IA 5.0 experiences by saros, [Topic split by Baronius] Options

[saros]

Editor's foreword (by Sikret):

Since we have thoroughly tested most of the things saros reports in this thread and have found most of them totally false and misleading, we would like to emphasize that the content of this thread is not reliable and can even be misleading for new players. It's worth noting however that none of the things he has written (not even one single word) has been deleted. We could of course delete the entire topic, because we are not supposed to publish false and forged reports about Improved Anvil, but we decided to keep it as an evidence to show how the game should NOT be played for future reference.

saros is playing the game in an illegitimate way with lots of cheats. Many of the things he reports are totally false and can be misleading for other players. So, those who want to read reliable information about IA, should not waste their time reading this thread, because it can affect their mentality about the mod in an invalid and misleading way. As he has admitted in one of his own posts, he is just playing the mod in order to prove that he can win it with a solo character even if it means using cheap methods and cheats.

Even worse than his cheats are his lies. He has reported several nonexistent bugs; for example, each time he fails to win a battle, he retorts by saying that the battle was bugged and such things. Improved Anvil's testing team has thoroughly examined all of his alleged bug reports and has found all of them to be false and fake. Some of them can be interpreted as mistakes of an unskilled player who doesn't observe the events carefully, but some others are so obvious that they can only be interpreted as deliberate and intentional lies.

The best way to tell a lie and make it believable is to tell a big lie and then say "everyone is welcome to test it for himself". This is exactly what saros does. Of course, everyone is indeed welcome to test what he reports and see that he is lying (as we did), but saros is counting on psychological effect of his words and knows that most players won't actually test what he says. I don't really understand what motivates him and what is his purpose of writing so many lies. As I said, most of the lies he writes can't really be interpreted as simple mistakes; they are so obvious that can only be intentional. To see a concrete example of his lies click here. Examples of his lies and false reports are really numerous, but I don't have any extra time to waste on composing a complete list of them.

Of course, at first, we decided to help saros play the mod in a legitimate way in a friendly tone, but he kept refusing to listen.

Cheaters never prosper. True winners never cheat. Liars are even worse than cheaters.

As a newer and recent discovery, saros had actually more than one nickname(s) here at BWL and had cross-posted some of his lies with another nickname as well. When someone is not honest, he is not honest in many ways.

==============================================


Hi again.

I'd also like to share my experience so far with the fifth version of the IA mod and I will describe some methods which may prove helpful to all. This is my intention. Some of the methods are pure cheese by certain player's standard, but none of them is cheating. And I have an absolutely official installation of the required only components in the right order, with the exception of an added Happy tweak from the EoU mod. According to Sikret, it's no big deal.

My personal opinion is that everyone is welcome to play the mod as he/she wants. With this I mean with or without cheesy methods. I personally do not like cheating.

The experience I've collected so far concerns primarily the first hard steps in Athkatla, and some methods to create a higher level party.

In Chateau Irenicus, it is good for the PC to play solo through the dungeon. It would be immensely helpful if the PC is some sort of wizard or thief, because these classes offer an additional xp boost (from traps, locks and scrolls).
If the PC is not a thief, then he/she may consider joining Yoshimo, but only for the traps and locks in the dungeon, meaning that Yoshi should be avoided until everything else is cleared. Avoiding him is easily done via Invisibility, Hide In Shadows or Sanctuary.
After the PC has cleared the way to the exit, he then may start to collect NPCs: first Minsc, then(after temporarily disbanding Minsc) Jaheira, and finally Yoshimo. This way, the joining NPCs will be with a starting xp of 161 000. If an NPC is joined right away after the start of the game, his or her xp will be only 90 000.
This way, not only your PC will get more overall xp in chapter 1, but also the joined NPCs will have 71 000 free xp points gained.

SPOILER!

If you want to gain some extra xp, leave one Mephit portal active and kill spawning mephits. Sure, they offer only 420 xp points, but their spawning is endless if the portal is alive.
If your PC is a Cleric/Wizard of some kind, then combining Animate Dead and Invisibility cast on the Ice Mephit Portal will provide you with some free time to read a book or watch a movie while your PC gains xp. Skeletons are immune to cold damage, they stay 8 hours, and if they do not see the Invisible mephit portal, then they don't attack it, but instead attack only spawning Ice Mephits

After going out, and collecting the quest xp reward for chapter 1, it would be wise to kick everyone out of the party and temporarily play solo. The logic in this is, that most of the new NPCs will join a high level character also at higher levels(up to 1.2 million xp for a joining NPC).

I suggest completing the Circus tent for the xp and spell scrolls, and afterwards, sleeping over in order to wait for the first two night encounters. As we all know, these contain gems, gold and several spell scrolls, namely Find Familiar, Spell Thrust, Stoneskin, Minor Spell Turning, Disintegrate and Contingency. All of these are useful, most are qute rare and hard to come by.

The most dangerous part of the solo starting strategy are the first two random city encounters, and especially the first one, Suna Seni. I've had experience with her party with a low level solo F/M/T and F/M/C. It's easy for a F/M/C to win this battle with the proper domination/disabling spells. It's harder for a F/M/T since the two actually active classes in the battle are the fighter and mage, the thief does absolutely nothing. Here is my experience:

SPOILER!

Suna Seni and her goons have various immunities and protection spells running. The most effective strategy so far was casting a Greater Malinson, followed by a couple of Web spells. The big problem here is the lack of spell slots at lower levels. My F/M/T entered this fight equipped with two +3 long swords, Stoneskined, Improved Invisible, with two Rings of Protection equipped, with Spirit Armor, Shield, Blur, Pro Evil, Mirror Image, with Frost Giant strength potion consumed, with Draw Upon Holy Might and also Hasted. This can be done the following way:

Creating two +3 swords, memorizing Stoneskin, rest.
Casting Stoneskin, memorizing Spirit Armor and Greater Malinson, rest.
Casting Spirit Armor, consuming an Oil of Speed, a Potion of Frost Giant Strength(from Ribald), casting the rest of the buffs in proper order. An Improved Invisibility should be activated from a scroll on top of all of this.

When the battle started, my PC disrupted the cleric's True Sight spell by engaging him in melee. Afterwards, I began to circle around in order to avoid the melee fighters. My AC was -14 anyway due to buffs. Afterwards I activated Web. Web has a chance to catch everyone, including Suna Seni, but the cleric and the mage are immune to its effects. No matter. The cleric falls in a couple of rounds. The mage cannot survive long in melee, even with his Mirror Image and Stoneskin. But I found it more convenient to carry two additional scrolls of Web and one of Improved Invisibility, just in case anything goes wrong. And furthermore, it is good to focus on Suna Seni while she's webbed, since she dies in a couple of rounds, and afterwards to concentrate on the enemy wizard.

The PC can save without failure vs the web effects while his Improved Invisibility is still active.

When the cleric, mage and Suna Seni are dead, the rest of the fight is relatively easy.

My third level slots were filled with Fireball spells, which work great on malinsoned webbed enemies: they're like sitting ducks.

The second random city encounter is much easier thanx to the Breach spell obtained from the corpse of the first encounter's enemy wizard, and fewer enemy fighters.

There are a few unmodded quests in Athkatla. No need to rush to Trademeet.

The relatively free xp which may be collected(apart from spell scrolls for an arcane caster):

Copper Coronet: fight with Amalas
Outside Copper Coronet: fight with Corvale
Find out what happened to Montaron: catching the bird without completing the quest(yet). Xzar may be looted for his scrolls and gems. Spectral Harpists may be killed for extra xp.
The Graveyard quests plus all of the monsters in the crypts, except for the Spider Lair.
The kidnappers who buried Tirdir(bridge)
Mae'var's quest, without getting the quest xp reward from Renal.
The illithium ore quest.
(revised)
The skinner murders.

Note: It is not necessary to collect the Reputation rewards from such quests. Remember that by donating gold to a temple you can raise your reputation up to 16, and afterwards collect reputation reward from both this and the Circus Tent quest.

SPOILER!

There are other ways to gain a lot of xp and gold, and spell scrolls, and green protection scrolls, and potions, ammo or even some enchanted items:

Looting amnish guards who interrupt the party's rest on the streets of Athkatla: a decent hasted thief can do it. These guards carry sometimes valuable spell scrolls.

Dropping your reputation to 3 or lower(despised) and starting to kill Amnish patrols which appear. Those come with a standard equipment and some random item slots. The standard equipment includes five full plate mails per patrol, which are worth from six to nine thousand gp when sold on the market.
The random item slots may contain one of the following:

1. A random magical item. Those are occasionally of +1 enchantment, but there are exceptions, like Short Bow +2 or even a Spear +3.
2. A potion. The potions may be: of Healing, Oil of Resurgence, Potion of Vitality, Potion of Strength, Potion of Invisibility, Potion of Fortitude, Potion of Agility, Elixir of Health.
3. A random jewel or a small sum of gold. The most valuable gem that may be obtained this way is the Black Opal, while the most valuable necklace is the laeral's tear.
4. A spell scroll. Here is the (almost) full list:

Magic Missile
Shield
Burning Hands
Protection from Evil
Shocking Grasp
Color Spray
Minor Spell Turning
Monster Summoning III
(these low level scrolls can be dropped far more seldom than the higher level scrolls)

Summon Nishruu
Carrion Summons
Prot from Magic Energy
Globe of Invulnerability
True Sight(very seldom)
Mislead(very seldom)
Death Spell
Tenser's Transformation
Spell Sequencer
Spell Turning
Sphere of Chaos
Summon Harkeashar/Djinni/Efreeti
Mordenkainen's sword
Protection from Elements
Ruby Ray of Reversal
Khelben's Warding Whip
Control Undead
Cacofiend
Spell Trigger
Protection from Energy
Pierce Shield
ADHW
Incendiary Cloud
Tenser's partial
Summon Fiend
Spell Trap

Green scrolls:
Cursed scroll of Petrification
Prot from Cold
Prot from Fire
Prot from Poison
Prot from Level Drain

Killing Amnish guards may continue as much as one wants. This way may be collected free xp, gold and scrolls.

There is a price, however. After the first few won battles with such patrols, a bug appears, and arcane spellcasting on the streets does not trigger the appearance of Cowled wizard patrols. I've tested it. So no fight is possible with the Cowled wizards after this exploit is deployed. And since they carry some valuable scrolls like Improved haste, this is a waste somehow.

[Ryel ril Ers]

You are only a simple cheater. Yes there are chance to finish the game in solo but only because your exploits and cheats. You don't want help bugs, you don't search hard tactical battle. You are only want to finish the game in solo in all price to able to yell to everybody:
I done the impossible, i am the best, workship to me!!!

But the truth is more simple. You use all of the possible bug of the game and you are feel pride. You waste lots of hour to it. This is worst than you use editor or bruteforce cheats, because users of these things don't waste their time and reach the same thing finish the game with dirty methods.

You have more xp than able to reach in the whole game.

Read sikret's article about the cheat. I don't agree all of that points but i accept it, and my game more exciting, and harder. Instead of IA install lots of item upgrade mods and some tactical improvement what give you more reward than you work.

I don't have interest in your process anymore because it is very boring. I don't care your theoritically exploit free 6 member party too, because you are a simple cheater, and i never belive anymore than you able to play clean.

I don't write IA experiences to this topic because i don't want to people compare me with you. Anything else is only waste of my time.
Good by cheater!

P.S.:Sorry my harsh attitude but i don't want to players believe their tactical skills are good if they are use cheats and exploits.

[DavidW]

You are only a simple cheater. Yes there are chance to finish the game in solo but only because your exploits and cheats. You don't want help bugs, you don't search hard tactical battle. You are only want to finish the game in solo in all price to able to yell to everybody:
I done the impossible, i am the best, workship to me!!!

But the truth is more simple. You use all of the possible bug of the game and you are feel pride. You waste lots of hour to it. This is worst than you use editor or bruteforce cheats, because users of these things don't waste their time and reach the same thing finish the game with dirty methods.

You have more xp than able to reach in the whole game.

Read sikret's article about the cheat. I don't agree all of that points but i accept it, and my game more exciting, and harder. Instead of IA install lots of item upgrade mods and some tactical improvement what give you more reward than you work.

I don't have interest in your process anymore because it is very boring. I don't care your theoritically exploit free 6 member party too, because you are a simple cheater, and i never belive anymore than you able to play clean.

I don't write IA experiences to this topic because i don't want to people compare me with you. Anything else is only waste of my time.
Good by cheater!

P.S.:Sorry my harsh attitude but i don't want to players believe their tactical skills are good if they are use cheats and exploits.

Umm... last time I looked, this wasn't the Olympics. If someone's enjoying the game on a certain style of play, what's wrong with that? Some others may not find it interesting to read about that person's game; some may. That's fine. One's preferred style of play for a computer game is a loooong way down my list of things worth generating moral outrage!

[Sikret]

I accidentally noticed that Raven has posted in this thread and decided to come and see what is going on (as I've said before, I don't usually read topics in this side-froum).

Umm... last time I looked, this wasn't the Olympics.

This criticism can be correctly aimed at saros (not at Ryel). saros has heard that IA v5 is not soloable and he has decided to disprove it by any means. Of course, poor saros has forgotten that the complete statement was this:

"IA v5 is not soloable without cheating".

He keeps cheating and keeps saying that he is not cheating (something which as Ryel said has made a fool of saros in the forums).

If someone's enjoying the game on a certain style of play, what's wrong with that?

Do you really think that saros is enjoying his game? I'm completely certain that he isn't!

If you read his posts you won't find even one single paragraph in which he has said anything positive about the mod or about his game. His tone is negative everywhere. He is not enjoying anything exactly because he has not left much to enjoy. He has ruined his game, not only by excessive use of cheats and cheap methods but also with the innate duty he has defined for himself to win the game with a solo character by all means.

He has even admitted this in one of his posts above:

everyone knows or seems to think that IA 5.0 is impossible to win with a solo character, if played by the mod's rules. I intend to prove that it may be very hard to do, but it's possible.

He doesn't play the mod for the extra challenge the mod adds to his game, he is playing it to challenge other players!

We tried to help him in friendly ways in the past. Raven warned him against his playing style in Bioware forums in a diplomatic and friendy tone. I warned him in much more friendly ways here in IA's forum. There is also a warning in the mod's readme file; but he ignored all. Now, there is little he can enjoy from.

First of all, he has deprived himself of most of IA's best quests by deciding to play solo. This much can be put aside; perhaps he doesn't care for new quests.

Second, he has cheated lots of xp/gold/items to make his protagonist a demigod. He had not done any of the game's major quests when he had more xp than it's possible in the entire game.

The funniest part of the story is that he gives instructions of how to gain those free xp and items as if other players don't know how to gain free xp in the game. Perhaps he is too naive to realize that all players know various ways of gaining free xp in the game; the fact that they don't use them doesn't mean that they don't know how.

All of the xp exploits saros is using in his game (except the one with amnish guards) had been already reported to me long before by other players and they are all blocked in IA v6. However, those other players who reported those exploits to me didn't use them in their own games. They realize that there is absolutely no difference between using those xp exploits and using CluaConsole to give xp to your characters.

Even with his uber-protagonist, he is still playing cheesily and with cheap methods. Running, casting spells from offscreen, etc, etc.... Just read his reports of his battles with the sewers party or with the Greater Elemental Golem to see what I mean. All those battles are doable with sound tactics even by far lower level characters who do not have even one single HLA. saros doesn't know sound tactics, but he reports his cheap methods as if they are true tactics. This is another proof for what Ryel said.

His playing style will also add self-created bugs to his game. He will later return to report those local bugs as if they exist in everyone's game.

Cheesily killing enemies before they turn hostile (similar to what he did with the sewer party) will cause bugs in his game, because some enemies are scripted to set certain global variables after truning hostile. Those global variables will be used in future events. Moreover, certain important items are scripted to be generated in the enemies inventory via script after the enemy turns hostile and checks certain variables in his script. Cheesily killing those enemies before they turn hostile or by excessive use of timetraps offscreen (and activating those traps by attacking your own summoned creatures to make them hostile), will mean that those items will never be created in the enemies inventory. To make the long story short, there are several ways a cheater and cheap player can corrupt his own game or punish himself. Bug reports from such players are totally useless for us.

I will edit the "Cheat and Cheap.pdf" and will add a section to it about why not to cheat.

Actually, we have recently tested again and can confirm that the bugs saros reports don't exist in the game and even look to be sort of deliberate lies (the report about the nonexistent bug that Cromwell doesn't take enough number of +3 rings to forge the +4 one is one such example).

Returning to the question of whether saros is enjoying his game or not, we are certain that he isn't. Some battles are too easy for his uber-character (not to mention that he is still using cheap methods to win even those easy battles), but there are a number of battles in the mod which are not beatable even by a 40/40/40 level solo character with the best equipments. He will fail to win those battles even using his typical cheap methods, but he won't enjoy them either. He is in his olympics (to use your term)! He has decided to prove that he can do the impossible. So, he will probably forge a false and artifcial report of how he won the battles (it won't be the first time we see such forged reports). He will also probably add some sentences such as "this battle was tough" to make people believe that he has actually won it. He will probably know that people such as Raven or me (who know the mod very well) will not believe him, but it won't matter for him. Nonetheless, he won't enjoy his game at all. He has ruined his game by ignoring our recommendations.

As for why Ryel is angry, it may not be easy to understand for those people who are not dedicated tactical players. It can indeed be frustrating for Ryel and most other players to see that a cheater speaks as if (or to pretend that) he is a tactician.

[saros]

If you read his posts you won't find even one single paragraph in which he has said anything positive about the mod or about his game. His tone is negative everywhere. He is not enjoying anything exactly because he has not left much to enjoy. He has ruined his game, not only by excessive use of cheats and cheap methods but also with the innate duty he has defined for himself to win the game with a solo character by all means.

This mod is very good. It was proposed to me by Raven (a.k.a. touch_of_the_wild on Bioware forums). IA adds many hard battles and new items, which I enjoy very much. If I haven't said that, now may be a good time, but I think I already mentioned it in some of my posts (which were afterwards deleted by Sikret).

The funniest part of the story is that he gives instructions of how to gain those free xp and items as if other players don't know how to gain free xp in the game. Perhaps he is too naive to realize that all players know various ways of gaining free xp in the game; the fact that they don't use them doesn't mean that they don't know how.

NOT everyone. For instance, people unfamiliar with the mod might not know them. And even you, Sikret, did not know about Amnish guards exploit.

Even with his uber-protagonist, he is still playing cheesily and with cheap methods. Running, casting spells from offscreen, etc, etc.... Just read his reports of his battles with the sewers party or with the Greater Elemental Golem to see what I mean. All those battles are doable with sound tactics even by far lower level characters who do not have even one single HLA. saros doesn't know sound tactics, but he reports his cheap methods as if they are true tactics. This is another proof for what Ryel said.

My uber-protagonist is more than able to defeat the most tough enemies met so far by using non-cheesy tactics(except for the twisted rune, I've tried several times, no luck yet). The cheesy methods described like pre-activating Time traps and similar were made so that I could obtain enemy's Potions of Magic Shielding, and most of the enemy's spell scrolls(which enemy mages usually read in thick of combat).
Running(or tactical retreat) was always part of some sound tactics. In IA running away at double speed from enemies is disabled(unlike other mods), and anyway, most of the enemies are hasted so they run as fast as the protagonist, not to mention certain 'Invitation' type effects, like magic lasso, etc. etc.
Defeating enemies with a high-level character in IA is a lot more harder than using an entire party of six relatively low-leveled characters (even worse, all pre-generated characters). For instance, against the Elemental golem, many fighters, supported with magic, can win the battle much more easier and quicker than a single uber fighter.

His playing style will also add self-created bugs to his game. He will later return to report those local bugs as if they exist in everyone's game.

Then, of course, this appears to be weakness of the mod. If one intends to play the mod however he/she wants without using codes or cheat programs, and still receives bugs because of his playing style, then the mod is not perfect yet. IA is very good, but, as it tries to re-do the whole game, bugs are inevitable. So I think that it shouldn't be "Don't play the mod this way, because you'll get bugs", but instead "Try the new version of the mod, it has fewer bugs and we will appreciate if you test it for further bugs and report them, so that the next version is even more bug-free and anyone is free to play however he/she wants".

I report bugs as I discover them in my current game. Since I don't cheat(according to mod's rules), then they do exist for everyone who might want to play in a similar way.

Cheesily killing enemies before they turn hostile (similar to what he did with the sewer party) will cause bugs in his game, because some enemies are scripted to set certain global variables after truning hostile. Those global variables will be used in future events. Moreover, certain important items are scripted to be generated in the enemies inventory via script after the enemy turns hostile and checks certain variables in his script. Cheesily killing those enemies before they turn hostile or by excessive use of timetraps offscreen (and activating those traps by attacking your own summoned creatures to make them hostile), will mean that those items will never be created in the enemies inventory.

Some enemies turn hostile in the second I kill them. I don't know if I missed a single quest item this way, but I doubt it, because I got several quest notes this way, and in the final battle when I slew Sion, i got the special Rogue Stone(I think from his corpse).
This again seems to be a weakness in the mod, because I don't cheat. Cheesy tactics is not cheating IMO.

Actually, we have recently tested again and can confirm that the bugs saros reports don't exist in the game and even look to be sort of deliberate lies (the report about the nonexistent bug that Cromwell doesn't take enough number of +3 rings to forge the +4 one is one such example).

I am most than certain that I had only 2 rings of protection +3, and after the upgrade, I got one +3 and one +4. Two times after reloading BTW. Maybe the bug occurs rarely and only if certain conditions(maybe place of items in pack) are met???

Returning to the question of whether saros is enjoying his game or not, we are certain that he isn't. Some battles are too easy for his uber-character (not to mention that he is still using cheap methods to win even those easy battles), but there are a number of battles in the mod which are not beatable even by a 40/40/40 level solo character with the best equipments. He will fail to win those battles even using his typical cheap methods, but he won't enjoy them either. He is in his olympics (to use your term)! He has decided to prove that he can do the impossible. So, he will probably forge a false and artifcial report of how he won the battles (it won't be the first time we see such forged reports). He will also probably add some sentences such as "this battle was tough" to make people believe that he has actually won it. He will probably know that people such as Raven or me (who know the mod very well) will not believe him, but it won't matter for him.

I enjoy the mod, and the tactical challenges, and the moment I work out an always-working(no-reload type) system for a solo to win each of the improved battles.
I absolutely realise that Sikret and Raven are experts in this mod, while I'm vanilla. So I am almost certain that I would fail to win(and may be even too ashamed to write about it). But I won't write down that I won a certain battle if I actually haven't. I even won't write down a certain victory if I haven't done it several times in a row.

Do you really think that saros is enjoying his game?

Since he's probably not being paid for it, probably not doing it to research a newspaper article, and almost certainly not under a geas... I'm guessing yes.

Yes. I am.

P.S. I think that while my game has its exploits, it still may provide useful info to all players, whether they use or not cheese or cheap tactics.

[Sikret]

His playing style will also add self-created bugs to his game. He will later return to report those local bugs as if they exist in everyone's game.

Then, of course, this appears to be weakness of the mod. If one intends to play the mod however he/she wants without using codes or cheat programs, and still receives bugs because of his playing style, then the mod is not perfect yet.

Cheating is not a playing style. Cheating is screwing the game by doing something illegitimate. This is exactly what you are doing.

Cheating is not merely confined to using console codes and programs. You will create those bugs in your game and it's not the mod's fault.

Of course, cheesy playing style will also create some minor problems in the game, but your playing style is not merely cheesy, it's cheating.

So I think that it shouldn't be "Don't play the mod this way, because you'll get bugs", but instead "Try the new version of the mod, it has fewer bugs and we will appreciate if you test it for further bugs and report them, so that the next version is even more bug-free and anyone is free to play however he/she wants".

No, I'm not going to add additional support for cheaters by altering the mod. I have even added some deliberate anti-cheat precautions to the game to ensure that you will face its consequences if you are a cheater.

I am most than certain that I had only 2 rings of protection +3, and after the upgrade, I got one +3 and one +4. Two times after reloading BTW. Maybe the bug occurs rarely and only if certain conditions(maybe place of items in pack) are met???

No, you are simply lying. I have tested this thoroughly.

Since I don't cheat(according to mod's rules)

You are cheating according to the mod's rules. The examples of cheat are mentioned in a .pdf file in a pinned topic in the mod's forum and you are violating all of those rules.

You may disagree with those rules, but then you shouldn't say "according to the mod's rules" you are not a cheater, because you are not the one who defines the mod's rules.

then they do exist for everyone who might want to play in a similar way.

Yes, for anyone who cheats those problems will exist and that's exactly why your journal is here rather than in the mod's main forum; your reports can mislead players.

NOT everyone. For instance, people unfamiliar with the mod might not know them. And even you, Sikret, did not know about Amnish guards exploit.

As I've said many times before, reporting an xp exploit to me to block it in the mod's next version is fine, many other players have also reported such exploits, but none of them were thinking that using those exploits in practice is a right thing to do. When they found exploits, they reported and then reloaded the game just to avoid it.

You, on the other hand, are so excited in using those exploits that you even call them "tactics" and encourage others to use them.

We didn't know about the amnish guards, but we probably know a lot of other possible exploits of the vanilla game that you don't know about. But we don't instruct using them and feel proud of it. We rather fix and block them instead.

And as I've written in the "Cheat and Cheap.pdf" file, using xp exploits is not merely a cheesy method; it's plain cheat.

I don't cheat. Cheesy tactics is not cheating IMO.

This makes me laugh. You are swimming in cheats. There is absolutely no difference between using Consol to give xp and gold to your characters and the way you gained free xp and gold in the game. I have said this before and don't want to elaborate it further. At least, don't say that you are not cheating; in that way we can say, "hey, that's not a problem, let's have a cheater here as well!"; but the way you are denying it, you are not only a cheater inside the game but also a liar and untrustworthy person in real life as well.

[saros]

You are cheating according to the mod's rules. The examples of cheat are mentioned in a .pdf file in a pinned topic in the mod's forum and you are violating all of those rules.

You may disagree with those rules, but then you shouldn't say "according to the mod's rules" you are not a cheater, because you are not the one who defines the mod's rules.

At least, don't say that you are not cheating; in that way we can say, "hey, that's not a problem, let's have a cheater here as well!"; but the way you are denying it, you are not only a cheater inside the game but also a liar and untrustworthy person in real life as well.

Those rules were written down a few days ago Sikret, IA is indeed your mod, but the rules you implemented are IMO more like your own rules rather than mod's rules. Here, you and I have our disagreements about the rules:

My opinion is: Once the installation of the mod is made correctly(according to the mod's creator), and I don't use cheat codes or programs, just that which is originally implemented in the mod itself, it is no cheating.
Many players would find the Ease of Use components recommended for the mod blatant cheating. Things like magical armor/protective rings/protective amulets stacking, multiple strongholds, etc. were not implemented in the original game. Of course, this cheating I use, and I admit using it, since it's recommended by the mod's creator.
Some would also find cheating(to some extent) pre-generating a multiplayer party under 1 person control, since this way, a perfect team can be easily created.

Sikret's opinion(it undoubtedly weighs a lot more than mine):
Everyone should play this mod the way Sikret recommends.
Every rule Sikret states should be unquestionally followed as mod rule(it means little if the mod itself allows to bypass certain such rules).
Everyone who doesn't follow Sikret's rules is a cheater.

If everyone thinks like Sikret, by all means, I am a cheater. But I doubt that absolutely all players think this way.

By the way, judging someone's personality in real life and insulting him, based on his posts in a certain game discussion forum is somewhat...childish.

Anyway, back on the main topic.

PC was able to relatively easily slay Kangaxx in both his forms(using time traps, DUHM, GWW attacks with Staff of Rynn for his demilich form).

Afterwards, PC focused on clearing Trademeet areas.
PC bought everything from Dao Djinns without taking the Rakshasa quest.
PC temporarily joined Cernd, who didn't receive any quest xp at joining, and his initiate xp was 161 000.
PC took Cernd's staff and cloak.
PC dismissed Cernd.
PC cleared the wilderness of the Druid Grove, including the Tower and its guardians.
PC bought each and every potion from the shapeshifted Ithafeer.
PC rejoined with Cernd.
PC entered the grove, accompanied by Cernd(PC is a F/M/T). Strangely for me, PC was given an option for a duel with Faldorn!
PC easily won the duel.
PC was afterwards offered a challenge for Great Druid! Well, that *was* strange.
No matter. PC won the challenge, received a Ring of Protection +2 and a Cleric's staff +3.
PC took the quest for killing Ithafeer from the trademeet genies.