A couple of "atmospheric" suggestions

[maia]

It was often mentioned how the planets of KOTOR 1 felt "cramped" and it seemed a bit silly that some ostensibly highly secret and difficult to reach locations were a couple of steps away . So why not employ a fiction of taking some vehicle to get to the next map? It would load normally (no cutscene), but it would be understood that you arrived there after some lengthy travel. It certainly works brilliantly for Deus Ex 1, with its black helicopter. Imagine, for instance, that in KOTOR 1 we'd have had to "take" a vehicle to arrive to the harvester and the Krayt Dragon cave on Tatooine, to the Force Field on Kashyyk, to the Star Map on Manaan, to the ruins on Dantooine... It really would have made the planets feel bigger and and certain plot points wouldn't seem so ridiculous. It also shouldn't be difficult to implement, even at this late date.

 

The other thing that would be interesting to see is ability to use "emotes" as options in dialogue. In KOTOR1 there were several gestures/stances - kneeling, bowing, victor's salute, hiding the face in hands and the sly evil overlord stance used in the communication with Dodona. It would be nice if Obsidian could make some of those dialogue options, when applicable.

[EnderAndrew]

I like both suggestions.

 

I wonder if emoting would be a lot of work though as not only do you need new animations, but you need new responses from all the NPCs (I expect we'll see 150 NPCs) for various emotes.

[maia]

I don't think that a proper response from NPCs would be a problem. First of all, I never intended that "emotes" should be an option in every last dialogue. No, what I thought about was including them were appropriate, for instance:

 

You have an option to threaten an NPC in the dialogue. One of the threatening options is the "weapon flourish" emote. Might convince those who don't take the words seriously .

 

You want to show respect/thank an NPC via dialogue - you have an option to use the "bow" emote. Etc.

 

Even if those options only appear a couple of times, like the "Force Choke" dialogue option in KOTOR 1, it still would be very cool, IMHO.

[mastaGAW]

I like your idea about distance though I think it would be better if the had a skippable scene to show how far you are traveling. Like descending into the Shadowlands.

[Nydas]

I like both ideas.

[John Morgan]

We are trying to spruce up the traveling that goes on between different areas of the planet (not just walking and elevators).

 

As far as your emotes suggestion, the character should be animated based on what is being said. I.E. if someone is threatening you, they will be making threatening gestures and such.

[Drakron]

Will "giving the finger" animation be in?

[maia]

Thanks for the reply. It is awesome that you are trying to make the game feel less confined.

 

Re: emotes. Does it also apply to the PC? In KOTOR 1 the PC didn't use emotes in normal side-quest dialogues, even when they were appropriate - i.e. s/he was threatening somebody or whatever. NPCs used the emotes much more.

[John Morgan]

The camera was rarely on the PC during their response, so haveing them animated would be a waste. As far as "intimidating" people with gestures, you can intimidate them using words and you can just use your imagination as to what your character does (since it happens off camera anyway).