maia

Thanks for the reply. It is awesome that you are trying to make the game feel less confined. Re: emotes. Does it also apply to the PC? In KOTOR 1 the PC didn't use emotes in normal side-quest dialogues, even when they were appropriate - i.e. s/he was threatening somebody or whatever. NPCs used the emotes much more.

I don't think that a proper response from NPCs would be a problem. First of all, I never intended that "emotes" should be an option in every last dialogue. No, what I thought about was including them were appropriate, for instance: You have an option to threaten an NPC in the dialogue. One of the threatening options is the "weapon flourish" emote. Might convince those who don't take the words seriously . You want to show respect/thank an NPC via dialogue - you have an option to use the "bow" emote. Etc. Even if those options only appear a couple of times, like the "Force Choke" dialogue option in KOTOR 1, it still would be very cool, IMHO.

An NPC with lots of dialogues (with the PC, with other party NPCs, comments on locations and events, and butting in on the dialogues with quest NPCs), with lots of quests, whose alignment can be gradually changed or affirmed through quests/dialogues and who is at least moderately useful during the game . Both intially light and intially dark models would be awesome.

It was often mentioned how the planets of KOTOR 1 felt "cramped" and it seemed a bit silly that some ostensibly highly secret and difficult to reach locations were a couple of steps away . So why not employ a fiction of taking some vehicle to get to the next map? It would load normally (no cutscene), but it would be understood that you arrived there after some lengthy travel. It certainly works brilliantly for Deus Ex 1, with its black helicopter. Imagine, for instance, that in KOTOR 1 we'd have had to "take" a vehicle to arrive to the harvester and the Krayt Dragon cave on Tatooine, to the Force Field on Kashyyk, to the Star Map on Manaan, to the ruins on Dantooine... It really would have made the planets feel bigger and and certain plot points wouldn't seem so ridiculous. It also shouldn't be difficult to implement, even at this late date. The other thing that would be interesting to see is ability to use "emotes" as options in dialogue. In KOTOR1 there were several gestures/stances - kneeling, bowing, victor's salute, hiding the face in hands and the sly evil overlord stance used in the communication with Dodona. It would be nice if Obsidian could make some of those dialogue options, when applicable.

I don't think that minor permutations of the plot, such as opportunity to kill Bastila/Carth on the Starforge or romances will be taken into account, just the the dark/light ending. And that would be more than any other game has offered to date. Thus there would be appearances by both Bastila and Carth no matter what, IMHO. Cameos by other killable characters will depend on the light/dark ending choice, obviously (again leaving out the chance of "light" character killing Juhani). And I don't doubt that we'll see Candyman and HK in any case .

OK, why not limit Force Heal a bit? Just as Death Field or whatever the life-sucking Force for DS is called can only be used during combat shouldn't the Heal be only useable _out_ of combat? Also, maybe remove the "use from inventory without using the turn" feature. After all, difficulty in KOTORs can be changed on the fly, so there can't be any "unbeatable" fights even for most inexperienced.

I was particulary irritated by "gestures" with weapons performed during dialogue in KOTOR 1. They often resulted in somebody putting weapons in the faces or through the bodies of NPCs they talked with or those of the party members. Talk about spoiling the atmosphere! If Obsidian doesn't introduce holstering at least they should make it so that during normal, non-confrontational dialogue (N)PC's hands are empty. When dialogue ends the weapons should be back in hand, of course.

The point about clothing is very true. Frankly, personal clothing for the PC and the NPCs was a complete waste of resources in KOTOR 1 and I don't understand why they bothered with it in KOTOR2. My PC only ever wore clothing for a couple of minutes before s/he found her first armor. And from party NPCs only Carth and Bastila remained in their clothes for any amount of time, because it took a while to get armor/robes for them. And in the meantime, the armors/robes were all the same and quite dull if not outright ugly, the "civilian" NPCs of one species were all dressed the same, the Sith Force users at the academy and Czerka guys incogrously wore the same military uniform etc. IMHO, it would make much more sense to either make the clothes upgradeable and equivalent to light armor/starting robes, provide personalised upgradeable armor/robes for the PC and the party NPCs instead of clothing to begin with or use the models to make civilian NPCs and/or minor quest NPCs look a little more diverse.

The most obvious and necessary improvement - the PARTY DISENGAGE button! Even in the easy KOTOR brainless rushes of the party NPCs at everything hostile was a big annoyance. It should be possible to retreat/run away if the party is overmatched and allow demolitions person time to disarm mines !!!! There need to be more _active_ combat feats, period. And they should be conducive to good tactical combinations. In KOTOR1 combat was pretty dull with any characters except for Jedi and in part droids and consisted of spamming the same feat over and over. That's why most people played exclusively Jedi parties - not because Jedi are more powerful fighters, but because you could actually do a variety of things with them in combat. IMHO, at the very least there needs to be a "defensive stance" feat that increases AC at the cost of a penalty to BAB and damage (and Jedi should only be able to deflect blaster fire when in this stance) and a "roundhouse" attack that allows to hit several opponents positioned around the character at once, also at the penalty to BAB and damage and a hefty AC penalty for the next round. Ideally, there should be a couple of other active feats as well. I also think that Force Jump should be an actively used power and tweaked so that it wouldn't be derailed so easily by ramps, clueless party NPCs, mines, etc. Finally, _one_ quick weapon slot, while a very welcome improvement won't by itself make non-Jedi characters interesting enough in combat. It seems that skill-based characters will at long last get their place under the sun , but more needs to be done for soldiers. IMHO they either need to get more quick slots than other classes (probably not feasible at this point) _or_ they should be able to equip wrist and arm mounted weapons in the shield and glove slots like droids do and those weapons should have various interesting effects not directly duplicated by Force powers. These weapons could be either restricted to soldiers or require both Heavy Armor and Heavy Weapons feats and equipped heavy armor to be used. Oh, and Jedi should not be able to deflect fire from disruptor rifles.

Another thing marginally related with this topic. I want to have savegames in separate folders of Game 1, Game 2 and perhaps Game 3 in the loading menu. Everybody who had ever tried to play 2 different characters/partys in a cRPG would recall inevitable frustration of having overwritten the wrong save . This way it would be actually feasible to do 2 different playthroughs concurrently and without nerve-wrecking frustration.

Well, his presentation may have been sub-optimal to term it mildly, but why all the venom? It did look extremely ridiculous when during the dialogue the weapons got twirled in people's faces. It looked equally ridiculous and damaged immersion when the party was running around with weapons drawn and nobody reacted. There is no need for an additional button - there already is a button dedicated to completely useless "flourish". It could be used to holster/unholster instead. Morever, reaction to drawn weapons has been implemented in some games - the Gothics, for example, and it did add to the atmosphere quite a bit, IMHO. And the different lightsaber hilts feature is much more useless than this one, yet it got lots of discussion and probably would be included in the game.

Another big annoyance is when an NPC is taken away during a lengthy cutscene and takes all his/her equipment along. When such things happen, the equipment should automatically return to the group inventory, IMHO. Yes, and there must be a save point at the beginning of swoop races. It drove me (and probably other less adept racers) to distraction to go through the same cutscenes again and again until I could beat the race. And a save point in the beginning of the turret game as well . I had few problems with it, unless I was distracted, but some people did and there were quite a few points where the game was sandwiched between lengthy cinematics.,

He-he. The SW game I'd like to see would have space segments like Freelancer, ground action/dialogue segments like Deus Ex and lightsaber combat/powers like JK3 .

Yes, models for light and medium armors - i.e. baggy jogging suits, need to be re-worked. They look pretty horrible, particulary on the male characters. Also, headgear. Many masks and goggles were goofy beyond belief. I couldn't wear them even despite their obvious usefulness. More headgear that leaves the eyes uncovered - helmets, halfmasks, etc. I also hope that folks everywhere don't wear the same _one_ kind of outfit. Instead of wasting work on PC's and party NPC clothes (which only Carth and Bastila wore for any amount of time in my KOTOR1 games), they should at least make sure that people on each planet are dressed distinctively. Or perhaps have some normal NPCs wear the same clothes as the PC and party NPCs, who would be all kitted in armor/robes rather than clothes anyway. Re: robes. Personally, I want the robe Darth Bandon looked to be wearing while alive. I:e. knee length, split forward, with standing collar. Coolest robe in KOTOR 1, IMHO.

Well, IMHO removing bashing altogether will do a wonder for skill usefulness. As long as no silly circumvention items like "security spikes" are added. IIRC, I have seen somewhere that it would be possible to use demolition to open doors in KOTOR2. In most areas of the game, one can very easily swap party NPCs. It isn't like one has to backtrack or anything. So why not make some obstacles skill-critical? As long as at least two different skills would do to overcome them. I.e. both security and demolition can open doors. One can also add a computer control for good measure. Etc. And even in the areas where NPCs can't be swapped, there is no reason why all party compositions should get all the loot. The choice between easier combat with Jedi/soldiers and better loot with Scoundrels/scouts is an obvious and interesting one.

"There was an example given of one NPC you pick up that has wrist mounted rocket launchers." Well, if they don't occupy the usual weapons slots it would be a step in the right direction... only it's just one NPC and those who saw the rocket launchers in action reported that they are pretty useless. Morever, isn't she a rogue? If they stick it through with many situations were skills are essential, she will have enough to do anyway. But a soldier can only fight... and in KOTOR1 only in a dull repetetive manner. I have hoped that the active combat feats would be re-worked, converted into two-step feats and expanded with various new offensive/defensive stuff. So, that a non-Jedi would have a better choice than the old Power attack, Critical and Rapid/flurry. But Droid-like arm and wrist-mounted weapons can do just as well in diversifying combat. Yes, arm mounted weapons could go into the shield slots as well as the glove slot. In KOTOR1 I used shields only with my main character anyway. Though it can change in this game as they have promised to make firearms effective as well. Still, it would offer a nice tactical choice - offense or defense. Could make it so that one can only equip flamethrowers et al. with heavy armor for believability's sake and have dart launchers etc. for lightly armed folks. Can even require a feat to use. In any case, dear Devs, as you want us to use non-Jedi NPCs more, giving them at least decently varied tactical options in combat would be a big step in the right direction.

1. Are you going to make combat more interesting for the non-Jedi characters? It was very monotonous in KOTOR 1 and weapons quick slot alone won't change it enough. After all, with current feat/power system, a Jedi has many more tactical options. Maybe arm-mounted flamefrowers/stun rays as an alternative to gloves, like the droids have? Also, will it be possible to select a feat for automatical use as the default? It would cut on tedium of filling the queue with the same feat every time. 2. Will it be possible to retreat the whole party from combat? 3. Are you going to change art for armor and headgear? Those "jogging suit" light and medium armors and most masks/goggles looked pretty embarassing in KOTOR1. And isn't it a waste of work to create clothes for the party NPCs that join later in the game? They'd have them on just for a few seconds it takes to equip armor/robes. Wouldn't personalised armor/robes in the first place make more sense? Thanks

1. Are you going to make combat more interesting for the non-Jedi characters? It was very monotonous in KOTOR 1 and weapons quick slot alone won't change it enough. Also, will it be possible to select a feat for automatical use as the default? 2. Will it be possible to retreat the whole party from combat? 3. Are you going to change art for armor and headgear? Those "jogging suit" light and medium armors and most masks/goggles looked pretty embarassing in KOTOR1. And isn't it a waste of work to create clothes for the party NPCs that join later in the game? They'd have them on just for a few seconds it takes to equip armor/robes. Wouldn't personalised armor/robes in the first place make more sense? 4. With more than 10 joinable NPCs, how do you intend to achieve deeper characterization and better interaction with and between party NPCs than in KOTOR1? Wouldn't it have been better to have fewer NPCs with more complex personalities and meaty side-quests? Thanks.

Actually, there were a few fairly believable evil situations in KOTOR that would fit my concept of intelliegent evil. Killing witnesses in Vulkar base made logical sense, for instance. And I do wish that one of them would indeed betray the party. Turning Mission against the Beks was quite evil, and supposedly for the reward (although in fact obliterating the Vulkars netted you more money and items). Forcing Zaalbar to accept Wookie slavery was quite evil, but unfortunately for no logical reason. Encouraging party NPCs dark tendencies was quite nice, but unfortunately it didn't lead to anything. The whole process on Manaan was very much "goal sanctifies the means" situation. And finally, on Korriban even with a good character I first wondered how badly she must behave to fit in. And the triple cross, of course. Mm... Basically what I want is "goals sanctifies the means" evil and "mercenary" evil. For instance that quest in PST where you could sell/kill your NPCs would have been great... except that the rewards were puny. I'd very much love to see something similar in KOTOR 2... except that the reward should be really useful and cool. Otherwise it just doesn't make sense and feels like evil for evil's sake.

Well, quick weapons slot will help a lot, but I'd still want all the active combat feats be two-step only and more numerous. Because, let's face it, while soldiers could be pretty devastating in a fight in KOTOR, the Jedi or even droids had many more tactical options. With Canderous it was just flurry ad nauseam, with a few Critical strikes for a change. Rather monotonous. In KOTOR2 I'd be able to squeeze an occasional Critical Shot or Rapid Shot in, but that's still fairly dull when compared with 10 or so powers a Jedi can employ. Also, maybe soldiers need more quick slots? 3 or 4 say, as opposed to other characters 2. Also, please! I want firearms to be as good as melee weapons. Other welcome additions would be: 1. Group disengage button. It was bloody irritating in KOTOR to be unable to keep the party out of combat or to retreat and KOTOR was easy. If, as I hope, KOTOR2 will have a chalenging difficulty option, this flaw would be even more noticeable. 2. Ability to set a feat as a default attack. I had HK use Rapid Shot exclusively and it was quite annoying and repetitive to ensure that his action queue was always full. 3. Kill Statistics for the NPCs as in BG games.

Personally, I think that the starting point of KOTOR 2 could be made to make sense. LS: it was Revan's participation in the war that paved the way his fall. An LS Revan, particulary the one with the slowly awakening memory would do well to remove herself from such temptation - even if the Republic is floundering yet again. Also, I doubt that the something beyond outer Rim was the Star Forge, as Revan and Malak visited the maps _after_ their return from there. Personally; IMHO, it could be the same something that earlier inspired the Mandalorians to start their war. DS: The Star Forge enslaves and ultimately leaches the Force off the people who try to use it. A perfect reason for a DS Revan to destroy it and for the Sith to consider him insane and turn on her. Doubly so if the Forge does manage to feed of her sufficiently for a noticeable weakening. And again there is that something beyond the Rim... Morever, I thought that a DS Revan could get bored with the whole conquering thing. Maybe it was no longer a challenge and she looked for something more engrossing. After all, the struggle is all about challenge and making oneself grow to Sith... at least according to Uther and Yuthura. Etc.