KungFuFerret

I have to advocate Critical Strike. I just recently finished a game playing a guardian/weapons master and there was no way flurry could touch it for multiple reasons. One, flurry has a tendancy to average 1 miss per round, which negates the extra attack you can get from it. I messed around with Master Flurry using a single saber so I could keep my 70ish attack rating, and still saw misses. My only conclusion is either Flurry is bugged, or it's hardcoded to miss more often. Two, your best threat range will be 17-20. Three, you lock yourself into having to use Juyo for the extra attack. You also suffer the enemy crit attack modifer for doing so. Far far worse then the -5 defense from Critical Strike imo. Critical Strike with improved beam gemmed sabers reduces your threat range to 11-20. On average you'll crit half the time. With shien form, you lose the extra attack of Juyo, for the extra multiplier to your crits. Net effect is, more damage overall. The other bonus is, increased blaster deflection. Combined with the feats you get as a weapons master, you're pretty much impervious. The -5 defense is completely negated by Battle Precognition when used with Master Valor. I bumped CON to 16, and then pumped STR. I never touched DEX or WIS and still finished the game with a 55 defense (without force powers.) The stun component isn't much of an issue as far as the game stands now. I very rarely got to see it come into play because 1 critical strike usually finished off whatever I was fighting on the first attack. It did work well on bosses though. Note, I was only using a single saber. With dual sabers, even the bosses would have gone down on the first attack. It's not uncommon to hit 160-190ish crits if you maximize your damage potential with STR. You could definitely get higher with a Guardian/Marauder. I messed around with Power Attack as well, but it just simply couldn't compare to the other two attack types. Your crit rate isn't any better then Flurry, and the extra +12 damage is added AFTER your crit multiplier is factored in, much like how Massive Critical mods are added after. Pity, because an extra 48 damage from a x4 multiplier would have made it pretty nice (300+ crits anyone?). After getting a 220ish crit with Critical Strike, I decided it was time to completely bury the idea of Power Attack being a power hitter. Concerning Sniper Shot, I messed around with it with Atton. I had him max it and didn't boost his INT (which allegedly increases the chance to stun with it.) I gave him 2 Madalorian Rippers modified to 15-20 (before Master Sniper Shot.) Usually he'd stun whatever he was fighting in the first shot. Later on, his damage was insanely sickening.

Did someone mention Trade Wars???? (w00t)

For me, it's a lot easier to roleplay DS simply because I'm used to roleplaying in general. I rarely do so, but I can put myelf into the perspective when I do. For KOTOR, you pretty much have to if you want to see the whole story. Due to the wide audience for computer games though, the options have to be so blatant, they're just shy of missing the, "GOOD GUY, Click Here..." "BAD GUY, Click Here..." tags on the dialog options. If you've ever tried to play World of Darkness, you quickly learn no matter how good your intentions, the nature of your situation and the world, makes you powerless to do anything about it. You have to learn to think outside the box. If you don't, you won't survive long. The game has it's own share of people enamored with being very shallow and doing what they think to be evil, which amounts to about how it is in KOTOR to a degree. For them though, that's their escape. To be something they could otherwise not be. As long as they aren't taking it all seriously, I don't have a problem with it. That doesn't mean you can't be a good guy, far from it. But you have to be very thoughtful how you go about it. And more importantly, who knows you've done so. I kind of like that challenge and the fear it inspires wondering who's discovered what you've done. Kind of the reverse of reality. I don't look for morality to be taught in computer games. When I'm flying around in Falcon4, I'm not thinking of the 4 bombs I just dropped on the tank convoy below. I'm not thinking of how many people in the office building nearby are going to die. I'm thinking about that MiG group that's trying to sneak up on my right and put my whole flight at risk. When I'm playing a WW2 flightsim and flying for the Luftwaffe (since I enjoy the challenge of flying their planes), I'm definitely not thinking about the ideals of the German High Command. Anyone who is, is just sick and demented. It's not really escapism, if you're making it more then an escape.

I wouldn't say that. I got to grow up with Pong, then later arcade games like Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Galaga, etc. Then of course there were the original LED handheld games, heh. Perhaps what you meant is the first generation to grow up with PCs?

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Most likely in reference to the boxed Star Wars RPG set, where everything is done with pen, paper, and dice rolls. I haven't looked at the current incarnation of the Star Wars RPG, but I have the original boxed set around here somewhere. I wasn't too impressed with it. At that period in time, about the only decent RPG to come out was World of Darkness. Even AD&D had it's issues. That was all years ago though. Most on these forums were in diapers back then.

One way you can ensure you DO get one is, find a vendor who sells crystals and save just prior to browsing their inventory. Then just reload and check as needed. It's a pain in the butt, but it's a guaranteed way of making sure you get one. I believe you can do this as early as Telos.

Regardless of whether you exploit loopholes or not, any bonuses to your prestige class, stack with your original class. Jedi Sense and Greater Jedi Sense both continue giving you bonuses every so many levels. So there's absolutely no reason not to take a prestige class. You'd lose out on a hefty defense, damage absorption, and saber damage boost by sticking with your original class. I haven't personally tried to go up to 50, but even a Sith Marauder (DS Weapons Masters) is still gaining bonuses at level 18. Besides, on the 3 original classes you can start out with, most of their top end abilities are acquired by level 12. The other downside is, if you stick with your original class, you lock yourself into it's saber forms, which may or may not be what you ultimately want if your prestige class is different. I'd take Juyo over Niman any day.

There's always the case of Privateer 1 and 2. There was absolutely NO relationship between either one, aside from both being merc for hire type games.

It might be next to mine, haha.

For LS especially it's difficult to pry that stuff out of Kreia because you can drop your influence with her pretty low before you get a chance to boost it again.

I'm in the same boat. I'm a guy, and I'm 34. If anything though in Mira's case, I really consider her the Han Solo-esque character in the game. She's very mercenary, and despite what she says, she doesn't really mean it. BUT, she wants you to think she means it. Handmaiden just simply got on my nerves to no end. Whenever I talked to HK-47, I wanted to say, "HK-47, you'll find love, in the cargo hold.... Just don't make a mess." Leia is correct. Teenage boys are much less appreciative, and much less likely to pick up on the emotional aspect, when the visual aspect tends to be the driving force behind most of their perceptions.

I've had this happen as well. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it, except rebooting and loading a save just outside, before going inside and not quickly clicking through dialog options. I've noticed in other cases, clicking past voice-overs can cause some interesting glitches (like Carth ending up on the Ebon Hawk's loading ramp, hehe.)

I like doing stuff like this. Inevitably, every game has it's "power" spells and whatnot. But no one says you have to use them. Half the fun is figuring out some interesting ways to use all the other stuff. :D

With all the people trying to get a piece of the Star Wars pie, way back when, Lucas was forced with a decision, so he chose the smart one. Let them write all this stuff and collect the royalties off of it. If EU had been allowed to run unchecked, Star Wars would have died an agonizing death a long, long time ago. The idea of Marvel doing X-Men to Star Wars crossovers and whatnot would have been unbearable. And if they could have, they would have. Dark Horse would have followed suit, and it would have been an unsightly mess. The other problem with the EU is, none of it has any bearing on Star Wars as a whole at all. The original Jaster Mereel is a good example. Lucas didn't care, developed his own Boba Fett backstory, and voila. EU had to scramble to keep up, and fans got exceptionally irrate. Too many get fixated on it, then get upset when Lucas' ideas, and EU clash. I read all three of Zahn's novels. And like so many in EU, he tries so hard to fit the characters (someone elses characters) to a personality that he thinks they should have, and gets it totally wrong. Luke was his typical ESB doofus self, complete with canned ESB quotes. The books were otherwise enjoyable, but when I saw Zahn resorting to trying to quote the characters from movie lines, I just got very annoyed. That's simply bad writing. This is why DragonLance died. Weiss and Hickman going back and bringing about a finality to the whole world was a nice touch, but the damage had already been done. What I respect about Lucas is, he NEVER lets the fans dictate the story, unlike Star Trek (Kirk's death was delayed and then rewritten how many times?)