Planet Taris completely destroyed, or only the surface destroyed?

There are contradicting opinions given in the game, Malak tells the ships to have it all wiped out, but that seems unlikely without a super laser class weapon, you'd think that a planet of its size would simply have most of the surface buildings destroyed.

While others in the game say that everything over two stories was destroyed (implying that undercity could still exist).

What I'm getting at is it possible that the Outcasts were able to make it the Promised Land, a place that is said to be under the planet's crust, self sustained, fully automated, taken care of by droids, and with only one "one-way entrance" (people that go in can never go out).

If so does that mean that Outcasts inherited the earth so to speak, and now live under the crust of a dead husk of a planet?

Maybe they worship a missle, .

...or is there more info further on in the game that I'm missing (no hard spoilers please)?

p.s. The Promised Land makes the Lost City of the Jedi spring to mind, with the way that it was described...

 

I'd say that he just destroyed everything that looked like a building. I don't think that he could execute a proper Base Delta Zero with what he had.

 

Taris' cityscape was completely demolished, effectively "wiping" it "from the face of the galaxy." Malak, like all Sith Lords, was using hyperbole. It wouldn't have been too dramatic if he said, "Just bombard the city or something."

 

Unfortunately, no more info in the game.

I think the problem lies in the fact that they describe it as a planetary city like Coruscant, but in the space cinematics, you only see the one city, IIRC. If in fact there are many cities the size of the one you explore then I doubt he even got the whole surface, but with <6 big cities, he probably got the entire cities.

But with the Upper and Lower cities destroyed, shouldn't the outcasts now be able to loot all the supplies from the upper city people?

So no, he only got the surface.

 

Interesting, so it is possible that the outcasts could still be alive.

Also depending on how deep the swoop gangs were in the lower cities its possible they might have survived as well (if they were below two stories). Who knows, they might have taken their chances of going to the undercity as well, when all hell broke loose.

"But with the Upper and Lower cities destroyed, shouldn't the outcasts now be able to loot all the supplies from the upper city people?"

They could if unless they went into Promised Land. That is unless there was a way out of the promised land.

 

Also depending on how deep the swoop gangs were its possible they might have survived as well (if they were below two stories).

They might, but with their major track gone, they won't have much to do.

 

They could hook up with the outcasts I suppose.

Wonder if any upper city dwellers and sith fled to the undercity when the attack started, .

 

I'd be a neat level for KOTOR II: Taris, after the destruction.

 

The ability to destroy a planet isn't that huge of a deal even then actually. Cracken's Rebel operatives point out that anyone with a mass driver or sufficient tractor beams/thrusters can move a asteroid into position over a planet.

The problem is any reasonably technological society can repel those.

You also think too big, take Starblazers, the first real anime in the United States. The enemy simply got a bunch of nukes and dropped them from orbit and let the radiation due the rest.

I imagine in SW it'd just take a chemistry lab and some rock trading from any reasonably radioactive world.

 

Wonder if any upper city dwellers and sith fled to the undercity when the attack started.

I honestly don't think they'd sit around as stuff blew up around them.

 

Once you start falumping around the swoop racing circuit on other worlds, though, several characters mention that the entire circuit's essentially gotten vivisected with "the destruction of Taris"...and with the swoop tracks there being in the Lower City, I'd say it's fair-to-even money that it too was pretty much eradicated.

The Undercity, on the other hand...a much better shot at an intact infrastructure, certainly. (...Being veeeery loose with that word...) Unfortunately, it's not stated one way or the other what becomes of the Outcast population down there, once you flee Taris. As for a "Base-Delta-Zero," going from what Davik tells you about the Sith fleet's complete planetary interdiction, it's *possible*, given the quantity of ships one would need for such an operation. You see the cities levelled, but whether the open landmasses and seas were touched is yet another one to chuck down the "Unanswered" memory-tube.

The sequel and the forthcoming "Old Republic" novels might impart some choice enlightenment on this question, though.

 

"the destruction of Taris"

Just to point out that doesn't mean "complete destruction", but ya destruction was involved.

The term "destruction of Honoghr" has been used before as well. However much of the planet is still there.

If everything above two stories was destroyed (which includes all the space ports most likely), then there is no way that people could still land on Taris to continue the "Swoop racing circuit" there, so ya, it would vivisect the racing scene.

Also there is no way to tell which floor the racing track is located in. Was it above 2 stories, or was it in the first and second story?

So ya it could have been destroyed.

For that matter is there anything that explains how many stories the city really is? I don't think the elevator system in the game is an accurate portrayal of how deep the city is, , because if you look out over the upper city, and in cutscenes, things sure look deep.

 

The sequel and the forthcoming "Old Republic" novels might impart some choice enlightenment on this question, though.

Cool, I wasn't even aware that such novels were planned. Anyone have any info on them?

 

All that's known is its a 9 book series.

 

I don't remember hearing the Promised Land having a one-way entrance. That seems stupid, since it was built to feed Taris's growing population/declining food sources. Trapping your people inside doesn't make sense.

Anyway....the city is what was destroyed. Whatever remains is either rubble or ruins. The Sith didn't have the capabilities to destroy the planet.

 

Also there is no way to tell which floor the racing track is located in.

Well, since swoop racing on Taris fell apart, we'd have to assume that enough of it was on the first two levels. I mean, if most of it was further underground, they would still be able to get some fun out of it.

Keep in mind that I haven't fully played "Knights Of The Old Republic", so I'm probably not as knowledgable (did I spell that right?) on the subject.

 

They'd have to bombard Taris for a awful long time to eradicate the entire planet.

So, did they actually bombard the whole thing or just the city that you were on?

 

Yes, that's a word.

And I think it was above the first 2 stories (and therefore destroyed), for these reasons:

1. The computer with your results was destroyed in the bombardment.
2. Presumably, the Undercity is the only thing left unscathed, and you can't race there (I think).
3. It's a pain in the butt to lug swoops down hundreds of stories (and expensive too).
4. Most conviningly, they don't race there anymore.

 

Given that Malak's command went, "Wipe this planet from the face of the galaxy," I don't think the Sith stopped at annihilating the food courts and luxury dachas.

Not enough to completely nutcracker the entire planet à la the Death Star, but enough.

 

In the words in Carth.. "Every building over two stories down was destroyed..." I think the people in the undercity survived...

 

"I don't remember hearing the Promised Land having a one-way entrance."

If you ask the old man if you can help the outcasts get to the promised land, he says no, because once you are inside, there is no exit, and he didn't want the heros to be stuck there.

 

In the words in Carth.. "Every building over two stories down was destroyed..." I think the people in the undercity survived...

That doesen't necessarily mean the undercity wasn't destroyed.

Just because every builing over 2 stories was destroyed doesen't mean nothing else below it sustained signifigant damage.

Though I imagine there are some survivors down there somewhere...

 

All of you just don't get it, none of it matters, both the hot Sith chick and the pliable slave chixxors are gone man! They're gone!


Damn you Malak!

 

The Sith fleet didn't stay in orbit over Taris long enough to ensure that the entire surface of the planet had been ground to dust. When the upper city came crumbling down, then the lower city no doubt collapsed as well. You can't have that amount of weight pressing down on decaying and only partially supporting rooftops and expect the building beneath to stay standing. I think that it would be safe to say that both the upper and lower levels of the city were destroyed.

The undercity and the cast out, however, were probably doing fine. They might not have even noticed that anything above them was unusual. After many replays of KOTOR, I noticed that there are no light or air shafts leading from the undercity, where the cast out are, to the upper levels. There would be no convenient little holes for debris to come raining down into the lower levels. Also, the upper cities were supported by immense pylons which supported the "ceiling" of the lower city. Those big black pillars would have supported the upper city regardless of whether it was arranged in neat buildings or crushed to smouldering rubble. If the outcasts were able to make it all the way to the Promised Land, then the Sith bombardment wouldn't have affected them.

However, Taris is as good as dead. The planet had no vegitation, no real animal life, and no self-sustaining ecosystem. Once the air scrubbers or oxygen factories or whatever the Tarisians used to keep their air breathable were gone, then the planet would turn into a wasteland. The fires from all of the burning buildings would make the air unbreathable.

 

"noticed that there are no light or air shafts leading from the undercity, where the cast out are, to the upper levels. There would be no convenient little holes for debris to come raining down into the lower levels."

There were some holes where the pods crashed through to the undercity, but that's about all.

"The planet had no vegitation"

Oddly enough their was some kind of weird grass growing on the dirt of the undercity, but ya beyond that no vegetation.

However its possible that some of the lower city floors were constructed like the lower city floor in which case the lower city would be affected in the same way that the under city did.

I'd point out coruscant had buildings in sections of the city bombarded in a similar way around the time of Dark Empire and it caused very little damage on the lowest lower city floors, or the undercity, though most of the uppercity buildings were collapsed into rubble, and had to be rebuilt according to Jedi Academy Trilogy.

However, all we know is that nothing over two stories survived. So that means possibly the undercity, and one lower city floor may still be mostly intact.

If the undercity counts as a "basement", then its possible that their are two lower city floors mostly intact.

Breathing is not supposed to be a problem in the Promised Land as it was designed to be self sustaining environment designed for apocalyptic events on the planet. However there is a possibility that anyone living there might end up like the Morlocks in thousands of years, ...