Game News Tons of new KOTOR II info

[Vault Dweller]

Tags: Obsidian Entertainment; Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords

<b>Akari</b> of the <a href=http://www.lucasarts.com/games/swkotor_sithlords/>KOTOR II</a> development fame has started his own show called <a href=http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?showtopic=2404>What do you want to know today?</a>, where he revealed many things and answered many questions. Turns out, there will be a pet:
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<blockquote>It will be upgradable... you can talk to it... it will help in combat... it's a non-animal... It will start out belonging to one character in specific, but that can change over the course of the story...</blockquote>
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Upgradable, can talk to it, will help in combat, non-animal? Sounds like a robot to me. I wonder is there any difference from T3M4 or HK47 or is it just an extra party member that you can carry in your pocket? OMG! It's a pokemon! Nooooooo!
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Next, a new Pazaak card for those who dig these sorta things:
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<blockquote>One such card is a Tie Breaker card. Normally it works like the +/- 1 card from KotOR1, but it has the added advantage that if the round ends in a Tie, you win if you played that card. There's 4 other new cards with special abilities like this.
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There may be a Pazaak tourny. It hasn't been decided. It's one of those lower priority things that may or may not make it into the schedule.</blockquote>
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Next, everyone's favourite robot, Mister Personality itself, T3M4:
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<blockquote>In the tutorial T3M4 you can control T3M4 as he makes repairs to the ship. I'm not sure if it comes up again anywhere else though. I think many are going to like T3M4 better in this game. He has substantially more personality</blockquote>
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And last, but not the least, you can break things down!
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<blockquote>Well, you can break down non-chemical equipment into generic 'parts'. You can then utilize those 'parts' to assemble something else. You can break down chemical stuff (med packs, stims, etc.) into generic 'chemicals'. You then use those 'chemicals' to assemble some chemical item. This stuff isn't finalized yet, really. I'll probably doing a detailed pass over it next week to get it finished, so there's not really much else I can say right now.</blockquote>
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Sounds cool, let's see what we would be able to do with those chemicals. Who needs stimpacks when you can make some Jet? Why walk when you can fly?
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[Volourn]

"It's a pokemon!"

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Weren't the two robots basically the same thing in the first one? Doesn't sound that interesting to me.


"There may be a Pazaak tourny. It hasn't been decided. It's one of those lower priority things that may or may not make it into the schedule."

I hope there's a tourney. Pazzak is the only mini game I actually enjoyed. It deserves its own (optional, of course) tourney.


"He has substantially more personality"

Umm... Someone should tell Akari that isn't that difficult of a task..


"Why walk when you can fly? "

LOL

 

[Whipporowill]

I actually enjoyed playing Pazaak to some degree. I hope they do a tourney so that there's some actual benefit from it except some petty cash in the game...

 

[Vault Dweller]

Well, call me "old-fashioned" but I'd prefer if my odds of winning depended on my character (Gambling skill, Intelligence, Luck, whatever). So, while Pazaak wasn't bad overall, if I (not my character) want to play a card game, I will play a card game, not an RPG.

 

[Sammael]

As long as the damn "shoot down enemy interceptors" minigame isn't necessary to finish the game, I'm cool with minigames. Gods damn it, I don't have the reflexes for action games, which is why I don't play them. It took me 15 retries (and a browse of support forums where I learned that if I started firing before the fighters appeared most of them would be taken out) to finish the sequence.

 

[Spazmo]

That Pazaak stuff had better not be necessary for any quests. That game was a boring waste of time.

 

[Transcendent One]

Call me a loser, but I feel the need to do everything possible with a character on a playthrough as long as it makes sense (so no good characters going off on assassin missions, etc.). So Pazaak wasted a lot of my time, and I do hate that game so much now. Even though when I first played it I thought it was kinda cool. Still, it doesn't fit into the whole RPG thing very well.

The virtual pet thing sounds like utter crap. Next :arrow:

 

[Shevek]

I really hope they remove the unarmored requirement from Force Speed (or at least the early levels of Force speed). I didnt see the point of even allowing some powers to be used with armor if all armored builds were so underpowered. Any word along these lines?

 

[Volourn]

"if all armored builds were so underpowered"

What the hell? I wish I knew this when I had an easy time of it with my character... who was wearinga rmour. WOWSERS!

Bottom line is thata rmoured builds were not underpowered. Next, you'll be saying that sentinels were as well. R00fles!

 

[dagamer667]

As long as the damn "shoot down enemy interceptors" minigame isn't necessary to finish the game, I'm cool with minigames. Gods damn it, I don't have the reflexes for action games, which is why I don't play them. It took me 15 retries (and a browse of support forums where I learned that if I started firing before the fighters appeared most of them would be taken out) to finish the sequence.

You must've been doing something wrong. For the record, I enjoy playing good FPS games, but I dodn't think the turret minigame was at all difficult. The only trick to it is that you have to use your directional keys in order to swivel and elevate the turret in front of a fighter because the mouse moves it a lot slower. Once you get a rough aim, use the mouse for more aiming precision. Of course, if start shooting as soon as it starts, you'll take out at least two or three fighters from the get go. I do agree with the general sentiment that it got frickin annoying after about three times or so. Especially when you have travel a lot when you are tying up all the loose ends.

 

[Shevek]

Volourn:

I tried to make what I figured were more weak builds in that game (I liked my meleeing darkside scoundrel/consular most - hit em with insanity and then walk in and sneak attack; my scout/sentinal had it pretty easy too). I agree that even the weaker builds had an easy time (something I hope the next game addresses). Still, I found little reason to go with armor and I found armored jedi builds to have too many downsides and too few upsides. Considering the AC bonus from Force Speed added to the AC from Jedi robes, the armored ac advantage is neglible. The added enhancement on some of the armors can be nice but the loss of two attacks from Force Speed when added to all those other force powers you lose out on mean that going armor makes you worse at both fighting and casting. I think it would be balanced if they could atleast get the lower level of Force Speed (so they get one added attack) kinda like how armored jedi can only use the lower two levels of that one dark side power.

 

[dagamer667]

I'm not so sure I like the idea of a tiebreaker card. Sounds like another thing for the AI to exploit given how often ties occured in KOTOR whenever you played for more than 5 creds. Hopefully pazak won't be a requirement for certain characters.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Although I enjoyed Pazaak to some degree, I felt it wasn't as good as it could have been, considering that the AI always moved second and was thus granted a huge advantage over the player. I am hoping that they remedy this issue by randomly selecting who gets to throw the first card and improving the AI of the opponent.

The Turret Minigame was probably one of the worst time-wasters in KOTOR. It wasn't even fun. Why was it even included?

 

[Volourn]

"I am hoping that they remedy this issue by randomly selecting who gets to throw the first card and improving the AI of the opponent."

Confirmed months ago.


"Why was it even included?"

Stupdiity, or drunkenness. Take your pick.

 

[Whipporowill]

"I am hoping that they remedy this issue by randomly selecting who gets to throw the first card and improving the AI of the opponent."

Confirmed months ago.

Great news then.

"Why was it even included?"

Stupdiity, or drunkenness. Take your pick.

Well, it DID reek how it was implemented - but turret sequeces IS quite common in the movies. Also, I remember hearing about a sequence in K2 where you shoot soldiers trying to board your ship. If you fail you'll just have to fight them aboard, so you can skip it if you want. I can dig it.

 

[merry andrew]

The Turret Minigame was probably one of the worst time-wasters in KOTOR. It wasn't even fun. Why was it even included?

For immersion. I thought it was annoying, which is probably the desired effect, since getting your ship attacked basically everytime you leave a planet is probably pretty annoying too.

 

[suibhne]

For immersion. I thought it was annoying, which is probably the desired effect, since getting your ship attacked basically everytime you leave a planet is probably pretty annoying too.

It was a random chance, much less than even, so I just reloaded every time I got the "bad cinematic" so I wouldn't have to sit through that stupid minigame.

Since I just started playing Jedi Academy, I call for a new KotOR2 feature: realistic lightsaber dismemberment.

 

[Spazmo]

There aren't any underpowered builds in KOTOR since any character can use force wave and force heal (or medkits for EVAL players) regardless of armour use.

 

[AlanC9]

Should armored and unarmored builds be balanced? Armored builds are very rare in the source material. Presumably this means that they're either harder to do or have limitations.

Or Jedi are stupid. Take your pick.

 

[Voss]

both. Armor is rare, and jedi are quite stupid.