Don't know whether anyone here can help, but I've discovered a glitch that I'd found only limited reference to in the past, and it's completely buggered up my current game - which was going extremely well, btw. I'm not sure where to turn for help, and this board is easy access, so...
Anyway, here it is: on the Leviathan, you get to confront Malak for the first time, in an improbable hallway composed of a grid of useless blast doors which do nothing but add tension between cutscenes. You know the place. Who'd design a hallway like that, I ask you?
Anyway, I digress.
So, true to the style of the game, if you whup Malak's ass during this first encounter, he'll Force Whirlwind you and run off - for plot purposes. You then have to track him through this ridiculous grid, opening perimeter doors to get around the locked center square. As it turns out, there's only one door that will allow you access to the center square - this is where the glitch occurs. You go around the perimeter, either left or right, until you get to this door, and, as you approach it, there's a hall juncture or open bulkhead just a few feet before it. Well, there's a programming error with this section of wall which causes you to die instantly as you pass through it. There's no way to avoid death there, and there's also no way to avoid having to pass through there, since it's impossible to pre-empt this absurd plot contrivance. Net result: 30 hours wasted game time. I've gone back to previous saves six hours younger, and still ended up getting the life sucked out of me at that same point once I'd reached it.
The odd thing is, I'm on my third playthrough, and this had never happened before.
If it could be a factor - though I'm not sure why it would make a difference - this time through I'm playing the "Uber-Jedi" character from March's issue of Official XBox Mag, and I've also taken advantage of the Level-Up Glitch, hoping to get a PC that isn't still a total weenie by the end. Now, nobody else seems to have complained about this problem while playing through with either the Uber-Jedi or the FLU, so I'm not sure whether those could be a factor in this.
I've only seen this glitch mentioned twice whilst searching online - most notably at Malak's own "Super Jedi Creation Page" where there is reference to an invisible line that'll kill you if you cross it, in this same section of the Leviathan. The difference there is that his mention of it refers to a very specific application of a very sepcific cheat, which doesn't apply here. My Security skill is high, but not high enough that I can open locked Blast Doors in this section, and anyway, I'm not using any security skill during this part of the game to get to where my problem occurs - my glitch impedes *normal* playthrough. The only other mention I found was on a message board - I can't remember which one - where some guy said that he'd had all the glitches in the game at one time or another, including the "death line" glitch. No explanation, no description, no follow-up.
Anyway, that's it. I'm still trying to find a way around it, if there is one, and I'm hoping that it won't happen again if I try over from the start; but that's a bummer - I still haven't seen the Dark Side ending, and I don't want to plug away for another 30 hours only to find out that I maybe never will. Glitches suck!
Well, the FLU Glitch is neat, but most glitches suck!
Yes, the death line glitch can be avoided several ways.
1) Open one of the side doors with security skill 100+
2) Equip armor that gives Dex +1 or +2. Dexerity is the key to the death line glitch.
3) I remember someone saying let Malak beat you down to under 100 hps and then beat him. Not sure about that one but i've done #1 many times. After you beat Malak the 2nd time, you'll get the line again but Carth will be back with you so you'll be ok.
ariel uses her superior problem solving powers: SUCCESS!
ive been able to pass BOTH fights with malak, i will now explain what i did to get past the "door of death"
before the fight with malak, i un-equpped ALL of my stuff, replacing ONLY armor with a combat suit. my +20 dex modifer dropped to a +5 limiting my def to 29. i stood there and let malak beat on me until i dropped below 100 hp (89). when i dropped to that hp i equipped the sith lightsaber, and fought him.
we fought, i won, he ran. i took the long way around,and it let me pass the door to the second malak fight.
we fought again, i won, he uses stasis field on me, it hits. bastila steps in to "save" me from from malak's awesome power (lol, yea,,,,riiiiiight)
im now standing on manaan, AND just recieved the premimum shop trigger, so everything is in good shape
Yeah, its the infamous death glitch. That happens when u break the laws of the game and open the doors with your superior security skills. Dont worry, just pass from any of the doors of the sides, and dont go back from the hallway of the middle, that way you avoid the death glitch. Good to see you aroung here SSV, aka grg. Long live the prince of the saiyan, vegeta!
Thanks to all for showing an interest - it appears this glitch isn't so unheard of after all.
I'd tried a number of little tricks like the ones posted here - of my own device - to no avail, before I left my message here. Remember that this problem didn't actually come about as a result of my using security skills in any way, and so that can't be blamed. The quote from above: "we fought, i won, he ran. i took the long way around,and it let me pass the door to the second malak fight." describes the point where my problem occurs - the door to the second fight, the long way 'round.
I will tell you what I did do to solve it, though, as I've serendipitously managed to come up with an answer, and it may be of interest to anyone else who gets stuck here at some point. I never thought it'd work either, but... I switched the game difficulty level to Easy, from Difficult, after which, when I passed through the archway, I "took" 164 points damage, but survived. Considering my character had almost 500 VP at that point in the game, that would indicate I must have been absorbing a MASSIVE shock when playing on Difficult. It's really odd, though, as I would have assumed this to be a "Whoops, you're just dead" glitch in programming as opposed to an incidental and causeless "Whoops, there's some damage for ya". Very bizarre. Also odd is how the damage wasn't displayed over my head until I tried it on easy. Mind you, there's not much time to see at that point.
I've had my share of glitches this game, though - Galaxy Droid three times, a Sith prisoner on Korriban somehow out of his cage and following me around like a dog, a conspicuous absence of lightsaber crystals in their usual places, a PC who queues actions during combat but then just stands there while people fight around him, and a complete inability to trigger Mika Dorin's premium items or Jagi's Challenge - which I've never got to work yet in any game.
No Sith teapot yet, though.
Well, that's it for me. Thanks for a cool site and a neat and forthcoming forum. I'll be around.
thanks, yeah this game is very glitchy, some of them are for good like FLU and the attribute glitch, but a lot of them suck, like the Mission glitch, the thousand hours played glitch, the Carth glitch, and a lot more.