Cheat mode

[x-bow]

Cheat mode is in no way essential to completing U7 or U7:SI. THere have been quite a few posts on here bitching about how Exults cheat system is not identical to U7, but the fat is that most of the aupposedly missing features are actually there. Try playing the game without cheating and see if you enjoy it more, I suspect you will.

[drcode]

I can only thing of a few reasons for using the cheats:

1. Testing/developing, which is the main reason we've added them.

2. Getting around a bug, of which we've had one or two:-)

3. Just saving time when the game is being difficult, or I've left something behind a really long distance. This seemed to happen a few times for me in SI.

[asimpkins]

I think there are a few others reasons. Despite X-Bow's assumptions, I would guess that most of us have beaten the game several times without cheating. Now it's fun to go back and tinker with the game. It adds another layer of enjoyement to it all. In short, a lot of fun can be had by playing through the game with the god-like abilities. Ripping doors out of buildings, equiping everyone with Death Scythes, teleporting around, not worrying about carrying capacity, using 8th level spells to blast your way out of Trinsic, forcing random NPC's into your party.

The cheat mode offers a whole new dimension of playability to the game. It's also fun to go back and use it to figure out how a lot of the stuff works, how to get into those mysterious rooms, etc.

I understand that perfecting the cheat mode is nowhere near in importance to perfecting the 'regular' game. And I've never been pushy about it or demanding. (If others have, don't lay that on me.) I think I see some ways that the cheat mode could be improved, and it never occurred to me that anybody would be anything but happy for my input. I don't expect it to be done right away, but what's the harm of putting it on the to-do list?

Of course, maybe I'm the only one that has interest in an improved cheat mode. If that's the case, then I certainly don't expect anyone to implement changes just for me. But I'd be surprised if I was the only one...

That's all.

Andrew

[drcode]

If you >really< want to fiddle with things, then there is ExultStudio. You can even change the properties of armour and weapons, or turn a non-weapon into a weapon.

[SB-X]

I just turned Britain into a desert area (WITH the town still), and the Farmers' Market into an oasis of sorts.

Now must go and rebuild Skara Brae...

[Raving Idiot]

Cheat mode does add in a bit of humor into the game (the happiness of seeing so many objects on the screen that LB's castle roof dissapears =D), although there are more ways to cheat than just cheat mode. I don't think all the things related to cheat mode on this board are nessescarily bitchign about it, just offering suggestions on how they can be improved. Part of the opensource philosophy is not only testing but suggesting and writing custom code as well. I'm sure if the Exult team couldn't handle such requests, they would've made exult closed source.

Personally, I like the cheat mode like it is. (at least on the windows version). It lets me get done what I want to get done.

[nadir]

what makes you think the cheat system would be different under platforms different than windows ?

[Telemachos]

I remember when I playes SI the first time (many many years ago) I had to use cheats to get through the knights test - otherwise the monsters in there just wiped me out clean. When I replayed that part lately I managed to get through without cheats but I was still killed a few times.

Maybe it's just me but I feel that test is introduced so early in the game that you won't have had time to simply walk around building up your character. Maybe they designed that test to be a bit too hard

- Tele

[Eric]

You don't have to cheat to get through the Knights Test, that's why you have the Hourglass of Fate. With the HoF you can be brought back to life by the monks in Monk Isle.

[Vagrant]

yeah. and you would be conveniently teleported back to where you last met your demise. i think utima 7 is one of the few games that where its just not possible, no matter how hard you try, to get yourself killed.

btw, is there anyway out of the fawn prison?

[Raving Idiot]

Nadir - I haven't had a chance to test the linux build, so I couldn't speak about the cheats system for it, and there could've been some code changes due to some libraries not being supported in different OSes (e.g., directx).

[nadir]

Actually the code is as uniform as possible across the entire supported platform set. We never really depend on OS-specific libraries and use abstraction layers instead, apart from the MIDI stuff which is OS-specific.

[Kennedy]

Maybe after you get the final build of the game you could add some of the fetures of the Pagan cheat system to Exult. My favorite was the ability to make one NPC atack another. I enojoyed having shaana whack away at Mythran, who surprisingly never retalitated against her! Plus you could also create various monsters and had the diabolical "kill me" command!

[SB-X]

Isn't it already possible for NPC's to attack others? There are those paladins fighting the rogues west of Britain... so it should be possible to set flags on an NPC manually and make them do that. I havn't looked into it though.

[Eric]

In BG I've seems human NPC's attacking eachother. In SI I've seen monsters attacking eachother thus far.

[Kennedy]

Yeah, they do tha, But it would be a lot more funn if you could force one npc to attack another. Like have Batlin start killing people during the nightly felowship meeting or make the guards gang up on LB.
"Thou will regret thine rulership, swine!"

[x-bow]

Anyone fancy knocking this up in exult studio

http://www.stone-dead.asn.au/movies/hol ... ne-03.html

[Vagrant]

Actually with the original serpent isle cheat it is possible to do that. all you have to do is change the alignment of the parties to two opposing ones. one Good the other Evil.
its really funny to see those monsters whacking each other or townsfolk hacking one another. =)

[Darke]

Nah. This scene would be _much_ more fun to do. *grin*

http://www.stone-dead.asn.au/movies/hol ... ne-21.html

Pity about the poor bunny though.