Other Observations

[Seeker1]

.... what's the difference between a blaster rifle and a blaster carbine? Given a choice between the two, and the fact that they both seem to do the same damage... is it that the carbine has a slower rate of fire? The game seems to suggest carbines are inferior to rifles but I'm not exactly sure why. My favorite ranged weapons are the repeating blasters, some are fully upgradeable and obviously you can't complain once you have high rate of fire, accuracy, AND high damage, something that is hard to achieve as the perfect trifecta. Too bad the "unstoppable" (shield penetrating) disruptor weapons seem to neither come in repeating nor upgradeable form. (But then, I didn't notice too many enemies besides droids that ever used shields, and I was usually blasting the droids with ion weapons which seem to largely ignore shields anyway.)

 

... basically, I'm wondering, what are the best pistols and rifles in the game, in terms of offering a nice combo of upgradeability, and even sans upgrades offering nice rates of fire, damage, penetration, and side effects (like stun/slow). If you were going to choose the two best pistols to dual wield in the game, what would they be? (Assuming your opponents are not droids, I know which are the best that are specifically droid killers ... but ... the weird thing is you face the most droids at the BEGINNING of the game and find the most weapons useable against them at the END.) I've read the item guides and many list all the properties of the items in the game (some of which I never FOUND due to its random loot generator, some of which I found eight times even though I didn't like) ... I guess it would be nice to see an analysis/breakdown on them if I'm going to do this game a second time, cheat, and try and give my chars the best stuff.

 

... I found Bao Dur's shield penetration ability works regardless of what weapon he uses, he could take down shields even by firing at them with a blaster (which is what I usually gave him). The game says his unarmed strike breaks shields but I notice he didn't need to be unarmed to do so so I kept him armed with a blaster. Anyway, what I'm asking is, it seems like his unarmed attack improves because of his mechanical arm (he keeps gaining weirdly named abilities as he levels up), it seems to keep gaining properties, will these "powers" show up if I disarm him and basically let him fight melee unarmed? (I'm asking this because I kept him armed with a blaster and never let him fight unarmed.)

 

... I loved Mira's wrist launcher, she makes grenades more fun because she is the only one who can hit moving targets with them, plus her own rockets are pretty cool, although once again due to random loot generator I never found many types of rockets/darts. Ended up having to make her most of her ammo, love those buster rockets. I know there's a mod that gives the PC his own wrist launcher, would love to find that. Wrist launcher + thermal detonator -- very nice combo. Once again I would have loved to have her wrist launcher dealing some death in the endgame, too bad I can't bring her with me. (Is there a mod that lets you take companions with you into the endgame? I would love that, personally.)

 

... is there any value to the G0t0 droid that you don't get from HK-47 or T3-M4? Didn't really find any. He can't take any upgrades they can't, nor seems to have any real abilities they don't. So he can stealth as a droid. BFD, rarely used stealth for anything. I just found him and his master "creepy" and left him behind most of the time.

 

... is there a mod that lets you take a party of four instead of a party of three? Yadda yadda game balance. Bottom line, I like games like this because of their team play aspects, I like to micromanage coordinated attacks some time, I would have definitely liked on some missions to have a party of four instead of three... or even five. But I'm betting this can't be modded. Personally, if I could have a party of four, I would do most missions with the "sweet team" of me (light jedi), Visas (dark jedi), one droid, and one "combat unit" (Mandalore, or Mira with her beloved launcher.)

 

... is there a mod that lets you pick up Hanrarr if LS and Disciple if male? I'm betting the answer is no because the "party screen" wouldn't have room for all the pictures (unless the mod makes them available by making two other choices unavailable). I went through the first time as light side male, and while I wasn't terribly interested in the Disciple (so he's a mobile medlab, BFD, although that does make up for the lack of a medlab on the Ebon Hawk) (oh and BTW what is with so many people in the game being known by formal titles rather than actual names), it's apparent Hanrarr is the only guy to really arm to the teeth with all those great non-lightsaber melee weapons you find. But it looks like I gotta go DS to try him out. And be female to see all the stalker Disciple dialogue he's supposedly famous for.

 

... can I say something about armor? Most of your companions start out with named stuff that makes you not want to switch out what they're already wearing. If they become Jedi, you have to switch them to robes anyway. Handmaiden as a soldier seems like more of a DEX fighter, so even if she doesn't go Jedi she seems better suited for light armor. You find lots of heavy armor, but the only guy who really seems suited to wear it (Mandalore) won't take his off. (Yes, I know a mod fixes this one, I've seen it.) Is there any point to medium armor? There are stealth/dex types good for light armor, seems everyone else should wear heavy (but who in your party is the everyone else other than Mandalore or ... Bao Dur? why is it BTW so much armor seems determined to exclude poor old Bao Dur specifically?) Bottom line is I found tons of it and usually ended up breaking it down, nobody could wear it. (Not even Hanrarr if I had gotten him since he's a wookie.)

 

... can someone explain to me why you make mines and grenades at a MEDICAL LAB? I don't get it. Seems to be mines and grenades should be made where you make your other weapons (workbenches), medical labs should just be for medpacs and stims. However, personally, I also would have preferred if instead of grenades and mines, you could also use medlabs to make more bio-implants, especially the higher level ones.... I was always running out of grenades in the game, and without Mira around to make them and not finding them as loot, it seemed weird to run to a MEDICAL LAB to make more. (I love grenades. I love wrist launcher fired grenades even more. But I think I said that.) ... BTW, I would have also loved to be able to upgrade grenades, like you do other weapons. Maybe upgrades to their damage radius, or effects... or accuracy.

 

.... there are many items in the game that shield you from cold and fire. But the only real protections that seem to matter are energy (from blasters or lightsaber) or melee/physical (from beasts). The only time I was ever getting hit by heat or cold were the very rare times that a droid hit me with a flame thrower, or somebody threw a cryoban grenade. Basically, those resistances seemed to matter very little. Obviously, my favorite shield was Mandalorian Power, which shields you from physical and energy at the same time. Verpine Prototype is best for absorption but I think only blocks energy/electrical.

 

... there seem to be a shortage of level 3 droid upgrades, particularly level 3 droid special weapons. Found that disappointing.

 

... ok, that's it for now.

[ghosta]

carbines are unupgradeable while regular blasters are fully upgradable. sonic blasters can obly have upgrade scopes.

 

The most powerful disrupters are upgradiable. The Mandoloirian disintigrator is the most powerful disrupter pistol and you can git multiples of them. It can be upgraded to a 15-20 critical threat range and can have devastating criticals. Snipper shot can git the threat range up to at least 14-20 but maybee evan more.

 

Ion enery damages shields fast and droids are vulrable to it but humans are resistent to ion attacks.

 

Bao fights better unarmed because of his unarmed specialist feats and his strength is higher then his dex.

 

you make mines and grenades at med labs because they are based on chemisty not mechanics. Explosions are caused by chemical reactions not by mechanics.

 

goto will allow you to skip some of the fights with bounty hunters. he also doesn't set of mines. He also can make security spikes.

 

you can use kse to change your allignment before the quest so you can git either Hanhar or mira then use kse after you have finnesd the quest to change it back. However thier probable is a mod somewere that does it. Thier defiently is a mod that lets you pick disiple as a male but the dialogue pronouns will not change to the appropirite gender.

 

Thier is no way to have a party of four. It would break the game engine. Mods can only warp the game around it's engine they can't actually change it. Besides if you take bao you'll also have the remote, so you really can have a party of 4 har har. So it may be possible to mod the remote into a diferent charector that follows Bao.