Let's Play Knights of the Old Republic (Screenshot LP)

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Let's Play Knights of the Old Republic (Screenshot LP)

#1 Post by MeaCulpa, S.C.M. »

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About this Game

Knights of the Old Republic (or KOTOR for short) is an RPG developed by Bioware and published by LucasArts in July 2003 for Xbox and November 2003 for PC. (We'll be playing the PC version, however the Xbox version is backwards compatible with the 360 if you prefer to play on console.) It was critically-acclaimed for its deep gameplay, storytelling, and (for its time) morality mechanic, which allowed you to choose the light side or the dark side. It's built around using a party of three characters, two of which are NPCs (which we can still control if we want) and one of which is a custom-made player character. the player can control the NPC's level progression, however.

KOTOR uses the d20 system, which was pioneered by Dungeons and Dragons version 3.0. In 2000, a Star Wars d20 system was made. KOTOR uses this system for its basic mechanics.

What this LP is

This LP is a copy and paste of my LP from the Something Awful forums, so people without Something Awful accounts can read it. However, if you have a something awful account, you can vote in the thread and decide what we do next. If you're unfamiliar with Something Awful, it's a very content-focused and troll free forum with a very active and informed userbase. It remains this way by requiring a $10 buy-in for anyone making an account. I'm really into LPs and something awful seems to be where all the good ones come from. It's also the only forum I know of that does screenshot LPs: instead of video, screenshot LPs use written text and screenshots to move an LP along. Some games are very good for this model, and I think KOTOR is one of them, being a turn-based game.

If you have an SA account:
Link to the original thread. Place votes in this thread. Votes in the 2kinds thread will be ignored.

There's something else you should know--the character we use in this first update is a throwaway. After this post, the SA audience voted on what character we would play. All further updates will use that character.

When we start the game, we're treated to far from the best graphics the original Xbox had to offer, thrown in with some pre-rendered cutscenes. I should note it contains some spoilers--though obviously nothing you won't see playing the game--so proceed with caution.

Intro movie

I've quickly thrown together this character for our uses:

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The actual Wedge Antilles has, despite his relatively slight screen time, an absolutely insane amount of backstory. I suppose you could say that of every minor Star Wars character in the movies, however.

Our Wedge Antilles has all his attributes (as visible) in Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution, mostly in Dexterity. Dexterity's good for shooting stuff, and Wedge has an affinity for fighting with two weapons, so we'll need to find a pair of blaster pistols for him. The 8s for intelligence, wisdom, and charisma indicate we didn't put any points in those--they start at 8. Those things just under the character creation tabs--Fortitude, Reflex, and Will--won't come into play in our short time with Wedge, but they are increasingly relevant as gameplay goes on. Wedge is also trained in treating injuries, which means using in-game health items, called medpacs, will give us more health than normal.

Once we start the game properly, we're given another cutscene: It's a classic Star Wars text scroll.

(Another) Intro Video

All that shooting has woken Wedge from his beauty sleep! He is understandably perturbed.

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As if this were not enough, some fool barges into our bedroom while we still have our skivvies on.

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Image We've been ambushed by a Sith battle fleet! The Endar Spire is under attack! Hurry up - we don't have much time!

We receive several dialogue options. I choose the one that seems the most clueless, indicative of Wedge's low intelligence.

Image The Endar Spire? Stop talking nonsense, bedroom intruder!

Image Did you fall out of your bunk and hit your head? The Endar Spire is the ship we're stationed on--this ship! You probably don't even know who I am, do you?

Wedge chooses not to grace this question with an answer.

Image I'm Trask Ulgo, ensign with the Republic Fleet. I'm your bunk mate here on the Endar Spire. We work opposite shifts; I guess that's why you haven't seen me before. Now hurry up! We have to find Bastila! We have to make sure she makes it off the ship alive!

His senses not quite cleared and sleeping schedule in ruins, Wedge dares another question.

Image Who's Bastila?

Image Bastila's the commanding officer on the Endar Spire. Well, not an officer, really. But she's the one in charge of this mission. One of our primary duties is to guarantee her survival in the event of enemy attack! You swore an oath just like everyone else on this mission. Now it's time to make good on that oath!

Image I've heard all about your reputation: elite combat training, tops in your class.

(I suppose Wedge made a point to sit next to the nerds on test day.)

Image It's no wonder you were hand picked for this mission. Word is the officer's haven't seen a recruit with your kind of potential in twenty years. But all that potential doesn't mean a thing if you can't deliver when it counts!

Image We're soldiers. We're trained for combat. Bastila's going to need men and women like us at her side during this attack!

We agree to help Bastila so Trask will shut up. He tells us to get some clothes on already.

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This gives us some brief control of our character, and lets us look around. Our footlocker has a short sword, a blaster rifle, adrenal stamina (a performance enhancing drug I never got around to using in this update), two medpacs, and some clothes. We equip the blaster rifle, but I remain undressed a moment longer out of absentmindedness. Trask then joins our party.

In-game, you're shown the party selection screen. As our party grows in number, we'll go to this screen to choose two companions to go with us on missions. I'm not going to show it because silhouettes of the other characters are visible, and I'd rather not have spoilers.

Now that Trask has joined our party, we have the option of controlling him.

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We have to, in order to leave the bedroom. Shortly thereafter, a message comes from...somewhere.

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It's video, but there don't seem to be any video screens in this area. Perhaps it's telepathy?

Trask provides an answer, and, also, won't shut up, being the obligatory Bioware exposition drone.

Image That was Carth contacting us on our portable communicators. He's one of the Republic's best pilots! He's seen more combat than the rest of the Endar Spire's crew put together.

Image If he says things are bad, you better believe it. We have to get to the bridge to help defend Bastila!

Image There's a map of the Endar Spire and a copy of Carth's message in your electronic journal, just in case we get separated.

The Map shows us the section of the Endar Spire we're on right now.

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The dot at the far right is the bridge--our objective.

The Journal will keep track of recent dialogue, as well as quests.

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Trask tells us to take the lead, then instantly takes the lead again when a second door refuses to open to anything except to the soft touch of Trask. Also, we put some clothes on. It was getting a little weird.

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This hallway section demonstrates the security skill, which involves clicking on a padlock when prompted. While the game is trying to teach you that you need someone in your party with the security skill to get through these doors, in reality you can just bash through them most of the time.

When we open the door, we see a raging firefight between sith soldiers and republic guards.

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Okay, we actually just see a Republic guard shoot a few times and die. He's got a pretty cool weapon--A disruptor rifle which can penetrate deflective shields--but we can't pick it up from his charred corpse, sadly.

We're introduced to KOTOR's combat system.

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KOTOR's combat is turn-based, but plays like it's happening in real time. This is something of a detriment, as all characters usually have special abilities of some kind or another, but tend to neglect these unless given explicit orders. I do my best to pause after each order is carried out.

We order Wedge to fire a Power Blast--that's the red bullet icon. Power blast sacrifices three points of "attack" for five points of damage. "attack" is a derived stat that calculates the likelihood of an attack landing on the opponent. think of every point of attack like a 5% extra chance to hit. We then switch to Trask to have him enter the fray. When we order him to fire, the game reminds us that it is a d20 game.

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How well your character does in combat is due to his build, chance, and your tactical decisions, not your mad 360 no scope skills.

You'll also notice next to our attack options is a small potato, or possibly the planet Mercury. It's actually a frag grenade. We'll use one soon, but these guys aren't worth it.

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As you can see from our full health bars in the lower-left, we're absolutely fine. That republic soldier sucked.

E: in subsequent playthroughs I've found if you take damage here, you receive an advanced medpac from Trask. Try to run around and get hit at least once, then kill the two soldiers. You don't actually have to use the advanced medpac to heal yourself--in fact, normal medpacs will be all you need for a few levels. Advanced ones are relatively expensive and difficult to get your hands on a little bit later, so this is a nice early bonus.

We enter the door at the end of the hall, encounter two more sith soldiers, and defeat them without incident, except for a tiny scratch on Wedge. There's a locker in this room with a few goodies in it: most importantly a long sword and a combat suit.

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Now is as good a time as any to explain the Defense Stat, which is indicated on the bottom left, next to the shield. When an attack lands, the game picks a number between 1 and 20, adds it to attack, and if that number is higher than defense, the attack lands and does damage. So armor in this game doesn't reduce incoming damage, it gives a chance to negate it entirely. We also get some defense from our Dexterity stat. You'll notice the combat suit has a "Max Dexterity Bonus." That's the most defense we can get from our dexterity stat if we choose to wear that armor.

The longsword will come in useful later, but we'll stick with our space guns for now.

Entering the next room, we find republic guards locked in yet another conflict.

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One of the Sith lackeys grows impatient and throws a grenade into the fray, killing two republic guards at the expense of his comrade.

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This unnamed Sith's involuntary sacrifice will be remembered in the short amount of time it requires for us to throw a grenade of our own back at the Sith, wiping them out completely.

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E: There are two more soldiers that run in after you kill the three at the front. They're not too much trouble, so hopefully this facet won't be a nasty surprise. This whole first section is really easy.

We were wise enough not to engage them in melee previous to this strategy. This battle has left a plethora of spoils, all in the form of grenades, medpacs, or credits. There's a door behind which a pitched battle of some kind can be heard, but before venturing forth, we explore the room to find a "parts pile," eponymously filled with parts.

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Parts are used in conjunction with the Repair skill to reactivate broken down droirds or other machinery. We'll see this in action later. Let's go through that door.

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We're treated to the first look at lightsaber combat in the game. Trask demands we stay out of the way, though I don't see the harm in helping.

The Jedi is victorious...

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...and is summarily exploded for her efforts.

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On her remains, we find a vibration cell.
...

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regardless of its original function, this can be used on certain melee weapons to increase their damage.

At the end of this area, Trask mentions that we are near the bridge, and should equip melee weapons. He also mentions these weapons can stand up to lightsabers. The fight on the bridge is a chance for KOTOR to show off how neat melee on melee looks. Characters react to eachother and do varying moves over the course of combat. Here, you can see Trask slaying a Sith with a power attack.

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I seriously have no idea why we didn't bother helping that Jedi.

Afterwards:

Image Bastila's not here on the bridge - they must have retreated to the escape pods! We better head that way too.

Our efforts on the bridge were enough for us to get a level up! When you level up, an arrow will appear over your character's portrait in the party menu at the lower left.

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We get a focus in blaster pistols by selecting it from the feats menu. Feats are special upgrades you get as you level. They can do anything from confer bonuses to skills to giving you new special abilities to use in combat. Our special ability power blast is a feat, which the soldier receives at level 1 for free.

As if by providence, we also encounter a second blaster pistol in a backpack hidden next to the entrance door. We exit the bridge, and Trask runs blindly ahead...

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and encounters another Dark Jedi, presumably in the middle of an interpretive dance routine.

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He sacrifices himself so that we may live. Your nobility will be remembered, Trask. Also, your obnoxious tenacity for talking nonstop. Mostly your nobility though!

After we flee the scene, Carth Onasi contacts us again.

Image This is Carth Onasi on your personal communicator. I'm tracking your position through the Endar Spire's life support systems. Bastila's escape pod is away--you're the last surviving crew member of the Endar Spire! I can't wait for you much longer; you have to get to the escape pods!

Carth's advice heeded, we move with all due haste, cutting a bloody swathe through the Sith forces in our path, who have inexplicably not evacuated the doomed ship themselves.

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Upon clearing the room above, Carth mentions gives a brief explanation of the Repair and Computer Use skills and how they work. These skills are very similar in function--you go up to either a computer console or damaged droid/piece of machinery, enter a menu, and then throw computer spikes or parts at the problem until it's solved. The higher your respective skill is, the less spikes/parts you have to use.

We find a trunk full of both, conveniently placed, and proceed to repair the droid.

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Reactivating the droid doesn't cost anything, but reactivating its shields and sending it into patrol mode both take 4 parts--Wedge isn't the brightest crayon in the drawer. In fact, if we hadn't nipped those parts from the pile earlier, we'd have to forget the shields. You'll notice our repair skill is -1: This is because we a. have no ranks in repair, and b. have low intelligence. Our intelligence score of 8 infers a -1 penalty to any skill which uses intelligence as its relevant attribute.

Skills in general are for utility. Soldiers sacrifice skills for their powerful combat abilities.

The droid whirs to life and subsequently makes short work of the sith platoon in the next room. It had shot three of them down before I had a chance to take a picture of the last two, helpless Sith:

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They beg for mercy, but the droid's machine heart knows only death.

We find an ion blaster and prototype vibroblade among the human wreckage. The ion blaster is relatively weak against living creatures but extremely effective against droids, which become a problem enemy later in the game. the prototype vibroblade is a special weapon which can be upgraded with various items found in the game, such as the vibration cell of dubious origin we found earlier.

Entering the next room, we come face to face with Carth at last.

Image You made it just in time! There's only one active escape pod left. Come on, we can hide out on the planet below!

Image Who are you?
(No one credited Wedge with a great deal of long-term memory, for good reason.)

Image I'm a soldier with the Republic, like you. We're the last two crew members left on the Endar Spire.

Everything past this dialogue point is chaff, so we'll move on to the most perplexing choice of all:

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Wedge is dumb, but he's not THAT dumb. Let's blow this joint.

Escape Pod Video

Crashlanded and unconscious on a foreign planet, we are plagued by strange visions...

And awaken, a different person.

New character's relevants:

Name: S.L. Jackson
Portrait: Bald black dude (the only one KOTOR has)
Class: Scout
Focus: Ranged Combat
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Re: Let's Play Knights of the Old Republic (Screenshot LP)

#2 Post by MeaCulpa, S.C.M. »

I'll be using higher quality screenshots in this update. Let me know if you have issues pulling them up.

Character Creation:

After deciding one's gender and class, the player gets a decision to make a quick character or a custom character. Never make a quick character. They are absolutely horrible, built with only early game in mind.

Let's go straight into our custom character. Trust that I have chosen the correct class, gender, and portrait. (The name is the last thing chosen.)

The first big decision you have to make about your character is attributes.

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Attributes affect just about everything your character does. Once you understand them, you can get an idea of a character's role in the party just by looking their attributes.
You'll notice we have six attributes, 30 points in a pool to spend on them, a "point cost," and a "modifier."

Strength is for hitting stuff in melee. Let's make it better. Again, it's a bad idea to be completely useless at either range or melee, especially early game.

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You'll notice both the point cost and modifier have gone up. When a stat is raised to 14, it costs 2 points to increase it to 15, and 2 more points to increase it to 16. At that point, the point cost is raised to 3. The highest a stat can be is 18. It costs a total of 16 points from our pool to raise a stat that high--almost half the pool. It really isn't worth it when it costs just 10 points to raise a stat to 16.

Modifiers are how the attribute affects actual gameplay. Since our strength modifier is +2, we'll add 2 points to our attack stat in melee and 2 points to our damage in melee. Every time you reach a higher even number with the attribute's score, the modifier goes up by one.

14 is a little high for a primarily ranged character, though. Let's pull it back and fill in the rest of our stats.

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I'll take this chance to explain all of these stats, and why I made these stat decisions. We've already gone over strength, so I'll start after that.

Dexterity: Dexterity is the primary stat for a ranged attacker, but it's the most "well-rounded" stat: it does a lot of things for us. Dexterity adds its modifier to ranged attack (but NOT damage). It also adds its modifier to our defense and reflex saves. Reflex saves give you a chance to reduce grenade damage--as a scout, we'll be able to negate this damage entirely with a successful Reflex save. It also adds its mod to the stealth skill, but that's irrelevant for us.

Constitution: Constitution is a defensive stat, through and through. Constitution adds its modifier to our hit points every level and also increases our Fortitude save, which can be used to resist poisons and diseases (which are absolutely murderous in their effects, sometimes reducing all your stats to low single digits. They can be nullified by items, however.)

Intelligence: Intelligence is a utility stat used entirely for skills. The higher your intelligence, the more access to skills you have. 10 is considered "average" for a stat, so we don't have an intelligence modifier. As a scout, we'll get a decent number of skills with only two points of investment.

Wisdom: Wisdom is a late game stat. I can't tell you what its late game use is yet, but there's definitely a very good reason I invested 5 points into it. Right now, it's only useful for a couple skills and our Will save, which is used against mind-affecting abilities. We won't be encountering those at all early game.

Charisma: Charisma is another late game stat. Its only other purpose is adding its modifier to the Persuade skill, which we don't have. Again, there's a very good reason I placed 5 points into this and Wisdom, so bear with me.

That's it for attributes. Now onto skills. There's no sneaky point scaling like there is with attributes, but there is a cooky system with skills that I'll endeavor to explain.

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I'll just explain the skills we got for now.

Demolitions: This will let us set mines, and also disarm or recover mines we find in the field. I don't tend to set mines very much--the AI for my comrades likes to charge straight through mines and I can't recall if mines have friendly fire. However, recovering mines is a great early-game source of income, so we'll definitely be pumping this stat for our first few levels.

Repair: We demonstrated how repair is used in the previous update, but there's also a special late-game reason to always get repair on the main character specifically until we have a total repair score of 17, including any modifiers. As usual, I'll be handing this choice to the players each level up.

Treat Injury: Every point in this skill will be added to health received from medpacs. More advanced medpacs will add multipliers to this skill bonus. I get this skill every time, without fail. It's bar-none the most important skill in the game and the only one with direct and consistent combat utility (other than demolitions, if you're into that)

Each class gets a unique set of class skills. Class skills increase by 1 for every point you put into them. The maximum ranks you can have in a class skill at level 1 is 4, and this maximum increases by 1 each level. Any skill that isn't a class skill is a cross-class skill, and requires 2 points from the pool for every 1 point of increase. The maximum ranks you can have in a cross-class skill at level 1 is 2, and increase by 1 every other level. Keep in mind, we'll only get 3 skill points each level, so cross-class skills will come dear. The class skills for scout we haven't put any points into are Awareness and Computer Use.

I'll have an infodump released shortly after this update that will go into what each of the skills do.

Onto feats!

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There are a metric dickton of feats, and going through them all is an arduous task. I'll include a comprehensive list of feats in the infodump shortly after this update. If you don't want to read through them all (quite understandable), don't worry. The voting questions will take this into account when asking what feat we want for level up.

For now, we take toughness. Toughness gives us one extra hit point per level, and unlocks improved toughness. Improved toughness also requires we are at least level 4, but reduces all incoming damage by 2, which is immense in early game.

That's it. Here's S.L. Jackson completed, pondering his destiny.

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You may notice all our saves are 2 points higher than our stats can account for. This is because Scouts start with a +2 bonus to all saves, which we'll come to appreciate as the game continues.

Before we continue to Mystery Planet, I'll show some from Jackson's time in the Endar Spire to show how he's different from Wedge.

Jackson [censored] up everyone on a spaceship

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You'll notice we have a different special attack than Wedge did. Each class starts with a unique special attack: The Scout gets rapid shot and its melee equivalent, flurry, while the Soldier received Power Blast and Power Attack. Rapid Shot lets us attack an additional time each turn at a -4 penalty to attack. That -4 is pretty hefty, but it can be reduced with feats later on in the game.

Someone mentioned wanting to see double-bladed weapons used, so I gave Jackson two-weapon fighting and I'll use any double-bladed items I find when melee is preferable. I picked up a quarterstaff which functions like a double-bladed weapon, but it's total [censored]. I'll probably use it once to show it off and throw it away.

Also, here's a map of the second section of the Endar Spire (this is where you go right after Trask goes to his extremely likely doom against a dark jedi)

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Finally, here's us repairing the battle droid to wipe out the Sith platoon. You'll notice it requires less parts--it took all 8 of our parts with Wedge. Since S.L. is trained in repair, it only took him 6 parts, so we've saved 2. Any parts we save can be used in later repair skill uses or sold to NPCs at 80 credits a piece. That's nothing to sneeze at, especially this early in the game.

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Alright, let's go where the last update left off (finally)

Jackson on Planet X

We awaken in a strange room on Mystery Planet X. Greeting us upon our wake is Carth Onasi, the Republic war hero who we met just prior to our escape. He gives us an EXTREMELY long dialogue. Instead of typing it out, I'm just going to post a summary. If you want complete dialogue regardless of length, mention so in the thread. If enough people want it, I'll do it. Reluctantly.

We've crashlanded on Taris, a world currently under quarantine by the Sith. We suspect Bastila has also crash landed on the planet somewhere in the "Undercity." We don't know much about it, except that it's dangerous. We need to find Bastila because she has the power of "Battle Meditation," which can influence armies to victory by inspiring confidence in her allies and woe in her enemies. The Sith will be trying to find her too, but they shouldn't be looking for us. In the meantime, we can use an abandoned apartment as a hideout and base of operations. Here's what it looks like. To our advantage, our character seems to know a number of alien dialects, so communication should not be an issue.

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Not much, but there's a locker filled with goodies!

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Medpacs are always nice. We don't have a use for Computer Spikes yet, but we'll hang onto them for now. You never know what'll be useful later.

More importantly, our hideout comes equipped with a workbench.

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Workbenches are used to upgrade special weapons. Any weapon that can be upgraded on a workbench will have the "Upgradeable" tag in its description. Our Prototype Vibroblade is once such weapon. By adding the, uh, "Vibration Cell" we found on the dead Jedi, we can increase its damage by one.

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It's not much, but you'll notice our weapon has two other upgrade slots. If we find the appropriate parts, we can upgrade it further.

When we choose to leave the hideout, the Party Selection menu pops up again. I won't be showing this, as previously stated, because the silhouettes are a little spoilery.

When we leave, we encounter some Sith shaking down some defenseless aliens.

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Image There was a patrol here just yesterday, and they didn't find anything! Why do you Sith keep bothering us?

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Image That's how we Sith deal with Smartmouth aliens! Now the rest of you get up against the wall before I lose my temper again!

The Sith finally notices us.

Image Hey, what's this? Humans hiding out with aliens? They're Republic fugitives! Attack!

We make short work of the three Sith. Carth uses two blaster pistols in combat, just like us. His Dual Power Blast is positively deadly. Meanwhile, S.L. uses rapid shot to send a volley of...red laser stuff towards the Sith. Normally, we'd use a grenade to clear them out, but this would also kill the alien. We haven't decided on being Light Side/Dark Side yet, so I decided not to be an [censored]...just yet.

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The survivor speaks to us after the battle. It should be noted that these aliens are speaking a foreign language, but our character can still understand them.

Image Poor Ixgil. He should never have talked back to that Sith. Thankfully you were here to step in and help us, human. This isn't the first time the Sith have come here to cause trouble for us, but hopefully it will be the last.

Image Won't someone come searching for this patrol?

Image Don't worry about the bodies. I will move them so it looks like they were killed elsewhere. That should throw the Sith off the track.

We get a blaster rifle and some grenades from the Sith, including some utility grenades we'll use later. Moving forward through the complex, we come across a kiosk manned by a Twi'lek.

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We get an option to tell him our name or keep it to ourselves. It doesn't seem wise to tell this stranger our name just yet. Unfortunately, the second option is worded rather rudely...

Image I don't care what your name is... and I'm not telling you mine!

Image Look, I know we're trying to keep a low profile, but this attitude will draw attention we don't need.

Unfortunately, it was the only way to not tell this random stranger in a world under Sith quarantine our name. You'll just have to deal with it, Carth.

Image Hey, I wasn't trying to pry or anything. I know people here like their privacy. It's just that I might be able to help you out.

Image I know it's really none of my business, but you look like someone who might need to purchase one of these new energy shields. They're the latest thing, you know. Very high tech.

We skip the NPC explanation of energy shields. I can explain them better.

Image I know all about energy shields.

Image Oh, okay. Well then, you might be interested in knowing I have one for sale. It isn't cheap, but it could be the difference between life and death. You want to see what I have in stock? I know my kiosk isn't much to look at, but my prices are reasonable and the merchandise is sound.

Energy Shields will absorb a certain amount of damage from various damage types. The basic energy shield we can buy at this store will protect against 20 points energy and electrical damage. Keep in mind this means physical damage, like from melee weapons, will ignore the energy shield completely. These are still pretty useful against ranged attackers though. The energy shield costs 154 credits, and we have 215--just enough to buy one, but not much else.

Regardless, here's what our equipment looks like right now. Our penalty for two-weapon fighting is still too high to be practical, so I've temporarily switched to a blaster rifle.

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That item in the top left is our implant. It gives us +1 to Constitution: not enough to increase or modifier. Luckily, we'll get an attribute point to spend at level 4, and every 4th level thereafter.

Also, you might notice that S.L. has leveled up, but we haven't spent the level yet. The audience at SA will decide our next move.

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Much like making a quick character, it's rarely a good idea to auto-level.

That's all for this update. See you later!
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Re: Let's Play Knights of the Old Republic (Screenshot LP)

#3 Post by Jonesy »

Oh, man. I actually started replaying KOTOR a week or two ago. Haven't gotten far since I've been doing other things, but it's a real blast from the past. Probably the first RPG I ever played, and still a favorite.

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Re: Let's Play Knights of the Old Republic (Screenshot LP)

#4 Post by MeaCulpa, S.C.M. »

Update #3: Someone please turn off that goddamn Cantina music

In this update, we'll be exploring the whole Taris upper city and then vote on what we should do next. This update won't have any votes at the end because I endeavored to explore the whole Upper City in one go. Instead, we'll be stopping after we finish looking around the Cantina. We'll have votes next update.

In accordance with voting, we've spent one point on computer use, one on repair, and will save another for persuade, or whatever skill we vote on getting at level 4.

We also voted not to shell out most of our money for an energy shield, so instead we got Carth a snazzy looking military suit.

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Military suits are medium armor that give +6 to Defense and let you add up to 3 points of your modifier to defense in addition to that.

We could give it to our main character--it's ideal for either of them really--but Carth's a far more valuable combat asset right now. If your main character goes down in combat, you can still win as long as your companions can finish the fight out.

But how could Carth possibly be a better combat asset than our friend and companion S.L.?
Well, here's S.L.'s combat stats:

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And here's Carth's, without any armor (his military suit takes his defense to 19):

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This is primarily because Carth is a Soldier and one level higher than us. He has both more access to feats (one each level) and higher hit points per level. He has the weapon specialization (blaster) feat, which gives him 2 extra damage to any blaster attack. This early in the game, that's a massive boost. Finally, he has improved two-weapon fighting (available at level 4) which means he has a much lower penalty for going akimbo than we do.

We'll definitely outclass Carth later, but for now he's just plain ol' better at fighting than we are. He's also got 12 int, which gives him just enough security to pick the locks on these low security doors and save us the trouble of bashing them.

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When you break into the areas, the aliens will tell you to take whatever you want. Strangely, this doesn't get us any dark side points, so we'll go ahead and raid the apartment complex for credits, parts, computer spikes, and medpacs.

There's also this droid bay room, which serves no purpose whatsoever. It's nice to have a setpiece, I guess.

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Along the way, we find an old human man who's apparently the janitor.

Image My name's Kadir. I'm the janitor for this building. You must be the new tenant here, right? I never thought they'd rent that abandoned apartment.

Image Tell me about Taris.

Image Decent enough place to live, I guess. Except for the lower levels. That's where the swoop gangs hang out. Just stay in the Upper City and you'll be fine. You also might want to check out the cantina. I used to go there when I was younger. Good place to get a drink and find out what's going on in the Upper City.

Image Where can I get some equipment?

Image Well, the best place to go is probably Kebla Yurt's store. She's right across from the cantina, so you can stop in for a drink if you get thirsty while you're shopping.

Image What do you think of the Sith and this quarantine?

Image Not much of an issue for me, you know? I ain't never left Taris and I ain't never going to. A lot of other folks is sure riled up about it, but I don't really know much about it. I prefer to keep to myself, mostly. But there's plenty of people at the cantina who'll be more than happy to tell you what they think about the Sith and their quarantine.

It looks like the Cantina is a good next stop.

The room just next to our hideout reveals a named NPC with a quest:

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This NPC is Dia, and she, like us, is a human hiding out with aliens in this abandoned apartment complex.

Image Who are you? What are you doing in here? You can't just come barging into someone's home!

Strictly speaking, this isn't anyone's home, but whatever--she has a fair point. I suppose it's better than the jRPG trope of waltzing into random houses and stealing their [censored]. (which we just finished doing 5 minutes ago.)

It's not very S.L.-like, but I chose this option because the alternative sounded like it might net me some Dark Side points.

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Image That's no excuse. You can't just go barging into people's apartments because you're curious! But at least you're more polite than that pig, Holdan.

In typical RPG fashion, this lady begins immediately sharing parts of her private life with a total stranger. When we ask about Holdan;

Image Just one of Davik's men who can't keep his hands to himself. But all he got for his trouble was a nasty scar from my vibroblade! Too bad I'm the one still paying the price. I...I don't want to talk about it. I'm in enough trouble already. Besides, I don't know if I can trust you.

Here, we get a persuade option, but unfortunately our +1 Charisma just isn't enough on its own. Maybe if we get a point in persuade come level 4, we might be able to come back and try this quest.

Persuade's a very useful skill, especially early game, and some quests can be flat out locked to you if you don't get it. We could intimidate her into telling us, but again, Dark Side points. We'll just have to leave her alone for the moment.

Now that we've gone through the apartments, we can begin exploring the upper city.
Among the first things we notice is a protocol droid who can blurb some information about Taris to us. He mentions that aliens have restricted access to the Upper City, which is an ancient Tarisian tradition which the Sith have promised to uphold. However, they haven't seen any Sith arresting aliens for travelling the Upper City without a permit.

This strange social commentary actually plays precious little role in the story from what I remember.

When asked about the lower city, the droid mentions that all visitors should avoid the Lower City as it is a violent and dangerous place.

We head directly north of our apartment complex, and we get a strange message:

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Your companion NPCs will generate messages like this from time to time. If you talk to them a lot, you unlock sidequests related to their character. It takes a while, though. Let's talk to Carth.

Image I'd like to know more about you, Carth.

Image Me? Well, I've been a star-pilot for the Republic for years. I've seen more than my share of wars... I fought in the Mandalorian Wars before all this started.

Image But with all that, I've never experienced anything like the slaughter these Sith animals can unleash. Not even the Mandalorians were that senseless.

Image My home world was one of the first planets to fall to Malak's fleet. The Sith bombed it into submission, and there wasn't a damn thing our Republic forces could do to stop them!

Image You're talking like it's your fault. Like you failed somehow.

Image It shouldn't be my fault. I did everything I could...I followed my orders and did my duty. That shouldn't mean I failed them! I didn't!

Image Hey, why are you getting so mad at me? It's not like this was my fault!

Image I know that. I'm not angry at you...don't think that. I must not be making much sense. You probably mean well with your questions. I'm just not accustomed to talking about my past very much. At all, actually.

Image I'm more used to taking action...keeping my mind focused on the business at hand. So let's just do that. If you have more questions, ask them later.

You usually want to talk to your NPCs every level up. You'll get more insight into their character and their history. I'll try to cycle the party so we can do this with everyone.

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Image Mostly? What do you mean by that?

Image The Sith confiscated all my heavy weapons. And they impounded all my ships and swoop bikes. But I've still got a real nice selection, if you're interested.

Sure we are.

Kebla has a few high-price items that are just a little bit better than their normal equivalents. Among them is this light armor with 6 defense, which would be really cool if we were a scoundrel:

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This *extremely* nice Echani Ritual Brand, a powered-up two-bladed sword (we won't be getting it just now, but we might come back for it later): It's nice because it's fairly cheap (only 280) and has a higher damage and hit output than a standard two-bladed sword.

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We'll just buy a normal one for showing-off purposes for now.

And finally, this stupidly overpriced piece of crap Sith Sniper RIfle:

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I seriously see no reason its price range should be close to an order of magnitude higher than the ritual brand, but oh well. Not like we would've wanted it anyway.

We'll just pick up a regular two-bladed sword, equip it to carth, and take his snazzy customizable blaster for ourselves.

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As cool as it looks, since Carth is heavily built for blasters, he's much less useful with this weapon. Don't worry, there'll be use for double-bladed weapons later, and we'll keep it equipped to him for now.

We also pick up a Permacrete Detonator. Notice how there's no stats for this item. That probably means it's a quest item for the future.

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Good thing we picked up demolitions skill.

Let's head over to the cantina.

The Cantina has a lot going on. I was originally going to have the whole Upper City in this update but the Cantina took up a huge amount of time and screenshots.

We enter the cantina lobby. There's a blonde girl, a dude wearing red, and some old guy.
The first person we talk to just can't stop talking about Pazaak, whatever that is:

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If we talk to the old guy, he's willing to lend us his Pazaak deck for 50 creds, and he'll give us a free lesson. I had to go sell a computer spike at the emporium and come back, but we got a Pazaak deck.

The first thing you do is pick 10 cards for your side deck. You'll draw four cards at random from this deck. Right now, we only have 10 cards we can put in our side deck, but we can get more.

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Pazaak's fundamentals are pretty much like Blackjack. You draw cards and try to get as close to 20 as possible without busting. It plays to best three out of five rounds.

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After you've drawn a card, you can choose to place a card from your side deck.

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Pazaak is pretty fun, but I don't consider myself good enough to make a decent living out of it. We tie the first set.

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Without laboriously going over all the sets--it goes to a final round after plenty of ties--we manage to win despite not having any of our side deck cards remaining.

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I used to play a lot of Blackjack, and I liked to think I was pretty good at it. But since you have an equal chance of drawing any kind of card in Pazaak, the statistics are a little different. (In blackjack, you should always assume you'll draw a ten, since face cards count as ten and therefore make that value 4 times more likely to be drawn.)

We'll play some Pazaak again before this update is over.

Venturing into the bar, we find an off-duty Sith:

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We have the same issue with this character as we would have with Dio: if our persuade skill was high enough, we'd get invited to a bunch of Sith partying off duty. Unfortunately...

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We can try to keep sweet-talking her until we succeed, but I don't know the exact DC, so that might be fruitless. We'll leave it for now.

Let's meander around the bar some more. We find some other Sith enjoying some Tarisian ale:

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We would do well to remember the fine quality of Tarisian ale. It will be of import in the future.

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Another named NPC! Worth talking to, surely--

Image Where did you get those clothes--a trash compactor in the Lower City? And where are those drinks we ordered?

Image Careful what you say. I get the feeling this spoiled brat could cause us more trouble than she's worth.

Image Why is the help here so incompetent? One word from Daddy and I could get you fired!

We're not taking any of her [censored].

Image Shut up, you spoiled brat!

Image How dare you speak to me like that! Daddy's going to hear about this!

She runs out of the bar. Peace, [censored].

Going into one of the side rooms, we get the following conversation:

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"Who cares? It's Duncan and Gerlon fighting. It's not like we're going to missing anything good."

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They both draw, but Duncan is a total loser and drops his blaster.

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We can see Deadeye after the fight in the arena room. He's not doing well, understandably...

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...but he's still talking [censored].

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Duels sound like fun, and maybe we can make some money off it too. Let's talk to Ajurr.

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I always wondered if Hutts were amphibious creatures.

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They definitely don't look like they could've evolved solely to be around land. Why the slithery aspect?

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Image I can arrange for you to fight in the duel ring. If you win, you get the standard contact: 10% of all wagers. And don't worry, nobody dies in the duel ring anymore. Death matches are illegal now.

Image Most fighters in the duel ring use vibroblades or stun sticks because the ring's pretty small, but a few of the duelists use blasters. Use whichever you prefer.

Image Vibroblades and blasters? And nobody ever dies? How come I get the feeling you're trying to take us for a ride?

Image The duel ring has energy suppressor fields to make sure nobody dies. Weapons are limited so they hurt, but don't kill. And we've got a medic droid in case of serious injuries. Are you interested?

Image [Persuade] I'll do it, but I want more than ten percent.

Image [Failure] Ha ha ha! You're joking, right? If I pay you more, then everyone wants more. No, you get the same as all the others--ten percent. That's my final offer.

Image Okay, I'll do it.

Image Good--new blood for the ring! But you need a nickname, like Ice or Deadeye or Twitch. Good nicknames make people bet more. Hmmm... what's a good name for you?

Image You're an off-worlder. You're new here, people won't recognize you...I know! From now on, in the duel ring you'll be the Mysterious Stranger!

Image That's a terrible name!

Lots of talking later, we finally get to start fighting someone with our newly acquired awful name.

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Ladies and gentlemen, draw your eyes to the center ring! We have a very special presentation in store for you:
You've seen him lose night after night, but this time, he's after fresh meat. In this corner I give you Deadeye Duncan!
And in the other corner, a relative newcomer to the Taris dueling scene. Emerging from the shadows with no history, no past and no name... the Mysterious Stranger!

Rapid shot this early is really, really ineffective with dual-wield. For those keeping track at home, we're at -4 to hit on our off-hand and -2 to hit on our main hand when we use it. Pretty awful.

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So awful that Duncan traverses the whole ring without us hitting him once. Great first round in the ring, S.L.

Whatever. One normal attack does him in completely.

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It's over! The fight is over! The Mysterious Stranger has won!
But really, are any of us surprised? Deadeye losing isn't news. You have to do better than that to impress us, Stranger!

We get a little xp. I don't feel like dealing with Deadeye's sore attitude, so let's talk to Ajurr again.

Image Good fight, good fight. People like you, Mysterious Stranger. They bet a lot when you fight. It makes me happy...and rich.

If they like me, and are ostensibly betting for me, wouldn't that mean Ajurr just lost money?

Image I always pay my debts. You won, so you get paid. Ten percent of the purse--that was the deal. Here's your credits. You come see me when you're ready to fight again.

We'll definitely be coming back to the Arena, but we're done for now. On our way out, we meet up with Bendak Starkiller, clad in some banana armor:

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Image Autoprints? What are you talking about?

Image What, you don't recognize me? I'm Bendak Starkiller, the most famous blaster-slinger on Taris. Over 100 duels without a loss--every one of them a death match!

Image You don't look so tough. Maybe I could take you on.

Image I'm retired now. Once death matches became illegal I just got bored with the game. I've got no interest in using stun blasters! There was nobody left to challenge me, anyway.

Image I've seen you in the dueling ring, but you haven't impressed me.

Wonder why.

Image Now, if you could beat all these other pretenders...that might get my attention.

Image I'll be back as soon as I beat all these other duelists.

Image Good luck with that, kid... you're going to need it. HA-HA-HA!

Image You sure you want to get involved in this? Seems a bit pointless to me. Up to you.

Before we leave the cantina, we'll get some more pazaak done, this time with some credits on the line. We'll be playing this smug [censored]:

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We lose our first set, but he's down a card and we're not.

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This lets us win the second.

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And it looks like we're about to win the thi--

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Or, that could happen.

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At least he had to use a card this time.

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We win another, neither of us using side deck cards. Victory is close, but he's got two cards and I've only got the one.

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I missed the game end screenshot here, but we lose this set, sadly. Now we're out of cards and the game is tied up.

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I'm forced to stand at 18: not looking great.

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Luckily, our opponent draws an 8, busts, and has to use his -5 card to get out of it. I can't recall if you can use more than one side deck card a set, but he doesn't regardless...

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And pays for it pretty hard. 30 credits won. It's been a good day at the cantina, so let's head out now.

When we pass the equipment shop, we're ambushed by two thugs the snotty girl from the cantina decided to set on us.

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Seriously? You literally kill people for calling you a brat? You're spoiled as hell. They manage to do some damage to us, but we succeed and chase after her. She runs into our apartment complex.

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She's nowhere to be found, though. We do find some remains we forgot to pick up earlier.

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This had to be one of the Sith we killed earlier. Interesting. Poison grenades do damage over time for a while, but I don't find them very useful. We'll probably just sell them.

That's it for this update. No voting this time--I want to explore the whole Upper City before we make any decisions on what to do next.
VERY, GOOD

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