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But the backhand is weaker not because its two handed but because its coming mainly from the offhand. True comparison would be one-handed backhand vs. two-handed backhand. One-handed offers more freedom, but two-handed is well-known to offer more power and stability. Physics lesson for the day: Force is proportional to acceleration, not speed. So if you swing one handed through a really wide range, you can get a high speed without much force. Using two hands, you can get the same speed through a much shorter range due to higher acceleration, and THIS is what tells you you have more force. Try chopping wood using one hand, then two and tell me which gives you more force. Try hitting a baseball using one hand on the bat and tell me which gives more force. No, the force of two hands is the force of right hand plus the force of left hand. The game mechanics reflect this.

Actually, it is true that you cannot swing as hard with one hand as you can with two hands. Try it with a baseball bat or tennis racket and you'll understand. With a two-handed weapon, you're supposed to get a bonus of (strength bonus)*1.5 to represent that you can hit harder by swinging one weapon with two hands and with two weapons you get (strength bonus)*1 in your main and (strength bonus)*0.5 in your offhand to represent that your main hand is stronger than your offhand. These are the rules in D&D 3.5 and in PnP, and they make pretty good sense.

Yeah it is weird stuff... last week I went to Wal-Mart when i heard the rumors that walmarts were selling it early. They said they would have it the 9th. Then I went to Rhino Videogames and they had it up on their board as the 8th and I was happy with that because I won't even be able to play till then anyway. So whatever. But I asked the guy to preorder and he seemed surprised for some reason... weird... maybe I should call tomorrow and ask if they've got any copies in yet?

My game store will have it available on the 8th, which is when I'll be picking it up.

The stores that say 8th and 9th are not listing RELEASE dates per se as that is set in stone as the 6th. They're listing the day that their particular store will have it available in stock.

Day didn't shift to night in part 1, that sort of thing wouldn't really fit with the format of this game. And more to the point, I like runny eggs.

Personally, I don't think that the KOTOR series is very conducive to expansion packs. The Downloadable Content for KOTOR1 provided some cool items, but in my opinion did not add anything to the story or the game overall, and I don't think Xbox live capabilities were justified just for that one thing. The KOTOR games are self-contained but interconnected stories. It'd be like releasing extra chapters to a book. It would most likely feel forced and out of place. I think I'd be much happier if they did KOTOR 3 on the same pace and completed a whole trilogy on one engine and one system (2 if you count PC) both because its a good engine, there is much room for improvement within that engine, and because it would make the world and story feel consistent through the whole trilogy. Then they could start a new trilogy on the next system they'd like to work on, and the engine would be a lot more powerful and whatnot. It would be kind of like the OT vs. the NT movies.

I personally think Kreia is like Jolee in a way, in that she's neither Jedi nor Sith, but much more mysterious and more strongly against both extremes. I think her attitude also goes with the darker feel of the setting altogether. I guess my point is to turn this thread into a more meaningful discussion than the title. Rather than "Is Kreia Bastila?" our topic should be: "What kind of character is Kreia?"

This is always the weirdest criticism to me... if you think exploiting a glitch makes the game suck then just don't use it! If someone thinks that the game is either too easy or just hard enough but still can't keep themselves from doing something they KNOW will make the game less fun, i.e. leveling up with a glitch, then I say it is the person's own fault because they can't even stick to what THEY think is fun and that is just beyond pitiable.

This is a longshot, but maybe during the game you uncover more details of what happened on the Leviathan after Bastila was trapped with Malak? Maybe it wasn't as simple as we were led to believe?

NPC=Non-Player Character PC=Player Character

Important plot point: The sith WEREN'T occupying Taris before the Endar Spire went down. The only reason the Sith moved in was to prevent Bastila from getting away. They knew she had to be there because the escape pods crashed there. Bastila was the whole reason for the surprise attack on the Endar Spire, so when she escaped to Taris, they moved right in and set up shop hoping to flush her out.

I somehow think it more likely that something happens along these lines: HK-50 has been sent to find out which side you're and and possibly kill you, HK-47 may have been sent to save you or something of that nature, so HK-50 tried to takeout HK-47 and thinks he did, but before you leave Peragus, HK-47 surprisingly returns, kills the imposter HK-50, and shows himself to be the best HK droid there ever was, then maybe joins your party, maybe not.

I think this new information along with other things such as lightsaber forms, force power forms and prestige classes shows that there are a lot of ways that the different classes will play in significantly different ways, e.g. the forms and prestige classes will allow guardian/weaponmasters/maurauders to get significantly stronger w/ a lightsaber than consular/jedi master/sith lord and the latter to be much stronger at force powers than the former in a much more pronounced way that was possible in K1. Now this info also gives an advantage to consular/sentinel players in dealing with other characters, which makes perfect sense since consulars/sentinels/masters/watchmen are supposed to be better diplomats and sith lords are supposed to be better at manipulating people and swaying them to the dark side. So my guess is you'll feel differently this time around.

I actually wish you could have chosen to do this in KOTOR 1... it just seemed a bit silly that Revan HAD to be in EVERY mission and ONLY Revan can initiate conversations with non-party members... I would have liked to rotate use of different parties. I would probably have always used a Jedi, but it wouldn't have always been the PC.

Considering that in general in D&D 3.5/Star Wars RPG base classes are 20 levels and prestige classes are either 5 or 10 levels, it makes the sense that the cap would be either 25 or 30 depending on whether they implemented 5 or 10 levels for each prestige class.

In D&D, typically, prestige classes have several requirements, generally including character level, minimum skills, attributes and requisite feats. Also they may include some method of becoming that prestige class and there may be a required alignment. For example, to become a Drunken Master, you may have to have a minimum dexterity and constitution, as well as a certain minimum skill ranks in tumble, have certain feats like Mobility, Dodge, and Unarmed Strike, as well as be initiated by a group of drunken masters. So hopefully they go into it like that in this game, although this is sort of wishful thinking. For example, to be a Jedi Master, you could need at least a 14 Wisdom, at least a half-way up light side alignment, minimum of 5 ranks in Persuade, and the feats Master Sense and Force Focus (which they would have to let you choose even if you're a guardian, unlike in KOTOR1). For Jedi Weaponmaster, they could require Weapon Specialization: Lightsaber, some minimum base attack bonus, some minimum strength/dexterity, and a halfway up good alignment. For a Watchman, its harder to say, but they would definitely have an intelligence minimum, and perhaps a minimum skill set, like at least 5 ranks in awareness or something. Similar for Sith Lords, maybe Lord would be similar to Jedi Master, Marauder would be similar to Weaponmaster, plus maybe requiring Dark Side Rage, and Assassin would have like a minimum of 5 ranks in Security, Stealth and Awareness. I dunno, those are my thoughts. Feel free to comment or argue.

That's not exactly true... in D&D 3.5 there are several ways you can fight multiple opponents at once. As you base-attack-bonus goes up, you gain extra attacks that can target separate opponents. Feats like Circle Kick for Monks (this means that if you hit an opponent, you can automatically make an attack on a separate opponent) Eyes-In-The-Back-Of-Your-Head (which means you cannot be flanked, i.e. opponents do not get a bonus for attacking you from two opposite sides), and Elusive Target (which allows you to cause a flanking opponent to miss you and hit their ally) are all used in a D20 system to create a character skilled at fighting multiple opponents. The difficulty with implementing targeting more than one opponent in one attack in a semi-realtime setting could be worked around by simply having two separate options, one for full attack/flurry on one person and one for full/attack flurry on as many people as possible, and the computer would simply autotarget as many people as you could reach.

I just noticed that the droid in your 5th pic looks just like the droid you find in one of the Sith Tombs in KOTOR... do we already know why that is?

I'll explain it as best I can but if you look at the guide at the gamespot site it explains it more thoroughly. Basically you have two seperate modes and therefore two seperate levels. Let's say you start out as a soldier and then because a Jedi Guardian. When you level up as a soldier then that's exactly what you're doing. Leveling up as a soldier. So you level up with skills and feats. When you become a Jedi then your levels change and you have access to force powers and different Jedi feats. What some people do is NEVER level up on Taris. Instead they don't level up until they become a Jedi. So as supposed to being a level 8 soldier and a level 12 Jedi you would more than likely become a level 3 solider and a level 17 Jedi. You get significantly more force points and powers by doing it this way and it's completely do-able. Easiest if you have a soldier. There are two disadvantages to this. One is that your feat progression will be significantly slower. Even as a guardian you just don't get as many feats as you would with a solider. And second is that the progression of your NPC's is slower as well. When you level up in a regular way all of you are pretty much at the same level and in fact a couple of them that you get later(like Juhani and Jolee) have better defense than you. But if you save your levels they will be significantly weaker. Jolee especially is weak in combat because of his poor feat progression. The way I usually circumvent this is to level up until I get to level 4. Then that's where I cut it. Your NPC's get a couple of more levels and you still get a significant force boost. Let me know if you still don't get it or if you had any other questions about it. Oh and by the way I asked the Dev's and from what I remember they are including this in the game. Maybe that's changed. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> This is not the FLU, this is just saving your levels. They are not the same thing.

So here's where the physics of star wars is really bad: why would space shuttles need to be aerodynamic in the first place? Of course they wouldn't since there's no air or any other medium in space at all. Which also points to the obvious questions of why do they make such aerodynamic moves in combat, why do they make sounds when they fly by and why do the explosions look like explosions in at atmosphere? The answer to each of these questions is obvious: they don't CARE about correct physics, or representing correct technological development, they care about it looking cool and passing reasonably in other areas, because they're not making a science demonstration, they're making movies, books and video games. That's why I find all this rather silly, as you seem to. I prefer to suspend my disbelief and just enjoy the story as they choose to tell it.

It was supposed to, but there was a glitch at least on the xbox causing it to not be effected. You can tell if you go to the messages screen and look at the feedback.

I'm aware that the game didn't make it much of a difference, but still those are the advantages and disadvantages. One turned out to be more useful purely because of balancing issues. Dueling is just as good as dual-wielding, the game just didn't give a situation where dueling was better. But as far as pure character building goes, they are pretty much equal. Neither was overpowered, except for the glitch which caused double-bladed sabers not to get an attack penalty. Clearly though, if there were an opponent with a high enough AC, (which would obviously be rare) the single saber would have a distinct advantage.