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VAGENDA OF MANOCIDE
Aug 1, 2004

whoa, what just happened here?







College Slice

RagnarokAngel posted:

KOTOR also came out before that story/character template was established, I think it was the first one to do it, since baldur's gate really didn't.

NWN.

And black-and-white is bad because actual live character performance bonuses are tied to the alignment system and the good and evil choices are hamfisted as gently caress and rarely what you'd actually want to do--and the evil path that you must cleave to is basically a retard psychopath and rarely rises above some miasma of terribleness.

Good vs. evil, not black vs. white, is a staple of the franchise, even the OT has great variations on the formula and the better entries in the EU definitely transcend the kind of tripe KOTOR puts forward. Hell, even the prequels are better at it -- Qui-gon is a much better "gray" (gently caress that gray bullshit) Jedi than Jolee Bindo.

VAGENDA OF MANOCIDE fucked around with this message at 19:04 on Aug 26, 2011

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RagnarokAngel
Oct 5, 2006

Black Magic Extraordinaire
Sheesh that's a lot of vitriol. Sorry I said anything.

Tuxedo Jack
Sep 11, 2001

Hey Ma, who's that band I like? Oh yeah, Hall & Oates.
Can someone please cite where in the EU Luke speaks binary to Artoo? I've heard it mentioned in this thread and a friend asked what it was from.

mynnna
Jan 10, 2004

I don't remember him ever SPEAKING it, but he certainly can understand it.

Ingmar terdman
Jul 24, 2006

ESB shows him reading R2-speak from the console in his X-wing though? Otherwise he just seems to get a vibe of his feelings (scared, upset, etc). I figured that's why 3PO had to tag along on Endor too.

Suenteus Po
Sep 15, 2007
SOH-Dan

Silver Brushes posted:

ESB shows him reading R2-speak from the console in his X-wing though? Otherwise he just seems to get a vibe of his feelings (scared, upset, etc). I figured that's why 3PO had to tag along on Endor too.

He can't hear him while in his X-Wing because Artoo is in the vacuum of space, where only lasers and explosions make sounds.

Ingmar terdman
Jul 24, 2006

Suenteus Po posted:

He can't hear him while in his X-Wing because Artoo is in the vacuum of space, where only lasers and explosions make sounds.

Yeah that's why he is reading it off of the screen inside the cockpit. R2 whistles and the letters start popping up.

Tuxedo Jack
Sep 11, 2001

Hey Ma, who's that band I like? Oh yeah, Hall & Oates.
Nah, someone specifically said he beeps and whistles at R2 in binary in an EU novel...

RagnarokAngel
Oct 5, 2006

Black Magic Extraordinaire
Never heard that, can't understand why he would either. Astromech droids seem to understand basic fine just aren't equipped to speak it for some weird reason.

Edit: And I believe several EU sources confirm Luke can 100% understand binary like a second language, not just the jist.

mynnna
Jan 10, 2004

Literally the only time I can think of anyone actually speaking binary/R2-speak was that Ryn dude in the NJO series.

RagnarokAngel posted:

Never heard that, can't understand why he would either. Astromech droids seem to understand basic fine just aren't equipped to speak it for some weird reason.

There's this too.

OjaiYoda
Nov 13, 2009
i posted this in the tattoo megathread, but i figured you all would geek out on it too. japanese star wars. seen is princess leia as the geisha, obi wan as the old man with the energy ball, luke fighting darth, and the death star lantern with some x wing fireflies. once i finish the arm it will extend onto my body, but for now.....

feedmyleg
Dec 25, 2004
That's the only not terrible Star Wars tattoo I've ever seen. Congratulations.

Hiro Protagonist
Oct 25, 2010

Last of the freelance hackers and
Greatest swordfighter in the world
I was thinking...Why does it appear that there is no technological difference between the Old Republic Era and the Galactic Empire Era? It's a difference of thousands of years. Is the entire universe stagnant, tech-wise? Than why even have scientists?

mynnna
Jan 10, 2004

It's probably something like how the basics - lasers, shields, hyperdrive, and so on - are there, and the only real developments are incremental improvements rather than entirely new weapon systems...sort of the same way that humans have been killing each other with chunks of metal propelled at high speed by explosions for hundreds of years now.




Or there's the outside looking in explanation: a lot of the newer Old Republic era stuff is coming on after the older stuff and writers are lazy.

ZeeToo
Feb 20, 2008

I'm a kitty!

Hiro Protagonist posted:

I was thinking...Why does it appear that there is no technological difference between the Old Republic Era and the Galactic Empire Era? It's a difference of thousands of years. Is the entire universe stagnant, tech-wise? Than why even have scientists?

I posted a theory about that a bit ago.

It bugs me, too, though.

Shimrra Jamaane
Aug 10, 2007

Obscure to all except those well-versed in Yuuzhan Vong lore.
The unfortunate thing is that the Old Republic Era used to actually have ancient looking stuff. Say what you will about KJA but the Tales of the Jedi comics all had unique designs for everything, from the ships to the settings, that made you feel that you were looking at Star Wars in the ancient era. You could easily point to many things and see how far everything was advanced in the 4,000 years between the comics and movies. It was KoTOR that first took the lazy way out and made everything about the same as the "modern day" Star Wars.

Hiro Protagonist
Oct 25, 2010

Last of the freelance hackers and
Greatest swordfighter in the world
I also read some theories that, because the majority of technology was taken directly from the Rakata, the tech itself is still somewhat misunderstood in its entirety. Of course, that doesn't explain how independent cultures discovered Hyperspace. As much as I love KotOR, and as much as I want to play tOR, Bioware created some pretty big continuity errors, then tried to patch with "ancient, evil, ultra-technical species"...which they did again with Mass Effect.

Shimrra Jamaane
Aug 10, 2007

Obscure to all except those well-versed in Yuuzhan Vong lore.

Hiro Protagonist posted:

I also read some theories that, because the majority of technology was taken directly from the Rakata, the tech itself is still somewhat misunderstood in its entirety. Of course, that doesn't explain how independent cultures discovered Hyperspace. As much as I love KotOR, and as much as I want to play tOR, Bioware created some pretty big continuity errors, then tried to patch with "ancient, evil, ultra-technical species"...which they did again with Mass Effect.

We have the Complete Guide to Chronology to thank for fixing a lot of Bioware's plot fuckups by fitting the game into established canon.

Chairman Capone
Dec 17, 2008

Hiro Protagonist posted:

I also read some theories that, because the majority of technology was taken directly from the Rakata, the tech itself is still somewhat misunderstood in its entirety. Of course, that doesn't explain how independent cultures discovered Hyperspace. As much as I love KotOR, and as much as I want to play tOR, Bioware created some pretty big continuity errors, then tried to patch with "ancient, evil, ultra-technical species"...which they did again with Mass Effect.

I might be wrong, but I believe that the really early WEG stuff mentioned that ancient aliens invented the hyperdrive, although I also remember other sources saying that the Corellians invented hyperdrive and then sold it to everyone else.

Epi Lepi
Oct 29, 2009

You can hear the voice
Telling you to Love
It's the voice of MK Ultra
And you're doing what it wants

Chairman Capone posted:

I might be wrong, but I believe that the really early WEG stuff mentioned that ancient aliens invented the hyperdrive, although I also remember other sources saying that the Corellians invented hyperdrive and then sold it to everyone else.

I think one of the essential guides to whatever books said it was the Duros.

VAGENDA OF MANOCIDE
Aug 1, 2004

whoa, what just happened here?







College Slice

quote:

ancient aliens

quote:

Corellians

quote:

Duros

You're all mistaken, that's just a partial list of the people who stole the Death Star plans.

Shimrra Jamaane
Aug 10, 2007

Obscure to all except those well-versed in Yuuzhan Vong lore.

arioch posted:

You're all mistaken, that's just a partial list of the people who stole the Death Star plans.

I stole the Death Star Plans. I keep them on my mantle.

DougieFFC
Mar 19, 2004

We are Fulham, super Fulham, we are Fulham, fuck Ch*lsea.

RagnarokAngel posted:

They hold up pretty well, though maybe not the original Dark Forces game

I played through this earlier this year via Steam (£1.99 iirc) and I was surprised how well it held up. It's possibly the most atmospheric of all the DF/JK series, and the stormtroopers (whose shooting animation was a very recognisable stock photo) felt much more stormtroopery than those in DF2:JK and MOTS.

Sound effects were awesome so every battle with Imperials felt right out of the original trilogy. I think my favourite level is probably level 2 when you're going through a Rebel base that's been wiped out by a Dark Trooper. Given the limited amount of sprites that could be used they really conveyed a massacre.

RagnarokAngel
Oct 5, 2006

Black Magic Extraordinaire
Oh I still enjoyed it. I just couldn't bring myself to play it until it was one of the few games I could run. Other people might be more turned off by the archaic gameplay than me.

toaster_pastry
Apr 30, 2004

against all authority
remember the meme of Star Wars characters driving sports cars?

Yeah, well, I gave-in and participated in my first internet dorkdom. I'll take any excuse I can find to dress up like Boba Fett. :)



There's a link to a wallpaper-sized version on my website.

http://goo.gl/a95Oi

toaster_pastry fucked around with this message at 17:20 on Aug 28, 2011

Harvey Mantaco
Mar 6, 2007

Someone please help me find my keys =(
Does anyone remember a book that was released, I thought it looked like some sort of horror survival story except there was a bloody stormtrooper helmet on what appeared to be (maybe?) a bloody hook on the cover? It was a long time ago and I saw it in Rome of all places and forgot about it until this morning.

Was it any good? Has there ever been other attempts to play around with other genres in a Starwars book (not talking about little subplot tangents here, but I mean, instead of standard Sci-Fi adventure, they're full blown Star Wars book plots around horror, murder mystery, Noir etc.) If so, have they been good? They might be in the (amazing) OP already, but it's hard to tell if they're what I'm looking for or not.

Phylodox
Mar 30, 2006



College Slice

Harvey Mantaco posted:

Has there ever been other attempts to play around with other genres in a Starwars book (not talking about little subplot tangents here, but I mean, instead of standard Sci-Fi adventure, they're full blown Star Wars book plots around horror, murder mystery, Noir etc.)

Goosebumps in spa-a-a-a-a-ace!

muscles like this!
Jan 17, 2005


Harvey Mantaco posted:

Does anyone remember a book that was released, I thought it looked like some sort of horror survival story except there was a bloody stormtrooper helmet on what appeared to be (maybe?) a bloody hook on the cover? It was a long time ago and I saw it in Rome of all places and forgot about it until this morning.

Was it any good? Has there ever been other attempts to play around with other genres in a Starwars book (not talking about little subplot tangents here, but I mean, instead of standard Sci-Fi adventure, they're full blown Star Wars book plots around horror, murder mystery, Noir etc.) If so, have they been good? They might be in the (amazing) OP already, but it's hard to tell if they're what I'm looking for or not.

I have no idea of the quality of the book but the title was Death Troopers

Harvey Mantaco
Mar 6, 2007

Someone please help me find my keys =(
Thanks guys, and my god those books look bad. The wiki says half of them basically lack a plot arc? Ok.

Van Dis
Jun 19, 2004

Harvey Mantaco posted:

Does anyone remember a book that was released, I thought it looked like some sort of horror survival story except there was a bloody stormtrooper helmet on what appeared to be (maybe?) a bloody hook on the cover? It was a long time ago and I saw it in Rome of all places and forgot about it until this morning.

Was it any good? Has there ever been other attempts to play around with other genres in a Starwars book (not talking about little subplot tangents here, but I mean, instead of standard Sci-Fi adventure, they're full blown Star Wars book plots around horror, murder mystery, Noir etc.) If so, have they been good?

Of course not.

Chairman Capone
Dec 17, 2008

When it was first announced, I was interested in Death Troopers originally until 1) The terrible name was revealed, and 2) Han and Chewie were put in as main characters. Talk about a great way to completely destroy the sense of character risk that is vital to horror fiction.

WhyteRyce
Dec 30, 2001

Chairman Capone posted:

When it was first announced, I was interested in Death Troopers originally until 1) The terrible name was revealed, and 2) Han and Chewie were put in as main characters. Talk about a great way to completely destroy the sense of character risk that is vital to horror fiction.

Han and Chewie easily could have been killed and replaced by clones

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
To keep you safe

Harvey Mantaco posted:

Does anyone remember a book that was released, I thought it looked like some sort of horror survival story except there was a bloody stormtrooper helmet on what appeared to be (maybe?) a bloody hook on the cover? It was a long time ago and I saw it in Rome of all places and forgot about it until this morning.

Was it any good? Has there ever been other attempts to play around with other genres in a Starwars book (not talking about little subplot tangents here, but I mean, instead of standard Sci-Fi adventure, they're full blown Star Wars book plots around horror, murder mystery, Noir etc.) If so, have they been good? They might be in the (amazing) OP already, but it's hard to tell if they're what I'm looking for or not.

The Book Barn thread has the answer to all your questions for that book. Ensign_Ricky did a great run through, that's linked at the very end of the OP. It was terrible, and he'll tell you why.

its all nice on rice
Nov 12, 2006

Sweet, Salty Goodness.



Buglord
As I was laying in my bed last night, thinking of how cool it would be to have a first person Star Wars game on the PS Move, my mind drfited towards the OT and then the website howitshouldhaveended. They did a HISHE for Ep. IV with Tarkin basically saying "loving orbiting; we're in range now!" followed by the Death Star blowing up Yavin then the Rebels.
What's the explaination for why they didn't do this in the movie? I'd look it up on Wookiepedia, but I'd rather not get lost for another three hours.

Shimrra Jamaane
Aug 10, 2007

Obscure to all except those well-versed in Yuuzhan Vong lore.

Pope Mobile posted:

As I was laying in my bed last night, thinking of how cool it would be to have a first person Star Wars game on the PS Move, my mind drfited towards the OT and then the website howitshouldhaveended. They did a HISHE for Ep. IV with Tarkin basically saying "loving orbiting; we're in range now!" followed by the Death Star blowing up Yavin then the Rebels.
What's the explaination for why they didn't do this in the movie? I'd look it up on Wookiepedia, but I'd rather not get lost for another three hours.

They couldn't fire earlier because the plant Yavin was in the way. They had to move around it before they could hit the moon. Who knows what shooting a gas giant with a space death laser would do.

SirPhoebos
Dec 10, 2007

WELL THAT JUST HAPPENED!

Shimrra Jamaane posted:

They couldn't fire earlier because the plant Yavin was in the way. They had to move around it before they could hit the moon. Who knows what shooting a gas giant with a space death laser would do.

I think what he's asking is why not just blow up Yavin itself.

The explanation I read on stardestroyer.net is that a gas giant hit by the Superlaser would take a few hours to break up-plenty of time for the Rebels to carry out an evacuation. It also took a full day for the Death Star to recharge. On the other hand, directly blasting the rebel base only entailed a 30 minute trip.

Harvey Mantaco
Mar 6, 2007

Someone please help me find my keys =(

Shimrra Jamaane posted:

They couldn't fire earlier because the plant Yavin was in the way. They had to move around it before they could hit the moon. Who knows what shooting a gas giant with a space death laser would do.

Didn't the USA think that dropping the bomb on Hiroshima could possibly ignite the earth’s atmosphere, killing everyone on the planet, but they were like "Meh"?

I don't know why the Empire wouldn't just pull way back and do the equivalent of shooting an explosive can kind of from behind a tree or something... but in space. Just back the gently caress up, no, farther Ted, listen I want us to get waaaaay back, behind that star kind of over there. Yeah, that’s good man. Can we go back any farther? No? Ok, start with a little laser, yeah, just throw that poo poo in there. Yeeeaaaahhhh nice Ted, that was good. Ok let’s AMP IT UP. *BOOM*. gently caress YES TED, WRITE THAT poo poo DOWN IN YOUR JOURNAL.

I mean, that is some solid science right there. Shoot, observe and report. Seems like something I'd want to know about my death laser.

thrawn527
Mar 27, 2004

Thrawn/Pellaeon
Studying the art of terrorists
To keep you safe

Harvey Mantaco posted:

Didn't the USA think that dropping the bomb on Hiroshima could possibly ignite the earth’s atmosphere, killing everyone on the planet, but they were like "Meh"?

I don't know why the Empire wouldn't just pull way back and do the equivalent of shooting an explosive can kind of from behind a tree or something... but in space. Just back the gently caress up, no, farther Ted, listen I want us to get waaaaay back, behind that star kind of over there. Yeah, that’s good man. Can we go back any farther? No? Ok, start with a little laser, yeah, just throw that poo poo in there. Yeeeaaaahhhh nice Ted, that was good. Ok let’s AMP IT UP. *BOOM*. gently caress YES TED, WRITE THAT poo poo DOWN IN YOUR JOURNAL.

I mean, that is some solid science right there. Shoot, observe and report. Seems like something I'd want to know about my death laser.

But it had the possibility of delaying their attack. It's possible it would have hosed the moon up so bad that the Rebels would all be killed, but it also could have left them enough time to evacuate. Instead, they decided to wait 30 minutes to fly around the planet and go with the "sure thing".

VAGENDA OF MANOCIDE
Aug 1, 2004

whoa, what just happened here?







College Slice
There's really no telling what might happen if you try to crack a gas planet. For example, Jupiter (probably) has a solid core that's (probably) 2-10 times the mass of Earth, but Jupiter's gas masses at least another 300x that of Earth. Even if you could crack the core of Jupiter, it'll probably just collapse back together again under that kind of force.

It probably wouldn't even destabilize Yavin IV's orbit.

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Shimrra Jamaane
Aug 10, 2007

Obscure to all except those well-versed in Yuuzhan Vong lore.

Harvey Mantaco posted:

Didn't the USA think that dropping the bomb on Hiroshima could possibly ignite the earth’s atmosphere, killing everyone on the planet, but they were like "Meh"?

No. There were some tongue in cheek jokes during the Trinity Test but no one seriously thought that the universe would rip apart or something.

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