Changed Endgame, Droid Planet Explanations

[Creston]

regenration has little effect in combat only between combat given a choice between standing around for 5 minutes to recharge or going into battle with 50% FP's most people will stand around.

 

Having implants tied to con was a huge improvement over the old rules.

 

Actually, the regeneration of vitality is the BIGGEST flaw in the game, imo. While it's true it makes no difference in combat, it does lead to you always having full vitality (hp's) whenever you go into a new combat, which makes it terribly terribly easy. I played the game on difficult on my first walkthrough, and never once died. Ever. The only time I came close to dying was when I was playing with just Atton and Kreia on board of the spaceship in Nar Shaddaa, and all those droids were rocking me pretty badly. Even then I still managed to scrape out a victory. Other than that, it was all terribly easy.

 

And I didn't even wait for my HPs to regenerate, but the regen rate is so fast that within a minute or so, you have full HPs again.

I finished the game with over 200 medpacks / advanced medpacks and the red ones combined. I never used a single one of the red ones, and they were always in short supply in KotOR1.

 

The implants vs Con was not a bad idea, although I would have appreciated being aware of it before I started my first game, as I gave my character 10 CON, and was thus never able to use even the smallest implant.

 

As for the answers to the questions, good stuff, thanks for posting that and making us aware of it. It's still sad they had to cut so much stuff, though

 

Creston

[Objulen]

I'm glad I'm not the only one thinks thinks this interview is a load of PR BS. I've learned to take information from gaming magizines with a grain of salt, because they often don't include the existing flaws, especially in previews and interviews. Some have better balanced, such as the Resident Cynic review, but you honestly have to wonder how the "truth/getting articles for ads to make money" ratio is working.

 

But we had to look at the schedule and make a big cut after E3. We cut the entire planet.

 

The planet was cut to make E3. Translation: it was rushed out.

 

As far as the story goes, I think maybe we were trying too hard for an Empire Strikes Back feel especially in terms of the revelations toward the end game and the resolutions - we just wanted the player to feel like there was something more going on, something greater, and it may not have seemed to tie together as well as it should. We could have made more of an effort to keep the game more self-contained, but the more that option was discussed toward the end, the less appealing it seemed - we wanted more of a sense that the saga would continue, that what was happening was only symptomatic of something occurring on an even greater scale.

 

I'm sorry, but this sounds like a rationalization to me, pure and simple. "We can't come up with a good excuse for why we cut all this wonderful ending content, so we are going to make a BS answer because we can't make LA look bad" or "we screwed up and don't want to admit it."

 

You can have a sense that the saga would continue with definitive ending -- just look at Baldur's Gate II, with the shadowy meeting after the end. The plot was resolved with Irenicus, and here we have the foreshadowing of a sequal (which turned out the be an expansion, but same difference). The removed conversation between Visas and Mandelore alone hints at a conitunation. Why not just include that? There's a difference between setting up for a possible sequel and leaving a messy ending. Cutting this content was a mistake, pure and simple.

 

I think this is something that sat well with some gamers, but not others.

 

Big rationalization, right here, and one that I doubt has any foundation in reality. I am far more inclined to believe that most of the players who find this ending satisfying are the players who have no idea just how much content was cut. Honestly, who, having read the information in the thread about the cut content, would prefer it stayed out? And how many more disagree?

[The Bardic Pen]

So, Lucasarts wanted the game released earlier. How shocking.

 

As for the rules, unless they use the actual Star Wars d20 rules, I think they should stick with what they have, except for a few things like BAB that shouldn't have been changed in the first place.

[Tanuvein]

regenration has little effect in combat only between combat given a choice between standing around for 5 minutes to recharge or going into battle with 50% FP's most people will stand around.

 

Having implants tied to con was a huge improvement over the old rules.

 

Actually, the regeneration of vitality is the BIGGEST flaw in the game, imo. While it's true it makes no difference in combat, it does lead to you always having full vitality (hp's) whenever you go into a new combat, which makes it terribly terribly easy. I played the game on difficult on my first walkthrough, and never once died. Ever. The only time I came close to dying was when I was playing with just Atton and Kreia on board of the spaceship in Nar Shaddaa, and all those droids were rocking me pretty badly. Even then I still managed to scrape out a victory. Other than that, it was all terribly easy.

 

And I didn't even wait for my HPs to regenerate, but the regen rate is so fast that within a minute or so, you have full HPs again.

I finished the game with over 200 medpacks / advanced medpacks and the red ones combined. I never used a single one of the red ones, and they were always in short supply in KotOR1.

 

The implants vs Con was not a bad idea, although I would have appreciated being aware of it before I started my first game, as I gave my character 10 CON, and was thus never able to use even the smallest implant.

 

As for the answers to the questions, good stuff, thanks for posting that and making us aware of it. It's still sad they had to cut so much stuff, though

 

Creston

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

About the medpacs: Really? I never used them in either. I'm replaying KotOR I right now, I just finished Leviathan. I've used three medpacs, and those were all during the tourney duels on Taris. I don't really take damage much, and when I do, a force drain fixes it right up. Of course, my two companions (Canderous and HK-47 regen) and I have force drain... but, on the other hand, if you are lightside, you have the heal spells, and FP regenerate extremely fast in KotOR I, just like hte second.

 

Jedi powers, in both games, make them so heinously easy that there is never a challenge except for when you don't HAVE those FPs (a few fights at the beginning of KotOR I, the non-mainchar portions of KotOR II).

 

Even then, both are just too easy. I think they should make a more radical difficulty slider so that, as you raise it, the enemies AC and saving throws and HP and all that good stuff just keeps getting higher, and higher, til they are unbeatable, and if you put it all hte way down, you can kill everything in one hit. It wouldn't be that difficult to implement, and since you can change it in game EVERYONE would be happy.

[Creston]

I think they should make a more radical difficulty slider so that, as you raise it, the enemies AC and saving throws and HP and all that good stuff just keeps getting higher, and higher, til they are unbeatable, and if you put it all hte way down, you can kill everything in one hit. It wouldn't be that difficult to implement, and since you can change it in game EVERYONE would be happy.

 

No arguments there, however, I have yet to see a game that does difficulty the right way. In fact, the last game I can think of that did difficulty the way it SHOULD be done was Doom. (Well, and Serious Sam, I guess.)

 

Ever game since then, the difficult part basically means

 

Enemy Damage = Enemy Damage * 2

Player Damage = Player Damage * .5

Enemy HP = Enemy HP * 50

 

A slider that would actually make your opponents tougher based on their power, feats, equipment etc, would be awesome, but might be very tough to implement.

 

However, a difficulty setting that simply increases the number of opponents you fight should be dirty easy to make, and yet no game ever seems to do it.

Oh wait, NWN actually did something like it. Three whole games in the last decade. Wooohooo. :|

 

Creston

[Astatine]

Icewind Dale increased the monster count with the difficulty level too.

[Gorth]

Imagine Gorth using HK-47 voice module...

 

1.  Why was the Droid Planet M4-78 cut?

 

Chris Parker:

From a production perspective, the best thing we did was to cut M4-78, the Droid Planet. I won't go into details, but we had this incredible design for a planet of droids. We actually did the first  pass on art and built the character models for the location. But we had to look at the schedule and make a big cut after E3. We cut the entire planet. At the time, we were afraid it would make the game too short - but fortunately, there is so much other content, that wasn't the case. And we used a lot of elements from that planet elsewhere in the game. Ultimately, I think it made the game better, but it really hurt at the time, especially for the designer who had almost finished the planet, Kevin Saunders.

Translation/apologetic: Sorry Kevin, we have to received the message to redirect resources to do a sales pitch at E3, you have volunteered to sacrifice your work.

 

2.  Why was the endgame changed?

 

Chris Avellone:

As far as the story goes, I think maybe we were trying too hard for an Empire Strikes Back feel especially in terms of the revelations toward the end game and the resolutions - we just wanted the player to feel like there was something more going on, something greater, and it may not have seemed to tie together as well as it should. We could have made more of an effort to keep the game more self-contained, but the more that option was discussed toward the end, the less appealing it seemed - we wanted more of a sense that the saga would continue, that what was happening was only symptomatic of something occurring on an even greater scale. I think this is something that sat well with some gamers, but not others.

Sarcastic: We can't just raise the standards of games, people have certain expectations of the name Lucasarts.

 

3.  Was timeframe a factor?

 

Chris Avellone: I think it's been received favorably by gamers and the media, and maybe we're being too hard on ourselves (as well as being too close to what we're working on), but it's actually been better received than we thought it would be. There was a lot of pressure and expectations from the first game, and our ability to even come close to that level of quality in roughly a third of the time was a pretty backbreaking amount of work. I wish we'd had two more years to work on it, but it wasn't in the cards.

 

Chris Parker: We had an extremely aggressive schedule on The Sith Lords. We first started talking with LucasArts about the title in June of 2003, but at that time, we had never seen the game except for information that was available to the general public. We signed up for the project in August and entered production, while still working on many pre-production tasks, in October of 2003. At the time, the ship date for all versions, PC and Xbox for all languages was November of 2004. Of course, it was only by that time that we really understood we were making a sequel to the game of the year for 2003 - and that really upped the pressure on us to deliver. It was around then that LucasArts decided we'd probably want to ship some of the versions in early 2005. In May of 2004, we had a great E3, and that solidified our need to ship the Xbox for Christmas

Statement: After much reasoning/pledging/grovelling even L.A. realised that the original timeline was somewhere beyond ludicrous. Halfway through, a Microsoft death squad camped at our doorstep and the schedule was changed again.

 

4.  Will Obsidian do K3?

 

Chris Parker:

I can't speak of what LucasArts wants or if we've had discussions with them, but if we were to do a KOTOR III, I think it would be a large divergence from the first two. We'd need to create a completely new engine, redo the rules system, and take care of a host of other 'things'. Of course, we'd stick to the Star Wars feel and story-driven gameplay. But that's outside of anything we should talk about here.

Translation: I'm only allowed to speak to the public in the presence of a L.A. representative/supervisor.

[Darth Sirius]

We do all realise that its lucasarts meddling that has stopped all these little niggles being ironed out? Remember that obsidian are a fledgeling company even though they were from black isle, if it wasnt for LA seeing nothing but

[Trom]

Sounds to me like someone is putting on a big old happy face... "Yes, we are so happy that we cut this wonderful planet that we worked hard on and was ultra cool!  See how happy we are that we had to make the ending so OPEN... isn't that better than making it actually bigger and better and about something greater?!  Strained?  Does my smile look strained?  Nah.  I always smile like this.  Tears?  No these are tears of joy.  Working with the wonderfully pateint LA just makes me so joyful... and happy!"  (w00t)

 

Look... OE kept all this great content on the game disks for a reason.  They HAD to know we would find it.  They HAd to know that it was way cool and they we would feel ripped off that we didn't get it.    If they were really happy, happy about all of this, they would have taken it off of the finished disks.  They are trying to tell us something... something that they can't SAY, but they want us to know.

 

Message received, OE. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

That is one of the more amazing pieces of the story and I also suspected that somebody was trying to perhaps alert us. Surely, they'd have to realize that if they sold a million copies that at least one person would notice those files. But then, I wonder about OE foresight.

 

When Chris Parker says:

we had never seen the game except for information that was available to the general public. We signed up for the project in August and entered production, while still working on many pre-production tasks, in October of 2003. At the time, the ship date for all versions, PC and Xbox for all languages was November of 2004. Of course, it was only by that time that we really understood we were making a sequel to the game of the year for 2003

it seems like they signed on to this project without realizing what they had, unbelievable as it might seem.

 

Another mystery to me is why BioWare passed on this in the first place. If they did indeed sell 2 million copies of K1 translating into $100 million and all the awards, well, the amount of leverage this would give them over LA would be enormous. Indeed, their recommendation of OE seems to have been enough for LA to sign them on.

 

One explanation for BioWare to pass on what would have been a very fat paycheck may be found in OE's own qualms of being locked into what they term a "hardcore reputation"

 

Chris Parker:

And unfortunately, we can't really talk about any other things that we are looking to do, but I think we'll always be in the realm of RPGs, although we are also looking at doing some very RPG lite stuff - as much as we love the hard-core RPG, we have no desire to get pigeon holed with a super hardcore reputation. At the same time, while BioWare has been more than amazing and gracious in helping us get started, we would like to do a game that isn't a sequel to one of their products - we can't really prove ourselves until we do that, can we? So that's important for us, too

 

OE seems to have mixed feelings about doing the sequel. BTAIM, for whatever reason BioWare passed, they were passing on a guaranteed check in the bank.

 

As far as the pedigree of the designers:

 

Chris Avellone:

Those mandates aside, I'm primarily responsible for the whole story, some of the locations, the companions, and then chopping up everything else into bits and dividing it amongst the design team: Ferret Baudoin (Black Isle, formerly Van Buren and Jefferson), Michael Chu (Worlds of Warcraft), Kevin Saunders (C&C: Zero Hour, Shattered Galaxy), Scotty Everts (every Black Isle game ever made), John Morgan (first project, but willing to suffer for his art), and Tony Evans (Secret Weapons over Normandy

 

One thing I've noticed over the many years of gaming is that there is a powerful Darwinian element to the gaming industry. Time after time designers/developers leave established houses either for noble causes or fits of pique to establish a new company. The problem is that whatever brings them together sooner or later runs into Profit Motive and the process is repeated. This "cross-pollinization" is probably good. However, I wonder what Michael Chu thought when he saw the end result and compared the dazzling graphics of WOW? Or Keven Saunders when he was told good bye to all that work on the Droid Planet?

 

Lastly, I'm very eddified at the responses to this post. I've never moderated a thread before and did so with trepidation. It's easy for them to ignore rants. Less so very reasonable posts.

[ATimson]

However, I wonder what Michael Chu thought when he saw the end result and compared the dazzling graphics of WOW?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Maybe WoW is "dazzling" with all the settings cranked up--but it doesn't run with them cranked up, unlike KOTOR2, which on my system looks much prettier.

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

Actually, the regeneration of vitality is the BIGGEST flaw in the game, imo. While it's true it makes no difference in combat, it does lead to you always having full vitality (hp's) whenever you go into a new combat, which makes it terribly terribly easy. I played the game on difficult on my first walkthrough, and never once died. Ever. The only time I came close to dying was when I was playing with just Atton and Kreia on board of the spaceship in Nar Shaddaa, and all those droids were rocking me pretty badly. Even then I still managed to scrape out a victory. Other than that, it was all terribly easy.

 

And I didn't even wait for my HPs to regenerate, but the regen rate is so fast that within a minute or so, you have full HPs again.

I finished the game with over 200 medpacks / advanced medpacks and the red ones combined. I never used a single one of the red ones, and they were always in short supply in KotOR1.

 

The implants vs Con was not a bad idea, although I would have appreciated being aware of it before I started my first game, as I gave my character 10 CON, and was thus never able to use even the smallest implant.

 

As for the answers to the questions, good stuff, thanks for posting that and making us aware of it. It's still sad they had to cut so much stuff, though 

 

Creston

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

It's only a flaw if you dont plan for it. If you take people entering each combat at full health vitality and write the difficulty around it , that works out fine. What you really need is some sort of timer for force powers so that you cant simply spam them.

 

Even in places like the cave where FP's wont regen the game didnt get harder so the idea that regeneration is the problem is flawed.

 

Even with NO regen you still have a zillion med packs in KOTOR I and II so all you really do is make a use for med packs. Which btw I never used in either of the KOTORs when playing LS or after getting Death Field as DS.

[Althernai]

Another mystery to me is why BioWare passed on this in the first place.  If they did indeed sell 2 million copies of K1 translating into $100 million and all the awards, well, the amount of leverage this would give them over LA would be enormous.  Indeed, their recommendation of OE seems to have been enough for LA to sign them on.

 

One explanation for BioWare to pass on what would have been a very fat paycheck may be found in OE's own qualms of being locked into what they term a "hardcore reputation"

 

I don't think so. Bioware's developers have constantly said that they gave up the sequels to both NWN and KotOR to work on their own, original games. Meaning, Dragon Age, Jade Empire and whatever else they are up to. They are indeed giving up a lot of money by not doing sequels to games of the year, but they also stand to gain quite a bit because they no longer have to pay for licenses to things like D&D and Star Wars. It's a major gamble, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

 

It depends on your definition of hardcore, but KotOR1&2 are actually much further from hardcore than any previous Bioware game. The combat is very easy in both, there are fewer classes and in general fewer things to worry about. They are a mix between console and PC games, which to some is the exact opposite of hardcore. I doubt Bioware passed up on KotOR2 due to reputation concerns.

[Trom]

I don't know what they meant by "hardcore" either. I'm guessing that they don't want to be known for a single, highly visible title. Your arguments about BioWare ring true, however, and I'm convinced you're right. I suppose the option to do K3 is there on the table for them in case their projects tank thereby reducing the gamble somewhat.

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

I don't know what they meant by "hardcore" either.  I'm guessing that they don't want to be known for a single, highly visible  title.  Your arguments about BioWare ring true, however, and I'm convinced you're right.  I suppose the option to do K3 is there on the table for them in case their projects tank thereby reducing the gamble somewhat.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Hardcore is a game that only appeals to "gamers" like PST and FO would be considered hardcore by most people.

 

While you make the people who frequent boards like these happy with such titles, the public in general ignore them and they never sell in large ammounts.

 

It's kind of like the RPG version of the most accurate sim games (NOT the SIMS) only people with a big interest will be buying them. And what makes them interesting to that crowd is what alienates your casual buyer.

 

Bioware kind of walks the tightrope between the two.

[Hacane]

Well that confirms what we all thaught - time constraints wrecked the game and spoiled the series. The developer is doing his best to put a happy "we love deadlines" face on.

I feel sorry for him, all our complaints might help them if they get the contract for KOTORIII though. They can turn round to LS and say look at what your deadline did to your game and what it did to your fan base in KOTOR 2 and maybe get a decent ammount of time to do KOTOR3

He must have found it hard being so possative when he knew there were so many holes in the plot and the ending substituted inw as crap.

[Drakron]

... They are indeed giving up a lot of money by not doing sequels to games of the year, but they also stand to gain quite a bit because they no longer have to pay for licenses to things like D&D and Star Wars. It's a major gamble, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

They dont pay for the licenses, Star Wars license never leaves LucasArts (LucasBooks and LucasMovies) as D&D electromic license is now in the hands of Atari.

 

BioWare is giving up money in exchange of independence, doing KotOR II means they would have to follow LucasArts directions and the same NwN would mean they would have to follow Atari and WotC directions.

 

In doing their own IP they are their own boss, they are going to make their games with as little infuence from the publisher as possible (I belive JE and DA are self funded) allowing then to make the games as they want.

[Trom]

Finally found a quote that supports what you say:

 

"BioWare is currently in the fortunate position of having more attractive looking opportunities on the table than we're capable of implementing while staying true to our fans' expectations of a quality gaming experience. We think several of these opportunities have the potential for critical and commercial success and are interested in exploring ways in which BioWare can expand its capacity to bring these projects to market," said Dr. Greg Zeschuk, Joint CEO, BioWare Corp.

"BioWare is interested in establishing relationships with credible development studios that have the desire and capability to implement projects consistent with our quality expectations. Obsidian represents a perfect example of this strategy. We're very pleased to have the chance to work with teams which have a demonstrated track record of developing world class titles," commented Dr. Ray Muzyka, Joint CEO, BioWare Corp.

 

"A collaboration with BioWare gives Obsidian the opportunity to explore development projects on established game franchises with proven technology and brand loyalty from the fan community. This is an excellent opportunity for a new studio looking to make an immediate impact in the market," said Feargus Urquhart, CEO, Obsidian Entertainment, Inc. "

 

Review

[Trom]

I've sifted through a number of interviews (by no means all) to piece this together in an attempt to provide an overview to the development process. I've tried not to editorialize.

 

 

Timeline

 

July 2003: KOTOR I XBox version released

 

Sometime before June 2003: Bioware recommends to LA that OE get the contract for developing K2

 

June 2003: OE begins talks with LA about doing K2

 

August 2003: OE signs contract with LA to develop KT. LA give OE "freedom" to develop with the following restrictions. ". . .player must start as a Jedi, the Sith must be a prominent force in the game, don't play head games with the character with memories or future sight. . ." Also, LA requested a "darker" overall plot and LA marketing wants a simultaneous roll out of the XBox and PC versions. OE commits to a simultaneous roll out of the XBox and PC version with 5 international versions by November 2004.

 

October 2003: Entered production of K2 while still completing pre-production tasks. Confronted with the realization of the magnitude of the work, LA "suggests" they let the November 2004 release date for "some" of the versions slip to early 2005.

 

November 2003: KOTOR 1 PC version released

 

November 2003: Many functions in are added added or modified in scripts.bif and others. In other words, the very first programming task is to tweak the engine.

 

May 2004: The game is complete enough to show off at E3 where it receives much praise. The media are informed that all versions of the game will ship simultaneously and that it will hit PC's in early 2005. However, shortly afterwards Chris Parker decides to axe the Droid Planet in order to meet production schedules.

 

June 2004: Release date moved up from February 05 to "winter" as confirmed by GameSpy by a LA "spokesperson." No versions are mentioned.

 

July 9, 2004: Gallo says the PC and XBox version are at the same stage and that the game will ship simultaneously. He goes on to say that the alpha date is rapidly approaching.

 

July 16, 2004: Simultaneous release of all versions still the official word from Chris Parker. The ship date is given as Spring 2005.

 

August 2004: Feargus is still claiming that the XBox and PC versions will ship simultaneously.

 

September 10, 2004: Mike Gallo states that an important milestone had been reached and that the XBox version would ship in December. The PC version will ship in February. As to why the XBox is chosen to ship first, Chris Parker says that the XBox was being debugged using the PC, so the thinking is that they can kill two birds with one stone: fixing the XBox first will reduce the time to debug the PC. The debugging will take place after XBox ships in December.

 

October 2004: Work begins on NWN2

 

November 10, 2004: Feargus alludes to problems with the XBox version not being able to handle the resources requirement for the game. Also, both versions of the game will be exactly the same.

 

December 2004: KOTOR II XBox version released

 

Late December 2004: Chris Parker discovers that the international versions are missing translations. He and another programmer must hand comb through 500,000 words to fix it.

 

January 2005: Chris Parker alludes to several "manageable disasters" with the PC version.

 

February 2005: KOTOR II PC version released

[manitsbuggy]

Chris Avellone:

As far as the story goes, I think maybe we were trying too hard for an Empire Strikes Back feel

 

especially in terms of the revelations toward the end game and the resolutions - we just wanted the

 

player to feel like there was something more going on, something greater.

 

 

 

A rock. A freaking rock. In space. Outer space.

 

There was no revelations, no resolution. There was no ending to this game. Just me on a rock in space.

 

I will probably just keep ranting and try to forget, oh but I will remember a few things,... Obsidian, KOTOR II, LucasArts, A rock.

 

Whats funny is the movie, I think is called , "Assuming the Dark Throne."

 

Yes thats the name of the movie that shows my glorious dark jedi on a rock in space.

 

Was that a sick joke about going to the darkside? Stranded on a rock?

 

Its all you know without replaying dialogue options and getting lame Kreia future predictions and coming here to these forums to find missing and deleted dialogue and scenes.

 

It is a undeniable fact that will eventually become excepted, KOTOR II is a game without a ending, it is a book missing the last 20 pages, it is a movie missing the last 5 minutes. WTF=Obsidian.

 

KOTOR II is the epitome of either massive ineptitude or hellish bean counting, either way what a blight on gaming as a fun entertainment medium.

 

I think the modders will save it, because they will make a name for themself. Your best bet would be to beat them to it.

[twoforone6]

Hi! I'm new to the boards. Were is all this information found on the lost scenes for the video game? Was this in the dvd that was released with the prima stratefy guide? was it on a magazine? or was it something that the guys from obsidian posted to its fan here on the boards? Let me know. I loved the second game, and loved the sith empire greater threat stuff. Hope they get the third one and make even more.

[Trom]

Hi! I'm new to the boards. Were is all this information found on the lost scenes for the video game? Was this in the dvd that was released with the prima stratefy guide? was it on a magazine? or was it something that the guys from obsidian posted to its fan here on the boards? Let me know. I loved the second game, and loved the sith empire greater threat stuff. Hope they get the third one and make even more.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

People are looking at the dialogues in the modules for Malachor V and elsewhere using KOTOR Tool.

[Hobbes99]

that droid planet is cool i played it on action replay and the hk 50 base which was really cool

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'd heard rumours that the droid planet essentially remained intact on the X-Box version (but did not exist on the PC). Now, my question is this;

 

Given that the X-Box is basically a PC, with a modified operating system - surely the planet content can be ripped from the X-Box version of the game with the intended purpose of creating a MOD for PC (not pretending to ignore all the work that this would involve).

 

Naturally, some of the content might not be present (textures of varying resolution, for example), and if as Obsidian have said, content from this planet was used elsewhere in the game - then it would be reasonable to assume that a few sellers & NPC's might exist twice. Not that this should matter too much ... perhaps someone (Darth Tratious?) could let us know exactly how functional & complete the droid planet on X-Box is ..?

 

Maybe it would be worth dropping a line to Caustic (of CXBX, X-Box emulator fame) to see how feasible the ripping of this content might be.

 

Anyway - these are just thoughts that I had intended to suggest some time ago, but have only gotten around to since registering for the petition.

[Ulicus]

The vitality regeneration argument thing is annoying me.

 

This is based on Star Wars RPG.

 

Vitality is *not* the same as hit points in Star Wars RPG, though it does essentially stand in for them.

 

When you get "hit" by a lightsaber (or anything) in Star Wars RPG and your vitality is knocked, it means you've just narrowly missed being hit by it. The character simply expends energy to avoid taking a direct hit. Why? because if you get hit by a lightsaber (or blasted generally) you're dead according to the movies and the movies are canon.

 

That's what vitality is. (according to SWRPG)

 

Why else do you think you only fall *unconscious* (besides it being a blatant game mechanic) if you lose all your VP? You're too shattered to continue- and the game doesn't let the character's have their "actual hitpoints" broken into until everyone's down and the enemy can finish them off.

 

Sure... you get "hit" by the blaster bolts and lightsabers and stuff in the game, but people would just get confused if you lost apparent "hit-points" by "not getting hit".

 

I mean, ok the vitality regeneration bugged me a little for making things easier but at the end of the day, it made sense to me.

[Trom]

that droid planet is cool i played it on action replay and the hk 50 base which was really cool

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'd heard rumours that the droid planet essentially remained intact on the X-Box version (but did not exist on the PC). Now, my question is this;

 

Given that the X-Box is basically a PC, with a modified operating system - surely the planet content can be ripped from the X-Box version of the game with the intended purpose of creating a MOD for PC (not pretending to ignore all the work that this would involve).

 

Naturally, some of the content might not be present (textures of varying resolution, for example), and if as Obsidian have said, content from this planet was used elsewhere in the game - then it would be reasonable to assume that a few sellers & NPC's might exist twice. Not that this should matter too much ... perhaps someone (Darth Tratious?) could let us know exactly how functional & complete the droid planet on X-Box is ..?

 

Maybe it would be worth dropping a line to Caustic (of CXBX, X-Box emulator fame) to see how feasible the ripping of this content might be.

 

Anyway - these are just thoughts that I had intended to suggest some time ago, but have only gotten around to since registering for the petition.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

This may end up being a double post as something strange happened when I tried to post it before. Anyway, to address your question, Holowan Labs has quite an active thread on this:

 

Holowan Thread

 

Glad you signed!

[Hobbes99]

This may end up being a double post as something strange happened when I tried to post it before.  Anyway, to address your question, Holowan Labs has quite an active thread on this:

 

Holowan Thread

 

Glad you signed!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oh, this is good - this is very good ... thanks for the link. I wasn't familiar with that forum, but it looks like a place I might just get acquainted with (oh for more hours in the day!).

 

I'm naturally aware that we are some way off of determining exactly what is present & what is not (given that we don't exactly know what we'd be looking for) - but this absolutely confirms everything I had hoped. It rather looks as though a functional restoration MOD (in the absence of a patch) is merely a matter of time.

 

Big thanks, once again for the link, Trom ...