Jedi History 161 & 171 (Let's Play of Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2)[Now Running]

[AvatarVecna]

You don't need Breach to take out Malak, just use the lightsabers and the Force.

I only bring up Breach because somebody was asking about using a Consular; presumably, they wished to know if this dude could be blasted to death, and blasting him to death is kind of difficult if he's got his Force Immunity up (not impossible, exactly, since Force Immunity doesn't actually give immunity, but it makes it take longer, and that's a lot of time Malak can use to lightsaber your face). No matter what Jedi class you are, though, it's almost universally easier to buff yourself with force powers, shoot up on drugs, and just lightsaber him to death (and easier still if you bother to eliminate his sources of extra HP).

The best setup for all characters is to dual wield and Flurry, except for Jolee or HK; with them you just pick up repeating shots for HK, and single weapon focus for Jolee, though I doubled up sabers for him as well.

My vague recollection (it's been awhile since I ran the math) is that when all other things are equal, a Master Speed boosted, flurrying Jedi can be built to get 4 attacks with Master Dueling boosts, or get 5 attacks with Master Dual Wielding penalties (lessened penalties, but penalties all the same). I'll probably run the numbers later, if only because all this discussion is making me want to play the game again myself.

Would have to say that snagging the best equipment really helps in game. It can help.

Absolutely agree; when you can get the best equipment for your build (or for your cohort's builds), it allows them to really shine.

Getting Force powers in armor, does mean bringing Jolee along. The Heal power is useful, but I do bring medpacs along.

Personally, I prefer putting my Jedi in robes, but to each their own. As with most other things, it doesn't really make a huge difference.

We can go with Normal Difficulty or a tougher difficulty, and I will/might mention how many times I had to re-load.

Besides, it looks so far that Scout has great support with no preference for Gender, but if I am going to have some real fun, I will go with female revan and the special options for female revan mod. That way we could hang out with Bastila, and go explore Juhani's deal. Probably using the Gain force powers mod, should help some.

What about difficulty, Normal and mess myself up or go harder, pray to the dice gods?

Character: Female Scout, Name (Still undecided, Preferring something funny), probably blaster focused, with points put into Wis and Cha for later fun.

I have a slight preference towards female, and I prefer Scout/Sentinel. Blaster Jedi can be interesting, though...

Also, as a name suggestion: Trudack Shlamask...it's an anagram for "Darth Malak sucks"

[russdm]

Well, I like the names: Dead Beat, Commander, FemShep, Death Rider, Something relating to Cats because why not?!, The Pope, Captain Planet, The Hero, Chosen One, Carth's Nightmare, Free Ride, Free Bird, Juke Box

I think I always stick my force users in jedi robes or sith robes. That way the Force powers work.

Side Note: Bought Vicky 2 vanilla, played a Belgium, annexed by Netherlands, Stupid British, abandoned me!

Back to Kotor: I like that we can pick and choose different lightsaber colors. You can be a light jedi with two red lightsabers.

[KillingAScarab]

...Name (Still undecided, Preferring something funny), probably blaster focused...

These two bits ran together in my head, and now I want a protagonist named BLAST HARDCHEESE. Not that I'm asking you to do this, but if I should ever get around to KotOR again I think I know the name for that file.

[russdm]

So, continuing from before)

The Party, In order of Joining

1) Carth Onasi, Soldier, Joins on Taris

Packs two pistols, with one to start being a family heirloom of sorts and you can get him a second one by killing Bendak on Taris. Very Pro-Republic, fought in the Mando Wars then later the Jedi Civil War, but Carth Absolutely refuses to speak about his time, apparently not having made any friends. Some soldiers that won't talk about their war experience still talk about friends that they met during it; Carth has none, apparently only Saul was his friends.

Personality: Paranoid about everything, despite the fact that trusting someone is important to get the mission done. Has massive Trust issues which we get to give him therapy for. He will be the first party member that we end up having to fix. Carth is voiced by the guy who voiced Kaidon from Mass Effect, and here there be emotions...

2) Mission Vao, Scoundrel, Joins on Taris

A sneaky twi-lek that is not a dancer. She is a kid that enjoys exploring who has been on her own. Beyond that requires actually talking to her, so will be covering more of her story later when we pick her up. A version of Han Solo for Zal's Chewbacca

3) Zaalbar, Scout, Joins on Taris

Basically Chewie as a teenage, his story is also told mainly on Kashyyyk and we can learn stuff from Mission. Sadly, he gets taken from us on Kashyyyk, leaving us to learn about him from everybody else rather than him. This means we could actually miss his story details thanks to choices you can make. Swears a life debt, because apparently having him just agree to help us out is not enough Star Wars. Highly impulsive. Can be turned into basically a barbarian

4) Bastila Shan, Jedi Sentinel, Taris

Little miss Jedi stick up her @$$. Plays like the D&D style of Paladin, where a player makes a paladin to screw around with the other players. Naturally, due to our therapist status, we are to engage in therapy regarding her stick-in-the-@$$ issue. Is also a teenage that got dumped with big heroics.

Bastila is a member of the Jedi Order, which is pretty much a cult of fanatics that brainwash people. They are also heroes despite this. Seeing Bastila get her idea view whacked by Jolee is nice and a favored moment. We can watch that event occur after sticking Bastie and Jolee together since it is a randomly triggered conversation between the two.

5) T3-M4, Droid Slicer/Scoundrel, Taris

Our new droid with no personality, so basically a character made by a new player, essentially. We could get to develop his personality in how he thinks. We don't have to therapize him since he does not have any personality yet. Originally built for Davik, but we stole it.

6) Canderous Order, Soldier, Taris

Candie, mister War is Glorious, who enjoys fighting, long walks of fighting and more fighting. Bit of a retiring glory hound who is getting bored with Davik. Decides ditching his boss to join us is worth it. You betcha. Thanks to us, Candie gets to live rather than die with the rest of Taris.

Has some nice comments for Bastila, and for Carth. Carth is naturally Carth, so he (Carth) reacts badly. Too bad that Candie has no regrets over his military days, Carth, and that Carth has no rebuttals of any strength. (Carth brings up war crimes done by the Mandos, but Carth never actually says what they are, making his point moot. Carth Fails at Arguing his Point)

7) Juhani, Jedi Guardian, Optional on Dantioone (Thank Goodness!)

Cat-Girl with anger management issues, and a control freak. A member of the cult like Bastila, but has more personal problems, then blames us for a bunch of stuff. Seriously, it was not our fault that Taris blew up, that was Malak and Bastila's fault. Also, given her own history, why is Juhani so upset? An older version of Mission basically, but little more.

The anger management issue is sadly all in her head; Don't expect her to say or do anything remotely pissed off about, and she spouts Anti-dark side lines. Gets prissy about Taris, but that is it. The difficulty with rage bit could have been developed better with more instances of it happening to show the struggle, but the designers goofed. She gets portrayed with a "my species doth protest too much", along with issues dealing with that fact she gets angry or could have normal emotions. Considering the insane way Jedi teach people with tempers, it makes her problems more hilarious. We get to therapize her for her anger problems and take her crap, like Bastila.

Oh, and not to forget, she has a freebie cloaking method that doesn't need a device to use. Sadly the full value of cloaking then wandering around really doesn't apply much in the game. Another issue.

8) HK-47, Droid Soldier, Tatioone (Optional if you want to slaughter the Tuskens, Required for you want to conclude things peacefully, which happens to be Ironic considering that HK is an assassin droid)

A droid that we can buy, hear his story while repairing him, and basically get a fun companion. He has no faults, so none of Carth's whinging, Bastila/Juhani-'s sermonizing about the dark side. That makes him great in my book. His therapy is actually just fixing him. So relaxing. Has a lot of great comments.

9) Jolee Bindo, Jedi Counselor, Kashyyyk (Vital to get past an obstacle, then signs on. If you aren't talking with him every chance you get, then you are missing out)

A crotchetly old man that was there, been there, and did the whole hero spiel. That makes him our go to guy for fun stories. Provides interaction for us with somebody that has left the Jedi order after picking up on the crazy. The most developed of the characters, who we just listen to with having to apply therapy to. Meaning that we actually can enjoy his presence.

Also, the most important point, Jolee is the king of snark and has some nice stuff to say about heroism to Carth, which is great because troubling Carth in game is always fun.

Enemies:

Malak) The bad guy with a missing jaw. We learn is the second to Revan and that he doesn't like Revan much. Plus, he happens to be inspiration for the meatbag reference for HK. Learning about that is great.

Darth Bandon) A barely there apprentice to Malak. First encountered on the Endar Spire where he kills Trask, which you can yell about when you met him again. Which is rather silly since you don't remember anybody else. His other establishing moment is force slinging somebody in his way into a console. Yeah, not exactly that establishing. Runs on the principle of show, tell nothing, show nothing in game design. Why is he threatening again? Oh right, he can actually really hurt us when we encounter him later with his goons.

Calo Nord) Bounty Hunter of DOOM!!!!!!!! and few words. He competes with Candie for Davik, which is weird, but happens to nice. We encounter him a few times on Taris before fighting at Davik's then he shows up somehow surviving having a bomb drop on him. He has some nice armor like Bandon does.

All the others: There are items in game that named after ancestors of members of the cast in the star wars movies. So we can or should expect to find an item belonging to somebody Calrissian, who is supposedly related to Lando. Having actual Lando would have been cool.

Update: the Scoundrel Sneak Attack works on enemies being stunned or immobilized, or being behind them or the first attack being stealthed which breaks stealth. So, making best use of Sneak Attack means constantly re-orienting to stay behind somebody.

[danzibr]

Are we voting on the party? I say Baalbar and HK-47. Ahhhh yeah.

[KillingAScarab]

I went ahead and started a new playthrough to work out my desire fore Space Mutiny protagonist in a Star Wars game. He will only have enough skill points to max one skill, and I am fine with that.

Regarding Lando, it would be a little difficult to explain what he was doing there nearly four thousand years before the Battle of Yavin (3956 BBY).

Also, Canderous' last name is Ordo.

[LibraryOgre]

Are we voting on the party? I say Baalbar and HK-47. Ahhhh yeah.

My preferred party was two melee and one ranged... since I set my character up as melee, I would partner with Zaalbar or a Jedi, then Carth, Mission, HK 47, T3, or Canderous to provide ranged support.

Two melee gave you good spread of damage taken, while the ranged person could add to wherever it was needed.

[danzibr]

My preferred party was two melee and one ranged... since I set my character up as melee, I would partner with Zaalbar or a Jedi, then Carth, Mission, HK 47, T3, or Canderous to provide ranged support.

Two melee gave you good spread of damage taken, while the ranged person could add to wherever it was needed.

Perfect!

Dunno how I typed Baalbar >.>

[LibraryOgre]

Perfect!

Dunno how I typed Baalbar >.>

I am picturing a series of children's books called "Baalbar the Wookie", along the lines of Babar the Elephant.

The sad part is, I think it works pretty well in the game.

And, since we're whining about the companions... Zaalbar. He refuses to engage with you on the ship, when we go to his world to do things, he's taken away from the party entirely, and afterwards, he's all "We must never speak of this again!" FAR more interesting would have been for Chundaar to take MISSION as his hostage, requiring you to use Zaalbar in the Shadowlands, and to complete the last bit of the Shadowlands with Jolee and Zaalbar... including encountering Freyyr. Then you spend some time with Big Z, using him, instead of his story being all about NOT using him.

[russdm]

Are we voting on the party? I say Baalbar and HK-47. Ahhhh yeah.

Nope. I wasn't planning on a party vote, just rotating a few characters. Was going to talk to everyone, but was only to use a few characters.

Also, Canderous' last name is Ordo.

I started typing it and naturally typed Order. Will fix later when he shows up in game, and address him correctly.

My preferred party was two melee and one ranged... since I set my character up as melee, I would partner with Zaalbar or a Jedi, then Carth, Mission, HK 47, T3, or Canderous to provide ranged support.

Two melee gave you good spread of damage taken, while the ranged person could add to wherever it was needed.

I recall using Candie and Carth on Dantioone plus my melee Jedi, because blasters and lightsabers.

And, since we're whining about the companions... Zaalbar. He refuses to engage with you on the ship, when we go to his world to do things, he's taken away from the party entirely, and afterwards, he's all "We must never speak of this again!" FAR more interesting would have been for Chundaar to take MISSION as his hostage, requiring you to use Zaalbar in the Shadowlands, and to complete the last bit of the Shadowlands with Jolee and Zaalbar... including encountering Freyyr. Then you spend some time with Big Z, using him, instead of his story being all about NOT using him.

This basically wrecks his story pretty effectively, and taking away mission would have helped in pushing for action more. We are already taking mission with us, her getting captured or one of the others makes sense. The only reason that Chundaar takes Zaal is to try to convince of his words, which originally caused Zaal to attack Chundaar as a mad claw. Freyyr tells us that. But you wouldn't learn any of that if you killed Freyyr rather than talking with him. Getting a wookie's perspective on his home planet would have been nice. And it makes him interesting that way.

But the designers goofed.

So, I have a few tests to perform, than need a name since we should be ready to roll. Already got most of the planning ready as well for what our first episodes will be: Introduction to the Jedi History Class, because what else would happen with Jedi.

I am going to provide results for both endings, since there is spot in game where you get to pick and choose. Personally, going to go with playing the best sounding answers rather than picking a side, so we may not do so hot on the alignment scale. We may need up more like Jolee, playing rather Sith like, because we should try blending in.

Unless people have a demand for what Alignment to go and I will try to stick with it; but both endings will be up when we reach that.

Update: Got the Following names picked out for our Character) DeadBeat Smores, Yum Smores, Cute Kitten, Cat Lover, Jail Bait, UnChosen One

You can express your pick of those.

[russdm]

This is a test of a screenshot, to try to get it fit good here

Spoiler

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What do people think? Is it a good size? Does it look good? If it works, then soon we can get starter soon. (Going to do Character generation, and start up everything. Using MS paint. Also, need a name badly. Have looks picked out.

Update: Am I using the expanded Female material? Because I put in mods for Force Power gains, and Lightsaber forms from K2 in place to play in a new game.

[rooster707]

This is a test of a screenshot, to try to get it fit good here

Spoiler

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What do people think? Is it a good size? Does it look good? If it works, then soon we can get starter soon. (Going to do Character generation, and start up everything. Using MS paint. Also, need a name badly. Have looks picked out.

Looks good to me.

[AvatarVecna]

This is a test of a screenshot, to try to get it fit good here

Spoiler

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What do people think? Is it a good size? Does it look good? If it works, then soon we can get starter soon. (Going to do Character generation, and start up everything. Using MS paint. Also, need a name badly. Have looks picked out.

Looks good to me. Casting my vote for "UnChosen One".

[russdm]

Spoiler: Female Revan Heads, which to use?

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Hello, Class. I am Jedi Master Mace Windu and will be instructing this class due to the recent passing of Jedi Master Qui-gon Jinn. He recorded several lessons before his untimely demise, and was going to present them to you. To honor his memory, I will show them to you.

---

Archive Recording

Welcome to Jedi History 161: The Jedi Civil War, the next Jedi conflict following the Mandalorian Wars.

The Mandalorian Wars were a conflict fought between the Mandalorians, a group of Warriors, and the Republic. At the start of the conflict, the Jedi Council came to the decision not to get involved in the fighting. Due to rebuilding still from the Great Sith War of Exar Kun and Ulic Qel-Droma, as well being hesitant to commit Jedi, the Council maintained it's stance despite objections from the Republic.

Some among the Jedi decided that serving was the rightful Jedi action to take. Since a Jedi is to protect those who cannot protect themselves and have compassion, I believe the Council was misguided in keeping the Jedi out. As it was, two Jedi Knights rallied many to their cause: Revan and Alek S. who renamed himself Malak. The Council demanded that the two stop their efforts, but the two lead those Jedi who believed in following Jedi Principles to battle.

Sadly, those who followed Revan and Malak were unable to stop themselves from being solely corrupted by their actions. After several successful battles, Revan was given command of a large portion of the Republic's military forces. Still the Council preached inaction, so Revan lead his forces to victory against the Mandalorians. During this time, Revan and Malak rediscovered Korriban, homeworld of the Sith. They discovered teachings that influenced them, drawing them to the Dark Side, and their followers, the Revanchists, or Crusaders became affected as well.

At Malachor, the Mandalorians were defeated in battle finally, while Revan slew Mandalore the Ultimate in personal combat. With her victory, Revan took away Mandalore's Mask, a helmet that signified who would lead the Mandalorian clans. Revan also disbanded the Mandalorian military forces, destroying their weapons of war leaving them with just similar weapons to the Republic's own. Revan destroyed Malachor with a devastating weapon, the Mass Shadow Generator, entrusting his loyal general, who would become the Jedi Exile, with deploying it. Huge numbers of Republic soldiers and Jedi were killed.

What effect did that have on Revan herself? Most likely it simply helped further push her to the Dark Side.

Afterwards, Revan and Malak disappeared into the Outer Rim and Unknown Regions with little to no explanation. Some theories have suggest that Revan had been planning a secret redoubt or location to organize her followers. Other rumors have also suggested that through the course of the Mandalorian Wars that Revan and Malak had become lovers. Such things can happen in conflict, and given later events, there is possibly much truth to that rumor. It is known that a later Jedi, Satele Shan claimed to descend from Revan. A child of Revan and Malak would have great strength in the Force.

Considering that at some point Revan severed Malak's Jaw, there is even stronger support for the idea that the two were lovers. The difficulty or issues in romance could push Jedi to the Dark Side, and fighting in the middle of a war would add it's own challenges.

The Jedi Exile survived the Mass Shadow Generator, returning to the Order; being the only one of Revan's Jedi followers. The Council didn't know what to do with the Jedi Exile, and so debated the issue. The Jedi Exile disappeared into the galaxy, and the Council decided not to concern themselves with what occurred.

A few years after their disappearance, Revan and Malak returned to a galaxy that repairing itself. They declared themselves Dark Lords of the Sith, taking on the Darth title. So, they were Darth Revan and Darth Malak. They lead their forces, former Jedi and Republic alike against the Republic that they had once saved from the Mandalorians. It was clear that the Council's failure had come full circle.

Years of fighting ended with the young Jedi Padawan Bastila Shan leading a strike time to remove Darth Revan. They succeeded in boarding her ship, and with un-requested assistance from Darth Malak, they defeated her. Malak, long stuck in the shadow of his master, took action and opened fire on Revan's ship while it was being boarded. His actions combined with Bastila's own lead to Revan's death.

The fighting continued with Darth Malak leading the forces of the Sith. He tested his students, and found one named Darth Bandon that he chose to be his Sith Apprentice. Having proven himself many times, Darth Bandon was given the task of retrieving Bastila Shan from the Republic vessel, Endar Spire, above the planet of Taris. Malak's flagship was due to arrive soon, and Bandon was to have her in hand.

Despite his efforts, Darth Bandon failed to complete his mission, but spoke of a curious crewmember of the Endar Spire. Hearing about this individual, protected by Republic Ensign Trask Ulgo, Malak spared Bandon's life, sending off on another task. Malak ordered his admiral, Saul Karath, to increase the flagship's speed so that he could arrive at Taris much quicker.

---

Archive Recording Ends



Master Jinn has explained matters sufficiently, and has further recordings to show you. Much time and effort was spent in examining the archives for information.

Now, we will cover the Endar Spire battle, after you get back from class. Class, Dismissed.

[What do people think so far? My commentary will be in brackets, comments on the gameplay will be in Italics in ()]

[russdm]

[Right, just rolling with things. And will be using FRAPs; I am going to be using the special Flirty Female Revan thing, and just doing stuff. Then posting up the next update, here probably tomorrow; Episode 1 is finished and I have screenshots, about 115 of them, I won't be covering Character, as I didn't get any screenshots during it, but I have level up shots]

[Expect Episode 1 appearing here, in spoilers, Tomorrow Afternoon]

[GungHo]

It's been almost 15 years and i still see "Darth Brandon" every time i see that name.

[AvatarVecna]

It's been almost 15 years and i still see "Darth Brandon" every time i see that name.

Great, now I'll never be able to take him seriously ever again.

[GloatingSwine]

Great, now I'll never be able to take him seriously ever again.

That assumes you took him seriously to begin with.

I mean he's barely above the mook level dark jedi you have to periodically deal with when you fight him, and he's clearly a massive edgelord.

[rooster707]

Great, now I'll never be able to take him seriously ever again.

Wait, you could take him seriously before?

Spoiler: Female Revan Heads, which to use?

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Fourth row, left. (Although I'm kind of biased because that's the one I used on my KotOR 2 playthrough...)

[danzibr]

[What do people think so far? My commentary will be in brackets, comments on the gameplay will be in Italics in ()]

Loved it!

@GungHo: I too read it Darth Brandon. At some point during my first playthrough I figured it out, but still...

[russdm]

Episode 1: FIGHT!!! For your Right!!! (End of Day 1 of Class)


Welcome back class. I perceive that you had a good lunch and perhaps a food fight....

As I said before the break for lunch, we are covering the Endar Spire battle, and our historical figures arrival on Taris.

I would like to introduce you to our first historical individuals, UnChosen One, and Commander Carth Onasi, and Ensign Trask Ulgo. They were the last individuals leaving the ship before it blew. We have sources of Information about these individuals, especially UnChosen's own comments about her escape from the ship.

According to the Jedi Archives, UnChosen was born on a world in the Hutt systems of the time [Don't correctly recall the spelling of the place] and become an explorer like her parents. Her skills attracted the attention of the Republic who placed her on board the Endar Spire after she completed a short bit of basic training.

Spoiler: Her Appearance

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Her Appearance

Spoiler: Her Abilties

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Her Abilities

(I want with Odd numbers because when we level or get items we can increase to higher bonus, plus lower numbers also meant more stats can be higher. I think that the 10 in STR is my lowest stat here)

In the Jedi Archives, we have her own accounts of the fighting, and we also have the journal of Commander Onasi himself. UnChosen One has a...singular...wit.

---

Archive Recording

Spoiler

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UnChosen One (Referenced as One Hereafter): I was sleeping, having a wonderful dream about a pair of Wookies and Me...


But then my cabin-mate, Ensign Trask Ulgo, woke me up from the wonderful dream. It was nice to finally the meet the guy that had a holoframe of that attractive lady. His wife? His Sister? His girlfriend? He had some words to say.


One: "Who are you?"




One: "Bastila?"






One: Trask explained his reasoning for why I was onboard. I already knew that, but it was nice to know he appreciated my talents all the same. I was worried when I had nothing to do since I had got on board.


One: After I prepped myself, Trask ran into action like an eager puppy chasing after a chew toy.


One: Then some message came up saying that we needed to help repel boarders. Trask let me know what it was.


One: Out of our quarters, the battle was joined, and it looked like the Republic soldiers were dropping like flies. So, naturally we tried to help stem the silver tide of destruction (Thank you, Mom, for that lousy book of poetry; I needed to know what Hutts consider poetic!)














We defeated the Sith easily, but I took a few burns. Note to self: Remember when to duck! Trask suggested we treat our wounds. Couldn't disagree.


Then we set about clearing out the riffraff.






More Republic soldiers fell against apparently better trained soldiers. If they are usually this lousy, no wonder the Republic needs my help.








Taking a breather before continuing on. Trask is so manly and eager to shoot stuff.


Continued on to encounter a fight that we stayed out of. No!! Not my Jedi Minion!!!!








I shall avenge you, minion...


Trask insisted that we draw our swords. Whatever, let doing my AVENGING!!!






Of course, I won. On to the Bridge!!!


Ha! Defeated those....ohhhh, big planet thingy!!!! Are we crashing?!?! Yep, we are CRASHING!!! (Also, I learned a lot by carving through these enemies. Fear the ME-Fu!)





(Picked up Dual Wield, to better fight using two weapons)









Hey, it's that guy who killed my Minion!!! Let me at HIM!!!! What, what are you doing, Trask??





[Seriously, the previous dark Jedi has the same head as Darth Bandon, I think]

Damn IT!!! I wanted to kill him. I need a Jedi minion. Onward to Carth-boi.




Carth sends me another message, and a warning.




I employ my stealth systems. It didn't really work, but it was one guy...Carth! (Stealth Fail!)

[I don't know what the screw-up was but the stealth thing really didn't work. It might have been the fact the computer I am using doesn't have T&L on it's graphic card. Or the guy had already seen me]



I stopped to take a Selfie, don't I look awesome?


More Sith! With some Semi-useful advice from Carth. (You were a soldier, and that's all the advice you have?)






Hmm, Terminal or Droid?


Droid wins. Now let's get it working.








Droid-San is doing his job. Not Bad.




Door. Door? DOOR! What's behind it? More Sith?




Oh, It's just Carth. Never mind, no worries. Let's get off this Kriffing ship!!!








Carth Onasi: My companion still remains incoherent. Due to that, I have not been able to engage in much exploration. I was able to determine the apartment has working facilities. I don't think I will mention anything to my companion about cleaning her while she was been out of it. She did manage to make her way through some Sith to me, and I don't know how she would take learning that I have been tending to her.

I also installed some spy-cams so I can observe and watch for suspicious behavior. Though, I don't know exactly what kind of trouble one can get up to in the refresher, I have secured it for continual observations. I won't be betrayed by anyone ever again. Ever AGAIN!!!



UnChosen One: Wow, where am I? Hey, it's that guy! On the Communicator device. Wow!, he sure is pretty. Maybe should wear some nice pink, it would look good on him. Oh, is he talking to me?





One: "Right, I'm UnChosen One, by the way. How did we get here?


One: "Where are we?"






One: Carth explained to me the situation...






One: "Who is Bastila?"

Onasi: Looks like my companion, UnChosen, has memory issues or is acting like it. What kind of person names their kid UnChosen anyway? Who has a last name like One either? Is she some kind of spy? She came on board with the Jedi, clearly she is a spy.





One: "Do you know if she is alive?"




















One: Nice background information about the problem we are facing, but...

One: How do I benefit? I have debts to those guys who I blew up and left behind on that Ice World...Wow, I completely forget how much I pissed them off. Maybe a couple thousand or two would get them off my arse?


One: Wrong answer, Onasi. I expect to get paid.

One: Seriously, Dude. Kriffing agree to pay me already!


Onasi: I cannot believe that she is demanding money for this.



One: "That's more like it." The promise of credits soothes my concerns.



One: Ahhh, Carth, you are so helpful. When I do start getting paid? Soon? Soon??











One: I should so be getting Hazard Pay for this. Well, got to strap on my big girl shoes and show Carth how proper exploration is done. (I feel like I am just asking for trouble with that)

Onasi: Through appealing to my companion's desire for money, I was able to convince her to help me out. I don't doubt that means she will join the Sith for money. I may have to try to appealing to something else to get her involved. Perhaps my irresistible charm? That always worked on the ladies...

---

Archive Recording Ends


Well, class. I believe that you should have learned quite a bit. For tomorrow's class, read up on the Archive's section on Taris in this time period, for there will be a test on it. Those who succeed will receive the possibility of observing an actual lightsaber training course conducted by venerable Master Dooku. Doesn't that sound fun, kids?

Alright, we finished for the day. I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow. May the Force be with you.

Spoiler: My Commentary

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[So there is a lot of Tutorial because well, it is actually fun, and does really explain why they bring you along. Frankly, I firmly believe that Trask Ulgo knows the truth or most of it. I mean that pick him to be your cabin-mate aboard ship. The Jedi wouldn't give that to just anybody, especially for Revan. Also I am not popping out the reveal until it happens in game.

Mace is going to let the kids figure it out. The Jedi are portrayed as being really big on their tests and personal insights, so it just feels right for him to do so.

My original plan was to have Jinn do the talking but thought it would be cooler to have Mace mainly because he is played by Samuel L Jackson, and the Shatterpoint book features him doing activities. The idea of Mace having to pick up a class, and given that the Jedi are expected to help people in the galaxy, shouldn't they have classes about history and etc. to learn from? Would they send them to some planet with no knowledge of any kind?

So we meet Trask, traveled with Trask, then lost Trask. He has limited skills beside the first door, where he has to unlock it. I don't recall if a scoundrel can open it. It is also teaches you how to switch back and forth for the leader.

I don't know if it showed here, but I was giving Trask instructions for weapons. I also immediately went two weapons and was using Flurry. Flurry adds attacks at a penalty, but it helps; with two weapons we can Flurry way more. More hits means less enemies.

Rapid shot is the Flurry for Blasters. There is also Sniper Shot, Power Blast being Critical Strike and Power Attack with blasters. I really don't use Power Attack or Critical Strike because I prefer using Flurry with two weapons; it simply gives way more attacks.

There feats to improve our skills by adding +1 to them. There are feats for improving ourselves like conditioning and toughness. I took toughness for the extra hit points since we are probably going to need it. At the first level up on the Endar Spire (Which we get around the Bridge area-usually, sometimes it happens before or afterward) I took the dual weapons so I could use two weapons easier (decreases penalty to hit since I have no STR mod.)

Carth is now a member of our party, and I will include more of his thoughts. I am also planning to get him a color of his own, and I am thinking maybe Orange for it. Unless somebody has one that would work way better. It is my goal to give each party member their own color for text, and I have a few already chosen.

HK would probably have a sort of rusty brown, T3 should have something shiny to reflect that he is new. Bastila should be either Gold or Yellow to reflect her outfit/lightsaber color. Zal would be some shade of Brown or Red, while Mission would have Blue. Not Sure for Candie or Jolee or Juhani. I can wait to pick the others, since I don't think I will be picking up Mission until the third episode.

Episode 2 will probably involve Arena business, Pazaak, Exploring everything on the top level, then heading below to explore, with finishing up the episode with going down into the bottom rakghoul infested level. Depends on far I get.

Fraps is working great since I can dump the screenshots in a folder, then load them up to albums on my Imgur account. I don't know what the limit is, so I may need to find out.

So what are the thoughts about this? Is UnChosen funny enough? Need more jokes? What about Carth? Are you getting a feel for where we are going?

For skills, I am planning ahead for fixing HK, then dealing with reducing the cost of Spikes/Parts for terminals/Droids. The Persuade is for getting more cash, and having a high Persuade will net us a nice new weapon for Carth.

If I survive the Arena section. I am bend the rules quite a bit there...

"No, officer, that blaster wasn't fully powered when I handed it over to the Arena specialists."]

[danzibr]

I like it!

Hrm, not sure they all need their color. It'd be a nice touch, though. Decent bit more work, all I'm sayin'.

[KillingAScarab]

For skills, I am planning ahead for fixing HK, then dealing with reducing the cost of Spikes/Parts for terminals/Droids. The Persuade is for getting more cash, and having a high Persuade will net us a nice new weapon for Carth.

It seems there are two different ways Persuade works in KotOR. In the XBox version, Persuade works as one would expect a d20 skill check to work. After a certain patch, it seems the PC version doesn't use set Difficulty Classes.

Spoiler: Game scripts/mechanics

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This post on the BioWare forums (Google cache link here) indicates that Persuade checks are instead assigned either an Easy, Medium or Hard difficulty and success is a function of your total skill ranks and your character level... sort of. There's a Strategy Wiki entry with a table that breaks down minimum Persuade total skill ranks for different success rates.

If you want to test this, try making a Scoundrel with a Charisma score of 16 and 5 skill ranks in Persuade at level 2 by the end of the Endar Spire. Head to the cantina in Upper Taris and try to persuade Ajuur to give you more than 10% when he recruits you to participate in duels. If this information is accurate to your version of the PC release, you should never fail. Actually, since that Persuade check is only Medium difficulty, you only need 6 total skill ranks to succeed at it 100% of the time.

[danzibr]

It seems there are two different ways Persuade works in KotOR. In the XBox version, Persuade works as one would expect a d20 skill check to work. After a certain patch, it seems the PC version doesn't use set Difficulty Classes.

Spoiler: Game scripts/mechanics

Show

This post on the BioWare forums (Google cache link here) indicates that Persuade checks are instead assigned either an Easy, Medium or Hard difficulty and success is a function of your total skill ranks and your character level... sort of. There's a Strategy Wiki entry with a table that breaks down minimum Persuade total skill ranks for different success rates.

If you want to test this, try making a Scoundrel with a Charisma score of 16 and 5 skill ranks in Persuade at level 2 by the end of the Endar Spire. Head to the cantina in Upper Taris and try to persuade Ajuur to give you more than 10% when he recruits you to participate in duels. If this information is accurate to your version of the PC release, you should never fail. Actually, since that Persuade check is only Medium difficulty, you only need 6 total skill ranks to succeed at it 100% of the time.

Huh. So if you leave your rank alone but gain levels, you become more likely to fail? That's lame.

[GloatingSwine]

Huh. So if you leave your rank alone but gain levels, you become more likely to fail? That's lame.

Persuade checks are almost always super lame in CRPGs. The only time I actually like them is when they're done like New Vegas or Wasteland 2, where there are multiple different ways to persuade people based on different things.

But yeah, the sliding difficulty in KotOR is even more super lame than usual, mitigated only slightly by the fact that you can get skillmonkeys for everything and only really want Awareness so you don't blunder into too many mines, 17 Repair and Persaude on the PC, and if you're going full space wizard your CHA is useful anyway because it makes your force DCs harder.

[KillingAScarab]

Huh. So if you leave your rank alone but gain levels, you become more likely to fail? That's lame.

Persuade checks are almost always super lame in CRPGs. The only time I actually like them is when they're done like New Vegas or Wasteland 2, where there are multiple different ways to persuade people based on different things.

But yeah, the sliding difficulty in KotOR is even more super lame than usual, mitigated only slightly by the fact that you can get skillmonkeys for everything and only really want Awareness so you don't blunder into too many mines, 17 Repair and Persaude on the PC, and if you're going full space wizard your CHA is useful anyway because it makes your force DCs harder.

My guess is that the change was introduced in an attempt to reflect a character which had not been making a continuous effort to engage in diplomacy finding it more difficult, but the way it works, you should be able to succeed all the time without actually improving (leveling up). There are some other edge cases I think are worth noting.

Spoiler: Game scripts/mechanics

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If you come out of the Endar Spire with a total skill rank of 6, then don't increase your skill ranks/Charisma modifier/feat bonus from the Empathy line after that you can go from being 75% successful at Hard checks to 25% in a level. In another four levels, you'll never succeed at Hard checks again; if you're not hoarding levels you're still on Taris at that point. It isn't until level 19 that you'll have gone from 100% success at Medium checks to 0%. Medium checks are far more forgiving.

Regarding total skill rank of 17, at level 11 it nets you 100% success on checks of all three difficulties. Without improvement, you lose the 100% successful at Hard checks in one level and then lose your 100% success in the other two in another six levels.

It seems everyone without a negative Charisma modifier always has a chance to succeed on Easy difficulty checks. There isn't a point in the game where you can have any less than a 40% chance of success.

[russdm]

I plan to get two more Episodes up, with one being about Upgrading stuff, With what little we have, and detailing it quite a bit anyway since I have used the system fully. Then we shall have the Taris Episode where we shall explore Taris is all it's wonder. And generally smelliness.

A quick note: Taris is divided into three areas, so I will be most likely breaking up the Taris section of Exploration. At the top, we have the Uppercity, then the lower city, and then the Under(?)city that is at ground level and infested with rakghouls.

The city frankly is rather boring and there is little to suggest any actual class issues going on. Due to the game engine, I think, the people living in the Undercity look just as fine as the people in the Lowercity who have clothes that are cleaner. So yeah, that is just sad. Then the UpperCity people are wearing slightly more fancier getup. So they pretty much look alike, leading to a slight difficulty in really identifying why each is really better. Then only reason difference is that the LowerCity is filled with gang members, and the UnderCity is populated by rakghouls.

Oh, and if wipe a group out, then they usually won't appear again. So you can visit cleared out areas. That doesn't mean there isn't anything to worry about, because I think there might be some re-spawning. Both the UpperCity and LowerCity have apartments, with the Lowercity apartments being occupied by gang members. During our entire walkthrough of LowerCity Taris will be attacked by the Black Vulkars, which makes the decision to side with Brejik rather stupid. And what do we get for joining Brejik: The single opportunity to loot Gadon, which well, is not what I call a major improvement since we still have to kill Brejik anyway I think. (I have never played through killing Gadon and what happens after. The idea of knocking off both gang's leadership has some appeal, since we are also going to remove Davik Kang which would be effectively crippling criminal activity.

Taris can be best explored though through the Knights of the Republic Comics, and Yora has a thread for that. It is very worth reading, though it might be past time for allowed commenting.

Expect the Episode about Equipment on Wednesday, and the first real Taris Episode on Friday.

Our starting Apartment has a workbench where we can upgrade equipment, so we get to mess with it. Once we have Bastila, with her lightsaber, I will some more looks at Equipment modifying. Right now, we can tweak our prototype vibrosword, but later we can pick up some nice armor that is moddable, with Carth's repeating gun, and Bastila's lightsaber modifiable, though we don't have anything for Bastila right now.

[KillingAScarab]

Regarding choosing text colors for party members, I recommend against yellow for Bastila, as I don't think it would be easily readable against either the white background or the green background of a spoiler box.

A quick note: Taris is divided into three areas, so I will be most likely breaking up the Taris section of Exploration. At the top, we have the Uppercity, then the lower city, and then the Under(?)city that is at ground level and infested with rakghouls.

The city frankly is rather boring and there is little to suggest any actual class issues going on. Due to the game engine, I think, the people living in the Undercity look just as fine as the people in the Lowercity who have clothes that are cleaner. So yeah, that is just sad. Then the UpperCity people are wearing slightly more fancier getup. So they pretty much look alike, leading to a slight difficulty in really identifying why each is really better. Then only reason difference is that the LowerCity is filled with gang members, and the UnderCity is populated by rakghouls.

The distinction between Upper City and Lower City is also one of species segregation. Gorton Colu is the one non-Sith I can think of (who isn't drunk) who will not be intimidated when you go up to him wearing Sith armor. He'll casually tell you he has the proper permit then go back to shouting hate speech and imploring people to join his Anti-Alien League.

The biggest difference you'll see between the humans in the Upper City and the humans in the Undercity is textures. Outcasts are wearing rags, but the effect is more like spider webs or rusty armor over a turtle-neck sweater.

Spoiler: Igear

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[russdm]

(This is the first of the Customizing Equipment Mini-Episodes, there will be at least two more to come)

Mini-Episode 1: Customizing your Equipment Part 1 of 3

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Important Parts

So something that we can do in game is modify or customize our equipment.

Spoiler

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First, I look around:


Then loot the locker to see if it any upgrade parts (it didn't):


So I use the Workbench:






What objects we can modify/customize (if something here is empty, it is because we don't anything of that item type to work with; right now we don't have upgradeable armor, while Lightsabers can all be upgraded):






After selecting Melee, note the bit under special that says "Upgradeable":


Item before modification:


Item after modification (which was a Vibration Cell):


Other modifications for Melee Weapons:


One will yellow around it, is another modification that we can apply


Our item after we have finished with it:


Carth's Blaster (for which we have no upgrade parts):


Available upgrades that we could apply to Carth's Blaster:








We are finished upgrading right now:

Since we don't have any Upgradeable armors or any lightsabers, I can't show you how these get tweaked. We will acquire one of each item though before we leave Taris. In the Lower City, we can find an armor that we can modify, and Bastila's lightsaber is always modifiable, like all lightsabers.

Where do we get upgrade parts? From loot we find, as quest rewards (random), and from shops. Some shops will have them listed, and with my guide book, I can list what shops on Taris have any upgrade items. They are: Igear, whose shop is in the Under City has another Vibration cell, and a Scope; No one seems to have any. Well, the shop may receive some randomly (I think the Merchants in this game have set items and might receive some random things, but I would have to check with the first merchant we meet who happens to be in the same apartment complex that we are in.

Now, for what everyone wants to know about: Lightsabers

Lightsabers have crystals that can be swapped out. In the second game, you will get 5 slots plus the main crystal to work with, while in this game we get 2 plus the main crystal. The main crystal is what color the lightsaber blade happens to be, and Bastila has a yellow crystal for that. We can add two more crystals for her weapon, which will affect what it can do. There a good number of different crystals plus a few other items like Krayt Dragon Pearls that we can use for modifying. (The list of modifications in the Saga Edition Jedi Academy Guide are the ones we can find in this; I don't know the list of modifications for lightsabers in FFG's Force and Destiny because I don't have that book.)

We get to use basically any color we want, and we can modify whatever lightsabers we have. A very important thing is to pick a color or pair of colors to use for each of your lightsaber wielders. That way, when we are modifying, we know whose lightsabers are being tweaked and so who will have benefits to their weapons. Bastila starts with yellow (Gold), but we can change that, and I think Jolee starts with violet or Purple for his. Juhani should have either Green or Blue, after you defeat in the Grove where her weapon uses a red color.

We can pick between a few colors: Blue, Gold, Green, Purple, Red. So we have a nice number to choose from. Of course, the second uses the same colors and adds in Silver, plus a few more I think. We can thus pick what color we want to use.

When we build our lightsaber on Dantioone, we will pick our Jedi Class, and get the lightsaber crystal with that class. The colors are Blue, Green, and Yellow(Gold, really) that correspond to one of the Jedi Classes of Guardian, Sentinels, Cons. We will be able to change out the color.

There three kinds of lightsabers: Standard, Short, and Double-bladed. Standard is the standard hilt, short are shorter hilts (and what we start with if we use the "Jedi from the Start" mod; also, Darth Malak wields a version of one for his weapon), and double-bladed which is Darth Maul's weapon and what Bastila has. We can tweak all of the weapons. We can get lightsabers as loot, since we can't buy them and we will find crystals mainly as loot. There is a couple of lightsaber modifications that we can get through quests, and I try to do so.

Then there are the two best lightsaber crystals in the game: Heart of the Guardian, and Mantle of the Force. Both can only be obtained from Yavin station, and it's Rodian seller. We also need to have collected at least 3 star maps and having visited again. So stopping at Yavin station should be done, and there is other great gear anyway to be had anyway.

We will also acquire a lightsaber on Korriban as part of the main quest, but it is not really anything fancy.

To make best use out of lightsabers, we want to employ the special crystals, so I am very much going to go cave-delving on Dantioone. The Kinrath cave always has some, and when we defeat the leader of the Mandalorians on Dantioone, he always has two lightsabers in his loot.

To sum up: Loot everything and everyone, complete quests and use your persuade to get more rewards, check out each merchant to see what they have. This game really runs on taking everything that is acquirable before selling it if you don't need it.

To keep the most credits in, make sure that you don't over splurge. You don't need weapons for each character, only enough for three really, and keep any that are unique like Carth's family blaster (shown up above in the screenshots), Bendak's Blaster (Which we will acquire after beating all arena opponents and then defeating Bendak in the death match), Candie's gun. All these items will be upgradeable, which is another reason to hold to them.

So that concludes our first Mini-Episode, which I will be using to feature interesting game parts. I am planning to do conversations as either part of main episodes or depending on where they would better fit, I may do Mini-Episodes for them.

Episode 2 will background information about Carth, who is our first companion.

[danzibr]

Oh man, I completely forgot about the upgrading. Nice post :)