Comment after reading KOTOR 2 exclusive, Devs read

[Maria Caliban]

Chris Avellone:

"You know, about Critical Strike, it actually was pretty powerful as it stood - when we were looking over revamping the rules and feats from the first game, Critical Strike was one we didn't want to mess with, since with the right combo of lightsaber crystals and repeated use of Critical Strike, you could plow your way through hordes of enemies without too much trouble. And that's without any Force powers paralyzing your opponents."

 

Interesting...

I obviously didn't get the right blend of crystals. Let me take that sentence back then.

[EnderAndrew]

Critical Strike didn't appeal to me. I thought it seemed inferior to other feats, but that's my opinion. Most FAQ's I've read write it off in general. I think most people went with Power or Flurry. I think a small tweak of Critical Strike wouldn't be unwarranted.

[Adria Teksuni]

Again, this is the new Non-Troll version of AT.

 

I liked Flurry a lot, the maxxed out animation is still something I like to watch, although PA and CS are ones I generally ignored. *shrug* Personal preference.

 

They did add a bunch of new animations to the fighting in the demo at E3, so it's a lot better than the "lean to the side, hit, lean to the side, hit, duck, hit" that we got in the first one. I also seem to recall reading/hearing somewhere that the higher your feat, the more elaborate the animation, which is a very nice touch.

 

Hopefully this will keep the combats from being quite as tedious as they could sometimes get in KoTOR. A lot of times I had people dying because I was just screwing around trying different things, but it kept it from being repetitious, anyway.

 

And heya Hades One, how ya doin'?

[Logain_Ablar]

how does adding different animations take away from the tedium of doing nothing but loading up the command queue every few seconds?

[Adria Teksuni]

Again, this goes back to the demo. The animations were not all the same, they varied quite a bit, so there was something to watch during the fight scenes.

 

As far as the choosing the attacks and such...*shrug* I like turn based, so that part I don't mind so much.

[Vyperhand]

On the Critical Strike topic:

 

Even with the less-than optimal Double-Saber with Nextor and Opila crystals (Keen and Massive Criticals) + Master Speed, that was a beating. I rarely had creatures live to a second round of combat. Lead in with Stasis Field and it was game/set/match.

 

Also, even that sub-optimal config was a recipe for "How to punk Darth Malak in 15 seconds or less".

 

Now, make it double regular sabers with the primary as above and off-hand being Opila and Solari Crystals (Massive Crit/Paladin crystals) in the same scenario, and I went 14 hours of gameplay without ever being so much as hit with my 2 levels of Soldier + Guardian ultra-redundant Combat Monster character. (And of course, Bastila on support using Force Lightning and WhirlWind) Malak got smacked down in one round on the SF, then again after I finished "freeing" the captive Jedi. I guess that 4 attacks doing 35-60+ each is kinda good. Also, from some of the damage numbers my game displayed I suspect that the feat might be actually slightly glitched in a "beneficial" way. The only way I could make some of the numbers make sense that large would have been to add in the Solari Crystal's DS damage bonus before the multiplier. :ph34r: Sadly, I was too awestruck to go back and look at my messages before the ending started.

 

Done right, the Critical Strike tree is already absolute sickness, and even the "defense penalty" isn't relevant. Dead enemies don't hit back.

 

Oh, and a hearty welcome to the REAL Adria Teksuni. Glad you're here.

[ichpokhudezh]

On the Critical Strike topic:

 

Even with the less-than optimal Double-Saber with Nextor and Opila crystals (Keen and Massive Criticals) + Master Speed, that was a beating.

[Seth Tansill]

On the whole, I am an action gamer and I like a good cinematic feel to a game at the same time. I wouldn't have been drawn to KotOR if it were not for the immersiveness of the cinematography. I guess I got a little tired of the animations about half way through, but by then it didn't matter because I liked the storyline and sub-plots generally. I like the turn based system because it allows for the cinematic feel. I agree on the points that were made about the pauses in between... perhaps a little step back and flourish, or a sidestep of battle participants, or even occassionally an attack animation which is extended. Add these little gems now and again and it really makes the game something special. I know I liked to flourish out of combat... it was something I really wanted to see *in* combat, and I found myself using a variety of feats and attacks just for the sake of being immersed in the general scene of the game.

[Zane0]

I agree with the idea that the combat was one of the worst parts of the game. Most of my enjoyment of KOTOR came from accomplishing quests and interacting with characters. Yeah, there was a bit of power-leveling fun, but that was quite lackluster in comparison. I could mow through most opponents in two hits half way through the game anyways. Does anyone else think that the haste force power is just slightly overpowered? Any character with third-tier haste and a bit of strength can waste just about any encounter. My Scoundrel/Consular could one-hit rancors on the unknown planet, for god's sake!

 

This kind of one-sided combat can impact the atmosphere and feeling of important battles. One-hitting Bastila three times in a row; all the while hearing her heckle and gloat about her power was an interesting experience indeed. Malak was better, but only because he basically cheated the KOTOR rules. If Malak didn't have his Jedi potions around, the final showdown would just been a little bit longer then the standard 5-10 second encounters that I had been pulling off with his hench-men. With a bit of good redesign though, I don't think the final boss in KOTOR 2 has to cheat.

 

What's my recommendation for combat system redesign? I agree with making it more cinematic, which means more combat moves and cool jedi stuff. I'm a fan of Starwars combat because of the sword-fights and the shiny, I think others are too. I strongly recommend making combat between Jedi much longer then in the first.. Force-adept warriors aren't exactly very common, so fighting them should be more of an ordeal, which would be a departure from what it usually was in KOTOR 1.

 

I think damage exchanged between force adept should either be made very small, or possibly made to have deflection/resistance being very easy, with successful hits having damage being pretty high. Combat against normal folks with blasters should be pretty rapid though; that's the pace in the Star Wars movies, anyways.

 

Um, I'm getting carried away. I just think that the dev staff should match the combat to the movies. There's no need for futuristic "dungeon crawls" like in the first. Tactics are difficult with this engine too, there's rarely much space between characters. Just make it look cool and true to the movies, guys! Focus the rest of your resources on the story/character interactions. That was the primary success of KOTOR!

[Child of Flame]

Does anyone except me think that a triple lightsaber used like that one oriental bladed weapon (don't remember the name); spins from side to side and such, would not pwn? Plus it would add to the 'uniqueness' factor.

 

My favorite saber configuration by the end of the game would be either dual wielding one hand HotG with Jenraux (+2 Damage, +7 BB Deflection) and Upari (+4 Attack, +1d12 Damage); and the other hand the MotF with Upari (+8 BB Deflection, +1 Hit, +1d6 Damage) and Solari for a LS PC (+4 Attack, +1d8 Damage, +2d6 DS) or Krayt Pearl for a DS PC (+4 Damage, +3 BB Deflection), or maybe even substitute a Bondar for the Upari (On Hit Paralysis, DC 14).....or the above mentioned config with the MotF because not only did I like the look better, but it had better stats overall. I have to say though, by the time I'd played the game through three times, I decided to heck with it, and used cheats so I could have dual MotF sabers, simply because I always thought Dual was classier than the staff, and I like the look of the same color better, in which case, I'd have the above configuration, with the second MotF saber being Upari+Bondar.

 

Needless to say, any of these configurations will pwn just about any enemies, far too easy IMHO. Should've made it more strategy based. <_<