A puzzle and adrenaline-pumping action

[Darth Frog]

Okay, the shocking revelations during the talk with Visquis and the subsequent chat with Goto left my hero so stunned that he was standing around in catatonic stupor instead of raising hell on Goto's Yacht. So T3 got his hour of glory, the Ebon Hawk was turned into a piece of bait, and now it is time for our little band to go bail out their leader.

 

The straight-forward approach of blasting a free path to the Audience Chamber seemed boring and I had done the 'clear the whole ship with low-level non-Jedi before releasing the shamed hero' thing already in another life. So, in order to add some spice to the situation I decided that this time the Exile should be freed with minimum breakage. This would also result in a nice XP boost since all XP gained by the NPCs is effectively lost once the Exile rejoins the party and the NPCs catch up to his XP.

 

The first idea was a repeat of the Jekk'Jekk Tarr thing - using stealth to release the hero and watching the fur fly afterwards. So I sent lvl 7 Mira (who had Stealth and Security, and who was largely responsible for this mess in the first place) with lvl 6 Visas as fallback because Visas would be able to do the job on her own if necessary.

 

The first attempt failed because Mira could not sneak past the droids standing in the turret passage before the Audience Chamber. There was enough free space to drive a truck through but slim Mira could not move by them (it was almost as though the game designers wanted to show off the @#$! clipping of their engine). So I decided that Visas should make good on the 'My life is yours' thingy and lure the droids out of the passage, so that Mira could get close to the door. This sort of worked although it wasn't quite as simple as that.

 

So there is stealthed Mira standing before the door, touching it ... and getting un-cloaked when a little popup message shows on the screen. Uncloaked lvl 7 Mira within range of 6 turrets and 3 floaty droids was, of course, a very dead Mira approximately one second later. End of story.

 

The nasty message that caused Mira's demise said that the door would not open until the turrets have been dealt with, so another plan was needed anyway.

 

Back to the drawing board. The close proximity of the turrets and the fact that Destroy Droids is by far the most effective way of dealing damage to droids (at least for a low-level LS Jedi) suggested one very obvious plan: sneak up to the turrets, start casting Destroy Droids, and stay alive until the door can be opened.

 

So I looked at the stats of Visas and the meagre loot that our little band had collected so far. Visas was level 6 and would be able to take 10 levels (Nar Shaddaa was our second planet this time and my hero had not taken a Prestige class yet, so he was lvl 19 and the NPCs lvl 16). Notable among the available toys: Circlet of Saresh (+5 WIS), Jal Shey gloves (+1 WIS, +1 DEX), Nerve Amp belt (+1 WIS), an implant with +1 CON, the Exile's arm band (+1 CON) and a light sabre with a Ruusan crystal (+1 WIS, +1 CHA). There also were some minor STR and DEX boosters in the loot but this is what I picked, especially as the only viable armour was 5/5 light armour which limits the DB DEX bonus to 5. There was also 12/0 heavy armour but that would have added only 1 to the defense bonus, because one of the feats would have to be taken away from Duelling.

 

Attributes: the equipment evened out all stats except for DEX, and three attribute points total would be available. So one attribute point went into DEX to get the +5 DB bonus, and for the remaining two points the most attractive choices were WIS and CON. WIS would improve Force oomph and might allow to take down the turrets/droids faster (because they save 10% less often), and it would also increase FP. CON would make Visas tougher by giving her more VP, and would allow her to use better implants later. It was hard to judge which would run out earlier in this situation, FP or VP, but I opted to boost CON/VP.

 

Feats: Visas could take 5 feats and it was not necessary to take Finesse and Master Flurry yet, since Visas would gain at least two levels once the Exile re-joined the party (from the XP catch-up). She would also gain many more levels before being called to battle again (Dxun), so I was free to concentrate on the battle immediately ahead. 1 feat for Light Armour. This left four free feats and attractive options were: Finesse, Master Flurry, Force Regen, Duelling and Toughness. I opted for Duelling and Toughness because Visas would need every possible bit of staying power when facing 6 turrets and 6 droids all at once, while there would be little need for light-sabering except for mopping up some turrets held together by a few remaining shreds of tin and rust.

 

Skills: 6 points Security and Stealth to the max.

 

Powers: 10 powers could be chosen. 3 went into Destroy Droid, 3 into Master Force Barrier, 2 into Improved Energy Resistance (Master requires lvl 17), and the remaining 2 went into Heal.

 

Okay, with the theory complete it was time to act, so I reloaded the save from when Mira and Visas boarded the yacht. I stealthed Mira and placed her into a corner (lest she be tempted to rush into a nearby battle), levelled Visas and kitted her out as described above, except for an Exchange stealth belt and a stealth field enhancer to ensure safety on the way to work. I stealthed Visas and walked her to a small, empty room near the turret passage where she could buff up without being molested (casting buff spells cancels stealth even though activating shields does not, go figure). Now she had one minute for sneaking into the passage and unleashing destruction upon the hapless droids, before the melee damage reduction from Force Barrier would run out.

 

So Visas stealthed up to the middle of the turret passage, remained undetected while swapping the stealth field enhancer for the Circlet of Saresh, and then she opened the festivities by exchanging the stealth belt with the Nerve Amp belt and thus becoming visible. The ensuing brouhaha cannot be described with words, you have to play it yourself. :D A nice firework and pure, adrenaline-pumping action. At one point Visas was down to 5 VP because the flame throwers of the Fat Ones were so bl**dy effective and I had forgotten to clear the combat queue to get a Heal spell cast in time ... After some fast and furious action Visas had destroyed almost all turrets, and all the walking droids were gone (collateral damage). The remaining turret - which had saved against the spell every time and was just barely hanging together - was at the far end of the passage from where Visas was standing, and three Fat Ones were hovering menacingly over it while spewing fire and blaster bolts at an alarming rate. Visas had almost run out of Force points and Health was down to about one third (or should I say 'up'?), so she could either cast Heal and trash the turret with her light sabre, or take her chances and use the remaining FP to destroy the turret with a spell; I had her do the latter. When she finally opened the door she was down to 21 VP and I doubt whether she would have survived another combat round ...

 

Of course, Mira could then have opened the door using stealth since the turrets were gone - but Visas had done all the work and taken all the risk, and so the glory should be hers. Equally of course, the battle would have been dead easy with energy shields and/or stims and/or grenades, and it would also have been possible to have Mira draw the fire of Fat Ones and some turrets. But then the battle would not have been that small moment of perfection that is on par with the best that the original KotOR and games like NWN have to offer.

 

Anyway, I am sharing this in the hope that it might give some of you a new idea how to have tremendous fun with the game, and also in the hope that some of you will share similar ideas and war stories right here in this thread.

 

Discuss. "

[KungFuFerret]

I like doing stuff like this.

 

Inevitably, every game has it's "power" spells and whatnot. But no one says you have to use them. Half the fun is figuring out some interesting ways to use all the other stuff. :D

[metadigital]

... The first idea was a repeat of the Jekk'Jekk Tarr thing - using stealth to release the hero and watching the fur fly afterwards. ...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Is there a thread with your Jekk'Jekk Tarr extravaganza ?

[Darth Frog]

Is there a thread with your Jekk'Jekk Tarr extravaganza ?

 

Sorry, there was little worth writing about - just the usual 'level Mira once to give her Stealth and then have her sneak to the escape door' thing, after which the Exile would go on a rampage to harvest the live stock and loot.

 

That isn't to say that the Pit did not have its share of thrills and nerve-racking suspense - if lvl 7 Mira fights lvl 20-something Hanharr then anything is possible, even if Mira has the finest equipment and the most adhesive of grenades, so to speak. And at high levels the Kath Hounds can detect you if you sneak too close or if a high Awareness roll of theirs coincides with a low Stealth roll of yours, possibly upsetting your plans involving an intricately laid mine field and a carefully timed 'Boo!'. :D And I do try to find new ways of dealing with the Pit whenever the game dumps me there against my will, because otherwise I'd probably be tempted to quote a certain well-known bowl of petunias (which famously shared the fate of a somewhat short-lived sperm whale).

[Yann]

That sounds like a complete waste of time

 

Get to the killing already, GOTO's yacht is really annoying so i try to run though it as quick as possible

[Arim]

Lol happens to me alot that kida stuff...

On accident lol!

[CanterwoodBoy]

So there is stealthed Mira standing before the door, touching it ... and getting un-cloaked when a little popup message shows on the screen. Uncloaked lvl 7 Mira within range of 6 turrets and 3 floaty droids was, of course, a very dead Mira approximately one second later. End of story.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I just hate this automatic uncloak thing. Here I am standing in the middle of the cave in Dantooine, just about to steal my soul crystal, surrounded by an army of Kinraths unaware of my cloacked presence, and *pof* dear old Kreia talks in my head, uncloacking me and offering me as lunch to the Kinraths. Same thing on Dxun: impossible to run stealthed through the jungle, because every twenty meters Atton will drop in with some "interesting" communication on the ship's status.

 

On a different tone, my favorite "the game engine is stupid" moment is still warping out of the Academy on Korriban without fighting Darth Sion by leaving my party at the entrance, going solo to the corpse of the Master Vash to open the academy's door, switching to a party member at the entrance and having him run out, thus placing the whole party outside the academy.

[Arkendale]

So there is stealthed Mira standing before the door, touching it ... and getting un-cloaked when a little popup message shows on the screen. Uncloaked lvl 7 Mira within range of 6 turrets and 3 floaty droids was, of course, a very dead Mira approximately one second later. End of story.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I just hate this automatic uncloak thing. Here I am standing in the middle of the cave in Dantooine, just about to steal my soul crystal, surrounded by an army of Kinraths unaware of my cloacked presence, and *pof* dear old Kreia talks in my head, uncloacking me and offering me as lunch to the Kinraths. Same thing on Dxun: impossible to run stealthed through the jungle, because every twenty meters Atton will drop in with some "interesting" communication on the ship's status.

 

On a different tone, my favorite "the game engine is stupid" moment is still warping out of the Academy on Korriban without fighting Darth Sion by leaving my party at the entrance, going solo to the corpse of the Master Vash to open the academy's door, switching to a party member at the entrance and having him run out, thus placing the whole party outside the academy.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I never knew you could do that. I'll do it next time I get there