Hello. I am preparing to play KotOR for the first time. I really want to experience as much of the story, characters, and dialogues as possible, as I'm not sure if I'd ever have the time to play this a second time.

I will be installing the basic game using the "Download offline backup game installers" on the Games page, as I don't use the Galaxy app.

Any thoughts, opinions, suggestions, and recommendations would be most appreciated!

And please please please no spoilers!

Thanks!

- There's no crafting in the game, but some gear can be upgraded with the right components.

- There's no random loot, every drops are fixed.

- There are mini-games and most players hate them.

- Inventory is shared between party memebrs and there's no limit to what you can carry.

- Party members you don't bring along still get XP and can be leved-up. So no worries about them be underleved.

- Party members AI can be bad sometimes. They can get lost and you'll have to run back to guide them to you. Happens when you run too fast and there's lots of rooms/corridors.

- Party members AI's can be customized so they use grenades or special abilities.

- Always save your game before traveling to another world.

- The game has a nasty habit of crashing from time to time. Don't rely solely on the quick-save. Keep several different saved game slots.

I'm not in a position to say whether most players hate the mini games, but I thought I'd elaborate a bit on them here (some minor spoilers):

I'm pretty sure "mini games" in KOTOR 1 refers to: pazaak (a strategy somewhat-collectible card game), swoop racing, and the Ebon Hawk's gunnery bay. The last two are action sequences.

Some of the mini games are mandatory to complete the game, while others are somewhat optional, required for desirable but not mandatory quests. Specifically, the swoop race on Taris is required, but the races on Tattooine and Manaan are optional. All Ebon Hawk gunnery scenes are required (there are three of them). Pazaak is always optional.

I should say that I never found the required mini games all that hard. The swoop race on Taris requires you to go twice and get top score both times, but you can keep trying as often as you need. I admit I found the optional swoop races frustrating, particularly on Tattooine. (In fact, I was only ever able to beat that quest by cheating.)

One final type of element of KOTOR 1 that might be called a "mini game" is that the game features several classic brain teaser-type puzzles (appropriately retooled for Star Wars, of course), though you play these through the regular game interface. Most of these are optional, simply leading to desirable items, although at least one (on Manaan) is required to get the preferred (by far) ending for that planet.

(I must be an unusual player. I actually enjoyed the mini games, aside from a few of the optional ones being somewhat frustrating.)

I have played the game only once (in 2015).

I found the game VERY EASY on "normal" difficulty with a dark side character (it might be harder playing light side?), so you might want to consider a higher difficulty.

Overall, money and XP are not that important, so just make in-game choices based on what seems the most fun, and doesn't matter if you miss out on a side quest here or there.

Thanks everybody! Great stuff!

Keep them coming...

- This is the most commonly reported bug in the game and how to solve it:
https://www.gog.com/forum/star_wars_knights_of_the_old_republic_series/cant_move_after_combat

- There's no respec in the game.

- Maximum number of members in a party is three. You can also go solo.

- Stealth is in the game, but when you activate it, it will only work for your currently selected party member. You can't have the whole party going in stealth mode. You'll also require to wear a stealth belt.

- There are two different types of healing: one for meatbags and one for droids. One will not work for the other and vice versa.

- Droids are immune to mental attacks and poisons. However, they take extra damage from ion damage.

- Fast travel is your friend. Use it when available unless you enjoy running back and forth.

- Damage types:

* Piercing/Slashing/Crushing. Can bypass personal energy shields.
* Fire/Heat.
* Cold.
* Electric. Mostly from dark side powers.
* Sonic.
* Poison. Damage over time.
* Energy. Found on blasters and lightsabers.
* Ion. Do more damage against droids and less against meatbags.

- There are some good mods for KOTOR at Nexusmods that improve graphics, textures, etc. However, it can be spoiler heavy just by browsing the pages.

More great stuff Grotok. Thanks!

So the max party is three, the main dude (me) and two others...

I remember in the Baldur's Gate games, certain party members yielded more dialogue, quests, etc.

Keeping in mind I'm hoping to see as much story as possible... Is there an ideal companion or two that you would recommend? (Without spoilers please)

Yes, you and two others companions. That makes three. I forgot to mention that you can switch party members anytime outside of combat. There some exceptions like in hostile territory.

The game has BG2 style party banters during travels. Companions will also interject during conversation with vairous NPCs. You can also talk to your party members anytime you wish during travels or at your "Home Base".

If you want to experience everything, you can save before talking to a NPC. Then reload your game, change party members and talk to the NPC. Repeat and rinse. Some members are more chatty than others.

It's difficult to talk about companions without giving away too much spoilers. They each have 1 personal side-quest except for one. I gave nicknames to the companions. I'm sure you'll easily be able to figure out who's who.

- "Angry Girl": She has interactions with "Warrior Guy". I can't recall anyone else.

- "Warrior Guy": He has interactions with "Angry Girl", "Flyboy", "Princess" and "Mouthy Girl".

- "Big Foot": He mostly has his interactions with "Mouthy Girl". Aside from that, very little with anyone else. 2nd least popular among fans.

- "Lippy": Easily the most popular companion among fans. Has many interjections with NPCs. He converse mostly with "Tin Can".

- "Flyboy": Has most of his interactions with "Princess", "Mouthy Girl", "Warrior Guy" and "Mentor".

- "Princess": Has most of his interactions with "Flyboy", "Mouthy Girl", "Warrior Guy" and "Mentor".

- "Mouthy Girl": Has most of his interactions with "Big Foot", "Fly Boy", "Princess", "Warrior Guy" and "Mentor".

- "Mentor": Possibly the 2nd motst popular companion. Has most of his interactions with "Flyboy", "Mouthy Girl" and "Princess".

- "Tin Can": Just with "Lippy" and no one else. Possibly the least popular among fans.

I played the game only twice, so there could be more interactions. Experiment and have fun!

Make sure you talk to HK a lot. The first time through, his dialog made me laugh, literally, out loud.

Make sure you install the Community Patch before playing, since it fixes hundreds of bugs.

Have fun.

Thanks again Grotok, and also you too alcaray!

I remember back in Baldur's Gate's heyday that folks would create a character with 18-18-18-3-3-3 ability scores. I could never do that, and one of BG's shortfalls (imho) was that the game allowed you to get away with that sort of thing.

Is it worth it to build up Charisma in the hopes to see more dialogues and story, or would I be needlessly gimping my character for a Charisma score that doesn't do much (ala BG)?
Ah yes, I'm glad you mentioned that, Luso. So you do recommend the Community patch. I am a bit of a purist, and hope to play the game the way that the designers originally intended. Do you think that this patch will change the game from the designers' original intent?

I'm a purist too. The community patch only fixes bugs, it doesn't add or change anything that is not meant by the developers.

Very good, Luso. Thanks!

Anybody got any thoughts on Charisma and its worthiness of placing attribute points therein?

If I recall correctly, there aren't any dialog options that do or do not come up depending on charisma/persuasion. However there are many places where you want to convince somebody of something and there's a behind-the-scenes roll to determine success or failure. From Reddit: "Persuasion is a class skill for a Scoundrel, which means skill points can be invested to maximum rank = level + 3, for maximum rank 4 at level 1 and maximum rank 5 at level 2. You only need +3 from Charisma modifier (CHA) and Empathy feats to achieve rank = level + 6, which is required for 100% success of easy, medium and hard Persuade checks."

(note that any mc can invest in persuasion - not just scoundrels. It is just less expensive for scoundrels.)

Interesting. So with a low Persuasion and Charisma, I will fail Persuade checks, but not necessarily miss out on any story. Hmmm...

Thanks alcaray. Thats a lot to think about!