Traps and party pathfinding

[Crucis]

What I've been finding annoying lately is this.  I use Durance as my party's trap specialist.  However, I probably spent a few too many skill points on other things and thus his mechanics skill isn't totally maximized, only at level 9 in Mechanics (and he's maxed out level-wise).  Ok, fine.  I can deal with that.  He's not perfect, but he's plenty good enough to spot the traps.

 

The problem I have is that the pathfinding AI for party members is ridiculous when it comes to spotted traps.  For crying out loud, the traps are spotted!  WALK AROUND THEM, you fools!  Yes, I could manually pathfind each and every freaking character around the traps, but should that really be necessary?  Must the characters be such morons that they can't walk around a SPOTTED trap without my micromanaging?  My patience wears thin when I have to micromanage all 6 characters around a couple of spotted traps that Durance can't disarm.  And I don't like intentionally sending some sacrificial lamb to trigger the trap just for my personal convenience.  It doesn't sit well with me from a role-playing perspective (though Eder does seem to have a knack for triggering traps and avoiding any damage).

 

 

[billythegreat]

Use inn mechanics rest bonus + Salty Mast biatch mechanics bonus for 11 total skill and you disable 99% of the traps. Unless you are lucky and find Gloves of Manipulation with +2 mechanics.

[Zenicetus]

Well, there aren't many traps in the game that totally block off progress, and XP is very easy to gain in other ways. Making it a PITA to manually move your party around traps is just a reminder that, hey, one party member still needs to work on their mechanics skill. It also preserves the idea of traps being dangerous, while still allowing your party to continue moving forward. Having everyone just casually waltz past armed traps without player intervention might feel a bit cheesy.

 

Or (like you said), after he levels up enough, Eder can just be used as a minesweeper. 

 

[Crucis]

Well, there aren't many traps in the game that totally block off progress, and XP is very easy to gain in other ways. Making it a PITA to manually move your party around traps is just a reminder that, hey, one party member still needs to work on their mechanics skill. It also preserves the idea of traps being dangerous, while still allowing your party to continue moving forward. Having everyone just casually waltz past armed traps without player intervention might feel a bit cheesy.

 

Or (like you said), after he levels up enough, Eder can just be used as a minesweeper. 

 

Honestly, it doesn't seem cheesy to me to have the pathfinding algorithm require party members to walk around SPOTTED traps.  To me, it's cheesy, or rather just plain dumb, that the characters are so utterly freakin' stupid that they'll just waltz over a spotted trap that their party trap-master pointed out for them.

 

As for working on mechanics, like I said before, I did level up Durance's mechanics skill as best I could without utterly ignoring other useful ones.  Maybe that was my mistake and I should have had him spend every single skill point on mechanics without exception.  Of course, it'd have been nice if one of the pre-made NPC's had been a rogue.  (Actually, one was.... the male NPC that joined you at the very start for that first dungeon and got killed moments after leaving it, along with that female fighter.  Why oh why couldn't he have survived?    )

 

I guess that I didn't need any reminding that traps are dangerous, because I go through any unfamiliar area in scouting mode looking for traps.  Old habit from BG1/2 and IWD1/2.  It seems to me that the reminder that traps are dangerous should be for those who waltz around an area NOT in scouting mode without a care in the world.  Those people are pretty much begging to run right over a trap.

[Crucis]

Use inn mechanics rest bonus + Salty Mast biatch mechanics bonus for 11 total skill and you disable 99% of the traps. Unless you are lucky and find Gloves of Manipulation with +2 mechanics.

 

I don't recall ever see this item.  Darn, I'd have snatched that one up in a heartbeat for Durance! 

 

EDIT:  Knowing that skill bonuses are sometimes part of an item's enchantment, I checked to see if possible for a player to add skill bonuses thru enchantments.  Unfortunately, you can add character attribute enchantments, but not skill bonus enchantments.  Oh well.  It was worth a look.

Edited April 13, 2015 by Crucis

[billythegreat]

I said , " If you are lucky" because those gloves are random loot. This will answer also what you asked in another thread .

[Crucis]

Ah.  Thx billy.  Shame.  That sort of item would be GREATLY appreciated and valued.  Perhaps a lot more than the 8th copy of some ring of cloak of minor deflection, if you know what I mean.

[Luckmann]

 

addtalent companion_Durance(Clone)_6 tln_expert_mechanic

[Crucis]

Thanks, Luckmann.  Lucky (pardon the pun) for me, I completed my first run-thru of PoE last night.  I beat the final boss on my first try, which surprised me a little because I really wasn't expecting to do so.  I didn't buff up my party with those food and drink "buffs" mostly because I was just fighting the battle to get a taste of what it was going to be like for a second, more serious attempt.  But surprisingly, I beat the boss, though half my party went down, leaving only my Ranger PC, Aloth, and Durance remaining.  And my Ranger PC got in the final killing blow on the boss, which felt very fitting.