Enoch

Or, alternatively, they'll reason that the people who fell in love with KotOR to the extent that they hang around internet message boards to talk about it are going to buy the game no matter what's in it. With that in mind, it should be evident that their goal should be more than simply creating a nostalgia kick for the fans of the original. Anyhow, I think we're all selling Obs a bit short here. I don't want them importing too many major characters from KotOR because I think that they can do as good or better in creating their own characters. Bringing in used characters involves significant difficulties that would be better if avoided. Plus, I already know just about everything I want to about those characters. They're played out. I'd rather see some new faces than have TSL devolve into some kind of "Revan: This Is Your Life" parade of blasts from the past.

Not bad, but it's still imputing some past motive onto the PC. From reading some comments MCA has made about earier games, it's pretty clear that he really hates to do that. I'm guessing that they'll find some completely technical way to get you tossed from the Order that doesn't assume any one particular past action or motivation on the part of your character. (I'm guessing that you were still a padawan, and it was all your Master's fault.) As for bridging the gap with the first game, I don't think it's too difficult. For a DS ending, the aforementioned Sith power struggle will work fine. For a LS ending, most of the Jedi had probably died in the war, and their failure to protect all the innocents on places like Dantooine, Taris, and Telos had thoroughly discredited their public image. The council was disbanded or forced into hiding, and the remaining sith took the subtle approach and killed them off slowly. In any cases, Revan should be dead. There's no way they could bring him/her back in the flesh that wouldn't anger at least a few people for walking all over their internal conception of who Revan really was. Plus, confronting your new PC with your old PC is just awkward. Kinda like introducing a current paramour to your ex. Not to be attempted unless there's no way of avoiding it.

I don't think there's any plausible way she can be in the sequel alive. Besides the practical difficulties of her being a ridiculously high level, there've got to be some difficult storyline concerns (i.e. reconciling the game between those who killed her, redeemed but didn't romance her, romanced and redeemed her, took her as a non-romantic apprentice, and took her as an apprentice and lover). Plus, from what we've heard about TSL, there aren't any other Jedi around. The best way to solve the problem is to tie her fate to Revan's. Stipulate that both of them died under mysterious circumstances (if the player indicates that she survived KotOR I). Let us discover the real sequence of events, and maybe avenge their deaths (even though such thoughts lead to the Dark Side). Yeah, it's still an off-screen event, but the player can feel some involvement in the story by solving the mystery.

Revan died in a mysterious gardening accident. Or maybe spontaneous combustion. People spontaneously combust all the time.

Exactly! That way, the players who chose to avoid these silly minigames should gain the advantage of a big payoff when we sell our first swoop bike while it's still in mint condition! We need some consolation for all the things that should've been added to the actual game but weren't because the devs wasted their time making ridiculously incongruous racing/shooting/card games. The 50 creds we save never buying a Pazaak deck ain't gonna cut it!

MCA has the right attitude. Honestly, I think that, besides some juvenile fascination (not to demean juvenile fascination-- I can be pretty juvenile myself in certain situations), the key allure of the romances is not that they're romantic, but that they represent the only in-depth character interaction in the vast majority of CRPGs. If more gamers had experienced NPC interactions of considerable depth but without the hokey romantic aspect, I think that fan support for romances per se would not be nearly as strong. As I said in the romance poll thread, I want character interactions that are about more than just the Quest for Electronic Nookie.

First, there's no reason why Wisdom needs to be made more important. Since it directly influences the effectiveness of your force powers, Wisdom is already a power-stat. (And, secondarily, so is Charisma.) I don't think that a full slate of 'idiot' responses are appropriate. Unlike Fallout, every response is being VO'ed. Thus, the costs of putting in a whole set of responses for the relatively low number of players who take on idiot-characters would be rather disproportionate. Otherwise, I'm open to other ways to make intelligence a co-equal stat. Using it in dialogue would be nice (maybe replacing some of the riddles with straight-up character intelligence tests). Also, I think skills could be used more in dialogue. A character with a high computer use skill might actually be able to understand what T3 is saying. Lastly, and probably most likely, some of the new feats and PrCs should have a minimum intelligence requirement (Jedi master, assassin, etc.). All this probably doesn't solve the problem. When I say that the stats should be co-equal, I mean that there should be just as great a reason to max INT in character creation as there is to max STR or DEX. In such a combat-heavy game, that's probably not too likely.

Indisputable proof that living in Southern California warps your perception of reality. One-ninth of your weekday waking hours (assuming 6-7 hrs sleep) spent driving to and from work doesn't count as a commute!??

Probably not likely, unless they want to dramatically raise the minimum system requirements for the PC version (which is one of the most certain ways to immediately lower sales). It'd be cool, but all those animations at once would probably cause my somewhat-moldy video card to have a cardiac arrest.

Your point on the AI is well-taken. But, I doubt that it takes much developer time or resources to add more possible levels. Assuming that the powers and feats are structured similar to the original, you can max out any one power or feat grouping at around level 13 or 14. All that you get with the levels above that are more of them. Thus, making it hypothetically possible to level up really high doesn't take any more effort than creating lots of interesting alternatives for the 'mid-level' character. Actually letting character get that high, however, is a bad idea. Of course people will complain that their character isn't powerful enough. They always do. But a game is made better when the developers have enough sense to protect gamers from themselves. Games are better when they include difficult choices over which abilities to pursue and which to skip. Letting the PC level up to ridiculously high levels makes these choices far easier, since the character is going to get all the marbles in the end, anyway. Plus, if you allow leveling-up until everyone can 'do it all,' every character at the endgame is essentially identical (or, at least every character within a particular PrC is). That's no fun-- I want my hero to be unique.

Translation: Shamelessly stolen from the pulp novels, b-movies, and comic books he liked when he was 12.

I'd guess it's more likely that you can start leveling in the PrCs at about the time you start to get the third-tier force powers (a.k.a. level 13, or the point at which you become invincible). If they're smart, they'll set a total level cap somewhere around 25 or 30, but not put enough XP in the game for you to even come close to that.

Nobody said you were any good as a Jedi before you gave it up. You could have been the greenest of newly-minted padawans when you shipped off for the wars. And just because you survived the conflict doesn't mean you saw any action. I'd say that 9 or 10 years as a couch potato would be enough to erode the minimal XP you got at jedi school.

But, I think it's safe to assume that we're not going to get a full questionaire about appearance, equipment, voice, and the like. And Obs doesn't want to mess with anyone's mental image of how they played Revan in the first game. Thus, it can be reasonably assumed that we won't be seeing him/her in the flesh. My money's on Revan turning up dead, as an Obi-Wan-style force ghost. Put him/her in a the traditional deep-hooded robe, and make the voice all washed-out and 'ghosty,' and the spirit can jive with everyone's personal conception of Revan.

That's the most sensible thing I've read all day. Being able to destroy everything in your path might be fun for a little while, but it's nothing compared to actually having something to be afraid of. And even if you get opponents who can challenge you at level 15+, the combat is no fun because it's such a crapshoot. The first person to fail a saving throw loses, and everything else is irrelevant.

I can't say I'm surprised at the results of the poll. But I also can't help but wonder how this would be different if there were many real examples of deep NPC interaction that didn't involve romantic entanglements. I, for one, find meaningful NPC dialogues much more satisfying if they're not all caught up in the Quest for Electronic Nookie. The forced romantic aspects of the dialogue cheapens the whole experience of character interaction. The problem is that games almost never include involved platonic relationships, so players tend to think of in-game romances as the only way they can get satisfying (no pun intended) NPC interaction.

Arguments like these are yet another reason why combat-based XP is a bad idea.

See Ivan the Terrible's irritating sig animation.

Why limit it to the powers you take at level-up? Even the basic force stuff could be useful in dialogue. PC: "Hey, is there any chance I could get through into that super-cool restricted area you're guarding?" Guard: "Keep dreaming, ya' robe-wearing pansy!" PC: "Oh I just wanted to take a look. Say, would you be interested in..." [Reaches out with The Force to pull the trigger of the blaster tucked into the Guard's severely overstressed belt] Of course, that would be a rather evil option. Lightside characters could, say, pull his weapon out of his reach, or create some kind of a diversion get him away from the 'general alarm' switch.

I agree that Jolee was the most interesting of the KotOR characters, but I don't want him back. Now that we know his whole backstory, there really isn't too much else to do with him. And I'd rather not have the game cluttered up with "hey how are ya" cameos of characters from the first one.

The D20 system is best for levels 3-12. I recommend keeping as much of the game as possible in this 'sweet spot.' High-level D20 stinks for the same reason that very-low level D20 stinks: Combat is inordinately dominated by one variable. In low levels, it is the critical chance roll. One of those pops up against you, and you're toast at any level below 3 or 4 (depending on the weapon). At high levels, it's the saving throw. Almost every combat ends up being decided by whether you get caught in one of the insta-death or immobilizing spell (or whatever) effects that every enemy seems to have at that stage (and, no matter how much you boost your saves, there's still a 5% chance that you lose). When one variable dominates all the others, the combat becomes too random-- too easy for your character to be doomed by one bad roll. Not much fun. On a personal note, I much prefer low level campaigns (say, level 1-6). I have trouble identifying with the superhuman characters you end up with above that. They've got no real vulnerability.

Generally, I agree. The ending in KotOR was kinda lame. But, 2 points: 1) The game was closely modeled on the original films. The endings there (outside of Empire, which doesn't count because game developers aren't likely to end a game with the protagonist losing) were also pretty lame. Good guy wins; brief party scene; roll credits. 2) You can bet the bank that Obs is very happy with Bio's decision to leave the fates of all of the characters and planets completely unexplored at the end of the first game. It dramatically frees their hand in crafting the story of the sequel. Now we've got some drama as to who survived and where they may show up. That's a nice hook to get people to buy the sequel. I'm not saying either of these stand up to any close scrutiny, but it is useful to see the advantages of the other approach.

I'm betting that Revan didn't survive either. (S)he'd make a great 'force ghost.'