Unlocking Gold for new characters

[DeathByWallOfText 5]

Hello, I first found it this was possible at all when I found this thread on the wiki:

I am really interested in this, as as much as I love the game, it feels too easy most of the time when starting on Silver, and I would like to start a second character directly on Gold (with all the minimum level values set to level 1, of course). However, I tried modifying the values as in that thread (and others I found), but it seems that completing the game on Silver is a hard requirement. I tried that with my current Seraphim and it would not unlock Gold no matter what, then of course it was unlocked right away after defeating the Guardians.

Is there any way to bypass this requirement and make this fully work? I am on the Steam version, using the Community Patch. Would be very appreciated

[desm 329]

Hello, I think you can unlock Gold with the Sacred 2 Character Editor. However, I have never tested it and don't pay much for your survive. Good luck!

Edited September 28, 2023 by desm

[DeathByWallOfText 5]

Thanks a lot! I'll try it and see how it goes

(maybe I'll finally have a reason to use those hundreds of healing potions)

[desm 329]

I'm curious to see how do you build your characters. That's right that I never prioritize defensive skills but it's rare when I economize potions. Would you mind telling us one of your typical build please? What skills do you prioritize?

[DeathByWallOfText 5]

Thanks a lot, it works! Tested on an old Dryad character (that I haven't played in ages) and could manage lvl41 enemies without much problem on lvl25, so I think this will be fine...

As for my builds, I just tend to build the character as I go, I never really have a specific idea and don't like following guides or anything. And as much as I love Sacred 2, it always felt like there's tons and tons and tons of healing potions - my first character "back in the day" (when Sacred 2 and I&B first came out) was a High Elf and it also felt that way despite being fairly fragile.

This is my current Seraphim, I think a fairly normal fighter build with some magic for extra Area of Effect and buffs. Completed all of Silver and now playing on Gold, only ever really had an issue on the Christmas Island (oh god, the hydra), and the demon eyes in Bloodwood were also pretty painful. I think I only died once or twice pretty early on. So I'd just like more of a challenge, so I can do a full playthrough on Gold right away without having to rush the main quest

 

Edited September 29, 2023 by DeathByWallOfText

[DeathByWallOfText 5]

lol, so for a second test I made a new lvl1 character and unlocked Gold, and enemies were still level 41... the poor lvl1 Seraphim died instantly

However, seems like this is the command in balance.txt:   Spawn_OffsetLow = {0,0,40,70,110}, -> I changed the 40 to 0 and enemies spawn lvl1 as they should. And as I wanted, combat is now definitely tougher, but doable so, I think mission accomplished!

[desm 329]

Well done, happy you could achieved what you wanted.  I don't see why your character would be "over-resistant". Maybe I'll give it a try to start in Gold with lvl1 enemies, thank you for the input.

@DeathByWallOfText    Edit: Won't you have a problem when passing to Platinum? (underleveled)

Edited September 30, 2023 by desm

[idbeholdME 394]

Gold should probably be doable from level 1. It is not really that much harder than Silver, other than the min level, which you changed.

But there is a large jump in enemy scaling from Gold to Plat, stats-wise (attack, defense, damage, armor, speed etc.). I doubt that would be playable from level 1, or it would be a very painful experience.

Edited September 30, 2023 by idbeholdME

[desm 329]

It would have been interesting (maybe) if we could increase difficulty (by increasing all the levels in Spawn_OffsetLow maybe) so that we could finish Niob near level 200. That would have interested me because I don't like much farming and my higher character that have finished Niob is level ~140. Could it be doable?

[idbeholdME 394]

On 9/30/2023 at 4:30 PM, desm said:

It would have been interesting (maybe) if we could increase difficulty (by increasing all the levels in Spawn_OffsetLow maybe) so that we could finish Niob near level 200. That would have interested me because I don't like much farming and my higher character that have finished Niob is level ~140. Could it be doable?

You can increase the levels so that the entire game scales to the max levels (252). That is the absolute highest the game supports. Any higher, and it will roll over back to 1.

The greatest obstacle in reaching level 200 is the experience penalty for kills past level 100. But it can easily be lowered/removed in balance.txt.

Although even then, getting to 200 will require a lot of grinding because the later levels require tens of millions of XP. By level 167 (946 million XP), you will only have gathered around 50% of the total XP needed for level 200 (1.89 billion). From 199 to 200 alone, you need 36 million XP, which is enough XP to take a character from level 1 to level 70. I usually shelve my characters permanently around level 170-175. I grinded all the way to 200 only once (with a greatly reduced XP penalty past 100) just to be able to say I did it, but that's about it.

So unless you vastly increase the XP from quests/kills, reaching 200 naturally just as you reach the end of Niobium is not really feasible. It also depends on many factors, how quickly you go through the campaign, how much you explore etc.

Edited October 1, 2023 by idbeholdME

[desm 329]

1 hour ago, idbeholdME said:

The greatest obstacle in reaching level 200 is the experience penalty for kills past level 100. But it can easily be lowered/removed in balance.txt.

Found the post, thanks. I will remove it now, for sure. I don't see why there would have to be an experience penalty with the levels going up. In fact, I even think there should be a boost in XP with the enthusiasm you gain using your gear and skills, becoming berserk and killing every enemie in sight (if anyone is interested, it's there:)

Thank you, it's already that. But even with that I doubt I get one day to level 200.

[idbeholdME 394]

18 minutes ago, desm said:

I don't see why there would have to be an experience penalty with the levels going up.

I think it was one of those "Diablo 2 did it, so we will as well" decisions. Most likely intended as a measure to prevent players from hitting the level cap too quickly in multiplayer. The default penalties are absolutely ridiculous, cutting the XP from kills by 90%+ at the highest levels. All it led to was people just speedrunning quests at levels 175+, because that's when the kill XP gets irrelevant, but quest XP is not affected by this penalty.

I personally play with these settings:

ExpLS100 = 1000

ExpLS125 = 1000

ExpLS150 = 997

ExpLS175 = 993

I don't mind a slight penalty for the last stretch, but the vanilla values are ridiculous. And the XP gained from enemies does scale with their levels which combined with survival bonus could lead to a situation where you'd level faster in the late game than the early game. My philosophy is that every next level should take slightly longer to get than the previous. As the bonus XP on gear also scales, I find that a slight penalty for the last 50 levels brings the curve into the exact spot I want it to be in.

But the beauty of the balance.txt file is that everyone can perfectly define how they want the game to be played. I think you could even give yourself an increasing XP bonus if you used numbers bigger than 1000 for those breakpoints, although I have not tested that, so use caution if you're going to try (backup saves).

Edited October 1, 2023 by idbeholdME