Bypass HK factory?

[Wazooty 0]

As much as I appreciate this mod, the HK factory is so atrociously slow, slogging and mind numbingly repetitive that I was wondering if there's an easy way to bypass/delete it without outright uninstalling the mod?  

 

Eating through shield generators like candy and queuing up power blast for an hour+ is not my idea of fun.

 

Thank you.

[Kainzorus Prime 206]

Don't talk to HK about the sonic sensor then.

[Traveller 5]

Keep in mind though that if you're playing a Light Exile, you must complete the Factory if you want Malachor V to be destroyed.

[VarsityPuppet 1,085]

The Hk factory could probably use a little more excitement, but that's beyond me.

[MVacc224 13]

It's not so much the pacing for me because it always irked me that such a promising subplot was cut. If anything it's the difficulty of fighting legions as just HK-47. I found myself spamming shields, construction kits & multi-spectral emitters to survive.

 

I'm incredibly grateful to the time & effort that went into the restoration.

[Malkior 476]

This. All of this is the exact same reason that I had such difficulty with the gameplay The Factory requires. However, the issue I believe lies with playing as HK.

 

The playable droids in Kotor 2 have this unfortunate lack of a variety in their components, extending from an abysmal amount of feats to spend in the later portion of the story to a severe lack of armor options or stats (droid clothing for all intents and purposes)

 

However, I believe the biggest problem is that with the armor. For example, I use guantlets and gloves for my human players with saving throws and reflex saves of at least +3 a piece; this coupled with a belt that has saving throws to all for the party for +4 or +5 depending on the situation. For HK, I have starship armor for maybe if I'm lucky, +2 saves without costing too much defense, and even then, it doesn't protect against some damage effects until I pick up the fancy armor late in the level that gave me at least a fighting chance...when I set the difficulty to easy in that large room...

 

The battles are so one-sided, because HK doesn't have any weapons aside from guns (and "spells" IE flame/plasma throwers and lightning shocks that cost money instead of time; which is a disadvantage in and of itself), and virtually no defense aside from a minor buff which rarely works, and when it doesn't, it takes too long to heal, which burns through the limited supply of droid health packs.

 

[My idea]

A simple solution that retains the challenge? give HK his own unique feats for purchase in the later levels to give him the edge he should have. This could be a buff to his intellect or reflexes; or perhaps a slight advantage to hit on organics or droids. Kind of like what the high level force power mod did for the Jedi characters. Or an HK only feat that grants him a bonus to every time he uses a flamethrower or poison cloud against opponents.

 

Perhaps more powerful droid-only weapons to make using them at least more effective than some of the guns

[/My idea]

[darthbdaman 71]

I think the difficulty definitely needs to be dropped. I cheated last time I played, I couldn't bear to slog through the factory again.

[Fair Strides 510]

@Malkior: Handy tip: Complete Suulru's quest on Dantooine to get the Micro-Pulse Blaster, and then upgrade it with as high a level(Mark V, I think) of Ion-damaging components as possible, and a Mando pistol with just as good of components.

 

On the console, I once had a Micro-Pulse Blaster that did around 48-65 damage, but it wasn't the ion one. It was freaking obscene, on the level of Force Crush when I use the pistol with Rapid Fire and Master Speed...

[VarsityPuppet 1,085]

Would it be more interesting if you had other means of disposing of the droids/HKs? There is a certain trick with proton cores that was alluded to in dialog, but never comes up or is referred to again.

 

As far as difficulty, I think Markus Ramikin was going to take on the task of balancing the HK difficulty.

 

This. All of this is the exact same reason that I had such difficulty with the gameplay The Factory requires. However, the issue I believe lies with playing as HK.

 

The playable droids in Kotor 2 have this unfortunate lack of a variety in their components, extending from an abysmal amount of feats to spend in the later portion of the story to a severe lack of armor options or stats (droid clothing for all intents and purposes)

 

However, I believe the biggest problem is that with the armor. For example, I use guantlets and gloves for my human players with saving throws and reflex saves of at least +3 a piece; this coupled with a belt that has saving throws to all for the party for +4 or +5 depending on the situation. For HK, I have starship armor for maybe if I'm lucky, +2 saves without costing too much defense, and even then, it doesn't protect against some damage effects until I pick up the fancy armor late in the level that gave me at least a fighting chance...when I set the difficulty to easy in that large room...

 

The battles are so one-sided, because HK doesn't have any weapons aside from guns (and "spells" IE flame/plasma throwers and lightning shocks that cost money instead of time; which is a disadvantage in and of itself), and virtually no defense aside from a minor buff which rarely works, and when it doesn't, it takes too long to heal, which burns through the limited supply of droid health packs.

 

[My idea]

A simple solution that retains the challenge? give HK his own unique feats for purchase in the later levels to give him the edge he should have. This could be a buff to his intellect or reflexes; or perhaps a slight advantage to hit on organics or droids. Kind of like what the high level force power mod did for the Jedi characters. Or an HK only feat that grants him a bonus to every time he uses a flamethrower or poison cloud against opponents.

 

Perhaps more powerful droid-only weapons to make using them at least more effective than some of the guns

[/My idea]

[MVacc224 13]

Would it be more interesting if you had other means of disposing of the droids/HKs? There is a certain trick with proton cores that was alluded to in dialog, but never comes up or is referred to again.

 

As far as difficulty, I think Markus Ramikin was going to take on the task of balancing the HK difficulty.

Anything with Proton Cores & combustible elements has my attention

[VarsityPuppet 1,085]

As well as the FBI

[Hassat Hunter 571]

Guess I'm the only one with a HK impervious to harm with a dual-pistol setup that eats through everything in 2-3 rounds? And yes, that's on difficult without cheating.
And not even including the buffs for HK-47 you can now get on M4-78.

Also while in older versions the head slot didn't drop, it does now since 1.8, so there's a big difference already right there. Many droid drops from the random HK spawns also make it you should have plenty of droid items to go around by the time you get to the factory...

[MrPhil 58]

What's that setup you got, then?

Edited October 6, 2014 by MrPhil

[MVacc224 13]

Guess I'm the only one with a HK impervious to harm with a dual-pistol setup that eats through everything in 2-3 rounds? And yes, that's on difficult without cheating.

And not even including the buffs for HK-47 you can now get on M4-78.

 

Also while in older versions the head slot didn't drop, it does now since 1.8, so there's a big difference already right there. Many droid drops from the random HK spawns also make it you should have plenty of droid items to go around by the time you get to the factory...

Yes please do share

[Joe-3 1]

Droid equipment is much less bad than you'd think; the armors, while not upgradable, are some of the best in the game with massive damage resistances, and upgraded pistols are extremely potent, rivaling lightsabers with high-level gear. I've used the following on HK-47 in the HK Factory:

 

 

Armor: Droid Agrinium Armor - this piece of armor gives 50% Energy resistance and 50% Fire resistance. Pretty much the whole HK Factory deals Energy damage, so equipping it halves all damage you take right off the bat.

 

Weapons: dual wielding Mandalorian Disintegrators with the best anti-droid upgrades you can get: Ion Charger Mark V, Mandalorian Chamber Mark III, either Accuracy Scope or Pinpoint Scope depending on whether you could use higher Attack or benefit from the Keen critical range increase more - if you're missing enemies with the Keen upgrade, take the +4 Attack scope, otherwise go for Keen.

 

Master Sniper Shot for damage - this is why Mandalorian Disintegrators are the best blaster pistol in the game. Their damage is slightly lower than Micro-Pulse Blaster, but they have a critical range of 18-20 as opposed to 20-20 for the Micro-Pulse Blaster and other heavy blasters. (Lightsabers, for comparison, have a critical range of 19-20). With Master Sniper Shot, the range is quadrupled to a whopping 9-20 (7-20 with a scope giving it the Keen property), allowing you to get critical hits more than half the time. Ion Charger Mark V has a Massive Criticals bonus, further boosting the damage output of critical hits. Additionally, HK's Assassination Protocols special feat gives a chance to chop a portion of the enemy's HP right out on a critical hit if they fail a saving throw - with a Sniper Shot set-up, this bonus activates quite often.

 

With a set-up like this, you hit twice per round with dual pistols while critically hitting 1-2 times every time for ~180 damage per round on average (from memory; the exact numbers might be different), which is enough to kill HK-50s in the Factory in 2-3 rounds as Hassat Hunter said. Agrinium Armor doesn't make you completely invincible, but it is enough to keep you going for every fight except for the giant showdown at the end of the Factory, where you may need to kite them or use Shields and Repair Kits to make it through.

 

If you don't have Mandalorian Disintegrators (they are a high-level drop, and you need to be min-maxing your levels to get them, most likely), Mandalorian Rippers are a lower-damage alternative with an equivalent critical range (most of the damage of blasters comes from upgrades, so the lower base damage isn't that big of a deal). Micro-Pulse Blasters with a Master Rapid Shot set-up instead of a critical-hit focused one can also work if you lack Disintegrators or didn't build your HK for Sniper Shot, but Mandalorian Disintegrators with a Sniper Shot set-up blow them out of the water from my experience.

 

For Feats, you should have Master Two-Handed and Master Sniper Shot, with the rest dumped into Precise Shot, the feat that gives your ranged attacks a flat +10 damage bonus at rank V - HK-47 has a very slow feat progression, so don't waste your feats on anything else since losing out on higher levels of Precise Shot will cut your damage significantly. You can also get a Dexterity upgrade for HK-47 from Goto's Ship, and M4-78 also has upgrades for him as HH mentioned. You should NOT invest into Blaster Pistol Specialization, since the best head-slot upgrade in the game (Droid Warfare Upgrade) gives you that feat for free, letting you put more points into Precise Shot.

[Hassat Hunter 571]

Booted the game, here's my HK... only had a save at the end of the factory, but throughout only the armor changed;

 

* Droid Motivator Booster/Droid Scavenger Upgrade

* Droid Battle Upgrade

* Capacitator Armor (but that's found in the factory, no idea what I wore before that. But it's nearly impossible to die wearing this)

* Random shield that has seen no use

 

Weapons;

* Mandalorian Ripper (Pinpoint Scope MK IV, Precision Chamber MK III, Ion Charger MK V)

* Aratech Droid Oxidizer (Pinpoint Scope MK IV, Precision Chamber MK III, can't use 3rd slot)

 

* Using Standard Attack throughout the factory.

[Traveller 5]

I use HK's Assassin Rifle (found in the factory) with Pinpoint Scope IV, Mandalorian Chamber III, and a Pure Rylith Power Cell. Naturally, given how many times I've played through the game, I'm cheating his weapons, but not boosting his stats (boosting stats is reserved for the Exile only). However this combination when coupled with a CERS in the head slot I believe is a lot more effective than ion.

 

His rifle with these upgrades only does 6-47, but 1-10 of that damage is totally unstoppable. It has a +6 to hit and a critical threat range of 15-20, doing double damage on a critical, plus a 50% chance of slowing the target. On average, he does 26 points of damage. With a CERS installed, he gets three attacks per round. Assuming they all hit, that's an average of 78 points of damage in a single round. That doesn't include getting any criticals.

 

Being able to make an extra attack is always better, simply because you can pump out more damage that way, even if attacks such as sniper shot have their own special features.