Author Topic: The Xmax Hardcore Challenge  (Read 262733 times)

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Offline Medea Fleecestealer

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Re: The Xmax Hardcore Challenge
« Reply #585 on: 02 April 2021, 20:28:19 »
Yes, completing Ragnarok unlocks the next difficulty.  Atlantis is a purely optional expansion.

And well done as usual stormyboy.   :)

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Offline stormyboy

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Re: The Xmax Hardcore Challenge
« Reply #586 on: 03 April 2021, 16:40:54 »
Stormyboy - Borkan - L62 Ranger AEAR (untwinked/no potions) - Atlantis Ascent

https://imgur.com/fQzSXGQ
https://imgur.com/LNPw3cj
https://imgur.com/DumaQMP
https://imgur.com/9vh3wjA

 And this is normal finally done. I took a few screenshots of atlantis but only to the monsters that had balls of loot to drop. Being my first run and double the level of the expansion i found no threat whatsoever in there so i couldn't identify that well bosses. Also, i wonder why did they cut it short? I mean, no main quest, fewer portals and zones, fewer unique items, 15euro on steam. The price is lower than ragnarok by 5eu but even so, the content is too scarce to worth the full price.

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Offline stormyboy

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Re: The Xmax Hardcore Challenge
« Reply #587 on: 03 April 2021, 22:35:53 »
Stormyboy - Borkan - L63 Ranger AEAR (untwinked/no potions) - Olive Grove

https://imgur.com/FmFWTNd
https://imgur.com/1q4wlRw
https://imgur.com/big2zDX
https://imgur.com/Wdt0QDV
https://imgur.com/WKv6hyU

This is it for tonight. Tomorrow i think i will finish grece.

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Offline stormyboy

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Re: The Xmax Hardcore Challenge
« Reply #588 on: 04 April 2021, 17:56:15 »
Stormyboy - Borkan - L65 Ranger AEAR (untwinked/no potions) - Room of the Conduit

https://imgur.com/MhB01Mt
https://imgur.com/VHU7ovR
https://imgur.com/BjHpK9l
https://imgur.com/0SMbUqU

Aaaaaaand this is greece. Also, i am gathering items to do the challenge again twinked and with potions. I am gathering retaliation/damage reflect items and pet damage items. I am thinking about a character that only reflects and a character that will fail the challenge by finishing the game with less than 100 kills :D

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Offline Medea Fleecestealer

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Re: The Xmax Hardcore Challenge
« Reply #589 on: 05 April 2021, 08:22:50 »
 ;D Last one.  Good luck with that.  I'm doing the I have minions for that achievement atm where you have to finish Normal with less than 100 kills.  I'm up to 40, but most of those were running around doing the first quest to reach L2 to get some wolves.  I'm just past Medea's Grove in Normal so I might just make it, but trying it in Xmax ....   :o

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Offline stormyboy

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Re: The Xmax Hardcore Challenge
« Reply #590 on: 09 April 2021, 22:15:04 »
Stormyboy - Borkan - L68 Ranger AEAR (untwinked/no potions) - Tsongmo Ice Caverns

https://imgur.com/6jvTHeo
https://imgur.com/yn8cFqh
https://imgur.com/0H0e3ol
https://imgur.com/5iXt83Z
https://imgur.com/z5MsXK7
https://imgur.com/r06OV0i
https://imgur.com/7LYgbhG

Second act done with a bit of progress in act 3. Untill now nothing gives me any trouble. I have trouble with the epic items i get but it's ok. I like more the targeted benefit of green items + enchantment.

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Offline Medea Fleecestealer

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Re: The Xmax Hardcore Challenge
« Reply #591 on: 10 April 2021, 15:50:05 »
Well done!  Almost to the top of the leaderboard.   :)

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Offline stormyboy

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Re: The Xmax Hardcore Challenge
« Reply #592 on: 10 April 2021, 21:34:41 »
Thank you! This is my next upgrade. It is not the end of the act yet but i got the dragon lich down without any problems which is a big personal achievement.

Stormyboy - Borkan - L68 Ranger AEAR (untwinked/no potions) - Shrine of Zhong Kui

https://imgur.com/HsQrYTW
https://imgur.com/HGUjwoy

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Offline stormyboy

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Re: The Xmax Hardcore Challenge
« Reply #593 on: 09 May 2021, 14:52:59 »
Stormyboy - Borkan - L72 Ranger AEAR (untwinked/no potions) - Throne Room

https://imgur.com/TSuae5w  (vault stats)
https://imgur.com/VoPDI9h
https://imgur.com/1KV3MOs
https://imgur.com/s7usfjO
https://imgur.com/xK2m0kn (titan kill)
https://imgur.com/GtTQu1n  (hades kill)

I hope it's ok that i wrote lvl 72 even tho i have 71 in the kill picture. I got the level right after i took this picture by completing the hades vault quest.
Now, one more expansion and i am off to legendary. The worst of all... I need to farm some vendor greens for this or else my journey will end here.
« Last Edit: 09 May 2021, 14:58:53 by stormyboy »

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Offline Medea Fleecestealer

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Re: The Xmax Hardcore Challenge
« Reply #594 on: 09 May 2021, 20:34:10 »
Yeah, that's fine stormyboy.  And that takes you almost to the top of the leaderboard!   :)

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Offline Zardoz

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Re: The Xmax Hardcore Challenge
« Reply #595 on: 20 May 2021, 22:59:54 »
I apologize in advance for questioning this, but i just can't help it, i have to ask - Is this challenge based on trust? Because anyone can just cheat very easily with a save file backup before every game session, or from rebirth fountain to rebirth fountain. How does this work? Have you had doubts about someone's legitimacy in the challenge so far?

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Offline stormyboy

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Re: The Xmax Hardcore Challenge
« Reply #596 on: 21 May 2021, 00:08:49 »
Hey Zardoz! You are right. There are a lot of ways you can cheat in this challenge. A while ago, before atlantiss and ragnarok, you could even use the defiler to make yourself invulnerable, add levels, add gold etc. Because the game doesn't have a hardcore setting we must play the challenge by trusting each other we won't cheat.

I will use myself as an example for why i don't want to cheat in this challenge:
-this is only a forum of an old game with a few active users (most of them looking for guides and mods). So you don't get any fame out of completing the challenge
-fan made leader boards, nothing official
-no prize whatsoever
-waste of time. It takes a lot of time to complete 3 difficulties on xmax. Imagine saving and starting over from a checkpoint for a few times. Even if you save after every fountain, there are zones so dense that it takes 30 min just to advance one more fountain. I would understand mby doing that for the end boss. But if you need to save before you get to legendary you have a loooong way ahead of you.
-this challenge is a long-term commitment
-not that many people care about this challenge. So you are not lying to them but to yourself.

I personally trust and have trusted all participants.  A while ago when the forum was a bit more active, the challenge was more popular as well. But, even tho we had more entries, the list of characters that completed the challenge was not that big. And most of the time the challenge got completed by players that had a few characters in the bin as well.

As for myself, i only completed the challenge once with haruspex when you could become immortal with enough defensive(at least for projectiles and melee hits). Aside from that, i had a lot of failed entries that weren't even worthy to get into the hero bin. Or, because i rarely post normal progress untill the end of normal, some characters created with the challenge in mind didn't even made it on the forum.

(wall of text because i feel like i am the only one running right now :D)
Long answer short, you can lie, you can cheat. We won't know. But you will.


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Offline Zardoz

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Re: The Xmax Hardcore Challenge
« Reply #597 on: 21 May 2021, 00:45:29 »
Hello there. :)

I will use myself as an example for why i don't want to cheat in this challenge:
-this is only a forum of an old game with a few active users (most of them looking for guides and mods). So you don't get any fame out of completing the challenge
-fan made leader boards, nothing official
-no prize whatsoever
-waste of time. It takes a lot of time to complete 3 difficulties on xmax. Imagine saving and starting over from a checkpoint for a few times. Even if you save after every fountain, there are zones so dense that it takes 30 min just to advance one more fountain. I would understand mby doing that for the end boss. But if you need to save before you get to legendary you have a loooong way ahead of you.
-this challenge is a long-term commitment
-not that many people care about this challenge. So you are not lying to them but to yourself.

While these are all very good and valid points, they won't stop a cheater from being a cheater. I can tell you why someone might cheat in this challenge, despite all these points you've presented - he will do it for the same reason people cheat in video games in general, with or without any price on the line, but for the mere bragging rights, no matter how insignificant they're achievement is, how time consuming it is, or how many people care about it. For the same reason there are so many people caught cheating in speedrunning obscured games, just so they're names can appear in a leaderboard that only the handful of players of that said game know about. Some gamers/cheaters are weird, they would do strange things for reason only they care about. Others cheat because they suffer from some bizarre gaming superiority complex, they think they're too good to fail, so they can't accept to lose, even in the most meaningless competition.

As for this challenge, you can only speak for yourself, you can't know for sure what the other players do... and as long as there's no way to actually prove the legitimacy of all participating walkthroughs, every single one will be (it must be) under suspicion. You can only prove a walkthrough like this, if you livestream the whole thing from start to finish.

Speaking of streaming... has anyone streamed something like this before? Is there at least a youtube walkthrough of a full xmax self-found hardcore character? I'm curious to see how they progress through the game on normal difficulty and the playstyle overall, but i don't want it explained with words, i want to see it.
« Last Edit: 21 May 2021, 00:49:09 by Zardoz »

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Offline Medea Fleecestealer

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Re: The Xmax Hardcore Challenge
« Reply #598 on: 21 May 2021, 06:51:05 »
Yes, the challenge is based on trusting people who undertake it will do so without cheating.  The challenge has been going probably since the Xmax mod first came out; it was on the old forum before that got closed down.  I just moved the conditions and leaderboard over when we started the new forum. 

You have to remember that streaming wasn't even a thing back when the challenge first started and also many of us are not interested or capable of doing something like a live stream.  That would also limit the number of people who could take part in the challenge.  There have been a few pvp/league challenges for Grim Dawn over the last year or so and while I did sort of take part in the last league thing I knew I wouldn't get on the leaderboard precisely because boss kills needed to be live streamed/videoed and I'm too much of a computer dunce to be able to set something like that up, even if I wanted to - which I personally don't. 

So yes, trust is what we rely on.  Sure people could cheat it, but if they really want something to brag about then I'd say finishing the challenge as many times as gasconron has would really need to be their target if they're that way inclined.  The other thing I would say is while they may cheat their way through and on to the leaderboard, they're not going to be number 1 as there will be other players who complete the challenge and join them; they would all be equal as they've finished the challenge and not numbered 1, 2, 3, etc.  Whether that's incentive enough .... 

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Offline stormyboy

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Re: The Xmax Hardcore Challenge
« Reply #599 on: 21 May 2021, 09:53:26 »
You are right, a cheater will be a cheater no matter what. So, with thatin mind, even if one would record their progress and post it here, it would not exclude the possibility of cloning the save. Personal example: because my time is limited i usually play in 1h sections (from portal to portal). If i were to record, i could save my progress each time i get to a new portal and re-record my atempts every time i fail, posting just the successful atempts.

 As for live streaming, one of the reasons i love titan quest is the offline factor. If any of my gameplay would involve me going online in any way or shape i would lose interest. I already play world of warcraft which is a mmorpg and sometimes i just need a retreat in offline games. When completely offline i have the freedom to go afk whenever, pause the game, hop between portals to farm vendors as much as i like. Not to say simetimes i just pause the game, forget about it and when i come back the pc would have auto shut down. So, a stream where i go afk for 5h would be... Something. Also, making a stream with me farming vendors for 3h wouldn't be nice to watch and would stress me for being watched.

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