SamuraiGaijin

The Exile starts with bonus HP ... I don't recall exactly how many (I think 20) ... it's listed as a feat. Something to do with being a war veteran.

It's in spoilers, so ... when you have HM in your party, she is influenced by some good actions. On the EH, spar with her when you can, when she tells you about her heritage, ask Kreia about it, then immediately talk to HM again (don't talk to Visas between, as this might trigger the irreversible part mentioned earlier). After you turn her to Jedi, there's not much more, until you get near the end of the game.

It's fairly obvious that the original quote is about cargo aircraft (and not, for example, attack or fighter aircraft) ... the obvious follow up question would be, "what make the expensive aircraft more expensive?" ... advanced navigation and avionics, integrated and automated self defense systems, etc. ... in an environment where GPS works, where air defense is not sophisticated, a low-cost C-130 is going to out-perform a high-cost C-17, strictly from a tons-per-dollar standpoint, because the C-130 is less expensive to fly and maintain. From a general technology standpoint, there is a point of diminishing returns, where the best widget costs 200% of the average widget, with only a 150% (or less) of the performance. It's not that much different than building or buying a computer, top-end performance costs alot ... how much of that performance you really need is up to the guy paying the bill.

My best guess is that in safe mode, less gear is using power, and some gear requires less power (memory, for example) to run in a stable condition, putting less strain on the capacitors. That's too bad ... you're friend's computer is almost certainly out of warranty, but I'd be interested to hear what terms Dell offers to repair or replace it.

Hmm ... at four years it just might be reaching the end of it's life, and replacing the mobo or power supply are no longer options (not cheap ones, at least ... probably more cost-effective to build or buy new than to send it in to Dell for repairs after the warranty has expired, and Dell uses proprietary mobo's and psu's in order to keep their customer service department busy). Is everything still stock? (Any add-ins, especially recent upgrades, may be overwhelming the power supply) Has the computer been moved around recently (i.e. shipped from one place to another)? (Something not readily apparent may have been shaken just loose enough to cause problems.) It may be as simple as cleaning the dust off the fans and heatsinks, but I'd bet that a complete tear down and rebuild will be required to solve the problem, and even then, it might not (but it will eliminate a litany of possible issues associated with loose or dirty connections). You don't have to pull everything out of the box, just disconnect everything (except the front-panel connections) and remove the fans and everything plugged into the mobo. (Leave the PSU, mobo, and drives installed - not much to be gained by removing them.) Clean card and memory contacts with denatured alcohol if they look dull (but just removing them and reseating them is normally enough to break through a layer of tarnish that could be inhibiting conductivity). Clean fan blades (both sides) and heatsinks. Clean the mating surface of the CPU heatsink. (If it's a stock heatsink/fan with a themal pad, remove the remains of old pad) Clean the CPU, reinstall, and apply new thermal goo to the CPU. Check all the power connections to make sure they're good. Carefully reassemble everything. Don't forget to power up before you close the case - almost everyone forgets to connect something.

You're really close to the minimum system specs, 256MB RAM is the minimum to run the game (512MB recommended). Check and make sure you don't have any other programs running in the background. What model HP do you have? Is there a video card (what model) or integrated video?

You're better off going with a mid-range mobo and low-mid (i.e.: $100) new VGA rather than integrated graphics. Shop around - you can find pretty good deals online on ATI X### or nVidia 6### cards which are generally "good enough" for now (and a significant improvement over integrated graphics).

It would help to know the mobo, cpu, cpu cooler, power supply, vga card, any overclocking, and any changes made to hardware config recently. It's possible that: - the CPU cooler was not installed correctly (bad contact with the CPU), - the fans are not installed correctly (i.e. all blowing in or out instead of circulating air) - typically, the ones in the front and side should blow in, the ones in the back and top should blow out. - the power supply is either not sufficient for the system or not stable If the mobo model or manufacturer has a history of bad capacitors (some of the cheaper ones do), your friend might be have to replace the mobo - but that's really a last resort. It might be worth the effort to strip everything down, clean everything up, and rebuild the system.

If you work hard at it all through the game, you can complete all the character sidequests, but you have to talk to your NPC's every chance you get and bring them outside the Ebon Hawk frequently (be careful not to trigger two quests at the same time - weird stuff can happen then). The one I usually run into trouble with is the Juhani sidequest. I do wish there was a gray option, but Star Wars is not a universe of gray - at least not for the characters that matter. Sure, there are criminals who are heroes (Han Solo, for example), but they're ultimately good. I also would have liked to be able to continue exploring and completing the quests (or at least trading crap with the rodian inventor), but I guess it's art of the replay value of the game - if you get to do everything the first time around, why play it again?

Current (lowest) price for the X1900XTX on newegg ... $399.99 Current price for the HIS IceQ X1900XT ... $329.99 Current (lowest) price for the 7900GTX ... $373.99 1600x1200 Benchmarks from Tom's Hardware VGA Charts: Benchmark: X1900XT - X1900XTX - 7900GTX Half Life 2: 70 - 75 - 65 fps Hard Truck: 51 - 52 - 51 fps Oblivion (Outdoors): 16 - 17 - 11 fps Oblivion (Indoors): 76 - 79 - 79 fps Prey: 50 - 53 - 51 fps Rise of Legends: 23 - 25 - 25 fps Titan Quest: 37 - 39 - 41 fps Average performance gain for X1900XTX over X1900XT = 5.6% Average performance gain for X1900XT over 7900GTX = 1.8% X1900XTX costs 21% more than the X1900XT 7900GTX costs 13% more than the X1900XT I'm sure I could do more comparison shopping and find lower prices somewhere, and this doesn't take overclocking into effect. I didn't consider the X1950XTX, 7950GT or 7950GT2 but you can check out the VGA Charts yourselves ... I don't think the price justifies the relatively small performance gain. Regarding the HIS IceQ choice, all reviews for EVERY IceQ model say that they're virtually silent, and it's worth the extra $30 for me vs. the standard HIS model ... I'm kind of on the fence as to whether the silence is worth the $70 premium over the cheapest model listed (Sapphire). Like I said, I've been comparison shopping for this rig for months - I'm pretty confident in my choices - but if you want to spend an extra few hundred dollars for bragging rights that will expire by January, go for it.

I've been pricing a new rig for the past few months, here the decisions I've made so far: 600W PSU - lots of room to grow Intel 975X chipset - flexibility to go crossfire in the future, once ATI gets the bugs and compatibility worked out C2D E6600 - the Core 2 Duo has blown me away with reports of low power consumption-high performance-decent price ATI X1900XT - for the reasons above - great price/performance It's currently under $1500 - not top-line gear by any stretch, but every component blows my P4 3.0 GHz, NVidia 6600 rig out of the water - and should play anything I want at pretty close to maximum settings without any issues. I use a Sony 19" LCD (1280x1024 native resolution) as my primary monitor (the color is brilliant, and the ghosting is minimal, even on fast-paced, high contrast games).

There are - but none that support Core 2 Duo (the main reason for an upgrade today) Main parts that can be migrated from an older system to a bleeding-edge rig (Core 2 Duo, Intel 965X/975X chipset) today are: Case Power Supply (if you have the 20+4 main power connector) CPU (if you have a LGA 775 "Socket T" CPU) Graphics Card (if you have PCI-E VGA) DVD/CD ROM/RW HDD FDD I've been shopping for a new PC to build for the past few months ... the price has been pretty steady since Core 2 Duo was released ... my new rig's specs: Mobo: 975X, CPU: C2D 6700, VGA: X1900XT (I'm waiting until DX10 comes out to see what 2-card options are available then), RAM: 2GB DDR2, HDD: 2x WD Caviar RE 250 GB (for a RAID-0), 16X DVD D/W ... current price: about $1700-1800 (with a new case and power supply)

Keys to getting the best random crystals ... wait until you're higher level (above 20, at least) to visit: - Crystal Caves (Dantooine) - Shyrack Caves / Tomb (Korriban) - Queen's Palace & Sith Tomb (Onderon) Any one of those places can provide some of the better crystals in the game ... your other option is to cheat, but I've never completed a game without getting either the Barab Ore Ingot or Pontite Crystal (or both, or multiples of both). Part of the random loot algorithm reduces the frequency of high-power crystals, if you already have your quota.

It depends on what you want from your lightsaber ... The most damage ... Barab Ore and Pontite Crystals (+2-16 and +1-10 damage) ... a maxed out name crystal gives +5 damage, not including the increased Str bonus) The best attack bonus ... Upari (also gives +1-8 to damage), Damind, Ultima Pearl (+2 damage), Solari (+3 damage) all give +3 to attack ... combined with a maxed out "name" crystal, you can get up to about +6 more to attack and about +6 more to damage (including attribute bonuses) The best critical hits ... Nextor, Velmorite (also +1 Dex), and Ankarres Sapphire (also gives +2 Str, +1 Dex, and VP regen) are all "keen" (doubling the chance of a critical hit - only one works at a time) ... Opila gives +2-12 "massive critical" damage (and +3 to damage, besides) ... a maxed out Dark Side "name" crystal does +3-30 massive criticals and +5 damage, not including increased Str bonus) And so on ... not even including upgrade components .... this is one of the things I really liked about K2 ... tweaking stuff, personalizing it to match your characters' personalities. My typical lightsaber ... single, viridian, "name" crystal, Pontine Crystal, Pontite Lens, Expert Fencing Emitter, and Ultimate Diatum Energy Cell ... assuming maxed out light side name crystal ... Attack: +4 (not including Str/Dex bonus increase of +2/3) Damage: 18-55 (not including Str bonus increase of +2/3 and +5 damage vs Dark Siders) Defense: +2 (not including dex bonus increase of +3) +5 Str, +6 Dex, +7 Wis, +2 Cha

Hmm ... I thought I got berated by G0-T0 for siding with Czerka (sp?) on Telos and letting the Mercenaries take over Dantooine ... I might be mistaken, though. So, if you can max out influence with him, no matter which side you take, does that make him neutral?

G0-T0: Pros: G0-T0's combat skills are superior due to the feats component. Stealth Interesting Backstory Doesn't Trigger mines Droid Scramble (which does work like Mind Control) Cons: Annoying Although he seems darkside, maximum influence requires lightside behavior (save Telos, save Dantooine) I've never found security spikes to be useful T3-M4: Pros: Shock Arm is pretty powerful, but he doesn't use it on his own often Meaningful Backstory - important, in my opinion, to understanding the events between KI and KII Regenerates (repairing in mid-combat is frustrating - Heal is much easier) Portable workbench Cons: Backstory is skills- and ability-based, which is frustrating for combat-oriented Exiles Honestly, I haven't found much use for the droids in the game ... I tried playing the Tomb sub-plot with droids a few times (HK and G0-T0), and I couldn't do it. Sure, G0-T0's stealth and mine immunity were useful, and HK was, well HK, but they couldn't stand up in prolonged combat at the entrance to the tomb, and never lasted more than a few rounds against the final masters. Droids are good sidekicks and diversions, but for the heavy hitting, they just can't match a decent fighter.

Han Solo ... is the classic scoundrel with a heart of gold, has a cool sidekick, gets the girl, always has something witty to say, drives the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy

In D&D terms, he's the archtypical Paladin ... the one noone really wanted to play. While I enjoyed playing a Paladin, mine was the grubby "common man's" Paladin - the one who never had enough money for armor better than rusty chain mail because he gave the rest away to the more needy (not the party Thief, either). He's too "polished" - perfect hair, snooty (fruity?) accent, etc. - you're almost afraid to take him into battle because you're afraid he'll break (when, in fact, he's a very capable fighter). He's the anti-Canderous (and most everyone likes Canderous because he's not polished). Once you get past the fruity, frothy exterior, and learn his back story, he's not a terrible character, but for the most part, he is unnecessary (except as the third piece of a female Exile-Atton love triangle).

There are a few rules to overclocking (they're more like guidlines, really) ... (1) Don't overclock anything you can't afford to replace. (2) The factory usually sucks at installing cooling - a well applied dab of anything is better than a poor application. My goo-of-choice is Arctic Silver 5, but almost anything works, just so long as it's applied properly. (3) Record your default settings. (4) Overclock one setting at a time in small increments (5 MHz is generally a good rule of thumb), test at each stage, the first time you start running into trouble, crank it back a couple of notches and adjust something else (for example: if the GPU freq tops out, back up a couple of MHz and up the voltage a notch). (5) Synthetic benchmarks (3dMark, for example) are good at stressing your system, but the real test is actual gameplay. (6) if you can't tell the difference between your default system and your overclock - congratulations - you got more than you paid for, but scale it back until you need the added horsepower (knowing that you can crank up your rig may mean the difference between an upgrade or saving money in the future).

Sentinel's natural resitances and high skill points make a great starting character ... I haven't been too impressed with Assassin - unless you want to continue getting crazy amount of skill points, go with something else. Marauder - combat machine. Sith Lord - force power dispenser. It's all about your choice.

There are only so many things that an RPG developer can program into a game and maintain the simplicity required for immersion. Sure, nearly every PnP RPG out there has rules for cover, high ground, flying, etc. ... but it's not necessary to incorporate them into CRPG, especially a party-based CRPG. While I agree that Simulators, First Person Shooter, Squad Tactics Games, etc. need mobility in the third dimension, CPRG's don't. Would I pay more for a CRPG that had jumping and flying? ... not if that were the only distingiushing feature. My guess is developers know this, and don't waste the effort on "extra" features.

I can see the reasons for using blasters, at least until opponents get within melee range (oops - force wave). Now, the true tests will be against the Jedi Masters, Sion, and Traya (I'd include Nihilus in this list if he wasn't such a pushover).

Kreia said she wanted to cause the death of the force - not conquer and rule the galaxy, not create a better order for things, CAUSE THE DEATH OF THE FORCE. She twisted and manipulated everyone to work toward her goal unknowingly in order to eliminate what could have been the source of all life in the galaxy. At a bare minimum, she would have "blinded" the thousands (millions ... billions ... more ???) of force-sensitive sentient (and not-so-sentient) beings throughout the galaxy ... and she's not the villian? Nihilus was just hungry.

Nar Shadda (first planet) ... rob Vogga, return to Ebon Hawk, beat Visas ...

Anyone know where I can find a port of Rock N Roll Racing ... my friends and I used to play that game for hours.