So I finally got KotOR yesterday... (1 Viewer)

[Saurav]

... and now I know why all you guys stopped playing RtCW. This could become a pretty addictive game I hope it's nice and long.

I want a lightsaber! No, I want 2!

 

[James T]

so you just got the game, huh? Enjoy the late nights and early mornings and say bye-bye to sleep

 

[Rob Varto]

Yeah, well take my advice. Scour this forum for certain traits and characteristics to build your character upon. I got to the final boss battle with my sparkly white light jedi and I repeatedly have my ass handed to me because I didn't power up with any real useful force powers. So therefore, Im NEVER going to be able to defeat the last guy after having played for nearly 40 hours!!!

 

[Saurav]

Well, that's the tough decision - I've intentionally stayed away from the KotOR threads on here, because I knew I was going to buy it some day. I'd like to know some tips (and I've heard there are some situations that can lead to game crashes), but at the same time, I don't want to learn too much about the storyline.

 

[JamesHl]

Later, when you have to pick one person to do something, if you pick a stealthy person, make sure they aren't stealthed when you're drawing to a close of that bit. That's the biggest one. Also, save often and keep multiple save files.

I made my character into a combat monster, but I spent almost all my skill points on persuade, which I find to be the most satisfying and useful skill for the pc to have. It's that or computer/repair. Others can handle everything else. Having repair and computer at high levels can allow you to do some cool things later, though.

The rundown on combat: I find that using two melee weapons works best. Have a high strength and good dex, and distribute the rest of your attributes as you see fit. Get two weapon fighting maxed out. Specialize in melee if you want, but once you get a lightsaber you won't use anything but the lightsaber, so I would spend it on something else. As the game wears on I like to load up my lightsabers with items that increase the likelihood of a critical hit as well as the damage of a critical hit, so critical strike or whatever it's called is pretty good. For force powers, you can't go wrong with force immunity and force speed. Having another character know that one where it increases everyone's attributes is good as well, I forget what that's called.

 

[Paul Richardson]

I have one tip that you'll need to remember in order to avoid the buggest bug in the game. I've made it very general as to avoid spoilers:

Use "Stealth Mode" sparingly, if at all

There is a problem where cutscenes will hang if one of your characters is in stealth mode, and it's a PITA if it happens. It happened to me, and I spent a good deal of time trying to fix the problem.

Edited to add: oops...James beat me to it!

 

[Saurav]

OK, I'll try and remember that. There was one point where I hit a cutscene when I was in stealth mode (just entered the lower city level, the cutscene where the 2 gangs are fighting). I got past that once, but forgot to save, and then spent the rest of the evening retrying that fight

So right now I'm in the black Valkur (sp?) base looking for that prototype accelator. Someome please tell me that I have a looooooooong way to go before the game ends

I'm a male scout. Combat - I seem to do better with dual blasters (ion in one hand, heavy in the other). I tried with swords a couple of times, but did really badly. My Wookie seems to be really good with swords, so that's what I gave him. I do plan to switch to lightsabers once I find them though, so should I be practicing/fighting with swords more?

 

[Dave Falasco]

I got to the final boss battle with my sparkly white light jedi and I repeatedly have my ass handed to me because I didn't power up with any real useful force powers. So therefore, Im NEVER going to be able to defeat the last guy after having played for nearly 40 hours!!!

Boy do I feel your pain. I ran into the exact same problem, and actually ranted about it a bit in the long thread we had going for a while. The skills that did me so well in the entire game (and they did) were of absolutely no use to me in the endgame, and it was only after a heroic amount of effort combined with some decent damage rolls and multiple saves that I managed to beat the end boss. (Rob, you can PM me if you're interested in knowing how I did it...it may work for you...)

Saurav, let me just say this: one path you can take (the path I took) was to concentrate on the light side and take mostly buffing spells. By this I mean spells that make you and your party more powerful, but don't deal direct damage. That is fine, and it will enable you to do quite well in the game, but make sure you take at least some direct damage spells for yourself or you will run into the same difficulty. In other words, don't be a pure cleric--throw a little fighter or sorcerer in there as well.

Also, with regard to blasters versus swords, I started out going dual-blasters and proceeded to die on a fairly regular basis. Eventually I started over and went with swords, and I had much better luck with them. Just remember that once you get access to lightsabers, the feats you spent in blaster or melee weapon proficiency will be useless to you, so don't dump too many feats in either of them.

Enjoy, and if you have specific questions by all means ask away!

 

[Saurav]

OK, I do plan to learn some desctructive magic, IMO that's the most fun kind. I accidentally got a dark Jedi point when I bullied a woman who sold me a droid that blew up the moment I left her shop. So.... how does the dark vs. light thing go? In other words, if I do equal parts of dark and light things, does that affect my character development? Will I be able to do certain things/exercise certain powers only if I'm mostly light or mostly dark? I believe the storyline and ending changes based on whether you're dark or light, right?

If these questions can't be answered without giving too much away, then don't answer them I guess all I'm asking is, do I always have to do the right (or wrong) thing; will I lose/sacrifice anything by being an ambiguous character?

 

[Chris Rock]

Someome please tell me that I have a looooooooong way to go before the game ends

You have a looooooooong way to go before the game ends.

 

[Saurav]

Heh... thanks

 

[JamesH]

I went with 2 lightsabers, maxed knight speed, and flurry. You can pretty much slice and dice whoever you want, including the last boss.

 

[Dave Falasco]

So.... how does the dark vs. light thing go?

Really your alignment controls the way you cast your force powers (when you become a jedi). There are light side powers (heal, shield, etc), dark side powers (choke, kill, slow, etc), and neutral powers (speed et al). Each power has a "points" cost to cast it. Now, if you are casting a light side power and your alignment is light, that spell will be cheaper for you to cast, and if you are a dark alignment casting a light power, it will be more expensive for you to cast. Example:

Let's say heal has a base cost of 20 points. If you are a dead-neutral character, it will cost you 20 points to cast it. But if you are light, it may only cost you 16 points to cast it, and the further up the scale towards light you go, the cheaper it gets. If you are dark, it may cost you 24 points to cast it (and similarly, the further down the dark side you go, the more it costs to cast light powers).

The reverse is true for dark powers, natch. It may cost my light character 25 points to cast "choke", whereas a dark character can cast it for 16 or so.

That's really the major effect of your alignment. And as you alluded to, there are two different endings as well, but you can find out about those for yourself.

 

[Jay Mitchosky]

So therefore, Im NEVER going to be able to defeat the last guy after having played for nearly 40 hours!!!

Ouch! I can't believe the patience you guys have with RPGs. Really amazing all the thought that goes into it.

 

[Saurav]

Hmmm... so if I want to be a light Jedi but use dark powers, I'm in a little bit of trouble. And that's exactly what I want to do

Maybe I should have followed the Jedi master's advice and become the fighter Jedi, and then used my magic just for healing/etc. But someone here advised against that, and that goes against how I like to play, I like to fight with magic too. So I picked the middle Jedi class (some fighting, some magic), let's see how that works out for me.

Enjoy the late nights and early mornings and say bye-bye to sleep

And sitting at work thinking about the game all day long

 

[JamesHl]

Hmmm... so if I want to be a light Jedi but use dark powers, I'm in a little bit of trouble.

Rightly so.

As far as strategy goes, if you are going to be a light jedi, the ability to crush people horribly in physical combat is the way to go. You don't really need any of the 'magic' so to speak, since you can't use it offensively, and as a guardian you get plenty of powers to pump yourself up to cruch people even more horribly. And I can't stress the importance of force immunity too much. It prevents those stupid dark jedi from cheating and trying to use their powers on you. So they'll often waste a turn on something that's pretty unlikely to work while you're hopefully getting in 4 or 5 hits.

 

[Saurav]

Maybe I'll go back through my save games and re-play this section and become a Jedi fighting class then. Sounds like the best strategy for how I'd want to play this.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[JamesHl]

Frankly, I think it's kind of an indeibtment of the system that you can just mow enemies down with your saber all day and it's alright, but use the force to kill someone and you're doing something wrong. I'm all for avoiding conflict, but when it's inevitable why not use all the resources at your disposable? I guess arguably you have to be angry to harness the dark side powers... I don't know.

 

[Krystian C]

Saurav

Don't forget, your game time is closer to 70 hours if you decide to go for both ending as well. You can definately trim 10 - 15 hours off the second run through. I went full light side the first time, and still have to get back to the second play through. I am pretty excited about it as some of the dark side choices in the conversation you have are down right hilarious. Enjoy the game man.

 

[Rob Varto]

I desperately wish you could board the Ebon Hawk on the last level and fly off to another planet for another opportunity to level up / obtain different force powers!