Cheating to save time

[Death Carr]

That depends, if the grind is fun and won't take me 130 hours I won't cheat, but if I need 1 item that has a 0.1% drop chance off of a stupid hard enemy that just isn't fun to fight then I'll cheat in the materials I need.

When I do that though I tend to maintain a personal rule that I'll only cheat in the materials I can't reasonably attain and then I'll only cheat in what I need, no more no less

 

[Lufia Erim]

Im sure we have all been in that point in a game where we dont relish the idea of 10 hours of grinding to get upto the necessary level required to kill the final boss or unlock every tech tree.

or as we age and have families and commitments we have less free time for the grind in some games.

So who here uses Trainers, save editors and the like sometimes purely to save time and not to give your self too much of an advantage,

Examples of my own, editing a save file for FF8 so I don't have to spend the first 3 hours grinding low level magic.

Editing the timed missions in DAI so i dont have to wait 24 hours for a mission to complete.

Editing resources to progress inorder to just keep playing instead of being bogged down farming,

Games that gave necessary grind points,boosting my exp gains so im ready to progress in 10 battles not 100

Except none of those things are necessary. Like at all. You just WANT them. Thus removing any challenge from the game.

You dont need to grind magic at the beginning of FF8 it just makes the game easier.

You dont need to do the timed mission in DA:I, you just get bonuses for doing them (IIRC). It just makes you getting through the content faster while reaping the rewards.

Your last point was hypothetical so I'm not commenting on that.

If it's single player, go nuts, cheat, you do you, but in your shoes I'd be embarrassed to admit to cheating, and worst trying to justify it.

OT: Personally i don't cheat, ever. Not because of any moral highground, like i said, you do you, but i personally get absolutely no satisfaction from knowing i cheesed through something. If i start doing that I'd stop gaming, because i won't see the point.

 

[SmallHatLogan]

I usually like to beat a game legitimately, if it's too difficult or grindey I'll just stop playing. There have been a few instances where I've cheated though.

I used a mod in Skyrim to speed up levelling smithing. It boggles my mind that the developers were happy with how much you have to grind that shit out. Especially since enchanting levels up at a pretty quick pace.

The other two aren't bypassing grinding so much as bypassing a specific road block I had.

In Super Meat Boy I abused a glitch that let you beat meat golem with zero effort. It's a boss fight that's long (by Super Meat Boy's standards), repetitive, difficult, and generally not very fun.

And in The Binding of Isaac Rebirth on the Vita I abused a couple of game breaking glitches to beat the game as The Lost (a character who dies in one hit) and unlock his rewards.

 

[Arina Love]

Sure, i do it every time i replay Xenoblade Chronicles. Just tweak XP gain and Affinity gain to alleviate the grind and get all H-to-H's. Non modified it takes me about 80-90 hours, with tweaks about 60.

 

[Tanis]

And it got absolutely slammed as "ezmode xDDDDDD only shitters use this" on this website.
Sometimes peeps don't realise that some of us need to save some time and can't do a grind sesh whenever we load up a game.

I've seen that shit to, and I can't help by laugh my ass off at those children.
I'm not a 'real gamer' because I have a life outside of ONE of my hobbies.
-I mean, ***** please, I beat both Digital Devil Saga games WITHOUT cheating. I've grinded enough for the next 50 or so JRPGs!

I have a job, sure the hours are wonky so I end up here at weird times, but it's still a job.
Plus other 'adult' things that need to get done.

While I ADORE games like Skyrim or Disgaea or etc, I just don't have the TIME to waste spending 50 hours to go up 15 levels in a 1000 level game.

That being said...I do have some time off in April JUST to play Persona 5.
Grind or not, I'm playing the SHIT out of that game.

 

[jklinders]

If it's single player then no one is getting hurt. Some otherwise good games are filed with busy work I just have no time for so yeah, I'll use the odd trainer.

I don't see a problem with that either.

 

[Wintermute_v1legacy]

Not really cheat, but the moment I get stuck somewhere, I'll just look up online right away how to get past that part instead of wasting my time not knowing where to go.

This is why I don't do most "please, great hero, help me I can't find my pet chicken" side quests and the only achievements I get are the ones the game gives you just for playing the game instead of collecting 150 crocodile buttholes.

 

[zidine100]

I do on occasion but I tend to feel bad about it afterwards, i mean it just feels like a bit of a hollow victory.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Fallout 4

I stumbled on to that password purely by mistake. Some tiles along the trail have letters, which spell out the password. I missed a few, but through the process of deduction, I determined it could only be one word.

One puzzle I played through the first time, but skipped each time thereafter was that virtual puzzle from F4: Far Harbour. The one with all the blue blocks? I don't hate the idea of a puzzle, it's just that I came up with a way to beat the puzzle using fewer blocks, and in less time, than what was given to you. But the game would only accept the puzzle as being completed if you did it one very specific way. Nothing like punishing creativity to make one install a mod to skip that crap.

 

[babinro]

I don't trust Trainers..I fear viruses or just bans/punishment from the game developer. Even if I felt they were completely safe I don't believe they are worth paying money for.

That being said I 100% appreciate their existence. The fact that Trainers even exist is a HUGE failure of the gaming industry in single player games. RPG's should simply allow the option to massively increase gold gain, xp gain to the point where you essentially entered god mode from the start. Let players customize their experiences to their liking.

 

[baddude1337]

In Mount & Blade and it's mods I tend to give myself a bunch of money at the start so I can have decent gear from the get go. In mods like A Clash Of Kings getting even basic crap takes costs far too much money, and I find the start of the game very boring as a result.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

I've used many tricks in many games to bypass grind. My Mass Effect 2 coalesced.ini for example, has a keybind to immediately grant all the eezo, platinum, etc a playthru will need. In Skyrim, I have a bat file to immediately max out smithing, sneaking, grant spells and let me create a new character right away without worrying about certain skills/perks. I used the system-clock trick to bypass the waiting in DA: Inquisition.

Personally, I like my New Game Plus playthrus for precisely the reason of being able to play a game for its gameplay alone. I see it as a sorta reward in a sense for playing the game in-depth the first time, and for doing so can do it again without the elements that weren't as much fun.

 

[DOOM GUY]

Well, sometimes I'll do something like noclip if a trigger happens to break, but typically I try to stay away from cheating, unless it's just for fun after I finished the game or something.

 

[Poetic Nova]

I've used Action Replay on my R4 to get my favorite Pokemon in Platinum and White without having to trade or something. In White it was made nescecary due to a gamebreaking bug I encountered.

 

[Veldel]

Yes if a game has something that i cant stand doing and its needed I will cheat or if it serves no real purpose then create busywork. Example Mining for resources in ME2

Such a boring mechanic

 

[Veldel]

I don't trust Trainers..I fear viruses or just bans/punishment from the game developer. Even if I felt they were completely safe I don't believe they are worth paying money for.

That being said I 100% appreciate their existence. The fact that Trainers even exist is a HUGE failure of the gaming industry in single player games. RPG's should simply allow the option to massively increase gold gain, xp gain to the point where you essentially entered god mode from the start. Let players customize their experiences to their liking.

The only trainers I use are ones from http://mrantifun.net/index.php?threads/list-of-all-trainers-on-this-forum-updated-as-of-14-feb-2017.503/ I have had zero issues from them

The key is finding a site you can trust and like that is reliable.

And to add to what you said they are great for testing out stuff to see if you like how that class plays in say a rpg. its great to be able to test and figure out what you want.

 

[BadNewDingus]

I think the time that cheating was acceptable to me was with Skyrim. Getting stuck in stuff isn't fun.

 

[Jerast]

And it got absolutely slammed as "ezmode xDDDDDD only shitters use this" on this website.
Sometimes peeps don't realise that some of us need to save some time and can't do a grind sesh whenever we load up a game.

I've seen that shit to, and I can't help by laugh my ass off at those children.
I'm not a 'real gamer' because I have a life outside of ONE of my hobbies.
-I mean, ***** please, I beat both Digital Devil Saga games WITHOUT cheating. I've grinded enough for the next 50 or so JRPGs!

I have a job, sure the hours are wonky so I end up here at weird times, but it's still a job.
Plus other 'adult' things that need to get done.

While I ADORE games like Skyrim or Disgaea or etc, I just don't have the TIME to waste spending 50 hours to go up 15 levels in a 1000 level game.

That being said...I do have some time off in April JUST to play Persona 5.
Grind or not, I'm playing the SHIT out of that game.

Persona 5 looks sick man, hope you enjoy it.

But yeah I'm not even taking the "oh I just have less time than you because I'm so much busier and more exciting" cause that ain't it either, I just hate pointless grinds. I feel like if you can't keep up the proper levels or gear by just playing the game, either it's designed with grinding or repeating areas in mind, or it's just terribly made in that respect, and I don't have a lot of patience for either anymore.

Like the crappy japanese game I mentioned in a post above the first one I quoted you in. I don't have time to grind 9 maps worth of monsters 5 times each because the mob just won't drop the material for my weapons.

 

[Poetic Nova]

I think the time that cheating was acceptable to me was with Skyrim. Getting stuck in stuff isn't fun.

Anything running on Bethesd'a Gamebryo will need console commands in one way or another.
Actually, now you bring this up.

Fallout 3.

Those goddamn fucking Reavers in the subway. Even with the mod installed that halved their health they were a pain to deal with. Ended up using console commands.

 

[Elfgore]

I do it now pretty much every new game I make in Mount and Blade: Warband. The early game grind is just so fucking repetitive after you've done it a thousand times. Kill bandits, make sure you use a blunt weapon to knock them out, and grab all their shit to sell, hire villagers, once they are high enough level join a faction as a mercenary, lord snipe your way to high renown and money, become a lord, etc.

I now just cheat my way up to a decent amount or renown, money, and troops to usually start in as a mercenary. Though if I'm playing a mod for the first time I do like to start from the beginning.