recruitment mods Recruit T3-M4 Early 1.3.0

You know, I had a crack at making this mod as well back in the day but I never released it due to some issues.

In testing, in the Undercity with that little cutscene where you chose whether or not to save Hendar from the Rakghoul, for some reason if you had T3 and Carth with you at the same time the moment you run outside the gate you just stand there and the cutscene never ends.

Just checked your files, it appears you haven't attempted to fix that issue so that may be a massive problem for those who play this mod.

Quote

-k_ptar_openbase.ncs was modified to prevent the player from entering the Sith Military Base before the game intends you to do so.
 Once you speak to Canderous, T3 will be able to open the door to the Military Base as usual.

Why was this even done?

The game files heavily suggest that the player could entire the Sith Base at any given time as long as they had T3. That cut line in the screenshot with Canderous is but one of three different scenarios which where meant to play out:

1st scenario, doesn't have T3/Vanilla: "Lucky for you I know just the place to get a droid like that. Davik was having one custom built by Janice Nall."

2nd) Has T3, doesn't have Sith Base Codes: "But that little T3 unit you got from Janice should be good enough to get the job done."

3rd) Has T3, has Sith Base Codes: "See, I put two and two together and I figured out you're the person who stole those Sith departure codes for Taris. So you're exactly the person I'm looking for."

Realistically, the only reason why a player shouldn't enter the Sith Base is because the NPCs aren't balanced for a level 3 party with just Carth and weak weapons. Besides that, if the player somehow managed to kill the Sith Governor the only real problem would be that the Sith Codes side quest updates and mentions Canderous in the description (Which can be either ignored or edited to remove the Canderous mention).

So the game would go: Start Taris > Buy T3 > Steal Sith Codes > Save Bastila > Go to Canderous in Upper City Cantina > Immediately go to Davik's Estate.

Additionally, it appears that the player also had the option to buy a Sith Base Passcard via the Sith Party NPCs in the Cantina based on alternate dialogue like this below.

"Well, are you here to close our deal? 2000 credits gets you access to the Military Base. Otherwise we really shouldn't be talking."

And if your character has a Sith base Passcard on hand when they enter the base they can say this to the receptionist.

"[Persuade] I work here - look, I've got an access card."

That would be problematic, as it'd allow you to enter the Sith Base without T3 and would enable you to abandon him on Taris. If for some odd reason you wanted to restore that as well, you'd need to add a conditional to Dark Side Bastila's Ebon Hawk dlg where she says "The droids will still serve you" as then it'd be possible to leave T3 and HK both behind on Taris and Tatooine. 

So you could technically can restore both possibilities (enter Sith Base early and leave T3 behind) though I would recommend that these versions be optional so players could chose which version they'd rather play.

I won't ever *not* do the military base last, but I appreciate the fact that you offer that option with your mod! A cool add-on that also works with K1R for all restored content enthusiasts.

On 4/9/2021 at 12:20 AM, N-DReW25 said:

You know, I had a crack at making this mod as well back in the day but I never released it due to some issues.

 

In testing, in the Undercity with that little cutscene where you chose whether or not to save Hendar from the Rakghoul, for some reason if you had T3 and Carth with you at the same time the moment you run outside the gate you just stand there and the cutscene never ends.

 

Just checked your files, it appears you haven't attempted to fix that issue so that may be a massive problem for those who play this mod.

 

Why was this even done?

The game files heavily suggest that the player could entire the Sith Base at any given time as long as they had T3. That cut line in the screenshot with Canderous is but one of three different scenarios which where meant to play out:

 

1st scenario, doesn't have T3/Vanilla: "Lucky for you I know just the place to get a droid like that. Davik was having one custom built by Janice Nall."

2nd) Has T3, doesn't have Sith Base Codes: "But that little T3 unit you got from Janice should be good enough to get the job done."

3rd) Has T3, has Sith Base Codes: "See, I put two and two together and I figured out you're the person who stole those Sith departure codes for Taris. So you're exactly the person I'm looking for."

 

Realistically, the only reason why a player shouldn't enter the Sith Base is because the NPCs aren't balanced for a level 3 party with just Carth and weak weapons. Besides that, if the player somehow managed to kill the Sith Governor the only real problem would be that the Sith Codes side quest updates and mentions Canderous in the description (Which can be either ignored or edited to remove the Canderous mention).

 

So the game would go: Start Taris > Buy T3 > Steal Sith Codes > Save Bastila > Go to Canderous in Upper City Cantina > Immediately go to Davik's Estate.

 

Additionally, it appears that the player also had the option to buy a Sith Base Passcard via the Sith Party NPCs in the Cantina based on alternate dialogue like this below.

"Well, are you here to close our deal? 2000 credits gets you access to the Military Base. Otherwise we really shouldn't be talking."

 

And if your character has a Sith base Passcard on hand when they enter the base they can say this to the receptionist.

"[Persuade] I work here - look, I've got an access card."

 

That would be problematic, as it'd allow you to enter the Sith Base without T3 and would enable you to abandon him on Taris. If for some odd reason you wanted to restore that as well, you'd need to add a conditional to Dark Side Bastila's Ebon Hawk dlg where she says "The droids will still serve you" as then it'd be possible to leave T3 and HK both behind on Taris and Tatooine. 

 

So you could technically can restore both possibilities (enter Sith Base early and leave T3 behind) though I would recommend that these versions be optional so players could chose which version they'd rather play.

Thanks for bringing all these points up! The additional ways to enter the Sith Military base are certainly interesting and could be worth a look at if it could be made to make sense within the story.

After you pointed out the issue in the Undercity, I did some looking and it appears the script that gave move instructions to party members only accounted for two party members as a third member isn't supposed to be with you yet. The third party member would tag along a little ways and would sometimes pass the trigger that would close the Undercity gate, but rarely.  I have changed the script to issue instructions to a third party member and the infinite cutscene issue seems to be resolved. Thank you for pointing this out! I will make sure you are credited as I would not have known about this otherwise.

IMPORTANT PLEASE READ: IN  V1.0, HAVING T3 IN YOUR PARTY WHEN TRYING TO SAVE HENDAR FROM THE RAKGHOUL CHASING HIM CAUSES THE CUTSCENE TO NEVER END. IF YOU ARE HAVING THIS ISSUE PLEASE DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL THE MOD AGAIN AS V1.1 & BEYOND ADDRESSES THIS. IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO REINSTALL THE MOD THEN DO THE FOLLOWING:

1) You can do this portion with only one other party member. It's only when T3 is present with a second party member other than the main character where the issue seems to arise.

2) Open the cheat console and type 'warp' without the 's and hit enter. This will force you out of the cutscene. Walk forward a little until the door shuts and then you can fight the Rakghoul as normal.

3) You can leave weak Hendar to his fate and bypass the issue altogether.

Thank you to N-DReW25 for pointing this out!

On 4/9/2021 at 12:20 AM, N-DReW25 said:

Why was this even done?

The game files heavily suggest that the player could entire the Sith Base at any given time as long as they had T3. That cut line in the screenshot with Canderous is but one of three different scenarios which where meant to play out:

1st scenario, doesn't have T3/Vanilla: "Lucky for you I know just the place to get a droid like that. Davik was having one custom built by Janice Nall."

2nd) Has T3, doesn't have Sith Base Codes: "But that little T3 unit you got from Janice should be good enough to get the job done."

3rd) Has T3, has Sith Base Codes: "See, I put two and two together and I figured out you're the person who stole those Sith departure codes for Taris. So you're exactly the person I'm looking for."

I have updated the mod to reflect freedom of choice! With the recent K1CP update rendering my version of k_ptar_openbase a conflict, and having now played through doing the Sith Base early, I've removed the script prohibiting early entry from the mod files. Players can now break into the Sith Military Base whenever they like as the default installation of this mod.

So I recently downloaded the mod in addition to the Community Patch, and I noticed your description said it removed the k_ptar_openbase, however I did the Sith base before going down into the Lower City and could not enter the Vulkar base afterwards. Would this be an issue with the Community Patch's openbase script?

54 minutes ago, Squall Lionhart said:

So I recently downloaded the mod in addition to the Community Patch, and I noticed your description said it removed the k_ptar_openbase, however I did the Sith base before going down into the Lower City and could not enter the Vulkar base afterwards. Would this be an issue with the Community Patch's openbase script?

k_ptar_openbase is a script that fires the scene where T3 'opens' the Sith base. The Community Patch, last I looked at their version of the script, reorganized the code to prevent a potential misfire where T3 would not open the door. It should not have any affect on entering the Vulkar base as the openbase script only applies to the Sith Base.

But with that said, can you send along the order of events you played through Taris, as specifically as possible? I'll try and recreate the issue on this end. Any mods you installed before Recruit T3-M4 Early would be helpful as well for narrowing down the potential conflict.

4 minutes ago, brents742 said:

k_ptar_openbase is a script that fires the scene where T3 'opens' the Sith base. The Community Patch, last I looked at their version of the script, reorganized the code to prevent a potential misfire where T3 would not open the door. It should not have any affect on entering the Vulkar base as the openbase script only applies to the Sith Base.

But with that said, can you send along the order of events you played through Taris, as specifically as possible? I'll try and recreate the issue on this end.

Sure,

Did duel arena, recruited T3-M4, did Sith Base, went to lower city, went to sewers, and killed rancor. After that I got access denied, need access code from the elevator door to the vulkar base.

1 minute ago, Squall Lionhart said:

Sure,

 

Did duel arena, recruited T3-M4, did Sith Base, went to lower city, went to sewers, and killed rancor. After that I got access denied, need access code from the elevator door to the vulkar base.

Excellent, I'll dig into this. In the meantime you could warp in to the Vulkar Base probably to keep your playthrough going. I should know more tonight.

3 minutes ago, brents742 said:

Excellent, I'll dig into this. In the meantime you could warp in to the Vulkar Base probably to keep your playthrough going. I should know more tonight.

What's funny is I just looked through my override folder and noticed that the k_ptar_openbase script was not present. So unless it's not supposed to be in the override folder, I'm thinking this was the cause. I'll let you know here soon what I discover.

14 minutes ago, Squall Lionhart said:

What's funny is I just looked through my override folder and noticed that the k_ptar_openbase script was not present. So unless it's not supposed to be in the override folder, I'm thinking this was the cause. I'll let you know here soon what I discover.

Community Patch injects their script directly into tar_m02ab.mod, which would hold all their changes outside of the override folder.

Hmm... interesting. Well, ill see if that fixes it. I'm also running the Jedi from the start mod which could affect it, but I don't see how since the script in question isn't even touched by the mod.

As far as I can tell, the Community Patch only edits k_ptar_openbase to prevent a minor bug with the base cutscene not firing, as documented here, so I don't think that's what's responsible.

The Community Patch does prevent entry to the Vulkar base after the swoop race, as documented here, so perhaps it is also preventing entry after completion of the Sith base with this mod. I believe the changes are in k_ptar_03aa_en, and the source for the Community Patch's changes can be found here.

Extracting the original script and installing it to Override would override the Community Patch's changes; however, since this is the on enter script for the whole area, it would also override any other fixes the Community Patch might make.

7 hours ago, JCarter426 said:

The Community Patch does prevent entry to the Vulkar base after the swoop race, as documented here, so perhaps it is also preventing entry after completion of the Sith base with this mod. I believe the changes are in k_ptar_03aa_en, and the source for the Community Patch's changes can be found here.

Extracting the original script and installing it to Override would override the Community Patch's changes; however, since this is the on enter script for the whole area, it would also override any other fixes the Community Patch might make.

You nailed it. From what I found while searching, looking at the changes made, the door itself (tar05_elevator) was changed to call up script cp_tar05_elebrk. While I can override the door with the original version, that won't have an effect on the locking mechanism itself tucked away in OnEnter. If the locking mechanism was tied to the door itself this would be easier to correct and maintain CP changes going forward.

What are your thoughts on changing the tag of the UTD? If I change the tag to a different name, for example tar05ab_elevator instead of tar05_elevator, that would seem to bypass overwriting any future CP changes makes to OnEnter. The script would be calling for a tag that doesn't exist due to the copy of the door in override with a different tag.

The door is only edited to display a message when it fails to open. That doesn't change whether it is open or not.

4 minutes ago, JCarter426 said:

The door is only edited to display a message when it fails to open. That doesn't change whether it is open or not.

The door won't, no. But the On Enter script calls for:

object oTar05_elevator = GetObjectByTag("tar05_elevator", 0);

I changed the tag of the tar05_elevator.utd to tar05ab_elevator. So when the script calls for the original tag, it won't find anything and the door will not lock.

In general, I would recommend against changing the tags of any objects from the original game as that could result in unforeseen bugs and incompatibility with other mods.

In this case, I would recommend replacing the on enter script with either the original or one with your own modifications. If it becomes an issue in the future we could look into a compatibility patch, but I don't think the Community Patch script is doing anything other than locking doors at the moment.

9 minutes ago, JCarter426 said:

In this case, I would recommend replacing the on enter script with either the original or one with your own modifications. If it becomes an issue in the future we could look into a compatibility patch, but I don't think the Community Patch script is doing anything other than locking doors at the moment.

That makes sense! Thanks for your help. Im always up for learning what are best practices for modding. I’ll get this updated. 

Is this compatible with this mod 

23 minutes ago, Dr-cgad said:

Is this compatible with this mod 

 

It is, yes! While both concern T3-M4, this mod only alters the dialog for Janice on Taris, allowing for T3 to be recruited early. The main dialog for T3, which that mod changes, is left unchanged in this mod and therefore will be compatible.

4 minutes ago, brents742 said:

It is, yes! While both concern T3-M4, this mod only alters the dialog for Janice on Taris, allowing for T3 to be recruited early. The main dialog for T3, which that mod changes, is left unchanged in this mod and therefore will be compatible.

:3