nightcleaver

Yeah - we just pay him massive amounts of money for products he ignores. Not too unbelievable, considering a lot of his practices. I agree that the PC shouldn't be the center of the universe. That's only interesting if you either live your life in a cave or are ten years old. Otherwise, interest is normally pretty limited. The games probably pretty popular for ten year olds, I imagine... (rating system)

Vandy Pigon "GoGo" - nickname. Oh, right - good to hear it. It's confirmed that I'll have a computer and working internet connection while I'm at school. Friday's should still be good. What time are we thinking? Anything after 7 is unlikely to conflict with dorm room dining schedules, and I might be able to manage something as early as 4 - as long as it doesn't last too long. Worst case scenario, I'll have my trusty junkfood/cereal bar to eat. It's only one day of the week, after all...

The Sims 3: Dark Lords of the Public Restroom.

Honestly, it doesn't make sense to have the level system incorporate with story... PC: "What level was Revan before he become the Sith Lord?" Zhar: "Ahh, now that's a question for the ages..." The d20 is already far enough from fitting ANY story as it is - stories don't tend to have balanced gameplay, and there's even less balance in real life.

Yeah. Not too subtle, though... you don't want the answers to be so cryptic you don't know what you've told the game, or perhaps THAT you've told the game anything. You could always reload, I guess, but it would be sort of aggravating. That was my initial worry with that approach, anyway.

Yeah, I'm sure people will continue complaining though... The dev's will never see the end of it after LA released one screenshot with big-mouth Mira. *sigh*

As long as it's only once or twice because constantly having to repair your ship would get really boring quick. Especially if your PC has a low repair skill. Cheers! Well, if you don't have a high repair skill another NPC could do it. Or you could just have other's do it - there shouldn't be penalty for them doing it for you. If you really want to do it, you can.

The main character dies, or gets severely wounded. You decide to heal - when you wake up the character's might make some exclamation. If you're in a romance, you're 'loved one' might exclaim how worried they were (teehee). It should stop after the first couple times though, or only be very rare. This would make it feel like time really passed. Maybe they could have standard events, similar to special encounters in other games, that occasionally happen while you're away. Ahh, but that's too neat to add at this point. *sniff*

That's not technically true, especially considering that they can't - being human - do everything by themselves. They don't, "Force overpower" or "force destroy", and force persuade doesn't work most of the time - except on the "weaker minded", and a lot of people in the first game it didn't thusly work on. Non Jedi could wear armor. That's a perfectly reasonable way to balance the game (adding stats to the armor), seeing that Jedi can't use their powers with armor on. Also: you can give certain character's reflexes, coming back up after knockout, rocket launchers, sneaking, etc... all of those things are weaknesses in most Jedi.

The best teacher's teach as close to application as possible. If the tutorial just tells you buttons, and then you press that button and move on, it's really not much better than throwing you in the game after showing you a page demonstrating where all the controls were and what they did. When you make it a part of the game, it's less of a chore to learn it, people are happier and more attentive when it's not a chore to learn, and people get something of a feel for the actual application of the controls.

What??? Let me restate: They'll balance the game for the non-Jedi through story and gameplay scenarios. That would easily bring them on par with Jedi. Keep in mind you can't take away all their powers, because the style of a Jedi is a melee combatant that can handle long range combat - if they couldn't, they wouldn't really be a viable class. You might not think that's good enough if it's not put in game mechanics, but honestly - in real life, people are better at things than others. Jedi are good at some things, but they really don't have the skills non-Jedi do, to generalize. This system they've set up would do that in spades as long as it's done right. One's power or usefulness is only determined by their actions, and with the proper situation's set up, every character will be useful.

No one was stating the two aren't connected. It's NOT proof of anything, though, not even supporting evidence, that the two haven't been mentioned next to eachother by the dev's initiative. It would make more sense to surmise that there thusly ISN'T a connection, do you see? Regardless of if there's a connection, their silence on the matter isn't proof or even implicative of there being a connection.

It's also quite likely, as was my point, that they'll make up for however powerful the Jedi is in story and actual gameplay scenarios.

Levels have nothing to do with story, it's just a system of character advancement. I've yet to play a cRPG where the character advancement seemed to really fit with the story. It would be nice if it did, but it certainly doesn't ruin the credibility of the story if the advancement of the character doesn't fit any sort of realism or story. Maybe you've stopped liking games enough to overlook those small discrepancies.

It shouldn't be an integral part of the story, agreed. I think the point of adding story or somesuch to a tutorial is to make it feel like part of the game, so the person learning the game is actually engaged in learning the interface instead of twiddling their thumbs and getting confused, having no context to apply any of what the tutorial is teaching them. You may argue that's only for "idiots", but "idiots" exist, I'm afraid, and are even likely a significant portion of the gaming community that will be forking over their cash for this game.

Yes, but they've already changed quite a bit in the first one, and given ways they're going to balance things out in the second. I'm sure guns will still be a little weak by comparison to a Lightsaber overall, but that doesn't mean your other character's will be useless.

In the first KotOR, yes. How big a role did Luke have, though, beyond killing Darth Vader and causing the death of Palpatine indirectly? Regardless, they've been quite liberal with the D20 rules in the first one, so balancing it out a little isn't too unimaginable. Jedi are limited by their saber use, so there still has to be something to make up for it - you really wouldn't have to change too much.

That you'll be a Jedi means relatively little about balance. They've never said they're making you a Jedi so that you'll kick everyone's ass, or be unable to compete otherwise. LA told obsidian, as a guideline, that the story had to center on the PC as a Jedi, not that the PC had to be a Jedi so the player would be able to compete with the Sith. Bounty hunters are perfectly capable of taking on Jedi, anyway, so that's not even an issue. Some Jedi are more powerful than others, just as some non Force-sensitives are more powerful than others, so that's no excuse for making it Jedi Only. All your being a Jedi means is that you'll have an important role in the storyline, which is obviously important to most people in a single player RPG. It DOESN'T mean you'll be the most powerful or useful character in the game just by virtue of being a Jedi (LA never set that as a guideline), and Obsidian's even given relatively specific examples of how they'll right that. You're welcome to be annoyed that they don't give you the option of being a non-Jedi, though.

ahh, no.... that last post was for silver.

right... just offering the observation

'might shift the focus a bit... though it could be fun.

Oh, I thought you were talking about bastila - the quote you had in your post referred to "important role or CAMEO," and seeing as how Atris wasn't in the first one, she can't make a cameo... I agree that Atris is probably important; I just don't think she's the same as Bastila. While they're not mentioning bastila, they're also not mentioning canderous or Jolee. Are those connected to Atris as well? No, that's not proof, though it certainly disproves nothing. There's no actual reason to even suspect that Atris and Bastila are connected, except to perhaps say that they're both important female character's in their own way, used more or less as a prominent part of cover-art. That really doesn't imply a connection deeper than that, though. Now, if they both had battle meditation or some physical characteristic in common... but we don't know that, and I seriously doubt they'll have either in common in the end.

She looks angry to me - as the character's usually do when fighting - but doesn't show the half-dead skin and hair of the first KotOR. Could be, though

They aren't saying anything about ANY of the characters, actually, so that doesn't mean anything more or less in the case of Bastila. I don't see why they would be more likely to comment to say she had no role, or a little one.

Exactly. She looks fine. Quit yer bitchin' *sigh* People just don't get it. I concede a point to the other side, and everyone who's with me decides to attack that. No, I really agree that there's nothing to be ashamed of.