nightcleaver

Well, there has reportedly been a dolphin attempt at rape/sexual molestation of a human female. Eh, maybe they just like us TOO much... KEEP IT IN YOUR SLIT THINGY ON YOUR BELLY!! Of course, frankly, and I remember a lot about dolphins... dolphins don't have territories, and they don't raid "enemy pods" like chimps do, kill the enemy children, and screw the enemy mothers. They do compete with eachother about mating, however, and that's the only thing I remember about aggression. I used to be Teh Expert at this, too - so unless you know better. Volourn, you ARE rather irritating. Frankly, it's easy to imagine how humans overpower and capture Chimps, instead of the other way around; first of all, chimps DON'T HAVE ZOOS! Wow. We're pretty unique in that, you know. Also, chimps don't use tranq guns or nets, and they don't have helicopters. For the most part they'd have to travel many miles from their habitat to capture live humans, and yet they have yet to invent a combustion engine. I'm sure there are far less than 5 billion chimps in the world, where right now there are (more than) 5 billion people in the world. Yeah, they're a bit outnumbered, too. And no, chimps don't have Deagles, either. They have rocks, though, and enormous strength, and they DO know how to use those. Oh; you don't see chimps throwing their natural predators, because they'd get crushed by them. There is a matter of leverage here, and they really don't have the weight; but I'd believe that a chimp has at least five times the strength of a human, because chimps are capable of pulling limbs off of healthy, full-grown average men. The strength is in their arms, not weight. Ever tried, I mean really TRIED, pulling someones arm off? Hmm... The difficult thing would be reach. The easy thing would be that, well, chimps are actually pretty light themselves, so you could through them around and bash their heads in about as well as they could rip your arms off. Or your butt-cheeks and testicles, for that matter.

I have two video cards. They are PCI; note, they are not PCI-E, so (I don't think?) there's anything like SLI to support them working in tandem. Is there someway to have them both work together, though, even if for a minor performance gain? I hate having one sit around. They are both Nvidia; 5700 LE and 5200 Ultra.

A physics card would be like a smaller computer (installed IN your computer, like a graphics card), with CPU and possibly RAM of it's own, and it would compute the physics (as opposed to the graphics, with a GRAPHICS card), and be dedicated as such, in games that supported the use of this 'card', or mini-computer even. Physics being real time calculation of such things as how objects hit eachother, possibly simulating exactly how a bullet enters and leaves a body. If you shoot the antenna on a car, the antenna would pop off or bend at the point of impact. Explosions would be able to leave realistic craters, objects would fall and hit at the expected rate, cloth would move and shift as it bumped against objects. You might even be able to see wholes in objects when you puncture them or blow them up in some way. END explanation. Blah... it IS just more to spend your money on. Why do they have to do that? They'll start having "AI" cards in a few years, at this rate...

As to WHY we don't like mana systems, let

Hydrogen seemed to be saying gameplay spoilers were off, and the spoiler forum was for such gameplay spoilers, whereas this is for storyline spoilers. CAn't be sure, though.

To the first poster: First of all, there were no "tangled ambiguities". DS and LS were pretty clear-cut; but it went further in depth, and questioned how good or how bad LS and DS could be. The Sith always think they're in the right, because they think it's good to test everyone, and not care about anyone but themselves. That's the idea behind it; although perhaps it doesn't belong in a Star Wars game, maybe I just don't know enough about star wars. I can understand that it doesn't give you the same feeling, though. The only things I remember your character not knowing seemed to result from your character being forced to, or wanting to, forget everything (Highlight to read; spoiler) And, "shoddy writing" is a statement that the writer's didn't do a good job. Perhaps this is a matter of perspective that he thinks it's shoddy and I don't, but it's certainly not a matter of opinion. Stating that something is an example of bad, or even incomplete, writing, is not something that can be said in a "IMHO" way. I don't particularly care if he says that, but there are certainly a fair share of people who wouldn't agree. In response to this: First of all, I had no problems having to "Bend" to my NPC's will; I was lightside through and through, but I befriended a few darksiders. The idea was that you would take other NPC's in other play-throughs, and it was supposed to be based on how that character would get along with your character, as you roleplayed them, rather than them just giving you their life story on a whim. I suppose you don't like not being able to get to know everyone at once, then? Perhaps the game mechanics could've been altered to show their intent better, that you wouldn't try fruitlessly to impress NPC's? It would've been nice if the NPC's moving to the DS/LS according to your influence of them actually showed in the story, but THAT was never promised; it's a shame they didn't have it, but if you really think about it, would it be worth all the effort of trying to do that? You'd have to figure a billion different responses for every NPC, with voice acting for all of it. Perhaps it was rushed, in this. I noticed that there were a number of dialogue options - I haven't tested this myself - in the Prima guide that could be triggered by a high enough positive or negative influence. Just saying... The non-existence of Force Armor and the armor bonus of Force Speed wasn't a good thing at all, but I don't remember any other Force Powers that were useless. There were force powers galore, useful in all different situations, moreso than the first game. Is this the same game we've played?

What do you mean by "chat"? Is that some sort of term for experience cap? I seem to recall that certain classes advanced in level faster than others... Otherwise, I don't know. If they had animal companions way back when, that would explain it, but it didn't. They had the sneak skill, and could go the archery path for bonuses over archer/fighters even, and stuff, and were decently effective as either ranged or frontline fighters. I remember that my 300 times re-rolled stats made my ranger pretty awesome, but other than that...

From what I can tell, he was just saying to approach it as it's own game without any negative or positive expectations. Also, the game is harder than the first game. Perhaps people have been having ungodly luck finding uber items early in the game, but "difficult" mode actually has some difficulty to it.

In the load/save screen, hit the X button to change character profiles. Your friends saves are just under a different profile from yours.

What is it when someone says, "They should've have gone without the influence system," or, "The influence system is broken," and then go and talk about how they should replace it completely with what was in KotOR I?

It's far more ground-breaking than Fable was.

Perhaps people fall to the darkside because a "wound in the Force" created on a personal level, which forced the person to succumb to the Dark Side; although for the force as a whole, it's comparable to a pin-prick. In any case, the Exile wasn't always a wound in the Force, but something was always special about his connection to it - a direct sensitivity to life force.

A question to those who just absolutely HATE the influence system: Would you mind having the influence system, AND something like the storytelling of KotOR 1? Or do you just think the influence system is stupid and the dev's should be shot for thinking of it? I found that it made it all more realistic. Also, I wonder if any of these people (not trying to be mean here, just trying to make a point) would "get" the "Star Wars mythos" if THEY had made the game? I'm sure Obsidian "understood" just fine, but maybe they created something that didn't give the same feeling as Star Wars, as you've come to expect.

with a video game, it's actually MORE difficult to work from beginning to end. All that programming, 40 people working on the project at once that you need to coordinate. No, you do the STORY ahead of time.

Yeah, and if you recognize that you don't have to take every apparently evil action. The games easy enough as it is that the LS/DS mastery is pretty superfluous.

I wasn't saying anything to the contrary. "I FANCY that my exile" was good at Battle Meditation as well, although perhaps not as practiced with it. That's beside the point anyway, though. I was trying to suggest that Bastila's connection to the Force was a connection through people and their power, their connection to the Force, much as the Exile's. I mean, it's certainly interesting that Bastila manages to bring the life back into Revan... and forms a Force bond with him in the process.

Exactly. There are even a few chances you have to do an ostensibly lightside action and turn it into something evil. Perhaps it's not perfect, though, because their alignment doesn't seem to affect their reactions to what you do/say to them. I think that's relatively minor though, because in real life, you get someone to value your opinion highly, but if you break their trust of your opinions, there'll be hell to pay.

It's not a bug. It's just sour programming. I, too, spent quite a while having nothing to do on Nar Shadaa. You should, perhaps, try another planet? Nar Shadaa isn't the be all end all of the plot, just so you know. The game isn't broken, although perhaps it's a little too difficult to trigger new events here. Maybe you should just try a different planet. *hint, hint* This is an example of bad feedback ruining someone's experience more than the experience itself, certainly... unless there's something you're not bringing up.

He never said hate, that I recall, although his rants do get tedious. I sort of get him, though, because I do the same thing, really, it's just that I tend to be more positive about it. He's just being... persistent. It doesn't mean hate, that he says he wants something this or that way once, anymore than it does when he says it a billion times over... like he has.

I've thought a little bit about why Battle Meditation could be so consistently a "thing apart" from other Force skills, and if, maybe, Bastila had a connection to the life force of others similar to what the Exile had, and that's what gave her the ability to use Battle Meditation so well. I sort of fancy that idea, actually, mainly because I fancied that that was a talent of my Exile.

As charismatic as Revan was, it sounds like the Exile was, perhaps, even more charismatic, even if he wasn't as balanced or as good a leader, and not as cunning a strategist. I don't think the Exile will keep that gift of his. Remembering Nihilus, it sounds like the Exile would have to keep slaughtering people in order to grow or maintain his power. I also think Revan might have some of that power to "feed" as well, and that on top of Revan's superior intellect (as long as he manages to get it back after the memory wipe) would, I think, mean that Revan was the superior of the two. But I think the Exile would be the best possible choice Revan could make for a number two, along with Bastila (Battle Meditation), of course. Although I was sort of thinking that maybe there are two kinds of Force-connection, and that Bastila had the same, or something very similar to, what the Exile had. But I'm going to go start a new thread about that...

It's really strange how incredibly different various people's opinions are of this game. I sort of suspect the bad words about it made people expect and see the worst, or maybe it just wasn't quite what they wanted. Not that I expect them to feel otherwise just because of that, though. Perhaps the game isn't... "unfinished"... especially considering what the "finished" state is for a lot of games, such as fable. Fable didn't have a plot, or for that matter, a party to interact with. However, you didn't get the same rounded feeling of getting to know your team in this game, and I suspect that was a lot of the charm of the first game. Obsidian also did so much with the plotline of K2, that fan-ficcers have less to work with than they did in the first game, ha. As for difficulty, well... I've had critters/soldiers/sith attacking and hitting for 60-100 damage even fairly late in the game, on the highest difficulty. Full buffs, top-level equipment and stats, etc. Maybe it's just how I decided to play. I was never much for spamming Force lightning, or Force Wave. I still think grenades were totally weak, though. The rifles ended up doing more damage than the plasma grenades, and that wasn't good. On the matter of equipment: the random loot system is really a mixed blessing. You get repeats of certain items you only need 1 or two of, but the game gives you more. You can break down and use or just sell items, but for the most part, there isn't much to buy throughout the game, so selling isn't all that great an idea. However, the workbench upgrades had plenty of options for all different play-styles and strategies, and I liked it. You still end up with more components and money and items you need in the end, though, by a longshot.

Sadly, I agree with a lot this poster says too... but I still really, really liked the core of what was there. Thanks for being so respectful about this, moreso than you probably needed to be. I can't say people (myself included, maybe) might be a little too touchy, still... Also, as far as apprentices go - has the best dialogues pertaining to "being your apprentice". I don't know if you've tried that one yet, but that one's the most satisfying person to train as your apprentice. Still could've been fleshed out more, though. It didn't really feel like you were training jedi, but like your NPC's were suddenly taking levels in Jedi classes. It would've been nice if they had voice acting for your PC while they said Master-to-Apprentice type things, instead of (and only in one case did you even get THIS) hearing Kreia's voice repeating what she had said to you in the background. I also have to say that I was under the impression that the first few levels of Jedi in the game would be a little bit different - wasn't there something about you being taught individual powers as you moved throughout Peragus? Perhaps finding situations, and deciding which powers you would take up? I thought that sounded really nifty, and I would've liked something akin to that for training your apprentice. Maybe they didn't have time, though. You know what would've helped the ending? If it had shown the NPC's, doing their thing on the bridge of the Ebon Hawk, as it struck off into that somewhat random Nebula. Here's what I was thinking they could've done: You talk to Kreia, and she starts talking about the future... fade away... fade back in, you clamber aboard the ebon hawk, the Ebon Hawk escapes. Your character seems distracted, and T3 (or maybe the romance option of preference) asks you what's wrong. You start remembering faint, somewhat spectral visions of what Kreia told you about your companions (note that the player hasn't seen what she told the PC until now) as you look at each one, and wonder. The Ebon Hawk goes off into the Nebula, music running, fade to credits. Did they not have time to do something like that? It seems like the talk with Kreia could've been a last minute thing. Talking about your companions in such abstract terms, and not even seeing them one last time, was almost worse than Kreia just dying dramatically and you escaping on the Ebon Hawk. I really liked the going off into space, into destiny, into death, maybe... and it was a great resolution for the core plot, but from Dantooine to the end of the game it just felt strangely lonely.

We've totally lost the topic from lack of interest anyway, but oh well.