Hi,

First time post for me, despite years of viewing these forums. Apologies in advance if this topic has been done to death elsewhere.

I have recently started a new 'nostalgia' game of v1.03, and as usual, first have to determine what kind of IMP merc I want.

This time round I decided to go for a Night Ops (Expert), and it was just a case of determining the stats for optimum levelling.

When doing this, I intended to shamelessly abuse the mechanics and bugs of the original game, so gave my custom the minimum (and rather pathetic) 35 each in Agi, Str, Health, Explosives so that I can max out all the crucial stats, i.e. 85 Dex, Wisdom, 80 Marksmanship for the MP5K etc.

By the end of day 1, said merc is sitting pretty as the top merc in most categories, except for the zeros.

For levelling Str and Health I found a mortar and a booby trapped shell somewhere and "magicked up" a load more. Carrying 5 mortars, a toolkit and 8 shells gave him around 500%+ in weight, where levelling can be done in an instant in-game (although a good 10-15 mins of my time issuing abortive travel commands into the swamp).

For Agi, the first hostile encounter at night gets this to 99 reasonably quick (about a minute in game, many more IRL) just by pacing back and forth in front of a soldier.

For the EXP, he has borrowed one of Barry's sticks of TNT. A few saves and reloads later, and he is EXP 99, Wisdom mid 90s, and all in a couple of LOL-minutes.

All the while his Level has climbed to 7 or 8 (it is now 9, but that was after some battles beyond the power-levelling day).

So he's pretty pimped.

My question for the game-breakers out there is:
Is it possible to level any skill (such as Explosives) from 0 to 1 in v1.03?
Can it be done in 1.13, and if so, can you then go on to abuse the mechanics for rapid stat gains in the same way as in v1.03 (e.g. with a stick of TNT?)

The reason I ask, is that I found a screenshot from a blog on v1.13 [u]here[/u] which shows a screenie of a character who managed to gain a crucial single point by the end of the game.

PS:- I have never played 1.13 but it looks awesome (nice work btw!) and I am extremely tempted give it a try over Christmas or some such...

Thanks

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You took your time to come to the questions ...
1) AFAIK: No.
2) Yes, yes.

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@Sam

Thanks for the quick response. The point I was trying to get across is that from the outset, the intention has been to cheat flagrantly abuse the mechanics. Agility is the only fairly earnt stat gain, and even that is a little bit too easy at night with a specialist.

My reasoning is that if Skyrider can charge $100, or I have fuel docked from my vehicles for each aborted travel command, it is only 'fair' that my mercs can benefit from abortive commands also

Anyhow - I just wanted a little advice on which stats can be power levelled before I try 1.13. I understand the enemy AI is significantly improved (did someone say "insane"?), which is what I am after

@Saibot - in v1.03, your merc gets an MP5K as a starting weapon only if you give him 80+ marksmanship. Helps to out-gear your opponents, at least until nightfall, when their long range rifles won't help prevent their silent deaths from a sneaky specialist. Basically, I'm too tight-fisted to hire a 1 day merc with a proper weapon.

[Updated on: Tue, 22 November 2011 11:13] by Moderator

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