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Did this game go through any beta testing ?

Ambushed by 10 bandits (archers) right out of Candlekeep on the way to Friendly Arms Inn 5 minutes into the game. Party (Imoen, Xzar, Montaron, and main character) decimated in 5 seconds.

Comments

  • StummvonBordwehrStummvonBordwehr Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 1,342
    Yes. And we all luv the bandits :o

    They are as enjoyable as the
    Basilisk ambush you might encounter as well
    ZaghoulThacoBell
  • SoidoSoido Member Posts: 338
    How nice. Must have escaped from Mutamin's Garden.
  • ChroniclerChronicler Member Posts: 1,391
    It's pretty close to an open world game. The vast majority of the content is accessible to a level 1 character straight out of candlekeep.

    That means that a lot of your early adventures will be spent running and dying. The alternative would be to tailor the entire world towards a level 1 character with a half-formed party, which obviously would get dull as you levelled up.
    ThacoBell
  • JoenSoJoenSo Member Posts: 910
    Remember games like Another World and Heart of Darkness? Video game developers in the 90s seems to have taken a sadistic pleasure in killing player characters as unfairly and often as possible.
    SkatanThacoBell
  • ChroniclerChronicler Member Posts: 1,391
    I don't know about Sadistic Pleasure, but there was some thought in Baldur's Gate to replicating the feel of being some scared newbie exploring a dangerous world.

    You, upon leaving Candlekeep, have barely been trained to hold your sword right or whatever. You're the weakest of the weak, and there's a bandit crisis. The roads are unsafe. Surviving is gonna be difficult for a while but one day you'll be a seasoned adventurer like Drizzt or Elminster mowing through armies of baddies like it's nothing.

    There's a progression here that's fun and gratuitous for the player.
  • Humanoid_TaifunHumanoid_Taifun Member Posts: 1,055
    The beta-testing led to the introduction of Imoen as an immediate party member.
    The writers also introduced a cheat which prevents level 1 characters with less than 10 HPs from dying to a single hit.
  • MaurvirMaurvir Member Posts: 1,090
    Yeah, I'm not seeing the problem. Part of the story is the fact that the roads are dangerous due to bandits. Running into said bandits makes sense - and you can always run.
  • Permidion_StarkPermidion_Stark Member Posts: 4,861
    The bandit ambush is one of those encounters that does feel incredibly unfair if they catch you early in the game but if it happens again later I find that slaughtering the lot of them is a really pleasurable experience.
  • MaurvirMaurvir Member Posts: 1,090
    Seriously - does NO ONE listen to Khalid when he says "Discretion is the better part of valor"? ;)
    ChroniclerZaxaresThacoBell
  • ChroniclerChronicler Member Posts: 1,391
    The bandit ambush is one of those encounters that does feel incredibly unfair if they catch you early in the game but if it happens again later I find that slaughtering the lot of them is a really pleasurable experience.

    Personally I find they're never really worth the effort you'd need to expend to kill them even in the late game.

    Because they surround you before the player is even given control, your formation is fubarred the moment the battle starts. They'll plug arrows into all your squishiest party members, which even late game can be pretty squishy, if you don't immediately incapacitate them with some sort of spell or something.

    They have no loot except for some arrows and some scalps though. So it never feels like it's worth spending a spell on them.

    Like if they had some of those random treasures xvarts and stuff sometimes have that could be something to get excited about, but all they have pretty much translates into pocket change in a game where money is abundant.
  • SoidoSoido Member Posts: 338
    Right out of Candlekeep a raging berserker should have no trouble dispatching them solo due to increased AC (should be - 5 total vs missile) and + 15 health.

    Other classes stand no chance. Dwarven defender unlikely because of the decreased speed he can't reach them fast as the bandits are stationary archers. Mages zero chance won't be able to cast a single spell and will be disrupted.

    Xzar is one shot, Imoen and Montaron are 1 or 2 shots, dead in first round. Those bandits I think are doing 2 shots in a round each for 20 shots in the first round !
  • Permidion_StarkPermidion_Stark Member Posts: 4,861
    edited November 2019
    @Chronicler
    If you run straight to the map edge as soon as you see them they don't all follow you. When you reach the edge of the map there will probably only be three or four left able to see you so you can then turn back and use your fighters to engage them while keeping your mages and thieves out of the firing line.
  • PingwinPingwin Member Posts: 262
    Last time that I had that encounter occur right at the start, I just ran to the north of the map. Left behind a dead Montaron I think, but the rest of the party escaped quite easily.
    It's unfair if it happens at that early stage of the game but BG was never designed to be fair. That's why there are auto saves whenever you leave an area. If you get unlucky and it happens right at the start of the game then then the worst than happens is that a no-reload player has lost about 15 minutes of game play when they start again.
    A better game design would be to have a flag that gets set as soon as you've visited an area that's not the start area or the crossroads, and not allow that ambush until the flag is set.
    For an experienced party it is just a minor inconvenience.
    StummvonBordwehr
  • SkatanSkatan Member, Moderator Posts: 5,352
    Sleep is a level 1 spell with a casting time of 1. If aimed in the middle, it will hit most of the bandits and many of them will fail their saves. If you get this ambush before a mage, then it's just pure "luck" though and part of the experience. If you're playing solo/no reload you should take precautings like having invisibility etc or other ways to escape, but I don't play no reload so I'm no expert.

    I agree that I sometimes take pleasure in that ambush if it occurs slightly later in the game, once you got some AC and sleep/wands of sleep.
    ThacoBell
  • PingwinPingwin Member Posts: 262
    The problem with Sleep spells as a solution is that, unless charname is some sort of mage with a sleep spell, there isn't anyone who can cast it, not for when that ambush occurs right at the start of the game.

    Xan and Edwin are both around Nashkel, Dynaheir is too but can't cast it anyway, and for Xzar you'd have to investigate the crossroads area instead of just heading straight to the FAI, and hope you get lucky and find a sleep scroll as a random drop.

    By the time you've done the Nashkel mines and got yourself a mage who can cast sleep, and headed back north to areas where that ambush might occur, it is no longer the threat it once was and you probably have a number of viable strategies to deal with it.
  • MaurvirMaurvir Member Posts: 1,090
    As an aside, this is why I cast invisibility over the party before traveling. Sure, at this point it's merely a mild aggravation, but sometimes they don't have time for that. Earlier in the game, however, it was a lifesaver.
  • PingwinPingwin Member Posts: 262
    Late in the game you can probably just take a gentle stroll to the edge of the map and leave without noticing the ambush.
  • Humanoid_TaifunHumanoid_Taifun Member Posts: 1,055
    @Pingwin Rather than the bandits that attack you when you are weak, I am irritated at those that attack me when I am strong.
    Every time it happens, I pause the game, and go mentally go through the same old routine. "Do you not know who I am? Are you unable to guess what manner of creature I had to kill to get this suit of armor? Can you even imagine how much blood I have waded through in the past few months? Why would you throw yourselves at my sword like this? Tomorrow I will already have forgotten you. You will just be another smear on the road. You picked the wrong profession if you think that I am a good target to practice your waylaying skills on. Go away. Get the hell out of here. Killing you is more annoying than trying to talk sense into you. Shoo!"
    But alas, we are not allowed to communicate with muggers, and SCS offers self-preservational instincts only to wolves. If I lived somewhere on Faerun, I would open a school to teach outlaws what signs to look out for to recognize overleveled adventurers.
    Permidion_StarkZaxaresshaldon
  • MaurvirMaurvir Member Posts: 1,090
    I can imagine the frustration of bad guys constantly saying "no thanks" and running, but I do think it would do wonders for over leveling - not to mention being hilarious. It would also test those lawful good characters resolve to do good after spending the last several minutes wailing on someone.

    In fact, this would make a good mod if it was possible - have bad guys bow out or go neutral instead of yellow when they realize they are getting their butts kicked.
  • ZaxaresZaxares Member Posts: 1,325
    @Pingwin Rather than the bandits that attack you when you are weak, I am irritated at those that attack me when I am strong.
    Every time it happens, I pause the game, and go mentally go through the same old routine. "Do you not know who I am? Are you unable to guess what manner of creature I had to kill to get this suit of armor? Can you even imagine how much blood I have waded through in the past few months? Why would you throw yourselves at my sword like this? Tomorrow I will already have forgotten you. You will just be another smear on the road. You picked the wrong profession if you think that I am a good target to practice your waylaying skills on. Go away. Get the hell out of here. Killing you is more annoying than trying to talk sense into you. Shoo!"

    I get that a lot in BG2, with that group of muggers that tends to waylay you when you travel between maps in the city.

    "You really want to do this? Do you know what I'm capable of? OK, have it your way..."

    Charname: Casts Death Spell
    Muggers all die.

    I suppose the next step is to become powerful enough and then pull an Irenicus with the Cowled Wizards. :P
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