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Carnaticum posted:igiveup helpmeobi 1 forceall 7 Enjoy. Not in Rogue Squadron, though... To elaborate, Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy's force powers each had three levels of effectiveness which increased as you went through the game. Turns out, though, that two powers in the game had higher levels than that: Jedi Mind Trick went up to 4, where 4 lets you take control of any living enemy, including wampas and rancors. Saber Offense, on the other hand, went up to 7 and unlocked additional (possibly enemy?) styles of lightsaber combat, which were mostly useless but fun to play around with.
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Oct 11, 2013 22:57
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redshirt posted:What's wrong with Palpatine back story? I would have liked to have read more about Darth Tenebrous as well, who seemed like an odd, techie Sith. I found everything about the Sith in this book wonderful, because for most of the time, you're kinda rooting for them. They're not monsters - but then! Mass killing, or assassination, or force choke, or have some lightning. And yes, they are monsters. It's a neat aspect of the book in that you almost get lulled into pulling for the Sith simply because they are fairly represented as the protagonists of the story. I really enjoyed the idea of Palpatine being a reckless young noble entirely convinced he's better than the peasantry from the beginning - he's like something out of Victorian era British literature, as well as Naboo being explicitly set up as an isolationist world until shortly before TPM. Plagueis manipulating the galaxy through his cover as a shady CEO of a very wealthy holding company was cool too. I think the highest praise I can give Darth Plagueis is that it's very believable - a lot of the time in Star Wars stories, stuff just happens due to cartoonishly good/evil motivations. This book, on the other hand, feels real - even the famously awful and unexplained Naboo vs. Trade Federation treaty conflict makes so much more sense now. The Sith have realistic motivations beyond just killing Jedi for the hell of it. They're good characters for the same sort of reasons Thrawn was so good. What I'm saying is read Darth Plagueis.
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Oct 25, 2013 20:37
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Metal Loaf posted:One would hope the opening crawl beings with the line, "I bid you dark greetings!" It is a dark time for the galaxy. The remnants of the Imperial administration have called for a MOFFERENCE aboard a secret research station within the depths of THE MAW. Accompanied by KYP DURRON, LUKE SKYWALKER has flown to THE CRYSTAL STAR in an attempt to foil the nascent Imperial plot, fearing rumors of a devastating SUN CRUSHER in the hands of the EMPIRE... That's right folks, it's the KJA/ 
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Dec 3, 2013 02:21
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Metal Loaf posted:Again, not one I've read, but I remember coming across Abel G. Pena's review of it from back when starwars.com had blogs and a message board. He mentioned that he thought the characterisation of Han in the final confrontation with Waru (telling Chewie to look after his kids, then jumping in to rescue Luke and Leia) was pretty good and said the biggest disappointment was that Waru was the most interesting thing that had ever been in any EU book but "Well, I'm blogging on starwars.com so I can't take an entirely unambiguous poo poo all over this book...I guess Han dumping all his problems on Chewie and jumping into the action is pretty in-character! I just won't mention that Han is a whiny rear end in a top hat the rest of the book."
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Dec 3, 2013 06:17
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Conquistador posted:Have I ever mentioned how hilariously terrible the voice is for the Wookiee that speaks basic in the Thrawn trilogy? Its like comically bad. It is really awful, and stands out because most of the voicework he does is about 95% right. 3P0 is a little overly prissy, and Lando a little too southern... Honestly though, his Talon Karrde makes up for all sins.
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Dec 22, 2013 06:14
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BigRed0427 posted:Decided to go "What the hell" And jump into a few Star Wars novels. What usually kept me away was that I wanted to enjoy more Star Wars stuff but felt that Luke, Han and Leia's story ended with Return of the Jedi. I don't need to hear how Aragorn ruled Gondor and what the did with the orcs that survived the final battle, Know what I mean? The Jedi Order goes back thousands of years and I want to hear more stories about the great Jedi over the years. That's why I love the KOTOR stuff so much. Read Heir before Choices. Preferably you'd read the whole Heir trilogy before Choices, but whatever works. Fate of the Jedi is set like 30 years in the future from where you are currently and you'd basically have to read the entirety of the post-RotJ extended universe to really get it. Fortunately, it is awful and there's no need to suffer through a long series of similarly bad books just to get there.
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Jan 19, 2014 05:20
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Rinkles posted:Thanks for the suggestions. In the brief period I read SW books I remember always wanting to get a hold of Tales of the Bounty Hunters but for whatever reason never did. That's exactly the sort of thing I was looking for. Honestly, I would recommend the audiobooks for the Thrawn trilogy, even if you aren't an audiobook listener usually. The new audiobooks read by Marc Thompson are unabridged and are absolutely fantastic - they have music, sound effects, voice filters (for droid voices like 3P0), etc. that really make it seem like you're just listening to a Star Wars movie. It's a totally new way to experience the EU that I strongly recommend, and I hope most of the good books get this treatment eventually. X-Wing audiobooks might be the greatest art ever created by man, if they are eventually made. Chairman Capone posted:Wouldn't that be one Han and Chewie and four Haans and Cheewies? It depends on how they were cloned I suppose. If it was done serially then you'd have Han, Haan, Haaan, Haaaan, and Haaaaan  Edit: Has anyone ever listened to the Fate of the Jedi audiobooks? I know that the FotJ line of books is really bad, but they are unabridged and all read by Marc Thompson...if they're all done in theatrical style like the Thrawn trilogy I might have to listen to the geriatric adventures of Skywalker & the Solos anyway. Jazerus fucked around with this message at 04:26 on Jan 22, 2014 |
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Jan 22, 2014 04:21
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Siivola posted:And that's Vector Prime done. It was competent, I guess. Chewie's death was pretty powerful, and I sort of want to find out what happens next, but... Eh, maybe some other time. Ysard's Revenge was dumb enough that I don't really feel like reading another Stackpole novel. I guess I could also skip forward to Allston's Rebel Dream since I'm a huge fan of his, but considering my last attempt at reading stuff out of order, I think I'll pass on that as well. NJO's not worth it. I say this knowing one day I'll read them again but it's literally millions of words that are not, on the whole, very good. The writing quality is uneven and the plot ultimately unsatisfying.
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Feb 10, 2014 23:26
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Halifax posted:This was actually the one gap in said roommate's collection. He's re-ordered it from Amazon, though, so I'll probably take care of that after Rebirth. I'm amazed that you think Truce at Bakura is worse than Crystal Star. I don't remember much about it other than that the Ssi-ruuk are dumb but I remember the writing being more competent than The Adventures of Han vs. Hiitler.
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Feb 14, 2014 13:26
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Pinball posted:So I watched Empire Strikes Back last night; it's the first time I'd seen it since I was very young, and I was actually kind of disturbed by how everyone treats the droids. C3-PO and R2 come off as being pretty much sentient creatures, yet they're apparently programmed to only serve humans, and people are always talking about casually turning off C3-PO when he gets annoying (which, to be fair, he almost always is). That seems pretty horrifying to me: that you can have your consciousness turned off because you're an inconvenience. Are there any things in the EU which talk about the kind of weird civil rights situation of the droids? Yes. Most droid-centric stories, like the IG-88 and 4-LOM stories in Tales of the Bounty Hunter, either touch on this or make it the centerpiece. Droid planets with droid societies free from organic domination exist but most organics don't believe that they do.
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Feb 14, 2014 19:33
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Calax posted:The biggest thing I remember from Crystal Star is Jedi Children who are bad got a force "Wet blanket" thrown over them so they couldn't use the force. And were tested with a lightbulb on a lightsaber handle. The early EU writers had a strange interest in making bizarre connections between reality and Star Wars like that. I'll have a cup of caf, Luke'll have some hot chocolate (so exotic!) and we'll all go to the tapcafe for the wet blanketing with
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Feb 15, 2014 05:09
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Personperson14 posted:Okay, I need to read the X-Wing Books. I feel like a bad person for ignoring them. They are the best books in the entire EU, even though half of them are from the perspective of
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Feb 17, 2014 05:54
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Zoran posted:Corran Horn may be a real Gary Stu, but I like what Stackpole did with him in I, Jedi. I, Jedi is a lot of fun to read after the Jedi Academy books, just for the sheer amount of "that KJA bullshit sure was dumb, huh?" that's in it. I think it might have worked better with Kyle Katarn than Corran if Kyle's story hadn't been reserved for the game writers, though.
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Feb 17, 2014 06:51
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Worst Leia characterization? You can't forget Courtship of Princess Leia! Though maybe that really just has the worst characterization of Han.
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Feb 22, 2014 12:39
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A Tin Of Beans posted:
The thing is that it's a mind control gun.
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Feb 22, 2014 21:45
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Siivola posted:Well, to be fair, Jaina's brush also involved spewing force lightning like it was going out of style, unspecified human experimentation with space Mengele and being best buds with the evil Queen Grandmother of Hapan. Cunningham just doesn't actually stop to emphasize any of this and instead focuses on her tsundere crush on Jag Fel. People sitting around not doing anything is a major theme of NJO.
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Feb 23, 2014 23:46
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Chairman Capone posted:I'll say that I honestly do think Allston is kind of overrated, but I do cut him some slack for Betrayal. It wasn't like he was the one who decided Jacen had to go dark or that Lumiya would show up again, since those both came from Denning's outline for the series. And it's also not (mainly) his fault that a lot of the stuff he set up in Betrayal got ignored later on. And really compared to any other LOTF/FOTJ entry it's pretty good. When you think about how bad his later stuff is you really should consider that this is a man who had been stuck in an authorial partnership with Denning and Traviss for years. Imagine being a good author and having to deal with these people having equal creative control to you, and how many times you would say "no, that's dumb" and be shot down before you shut up and just wrote about Admiral Daala's affair with a dreamy Mando for a paycheck. Allston really should have cowritten with the guy who did those M*A*S*H in space EU books, if anyone.
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Mar 2, 2014 21:29
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The Vong fell really flat for me mostly because there's such a concerted effort to brand them as ~spooky~ and totally different from anything else in the galaxy in the first few NJO books, then they become basically normal mooks later on. Space opera in general doesn't pull off disgusting, horrifying alien-ness very well in my experience anyway. The Imperials work because fascism and colonialism are well within human experience and the Imperial aesthetic serves as a visual shorthand for that kind of familiar evil but in space. That lets the focus rest on the characters of the story rather than world details, which is part of what distinguishes space opera from other sci fi. The Vong are impossible to immediately comprehend (I know I was constantly tripped up by all of the biological technology jargon, though I'm sure if the writing had been better my brain wouldn't have been so apathetic to memorizing all of that) and the threat they pose is apocalyptic rather than personal. They're much more like Star Trek villains, where the point of the story is typically to focus on the interaction between civilizations. I also feel like they could have been quite compelling in a film/TV series with decent visual design because then nobody would have to remember what the gently caress a gnulith is.Conquistador posted:I feel like SW is full of religious zealots though? Other than the Vong I can only think of the Yevetha (Vong beta version) and Ssi-Ruuk (Vong alpha version) in the post-OT stories. Xenophobic religious zealot species had already proven themselves awful and boring villains in SW long before the Vong were introduced.
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Mar 10, 2014 17:42
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Conquistador posted:I feel like those random enclaves of Jedi were zealots to an extent, also the Sith, also, often the normal Jedi themselves Sure, Force users are often religious zealots, but they are holy orders, not whole species. Religion in space can be interesting but the xenophobic "KILL ALL INFIDELS" species are universally awful.
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Mar 11, 2014 00:22
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Megachile posted:So I bought a copy of I, Jedi used a while ago and just got around to reading it. Do we have any idea what they were thinking when they published it? I get the impression they were deliberately retconning something from Jedi Academy (which I only know from summaries)? Was there really a time when Corran Horn was so popular he warranted a nearly 600-page glamour piece? I know a lot of you love the X-wing series (I read it when I was very young and don't remember it much); is Stackpole's writing much better in his contributions there? Megachile posted:Are you saying they retconned away how much it sucked? That would be wonderful. I, Jedi has its own plot, but a lot of it is an exercise in "remember that dumb thing that KJA wrote? Well, actually Corran was there and he made it happen less stupidly." Apparently they wouldn't let Stackpole actually get rid of stuff like the Sun Crusher, Kyp, and the overall impact of the Jedi Academy books on the galaxy, but what I, Jedi doesn't retcon it criticizes through Corran's actions and dialogue. I know a 600 page book all about Corran Horn isn't really a thrilling read but if you've ever suffered through the Jedi Academy books it's worth it. If not, probably not. Stackpole's X-Wing books are better but Corran is still the same boring dude; there's a lot more space fighting, which is one of Stackpole's better areas as an author.
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May 13, 2014 22:37
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Metal Loaf posted:I thought that's what happened already? No, the old rule was that everything was consistent until George Lucas walked into the room.
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May 21, 2014 17:16
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Ensign_Ricky posted:If you all missed it, Gareth Edwards has been tapped to do the first stand-alone film in the series. I think we all remember what the last attempt at a Star Wars spinoff film produced.  All kidding aside I am interested to see non-Skywalker adventures in the SW universe on film. It is encouraging that Disney seems to be going into this with a Marvel-style strategy of independent but linked films.
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May 23, 2014 03:51
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kaesarsosei posted:I have an 8 year old who is very keen to read Star Wars books. Are there any books in particular that would be suited to younger audience? Preferably involving characters from the 6 movies or Clone Wars. Jedi Apprentice is a good kid/YA series about the adventures of young Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon.
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Jun 8, 2014 19:27
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Metal Loaf posted:One thing I really liked about KOTOR was the idea that "Revan" and "Malak" were their real names and they just added "Darth" because it's a title. I really enjoyed the idea of the tradition twisting out of sheer ignorance on the part of the Sith over time. "Darth Revan and Darth Malak? Oh, so I guess we're supposed to just come up with a threatening-sounding name to come after Darth, huh? I mean, those guys obviously just made their names up."
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Jun 11, 2014 23:47
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Zoran posted:I always wondered: is the giant face on the cover of I, Jedi supposed to be Luke, or is it Mirax? While he is looking a bit doe-eyed there, it's Luke.
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Jul 24, 2014 00:33
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Chairman Capone posted:According to the panel at NYCC, the name came from Lucas who invented it for Phantom Menace, but then actually was aware enough to decide not to use it. And now that he's gone, the new Disney Story Group decided to implement it into the new canon and had him include it. Then I think we can all just be happy that his name isn't Insanus Palpatine.
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Oct 16, 2014 00:25
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Chairman Capone posted:The last third of the comic is about how Isard comes to power which plays a bit into the book series. Also, Isard's Revenge is pretty much a direct sequel to the end of the comic and has a few returning characters, and the smuggler woman from The Bacta War is also introduced in one of the comic storylines, but the majority of the book/comic series are separate. Isard's Revenge is a little weird without reading the comics. You can tell that you've missed something, sort of. It's also the worst book in the series so this doesn't really matter very much.
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Nov 30, 2014 03:03
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SeanBeansShako posted:To me, it was the opposite until the prequals made it clear they were more space warrior monks than a mystic honourable space templar order. And the force was just a thing nobody could explain. Yes, but KJA novels also comprised a much higher percentage of the EU than they do now. They were dark days.
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Jan 11, 2015 06:04
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Drone posted:If I were making a short list of things that are worthy of keeping: -Kyle Katarn
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Mar 19, 2015 23:28
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Zsinj is the superior EU Imperial, let's all be honest. No fancy tricks, just a Super Star Destroyer.
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Mar 29, 2015 19:02
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SolarFire2 posted:Found this mildly interesting. Kevin J Anderson on having his works brushed aside in favor of a new continuity. It's true, Star Wars just isn't real without Darksaber and Kyp Durron.
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Apr 8, 2015 21:31
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Van Dis posted:It's infinitely better without either of those things. 
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Apr 9, 2015 10:15
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Hazo posted:I have enough trouble typing fast on my smartphone. If I was hurtling through space at 140 mglt or whatever it's called I'd rather be able to feel my fighter's switches than have to look at them (even though in that clip above Luke is constantly looking, what a scrub). This is the same Galactic Empire that leaves life support out of TIE Fighters for cost reasons, so maybe it's just a case of not bothering to buy the slick technology that we see in the prequels.
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Apr 27, 2015 01:38
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Drone posted:Steam has all of their Star Wars titles on sale until May the 6th, and apparently also now has the X-Wing / TIE Fighter series, both in DOS and CD-ROM formats. This is news to me, since I thought those were GOG exclusive. They aren't bad, but if you don't enjoy collectathons then you won't care for them.
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Apr 28, 2015 20:00
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jivjov posted:How...how many players were you expecting? 20v20 seems excessive and god help you if you don't have fiber internet. I used to play BF1942 on 56k and large player numbers were fine as long as the servers were good; Planetside 2 pulls off far larger battles than 20v20 now.
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Jun 16, 2015 14:33
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SeanBeansShako posted:It has a lot more hilariously bad stuff, like Han Solo pretty much knocking out and kidnapping Leia with a frigging stun gun. Mind control gun 
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Aug 1, 2015 16:40
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Chairman Capone posted:The problem with the Machete order is that, even if I agree that TPM is almost completely removed from the rest of the movies, I actually do think it's at least somewhat better than AOTC. Although honestly it's probably been a dozen years since I've seen AOTC, and I haven't watched TPM since a friend and I did for its tenth anniversary. The Phantom Edit is pretty good. Obviously given the source material it's not amazing but you will be surprised by how much a recut improves the film.
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Aug 23, 2015 08:03
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Rev. Bleech_ posted:REPUBLIC BUTTCOINS ARE NO GOOD HERE, I NEED RRREAL MONEY Thinking of Watto as an anti-bitcoin partisan suddenly makes him a much more likable character.
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Aug 31, 2015 11:05
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StashAugustine posted:Well they did say that they were building up local militaries and given the old-EU New Republic's track record a little decentralization might not be a terrible idea Fey'lya lied, sentients died
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Sep 9, 2015 19:35
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thrawn527 posted:I'm listening to Aftermath on audio book, based on recommendations here that it's easier to handle that way. I do agree, it feels more like a script read through this way. I have to ask though, do audio books normally have this level of sound effects and score? I've only listened to a few in the past, but the ones I did never had this level of production. Based on this post and your username, you should get the recent audiobooks of the Zahn trilogy. They have a ton of production behind them and similarly feel like a "dramatized" version of the book. It really makes Zahn's books feel like the OT films.
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Sep 11, 2015 17:05
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