alanschu

System Shock 2 "sorta" did this. You enlisted in one of three factions, and then got to choose how you progressed through the faction, with all factions' 4th tour of duty ending up on the ship, starting the main plot. It only really gave you additional training and skills...but it did give your character some background.

Gothic 2's island really isn't too big though. And it's easier to implement something like that as it is an island (as is the case with Morrowind). If you exclude running over the same ground multiple times, Knights of the Old Republic covers much more ground. Futhermore, Knights of the Old Republic also travels to a variety of areas. It's easier to have freeform travel when you are limited to a single area. But KOTOR isn't.

Why come up with something original when there is something that is already similar to what you want to do with it. Welcome to real life Hades. Why start from scratch when you can borrow ideas from someone else? It's not practical, especially considering the already huge development costs that go into making a videogame. No sense wasting huge amounts of money paying people to come up with something entirely brand new. You are living in a fantasy world, bub.

WTF are you talking about.

I'm pretty sure the graphics in the link are still just conceptual. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if they are conceptual from the magazine, not even the publishers. It's not uncommon for magazines to have their own drawings of game situations in their magazines, that are in no way related to the game in any way.

But it's not d20. I can see many differences

It's similar. But clearly as you have shown many times, it is not the d20 system. There are differences. Being "based" on something does not mean that it "is" something. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Ironically, if it had used the D20 system things like Force Powers would be balanced, blasters wouldn't be perfectly useless and the game would be better balanced overall. And yet you want them to deviate MORE from the core D20 rules making it even MORE ridiculously imbalanced than it currently is? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I haven't said anything about what I do or do not want in the game.

My first year I learned Java, and I was in the same boat wondering "What's the point?? C/C++ is the dominant way." But learning the language is the easy thing. The data structures and programming methodology I learned in my Java classes still apply to my C/C++ classes I'm in now. With hindsight, I have also realized that Java seems to more strict than C development, which is not necessarily a bad thing for the new people coming in with sloppy structure. For example, Java explicitly only allows a boolean type in an iterative IF statement. However, C allows for a integer value, where any non-zero is considered true. As a result, putting if (i = 2) will work in C but not in Java. As a result, I was able to get it into my head immediately that a single equal is assignment, and a double equal is a measure of equivalence. Also learning about queues, stacks, SLLs, DLLs, and hash tables in my second CompSci course has virtually nothing to do with Java....we only used it as a medium to program with.

It would get the most deterimined ones

I couldn't say, since I don't know anything about Atris, and little about Mira. Without knowing anything, I couldn't pick anyone. And since someone seems to be begging for it: Bastila is not a deep character

WTF is Gluupor?

I would guess some sort of Eastern European accent.

It's similar. But clearly as you have shown many times, it is not the d20 system. There are differences. Being "based" on something does not mean that it "is" something.

Blasters follow the exact same mechanic as melee weapons. Somehow the conception is that they miss way more, but what people do not realize is that Bioware added many shots to a single attack so it wouldn't look too silly. Of all the shots that happen during an attack, only ONE is the real shot. The rest is just decorations. I think that this is a better alternative to the characters firing once every six seconds. And to reiterate to Hades....the game does not use the d20 ruleset (as you like to point out so much). Just a system that is very similar. Hence they don't have to adhere to anything that the d20 says you have to (which from what I understand, is nothing anyways).

I think what you fail to see (when you claim to see laziness) is the limitations that go into developing a computer game. Every alternative situation exponentially increases development time.

Didn't your logic just call Bioware a developer that wanted to focus on a more controlled power span AND a weak ass developer that sucks at balancing and shouldn't be making games?

But they're not. They're just using a ruleset that is similar to the d20 ruleset, since there are differences. Since they are not adhering to the d20 ruleset, I don't feel they need to be restricted to it (since they are not using it....just something similar).

For the most part, I agree, but only on some force powers. There are some force powers where I don't think there would be much of a point. Why force push only one person when you can force wave all of them, do more damage, for the same cost in FP. However, the one that I missed was force whirlwind, which was different enough from the others that there were times I wanted to use it.

Canderous, Jolee, and HK-47 all have their own miniquest much in the line of Juhani, Carth, and Bastila. Carth and Bastila have some additional interactions because they are the romance options.

Two reasons: 1) Limit spoiler access to only those that have the game 2) Provide an additional incentive to buy the game

The Jedi Council has made comments on how unbelievably quickly Anakin has progressed. His dual wielding of the lightsaber also shows initiative (although Dooku wipes the floor with him....showing now matter how talented a person may be, their strength with the force reigns supreme).

I don't think the Sith are that decimated. There were many conflicts happening all over the place. We only visited a handful of planets....I think the war is far too big to be limited to the small amount of places that we go to in KOTOR. And Nur Ab Sal, why wouldn't a plot that had people pulling the strings of Malak and Revan in order to start a war make sense?

I think it's bad when the focus of RPGs becomes merely "getting the next level." The main reason why, as much as I would often try, Diablo 2 can never hold my attention for a few months. It's fun running around with some friends fighting the bosses and stuff. But eventually, the game just turns into "Do some run to get exp and maybe some loot." In the end, the game is boring.

True...the way the fight was handled could have been better. I noticed that in Jedi Academy (which I just started playing, and am mentioning since other people brought it up), the first encounter with Tavion's apprentice is similar to Malak's encounter. I kicked her butt so fast and she ended up running away. I think the only difference is that there isn't an obvious health meter like Malak had. Although I will concede the probably should have had Malak be much more difficult and have Bastila come in and save you. Although they probably had to stasis Carth/Bastila to make sure that Malak didn't actually kill any of them in the fight. Perhaps first encounter should have been easy, and second encounter (when Carth and Bastila are out of sight) much harder, where when he smacks you down to low health Bastila steps in.

Probably had something to do with becoming one with the force, which lightsiders are probably only capable of doing. Hayden's would have been the lightside version of his character. I honestly don't think it's that big of a deal.