Master Dahvernas

After you select the scroll arrow (up or down)... DO NOT MOVE YOUR MOUSE. Simply left-click on the icon and it will set the new behavior. It is a bit tricky and I agree, the interface is a major step backwards from the first one being both asthetically unpleasing (gross green color; takes up too much screen space) and functionality-wise.

Just off the top of my head... It might be the new Securom 4 anti-copy protection that mistakenly thinks you are trying to copy the game when you install it. If you have any virtual drives (Daemon Tools; Nero Virtual Drive), I would uninstall those first and then try and re-install it. Worse case scenario is that it is the copy protection and it is just something in your notebook that is not compatible with it (maybe the DVD-RW drive; it's drivers; etc.) and is mistakingly triggering the copy protection like I said above.

The best way around this is to copy all four disc contents to your HD under different folders and simply point the installer to the correct path when it asks, I.E. C:\disc1; c:\disc2, etc. The only known way to fix this -- if you are referring to the Telos Swoop Racing -- Is to get the KOTOR I and II Save Game Editor and change the Boolean value regarding Swoop Race Forfeiting to 0 (it gets set to 1 for some reason and that is why you can never win); Do a search on the Forums for a "Swoop Racing Bug Fix". I think the only "sure" way to get Revan to be what you want him/her to be is to set it in the swkotor2.ini with PCGender=1 (I assume 0 is male since I am currently playing through using a male character and Revan has been referred to as a male).

He was probably seeing what you could equip her with. For example, you CAN put armor on her in the equip screen... But once you go back into the game she is still in her robes. However, you actually GET the bonus defense(s) from whatever level armor you equip her with AND she can still use her Jedi powers (no armor restriction) -- at least on my game. This screams BUG to me more than anything else... Unless it was intentional... But the manual is so bad that if a lot of things we think are bugs were intentional, we still would not know it otherwise. It's just a sloppy effort on Obsidian all the way around I am sad to say. Also, Visas you can change out her clothes, but her head dress is always the same. She looks kind of silly wearing armor and this veil, but the point is you can change her outfits unlike Kriea.

I'm not trying to start a fight or hijack the thread... But I think a lot of people here are "geeks" and know how to custom build good gaming rigs... Myself included. There is only so much we can do on our (the consumer) end and the rest is in the hands of the developers and their coding ability since none of us have a universal set of hardware specs (high or low) like consoles. Understand that I still hold LA mostly responsible for the terrible shape this game shipped for the PC in (given how bad the XBox version is; I have it as well) since publishers rule the PC Games industry and put impossible deadlines on under-funded and resourced developers they can't possibly make and games like TSL are the result. Just had to get that off my chest. We now return you to your regularly scheduled poll thread

Good guide. It should be noted the problem with the lightsaber that won't go out is specifically for lightsabers with the CYAN colored crystal. All other lightsaber colors are fine. SOLUTION 1: Simply change out the color crystal if possible, or switch to a different lightsaber for your main PC (you are given various ones during the game) if you can as a temporary fix. Yes, it sucks not be able to use a "movie colored" blade, but trust me, the benefits far outweigh the cost even if purely asthetic. SOLUTION 2: If you are intent on using a cyan colored blade, use the Flurish Weapon button (default X) to have your PC flurish the weapon and then it goes out shortly after that.

I just want to add that this happens to me as well. In fact, I think others have said they also LOSE weapons that have been upgraded (or lose the upgrades once they construct them) and I've lost a couple of good upgrades and have to redo them every time I get to a work bench just so my NPCs can use them. --- I know I said it before, but I must bring it up again because I think it is a very major bug that is effecting the very foundation of the entire game: --Scripting is majory pooched in this game. More Choas on Korriban: When you are in the tomb and facing your "trials"... When you get to the one where you have to decide whether or not to defend Kriea or side with your friends... I sided with my friends (got the Dark Side shift?!) and then went to see Revan. The second time I played through it (having saved right before I entered the room), I chose to defend Kriea, got the LS shift, but after the "battle" was over -- everyone just kind of disappeared mid battle except for Kriea -- I talked to Kriea and the whole thing started over again asking me to choose. It was like a scripting LOOP. The problem with identifying bugs like these that have to do with scripting is a lot of us don't know if certain things are supposed to be "messed up" for dramatic effect... Maybe it is supposed to loop as a kind of foresight to allow me to chose another path... Or because the game is just screwed up and desperately needs a patch

At this point... I actually wouldn't mind even though I am on my third planet (Korriban). I think the game is worth playing over again if it runs smoother and works the way it should have worked when they released it. My main problems with the game are more gameplay balance issues and scripting errors that just completely detract from the immersive gaming experience (among other things). I know there are severe technical bugs that need to be patched... But I am hoping some of these scripting errors will be addressed alongside any changes to the executable and possibly other files that may be causing the technical problems for others.

Interestingly enough... If you have the original KOTOR still installed... This file is there in your root KOTOR directory. It is part of the miles sound system. In fact, I just copied mine from my KOTOR directory to the KOTOR2 directory just to see if it would help performance. I haven't had any crashes (never did; Nvidia card), but I figure that an integral dynamic link library (.dll) file that the engine uses shouldn't be "missing" and that is why I put it in KOTOR2.

General comments and more bugs as I get further into the game (sad that I have to come here since I can't just overlook them). -Scripting is really messed up in this game. I know it is the pre-patched version of the KOTOR engine, but geez. I went to Korriban after Dantooine and faced Darth Scion(sp?) for the first time. It is obvious you aren't supposed to defeat him yet... But instead of the in game-cut scene playing that shows you running away after you bring him down to a low-level of health... Visas just kept fighting him while he just stood there! I had Atton and myslef (Lightside Male) in the party as well. I (we) just stood there and watched Visas hack and slash away at Scion with her saber while absolutely nothing was happening. I also had the dilaogue icon for Scion and thought that maybe I am supposed to speak to him in between the fighting like you did Bastila in KOTOR, so I clicked on it and finally, it played the cut scene of Scion falling to his knees and my party making a mad dash for the exit. Talk about sloppy coding or scripting. -I mentioned this before, but this game is serverely imbalanced. Some say it is too easy, but I have a feeling a lot are just saying that and actually haven't played the game since... Major battles like Khoonda are cake walks... Yet small skirmishes with thugs and level-up monsters are like fighting Malak in KOTOR I... Mostly because you PC and the NPCs MISS a good 85-95% of the time when using melee weapons (blades and lightsabers). The enemey NPCs DON'T miss and hit you and your party with almost EVERY turn... And yes, before all the "leet gaming gods" start saying I and others who have this problem must "suck" and therefore it is our fault we can't hit anything... I have points and attributes invested in things like Charisma and Dexterity and Strenth that is supposed to put hitting your opponent more in favor of you and your party as well as using feats like improved flurry, one-handed fighting, duel mastering, etc. It makes no difference. What I and others *think* may be what is throwing melee combat off is the "Unarmed Specialist" feat that makes using your bare hands more lethal than if you are armed. It is "confusing" the engine and rendering (mathematically) melee weapons less lethal than if you are armed. I find these kinds of errors and gameplay issues pretty appauling... But not surprising given the sad state that PC Gaming is in if we are going to be blunt.

Some would argue not being able to get past the character creation screen without crashing is far more important than the mono sound tracks...

The most logical reason why the Devs haven't said anything is probably because they are contractually bound by LA to NOT discuss anything that has not been approved by LA and that most likely includes patch announcements and WIP (Work in Progress) reports. In addition, let's consider a "Kriea" scenario here: Obsidian KNEW they didn't have enough time to finish the game in one year and LA was rushing them to meet a Christmas '04 release toward the end. So, they did the best they could and handed off the RC (Release Candidate) to LA for QA testing (that either QA did or did not do, or did very briefly for legal obligations; "Hey it works on an Nvidia and ATI, PC it therefore must work on everyone's systems!). Now the game is released... What should Obsidian do? What can they do without breaching their contract that probably says no dicussion of things that haven't been cleared through LA first? Does Obsidian: A) Violate the terms of the contract and post on these boards to ease tension between the angry fans who paid $50 USD (or more) for this game and assure them a patch is coming, yet not state what will be in the patch? Or if a patch has even been put in the LA approval system? Make promises that they can't keep like patch contents and a ETA on the patch (weeks; end of the month; etc.)? Does Obsidian risk being sued to help and maintain the fanbase -- which may or may not be the best course of action here -- Thus, at least keeping a good reputaion among gamers if nothing else? B) They say nothing because either there is nothing to report (the patch hasn't been approved by LA to even start to be worked on) and risk damaging their reputation among gamers in favor of keeping their relationship with LA and future publishers and franchises who will keep Obsidian working and put money in their pockets more than any gamers could? ---- It is a tough call either way if you are Obsidian. It is a lose-lose situation because ultimately, it is in-action being taken and that leads to action being taken by consumers who decide they will not buy another Obsidian made game... BUT it hurts Obsidian MORE than LA as LA is just the publisher and isn't putting their skills (coding, art, writing, voice, music) on the line and stands less to gain since Obsidian is working FOR Lucas Arts and not the other way around. It sucks, but this is the reality of the PC Games industry right now as Publishers rule and developers are at their mercy if they want to survive.

I have a Nvidia 6800 card and trust me, even if you don't believe it, yes it is very bugged and unplayable. For example, I can't hit anything 95% of the time with any weapon, but if I am just hand-to-hand, I am actually able to hit. I call that a mighty big bug. If you haven't noticed it then that's good but I can't play a game that is unplayable. It needs a patch ASAP and I would hope that everyone would want the game to be patched since we all spent money on it. Sorry for the rant, but I once thought as you did until I took a closer look. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I too have an Nvidia card and an AMD64-bit rig... And the game has not only technical problems (droid dialogues being completely fast forwarded; character animations literally jumping from one state to another), but also balance issues like Xavier97x2 said. Even if you have high Charisma and other attributes that should make you and your companions attacks hit more often, you miss a good 85-95% of the time even on "low risk" combat moves and not just things like power attacks and critical strikes that are supposed to be more random because they are so powerful. Other players keep saying the game is too easy. I'm beginning to wonder if that is just "fanboi/gurl" talk because it is on the net, therefore everyone just wants to go along with the crowd without having played the game? If the game is "fine" for those people... I guess we just suck -- and they'd be the first to tell us Whatever. Point is, this is a gameplay bug/balance issue that needs sorting ASAP because we are not the only two who have reported it (look at the Bugs Threads) and since combat is a MAJOR part of this game unlike other RPGs. More evidence the game is serverly imbalanced is that some of the major battles you fight , I.E. Khoonda, are cake walks and the smaller skimishes -- level-up monsters and weak NPCs -- Are made much harder because you miss more than you hit when using melee weapons and I refuse to just bash away at opponents who are armed with blasters and blades with my bare hands (even though it does more damage and connects more). It just looks down right silly. Yes. It is a game, but that just throws the suspension of disbelief completely out the window and leads to more frustration than enjoyment. I think a major part of the imbalance issues is because some of these new feats weren't tested fully and are throwing everything else off. I think the "Unarmed Specialist" feat is throwing melee weapons (blades; lightsabers) completely off, but unfortunately, I don't know enough about modding to either remove and or adjust this feat (mathematically) to give the melee weapons back their "punch" -- pun intended.

One answer: Time and money constraints. Obsidian had one calendar year to produce KOTOR 2 from the ground up (story, voice, music-wise) and that is an impossible deadline for a project of this scope. This is why half the game endings and subplots (for the NPC characters) are literally left hanging, romance options completely cut out and why the audio was probably "dumbed down" to speed up production.

You know where the lack of stereo fidelity really stands out: There is no excuse for this. It is obvious this was a rushed port considering they didn't even use the recorded masters from the original digital recordings to make decent PC .wav or .mp3 files for the PC version. That's pathetic.

Specs: AMD64 3200+ 1024 PC DDRAM Windows XP Pro (SP2) Nvidia 5900 I think the Frame Buffer (effects) are messing up the game because Frame Buffering, from my limited understanding, means your video card is caching extra frames in the VRAM (video ram) and while normally this means faster FPS and added effects just like the game says (particle flares; motion blurr)... I think caching the frames throws the engine's timing off and that is why cutscenes -- in-game cutscenes -- And level transitions aren't loading right for a lot of people because they are set to a certain FPS (tick) and the buffer effect is just getting everything out of synch somehow. I am not a programmer or video card expert, but I think this is what is happening and is entirely plausible if there is something wrong with the engine, correct? I have come to this conclusion because once I turned them off, the game has been playing much smoother overall and I have had no wierd crashes or black screens or loading freezes, etc, etc. I also have the Disable Vertex Buffer Objects=1 in my swkotor2.ini even though I have an Nvidia card and the game just plays smoother as well. There are still some gameplay bugs (swoop racing; lightsaber always on; some balance issues), but nothing game stopping like before. So, the best bet would be to turn them off and see if that helps... Even if you have a 6800 or X800. Swallow your pride and live without the added effects if it means a more stable game and better performance. Obviously, this is a problem Obsidian and LA needs to address in a patch, but if it at least allows you to play the game until a patch comes out... It is up to you to choose what you want to do.

You know what I would like (and none of us will probably ever see)... Is the music remastered and released along with the various endings that were originally designed for this game and that were cut (no doubt) due to LA's impossible Christmas '04 deadline. The game has massive technical issues (bugs) and then completely disasterous artistic ones as well like the music files and the "alternate endings" that are more in line with an RPG of this scope and that mimic KOTOR I in replayablity and a more branching game experience.

Things to check: 1) That the music sider is turned up in the main menus under sound (Achem's Razor)? 2) That the sliders for WAV are turned up in your Windows Audio Control Panel? 3) That WAV and speaker settings are correct in your Audity Control Panel? Run the Diagnostic Program and then test your speaker configuration. Make sure the speaker configuration in the Audigy EAX Mixer matches the speaker configuration in Windows Control Panel. Make sure you have default EAX settings (no environmental effects or SS2/SS3 enabled) just to be safe.

Don't take this the wrong way... But you and others like you are the reason the PC Games industry can get away with putting out unfinished products (that were rushed to market by greedy publishers who give developers no realistic time tables in which to finish and test their games). Yes. All games have bugs... But that "excuse" is wearing thin since release after release like KOTOR2 keep coming out where it is obvious that the game needed at least three or four more months of testing and just general polishing to deliver a professional product. Bugs are small things that shouldn't prevent one from playing a game. What we have in KOTOR2 and other games these days are down right QA issues that should have been squashed before release (and probably would have if devs were given more resources and TIME to properly finish their games). Crashing to Desktop or going to a black screen after you create a character causing you to have to exit out isn't a bug. It is a major performance problem and is pure evidence the game needed more time. As long as gamers let themselves be bullied by publishers and devs who rush out crappy products just because they need their "fix" -- like a drug -- Then don't be surprised when console games completely destroy the PC Games Market since consoles offer ease-of-use and their games WORK a good 90% of the time right out of the case I am an XBox owner as well as avid PC gamer; I know what I am talking about and not just pulling things out of my rear end to support my argument). --- Nickjnp: Telling someone to "shut up" is not the way to gain any friends or help on these forums. This isn't the Counter-Strike forums.

Online petitions (of any kind) have ZERO effect on companies. What really makes a difference is actually calling up their Customer Service/Tech-Support lines, snail-mailing your complaints (because e-mail can be filtered and deleted) and basically just organizing mass boycotts of gamers to just quit buying games made or published by certain companies... That will never happen, but is the number one thing that NEEDS to happen or this industry is going to get worse in my humble opinion. Just my two cents...

Kind of OT: This was a HUGE topic at D.I.C.E. this year (it's a developer's convention). Publishers like EA and UBISoft and others are basically destroying and devaluing the developers job and status as actual game creators -- people who actually conceieve, code, and design the games we play -- And reducing them to nothing but "banta poo doo" they call on whenever they need some Quater 1 profits to appease their stock holders. It's sick. It's only going to get worse as the console market takes even a greater share of the casual gaming market because publishers KNOW they have the power to dictate the time tables of when games are made and they KNOW that developers are given impossible deadlines they can't meet and they KNOW that this results in games being released in post-alpha/pre-beta states... Which is why they rely on consoles sales more because consoles games are more simple in terms of scope, coding, unified hardware and even QA standards (they must work and there is no excuse about various hardware configurations as with PC games) and this is what the casual gamer likes: The ease-of-use of just popping in a DVD in their PS2 or XBox, pusing a few buttons and they are off and playing without having to tweak any part of the system (the console) to get the game to run smoothly. Yes. There are buggy console games that are released, I.E. KOTOR2 on Xbox is as buggy as the PC release... But that is actually an anomoly considering a good percentage of console games work right out of the box with absolutely no jumping through hoops by the casual gamer which again, means more casual gamers will buy more games because they literally don't have to think or be knowledgeable about their systems like PC gamers are/have to be. It sucks, but this is the new age of games. It's not the 1990s anymore where "Games by gamers for gamers" ruled.

Blame Lucas Arts... The publisher... More than Obsidian to some degree. Publishers calls the shots and determine impossible time tables for developers to ship products as complex as KOTOR 2... That the devs can't meet no matter how hard they try... And this is the result. Also, LA is the one who approves patches and if they don't feel the game warrants one (for a lot of reasons) we won't get one. That is not to say one is not coming, but it will probably be in three to five weeks from now given how these kinds of things are done. You can either wait until then and HOPE one comes out... Or if you have no choice, return the game because your window for returns/refunds runs out long before that projected patch date.

There is no effect. I tried. The movies are finished pieces of video that were just done in low res. There is no way we can change them. Only Obsidian could change them since they presumably have the original textures and files that compose them. As someone else said... TSL is a huge step backwards in so many ways. While gameplay should always be above graphics... These graphcis just look outdated now AND even some of the gameplay isn't balanced (same say it is too easy; others are having problems with the math allowing characters to actually hit their targets when their stats/feats/skills should automatically be in favor of more hits than misses). I can run the game "okay" on my rig (AMD 64-bit rig), but there are far too many glaring bugs, glitches and other things to even try until at least a patch comes out because it is obvious the game was never ready to be released (as evidenced by the lame endings and hanging plot holes), yet Lucas Arts demanded an impossible one-year time table for Christmass '04 release. This is the sad, sorry result.

There is a default Quicksave and Quickload that are mapped to F5 and F9 accordingly.

Once the game is patched... I wouldn't mind a mod that adds ALL the previous KOTOR heads to KOTOR 2 (and vice versa) just to give players more choices when starting out either for the first time and or just replaying the game again.