Skip to content

Wow, summoning exploit still has not been fixed. A question to the developers.

IntoTheDarknessIntoTheDarkness Member Posts: 118
You can summon a whole army using simulacrum and project image. It's always been the biggest exploit in BG2 because you can bypass the summoning cap of 1 for celestial and 5 total for the party.

I remember summoning 20 planetars and dog-piling on Demogorgon back in the day. I left the monitor unpaused and the poor demon prince was still swimming in waves of red planetars when I came back from the kitchen.

I expected this to be closed by BG2EE, since it's a well known exploit with improved invisibility + spell immunity cheese. Unfortunately it's still there. I think II+SI cheese is still there, too. (this allows a mage to finish the game without ever getting attacked. SI against abjuration/divination prevents dispel and true seeing while improved invisibility blocks breach attempt; as long as you cast defensive spells your mage is invincible and won't take 1hp loss throughout the entire game because the enemies have no means of removing your defensive spells.)

Since BG2EE won't be getting updates soon, I would like to hear from developers the intended behavior so that I could restrict myself adhering to that behavior and I don't think you wanted players to summon 30 army that can hack most enemy bosses in few seconds.

Is the summoning cap to be any larger if you use clones, or is it still intended to be 5 no matter what? If the former, what's the intended limit on summoning cap if you use clones? For now I'm going to stick to the party limitation of 5 because clones shouldn't up the cap if your companions can't increase the cap.
Post edited by IntoTheDarkness on

Comments

  • jesterdesujesterdesu Member Posts: 373
    Agree wholeheartedly. Game breaking summon spam negates requirement for real tactics.
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    II+SI doesn't prevent enemies from attacking you; it just keeps most enemies from targeting you with spells. Once you cast another spell, you become targetable by normal attacks, and things like Liches can still target you with spells because they can see through invisibility (it's a special opcode) and cast spells at you via their scripts. It's in IWD2, not BG2, that Improved Invisibility renders you all but invincible.

    I do agree that the 5 critter summoning limit shouldn't apply to a party of 6, but I see no reason to get rid of the Project Image summoning exploit. If you want to summon fewer than 20 Planetars, then don't cast the spell 20 times.
  • The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • SethDavisSethDavis Member Posts: 1,812
    it's probably because people stopped telling me exploits after I started closing them. hell, I wasn't even *allowed* to close the billion trap ambush one.

    going from the code and the sumlimit 2da I'm guessing that those summoners aren't concidered party members properly, so it should be closed.
  • IntoTheDarknessIntoTheDarkness Member Posts: 118
    edited May 2015

    II+SI doesn't prevent enemies from attacking you; it just keeps most enemies from targeting you with spells. Once you cast another spell, you become targetable by normal attacks, and things like Liches can still target you with spells because they can see through invisibility (it's a special opcode) and cast spells at you via their scripts. It's in IWD2, not BG2, that Improved Invisibility renders you all but invincible.

    I do agree that the 5 critter summoning limit shouldn't apply to a party of 6, but I see no reason to get rid of the Project Image summoning exploit. If you want to summon fewer than 20 Planetars, then don't cast the spell 20 times.


    As a mage you have multiple defensive spells that makes you invincible for a duration. You can't be dispelled if you have SI against abjuration, you can't be revealed if you have SI against divination, and you can't be breached if you have improved invisibility. All you have to do is use defensive spells when their time runs out. It's a cheese I'm well accustomed with because in my 2nd play through of BG2 I took solo sorcerer and beat the game in core without ever taking 1hp loss in battles.
  • IntoTheDarknessIntoTheDarkness Member Posts: 118
    edited May 2015
    SethDavis said:

    it's probably because people stopped telling me exploits after I started closing them. hell, I wasn't even *allowed* to close the billion trap ambush one.

    going from the code and the sumlimit 2da I'm guessing that those summoners aren't concidered party members properly, so it should be closed.

    Are you implying gamers made objections when you tried to close trap ambush, or was it contractual limitations?

    If the former, I have no idea why people want to prevent devs from closing exploits. Might as well use the EE keeper and make their characters invincible if they want to use cheese tactics.

    Of course I can restrict myself from using those tactics, but sometimes the boundary between cheese and tactics can be blurry. I need devs to close what's considered exploits to clearly know what's allowed and what's not allowed, like in this case with summoning caps.

    BTW thanks for the confirmation. I will not summon more than 5 total even with clones.
    Post edited by IntoTheDarkness on
  • SethDavisSethDavis Member Posts: 1,812
    it was a tester who said that the ambush exploit was the only way they were able to solo demogorgon with a thief on SCS.... I'm still bitter.
  • AstroBryGuyAstroBryGuy Member Posts: 3,437

    SethDavis said:

    it's probably because people stopped telling me exploits after I started closing them. hell, I wasn't even *allowed* to close the billion trap ambush one.

    going from the code and the sumlimit 2da I'm guessing that those summoners aren't concidered party members properly, so it should be closed.

    Are you implying gamers made objections when you tried to close trap ambush, or was it contractual limitations?

    If the former, I have no idea why people want to prevent devs from closing exploits. Might as well use the EE keeper and make their characters invincible if they want to use cheese tactics.
    Yeah, just read the hue and cry over the devs closing the bug in BG2 that allowed you to pause the game right at the beginning, open your inventory, and drop all your stuff, allowing you to keep your entire inventory.

    http://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/21350/keeping-items-at-start-in-bg2-ee-like-it-was-in-bg1/p1
  • jesterdesujesterdesu Member Posts: 373

    A lot of things negate the requirement for real tactics...

    I must say I've always thought the summoning cap was a weird and arbitrary thing anyway, I always disable it. Anyway how many summons are there that can actually hack bosses to death? Most summons are pretty squishy - with some notable, cheesy exceptions. The planetar is the worst offender but let's face it the planetar summons is ridiculous on every level. Why would celestial beings send a more powerful ally to a stupid wizard than to a devout, faithful, high-level cleric? Why would they serve a mortal wizard in the first place? There's a million stories of wizards summoning demonic servants, it's an established trope. But not celestials.

    Best thing to do IMHO is to replace the planetar summons with a balor or elemental. Give the planetar to clerics of level 30+ as an upgrade to the deva summons.

    Btw mods are your friends here. Install SCS and Spell Revisions and watch the cheese disappear. True Sight can now overcome SI:Div! Enemies can cast Banishment to remove your summons! No more Skeleton Warriors from a low-level spell! Etc.


    Your first line seems dismissive and I'm unsure why. Just because "a lot of things negate the requirement for real tactics", we can still raise bugbears individually.

    Whilst I like the attempt at a work around I definitely think a summoning cap implemented on summons (to avoid this summoning cheese) would be preferrable (to me at least). One of the cheesiest tactics in the game is exploiting silmacuralum & mislead with multiple improved bard songs... it always bothers me that this stuff is still allowed by the game as I'm pretty sure it wasn't intended.

  • The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • reedmilfamreedmilfam Member Posts: 2,808
    Umm... I'm not seeing why the developers must answer a specific question of an exploit that the player can choose not to use. I also don't see why any of us can say what the developers do, or don't, want available. If you think it is a bug, go to the bugs and use the format of Observed Behavior: (description) with the Expected Behavior: (how you think it should work).

    There is no 'allowed' versus 'not allowed'. The game engine is not perfect, and limitations are not perfect. It might be fixable, but, if not, it sort of is what it is.
  • moody_magemoody_mage Member Posts: 2,054
    Wait until I've finished my solo sorcerer run though. Demogorgon is a PITA and needs to be reamed with cheese.
Sign In or Register to comment.