As a curiosity

[The Riddick]

How long has taken for you guys to finish the game?. In game days, not real days, I mean. This last time I did it in 156 days, 156 days and eight hours to be more exact, and the previous one I think was in around 130 days or so. You know something that adds a lot of days to that?. The time travelling between destinations. Everytime you wanna go from Dragon´s Eye to Kuldahar is 16 hours... one way!. Or eight hours between the Goblin Fortress and Targos. And you need to go back to Targos a few times, to sell, to replenish the arrows, wich I don´t know you guys, but two of my party members eat them like candy!, and to stock pile on potions.
So, between 130 and 150 days for me. What about you?

[Magness]

I honestly don't know. I've never paid all that much attention to it.

Sometimes I wish that there was a little time pressure so that the player had to push a little harder and not rest after every little engagement, or go running back to base (Targos, Wandering Village, or Kuldahar) to sell of the latest treasure, etc.

It would seem to me that if you haven't completely cleared out an enemy fortress or temple, etc., if you leave the area for a few days, the enemy should have a chance to get reinforcements and redeploy his forces.

Adding in a reasonable time limit would create an entirely new challenge to the game.

[Marty4]

I think I did it once in 40 days or so, but I honestly forget.

It would be interesting to have more of a time limit on certain aspects of the game, but it would make it impossibly hard for newcomers. For example, there's no way in hell that a newbie could get through the horde fortress on no rest, but if they rested then the entire area would respawn and it would be a bloodbath. Also, a person could camp out in the fortess and farm xp forever if reinforcements were called in.

[Magness]

Marty4, I agree that allowing constant respawning would be a bad thing since it would end up being nothing by a way to farm XP.

But I think that a clever method could be thought up.

Perhaps, allow one set of reinforcements, per area in the Guthma's fortress and the goblin warrens. Say that the reinforcements were from patrols that have returned. And to make the challenge tougher, have the reinforcements be tougher. Tough enough that the player may be better off not facing them.

Also, perhaps do not allow the player to rest in the Goblin Warrens or the fortress. Require them to withdraw to Enelia's campsite. I suppose that you could let them rest in the warrens but have their rest get interrupted constantly, except that this too becomes a way to farm XP, unless you interrupt them with creatures that are worth 0 XP, like wussy goblins. (Sure, you can wipe out every wussy goblin that wakes you, but why bother when you also get no XP for the effort.) Or have the party's rest get interrupted by a seriously dangerous force that may be too dangerous to risk encountering.


I like your time constraint idea. Perhaps the time constraint is the amount of time until some reinforcements arrive. Either a patrol, or honest to goodness reinforcements from elsewhere. And perhaps these reinforcements would be the big time, kick-butt bada$$es (for the level you should be at). If you haven't killed Guthma or perhaps entered Guthma's inner building within a given time, the reinforcements will arrive on the scene.


Sounds like it would be a lot of work, but doable to someone who understood scripting (which is not me).

[Luvian]

Well... the farthest game I still have is a 2 member team. They are in chapter 5 and that game is 33 days.

I always though it was a good idea to restrict where you can rest. When outside you should be able to rest anywhere, but in place like the the warren and fortress you should not be able. That's ridicullous.

[ 02-16-2006, 07:22 PM: Message edited by: Luvian ]

[Magness]

Luvian, I just used NI to look at some area files. There is a general ARE file flag for "Allow Rest" and all areas seem to not allow resting. However, I know for a fact that you can rest in many of the areas that I looked at. Also, I looked in some of the areas' BCS files and there are references to "AllowAreaResting(TRUE)" and "AreaRestDisabled()", I'm thinking that the ARE Allow Rest flag is being ignored in IWD2 in favor of something hardcoded and script controlled.

That said, it would certainly seem possible to prevent resting in some of the questionable areas, if desired.

[Zaleukos]

It usually takes about 70 game days for me. I think it is fair to use the Weidu mod for large ammo stacks in all the infinity games, constantly going back to buy freaking arrows doesnt add to gameplay nor difficulty.

Its a flaw of this game and many other RPGs that one often has to go back to offload loot, especially when the cause is a limited (and pretty arbitrary) number of inventory slots rather than the total weight of the items. I'd prefer to just have one easily accessible "buy-all" merchant in areas that have been cleared out.

[Mudde]

For me it almost always takes a little less than 40 days. In my earlier parties I had more Fighter-type chars which made it easier through the first couple of chapters and nowadays I use mostly spellcasters. Spellcasters need to rest more often but I think I use better tactics in battles now than before.
In my game now I almost finished the game (cleric tower in ch6) and I'm on day 34.

It would be interesting to try out how fast It's possible to play through the game. Would a sneaky party be the best or would a party consisting of clerics and maybe a bard (with the 11th lvl song) have an easier time with all healing power?

[wanderon]

The healing power of the bard song is not likely to be any real significant advantage in "speed" since it only works in battle and the bard gets it so late in the game (in a full party) especially if he is MCed at all.

As linear as this game is compared to say BG1 I'd say the easiest way to beat a "speed game" would be with a party of mostly warrior types that need little rest altho this would entail massive amounts of potions I suppose so perhaps most of those warriors should be clerics and cleric MCs...

I did a small time speed game competiton a few years ago with BG1 - no reload - must have a full party by chap 3 - the winner did it in 14 game days. I made it to the end in 34 days but lost to Sarevok and freinds. The key to low scores in these games relied heavily on abusing the "fatigue bug" which is supposed to add a luck penalty of -1 to all rolls after 24 hours without rest and increase it by one every additional 4 hours but in fact rarely does increase it. I can't recall if "fatigue" is even implemented in ID2 other than after a "rage" or how much of an obstacle it might be in "pushing the limits" of game time.

Details here: BG Speed Game

Some game journals here:Speed game journals

[Mudde]

With a decoy and not too much fighting-power the fightsong make a difference, but maybe not in a fast-party (for my party some battles took a long time with low-lvl casters).
I never have any problems with fatigue! I think it is somewhat bugged in IWD2. One of my chars got fatigued after passing several areas and walking between areas without sleeping, but the fatigue disapered after some time without a rest. Don't know if I did anything (maybe casted a dispel magic, a buff or a heal spell?)

It would have been nice with different XP or quests depending on how fast you get there. I usually keep myself from resting too much, even though I play magic-heavy parties. It's to make the game a little bit more challenging and make me use some "left-over" spells so that the fights feel different.

[ 02-27-2006, 02:26 PM: Message edited by: Mudde ]