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Cooked Auto
Aug 4, 2007

If you will not serve in combat, you will serve on the firing line!




The second image after the first rakghoul sewer fight is from the intergalactic skank conversation.
Also [4149] at the Rancor conversation.

Whoops, update on previous page.

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SoundwaveAU
Apr 17, 2018

I didn't know about the grenade trick for a long time. So I used a different grenade trick, aka, throw your entire stock of grenades at it until it dies! It takes a while and you need to throw a grenade then run back to safety where he can't reach. Rinse and repeat.

Deadmeat5150
Nov 21, 2005

OLD MAN YELLS AT CLAN

SoundwaveAU posted:

I didn't know about the grenade trick for a long time. So I used a different grenade trick, aka, throw your entire stock of grenades at it until it dies! It takes a while and you need to throw a grenade then run back to safety where he can't reach. Rinse and repeat.

And this is what I did.

Also yeah, you have a few pictures in the wrong places.

FoolyCharged
Oct 11, 2012

Cheating at a raffle? I sentence you to 1 year in jail! No! Two years! Three! Four! Five years! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!
Somebody call for an ant?

If I remember right, fighting the rancor is pretty easy. You just ran past it, killed the vulkars and then shot it from the hallway because it didnt fit inside. Took forever though.

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




If I remember right, you also have to put the grenade in first, because the moment you put in the scent, you trigger the flag for the cutscene.

DMorbid
Jan 6, 2011

With our special guest star, RUSH! YAYYYYYYYYY

Cooked Auto posted:

The second image after the first rakghoul sewer fight is from the intergalactic skank conversation.
Also [4149] at the Rancor conversation.
Yep, I typo'd the filenames there. Should've been 7098 and 7149 respectively, and it's fixed now. I was in a bit of a rush earlier and didn't have time to look over the update properly.

edit: also had 7090 where 7100 should've been, that's fixed as well

DMorbid fucked around with this message at 20:25 on Jan 7, 2020

Keldulas
Mar 18, 2009
It's funny how Mission has the same thing with 'HEY GO TALK TO HER' as Carth did, but she's MUCH less annoying with her story. Probably because she actually tells you what's up, and her conversation closes feel a lot more natural.

MechaCrash
Jan 1, 2013

Also, a lot less casual chauvinism.

Groetgaffel
Oct 30, 2011

Groetgaffel smacked the living shit out of himself doing 297 points of damage.
Tbf, it's not hard being better than Carth.

I'd rather converse with my potted plants than with Carth.

Das Panzer
Nov 11, 2016
Carth is generally the reason I go dark side in KOTOR.

Not because I particularly enjoy the dark side path all that much, but because it gives me a valid reason to bench Carth.

Not that anyone needs any other reason to bench Carth, but hey, that's okay.

achtungnight
Oct 5, 2014
I get my fun here. Enjoy!
Can you actually kill Carth if you go Dark Side or is this one of those annoying RPGs where your party members can never die no matter how hard you wish it? Every character in Final Fantasy games that's annoyed me has been like that, except Aeris, who I guess is the exception that proves the rule.

We can find and point the way to the Promised Land for people, but we can't see it ourselves. It's tradition!

zakharov posted:

Taris has a shocking number of ways to die instantly for an intro level

Fight Calo Nord at the bar
Threaten the undercity elevator guard
Fight the rancor

Also I don't find the outcast thing that unrealistic. We're talking generations of social conditioning. I'm reminded of the third class passengers on the Titanic waiting for someone to tell them what to do until they drowned.

This is a good point. You never hear about untouchables rising up in India or similar events. Even in America slave revolts never accomplished much. No, we had to have a whole Civil War to get that awful mess out of our society and we're still dealing with the damage even today.

achtungnight fucked around with this message at 23:38 on Jan 7, 2020

Pyro Jack
Oct 2, 2016
I've been recently playing this game (with mods installed on it since I have it on PC). You can easily kill the Rancor by going invisible, planting a shitton of Frag Mines that you get in the sewers, moving away from the Rancor and then make the Rancor move to the large minefield by tossing a Frag Grenade and then it dies from the overwhelming amount of explosions.

I did kill it with that method though I did several attempts (due to the Rancor not dying due to the varying amount of mines you have to put) including one attempt where the Rancor immediately noticed me despite not being that near it and being invisible and killing me in one hit.

FoolyCharged
Oct 11, 2012

Cheating at a raffle? I sentence you to 1 year in jail! No! Two years! Three! Four! Five years! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!
Somebody call for an ant?

achtungnight posted:

Can you actually kill Carth if you go Dark Side or is this one of those annoying RPGs where your party members can never die no matter how hard you wish it? Every character in Final Fantasy games that's annoyed me has been like that, except Aeris, who I guess is the exception that proves the rule.

We can find and point the way to the Promised Land for people, but we can't see it ourselves. It's tradition!


This is a good point. You never hear about untouchables rising up in India or similar events. Even in America slave revolts never accomplished much. No, we had to have a whole Civil War to get that awful mess out of our society and we're still dealing with the damage even today.

E:there was a spoiler here. Now there isnt.

You do hear about them, just not as much. The Indian mutiny was a big deal for instance.

FoolyCharged fucked around with this message at 13:54 on Jan 8, 2020

DMorbid
Jan 6, 2011

With our special guest star, RUSH! YAYYYYYYYYY

Let's maybe hold off on the endgame chat and talking about who does or doesn't get killed or marooned on a planet, even if it's about the dark side path. I will go over all that stuff in due time and we'll get to discuss it plenty once we get there, but we haven't even got out of the tutorial zone yet. :)

Regalingualius
Jan 7, 2012

We gazed into the eyes of madness... And all we found was horny.




Are they still on Namek Taris? :v:

Martian
May 29, 2005

Grimey Drawer
The Undercity is basically Australia, including the deadly wildlife.

Tiggum
Oct 24, 2007

Your life and your quest end here.


Shouldn't Zaalbar's lifedebt be to Mission, since you're just assisting her with this rescue? This is like if you were stranded in the middle of nowhere and your best friend came out in a taxi to pick you up, and you thanked the taxi driver.

Deadmeat5150
Nov 21, 2005

OLD MAN YELLS AT CLAN

Tiggum posted:

Shouldn't Zaalbar's lifedebt be to Mission, since you're just assisting her with this rescue? This is like if you were stranded in the middle of nowhere and your best friend came out in a taxi to pick you up, and you thanked the taxi driver.

Pretty sure he recognizes that Mission would never have gotten this far without her new bestie. Slaughtering an entire clan of Gammoreans is a little outside her skillset.

Xarn
Jun 26, 2015

zakharov posted:

Dunno why Taris gets so much hate. It's got a nice variety of quests and even the sewers aren't that bad. At least they come with a map.

KOTOR 2 play through update: I'm convinced that everyone who remembers it fondly has forgotten how annoying the influence system was.

I am playing through KOTOR 2 right now and I have no idea what the problem with influence system is. If you have low influence, it works the same as high influence, so you can do things as a DS player by getting party members to hate you. :shrug:

(Granted, there are some cases where it breaks a little, because some scripted interaction always counts as an increase, even if you are holding your party together by having them all hate your guts)

RickVoid
Oct 21, 2010
Hey, nice to see this back!

I will have things to say about Taris in a half dozen updates or so from now.

In regards to Carth, I get the hate, he's obnoxious and particularly bad if you're playing as a woman (which I always do), but I deal with him the same way I deal with any Carth clone in an RPG; bench him as soon as possible and never put him in the party again. Does he occassionally still get a line? Sadly yes. Do you have to care? Not at all.

I would also argue that there are other party members that bother me more, but we'll get there.

Psion
Dec 13, 2002

eVeN I KnOw wHaT CoRnEr gAs iS
Zaalbar: "You saved me! First, I will exposit on what a lifedebt is in case you don't live and breathe star wars. Then I will swear one to you, because you've got empty party member slots and that's how this works"

actually reading this stuff is a real experience, years after playing it the first time (where this all missed me) and then second (where I hammered skip through all dialogue anyway) ...

DMorbid
Jan 6, 2011

With our special guest star, RUSH! YAYYYYYYYYY

Part 8: Super Charger Heaven



Last time, we rescued Zaalbar here from 30-50 Gamorrean slave hunters, and he swore a lifedebt to us. As you probably know, that means he's going to follow us around for the rest of our days, but that's not a bad thing because who doesn't want a Wookiee buddy? We also made it through the sewers and into the Black Vulkar base, and now that we're here we should start looking for that prototype swoop accelerator they stole.



Cripes, that is a lot of rooms to check out. During development, the Vulkar base was a lot bigger than it is in the final game, and if you want to see how it used to be you can install various restored content mods for the PC version. The area was presumably cut short because someone at BioWare decided to make Taris less of a slog to get through, but that's just my guess.



Okay, that makes sense. You wouldn't leave something like the prototype accelerator just lying around.



The corridors of the Vulkar base are patrolled by a motley crew of Vulkars and combat droids. We repaired the droid on the left to help us out, although it's not going to help us all that much outside this one encounter so saving the parts might've been smarter. At least we got some XP out of it.



Let's see if we can do anything with this security panel. Mission currently has the highest Computer Use skill rating, so she'll get to slice into this thing. I should've taken the recommended points allocation for Zaalbar, he'd outrank us in Computer Use by now.



Well, that didn't work. Looks like we have to find the main terminal.



Even the Vulkar cook wants us dead. I suppose we did break into their base and all.



The bartender and the bouncer droids also decide to get in on the action.



We'll talk to this waitress in a bit, but first we'll explore some more.



This is the way out. We already killed the guards out front and they apparently don't respawn, so when we're done here we can just waltz right out of the front door.



This door is guarded by two sentry droids, so whatever is inside must be important. Could this be where they're keeping the accelerator?



The answer to that question is no, as this is just the armory. The door is locked, but we have more than enough security skill to get in here. You could also spend a few computer spikes to unlock the door... or just bash it, I suppose.







There is some pretty decent loot in the armory, so it's worth visiting. Concussion grenades stun enemies, making them perfect for setting up Sneak Attacks. Meanwhile, ion grenades are effective against droids and shields.



Now that we've murdered everyone patrolling this floor, we can go talk to the waitress. We actually could've talked to her earlier and it wouldn't have made a difference, but doing it this way seems more logical.





Don't worry, I just want to ask you a few questions.

Well... alright. I still don't know how much help I can be. But I sure hope you get rid of all the Vulkars. I hate them!

Let's see if she knows anything about Bastila.





I guess she's too important to be a slave here in the kitchens, getting pawed and groped and kicked and spit on like me. Brejik must have taken her somewhere safe.

Where can I find the prototype swoop engine accelerator?

What? I... I've never heard of such a thing. I guess it might be in the garage on the lower level - that's where all the Vulkars go to work on their swoop bikes. But I've never been down there. The elevator is protected by a security system - only the Vulkars are allowed to go down there.

Right. Makes sense that a slave wouldn't know a whole lot about the Vulkars' schemes.



Jesus, that loving one-liner on the dark side choice. That's almost physically painful.





Like I said, it makes more sense to free her after all the Vulkars are dead, not just the ones in her immediate vicinity.



With that, Ada gets the hell out of Dodge.



We, however, still have a job to do. This security panel is the main terminal, let's check it out.



We've got menus for security cameras and system commands. Let's take a look at the cameras first.



I'm not going to bore you to death by showing every single camera feed, just the important ones. We'll start with the barracks.



Hm. That is a lot of Vulkars. We could probably take them in a fight, but it might be a better idea to look for an alternative solution.



That'll do it.





The overloading conduit zaps all but one of the Vulkars, and our job gets a hell of a lot easier.



"What did I tell you guys? I always said you shouldn't loiter around the power conduit, and you all just laughed at me! Well, who's laughing now? Huh?"



The Vulkar base also has a pool, although there isn't any water in it at the moment. There is a footlocker in there, though.



The garage elevator has some hefty security, so we probably shouldn't attempt to fight our way through.



We have more than enough spikes to simply shut down the security right now and head right in, skipping the rest of the rooms on the main floor, but come on. Of course we want to explore those rooms! This is an RPG, there might be important loot in there!



I didn't really need to open the security doors via the terminal because we could've just picked the locks. We won't upload the area schematics (i.e. a map of the base) to our datapad, because it's not as if navigating this place is difficult. If you're too stupid to live, you can also select the "Overload terminal" option, which does exactly what it says on the tin and kills you instantly.



Zapping all the Vulkars in the barracks earned us another level, so let's see what we've got.



Business as usual with the skills.



Reaching level 7 unlocks Sneak Attack IV, improving the Sneak Attack bonus even further. The damage bonus on stunned or immobilized targets is now a whopping 4-24. That will be the last Sneak Attack bonus Zila is getting, because the next one unlocks at level 9 and I'm not leveling her starting class to level 9.



One of the rooms we unlocked has another Vulkar fight. Nothing special, or is it?



This Vulkar is actually a bit different, as he surrenders the instant you put the hurt on him.



That was easy.





Then Brejik and his followers took over and turned our gang into a bunch of violent thugs and bloodthirsty punks. Now they treat all us original Vulkars like second class citizens. Take me, for example. I used to be one of the highest ranking Vulkars in the gang. Now I'm stuck on guard duty here in the back, all thanks to Brejik!

The pirate base in Jade Empire has an older pirate in the same situation, who has almost exactly the same dialogue with the names changed. We all know BioWare likes to recycle a lot of things between games, but I didn't remember it was quite this blatant.





Brejik and his followers are the real traitors. They turned on Gadon and now they slaughter the Beks in the streets... and anyone else they happen to run across. Brejik knows anyone with character will never willingly follow a leader like him, so he uses brutality and violence to stay in power.



This guy isn't going to be of any use to us, so we'll just let him run along.



Working on it!



The barracks are next door. The last Vulkar standing tries his best, but is no match for us.



One of the many dead Vulkars has a pass card on him. This'll let us into the elevator.



But first, the pool area. If we had 5 repair parts - which we don't - we could reprogram the pool droid to crawl into the pool and self-destruct. Why would you want to do that, you ask? Well...



The pool has several gas vents that poison us if we try to get to the crate on foot.



Totally worth it, though, Plasma grenades are pretty great, and we also get some nice upgrade parts and an accessory.





All that's left to do on this level is to insert our pass card into the elevator console.



That takes care of the security system and ensures we don't get ventilated by the turrets.





Down we go.



Here's the swoop garage area in all its glory.



If you need assistance and have enough parts, there are some droids you can repair near the entrance. We don't have enough parts, of course, so we'll just do this the old-fashioned way.



The patrol droid is nothing, but the garage head puts up a decent fight despite Zaalbar giving him a roundhouse kick to the face.



We can see mines down the ramp, so that must be the way to progress.



These garages have some Vulkar guards and swoop mechanics, none of whom pose much of a threat.



One of the garages also has a workbench, so we get an opportunity to upgrade our stuff.



The swoop accelerator is behind this door. We could go in right now, but first we'll check out the other path leading down from the main garage level.



This one right here, to the west.



The only point of interest down here is the garage head's office. The desk contains some pazaak cards we'll never use, a blaster upgrade part, and the garage head's personal keycard that can be used with the nearby terminal.



Let's have a look at the engine lab. That's the room behind the big security door we saw.



Four Vulkars, and that's the prototype accelerator on the upper right. Unfortunately there's no way for us to blow these guys up remotely, but at least we know roughly what to expect.



Before we head in, we'll make sure to activate our energy shields because things might get rough.





Yeah, we were the ones who were supposed to use it to cheat in the swoop race!







The Beks have gang colors?



Yeah, yeah, we know where this is going. Just give us the accelerator so we can get out of this dump.





No, really, we don't care.





So yes, if you're playing a dark side character you can join up with the Vulkars, kill Gadon and represent the Vulkars in the swoop race. Naturally, we won't be doing that.





Kandon's bodyguard here is very eager to get rid of us.





This fight can be a bit rough because Kandon has high defense and is difficult to hit, especially with our less than ideal dual wielding abilities. The bodyguards blasting away at us can be a bit annoying, but Kandon is the biggest threat so Zila and Zaalbar focus on him while Mission tosses grenades at the bodyguards. One of the grenades may have slightly hit Zaalbar earlier, which is one of the reasons his health is so low at this point.



Eventually, the whole crew eats dirt.



Kandon has a ton of stuff on him, including a response package implant and a disruptor pistol as well as the items we see here. The Sith Energy Shield absorbs 30 points of damage instead of the usual 20, the Military Suit is medium armor with a +6 defense bonus and max DEX bonus of +3, and the Verpine Headband offers a +3 bonus to Will saves and +2 to Awareness.



All that's left to do here is to grab the accelerator and get out.



The Verpine Headband does at least look a whole lot less idiotic than the Lobot headgear we've been rocking for these last couple of hours, but it's still a crime against fashion.



Anyway, that was the Vulkar base. We can now just walk out and head back to Gadon.



I was beginning to wonder if you would make it. The race is tomorrow, and my mechanics need time to install the prototype into the swoop engine of our bike.





And I'm even going to go one better - I'm going to let you ride the swoop bike with the prototype accelerator installed on it. Without it, you won't stand a chance.

Sure, sounds great. What's the catch?



That too, I guess. Shouldn't this super engine booster be reserved for someone who has some idea what they're doing?





Oh. Well, that figures.



If you can complete the track before the accelerator overheats then you'll win for the Beks. If you die, then one of my other riders could still come through for me.

Hmm...



...I have a bad feeling about this.



Still, we can't exactly back out now, can we?





What's the worst that could happen? Aside from us exploding to bits, that is?



But I've got good instincts, and you have the look of a racer about you. Just try to relax and in the morning we'll take you to the swoop track.

Sure. Here's hoping there's gonna be enough left of us for someone to take back from the track.





Gadon mentioned that you've never done this before. You want me to run over the basics of handling a swoop bike for you?



Sure, might be a good idea to actually know how to ride one of these overpowered beasts.



All swoops are equipped with dynamic deflector systems, so hitting an obstacle won't cause you to crash. But it will shake you up a bit and slow you down. The track also has accelerator panels built into its surface. If you fly over one it'll give your swoop a boost of speed, so try to hit 'em when you see 'em. When the engine starts running hot you'll get a warning and you'll have to switch gears. Other than that just try to hang on. You'll be fine.

Well, that didn't tell us a single thing about actually handling a swoop. Thanks, buddy. I'm sure we'll figure it out as we go, so let's start those engines already.





Normally a rider can run as many heats as they want, but I don't know how long the prototype accelerator on your swoop will hold up. No more than four or five races, I'd guess.

We get exactly five attempts. If you fail to get the best time on that fifth attempt, you blow up and have to reload your save.





Sounds like you're ready. Go talk to the race announcer over by the counter. He'll give you the time to beat and get you out on the course. I'll be waiting for you here after the run so I can make any tweaks or repairs to your swoop in case you want to go out for another heat. Good luck. And don't worry about the prototype overheating and exploding while you're out on the track. That *probably* won't happen.

Right, we can't actually blow up during one of our attempts, so that's something at least.



We can talk to some of the spectators before entering the actual race. This guy is one of the Beks.



I'll be careful.



It's not that hard to understand. It's the biggest race of the year, so obviously you're going to get some hopefuls entering the race and trying to win it. Kinda like how one-off entrants will participate in the Indy 500 to get a shot at the glory, although those drivers are at least experienced in other disciplines of motorsport (to be fair, there have been some dubious entrants in past decades) and nowadays those entrants are mostly just IndyCar drivers who don't have a full-time seat for the season.



Thanks for the confidence boost!



These two are Vulkars, and obviously they're gonna be talking all kinds of trash.



We'll see.



This is Redros, the Vulkars' swoop champion and our main rival in this event.



He doesn't think much of us.



There's Bastila in the cage, guarded by one of the Vulkars so no one gets any ideas. They've also fitted a neural disruptor collar on her to keep her under control, so she won't respond if you try to talk to her.



Ah, you're riding for the Hidden Beks I see. Always liked them... I hope they can show these Vulkars a thing or two. But I digress.

Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, it's time to get on the track and see what we can do. The announcer seems to be not-so-subtly rooting for us.



Lost only one rider today? It's like the Isle of Man TT over here!





Don't worry... they scraped what was left of him off the track already. Just remember to hang on and you should be okay. You can hit the track whenever you're ready.

This dialogue might sound absurd. Surely, racing events could only be run like this in fictional stories! However, if you know anything about the history of motor racing, you'll probably also know this is exactly how things used to be even at the highest levels. Hell, some of the very real horror stories I've read from the 60s and 70s make the Taris swoop race organizers seem downright professional.



We should probably know what the current fastest time is before we get out there.



That's... not even remotely a good time. Did he just do a shakedown run at half speed? (Yes, I realize that's just because the time should be easy to beat even if you're a beginner, but it's pretty silly when you actually race one of your heats and see what the actual times look like)



Okay, let's get you out on the track.



Right, so, here are the basics of swoop racing. Press A to accelerate at the start, and press it again to change gears whenever the gauge at the bottom is full or close to it. It'll prompt you to press the button, so you can't really screw that up if you're paying attention.



LIGHTS OUT AND AWAY WE GO



That doohickey next to us on the track is a boost pad, the function of which I'm sure I don't need to explain.



That right there is one of the obstacles you'll want to avoid. If you hit one, your swoop will slow down.



On this first run, I'm actively avoiding some of the boost pads. There's a good reason for this.



That's our first run. 0:26:41 is not a spectacular time by any means, but it is 12 seconds faster than the initial fastest time so we're comfortably in the lead.



Celebratory fistpump!



Our mechanic seems to be pleased with our run.





The first run was just meant to be for practice. Here's where the actual race for the best time begins.



Let's get back to it.



The announcer stole my bad joke! I was supposed to say that! The current best time, by the way, is 0:26:16. This is why I held back on my first run, because if you go all out on that first attempt you might genuinely have trouble beating Redros' improved time.



We just about manage to overtake Redros for the top spot.



I guess Gadon knew what he was doing he picked you to ride for us. Now the only thing is to wait for the time to become official and go collect your prize.

To be perfectly honest, I thought Redros was going to do a third run, so I was still holding back. Had I gone all out and hit all the boost pads, I'd easily have shaved at least two or three seconds from that time and obliterated Redros. However, it turns out this was enough to win the race.





Zila, please put those swords away. You'll put someone's eye out.





So that's Brejik.



Hey! I mean, he's not wrong, but I can smell a sore loser from a mile away. Naturally, if you race for the Vulkars on the dark side path, he will suddenly be completely fine with cheating.





He'll still withdraw the prize no matter what, because he doesn't think anyone except him should be allowed to get their hands on Bastila. He does promise to compensate you, though.



You old fool! Your traditions are nothing to me - I am the wave of the future! If I want to withdraw the prize and sell this woman on the slave market myself, nobody can stop me!







Brejik might have gloated too soon.





Bastila seems rather gung-ho for a Jedi. Of course she's been imprisoned by these idiots for the last couple of days or so, so we can't really blame her for being angry even if it's against the teachings of the Order.



For some reason, Brejik will demand your death even on the dark side path. Either he was always planning to double-cross you, or, well, :effort:



Just like at any good victory lane celebration, a giant fight breaks out.



Brejik and Redros are pretty tough (both also have Sneak Attack, so don't let them flank you), but in no way a match for Bastila. Bastila is actually invulnerable in this fight, so if you're having trouble you can just sit back and have her take care of everything.



Before you talk to Bastila, remember to loot Brejik. Not only is he carrying his own custom belt, arm band and gloves, but he's also got Bastila's double-bladed lightsaber. I don't know if you can actually miss out on getting the lightsaber regardless (although I do know that one version of the Skip Taris mod I installed years ago did not give it to me, which leads me to assume you need to manually grab it here and the modder forgot that), but be sure to grab it anyway.



Wait... I don't believe this! You're... you're one of the soldiers with the Republic fleet, aren't you? Yes, I'm sure of it. How did you end up racing for these swoop gangs?



Can't go wrong with the classics, right?



Bastila is voiced by Jennifer Hale. Jennifer Hale is the best, even when she's berating us in a British accent.



Brejik and his Vulkars would have left you for dead if I hadn't stepped into that fight. You're lucky I was here to get you out of this mess!

Honestly, she's not wrong. We would've gotten wrecked if she wasn't there to help us.





If I'm going to figure out a way for us to get off this planet I need to know what kind of resources we can draw on. First, are we the only two survivors left from the Endar Spire?



"We also picked up a Wookiee and a teenage girl, both of whom I like more than Carth."



Maybe I misjudged you. Carth wouldn't have sent you if he wasn't confident in your... abilities. Forgive me - despite my Jedi training, I still tend to act a bit rashly sometimes. Please, take me to Carth right away. Between the three of us I'm sure we can figure out some way to get off this planet before the Sith realize we're here.

Are we sure she's talking about the same Carth Onasi? Well, whatever. We've rescued Bastila, so now we should get back to our apartment and see what we can do about getting off this planet. But first, Zila is struck by another vision of Bastila.

VIDEO: Another Vision





Once again, we see Bastila fight some Sith. She's not alone this time, either.







Revan does not respond and simply assumes a fighting stance. Unfortunately, I'm not a big enough nerd to be able to tell you which lightsaber form that is.



However, before any lightsaber combat can commence, there is a violent explosion on the bridge of Revan's ship.



Bastila is the only one left standing.





The Dark Lord has been defeated, but it was not Bastila who landed the killing blow. But if she wasn't the one who killed Revan, who was?

That's going to be a mystery for a later date, because our vision is over and we're back at the apartment.







I see. Now that I'm back in charge of this mission, perhaps we can start doing things properly. Hopefully our escape from Taris will go more smoothly than when you "rescued" me from Brejik.

Hey, you're welcome. Always happy to lend a hand.





My Battle Meditation ability has helped the Republic many times in this war, and it will serve us well here I am sure.

To be honest, I think all that meditation might have left our Jedi friend here with a severely inflated head.





For the record, Carth is right and Bastila is being an arrogant jackass, but we should try to defuse the situation rather than incite either of them any further.



Of course we've all had a rough time here, but none more so than Bastila. As I said earlier, it's no wonder she's not quite acting like the calm and collected Jedi you might expect her to be. Bastila is also very young and not even a full-fledged Jedi Knight yet, just a Padawan learner who has been thrust into a position she's in no way ready to handle yet as the Republic's single greatest war asset and the biggest and best hope for the galaxy.



Well said, Carth. And the sooner we start looking the better; I've already been a prisoner of the Vulkars and I don't plan on being captured by the Sith.

Can't disagree with that.



I think we'll need some help getting off Taris. Maybe if we ask around one of the locals can help us out. We should probably start by asking around in the cantinas.

Before we do anything else, we should ask Bastila what the hell that vision was just now.



Something weird happened when we first met. Like a vision.

A vision? A vision of what?

Of you. Fighting a dark Jedi. Revan, I guess.

This is... strange. Such visions are often a sign of Force sensitivity.

Does that mean what it sounds like?





It is possible that in the excitement of the battle's aftermath the Force allowed you to witness one of my more intense memories.

So she doesn't know either. Got it.



Maybe we should also mention the fact we already saw a different vision of her earlier, when we weren't anywhere near her.



Once we escape Taris we can seek the guidance of the Council, if you wish. They will understand the significance of your vision... if there is any. However, I think it would be best if we all stayed focused on the task at hand right now. We can't afford any distractions; we need to find a way off Taris.

Yeah, that does sound like a decent plan for the time being. We can talk about Force sensitivity and all that when we get off Taris. Let's get out of here and start looking for clues.



Last we checked, yes.



Who's this guy, though? An adoring fan?



Why would Canderous want to meet us? He works for Davik.



That said, if he's with Davik, maybe he'll know something useful. We'll go meet him as soon as we can.





Before we end today's update, let's just quickly level up Carth and Bastila. The game is recommending Toughness for Carth, and while that's not a good feat I really don't give a poo poo what Carth gets.



Here are the attributes Bastila starts with, plus that extra attribute point we put to Charisma to get the modifier up to +3.



Again, I've never really bothered with the skills for most party members because the main character is the designated skill monkey and handles most of the important stuff.





As a Jedi, Bastila can obviously use Force powers. I said earlier that staying at a neutral alignment doesn't provide any perks, but one thing that does do is make light and dark side powers equal in terms of Force point cost.



At level 4, we don't have that many good powers available, and since our next destination will have plenty of droid enemies (as does the game in general), Stun Droid is a solid investment and is what the game recommends here as well.



For Bastila's level 5 power, we choose Energy Resistance. It's basically an energy shield, but instead of a physical shield you're using the Force to protect yourself. It also doesn't absorb quite as much damage as energy shields, but it's still very handy to have. As far as I'm aware, it also stacks with energy shields and damage resistance items.



Force Immunity: Stun is a Jedi Sentinel feat that, as the name suggests, makes the Jedi completely immune to any kind of stun effect. The Stun power, Critical Strike, Sniper Shot, concussion grenades, all of that. This is the second Force Immunity rank, obtained at level 6; the first one protects from Fear and the last one from Paralysis. Knight Sense is the second rank of Jedi Sense, which provides a passive defense boost (currently +4).



Since Bastila uses a double-bladed lightsaber, she'll want to be as effective at two-weapon fighting as possible.



At level 6, Bastila becomes able to learn the Cure power. Obviously, we're going to want that. You know, I used to think being able to use the Force like an RPG cure spell was silly and just one of those videogamey things, but... well, it's official canon now, isn't it?



Finally, we'll have Bastila equip her lightsaber. I still remember how exciting it was to finally get a Jedi party member with her own lightsaber the first time I played this.



Hell yeah. Probably shouldn't wave that thing around in public, though. In any event, next time we'll go see what Canderous wants, and take care of the remaining sidequests on Taris.

DMorbid fucked around with this message at 21:37 on Jan 8, 2020

CommissarMega
Nov 18, 2008

THUNDERDOME LOSER
Ah, Toughness. Truly the perk Carth deserves.

DMorbid
Jan 6, 2011

With our special guest star, RUSH! YAYYYYYYYYY

CommissarMega posted:

Ah, Toughness. Truly the perk Carth deserves.
The game recommends it, so it knows! :v:

I usually just auto-level Carth because I don't give a poo poo about the skills and feats he gets. As someone who has literally never played D&D, I'm also not sure why Toughness is bad because more HP doesn't seem too terrible to my idiot brain. :downs: Is it just that the limited feats you get would be better used for something to improve your combat abilities?

Cooked Auto
Aug 4, 2007

If you will not serve in combat, you will serve on the firing line!




Gadon's first line when you return with the accelerator is repeated twice for some reason.

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

I was actually surprised to find that healing someone with the universal energy generated by all life was considered an amazing feat, or odd in the slightest. It seems like it would be one of the more natural uses for the Force.

MechaCrash
Jan 1, 2013

Doc M posted:

The game recommends it, so it knows! :v:

I usually just auto-level Carth because I don't give a poo poo about the skills and feats he gets. As someone who has literally never played D&D, I'm also not sure why Toughness is bad because more HP doesn't seem too terrible to my idiot brain. :downs: Is it just that the limited feats you get would be better used for something to improve your combat abilities?

Getting more HP is nice, but you have a very limited number of perks, and using it for +1 HP/level is not really worth it. It's better here than it was in the original version of third edition, though, where it just gave a flat +3 HP. Nice if you're a first level wizard with five hit points, not so much if you're a tenth level barbarian with seventy. Maybe the damage reduction for taking another level of Toughness will be useful? But the third level of Toughness is crap, because it's just another +1 HP/level. But it's on Carth, who sucks and will never see action again, so who gives a poo poo.

One of the things that is missing from this system, but is in the d20 system it's derived from, is some variety of Weapon Finesse: you use Dexterity to calculate your to-hit with (some) melee weapons instead of Strength. That'd be really handy here, especially if you're using guns a bunch, or like Bastilla have tons of dexterity anyway. It's also an issue, in my opinion, that there's no two handed melee weapons. We have two handed guns, of course, with the various rifles and heavy weapons (is anybody using those or is everybody going to use dual pistols?), but the closest you can get is the Dueling line, which gives you benefits to wielding a single melee weapon (+1 attack and defense when using a one-handed weapon, which applies to guns too, per level taken).

Emong
May 31, 2011

perpair to be annihilated


MechaCrash posted:

One of the things that is missing from this system, but is in the d20 system it's derived from, is some variety of Weapon Finesse: you use Dexterity to calculate your to-hit with (some) melee weapons instead of Strength. That'd be really handy here, especially if you're using guns a bunch, or like Bastilla have tons of dexterity anyway. It's also an issue, in my opinion, that there's no two handed melee weapons. We have two handed guns, of course, with the various rifles and heavy weapons (is anybody using those or is everybody going to use dual pistols?), but the closest you can get is the Dueling line, which gives you benefits to wielding a single melee weapon (+1 attack and defense when using a one-handed weapon, which applies to guns too, per level taken).

Weapon Finesse is actually built into lightsabers in this game, so Bastilla's fine with having high dex.

turol
Jul 31, 2017

MechaCrash posted:

One of the things that is missing from this system, but is in the d20 system it's derived from, is some variety of Weapon Finesse: you use Dexterity to calculate your to-hit with (some) melee weapons instead of Strength. That'd be really handy here, especially if you're using guns a bunch, or like Bastilla have tons of dexterity anyway.


The sequel has it I believe.

quote:


It's also an issue, in my opinion, that there's no two handed melee weapons.

There are two-handed melee weapons, we saw an Echani ritual brand in a store already.

MechaCrash
Jan 1, 2013

If lightsabers automatically use dex or strength for attack rolls, well there you go then. But the Echani ritual brand isn't really a two handed weapon. It's a double weapon, which means it uses the dual wielding rules. When I say two handed weapon, I mean greatswords and the like.

EggsAisle
Dec 17, 2013

I get it! You're, uh...

Doc M posted:

I usually just auto-level Carth because I don't give a poo poo about the skills and feats he gets. As someone who has literally never played D&D, I'm also not sure why Toughness is bad because more HP doesn't seem too terrible to my idiot brain. :downs: Is it just that the limited feats you get would be better used for something to improve your combat abilities?

You got it, more or less. The other thing about Toughness is that it's retroactive; as soon as you confirm it the game will recalculate your HP as if you'd had it from the beginning. It's a decent pick once you've got your "core" feats, but it doesn't enable your build the same way dual-wielding or critical strike does, especially early on.

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Basically, the ability to kill someone faster or get hit less is more valuable than the very marginal HP improvement you get from one rank of Toughness and will prevent you going down more consistently.

DMorbid
Jan 6, 2011

With our special guest star, RUSH! YAYYYYYYYYY

Got it, thanks. That makes sense. No one else is going to be saddled with Toughness from here on out, aside from maybe the next party member because I already set their initial skills and feats and might've taken whatever the game was recommending. Can't recall for sure, though. But yeah, definitely no more Toughness after that!

EggsAisle
Dec 17, 2013

I get it! You're, uh...
It's really not that big of a deal. I ended up taking Toughness on most of my characters, actually- I just waited till they hit level 16 or so. Plus I think the 2nd rank reduces the damage you take from every single hit by 2, which is substantial. I might be thinking of KotOR 2 though, it's been a while.

achtungnight
Oct 5, 2014
I get my fun here. Enjoy!
Wow, you sure packed a lot into that update. And that race gimmick has to be one of the most counter intuitive and sneaky video game tricks I’ve seen. This game is pretty cool.

I don’t think I like our new Jedi party member though. She’s arrogant and she claims to like Carth, then snipes at him when they meet. Jedi with special trick or not, I think I’d stick with the kid and the Wookie as my buddies. If not for game mechanics that is. :(

Das Panzer
Nov 11, 2016
I'm not much a fan of Bastilla for Spoiler reasons but we'll see that when we get to it. It's not for a long while anyhow.

Keldulas
Mar 18, 2009
Her character does at least make sense. She's a wet-behind-the-ears trainee who suddenly manifests a gamechanger ability, and everyone basically spoils her for having it. Given the fact that she broke out of the cage on her own, she does have some capability too, so it's not entirely unfounded.

It doesn't stop her from being abrasive and arrogant, but at least there's coherent reasons behind it.

Godna
Feb 4, 2013
so I feel the need to point this out as it's something I noticed in one of my playthroughs when I was actually watching all the dicerolls.

Did you know if you are upclose when using blasters you get like a +10 to hit? It's absurd and I don't think this is ever actually explained, but it's a thing try it!

oh you also get a pretty big bonus using melee attacks against someone with a ranged weapon equipped

wedgekree
Feb 20, 2013
If smoeone has guns, charge in and stab them. If you have guns, make sure they do not do it to you.

As smuggler I tended to like having Zalbar up front wiht a sword and then pepper with a blaster from behind.

But as a feat, Toughness (since levels max out at 20, and you get +1 HP per level from it) gives you a max of +20 HP if you hit max level in the game.

Given even in Taris an enemy can easily do like 12-15 damage in a nice hit that's.. 1-2 more punches you can take?

Also I like Bastila, but taht's more Jennifer Hale (okay all her).

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CommissarMega
Nov 18, 2008

THUNDERDOME LOSER

Yeah, this is pretty much why Toughness is garbage. Even if the next level gives some bonuses, it doesn't make up for the fact that you're losing out on far more critical stuff. Hell, I'd rather take some of the skill-increasing feats over Toughness, it's that much of a waste; at least the skill boosters can give me points in non cross-class skills. Mind you, I'd probably not use any of them, but even so they're still better than Toughness.

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