A better way of searching for traps...

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I didn't know which section of the forum to post this in, but one of my biggest problems with Infinity Engine D&D games is the tedium involved with searching for traps. You click the button, walk a few steps, wait 10 or 15 seconds, take a few more steps, rinse, repeat. You do this in every single dungeon and it's boring and really bogs down the game.

I think a better way around this would be when you click on search for traps, the button would turn into a stopwatch that would countdown and at the end of the count, all local traps would be revealed within a displayed radius. The speed of the stopwatch would depend on the thief's skill, thus a higher skill would require less time searching (and possibly a larger search radius).

Anyone else annoyed by the search for traps function in these games?

 

I don't mind the finding traps function - mostly because I forget to use it most of the times and when I do use it, it's almost fun.

Very few traps are actually lethal/extremely harmful in the games anyway, so you can trigger them and get away relatively unhurt.

Not to mention that after a few runs you can probably point out/avoid the nastiest traps from memory, so you can use the search function only when you need to.

Also, I think that there are automatic behavior modes (scripts? scenarios?) in some (all?) IE games for classes which allow, for example, your thief to always look for traps or stay hidden in shadows... I don't use these in my runs (personal preference), so I'm not familiar with them to a greater degree. (Meaning, don't take my word on it, I could be wrong.) These are adjusted from the character screen, IIRC.

 

Hmm in the IE games I've played, I don't recall this script for thieves, unless these are mods you're talking about.

maybe that idea I had is kinda dumb though, in a way it would take away from the mystery of traps? I don't know... i think in it's current form it just slows everything down.

One very cool thing is that in the first Icewind Dale for example, you can usually spot where a trap might be located. Like in one location, can't remember off hand, there are boards lining the middle of a pathway and some of the individual boards are trapped. I appreciate that aspect of Icewind Dale in that the traps don't seem so random and that they're more strategically placed... you almost know when and when not to use your search button.

 

Only Baldur's Gate II has a script for a thief to constantly search for traps. It's called "Thief Adventurer".

Also, along the topic; the druid has a spell called "Find Traps". Cast it and voila, traps!

 

IWD2 and BG2 have more thief specific scripts. This is what Lore is referring to. There is a script that keeps a thief searching for traps constantly unless given another action. After the action is complete they revert to searching again. Same as the hiding script.

 

ah okay, that's cool! Thanks dudes... obviously I haven't dabbled much in BG2 hehe

 

I don't see the problem here. Just keep an NPC you don't like in your party so he or she can walk over the traps, trigger them and be done with it.

Later on you can even resurrect this character to use him over and over again. The best is to use a character who has a funny dying line (Xzar is not bad) or just a character you can't stand (one good reason for keeping Aerie or Anomen).

You can even use a mule with only dumping stats in IWD2.

 

I liked the Staff o/t Magi in BG2, so that thief/mages and Use Any Item thieves could explore the map invisible. You can stand right next to enemies, as you search the surroundings for traps - talk about preparing for battle My biggest problem with searching for traps, is that the danger of encountering enemies is more important, and unless you have aforementioned quarterstaff, or cast Invisibility, you can't search and hide at the same time
Oh, and if you get impatient, and search too quickly, you set off traps anyway. That's super annoying. Maybe there shouldn't even be a timer, just auto-find!