kalimeeri

Exar Kun was a powerful figure in history, mentioned a number of times. Thematically, an extension of his continuing influence would fit nicely. I would expect some aliens out there, as there are in the known galaxy; maybe some real nasty ones like the Illithids. But not as the 'true Sith'. The last ones I want to see are Pearl and Brain Guy.

If I remember right, the planet you're on isn't the triggering factor. It's having fulfilled certain game requirements; I know of one encounter in particular that happens no matter where you go. That one I remember because I had to step through it turn by turn just to stay alive (it wasn't Bandon, tho). Yikes. I think my Sentinel's party focused on Darth Bandon and ignored his pals until he went down. They can hurt you, but he will KILL you. Your consular will have to rely more on Force Powers. Wave works nicely in this game, and so does Stasis. I don't think Stasis works so well on Bandon, but his buddies aren't immune. I know where you're coming from with regard to the cheats. I just don't like using them, and I won't unless I'm mired so deep I'm about to quit for good. Usually there's some trick to beating the battle, it's just a matter of finding it.

LOL ... very true!

Well, my 2nd Exile decided to go looking for her after he put down the Greater Storm Beast. All the way back through the green stuff. He even climbed all over Ebon Hawk trying to get in. The only thing he was able to find was, believe it or not, Hanharr. The Wookie was just standing there where Mira left him, but he wouldnt respond or anything.

Most likely a faceless dude. I seem to remember the Latin 'nihil' as 'nothing', and I guess that's close enough to what's left of this guy.

Kreia said she couldn't read the machines, but I didnt believe her reason for not reading Bao. She said something about his being an alien. I'd think it had more to do with Malachor V, and she didn't want to say so at that point. Or ever, as it turns out. I guarantee the droids will be back. Possibly Bao-Dur as well, or I'd hope so. He was a complex character, and I was not convinced that he'd really come to terms with what he'd done. Like you said, just the fact that we don't know what happened to him makes you wonder. It would be a very powerful twist if he was somehow forced to do a similar thing again.

I would assume because Telos is such a critical world. It's a Republic experiment in rebuilding. Not only does Dantooine officially support the Republic, but if Telos fails, there will be no money coming to help Dantooine or any of the other worlds who may need it. The Senate will go thumbs down. So they're supporting the Telos project, in order to help themselves, really, even though they can't afford it. What if those few troops they didn't send were the ones that would have made the difference?

That actually seems a bit contradictory, doesn't it? Talia would send troops, because of her Republic affiliations. But Vaklu's political stance would seem at odds with sending Onderonians to help, unless it was just a matter of honoring a gentleman's debt to Exile. That's a fairly thin supposition, but better than nothing to make Exile's intervention on Onderon mean something to DS players other than stat-building.

I don't understand why that ending would really affect K3. ?? All the party members don't necessarily carry forward, as we saw in K1 (except for the droids and certain personages like Carth and Canderous). Those few who did affected or will continue to affect the 'overall' story. I might expect a couple of the more influential ones from K2 to make a cameo (Kreia as Force ghost, maybe Bao-Dur as ?) but certainly none of the others. Whatever part they will now play (if any) should be off-camera anyway. Their stories are complete, any way you look at it.

Don't compare them. Take them as parts of a trilogy, and the differences make sense. K1 could not AFFORD the luxury of introspection. It had to pull you into an epic saga and deliver enough backstory to build a foundation, all the while making it feel like an exciting personal journey with characters you care about. A tall order. And it succeeded, even though Bioware had to take into account the possibility that it would be a stand-alone game, depending on sales. K2 is the middle installment. Typically, it can take more time and go deeper, because the foundation is already laid. It only has to build on it. It can add a new character(s), if that is a critical part of the resolution; it fills in some blanks and adds a few complications. Just the fact that it doesn't significantly forward the original plot adds suspense and anticipation for the final installment. K3 basically only has to uphold the story and go for the gold. But that isn't going to be simple, by any means. There's a lot to live up to, from both prior segments. I don't care awfully much whether they adhere to the fictional Star Wars universe to the last detail. I think I lost most of my investment in that over time and the latest SW movie flops. Kotor can stand on its own, and I feel much the same about K3 as I did waiting for ROTK to come out.

I was just wondering if there's anybody out there who DIDN'T loot the museum. Does Talia give you a trinket to buy you off, or the same stuff? Every time I play through, I 'intend' to do the noble thing, but I can't quite pull the finger off the mouse button.

Seconded. Couldn't have said it better myself, although I'd prefer K3 not add another new PC to the already rich mixture. A patch might be a middle ground, a neg option for those who 1) don't want to part with more $, 2) think the game is fine as is, or 3) don't care because they play games on skim level. An optional download would cost less; possibly a full release would not earn the money back because it missed the hype boat. It's probably all in the realm of professional pride for Obsidian at this point, though, and maybe they're willing to just let it go. But I wouldn't.

The random 'variables' (glitches?) in the INF system are almost as much fun as opening a locked crate. You never know what you will or won't get, in the way of cutscenes, etc. I never had to take Visas off the ship to have her 100% and LS all the way. And in some games she's been an awesome support Jedi, in others she sucked and stayed locked up in her dorm. Same with the others. It's possible their stats are rolled fresh each time, which is interesting. Right now, I fear for Exile's life if he tries to take on 'anyone' without Bao and Atton. It's been a challenge to make a Consular even halfway competent in various situations. He can talk anybody to death, but that won't help in a roomful of dark Jedi... gotta feeling I'll have to save a little bit of FP for the speed-run thing. How embarrassing.

Jolee, I'd say, although HK is a close second. Jolee has the edge because he's completely unpredictable, which is cool. But he needs a good straight man, and Revan fits that role brilliantly, with honorable mention to Candy.

That's just what is said. I never bothered to worry about it. IMO any ruler who believes his planet can be an island with no political affiliations (vaklu vs. the Republic) is just deluding himself. His choice to bring in the Sith to take control is a big gamble that he won't end up being their puppet, because Onderon has tactical significance. But if I were an Onderonian under Talia, I'd move to Dxun. Oy. She annoys me.

It depends on how you look at it. Both their hearts were in the right place; they just had a different approach. But Talia tends to annoy me a little. I think it's her attitude more than anything.

<---> Just reverse that. Same father, different mother. Possibly not. First off, she wouldn't be looking. She has always believed her mother is dead. Even then I think she'd have to look pretty hard to see beneath the combination of robes, age, and dark side to see any resemblance to herself. For instance, I haven't seen my family or any photos or spoken to them in 25 years. I live 2000 miles away. Would I know one of them if by pure happenstance we passed on a sidewalk in my town? Nope. (Not even without the robes. ) There is really no way to determine how old Kreia is. She was an historian; she did not necessarily live through all of the eras she talks about. Yes, they do. They know her immediately on sight when they see her again on Dantooine, and so does Atris. And they're all pretty surprised. But the 'her' that the Council refers to in Exile's trial is never identified by name, although it's alluded to through the names of her padawans. And Atris laughs at the use of the name 'Kreia.' Because that is not her real name, and whoever she 'really' is, is someone Atris lords herself over and looks down on. Sort of like she does Exile... Interpretation? Yes. But I don't believe in that much coincidence, not with the subtle bits that are repeated throughout the game: in dialogue, in voice inflection and pauses, and even in what isn't said.

Games that do that are getting very rare. And that's why I thank Bio-Ware and Obsidian, and hope for their continued success. Brave souls. Many small developers with promise are being forced out of existence, and larger ones are digging their own graves. What is not so evident is that Microsoft is slowly gaining ground. Notice that Dungeon Seige II has a much 'deeper' storyline proposed. There is money to be made, and it's not in continuing to produce 'mindless mass market what sold last year.' And I probably just condemned myself to a full system crash.

No one is pure good or pure evil, and Sith/Jedi are just flip sides of the same coin. Revan fit neither category. He 'used' both, but he stopped just short of letting it use him. He was cold, calculating, and vicious if it served his purpose. And the term 'good' only came to mean adherence to the Jedi power structure that was in effect. A much more interesting character, one that sticks with you, if you're into that kind of thing. I believe Kreia was exiled ... as Master Kae. There is no evidence at all that the Jedi Council or the databases had ever heard the name Kreia. As Atris said, 'That is not her name.' Yet Kreia was a Jedi. She knows each of the Jedi Masters personally, and they know her on sight.

Being forced to survive with a character whom you've ignored stat-wise is actually kind of humbling. I mean, Exile has all the best stuff, and the others get the leftovers. It's the way of things. But it was interesting all the same, even though Atton got creamed and didn't really know what hit him during my first game. In subsequent games, he was able to hold his own, because I tended to level-ups with a lot more care. It does spice things up a bit to 'occasionally' play a party member for a short segment that contributes to the storyline. I don't mind. But longer segments lead you to believe that member (or what they're doing) is particularly important, above the others. If it isn't or they aren't--sorry, it feels like 'filler'. If a particular NPC has special interest in an area or a quest to complete, I don't mind being forced to take him/her along at all. It shows they have personal tale to tell and motive for being there, and it makes you pay attention to someone who might otherwise end up in cobwebs on the ship. I don't care to be separated from my PC for a long time, though, or to play a game that routinely swaps multiple (more than 2) viewpoints with abandon. Invariably I identify with one character more than the others. An example, I guess, is Suikoden 3 (PS2), where there were three and sometimes four PC's in separate segments. I grew to hate some of them, and those parts of the game dragged horribly. On the other hand, Gabriel Knight 2 handled 2 PC's very well, even though each had a different approach. Of course the scope of these stories is very different. But I don't believe it really necessary, even in a galaxy-wide conflict, to switch to controlling a lot of ancillary characters. If all that is needed is information, a cutscene can be just as effective (as K2 did several times), and it doesn't tend to fragment the game so much.

As I've said before, these are both great games. K1 was incredible, and still is. One of my favorite games ever, and I've been a hard-core gamer since the 1980's. K2 takes a different approach, but is a worthy successor--a very ambitious project that I admire for its subtlety. I await K3 for the story, and hope that it maintains the excellence of the first two.

I don't think the Jedi on the surface embraced the dark side so much as they 'bonded' with each other, as soldiers do in times of extreme stress. Orders and teachings meant less, because the Council was far, far away and didn't know what they were going through. Revan did, and so they followed him instead. Those who refused, died. Except for Exile ... but it cost him. In reference to your last question, there are two possible responses that Kreia gives, and I'm not sure which is the 'proper' one. 1) you were afraid, 2) you had no choice. But neither one seems to ultimately make a difference.

This area has always been a bit murky for me too. My hypothesis to date: As I said, just a hypotheis, but it makes sense to me.

I've played enough that I only want to see what different interpretations other folks may have. Playing a game of this type, I avoid the forums altogether unless I have specific tech issues. That's because those blacked-out sections are a huge draw. And even with an extraordinary Will Save, you really can't count on the tags being used uniformly, even avoiding the obvious SPOILER section. That's common to all forums. I just like to make up my own mind first, then go see what others thought. If I really like a particular game, and the discussion is intelligent and civil, I'll post. (And try very hard to discern what a spoiler actually is, besides a very subjective and emotional issue. I do find it hard to sympathize with those why cry and complain they were spoiled after reading everything in the SPOILER section. Duh.)

I'm not saying your hardware is to blame. I run an Audigy2. I just don't think blaming the game is the answer to this particular question; there are way too many other variables that come into play to make a blanket statement. This goes for reviewers as well. They're as bound by individual system setup as the rest of us. The problem I have with the sound is that it is not a big enough part of the game. In an ideal world, when I shut it down for the night, I want to find myself humming the strains of the music in the shower the next morning, as I did with Morrowind and Dungeon Seige. I replayed K1 and commented to my daughter how beautiful the music was, and she protested that K2 had good music, too. But all I remember is a few passages, even after multiple replays--and those weren't as full as I'd have liked, even with CMSS2 enabled. It wasn't used to advantage.