Jediphile

As much as I'd like a single player KotOR3 to be developed by Obsidian, this suggestion is both pointless and way, way too late. If Riccitiello is quoted correctly and LA and Bioware are working on KotOR MMO, then the decision has already been made - the existence of the project (though we didn't know what it was then) was revealed half a year ago, which presumably means that storyboards, plot development and programming has long since begun. LA will not throw all that to the winds. Besides, internet-campaigns never succeed and are always pointless. So don't waste your time. I hate the idea of a KotOR MMO, and I can say right now that I won't be paying monthly fees for playing such a game. I think it's a bad idea for LA to alienate the KotOR fanbase, which so far praises the KotOR games for their immersive, epic single-player plotlines and experiences. But unfortunately, if LA has decided on this course, then the ONLY way to make them see the error of their ways will be when the game tanks and Kotorians slash the finished (!) product and refuses to buy it. Gaming execs are no different than movie execs - no argument will ever persuade them that their terrible ideais just that except the cold, hard facts of failure and lost profits... sadly.

Agreed. And thinking about it, this would then be the second time this year Riccitiello has really mucked things up for LA/Bioware regarding KotOR, since it was his powerpoint presentation that caused all the fuss in febuary as well. http://www.gamesradar.com/xbox/star-wars-k...404134825236032 How often does the CEO get to do that before (1) Lucasarts tears up the contract (for the reasons you describe above) or (2) EA kicks outthe CEO for mucking things up again?

Or he could go on a hunting trip with **** Cheney

Nah, it was a damn bomb. Severe injuries. We shall see if it survives... Tonight's news. Terrorrist bombing at KotOR fifth year anniversary party. Film at 11.

The odd thing is that the sites of neither Lucasarts nor Bioware says anything about this. http://www.lucasarts.com/company/release/ http://www.bioware.com/bioware_info/news/ http://www.lucasartsbioware.com/ That and the fact that this story originates from a single source with the EA CEO speaking to one reporter makes me very suspicious. Surely LA would have said something by now, which suggests Riccitiello's comments were not coordinated with LA. I suspect there is a lot of EA/LA correspondence going on right now and possibly the PR divisions working overtime.

Erm, that article IS the source of all the speculation - Joystiq.com linked directly to this article and even mentioned the guy who wrote it. N. Evan Van Zelfden is the one source of this story.

Erm... Could we allow Lucasarts to confirm or deny this game first? Pretty please?

I refuse to shout NO and will instead simply jump into the conveniently nearby bottomless pit...

Agreed. They have said in the past they only wanted to do IPs from then on, and then they promptly made a deal with Lucasarts, at which point I was certain that was untrue. To share your sentiment, I then thought, "yes, of course that game is your own IP - that's why you made a deal with Lucasarts. Right..." However, your observation is more likely to undermine Riccitiello's statements today, given the track-record, isn't it? EDIT: Another observation. How can Riccitiello even make this statement? Yes, I know, CEO of EA, which owns Bioware. But wait - Bioware is just the developer. We're talking about a Star Wars game here, which means Lucasarts is the publisher, since they own the Star Wars franchise. Isn't it ALWAYS the publisher who announce new games? I mean, this would be like if Obsidian suddenly announced K3 without confirmation from LA. Could that even happen? I could imagine game developers getting dropped from a deal due to breach of contract for less... And EA/Bioware is the developer here, not the publisher.

Well, somebody is lying as far as I can tell. IGN quoted LA for saying in febuary that the LA/Bioware project had nothing to do with KotOR, and now Riccitiello allegedly says the LA/Bioware project is KotOR online. I don't see how that can all be true. There must be a lie or misquote somewhere. And I note IGN writes this today: "When contacted about the statement, BioWare deferred to LucasArts whose representatives told us that they currently have "nothing to announce" regarding their association with BioWare." Very confusing. I sense a retraction in the force...

Bioware is now a game developing division of EA, yes, but it is not the same thing. Riccitiello is boss of EA. By extension that makes him boss of Bioware, but he is not on the development team, and given how relatively recently Bioware was acquired by EA, he is an odd spokesperson for a deal that might have been made before his company bought Bioware. [Ahem] [/ahem] And all IGN did in that story was to report what was already reported elsewhere. That means they are informing the public of the rumors, which is very different from confirming them. And they don't confirm it either. Note how IGN says MMO with a question mark followed by "rumors and speculation"?

1. Yes other games are needed - each of them is supposed to make money for the company. 2. I'm uncertain how credible a sources Joystiq.com or Portfolio.com are. Even if IGN or Gamespot posted it, I'd be wary - we've seen far, far, far too many stories confirming a KotOR MMO, which were then shot down. Here, for example: http://www.gamespy.com/articles/851/851916p1.html 3. Bearing that in mind, I refuse to believe any statement about any KotOR as fact until they are stated by Lucasarts on their own sites. Anything else, and I mean ANYTHING else, shall be considered speculation and rumor, interesting though that may be to read. Remember, this is one report from one person. That alone makes the chances of a misunderstanding or similar something worth considering. 4. There is something odd about this story, too. Didn't LA choose not to appear on E3? Why would they do that, if a KotOR MMO is announced? Besides, why is the EA CEO spilling the beans? Wouldn't it be far more relevant for Bioware or Lucasarts to state this? I would have expected a big press conference on E3 rather than the EA boss saying this in an exclusive interview to a single person. Big story if true, sure, but that is virtually unheard of. At least there should be a confirming press release at Lucasarts' site, but nope - nothing there. 5. Read the update to the story on Joystiq. If this is true, Riccitiello says yes to the question of whether this game is KotOR Online. That is not necessarily the same as KotOR MMO. Look at GTA4. It has online components, but I wouldn't call it an MMO on that basis. 6. If this report is correct to the point that Bioware is working on a KotOR MMO, then, looking at my sig, either Lucasarts or IGN are flat-out liars! No middle ground, no excuses. Period! If Bioware is doing KotOR MMO, then someone is a filthy liar, and since I doubt it's IGN, I would never again believe any statement made to the press by Lucasarts, who would then deserve to have this pushed in their faces repeatedly at each and every press release ever made henceforth!! 7. A KotOR MMO would suck! Royally! KotOR games are cinematic stories with extensive, deep backgrounds for the main character. That is not possible in an MMO, because the background of the character has to be generic enough to allow for the all the various backgrounds players would want to choose.

It ties into the Sunry murder investigation, since that's where the deed was done. http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Sunry

Damn. Now I feel old

Oh yes, tach, not gizka. Sorry. It's been a while since I played K1.

Nihilus lost in no small degree because the exile had an advantage Nihilus was totally unaware, but which Kreia knew full well and exploited to secure Nihilus' defeat. The exile is a wound in the force and has no force power of his own, so the moment Nihilus tried to drain him, he sucked a void or vacuum, which essentially meant his doom. They guard their higher powers far more than the jedi and so they seem more secret. The jedi can share knowledge of power, but a sith never could - a sith's greatest enemies are other sith, not the jedi. As Palpatine would say, all who hold power fear to lose it. It is and remains the player's choice. Revan's motive is whatever you want it to be. I don't think K3 will mess with that, mostly because there is no reason to - Revan is out there fighting the true Sith, and that's all the plot needs him to do. Well, Kreia said as much. She said the exile was the greatest she ever trained, which would mean greater than Revan, since she trained him as well. Then again, the exile being a wound in the force is something Kreia both admires and needs for her cause. The exile can resist the will of the force. There is nothing to suggest Revan could ever do that. So it might be argued Kreia liked exile more for that ability than for any choices made. Kreia is a difficult one to figure out. Malachor V is unlikely to appear in K3, since it was destroyed in the LS ending of K2. Besides, neither Korriban nor Malachor V are in republic space. I don't think we'll be playing Revan or exile in K3, though. More likely a new pc with Revan and exile being important NPCs in the plot. I'd see some initial part of the plot in republic space, but the majority in the unknown regions finding and fighting the true Sith. Lots of Sith worlds we know little about like Ch'hodos, Rhelg, Khar Delba/Khar Shian, Thule or especially Ziost. I don't think it's obvious that Revan wanted the republic to survive in TSL unless he is set to LS. If DS, you might as well argue that being unwilling to use the Starforge, Revan could not marshal enough forces to take the republic, so he might have sought out the true Sith to become their leader and then use those forces to attack the republic. I mean, that's a possible scenario, isn't it? Nope, it's fact because George Lucas says that's how it is, and his judgement is ultimate in Star Wars. If George says Palpatine is the most powerful Sith ever, then that's it. If he says Anakin is the chosen one, then so he is. We can love or loathe that all we want, it won't make any difference.

Wouldn't call myself an expert, but sure I've played those missions, even when playing LS (it's possible to do them and still get LS mastery). I don't want to go into specifics about all the missions though. Just read DSimpson's walkthrough here for that: http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/game/920601.html Most of the bounties are pretty straight forward. Your problem with the shapeshifter has no easy solution, I fear. He will hide himself as a tach with no way of detection (not that I've ever discovered anyway) no matter what you do. It is possible to chase him and find him if you're up to it, though I've only done it once myself. Otherwise, which is the more likely event, you'll have to gut your way through tach until you find the right one. The game will tell you when you do, since he will revert back to his original form upon death.

Hasn't been four years yet

How uncommon a power is that? Besides, if Revan was just there for a few months, he wouldn't even need such a power. Indeed, "using the force to drill basic into the heads of the Rakata" can simply be interpreted to me that he zapped them with lightning if they got it wrong... As much as I like Kreia, she is scarcely an impartial source given her personal relationship with Revan. Besides, if Kreia told me water was wet, I'd immediately check with a least three other people before I believed her. The 90th rule of acquisition applies more to Kreia than to anyone else: "Hear all, trust nothing." Agreed. That's my point. Revan was clever and insightful, but it doesn't follow from that observation that he must then have been some uber-force user. Like I said, I consider Revan among the more powerful jedi/sith of his age, but I see nothing to suggest he was more powerful than that. Powerful, yes, but in relation to the force? Heck, by that estimate you could even call Tarkin or Thrawn powerful as some of the highest and best officers of the Empire. As for the jedi saying Revan is powerful, well, they have to, don't they? I mean, they could scarcely call him a weakling after he kicked their collective rears... Agreed.

Which works great in theory, only it's never been my experience that's how the system worked out. In a game like D&D that has lots of combat, the vancian system tends to reward a constant supply of Magic Missiles, Fireballs and similar combat spells because with all the combat, a wizard can always be certain to use those spells. Attempts to be foresightful and memorize other spells invariably meets with getting it wrong and being useless, thereby punishing creative thinking. In a different game, this might have been okay. A system like that could work in Call of Cthulhu or similar, since that is an investigation into identifying your enemy and then confront him on the basis of what you've discovered. Going up against the opposition without knowing it in CoC is suicide. But D&D is very much a combat game, and with 3e, the game insisted on returning to the roots of Hack 'n Slash and dungeoncrawling. It insisted on focusing om mapmaking and monsterslashing, effectively turning away from RPG toward boardgaming. If the game had focused on investation, that would have been okay, but mention one dungeoncrawl that gives clues to what you'll find there. You almost never get that, because the game insists on surprising you with your next enemy, and so memorizing Detect Undead or similar is chancy at best, while you can use those extra Magic Missiles whether you face zombies, orcs or trolls. That being the case, for D&D at least, the vancian system ended up rewarding conventional use magic in the game over creative use. It may not have been the intent, but in my experience it was always the effect.

Obviously because they aren't done yet. To quote Team Gizka: "...Coming when it's done." And while I'm eagerly awaiting TLSRP with anticipation and a sense of impatience, I appreciate that they take their time - rushing stuff is what got TSL into trouble in the first place. No reason to repeat that experience, thank you very much.

Neither can I. Seriously, as a Soldier/Guardian ARMOR BUILD, I had no trouble with the game. It's just so easy. Well, the fight with Malak could be tough. The Starforge was challenging mostly on a basis of constant waves of opposition. The one hard fight I recall is the showdown with the trandoshans on Yavin station, which is - of course - completely optional. I don't know, maybe I just didn't handle it correctly, but I was never able to finish that without at least one crewmember biting the floor.

How so? Looking at K1, Revan built only those powers you chose to according to the game rules. The One mentions Revan using force lightning on his first arrival on Lehon, but that's scarcely a surprising display of DS power. Indeed, most of Revan's powers seem very conventional, and it was more his choices and tactics that set him apart. He was a good strategist on the basis of what the Mandalorians, especially Canderous, tell us, and you could conclude he was a good duelist since he defeated Mandalore and Yusanis. However, neither of these speak to his force abilities.

Why? None of them have suffered injury that would make that relevant last we heard. Besides, KotOR already had that with Malak. But nobody says the exile must follow either choice for good, and given that the first one is the same as for the LS ending, which one is the exile likely to have taken by the time KotOR3 begins? My point is that TSL tried to reconcile why Revan had chosen to go and seek the true Sith regardless of whether you chose the LS or DS ending in K1, even though those endings were pretty different. By the same token, the exile ends up in a similar place in TSL, setting the stage for a KotOR3 plot where the starting positions of Revan and exile are already in place. I thought Saul Karath, because his child would be hated in the Republic for the sins of the father. I mean, if this child was force sensitive, how would even the jedi respond? Surely even they would be reluctant to teach the child, fearing it might take his or her father's path. What better ironiy would it be to have a such a person become pivotal to the fate of the galaxy - will this person save a galactic republic that hates him or her, or will he or she against it out of revenge for the treatment. Lots of character potential right there, I think. Well, yes and no. Kreia says Revan was powerful, but then she's not exactly the most impartial source, being his old mentor and clearly very proud of it. It's almost as if regardless of al the terrible things Revan did, she prides herself on how significant Revan has been to galactic history, perhaps because she is bitter over how her own teachings have always been scorned by the jedi and so never allowed her to achieve her own goals, so now she takes pride in the accomplishment of the "child" she has raised. Kreia is a mother-like character and very proud of her "son" Revan. Berating the exile for his or her missteps frequently comes with ill-hidden references to how much better Revan did things. Not that I disagree Revan was powerful, mind you. I consider Revan among the most powerful sith/jedi of his age. As for hearing about the childhood of Revan and exile, no thanks. I agree with qt-pi (heh - just got that ) that their pasts is whatever you want for them as pc of their game. This is especially true in Revan's case because his motives for "falling" to the dark side is for the player to decide. Was Revan seduced by the dark side or did he, as Kreia speculates, never fall but instead made a choice to become something terrible to serve a greater good? That goes to the heart of who Revan is, and you can't delve into that without interfering with motives that are for the player to decide. This is one thing that TSL handled really well by letting characters speculate about it but not giving evidence for. It has created a few problems too, though, like some fans who now insist that Revan is so powerful that even the dark side itself cannot control him, that he is beyond corruption, and than he only took the mantle of sith lord to gain more power and only did horrible things to the republic in order to prepare for the coming struggle with the true Sith, who would have done worse to the republic anywat (insert unspoken 'so who cares what evil he did to the republic' here).

'Cause they have an army. Look what happened when the Sith had a bigger one. Sidious took over the galaxy. Revan would have if Malak wasn't a complete and total idiot. The Sith did not have an army when Sidious took over - he simply swindled the Republic's army, which included jedi, to turn against them. As for Revan, that's like saying the Sith would be stronger if they didn't do, well, Sithy things. Of course Malak betrayed Revan - he was supposed to as his apprentice. It's not like that's the first time it happened, or even the last. Evil always turns on itself. But I'd agree if you argued that's why the dark side will always lose. The nature of the dark side is destruction. The strong survive (Revan, Bane), the weak die (Malak, Retard). And Revan (captured and reprogrammed by the jedi), Palpatine (killed by his apprentice), Plagueis (ditto), Naga Sadow (again, ditto). The list goes on and on. We don't know about Bane only because his story isn't finished yet. But no, the strong don't survive among the Sith - they are killed by the jedi or betrayed by their own who want their power or both. Based on what? The sith seem to be the one thing they are highly wary of and never underestimate. Tell that to Palpatine or Borsk Fey'lya. Wookieepedia tells a very different story with reference to Darth Bane: Path of Destruction http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Rakata#Post-Civil_War