Questions to the Devs

[Cord]

[*]Will there be lethal combat, as in lethal for your party members, or do you still just have to have the last man standing on your team?

 

It will still be the Last Man Standing system a la KotOR1.

If you'll entertain a suggestion for a moment, I felt there was room for improvement with this particular game mechanic...

 

First of all, it does tend to jar you out of the game a bit when your party-members quietly sit a battle out and then get up, without fail, the moment the last enemy bites the dust 20 feet away. It would feel more immersive if those party members needed help to get back up. This help could take the form of using a medkit on them or simply giving them a leg up off the ground, however, it would have to take a couple moments to do this so it wouldn't be too exploitable in combat. It would also introduce a new strategy element to longer battles such as the ones on the Star Forge in KOTOR. If your buddy goes down, do you try to fight it out without him/her, or do you position your party so that one person is free long enough to get him back on his/her feet?

 

This sort of system would also neatly sidestep one of the bugs in KOTOR. I remember in one level (Possibly the Sith Acadamy) a member of my party went down and stayed down without an enemy in sight. I had to hunt through all the nearby passages for the little sucker that got away so I could get mobile again. I couldn't zone with him layed flat out in the middle of the level. I'm not sure how common this particular bug was, but it jarred me right out of the game and was one of the few times I can recall thinking of Bioware as a bunch of idiots. (Which they most certainly aren't!) With the above change in effect you could get your party member back on his feet without a problem.

 

Of course, implementing this would make a few other changes necessary. What happens if you forget where your party member wentl down or simply don't help him/her up? A good solution would be to set a time-limit on how long a character stays down without help. When they get back up they'd catch up on their own and, possibly, give you heck for not helping them up. (Just a verbal whine and maybe a rude gesture for some characters. There's no need to cut to the dialog interface.) If you attempt to zone with a party member down somewhere, the game should let you zone and have the party member come out with you, although, preferably giving you heck as if he/she just caught up after getting up on his/her own. As for the animations required, physically helping the other character up would involve contact between models which I'm sure your animators would flat out refuse to do. However, just having a character kneel next to the fallen fellow and perhaps wave a hand around a bit in a authoritative medical looking fashion would serve almost as well and be relatively simple to implement.

[Child of Flame]

[*]Will there be lethal combat, as in lethal for your party members, or do you still just have to have the last man standing on your team?

 

It will still be the Last Man Standing system a la KotOR1.

If you'll entertain a suggestion for a moment, I felt there was room for improvement with this particular game mechanic...

 

First of all, it does tend to jar you out of the game a bit when your party-members quietly sit a battle out and then get up, without fail, the moment the last enemy bites the dust 20 feet away. It would feel more immersive if those party members needed help to get back up. This help could take the form of using a medkit on them or simply giving them a leg up off the ground, however, it would have to take a couple moments to do this so it wouldn't be too exploitable in combat. It would also introduce a new strategy element to longer battles such as the ones on the Star Forge in KOTOR. If your buddy goes down, do you try to fight it out without him/her, or do you position your party so that one person is free long enough to get him back on his/her feet?

 

This sort of system would also neatly sidestep one of the bugs in KOTOR. I remember in one level (Possibly the Sith Acadamy) a member of my party went down and stayed down without an enemy in sight. I had to hunt through all the nearby passages for the little sucker that got away so I could get mobile again. I couldn't zone with him layed flat out in the middle of the level. I'm not sure how common this particular bug was, but it jarred me right out of the game and was one of the few times I can recall thinking of Bioware as a bunch of idiots. (Which they most certainly aren't!) With the above change in effect you could get your party member back on his feet without a problem.

 

Of course, implementing this would make a few other changes necessary. What happens if you forget where your party member wentl down or simply don't help him/her up? A good solution would be to set a time-limit on how long a character stays down without help. When they get back up they'd catch up on their own and, possibly, give you heck for not helping them up. (Just a verbal whine and maybe a rude gesture for some characters. There's no need to cut to the dialog interface.) If you attempt to zone with a party member down somewhere, the game should let you zone and have the party member come out with you, although, preferably giving you heck as if he/she just caught up after getting up on his/her own. As for the animations required, physically helping the other character up would involve contact between models which I'm sure your animators would flat out refuse to do. However, just having a character kneel next to the fallen fellow and perhaps wave a hand around a bit in a authoritative medical looking fashion would serve almost as well and be relatively simple to implement.

I love your train of thought there. The knock out/help out system sounds similar to that found in Dungeon Siege, though the characters didn't yell at you for not helping them up as there is next to no voice acting in that game, which could be really cool if it's done right.

 

HK-47: Statement: You may be master, but in the combat skirmish just now, you acted just like any meatbag. I am losing patience with you.

[bodrock]

great questions, many I was gonna ask....but I was wondering whether the Xbox version would support 16:9 HDTVs? It may seem like a minor thing, but for a game based on a movie franchise, I am hoping SWKOTOR II will be playable in widescreen!!

 

also, I have faith you guys will do well by the game, and truly make something brilliant. February 2K5 seems too far, and that's if all goes as planned -- but rest assured that many of us would wait if you all needed more time to add what you want and polish the game.

[Junn Kast]

Can you start out as a guardian and later become a Jedi master?

[Chris Avellone]

Does the PC have to be level twenty before the Prestige classes are accessible?

Currently, no. The prestige class acess are not solely determined by level.

[Chris Avellone]

Can you start out as a guardian and later become a Jedi master?

Currently, yes. Any of the starting classes can branch into any of the prestige classes.

[Nartwak]

Currently, no. The prestige class acess are not solely determined by level.

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer my question.

[Junn Kast]

How long will it take to get the prestige class?

[Junn Kast]

Can you start out as a guardian and later become a Jedi master?

Currently, yes. Any of the starting classes can branch into any of the prestige classes.

Thanks!

[kumquatq3]

Which members of the team are heading of to E3?

[Meiz]

This question was asked earlier, but i didn't see any answer. So i'll ask again.

Will there be more options for your characters appearance? Different hair styles, hair colors, starting clothes and so on.

[kumquatq3]

This question was asked earlier, but i didn't see any answer. So i'll ask again.

Will there be more options for your characters appearance? Different hair styles, hair colors, starting clothes and so on.

I can't remember where, but I am almost sure I read that was the case

[Meiz]

I can't remember where, but I am almost sure I read that was the case

Hope so. Thank you for answering.

[Craftsman]

Devs, will comabt be as smooth as Jade Enpire?

[Iolo]

Do the prestige classes work as in D20 game system? For instance, you can only take up to level 10 of the prestige class until your combined levels are higher than 20.

 

Also, what is the maximum combined level allowed?

[Chris Avellone]

Which members of the team are heading of to E3?

Chris Parker - Producer

Ferret Baudoin - Designer

Mike Gallo - Producer, LucasArts

Me - Wandering the Show

 

A lot of guys from Obsidian will also be coming up for a while on Wed and Thurs to walk around and check out the games.

[Chris Avellone]

Do the prestige classes work as in D20 game system? For instance, you can only take up to level 10 of the prestige class until your combined levels are higher than 20.

 

Also, what is the maximum combined level allowed?

Calling them "prestige" classes might be a misnomer - they work differently than prestige classes in the normal d20 system. That's all I can really say now, we might address it in a future designer diary.

[Ivan the Terrible]

Will characters in KOTORII do a better job of reacting to your Light Side/Dark Side level? For example, if I'm talking before the Jedi council or a Republic soldier or whoever in my pitch black Sith robe and my face is white as chalk with veins running across it, will they still treat me like a Jedi?

[Gorth]

we might address it in a future designer diary.

Yipee!

 

*Bounce* *Bounce* *Sproing...*

 

(Remove one item from "wants to ask about" list)

 

[TSAdmiral]

Who will be playing as the new characters? Meaning, who are you looking to use to supply the voices to the characters in the game? Any voice actors in particular you guys are shooting for, or is that not a high priority as of now?

 

Most particularly, who will be playing the voices of the returning characters from the first game? I don't suppose you guys will be able to get the voice actors from the first game on hand, or can you?

[Frosty_V2.1]

That's usually handled by the publisher, and LucasArts uses the same voice actors through different games a fair bit, so I don't think it will be a problem for them to get the original voice talent for returning characters (especially considering it's a sequel and KotOR did very well sales wise).

[Gorth]

Just a few more. Inspired by recent magazine articles

• Gamebanshee (iirc) mentioned higher polygon count. True or False ?
  
• If true, will these be in the facial (mouth/eye) region ? The lip sync could really use a little extra work in the close-up cutscenes
  
• Talking of talking, will aliens speech be better syncronised ? Like, better coherence between number of syllables and lip animations ?
  
• The transit system, will it be the same, or would it be possible to "click" on other known safe areas on the map to go there ? Or would that be too much work because of event and script based encounters taking place between locations ?
  
• Will there ever be enemies that simply surrender when hopelessly outclassed by the player ? Not "scripted" surrenders as such, but part of the AI ? Some of the opponents in Kotor suffered from a Kamikaze syndrome
  
• Or simply stay (visibly, like walking in a circle around) clear of the player and his (her) party when outgunned ? If for no other reason, then that warm and fuzzy DS feeling when you are mean and intimidating
  
• Will there be other missile type weapons ? Like, steal an arm and a leg from FPS games... disc throwes, gauss guns, rocket launchers etc. B)
  

Off the record, will there be at least one npc somewhere in a blue jumpsuit with a yellow number on his back ?

[T7nowhere]

Will there be more than 10 armor model types for the PC's?

[Grandpa]

Mods mods mods.

 

You guys seem to be evading the question asked so many times. At least the answers I've seen are far too vague and lack and substance.

 

Are we going to be able to mod this game (like other LucasArts Star Wars titles) with a developer created tool, or are we going to have to resort to hacking into the thing like with KoTOR 1?

 

Bioware made the claim that Lucas would not allow them because of intellectual property concerns relating to the Star Wars Universe already out there in the form of books, comics, etc. Said that Lucas wanted to keep the flow of the game from conflicting with the established history.

 

I again ask...what of all of the other Star Wars titles which shipped with (or created afterwards) developer created utils? The precedence does not exist for me to believe that this is the real reason.

[Junn Kast]

I have a question. I just saw some new screenshots and one of the custom character's face was from KOTOR1. Will there be the same faces? any new ones?