Er, this is going to be somewhat difficult to decribe without spoilers. But I will try.
At one point in the game, you will only be able to control a single character. If you choose Mission, make sure to uncloak her before performing the (fairly obvious) action that will end the solo section.
This affects something that happens like an hour or two or three later, and you won’t be able to proceed. There is one solution, but unfortunately it isn’t an option for my character (you need to have a very high awareness skill to progress beyond the bug, from what I’ve read).
I found this out the hard way. Unfortunately, it sort of put an end to my game.
The spoiler-ish version:
At one point, the whole crew will be captured. If you use Mission, and then leave her cloaked when she releases them from prison, Mission will still be cloaked when the party finally reassembles, and so the cutscene hangs when it’s her turn to speak. Unless your character has a high awareness, and is thus able to spot her, it will just hang forever.
I’ve had that cutscene hang randomly, when I used HK47 for the job. This game hangs a LOT. I enjoy it tremendously, but it is by far the buggiest console game I have ever played.
Dude, console games are never buggy because the developers are coding for just one platform so they can catch all the bugs. It is the many hardware configurations of PC gaming that screw it up for computer users.
The problems seem to happen mostly on first generation Xboxes. We are trying to track these problems down. It’s weird, you think that because it’s a fixed platform the bugs should show up on all Xboxes. Believe me, if there were any show stoppers when we did the testing they we wouldn’t have let it go. Neither would MS. Check out our forums to see if there are any work arounds.
DaveC, you would think that was the case. But it’s not a hardware problem. It results from a character still being “invisible” during a cutscene, and if you don’t have the skills to spot her, the game won’t continue.
From the official rep on the BioWare forums:
It was not known to us before late monday afternoon when it was discovered to be a side effect of having a character cloaked when using the computer terminal to free your party.
We have been working on the issue since then to see what options you have. If you do not have a savegame to go back to, try increasing the awareness skill of your main character. If you can get it high enough, there is a chance you will “see” the cloaked person, and the cutscene will continue. Simply let the game sit at the “lockup point” after getting your skill as high as possible.
Another mildly spoilered warning, from fairly early on in the game:
If you take a Scoundrel solo through the Vulkar base, and stealth past the gun turrets, they will mow you down like crazy when you come back up the elevator. So disable them before you go down, 'cause there’s no way to do anything to 'em after you’re downstairs.
Oh – problem happens 'cause the game de-stealths you when you come back up the elevator. Or, maybe the turrets have 10X the awareness when you come back up, dunno. In any event, my scoundrel is stuck.
Not really a bug, I guess, but rather a design hole that killed my game, since I can’t leave the base. (Unless there’s something I overlooked, but I don’t think so).
So, I’ve started a battle-brute of a soldier on her way to the darkside instead, since my light-side sneaky guy is trapped.
They just had an editorial at Gamespy about bugs showing up more in console games.
I’m not saying that KOTOR is anywhere near as bad, but I have seen Xbox gamers with huge problems on Morrowind and Pirates of the Carribean. You know, Bethesda.
Doesn’t this suck. I thought the whole point of the console development was that there was just one set of hardware/software to support, one target to deploy on.
But with both the PS2 and the Xbox (I don’t know about the GC), their are different generations of software, if not hardware.
Doesn’t that kill the whole theory? Sure, you are still only support say 5 different generations of similar hardware, but it’s no longer just one target.
Not having done console development, I can’t say for sure, but I would ASSUME that would exponentially change the depth factor of testing and maybe development. No?
There sure are a lot of them, Dave. In two games, I’ve run into no less than five or six different lockups and black screens.[/quote]
That’s odd. I own a first generation XBox and I haven’t had any freezes, lockups or black screens from KOTOR.
I have, however, heard of these problems cropping up more with owners who have modded their XBoxes… Wouldn’t that be a bit funny?[/quote]
That’s the problem, these issues didn’t show up until the game got out into the wild. Believe me, I saw how hard our QA team worked and watched the bug list dwindle daily. Greg and Ray have a very firm policy about maintaining quality in our games.
When I work for Bioware, as soon as I move Canada AND get hired on, I’ll make sure you guys have higher quality products. If that’s at all possible. :P
Ok, so will they send me Xbox Live, a router, and anything else I need to connect so I can patch my $50 game? I’m speaking hypothetically, of course.[/quote]
Yes. They will also send you strippers who shoot candy from their nipples and an endless fountain of beer.
Ok, so will they send me Xbox Live, a router, and anything else I need to connect so I can patch my $50 game? I’m speaking hypothetically, of course.[/quote]
The thing is, these bugs don’t happen with everyone and that’s why they are hard to catch. Metroid Prime had the same random lock up problems when it came out and it was also a AAA title.
P.S. - Not an excuse, just pointing out that try as hard as we might sometimes bugs get through that we just didn’t see.
