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[Alesia_BH]

Just a quick note on the Trilogy No Reload list. I'm semi-confident that the list is accurate up to the time of the late 2010 audit that Serg, Incantatar, and I did. I'm less certain about recent years- particularly during the periods when I had been absent. We may want to consider reviewing the posts from the last couple years to be sure we haven't missed anyone. Any volunteers?

I also thought I'd add a couple notes on the history of Trilogy runs here which may help others understand why there are so few. The No Reload Challenge was started many years ago by Retet on the old forums: It was a BG2 only affair at the time. When I started participating in 2005, the thread was vibrant and already had a substantial history.

In my first run in the No Reload Challenge thread, featuring Alesia, I mentioned casually in my entry post that she had nearly no reloaded BG1 having only failed at the Duchal Palace. Other players were shocked: BG1 was considered effectively no reload-able at the time

Having worked out methods for no reloading BG1, I started the Trilogy No Reload Challenge. There were few participants. Many players didn't have BG1 installs. Others saw it as a gimmick for the unusually hardcore or, in the alternative, as a way to share experiences while collecting tomes for the "real deal" in Amn. There were comparatively few serious Trilogy candidates.

After Frab and I completed our Trilogy runs, more people took an interest. That began a phase where some players pursued Trilogy runs with vigor. Still, many players were reluctant to install and play BG1. And some who did so seemed motivated by a sense of obligation as much as anything else: the focus remained on BG2. As for me personally, I moved away from no reload play after Alanis's Trilogy run- spending my time instead in the Ascension Solo Challenge. I didn't return to no reload play until after my multiyear break.

At present, we've come full circle: Now the majority of players start in BG1 and aim for full trilogy success. And in fact, the BG1 thread has more posts and views than its BG2 counter part. This is a fairly recent development, however: for much of the No Reload Challenge's history, BG2 only runs were the norm.

Best,

A.

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 24 avril 2013 - 05:29 .

[corey_russell]

Thanks for the history lesson Alesia. When I was posting on the old Bioware forums, I can remember many BG 2 - only runs, and not many trilogy.

But since I like BG 1 more than BG 2 (more exploration, more open to player choices. You don't have to do any quest, other than the main story line, but in BG 2 if you don't do the quests you won't get very far), restarting from Candlekeep was no burden for me, so I play Trilogy only now, if I am playing no-reload style.

[Alesia_BH]

Understood. Your preference for BG1 may help explain the shift in focus that occurred here.

When I returned from my break, I was still in the BG2-centric mindset characteristic of the old forums. But between you, Gate, and Grond0 amongst others, there was a core of players here committed to trilogy play. That's in part what nudged me into re-focusing on trilogy runs. Others may have been similarly influenced.

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 24 avril 2013 - 08:49 .

[Blind_Visionary]

Forin made a stupid mistake and fell victim to an SCS-enhanced spider. In the foyer of Thalantyr's estate no less. I forgot that I had left that unpleasant surprise there for myself....

Back to the drawing board. I think I'm going to go with another sorceror.

[corey_russell]

Multi-player Trilogy No-Reload Update
Coretrue (Protagonist) - level 7 Paladin, 81 HP, controlled by Corey_Russell
Wewa - level 9 thief, 60 HP, controlled by Dogdancing

The duo has continued to make progress on the Cloakwood areas. Most of it has been pretty clean. For the ambushes, the party stays and fights unless wyverns present in which case they run for it.

The only battle of interest was against Drassus. Coretrue tried to pull just Drassus and it seemed to work at first, then a mage assisted Drassus. Wewa tried necklace of missiles charges, but it wasn't enough and Wewa and Coretrue BOTH failed their save vs. horror! Coretrue's failure to save was amazing, as Coretrue had the greenstone amulet (must have just ran out), protection from evil, potion of invulernability AND potion of magic protection! However, Drassus couldn't do much to Coretrue with Coretrue's - 19 to blunt weapons (potion of absorption, -6 AC, girdle of bluntness), Genthore wasted time with his throwing axes (Coretrue has high missile resist), and potion of magic protection thwarted many damage spells. Coretrue regains his senses first and starts slinging the mage, Wewa assisting shortly there-after - success! After that, the enemies were mopped up without any further problems.

In the Cloakwood Mine itself, Coretrue used necklace of missiles to finish off Heirashan, and two potions of magic blocking from Thalantry to defeat the ogre mage and Natasha on the next level. it took two trips the duo managed to loot everything they wanted from level 3 and returned to FAI to sell.

Next session, Davaeorn is the duo's target. party experience about 120,000 each, Coretrue needs 150,000 total for next level, Wewa needs 160,000 total.

Modifié par corey_russell, 25 avril 2013 - 06:17 .

[Serg BlackStrider]

Grats on escaping of the misfortune in Drasus fight, Corey! Keep it up!

Sad to hear of Forin's demise, BV... Best of luck with your next alter ego!

Alesia wrote:
We may want to consider reviewing the posts from the last couple years to be sure we haven't missed anyone. Any volunteers?

If we'll decide to do that I'm definitely in. No one should be missed out.

[BBMorti]

Alesia_BH wrote...

I've lost count of the number of time I've soloed the Duchal Palace fight with the SCS Doppes and I still feel anxious everytime I do it. You may be on the sidelines a long time if you are waiting to feel completely secure!

For what it's worth, I've found the failure rate there to be far lower than you might expect- assuming care is taken to avoid offending Belt, Liia, and the Flamining Fist. Granted, every now and then (and by that I mean very, very rarely) Belt and Liia are mobbed and dropped super-quick, but on balance it can be a fairly safe encounter despite appearances.

I understand. I guess that fight can't ever be overcome without a bit of fear

Thanks. My barbarian's run never really got off the ground in a sense: She was far too gimmicky for me to really connect with so I never took her run seriously. Her burgeoning over-poweredness affected me as well- I wasn't all that sorry to see her go truth be told. 

I know how that works, I tend to build up a bit of a RP persona in my characters, myself. I find it helps me play them better, and more carefully if I have an interest and or care for them. If I connect less with them I tend to play them a bit worse, in part, due to a bit more lack of interest.

Alisa is sort of the opposite. I like her, however, I'm expecting certain phases of the adventure to become pretty tedious with her due to lack of damage output. As a remedy, I'm contemplating installing the Rogue Rebalancing tweak that would allow her to put three points in two-weapon style. I have mixed feelings about it though: part of me feels I should go ahead with the tweak install to give a character I like a fair shot, the other part of my feels that would compromise the challenge of playing a Jester. We'll see I guess.

Looking forward to your upcoming SCS run BBMorti! Do you plan to go with Ascension too?

Best,

A.

I have very little experience with the rogue rebalancing mod, I do remember testing and what I remember best was that I ended up with stacks and stacks of potions of invisibility. I found that to be a very game changing element.. I guess I could have RP'd that many of them broke, or simply made a rule not to pick them up, but I ended up desiding the balancing tipped a bit too much towards making the game easier, than 'more balanced' .

That said, I played without SCS or anything like that.
If you do end up testing out the mod I would like to hear your impression about things like that, as you go along.

UAI should give an incredible amount of versatility to even a Jester in the late game?

Btw. Can you confirm that Anatole's BG1 portion was on Insane?

I can confirm that, yes. I desided on playing it on Insanity since I was a bit too chicken to make the attempt with SCS or other such mods.

[corey_russell]

Serg BlackStrider wrote...

Grats on escaping of the misfortune in Drasus fight, Corey! Keep it up!

Thanks Serg! We intend to...Wewa mentioned to me she wondered if it would be the end of our run. I didn't think so though, as I knew my buffs would help protect me, as well as for a Human, Coretrue has great HP (level 7 with 81 HP). Sure enough they had a tough time connecting their attacks with Coretrue, though Wewa took a beating (she lived). Wewa has good HP for a thief (60) so she managed to survive as well.

As a side note: After Wewa got the haste boots, Corey_Russell trained dogdancing how to "solo" masses of enemies as a thief on the trash enemies on the Drassus Map. It basically consisted of stealth, backstab, run away until stealthed, backstab, and repeat. He actually took control of Wewa to show her the technique, though it was a little anti-climatic as her first 3 backstabs were critical misses...she tells me "it's too click intensive". 

Corey_Russell and Dogdancing are much happier with their classes this run - Corey_Russell has always preferred melee to caster types, and Dogdancing loves thieves. The only real drawback of our setup is Coretrue is tanking most of the time, but he's the protagonsit. But Corey_Russell knows what he can or can't tank and also when to cut losses (retreat). It's work well so far, anyways...

Modifié par corey_russell, 25 avril 2013 - 03:21 .

[Alesia_BH]

BBMorti wrote...
I have very little experience with the rogue rebalancing mod, I do remember testing and what I remember best was that I ended up with stacks and stacks of potions of invisibility.

To be clear I wasn't planning on installing all of Rogue Rebalancing. Just this one component:

Proper dual-wielding implementation for Thieves and Bards

According to the second edition AD&D Player's Handbook the "Two Weapon Fighting" style should be fully available to Rogues. While it seems that Baldur's Gate 2 uses a modified proficiency system from the "Combat and Tactics" supplement, the game still fails to properly grant Rogues this benefit. This issue was resolved by allowing all Rogues (Thieves, Bards and their Kits and Multi-classes) to assign up to three points into "Two Weapon Fighting" instead of just one.

And to be more precise, I was planning on implementing the same change myself. So, technically, I wouldn't be installing RR at all. Rather, I'd be making an adjustment inspired by Rogue Rebalancing, which in turn was inspired by PnP. 

UAI should give an incredible amount of versatility to even a Jester in the late game?

Yes. Here's the issue though basically. Some of the SCS creature upgrades intersected with Potions for NPCs give a few of the generic monsters just enough hitpoint to make hit and run tactics tedious (The Kua-toans and the Drow are excellent examples here). I have in the past abandoned low APR characters in the Underdark for this reason since the game started feeling like work rather than fun. With Alisa, I'll have the option of resting repeatedly and using spells, but excessive resting is something I'm unfond of as well.

My preference in those situations would be to let Alisa dual wield. Having 3 pips in two weapon style (like a Blade) would be helpful there. Importantly, it would also help me realize my concept of the character. I think of Alisa as a nibbler and a trickster in combat, but I also imagine her as being handy with the blade when the need arises.

Anyhoo. I still haven't made up my mind. I'll let everyone know when I do.

I can confirm that, yes.

Nice. Then we've got it squared now. 


Best,

A.

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 25 avril 2013 - 08:13 .

[Alesia_BH]

@Blind_Visionary. Sorry to hear about Forin.

@Corey. That Drasus fight sounded scary. I'm glad the duo made it.

[Blind_Visionary]

Geoff - Sorceror. Update 0.

Gorion asked me this morning if I had, as he said, "taken the measure of what is possible." I am still perplexed by his words. We had been talking about my newly-awakened awareness of the magical aura around all things. The invisible animating power that now seems so fundamental to the world.

More importantly, though, we had been talking about my parents. He still says he doesn't know much; that he found me in a basket left on the steps of the Temple of Deneir in Berdusk, where he was studying. That I must have been left by a mother unable to hold on to her own child, for whatever reason. That was 20 years ago. I'm not sure if I believe him.

The monks here in Candlekeep sometimes say that, "Without a past, no being can appreciate where they may be going."  I wonder if one day I will ever reveal my own past; or discover my own future.

Modifié par Blind_Visionary, 26 avril 2013 - 03:21 .

[Alesia_BH]

Nice start Blind Visionary. Between the portrait and the foreshadowing I'm getting a distinct gothic novel feel from this one.

[Alesia_BH]

Serg BlackStrider wrote...
If we'll decide to do that I'm definitely in. No one should be missed out.

Noted Serg. Thanks!

[corey_russell]

Good luck with Geoff, Blind_Visionary. Hope he doesn't go into a coma anytime soon...

[Grond0]

Alesia_BH wrote...

Serg BlackStrider wrote...
If we'll decide to do that I'm definitely in. No one should be missed out.

Noted Serg. Thanks!

I should have said earlier that I'd be happy to do that as well.

[Alesia_BH]

Grond0 wrote...
I should have said earlier that I'd be happy to do that as well.

Nice. 

Since we'll be looking for Trilogy runs, we can comb through the BG2 thread and then, if we see a success, dip into the BG1 thread to check whether that portion was completed as well.

There are 252 pages in the BG2 thread. What I'd like to do is get 2 more people so we'd each have to cover around 50. If it ends up being just the three of us, 84 each wouldn't be so terrible, but I'd just assume see if we can recruit a couple others before starting.

Anyone else willing to help?

Best,

A.

 

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 26 avril 2013 - 07:36 .

[Melchom]

corey_russell wrote...

Melchom wrote...

Thanks for the kind words - it's good to be back  

Hmm short update unfortunately - killed by Mul's minions in the mines.. He managed to Hold both my PC and Kagain and things got too crowded to control.. Back to the drawing board! 

Sorry to hear that. Arrows of biting (you can purchase at Thunderhammer Smithy) work well against casters. Mulahey doesn't have Mirror Images so it has a decent chance of connecting on him, if it does connect, he usually can't cast anything.

Defensive options could be potion of magic blocking (from Thalantyr) or invisibility potion. Regardless, good luck in your next run Melchom! Some people like freedom potion here in this fight, but that's not a defense to rigid thinking (cleric confusion basically).

Finally, in a party, another option is to keep your mage close to you, as if you get held the mage could cast invisibility on you so Mulahey can't hit you if he can't see you.

Sorry if you didn't want any advice, but the more runs going the more we can learn, so just trying to encourage ya to pick yourself up and try again, heeding what happened in your last attempt.

Thanks for the advice and sorry for the long gap in reply I did revisit with some Blackguard vengence thinking of your poison tip - Dorn has the poison weapon ability which I should have used in the first place. 

I'll be starting another serious run this weekend. 

[corey_russell]

Alesia_BH wrote...

Grond0 wrote...
I should have said earlier that I'd be happy to do that as well.

Nice. 

Since we'll be looking for Trilogy runs, we can comb through the BG2 thread and then, if we see a success, dip into the BG1 thread to check whether that portion was completed as well.

There are 252 pages in the BG2 thread. What I'd like to do is get 2 more people so we'd each have to cover around 50. If it ends up being just the three of us, 84 each wouldn't be so terrible, but I'd just assume see if we can recruit a couple others before starting.

Anyone else willing to help?

Best,

A.

 

Well for reason of my own, I am already combing through pages 1-50 of the BG 2 thread, so I will certainly update the list if I find in any that were trilogy so those will be covered.

Corey

[Gate70]

I'll pick up the other 50 whichever they are if it helps.

[Alesia_BH]

corey_russell wrote...
Well for reason of my own, I am already combing through pages 1-50 of the BG 2 thread, so I will certainly update the list if I find in any that were trilogy so those will be covered.

Gate70 wrote...

I'll pick up the other 50 whichever they are if it helps.

Ok. That makes 5. And that means we're ready to begin. How does this sound?

1-50: Corey
51-100: Serg
101-150: Grond0
151-200: Gate70
201-252: Alesia

Best,

A.

[Blind_Visionary]

I'll help inventory some pages if its needed.

[corey_russell]

 Axman FINAL BG 1 Update

Imoen needed a lot more experience, and the non-TotSC areas weren't doing it. So I thought I would go to the Werewolf island that would help a lot. And it probably would have but little problem...I forgot how to get there!

Thus I talked to Shangalar and he sent me to ice island. I actually have never here, not even in reload style. So it was very exciting, but not very conducive to a no-reload. We killed some winter wolves then a LOT of mages (looks like a great place for a pro-magic scroll). The party battled as hard as they could, but party members started to die. Axman's non-magical axes were useless to the mages protection from normal missiles, so he charged with his magical axe. He got held, and the remaining party members couldn't kill the enemies fast enough and Axman fell, RIP.


Axman was a good character, but I had a really hard time connecting with him personally.

I love my paladins, so going to try to no-reload a full team of them once more. I'm going to take a lot more time on rolling them to give them a better chance of success, so might be a while but I'll eventually enter them.

Modifié par corey_russell, 27 avril 2013 - 01:25 .

[Alesia_BH]

Sorry to see Axman go Corey, but it sounds like you are excited about your upcoming Paladin run. Good luck with that!

Best,

A.


Btw...

corey_russell wrote...
 I'm going to take a lot more time on rolling them to give them a better chance of success, so might be a while but I'll eventually enter them.

What are your thoughts on Frab's Re-Roller?

Modifié par Alesia_BH, 27 avril 2013 - 03:53 .

[corey_russell]

Alesia_BH wrote...

Sorry to see Axman go Corey, but it sounds like you are excited about your upcoming Paladin run. Good luck with that!

Best,

A.


Btw...

corey_russell wrote...
 I'm going to take a lot more time on rolling them to give them a better chance of success, so might be a while but I'll eventually enter them.

What are your thoughts on Frab's Re-Roller?

@Alesia: Thanks, yes I am excited my paladin run, will be much easier to connect to these guys/gals.

I have never used Frab's Re-roller. Sounds like it saves tedious work. But I don't mind rolling though, sometimes it's like opening an unmarked present. If others want to use, I certainly have no objection. The other detail is for me, I just need my stats "good enough". I'm less picky than Grond0 is, for example in that respect. Though in a sense, Grond0's stats are more important than mine usually, since he usually solos. Party play is much more forgiving of less than optimal stats.

[Grond0]

Hard luck Corey. I'm glad you had the opportunity to try out a new area though.