots of golem farming, I didnt even get half that much total XP.

That's odd, sure you do everything? My party runs tend to end up at around 250k per character, even without any intentional farming.

Do you tend to only pick up NPCs at later levels, or pick up NPCs only available later in the game? They would have a bunch of starting XP that might inflate your total. No idea if this is the case, just a theory as to why you may have got a higher total.

Not really, after reaching the Friendly Arm I will usually have a full party pretty much for the rest of the game. I pick up Viconia late, but not so late as to make that kind of impact. Maybe she gets boosted with 40k-50k exp or something at most.

Quartz

Dino said:

Tanthalas said:

For the main campaign the experience cap will remain the same, aka, 161k.

Interesting, you will have much untapped power.

I'm not going to press like on such an obvious, easy joke post ... I'm not!

Ohh, dammit. *Like*

mlnevese

@Quartz You should be proud of yourself... You didn't mention Irenicus even once

allhailsteve

Aosaw said:

It's not a hard XP cap, per se; it's a cap on your level. In the Black Pits, you can reach level 10 with any class--so the XP cap will be different for each class.

And removing the XP cap really couldn't be easier. It's just changing a text field in a file from 161000 to -1.

I've never done this before. Could I set a different cap rather than removing it completely? Could 8 for example change 161000 to 201000?

Tanthalas

@ailhailsteve

Yep, you can set whatever cap you want if you edit the XPCAP.2da with programs like Near Infinity or DLTCEP.

Dee

Yep. It's a field that sets the XP cap. By default, it's set to 161000, but you can change it to whatever number you like. Setting it to a negative value (such as -1) removes it completely.

EDIT: Ninja'd!

Rilbur

I'd love to know how exactly you guys plan to adjust that file; the iPad doesnt' expose it's filesystem!

allhailsteve

I'm using a PC not an iPad.