Development Info Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Diary #1 on RPGVault

[Ibbz]

Tags: BioWare; Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

<a href="http://rpgvault.ign.com">RPGVault</a> have begun the first in a series of <a href="http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/374/374872p1.html">diaries</a> on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the CRPG being made by <a href="http://www.bioware.com">Bioware</a> and published by <a href="http://ww.lucasarts.com">Lucasarts</a>. Here's a snippet....
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<blockquote>Set 3,956 years before the Battle of Yavin (the destruction of the first Death Star in Star Wars: A New Hope), Knights of the Old Republic is right in the golden age of the Jedi and the Old Republic. 4,000 years might seem like the distant past, but the Republic has a history going back 25,000 years, beginning with the advent of hyperdrive and the initial bringing together of the galactic community. At game time, the last great battle between the Republic and the Sith Empire, the Exar Kun Sith War, is 40 years past, but the destabilizing effects of it are still being felt. There are many Jedi and Sith, but there is disorder and dissent within their respective groups. The player will find him/herself choosing a path between the two.
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[Saint_Proverbius]

I really can't say I'm looking forward to this. It has two strikes against it before it even hits the stores.. BioWare and Star Wars.

 

[Deathy]

Well, according to my interpretation of the quote Ibbz posted, it's non-linear.
But this is BioWare we're talking about, they don't understand the meaning of non-linear.

 

[Vikjunk]

Supposedly you can choose to be a Sith or a Jedi and that would imply the game actually has an evil path in it, but the game gives off a vive of being an action game with some dialog.

 

[VasikkA]

The screenshots look.. ehrrm, tempting.

I hope they don't plan to do a half-assed SW story like in Jedi Knight II. I'd like to have more info about the 'RPG' part in it, as it looks very action oriented platform shooter. The non-linearity probably means good and less good ways to solve a quest, monsters that respawn and oversized maps with caves and stuff. Oh, and JarJar Binks. Keep yer fingers crossed that I'm wrong.

 

[Vikjunk]

I'm almost sure they will not have Gungans in the game. It's set 4,000 years in the past of the movies.

P.S. I think I have a screw loose. In the D20 Star Wars game I'm playing a Dark Jedi Gungan who hates his own race because he saw his father accidentally blow himself with a thermal detonator when he was young... :D

Just had to show you guys what oddball characters I like to play.

 

[Deathy]

Speaking of Star Wars. I'm thinking that Return of the Jedi would have been much better if it used Wookies instead of Ewoks.
I mean, teddy bears winning against elite stormtroopers.

Where's Krix when you need him?
I'm sure he could justify the military prowess of teddy bears, the Star Wars fanboy that he is.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Supposedly you can choose to be a Sith or a Jedi and that would imply the game actually has an evil path in it, but the game gives off a vive of being an action game with some dialog.

Well, AD&D has Chaotic Evil, and you saw how poorly that was handled in their games.

 

[Constipated Craprunner]

Supposedly you can choose to be a Sith or a Jedi and that would imply the game actually has an evil path in it, but the game gives off a vive of being an action game with some dialog.

Well, AD&D has Chaotic Evil, and you saw how poorly that was handled in their games.

Completly diffrient.
In D&D, Chaotic Evil is a means to an end.
In KOTOR, from everything I have heard, Evil is both the means and the end.

 

[Deathy]

Yeah. and if you believed the hype that BioWare's marketing machine put on NWN...

 

[Constipated Craprunner]

You all knew what NWN was going to be.
Face it.
However, with Kotor, BioWare has an almost clean slate in terms of linearity.
You have to remember that the system Bio was using in the case of NWN was not that great- infact, the game had everything going against it. The action oriented Aurora engine to the fact that 3rd edition D&D is, well, not Gurps.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Completly diffrient.
In D&D, Chaotic Evil is a means to an end.
In KOTOR, from everything I have heard, Evil is both the means and the end.

No, in NWN, Chaotic Evil is Lawful Good for hire. You never do anything really evil, you just accept money and follow the happy, good guy story.

 

[Constipated Craprunner]

Wait-so we more or less agree on something?
Odd.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

No, you said it was a "means to an end". I'm saying it doesn't exist at all in the game.

 

[Constipated Craprunner]

No, you said it was a "means to an end". I'm saying it doesn't exist at all in the game.

Same diff.
Means, as in maybe you can kill someone an evil way, but the ending is the same.

 

[Sheriff_Fatman]

Alignment in D&D has always been a bone of contention. Bioware didn't improve on it in NWN, certainly. I don't know whether there was any scope to do so, given that they were creating a D&D based engine. They won't be working within the same limitations for KoToR, so there is no reason to expect the game to suffer the same flaws.

I would be inclined to worry more about the restrictions LucasArts might impose in this area. Still, they'd have to really butcher the cosmology of the Star Wars universe to make the Dark Side anything other than the nastier side of man.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Icewind Dale 2 does the same thing, SF. In fact, most D&D games do that. I think Planescape: Torment is really the only D&D based game that did GOOD VERSUS EVIL fairly well, and that's because the plot really wasn't your typical D&D tripe plot where you're HEROES saving the world from ANCIENT EVIL.

 

[Ibbz]

Being the son of a God aint quite your typical D&D story either

 

[Vikjunk]

Being the son of a God aint quite your typical D&D story either

Yeah but it does sound cliché for a RPG though.

 

[Constipated Craprunner]

To be perfectly honest, I found the BGies to be remarkably lax in their abundance of cliches. Esecially 2.
Jesue, just when I was doing so well with everybody!

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Being the son of a God aint quite your typical D&D story either

No, but it is your typical BioWare munchkinism.

 

[Sheriff_Fatman]

Being the son of a God aint quite your typical D&D story either

I dunno. To me the whole Forgotten Realms setting has a "gods walk the earth" feel to it. In the early days of the setting I read some of the novels TSR turned out and certainly the Moonshae and Avatar trilogies had a strong theme of physical manifestation of the divine.

I don't think the BG plot was inappropriate, but I would hardly call it original. What's more, once you have the initial premise of demi-godhood on board, the whole thing becomes pretty simplistic.