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Game Talk: KOTOR 2 Design Choices & Items

     Released in 2004, Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords (KOTOR 2: TSL) is a CRPG developed by Obsidian Entertainment. Upon release, it left a lot of content on the cutting room floor which was subsequently re-introduced by fans via the TSLRCM, or The Sith Lord Restored Content Mod, which also resolved a number of technical issues the plagued the game such as stability problems and broken in-game quests.

    KOTOR 2 uses many of the features from the first game, developed by BioWare and released in 2003, as well as its Odyssey Engine. It does add additional features, and character customization options to compensate for moving the level cap from 20 to 50. Some of those new features expand previously introduced feats or class options, and the rest are entirely new to the sequel. KOTOR 2 also greatly expanded the crafting and weapon & armor customization options from its predecessor, allowing more than just tinkering with unique items. The most influential mechanical decision was the choice to make most loot and vendor item lists randomized on each run.

    The fact that most of the loot and vendor lists are randomized informs a lot of the equipment choices and related gameplay. For instance, it greatly encourages scouring the map for every container, as each has a distinct possibility of yielding powerful and useful items, both appropriate for your level, and some far outstripping what you may currently have. Even after years of playing the game, I still love going through all the containers on the Nar Shaddaa docks, looking to see what I'll get this time. More often than not, it'll be the usual haul of computer spikes, repair parts. But, more often than you'd think, I'll find items belonging to legendary heroes of old, increasing my party's power. Pretty thrilling stuff if you ask me. Most interesting to me the more I think of it, is that this design choice extends to the tutorial area, Peragus. Most tutorial areas in games tend to restrict what is available early on, as this portion of the game is meant to prepare and teach you. And while this still is partially true for Peragus, more so after the introduction of the TSLRCM, in the latter half of the level you being to see some high-end equipment appear, such as armor that will likely negate all damage for many levels, or blaster rifles that will quickly eliminate most foes for the foreseeable future. You can (or at least I do) walk out of the tutorial with Mandalorian levels of firepower.

    What is given by the randomly generated lists, can just as easily dry up. It is entirely possible to have a string of bad luck, and not find much in the way of useful or usable items. You can find respite in vendors, but as they also rely on random lists, this can suffer from the same problems.

    Fortunately, though, the game comes with two important ways to compensate; expanded crafting & upgrades, and increased character customization from the first game such as new feats & class features. The new crafting system makes it possible to manufacture basic weapons for each role, such as rifles, hand blasters, and single & double melee options, each with two or three slots for customization. The upgrades you can create are tied to a characters skills, with the most powerful upgrades locked behind high skill walls. This makes crafted weapons and upgrades more than capable of keeping up with level-appropriate challenges, which can counter any misfortune in the random loot. Indeed, if you have great luck and make off with amazing items, the upgrade system can make good fortune even better by enhancing already powerful items.

    The other vital system for balancing the randomized loot is the enhanced character customization options. For example, the Precise Shot line of feats passively increases the damage dealt by blasters by +1 per level of the feat taken, and stacks with any upgrades or innate qualities of the weapon. Somewhat notoriously, this also improves from the prior game, which quickly left blaster users as ineffective with the increased number of lightsaber-wielding foes, which could deflect and redirect fire. The Scout class, used by two potential party member, even gets levels of Precise Shot as normal class progression. Melee builds also get a few goodies as well, with some feats such as Flurry reworked to remove their penalties to defense. Even though melee did not have the same problems, it is still nice to see that they experienced some feature upgrades as well.

    Ultimately, KOTOR 2 is enhanced by featuring its randomized loot because it increases variety between runs, and desire to comb levels, and the biggest drawback of bad luck is entirely countered by good design and implementation of a robust crafting & upgrade system and enhanced character customization options.

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