Kotor ?

[ICXRa]

I have loaded this game twice and both times could never get into it so it has set unplayed on my desk for years. It comes up in a lot of threads and people rave about it so much that I decided to give it another shot. I read some walkthroughs etc and have stuck with it this time more than in the past and find myself enjoying it more.

My question is are there any must have mods for this or is vanilla the way to go?

I got KOTOR II as well so I'm wondering about that one as well.

Thanks!

 

[shortylickens]

KOTOR 1 is just fine vanilla. Make sure you have the latest patches.
KOTOR 2 is not so great without the fan made patch that fixes lots of issues. Even with the issues fixed, it still has a far inferior story line to its predecessor. But you will want to play it anyway.
Also, there are official patches that increase the quality of the movies and music.

 

[DaveSimmons]

The KoTOR II restoration that was released and will be finished is Stoney's at DeadlyStreams:
http://www.deadlystream.com/forumdisplay.php?123-TSL-Restored-Content-Mod

Team Gizka hyped a restoration project first and for years, but kept it private / closed source, then the team fell apart but they still kept it closed source instead of sharing the work with other modders:
http://www.team-gizka.org/

You fail, Team Gizka tease weasels!

 

[mmntech]

KOTOR 1 is just fine vanilla. Make sure you have the latest patches.
KOTOR 2 is not so great without the fan made patch that fixes lots of issues. Even with the issues fixed, it still has a far inferior story line to its predecessor. But you will want to play it anyway.
Also, there are official patches that increase the quality of the movies and music.

KOTOR II is as good a game as the first one, but it's far more character driven. KOTOR 1 follows a conventional Star Wars/Tragic Hero's formula. Without giving away spoilers, the plot borrows a lot from the movies. KOTOR II is about exploring yourself more than stopping a defined villain. It also challenges the notion of the force being just light versus dark and explores it more philosophically than most other Star Wars works. I've always seen it as the thinking man's Star Wars game. The story is at least as good when you consider it that way. LucasArts never really gave it justice though and it got rushed through production and a lot of stuff got cut, so there are plot holes.

KOTOR II does assume you've played the first game. There are lots of great mods for both. I recommend Skip Peraugus for Kotor II as the first chapter of that game is pretty pointless. Here's an excellent source for mods.
http://knightsoftheoldrepublic.filefront.com/

 

[Fayd]

KOTOR II is as good a game as the first one, but it's far more character driven. KOTOR 1 follows a conventional Star Wars/Tragic Hero's formula. Without giving away spoilers, the plot borrows a lot from the movies. KOTOR II is about exploring yourself more than stopping a defined villain. It also challenges the notion of the force being just light versus dark and explores it more philosophically than most other Star Wars works. I've always seen it as the thinking man's Star Wars game. The story is at least as good when you consider it that way. LucasArts never really gave it justice though and it got rushed through production and a lot of stuff got cut, so there are plot holes.

KOTOR II does assume you've played the first game. There are lots of great mods for both. I recommend Skip Peraugus for Kotor II as the first chapter of that game is pretty pointless. Here's an excellent source for mods.
http://knightsoftheoldrepublic.filefront.com/

i just figured kotor 2 to be a different engine version of kyle katarn's saga, this time with a mentor.

 

[shortylickens]

i just figured kotor 2 to be a different engine version of kyle katarn's saga, this time with a mentor.

No, no, no, no, no, no.
Kyle Katarns saga is detailed in Dark Forces, Dark Forces: Jedi Knight, Jedi Knight: Jedi Outcast, and partially in Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy. The fact they named these things so horribly does not contribute to people understanding it.

Knights of the Old Republic is set about 2000 years before the creation of the Empire and the rise of the Rebellion. It deals with Darth Revan, Darth Malak, and a great war that involves a whole nation of Sith and their fleets & armies. Also theres a Mandalorian war too. KOTOR 2 takes places just after the war and the old republic is still trying to sort itself out and fend off marauding Sith. Your character is a veteran of that war and once followed Darth Revan. Your character also used to be a great jedi once but had his power stripped by the jedi council because he chose to join Revan.

KOTOR 1 is more about Revan himself and the relatively active, healthy Sith presence. Much like the original movies there are huge gaps in time between KOTOR 1 and 2, and some cool shit went down that we never actually see. I wish they would start things up again, but since they went the MMO route I dont think thats gonna happen.

 

[JoshGuru7]

The story is at least as good when you consider it that way. LucasArts never really gave it justice though and it got rushed through production and a lot of stuff got cut, so there are plot holes.

I'm not intending to come across as rude, but did you also think that matrix 2/3 were just as good story-wise as matrix 1? I find "entertainment" that makes me feel like I'm talking to a college freshman who just took philosophy 101 entirely irritating.

I felt that the story of KOTOR2 was terrible in comparison to KOTOR. Vital elements of the plot were completely forgotten about as the game neared the climax, Kreia's character was way too emo, the ending was Fallout 3 bad, etc.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I felt the handling of dark vs. light side, with extremists of both paths being misguided, was well done in KoTOR II. You might have found the dialogue "irratating" and "emo" but you're in the minority there.

Most of the posts I've read by those who've played both games agree that until the ending where it falls apart, KoTOR II is generally better than I in story, light/dark side handling and gameplay.

 

[Kromis]

I spent about 1 hour and 30 minutes on the intro + Taris in KOTOR 1.

I spent about 2 hours and 30 minutes on Peragus and 2 hours on Telos in KOTOR 2. The pacing is WAY off in that game and I never finished it. And you don't get a god damn lightsaber until like 6 hours into the game. Seriously...

 

[shortylickens]

I spent about 1 hour and 30 minutes on the intro + Taris in KOTOR 1.

I spent about 2 hours and 30 minutes on Peragus and 2 hours on Telos in KOTOR 2. The pacing is WAY off in that game and I never finished it. And you don't get a god damn lightsaber until like 6 hours into the game. Seriously...

Well, despite the fact I've mentioned this at least once in every KOTOR thread, I guess nobody ever seems to pick up on it.
- = YOU NEED TO USE THE TURBO CODE!! = -
The pointless running around between areas is what sucks up most of the game time.

 

[coloumb]

KOTOR II is as good a game as the first one, but it's far more character driven. KOTOR 1 follows a conventional Star Wars/Tragic Hero's formula. Without giving away spoilers, the plot borrows a lot from the movies. KOTOR II is about exploring yourself more than stopping a defined villain. It also challenges the notion of the force being just light versus dark and explores it more philosophically than most other Star Wars works. I've always seen it as the thinking man's Star Wars game. The story is at least as good when you consider it that way. LucasArts never really gave it justice though and it got rushed through production and a lot of stuff got cut, so there are plot holes.

KOTOR II does assume you've played the first game. There are lots of great mods for both. I recommend Skip Peraugus for Kotor II as the first chapter of that game is pretty pointless. Here's an excellent source for mods.
http://knightsoftheoldrepublic.filefront.com/

Thanks.

Ok..so why the heck would you want this mod? LOL ..

Player and Party Underwear Mod

To the OP - I'm in the same boat - I lost count how many times I've started..then stopped KOTOR simply because of other game releases. I definitely need to just put "new game release installs" on ignore and finish Kotor 1/2 as well as Anachronox [never finished that one either]

Edited - here we go - cheats for KOTOR 1 [insta-combat of modern day games has made me lazy ]:

http://knightsoftheoldrepublic.filefront.com/info/cheatskotor1

 

[s44]

Seriously, leave this thread now until you play KOTOR1. You *will* be spoiled and you *will* regret it. Don't look at any KOTOR2 info either. Again, you'll spoil KOTOR1 for yourself and that would be a waste.

 

[shortylickens]

Seriously, leave this thread now until you play KOTOR1. You *will* be spoiled and you *will* regret it. Don't look at any KOTOR2 info either. Again, you'll spoil KOTOR1 for yourself and that would be a waste.

OOPS!

I'm sorry everyone. Maybe I should have used the spoiler tag.

 

[ICXRa]

Thanks for the input everyone.

I've been at it all afternoon and I am noticing really bad jerky game play in some areas. The Sith base was by far the worst but outside on Taris was perfectly fine. Now on into the game I am seeing the same issues from time to time but not consistently. I've done some searching on the issue and see I am not alone. Is there a fix for this?

I'm running a 8500 with 4 GB or memory and at 4890 but it seems it may be an issue with dual core processors from some of what I've read.

 

[JaYp146]

Thanks for the input everyone.

I've been at it all afternoon and I am noticing really bad jerky game play in some areas. The Sith base was by far the worst but outside on Taris was perfectly fine. Now on into the game I am seeing the same issues from time to time but not consistently. I've done some searching on the issue and see I am not alone. Is there a fix for this?

I'm running a 8500 with 4 GB or memory and at 4890 but it seems it may be an issue with dual core processors from some of what I've read.

Sounds odd, I had very similar specs (E8500, 8GB RAM, 4870, Win7x64) when I last played KOTOR and it worked just fine.

 

[Born2bwire]

Seriously, leave this thread now until you play KOTOR1. You *will* be spoiled and you *will* regret it. Don't look at any KOTOR2 info either. Again, you'll spoil KOTOR1 for yourself and that would be a waste.

I already got spoiled by watching HK-47 videos on youtube, the guys put the spoiler in the description of all of the videos.

 

[Borealis7]

I've played both KOTORs one after the other, enjoyed both tremendously, and haven't encountered any major crashes either!
you might want to play 2 on Hard setting after you've played 1. 2 was too easy.

 

[bullbert]

yeah, if you are offended by spoilers of any kind, then you should never read about the game ANYWHERE on the internet before your first playthru, except for Hot Deals threads and install/crash/help threads, and even on those you should have already turned on your OWN spoiler detector.

Me? If I left me read a spoiler then it is my own fault, not the author's fault, unless the author purposely goes out of his/her way to ruin the game for others.

OP admitted to reading some walkthrus and asked for further opinions, so if you kept reading from there, then it your own fault if spoilers cause you convulsions and/or blindness.



edit: back on topic:
Just google for the sites which collect the mods, then read the short discriptions for each the mods and decide what suits your gameplay tastes. Other than unofficial fan created patches (does not apply to KOTOR1) where the players have to create their own patches due to a sucky developer/publisher, my favorite addons may ruin the game for you and vice versa. This applies to any game, not just KOTOR 1&2.

 

[ICXRa]

Well I haven't read the entire walk through....I'm just reading one as I go along so as not to waste a bunch of time getting nowhere. I have not read ahead though.

Every time before this when I tried to play I got nowhere. This became frustrating and I stopped playing it.

 

[Born2bwire]

Haha. Last night Bastilla chastised me for using the force to get out of paying docking fees.

 

[shortylickens]

BUMP!

OK, gamefix tip.
The Steam version of KOTOR 1 does crash, even if you have the latest patches and newest drivers for your system. The Disable Vertex Buffer trick only helps a little, as does using one core of a multi-core CPU.

The one thing which seems to help everyone and is the only thing that helped me is running it in a window vs. fullscreen. It used to crash every 15-20 minutes no matter what. Now it runs for hours without issue. And if you run it at the same resolution as your desktop, you wont feel like you're missing out on anything or not getting a cinematic experience.

For reference, I do not have issues with the original CD version. I guess they did something to the Executable to make it run without discs on Steam.

 

[coloumb]

Just finished KOTOR 1 - Awesome game.

Crashed quite a few times during quick save - luckily auto-save happens quite a lot - so it wasn't too bad. I cheated and gave everyone +99 stats and used Force Speed [Force run] quiet a lot. Level 1 MMO style combat annoys the hell out of me - and most games these days are quick combat.

Starting KOTOR 2 - disappointed at the intro movie but is more of the same that KOTOR 1 was [interesting approach of switching characters as you progress].

 

[bunnyfubbles]

KOTOR1 = better story, less broken

KOTOR2 = inferior story (partly due to unfinished game), more broken (again, due to be rushed and unfinished), but better overall gameplay

 

[KeithTalent]

BUMP!

OK, gamefix tip.
The Steam version of KOTOR 1 does crash, even if you have the latest patches and newest drivers for your system. The Disable Vertex Buffer trick only helps a little, as does using one core of a multi-core CPU.

The one thing which seems to help everyone and is the only thing that helped me is running it in a window vs. fullscreen. It used to crash every 15-20 minutes no matter what. Now it runs for hours without issue. And if you run it at the same resolution as your desktop, you wont feel like you're missing out on anything or not getting a cinematic experience.

For reference, I do not have issues with the original CD version. I guess they did something to the Executable to make it run without discs on Steam.

Thanks shorty, I'll have to give this a shot. I actually had to give up playing the game due to crashes, so hopefully this fix will get me up and running again.

KT

 

[frozentundra123456]

KOTOR 1 was one of my favorite games of all time. KOTOR 2 was OK, but the ending was terrible. All that time building influence and turning your characters to Jedi, and then they are gone. I played through both light side and dark side of KOTOR 2 and still dont understand the ending of either story. Very unfinished and very unfortunate that they abandoned the franchise without KOTOR 3 to resolve the plot lines, and made an MMO.

BTW, cant really tell of course, but doesnt Mass Effect seem to be following the same pattern? Straightforward story in the first game-- hero saves the galaxy. Then much darker and more ambiguous second game. At least I hope they finish up the storyline of Mass Effect.