What I Did For The Community Last Year

 

Have you wondered . . . what does Sith Holocron do as an administrator on this site?  Wonder no longer!

 

I’ve summed up what I’ve done this year so you can have an overview. Keep in mind some entries might just list a start date for an ongoing event – or it might take up from an event that took place from last year. There are also other things that I can’t freely talk about such as advice, staff chats, and secret projects that I am not at liberty to discuss.

 

Do you have some time? You’re going to need some to read through all of this as I've working on this document for most of the year. I originally was going to release this on New Year's Eve but I thought to myself: Why Wait?

 

Please note that some of these entries may come off like I have a chip on my shoulder. That may or may not be a figment of your imagination.

 

January 02, 2017

• Received voice lines from voice actor for the characters I1-02 (in M4-78 Enhancement Project.) Paid for actor’s services. (Yeah, some of those lines in the latest version of M4-78 EP that I paid actual real world money for. You know, the mod that isn't on this site?)
• Provided splicing for Leilukin's "Handmaiden and Female Exile - Disciple and Male Exile Romance" mod.

 

January 04, 2017
Arranged for voice actor re-record lines to Zbyl’s specifications.

 

January 05, 2017 (and beyond)
Continuing the saga from last year, dealing with myriad issues with having the end credit trailers for both the TSLRCM and the M4-78 Enhancement Project redone. Paid for the project out of my funds.

 

January 11, 2017
Provided splicing for Leilukin's "Darth Sion and Male Exile Mod"

 

January 14, 2017
Taking a cue from Varsity Puppet’s replacement legal screens, created a new legal screen in TGA format for the M4-78 Enhancement Project.

 

January 20, 2017
Posted "Blog #43 - Miguel Ferrer passes away"

 

January 27, 2017
Posted "Blog #44 - RIP John Hurt"

 

January 31, 2017
Continued to moderate between Hassat Hunter and Ndix UR on fixing one of the droid’s eye-lights. (M4-78 EP related)

 

February 3, 2017
Received more lines from the voice actor for CS-36 (in M4-78 Enhancement Project) – again, I hired this guy.

 

February 5, 2017 (an ongoing debate)
Indicated the read-me for M4-78 Enhancement Project needed to emphasize that the intentional vagueness of the journal entries was supposed to represent “old school” RPG playing. (IMHO: If HH wants to continue to claim that’s intentional, he should claim so in the read-me file.)

 

February 7, 2017

• Created new video to (eventually) announce that the updated M4-78 Enhancement Project is available for download. Utilized lines from voice-actor for CS-36 specifically for this announcement. (Still waiting on this release.)
• Posted "Blog #45 - Hangar versus Hanger" as part of my on-going grammar series.

 

February 14, 2017
Posted "Blog #46 - I Present a SWTOR Question!"

 

February 15, 2017
Provided new splicing for Leilukin's "Atton Rand and Male Exile Romance"

 

February 19, 2017

• Released “TSL Animated Galaxy Map Texture in Canon Positions” mod.
• Posted "Blog #47 - Preparing for the Stoney Chapter soon" . . . for use in the M4-78 Documentary.

 

February 20, 2017
Corrected “TSL Animated Galaxy Map Texture in Canon Positions” mod

 

February 22, 2017
Sent questions from the general public to Stoney regarding his version of M4-78 for the documentary I’ve been doing with Xuul.

 

February 23, 2017
Released “KOTOR1 "Canon" Animated Galaxy Map” mod

 

March 1, 2017
Posted "Blog #48 - Design my next computer"

 

March 16, 2017

• Provided new splicing for Leilukin's "Handmaiden and Female Exile - Disciple and Male Exile Romance" mod.
• Posted "Blog #49 - I need a WAV file from MOTS"

 

March 24, 2017
Collaborated with bead-v on the “TSL Galaxy Map Fix Pack” mod

 

March 31, 2017
Posted "Blog #50 - Meet ‘Holocron’" – finally officially ending my drought without a functioning home computer by posting the process of putting it together.

 

April 3, 2017
Updated “KOTOR1 "Canon" Animated Galaxy Map” mod

 

April 4, 2017
Posted "Blog #51 - Who wants to make HD versions of the trailers?" – inspired by folks complaining on Reddit about the old low resolution trailers for KOTOR1 and 2, I decided to see if I could inspire the community to remedy that need.

 

April 14, 2017
Collaborated with Kexikus on the “K1 Galaxy Map Fix Pack” mod

 

April 19, 2017
Posted "Blog #52 - Stormtrooper Tutorial" – modernized and amended an old tutorial from another site.

 

May 19^th, 2017
Posted "Blog #53 - Help me name my next SWTOR Character”

 

June 8, 2017
Posted "Blog #54 - Possible Expansion to K1 Portrait Pack?”

 

Jun 25, 2017
After working on it since April, I finally received some additional sound files from the voice actress for the next version of M4-78 EP that Zbyl2 and Hassat Hunter requested. Of this effort, I received no thanks from either of the aforementioned persons.

 

June 28, 2017
Posted " Blog #55 - Retro Action Figure Space Station”

 

July 1, 2017
Posted " Blog #56 - The K1 and TSL Heads”

 

July 2, 2017
Posted “Blog #57 - The Steam Workshop”

 

July 5, 2017
Posted “Blog #58 - Let's Plays”

 

July 18, 2017
Released “Animated Cantina Sign for KotOR 1” to public.

 

July 25, 2017
Attempted a behind the scenes initiative to have modders and/or machinima makers remake some - if not all - of the KotOR1 pre-rendered movies for the game.

 

July and August

• Offered sound files of KOTOR voice actors for machinima directors to use in the future videos.
• Dealt with questions that came up from the M4-78 EP Beta Team. (Yes, there was actually a beta team!)

 

August 1, 2017

• Posted “Blog #59 - "Name that Gun" Challenge!”
• Deleted pictures from Screen of the Day section by request of the original poster.

 

August 2, 2017
Released “Animated Manaan Cantina Sign for KotOR 1” to public.

 

August 12, 2017
Posted “Blog #61 - "I Need a tutorial for a G0-To voice filter” both on Deadly Stream and on the KOTOR subreddit.

 

August 13, 2017
Posted “Blog #62 - "Mod Ideas that Never Came to Pass”

 

September 2, 2017
Posted “Blog #63 - "Got an interesting message on Facebook Messenger”

 

September 3, 2017

• Posted “Blog #64 - "Not Star Wars Related”
• Attempted (and failed) to resolve a conflict between two mod makers.

 

September 14, 2017
Posted “Blog #65 - " A Celebration of Life Day!
A blog seeking participation for a Holiday themed video.

 

September 20, 2017
N-DReW-25 requested changing the gender in the “601saedhe045” line in KOTOR2. First released to him and then to general public on October 2^nd.

 

September 23, 2017
Posted “Blog #66 - "New Landing and Take Off Videos for M4-78?”
A blog requesting folks to redo the Landing/Takeoff videos using Quanon’s skyboxes from Stoney’s original M4-78. Superseded shortly afterwards by my thread in the Request section here. (include link)

 

October 1, 2017
Posted “Blog #67 - "Font Discussion”
A blog discussing typefaces for the Star Wars games and the Star Wars universe in general.

 

October 2, 2017
LucyTheAlien requested adding a filter to Mandalore’s “503xaart024” line in KOTOR2. Released in the “Bugs and minor inconveniences with TSLRCM 1.8.5” thread.

 

October 4, 2017
Deleted multiple threads by ALPHA000102 on his requests.

 

and so on . . .
I’ve done other stuff after October 4^th, of course. However, I think you might have the idea by now, right?

 

Throughout the year . . .
· Run spelling and grammar checks on your posts. (And you thought my blogs on grammar were just for show.)
Of note: “Nar Shaddaa” is misspelled the most. Count out how many “a’s” and “d’s” you see in those two words and try to remember it.
· Received numerous insults. (In addition to the above!)
· Applied infractions and bans where necessary - Possibly but not necessarily related to above. ???? I inquired with other staff members when applying infractions. (It's not done in a vacuum.)
· Worked on acquiring files for Ndix UR’s “Major Audio Classification” initiative. (You’ll have to ask him about that if you want more details.)
· Sent numerous birthday messages to Members. (I’m picky about doing this. If I don’t recognize the name because they’re new or because I don’t see that person post (anymore), I often don’t bother.)
· Provided input on various mods both in the threads or through Private Messages.
· Work on unannounced projects which I am unable to discuss at the moment.
· Other things of a personal nature but those involved know of what I speak.
· Forwarded message traffic to the appropriate staff member.
· Approved loads of mods. (However, I try to leave a majority of this to the Moderators.)
· Ensured mod up-loaders have acquired permissions for materials used in their mods if they didn’t make a part of it themselves.
· So. Many. Avatars. I really should cut down on that this year. (Nah.)
· So many questions about when M4-78 Enhancement Project will be back on the site. I don’t know and you should stop asking me about it. Ask Zbyl2. Don’t bother asking Hassat Hunter about as I think he’s signed off doing anything with the mod ages ago.

 

So . . . what did you do this year? Speaking of which . . .

 

What You Could Do For The Community in 2018 (and Beyond)
These suggestions are specifically directed at those that don’t mod.
When you make a request – whether it’s for some new or altered content or a bug fix – remember that the folks answering you aren’t being paid. They’re giving up their time and energy with no financial compensation. So please make sure to do the following:

 

1) Provide Relevant Information:
So . . . you have a bug. You want folks to help you. Then you must provide the information the modders need by utilizing the Read Me First threads for Knights of the Old Republic 1 or Knights of the Old Republic II [add links]. You’re most likely using K1R or TSLRCM but even if you’re not, providing the information specifically asked for those threads in vital before any can proceed. Plus . . . it’s in the site rules, ya know? {add links]

 

Have you made more than one request? You still have to provide the information in those threads. For each request you make, you have to update the information provided.

 

By the way, if you're mod configuration is so complicated that you have to have a Google Drive document in order to explain how you’ve put it together, you are the likely cause of your issue. That’s because you have too many mods and you have over-complicated your situation. (I wonder if I have someone specific in mind when I say this?)

 

2) Provide Feedback:
If you like what you see, let them know what you’ve liked in the modder’s presentation. If you didn’t like what you saw, provide constructive feedback. Modders aren’t mind readers and seeing as you’re already made a request, don’t waste the modder’s time by only providing a two word comment. Provide detail! Consider this your initial down payment for a request - to provide the information that a modder needs.

 

3) Utilize that Like button:
Let’s say you weren’t the original requester, but you liked what you saw. A simple way of letting of the mod author/s know he or she is on the right track (in your opinion) is to use that “Like” button.

 

4) Giving Thanks:
One of my personal pet peeves is when someone makes a request, is provided with exactly what they asked for, and never makes a comment in the thread again. (I could point out numerous examples of folks not doing this but let’s keep things mostly civil for this blog.) The very least you could do is thank the person that helped you. Assuming you’re better than a person doing “the very least”, you should state how the mod or fix helped you. Yes, that means providing feedback. And like I previously mentioned, hit that Like button!