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=__- Blasters Reloaded: -_=
Ranged Weapon Feats Overhaul for KotOR 2

 

By:Malkior

 


Description:

 

Many of my mods span back several years,
but this one is a bit more recent. Essentially at its core,
this is a realism mod focused on changing all of the blaster
feats to be tied to each individual item rather than being learnable on the Level Up screen.
This in turn means that you will need to purchase a blaster with the Rapid Fire,
Power Blast, or Sniper Shot feat in order to use those abilities.

 

-Every single weapon UTI that I could find has been altered to add these feats when it is equipped, so each blaster should carry its own cost and benefit. Blaster Pistols have fewer feats but are generally more exotic, while Blaster Rifles offer more feats as well as advanced and master versions of them. A few unique blasters, like Luxa's Disruptor have their own share of surprises. Each weapon also follows a formula it "logically" would, such as heavy blasters carrying the Rapid Fire feat, and shotguns having the Power Blast. This should change up the general way to play, so experimenting on which weapon to choose may be necessary.

 

I designed this mod after noticing how in the later game,
all blasters except for very specific ones become pointless as the
Master versions of the blaster feats make up for any insufficiencies they have.
From a realism perspective, this made no sense, as you can't "learn"
how to fire any gun you find on full-auto; (or any other ranged feat spells)
and from a practical perspective, it removed the need to use anything other than
the gun you prefer for the entire playthrough, thus making purchasing weapons
a futile affair.

 

This mod is aimed to remedy that situation.

 


Installation:

 

I have designed this mod to use the TSLPatcher for the
benefit of mod compatibility.
To install, hit the "Install Mod" button to proceed with the TSLPatcher
installation, ensuring there aren't any errors in the changelog.

 

Uninstallation:

 

To uninstall, copy-paste the .uti files and feat.2da in your Override folder
with the files from the "Backup" folder that the TSLPatcher created
(Should be inside the same folder as the installer .exe).

NOTE: This will effectively put your game files back to the point before you installed the mod, but you will still have to use a new savegame to fully remove this mod's changes.
Unfortunately, this is just the way the game files work.

 


Compatibility:

 

Please let me know if there are any mods that conflict with mine,
and I will work to make them compatible.

 


Permissions:

 

Please inform me and credit me if you would like to add my mod to your own.

 

Credits:

 

This would not have been possible without the many people on DeadlyStream who have helped immeasurably including:
LiliArch for coming up with the mod idea in the IRC chat;
Rece of RealRece Youtube fame for his work in drafting up the weapon feats for all 60 weapons;
Fair Strides for walking me through the intricacies of setting up a TSLPatcher Install and helping with this very Readme;
The rest of DS for their constant support and feedback;
Fred Tetra for his Kotortool with which the UTI edits would have been much harder;
Stoffe for the TSLPatcher;
Bioware for making Kotor 1; Obsidian for making Kotor 2;
Lucasarts for allowing that to happen; and George Lucas for creating the first Star Wars which started it all...


What's New in Version 1.0

Released

  • V1.0
  • Initial Upload
  • --



User Feedback

Recommended Comments



I'm going through and changing them now in my files to see if this solves the problem of them starting with those feats. I only remembered this function because I made companion tweaks years ago. I totally forgot until it suddenly popped in my head lol!

Now I've never edited characters from kotor 1 before. I've messed with k1 way less so idk if its the same process or not.

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Just now, Reshki said:

I'm going through and changing them now in my files to see if this solves the problem of them starting with those feats. I only remembered this function because I made companion tweaks years ago. I totally forgot until it suddenly popped in my head lol!

Now I've never edited characters from kotor 1 before. I've messed with k1 way less so idk if its the same process or not.

Looks fixed in my game. Wow. Such a simple file.. Thank you very much for that tip. Going to go through and update the installer, but this should prevent everyone from getting the feats.

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3 minutes ago, Malkior said:

Looks fixed in my game. Wow. Such a simple file.. Thank you very much for that tip. Going to go through and update the installer, but this should prevent everyone from getting the feats.

Very nice! Love the idea of this mod so I'm glad it works!

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3 minutes ago, Reshki said:

Very nice! Love the idea of this mod so I'm glad it works!

This is awesome. I should be getting an update done *much* sooner than expected. 

Your help has been invaluable. You're definitely going to be credited (obviously) as without your assistance I don't know if I would have been able to solve these issues.

 

If anything else causes these feats to show up unexpectedly, please let me know so these mods can be seamless.

Also, I'm glad you like the concept. It's been a favorite of mine in how it makes weapons more of a commodity and gives you a reason to buy the blaster rifles over the pistols. I've done a lot of fancy things with the more rare weapons like Bendak's Blaster and the like, so if anything is unbalanced, I can change it if you prefer it.

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35 minutes ago, Malkior said:

This is awesome. I should be getting an update done *much* sooner than expected. 

Your help has been invaluable. You're definitely going to be credited (obviously) as without your assistance I don't know if I would have been able to solve these issues.

 

If anything else causes these feats to show up unexpectedly, please let me know so these mods can be seamless.

Also, I'm glad you like the concept. It's been a favorite of mine in how it makes weapons more of a commodity and gives you a reason to buy the blaster rifles over the pistols. I've done a lot of fancy things with the more rare weapons like Bendak's Blaster and the like, so if anything is unbalanced, I can change it if you prefer it.

Wow thanks I appreciate that! Glad to help! I'll keep a look out for bugs. And idk when I'll run into bendaks blaster lol I won't be playin k1 for awhile since i finished a playthough so recently. BUT i will deff download it to open the files and see the changes!
-------------------------------
Also, in my opinion its hard to make blasters unbalanced, most people consider blasters garbage compared to melee and lightsabers. So feel free to try new things with blasters! The cool thing is (at least in k2) is that whatever changes you make to blasters - the enemy has the same stuff. So I did buff blasters and in my game they hurt. The bounty hunter ambush in the streets of nar shaddaa for example is wild since they have improved blasters. It's hard. Energy shields, blocking bolts with saber, and using stun force powers becomes way more important. lol I'm wondering if we'll see enemies using a lot of ranged feats since the weapons give the feat now!

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10 minutes ago, Reshki said:

Wow thanks I appreciate that! Glad to help! I'll keep a look out for bugs. And idk when I'll run into bendaks blaster lol I won't be playin k1 for awhile since i finished a playthough so recently. BUT i will deff download it to open the files and see the changes!
-------------------------------
Also, in my opinion its hard to make blasters unbalanced, most people consider blasters garbage compared to melee and lightsabers. So feel free to try new things with blasters! The cool thing is (at least in k2) is that whatever changes you make to blasters - the enemy has the same stuff. So I did buff blasters and in my game they hurt. The bounty hunter ambush in the streets of nar shaddaa for example is wild since they have improved blasters. It's hard. Energy shields, blocking bolts with saber, and using stun force powers becomes way more important. lol I'm wondering if we'll see enemies using a lot of ranged feats since the weapons give the feat now!

Cool to know. I actually added a few buffs to blasters in Kotor 2 with the Precision and Blaster Proficiency bonuses since those were added by Obsidian. 

I generally play using high damage mods like Sheml's old mod of which a compatibility patch is bundled into the Kotor 2 version above. It makes fights so much more interesting, and that version also patches the animals to have similar high-damage so blasters aren't the most OP. I might revisit that mod again, since I think they could do with higher defense like Creature Hide and not just a high damage if they manage to get into melee range. But, that's going to be planned for a bit further along since I still have to finish this patch and the full Kotor 1 version of Blasters Reloaded right now. :D

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I also wanted to ask you about two things real quick and provide some feedback.

1. Precise Shot:

Some weapons provide Precise Shot but it can be learned as a feat during level up. Were you planning on disabling these feast as well? Or were you planning on that still being a feat that can be learned and weapons that provide Precise Shot just might help you if you haven't leveled it that far yet?

2. Targeting:

Some weapons provide Targeting BUT Targeting is only available to scouts. I was wondering: Can you remove the prerequisite of having to be a Scout class to get Targeting? (I made a post about it in General Kotor/TSL Modding forum) I'm thinking make all classes be able to USE Targeting but make no one able to SELECT it during level up, leaving Scout alone of course so they can still be granted Targeting as they shouldn't lose their bonus of being granted it.

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59 minutes ago, Reshki said:

I also wanted to ask you about two things real quick and provide some feedback.

1. Precise Shot:

Some weapons provide Precise Shot but it can be learned as a feat during level up. Were you planning on disabling these feast as well? Or were you planning on that still being a feat that can be learned and weapons that provide Precise Shot just might help you if you haven't leveled it that far yet?

2. Targeting:

Some weapons provide Targeting BUT Targeting is only available to scouts. I was wondering: Can you remove the prerequisite of having to be a Scout class to get Targeting? (I made a post about it in General Kotor/TSL Modding forum) I'm thinking make all classes be able to USE Targeting but make no one able to SELECT it during level up, leaving Scout alone of course so they can still be granted Targeting as they shouldn't lose their bonus of being granted it.

Precise Shot was there as a buff since adding damage would basically be a retread of mods like SUP. I figured that allowing it on levelup wouldn't unbalance anything other than giving the player an extra boost with the blasters.

 

I didn't give Targeting as much thought as I'd like. (For instance, I didn't know it was only available to Scouts) I could see about unlocking it for other classes if you'd prefer, since like Precision, I really I just used it in the mod as a non damage buff to blaster weapons to help differentiate between rifles and pistols.

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38 minutes ago, Malkior said:

Precise Shot was there as a buff since adding damage would basically be a retread of mods like SUP. I figured that allowing it on levelup wouldn't unbalance anything other than giving the player an extra boost with the blasters.

 

I didn't give Targeting as much thought as I'd like. (For instance, I didn't know it was only available to Scouts) I could see about unlocking it for other classes if you'd prefer, since like Precision, I really I just used it in the mod as a non damage buff to blaster weapons to help differentiate between rifles and pistols.

About Precise Shot yeah I'm fine with it still being selectable because if you don't have the level the weapon gives you then thats GREAT, but if you've already leveled further than that then your character is just that good with blasters lol.

I think Targeting would be best if it could be given to ANYONE who wields the weapon but leave in scout being granted various levels of Targeting automatically through leveling as it is anyway in vanilla. So scouts can maintain that class' advantage. - I made a post about it here but nothing yet - unless you already know how to do that. First poster claims it is added by Bonus Feat but you can't see it on character sheet, but idk how true that is since other feats added by Bonus Feat do appear in the character sheet

 

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OK ok ok okokok check this out, figured it out. SO scout is the only class that gets granted the feat Targeting. But it'll work totally fine and show up in the feat list on any class if granted by Bonus Feat. The issue here is the Field Survival Blaster has Precise Shot I, which shows up and works. But it only has Targeting II meaning it will not work the pistol must grant Targeting I and Targeting II. So you'll have to edit any weapon that you gave a feat thats higher than the first tier of that feat. Will always have to add the previous feat tiers.

EDIT: https://gyazo.com/f0c35de07ee9328d2b741a8aec96b967

Currently going through weapons and making changes I'd send them to you but unfortunately mine were already modded damage wise which will mess up your current intentions for the mod. You will need to update your weapons to be like the right side of that gif, the feats won't work without the previous levels of the feat.

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1 hour ago, Reshki said:

OK ok ok okokok check this out, figured it out. SO scout is the only class that gets granted the feat Targeting. But it'll work totally fine and show up in the feat list on any class if granted by Bonus Feat. The issue here is the Field Survival Blaster has Precise Shot I, which shows up and works. But it only has Targeting II meaning it will not work the pistol must grant Targeting I and Targeting II. So you'll have to edit any weapon that you gave a feat thats higher than the first tier of that feat. Will always have to add the previous feat tiers.

EDIT: https://gyazo.com/f0c35de07ee9328d2b741a8aec96b967

Currently going through weapons and making changes I'd send them to you but unfortunately mine were already modded damage wise which will mess up your current intentions for the mod. You will need to update your weapons to be like the right side of that gif, the feats won't work without the previous levels of the feat.

Interesting.. I guess that means I'm going to have to add more feats to a lot of the weapons. Well, better to know now. Thanks again for the info.

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20 minutes ago, Malkior said:

Interesting.. I guess that means I'm going to have to add more feats to a lot of the weapons. Well, better to know now. Thanks again for the info.

No problem yeah unfortunately that means more work :( but yeah better to know before release. You have inspired me to mess with the game again in depth lol I'm gonna redo my previous ranged balance tweaks, make them better and incorporate your mod into it into it. I'm having a blast.

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12 hours ago, Malkior said:

Interesting.. I guess that means I'm going to have to add more feats to a lot of the weapons. Well, better to know now. Thanks again for the info.

Some good news for you. It seems with a little more testing that Targeting is the only feat that needs every level added to work. Just spawned a Repeating Blaster Carbine and Improved Rapid Shot, Improved Power Blast, and Precise Shot IV all worked and showed in the characters feat list. The weapon also provides Targeting II BUT it doesn't work. SO a little less work for you because it seems Targeting is the only one that needs all previous levels of that feat. 😁

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That is great to hear. There are still quite a few weapons that use the higher tiers of Targeting, but it's still a lot fewer than if I would have needed to add the other Prerequisites.

I'm so glad you're enjoying this mod as you have. Your constant stream of feedback has made working on this so much easier, and you have my thanks for that. :)

As always, if you have anything you want changed or found some sort of huge problem just let me know.

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5 minutes ago, Malkior said:

That is great to hear. There are still quite a few weapons that use the higher tiers of Targeting, but it's still a lot fewer than if I would have needed to add the other Prerequisites.

I'm so glad you're enjoying this mod as you have. Your constant stream of feedback has made working on this so much easier, and you have my thanks for that. :)

As always, if you have anything you want changed or found some sort of huge problem just let me know.

No problem! Will keep an eye out. That being said I noticed Benoks blaster is named differently than the other weapons in the game. I thought I was trippin like how did I miss it, WELL because it's called benoksblaster.uti for some crazy reason. I noticed neither you or I made any changes to it. Prolly because it's file name is dumb lol

I been busy remaking my own blaster balancing, focusing on making all NON upgradeable weapons more powerful and cheaper while raising the cost of FULLY upgradeable weapons but not raising their damage since upgrade investment will make them way more powerful than non upgradeable weapons. This makes (hopefully) previously worthless weapons useful or even needed. It never made sense EVER to use a Blaster Carbine, same damage as Blaster Rifle, less range, no upgrades, just sucks.

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13 minutes ago, Reshki said:

No problem! Will keep an eye out. That being said I noticed Benoks blaster is named differently than the other weapons in the game. I thought I was trippin like how did I miss it, WELL because it's called benoksblaster.uti for some crazy reason. I noticed neither you or I made any changes to it. Prolly because it's file name is dumb lol

I been busy remaking my own blaster balancing, focusing on making all NON upgradeable weapons more powerful and cheaper while raising the cost of FULLY upgradeable weapons but not raising their damage since upgrade investment will make them way more powerful than non upgradeable weapons. This makes (hopefully) previously worthless weapons useful or even needed. It never made sense EVER to use a Blaster Carbine, same damage as Blaster Rifle, less range, no upgrades, just sucks.

Yeah, I made the Carbines more useful by giving them more heavy fire rate and higher tier feats on average since the rifles are basically either upgradable or more distance focused (Higher chance of adding Sniper Shot feats for instance)

 

If it's cool, we can probably move this conversation to this page here 

 

as I'm sure Tyvokka isn't keen on me having 3 pages of discussions on a mod page. :D

 

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Looking forward to the Update.  I'm actually just starting a Blasters Only Run right now.  Can't wait to use this when it gets updated.  The K1 version really spiced things up for me when I used it on there.

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On 2/19/2021 at 3:37 PM, Pope_Duwang_I said:

Looking forward to the Update.  I'm actually just starting a Blasters Only Run right now.  Can't wait to use this when it gets updated.  The K1 version really spiced things up for me when I used it on there.

There's a K1 version?

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Quote

"You can't 'learn' how to fire any gun you find on full-auto..."

XD

I love that. It never really occurred to me, but, yeah. That doesn't make any sense.

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BUG/ISSUE: by following the uninstallation process by just dragging backup files back into override still leaves craftable weapons with the feats and such. 

Edit: Had to do a clean reinstall of entire game. 

Edited by DarthDarte

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8 hours ago, DarthDarte said:


BUG/ISSUE: by following the uninstallation process by just dragging backup files back into override still leaves craftable weapons with the feats and such. 

Edit: Had to do a clean reinstall of entire game. 

Yeah, when I wrote that I didn't realize items are save-baked. The TSLPatcher is kind of a all or nothing sort of affair, so using the backup files is literally the only way to undo its changes without just making a backup yourself. In the meantime, I will amend the description to hopefully prevent others from unexpectedly experiencing the same issue.

In other words, you can't revert anything that UTI files have changed without restarting from a point in your game before you received those items. You don't have to reinstall your game files, but you definitely have to start from a new save. 

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8 minutes ago, Malkior said:

Yeah, when I wrote that I didn't realize items are save-baked. The TSLPatcher is kind of a all or nothing sort of affair, so using the backup files is literally the only way to undo its changes without just making a backup yourself. In the meantime, I will amend the description to hopefully prevent others from unexpectedly experiencing the same issue.

In other words, you can't revert anything that UTI files have changed without restarting from a point in your game before you received those items. You don't have to reinstall your game files, but you definitely have to start from a new save. 

That's the problem. I did start a new save, completely new character and when I tried to craft some field survival pistols for atton on peragus, I saw it still had the precise shot feats and such. This was after I dragged the said files from backup to override folder. I'm sure there was a way to get it to work without doing a fresh install, but it didn't seem that the backup files that were created were working as intended.

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2 minutes ago, DarthDarte said:

That's the problem. I did start a new save, completely new character and when I tried to craft some field survival pistols for atton on peragus, I saw it still had the precise shot feats and such. This was after I dragged the said files from backup to override folder. I'm sure there was a way to get it to work without doing a fresh install, but it didn't seem that the backup files that were created were working as intended.

That's genuinely frustrating to hear. TSLPatcher is "Supposed" to keep install files like those in the backup, but I guess it doesn't always work as intended. It's always been a bit out of my area of understanding, as the tool itself was invented several decades ago, and unfortunately as of now there is no alternative I know of.

I do know that multiple subsequent installations (Hitting the executable and going through the process multiple times) will wipe the originally backed-up data, so it could be what happened, but honestly beyond that, I have no idea.

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