Malachor V and other Areas: Design Commentary

[DarthNipples]

Let me preface this with: I thoroughly enjoyed this game. I loved it and don't regret playing or buying it.

 

However there are some things to be said about some of the design decisions here and there is some feedback I wish Obsidian would take to heart next time around.

 

Malachor V: This looked like a Doom 2 level. It completely took me out of the game.

 

I understand that BioWare's engine probably isn't the most efficient/beautiful thing out there... but if thats the case then don't push the engine to do something it can't do reasonably well. It reminds me of the Rural Tileset in Neverwinter Nights.. which is a terrible, terrible sight. Good amateur module designers avoid including that tileset in their modules and bad designers start their adventures in it

 

And the fact that every other baddie was a 'Sith Lord' was unecessary.

 

Onderon: Something that took me out of the story in Onderon was the fact that the first time you get there. The initial area didn't have the amount of sidequest depth as all of the other planets. Naturally, I knew that what this meant was that you guys were going to "make it up" with a later event and you did----Tthe Sky bridge/assault on the palace was amazingly fun.

 

But the consequence of making a very flat initial Onderon is that it takes the player out of the story. The area went from a living, real city populated with real people to just a bunch of cardboard template characters and 2 quests.

 

Dxun: As above... certain areas of Dxun looked beautiful, other areas looked... ehh. Again, if the Aurora engine isn't made to render jungles....... then don't include jungles in your storyline. There is something to be said about keeping an even level of quality and something Black Isle did beautifully in the Fallout series.

 

Assault on Ravager: The designers probably know this but this was a clear patch job. The ship was just there to house Sith for you to kill with nothing else to do.

 

Things to do on the Ravager:

1. Plant bombs

2. Get a hoard of +5 con and +4 str items from average Sith soldiers!

3. Pointless Plot point with the ex-General of Onderon

4. 2 pump chump lightsaber fight against the big bad Nihilus who I was told was going to rock my world.

 

This area was just bad. Please fire and/or beat someone with a stick.

 

Areas I liked:

 

Pelagus:

 

Your average adventure starts in a city. What more of a scary/dark/ominous place to start than a deserted station with a Sithlord at your back. This place was BRILLIANT! And the fact that you got to somewhere with the droid only to later return with your full party was sweet!

 

Dantooine & Nar Shadaa: Very solid.

 

Dxun: Splitting the parties up and the Sith Temple, brilliant!

 

Goto's Ship: The computer bit and the obscene amount of droids was very fun.

[nightcleaver]

That's strange. I didn't find Malachor V to be that bad, really. I didn't see any repeated tiles, and it wasn't terribly detailed- but I thought that gave it a solidly lifeless atmosphere. What didn't you like about it exactly?

 

Someone has to come along and give you an opposing perspective, you know...

 

And you know that there can be lesser and greater Sith Lords, right?

 

Onderon, I found to be perfectly complex enough, if a bit streamlined in the first half. The murder mystery, the starport visa's...

I thought splitting it up was extremely effective. The events were pushing forward, so putting lots of extra stuff to do would've ruined that sense of urgency completely. Dxun and Onderon were technically one planet, if put in KotOR I terms, and together I think they had quite enough to do.

 

And I don't remember much to do on the Star Forge of the first game besides killing Sith - at that, the Star Forge was a lot more tedious in comparison to the Ravager. I didn't mind the plot point with the general, and it seemed to me to be tying things together more than being pointless. The droids on the Star Forge, in that room before Malak, were pointless. If you didn't like the Star forge, fine - just so long as you recognize this isn't something to fire someone over.

 

I will note that there is generally less messing around to do, even if the main quests are much more complicated and interesting (in my opinion). I would've liked if they did both, because I like both ways of style, and sometimes you just need an interlude to stop being pushed. It's something I've grown to expect in the era of Bioware RPG's.

[Annakie]

I loved pretty much everything about Onderon. I thought the city was beautiful, the history of the people interesting, the murder mystery was fun (a lot like Sunry's trial from 1, but in a good way.) I was anguished in trying to figure out who to give my Open Visas to, and was really happy to find a 2nd one to give away after finally parting with my first. The rebellion was well done, and absolutely loved "Storming the Castle"

 

The moon was also very cool, from getting to dive deeper into the Mandalorian culture, proving your honor, and especially the Sith Temple and taking a non-"Exile" group through a whole area.

 

Dantooine and Korriban both felt a little bittersweet to me. While it was nice getting to revisit some of the world from KotOR1, and getting to open up a couple of new areas, it definitely had a "Been there, done that" feel to it at the same time. Korriban was also very short.

 

Peragus was also awesome, a great way to open the game up.

 

Nar Shadaa was also great once I got used to it. It just seemed so big and I didn't feel like my objectives were as clear. It was counterintuitive for my LS character to purposefully stir up trouble.

 

Goto's ship was also quite cool.

 

I mostly got tired of the constant battles in the Sith Academy at the very end of the game. After awhile it was just kind of like "Right. More Sith. Okay" Especially fighting solo the entire time. A couple of breaks from the mindless slaughter would have helped. KotOR1's "respawning droid room", "item creation room" and showdown with Bastilla helped a lot in this regard in KotOR1.

[Vistaer]

Malachor V was a horrible design, I agree. I couldnt but feel like it was a level right out of Hexen. Personally, I would have done something far more ominous if I were in charge of the level design. I probably would have had it be a MASSIVE valley (think grand canyon in depth and width of the canyon) with the area beneath expelling the green aura we could see from orbit, while you could have a CLEAR view of a rampaging storm above.

 

At the mouth of the canyon would have been the temple, and the whole world would have felt like a world both dark and ominous, and very very dead.

 

Such an area like along the side of canyon would have been good for a final confrontation between Hannaar and Mira, as when Hannarr is defeated, he is hanging onto the edge of the cliff, and Mira could have tried to save him only to have him be overcome with the idea of having to serve the lifedebt again and choose to just fall (similar to luke in Empire Strikes Back) or if you are playing Hannarr, he could have simply defeated her, and thrown her into the canyon, like the Emperor's fate in RotJ. (recreating moments like those in star wars is important

 

I have to say, Peragus was very good level design also. I thought Telos was OK, though I would have rearranged it so Czerka, Exchange, Cantina, Ithorian, Medical Center, Shop, and TSF would have been in one large "hub" sector, a residence sector, and then the docking sector.

 

Dantooine was well balanced, but my favorite planet had to be Onderon. The spaceport could have been made to feel more like a spaceport, but the city was well designed I think. I just wish there had been a couple more areas to it (like a residential area or more of a "market" feel to the center of the city) and some more quests definatly.