A little help with the cat quest

Veristek

I finally got to Neera and opened up the Wild Mage Refuge. I started all the quests in there, and one of them asks me to find 8 cats in the forest. I've been trying to find them, even with the cat food. I don't want to waste hours or days looking for these cats over and over. So maddening when the cats escape and I have to do the searching process all over again. And then again. And again.

Wondering if there's a way to get them quick, or if they spawn in specific locations?

Or is there a magic console command to finish this quest?

I hate these "Total randomness to get any progress in a quest and any (or all) progress can be lost in an instant, and back to total randomness to try and finish it before a reset happens" kinds of quests.

gorgonzola

i did not find hard at all to collect the cats and deliver them using an hasted toon, made the quest in probably less then 10 min, but i know that some players hate it and find it hard and annoying.
if you search the forums there are already threads that talk about the cats collecting thing and give you hints.

don't give up and use cheats to complete an optional quest that is not needed to complete the game.
if you are not able to tame 8 little cats how can you hope to tame and win dragons?
or live with the fact that those cats are smarter then you and take the consequences.

ThacoBell

There isn't an easy/fast way to do this quest. You just have to hope the cats stay in your inventory long enough, and hope that they don't wander into hard to see areas. I recomend taking them back in small groups, rather than trying to carry all of them at once.

Humanoid_Taifun

There are three keys to solving this quest. Two of them have already been mentioned, but I will repeat them anyway.
1. Boots of Speed or something similar - keep the rest of the party at the entrance of the map
2. bring them back in small quantities - and keep the screen focused on your character so you can react immediately to a cat running off
3. activate the Reveal Details button - and make use of the pause button

Raduziel

Quick-save often.

Gatekeep3r

It's a ridiculous quest in any case. Don't we have Bondari, Nanoc and Tim Goldenhand for things like that?

gorgonzola

@Gatekeep3r we have different opinions.

i like that some quests involve something like this one or to solve a riddle, and the advantage of this is that with the riddle once you have solved it once you have "lost" the quest for the future runs.

it gives more variety in a game where most of the quests are like go to xxx, kill yyy and come back ...

Veristek

I found 7 cats, but can't seem to find the 8th cat. Do each cat spawn in a specific area on the map, or do I just run back and forth in one area until they all spawn?

And yes, I've been abusing save / reload to avoid cats escaping and laugh at the quest's RNG.

I don't mind hard, weird, complicated, or tedious quests. I just don't like quests that reset your hard won progress at random. This applies to any game, not just BG. I wouldn't mind this cat quest as much if the cats didn't run or "reset".

Blomdor

I, too, resorted to save/loading for this one, simply because of that mechanic of the cats escaping. It is realistic enough, sure, but that doesn't make it fun to deal with in a computer game, haha.

Funny thing is, I didn't find the eighth kitty myself until I actually allowed one to escape in order to focus more on what I could see on the map, rather than constantly hitting Q and checking my inventory. I doubt that this is actually cause and effect, though, merely a coincidence resulting from the cats' habit of wandering at random and the benefit of concentration.

For the record, the tactic of leaving most of the party in a corner while one character uses the boots of speed and/or a Haste spell to rapidly scour the map, combined with copious quantities of quick-saving and leaving the Reveal Details button active, was effective enough to get the job done in approximately ten or fifteen minutes, and kept the quest from becoming outright maddening. The bonus to movement rate from both the boots and Haste stack with each other, so a character with both can zoom around and search an entire map very efficiently.

ThacoBell

@Veristek They run around the map at random. Its incredibly annoying. Worst thing Beamdog has ever done by far.

Balrog99

Yeah, but you get such a great reward!

Veristek

I finally got it done. Handed in the 7 cats I had to the Cat Man, and then went back to the forest. 5 minutes later, I found the 8th cat by the water, and then went back to Cat Man. Quest done, never looking back.

Got the bell collar and a cat named Ding.

Blomdor

I actually love the quest reward. Dings doesn't actually do anything in the game, it's true (though as a longtime cat person and based on his description in the inventory, I think it'd be fun if he occasionally could be interacted with to see his "presents"; perhaps 90% of the time it'd be a half-eaten vole or bird as you'd expect, but occasionally maybe you could get minor loot). But hey, you get a pet cat! Made the whole quest worth it to me, but I'm a dork. Sometimes I put my mouse on Dings and pretend I'm petting him.