Plano Skywalker

storywise, it was about using the beasts in the attack but I think the *reason* it was included is because Onderon/Dxun/Nadd help tie the game to the older KOTOR stories (somewhat).

I think part of the problem that Shadow is talking about could be solved with having forking feat and power trees...very few 1st level, forking out into more second level, and forking out into 3rd level...this would introduce some opportunity costs with Force users and the end result would be more diversity in who these people are and what they can do.

I think the analogy holds for what we are talking about here.

no

You're kidding, right? Age of Exploration: Remember that phase of human existance? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> the Spanish funded Columbus's voyage not to find a new world but to find a new spice trading route (to circumvent Arab middlemen)....governments do things for pragmatic reasons and it would take government sponsorship to do anything that involved a manned mission outside of this solar system. to go to Alpha Centuri, we are talking about bringing plants along so we can keep recycling Oxygen for 4 years (assuming we could even reach light speed). even if it was possible, it would take enormous funding.

I think "space exploration" will happen but it will be about temporary (or rotating membership) mining operations. The movie Total Recall (minus the alien stuff) is actually a good example of how it might play out....spend a few years mining Mars and then come back and retire or find another vocation. I don't see anybody just darting off into the Unknown *hoping* to find something.

@ShadowPaladin when you say "cloning" I guess you mean jedifying shipmates....well, I agree that if you have 5 20th level Force wielders that you can take on missions (3 at a time, obviously), then that does throw game balance out the window. I think that when it comes to adepts, it should be all about quality over quantity....I like the idea that there are 4 people who have the *potential* to be my apprentice, but only one will be. And I want to have the kind of dialogue trees with my padawan that Kreia had with me (well, some of it anyway). It should be a very intense, meaningful and dialogue-heavy relationship that grows over time. Maybe a Force Bond could develop...but OVER TIME....anyway, I think you get the idea.

they did somewhat because of your backstory...oh yes, I want multiple backstories (to choose from via dialogue)....only someone trained by the Jedi as a youngling can continue in training as an adult.... there would be only one backstory that allows you to join the official Jedi Order...other backstories have you either not knowing you are a Force Sensitive or having you join other factions that use the Force. factions are key to this feudal era.

For this reason, every PC should get a "Force Epiphany" and become "jedified"....I just think the PC should have some control as to when this happens....if you start off as a Force Adept (at character creation time) then you get your force epiphany very early....if you start off as a soldier or scout, then you keep getting bombarded with easter eggs about how others can feel the force flowing through you and that sort of thing...you can delay it for a while but, by level 20, you get the cutscreen in which you become a student of the Force. As for multithreaded adventures....oh yeah, K2 did a really good job with that and I, for one, want to see more of it.

if I am commanding an army of steam-powered machines through the arcane arts, then the focus is on the arcane, not the technology to construct such things. yes, mass production (which is itself not medieval) would be required to some extent.

right, and the focus is still on the *arcane* aspect of what is going on. that is why it works in a fantasy setting.

this is the perfect solution for someone who wants to do miniatures gaming but doesn't want to spend over $100 on minis...the games generally complete in about an hour or two as well, which is a plus. you will need to go to gaming/comic shop to find this...you will not find it at the mall or in a department store.

well, one of things that makes the Western man's middle ages so exciting is that it was, in many ways, a step backward. there is a reason why we don't tell our children about the Byzantine Empire...it just wasn't as exciting.

There is a miniatures game out that is pretty popular right now called WarMachine. Basically, you are a mage-general commanding steam-powered exoskeletons called "warjacks". The setting is supposed to be fantasy but steam power is 19th century....actually, I have no problem with that...it is not really a time period, per se. It is just that certain things lend themselves to fantasy while others do not. And, of course, it is highly subjective.

I'm playing through Jedi Outcast (also known as Jedi Knight II) right now. It has a really good story but it is a twitchfest...no question about it.....it has more in common with Quake than KOTOR, that is for sure. I have heard that Jedi Academy (also known as Jedi Knight III) has a much better gameplay (lightsaber forms, dual blade option, etc). Unlike JO, JA starts you off as a Force user. And Jedi Academy has minigames (such as swoop racing combat).

I rather like the way Dragonlance handled tech...the "tinker gnomes" were always experimenting with it and sometimes got it right...but, there were, shall we say, side effects.

I generally agree.

I agree. While I would prefer Hale, others could mimic the voice. I played the Obi-Wan game that featured Quin-Jon with VO....it sounded just like the movie Quin-Jon but I watched the credits at the end and the voice was not that of Liam Nesson. It can be done....they just need to hire voice actors who can mimic voices for something like that.

not only is there a new KOTOR comic series (monthly, it appears), they have also reprinted the older Tales of the Jedi comics in trade paperback form. a *Trade Paperback* is when they take all the comics from a certain story arch and bundle them into one contiguous softcover book...rather like a graphic novel. some trade paperbacks that can be ordered from your local comic or gaming shop are: Tales of the Jedi: The Golden Age of the Sith Tales of the Jedi: The Fall of the Sith Empire Tales of the Jedi: Knights of the Old Republic Tales of the Jedi: The Sith War <etc>

here is good interview: http://www.brokenfrontier.com/lowdown/deta...61616db7ceb230c here is an interesting snippet: And then that

well, it's that time again....the 2nd KOTOR comic hits the stands today.

they definitely need to introduce opportunity costs with regard to lightsaber forms and make it so where you allocate points into specific forms as you level up...Jade Empire has something along these lines. and, speaking of Jade Empire, that game proves that you can have RT combat and still have a third-person, stat-based RPG. I think the idea of having real time combat (especially if they do it similar to the Obi-Wan game, in which you have an incredible amount of control of the saber) would be great.

Fantasy/magic will always be the tried and true turf to return to in the RPG but we do need to see more non-"fantasy" settings and more low magic/no-magic settings. Star Wars is an excellent setting for an RPG because it has "magic" or "religion" if you prefer (i.e. the Force) and it also has technology....and, of course, it has space travel and different races of people....it is space fantasy. It would also be nice to have more RPGs based on more conventional Sci-Fi stories and settings....some have mentioned a "Groundhog Day" RPG...I think that would be outstanding....and, of course, there is Fallout, which is based on science fiction (science fantasy) rather than magic-elves and dwarves-fantasy. I would really like more historical, no-magic RPGs. Sid Mier's Pirates!, though not technically an RPG, is a good example of what I speak and would be a good template for a historical-based game like that. Thing is, there are already a number of good, story-driven games like that out there...they just aren't RPGs (i.e. Half-Life 2).

K1? no bugs at all that I can recall K2? significant frame rate slowdown in certain areas but no showstoppers. Morrowind? well, let's not talk about that. "

yeah, I'm sure those indi games are well written...what's really nice is when you get that kind of writting with great graphics, VO, musical score, etc.