Nydas

IMO, there should be fewer unique items that belonged to such-and-such. It's a bit of a throwback to more traditional RPGs.

I'll go against the grain here and say that buffing is both tension destroying and repetative. Slimming it down somehow would be most welcome.

I like both ideas.

Pretty simple, this idea. Some missions should have a time limit. If you don't achieve the objective, you get blown up or overwhelmed by an unbeatable number of soldiers. Or a plot-critical character is executed before you can save them, or escapes from execution at your hand. I didn't like it in KOTOR how you could leisurely scavenge your way through enemy corpses and storage bins, even in critical situations, like on the Leviathan. Timed missions would add real tension and drama to the game. Excessive scavenging would be a risky proposition when there's a timer ticking down, and if there was some sort of reward for an exceptionally quick time, it would create a further dilemma. The plot could take different turns, depending on your speed. And it's like the films. Possible problems: Just maxing out force speed and running through the mission, ignoring the enemies. Some sort of game mechanic would need to be worked out to make this an unwise course of action; enemies blocking the corridor, for example, or having to deactivate a shielded area. It's not very 'RPG-like'. I don't care much for the conventions of the RPG genre, but some might object to what could be called 'twitch' gameplay.

I agree completely that the headgear in KOTOR was often terriblly bulky and silly-looking. I'd like to see much more subtle stuff in KOTOR 2; contact lenses, inauspicious headsets, subtle eyepieces, earpieces that fit inside the ear, and so on. Headgear which looks like starship engines sticking out of someone's head is just plain distracting. It should be an aesthetic choice, if at all.

It's just a bit weak if items can be effectively teleported between groups. It could lead to all sorts of gamey play; for example, unequipping one group of their good equipment just before changing groups. Some sort of splitting function would be in order, IMO.

It's already been mentioned that you'll be 'forced' to use certain characters for certain missions more than in the last game. But why not take it a step further, and have two or more groups engaged in seperate missions at the same time? Like in the movies. One group faces off with the Dark Side, another goes to blow up the shield generator, another flies into the Death Star, and so on. All at the same time. I would have loved to have played as Canderous and the rest of the gang when they're trying to get back to the Ebon Hawk after escaping from the Leviathans's prison cells, for example, rather than just having to imagine it. This has several good points: You'll be forced to use more characters, rather than just relying on a Jedi team. The characters will talk to each other more. It makes for a more intricate plot. It's different from the first game. It's like the films. Bad points: You'd need more dialogue to account for all the permutations. The item system would have to be reworked, otherwise it wouldn't make much sense. Thoughts?

I agree that double-bladed and dual lightsabres are overused. Mastering such exotic fighting styles should be a lifetime commitment; requiring large sacrifices in terms of powers and feats. On the other hand, characters who do go down this path should be able to build a double-bladed lightsabre of their own, rather than have to scavenge one off enemies.

But you're not going to age during the timeframe of the game, are you? Well, it would be kinda cool if the game did take place over several years, but it's unlikely.

I don't agree that embracing the dark side should cause your character to decay physically. Darth Maul was an extremely buff darkside user, for example.

One thing which strikes me is that characters don't move around enough when fighting. They're rooted to the same spot, only moving to engage fresh targets. I don't know how you'd do it, but it would be nice to have characters push each other back, circle each other, roll, dodge and so on. Like in the films. Circling each other would be a good chance to trade insults, rather than the situation in KOTOR where the enemy lets down their guard while they talk to you.

Holstered weapons I like. The way that weapons were awkwardly glued to the characters' hands was somewhat distracting.

Mmm... no thanks. It would take a lot of work to make it look good; work which would be better spent on enhancing normal lightsabre combat. They'd have to change the combat engine radically to make a medium range weapon like a whip viable, as well. Chances are, you'd spend most of your time fighting off attackers at melee range.