Yavin IV by jenkeee: maintenanced

We have not updated the VEH post for quite a while. This is our core mod about Revan’s mask, based on the old Yavin mod.

From the outside, it may have looked like the mod was abandoned. In reality, everything is very simple: while working on the previous mod, we had to study the KOTOR and Odyssey systems in much greater detail, and we came to the conclusion that the previous result was not enough.

At first, the plan was smaller. But the deeper we got into it, the more obvious it became that a mod about the mask should not be just an item, a dialogue, and a few events. It should be a full modification.

This time, the modification is planned to be much larger: new locations, scripted cutscenes, separate scenes, and a more complex technical foundation.

Work is moving slowly. Most likely, we will not finish the main modification earlier than in 3–5 months. At the same time, there is another mod I would like to discuss with all the Jedi in the comments.

Right now, less than 10% of the main work is done: mostly prepared dialogues, assets, and the technical base. But, as always, there is a BUT.

During development, we accumulated enough files to assemble a separate modification.

In the mask mod, we planned a level on a swoop bike. The original mini-game was not suitable for full movement, so in the end we wrote a workaround controller. It turned out pretty fun, and we decided to assemble it into a separate modification and share it with everyone.

We hope to see our scripts in your own modifications someday.

This mod was made by the darthMouse creative team for two categories of people.

The first category is players who have already seen almost everything in KOTOR, but still return to this game from time to time for personal reasons that nobody else can really understand. In our mod, you will be able to visit levels that are not available during normal gameplay, but that you still know. These are the swoop-racing levels from the mini-games.

The second category is modders. This is a ready-made package with tested scripts. You can look at jenkeee’s elegant solutions, inspired by the work of Master Zionosis and MotOR Squad. In every module, the logic described in OnRoomEnter can be moved to a helper, and we can implement mount / dismount tools almost like in any MMO from the 2000s, but inside KOTOR.

This publication is exactly that: a demo. Not the final version of the big mod, but a set of materials you can touch, test, and possibly use in other modifications.

What is included in the demo

The archive includes a custom swoop-race package for KOTOR1.

Currently available:

• Tatooine 2026
• Manaan 2026
• Yavin 2026 preview / raw
• Taris 2026
• Nar Shaddaa 2026

The races can be launched through Yavin Station.

The idea is that KOTOR can be used not only as a set of corridors, dialogues, and battles. With careful work on scripts, modules, and player states, it is possible to plan larger locations — almost in a GTA-style logic, as far as that is even possible inside Odyssey.

Of course, this is not “GTA in KOTOR” and not a finished universal framework. It is more of a demonstration of direction: how we can think about transport, movement, separate player states, and larger zones within the limits of an old engine.

If you have questions, ideas, strange scenarios, or even comments that may look silly at first glance — write them. This is exactly the kind of case where a “stupid question” can save several weeks of development.

A small author’s digression

I often say obvious things, but sometimes it is useful for someone to read them. Maybe this will be the first source of obviousness in someone’s life.

At one point, I used to read Habr and admire how smart and complicated the people there seemed. Today, many things written there look either obvious to me or like an eternal holy war.

And the obvious thing I want to write about is this: the importance of your questions.

The stupidest question, according to someone, is still the first step toward solving a problem. Very often, a person cannot ask the right question simply because other topics have not been discussed before. When you approach something complex without knowledge, you do not only lack the answer — you do not even understand what question needs to be asked.

And the question is the most important thing. Without a question, there will be no answer.

When will salaries become decent? When will the war end? Where is true love? Why, why exactly — Kathleen Kennedy? As you can see, I am not trying to answer such difficult questions. But many of you are probably ready to answer them. Usually, people just do not answer such things for the public. They talk about them with friends.

And if you do not have situations like that, maybe you are a lonely person. Almost like Terry Davis.

This man spoke with God through a keyboard, starting somewhere around 2005. He was inspired by systems like the Commodore 64, and even back then he could see meaning in the generated answers of his TempleOS.

Of course, he was not the first person like that in history. There is an even more famous figure — Alan Turing. But can you imagine Alan today? And Terry? I feel like Terry died too early. His knowledge would have complemented today’s world very well.

Today, every second person communicates with a computer almost as naturally: writes a question, receives an answer, argues, clarifies, gets angry, formulates the question again. What once looked like a strange personal obsession has now become a normal part of life.

I am not sure I have perfectly formulated what I wanted to express in this text. But maybe that is the point.

Do not be afraid to ask. Sometimes you will receive an answer before you even manage to say the question out loud. And if you formulate the question well enough, it often turns out that the answer is already somewhere nearby — or that you already know where to look for the source of truth.

This mod is a tech demo, a technical snapshot, and an invitation to discussion.

Download it, test it, break it, ask questions, and write comments. It is important for us to understand what scenarios we need to take into account next — especially if you make KOTOR mods yourself or want to use some of these solutions in your own projects.