Part 13: Nar Shaddaa: Cat Fight!

This is our new pet Sith, Visas Marr. Her name means "Sight Impaired" in Latin. Sort of.



First she tries to kill us, now she won't leave our ship.

I guess we should talk to her.



Whoa girl, we just met! Don't get so clingy.

"Are you all right?"
"I am able to serve. If we enter battle, I will fight and die alongside you."
"That's not what I asked. I asked if you were all right."
"I... I have not heard that question in some time. My flesh is... healed, if that's the answer you seek."
"I didn't mean to hurt you."
"I know. And I fear that others will see the mercy in your actions... and in my survival... and use it as a weapon to do you greater harm."



"I serve my Master. I am an emissary, a scout."



"There is little my Master does not know, and that you eluded his sight for so long... is significant, but I do not know why."
"I need to know where I can find your Master."
"You cannot. His vessel roams the borders of known space, and even I do not know where he travels.... until he... calls for me. Even if I could lead you to my Master, I cannot permit you to find him... until you are ready. Without your potential realized, then you will be lost to me. And I cannot allow that to happen. It would be as if one brought fire to a paradise valley, shattered a cavern of rare crystal... or blinded a painter."

She's a little creepy, isn't she?



"You will meet my master. It is inevitable, I have... seen it."



"Why are you doing this for me?"
"There is a... a greatness in you, a greatness that does not stem from the Force. It stems from who you are. And if my Master does not understand you, cannot see you, then perhaps there is hope for us all. But if you seek to survive, then you must understand why this is so."

"Where are your people, your world, now?"









There's some criticism of Darth Nihilus as a bit of a blank character, but because he's not seen very often, and his speech is indecipherable, his character development is done through other characters. Visas here gives his primary backstory, so if you weren't paying attention to her then yes, Nihilus will be quite inexplicable.

"I was the only living thing remaining on the planet of Katarr... and my life, my agony, was a flicker in the darkness that was the planet. All that I had been connected to had been severed. I still wonder what would have happened if I had died with the others... if perhaps there would have been some way to hide my presence from the galaxy. If only I had not... felt that pain, that loss, as strongly as I did. But it could not be done. When the life was bled from the planet, and yet somehow, I remained, my Master came for me."
"He walked upon the surface of my dead world, and there, lying in the bodies of my race, he took me for his own. And he made me *see.* And for the first time, I saw the galaxy. And I wished to die."
"To this galaxy, my world, absent the currents and spectrums of the Force, was nothing but crude matter, rock, flesh, emptiness. To this galaxy, my world, absent the currents and spectrums of the Force, was nothing but crude matter, rock, flesh, emptiness. He showed the flickering of life on other planets, the mass of beings that swarm through the empty places of the galaxy. To see such creatures, disconnected from themselves, their world, their place in it, unable to see the currents and how they affected everything around them."
"And why did your Master show you this?"
"He showed me to make me believe in his cause. He convinced me the galaxy, all life must die. He fed upon its ugliness, its screaming, and in its place, he left silence... and where there was chaos, he brought stillness... and order."
"And now that the Jedi are vanishing, I do not know what will happen - perhaps he will grow strong enough to eradicate all life, merely with his presence."









All you really have to do is to show some compassion to Visas through a few dialogues, and you'll easily get enough influence to get her to teach you Force Sight.



Close your eyes... feeeeel the Force flow throuuugh youuuu...







Force Sight is kinda a combo of that D&D Know Alignment spell, and Superman's X-ray vision. You can see people's auras, behind doors, and through people's underwear.



Oh I didn't mean HER underwear.

When I first played this game, the graphics card on my laptop was kinda crap, so the Force Sight effects failed to work entirely. I didn't even it was suppose to look like this until I got a new computer.



Yes, mom.



Okay, mom.



MOM! STOP IT!





10 years exiled alone on the edge of space with a sex life consisting of his right hand. I don't know how much restraint the Exile was suppose to have at this point.

"Like the servant of Atris, this one... has other masters. Though blind, she has ties to darkness. Her presence here is a threat to us. To you. Do not underestimate her... or her loyalty."



Kreia thinks Visas is a sorry excuse for a Sith, and she wouldn't be wrong. Visas never does anything particularly evil, and the moment someone shows a bit compassion to her, she turns.

"Atton said her planet was wiped out, that it was the only colony of her people in this sector of the galaxy."
"Did he? And what do you make of that?"
[Intelligence] "Well, if her people all see through the Force, then maybe someone wanted to blind them."
"The Mandalorians were right to respect you on the field of battle. The Jedi are gone, vanished, now an entire planet of Force Sensitives wiped clean of life. And now this slice of the galaxy is blind. It is no coincidence, the two events are tied."
[Intelligence] "Someone wants this sector of the galaxy blind to the Force. So they can move freely... or strike without warning."

But Kreia won't reveal anything further. Prying real info out of her is like pulling teeth. Kreia is trying to hide it, but she knows more than she's letting on, and she doesn't want the Exile to get close to Visas for a very good reason.



Outside the ship...



Holy crap, just find another parking spot. Jeez.



Someone with a red Toyota Previa took my parking spot at work last Thursday. I had to go park in the street in the 2 hour parking zone.

Did I go threaten to kill them? No.



I did leave a nasty note on the windshield though.



Welcome to the Nar Shaddaa dock sector.

This is the only zone I felt managed to captured the sheer height of the world. Nar Shaddaa is suppose to be this vertical place where the wrong step will let you fall for hours, but probably due to the limitations of the KOTOR engine they couldn't really get the Y-axis feel of it. The best interpretation I've seen is probably in Jedi Knight II, where the level was spent running up and down the sides of buildings, rather than across flat spaces like this.





"I do not pay you to hunt him, but to kill him, Wookiee. Perhaps I chose unwisely - perhaps another bounty hunter scum could serve me better."





There just aren't enough fat and wrinkly dancers around.





This is the dockmaster. Did you know he was suppose to be a Toydarian at one point?

He's also got a puzzle for us. I love puzzles.



"Good, good. I give you basic access to pylon consoles. From pylon you can read ID Signature of freighters. You figure out what order the three freighters should dock.
"Freighter with higher first two numbers has higher priority. If first two numbers tied, then higher last three numbers has higher priority. For example, P-11-115-999 has lower priority than D-15-154-111. You got it? One more thing. First two numbers are always the same as the first two numbers in the second set of numbers. You can read freighter ID from pylons. But hard to get full signature ID from each pylon."





Let's see here...

Silver Zephyr: I-9*-***-*2*
Toorna's Profits: E-**-4*1-1*8
Alakandor: S-49-491-937

Silver Zephyr: I-**-967-**1
Toorna's Profits: E-45-451-118
Alakandor: S-*9-4**-***

Silver Zephyr: I-96-967-521
Toorna's Profits: E-4*-***-*18
Alakandor: S-*9-4**-93*

That's not much of a puzzle now that I see it. The hard part is the running around to read the codes.

Damn you Obsidian! Your writing is awesome, but your puzzles suck ass.



They should have had, I don't know, a Tower of Hanoi puzzle here or something. Pylons of Hanoi maybe. Okay there was one in KOTOR 1 already, but you can never have enough Tower of Hanoi puzzles.



Someone's watching us.



Nice camera angle.



Well these two have a history.

"I've told you before - hunt your own targets, don't scavenge mine."
"You are my prey, female. Always."
"What, working for the Hutts suddenly make you stupider, Hanharr? You touch me, you'll break the truce, and then you won't last long enough to slip off this moon."





I really apologize for Mira's emoticon looking like a man. I'm trying to work on it.

"Warn me? Of what? Warn me you trick me, warn me you violate life debt? Little human girl, I could crush you with one hand, end lifetime of misery."
"I don't want your life debt, Hanharr - I told you!"
"Then little girl should not have made mistake so long ago. On Kashyyyk, females who make mistakes die. Hanharr smells your fear, even through the stink of the moon."
"Yeah, you're right. I'm afraid. I'm afraid if you keep crushing me, I'll accidentally set off my rocket charges and blow us both to Nal Hutta."
"Are you are finally ready to die? I do not think so... your eyes show you are still filled with fear."
"I'd rather die than be caught by you again, Hanharr."
"It is not the time for you to enter the Shadowlands."



She says she won't be caught by him again, but she's saying this while he's holding her by the throat. Doesn't make a lot of sense.



Uh oh, we've gotten too much influence with Visas.



Handmaiden's a jealous schutta.

"You echo another's words, and as an echo, it lacks strength. Who is it who has taught you of the Sith?"
"I will not reveal my mistress... and I will not allow you to harm the one I travel with."
"I cannot harm him. His wound lies deeper than any blade could reach, and that is why I follow him and protect him."
"Protect him? I do not believe you."
"You do not believe that I would follow him to death? Certainly you have read as much in my movements... as I have in yours."
"There is no shame in your feelings, sister of the Echani."
"Be silent! You know nothing of what you speak."
"You are alone and wounded in your own way. I can feel its pulse, like a heartbeat from the past. But if you will not believe that I mean him no harm, then believe this - I wish to learn from him. I wish to learn how it is he still walks when his spirit is nothing more than a shell... when you feel as though the Force, as if life itself, has abandoned you."



I'm wondering, if you're blind your whole life, how do you know what red or blue looks like?

Are blind people colour blind too? Do they dream in black and white?

"Like a man. But it is more than that, and I do not have the words."



"All I know is he makes me doubt the words of my mistress, one whom I have pledged to serve."
"Such feelings... are not unknown to me."
"And I fear such doubts. Could it be my mistress was wrong about him? That perhaps he did not seek to betray the Order. That perhaps my mistress felt as I did, and when he left the Order, she found that she doubted as well. There is a feeling that emanates from him, like... like a sound, from far away, that has traveled a vast distance to reach here."





Kreia swoops in to offer some motherly advice.

The thing I like about KOTOR 2 is that nobody on your ship gets along. The first KOTOR crew was the typical happy family, and even the Dark Side characters like Canderous and HK-47 didn't argue too much.

Then you get on the Exile's crew in this game, and there's all these confrontations. It's refreshing to have a party of NPCs who really fucking hate each other.



She's basically saying, "There there, your boy's just going through his bad girl phase. He'll get over it."

"Perhaps we are more allies than you know. I fear the exile has let his feelings for the Miraluka affect his judgment - and it will doom him."
"There is still hope."
"I do not believe so. And neither do you - you have seen his stance, his movements. They mirror hers, not yours. But do not mistake my intent, we are together in this. And if we stand together, we may yet prevent a greater tragedy."







Hey there lumpyhead.



"I am Jedi Jesus, just checking out the area. Can I ask what you're doing?"



Nice typo! Typos rather.

I've been screenshotting the whole game so far and haven't really found any huge typos, but here's 2 on one line.



[Repair] "This equipment looks like it's designed to track signals - correct?"
"This equipment allows me to tie into the listening devices I installed in the docking pylons. They make perfect antennas, you see. To triangulate a signal I detected. It is elusive, with strange harmonics, yet I must catch it."

What?

"Yes, well, my species can hear much higher frequencies than your species, you see. Sometimes we can hear communications sent through artificial means. It will not stop. No matter how many frequency dampeners I surround myself with, I cannot get that one signal out of my head. The power driving it must be enormous. The only reason I can discern is that the owner of the transmission intends it to cover the entire planet."

Oh. That's kinda weird, isn't? Some strange signal covering the planet?

He probably just has Tinnitus.

"Who is behind it?"
"Whoever uses this particular signal wanted to keep it a secret from anyone who did not know exactly what to look for."
"Can I help?"
"I am in need of a good courier, actually. Take these credits and meet a supplier of mine, a twi'lek. He has a vital part needed to complete my triangulation. Give him the payment, and he will give you the part. Bring the part here. Simple."



The guy also has a droid assistant, but it's not very talkative.



We're at the designated meeting point, but there's no one here...





The menial cleaning robot suddenly turns hostile on us.

I have one of those ROOMBA cleaning robots at home, but the worst it's done was chew up my computer cables when I wasn't looking.

That and scaring the shit out of my cat.



:: MUST. KILL. OFFENSIVE. ODORS. ::



We go back to the scientist, but he's not there either.

He's left his arm though. His left arm.





His personal assistant droid's gone crazy too, enough to rip off this guys arm. I just want to know what the droid did with the rest of his body. And that's the end of the quest. Hmmm.

In case you can't tell already, robots going berserk will be a recurring theme throughout Nar Shaddaa. This game has a lot of external literary influences, but this particular subplot has a very Isaac Asimov flavour to it.



This Vogga the Hutt fella looks interesting, let's go have a chat.





Goto is the Exchange boss with the bounty on our head, so maybe Vogga knows something about him.

"Can you tell me about Goto?"
"The Exchange is a Hutta fungus with none of the slow, creeping subtlety. They do not show the proper deference to the true lords of Nar Shaddaa. The infuriating one, Goto, he is the one I wish to see lying in a pool of blood in front of me... or with his knee bent. I do not know how he has managed it, but he preys upon my freighters. Entire shipments of fuel from Sleheyron have been hijacked by his minions."
"I think it not likely that you will find anything where all my resources have failed. But you are welcome to, if you are determined."

Remember how we accidently blew up Peragus and doomed Telos's satellite station to running out of fuel and falling from orbit? Whoopsies. Maybe we can do something about that.

"Citadel Station is looking for a new fuel source."
"This I know. My fuel would fetch a pretty price there, but not a drop will leave here until Goto is dealt with."







One little item to pick here from the local droid merchant.



Hey, don't call T3 a piece of junk. He just barbequed a Sith back on the Ebon Hawk, it's hard to top that.





"De-dreep? Dweep... deet?"





No means NO.



Then I'll show your tusks to your mother. Then I'll stab her with them too. In the NECK.

No dark side points for that, hah.



This is what we came here for: the 3rd piece of HK-47.



Outside the ship, the slavers are still pissed about the poor state of parking on Nar Shaddaa. Why don't they cry to the municipality about it?



Fine, fine, we'll move the flipping ship.



I bet there's more on board.



A lot more.



A LOT more. Atton and Kreia managed to run off in complete opposite directions and somehow aggroed all of them into the main console area. 10 or 11 guys at the same time? No problem.



Thankfully that makes them ripe for grenades.





Hah, that's the jackass we gave away our ship to.







This guy actually hits like a truck, but if you're spinning in mid air it's hard to hit anyone at all.



There's 3 cut scenes explain how they got on board and what happened to the dead guy here.

* Cut to a scene on board the Ebon Hawk, the empty corridors. It's a little creepy. *
:: Beeping from the console ::
"Kreia? Is something wrong?"
"Not as of yet."
"Someone's trying to board u-"
* Kreia knocks him unconscious, then lies down on the ground herself *
"Yes. What happens next is not our fight, and your first reaction will not serve us here. Let us see what the exile will do."
"Find the owner of this ship. These others... lock them in the hold. After that, we will wait."

The second scene has Ratrin, the original owner of the ship, arriving to claim it.

"Ah, finally, my ticket off this hole. Looks like it's been through hell. It's good to be back on the old girl..."
"Hey - what are you doing on my ship?"
"You are the owner of this ship?"
"Damn right I am! What are you..."
* Slaver smacks him with a rifle *
"Tell the captain we have him."

After the fight with the slavers, if you're Dark Side you can choose to spare them and take a cut of their (slavery) profits. At that point, Ratrin gains consciousness, and you can sell him into slavery too.

"Look... there's been a misunderstanding. The ship - it's all yours. Consider it a gift, all right? Didn't know you were messing with Red Eclipse slavers - guess those stories about the Hawk being a cursed vessel are true."
"Captain, take this slave with you, as... slight compensation."
"He is weak and squirming, like Hutt larva. Perhaps he will grow into profit."
"Hey! Wait a minute! You can't do this!"
* smack *
"Slaves do not speak."



We'll make a quick visit to the swoop garage here. I don't know why, but the moving fan on the ceiling gives this place a slight Blade Runner vibe.



Unfortunately the owner of the race track has built a droid to do the racing for him. The thing is unbeatable; we'll never win with it around.





That's odd. I wonder if this has anything to do with the droids going crazy back at the docks.







It isn't much of a race if the same guy wins every time; we're just restoring the fun.









Now we can finally race. This track has a few new elements.

First are the annoying steam vents that blow your pod sideways, usually right into a mine. The second new element are the swoop racers traveling in completely the wrong direction. They're hard as fuck to see and harder to avoid.

Bonus Video - Nar Shaddaa Swoop Track