Convince Me To Play KOTOR

Lord Poe · Post by **Lord Poe** » 2008-02-08 05:03pm

(That title sounds like I've broken a dozen grammar rules...)

I bought KOTOR when it first came out. I played for maybe a few hours, and I haven't touched it since. I just don't seem to have a whole lot of time anymore to immerse myself in an RPG like that. The last time I did was a vampire game that was a really great experience, but I spent way too much time on it.

Is KOTOR a huge time eater? Can it be played an hour or so after work, and not every night without you getting withdrawls?

Spyder · Post by **Spyder** » 2008-02-08 05:10pm

I managed to get through it by playing it in short stints. It's an entertaining diversion. Worth finishing for the story.

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2008-02-08 05:24pm

As long as you commit yourself to the 1 quest a day rule your good. Kotor can be played in bite sized chuncks as oppsed to a more traditional D&D game like Balder's Gate where walking into a Tavern results in 10 new FED-Ex quests.

So yes, one or two quests a night, one plot point a day. It's easy to play over a month or so.

Losonti Tokash · Post by **Losonti Tokash** » 2008-02-08 06:03pm

Once you get your lightsaber, it will be as though you were a god.

Except naturally way more awesome, because I don't remember god in the bible dancing all over the fucking place with a sword made up of pure energy and hate.

Hawkwings · Post by **Hawkwings** » 2008-02-08 06:19pm

Get force lightning and force storm. This will make your playthrough infinitely more enjoyable. Even if you're a lightside character, get those powers.

ArmorPierce · Post by **ArmorPierce** » 2008-02-08 07:43pm

only takes up 20 hours to play the game in entirely from beginning to end. You could play it over a weekend if you got nothing else to do.

PREDATOR490 · Post by **PREDATOR490** » 2008-02-08 08:16pm

If you want to maximise the time efficiency of playing then a specific order you can play it with may help. I think it is:

Kasyykk or whatever the spelling - You get Jolee here

Tattooine - You get HK-47 here

Mannan - You get killer fish

Korriban - Leaving it last tends to be fun cause of the extra dialogue options.

Beyond that your fixed in where you go and the whole game is really straight forward.

The other thing to do is to exploit one of the bugs with the Ebon Hawk. Talk to all the crew for their dialogue options / back story things. Leave the Ebon Hawk then go back in then talk to them again. The dialogue's should continue until you eventually reach their 'end' quests. You can do this as early as Dantooine which basically means you wont have to do a lot of extra flying about between planets for their quests.

If your going to blitz then doing it within a few days shouldnt be difficult at all. Alternatively, you can just do it piecemeal planet by planet. The quests themselves usually dont take that long and are self contained so withdrawl shouldnt be a problem unless your really gunning to finish it and complete everything.

Vehrec · Post by **Vehrec** » 2008-02-08 08:25pm

HK-47 calls all organic life "meatbag", and insults you when you bugger up your attempts to repair him. By the way, sink some points into Repair so you can fix your bloody assassin droid, he's very nice fully upgraded.

Post by **Vympel** » 2008-02-08 09:01pm

Or just cheat and max out your repair to be equal to T4-M4, you shouldn't have to put any points into repair when your astromech should be able to fix him for you. That's what I did.

It's an awesome game. Play a quest a day, it's worth it.

Sarevok · Post by **Sarevok** » 2008-02-09 03:03am

Since no one has mentioned it yet...

Avoid gameplay guides for this game. You will spoil one of the great plot twists in video games. The start of the game is especially slow and annoying and I had to look on GameFaqs. I regret that decision now...

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2008-02-09 11:23am

Vympel wrote:Or just cheat and max out your repair to be equal to T4-M4, you shouldn't have to put any points into repair when your astromech should be able to fix him for you. That's what I did.

It's an awesome game. Play a quest a day, it's worth it.

You don't really need to. Just start as a Scout, they're a good starting class for any of the three second classes anyway with helpful immunities and free Flurry ranks, and they shower you in skill points. Still use T3 for any actual repairing, of course, as he's more efficient (and repairing more stuff means more XP, Yay for XP farming).

Lord Poe · Post by **Lord Poe** » 2008-02-09 11:31am

Ok, I'll give it another shot!

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2008-02-09 11:53am

PREDATOR490 wrote:If you want to maximise the time efficiency of playing then a specific order you can play it with may help. I think it is:

Kasyykk or whatever the spelling - You get Jolee here

Tattooine - You get HK-47 here

Mannan - You get killer fish

Korriban - Leaving it last tends to be fun cause of the extra dialogue options.

The only ones that really matter are doing Manaan third and Korriban last.

If you fight Darth Bandon on Manaan he drops a slightly abnormal lightsaber, that responds completely differently to all the upgrade crystals. I think Calo Nord might also drop something different if you fight him on Tattooine. I always do Tattooine first anyway, to get HK-47

DarthShady · Post by **DarthShady** » 2008-02-09 12:22pm

Sarevok wrote:Since no one has mentioned it yet...

Avoid gameplay guides for this game. You will spoil one of the great plot twists in video games. The start of the game is especially slow and annoying and I had to look on GameFaqs. I regret that decision now...

I feel sorry for you.The plot twist is for me definitely the best part of KOTOR.

Enigma · Post by **Enigma** » 2008-02-09 03:58pm

I loved the massacre I caused between the two feuding families.

Sarevok · Post by **Sarevok** » 2008-02-10 12:18am

DarthShady wrote:
Sarevok wrote:Since no one has mentioned it yet...

Avoid gameplay guides for this game. You will spoil one of the great plot twists in video games. The start of the game is especially slow and annoying and I had to look on GameFaqs. I regret that decision now...
I feel sorry for you.The plot twist is for me definitely the best part of KOTOR.

Blame Taris.

And god forsaken D20 guns that are inferior to a sword.

When I got KOTOR I had little experience with RPG games not set in fantasy settings. I was expecting JK 2 style gunfights and flashy lightsaber duels that dismember enemies in seconds. I had no choice but to seek help to adjust to the alter reality that is D20verse.

Hawkwings · Post by **Hawkwings** » 2008-02-10 12:34am

In an aside, in KOTOR2, in Peragus, I was using crappy mining lasers and wimpy swords, as was intended by the designers. Then, I found a workbench, and made a blaster rifle out of parts. Oh, how satisfying that was, to finally do more than 2-3 damage per shot.

Sarevok · Post by **Sarevok** » 2008-02-10 01:55am

Hawkwings wrote:In an aside, in KOTOR2, in Peragus, I was using crappy mining lasers and wimpy swords, as was intended by the designers. Then, I found a workbench, and made a blaster rifle out of parts. Oh, how satisfying that was, to finally do more than 2-3 damage per shot.

That still won't save you from the gamer's hell called Peragus. The problem with Peragus is it is extremely long and mind numbingly dull. Combat is not a danger at all so you will not be needing that blaster.. Infact if it were a danger Peragus would been exciting instead of fingering aching mouse clicking affair.

PREDATOR490 · Post by **PREDATOR490** » 2008-02-10 01:10pm

When I first picked up Kotor 1 I thought it was going to be like JKA / JK2 style of fighting so the turn based fighting threw me a bit. That said, the 'plot twist' of Kotor 1 isnt that 'shocking', at least to me anyway.

I prefer doing the Wookie world first simply because it is the most bleak of the bunch with very little sidequests and listening to Wookie dialgoue gets really annoying. I kinda like Jolee as well so it makes a good first choice.

Sarevok · Post by **Sarevok** » 2008-02-11 08:13am

PREDATOR490 wrote:When I first picked up Kotor 1 I thought it was going to be like JKA / JK2 style of fighting so the turn based fighting threw me a bit. That said, the 'plot twist' of Kotor 1 isnt that 'shocking', at least to me anyway.

Yeah I too was expecting better than Baldur's Gate in space. If Bioware had to do turn based why not use a RPG system made for futuristic settings ?

SilverWingedSeraph · Post by **SilverWingedSeraph** » 2008-02-11 10:27am

They used a variation of the D20 Star Wars system. But they made blasters significantly weaker than they are in the P&P version of the game. Probably to make the game easier.

I dunno why, but it's fucking retarded.

DarthShady · Post by **DarthShady** » 2008-02-11 11:18am

Blame Taris. Smile

And god forsaken D20 guns that are inferior to a sword. Cool

I know what you mean, Taris was a pain!

I usually go to mannan first, because i find the fish people annoying so i go through that first so i could enjoy the rest.

I prefer doing the Wookie world first simply because it is the most bleak of the bunch with very little sidequests and listening to Wookie dialgoue gets really annoying. I kinda like Jolee as well so it makes a good first choice.

I find both Jolee and the wookies very annoying.That's why i killed them all!

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2008-02-11 01:12pm

SilverWingedSeraph wrote:They used a variation of the D20 Star Wars system. But they made blasters significantly weaker than they are in the P&P version of the game. Probably to make the game easier. I dunno why, but it's fucking retarded.

Because the engine couldn't handle cover. Basically. With nothing to prevent you being hit other than the dice roll, the game would be unsurvivable. They're supposed to do 3D6 damage (3D8 for rifles, IIRC), which would mean that no character would ever survive more than about two shots at low levels.

SilverWingedSeraph · Post by **SilverWingedSeraph** » 2008-02-11 01:35pm

Vendetta wrote:
SilverWingedSeraph wrote:They used a variation of the D20 Star Wars system. But they made blasters significantly weaker than they are in the P&P version of the game. Probably to make the game easier. I dunno why, but it's fucking retarded.
Because the engine couldn't handle cover. Basically. With nothing to prevent you being hit other than the dice roll, the game would be unsurvivable. They're supposed to do 3D6 damage (3D8 for rifles, IIRC), which would mean that no character would ever survive more than about two shots at low levels.

But in doing that, they rendered blasters as a goddamn useless weapon. I filled up my entire party with Jedi, because god help me if I was gonna have any of those useless, blasterwielding pussies tag along with me in my party.

Half the time, vibroblades were a better weapon than blasters. Vibroblades.

I'm not even going to reiterate how retarded that is.

Sarevok · Post by **Sarevok** » 2008-02-11 02:35pm

Vendetta wrote: Because the engine couldn't handle cover. Basically. With nothing to prevent you being hit other than the dice roll, the game would be unsurvivable. They're supposed to do 3D6 damage (3D8 for rifles, IIRC), which would mean that no character would ever survive more than about two shots at low levels.

Are you saying the game could not do hit detection for blaster bolts ? That does not sound right at all. I am sure I saw bolts stopped by walls. Sometimes it's actually possible to use them as cover if you dodge out of the way.