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Do You Cheat? (What Is Considered Cheating?)

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  • MathsorcererMathsorcerer Member Posts: 3,037
    I can use +2 rings with any armor. Of course, I am a big cheater and I remove everything from the itemexcl.2da file.
    jackjack
  • O_BruceO_Bruce Member Posts: 2,790
    I never cheat, unless I am forced to due to a bug. For example, I recall when I was forced to use ctrl + j cheat, because otherwise
    I would be unable to leave mind flyer's dungeon, since the ogre wasn't going to open the doors like he was meant to
    .

    lelag200
  • PantalionPantalion Member Posts: 2,137

    elminster said:

    I only really cheat when I'm testing something :)

    Why would the realms' most powerful wizard ever need to cheat? Please indulge a young man.
    How do you think Mages get so powerful? It's all about breaking the rules.

    I put kits onto multiclasses, multiclasses onto humans, dual-classes onto everybody, and remove multiclass proficiency limits. I reveal maps, because I've long since memorised them, and slowly penetrating the fog of war because I can't just click on the black and let them figure it out. I don't consider these cheating so much as redesigning the game on my own terms, because Dual-Classing was always stupid.

    I teleport my party, since I've already been along that route once with my much quicker CHARNAME and don't have the time to spend watching the same thing happen twice whilst expecting different results.

    About the only thing I avoid are Ctrl-Y/Qing a target (experimentation aside) artificially adding items, gold or exp, and reloading your game to ensure the best possible result (which I typically do anyway for the DoMT, bonus stat points aren't to be left to chance!).

  • StevevdlStevevdl Member Posts: 73
    Depending on what you call cheating I

    1) Use autoroller to roll stats for characters
    2) Find hidden items before I normally would if they are of use (eg ring prot +1, wizardry and ankheg plate)
    3) Picking up party members before actually finding them (eg pickup Viconia or Safana)
    4) started using mods like Dark Horizon, BG Weapon pack, BG Armour Pack, Mod that puts Diedre and Joluv in BG, Tweak pack for max hitpoints and 100% learn spells

    I also use SCS to make the game more difficult to even out the better armour and weapons
  • avocadoavocado Member Posts: 24
    This is from the PnP version of wizardry specialization.
    """At first glance, the existence of the school of lesser divination would seem to reduce
    the role of the diviner; after all, no other school allows all specialists such easy access to
    their low-level spells. However, an examination of the requirements for all schools shows
    that only the conjurer has greater divination as an opposition school; every other specialist has access to the low-level divination spells. In practice, the existence of the minor school of lesser divination serves only to give the conjurer access to the low-level divination spells.

    The term "minor" is used informally in this context. It means that specialists from any
    school are allowed to learn and use these spells. Many of the lesser divination spells, such
    as detect magic and read magic are basic to the practice of magic. Others, such as identify, ESP, and
    know alignment are vital to the basic repertoire of any specialist. Without access to the spells of lesser divination, a wizard's ability to function would be frustratingly limited, particularly at the lower levels"""
    Given that, I'm not sure how I would feel allowing conjurers to be able to use at least the identify spell.
    "My gods, a candle fell on this unknown magical belt, and it wasn't damaged! In addition, I can use it to take my stew-pot out of the fire. I wonder what absurd magical quality would lend itself to such a feat?!"

    So yeah. To me role-playing trumps conventional stuff, if it's somewhat feasible.

    Gotural
  • GrumpyDolanGrumpyDolan Member Posts: 16
    edited January 2014
    I often do some party tuning. I pick my NPCs based on their personality, not on their skills. So in BG1 I EEkeepered Eldoth attribute distribution and made him a Skald, so he would be good addition to the party combat wise as well as banter wise.

    I will usually decide my party before I begin my run using this formula: charname/ 2 mod npc/ 3 bioware npc/ 1 EE npc and then EE them so I have healthy balance of divine, arcane and physical plus thievery. I just make sure my changes suits given characters. I will sometimes add some minor powers for flavour, especially for vanilla fighters.

    In spoiler tag: full change list to my party plus reasoning behind it

    My current party consist of:

    gnome male stalker charname, modeled him after Russell Crowe's gladiator, changed his alligment to chaotic neutral and added barbarian rage twice a day.

    Did not edit Dorn and Keldorn - I used in-game exploit that I found on this forums to make them tolerate each other, other than that they were left unchanged.

    Changed Adrian to wild mage because I find wild magic fun and I already reached my limit of EE npcs so will not use Neera.

    Changed Yasraena from lvl 9 vanilla fighter to lvl 1 Shwashbuckler/ lvl 9 fighter multiclass since I need thief skills but I don't like to penalize her fighting power, and Imo wearing lighter armors suits her character better than full plates. And I know this combo is illegal, but I find it justified in my vision. Plus she is unable to use her trademark weapons for whatever reason (rant: Yoshimo katana is ellegant: only usable by: Yoshimo, so player can do whatever he wants with him. Why did Yasraena creators decided to make her swords only usable by vanilla fighter Yasraena saddens me.)

    After failing to beat De'Arnise keep final boss fight one too many times due to horror spell I changed Nalia to cleric/mage multiclass. Took extra care to do it properly so she won't gain excess power, but had to increase her wisdom, taking some charisma to compensate. I wanted to rely only on my paladins and stalker divine power through the game, but my plan crumbled when I realised Keldorn can't use magic and both of them have no lay on hands, and since I don't want to dual my stalker into cleric I had to improvise.


    All my changes are geared towards enhancing my own experience. I don't want to be penalized for choosing my team composition based on their chemistry and personality, or to be forced to add characters I don't like only because they add some vital battle skills. I leave the rest of the game as it is, though I'm tempted to make some drop modifications, since come on! I only done two quests so far, but my inventory is littered with magical plates and full plates while my charname was forced to use ordinary studded leather stripped from some stinky goblin.

    I want to be in control of my won experience, this is why I enjoy The Elder Scrolls series: every game deliberately gives you options to game the system if you so desire. It is sandbox! I like having option to create godlike equipment even in vanilla game on xbox when I so desire, but only by my choice. And since this is strictly single player experience, there is nothing wrong with it.
    booinyoureyesjackjack
  • booinyoureyesbooinyoureyes Member Posts: 6,164
    @grumpydolan I actually had that problem with Yoshimo's katana. Maybe the EEs changed it?
  • GrumpyDolanGrumpyDolan Member Posts: 16
    @booinyoureyes last time I had him in my party it stated that it is only usable by him, but I happen to have saved game with him in the party so will test it now!
  • MonoCanallaMonoCanalla Member Posts: 291
    After they killed my familiar (summoned from a scroll, no so more familiars in BG1), the game lowered my CON from 17 to 11!!!

    Before importing to BG2, I used the books to get it back to 16. Plus 1 more point in Charisma, for revenge.
  • GrumpyDolanGrumpyDolan Member Posts: 16
    @booinyoureyes It don't work with Yoshimo being paladin, cleric, fighter/mage or ranger, but it do work with fighter and with thief, so I quess they made it workable with his legit dual class option and that's it.
    jackjack
  • booinyoureyesbooinyoureyes Member Posts: 6,164

    @booinyoureyes It don't work with Yoshimo being paladin, cleric, fighter/mage or ranger, but it do work with fighter and with thief, so I quess they made it workable with his legit dual class option and that's it.

    @grumpydolan (i like your name :))
    It didn't work for me... weird. I made him a multi-class though, which is probably why. I made him a dual fighter TO bounty hunter and it worked
  • GrumpyDolanGrumpyDolan Member Posts: 16
    @booinyoureyes yes, this is how I made fighter/thief to work as well, keepered him to fighter and then dual classed. Now I learned to not trust item descriptions, and must return honor to Yasraena mod creators.

    And as for my name, joining both grumpy cat and dolan together was like ultimate internet boss, now doge is very prominent, but GrumpyDolanDoge sounds just wrong so using this avatar is the best I can do. Yours is cool as well, it makes Minsk's battle cry true for all of us readers.

    But I don't like to get smitten by some mod-gods for off-topic, bad for business. So yy yeah, like I stated in my original post, there is nothing wrong with a bit of tweaking in my eyes, as tweaking does not add awfull lot of power to the characters, and I for one play with full SCS installed and some harder encounters from other mods as well.
    booinyoureyes
  • CrevsDaakCrevsDaak Member Posts: 7,155
    I only cheat if I'm testing (as @elminster does), if not I'm only a power gamer.
    Bigfish
  • mumumomomumumomo Member Posts: 635
    I play on ipad so i cannot cheat and i would not do it anyway.

    On a similar level, do you use cheese and what do you consider as cheese?
    The thing is that the limit is somewhat difficult to define (see examples below).


    - lay up traps on a spawn point with resting in between to maximize the number of traps : i don't do
    - lay up traps on a spawn point without resting : i do
    - using staff of mage invis continuously (like in between 2 attacks) : i don't do
    - using staff of mage invis to escape when i am in a big trouble : i do
    - using project image to cast all my spell book on a kobold (or a lich, or a dragon) : i do
    - using project image to break the summon limit and have 10 planetars : i don't do.

    Basically my "rule" is : if the game allows it AND it seems in accordance with the item/capacity/spells, i do it.









    lelag200Gotural
  • nanonano Member Posts: 1,632
    edited January 2014
    The only one I use there is using staff of magi invis to escape. The others I find kind of ruin the game for me and I prefer to avoid them. It doesn't really matter to me whether something is considered cheese or not... if it makes the game worse I try not to do it.

    Another thing I don't do is steal from stores. There's no point to picking up gold if you can just swipe everything (especially if you do it to a fence and sell the stuff back!) I really like pickpocketing though. There's nothing more satisfying than swiping everyone's potions before a fight :]

    I don't want to sound like a snob so here are some things I do that might be considered cheese:
    - backstab casters before they can get their protections up
    - cast spells from outside of vision range with the help of an invisible scout
    - recharge items by selling and buying them back
    - prebuff whenever I feel like it
    - show beholders no mercy. overpowered bastards...
    Post edited by nano on
    booinyoureyesJuliusBorisov
  • CrevsDaakCrevsDaak Member Posts: 7,155
    Oh, the Staff of the Magi, I think I only used once to backstab with Jan (with the Belt of Frost Giant STR) to backstab a Vampire in Bodhi's Lair in chapter 6, I did not wanted Jan to get level drained.
  • lelag200lelag200 Member Posts: 125
    I had bad experience when I was a kid with cheating. I learned very young that a particular essence of the game is lost forever when you have cheated in that game. I didn't want to lose that in my favorite game but I did try a few things just for fun, but in playthroughs I never did cheat and never will. I haven't opened the console in like 8 years *said with pride*. Why would I cheat myself of challenge? I don't see why people even play the game if they are going to take the challenge and toss it aside. I guess we all play for different reasons.
  • PawnSlayerPawnSlayer Member Posts: 295
    Generally I don't do too much. I'll Clua in the Gauntlets of Crushing because I'm not prepared to help the Sahuagin King (I help the Prince then betray him) and thus miss out on all that experience. I'll switch to Easiest difficulty for all level up rolls and spell memorisation despite playing on Insane otherwise because I neither want to gimp my characters or spend ages waiting around for what I can do instantly anyway.

    That's about the limit of it though, I think. I'm prepared to do other small stuff on a case by case basis, but generally nothing too game-breaking.
  • abbadabaabbadaba Member Posts: 21
    Uh, sometimes I quick save before reading a valuable scroll if I don't have a potion of genius available. I use the difficulty slider before leveling 90% of the time. I have used traps to insta-kill dragons. So I have never cheated I suppose just abused game mechanics.
  • MoczoMoczo Member Posts: 236
    I have been known to redistribute weapon proficiencies or thief skills, though I at least always take care to make sure to always end with the same number I started with. And in BG2, I will Keeper a character from BG1 back into what I left them as in the first game (i.e., if I am playing a thief and therefore dualled Imoen into a mage at level two and gave her the Intelligence tome, I will put her BG2 incarnation back to that.)
  • bob_vengbob_veng Member Posts: 2,308
    I create containers via console (all except quiver belt, i wait to acquire that legit'ly) but i don't consider it cheating. It doesn't increase the odds in my favour, just saves precious seconds of my real life.
    jackjackbooinyoureyesBaptor
  • uglyducklynnuglyducklynn Member Posts: 61
    I use control-R as a substitute for Harper's Call, but I only use it as many times as I have it memorized. And obviously I won't use it to save them, only if they have died.
  • jackjackjackjack Member Posts: 3,251
    @uglyducklynn
    Considering Harper's Call is currently bugged, (correct?), I'm less inclined to call that a cheat than I am to call it a workaround.
    uglyducklynnabacusCrevsDaak
  • bob_vengbob_veng Member Posts: 2,308
    this is how i play:
    mumumomo said:


    - lay up traps on a spawn point with resting in between to maximize the number of traps : i don't do
    - lay up traps on a spawn point without resting : i do
    - using staff of mage invis continuously (like in between 2 attacks) : i don't do
    - using staff of mage invis to escape when i am in a big trouble : i do
    - using project image to cast all my spell book on a kobold (or a lich, or a dragon) : i do
    - using project image to break the summon limit and have 10 planetars : i don't do.

    - lay up traps on a spawn point with resting in between to maximize the number of traps : nope
    - lay up traps on a spawn point without resting : only if the character knows where the spawn point is (melissan - YES, irenicus - NO)
    - using staff of mage invis continuously (like in between 2 attacks) : ***not cheese***
    - using staff of mage invis to escape when i am in a big trouble : ***not cheese***
    - using project image to cast all my spell book on a kobold (or a lich, or a dragon) : ***not cheese***
    - using project image to break the summon limit and have 10 planetars : nope
    nano said:


    - backstab casters before they can get their protections up
    - cast spells from outside of vision range with the help of an invisible scout
    - recharge items by selling and buying them back
    - prebuff whenever I feel like it
    - show beholders no mercy. overpowered bastards...

    obviously none of these are cheesy
  • bladefistbladefist Member Posts: 10
    I rearrange NPC PiPs for a bit of variety. Montaron is always switched to assassin
    jackjack
  • SilverstarSilverstar Member Posts: 2,207
    jackjack said:

    Considering Harper's Call is currently bugged, (correct?), I'm less inclined to call that a cheat than I am to call it a workaround.

    How's it bugged exactly? Haven't had a need to use it yet since I don't have deaths often and Viconia's allready got Raise Dead. It's kind of just been sitting there memorized but unused on Jaheira's bark scroll.
  • MusignyMusigny Member Posts: 1,027
    I cheat myself : I love to play "old" computer games.
  • Demonoid_LimewireDemonoid_Limewire Member Posts: 424
    unkinhead said:

    Just curious if anyone out there, like me, occasionally uses cheats or editing to correct user error, etc.

    For example, whenever i playthrough baldurs gate, and i make a user error on proficiencies or stats or what not, i respec my character's sometimes. I go into eekeeper and - a skill/proficiency, and then + another one...Sort of like backtracking.

    I also occasionally use the teleport cheat if i have already discovered the area :D. Just because i am to impatient to walk there. IE: Teleport from west beregost to east beregost.

    Just curious, what cheats everyone else uses, if any, and what you truly consider cheating...

    Too me, truly cheating is obtaining a value, item, etc that you wouldn't normally have, abusing the game for combat gain, etc. What do you guys think?

    No editors, console and cheats for me, strictly. I powergame and abuse some certain glitches only. If using glitches and utilizing export import to nefarious extents is considered cheating though, then yes, probably i am cheating. But then again, some people consider cheating even the save-load to get higher hitpoints roll upon level up...
  • bob_vengbob_veng Member Posts: 2,308
    bladefist said:

    I rearrange NPC PiPs for a bit of variety. Montaron is always switched to assassin

    i do the same too, but i never give them more pips in a single weapon then the maximum they originally have had in any single weapon - i don't consider this cheating (i think it's totally legit if you only do it once and as soon as the npc joins you)
    *but*
    if you gather all their pips to pump a certain weapon as much as possible - cheaty munchkinism.

    this is especially true with mazzy. sometimes jaheira too.
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