Commissar

You can pick up the saber on any planet. In fact, I think it might be easier to to go the Nar Shadaa route, since you can get ahold of the lightsaber before doing a single quest on that planet.

Needs a little napalm.

Well, nevermind.

Oooh, are we sharing our "I've been shot at!" stories?

Yeah, but my town has cool webpages.

I'm a little sad, but not terribly surprised, that I'm the only person from somewhere good.

Glad I made such an impression. Anyway, what I meant by that statement was that the difficulty of the game - not very - allowed you to feel like the character really had some power behind him. I certainly didn't mean to imply that the combat was so fluid as to mimic the excruciating choreography of the Jedi fight scenes from the prequel trilogy. If you guys can pull that off, I'd love to see it. I don't see it happening, not without abandoning all pretext of roleplaying game combat. Isn't that sort of an unrealistic goal, anyway? I mean, Battlefield 2's not a great representation of actual combat, either. Sometimes you just have to work on suspension of disbelief and go with it.

Buffalo? I could make a road trip to Buffalo? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> A road trip to Buffalo is closer than Edmonton , respectively. It looks like roughly a three hour trip. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> From where I am? It'd take about twelve hours to get to Buffalo, I imagine.

Well, I'd just say never, ever utilize a pregenerated character - nor even a pregenerated backstory. That smacks of action-RPGism to me. Personal preference, of course.

Buffalo? I could make a road trip to Buffalo?

I'm not sure, to be honest. But I know it when I see it. Primarily? Character building, I think. That's the main reason I do not like the original KotOR, and would have preferred if II wasn't in a similar vein. In a roleplaying game, I'm looking to create a wholly original character and take him through a good story. It doesn't have to be an epic story, either, though that seems to be another, very much understandable trend. One of the things that pleased me in a brief reading of a NWN II preview was that the character doesn't start out as the son of a god/an amnesiatic Sith Lord/whatever super-cool, pre-generated backstory. I likely won't play it, since I've never been a huge fan of the swords-and-sorcery setting, but I'm glad to know that you gents haven't gone with a stock backstory, allowing the player to fill in his or her own. Now, you'll notice that nothing I said above involves so much as a single number, yet character building in a roleplaying game is inevitably going to involve some sort of system, and a system almost always involves statistics. Bringing your character through however many levels is what appeals to most RPG gamers, I imagine. Perhaps not. It's certainly one of the things that appeals to me. You know, I've never played a tabletop game of anything in my life, but from the sound of it, that's probably what I'm looking for; a port of the tabletop experience to the PC, as faithfully as it can be done. The reason I went after your initial post is because I don't know quite how you change the emphasis of CRPG battles from statistics and slower-paced combat to more behavior- and action-oriented combat without losing that vital RPG element of character building via a game system. KotOR II certainly wasn't the most difficult game I've ever played, though I greatly enjoyed it because it did a good job for me, personally, of giving the impression that the character really was a pretty damn good Jedi. The involvement in the story - despite the multitude of questions I'd still like answered - trumped challenging battles for keeping me going. Chess isn't a complex game, it's true. It's also true that, despite its simplicity, it still has a system of rules that must be known in order to play the game. If you guys can figure out how to create a meaningful character building system and mate it to more situational or behavioral combat, go for it. Worth a shot, right? I just don't know how you'll do it without tossing what I tend to think of as the heart of a roleplaying game out the window in favor of a more visceral experience. It's obvious you're looking to expand beyond whatever market you currently have, and from a business perspective, that can't be faulted. Nor can the manufacture of action-RPG console dross that's never remotely piqued my interest, if that's what sells. You guys are the developers, I'm just one lone customer who wouldn't mind if you made what you've been making until either I drop dead or my wife finally manages to break me of the habit. Perhaps certain genres just don't have the legs for perpetuity.

Isn't that essentially an "action" CRPG? That certainly seems to be the direction developers are moving, towards less depth and thought and much more eye candy. Why not remove the statistical system altogether? Just take the plunge to twitch-based skills. I like first-person shooters as much as the next guy, but when I play a CRPG, I'm looking for a different experience.

No, seriously, this is a highly amusing little bit of satire. I've never seen a complaint about polls done in poll format before. You, sir, are definitely in the running for this year's Swift Award.

No, I've always heard that the book was even more anti-fascist.

I'd explain why that's a tremendously bad idea, but I get the impression that you don't really give these sorts of issues a lot of thought in the first place, and thus aren't terribly likely to stick around for the denouement, whenever it comes.

PC.

Wife's still out of town. Commissar bored. No good football on today. Would feel too geeky if he ran through KotOR II again. Hit me up with something good to play, since I don't feel like tackling the mounds of work I need to get done.

Not really what I meant. What I meant was that by rewarding the extreme alignments in a tangible choice the game encourages extreme characters. I've never played a character that just chooses an option just because it is either dark or light. My character make choices according to their feelings. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Pretty much. You can make a decision about getting those light/dark points up there fast, or about choosing responses that might actually make a little sense from time to time.

Fair enough. Didn't notice major differences between the females of reality and the females of Star Wars, myself. Aside from the whole Force thing, anyway.

Yes, they do. You could almost call Qui-Gon Jinn a gray Jedi, due to his obvious defiance of the Council on numerous issues. Not quite, but close.

A "Gray" Jedi isn't necessarily a neutral Jedi, it's simply a Jedi who operates outside of the control of the Jedi Council.

Yeah, they stole their Gods from the Greeks, because the Gods they had before that were sort of crap Gods ... like "Jeff, the God of Biscuits," and "Simon, the God of Hair-dos..." <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Why the hell is he wearing a goatee? Where's the make-up and leather?

Look, it's obvious that soccer's the one thing you Euros have to cling to. That's fine. I can understand it. But you need to realize that just as our businesses, culture, and quite often, military have invaded your countries, so will our unstoppable sportsmen of the ol' soccer pitch. Give in now. It'll hurt less in the long run.

Women in combat is not a good idea. We can debate it in Off-Topic if you truly wish to.

Which are ? Priness Leia outranked both Han and Luke and they were generals. I think General is a rank they just give to Jedi on the battlefield I've never heard of a Jedi refered to as any other millitary rank. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Sure. Princess Leia also got captured...what, twice? Had to be rescued. That blue Twi'lek Jedi in Episode III? Dead. Not even a fight, just dead. Bastila? Didn't she get captured and whatnot? I recognize that Jedi come in as generals on the battlefield, and I'm simply arguing that war is the male province.