Like you said, while the Terentatek is “tough†for the game it’s by no means difficult to kill. And I still believe that it is accessible quite early, especially given it’s power (and yes, I’ve your post, Drakron, and I just have to disagree with you on this point. And if we’re going to discuss getting and using powerful items, well then let’s talk about the light saber in KOTOR2. If we use your logic then having to wait for it is a good thing because it aids balance—I hated being a Jedi and not having a light saber, it just felt wrong even though it made for some interesting character leveling choices).
Well it goes without saying that the enemies in KOTOR could have done with a spot of beefing up. I think that just about everyone agrees that the game was rather lacking in challenge. That, really, is the root of my complaints about the game mechanics in the sequel. They took a game that was already
far too easy and made it even easier. It's a decision that just baffles me. They have more of everything: levels, powers, items, the lot. And there's very little to balance those additions out.
As for the lightsabre, well, the basic lightsabre isn't all the much more powerful than some of the better melee weapons you can buy on Telos. The single-bladed sabre only does, what, eighteen damage maximum? It's not that high. Letting you have a sabre there wouldn't have been an issue for game balance. And really, in the context of Star Wars, it makes very little sense for you to have to go on this massive scavenger hunt for components. It's almost to the level of everyday technology in that universe.
Anyway, it's not till you go to Dantooine and pick up all those crystals that the lightsabre's power gets ridiculous. Seriously, that crystal that's attuned to your character is the single most overpowered item I've ever seen in an RPG. The one I had on my last run through was getting me twelve attribute points and that was only a medium attunement. God only knows what you get if you really work it.
But it's not so much the individual items that are the problem, it's the accumulation of them . In the original there are only a handful of really powerful items dotted through the game and everything else is rather mediocre. In the sequel there are a lot of very nice skill and attribute boosting items that can be found in the random loot. Visors that give a dozen skill points in bonus, stealth belts that give massive bonuses to stealth and dexterity, and so on – they're very common. My last time through I gave my character one stealth point and then loaded him down with item bonuses till he had a skill in the 25+ range when I needed it. That's just ridiculous. It's not like you need to go hunting for this stuff either, it just falls in your lap as you play through, and it renders some skills rather valueless when it's level-up time.
As for the implants, I think the trade in feats is well worth the stat boost.
Depends on how you build your character I suppose. I never had many feats to spare on that sort of thing till the end of the game when it had already stopped mattering. Having the top duel-wield and master flurry always seemed far more useful to me and that's a lot of feat points gone right there.
As for the level cap, well I don’t think it has the huge impact that you say it does. Let’s say that there is a level; it means that you peak sooner, so difficulty only becomes “balanced†at the end, or as soon as you hit the cap. But I don’t buy this, I think that it still would have been no problem even with “just†a level 20 character. The problem with level caps is that once you hit them your character feels stagnant, so then what? Especially in action driven games where half of it is building this uber character—realistically, in action oriented games it’s very hard to justify a level cap because it takes a way part of the motivation (if this were a story driven RPG then the motivation would primarily be advancing the plot),
Well that's only going to be a problem if you hand out the experience points too freely. Anyone making a game where you whack into the level cap halfway through the game needs to go back and rethink things. It wasn't a problem in KOTOR because there simply wasn't enough experience points available to hit level twenty till very late on unless I missed some random spawn point somewhere that let you power-level. Even if they removed the cap you'd probably be lucky to hit level twenty-one by the end of the game.
The difference between your average KOTOR character with four or five levels as a soldier or whatever and the rest as a Jedi and a KOTOR2 character with fifteen levels as a Jedi and then ten more as a prestige class is rather pronounced. Sticking them in the same engine with the same sort of enemies (power-wise anyway) as in the original game is just a joke. If they'd given the enemies some real power it might have worked but they didn't and removing the level-cap then stands out as being rather silly to me.
It's just something that pisses me off for the sheer pointlessness of it. I frigging hate sequels to games that randomly screw with the game mechanics and give the players extra munchkin power and more uber-items for the hell of it.
As for FO, well the thing about that system is one lucky shot and you’re toast, so you always have to walk a line and never get too cocky; I know that I died a few times in the game in FO and it just ruined the immersion and it made me be more careful and less likely to run in guns blazing.
Ah, yes, instant death by random dice roll. That's so much challenging as bloody fucking irritating for me. It's not like there's anything you can do about it really. It's up there with having your shiny, new, nearly unique (until the military base anyway) plasma rifle explode in your face.
It’s basically stated that all Bastila has is her battle meditation; I could be wrong but when you acquire her she doesn’t even have the Jedi heal power, so you’ve really got to wonder about the whole mindwash amnesia thing, it’s a huge hole. The sequel has holes too; supposedly you’re the last Jedi and yet you encounter Jedi throughout the game—does that make sense? No, of course not.
Star Wars game mechanics are not canon. Game stories are, but not the mechanics, because you have to screw things around to make them work in a game. Someone sent to fight a Sith Lord would not be a level four character but if they gave her something more along the lines of what you expect from a Jedi of decent power then she'd fucking stomp everything on Taris with ridiculous ease. And if she didn't have the healing power when she confronted Revan, then Revan would not have survived and there would be no game, or you'd be role-playing a vegetable. Either way, not so good.
Anyway, all the Jedi Masters on Dantooine say that Bastila will be a great Jedi some day. She's at an age by the time of the game where someone who's got the potential to be a great Jedi will be starting to show some real power, like Anakin in AOTC, who was able to give Dooku a better fight than his Jedi Master, even if their control is less than perfect.
