Fringe

[Jm419]

I just found out about it this time; I might reload an old Dark Side save and go back and do them. By the way, I saved right and left going through the game this time; I wanted a lot of save points. I saved once on the Endar Spire, four times on Taris, twice on Dantooine, twice on all four planets after (once immediately after debarking, and once at the Star Map), twice on the Ebon Hawk (Bastila's kiss and the Leviathan), three times on Lehon (debarking, the Rakatan computer, and the fight with Bastila), and three times on the Star Forge (debarking, Bastila fight, Malak fight), for a total of twenty-three save files. Oh well, the Xbox has essentially unlimited memory space. Oh, and my save on the Observation Deck of the Star Forge is at exactly 25 hours, 0 minutes. I did a bit better than my 98 hour and 25 minute first time through.

The Sentinels are totally amazing players - my canonical light-sided female Jedi Exile was a Sentinel/Master, so she was decent with a saber and epic with the Force. I have actually never used blasters at all, but always go the single (dueling bonuses!) vibroblade-lightsaber route. I did double red lightsabers on my Sith in KotOR, but I prefer the single. I've never used a double-bladed saber either. I might have to try the blaster route - now look what you've done. Another thirty hours out the window because I have to replay KotOR II now. Admittedly, I can't see playing KotOR with blasters - the lightsaber is so prominent.

[bountyhunter9]

Lol. Wow. That's a lot of saving. I don't know why, but I only save once for each character. Wow, 98 hours? The longest I've taken, in either KotOR, is 27 h 2 min (first time through KotOR II). I don't know how long my first try was, that was on my cousin's Xbox. Probably around 30 h, lol. Flying around the galaxy looking for a cheap place to land.

They are. I don't really think of playing them much, because I automatically think Sentinels, blasters. I don't know why. I've never tried to be a Sentinel with a lightsaber (other than as a backup weapon). And the lightsabers are a lot of fun. Plus, when you get to the later levels, it can just suck to rely on blasters. But, when I first went with blasters, I had a lot of fun. Nothing like mowing down bounty hunters with Master Rapid Shot.

Yeah. In KotOR, is there a Precise Shot feat? The one that grants extra damage on ranged attacks and gives a penalty to anyone deflecting your attacks? I don't think there is. That would make the later levels nearly impossible.

[Jm419]

I left my game on and went to bed...twice. I didn't realize the menu didn't count as paused...

That's the only decent feat, and it looks epic. Flurry and Rapid Shot are the way to go; they both give you three attacks, but also impose a Defense penalty. Of course, with Flurry, that's a bit of a give and take - you get three attacks, but you're definitely going to get hit. But with Rapid Shot, unless you're duking it out with blasters, it really isn't a problem if you have people up front distracting the enemies, and the Defense penalty doesn't really mean much.

Well, Sniper Shot, but I'm not sure if that's the same thing. Again, I don't play melee.

[bountyhunter9]

Lol. That would explain it.

Yeah. Sniper Shot/Critical Strike can be really powerful too, but that's if you upgrade your saber to increase the effectiveness of critical strikes.

Okay. I checked, and there isn't one. I can't imagine how difficult KotOR would be with blasters, then. In KotOR II, it is very difficult to get blaster shots by enemies with lightsabers without those feats.

[Jm419]

Yep.

I like Critical Strike because of the stun factor; I think I might use that next time. The lightsaber I built this time was amazingly nice, because it just scythed through, and it almost always hit, because of that attack bonus. It was the best saber I've ever had, I'd say, even better than in KotOR II.

Yeah, I (and poor Carth) found that out the hard way.

[bountyhunter9]

Lol. Lightsabers in KotOR II can get ridiculously powerful. With your personal crystal, you get boosts to almost everything. Then there are other parts to add to increase damage...not to mention feats...but I still like Force powers. With my level 35 Sith Lord, I can take out a Storm Beast with a single Force Crush. It deals like 260 damage. And the saving throw is almost impossible once I use Crush Opposition V on the target.

Lol.

[Jm419]

I really liked the Force Crush, I could do that too. That was an epic power. Didn't you kill Traya with like three hits of that, or something?

[bountyhunter9]

Yeah, Force Crush was awesome. Unfair, but awesome. I killed Traya with Kill, (after using Crush Opposition to make sure she failed the save), and then I ended it with one Force Crush. Kreia I just fought today, and she is impossible to kill without it. The DC against my Force Crush is 64...but Kreia has a base bonus of 66, so she always succeeds on the save. It deals about 130 damage to her, and it takes about ten or eleven uses.

One of the most effective powers can be Kill, though. Some characters have unnecessarily massive amounts of HP - such as Queen Talia or Colonel Tobin. It can take many rounds to hack through them or slay them with Force Storm. But Kill, assuming they fail the save, drains half their vitality in a few seconds. When I choked Talia with Kill, she lost over 430 VP every round to it. Using it twice is a lot quicker than other powers.

[Jm419]

LOL. It really is unfair. Kreia has a base 66 Defense? That's insane. Or is that against FP's? And I still haven't gotten Malak in KotOR, even though I tried again today. That's a tough fight - the moral of the story is, be a Soldier.

Colonel Tobin was always a weird fight, yeah. I usually use Stasis Field and then go to town with a lightsaber, but when I play Dark Side, kill is a good option as well. Of course, I like Drain Life just as well, and Death Field is really really fun to use. What do you think of Force Storm? I don't think it's particularly useful, kinda like Lightsaber Throw.

[bountyhunter9]

Yeah, against Force powers it's a 66. I'm not sure what her defense is. I never attacked her. She does have a Strength modifier of +13, though. Which is insane for a Consular.

Yeah, Malak is a tough fight.

Force Storm? Like the upgraded Force Lightning? That may be the best Force power in the game for killing off large group of enemies. It deals more damage than Death Field, but it doesn't heal your character. A few blasts of Force Storm will kill just about every character in the game outside of the big bosses.

[Jm419]

Wow. That's insane, you're right. Lol. How do you tell what her modifiers are? Are you playing it on the PC? Or Xbox?

I beat him today. There was a glitch, though, where he didn't attack me at all after he healed himself the second time, so I kinda felt cheated a bit. But, oh well, I've fought him legitimately before.

Yeah. I played my Dark Sider on Lehon today, and Force Storm just turns enemies into toast, but it drains FP really fast. I was just curious what your opinion on it was, as it's one of those debatable FPs in the game.

[bountyhunter9]

I'm playing it on Xbox. If you pause the game, and go into the journal, press a few buttons and it'll take you to the feedback screen, or something like that. It spells out the dice rolls and modifiers for recent combat and other actions. It's really quite interesting.

Lol. That's unfortunate.

Yeah, that's true. It drains FP like crazy. Of course, when you have 900+ FP it doesn't really put a dent in it...but in the first KotOR things are a bit more balanced. No unlimited XP glitches. Lol.

[Jm419]

Oh, I knew that, I just never used it. Huh, a KotOR function I forgot completely about.

Yeah.

Speaking of...tell me your secret! And of course, KotOR has a 20 level cap, so you have to choose your abilities / feats / powers wisely.

[bountyhunter9]

Yeah. I never really used it either. But when Kreia actually stunned me with one of her Force powers (my Will save is like +39), I had to see what the numbers were to believe them.

Lol. I posted it in another thread here. Just be careful with it, the game can crash if there are too many Hssiss. That happened to me a couple times.

[Jm419]

Lol. You were incredulous that you were actually stunned?