is it just me or......

[Nolo Contendere]

does your character get disgustingly overpowered very quickly? Or are there changes between the steam version and the retail version?

[Ryat]

They can yes. Its very easy to do. One of the biggest complaints about the game (aside from its unfinished state). Many mods were made to increase the difficulty have been made. Some good some bad.

[Jig McGalliger]

You can change the difficulty at any time. Though between Steam and retail version, there is no difference in difficulty.

[Ryat]

Originally posted by Jig McGalliger:

You can change the difficulty at any time. Though between Steam and retail version, there is no difference in difficulty.

Yeah, that don't help. Max difficulty all the time.

[JustOnePepsi]

I remember the first time I played through KotOR 1, my character wasn't optimized at all. I was a mostly Light Side Jedi who started as a Soldier and then chose to be a Consular and mostly tried to use Dark Side powers.

What a scrub.

The Star Forge was brutal. The seemingly never-ending waves of Dark Jedi overwhelmed me so many times. My gear was garbage, because I kept stuff that I thought looked cool, rather than items that actually enhanced the abilities of my party. But of course, I was only like 13 when I played, and I cared more about listening to HK-47 declare his dislike for organic meatbags than I did about reading item descriptions.

Then a playthrough or two later, I actually cared about reading the descriptions and making intelligent choices. I started with a Scoundrel, who eventually became a Consular. I was doing a Dark Side playthrough, so my choice of Dark Side powers was no longer a mistake. I discovered the joy of not only applying stimulants before fights, but having at least one Jedi on hand to play a support/healer roll. I was officially OP.

The Star Forge was no longer a problem. I was worried going in, as I sat there remembering how difficult it was for me the first time. But now, I had so many force points, which regenerated so quickly, and I had so many buffs and debuffs running, hordes of Dark Jedi fell to my Force Storm and Death Field attacks. Malak himself couldn't withstand my use of the Force. His prisoners having their energy sapped my by own Death Field instead of the Dark Lord's.

Ahhh.... good times.

Anywho, long story short, the first game was the same. The series punishes the wrong choices, but making the correct ones isn't all that difficult, and the correct choices make you incredibly powerful.

[-3xA'Lu©κy the disappearing act]

Originally posted by Ryat:

They can yes. Its very easy to do. One of the biggest complaints about the game (aside from its unfinished state). Many mods were made to increase the difficulty have been made. Some good some bad.

I felt Kotor 1 was easier *shrugs*

[Nolo Contendere]

Originally posted by -3xA'Lu©κy:

I felt Kotor 1 was easier *shrugs*

see, I felt that it took a lot longer in kotor to get to the point where you are disgustingly OP (though I could be misremembering things)

Originally posted by CVC Grouse:

*snip*

I hear ya, we've all been there bruh (your 13 year old self). I just feel that you can get away with a lot more ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ in this than you could in the first. Could just be me.

[Hafu]

To people being familiar with D20 and being rpg vets, both kotors are pretty easy games in my opinion.

It feels like they were built around the assumption that people who more or less just faff about and builds their characters at random without powergaming, should be able to get through it fairly easily still.

[Nolo Contendere]

Originally posted by Rashie:

To people being familiar with D20 and being rpg vets, both kotors are pretty easy games in my opinion.

It feels like they were built around the assumption that people who more or less just faff about and builds their characters at random without powergaming, should be able to get through it fairly easily still.

This is probably the case. When I first played Kotor 1, I hadn't had much exposure to the D20 system and rules, but by the time the second one came around I was a LOT more familiar with the rules.

[-3xA'Lu©κy the disappearing act]

Originally posted by Nolo Contendere:

see, I felt that it took a lot longer in kotor to get to the point where you are disgustingly OP (though I could be misremembering things)

It's cool. I can't say I remember a lot of complaints about Kotor 2 being a breeze to play through... but maybe I just need to pay more attention :)

I've honestly seen quite a few threads where the OP was frustrated at how difficult the game was for them when they get to the Telos Restoration Zone and I've seen even more complain about Nar Shadaa's difficulty with TSLRCM slapped onto the vanilla game (way more bounty hounters basically) but yeah.

Even though Kotor 2 was very much indeed left in an unfinished state: I don't think it was any easier and I sometimes thought it was a bit harder than Kotor 1 at rare times. You could make this game harder by deciding to battle Master Vrook though -- man, was he was a pain in the rear end!!

In the end I think [CVC] Grouse and Rashie describe how I feel: both games are relatively easy if you know the games well enough and are particular with your gear and levelling.


[EDIT]:

It's possible me not having played Kotor 1 for many years has caused me to misremember some details. I just now remembered all the puzzles Kotor 1 had (esp. the energy pillar puzzle) and how in Kotor 2, compared to Kotor 1, you could upgrade your guns to the extent where they were pretty powerful. The Star Forge also had a lot of high level enemies running at you and they seemed endless from memory. So I think Kotor 1 might actually be the harder game if you consider that.

[Hassat Hunter]

Yeah, from my experiences KOTOR1 is the "harder" game. Not that harder is so hard seeing how easy KOTOR2 is XD. If you want a challenge there try the Impossible difficulty from K1RP.

And yes, on the Star Forge that one level they do respawn endlessly. Not exactly my favorite way of setting up encounters :/

And believe me, there are alot of threads on Obsidian's forums complaining about KOTOR2's lack of difficulty. That's what scaling and a higher level player do. KOTOR1 leveling was slower and everything was handset, with just a minor update in enemies if you are higher level (especially noticable on Tatooine). But again, those were handcrafted rather than KOTOR2's auto-level system.
Another example level-scaling just is utter utter crap.

[-3xA'Lu©κy the disappearing act]

Originally posted by Hassat Hunter:

Yeah, from my experiences KOTOR1 is the "harder" game. Not that harder is so hard seeing how easy KOTOR2 is XD. If you want a challenge there try the Impossible difficulty from K1RP.

And yes, on the Star Forge that one level they do respawn endlessly. Not exactly my favorite way of setting up encounters :/

And believe me, there are alot of threads on Obsidian's forums complaining about KOTOR2's lack of difficulty. That's what scaling and a higher level player do. KOTOR1 leveling was slower and everything was handset, with just a minor update in enemies if you are higher level (especially noticable on Tatooine). But again, those were handcrafted rather than KOTOR2's auto-level system.
Another example level-scaling just is utter utter crap.

Yeah I was just going to mention Impossible difficulty actually! Can't wait to try that sometime ;)

But being serious, you're absolutely right about the levelling (which is something I forgot). There's also the fact you aren't an actual jedi for a good section of Kotor 1. I think I need to go back and play Kotor 1 soon, and hopefully Aspyr will have launched an update by that time lol.

It's also interesting that the Obsidian forums are filled with difficulty threads about this game. I guess I just didn't notice Kotor 2 being super easy but again: both games were never what I'd call challenging anyway.