maia

It was clear that she would fall. That she would become an enthusiastic toady of the same person whom she hated above all else, came out of the blue. It is like fallen Anakin joining the Sand People .

Well, IMHO, Bastila's fall didn't make much sense in KOTOR1. Yes, she was arrogant and ambitious, but she also hated Malak with all her soul. Therefore, her prattle about "being held" back at the Temple top, etc, seemed totally off for her character. And for the PC there was no temptation whatsoever. I mean, what did we get out of it? A vacuum mask?! Well, and "apprentice and lover" line . But it could easily be done in much more plausible manner - if Bastila became convinced that the light side is just too weak to take Malak, that she had to go dark in order to kill him. Anger leads to hate and all that. And her argumentation with the PC should have taken the same track - that the PC wasn't strong enough to best Malak as a lightsider. And since _somebody_ had to take Malak and the 2 of you were Republic's last hope, she'd have to fight the PC if the PC refused to fall... so that she could remain near Malak and get her chance to off him. During that dialogue the PC should have gotten some kind of flashback from the evil past, and if s/he decided to fall, also get a unique dark power. Believable motivation, true temptation, all in one package . And then on SF Bastila could have started talking about how Republic needed strong leadership, so that it didn't slide back into disaster and how Revan was uniquely qualified. From there it would have been an easy transition to the dark ending... Now as to earlier DS actions - IMHO "desperate times require desperate measures" line has led to many of the darkest periods in RL. Why couldn't it have been played more in KOTOR? You could have explained your behaviour to the party NPCs or your victims that way and it would have been quite believable. Also, there should have been more plainly annoying NPCs that would require patience of a saint not to off - like those drunks, the Gamorrans, etc. Thus you'd have a believable motivation for "short-tempered" characters to act in DS manner. In KOTOR only on Korriban did I feel temptation to act DS on my first good playthrough - because the Sithlings were annoying and because I felt that the character had to "fit in". But of course in truth s/he hadn't, which was a disappointment. Oh, and with computer on Kashyyk - because I just tried to give it the answer it wanted. Juhani was a great missed opportunity. You should have been able to talk her into joining you without turning her to the light. And then corrupted her further through her side quest. Now re: temptations - gameplaywise I'd make it so that while in the end both ways were more or less equal in power, the DS often got small bonuses, while the LS seldom got large bonuses. The same with items. Here you'd have all that "quicker, easier, seductive", etc. Also, I'd have a couple of situations where temptation to do evil would be big. For instance, a great item which is protected by a trap that irrevocably kills (scripted) first char that approaches it. Which NPC do you sacrifice to get it? Plot -important NPCs could be scripted to sense something and refuse. Or as somebody proposed, a sidequest which you can only pass by succombing to anger. In cases of good and evil factions, there should be some good reward for supporting the evil faction and they should mention it upfront, etc. Basically, better implementation of the DS is very possible, IMHO, and I hope that Obsidian did something along those lines.

But wouldn't the tunnelers sorta negate the need for security skills? Demolition does sound interesting - I'd like to hear more about it. Didn't some early info indicate that demolitions skill would affect the dameg of mines a character sets or even grenades a character throws?

Um, yes. The Jedi are so overpowered that you need to be... drumroll.... a _skilled_ player to use some of them effectively, while you can let a dumb soldier run on AI to achieve the same result. Move along, children, nothing to see here .

Interesting info. Hopefully those rockets do a lot of damage. But why would we want to shoot grenades from Mira's launcher when we can just throw them? Do they get better range or what? Oh, and does Mira's launcher take a "glove" spot in her equipment screen or does it hog her alternative weapons slot ? Also, looks like those mines have grown more deadly, as in KOTOR1 running over them and setting them off wasn't a big deal. Wonder how we can master that sequence if Mira isn't in the party at the time, though.

Spare me. I know all about the wonders of Destroy Droid and as to the Stun force line it isn't all that good in comparison to competition, unless you have a Scoundrel in the party or the PC is part Scoundrel. Anyway. In my experience, Jolee went down quite quickly, particulary in the scripted ambushes that KOTOR1 liked to indulge in. Even if you monitored his actions turn-by-turn, it was often a job to keep him alive through an encounter. I never had such problems with soldiers. Yes, perhaps the fights took a little longer, but in the end everybody was standing without any special effort from me. Morever, I found it much easier to take a soldier through the Starforge than either Bastila _or_ Juhani. Didn't even try with Jolee, because it's guaranteed to be pretty aggravating. Granted, Juhani's force jump worked against her in that context, but the plain truth is that all those additional resistances and bonuses that a soldier can get through good armor, headgear, maxed out implantat feats and a couple of other feats really do tell. All this applies to the "hard" difficulty, of course. P.S. GarethCarrots, of course your Jedi class didn't affect the story. But then, your starting class didn't either. And it is relatively rare that your starting class affects the main quest to any significant degree. Usually you have just to fight through it, and KOTOR is no exception (yes, I know that the FOs and PST were).

Eh, that wasn't my experience in KOTOR1. Both soldiers were better fighters than the Jedi when developped into dual-wielding melee characters and suitably equipped. They were more boring to use, but they certainly remained standing longer than any of the Jedi, except for the Guardian PC and dished out as much damage. Oh, and the fully upgraded HK 47 wasn't far behind the Jedi either. Certainly much sturdier in a fight than, say, Jolee. And didn't you yourself say how the Jedi are _not_ ueber in the PnP game? So it is possible to balance them, right? And how was using Soldier, Scout or Scoundrel more different than using Counsular or Guardian in the pervious game? After all, it isn't like you could sneak through the dangerous places, scout ahead, use traps (apart from the fairly useless mines) or whatever. Nor were possible uses of technology numerous enough to give a distinct flavour to the scout. No matter your non-Jedi class you still had to hack/shoot your way through in a very straighforward manner. At least the Guardian had his force jump and the Consular his force focus and additional force points, so there was a bit more variety to gameplay. And in KOTOR 2, with lightsaber stances, force forms and hopefully well implemented skills there would be much more difference between the Jedi classes than there was between the non-Force classes in KOTOR1. We all understand that you want to play a non-Jedi, but really, why make misstatements? All Jedi classes aren't going to play "the same" anymore than the rest of classes are. Personally, I want to see some spaceship combat and piloting, navigation, etc skills, but that doesn't mean that I'd chose to complain at every opportunity how everything is "the same" and untrue to its PnP roots beacuse they didn't include any...

Why not? A Jedi, even cut from the Force, would have great reflexes and physical conditioning and much from lightsaber combat can be applied to normal melee fighting. And as our char also has actively participated in the wars, it would make sense for him to have other martial skills as well. <snip> It would be pretty hard on players who don't follow the previews and wouldn't know that they can't use firearms on Peragus or don't get their lightsaber at once. Hard and unfair, IMHO. Either that or Peragus would have to be a complete walkover, which would be boring. How can an additional default feat be a waste? I never used firearms with my PC in KOTOR1, nor power attacks or heavy/medium armor feats that came from starting as a Soldier. But since it didn't reduce the number of feats I could chose, I couldn't care less. OTOH, I would strongly dislike it if I'd be forced to spend some of the meager amount of feats my Consular would get in KOTOR2 on things that would be only useful in the beginning of the game. Re: party members. We don't know how soon we'd pick them up.... And it would be extremely tedious if I'd have to hold my PC back, completely passive for however long... just because I chose wrong feats while starting up.

Oh, come on, we all know that lapsed Jedi become mercs . Maybe a pilot for hire would be a possibility as well, but the game mechanics really wouldn't accomodate this choice. A former Sentinel might have worked as some kind of mechanic, but the other 2 Jedi classes surely not. Basically, there is a restricted number of job skills a defrocked Jedi would have and for a war veteran, fighting skills would be the most honed and useful. Re: starting weapon feats. The problem here is that we don't know when we'd get the lightsaber feat and find our first lightsaber, thus we'd need some other fighting feat. But on Peragus one can't use firearms, so leaving it up to player's choice might result in an unplayable character. Imagine a Consular with a blaster pistol skill fighting his way through Peragus bare-handed. Would be pretty frustrating to say the least. Also, this time around there'd be some reason to use different weapon tipes at least occasionally, since we'd have an alternative weapons slot. So, I'd say at least a basic melee weapon feat should be included in the character makeup by default and maybe one or more firearms skills as well.

Was it actually said that we won't be able to get _a_ lightsaber before we'd have a chance to retrieve the PC's lightsaber? IIRC, the devs said that this time it is just a side quest, not part of the main quest. And yes, the PC's lightsaber is apparently special and worth tracking, but I doubt very much that those of us who decide against it would just have to play through the game without any Jedi weapon. I hope that we start the game with a melee weapon feat and a firearm feat, as the PC has been surviving without the Force for 5 years. Don't know about the armor - in KOTOR the PC got the armor feats from the non-Jedi class and pure Jedi NPCs didn't have any. Maybe a light armor feat to show for those 5 years, too, maybe not. Probably we'd have one additional feat to chose, as in KOTOR. As to Kreia's weapon, IIRC she is never shown with a lightsaber on Peragus and some screens on other planets show her with melee weapon as well, so perhaps she also lost her lightsaber when getting to Peragus and needs to replace it. Or maybe we can just appropriate hers as soon as the PC gets reconnected to the Force (I hope that it doesn't take as long as in the first part for it to happen).

Spaceship combat. Doesn't have to be a twitchy minigame - IMHO it would be much better if it was implemented like the normal comat (i.e. with turns, etc), according to the PnP rules. But without the space combat, a Star Wars game loses something, IMHO...

IIRC, it has been mentioned that some characters alignment would change along with the PC's, but some are of fixed alignment and will challenge you or leave the party if you go too far in the other direction. I presume, that both women are fixed and the Disciple will "swing". I also think that Kreia's demise, aquisition of the prestige class and taking on of an apprentice, would happen in this order and pretty closely time-wise. Another thought, BTW - what if you have become a Sith Marauder, say, and then suddenly go lightsider? Do you automatically become the Jedi equivalent? And can you change between the 2 as many times as you wish? Hm...

I don't know about that. What would you do if you choose a dark ending for KOTOR1? No Jolee then... They have promised us some old NPCs in the party and the little tin can can't be all there is. Also, why be so secretive about the last 2 party NPCs if they aren't connected to the first game? I also hope that the PC would be the only one in the party to get Jedi prestige classes. It would greatly improve repliability. The apprentice should only get the basic Jedi class. And is there such non- Force class as "assassin" in the Star Wars RPG system? What classes are there beyond the basic Soldier, Scout, Scoundrel and now Tech Specialist?

Hm, I'd really like to know what the starting classes of the Handamaiden, Visas Marr and the Disciple are. I mean, they can't be Jedi until the PC picks them and starts to train them, can they? And they can't just be far behind the other party members in levels either - that would make them useless. So, they got to change classes, like the PC in KOTOR1. But their appearance doesn't lend itself to any particular classes, unless there would be a boatload of new ones in this game. And since you can get the Disciple together with either of the females, I presume that only one of them would become Jedi (the one cross-gender to PC?), while the other would continue in the original class. It is also interesting whether we can choose what Jedi class they get. It would be nice. And finally there are 2 slots left mysteriously open, one a wookie. Are those our KOTOR1 cameos? They can't be so cruel as to give us Zaalbar, can they?! I certainly hope that none of them is a Jedi, in any case. KOTOR1 had an overabundance of NPC Jedis to the extent that there was little new to discover by giving the PC different Jedi classes. If Kreia, the PC and our apprentice were the only Jedi in the party this time around, it would be much better, IMHO. Not to mention, much more fitting the new "Jedi scarcity" theme.

Caesar was a name, it means something like "hairy". Romans had a tradition of additional "descriptive" names, because they had so very few different first and second names. Once aquired, that name was inherited together with the others. Caesar, Scipio, Cicero, etc. were all such additional names.

Canderous's dialogue at the Unknown World made me think that he was the Mandalore that Revan defeated... Something about "you'd just beat me _again_" or something like that.

But maybe that's why pre-wipe Revan intended to use the Star Forge only as a production factory! It was Malak who stupidly "woke it up" and he did it shortly before the final encounter. And yes, the SF not only drove the Rakata insane in short order, it also leached their Force power out of them. That could be an excellent reason for a DS Revan to destroy it, and to be personally weakened as a result, so that s/he could be driven away. Excellent theory! With the LS Revan everything is pretty simple - as the computer on Kashyyk noted, violence wakes up brain patterns similar to his pre-wipe self. Fighting another prolongued war would lead to another fall. Thus Revan abjures violence and leaves.

To me, Revan being female makes more sense, as it explains the whole mask and secrecy thing much better. After all, she had to deal with Mandalorians who appear pretty patriarchal. The name is fine as a female name, too - there are a lot of similar sounding RL female names. Re: physical strength - the power of the Force is a big equalizer. Re: films precedents, I can't care less, as the only central female characters in them are silly royals whose main role is to be love interests. I have to admit that I did think that Revan was male the first time around... but only due the glitch in Canderous's dialogue. When the revelation came, it made a lot of sense to me and I immediately thought that there had to be a mistake in Canderous's dialogue, as has by now been aknowledged.

1. Is it now possible to disengage the whole party from combat? It was one of the more annoying quirks of KOTOR that you couldn't 2. What has been done to make a soldier class NPC more interesting to use? 3. Will the demolition skill affect how much damage a character does with grenades (I have heard that's the case with the mines)? 4. Is door/chest bashing out? I really hope so... 5. How does weapon switch work? I have hoped that it would work just by selection of appropriate feats (i.e. if you have chosen power attack, then the char would change to melee weapons), but you mentioned that it would be an independant action. I'd hate it if it takes a full round to change weapons... Would remove a lot of usefulness from this feature. TIA.

Actually didn't somebody, maybe that trader on Korriban, mention that the Hawk is somewhat cursed? That nobody owns it for long and most of the owners meet violent and unpleasant ends? Maybe our favourite Sith Lord isn't immune to it... And I'd expect a DS Revan to take a Forge made ship anyway.

Will we be able to upgrade the clothes so that they remain useful for a decent length of time? And if not, why are you even bothering with them? Clothes were a complete waste of resources in KOTOR1... Resources that could be much better employed elsewhere.

Eh, it just isn't true that the non-Jedi characters in KOTOR 1 were _all_ weaker than the Jedi. Canderous built up as a melee fighter is better in combat than the Jedi NPCs and Carth (also as melee build) and upgraded HK-47 hold their own better than, say, Jolee or Bastila. The problem was that they were _boring_ to use because you could only use the same couple of feats with them over and over. They got the job done, but in a very pedestrian way, the flipside being that if you gave them decent equipment, you didn't need to pay them attention in a fight. However, all of this can be changed with addition of more active- use feats, weapons quick slots, etc.

Well, I want a separate ending for the last-minute redemption and it should be something bitter-sweet along the lines of Vaders redemption or the cancelled 3rd ending of KOTOR where the PC was supposed to go down with the Star Forge. The choices you make during the game have to matter and nobody who went deep into the Dark Side can return to being a fresh-faced shiny hero who lives happily ever after, IMHO. The Dark Side ending for the last minute fall doesn't have to be different (although it would be good), but please, please give us a separate light-side ending for the dark characters who see the light in the nick of time. Would add to repliability a lot, too. To get a "perfect" light ending you'd have to be a lightsider when coming to the decision point... and the darksiders would have a choice between world domination and ultimate salvation.

I liked the swoop sequence in JA. One of my favourite levels, in fact. And the controls were adequate to the task, IMHO. I'd love to see vehicles like that in CRPG.