[KotOR] The narrative problem with stealing the Ebon Hawk

[Salk 413]

Hello!

It seems almost impossible but only today did I realize that there is a black hole narrative plot in the game. To access the hangar at Davik's where the Ebon Hawk is parked, the Player needs to disable the hangar door's lock mechanism and that needs to be done via computer terminal. So far, so good.

But in order to fly away with the Ebon Hawk, the Player should also need the security codes to disable what Davik in the intro tour calls "the state of the art security system I've had installed to protect her." I dismissed those words when I played, but they are significant and they are practically hinting at the existence of a very sophisticated alarm system.

Other than Davik himself, the only other person able to bypass the alarm system is the Ebon Hawk's pilot Hudrow, currently being tortured at Davik's and kept in a cage. If you free him, he will reward the Player with sharing the security codes that SHOULD BE NECESSARY to fly the Ebon Hawk.

But that is not the case.

The Player can just disable the hangar door's security at the terminal just using spikes, enter the hangar, fight David Kang and happily leave with the Ebon Hawk.

I'm very surprised that nobody else noticed it or spoke about it before me. Or perhaps I never found a topic about it. If there is an ongoing discussion I have overlooked, I'd be grateful to be pointed at it to learn what others would say.

I'm locally going to do something about this to rectify the situation.

Thanks!

[Sith Holocron 2,592]

Isn't T3 supposed to have superior code breaking and computer slicing skills? Got you into a Sith military base so I imagine getting onto the Ebon Hawk wouldn't be too much harder.

[DarthParametric 3,880]

Isn't his "state of the art security system" a glorified electric fence?

[Salk 413]

The security system protecting the Ebon Hawk could be an electric fence or anything else, really. The problem is that the Player shouldn't be able to get to it and fly away without the codes that could be obtained exclusively through the pilot. In fact, after getting those codes from him Canderouus comments saying they've got what they came for. It's a plot hole if there ever was one.

[Sith Holocron 2,592]

If you're dead set on having the codes not be hand waved away by T3's presence, either have them given through dialogue with the prisoner or have them found on Davik's body.

[Mephiles550 240]

I was more focused on how not a single one of those turbo lasers from the Leviathan apparently hit the stationary Ebon Hawk and could've easily crippled the ship before departure while the party was busy fighting Davik and Calo.

As for the boasting of the security system from Davik, I'm pretty sure it was just Davik underestimating the ability of the PC to disable everything from a random computer. This security system probably included more than the door, likely a forcefield and alarm as well, but it was all combined as just the "disable hangar security" option in the terminal's commands section. Assuming that the computer terminal option to disable the security system was only referring to the door and not an alarm or hangar forcefield, well that would all likely be conveniently disabled by space lasers firing on the building the second the PC enters the hangar. If it's a forcefield, that thing is well disabled by now. If it's an alarm that could somehow work during the bombardment... pretty sure nobody cares at that particular moment, more pressing matters at the moment for the average Exchange mook.

[Salk 413]

1 hour ago, Sith Holocron said:

If you're dead set on having the codes not be hand waved away by T3's presence, either have them given through dialogue with the prisoner or have them found on Davik's body.

Perhaps there is a misunderstanding here, SH.

About T3 being a great hacker. I don't object to it in principle, but you realize that T3 would need to be in the party in order to make him the hacker of the Ebon Hawk security system. And this is just the second objection I have with it. The main one, I reiterate, is the fact that Davik's Estate narrative is based off retriving the security code from the pilot in the cage to steal borrow take possession of the Hawk. Having T3 bypass this requirement means killing much of the purpose behind the whole area.

And the codes are already being given to the Player by the Ebon Hawk pilot once you turn off the energy cage trapping him. It happens via dialogue already. Having the codes found on Davik's body would make sense, but in the end it would not make sense trying to infiltrate the hangar without knowing the codes first. It's not that you could know in advance that you'll find Davik there without metagaming knowledge.

1 hour ago, Mephiles550 said:

This security system probably included more than the door, likely a forcefield and alarm as well, but it was all combined as just the "disable hangar security" option in the terminal's commands section.

Yes, that's exactly it.

The content of the file k_ptar_davcomp2.dlg clearly shows that Bioware had originally thought of having Davik's personal computer somewhere in the base. The Player would have needed to upload the codes that disable the EH security using that specific computer.

I will locally maintain the solution of having a combined effort to bypass both the hangar door and the EH security by making the Access Card's sole purpose that of saving spikes to use for the terminal's various commands. The terminal option "[Computer]  Disable Hangar Security" will be changed to "[Computer] Upload security codes to access the hangar and disable the Ebon Hawk's shields." and will require having talked to the pilot for it to be present.