Preview RPG Vault on KotOR character system.

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

<a href="http://rpgvault.ign.com/">RPG Vault</a> has posted up <a href="http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/378/378987p1.html">Diary #3</a> on <a href="http://www.lucasarts.com/products/swkotor/">Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic</a>. As the title says, this time they're covering the character system which is basically the same system you've seen in all the recent D&D CRPGs. Why? Because <a href="http://www.bioware.com">some developers</a> just can't make a character system on their own anymore. Here's a taste:
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<blockquote>For anyone who played Neverwinter Nights or is familiar with the d20 system, you will probably be able to breeze through this section without any instruction at all. You start off assigning points to set your initial statistics (Strength, Intelligence, Dexterity, etc., etc.). You can either set these manually, with instruction provided as to which statistics are more important to which <u>classes</u>, or you can simply let the computer make recommended choices.
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You then move onto choosing your feats and skills. My first character was a soldier, so all the feats I started off with were listed handily (along with an explanation), and the feats that I could pick from were available for me to scroll through (Power Attack... where's the Power Attack?! Ah, there it is.) The same applies to the skills... the ones that were cheaper for my class were neatly highlighted, and the benefits of each skill clearly explained. Within both of these sections, the option to select the computer's recommendations is also available.</blockquote>
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Oh, yay.. Class based system.
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Spotted this at <A href="http://www.homelanfed.com/">HomeLAN Fed</a>.

 

[Rosh]

Why does it sound like they are borrowing heavily from 3E for this? Do they have any creativity?

Given that their ability to code up a decent pathfinding algorithm is a joke, I believe I've already answered my own question.

 

[Section8]

Hooray for Bioware. We lub j00.

 

[Spazmo]

Why does it sound like they are borrowing heavily from 3E for this? Do they have any creativity?

Given that their ability to code up a decent pathfinding algorithm is a joke, I believe I've already answered my own question.

It is Third Edition. That is, the d20 system. TSR/Wizards of the Coast published a Star Wars d20 RPG last year that uses pretty much the same rules as 3rd Ed. D&D with some modifications to account for the setting. And I don't see why KOTOR wouldn't use it.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

It is Third Edition. That is, the d20 system. TSR/Wizards of the Coast published a Star Wars d20 RPG last year that uses pretty much the same rules as 3rd Ed. D&D with some modifications to account for the setting. And I don't see why KOTOR wouldn't use it.

Probably to make it feel less like the run of the mill D&D game with light sabers instead of longswords.

That, and the D20 rules are way, way too oversimplified for a CRPG. It would have been a lot better if they'd actually come up with some rules specifically FOR this CRPG, rather than cutting and pasting NWN's character system code in to KotOR.

Then again, that's the half assed way of doing things, and BioWare seems to pride themselves on being half assed.

 

[Spazmo]

Then again, that's the half assed way of doing things, and BioWare seems to pride themselves on being half assed.

That's right. You'll note I said "wouldn't" and not "shouldn't".