Triple Crown Solo: Achivement for PoD, Expert Mode, IronMan + Solo

[archangel979]

I engage in lot of combat in Bg1 with my solo ironman characters. And I level very very fast as a result. You just have to know where to fight at what level. And it is much faster and more efficient time investment than most quests. And you get good loot in BG1 from many characters you kill (or you get it from just talking - Heart of Golem :D).

And I also go after encounters that I know give good XP but are not really needed just for fun of killing them with a solo character. But I would not bother if there was not a big XP reward as well.

Edited January 22, 2015 by archangel979

[Stun]

I'm assuming P:E will have a bunch of combat that's not avoidable though.

Yep. That's confirmed, actually.

 

In other words, no choice. PoE will still maintain the same type of "but thou must kill" gameplay that defines the IE games, while at the same time, eliminating the rewards for doing so. Wonderful game design.

Edited January 22, 2015 by Stun

[PrimeJunta]

Presumably that combat stands in the way of something you want to achieve. Isn't achieving that something (and the XP you get for that) reward enough for the combat?

 

Edit: nevermind, I'm getting a strong sense of déjà vu. We've had this conversation, and I don't think it's very likely we'll end up any place different this time around, so I am respectfully bowing out of it.

Edited January 22, 2015 by PrimeJunta

[Starwars]

 

I'm assuming P:E will have a bunch of combat that's not avoidable though.

Yep. That's confirmed, actually.

 

In other words, no choice. PoE will still maintain the same type of "but thou must kill" gameplay that defines the IE games, while at the same time, eliminating the rewards for doing so. Wonderful game design.

 

 

Just because there is unavoidable combat in the game doesn't mean that PoE won't give you a lot more freedom to actually *do* solve a lot of things without violence. Jesus Christ man... Clearly it's either BLACK OR WHITE!

[Stun]

 

 

I'm assuming P:E will have a bunch of combat that's not avoidable though.

Yep. That's confirmed, actually.

 

In other words, no choice. PoE will still maintain the same type of "but thou must kill" gameplay that defines the IE games, while at the same time, eliminating the rewards for doing so. Wonderful game design.

 

 

Just because there is unavoidable combat in the game doesn't mean that PoE won't give you a lot more freedom to actually *do* solve a lot of things without violence. Jesus Christ man... Clearly it's either BLACK OR WHITE!

 

Then soloing will be a breeze on the second playthrough. Simply avoid those situations/quests/areas where combat is required...right?

 

Or are you using a different definition of freedom?

Edited January 22, 2015 by Stun

[Sonntam]

 

 

Then soloing will be a breeze on the second playthrough. Simply avoid those situations/quests/areas where combat is required.

 

I have a strong feeling that some main quests will have unavoidable combat.

[Stun]

Again, confirmed. In fact, it's also confirmed that the main quest will have level scaled combat.

 

So lets applaud the game for its "gameplay freedom", and just ignore the fact that its main questline contains virtually none.

Edited January 22, 2015 by Stun

[aeonsim]

God give the combat XP a rest already.

 

With regards to the Triple Crown solo I suspect that crafting/enchantment will have one of the biggest effects on how doable it is. While your only going to get 20-30% more XP soloing compared to a full party you are still going to get all the loot and gold. This should mean you can afford to invest a huge amount in your equipment. I've never managed to find the right resources to test it in the beta but I'd be interested to see if you can stack multiple different slaying or damage types onto the same weapon (even if it's insanely expensive). A weapon of Humanoid slaying is +5 ACC +1.25x DMG (against kith), add in say Slaying vs vessels and a couple of secondary damage types (Burning lash, Shocking lash, Crushing lash) + a stat boost or two and additional accuracy and your'd possibly have a weapon worth 200,000cp that in can nearly one shot a lot of enemies.

 

The same with amour if you can stack up several stat bonuses, and a couple of different proofs (crushing, flame, freezing etc) you could end up with very powerful equipment that makes for an insanely powerful Char.

 

Think of a high Might (1.3x DMG) Rogue with Sneak attack (1.25x DMG) and a weapon that gives Kith Slaying (1.25X DMG) + Flame lash (+50% Fire damage) + Shocking lash (+50% Shock DMG) + Crushing lash (+50% crushing) with + 4 to Might (1.12x DMG).

[Lephys]

^ 'Tis a good point. In regular, full-party play, always switching to the most supremely effective equipment for a given encounter won't be as important (although, it'll still be more important the higher in difficulty setting you go). But, for a solo run, this would probably be something you'd want to do. That, and how much you're able to get out of crafting/enchantment could make or break such a run. 8P

[PrimeJunta]

@aeonsim That's probably a pretty good strategy for even a normal playthrough. Build up a champion in your party, with others as support, and let her do the hard work while the rest cheer from the sidelines (and cast some buffs).

[LadyCrimson]

There was a time I might have at least tried such challenges, whether officially a 'challenge' or one people just did on their own. But these days I definitely don't have the patience.

 

Anyone who tries it and succeeds, my hat's off...it sounds really difficult.

[Yonjuro]

 

 

I am already solo ironmaning Bg1ee

BG was relatively easy to solo as a wizard. Get the Ring of Wizardry and MM everything to death at lower levels. Rely on summons at higher levels. Ironman still sounds like a challenge though. Which class are you playing?

 

 

I think that BG:EE uses BG2:s version of the Ring of Wizardry, though, which is all kinds of less spectacular than the BG1 kind....

 

 

 BG1 is beatable as a level 1 solo mage so the ring shouldn't be a make or break item.

[Lord Gorchnik]

Yeeesh I can barely complete the demo on EASY no less without dying 20-25 times.  No way those achievements will ever be in my profile. 

[Labadal]

Again, confirmed. In fact, it's also confirmed that the main quest will have level scaled combat.

 

So lets applaud the game for its "gameplay freedom", and just ignore the fact that its main questline contains virtually none.

The same as the IE games, then.

[Ineth]

I still haven't played any of the "Enhanced Editions" on account of them appear to be mostly bad mods that have been glued to the side of a great game, marring it like plastic surgery ravaged Amanda Bynes.

 

In case of BG:EE and BG2:EE that may be true, but IWD:EE is definitely an improvement over the original game, and well worth the purchase - especially for the:

 

1) BG2 engine features

 

Since the EE engine is based on BG2:ToB, it brings the BG2-only and ToB-only engine features to all the games. For BG2 that's obviously no improvement, and in BG1 you could already get those features by installing BGT or Tutu - but for IWD, the EE is the only way to get a stable game with those features. They include:

• extra classes (Barbarians, Monks, Sorcerers, Wild Mages)
• support for class kits
• support for dual-wielding
• more fine-grained proficiency system
• support for more spell effects (which in the original IWD couldn't even be added by mods, due to engine limitations)

2) Mod availability

 

There are countless mods for the original BG2 out there; When BG2:EE was releases, it broke compatibility with a good number of them, so it was actually a "downgrade" in terms of mod availability. By now many of those mods have been ported to work with EE too, but still, its value in this area is ambivalent.

 

Not so in the case of IWD. For the original game there were only ever around 6 mods in popular use afaik, and 4 of them are no longer needed with IWD:EE because it already contains the improvements they added. More importantly though, many BG2 and BG2:EE mods are now also available to IWD:EE players - some worked without change, others were ported by their authors because it was easy to do so (unlike porting to the original IWD which was too different engine-wise).

And last but not least, it seems the EE release sparked a new wave of modding activity, with a bunch of new mods already released specifically for IWD:EE and more in progress.

Altogether, around 30 mods are currently known to work with IWD:EE (plus probably several more BG2 mods that just haven't been confirmed to work yet), ranging from extra kits and bonus merchants to extensive game rule changes.

Needless to say, this does wonders for the game's replayability!

 

3) UI enhancements

 

The scalable UI, scalable font size, and zoom support are a real blessing when playing on a modern PC screen - the Widescreen mod for the original games seems like a poor crutch in comparison.

 

And then there are little UI improvements/modernizations all over, like a green outline around scrolls (both in the inventory and in stores) which indicates that the currently selected character could learn that spell (i.e. doesn't have it in their spellbook yet):

 

 

And of course the (optional) quick-loot bar:

 

 

That sort of thing. For BG(2):EE these minor enhancments may not be enough to justify the purchase, but in case of IWD:EE they're the icing on the (already very tasty) cake.