Blomdor; You played Nethack? Buddy, you know the definition of dying far beyond that of most mortals. Kuddos for that. I LOVE that game and I suggest it helped me discover strategy play beyond anything available today (or since). As for this post, I reload if an NPC I have specific designs on progressing gets chunked, otherwise I use temples to resurrect. As some have mentioned, Durlags Tower and Shandalar's Ice Isle are exceptions and will reload for convenience.
How does everyone else explore maps in bg1 on replay? I have trouble replaying this game more than once every decade, it gets very tedious for me. I remember the sheer amount of magic I felt back when I first played it on my 5 cd's and 640x480 resolution. But that was based on my own ignorance, I think. And the fog of war. I'd stick to the path at first but later I'd venture out further. I felt this world of unexplored wonder out there and every encounter felt real. All those pointless maps in between where I was going were fun, too, and I'd randomly pick which one to go through. It really felt like I was travelling.
But now that I'm older or smarter or something it kills that mood. It's like, okay, each map is X by Y dimensions and has this many encounters and probably a useful item or two. So I go to every single one and explore it lawnmower fashion. And it's boring...
Bg1 was like the last game like that, I think. (I can't remember icewind dale anymore). Bg2 maps were more focused, if I remember right. I try to imagine being a game developer and I see why they shifted. The maps in bg1 were so pointless.
But all the same the thing that makes bg1 so tedious to me now is what made it so magical back in the day. All those random expanses of pointlessless.
It's only tedious on a replay, though. I know if I could play it for the first time again and I didn't know what was behind the fog of war I'd still get a kick out of it.
I reload when someone dies if the effort of playing through the fight again (or finding a trap) is less than the effort of picking up all their stuff and traipsing back to a temple to rez them. I'll also reload if I get caught stealing and don't have Rogue Rebalancing installed so I can talk my way out of it, because the way the vanilla game handles it just feels unfair, and I'll reload for roleplay reasons, like if I accidentally click the wrong dialogue option and kill my romance or something.
Actually I probably reload more than that, since I don't specifically try for no-reload runs, but those are the three "absolutely must reload" situations for me.
I reload for everything. Any party member dying, fail to read scrolls, walk into trap with annoying status effects, fail to pickpocket, run into annoying ambush, get level drained, pick wrong dialogue option, answer a riddle incorrectly... yeah, everything. Sometimes even if I take too much damage in a fight and think it'll be easier to redo the fight then spend the time on healing up.
I don't play this game much for immersion anymore. I rarely if ever pick up any NPCs, and even if I did, I wouldn't have much emotional attachment to them. Dying wouldn't mean much, it'd just be annoying. Also I put a lot of thought into my partys and how they work together. One character getting chunked likely means there's no good replacement for them, and my whole setup has been nullified.
Neither do I enjoy playing the game with self-inflicted limitations. If I want difficulty, I'll play LoB or difficulty mods. And reload like a maniac.
I reload as needed. Which is to say if it costs too much to recover from a bad fight or if I missed something important and can't go back for it. I will pretty much always reload if a character gets chunked or petrified.
"No reloads" would add stress and I don't game for stress. Or rather, I don't play this game for stress.
I am mostly reloading without a second thought, still searching for the perfect overall flow-shape for the story of Charname and Imoen dealing with Baalspawn-nature and Sarevok. Mechanics and events of the game itself are of secondary importance to creating it in my imagination.
Eventually I want to wind up with a carefully selected set of encounters that will provide adequate XP in a sensible manner that preserves a continuous story-line rather than mere completionism. Once I figure that out I might get into Minimal Reloads, etc., but it is more likely that I will continue to enjoy how the story might change with different alignments and party compositions more than power-gaming.
That most satisfying story-line will probably turn out to be one in which there is a real risk of NPC deaths at certain points. For example, I find the idea of an NPC Dire Charmed by Sirines that has to be destroyed an interesting story element, while the idea of being chunked by a 12 Bandit ambush seems kind of pointless when suppressing the entire Bandit Camp turns out to be a cake-walk.
Will probably seek out eventually a story-line which minimizes the general hack-and-slash bias of the early chapters with a basic assumption that Khalid and Jaheira, as Harpers genuinely interested in taking over Gorion's parental role to some extent on a long-term basis, are providing a much more detailed overview of the Sword Coast for Charname and Imoen than the game itself indicates.
Might also choose eventually to explore a challenge that resets the XP thresholds for Levelling. Kind of unrealistic to achieve Level 7/7 FM in a single season of adventuring. And I might outlaw certain spells such as Haste [or the Stinking Cloud/Animate Dead combo] which are game-breaking.
I prefer to reload. I've done a no-reload playthrough, and it certainly got me thinking more deeply about the game, but it's stressful and grad school provides me plenty of stress already, thanks. I opt for self-imposed restrictions instead. Keeps things interesting without making me tear out what little is left of my hair.
I always view death as being incapacitated only and not dead, where you can be healed only at a temple. Getting chunked though, that is the actual death.
Depends on the run. In my current BG:EE run i'm save scrubbing pretty hard because i'm just trying to get a new completionist save before trying out Siege of Dragonspear. I still try not to overly save scrub. If it's not crazy inconvenient i'm going back to town for raises, accepting trap damage, and dealing with consequences as they come. Though thats only because if I don't it feels like i'm not playing right. In a game so focused on consequence of action if you reload at every consequence it feels hollow.
I keep cheating to a minimum, but I have the command line on to deal with glitches or errors. Even in Enhanced Edition i've come across situations where an NPC didn't trigger right or items disappeared but I guess that's just the nature of the beast. BG was always a buggy videogame.
For Siege of Dragonspear, since it'll be my first playthrough, i'll do limited reloads. Just to make sure I don't miss out on stuff. Then in BG2:EE i'm gonna go ironman. No reloads for character deaths
Then maybe next time I play BG:EE i'll do a no reload run, who knows. Both low reload and save scrub runs are fun for me. Only thing thats probably too hardcore is straight no reloads because I feel like that would just encourage me to stay on the critical path and not explore as much.
I play in various ways. The hardest one I tried was with 3d6, taken in order. It is a bit of a challenge to keep a character alive that has 13/6/4/12/13/10. It was not very effective.
I usually only reload on charname death, but I just started a playthrough where I made a couple, I'll both make them bhaalspawn manually. The two of them need to survive both.
I did a bg1 hardcore run, solo run, but my solo hardcore did not reach the end (should have just disabled the level cap).
I'll put aside my pride and just put it out there... I reload all the time
I mostly just use it for chunking or game overs, or if my only cleric/shaman dies - but for me, those are quite frequent, at least on boss fights. I also do it sometimes if I set off traps(going through every dungeon 1 halfling step at a time gets a bit tiresome). In BG1 I don't die so much, but in 2 it's much more often - took about 15 attempts on Kangaxx last night, most of them were just figuring out what weapons/spells would work.
I've tried doing no or minimal reload runs, but that typically just leads to me using super cheesy tactics, like beating mages by standing out of sight and sending in one summon a a time until they run out of spells. I prefer to play more fun/relaxed/risky and just reload if I need it.
I reload frequently, but not to get it "right". Just to try different tactics, spells, characters. Sometimes I find things that work in one situation where they had failed in another situation and I had blown it off. For instance, Blindness works much better now so I will use it more.
I reload constantly, I don't get the whole no reload thing.
I tend to play with SCS in BG1 and SCS, some of tactics and Ascension for BG2/ToB. If I didn't reload I don't think I would ever be able to finish these games or at least I don't think I would be able to finish these games without relying on exploits.
Comments
Buddy, you know the definition of dying far beyond that of most mortals.
Kuddos for that. I LOVE that game and I suggest it helped me discover strategy play beyond anything available today (or since).
As for this post, I reload if an NPC I have specific designs on progressing gets chunked, otherwise I use temples to resurrect. As some have mentioned, Durlags Tower and Shandalar's Ice Isle are exceptions and will reload for convenience.
But now that I'm older or smarter or something it kills that mood. It's like, okay, each map is X by Y dimensions and has this many encounters and probably a useful item or two. So I go to every single one and explore it lawnmower fashion. And it's boring...
Bg1 was like the last game like that, I think. (I can't remember icewind dale anymore). Bg2 maps were more focused, if I remember right. I try to imagine being a game developer and I see why they shifted. The maps in bg1 were so pointless.
But all the same the thing that makes bg1 so tedious to me now is what made it so magical back in the day. All those random expanses of pointlessless.
It's only tedious on a replay, though. I know if I could play it for the first time again and I didn't know what was behind the fog of war I'd still get a kick out of it.
Actually I probably reload more than that, since I don't specifically try for no-reload runs, but those are the three "absolutely must reload" situations for me.
I don't play this game much for immersion anymore. I rarely if ever pick up any NPCs, and even if I did, I wouldn't have much emotional attachment to them. Dying wouldn't mean much, it'd just be annoying. Also I put a lot of thought into my partys and how they work together. One character getting chunked likely means there's no good replacement for them, and my whole setup has been nullified.
Neither do I enjoy playing the game with self-inflicted limitations. If I want difficulty, I'll play LoB or difficulty mods. And reload like a maniac.
"No reloads" would add stress and I don't game for stress. Or rather, I don't play this game for stress.
Eventually I want to wind up with a carefully selected set of encounters that will provide adequate XP in a sensible manner that preserves a continuous story-line rather than mere completionism. Once I figure that out I might get into Minimal Reloads, etc., but it is more likely that I will continue to enjoy how the story might change with different alignments and party compositions more than power-gaming.
That most satisfying story-line will probably turn out to be one in which there is a real risk of NPC deaths at certain points. For example, I find the idea of an NPC Dire Charmed by Sirines that has to be destroyed an interesting story element, while the idea of being chunked by a 12 Bandit ambush seems kind of pointless when suppressing the entire Bandit Camp turns out to be a cake-walk.
Will probably seek out eventually a story-line which minimizes the general hack-and-slash bias of the early chapters with a basic assumption that Khalid and Jaheira, as Harpers genuinely interested in taking over Gorion's parental role to some extent on a long-term basis, are providing a much more detailed overview of the Sword Coast for Charname and Imoen than the game itself indicates.
Might also choose eventually to explore a challenge that resets the XP thresholds for Levelling. Kind of unrealistic to achieve Level 7/7 FM in a single season of adventuring. And I might outlaw certain spells such as Haste [or the Stinking Cloud/Animate Dead combo] which are game-breaking.
I keep cheating to a minimum, but I have the command line on to deal with glitches or errors. Even in Enhanced Edition i've come across situations where an NPC didn't trigger right or items disappeared but I guess that's just the nature of the beast. BG was always a buggy videogame.
For Siege of Dragonspear, since it'll be my first playthrough, i'll do limited reloads. Just to make sure I don't miss out on stuff. Then in BG2:EE i'm gonna go ironman. No reloads for character deaths
Then maybe next time I play BG:EE i'll do a no reload run, who knows. Both low reload and save scrub runs are fun for me. Only thing thats probably too hardcore is straight no reloads because I feel like that would just encourage me to stay on the critical path and not explore as much.
I usually only reload on charname death, but I just started a playthrough where I made a couple, I'll both make them bhaalspawn manually. The two of them need to survive both.
I did a bg1 hardcore run, solo run, but my solo hardcore did not reach the end (should have just disabled the level cap).
I mostly just use it for chunking or game overs, or if my only cleric/shaman dies - but for me, those are quite frequent, at least on boss fights. I also do it sometimes if I set off traps(going through every dungeon 1 halfling step at a time gets a bit tiresome). In BG1 I don't die so much, but in 2 it's much more often - took about 15 attempts on Kangaxx last night, most of them were just figuring out what weapons/spells would work.
I've tried doing no or minimal reload runs, but that typically just leads to me using super cheesy tactics, like beating mages by standing out of sight and sending in one summon a a time until they run out of spells. I prefer to play more fun/relaxed/risky and just reload if I need it.
I tend to play with SCS in BG1 and SCS, some of tactics and Ascension for BG2/ToB. If I didn't reload I don't think I would ever be able to finish these games or at least I don't think I would be able to finish these games without relying on exploits.