Plano Skywalker

Pazaak would probably be more interesting if there was a mutliplayer version (I do not mean playing with another human player). What I mean is having a variation that is somewhat like Texas Hold 'Em in that there are several players at the table at one time, each with full voice over. that would help create a more casino-like feel.

while that makes sense, I don't think that is what was going on. now that they are all in the same campus area, that kind of collaboration is more likely, I believe.

But that contradicts what Lucasarts (and Chris Avellone) stated about BioWare's reasons for not being allowed to us Vima Sunrider, thus settling on Bastila Shan instead. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> well, I'm speculating here but I think it has to do with the fact the LA doesn't have much leverage with such things....without intervention from LFL, LA is just another "novelist" out there. unless a special arrangement was made, LFL owns any and all derivative works based on Star Wars.

in practice, I think the whole thing about "that name is copyrighted" is to scare off the new novelist from borrowing someone else's character. Same thing is probably true for certain planets. but if LFL wanted to use a character (or any derivative element) they could do so without any problem.

excellent point...if I were to write a novel based on the Warhammer 40K universe, then anything in that novel would be the intellectual property of Games Workshop since it is a derivative work. However, I could talk to them ahead of time and try to get them to allow me to have certain special privileges to be granted to me in a legal document. another thing is the word "copyright". if you write a poem (or any work that could be considered creative) the work is automatically copyrighted upon completion of the work....copyright is the easiest intellectual property protection to obtain and the hardest to enforce.

Well, if they go back to the Sith War era, then Exar is still a living man. The idea is that Exar was so powerful that the Republic decided to just bomb Yavin 4 from orbit and kill him through attrition because no one could stand up to him with lightsaber. The PC would be helping the Republic find out where he is, and help map out the bombardment, etc. You wouldn't even have to be a Jedi to do these things. I must confess that I do not understand the whole ownership business in the EU. People saying that you can't mention Nomi Sunrider because of an ownership issue...seems to me that LFL (if not LA) could find a way to do it if they really wanted to. That is the thing, though, LFL has so far not been heavily involved in this, it appears. absolutley!

Suprisingly thats not an uncommon theory. A clean break after KOTORIII would be a desirable thing all around. Not sure if I'd want to see KOTOR prequels though seems kind of pointless. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> it all depends on how they resolve Revan in K3. If K3 ends and Revan is still out there, then it will be hard to do anything in that time period without him interfering. However, you could always jump forward about 50 years so that Revan will have died of old age....as long as a living Revan is not in K4, I'm happy. However, a prequel about Exar Kun, Nomi Sunrider and the Sith Wars would be nice, IMO. I would have no problem playing someone who is not the center of the universe (which an Exar Kun trilogy would demand). In fact, the roleplaying possibilities are actually greater that way.

Yes, the Yavin 4 moon is not in the KOTOR games...only a space station and a Rodian merchant. Yavin 4 appears in ANH (the Rebel base was there) and Yavin 4 is an extremely important place for EU continuity....Exar Kun trapped his force ghost in the pyramids there and Naga Sadow rested there in suspended animation for several centuries before being woken up by Freedon Nadd. It all depends on what they want to do with the story. If they want to mess with continuity and show us the red-skinned Sith of antiquity, then Yavin 4 is actually a very good candidate for K3.

neither is Pirates! but some of the things from these action/adventures could be incorporated into a cRPG. but VTM: Bloodlines is an RPG and illustrates the same point I was making with Chrono Trigger.

NWN2 is the make or break title for Obsidian....if that get that one right, they can afford another lucrative LA project (even if it has alot of difficulties). hopefully, though, LA will listen to them this time.

IMO, there needs to be at least 3 ways to finish the game: LS victory, DS victory, no victory (at least in K1 there was the illusion of the DS path being a seperate path). While I have not played it, I have heard that the classic cRPG Chrono Trigger is all about multiple ending possibilities. Also, VTM: Bloodlines has multiple endings as well. And Pirates!, while not properly a cRPG per se, explored the multiple ending thing quite well....options, such as marriage and military rank, were also incorporated quite nicely. It does become more complicated with voice acting and 3d animation, I suppose, but the next game absolutely has to be less linear than K2 IMO. As I see it, the trick is to only have about one or two NPCs in the game that are absolutely essential to the main story...everyone else is expendable. if you get married, your spouse is little more than an informant that you get info from on a certain planet (again, think Pirates!). If one of those 2 essential NPCs gets killed off, then you get to complete the game without full victory (but that is not the only way to get that ending). Party members can be killed off and/or rotated out and faction affiliation determines what your overall NPC pool is anyway. Don't make K3 Morrowind (true open-endedness) but give us more than one possible path and give more of an illusion of openendedness.

Batman Begins was EXCELLENT and, IMO, the best Batman movie to date. Finally, we have a Batman movie in which the protagonist overshadows all the other characters and plot elements. And we have a villain that is HUMAN...not some mutant....IMO, mutants are for Spiderman and the Xmen. Batman is supposed to be more "down to earth" and this one was definitely more down to earth. Also, this movie plays up the significance of Bruce Wayne the billionaire playboy. Bruce Wayne is not some 2-dimensional Clark Kent disguise. Bruce Wayne is a real person and that was captured quite well in this movie. Also, the corporate intrigue and the importance of his corporation in all this was nicely done.

it's all about immersion and roleplay...being able to toggle a hood/helmet, customizable lightsaber hilts, disguises, being able to see ALL attire that you equip, being able to change the color of your undertunic (as in BG) are not showstoppers to be sure, but these are things that would add alot more immersion to the game...basically, a somewhat easy way to make alot of people happy. also on that list: lightsabers visibly holstered with a selection of Force-draw animations.

It is one thing to have a cameo but if they introduce the Vong as a principle force in that time period, then that would be BAD BAD BAD.

Think about it: * Malak the Betrayer (and Revan the amnesiac) * Wound in the Force * True Sith What do these three things have in common? They allow for the same cookie cutter story to work whether you are Lucifer or Sir Galahad. DSers are reduced to playing the reluctant ANTI-HERO instead of having an actual Dark Side path. It appears KOTOR 3 is going down that all too familiar path. Hopefully, though, at some point, the LS and DS paths will be much different (yes, even if that requires two seperate cds).

yes, the fact that essentially all the LA people are now in one campus area should make it much easier to produce good, story-focused games.

They may do it eventually. I hope they do it eventually. But despite what the magazine article is saying, they are not doing it now. I'm not trying to piss on people's parades. I'm trying to clarify things so people don't get all excited and misled. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> This is what we know: * KOTOR 3 was to be produced in-house by LA but the project was cancelled in Sept 2004, mainly because of LA's relocation of offices and just too many things going on. * Obsidian is (presumably) already working on Project New Jersey, which is not a sequel. While I do not believe it is so, PNJ COULD still be a SW RPG as long as it is not KOTOR 3. The CEO of Obsidian once said in an interview that they have actually spoken to LA about doing a Knights of the New Republic. Such a project would not, technically, be a sequel. Again, nothing definitive here except that PNJ IS NOT K3. * Obsidian devs have stated that they already have a team in place for the project after New Jersey. And LA has recently stated that they have a story-based "holy grail" project scheduled. That is all we know officially but it would be incorrect to say that there is no way Obsidian is currently involved in a K3 project....that would be just as irresponsible. EDIT: I also think LA is quite aware of the hunger the fans have for some sort of signal of their intentions. K2 was not just another game in a series, it was a cliffhanger that makes you want to go out and buy the next game right away. LA is aware of this. I think the main reason they have not said anything official is that K2 really has not been out that long and they don't want to upstage that title in any way. They will, eventually, say something about it.

good point....my jaw dropped when I read an on-the-record interview with the devs in which they talked about Droid World and that they dropped it for time-constraint reasons. I appreciate the attitude behind their openness but if it only gets them in trouble, they need to not say such things. and they need to make sure to overwrite any content files that are on the disk that are not actually being used....that was, by far, their biggest mistake in this.

***SPOILER ALERT*** In KOTOR 2, you HAD to have a mentor named Kreia. It was absolutely forced. That made it easier to write the story. OK, fine, give me one character that I HAVE TO LEARN FROM but let me decide if my teacher is LS or DS. They could do that with Revan....he is your Force teacher but you get to decide early on whether he is LS or DS. This would require them to write 2 dialogue trees for Revan but 2 is easier than 4 or 6, etc. And guys, there are no uber-powerful Grey Jedi Masters....no more shortcuts involving grey jedi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And it doesn't even have to be based on the PC's own alignment...just based on how you refer to Revan early on in dialogue. Two much different paths based on that one dialogue....I would love that.

The only thing I see that could go wrong with that scenario (putting aside game balance issues) is people might be upset that their choices for Revan in KOTOR I had no real effect. But I guess that's a risk they take continuing the story with Revan as a focal point of it. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> And that is the thing...Revan really is a problem. Not only can you not show his face, you really cannot even use him as anything other than a mysterious plot device if you don't want to offend anyone. The best way to use Revan (from a storyteller's perspective) is to use him as a major, "hard coded" plot device, such as making him the antagonist (i.e. the True Sith Lord), but then you offend the LS Revan acolytes. If you give him a support role, he is LS, or at best, a pro-Republic anti-hero and having him play second fiddle will not sit too well with the Revan fans. So leave him unresolved? Suspended animation or such crap? Then KOTOR becomes a soap. If they do that, then they almost have to go with a prequel or KOTNR for the 4th game. KOTOR 4 CANNOT BE ABOUT REVAN!!!

Oh, they definitely will not be able to do it in K3 because K1 and K2 were simply not paced for it. All I am saying is that IF future SW RPGs are trilogy-based (and there is alot to be said for them NOT being trilogies), then they should incorporate games 2 and 3 with the option to import the PC from previous games. And the games would have to be paced for it. For instance, the first game you max out at level 7, the second game you max out at level 14, etc. Of course, the d20 system is really not ideal for higher-level characters. I say scrap the d20 system and come up with a 1,000 pt percentage-based system.

I agree that the storyline for K2 was nothing but "filler" to lead into K3. There is no other way to look at it. These guys know how to write satisfying stories so what we got was an intentional setup, not a trainwreck. The real burden is on LA. True, they had no idea this franchise would be such a hit and had no idea it would affect continuity AS IT HAS. But now they know. They really need to take more ownership of these stories. Kind of like how Tom Clancy writes novels but someone else writes the movie screenplay...same thing needs to happen here. Hopefully, LA will actually write the overarching stories in-house from this point forward for any "true RPG" that has the potential to affect continuity. As far as a next-gen RPG engine goes, they should have one soon for Project New Jersey. They could presumably use that engine (or license it to someone else) for K3.

I think the idea of more localized threats (Sith or no) would be great for this franchise. If they continue doing trilogies, they need to have the BG ability to export your PC to the next game. There is alot to be said for self-contained stories, IMO.

Baldur's Gate 1 allows you to choose the color (at any point in the game) of your primary clothes and your secondary clothes. Jedi robes are fine but also give us more say in what "regular" robes and regular clothing looks like. That would be cool. Gloves and amulets, etc should be visible if equipped. Lightsabers and other weapons are visible yet holstered when not actually in use.