Pa3PyX

Gorth: Thanks for the help. Deadly_Nightshade: Yes, surely so; but if the case is valid (meaning, the facts are straight and the reasoning is sound) -- which those "in the know" will know -- then motives should be beside the point. Part of this is my own laziness and selfishness too, if you want me to admit that -- I should have found a way to contact forum administration privately instead of posting this as an open topic. Ban discussions are flammable.

Are you administrators? If so, you know whether or not I was the recipient. If not, then you don't need to know. Either way, there is no point in asking that question. Then, I do realize this is an "Off Topic" forum so all bets are off, but my personal case, user name or other personal opinions I may hold have nothing to do with the point I'm trying to make (other than that I happen to be one of those affected).

To forum administrators: I have been unable to get into the forum from my own IP address for better part of the year now, except through an anonymizer proxy ("Sorry, you are not permitted to use this board" without even being logged in, trying to log in does not work -- same message). My IP address is dynamic; I tried reconnecting to my ISP and got different ones, but to no avail -- either the entire 71.*.*.* IP mask or the entire *.east.verizon.net mask appears to be banned. Please avoid IP mask and domain mask bans. They are of little to no use; someone who wants to get in can always use a public proxy server. And the side effect is that you ban legitimate users. To my knowledge, there are already features in Invision to avoid spam bots, such as email confirmation and picture read-outs to prevent automated registrations, as well as the possibility of per-account bans for misbehaving users.

Sounds like StarForce to me. Except it doesn't make sense, KOTOR 2 doesn't use StarForce. You do not have any emulated drives in your system, do you? If yes, you might try removing them. If no, you might try installing one, ripping the image of the original CD, mounting it in the virtual drive and then physically disconnecting your CD/DVD drive (not while your PC is on, of course)...

Gripe, can't edit my first post -- will have to post updates to the list as replies. EDIT: Green will denote additions suggested in the responses, and yellow will denote personal additions. Category I This category is comprised of games that have a well-defined, uncompromised (or nearly so) conclusions that leave little or no loose ends in the storyline. You will notice that these are mostly older games. These titles do not suggest a sequel, even though a sequel may have actually been released (which should prove the point that one does not need a cliffhanger ending in order to have a sequel). - Cyberia 2: Resurrection (1995) - Dark Forces (1995) - Full Throttle (1995) - Heretic II (1998) - Jedi Knight (1997) / Mysteries of the Sith (1998) / Jedi Outcast (2002) / Jedi Academy (2003) - Knights of the Old Republic (2003) - Prince of Persia (1989) / The Shadow and the Flame (1993) / The Two Thrones (2005) - The White Chamber (2005) - Tomb Raider III (1998) Category II These games have generally distinct endings, but they leave a number of unresolved problems and unanswered questions, suggestive of a sequel. As such, these endings may fall short of the player's expectations (or, if you prefer, leave room for the player's interpretation), but at least we can claim that the endings are definitely there. - Baldur's Gate (1998) - Cyberia (1994) - Half-life 2 (2004) - Hexen: Beyond Heretic (1995) / Hexen II (1997) / Portal of Praevus (1998) - Might and Magic VII: For Blood and Honor (1999) / Might and Magic VIII: Day of the Destroyer (2000) - Monkey Island 3: The Curse of Monkey Island (1997) - Neverwinter Nights (the official campaign) (2002) - Oni (2000) - Prey (2006) - Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2003) / Warrior Within (2004) - Quake II (1997) / Quake 4 (2005) - SiN (1998) - Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation (1999) - Turok 2: Seeds of Evil (1998) - Unreal (1998) / Return to Na Pali (1999) Category III These titles do not have any well-defined endings; the endings are either rushed/unfinished, cliffhanger, or plain missing. Typically these titles end at the climax (if the story even reaches the climax), leaving the player with more questions than answers. As such, these endings imply a mandatory sequel. The good news is, the sequels for these titles have either been released, or are under development. - Half-life (1998) / Half-life 2 (2004) / Episode One: Aftermath (2006) - Tomb Raider: Chronicles (2000) - SiN Episode One: Emergence (2006) Category IV The same as Category III above, except, despite the need for sequels, the sequels have either never been planned, or cancelled (but in either case never released). The storylines have a great potential, but never realize it, leaving the frustrated player asking, "And?" The producers have definitely dropped the ball on these ones. - Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (2004) - Pariah (2005) - SiN Episode One: Emergence (2006) Unfortunately, you are right. Upon looking in the news, now that Ritual sold out (literally), it should be safe to say that SiN Episodes project is mothballed. Ever more reason to make complete and self contained games, even if the sequel is planned -- you never know what will happen to your company next and when the team will be forced to stop development. Kaftan Barlast: Thanks for the reading, I easily agree with most of what you said there. I understand what you are referring to is the classical narration style; there do exist alternatives ("Memento" movie style backward narration for instance, and a similar style utilized in detective stories -- you will see a half-baked attempt at it in Pariah and a much more successful attempt in The White Chamber), but AFAIK they do not preclude the Resolution part, unless the author wants to disappoint the audience on purpose that is. You mean KOTOR2 here? Yes, and they are already out of the alpha and well into the beta stages. So hopefully we'll be able to move that one up the list in some near future.

The good news is that the events are unfolding just as Lam Esen foretold. The bad news is that the story ends in utter ruin! --Alkor, a popular video game NPC Is it just me and my lack of choice, or do there seem to be more cliffhanger, compromised, or just plain unfinished endings in today's action/adventure video games than there were, say, 8 years ago? (See the last paragraph on how I did the math.) I hope it's not just me who thinks that video games, like fiction movies and books and anything else that has a storyline, should have a set-up, a climax, and a resolution -- resolution being the most important of the three because in the end of it (after the game is beaten), it's not as much the process that matters as the net result (i.e. "How did it all turn out?"). The ending is what leaves the final impression about the title and makes a fiction book worth reading, a fiction movie worth watching, and a video game -- guess what -- worth playing. To that end, below you will find a list of some video games I've played, classified according to their endings into 4 categories in the order of preference. I'd like to see how much agreement or disagreement I can elicit on these; I will probably be posting this in some other game related message boards out there. Note that this breakdown is by the quality of the ending only, not by the overall quality of the game (to which, of course, there are other important aspects). Category I This category is comprised of games that have a well-defined, uncompromised (or nearly so) conclusions that leave little or no loose ends in the storyline. You will notice that these are mostly older games. These titles do not suggest a sequel, even though a sequel may have actually been released (which should prove the point that one does not need a cliffhanger ending in order to have a sequel). - Cyberia 2: Resurrection (1995) - Dark Forces (1995) - Full Throttle (1995) - Heretic II (1998) - Jedi Knight (1997) / Mysteries of the Sith (1998) / Jedi Outcast (2002) / Jedi Academy (2003) - Knights of the Old Republic (2003) - Prince of Persia (1989) / The Shadow and the Flame (1993) / The Two Thrones (2005) - Tomb Raider III (1998) Category II These games have generally distinct endings, but they leave a number of unresolved problems and unanswered questions, suggestive of a sequel. As such, these endings may fall short of the player's expectations (or, if you prefer, leave room for the player's interpretation), but at least we can claim that the endings are definitely there. - Baldur's Gate (1998) - Cyberia (1994) - Half-life 2 (2004) - Hexen: Beyond Heretic (1995) / Hexen II (1997) / Portal of Praevus (1998) - Monkey Island 3: The Curse of Monkey Island (1997) - Oni (2000) - Prey (2006) - Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2003) / Warrior Within (2004) - Quake II (1997) / Quake 4 (2005) - SiN (1998) - Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation (1999) - Turok 2: Seeds of Evil (1998) - Unreal (1998) / Return to Na Pali (1999) Category III These titles do not have any well-defined endings; the endings are either rushed/unfinished, cliffhanger, or plain missing. Typically these titles end at the climax (if the story even reaches the climax), leaving the player with more questions than answers. As such, these endings imply a mandatory sequel. The good news is, the sequels for these titles have either been released, or are under development. - Half-life (1998) - Half-life 2 Episode One: Aftermath (2006) - Tomb Raider: Chronicles (2000) - SiN Episode One: Emergence (2006) Category IV The same as Category III above, except, despite the need for sequels, the sequels have either never been planned, or cancelled (but in either case never released). The storylines have a great potential, but never realize it, leaving the frustrated player asking, "And?" The producers have definitely dropped the ball on these ones. - Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (2004) - Pariah (2005) Feel free to post if you agree or disagree, along with your arguments. Also, feel free to add games to the list. Ideally, In the end of it, I'd like a somewhat comprehensive list of PC action/adventure/RPG games classified by their endings; or if you could point me to an existing site/thread containing such a list, it would be best. Most sites I've seen in this category seem to focus primarily on console (rather than PC) titles. (About how we do the math here. We'd like a test to determine if the mean age of a game that falls in Category I or II is significantly different from one that falls in Category III or IV, based on the sample we are given. The mean age of a I/II game estimates to 8.3 years with a standard deviation of 4.0, and for a game in III/IV we have 3.8 years with a standard deviation of 3.4. Since the standard deviations are about the same, a simple AOV F-test would do. Plugging in the numbers, we get a p-value of 0.016. That is to say, if games in I/II have the same mean age as those in III/IV, the probability of seeing the difference we see in the sample above (or more extreme) is 1.6%. To me, this is quite strong evidence that the mean ages are in fact different. Of course, you could argue that my sample is biased and not representative. To that, I answer that today I tend to play games quite selectively, whereas 10 years ago I would play just about anything bearing 3D action/adventure tag. So if my sample is biased, it's probably biased the other way!)

Now I remember -- when I saw that, I thought, "Darth Vader style"... and AFAIR that power was a new addition in KOTOR2 (was not in original KOTOR), yes?

So far as melee weapons are concerned -- I remember my KOTOR character ended up wielding a lightsaber in one hand and some sort of a vibroblade in the other -- for a variety of damage types, so I don't have to switch from one weapon to another based on the resistances/shielding of the particular enemies I was fighting. AFAIR it was very rare that an enemy would be resistant to/shielded from both physical (vibroblade) and energy (lightsaber) damage types. There are some shields here and there that can do that, but they are rare. I believe the lightsaber has to be in your primary hand to be able to deflect blaster fire, but I'm not sure. Then, who said that a Jedi has to wield a lightsaber? Early Sith apparently wielded plain old blades, and so must have the early Jedi. And who said the lightsaber has to be green, or blue, or yellow, or single/double bladed, and of what length? And who said the lightsaber cannot be red, even if the wielder is light side? And who said that a Jedi has to wear robes, rather than, say, a Mandalorian armor? As the Jedi tutorial at the beginning of KOTOR says, these are mere attributics -- they make it easier for people to identify what the wielder is, and merely so. It must be said that dark side users, given their ways of deception, would probably have more reasons to masquerade as good than a light side user would to masquerade as evil -- but it is possible too, consider light side Revan entering the Sith academy undercover in KOTOR. In fact, the good thing about KOTOR is that your player character's appearance has virtually no effect on how he/she is perceived by the NPC's (except for a very few scenes) -- they treat you based on what you say and what you do, rather than based on what you look like (well... one could argue, based on your character's Charisma as well, but that one is usually associated more with leadership/influence skills than mere appearance). I wish that was the case in real life as well, i.e. that people (self included) could normally see past the looks, which, in Kyle Katarn's words, "don't count for much." But if they don't understand this -- i.e. that the wielder's identity is not defined by their appearance and vice versa -- it's not the wielder's problem, and hence should not be the wielder's concern -- right?

Bastila: You asked me if I thought things could have been different? I know they could have! If Revan had only listened to the Council, millions of innocent people would still be alive. Carth: Yeah, right. And every single one of them would be speaking Mandalorian. That's first KOTOR though. For KOTOR2, I'll have to go with "Always a pleasure, Vrook. I see you still have your cheery disposition" (which has already been mentioned). Exile (to Handmaiden, in response to whether Jedi ever have relationships): I believe it's called "pulling a Bindo". That one also made me laugh, although Bindo's story is not funny at all.

Most probably already know this, but I believe if you use Persuade skills or have one of your attributes sufficiently high (I don't remember which), Terlyn will tell you more about how she ended up in that situation (and you get more experience for the quest?).

Forgot to answer the actual question. So far as emulating pixel shader capabilities is concerned (which I believe KOTOR/II need for "framebuffer effects", including Force Seeing), 3D-Analyze (www.tommti-systems.com) might work -- then again, it might not. Other things to try are OpenGL -> DirectX wrappers such as Scitech GLDirect (and Mesa3D upon which it is based). Finally, you might try to exploit the fact that both ATi and nVidia use the same set of driver files on newer and older video cards. There is code, therefore, that checks for video board models and enables certain OpenGL extensions on some boards, but not others. I have also heard that at least some nVidia boards do pixel shaders in software, so there is probably code in the drivers to allow pixel shader support even on older boards, but it is disabled for performance reasons. Thus, if you know how to use appropriate tools, you can try disassembling the drivers and then locating the code responsible for adding certain OpenGL extensions (I'm not sure which) to the master extension string. You could then hex edit the drivers (probably just changing the conditional jumps to unconditional) to enable these extensions and associated functions on your board. Of course, you run the risk of blue screening your system by doing so, and even if it works, there is no guarantee that the effects will be displayed as they were intended to.

So far as getting it late in the game is concerned -- Visas has it by default, no (you need to have her selected and be in the first person mode)? She is physically blind and only sees through the Force. And you encounter her fairly early. Obviously it is most useful indoors, and only serves scouting purposes. I remember using it to glimpse behind the a door on Nar Shaddaa that I could not normally open (Mira's quarters, where (AFAIR) she dumps the Exile after gassing him and where the Exile meets Zez-Kai Ell later on).

Might still be driver bugs; if upgrading the drivers does not help, maybe downgrading will (newer is not always better). But first, you can try disabling Z buffer compressions, filtering optimizations, occlusion testing (polygon rejection), and other stuff like that; this will slow performance, but will probably eliminate the draw order bugs. For ForceWare drivers, you accomplish this by going to the driver control panel, selecting "Performance and Quality Settings", then "Advanced" view, and dragging the "Image Settings" slider to "High Quality". Using RivaTuner, you can tweak a few other options.

That's right in the bull's eye. KotOR party members were actually a team -- at least if you play LS, whereas KotOR II party members were merely, in Kreia's words, "allies by circumstance" -- regardless of alignment. This is my main gripe about more recent movies as well (Fantastic Four, Brothers Grimm, Serenity) -- that there is so much squabble between the protagonists. This is not to say that characters should not be able to switch sides given enough pressure -- but so long as they are aligned with you or against you, the good guys should remain the good guys, and the bad guys should remain the bad guys. This is also not to say that characters cannot be separated, captured, and, indeed, killed -- so long as at the end of it there is an uncompromised, clear cut resolution which determines who had it right, and who had it wrong (or who was the guy with the gun, rather). But there should not be accent on the petty squabbles that just go on and on and on, with no end of them, even to the grand finale... AAAARRRGGH. In describing this kind of story, ugly is a good word -- very elaborate to be sure, but ugly. I agree; KotOR II storyline is only loosely related to KotOR for the most part of the game; it's not a direct sequel. Or it's a sequel in the same way as Jedi Academy is a sequel to Jedi Outcast, even more unrelated. There is a shadow of the prequel's character in the sequel, but that shadow, for the most part, plays no part in the story. There definitely are references to the Mandalorian War and the Jedi Civil War, even Exar Kun, some allusions of Revan's participation -- but nothing about the Rakata, nothing about the Star Forge. Nothing about what actually happened to Revan and what path he/she ultimately chose -- well, close to nothing. Not to mention the absence thereof (even as NPC). I must agree with that though. That was easily the most disappointing moment in the first KotOR; Malak was NOT up to snuff at that part of the game. One on one, he may have given either Revan, Carth, or Bastila a hard time with his Stasis Field (as Bastila said, "Neither of us is a match for the Dark Lord"), but together, the three of them could have handled him no problem. LOL, that one was puzzling for me at first as well. It was finally decided that locusts, being powered by hell itself, would rip the warriors (those who dare to face them) apart, together with their armor plates, which would be magically disassembled into tiny pieces which each locust can carry individually. The character then destroys the swarm of locusts with a sword (or better yet, an arrow). The powers of hell are thereby undone, and the armor plate that was previously taken apart by the locusts is magically reassembled -- voila, a loot. I believe they fixed this in 1.10 and above though; locusts can no longer drop armor and weapons, only potions and scrolls (well... except maybe "unique" locusts). Too bad; that was fun. Diablo 2 (and the original Diablo) had more of these remarkable moments, too -- the way animations were done (treasure chests which catapult their contents in your face when you open them; mummies and zombies that like to slap you in the face with that characteristic grumble (reminding me of those foxes in Witchaven which used to swear as they attacked you)); monster names ("ghostly skeletons" and "ghostly ghosts", giant mosquitoes called "suckers")...

I'd have to say Heal, as a light side player. However, Heal is much less useful than in the original KotOR, since KotOR II added health regeneration, which IMO is Wrong. With all the shielding and armor available, my main PC was rarely damaged enough (i.e. below half hit points) in combat to necessitate the use of either Heal or med kits, and since it's one minute of combat and five minutes of wandering around afterwards, the health would usually be fully restored by the next combat. Which is unrealistic, darn it -- lightsaber wounds are not supposed to heal by themselves in five minutes. The Jedi do not usually have a Daodan chrysalis implanted, nor are they supposed to carry a Goa'uld symbiote in their belly pouch. Of course, lightsaber wounds are not supposed to heal instantly when you apply a medpack either. But at least it's possible with the Force -- which is, therefore, what should be used to heal wounds.