Cheating in games for challenging fun

[Shinova]

I recently re-did Crysis, but this time on delta difficulty and with infinite ammo plus the multiplayer-version of the tactical nuke launcher. It was very fun, almost hilariously so at times. I didn't use the tac launcher as much as I expected, and it doesn't kill as easily as you might expect, but when it works it's awesome. That plus infinite grenades and LAW makes for enormous amounts of pyromaniac fun.


Another example is Oblivion, where I did Martigen's monster mod with higher spawn rate, which creates large, often huge numbers of enemies, and edited all the magic skills so they have a third of the original cost.

[The Grim Squeaker]

Well, I like boosting force powers and health/ammo, then warping in huge armies of Force-users to duel with in a massive fracas in the JK games .
Alternatively, I like pulling the same trick with RPG games. (You try BG2 with Demogorgon and a half dozen liches and a dragon together with massive amounts of cannon fodder/guards. My old computer crashed from that )

[Davey]

After beating Neverwinter Nights the honest way, I went back and downloaded a character editor, then used notepad and some other editors to edit some of the game's rules. I then gave my character a fully-grown silver dragon as a familiar and just went around nuking everything with abandon with infinite instant-death spells.

Good times.

[Shinova]

Is that NWN 1 or 2?

[Davey]

Is that NWN 1 or 2?

Neverwinter Nights I, the original Neverwinter Nights. I found it fairly easy to trick out the game by following tutorials I found with the help of search engines and by searching the Bioware forums. It was fun. Eventually I found out if your character gets too powerful it can cause the game to crash when it tries to load after saving.

Later on I tried making an 'advanced campaign' by adding more monsters, but I never finished it.

I've never tried the Neverwinter Nights II game editor. It's only supposed to be slightly different but my computer can't run the sequel so there's no use in trying until I can buy a new one.

[Darth Ruinus]

After beating the Elder Scrolls III and its expansion pack normall (damn long time that took) I made a seperate "for fun" file.

I used that magic trick to raise up my luck to ridiculous porportions, then used that to raise up all of my other skills. Long story short, I died when I jumped, and forgot to cast feather on myself as I landed.

Its fun after you beat the game, and you come back to bosses/parts that were hard as fuck the first time around, but now with your nice codes, you are a GOD!!

[18-Till-I-Die]

I actually prefer to use cheats. IMO, i really dont care about "an honest playthrough" or some such, i bought the game to have fun and win it. If i truly enjoy a game (like BioShock for example) i might play through it without even trying to find a walkthru or anything, just cause it's fun and i wont notice. On the other hand the MegaMan games are so fucking hard that i just threw up my hands and said "Fuck this noise" years ago and now i use cheats; also some games like those in the Turok series or GTA series are just insanely fun with god mode, infinite ammo, all weapons and other such cheats.

But then...back in the day, i had every Game Gennie they ever made and a stack of the code books up to my knee.

[Darth Fanboy]

Civilization II. Using Photoshop 5.5 and Notepad I created my own units and scenarios that were most entertaining. I've had SW, WH40K, and other custom unit sets, and at one point for an apocalyptic feel I replaced barbarians with unbribeable demons that couldn't be killed by nukes or heavy suicide attacks. The whole goal at that point was to build a civilization that could simply survive.

[defanatic]

I don't think I've ever finished a GTA game because of cheats. Screw this story, I want to watch cars float about and drive down the footpath.

[CloudStrife433]

I cheat in some games, like GTA, but I try to beat the game without them. GTA SA pissed me off, but I did it.
Then theres games like CoD 4 with cheats you have to unlock, and you earn no achievements while they are on. Still fun to shoot a guy and he turns into tires... when Zakhaevz son shoots him self does he turn into tires with that on? And Griggs and Zakhaev himself? These shootings happen in the interactive cut scene bits when Soap is all dumb. I must do some experimentations!

[Netko]

After beating the Elder Scrolls III and its expansion pack normall (damn long time that took) I made a seperate "for fun" file.

I used that magic trick to raise up my luck to ridiculous porportions, then used that to raise up all of my other skills. Long story short, I died when I jumped, and forgot to cast feather on myself as I landed.

Its fun after you beat the game, and you come back to bosses/parts that were hard as fuck the first time around, but now with your nice codes, you are a GOD!!

That is Morrowind, right? You really don't need to cheat to become a GOD in that game y'know... You'll become that just by playing a fighter/mage combo on its own by 30-ish levels, which you can get to really fast if you know what you're doing.

EDIT: With a little creativity in the outfitting department, that is. Having a good regeneration effect enchanted item essentially makes you invincible.

[Lord Pounder]

After beating the Elder Scrolls III and its expansion pack normall (damn long time that took) I made a seperate "for fun" file.

I used that magic trick to raise up my luck to ridiculous porportions, then used that to raise up all of my other skills. Long story short, I died when I jumped, and forgot to cast feather on myself as I landed.

Its fun after you beat the game, and you come back to bosses/parts that were hard as fuck the first time around, but now with your nice codes, you are a GOD!!

That is Morrowind, right? You really don't need to cheat to become a GOD in that game y'know... You'll become that just by playing a fighter/mage combo on its own by 30-ish levels, which you can get to really fast if you know what you're doing.

EDIT: With a little creativity in the outfitting department, that is. Having a good regeneration effect enchanted item essentially makes you invincible.

I made the mistake of playing Morrowind after Oblivion and didn't find it as pleasing to play as Oblivion. Oblivion was great with cheats. At level 1 I was sporting full Daedric armor and weaponary, top level spells and 1 billion bajillion bafillion gold pieces.

[aerius]

I suck at most video games to the point where they're no damn fun at all unless I cheat. Which is to say I cheat in damn near every video game I play.

[Enforcer Talen]

In Warcraft Two, I made it so both sides had infinite money and instant build times. Cuz I *like* games with the deaths in the low thousands

[Darksider]

In Warcraft Two, I made it so both sides had infinite money and instant build times. Cuz I *like* games with the deaths in the low thousands

I do that all the time for blizzard strategy games. Playing them normally isn't any fun, because the build times are so god damn long that they make playing normal incredibly boring. A good comparison is the fact that in the time it takes for me to make a few marines in starcraft, I could have built a squad of mammoth tanks in C&C3

[Isil`Zha]

C&C: Red Alert -

We edited the *.ini file where you could change armor, weapon weaknesses, weapon power, health.. and even the weapon we fired.

As long as both people ran the same mod, the game still worked.

We made our own Tesla tanks - upped their cost, ect.

One really interesting thing was to give a tank the Mig's missiles - the ROF is insane and non-stop.

We had Hinds shooting firetower fireballs, and made the nuke much more powerful (and costly to make.)

There were a ton of mods we made... heck, we made the infirmary buildable, and would heal infantry that came near it!

We also changed some things to make it more.. realistic - like made it so infantry die in one shot from a friggin tank cannon - and rifle infantry couldn't hurt tanks. (The default is set so that "no armor" took like 20% damage from tank rounds, where "heavy armor" units took 100% damage from tank rounds.)

Those were some fun mods we had for it!

[VF5SS]

Cheating was the only way I ever played Agile Warrior F-111X. Unlimited SRAMs and FAE Bombs is just so much fun.

[PREDATOR490]

I find myself cheating whenever possible in games I play. I suppose it reflects badly on me and my gaming ability but since the games I play usually end up being RTS like C&C I get rapidly pissed off with their campaigns.

Recently got C&C 3 and just used a trainer to blitz the campaign so I could watch all the movies and get all the medals. I do not have the patience to play the same map a hundred times just to complete one stupid bonus objective for a medal. Additionally, C&C3 isnt to my RTS tastes with its distinct bias towards fast paced 'rush' gaming rather than the old 'turtle friendly' style of other RTS games.

I figure the main reason I cheat is because the option is there. C&C Renegade didnt have any cheats and I played it through 'normally' because of it so if the developers include cheats in the game then it seems a bit pointless to spend several hours - weeks completing single player stuff when you can complete it quickly and get into the MP kind of stuff where cheats no longer apply and the 'reward' is useful since you dont have FMV movies you want to unlock etc.

[Darth Wong]

I like to complete a game once without cheating, just to say to myself that I did it. After that, I cheat like hell if I think it will make it more fun.

Once I start cheating, I tend to cheat in order to avoid boring or tedious parts of games. If there's a certain level that I absolutely hate, I might just cheat to skip it. In the Total War games, I usually cheat to get rid of rebels, because I find them annoying as hell. In Titan Quest, I cheat with an experience multiplier because I don't like the tedium of killing extra monsters which have nothing to do with my quest, just to get extra experience points and level up. I also used an item cheat to make it easier to get magical items, because the default magical item drop factor is ridiculously low and once again, I have no intention of playing the game for hundreds of hours to get good equipment or level up, when all of it is just repetition of the same actions over and over until I get what I want. But in all those cases, I did win the thing once without cheating.

Mind you, I don't consider it an honour or pride issue. It's just a personal choice. If somebody else cheats from day one, I couldn't care less. It's not as if videogame accomplishments mean anything in terms of the respect I would have for a person.

[Flagg]

I'm a horrible cheater when it comes to games with a compelling story, unless it's an RPG or a Civilization game. But most RTS games I cheat from day 1. Then I'll play through it some without cheating.

I love cheating in FPS games, though. I played through CoD4 once without cheating, then downloaded a bunch of trainers and set the game on its most difficult setting.

[The Dark]

In Titan Quest, I cheat with an experience multiplier because I don't like the tedium of killing extra monsters which have nothing to do with my quest, just to get extra experience points and level up. I also used an item cheat to make it easier to get magical items, because the default magical item drop factor is ridiculously low and once again, I have no intention of playing the game for hundreds of hours to get good equipment or level up, when all of it is just repetition of the same actions over and over until I get what I want. But in all those cases, I did win the thing once without cheating.

Same here - the blue rate is hideously low, particularly if trying to build a set (I finally finished the Oracle set today). I beat it once through normally, then added an experience multiplier, more skill points per level, and the higher drop rate, so that I can try most of the character combinations.

[Darth Wong]

Same here - the blue rate is hideously low, particularly if trying to build a set (I finally finished the Oracle set today). I beat it once through normally, then added an experience multiplier, more skill points per level, and the higher drop rate, so that I can try most of the character combinations.

If you like the Oracle set, you'll love the Archmage set.

Some of the purple items are simply awesome. Although, oddly enough, I find that with a very high level mage, I'm better off finding green staffs and then putting a legendary charm on them. My armour and rings are all blue or purple, but my staff is green with a powerful charm on it.

[Adrian Laguna]

I often cheat in Hearts of Iron II... to help the AI. There's a cheat that lets you control any unit in the map, whether it's yours or not. I sometimes use that in order to modify the AI's deployments to make a little sense. Also the diplomacy system is a bit broken at times and not as nuanced as I'd like, so I often make custom events in order to get what I want.

[Boyish-Tigerlilly]

I don't mind cheating, depending on the game and how lame the AI is. If they have resource benefits, produce faster, and know exactly where my base/units are at all times, fuck fair play.

[Enigma]

I cheat all the time. It makes the games a lot more fun for me. Right now, I've used a character editor for my Arcanum character so I can go on a rampage throughout the land. First Shrouded Hills then Tarant and then the rest of Arcanum!!.