GameBanshee Forums

Casual or more Challange?

Everyone knows that the vast majority of gamers just play to have fun. Most of them start a game on the easiest or just moderate settings and play through. They may miss a bit but they are just as content when the beat the game as anybody else. My first set of questions for you people today are as follows: How serious are you at playing these D&D games that we all know and love? Must you insist on beating the game on every difficulty or are you just satisfied with one? And does every scrap of the game have to be beaten (every little side quest no matter how long and tedious or just plain silly). I myself like to play at the medium difficulty at the least. I only have to beat most games at one difficulty but if they are exceptionally good I "WILL" do it on the hardest. If i beat the game then realize that I forgot to finish on of the side quests--oh well. Im not going to go back and beat it, its probely only trivial anyways.
Secondly, I am interested to see just how much skill there is out there. I pride myself in being vasty inept at beating D&D games. They are just plain fun so I like playing them. But I have realized that the game producers just never make the 'normal' level of difficulty challanging enough. Even the most powerful monsters can be beaten in a single try with a bit of stratagy. Normally I have to up it to the highest difficulty to have the kind of challange that takes many well thought out repitions and lots of luck to defeat my foes. Just out of curiosity, how many other people can do that. I know your out there, but just most people cant do it as well. (no offence intended) I myself have great repect for somebody who is not so skilled but is determined to see their pretend adventure work out. Do not be afraid or reluctent to speak up on this matter. Called it an unofficail poll if you like.

I really like playing BG, BG2:SoA, BG2:ToB, IWD, IWD2 using the normal (medium) D&D difficulty level as a minimum difficulty. I've played these games enough to become quite good with strategy, so I'll play with the difficulty set harder once I know how to play certain classes and party varieties. I try to play them through thoroughly, doing all of the side quests that fit my characters and occasionally picking up other NPCs to do other quests as well. The game designers put a lot of time into these great games, so I try to get as much out of them as I possibly can. I've played all of them several times at least and they almost never get boring. I think the only time I use a lower difficulty level than normal is when I'm soloing a game for the first time. I'm soloing IWD2 for the first time with a Rogue/Fighter and the difficulty level is low, b/c IWD2 is difficult without arcane or divine intervention (clerics, druids, mages, sorcerers). I definately go with what you're saying, though. With Icewind Dale, I'm particularly insane, though. I'm playing through the game on normal with parties of a single race and then mixing up their greatest advantages in a final try on the most difficult play level. 6 dwarves wandering around is really fun!

I don't judge the success of my games by how easily I beat them. Instead, I measure my success by how "perfectly" I play them. For example, if I win a battle but take lots of damage or lose a party member, I reload and do it over so I can win without taking lots of damage or losing a party member. I also make an effort to preserve innocent life. For example, when I do the Astral Prison quest, I try to defeat the bad guys without killing any of the thralls, who are hostile but who are actually enslaved against their will. I also like to play with "style" and discover unique ways to win battles even if there's an easier way to do it.

I'm very familiar with the Baldur's Gate series because I've played through it several times. Playing it now is kind of like acting out a play for me, and I want the "play" to be perfect. For example, I want to do all of the quests in a timely fashion, get as much experience as possible, select the best armor/weapon combinations for all of my party members, say all the right things when I talk to NPCs, put all of my potions to their best use (instead of wasting them or ending up with a bunch of them left over), and immersing myself in the role of the main character so that I feel like I'm actually there instead of sitting in front of my computer just playing a game. In other words, I don't want to feel like it's a game. That's how I measure success.

I'm very "pointy" with those games I pick, so I always start out easiest difficulty. After I've completed it, then if I liked the game ALOT, I'll try medium difficulty, and after I've completed that as well, I'm going to have ALOT of fun with it, cheats, mods and whatever can be putted into it.

Right now, I'm adding as many NPC's and quest packs as possible. At the moment I'm playing with;

Me - (Level 25 Kensai / 27 Thief) Indeed strong
Yasreana - (Level 10 true class Fighter) She's very strong aswell indeed.
Minsc - (Level 9 true class Ranger) He's just hilarious with the UB mod!
Cassius - (Level 10 Skald) He's kind of weak, few interventions etc. Only keeping him due to high lore.
Aerie - (Level 9 Cleric/Mage) She, indeed, has some weak stats, but I like the drama and intentions between her and Yasreana

My dialog.tlk just get screwed, so I have a few shops, 1 man named.. well, nothing, and he sells a various unnamed stuff with no descriptions. Damn that dialog.tlk.

Well, anyway, my point is just to prove that I love mod my games. When I get to hell, I'm going to try the neutral path I've installed as well. And after this game, I'll continue with ToB, AFTER I've overmoddet it And after that, well, any good suggestions to fully functional mods?

i play a lot like Vondondu, if i mess up too bad i reload and try again. when it comes to quest i do every possible "help the innocent" quest. i usually play on the default setting and if i play the hard or insane i use my old chars that i imported in. i like to solo the game, but as with IWD2 it is hard to do without a healer, so instead of resting for a month, i import a person to heal me then delete them again. i am not too into the strategy of bigger parties but i think i will try that in my games soon. the only parties i have beat SoA with was either a 2 person party of me and Aerie, a 2 person party of me and Viconia, or a solo with just plain ole me.

It's not the difficulty I care about, but like VonDondu wrote, it's playing style issues.

Altough considering myself an above average AD&D player in terms of designing characters that are quite powerful, I tend to realize that I usually don't use them to their full potential. This leads to a certain perfectionism when it comes to battles for example, I keep elaborating how to make an "impossible" battle a worthwhile encounter. Or in other words, I'm pretty much upset if a scripted opponent gets the best of me, altough I actually have free choice of my actions and they don't.

Since I've played through the entire BG series many times, I like challenge myself now when I play. The BG series, and AD&D in general, has so much depth that it allows for near infinite replay value, because you can always go back and do things different ways with different characters. Putting a solo mage through the entire series for instance, was very challenging, but also incredibly fun. That's the type of thing I do now. And of course I always complete every quest available to me, choosing my actions according to what type of character I'm playing.

I agree with Vondondu as well. When I first started playing I played on the 'Hard' setting because it used 2nd ed core rules. I was a big 2nd ed pnp player, so I liked the random hp rolls, occasional botched spells, etc. However, when I replayed, I got more and more exasperated with dealing with all that- ie-I would spend hours stacking scrolls and potions just so I could jack my Int up to 25 and then read all the scrolls at once so I could scribe all scrolls perfectly.

As I have played more and more I try to streamline my playing, so I set it to 'normal' just for the sake of saving time. Streamlining my playing is also in part why I think I am so partial to a Fighter dualed to Thief- the character can do just about anything. I like to try to finish all encounters without using any one time items and within the fewest rounds possible.

For rpgs in general, I will usually play them on normal and if I really like them, I will replay. I think BGII is probably the best rpg I've played (the replay value is amazing, not that anyone here doesn't know that already), but I also played KoToR many times.