Weekend Programmer #2

[Akari]

I Have Recently heard that there might be a Apprentice where you can change his beliefs of good or bad. Is this true?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Did you read that in a magazine or website or is that just a rumor going around? B)

 

-Akari

[SilverSun]

do you know what lightsaber colours will be in KOTOR II? if so can you give us a list of them please

 

Don't see them letting the info out of the bag...but it would be useful in another debate I'm in. ...

[Akari]

Is there a little more motiviation to use just one lightsaber in the game? I never saw the point of not just giving all my Jedi two.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I'm not really sure. I'm wondering the same thing. We have a designer who is handling a lot of the balance issues and trying to make things more sensible. But I don't know what his thoughts are on the single saber combat.

 

-Akari

[Akari]

What language is Kotor 2 written in? Do you know roughly how many lines of code? I know that is meaningless but I just wondered

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

C++ for 99% of it.

As far as how many lines, I'd been thinking of figuring that out someday. But let it just be said that there's several files that are over 50k lines long.

 

-Akari

[Stargate: 2000]

is the transit system still in the game?

if so will we be able to transit anywhere else other than the ebon hawk or hide out?

[Akari]

can you reveal any more info on your pet thing and any more party members?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'd love to reveal more about party members, but I need to leave something for the magazines to report. I hope that the one with the 'pet' gets information released soon so that we can more freely discuss these things.

 

-Akari

[Akari]

About animations: Obsidian have said that there will be more animations in combat as in facial animations. Can you be more specific? (I.e. will we see more animations for each level the character progresses?)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Animations will change as the level of your character progresses. This is done in stages, BTW. Like, once you hit a certain level, more complex animations will be used. And then again later at some other level, and so on.

 

-Akari

[Akari]

Hi Akari,

 

Out of curiosity, why haven't any of the Prequel Trilogy aliens (Kel Dor, Zabrak, Iktotchi, etc) been used? I've only seen OT as in the first game.

You will see at least one of those in KotOR2. I'm not sure about the other two. I don't know of any specific reason why the Prequel Trilogy aliens didn't make much of an appearance in KotOR1.

 

Will there be a Jedi/Sith armor (that can be used with Force powers and such) and if so will it actually look like knight armor (chainmails, plate mails, helmets, etc)?

Thanks a lot.

 

I'm not aware of any 'knight-looking' armor being added to the game. I guess Sith Armor in general kinda looks like that, but not really.

 

-Akari

[Akari]

I don't know if the first two are answerable, but I feel the need to ask them all the same:

 

1) Is there any way to play the game through without any Jedi classes?  (I always wanted to finish the game as a Scout; I figured your reward for the added difficulty could be a special ending.)

Sorry. The main character has to start the game as one of the three Jedi classes that existed in KotOR1. Much to Hades_One's chagrin. It's essential for the story of this particular game.

 

2) Will the game allow you more freedom of choice?  As in, if our hearts are black as coal, will we have the option of hating and wanting to destroy the Republic?  BEFORE the very end, mind you.

That's more of a designer question. I'm not really sure what the overall level of freedom will be. I do know that various areas are drastically different depending on the alignment-related decisions your character has made.

 

3) Sorry if this has been asked before, but... Customizable saber hilts: Will we have them?

 

Right now it's not looking like it.

 

-Akari

[Akari]

Can you give us any further assurances regarding skill balance/usefulness?

 

Like: awareness, security, and others.

 

Thanks.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

A lot of effort has gone into making all of the skills worth investing points into. Which ones are MOST worth investing points into will probably vary depending on player perspective.

 

For example, your treat injury skill not only improves your results with healing kits (like in KotOR1), but it also directly impacts your own innate regeneration rate. The higher your level in this skill, the faster that character regenerates health. Unless it's a droid character, in which case it's their Repair skill that affects how fast they regenerate. Repair also plays an important role in the item creation system.

 

-Akari

[Craftsman]

Akari regarding the grahics engine will it use any directx 9 features? What have been the major improvments?

[Craftsman]

Is there a night planet? I wanted to see a night time in kotor but alas..

[Craftsman]

What is a estimate of how many more sidequest r there?

[Craftsman]

Finalised what wil be max level yet? If any...

[Craftsman]

and finnaly give us a update on those hoods...

 

Cheers!

[Akari]

Any more info you can reveal about Pazaak or Swoops? Upgrades, tournaments, anything like that? Or any more info about breaking down stuff?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

On the swoop tracks there are now obsticals to avoid as well as the speedup ramps that you want to hit.

 

In Pazaak, one of the new cards is a Doubles card. It basically doubles the value of the last card that you received. If you start out with a 10, then playing the Doubles card will take you straight to 20.

 

When it comes to breaking stuff down, the higher your repair skill, the more you get back for breaking the items down. Except for chemical-based items, like medpacks and stims. You need higher Treat Injury to get more out of breaking those down.

 

There's some info for you.

 

-Akari

[Akari]

Do you think this game will, no doubt, be better than kotor1

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It has to be. The Morgan Man has promised such.

 

-Akari

[Darth_Gandalf]

Do you have any idea as to when the next new character, planet, etc. will be revealed?

[Akari]

Biased!

 

Why dont u just tell us what u can instead of us asking pointless questions that waste both your and our time?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I'm not a paid PR Representative. I'm paid to program. I offer to answer questions because I like talking about as much as I can get away with. Now and then I have told new things without being prompted, but in general it's easier if people ask things and I weigh whether or not I can speak on them. At least that way I know what's on everyone's minds and sometimes I do go and ask the designers later for information relating to good questions I didn't know the answer to.

 

I'm going to prune some of the redundant posts in the thread to keep it as clean as possible.

 

-Akari

[Akari]

Will there be any alien ehads to pick from when you create your character? i always thought it would be cool to have a green twilek head

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not in this game. The main player character is going to be human.

 

-Akari

[Freedom]

I don't know if you can, but could you try to give me a yes or no answer for the following question?:

Is the reason that the masked Sith's hood has a triangular shape (by this I mean because of how it's propped up on the corners in front) because of something on his head?

 

Thanks.

[Grand_Commander13]

Shee-oot Craftsman, edit button?

 

Anyway Akari, I'm glad you answered my questions, and like any appreciative kiddie, I have more! :D

 

1) I did a search, but did not find info. So here I am. When upgrading items, is it... Cooler than in KOTOR? I mean, I love being able to upgrade, but I think it'd be great to have like... Five categories you can upgrade, but you can only upgrade three. Anything like that, or is it still possible to max out each item's upgrades?

 

2) Are there any more skills? Even if there aren't, that's cool, since it seems that the skills are more useful now. So there will actually be a point to playing Scoundrel/Sentinel?

 

3) What will your alignment change about the game? You mentioned areas being different. Does this mean that the environment is affected by your alignment, or does this just mean that certain people will like you and others will hate you?

 

A FINAL NOTE:

Please ask very nicely for me for it to be coded in that if you put in your name as "GC13" (without the quotes, obviously) that your character starts out as a Scout and can't take any other levels. Or Buffy. That works too. Easter egg!

 

[Akari]

I'm taking off for today. But I'll probably be in tomorrow. If so, I'll start with the questions already posted that I didn't get to today. Hope everyone's having good weekend.

 

-Akari

[Akari]

Yay. Back at work! Here's some catch up questions to start off with.

 

Ok heres a question. You have mentioned that there will be TONS more features like more classes ect. But if the game is the same lengh, then i guess it woulnt allow you to really use that you have. Will the game be longer?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

At first we thought the game was actually going to be about the same length or maybe a little bit shorter. But looking at the time it takes to get past the first general area we're starting to think that the overall gametime may be a bit longer than the first. We don't know for certain yet because there's still work being done on the last area so we can't estimate the total play time.

 

Another question, can we walk around without showing are weopns without having to go the the menu and disarm them? Shouldnt that quick weopen changer, allow that with just a click of a button?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If you have your secondary weapon configuration slots empty you can switch to them at the click of a button and that will put your weapons away all together.

 

With the first game there were some quite interesting lighting effects that could have been used in the levels (First level where you stand next to the big screens on the bridge shades your charecter) Will we be seeing more use of interactive lighting effects like this in the new levels?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't know off hand. But I think the areas all around look a lot better. The artists are going back through and putting their finishing touches on areas to make them look great.

 

Akari, does your master, I mean the producer or anyone at Obsidian have any sway in getting Lucasarts to update the KOTOR2 site?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I suspect not. I think those decisions are all made by Lucas Arts marketing.

 

What is a good estimate of the number of combinations any weopns in the game can be upgraded with different parts ect

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hm... hard to say. There's a lot of new upgrade components going into the game and we're adding a good number of different properties to them that weren't used in the first game. Also, lightsabers now have 6 upgrade slots in total. 3 crystals and then 3 other components of the saber itself.

 

-Akari

[Darth Sun_Tzu]

Hm... hard to say. There's a lot of new upgrade components going into the game and we're adding a good number of different properties to them that weren't used in the first game. Also, lightsabers now have 6 upgrade slots in total. 3 crystals and then 3 other components of the saber itself.

 

-Akari

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Sweat!

 

So what do know about the features Ivan mentioned in his thread?