![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
It's an extra bonus to damage. Not a ridiculous amount, admittedly, but it's there: 1-4 extra damage for unarmed at level 2, 8-32 by level 30. Unarmed is also affected by the Dueling feats (not Two-Weapon Fighting).
Knowing this, you may now go boldly and strongly, and go get Kreia to sucker punch some robots.
EDIT: Started up a new playthrough. This is a bit silly and spread out: I'm a stealthy Sentinel, with Intelligence such that I was able to maximise every class skill on character creation. My first level-up, I made Repair a class skill as well. It would've made sense to drop, like, one point in Demolitions, but I decided to ignore it; I can't pick up or disable mines, but I can still see them and avoid them thanks to Awareness.
I'm up to meeting HK-50 now. The game decided to keep dropping hints about stealth as a solution, so I decided to put it to the test. From the point that you find the Stealth Field Generator, shortly after the initial fights, I stealthed past the entirety of the mining droids. I used a console to disable all bots near Atton, then reprogrammed them all to defend organics. Down the turbolift, another console near the end also let me turn every droid friendly.
Once they're friendly, you can use Repair to scavenge some extra components off them without killing them. I have 254 Components now. I could craft a planet. Theoretically, if you were to run past the robots at the start and at the T3 sections, I suppose you could Pacifist Run this bit.
The run-in-Stealth-mode feat at level 4 would probably be a godsend if I wanted to keep this up, though I do need to start getting some Blaster feats (planning on running dual-pistols). After this, though, it looks like pure stealth is more impractical. Possibly you could run past them with the whole area aggro'd, but superdroids spawn in cutscenes that break stealth.
EDIT 2: So, uh, HK tried to ambush me. I knew that was coming, but I forgot where exactly.
Turns out it was in the room full of my reprogrammed robots.
Edited by Lavaeolus on Jul 26th 2018 at 2:19:42 PM
it's a living
Heh. Not bad, not bad at all. See, that's some Mortuary-level emergent fuckery.
I've managed to get quite far now: Nar Shadaa and Dantooine down, in that order. Next up is Onderon, then Korriban. I've decided to make my core party Bao-Dur and Visas. I'm using Visas mostly for support and healing, with the occasional Force Lightning and debuff — it's a little improper, given she is technically a Jedi Sentinel, but it works pretty well.
I considered using the Disciple, but by the time I was out of the first act I really just wanted to settle down on a party proper. And while he is technically a Consular later on, he also starts off as a Soldier, and has stats that really don't lend themselves to full-Force-using. (10 Wisdom and 14 Charisma, compared to Visas's 12 Wis and 15 Cha). I think the best option for pure caster is probably Kreia, especially since she boosts your experience and buffs you whenever she buffs herself, but I wanted to lean on her less this run.
Delving more into all these stats and all that, I think KotOR II has some interesting character mixes. KotOR I is mostly reasonable: there's no crossclassing except from the player, everyone mostly fits into the niche you'd expect them to. A lot of people in the sequel meanwhile have different gimmicks. No one's absolutely ridiculous, and a lot still feel mostly normal: Atton's a Scoundrel/Sentinel, T3 provides a bunch of skills, etc. But you have more oddities. Kreia's changes mostly fit into her niche — she lacks a hand so can't two-weapon or dual-wield, she carries over buffs — but she also knows Stealth (fitting, in its way, though I don't know if she can do much with it). Disciple goes from the feat-intensive Soldier to the Force-focused Consular.
Bao-Dur's kind of interesting. He's got his own unique class to start with (Tech Specialist), which encourages you to use him almost as a skill monkey, yet at the same time use him as an Unarmed frontliner. That's already a bit odd. Then when you Jedi him he suddenly drops being able to develop his skills entirely, honing in on the frontline melee aspects as Guardian. In hindsight I wish I saved some of his earlier levels, since I'm using him as a melee tank — I'm the skill monkey here, thank you — but it's begun to work really well. I've got all my core blaster feats now, and we're demolishing it all. Now that I'm a Jedi Watchman I actually have Sneak Attack. Mostly I use the Force just to stun others and Speed me up; I've deliberately avoided Force Persuade or Heal or etc. for the sake of uniqueness.
Anyway, I think the different takes on companions is good, mostly. It gives the characters a bit more distinctiveness, even if it does occasionally lead to some awkwardness.
After Peragus the game does drop Stealth for the most part. The game takes it for granted that you'll be demolishing things in your way, and not doing so is liable to break the game a bit, let you be accidentally ganged up by an entire area when things go belly-up, or just end up a waste of XP. Since you don't get Sneak Attack until Watchman, it's not really good for setting up attacks either, since by then you'll have stuns and the like. Still, I've used it for some of the small solo portions in the game. I have some thoughts on things I'd forgotten about the narrative, but this is getting pretty long so hope you enjoyed this long diatribe on mechanics.
Edited by Lavaeolus on Jul 29th 2018 at 12:39:26 PM
Heh, that must have been a shock for HK-50.
“Confused Exclamative Query: Why are you shooting at me?!”
It was a pretty great moment for me. Every time I've played this game I've walked out, run around and purposely killed all the droids on the floor, then freed Atton and never really thought about it. Then this one time I decide to try something a bit different, an option moreorless staring you in the face, and it ends up meaning I can practically win the first boss without lifting a finger. An ironic way for HK-50 to go, to boot.
I haven't run into any really similar moments that have stuck with me, but I did like on Dantooine. There's a lot you can do around to rig the fight in your favour — and a lot of little clever ways to royally screw up the defence if you delve in. Why sabotage the turrets when you can get them to target friendlies? Why not get the broken medical droid to do even worse? And when the defence fails, why not shake the mercenaries down for thousands of credits to get you to walk away and let them win? That way you even get to let Vrook answer your questions and assemble with the others later, since he's unaware you turned on everyone. Alas, while I did have a quick go at betraying the settlers for an achievement, but I reloaded and helped them win.
I was initially planning on being a neutralish primarily-Light Han Solo type who never turned down credits, but that ended up drifting away pretty quickly. I still make occasionally inappropriate jokes and rude remarks, though, and deliberately refuse to identify as a Jedi. My only actual DS point so far was when, in response to Handmaiden's talk of combat bringing about truth, I remarked 'So if I crushed Atris' skull into the floor, that might get to the heart of the matter?' Handmaiden's confused reaction was probably worth it.
Edited by Lavaeolus on Jul 29th 2018 at 1:19:42 PM
it's a living
Darths & Droids but done as video commentary in the style of a faux-Let's Play. Han Changed My Mind, Kid because he save-scummed to see the Dark Side outcome first.
KOTOR 2 is kind of the pinnacle of Bioware/Obsidian giving you an insane number of permutations on different dialogue options. I know why they had to tone it town in later games, but I really do love having like twelve different dialogue choices, with about a third of them just being the same line, but prefaced by [Truth] or [Lie].
Edited by Unsung on Jul 29th 2018 at 8:10:24 AM
Planescape needed the [Truth], [Vow], [Lie] stuff partially because of D&D alignment meters, but they're really useful roleplay-wise. When you see, let's stick with KotOR II, '[Lie] Okay, I'll help you' when talking to the mercenaries, you know that the game isn't going to suddenly lock you into the mercenary path, that roleplaying a bit of manipulation or picking the option and then switching sides isn't just weird flip-flopping.
KotOR II isn't perfect here: the game is framed around light-side/dark-side, and so all your dialogue options are similarly framed around that to some extent. Fine enough in and of itself, I think, but you do end up forced between extremities at times, even if feels unnatural. But it does have a lot of moments where there is a bit more flexibility; I think it tends to land conversations and options about the Exile's role in the Mandalorian Wars alright enough. You can take a more nuanced approach to following Revan than 'Jedi were good, war was bad' or 'If I saw a Mandalorian right now, I'd behead them!'
Edited by Lavaeolus on Jul 30th 2018 at 8:31:00 PM
it's a living
Oh, I don't mean it's the pinnacle of giving you the most actual choices, but in terms of having twelve different dialogue options on a regular basis, for better or for worse, no game did that as often as TSL. It did give you a lot of flexibility in terms of establishing your character, but it was a little cluttered. I can criticize it and still kind of miss it at the same time. And it fit the Exile's character in particular, as someone who'd spent ten years away from the world, likely doing not much of anything but think of exactly this.
Incidentally, I just beat the Mandalorians' battle circle, much as I had beat the Handmaidens. Well, see, in truth, my character is completely unspec'd for melee combat. They have no Toughness feats, minimal Constitution and Strength; they stood no chance against any of them. But remember: 'Combat is not the Jedi way - and it is not my way.'
So I just walked into them all. No Force powers, no medkits, not a single punch thrown — only a couple of Mandalorian melee shields were used in the final five-Handmaiden fight. I just walked forward until they embarrassingly backed out of the arena.
'You know much of melee combat.'
it's a living
I do not understand this "mouse" magic that makes me do your bidding.
See, if not for the better unarmed animations which I think make them reposition themselves, I'm not sure that would have worked in the original engine. Not that there was a ring to ring out of... I think. Did the Taris dueling arena have anything like that?
From what I remember, the Taris dueling arena is more like, as the same suggests, an arena — a gladiator setpiece, a giant rounded place where people are free to run about as they'd like. Certainly I ran away across the room so as to heal up, when I was trying to do it all as level 1 on a replay. Which admittedly was completely unnecessary and maybe even unbeneficial, but I wanted to be a true Force-throwing Consular, damn it.
Edited by Lavaeolus on Jul 30th 2018 at 4:10:09 PM
I think I'm losing interest in this one. Just picked up Bao-Dur, fighting my way through the beach to pick up my ship, and it's kind of a slog. How much more time do I need to spend on Telos before this gets good?
Also, are the wildlife and mercenaries meant to save so frequently against my and Kreia's force powers?
Shortly after this bit, you'll get to travel between planets, choose what your party is, and potentially convert companions to the light/dark side after gaining/losing Influence with them. I'd recommend Nar Shaddaa first, as a lot happens there, you'll unlock new dialogue with Atton so you can finally do more than ask him about Pazaak, and until you progress in the plot there it'll give you more freedom to walk around talking, helping/attacking people, etc.
As for saving against force powers - that's just bad luck and low levels getting you. Just boost wisdom on a few of your level ups and you should start beating saving enemy saving throws with reasonable frequency. High-wisdom playthroughs generally have you as an unstoppable force-god at the end with multi-target powers, which is both fun and arguably in-character for the Exile.
So, all the Jedi Masters are gathered. I also tried out the M4-78 mod for the first time. Before I go to Dantooine for what might probably be my favourite scene in the game, I thought I'd reminisce on my thoughts on all the planets and my experience going through them again. I went on way too long so I'll folder this.
Nar Shaddaa is maybe interesting; of the planets, it's probably the one least directly touched by war. It's not part of the Republic, it wasn't attacked by the Mandalorians, and as an independent entity it's so infamously bogged down in criminal activities and known as a getaway that it doesn't really have many non-hidden relationships with other planets. It's a slum, a planet of slums, but as a result of the Wars it's going through something of a refugee crisis. So even here the echoes of Malachor are felt. It's probably unsurprising that most of the planet's content revolves around the Refugee Sector and delving into the conditions the refugees live in there. But the other thing interesting is that, in this game's delve into actions and consequences, you can't really fix Nar Shaddaa. You can change it for the better, place hope where there was nothing, but Nar Shaddaa's going to remain Nar Shaddaa. Your best bet is to convince the Exchange and Serrocos to back off a bit to give the refugees more space, appeal to their pragmatism to prevent the spread of infection, etc. — you can also wipe out the Exchange out of the area and trick the Serrocosnote into a suicide attack, but neither of these are really permanent solutions. The Exchange still, you know, exists. Maybe this is a reason for the immense density of quests and stuff to do — really pokes in at how hopeless the situation can feel. I dunno. Or you know, time and development constraints for elsewhere.
Onderon doesn't have the atmosphere of Nar Shaddaa, but I think it's also got its charms writing-wise. Now, while I have seen people confused about the dark/light-side choice here, I think most people who aren't ardently committed to anti-royalism, or don't deeply sympathise with people being forced into a more global world at the cost of all else, will find Talia the 'nicer' option: Talia is still mostly popular, and Vaklu opens by shooting you down, lying about it on the news to further his cause, then having his soldiers arrest journalists as spies and agent provocateursnote . Supporting Talia means trying to stop a riot specifically to prevent bloodshed, supporting Vaklu means encouraging it.
I think Star Wars, as a franchise, is not really politically-neutral. The OT could be argued to touch less on it: it was more interested in the spirituality of the Force than direct 'politics', with a finale that touched on the personal temptations faced by Luke and the personal redemption of Vader (a figure who had fallen, very generally, to power and ambition). This isn't a criticism, and certainly many of the elements that would go on to define the politics of Star Wars are there: a corrupted Republic turned Empire, a supressed memory of a peaceful golden age, Rebels fighting the good fight, knight-monk-samurai protecting what used to be, etc. And the spirituality in the Force isn't really apolitical either; I'm not going to say Return of the Jedi makes a deliberate statement on the death penalty, but the idea that you can, however unlikely, convince Darth Evil to repent and that this, not slaying him, leads to a true victory might be the direct cause of later works instituting 'Jedi do not kill their prisoners' and their reputation for quasi-pacifism. But perhaps it's the prequels that really shape what 'the Republic' means, and while KotOR moves away from that depiction a fair bit (it has a military, even), and while Star Wars decidedly chooses not to depict a utopian society, it's assumed that the Republic — and what it stands for — has value, is worth protecting. The prequels posit a war between loyalists and 'Separatists', and while there's much more going under the surface to really present it as just a war between independence or not, that itself might be noteworthy. It also presents a world where monarchy and its imagery are generally presented in a positive light — though on Naboo the monarchy is actually an elected position, and Leia's princess role is rendered irrelevant before we ever float near (one of the several pieces of) the land she's princess of.
I guess if I had a point there it's that Onderon is shaped heavily by both Star Wars politics and the design of the prequels. I think it'd be a very different planet had the PT not existed. A lot of your time spent on Onderon is seeing arguments for isolation, and arguments opposed based on the inherent interconnection of everything. Onderon is only recently emerging into the galactic spotlight, and it's true that in their time with the Republic, Onderon has had more war than ever. It's also true that Onderon was sited directly next to Dxun, so they likely would've been invaded regardlessnote and that hoping that your singular planet is spared while world war rages — or, uh, galactic war — might be a futile hope. The Onderons argue that they and Vaklu were key to the Republic not falling, and this might hold some truth, but Canderous (now Mandalore) argues that the Onderons were a blip, that it was only the Jedi that really helped turn the tide against the Mandalorians even on Iziz, and that also might have some truth to it, even if Mandalore himself is not as neutral as maybe he should be. (He's almost defined by his admiration of Revan.) It's true both that the Republic does take from Onderon — that Telos practically needs Onderon's beasts to function — and that the people of Iziz take for granted economic prosperity brought by galactic trade and connections with the Republic. A lot of the planet is a battle for PR: Vaklu controls the media, forcibly shutting down dissenters, and straight-up lies in order to present a Republic that's more deadly than it is — so what does this mean when taking into account the people's agency?
I think the game itself tends to back the light-side here, siding with the general Star Wars franchise. Partly just because, you know, Vaklu isn't a great person and picking him gets you the ending where the Jedi Master dies (leading to a big yell-fest later on), but I think if KotOR II has one clear, distinct message, it's that, yes, everything is all tied up. 'But General Vaklu would cut himself off from the many planets of Republic. This is foolish. In solitude no civilization prospers.' It's a message that's tied up both in the nature of the Star Wars cosmology, because what is the Force but the connection between all life, but it's also something echoed even by Kreia, who constitutes the game's main challenges to the general cosmology, or even characters like HK who talks about the long-term effects of a single small life removed. The Exile spent two years in utter solitude to heal after the trauma of Malachor, and it's only after that they either begin to truly recover (light side) or grow in strength (dark). And of course, everything in the game ties back into Telos and the Wars, and Telos is so important because it defines how and whether the Republic will restore other worlds touched by the wars — and most of the game is spent in the shadow of what Peragus's inadvertent destruction means for Telos and thus the galaxy. The game's all about long chains of cause-and-effect. Still, it's interesting to have the dark side represent another challenge to Star Wars' ideology.
Edited by Lavaeolus on Aug 3rd 2018 at 5:20:18 PM
Hell of a write-up! This is why TSL is my favorite Star Wars game (hell, maybe favorite EU story period).
And now I've beat the game, and Jane Shottaker's story is over. (I am very good with names.) Some final thoughts:
It's that theme again, actions having dramatic unintended repercussions, echoed by every bloody person in the galaxy. The game often presents joining the Mandalorian Wars as justifiable if not outright right, but it's also aware they directly led into 'the Jedi Civil War' and the current Sith threat. The other masters are more positive; Kavar was something of a personal friend of the Exile, and both him and Zez-Kai Ell regret not trying to understand the Exile's actions instead of banishing her.note Of those two, Kavar is the most focused on actually dealing with the Sith threat; it's he who believes revisiting the Exile and their path will help solve the mysteries of the Sith, and he's right on that account, and he's the closest to do anything about it (indeed, on Onderon the Sith do actually show themselves). Zez-Kai Ell is similarly repentant, but he gives way to depression and hopelessness. He completely gives up on the Jedi name, the Council, and drowns in his guilt over them not admitting they were flawed and partly responsible for the Jedi Civil War (their actions, after all, drove so many countless Jedi to leave). He really is, as you can accuse the Jedi of a few times, just hiding, to avoid responsibility or the threat. When you do the light-side path, you show him up once more: you show him that he could have done more, could have helped those on Nar Shaddaa in some small way. He's a fitting master for the planet.
You read all that, two out of three ain't bad, and so it's interesting that once the Council reconvenes once more, once they reclaim their title and position, they delve into dogmatism once more — and commit the crime Kreia initially lied and framed them for, cutting the Exile from the Force. Once again, rather than try to understand the Exile, they immediately attempt to view it in the worst possible light, and so are punished when the perspective of the Exile, disconnected from the Force, is forced upon them. Immediately after, I found this dialogue from Disciple to be worth examining:
Similar dialogue is seen from Visas on the male path. I think the question of 'what is a Jedi?' is an important one, to KotOR II. Especially on the light-side path, there are plenty of moments where dialogue choices or party members, Kreia, Atton, the Disciple, etc. express that, yes, you are a Jedi. It doesn't matter if you were exiled by the Council. It might not matter if you can't even feel the Force. If you're wandering around, if you live by the ideals the Jedi intended to espouse — then you are a Jedi, the last Jedi, not the Council, not Atris and her corrupted teachings, not anyone else. Elsewhere this theme is echoed in how others see the Jedi, defined by lightsabers or by the Force. The franchise as a whole has always presented the Council in a somewhat questionable light. Sometimes they're presented as wise, but there's a reason so many commentaries of the prequels dig up flaws with the established Order, the actions of the Council, and why Phantom Menace opens with a Jedi who has a somewhat defiant relationship with them (Qui-Gon Jinn, whose defiance the EU tended to play up IIRC and was generally treated in a positive light). KotOR I continued the trend: Vrook's a bit of a jerk, and giving Revan a new, Republic-loyal personality was more than ethically questionable, something I don't think the game is blind to.
To tie things back in, while Sith Lords does question that Force aspect, I do think it's interesting that the connections to others are still written as important. It leaves some of the central messages behind the Force in tact, but the idea that those can be separate is itself a big challenge to the Star Wars world. It's the upcoming ending, with Sion and Kreia, that really hones in on this, and is maybe the most controversial part of the game. You cannot defend the Force in your convos with Sion or Kreia, and you do not separate the Force and the dark side when you question what's fuelling Sion. Still, the rest of the game is all about turning your companions Jedi or Sith, and this is usually presented as pretty positive (well, on the light side at any rate, some darkness comes with the territory on the dark side). In the end, the game makes the twist: the 'Lost Jedi' you were seeking, in your quest log, they were your companions all along! So the game isn't interested, maybe, in completely demolishing the Jedi, and Disciple's ending has him thankful for reclaiming the Force, but if this was a reconstruction the Force aspect is a little undeveloped.
Let's go back a bit, though. Darth Nihilus. His depiction in the game isn't awful, and I like some of the dialogue about him, but he's probably better in concept than in execution. I'm willing to chalk this up to lack of time; the encounter with him is rushed, he's barely a presence outside of the attack on Telos, other than the initial talks with Visas. I wonder if he would be better served by, rather than talking gibberish, simply not overtly talking at all. But, ah, some of the dialogue around him.
Regrettably, the Malachor connections don't feel as developed as they could, either. I believe Nihilus was at one point meant as a dark mirror to the Exile, another idea of what the emptiness of Malachor could be. As is, he's something of the personification of the idea that war consumes and spreads — KotOR II is pretty formed in Star Wars-style mythology there. It's also another side to some of the ideas of power that have been floated. Nihilus is either, depending on how you interpret it, 1) incredibly powerful, unspeakably powerful, or 2) powerless, nothingness, just a spreading hunger with no will, no connections to others. The climax with him is, however, disappointing; depending on how you solve him, why he loses might not even be clear. It's fun that Mandalore is a presence here; he approaches things in his usual, down-to-Earth pragmatic way, so he's got his own little perspective. All this poeticism is lost on him: 'If he's so powerful, why hasn't he stopped us, then? We've attacked his ship, killed his soldiers, and he's done nothing.' When Tobin continues, he waves it off as Nihilus using 'Ah, Jedi tricks'.
Tobin is interesting, though. On Onderon, he was presented in a pretty negative light: he has a nasally voice, Mandalore takes him as a sign of how Vaklu has fallen, etc. But it's hard not to sympathise with him now, in his current state. It's clear that he does have genuine ideals, that, however misguidedly, he genuinely believed he was acting to make Onderon 'free'. It's on this that you can eventually reach him, though Mandalore disapproves for 'wasting time on the weak'. Mandalore is maybe not the best person.
I think I'd be interested in going back and replaying the first game now, also with blasters. You don't have some of the quality-of-life improvements made to blaster-play, but also I'd be less gimping myself on getting every skill since they don't really matter as much in the first game. Scoundrel/Consular, most likely.
I do think KotOR I, as much as it has a reputation for being the simpler one of the two, has its own things to say about Star Wars. After all, it's where the Mandalorian Wars and the dilemmas surrounding them were introduced, where Jolee comes in and talks about his life as a 'Grey Jedi', though I think it's less interested in exploring the general aftermath of war. I'd probably be female, so if you want I can tell you all about my exciting progressing relationship with Carth.
Edited by Lavaeolus on Aug 4th 2018 at 9:14:30 AM
it's a living
Obsidian, meanwhile — I really do wish we could've seen the finished product they had in mind, because there's so much that was stripped out of everything from the return to Telos on — Nihilus being upstaged and revealed to be mostly irrelevant, all things considered, ends up being rather the point, since the intended endgame was more of a showcase of all your companions with outcomes determined by the Exile's relationship with them.
I don't know if it would have been as successful in reality as it is in my head, but imagine Mass Effect 2's loyalty missions, compressed and fired off all in a row — that's how the documentation for the scrapped content reads to me. Even with the Restoration Mod there's only so much of it that was actually even partway done when the game shipped.
As for the Council, they're very much a commentary on the prequel era, and the somewhat paradoxical notions that Jedi should be wise and yet so fundamentally disconnected to the world that one wonders how meaningful their advice or judgments can actually be. How can the Force be ultimately benevolent when the untrained and unwary will instantly devolve into ravening psychopaths at the first hint of power? For that matter, did they have a plan to deal with the Mandalorians? Would it have worked? Possibly, but could they really be so certain that sending aid to the burning worlds on the Outer Rim would have resulted in the Civil War? It seems easy to claim the moral high ground after the fact, but if it's really that easy for Jedi to turn into Sith then how could any Force-less civilian trust that the Jedi in front of them wasn't on the verge of turning? How can the Jedi be so hidebound and sure of their own dogma when the source of their powers is so volatile and inscrutable, even to their wisest leaders?
It just sort of shows that the Order's seclusion and detachment aren't simply there for their own sake — they need to serve a purpose, and they're not one size fits all. You can be too close to the situation and too far from it — the solution isn't committing to your current position all the harder for it.
Edited by Unsung on Oct 28th 2018 at 3:02:00 AM
So, opened up the old Knights of the Old Republic. While I used Steam for the second game, for this one I dug up the old discs in my Mysterious Game Drawer™. Fortunately it was near the top. So my first thoughts when returning were along the lines of 'oh geez I hope these still work' — younger me was not so good with keeping discs safe. And there are four of them! I remember these old installers, though. Bit of nostalgia, there, though I think these days this is much slower than what just downloading the game online would be. Things seemed to go smooth; initially there were some strange, strange sounds but they stopped. And you have to re-insert the first disc to play! The memories.
Let's boot this up. Gotta download the latest patch myself these days, but not really too hard. An exciting 1280x960 resolution, delicious 4:3. Not really sure why Windowed Mode is not only accessible only in the .ini, but also requires you to also enter 'AllowWindowedMode=1' as a setting. And... it seems to work fine. Phew. I get a few crashes partway in, but I disable an old graphical option that's no longer relevant, and things seem to move along fine.
The character select screen said Scoundrels survive on guile, so I named my character Joan Guyle. Another name to go down in history. We're a blaster-using quick-talking son of a gun with a heart of gold. One kind of has to wonder why the Council programmed Revan to have a legally-questionable past as a smuggler, but hey. The intro is as I remember it, and it's an awkward one, to be honest. It thrusts you into the action, but the real weirdness is with Trask, a mysterious Mr. Exposition who takes things 100% seriously whilst nonetheless completely demolishing the fourth wall, as he tells you how to left-click, how to 'use him', etc. I notice when Carth has to break the fourth wall and tell me how to use Stealth, a robotic voiceover actually overtakes him instead of using his regular voice actor. His lips still move along to the dialogue, though. I get the bonus stealth XP, incidentally, the one time stealth will actually have bonus XP. It's interesting; a lot of RPGs have stealth in some form, but it's always been a tricky thing to properly implement. It can easily break your railroads for what the player should have to do and, while it's very useful for making a character/class distinct, it comes with its own awkwardness in a party-based game.
And to Taris, and the game proper. Well, maybe, we're still stuck in the one planet. The sequel tried to spread out the tutorial over the course of a big semi-survival horror mystery thing, but there is a benefit to just rushing through it all in one blare of action. I can run free-ish, to help out all. Or to pointlessly murder them in cold blood, as you do when specifically told to keep a low profile.
Edited by Lavaeolus on Aug 24th 2018 at 4:28:57 PM
There apparently used to be a mod for Skip Peragus but I couldn't find it. Somebody said "it's 30-40 minutes, just deal" in a thread by somebody else asking for it. I'd like to know who can do all that shit in 30 minutes because I definitely couldn't, even with this being my fourth time through it. (this is only my 2nd "complete run" though, at least that is my intention)
I'm not sure if I want to be Light or Dark Side. But perhaps that itself is a problem. Do you all think either KOTOR game really lends itself to "gradual moral development?" Like, you start more Light but go more Dark or vice versa as the plot progresses? My memory of the games isn't perfect but it doesn't seem like either one offers a critical moment where you could just totally change your mind from an RP perspective. Nothing so monumental happens.
The only possibilities that come to mind are learning you are Revan and maybe the Jedi Masters betraying you. But these are both damn neqeCamarillaar at the end of the games.
Speaking of the ungrateful and shitty Jedi, can you not kill them on a DS run? The thing is, I love Kreia. I've joked before about not realizing on my initial run - which was Dark Side - that she was not a nice person. But it's true, I never quite grasped this fact until I played the game a few other aborted times but going LS. The thing is, if you look out for yourself and judge Kreia on how she treats YOU, she is actually very nice. She's warm and insightful and I deeply cared for her. That's all I really noticed for my DS Exile. But if you have concern for your companions, she's...unpleasant.
But in any event, the scorn she shows you if you kill the Jedi Masters just made my Exile want to shrivel up and die. My only comfort is she was less disappointed in me in the endgame because I did my best to help her.
The problem is build wise the powers are reliant on your affinity so really you kinda have to have an endpoint in mind.. so No really Star wars in general isn't the setting for moral nuance
In Kotor 1
Choosing to side with/Reject Bastila at the Temple is the hard lock point
Up to that point you can be whatever but thats when the game makes you decide Lightside /Darkside and if you decied to radically shift you're punished by being at the low end of your affinity 'IE You'll be low Dark/Light if you were on the other side of the track
in Kotor 2 The Lightside/Darkside is locked in the moment you choose too kill a master' cause you'll always have the option
The funny thing is you can dupe the masters while still playing Darkside... and I'm pretty sure You'll have one last chance to trigger the Enclave fight even if you dupe all three
... of course the only issue there is what power you get
So, the Jedi Masters aren't locked to alignment, per se. Remember, kill one and you have to kill them all near the end, but otherwise you just have to choose not to fight them. So for each planet, that means:
- Onderon: You must side with Talia over Vaklu.
- Dantooine: This is a little more complex. You can side with the mercenaries... sort of. Side with the settlers initially, then after the initial assault, take a bribe and agree to let Azkul kill the administrator. In either case, you must rescue Vrook from the mercenaries; even if you side with the settlers, leaving Vrook to the mercenaries will make him return and fight you.
- Nar Shadaa: And this is a little more simple. I'm pretty sure you can help the Exchange, initially. Just don't threaten the Jedi master and fight him. Easy. IIRC there are dark side dialogue options for letting him live, too, taunting him about his miserable state.
I suppose it's not too hard to justify working to find the Masters on a DS run. I mean, the galaxy's being destroyed by Nihilus and Sion. You want to find the Jedi partly because they might help in fighting the Sith. Is it really a good moment to waste time hunting them down and killing them? Like, they're already in hiding, and in terms of revenge — it's made apparent the Exile went into exile largely of their own accord, so surely it'd be a little petty to go on a galaxy-wide quest just to murder them.
Edited by Lavaeolus on Apr 13th 2019 at 12:18:47 PM
Essentially Just play like Kriea wants you too and be a manipulative amoral schemer , In fact its the way to play to where Kriea will be as close to a sweetheart to you as She is inherently capable of being.
@Lavaelous: Great TSL write-up, I hadn't thought of the connectivity theme that you lay out so nicely. The more I think about it the more I'm reminded of a major theme in TLJ. The Force is balance, light and dark both. The dark side exists as a force (heh) of imbalance, but it's not in opposition to a "light side" so much as the greater whole.
One thing you'd be interested to know is that one original concept for Nihlus had him as the Exile's Enemy Without. A manifestation of the Exile's "lost" connection to the Force as well as the connections the Exile severed to survive the deaths of those the Exile'd bonded with. This was cut fairly early on, but Vrook hints at the connection with his talk about how the new Sith learned from the Exile.
PS US Gamer's having a weekend thread about Star Wars games
, ya'll should go in and talk about KOTOR some. 
Huh. I thought Unarmed Specialist was supposed to give you some bonus attacks per round or something, but that must've been another game. Or maybe a mod.