SamuraiGaijin

The highest I've gotten without the Hsiss exploit was about 36 ... use Kreia as much as possible (+7% XP Bonus), unlock every door/locker (+10 x Current Level XP per), recover every mine (same as opening stuff), kill everything in sight, and complete all the side quests possible ... you'll be about 31 after the last visit to Dantooine.

I have similar problems - the graphics slow down considerably when approaching Khoonda, or when facing south after the transition to the Khoonda Plains near the crystal cave. (P4 3.0C, i865 chipset, 1 MB RAM, nVidia 6600GT (128 MB RAM)) Graphics Settings are normally: 1280x1024, 2xAA, 2xAF, High Quality Textures, Grass Enabled, Soft Shadows Enabled, Pixel Flare Enabled. I've tried various graphics settings, but I couldn't nail down the reason for the stuttering (I'm pretty sure it's a combination of several factors - which leads me to believe that ultimately, is a VRAM problem). As it happens at predictable locations and times, I haven't had much reason to worry about it too much. Sure, it's annoying, but only for less than 1% of the game.

I disagree - I've always been around 16th level, with two lightsabers, before going to Jek Jek Tar (and then on to G0-T0's Yacht) on Nar Shadda Big Side Quest Spoiler / Quick and Easy Dual Wield Walk-Through ... Beat Visas immediately for your second LS Part :ph34r: Go immediately to the docks, stealth up to the aliens in the first room of the flop house, listen to their plan to rob Vogga :cool: While you're in the flop house, talk to the human about saving his wife <_< Go to the bar, buy Juma juice, talk to the Twilek auditioning dancers for Vogga, dance for Vogga (or have Handmaiden dance for Vogga), pour the Juma into the Kath hounds' watering bowl, loot Vogga's storeroom for the third part :D Build your first lightsaber Go to the refugee sector, kill the guards, tell the guy's wife the way out is clear (while you're there, talk to the pilot, convert Atton to Jedi, etc.) Go back to the flop house, talk to the guy and his wife, get second lightsaber (if you're picky about what type (regular, short, or double) then save before you talk to them) - If you trigger the Red Eclipse event on your way back to the Ebon Hawk, be sure and switch Bao-Dur into your party to build you the best lightsaber upgrades - If you're 15th (or higher) level after the Red Eclipse fight on the Ebon Hawk, don't forget to talk to Kreia for a bonus level (and Prestige Class) This is the fastest way I know of to get dual wield lightsabers ... and Jek Jek Tar is a cake walk with two well-upgraded sabers (not especially difficult without, but hey ... I just think you look silly carrying a LS in the main hand and a vibroblade in the off hand).

I play DS every now and then, in spite of the terrible pallor DS PC's and NPC's have ... I think those with DS Mastery should have the red & yellow eyes (like Maul's, and like Anakin flashed a couple of times in ep III), and that's it ... I don't mind the Angelic/Diabolical pose in the stat screen.

I prefer to to Nar Shadda after Telos - and I usually go immediately back into the Ebon Hawk to trigger Visas (I've never had much trouble beating her, but save before, just in case) ... at this point I've got two light saber parts, and the third part and one additional saber are only two quick side quests away - complete Nar Shadda, and you've got 3 more NPC's (don't forget to take T3 to the Yacht for a bonus upgrade to him) After that, it's usually either Korriban or Onderon - it doesn't really matter which (but you can get the coolest robes in the game - not to mention Canderous - earlier if you hit Onderon second) Finally, Dantooine - go to the cave after everything else in order to get the best crystals (and at this point, you're as maxed out as you're going to be on your name crystal) BTW - shouldn't this be in "Spoilers" ??

My only RTS experience is with the StarCraft and WarCraft series, so I admit my "RTS AI" experience is limited, but a dozen or so years ago, I was involved in an AI programming experiment ... Ultimately, what it sounds like Homeworld 2 is doing is scaling the opposing fleet to counter yours, probably with a "if he brings A, bring 100xB" - this is not "AI" ... AI would be the opposition adapting to it's own success and failure by modifying it's own tactics and force composition based on its own experience ... For example - you bring a gun to a knife fight, and kill your opponent before he gets in range - assuming zero experience before the fight - an "adaptive" AI would respond by either: wearing a bullet-proof vest, arming with a longer-range weapon, hiding until you were close enough, or bringing along enough friends so that at least one could survive long enough to stab you - all this would depend on the resources available (can he buy better gear, or is training in order) and the opponent's priority (is killing you worth twenty of his attackers, or is survival of each unit important to him). While that is an extremely simple example, you can imagine how complex stuff would get with all sorts of weapons, armor, shields, etc. available ... take an example from KOTOR ... the Sith sends an army of droids to capture you, which you swiftly kill off with ion weapons and vibroblades ... next time, they change tactics, but how? Shields capable of resisting ion attacks, people instead of droids, "guerilla" droids that conduct hit-and-run attacks trying to lead you into a minefield (or into a Sith Assassin ambush), etc. etc. I think it's a great idea, but holy crap would it be difficult to implement well - especially if you consider each unit in the game is going to have different experiences (and different levels of experience, the depth of which should be reflected in their decision-making initially). What if they have prior knowledge of some of your preferred tactics and equipment - how would that impact their tactics and equipment? Now all that is just really "reactive" AI ... Now, take this a few steps further ... what if they planned a few iterations in advance (i.e.: a chess player that plans ten or more moves in advance) ... what if every enemy (and friendly, and neutral) unit had the some level of capability to evaluate the possible outcome a few (or several) "moves" in advance ... now we're talking about not only "learning" machines, but "thinking" machines ... So, short answer to your question ... would it be easy? With limited variables to consider, yes, but the "realism" of the game would drop dramatically. To make it realistic, with complex environments, numerous units, various armament and defenses, different motivation/priorities, and differing levels of tactical experience/strategic foresight/resource management skill/etc. - holy crap would it be hard.

I prefer Sentinel for the skill points and Weapon Master/Sith Marauder for the advanced LS Mastery and Dual Weapon Proficiencies - I've never been unsatisfied with the power or potency of force powers, but the lack of skill points for anything but Sentinels annoys me in the early game. (Currently playing a Male Consular, starting out Light Side, but falling fast ... )

ARKAN ... I did some research on your case (ULTRA Mid-Tower w/ UV Window) and it looks capable, but there are some things I don't like ... - the vent grill over the GPU ... I'd prefer a fan, and it looks like it's a weird size, maybe 60mm x 100mm, that would be slightly difficult to add a fan to (if you're handy with a dremel and a drill, it's easy, but if you've never used a dremel to cut plastic ...) - mid-tower cases seem cramped to me for a full-power gaming rig - sure, everything will fit, but it will probably be cramped - HD cage can't be removed (you have to remove both side panels to install HD's - not a show stopper, but I like convenience) - "adjustable CPU duct" may or may not work properly depending on the location of your CPU on your mobo (but looks easy enough to remove) - I can't tell if it allows for front-panel fan installation (with an SLI rig and no lower side fan, you're going to need it) ... there may be room inside the front bezel, but I doubt it Now, don't get me wrong - it is a slick-looking case (and quite the bargain on TigerDirect at the moment).

The Raptor may be expensive, but it's so worth it. It really is MUCH faster. Personally, if I could afford it, I'd get a small Raptor (36 GB) for the os and apps then another HD for storage. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I completely agree, if every aspect of performance counts to you, you can afford it, and you don't mind the minimal storage, Raptor is definitely the way to go. My gaming rig has two 36GB Raptors in a RAID-0 config - holy crap is that set-up fast. You blink, and you miss the splash screen during level loads. While my RAID-0 has me a bit paranoid about losing anything in case of a crash, I've been running this rig for over two years (including two CPU upgrades, two GPU upgrades, etc.) with no problems whatsoever. All that said, I made all my recommendations based on a budget/performance balance ... the newest 7200RPM HD's deliver almost as good performance with more storage space at a much more palatable price. See this article/review for some recent comparison charts: http://www.tomshardware.com/storage/200510...digital-03.html If you're going performance, and price be darned - I'd go for a 2x 74GB Raptor RAID-0 for programs, one 160GB exclusively store back-up images of the RAID, and how many ever other drives I need for storage. On to cooling set-ups, which seems to be the topic at the moment - if you want a fan controller - go for it, but it's unnecessary "bling". Two blowing in (one in the front, one on the side - blowing on your SLI) and two blowing out (ideally, one out the back, and one out the top) are plenty ... If you don't plan on overclocking, and have a decent case set-up (more airflow=good ... blocked airflow, lots of clutter, heat sources stacked with no room between them=bad). The stock coolers for Intel CPU's are only marginally beaten by all but the most expensive after-market CPU coolers (both of my P4 3.0 rigs are stock cooled - I've overclocked my gaming rig up to 3.4 with no problems) ... and honestly I haven't been in the CPU cooler market for a while, so I can't really make any recommendations for AMD CPU coolers (I am shopping for water cooling for my next system, however). BTW - I wouldn't get a redundant CD-Burner - my workhorse box has a DVD Reader and a DVD/CD +/-R/RW Writer, and I've very rarely had reason to use both (other than to hold whatever game CD I'm currently playing online in the most convenient place - my DVD Reader).

You're heading in the right direction ... now keep in mind, this advice is for someone who I assume is looking to build a capable, somewhat "future proof" (upgradable) gaming system - I'd have different advice for someone wanting to build an internet/office apps box. - Motherboard - - SLI or Crossfire compatibility is a good idea (you might have the cash to upgrade in the future) - - Intel/AMD is IMO a personal preference - AMD is currently the speed king, and Intel is generally more stable but more expensive - Intel chipsets do not support Crossfire (yet), but boards that support Crossfire n general are limited in selection - - 2GB minimum RAM support (1GB is all you REALLY need today, but next year ...) - - I prefer ASUS boards for quality and stability (or overclock potential), but ABIT, MSI, GigaByte, etc. are all reputable - shop around - Processor - I've been out of the proc market for a while, so all the new naming conventions have my head spinning - best to really consult some experts - www.tomshardware.com is my personal favorite for no-BS comparisons - RAM - good (name brand) matched (same brand, same size, same speed) RAM - unless you plan on mad overclocking, go with the speed your mobo best supports - start with 2 1GB sticks - you can always upgrade (and by the time you need it, it will be much cheaper) - Video - ATI vs. NVidia is, again, a personal preference thing to me. If you plan on going dual-card in the future, probably best to go ATI, as NVidia's SLI, while better supported by more mobo's, requires you have the exact same (same model, same brand) video cards - if you're not going dual card, pick a price range and shop around - I wouldn't buy anything less powerful than a NV 6800 GTX or ATI 9800, unless you just want to be forced to upgrade in the next year. - HD - imagine the most HD space you think you could possibly ever need, then double it - HD's are relatively cheap - most mobo's have onboard RAID-0 support, and it seriously increases performance (think barely enough time to light a cigarette between KOTOR level loads) but if a drive crashes, you're screwed (i.e. - back up everything important) - Intel's "Matrix RAID" kicks serious tail, but comes at a high price (four drives required, I think) for the performance and stability of a very flexible RAID-5-type set-up, configurable in Windows. Western Digital's "RAPTOR" is still the speed king (it should be, with a 10K RPM platter speed - compared to the standard 7200 - but is ridiculously high-priced for the storage space) - Optical - DVD burners are cheap - pick features you need and shop around - chances are, if you've heard of the company more than a few times, it's respectable - Sound - Audigy II's prices should be dropping rapidly with their newly released X-Fi - I haven't priced an X-Fi (yet), but I've barely scraped the surface of my AII's capability, and have never been dissappointed - today, I wouldn't recommend anyone anything less than an AII. Well - those are my two credits ...

I had to vote Korriban - plot-wise, there's virtually no reason to go there. Even the cave sequence, while somewhat interesting, feels like a waste of time (except the opportunity to get some major light/dark side points). Some have bad-mouthed Taris - I liked Taris - it was a pretty good tutorial level, if a bit long, but it was fairly challenging. Not a big fan of Peragus, though.

After you activate him, talk to him, and it will give you a "I found an upgrade part for you" dialog option - take it - it's the funniest thing in the game ...

I voted for the Star Wars universe - I really liked the idea of role-playing in it (and don't have the time and money to waste on SW: Galaxies). That said, I do appreciate the amount of customization & character development you're allowed.

I prefer a level cap myself, honestly, provided it's calibrated to coincide with the endgame. Give levels some meaning, keep the challenge steady. I'm certainly not the KotOR II master, as I've played it through precisely once to date, but by the time I got to my second planet after Telos there, in all honesty, wasn't an encounter that even caused a little bit of worry. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> This is a really comment on how the game mechanic (d20) was implemented and the difficulty of the game. d20 is designed for a max level cap of 20 ... you should start feeling fairly powerful at about 10th level. K1 did a good job of this - IIRC, Revan was about 12th level at the end of Dantooine (and if you didn't delay levelling up, you got trained as a Jedi at about 7th, which worked out fine), and the first time I played K1, I gained 20th level during the Star Forge droid fight, right before facing Malak. BTW, the PnP d20 system has a good mechanic in place to gauge the difficulty any encounter should pose to characters of a certain level, and scaling encounters properly sould not be that difficult. Developers either need to: - Re-vamp the d20 system to make higher levels worthwhile. One possible way is deeper feat and force power trees (five or six upgrades vice three, for example). The only prestige classes that sorta did this right were Sith Marauder and Jedi Weapon Master, with the additional Light Saber and Dual-Weapon Feats. - Maintain a 20-level cap for PC's & player-controlled NPC's. - or - - Use a different game mechanic

I definitely agree that the "used to be a kick-butt jedi, but forgot how" theme need to be tossed ... the mysterious background plot twist worked well in K1, but I didn't find the exile's background that interesting. On a slightly different note, I believe that SW stories should be epic ... I think K1 was an epic story, and while I like K2, the story wasn't as compelling to me to be considered "epic" - I just didn't care that much - it was hard for me to believe that Kreia could "kill the force" I didn't understand why I had to visit the four planets the first play through, etc., etc. An interesting and involved story can be epic without the amnesia plot crutch. That said, I'll probably buy K3 even if the PC is an amnesiac.

Both K1 and K2's dialog were good, but in different ways ... - K1 - you talked to each NPC after attaining each level, drawing out the conversations throughout the game and encouraging you to adventure. - K2 - you explored the dialog options trying to figure out how to unlock more options through influence, and occasionally lucked into influence options during the gameplay - I didn't mind the influence system, but in many cases, the conversations were over too fast. (winner - K1) - K1 - dialog usually unlocked side-quests - encouraging you to adventure off the default path. - K2 - dialog usually unlocked special abilities for you or your NPC (or both) - encouraging you to complete each dialog tree as fast as possible. (winner - draw) - K1 - HK-47 back story - K2 - HK-47 "how to kill jedi", "Revan's companions were a bunch of whiners", "I feel like a circuit has been flipped ... " (winner - K2) - K1 - random NPC interaction moments were typically great moments of levity (Bastila/Mission) - K2 - random NPC interaction moments were typically boring (Bao-Dur upgrading everything, for example) with occaisional gems (HK to G0-T0 "... fat one ...") (winner - K1) I could go on, but I think I'll leave it at 2-1 for K1 ... don't get me wrong I enjoy K2 a great deal, but think the dialog in K1 was better integrated into the game as a whole.

True - more speed and more fire power are always good, but why not wait a few more years and pilot a TIE Defender (more speed, more fire power, shields, and hyperdrive). Of course, I'd really rather pilot an A-Wing (speed) or B-Wing (fire power).

"Bonus Areas" in each planet - possibly centered around NPC side quests (HK droid factory, for example)

I'm a huge fan of the Original Trilogy, so, Galactic Civil War. Probably actually a crappy time period to live in - Imperial oppression, and all (which, of course, is the reason for the civil war), but I'm all about trying to influence galactic history, and would probably join the rebellion (or serve in the Imperial Navy - hopefully not as a TIE-Fighter pilot).

Viridian - "unique" (until you find half a dozen of the darn crystals over the course of the game - well, at least two - Onderon reward/museum loot, Malachor V) - I just dig the "silvery green" blade.

Mira - I love the attitude, and I'm a sucker for red-heads - and the Jedi-conversion dialog for her is the best (plus she even thanks you for "awakening" her).

Generally, Flurry - but as a WeaponMaster/SithMarauder, I usually max out all three and pick and choose based on the enemy (my default attack is flurry, though).

At first, I thought it was a nice change from the K1 "level up and talk to everyone" system ... then I started reaching the end of the dialog trains, or (Bao Dur) couldn't figure out how to get more out of them. I liked that your influence with some characters impacted the dialog with others (the "love" interests, especially). I would have preferred a combination of the two.

LS feels more natural to me - I'm generally a good person, and while I did enjoy corrupting all my goody-goody party members as DS in K2 and enjoyed reclaiming the throne as Revan in K1 (with Bastila by my side), the DS choices were a role-playing challenge and many didn't make any sense to me. I do wish there was a real "grey" option, though.

I liked the random party interaction in K1 - it gave me reason to bring along different party mixes, just to see what they would say to each other. The Mission/Bastila dialog was priceless: "... miss 'high and mighty' you ain't that much older than me, just because you're some jedi ..." <whump> "hey, that wasn't funny" ... "I have no idea what you're talking about Mission, and do try to be more careful ..." I definitely agree that you should be able to use force push to avoid grenades, and at higher levels redirect them to other targets. As for "more powerful" grenades - they're powerful enough, if the level cap was a reasonable 20.