KotoR 3: Ideas and Suggestions

[Archmonarch]

Huh! I thought you wrote "underwater that's ACTUALLY underwater"!

 

I'd like an underwater zone for the PC to swim in ... now what was that EU about water and lightsabres ...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I think it had to specially customized to even work under water. But I also seem to recall something about the lightsaber boiling the water and anyone (including the wielder) in it.

[metadigital]

So we have an automatic "no lightsabre zone" for our intrepid Force Sensitive to traverse!

 

Now, given the rebreather technology (as seen in K1), all we need to do is stage a fight scene underwater, sot he FS has to use Force Powers and/or an alternative weapon.

 

I wonder if Havok is geared up for an underwater physics work-out? :cool:

[SteveThaiBinh]

I think it had to specially customized to even work under water. But I also seem to recall something about the lightsaber boiling the water and anyone (including the wielder) in it.

Are lightsabers hot then? That must be tricky - wouldn't you get sweaty palms when fighting?

[metadigital]

I think it had to specially customized to even work under water. But I also seem to recall something about the lightsaber boiling the water and anyone (including the wielder) in it.

Are lightsabers hot then? That must be tricky - wouldn't you get sweaty palms when fighting?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Seemed to be warm enough to melt through a blast door in Episode I ...

[Calax]

In the books of the EU there are several instances of a lightsaber working underwater (even the Clone Wars tv minis had underwater fights). I don't think it takes any extra modification to get it to work. Heck in one of the Zahn books he has Mara using a lightsaber underwater.

[metadigital]

Yes, but it also is written, in some of the garbage that is the EU, lightsabres NOT working underwater.

[metadigital]

Death to the Gaming Industry: Long Live Games!

 

...

Two years ago, speaking at a conference in the UK, Warren Spector said "The publishers have to die, or we are all doomed" - to cheers. And this year, at GDC, I ranted on the problem - and received a standing ovation.

 

What is the problem? And is there any way to address it?

 

The Problem

As recently as 1992, the typical development budget for a PC game was as little as $200,000. Today, if you want a title that will be taken seriously by the retailers - an A-level title - your minimum buy-in is $5m, and $10m for a triple-A title is common. With the next generation of console hardware, the talk is of $20m budgets - not as something that will be unusual, but typical.

...

Today, art assets (not programming) are the main cost driver. As machines become capable of rendering more detailed 3D models in real time, the market demands more detailed 3D models - and models are hand-created by artists using tools such as 3D Studio Max and Maya. All things being equal, a doubling in polygon count means a doubling in the amount of time an artist needs to spend generating the model - and a doubling in cost. Faster machines can push more polygons; more polygons means more cost.

...

Now one might argue, of course, that the improvement in graphical quality improves the gameplay experience so much that the cost is worthwhile. But if that's so, why was Doom so rapturously received, such a huge hit? And why do the critics basically agree that Doom III - well, it kind of sucks?

...

... [T]he nature of the market and distribution channel is even more to blame [than the gamer audience without an indie aesthetic]. When a developer goes to a publisher to pitch a title, the publisher does not greenlight it because they play it and say "what a great game!" The developer may not even have a playable demo - but what he will have is a demo reel, a non-interactive visual pitch that may work to get some sense of gameplay across, but is mainly designed to impress the marketing dweebs with the graphics. Glitz, not gameplay, is what sells the publisher.

 

For that matter, half of the people sitting in on that greenlight meeting are probably marketing suits who think they're in a packaged goods industry, and are a lot more concerned about branding than anything else. Sequels and licenses, good; creativity - that's too risky.

 

And glitz, not gameplay, is what sells the retailer. ... They look at a video, they look at the materials provided by the sales guy, they make a decision. And that decision is ultimately based on concerns like branding, how much money the publisher will spend on product placement and stocking fees (what the industry calls "market development funding," or MDFs) - and whether it looks pretty or not.

 

And finally, there's the industry's attachment to "feature list" marketing. Online play? Check. Dozens of levels? Check. HDTV support? Check. You can often tell a game has nothing new to offer just by reading the backcover text: If it's basically a list of features and numbers (five of this and a hundred of that), you know they've really got nothing to say.

...

Maybe, someday, way down the road, the actual quality of the game will matter to someone - a reviewer, an actual gamer - but you don't even get a chance to get to them if you don't have the graphic right stuff. In other words, gameplay may affect ultimate sales - but it won't get you shelf space.

 

The reverse isn't true, though - poor gameplay and great graphics will work just fine, as far as the market is concerned. 80% of all game sales occur in the first two weeks that a game is available; all you need to do is blow through your inventory before word of mouth catches up with you. The industry is full of best-selling, lousy games. Can you say [edit KotOR:TSL"] I knew you could.

 

In other words: Pretty + bad = financially successful; good + not pretty = fuhggedaboutit. Of course, pretty + good would be nice - but neither the publishers nor the retailers have an incentive to care.

...

Spector is right. We must blow up this business model, or we are all doomed.

What do we want? What would be ideal?

 

A market that serves creative vision instead of suppressing it. An audience that prizes gameplay over glitz. ...

 

Morale of the story: don't be a graphics whore!

[Musopticon?]

Meta, quoting that on one thread is enough.

 

Great article.

[metadigital]

Different highlights for different threads (this is an abbreviated abstract of the other abbreviated abstract).

[Musopticon?]

True, true. And it's an article most definetly worth quoting. Pardon me.

[Gabrielle]

Where's the golly green dragon when you need him?

[Calax]

he's on vacation

[metadigital]

True, true. And it's an article most definetly worth quoting. Pardon me.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Um ... okay, as it's you Mus? :D

[DAWUSS]

I'm beginning to work on my fan-fic of KOTOR III. Sure it'll prolly end up being nowhere NEAR what KOTOR III will end up being, but hey, it passes the time. Exile will be LSF and Revan will be LSM

[metadigital]

Well there's your first mistake.

[DAWUSS]

won't be my last

[jodo kast 5]

Where's the golly green dragon when you need him?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

He hasn't been on since August the 15th.

[jaguars4ever]

Where's the golly green dragon when you need him?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

He hasn't been on since August the 15th.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Also, about the same date last century when "golly" was still considered cool to use.

[jodo kast 5]

Where's the golly green dragon when you need him?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

He hasn't been on since August the 15th.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Also, about the same date last century when "golly" was still considered cool to use.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[metadigital]

Where's the golly green dragon when you need him?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

He hasn't been on since August the 15th.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Also, about the same date last century when "golly" was still considered cool to use.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I thought it was a nifty affectation.

[Gabrielle]

 

Eh yeah.

[metadigital]

(Far be it for me to assume you can't spell.)

[DAWUSS]

Let's see HK-50 droids in the game since the whole HK factory bit was left unsolved

[Gabrielle]

(Far be it for me to assume you can't spell.)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The godd*mn forums don't come with a spell checker. JOLLY

[dimmy52]

I'm a new member here, but I have had quite a few ideas regarding what should be included in the third installment!

 

1] The Sims 2 face maker program should be used to create a unique character each time, but I think that it would be quite hard to implement face deterioration if/when you fall to the dark side

 

2] All hooded robes should have an option to put on/take off the hood whenever you feel like it, and all items that you can equip should be visible during gameplay (gloves, boots if they are implemented etc)

 

3] The ability to fashion your own coloured crystal if your skill is high enough and if you have the necessary resources.

 

4] The option to reject a character from your team, but also accept him/her at a later date if the need arises and if they are still willing. I tried so hard to reject G0T0, but it was inevitable that he joined my team. Worst character ever.

 

4] The ability to, if you are a Sith, enter a Sith academy that is still operational, and kill the leader so you can be take his/her mantle as headmaster/mistress. Then, as part of a side quest you can send various students that you believe are trained enough to complete quests and perhaps expand the school through those deeds.

Alternatively you may rise through the ranks as a Jedi Master and become leader of a Jedi enclave, and adopt a padawan and train them however you see fit, whether to utilize the force heavily, or master lightsaber training or a combination of both.

 

5] Have plenty of options for teammates, so if you are dark you can select or dark side alligned teammates or vice versa. There are probably countless problems with this suggestion, but I decided to voice it reagrdless.

 

6] Have a romance thrown in there somewhere.

 

7] Retain the ability to train your teammates in the ways of the force, but also have a chance to find a rare crystal that bonded to you in K2 for each of them in K3. Of course, it would be obscenely hard to find them since they are so rare, but it would be cool to give them such a bonus.

 

I think that about covers what I want to see in K3, for now.

 

Cheers, Dimmy52