Aspiring towards realism

[dragubaba]

I've been thinking for a while of a sort of "realism run" challenge for PoE with heavy emphasis on roleplaying. The idea is to take as realistic approach to the way you play the game as possible. This involves lots of self-imposed restrictions and ignoring of the arcade elements in the game, biggest one being the infinite inventory known as Stash. Expert mode is naturally on but lets take it even further.

Inventory management and gear is _the_ big issue here. First, looting armor is not allowed. This makes sense because when comissioned, armor is fitted to the person it was made for. If you already have a fitting and combat-tested armor it would be quite a gamble to take someone elses even if you happen to find one that seamingly fits. You don't know who made it or from exactly what it's made of. Only way to acquire new set of armor is to buy it from an artisan vendor. That is someone operating within a smithy or who has ties to one. That aumaua in Gilded Vale is one that comes to mind. Looting armor in order to sell it is also not allowed because hauling around an extra set of armor makes you decisively cribled in combat. And you are not a packmule. And yes, this effectively makes every armor that an NPC drops unavailable to you.

Weaponry. You can loot a weapon. However the ammount of weaponry on you (including personal inventory) is restricted to a main weapon and a sidearm. In case of two-handers the sidearm must be a small category weapon or a pistol/blunderbuss. Large one-handed melee weapons can be carried with either another large one-hander or a small weapon/pistol/blunderbuss. Small category weapons and pistols/blunderbusses can be carried three at a time provided those are the only weapons on you. Shields and implements are considered as a large one-hander.

Jewlery and non-body armor gear. Rings and necklases are small enough objects to carry a sackful around so they don't have any other restrictions except the limits of ones personal inventory slots. Other gear like boots and capes are small enough to carry one extra item in your personal inventory in addition to those on your character.

Other stuff. This comes back to the "you are not a packmule"-argument. Liquid is heavy in large quantities so 5 potions is maximum. Wether those are all healing potions or buffing ones is up to you. More variation will cost you in inventory slots though. On top of that 6 portions (1 stack) of your favorite alcoholic beverages (like beer) is allowed and 12 food items (2 stacks, adventurers gotta eat). Looting potions or anything that goes to your mouth is discouraged, who knows what those freaks have in them. Better buy it from a respectable vendor. Scrolls are a piece of paper so you are restricted by your inventory slots here. Same thing for books and grimoires though you really need to love books to sacrifice what little room you have in your backpack for them. Summoning items yet again the same thing as well as lockpicks and similar adventure gear. Lockpicks and traps etc. needs to be in your personal inventory for you to be able to use them. Crafting materials like herbs and animal parts goes automaticly to stash and if they don't you can put them there. The game throws heaps of that stuff at you so better to treat them as seperate thing.

Using stash on the road is not allowed, not even when resting. However when you are about to loot yourself a new weapon or a piece of gear (other than bodyarmor) you can stash the old one. The size of your stash should always remain within the perimeters of what one can carry comfortably when heading back to town to sell your obsolete gear. You can also ditch gear into bodies or containers if your stash contains more than couple of items. Items related to quests are exempt from all this. Also disarmed traps are automatically added to your inventory so there is not much choice here but to stash or ditch them if you don't want them taking up precious personal inventory space. Mind you stashing is considered as dropping the item so you can only "reacquire" them once back in town. To store items and gear for future use you need Caed Nua. There is a chest in a room right of the throne that is your personal vault in which no one else has access to. A chest has limited dimensions so try not to hoard.

Now, with combat you can't do much except for the obvious. That is to not abuse game mechanics. Sneak mode is often very immersion breaking (sneaking in an open field) so its heavy use is discouraged unless your class relies on it. Also no fast-traveling 16 hours back to town because you forgot one thing. You wouldn't probably do it if traveling literary lasted for hours.

That's it I think. I wrote all this down mostly for myself so it doesn't rattle around in my head. I'll probably do this as a solo so it's easier to keep everything in check. Also I don't have the expert mode achievement yet so there's one insentive. As a final word, the point is not to inconvenience oneself but to make do with what you have. That is the challenge.

Edited January 12, 2018 by dragubaba

[vanyel54]

That's hard.

I have thoughts about the same sort of challenge. But i haven't thought about limiting the looting of armors.

Do you have thoughts for the class to use ? A chanter came to mind as a class that doesn't rely heavily on equipment.

Do you intend to it on Iron man too (in this case you're in the sadistic mode ) ?

[dragubaba]

That's hard.

I have thoughts about the same sort of challenge. But i haven't thought about limiting the looting of armors.

Do you have thoughts for the class to use ? A chanter came to mind as a class that doesn't rely heavily on equipment.

Do you intend to it on Iron man too (in this case you're in the sadistic mode ) ?

 

I'm way too neurotic to even consider Trial of Iron, I'd be going through the game in slow mode and pausing every second. I went with the "easy" class and chose a monk. No reliance on weapons; armor is pretty much "as long as you got some". Thus far I'm loving it because things on you now have somekind of value. The measly flagon of ale is suddenly your friend in the dark dungeon.

Edited January 17, 2018 by dragubaba

[Torm51]

Thing with easy is that it invalidates the challenge.  On easy you can literally do whatever you want and as long as you do not try to die you will not.  This is just my humble opinion of course.  I think this challenge would be GREAT on hard or PoTD and YOU GOOD SIR have INSPIRED me.  I thank you!

[vanyel54]

@dragubaba: easy class or easy difficulty ?

[dragubaba]

@dragubaba: easy class or easy difficulty ?

Class. I think I went with normal difficulty because of solo but might change it to hard because I did PotD before.

[vanyel54]

I will surely try on hard mode. POTD and "Realist" seems really too much

Perhaps an adjustment or your rule on the armor loot : you could take an armor you have the same bulk (ex: an aumaua could steal and aumaua character but not a dwarf one).

[dragubaba]

I will surely try on hard mode. POTD and "Realist" seems really too much

Perhaps an adjustment or your rule on the armor loot : you could take an armor you have the same bulk (ex: an aumaua could steal and aumaua character but not a dwarf one).

I thought of this as well. Aumaua could loot armor from another aumaua, dwarf from another dwarf etc. Humans and elfs could maybe share armors but that would give them quite an advantage.