Uniikki

The kickstarter project sounds like a great idea to me. I'd prefer if it was not a sequel. I would chip in just to see what you'd make. I would really like to see a rpg that doesn't have tons of combat encounters. Ideally, there'd be a fairly limited number of them, but each would be more involved than most combat in rpgs. Also, perhaps the PC wouldn't need to be a mass murderer. Also, I'm still waiting for good, proper wild west rpg.

Disabling the camera auto-orient and moving with the right mb was the way I was able to play the demo a bit. But I do have to add my voice to the hordes complaining about the mouse + kb controls. They truly are quite horrible! I played some of the demo, but I quit after arriving in the village. I had just spent several seconds trying to pick up an item from the ground, just baffled at how miserable an experience it was. Later I decided to see if I could get my PS3 dualshock to work in Windows. I did manage to, even found a x360 controller emulator for it, and I just had to try how horrible the demo would be with a controller. The difference is huge. Even the abysmal distance for picking up items almost made sense! Which makes the fact how horrible the m+kb controls are even more insulting. Honestly, simply by allowing A and D to be strafe and switching camera to mouselook the controls would be so much better. Probably all the way to usable. Personally I'd prefer a Diablo 1/2 -like click to move. Still, all in all, a pretty horrible job on the controls. And no option to configure them? Sigh. EDIT: Forgot to add somewhere there that dodging is horrible with the right mouse movement thingy, since dodging requires you to move your mouse away from the enemy you're attacking, which, for me at least, always resulted in always fumbling either the dodge or subsequent attacks. And with the keys you can only dodge back and forward. So you either choose with not moving sideways and not dodging properly (wasd-movement/turning) or you use the (for me) un-intuitive right mouse move which also means fumbling dodges.

I feared I might live long enough to see such a travesty as this happen. A thread about space sims and no mention of I-War? Known as Independence War in the states and certainly one of the finer space combat thingies ever. And fine games to boot, both 1 and 2. In a more rational state of mind I can admit that I-War is somewhat hard to learn. The big thing about the game is that the ships have inertia and can accelerate in any of the six directions. Don't try this without a joystick, I'm afraid. Or, actually, I can't quite remember if it had mouse control or not, but I certainly wouldn't recommend it. There was an assisted flight mode which does make it possible to jump into the game rather quickly. There was also some slight ship management, you can't buy new ships. The game was campaign based, the sequel had some free-roaming elements. There were also some stellar mods for the game. There was a demo of the game (iirc), but the official site is down as the developer is dead. A quick google seems to indicate I-War2 is still being sold by Atari. Someone mentioned Allegiance earlier in the thread. I've never actually played much Allegiance, but I do have to admit the concept is stellar (pardon the pun). It's a multiplayer only game where all the ships are piloted by humans. Each side has a commander (also human), who basically plays an RTS, with the difference that the forces she commands are played by humans. Rather quake-like physics, strafing and all that. The game has been abandoned by Microsoft ages ago, but there's still a fairly active small community around the game, that has modded the game a fair bit and tries to help with the game's very, very high learning curve.

I am not intimate with the Star Wars universe, just seen the movies, but the dark side in the SW computer games seems to be just about bullying. I have a completly different idea about the good vs evil duality. It just feels so petty. My idea of evil is not simply being the bully of the week. Evil is much more about being driven and objective with no or little ethical or moral restrictions. It's about worth of self above everything. I understand a lot of people seem to enjoy the range of expression KOTOR gives for dark side. And of course being mean to others, regardless who they are is a very direct and easy way to assert and show power. And in that respect I guess it works in serving self. If you need to feel that you are powerful, feel that is acheived by bullying NPCs and feel that as a worthy goal. I guess I'm just saying that I find such an approach unnatural. If I play an evil character, the essence I reach for is the self and the goal. CRPGs offer very limited evil goals, besides being mean to everyone you meet. And that's only good for a powertrip, which feels terribly juvenile to me. You have to go out of your way to be mean to these characters. Oo, I can feel the 3v1| Thus I usually can't be bothered to play evil characters in CRPGs. OTOH, the light side is too close to lawful good paladin to be one with the force. Just my two cents.

Mmh, I still remember how I drooled for Powermonger. Populous had been quite addictive indeed and I bought in on the hype. I still find it quite incredible that I spent a better part of an hout trying to kill all the trees on one of the smaller islands Regarding the topic, while KOTOR did leave something of an unpleasant aftertaste, I admit I also enjoyed it. I guess I'm just chorusing what people here have already said with minigames, the easy and silly combat and railroading being things I would want to see fixed. However what irritates me most is the characters. I admit it's somewhat of a personal issue. NPC driven rpgs like KOTOR simply do not offer sufficent room for believable human relationships outside one or two heavily scripted directions. Perhaps the harder developers try to flesh out lifelike characters, the more the flaws stick out. Stereotypes and caricatures tend to work better, also limiting the interaction. HK-47, or whatever was the name of the meatbag droid, was an entertaining character, but did it have depth? No. Carth and Bastila felt like insensitive people completly devoid of interpersonal skills. Well, to be fair, they aren't people But the fact that they were being sold of as characters with whom I could actually interact just did not work for me. I wonder when games will implement an option to daze through conversations '[Your eyes glaze as you drift deep in your thoughts]'. Also the whole dark/light side division was realized a bit shabbily. I found the choices to be quite often rather petty, with the dark side options being mainly silly bullying. I guess the only time the dark side options might have made sense was at the sith academy. I do admit it's been too long since I played, I do not remember details, only the general irritation the decision making gave me. Well, KOTOR2 is still better than nothing, but I'd like to see some original work, not all these licenses/sequels.

Aye, I agree with mkreku that most likely everyone on these boards right now is here because they are aware of the link between Obsidian and BIS. Also for some time to come most newsbits and articles about Obsidian will not fail to mention the BIS heritage. However that does not mean the comparison will necessarily be fruitful when we will get our hands on the first product. Time will tell.

Mmh, while I would rather Obsidian was not making a sequel to KotOR, it certainly could be interesting what they would do with it. I simply fear doing a sequel to such a linear game as KotOR would be seriously limiting. Not that it would have to be limiting, and there's a lot of talent at Obsidian, so I would still be hopeful even if they did. Far too many developers and authors, people in general, seemingly find fantasy as a genre to be limited to stereotypical high fantasy. Regarding the KotOR combat, I initially practically hated it. You see, I was fooled, I thought the game had player combat. Instead it had these random combat animations that were triggered every time you encountered hostiles. Which happened a lot. To quote a review at Four Fat Chicks 'I'd just put down the controller, get a drink or a snack or go potty or what have you, and pick it up again once the fight was over.' Apparently many people enjoyed this, but my ability to suspend my disbelief was seriously tested and subsequently all disbelief was scrapped. I simply do not look for such experiences from gaming. If most other people prefer this kind of content over more traditional solutions, I am a bit unhappy because I fear there will be more rpgs with KotOR like lack of combat. Which pretty directly translates to games I will dislike to some degree. Not to say KotOR didn't have its moments. Just that mostly they were overshadowed by linear and extremely simple gameplay. And to be perfectly honest, my strongly negative attitude towards the game has probably been amplified by the unending praise the game has gotten.